Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters used.
Blood in the streets
a Ranma/GITS crossover
Chapter one
A young man was walking dejectedly along the side walk of the city of Nerima on his way to school. His shoulders were slumped, his head hung low and an occasional sniffling could be heard coming from him. His clothing consisted of simple black pants, a red shirt and slippers and he wore his hair in a tight braid along his back. Most residents of Nerima knew this young man as Ranma Saotome.
Ranma was not having a good day, far from it in fact. Akane Tendo, his uncute, violent fiancé hadn't talked to him since yesterday, aside from a "Pay attention! This mostly applies to you!" when her father, Soun Tendo, told them both this morning that their wedding would be delayed until all their other outstanding relationships could be cleared up. Since then, Ranma had
received the cold shoulder treatment from her.
The pigtailed martial artist shivered. Sleeping in the dojo last night had not been fun. The wind blew unhindered through the various wholes in the walls left from the fiasco the day before. And on top of that it had rained briefly last night, causing Ranma even more discomfort because the roof, too, had been damaged and he had to spend the night as a girl. All this resulted in Ranma having a slight cold, which he made sure nobody at the Tendo dojo noticed, especially not his father. He really didn't want to deal with the panda berating him for being weak. Ranma didn't know about his mother, but he thought she might think having a cold might be unmanly, thus he covered it up as best he could.
Despite all this, Ranma looked at the bright side of things. At least he hadn't gotten married to that uncute, violent, macho tomboy. The nerve of her! Threatening him simply because he wouldn't say he loved her. She hadn't even talked about her own feelings for him, let alone proclaimed her love for him. Why, then, did she expect him to do that, if she herself refused to do so? He'd almost gone along with the marriage, too, when he saw her standing there in her wedding dress. Luckily, she blew her top before anybody could capitalize on Ranma's moment of weakness. But, he had to admit, she didn't look half-bad in her wedding gown.
Later on, the actions of everybody involved just served to remind him why he couldn't marry any of that crazy bunch of fiancés. They were all either crazy, violent, clingy, possessive, or all of the above. Besides, he still had so much to learn in the martial arts. He wasn't ready to settle down, yet!
With a sigh, Ranma continued on his way to school.
-V-V-V-
Ranma gave a silent prayer of thanks as the last bell for the school day rang. He wasn't sure if he could take the tense atmosphere any longer. Luckily, both Akane and Ukyo had left him alone all day, opting to shoot him strange glances instead.
Akane's were, unsurprisingly, full of anger. But there was also something else present in them from time to time. Ranma wasn't sure what it was exactly. He thought it might have been regret, but that couldn't be, could it?
"Nah! Hell will freeze over before that uncute chick feels sorry for being angry at me for something that wasn't even my fault in the first place," he thought as as he made his way through Furinkan High School towards the exit.
Ukyo's looks had been totally different. They had been full of worry at first, but when Ranma hadn't scowled hatefully at her they had quickly turned to happiness and her eyes had regained that lovestruck glint they contained ever since he told her she was cute in order to cheer her up.
The Saotome heir simply hoped she wouldn't bother him for a while longer, or there would be hell to pay at the Tendo's if they ever got wind of it.
His hopes were quickly shattered, however. He had hardly set foot outside of Furinkan High when said cute fiancé,dressed in her usual version of the male Furinkan High School uniform, latched onto his right arm.
"Hiya Ranchan," she greeted him. "I noticed you were sniffling a lot in class today. Are you sick? The Tendos didn't force you to sleep in the wrecked dojo, did they?" she asked, concerned about her fiancée's health and also hoping to forestall any angry remarks from Ranma.
Her tactic might have been successful, had she not brought up the topic of the dojo.
"Yes, I had to sleep in the 'wrecked dojo'," Ranma told her with barely concealed anger in his voice. "Which wouldn't be wrecked now, if somebody hadn't decided to throw explosives arou-"
"Oh, that's horrible!" Ukyo interrupted quickly when it became clear that Ranma was, despite appearances in class, still angry at her for that. "If you want, you can stay at my place until the Tendos manage to repair their dojo or clear another room for you," she offered him graciously. At least in her mind it was a gracious offer. Ranma obviously thought differently about it.
"No, Ucchan! I don't want to stay at your place!" the Saotome heir replied hotly.
He couldn't believe her. First she took part in the destruction of his home – at least until his mother's house could be repaired again - now she even had the gall to try and take advantage of it.
"Listen," he began, taking a deep breath and exhaling it slowly in an attempt to calm down somewhat, "what you did yesterday wasn't-"
"Do you have a fever?" Ukyo interrupted him again. She leaned in close to her fiancé and laid the back of her right hand on his forehead in a calculated attempt at flustering Ranma. She even rubbed his arm against her breasts to increase the effect. Not surprisingly, she succeeded marvellously.
"Oh my!" she exclaimed, "I think you do have a slight temperature, Ranchan. My family has a special soup recipe we prepare whenever somebody in our family catches a cold. If you want, I can make some of it for you." She shot him a dazzling smile along with her offer.
"Uh, yeah, that would be nice, Ucchan," a visibly flustered Ranma replied before he turned away from her and quickly slapped himself with his free hand.
"What am I thinking?!" he asked himself, "I'm supposed to be angry with her because of what she did yesterday, not accept her invitations for food!" He pulled himself together again and turned back to his childhood friend.
"Listen, Ukyo," he began sternly, removing the chef's hand from his forehead. "What you did yesterday wasn't right! No, let me finish!" he said quickly when Ukyo opened her mouth to interrupt him once again. "As I said," he continued, "what you did yesterday wasn't right. Throwing around gun-powder Okonomiyaki! What were you thinking!? You coulda hurt somebody!"
"I know!" the chef wailed. "I don't know what came over me. I just couldn't stand the thought of you marrying that violent maniac. Can you forgive me, Ranchan?" she asked her fiancée with tears in her eyes.
"Well," the pigtailed martial artist began hesitantly, slightly on edge from the appearance of tears in his childhood friend's eyes. "I guess I can forgive you. If, and only if, you promise not to do something like that ever again!" he told her sternly.
"Yes! I promise!" Ukyo agreed quickly. "Because next time, it will be me standing in front of an altar with you," she thought to herself.
"Then it's forgiven!"
-V-V-V-
Before either could say anything else they were interrupted by a bicycle bell, announcing the arrival of Ranma's chinese suitor, Shampoo. She was wearing slippers, blue silk pants and a very tight blue silk top with red flowers embroidered on it. Ranma noted absently that she obviously wasn't wearing any underwear, if the absence of panty lines and the amount of jiggling going on as she dismounted her bike were any indication.
Ranma quickly shook his head and silently berated himself for noticing such a perverted thing.
"Nihao, Ranma!" Shampoo greeted her husband cheerfully and latched onto his left arm. "Ranma want to come to Neko-Hanten with Shampoo? Shampoo prepare special celebration meal because husband get saved from having to marry Violent-Pervert-Girl!"
Ranma made a disgusted face which Shampoo, naturally, chose to ignore. "No, Shampoo, I don't want to come to your restaurant with you!" he replied hotly.
The Saotome heir really started to wonder if he was the only one who thought the events of the previous day had been too excessively violent, even for their clique's standards in that regard. Judging from the impressions he had gotten from his two fiancés this seemed to be the case.
First, Ukyo acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, inquiring only about his health, and acknowledging her actions as wrong only after he had laid into her for it. Now, Shampoo, too, acted as if everything was normal.
"Why not?" the amazon asked, puzzled, and interrupting Ranma's thoughts. "Shampoo make sure Ranma no have to marry Violent-Pervert-Girl, now husband show gratitude to amazon wife, yes?"
"That's just it!" the pigtailed martial artist exclaimed, gesturing angrily with his arms. Or at least he gestured as much as he was able to with each of his arms trapped between a pair of breasts. He once again took a deep breath to prepare himself for telling one of his suitors that their actions had not been acceptable to him.
Ukyo, for once, kept quiet throughout the confrontation in front of her. Guessing correctly that the amazon was about to receive the same lecture she herself had to endure only minutes prior. And she was really looking forward to hearing Ranma telling that chinese floozy off, too!
"Listen, Shampoo, I'm really angry with you right now," Ranma told his amazon wife. And almost started apologizing for it on the spot when he saw Shampoo's eyes begin to fill with tears. "
Ha! Not this time! I've been suckered by that act often enough," he thought and steeled his resolve again, before he continued with his lecture.
"What you did yesterday was wrong! There were people present who aren't fighters like us and you almost hurt them with your crazy stunt! I don't want you to do something like that again. Can you promise me that?"
"Yes, is promise," Shampoo agreed between sniffles. "But only if husband promise no longer be angry with Shampoo," she added. To heighten the pressure on her husband, the amount of tears in her eyes increased to the point where they threatened to spill over.
Ranma crumbled under the amazon's attack like a paper wall under the onslaught of a hurricane. "Alright, Shampoo. I'm no longer angry with you." He was just glad he'd been able to convey the message to his suitors that he was greatly displeased with their actions yesterday.
Ukyo had to hand it to the amazon. "She may be many things, but a bad actress is not one of them." She was surprised that Ranma hadn't chickened out immediately when Shampoo had brought out the tears.
The chef was also puzzled that her fiancée had only scolded them for endangering non-combatants, and not for interrupting his wedding. A fact that hadn't escaped the amazon's notice, either.
"Maybe he doesn't want to marry her," they both thought hopefully. But before they were able to question their love interest on that fact they were interrupted by an almost tangible feeling of anger in the air. All three looked up to see a lone female figure approaching menacingly.
"Akane," gulped Ranma.
-V-V-V-
Akane Tendo was not having a good day. This quickly became obvious to everyone who bothered to take a closer look at her. Her hair wasn't as neatly combed as usual and her make up also wasn't up to her usual standards. On top of that, her Furinkan High school uniform was slightly ruffled and she was grabbing her school gab so tightly her knuckles were turning white.
First of all, she hadn't been able to get a good night's sleep because she had still been too angered by the actions of her moronic fiancée the day before, as well as the actions of everybody else in general.
"He just had to be a stubborn idiot and refuse to admit he loves me," she thought angrily.
Never mind that she wasn't too sure if she was in love with him, either. She was reasonably sure she would be able to live an at least somewhat happy life with the idiot if his perverted curse was gone. That was, after all, the whole reason she had agreed to their parents' hair-brained scheme in the first place. Well, that, and Ranma's proclamation of love in China, which he denied vehemently afterwards. The idiot.
"Yes," she thought, "a life with a Ranma that isn't a stubborn idiot, who admits he loves me and is cured of his perverted curse could be a happy one." Her face slowly broke out into a smile. Not like she was in love with the pervert or anything.
Then her father just had to bring up the whole fiasco this morning and proclaim that their wedding was merely being delayed until they managed to sort out their other relationships.
Like there was any problem on her part! Ranma was the one who had all those floozies hanging off of him all the time. And when she had told her fiancée he'd better pay attention because that mostly applied to him, the jerk had had the gall to talk back at her! The nerve of him! So she of course hadn't talked to him since then.
With an angry scowl on her face, the youngest Tendo proceeded on her way to Furinkan High School.
-V-V-V-
Akane sat silently glowering in her seat, awaiting the ringing of the last bell for the day. The whole school day had been horrible for her. Her fiancée simply sat in his seat without a care in the world - as if they hadn't had their wedding ruined just the day before - and was obviously flirting with Ukyo, who shot him lovestruck looks the whole day. That jerk! But Akane didn't make a scene over that, she simply shot him venomous glares, silently hoping he might keel over and die. Every now and then, she'd feel a little sad about how the whole wedding thing had gone and that she solely put the blame on Ranma. But then she'd remember how he'd acted and her irritation returned in full force.
At least her friends sympathized with her. They even tried to cheer her up by saying that Ranma didn't deserve a girl like her and that he was a jerk and a playboy and all those sweet things they'd tell Akane whenever she'd feel bad about something Ranma had or hadn't done.
Their efforts lost a little of their effect, however, because their eyes would glaze over when they started talking about Ranma always getting into fights over the silliest things. No doubt they were thinking about that one time where Ranma's shirt had been ripped by Mousse's weapons and he was left bare chested, showing off his muscles to everyone present at that fight. That stupid, perverted show-off. Using every opportunity to add get even more girls chasing after him.
The day had one good thing, however. Tatewaki Kuno was absent from school because of the injuries he had received the day before for waving a katana around at the wedding. He had been stomped pretty good by Akane and all the other girls attending the wedding for that offence.
At last, the final bell rang and with a silent cheer of "Finally!" Akane made her way out of school.
Thoughts of her friends and Kuno lying in a hospital bed causing her mood to increase just a little.
Of course, her mood rapidly worsened again when she finally exited the school building and took in the scene before her.
There stood her perverted idiot of a fiancé, one of his floozies hanging off each arm, and flirting without a care in the world. Didn't he have any shame? Driven by righteous feminine anger, she stomped her way towards him.
"Ranma! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" she screeched. The deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on his face was all the admission of guilt she needed.
"Akane, no, hold on just a minute!" Ranma protested desperately, "It's not what you think! Please listen to me!" But his fiancé didn't hear his protests, or just chose to ignore whatever he said.
"I can't believe you!" she went on. "We almost got married yesterday, and here I find you, not even a day afterwards, happily flirting with your floozies again!"
"No, you've got it all wrong," Ranma tried to deter his fiancé again, but knew it was pointless. Whenever she perceived him doing something, at least in her mind, potentially perverted, she'd assume the worst and go from there, completely ignoring his protests to the contrary.
"Shut up! I don't want to hear it. I can't believe I agreed to marry you. You, you perverted IDIOT!"
She punctuated her last statement with a mighty uppercut that sent Ranma flying and stomped off, muttering angrily about perverted idiot fiancés under her breath the whole time.
Shampoo looked up at the airborne figure of her husband and commented, "Akane too too violent."
"You said it, sugar," agreed Ukyo.
-V-V-V-
Akane had already exited the school yard and was on her way home, when she heard somebody shouting for her to wait up.
Irritated, she turned around to see who wanted to bother her now, ready to give them a piece of her mind, but calmed down when she saw that it was just her friends Yuka and Sayuri.
"Hey, you two," she greeted them tiredly.
"Hi, Akane," said Sayuri, "what was that back there? Why did you hit Ranma?"
"You have to ask?" Akane inquired incredulously. "He was flirting with his floozies again! And not even a whole day after we almost got married to boot!"
"No, Akane, you're wrong. He didn't flirt with them," Yuka cut in. "We were standing nearby and couldn't help but overhear his discussion with Ukyo and that chinese girl." Akane rolled her eyes at that, those two were just so nosy, always on the look out for new gossiping material. "And he really wasn't flirting with them." Yuka finished her defence of Ranma.
"Yeah," continued Sayuri, "he seemed to be really angry with them."
"Uh huh, sure, whatever you say," said Akane sarcastically. Honestly, did they really expect her to believe that? Ranma 'I'm a wuss when it comes to women' Saotome, being angry with those floozies? Yeah right, and pigs could fly.
"Listen, Akane," said Yuka, "we know that Ranma is a pervert and an idiot and an obnoxious jerk most of the time. But this time he was actually standing up to Ukyo and Shampoo and told them that he didn't like what they did yesterday and that he was really angry with them."
She chose to leave out that Ranma was scolding them only for endangering non-martial artists and not for interrupting the wedding. That would probably only serve to make Akane even more angry and then those two'd never get their act together. Why they were always fighting, when even a blind man could see that they had an obvious fondness of each other, she didn't know.
"Are you sure about that?" asked Akane, her eyes suddenly shining with hope.
"Yes, we're sure," insisted Sayuri. "Now, don't you think you should go back and make sure Ranma's alright?" She didn't dare suggest Akane apologize to Ranma, she knew how stubborn her friend could be when it came to admitting fault.
"I ... I guess you're right, " the youngest Tendo agreed reluctantly. "I'll go back now. See you tomorrow!" She waved good bye to her friends and headed back towards school.
"Bye, Akane!"
"That uncute, violent, macho tomboy!" grumbled Ranma after he had picked himself up from his landing spot.
"Are you okay, Ranchan?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Ucchan," Ranma waved Ukyo's concern off, "That gorilla tomboy couldn't hurt me even if she tried," he said, flashing his childhood friend his best cocky grin.
"Aiyah! Maybe Shampoo teach Violent Pervert Girl lesson. It high time!"
"No, Shampoo, I'm fine. You don't need to do that, see?" The pigtailed martial artist bent and stretched his limbs for emphasis.
"Excuse me," a voice suddenly spoke up behind the three, "can you tell me the way to the Tendo dojo, or the Unryuu farm?"
They turned around and saw a pair of legs, dressed in boots and green travellers pants with laces along the calves, that ended in ... a huge map. The tip of a huge backpack with a bamboo umbrella on top could be seen above it. All three of them sweat-dropped.
"Ryoga, is that you?" Ranma asked.
"Ranma? What are you doing in Kyoto?" The map was lowered and, sure enough, Ryoga was revealed behind it. He was dressed in a yellow shirt in addition to his pants and his trademark black and yellow bandanna adorned his forehead.
"So, lost again, eh pig-boy?" Ranma asked Ryoga with a smirk.
"Don't call me that!" Ryoga shouted, before suddenly calming down again. "Wait, if I'm not in Kyoto and you're here, then that must mean I'm in Nerima! Hahaha!" He laughed triumphantly and performed a happy dance, glad that he had managed to find his way for once.
"Jeez, Ryoga. You're unbelievable. You were at the dojo just yesterday," said Ranma incredulously, before smirking at his rival again. "It's almost like you're getting worse with your directions, but that's impossible."
"Shut up, Ranma!" shouted Ryoga, displaying his capability for having wild mood swings that could rival any pregnant woman's. "You don't know the depth of my suffering! It's not like I'm going for a-"
"Yeah, yeah, pig-boy," Ranma interrupted in a bored tone. "I've already heard it about a hundred times." Cupping his face in his palms, he pigtailed martial artist mocked the lost boy in a whiny voice. "I'm not going for a relaxing stroll, it's like a walk through hell!"
"How dare you mock me!" Ryoga growled in rage, before another comment of Ranma finally registered in his mind. "Ranma, you cad! How dare you try and marry sweet, innocent Akane. You don't deserve her!"
"Shut up, bacon breath! What do you know about that? It's not like it was my idea, I'd never marry such a violent, uncute tomboy!"
"Don't talk about Akane like that! Have you no decency?"
"I said shut up! I've still got a bone to pick with you anyway, for ruining my chance to be cured!"
Ranma's angry reply reminded Ryoga of another important thing that had happened at the planned wedding the day before.
"How dare you get a cure and try to keep it secret from me! Die, Ranma!" Ryoga jumped at Ranma, intent on driving his fist through his rival's head.
Ranma easily danced out of the way of Ryoga's unfocused, angry attacks and replied. "What's your problem? I didn't find out about that any sooner than you!" Ducking under a punch, he continued, "Besides, that Nannichuan was sent to me as a present by the Jusenkyo Guide and because of the interference of all of you morons it's lost now! I'm gonna kick your piggy ass so hard for that, your grand kids are still gonna feel it!"
They were just about to get serious in their fighting when their scuffle was suddenly interrupted by angry shouting.
"Ranma! Ryoga! Stop it!"
Both martial artists recognized the voice and instantly stopped their fighting. Turning towards the direction it came from, they saw Akane coming their way. "Why do you two always have to fight?"
Ryoga instantly went from angry and ready to eat an infant or ten to shy and submissive. "Ahahah, err, hi, Akane," he greeted his first crush, looking at his feet and poking his index fingers together nervously.
"Jeez Ryoga, you're pathetic," Ranma whispered to his rival. He ignored Ryoga's angry answering whisper of "Shut up, Ranma!" and turned towards the youngest Tendo. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he shot her an annoyed look. "What do you want?" he demanded, "and why did you have to butt in on our fight?"
"Don't be such a jerk, Ranma!" answered Akane. She struggled to keep her temper in check and not hit her fiancé for being a jerk. It was almost unbelievable how easily he was able to rouse her temper, especially now, after the recent events. "I just wanted to see what took you so long!"
"Gee, I dunno," said Ranma. He cupped his chin in his hands as if he had to think really hard about his fiancés question. After several seconds he suddenly snapped his fingers in triumph. "Ah! Now I know! It might have had something to do with you trying to punch me to the roof of the school," he said sarcastically.
"I thought you were flirting with Ukyo and Shampoo again," Akane replied defensively.
"Hold it, sugar!" Ukyo interrupted the lover's squabble. "What's wrong with that? I'm Ranma's fiancé, too. It's perfectly alright if Ranma-honey wants to flirt with his cute fiancé," she put an extra emphasis on the word 'cute'. "Just because he doesn't want to flirt with his uncute fiancé is no reason to get angry at him for flirting with me, his cute fiancé," she said smugly.
"Aiyah! Ranma Shampoo's husband," Shampoo cut in. "Ranma should be doing much more than only flirt with Shampoo."
"Besides," the young okonomiyaki chef continued, not acknowledging the amazon's remark. There would be time to deal with her later. "I think what happened yesterday showed clearly that Ranma doesn't want to marry you. The only thing he was interested in was the Nannichuan. So there's no reason for you to get involved in our relationship any longer. You should just give up."
Akane bristled in anger. Ukyo's remark hit close to her own insecurities about her relationship with Ranma and had also once again reminded her what a jerk her fiancée had been. To cover up for her insecurities she fell back into old behaviour patterns that had always helped her deal with situations like the one she was in now.
"As if I'd want to marry such a perverted jerk! It was all our parents' idea anyway. The only reason I went along with it was so Ranma could get the cure for his perverted curse!" Akane replied heatedly.
Ranma cringed inwardly, Akane's words having a profound impact on the emotional level. And because showing that wouldn't be very manly he chose to utilize the technique taught to him since a very early age by his father to keep people from noticing just how deeply Akane's words had hurt him.
"Oh yeah, is that so? And I wouldn't marry such a violent, sexless, macho tomboy like you if we were the last people on earth!"
Akane started trembling, the huge effort needed to refrain herself from hitting Ranma for his remarks almost overwhelming her self-control. She knew, in a way, why Ranma said those things. But that didn't change the fact that he had once again hurt her feelings. Never mind that she had done the exact same thing to him only moments prior, her fiancée had been an insensitive jerk. Again.
In the end Akane's temper won the struggle with her self-control.
"Ranma, you're such a jerk!" she cried, punching her fiancée in the face and sending him into the wall of Furinkan High with enough force to embed him several centimetres deep in it. "If that's really what you think, then you can marry Ukyo or Shampoo. See if I care!"
"Jeez, you're soo uncute, Akane," said an annoyed Ranma after he had managed to extract himself from the Ranma-shaped hole in the wall.
"Shut up, Ranma!" growled Ryoga. He had watched Ranma degrade sweet, innocent Akane long enough. It was time he interfered and taught that jerk a lesson. "How dare you treat Akane that way! You're gonna pay for that!" He was just about to attack his rival when Akane stopped him.
"It's alright, Ryoga," she said. "Just let it be."
"No, Akane, it's not alright! It's high time somebody taught Ranma a lesson for always treating you so badly. I won't let him get away with it!"
"Thanks, Ryoga. That's really nice of you. You're such a sweet guy." Akane shot the lost boy a dazzling smile that almost caused his brain to shut down.
In Ryoga's mind Akane's face was suddenly framed by little hearts and cherry blossoms, and the lost boy regained a little hope that maybe, just maybe, Akane did love him after all. He might have told Ranma that he had given up on Akane and that was the truth. He would no longer try to win her over. But if she were to initiate a romance he'd certainly give it a try. And from the look of things, he had good reasons to keep his hopes up.
"I'm so glad to have such a good friend as you."
The lost boy slumped down as his hope for a relationship with the youngest Tendo was crushed again in an instant.
"A friend, I'm just a good friend to her," Ryoga thought gloomily. "I'll never be more than a friend to Akane and it's all because of Ranma. Even though he always treats her badly and makes fun of her, she likes him more than me. If it weren't for Ranma, I could win Akane's love. If it weren't for that damn Ranma, I wouldn't be cursed to turn into a defenceless little pig. If it weren't for that damn, honorless Ranma, I would have been able to get a cure for my curse yesterday."
With every thought Ryoga's happiness decreased and his anger and depression rose.
Ranma watched the interaction between Akane and Ryoga with an annoyed scowl on his face. "Man, why does Akane always have to be so nice to that moron?" he thought, "Why can't she ever be that nice to me? Not like I want her to be nice to me..."
He decided to interfere before everybody watching the confrontation died from overexposure to sappiness. No way did he interfere because he was jealous.
"Hey, pig-boy!" he shouted. "I thought you wanted to teach me a lesson?" Making a 'come hither' gesture with his hand, he continued. "C'mon bacon breath, I'm gonna kick your little piggy butt!"
Ranma's shout snapped Ryoga out of his depressing train of thought and he attacked his hated rival with an inarticulate battle cry.
Ranma easily danced out of the way of all of Ryoga's attacks and continued with his taunts.
"C'mon, P-Chan! You can do better than that! I've seen turtles that were faster than you!"
"Shut up, Ranma!" Ryoga shouted in reply.
The lost boy upped the pace and intensity of his attacks. He almost tagged the pigtailed martial artist several times, but his hated opponent evaded every time by the tiniest of fractions.
Frustrated with his lack of success, Ryoga managed to tap into reserves he never knew he had and increased his speed once more until he finally managed to snake one of his punches through Ranma's guard. Ryoga's fist hit his rival squarely in the chest and sent Ranma into the wall of Furinkan High, resulting in a second crater next to the one caused by Akane earlier that day.
Seeing this, Akane got worried for the two martial artists and tried once again to stop their fighting.
"That's enough, you two!" she shouted. "There's no reason for you to fight!"
Neither of them paid any attention to her efforts, however, both way too stubborn to simply let the matter drop.
"Butt out, tomboy!/Stay out of this, Akane!"
Coughing slightly, Ranma picked himself out of the crater Ryoga's punch had left him in.
"Not bad, pig-boy," he complimented his rival. "But now it's my turn!"
Cracking his knuckles, the pigtailed martial artist advanced toward his opponent. As soon as he was in range, Ranma started throwing kicks and punches at a furious pace, landing several hits, which Ryoga was able to simply ignore due to his incredible toughness. Nevertheless, he was driven back by Ranma's furious onslaught.
Ryoga had to muster every ounce of speed available to him to avoid being overwhelmed, desperately dodging and blocking Ranma's blows. He was quickly losing ground, however, and soon Ranma had him cornered against the wall of Furinkan High, which was already decorated with a series impact craters, the newest of them not even one day old.
"Heh, perfect," thought Ranma. "Now let's see see how much Pop's techniques are really worth against an opponent like Ryoga."
"Oh god!" shouted Ranma, a fake look of shock on his face. "Akane's panties are showing!"
"What?!" replied Ryoga, embarrassed. He quickly looked towards his crush, only to see that she was still decent and was now sporting a mixed look of anger and embarrassment on her face.
"Ranma! How dare you-" Ryoga began lecturing his rival, before he was suddenly interrupted by a shout.
"Mouko Kaimon Ha!" cried Ranma. He spread Ryoga's arms wide open and, channelling his ki into his leg, landed a devastating kick on his opponent's chest.
This time it was Ryoga's turn to be embedded several centimetres deep into the wall of the school. The air was violently expelled from the bandanna clad youth's lungs with a loud "Oomph!" upon impact.
"Argh! That cad!" thought Ryoga angrily. "Distracting me like that, and then hitting me when my guard is down."
Just as Ryoga was about to rant at his rival for fighting so dishonourably, he heard an angry shout of "RANMA!" accompanied by the sound of flesh hitting flesh. He looked up to see the pigtailed martial artist flying through the air. Backtracking his rivals flight path, Ryoga's eyes came to rest on the youngest Tendo's form with her fist still extended.
"What the hell was that for?" Ranma angrily demanded of his fiancé after he had picked himself up.
"Don't play dumb, Ranma!" was Akane's heated reply. "How dare you embarrass me like that, you're such a jerk!"
"Jeez, Akane. It's no big deal," Ranma laughed the issue off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "It's not like anybody would want to see the panties of an uncute girl like you, anyway. Well, aside from P-Chan here," he said with a smirk and pointed with his thumb at Ryoga, who was shaking in anger.
"That's it, Ranma!" shouted Ryoga. "That was the last straw. How dare you embarrass Akane like that just to land a cheap hit on me. Prepare to die!"
Before Ryoga could make good on his threat he saw Ranma suddenly dance out of the way of several thrown projectiles. Looking towards the direction they had come from, he spotted Mousse, Shampoo's suitor from China, standing on the perimeter wall of Furinkan High School.
The chinese youth was dressed in his usual outfit, consisting of slippers, black pants and white chines robes. Additionally, he wore thick glasses because he was as good as blind without them.
"Ranma, you enemy of women! How dare you try and keep my Shampoo away from me!" Mousse shouted from his perch on top of the perimeter wall.
"Feh, figures that duck-boy would show up while I'm fighting Ryoga," Ranma mumbled quietly to himself, before turning towards the male amazon. "What the hell do you want?" he demanded.
"I'm here to free my beloved Shampoo from your evil clutches!" replied Mousse. "Don't worry, my love!" He shouted towards Shampoo, "I will beat Ranma and then we can share the rest of our lives in happiness!"
"Stupid Mousse," said Shampoo and whipped out one of her trademark chinese maces. Throwing it at her unwanted suitor she hit him where it really hurts, causing Mousse to fold up like a knife and fall off the wall. "Shampoo no want spend live with stupid Mousse! Shampoo Ranma's wife!"
Ranma and Ryoga both cringed in male sympathy as they witnessed Mousse' balls getting crushed.
"Damn! Mousse may be a moron, but no man deserves that," muttered Ranma. Ryoga nodded his head in agreement.
"Sao- to- me," wheezed Mouse while slowly straightening up again. "This time you've gone too far. Corrupting my darling Shampoo to the point where she attempts to crush my very manhood!"
"Hey! I didn't have nothing to do with Shampoo busting your nuts!"
"Enough talk!" Mousse shouted suddenly. "This time I'll finish you once and for all!"
"Bring it on, duckboy!" taunted Ranma. "I've beaten you every single time. This time won't be any different."
Without wasting any more words Mousse attacked Ranma by hurtling a large assortment of weapons at his opponent. The Saotome heir had to use all his flexibility to avoid getting wrapped up in chains, skewered by throwing knives, or hit on the head by training potties. Ranma had a smirk on his face during the whole time he was dodging Mousse' weapons, silently mocking his opponent, who responded by throwing even more of his arsenal at his hated rival for Shampoo's heart.
"Ranma! How dare you fight Mousse instead of me!?" Ryoga shouted into the fray, upset that his rival once again refused to properly finish one of their fights. "We're not finished, yet!"
"Sorry, pigboy," replied Ranma as he continued to bend out of the way of Mousse' incoming weapons. "I ain't got time for you right now. Why don't you just get lost and we finish this later? Like say, in about a month, when you'll manage to find your way here again."
"How dare you mock me!" came Ryoga's predictable reply. In his angered state all thoughts of a fair fight went out the window as he also proceeded to attack the young Saotome.
"Shit!" Ranma cursed inwardly, "Me and my big mouth! I shouldn't have said that to Ryoga. Now I'm gonna have to fight both those morons at once."
Ranma was hard pressed to avoid Mousse' weapons while dodging or blocking Ryoga's attacks at the same time.
"This is getting me nowhere! They're both angrier than a bull during a bullfight; maybe I can use the Hiryo Shoten Ha to end this."
The pigtailed martial artist started altering his movement to match the tightening spiral required for the execution of the amazon technique with Ryoga blindly following along. Mousse, however, wasn't engaged in close combat with the pigtailed martial artist and therefore had no reason to copy the movement of the other two fighers.
"Damn, I'm only going to get Ryoga like this," Ranma thought and started racking his brain for some way to revise the technique which would allow him to beat both his opponents at once. His contemplations were interrupted by sharp pain blossoming from his shoulder.
"Fuck! That hurts!" The Saotome heir shouted suddenly and pulled one of Mousse' throwing knives out of his shoulder. He had gotten too distracted by thinking up new ways to execute the Hiryo Shoten Ha and consequently failed to dodge all of Mousse' weapons.
"I've got you now!" Ryoga shouted triumphantly and took advantage of Ranma's faltering defence. He directed a kick towards Ranma's right knee, which messed up the Saotome heir's stance and caused him to stumble slightly. The lost boy then punched his rival squarely in the face, sending him spiralling into the dirt.
"No!" Akane shouted in horror as she witnessed her fiancé going down hard. "Stop it, you two! You're going to hurt him!"
She took one step towards the battle, then stopped again as she realized that she wouldn't be able to help her fiancée and would likely be more of a hindrance to him. Past fights had taught her as much.
Ryoga looked up upon hearing Akane's distressed shout. Seeing the look of horror on her face and the fear in her eyes completely sapped his will to fight. He simply couldn't beat up Ranma if Akane suffered this much because of it.
That last train of thought caused anger to swell up within the lost boy. Anger that Akane would care so much more for the arrogant jerk than for him. Even though he had given up on Akane some time ago, she was still his first crush and would always have a special place in his heart. Seeing her in this distressed state out of fear for his hated rival angered the lost boy in more ways than he could understand.
Ryoga concentrated on that anger and channelled it, using it to help him ignore any misgivings he might have for fighting Ranma while Akane was watching. "Sorry, Akane," he told the girl before he turned back towards his rival. "This time I'm going to finish our fight."
"No Ryoga, don't!" Akane shouted and ran towards the lost boy. Once she reached him, she latched onto his arm to keep him from further attacking her fiancée.
Meanwhile, Ranma had managed to get back on his feet. He gingerly put some weight on his right leg to see how bad the damage he had received from Ryoga's kick was.
"Damn," the young Saotome muttered, "Looks like I won't be able to walk without pain for the rest of the day, let alone fight."
Looking in Ryoga's direction Ranma noticed that the lost boy seemed to be distracted. "Now's my chance," he thought. "If I can hit him with a powerful enough Moko Takabisha I might be able to blast him far enough away that he'll get lost and won't find his way back to continue our fight."
Thinking back on all his victories, Ranma began building up his confidence which he used to channel his chi. Once he deemed his technique powerful enough, he looked towards his opponent and released the pent up chi.
"Moko Takabisha!" Ranma cried. Just as he was about to fire off his chi-blast he spotted Akane standing next to Ryoga. Cursing under his breath, he jerked his arms up violently in an effort to steer his chi-blast off-course and avoid hitting his fiancé.
The pigtailed martial artist's chi-projectile narrowly streaked over Akane's and Ryoga's heads and ended up crashing into a classroom on the second floor where it exploded upon impact, sending glass shards raining down on the school yard.
Ranma heaved a sigh of relief, glad that he had managed to avoid blasting his fiancé off into the distance. His relief was then quickly overcome by annoyance at said fiancé for being stupid enough to get involved in one of his fights and consequently putting herself at risk.
"You stupid tomboy!" he snapped at Akane. "Just how dimwitted are you? What the hell were you thinking, barging in on our fight?"
The pigtailed martial artist had a lot more to say to his fiancé, but didn't get the chance to continue berating her because the classroom Ranma had hit with his Moko Takabisha suddenly erupted in a violent explosion, destroying its walls and the walls of the two adjacent rooms. A huge fireball expanded outwards from the room and big chunks of burning debris were sent flying everywhere, causing the few students who had remained behind to witness the battle to run for their lives.
The Saotome heir saw Ryoga and Akane get blasted off their feet by the explosion and rushed towards them, the concern for his fiancé's safety helping him ignore the pain in his shoulder and leg.
As soon as he reached the Tendo heir he picked her up and, cradling her in his arms, started putting as much distance between them and ground zero as possible.
-V-V-V-
When they were far enough away the youngest Tendo started pounding on Ranma's shoulder in an effort to get him to stop.
"What the hell just happened?" she asked him. "And where are Ryoga and the others?"
"I have absolutely no idea," Ranma admitted. "But that room shouldn't have exploded like that. My Moko Takabisha was nowhere near powerful enough to cause such a big explosion."
"Whatever you say."
At this point Akane noticed the position she was in, cradled in Ranma's arms. "Uhm, you can put me down now, you know," she said, her cheeks red with embarrassment.
"Huh?" Ranma looked down at his precious cargo and it finally registered in his head just who he was carrying in his arms. "Oh! Sorry, sorry!"
He dropped Akane suddenly and jumped several metres backwards, just in case she was going to react violently to his treatment of her.
"Uhm, anyway," Akane began after she had straightened her school uniform and reminded herself that she was still supposed to be angry with Ranma. "Where's Ryoga? I saw Shampoo turn Mousse into a duck and go back towards the Neko-Hanten when I tried to keep Ryoga from attacking you. But I don't know where Ryoga is, do you think he made it out okay?"
"Feh, I'm sure he's fine," Ranma responded. He was a little annoyed at the concern Akane expressed for his rival. "He's too stupid to get hurt by something like that. I bet he's in Itabashi by now.
"What about Ukyo? Do you know if she made it out all right?"
Now it was Akane's turn to be annoyed. "Yes," she ground out. "She told me she had to go and open her restaurant."
"Oh, all right," said Ranma. The two stood in uncomfortable silence for a while. "Uhm, shall we go home then?"
"Yeah, let's go home. This was enough excitement for one day."
They had hardly begun walking home when Ranma got splashed and turned into a short red-haired girl.
"Ah, man this sucks! And I had almost managed to beat my record for remaining a guy," the boy-turned-girl whined in a soprano voice.
Akane had to suppress her giggles at her fiancé's antics. She was still angry at her, after all.