Chapter 2

Ranma watched horrified from the shadows as the team of students carried their dead comrade away. Were these really people he wanted to get involved with? Yes, part of a martial artists duty involved not shirking a challenge and protecting the weak, but throwing your life away in suicidal attacks was going a bit far.

He watched until the psychotic students had left with the body of their friend, then cautiously walked towards the girl who had challenged them. The girl was lying in a puddle of her own blood, a jagged hole torn through her jacket. She wasn't moving… was so incredibly still… and if she was breathing, Ranma couldn't see any sign of it. He felt his heart sink, but focused his Ki, and checked for her aura anyway.

At first Ranma couldn't detect it, and he sighed, remembering that no one here had aura's… but then he noticed there was one, just very very faint. With her aura in that condition, the girl had to be bordering on death. He lifted her as gently as he could, then sped away, looking for the school nurse.

He spent a good fifteen minutes racing through the school, looking for the teachers sleeping quarters. For a school as big as that one, fifteen minutes wouldn't be enough for most people, but Ranma wasn't a normal person. He must have searched half the school. Oh, he found plenty of teachers quarters, but no one answered the doors when he knocked. And when he tried a more… – direct – approach, he found no one inside the dorms either, just empty apartments.

Ranma and the girl were in one of the empty apartments now. After failing to find anyone to help him, he had decided to do the best he could with the half-remembered healing techniques the old ghoul had tried to drum into him. He set the girl down on the freshly made bed, and looked at her critically. The girl lay there, her blood spreading across the white sheets slowly. Very slowly actually. There wasn't nearly as much blood coming out of her as Ranma thought there would be. In fact, all the blood soaking into the sheets seemed to be coming out of her sodden clothes. The wound in her chest appeared to have stopped bleeding. Which could only mean she didn't have anything left to bleed?

Ranma hurriedly checked the girls aura for life signs… and was confused. The girls aura was a lot more healthy than it had been. A lot more healthy than it had any right to be. Even as he watched, he felt it slowly ebbing it's way back to full health. Twenty minutes ago, the girl had been bordering on death, and now she was merely unconscious.

Which was impossible. No one healed that quickly.

Well, except for him of course, but no one else could heal that quickly.

Since the girl seemed to be recovering without any of his help, Ranma pulled up a chair beside her, and started going over the fight again in his mind.

He had just been about to announce his presence to the group when a student wearing the same uniform as them had limped out of the shadows. A girl with purple hair. She looked like she had been in a fight with a lawnmower, and come off second best. Her clothes had been torn in multiple places, and she was bleeding from several deep cuts. The other students clustered around her, asking what was wrong. Her words hadn't really made any sense to Ranma.

'An angel attacked me'.

Just what the hell was that supposed to mean? There were angels here? That attacked people? He remembered a manga Daisuke had once talked to him about, and wondered briefly if they needed a giant robot to fight it off. But no, if there were things like that around, he would have noticed…

Around about then, the other students started pointing at the top of the nearest building. There was a silhouette up there, right on the edge of the building, staring down at them. It was such a melodramatic pose that Ranma almost mistook the figure for Kuno, before he realized it was much too small… and the figure was feminine to boot. Once it realized they had noticed her, she leapt from the roof, her landing raising a suitably impressive dust-cloud. She smirked, looked around to make sure she had everyone's attention, then finally spoke.

'Everyone here is out playing around at night. Which means… I have to Exact Punishment!'

She promptly drew a sword that she had hidden in her coat sleeves, and charged towards the party. Still hidden in the shadows, Ranma relaxed somewhat. Overly-dramatic lines, melodramatic entrances… Finally, people he could relate to.

In front of him, the girl with the blade was fighting with the girl who had purple hair… who had also pulled a blade from somewhere, and seemed to be feeling a lot better now. Ranma examined the fight critically. Both were quite good, though the girl who had jumped from the roof seemed to have some Ki-based moves which were quite advanced. Still, the injured girl wasn't doing too badly… until the other managed to jump behind her, and pull some sort of whirlwind attack with the blade.

At this point, the girl with purple hair locked up, throwing her hands up in front of her face and screaming. This didn't stop the fight as Ranma had expected though, the girl kept right on coming, slicing through the girls coat and into her arms and torso. Though Ranma noticed with a professional eye that all the cuts were quite shallow. Not that this excused attacking an opponent that had surrendered, not at all…

He was gathering himself to intercept the Kuno-wannabe when a pistol shot rang out, then another. Then an automatic opened up, and soon the air was filled with shots, all streaking in towards the strange girl who had attacked the group. The girl with purple hair used the distraction to get away, and the girl trying to imitate Kuno… just stood there. The bullets streaked in towards her… then seemed to distort around her, and fly off into the building behind her.

Ranma blinked. What sort of martial artists bought guns to a fight? And just what sort of martial artist was able to re-direct them? This was taking Ki-manipulation to a whole new level. Even the Old Goul wasn't that fast…

Ranma was trying to read how the girl was pulling off the distortion technique when one of the students stepped forward. The girl with the white hair. She slid a long blade out of her coat sleeves in the same manner as their attacker had, and Ranma noticed for the first time that the girl who had leapt from the roof looked exactly like her. Twins? Some sort of evil cloning magic?

Ranma leaned forward, eager to see more of the strange girls techniques. The two rushed at each other, blades extended, and…

-SQUEENSH-

Which, by the way, is the sound two swords make when their slid through someones ribcage. The two combatants stood cheek to cheek, so close they looked to be lovers. They stood still for a moment, staring silently at each other, then simultaneously fell backwards, their blades pulling free of each other as they fell. The other students rushed to the pair, talking excitedly amongst themselves. There seemed to be a debate over which of the two was –Their- angel. They seemed to work it out however. One of the students picked her up, and they walked off, without a second glance at the other bleeding girl behind them.

Ranma looked down at the girl lying on the bed. Her uniform was still soaked in blood, but the girl seemed much better. She was now visibly breathing, and didn't seem to have any problems with the blood that should have filled her lungs. She wasn't even unconscious any more, just sleeping peacefully.

Just how could those kids be so cavalier about dealing death anyway? That other girl… the one who looked like this one… had given her own life in order to try and kill her twin. Why? None of the other students had acted that upset at her death either. Were they really that callous? But they hadn't left her behind either. They'd taken her away, taken care of the body… yet not showed any grief or concern for the girl. None of this made any sense. What was it he was missing?

It seemed just when he thought he was about to get answers, all he got was more questions.

He sighed loudly… And the girls eyes flicked open, before focusing on him.

A moment or two passed, then the girls eyes narrowed slightly. She sat up and spoke flatly. 'It is forbidden to be in the girls dorms after sunset. You will have to be punished.'

She stood, and a long, thin blade extended from the sleeve of her jacket.

Ranma had risen to his feet when the girl had sat up. When the blade extended from her arm, he grinned, and fell into a defensive stance. Finally, something he didn't have to think about!

AUTHORS NOTES:

Well the first chapter turned out to be a lot more popular than I had expected. Thank you for the reviews, some of the comments gave me ideas I could use for this chapter. I havn't had this much fun writing fanfiction for years, so I'll definitely be continuing.