Round One
No, I don't like this at all. Specifically, Ranma didn't like where he was: an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Kyoto. What he liked even less was that he was surrounded by thirty or so kick-boxers. He wondered again what possessed him to come here. Kasumi's face floated up into his mind causing him to grimace. How long had he known her? Less than a day. Yet here he was because the note he had gotten said that if he ever wanted to see her again he would show up here for a martial arts match. Ranma felt at the cut the ninja had given him, his first serious injury in a while, and wondered what he had gotten himself into. The crowd abruptly parted, and amongst much cheering, a tall black man with a green Mohawk sauntered into the circle made by the kick-boxers. He said, "You ready for Zach?" and let off four low-kicks, which judging by the crowd's reaction, were blindingly quick to most people. Ranma casually adopted a neutral fighting stance and waited for his opponent. He didn't have to wait long, however; Zach attacked with a flurry of punches that Ranma easily avoided and followed up with those same four low-kicks. Ranma leaped over the kicks and smashed both feet into Zach's face. The kick-boxer reeled and then fell over, out cold.
"That's it?" Ranma said with disbelief. The crowd started to mutter angrily and Ranma heard words like 'cheat' start to be flung about. "Hey! I won that fight fair and square! He was just weak!" Ranma realized a second too late that he had just insulted their hero. The crowd began to close in on him.
:3
Ryoga woke up and attempted to rub the bleariness from his eyes. When he couldn't manage to reach his eyes he realized that he was a pig. He scrambled to his feet and looked around. It seemed as though he were in a hotel room but he couldn't remember coming here. Then Tina flashed through his mind. He thought on the past two days with horror. The cage, the plane ride, the extensive loss of blood! He shuddered and hopped down to the ground, looking for a faucet. He found it and nosed it on causing him to transform into his true, human self. From his new perspective he noticed that a pile of his clothes rested on the window sill. That's odd. Tina thought he was a real pig. But he didn't question his good fortune and quickly got dressed. Underneath his clothes were two pieces of paper, one was a flyer for a martial arts tournament and the other was a letter that read:
Dear Mr. Hibiki
You have been cordially invited to participate in the Dead or Alive Martial Arts Championship Tournament. Only 32 of the best martial artists in the world are invited to participate. The grand prize will be 10 million yen. Your first opponent should be arriving shortly. If you win, you will be contacted by one of our agents about your next match.
Good Luck,
DOATEC
P.S. If you are still hesitant to participate, it may interest you to know that one Ranma Saotome is participating and the winner will receive a panacea that is said to cure all maladies, even curses.
Ryoga read through the letter with growing excitement. He had little use for that much money but the panacea! And Ranma was trying to get his filthy hands on it. Well, Ryoga couldn't stand for that! Then he remembered something from the letter. His opponent would be arriving soon? The door opened and Tina stepped through. Tina and Ryoga looked at each other and both gasped, "You!"
Tina acted first and threw a ferocious punch at Ryoga which he easily dodged. "What the hell are doing in my room!?" she shrieked as she attacked him with a barrage of punches.
"H-hang on! I can explain!" Ryoga said, embarrassed.
The punches stopped and Tina said, "Well, explain."
Ryoga looked down at his hands and tried to come up with a plausible lie, "Well, you see…."
Tina smirked and used this opportunity to sucker punch Ryoga. Unfortunately for her, punching Ryoga was like punching a brick wall. She pulled back her bruised fingers with a cry of pain and saw that Ryoga hadn't even noticed that he'd been hit. Enraged, she charged him and leapt into the air intent on tackling him. Ryoga detected her at the last minute and reflexively ducked. Tina soared over Ryoga's head and smashed through the window behind him. Ryoga hustled over to the window and saw that Tina had landed in a dumpster. "S-sorry…"
:3
After making sure that Akane was still seated a few rows ahead of her, Ukyo settled back into her seat. She had spied Akane entering the train station on the way home from school and it immediately piqued her curiosity since neither Ranma nor Akane had been to school that day. That, plus the fact the Akane looked furious, led to Ukyo surmising that this had something to do with Ranma. She decided to follow Akane when she remembered that the hardheaded girl often went off to "rescue" Ranma without considering that there may be others who cared about Ranma's welfare. Ukyo steamed, remembering all the times Ranma had gotten into some trouble and nobody bothered to tell her. She was broken out of her reverie by a polite, "Are you Miss Ukyo Kounji?"
She looked up to see a young stewardess holding a letter out to her. She took the letter with a "Thank you" and began to read through it. A martial arts tournament? 10 million yen! Ranma and Akane were participating, eh? Her first opponent was—! Ukyo smiled with grim satisfaction.
:3
It was dark by the time the train finally got to Kyoto. Akane got off the train and was still thinking about the note that one of the train stewardesses had given her when she heard someone call, "Akane!"
Akane turned around slowly and coolly said, "Ukyo." She glanced at the paper in the okonomiyaki chef's hand and said, "So you got an invitation too."
"Sure did." Something about the smirk on Ukyo's face told Akane just what the invitation said. So Ukyo's my first opponent, ed? Good. I've never really had a full-out tilt with her before.
"Shall we take this somewhere quieter?" Akane suggested. She noticed that Ukyo was glancing nervously at the baggage that was being unloaded from the train. "Did they make you check your spatula? Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be here when you get back…or do you think you need to beat me?" Akane said with mock innocence.
"Yeah right." Ukyo growled. "Let's go."
They walked through the streets until they found an overgrown, empty parking lot. "This'll do." Akane said. Ukyo and Akane stared at one another for a few moments before Akane made the first move. She kicked high but Ukyo deftly knocked aside and countered with her own kick that clipped Akane's shoulder. Akane stumbled back a few steps and then straightened up. "Not bad," she admitted.
"If you think I need my spatula to beat you, you're sadly mistaken." Ukyo sneered.
Incensed, Akane came at Ukyo with an onslaught of punches and kicks. A few hit but Ukyo dodged or blocked the majority and countered whenever she got an opening. They went on like this for quite some time until Ukyo whipped around one of Akane's punches and elbowed her in the back of the head. Akane stumbled forward and Ukyo went on the offensive, pummeling Akane with a multitude of blows that ended with Akane flat on her back. Ukyo stood over her and said, "You can't win, honey."
Akane felt despair. Again, despite her best efforts she had lost. Damn it, damn it, damn it! She used to be the best martial artist around and now she was one of the worst. Rage started to replace despair. And whose fault was that? Ranma's! All these martial artists had shown up because of him, martial artists she couldn't match. But it wasn't fair! I mean, it wasn't her fault that she hadn't gone on a ten year training trip or grown up in an Amazon village. She tightened her fists and noticed that there was gravel clenched in her grasp.
Fueled by fury, she flung the gravel into Ukyo's eyes.
:3
Ranma limped towards the train station, cursing the jerk kick-boxers who'd ganged up on him. He was almost there when he heard a scream. That sounded like Ucchan! What could she being doing in Kyoto? Wounds-which were mostly psychological anyway-promptly forgotten, he hurried towards the sound. What he saw was that last thing he would have expected. Ukyo was flat on her back furiously scrubbing at her eyes and Akane was standing over her. Ranma, shocked, stopped short and watched as Akane lifted her foot and kicked Ukyo hard in the ribs. The chef rolled with the blow and landed on her knees. She flung out two of her spatula shuriken. One of them missed but the other bit deep into Akane's shoulder. She screamed in pain and ripped it out. Ranma watched her stomp towed Ukyo, paralyzed. Akane was beyond furious.
Ukyo blindly swung at her and Akane caught the chef's forearm. Ranma knew firsthand how stong Akane was when she was angry and life finally came back to his legs. I have to stop this! Before he could reach the girls, though, Akane tightened her grip and pressed Ukyo's arm backward. With a sickening crunch, Akane crushed Ukyo's forearm. Ukyo howled with agony. The scream seemed to break Akane out of her murderous rage. She hurriedly let go of Ukyo's arm and took a step backward. Ranma halted just behind her. He couldn't believe what he'd seen. "Akane..." he said softly.
"Ranma…I didn't…I didn't mean to…" Akane said, tears flooding her eyes. Ranma didn't know what to say. With a sob, she turned and fled.
Ranma almost went after her but a whimper from Ukyo reminded him that he had a more urgent matter to attend to. He scooped Ukyo up in his arms and set out to find a hospital.
:3
The monster dropped Lime from his grasp and Herb hustled over to check his vitals. He was dead. A livid Herb stood back up and prepared to avenge his fallen subordinate. As he attacked, he thought on the events that had led him here. He had received a letter inviting him and his two cohorts to participate in a martial arts tournament, promising that if he won, his curse would be healed. They had set off immediately and when they arrived, a ninja and a Japanese youth by the name of Ryu had been waiting, they were Mint and Herb's opponents respectively. Herb had quickly defeated his opponent but Mint was beaten badly, though left alive. Lime had received a note that had told him his opponent was waiting here, Herb had come along to watch. Lime's opponent was a monster of a man by the name of Raidou. Lime's strength was exceed by this man and, consequently, Lime hadn't a hope of winning. But Raidou hadn't given any quarter and, out of sheer malevolence, snapped Lime's neck.
"Come then, little man." Raidou chortled. Herb leapt into the air and attacked with his 'Soaring Dragon Spirit.' Raidou grunted as the ki blows hit him but he nonetheless reached up and caught Herb by the ankle. He smashed Herb into the ground and then threw him into a concrete wall. Black spots danced in front of Herb's eyes and he felt a large hand wrap around his neck. The last thing he heard was laughter.
:3
As the next stripper entered the stage Bayman knew he had found his adversary. He had been invited to participate in the Dead or Alive martial arts tournament allegedly because of his combat prowess but Bayman knew that it was so they could kill him. The reason DOATEC wanted him dead was two-fold: they owed him money and, more importantly, he knew too much about them and their leader, Donovan. Bayman could see that this stripper was a killer just from the way she moved. DOATEC did always hire the best…Bayman turned to ask the excited kid to his left if he knew the girl.
"Hell yeah man! She's the reason I come here. Her name's Christie," he said as though the name were holy.
"How long has she been here?"
"I don't know. A couple of weeks?"
Bayman nodded, he was sure now. Bayman watched her dance, trying to determine how much of a threat she was. Christie finished her routine and Bayman waited patiently. Sure enough, Christie made her way over too him and sexily purred into his ear, "Hey, big man, want a private dance?"
Bayman stood up without a word and followed Christie to a private room. She sat him down on a chair and straddled him, with one arm around his shoulders she started grinding her pelvis against his. Bayman ignored this and noticed that the other hand was no longer in sight. He caught it before her stiffened fingers could crush his windpipe. He flung her off himself and stood up. "Is this the best they could do? An assassin that uses sex to get a man to lower his guard?"
"You'll see I can do much more that that." She struck at him with her fingers again stiffened making her hand resemble a snake. Bayman caught her hand and punched her in the armpit, dislocating her shoulder.
"Pitiful." Bayman stalked towards Christie and proceeded to beat her unconscious.
:3
Ranma had left Ukyo once she had gotten into see a doctor and he was now wandering the halls the hospital, thinking on what he had seen. I've never seen Akane lose her temper like that. Not even that time Shampoo...Ranma shook his head. He did not want to think about that. I wonder what's going on with her. A few doctors rushed passed him with a man on a gurney who was absolutely destroyed. Ranma whistled, "I haven't seen anybody that beat-up in a long time…"
"No kidding." A nurse answered.
"Any idea what happened?"
"That happened." The nurse pointed towards a waiting bench where a girl was being questioned by two policemen.
"Kasumi!?"
:3
"Who knows?" Ayane said.
"What kind of answer is that!? This note says that if I fight in this tournament, I'll find out who killed my mother!" Helena screamed back.
Ayane giggled and said, "Maybe it was me."
"What!?"
"Then again, maybe it wasn't."
"Fine," Helena sniffed. "If you won't tell it to me straight I guess I'll have to beat it out of you."
"You're welcome to try."
Helena attacked with a punch that Ayane dodged easily, but Ayane didn't notice that Helena's other hand was already chopping down. Helena hit Ayane on the top of her head, and then delivered and open handed blow to the stunned girl, sending her flying across the room. Ayane managed to land on her feet and block the three kicks Helena aimed her way. The kunoichi countered with a blow to the stomach and then and uppercut that threw Helena into the air. She landed on her back hard but quickly scrambled to her feet. Unfortunately for her, Ayane was already behind her. The ninja pressed her back against Helena's, grabbed her forearms and leapt into the air. Ayane landed with both feet planted firmly in Helena's back. She stepped off the blond woman and drew her foot back for the finishing blow but Helena grabbed her ankle.
"W-wait…" she said, blood dripping from her mouth.
Ayane hesitated a moment and then kneeled down next to Helena and said, "You've impressed me, so I'll tell you what I know."
"P-please…" Helena managed.
"Nothing!" Ayane stood up, cackling. "I don't even know who your mother is and I'm nothing so low as an assassin for hire. Like you, I was led here by the promise that someone I'm looking for is competing in this tournament." And with a swirl of dust, she was gone.
:3
Ein, after leaving his defeated opponent, a strange fellow by the name of Taro, at the door of a hospital, began the long walk back to his hotel. He had come to Japan hoping to regain his lost memories but so far fights were all that he had found. He was shaken out of his reverie when something crashed into him. He looked down to see a disheveled young woman staring up at him. She sobbed once before fainting dead away. Alarmed, Ein picked her up and checked to see if she was okay. 'She must have been through a lot. She's exhausted. Ein decided to take her back to his hotel room since he didn't want to get involved with the police, and… for some reason he felt reluctant to part from the girl. Maybe it's fate that she ran into me. Ein had been rescued by kindly strangers when he was at his lowest point as well.
Not wanting anyone to see him carrying an unconscious girl up to his room in the middle of the night, Ein opted to let himself in through the window. He laid the girl on his bed and proceeded to brew up some tea. After a time the girl awakened and sat up mumbling, "Was it all a dream…?"
"Was what a dream?" Ein asked.
The girl started and shrieked, "Who are you!?"
"I'm the guy you tried to run down a little while ago." He handed her a mug of tea. "You fainted and I brought you back here."
"O-oh…" she blushed. "Um…thank you. My name is Akane Tendo."
"You can call me Ein. So… you want to tell me about that not-a-dream?"
Akane sipped her tea. "Why do you care?"
Ein shrugged. "You seemed very upset when you ran into me. I want to know if I can help."
"You're being awfully nice," Akane said suspiciously.
"Well, kindness is the reason I'm alive right now. A German man and his daughter found me half-dead and with no memories of who I was or where I came from. They nursed me back to health for no reason at all. I've learned from their example."
"Oh," Akane said sheepishly. "Well you probably won't want to help me after I tell you what I did."
"Try me."
"I did something horrible, to someone who didn't deserve." Tears sprang to her eyes. "And the last person on Earth I would have wanted to see me do that, saw." She started to sob.
Ein waited for her to calm down and said, "Why don't you tell me the whole story?"
:3
Kuno leveled his bokken and said, "My dear sister, you don't stand a chance. I shall win this tournament for love!" He looked off into the distance and could picture Akane and the pig-tailed girl running to him and jumping into his arms. Yes, if he won this tournament and beat Saotome, the girls would surely date with him.
"You're delusional, brother darling." Kodachi said as she leapt into the air. She came down striking repeatedly with her ribbon but Kuno easily countered her blows. He attacked with his own blindingly fast barrage of bokken strikes that forced her to retreat.
Kodachi threw out her arm and shouted, "Look, it's the pigtailed girl."
"Truly!?" Kuno shouted as he spun around.
"I'm afraid not brother." Kuno turned back around to see a bouquet of black roses thrust in his face.
"What is the meaning of this!?" he shouted as gas started spewing from the roses. He brought his wooden sword down hard on his sister's head, knocking her unconscious, before succumbing to the blackness as well.
:3
Cologne, Shampoo, and Mousse stepped off the train and were immediately accosted by a young Chinese woman. "Shampoo, is it really you!?"
"Leifang! What are you doing here?" Shampoo shrieked happily, falling back into her native tongue, as the two girls hugged.
"I came to Kyoto because he," Leifang jerked a thumb over her shoulder, "wanted to participate in some tournament, so I decided I would as well."
Shampoo looked at the lanky man the Leifang was gesturing towards. "That's man who defeated you?"
"Yup." Lei Feng said proudly.
"I see you haven't convinced him to go back home yet?"
"No," Leifang said looking downcast. "He refused to acknowledge that we're married. All he wants to do is train and fight! He could do that in the village."
"I know the feeling well," Shampoo said, think of her own too too stubborn man.
"Well, there's no point in pursuing a man that gives in too easy right?" Leifang said and the girls shared a laugh. Mousse made a choking sound.
"Well, if you two are done catching up," Cologne interjected, "you may want to get fighting."
"What!?" Leifang and Shampoo shouted in unison.
"That's right; your first match in this tournament is against each other."
"This should be fun," Lei Feng said menacingly.
"You don't remember last time. I barely broke a sweat." Shampoo smirked.
"I've learned a lot since then." Neglecting to reply, Shampoo launched a jump kick. Lei Feng calmly caught Shampoo by the foot, pivoted and sent her tumbling through the air. "Look like 'Shampoo no win easy.'" Lei Feng mocked, switching to Shampoo's broken Japanese.
"We'll see about that," Shampoo growled, picking herself up off the ground and resuming her attack.
:3
Cologne turned away from the fight and looked at Mousse. "Your opponent is that man over there," she said pointing at Jann Lee.
"What!?" Mousse exclaimed. "I didn't know I was fighting in this tournament!"
"Well you are, so get to it!"
"Why should I, you old ghoul?"
Cologne leaped up and whacked Mousse with her staff. "Because I said so, boy!" Mousse, grumbling the whole way walked over to Jann Lee. "And my opponent should be showing up just about now…" And then she spotted him on a roof across the street doing what he did best, stealing panties.
Cologne leaped on the roof and said, "Happy, are you ready to fight?"
"Now why would I want to fight you lil' Cologne?" Happosai responded. "I've got to get my silky darlings home."
"Don't give me that! You and I both know you're not in Kyoto just for the panties!"
"That's what you think!" Happosai stuck his tongue out and started to hop away from rooftop to rooftop.
"Happosai, wait! We must fight to see which of should face the evil."
Happosai stopped and looked back at her seriously. "Cologne, I defeated that monster 50 years ago and I could probably do so again, but it's something the next generation must do." He grinned and resumed his usual perverted demeanor. "Besides, I have much more important things to do. There's a yoga class across the street." And he bounced way, leaving Cologne with troubled thoughts.
:3
Shampoo tottered to her feet. "You've gotten quite a bit better," she admitted. Leifang Tai Chi was actually perfect for redirecting Shampoo's straightforward style.
"And you're as good as ever." Leifang gasped from her kneeled position.
Shampoo attacked but Leifang grabbed both her hands and began to flip Shampoo over her head. Shampoo had other plans however and with a shouted "Fake!" she grabbed Leifang's wrists and reversed her throw, sending Leifang crashing into a wall. Leifang slid down the wall, out cold. Shampoo sat down hard and exhaled loudly. "I haven't had a fight like that in a long time. Too long."
Jann Lee walked over and looked at Leifang. "Down for the count, eh? You must be pretty good to be able to beat Leifang. I look forward to fighting you."
"Mousse?"
Jann Lee looked over to where Mousse was laying unconscious. "He wasn't too bad, but I don't really respect an opponent that relies on weapons and tricks."
"Mousse pathetic."
"Heh." Jann Lee smiled and started to walk away. "Later."
:3
Ranma ran over to where Kasumi was sitting and gasped, "Kasumi, you're okay!" He looked at Kasumi and jerked back in revulsion, her eyes weren't the same. They seemed unnatural somehow, perverting her face.
The police officers turned to look at Ranma and Kasumi used this opportunity to dart past the distracted police officers and out the nearest window. The officers cursed and charged after her.
Ranma was trying to puzzle out what just happened when he heard Ukyo call his name. He turned and noticed that she was wearing an eye patch on her left eye. "What happened?"
"Akane threw gravel in my eyes. Scratched my left eye." Ukyo growled.
Ranma winced. "And the arm?"
"The doctor says it was a fairly clean break so it should heal all right. I'm going to kill Akane for this."
As much as Ranma was interested in what had happened between Ukyo and Akane, he couldn't get his mind off Kasumi. He had to talk to her. He looked at Ukyo, said, "I'll be right back," and jumped out the window after Kasumi.
He found her quickly by jumping between rooftops. She seemed to be running with a destination in mind so Ranma decided to follow her. She ran along for quite some time and then entered an unmarked building.
:3
Kasumi floated naked in a glass tube of some kind of liquid. She didn't know what the liquid was or why she could breathe, but it really didn't matter since she was about to get out. They had been kept her drugged since they had abducted her but the drugs had abruptly stopped and Kasumi didn't intend to waste her opportunity. She drew her hand back and shattered the glass. She leaped out through the falling glass, ignoring the cuts the shards of glass were giving her. When she landed, she came face to face with herself, only it was a perversion of herself. "You abomination!" she screamed. She had watched in a daze as scientists had created a replica of her, horrified but unable to do anything. She attacked the clone ferociously but she was soon frustrated as all her attacks were easily countered.
"That's right. You probably know all my moves, don't you?" The clone just stared at her with dead eyes "I guess I'll have to do something unexpected then." She grabbed the clone by the throat and smashed it's head through a nearby tube. She then slashed it's neck open with one of the sharp edges created by the broken glass. She dropped the atrocity and let it bleed out on the floor. She then proceeded to calmly hunt for some clothes.
Author's Notes:
Once again, just tidying up a few things. Expanding some dialogue here, trimming some fat there. Also, obviously combined Round One into one chapter. Gonna do the same with Round Two and Thee. I wouldn't have jumped between characters all rapid fire like this if I was writing it now but oh well. I also had to remove the Author's note at the top of this. So whiny!