"Already healed?" Setsuna mumbled as she caught sight of Ranma, walking the street in casual clothes alongside Zazie. "So fast... Even for the most efficient of self-healing techniques, I hadn't expected her to get up at all today. Was she not injured as badly as it seemed...? No... But then..."
She shook her head softly. It was obvious that the redhead had an enormous wellspring of ki, unless her self-healing techniques were far, far above anything the shinmeiryuu had available to them. But increasing the rate of healing by forcing more ki into it, and unconsciously at that? It was a fearsome ability, though it would certainly have its drawbacks... it would take many times as long as it normally did for Ranma's ki reserves to replace the amount that had been used for healing. Despite that skin was the easiest thing to heal, normally, she'd had to heal all of it, and that on top of whatever else she'd done last night that needed healing... actually, continuing to fight in such a condition had probably done more damage to the girl than just being burned had, she'd been a fool not to lie still and let the uninjured combatants take care of things..
And yet, after taking such debilitating injuries only the night before, here she was walking around with no more than what might be mistaken for a few patches of sunburn to show for it. If she didn't know better, she'd have suspected some supernatural power, such as near-instant vampiric regeneration, to be at play rather than martial techniques. And throughout classes... those with significant martial training of their own had been able to tell that she'd been a fighter of some sort, but she'd never hinted that she'd been even close to this sort of level, or gone out to exterminate monsters, or even sought one of the other fighters in the class for sparring matches, so they had always assumed that she...
"Secchan.... we're going! Are you just going to stand there all day?"
Setsuna started, jerked from her mental evaluation to mutter a quick 'Yes, Ojou-sama', then turned her gaze back to see that the redhead had already wandered off, Zazie with her, and apparently neither of them had seen the swordswoman. Even as she pushed the majority of the thoughts out of her head, one niggling question remained.
Just what kind of person was Ranma, after all?
xxx
Mahoranma
xxx
"You know, you don't have to follow me around, Rainyday."
"Shizuna-sensei said- 'Please remain with your groups at all times during your free day.'." Zazie chided softly.
"Ah... your memory is really great, Rainyday. That's a little irritating, actually..." Ranma mumbled. "Whatever then, do what you want. Just keep out of the way when we find the bad part of town."
Zazie didn't say anything, but the odd tilt to her head clearly said 'And... why are we going there?'.
"Bad part... that's where the street scum are!" Zero noted happily. "We gonna pick a fight, Master?"
"Not at all. We're just taking a walk. If someone picks a fight with us... well, that's just self defense, isn't it? A small, but legally very important difference. Also, try not to kill anyone Zero.... that's a headache I don't need, to be labeled as some random serial murderer. If we find a fight, you can hurt them all you want, but nothing they might die of."
"Will do, Master!"
Zazie sighed deeply, but didn't actually so much as glance longingly away as they entered the Nara slums. It wasn't long before a curious crowd of street-punks gathered, encircling them.
"Hehehehe... whadda we have here? Lost little girlies?"
"Oh? Pardon me, sir, we're merely here to see the sights. If you would be so good as to let my friend and I through, I would be much obliged." Ranma said sweetly, the very image of a lost, innocent young waif, dolly clutched loosely in her arms, staring wide-eyed at the group of men.
More than a few had nosebleeds at the sudden overload of cuteness. It had been a calculated gamble, as the little act had ended up both attracting more opponents and driving them off in the past. Fortunately for her purposes, this particular gang of street toughs was apparently more degenerate than most.
"Hehehe... Just let you through?"
"Can't do that, little missy..."
"Don't you know, these streets are dangerous."
"All kinds of... heheh... shady characters about."
"All sorts of... nasty things could happen to you."
"We'd be more than happy to lead you out."
"More than happy!"
"But first.... you gotta pay the toll."
"Can't do something for nothing."
"And if you ain't got enough for all of us..."
"There's probably some way you can pay..."
Zazie looked around at the men. There were... at least twenty, by her count. All working each other further and further up with their talk, a couple drooling, and a few tending to nosebleeds or leering. She settled back, watching patiently to see the show.
"Ah! Oh dear..." Ranma fretted, wringing her hands, the very picture of a naive, waifish maiden on her first trip out into the real world. "You... you would truly use violence upon me?"
"Not if we don't have to, Jou-chan."
"Just make sure to keep your big brothers happy... Really happy, now..."
"Heh." Ranma let the act drop entirely, posture shifting and eyes seeming to flash blue with a cold, hungry inner fire. "That's great. By your own admission, then, you intend to bring harm against me, and so anything I do will be classified as 'self-defense'." She purred, seeming too ooze a feral anticipation with every word.
"Hey... what?" The suddenly uncertain apparent leader got out, as Ranma gently tossed Zero. In mid-arc, both of the duet blurred into motion.
The thugs fell in waves before they even truly realized what was going on, either being knocked unconscious and dropping like rocks, or being repeatedly stabbed by a cackling toy and fleeing, bleeding, scared, and humiliated.
The last punk dropped and Ranma came to a stop, stretching idly.
"Whew. I enjoyed that... probably a lot more than I should have." She said, happy that her recent unfortunate string of unfortunate events seemed restricted to magical battles only.
And then she noted a sudden dull clapping from nearby. Turning, she noted the man in the tacky pinstripe suit that had just stepped out of the building.
"Very good!" He lauded. "As is to expected of the infamous 'Battle Scientist', I suppose. I didn't particularly think there was much chance of this trash's victory to begin with, however. You look a little surprised. Did you think there would be no note taken of your exploits, even when broadcast on live television? Of course... the unwashed masses were swift to dismiss it as 'obviously' being an unusual commercial for some upcoming movie or another, with CG effects." He chuckled. "And the government is taking no action to disprove that theory, instead quietly sweeping the whole messy business under the rugs, privately arranging with news stations not to make stories about the incident, or replay the footage, in the hopes that the problem will just be forgotten. Yes, you would likely have gotten away with it entirely, as for the most part everyone who watched it was jaundiced and cynical enough to dismiss it as fantasy once what was being shown left the tight, narrow box that encompassed their view of 'reality'."
The suited man shrugged, waving an arm to emphasize the point and Ranma caught a hint of tattoo at his wrist. Yakuza?
"Of course... I had personal reasons to not doubt what I had seen. Alas... my poor, dear, sociopathic and somewhat retarded uncle. I did try to warn him to choose a wiser target, but oh no, he insisted that he knew best. Hold such a gathering hostage, 'just eggheads' indeed... I'm sure that your little mini-death-bot, or whatever it is, came as quite the surprise for the fool. Nevertheless... he was family, and so there is a matter of restitution to be dealt with. This isn't a comic book or video game, little girl. You've made deadly enemies, without a thought, and now you pay for it."
He snapped his fingers, and Ranma's eyebrow arched as, behind him, what seemed like every window on the street was occupied by a pair of armed Yak goons. Ten, twenty, fifty... more... huh. They had the high ground, and were behind walls and spread out significantly as well, and her ki reserves were at perhaps a quarter of normal, after last night's rush healing. On top of that, she'd noted while fighting the thugs that her freshly-healed skin felt just the slightest bit too tight, still, and limited her usual range of motion a little, adding insult to injury. This wasn't good. Against a smaller group of gunmen, in close quarters, that had been one thing. This, however... the situation was entirely different. She calmly picked up Zero and tossed her to Rainyday, then settled into a stance, preparing for her next move.
"It was simple good fortune, that you happened to be in Nara at the same time I was here on business. Further, that we even crossed paths. The good fortune being on my part, of course. Your own luck seems to have run out, little Red. Fire."
She'd moved into a shundo before he'd finished the last word, not to the attack, but a full retreat, snapping up Zazie and darting down an alley, from there triangle jumping between the walls to reach the top of the building, darting to an area where they wouldn't be able to see to direct bullets towards from their current position.
"Heh. Looks like I've drug you into a bit of a mess, Rainyday. My bad. But don't worry. This is my problem, and I won't let you get hurt by it. On foot, even by car, they can't possibly catch up to..."
Ranma trailed off as she noted a strange, loud sound from directly behind her, and the subtle widening of Zazie's eyes.
"If I turn around... I'm not at all going to like what I see, am I." She deadpanned, and was answered with a slow, negative headshake. She turned anyway.
"What the CRAP!? Helicopter!? Where did it come from? That's not fair!" She yelled, pointing at the offending flying machine, from which the Yakuza boss was now dangling by a rope. She considered if she could get close to the helicopter while still protecting Zazie, wasn't happy with the long odds, then quickly reviewed all her distance attacks... aside from the Yama, that was none, nada, and zip, and realized exactly what she was moving on to after she'd completed void shundo.
"Man... if I was alone, this wouldn't even be a problem, but I've got Rainyday to think of.... It's like an escort mission from a video game. I hate those levels... every time you get nearly to the end, your vip jumps into the crossfire." She rambled, wildeyed and trying to work out how the hell this had just happened. "Rainyday! Don't you dare jump into the path of bullets, or I will hurt you."
"Insane prattle will not help you here, battle bitch!" The Yak snarled, revealing an automatic rifle in the hand he'd been holding behind his back. "Die!"
Ranma snatched up Zazie and dove over the side of the building, where a dozen men in suits were waiting, faces up and guns already leveled."
"FF-!"
Ranma pushed off the wall into a shundo to the other side in a desperate move to dodge the hailstorm of hot lead, using speed to her advantage to get some more distance as she ran down the wall, chips of brick and mortar flying into the air just a step behind her as the yaks kept their weapons pointed her way.
She broke out of the alley and into another street full of yakuza waiting for her, and moved into another shundo to dodge the instant death.
"What the crap is wrong here! Did Nara just get voted 'organized crimesville' when I wasn't looking, or something? Dammit, more-?"
The helicopter revealed itself at the end of the street, and Ranma quickly hurled herself through a large window, into a fine dining establishment with many very surprised patrons. Not sparing a moment, she darted through the room and into the kitches, making a hasty retreat through the back door and into another patch of alleyways, greeted by a funky smell and more yakuza, though in this case there was only the very surprised pair.
She quickly hurled one into the other, then continued on at top speed, hoping that this meant her opponent was running out of warm bodies to throw at the problem.
The two quickly stood up and followed her around the corner as fast they could.
"Where she go!?" Asked one of the goons.
The other answered his grammatically challenged partner by quickly pointing out a flash of red pigtail disappearing down another alleyway and pulled out a small handheld radio and barked his position into it, and a curt 'pursuing target'.
Ranma remained just one step ahead for almost all the rest of the chase, knocking down trashcans and other obstacles to trip up pursuit, taking circuitous routes, going up to the rooftops and back down to the streets a couple more times until finally being pinned in a dead end alley, on her knees from exhaustion and alone, with the helicopter hovering overhead and the other end of the alley blocked off by Yakuza.
"Your friend?" The head yak wondered, dropping down from the rope.
"Split up." Ranma answered, a hollow, dead tone to her voice. "This was none of her concern to begin with. The doll will protect her."
"I see. I suppose you're correct. I would have eliminated both the girl and your doll-thing as well, but simply your own end will satisfy me. Do you have any last words, 'Battle Scientist'?"
Ranma chuckled darkly and stood.
"Everything... according to plan." She said, voice twisting to a harsh, grating noise as she turned, revealing an intricate oval mask where her face should have been, the rest of her body transforming into a tendrilled cloak of darkness, the entire spectre fading away into nothingness as the crime-boss and his men opened fire.
"... I see." The head suit mumbled as the useless waste of ammo came to an end. "It seems my hasty plans underestimated you, little Red. Mad scientist of war, indeed. This round goes to you, then. Next time..."
xxx
Ranma and Zazie's path had diverged from the distraction back near the restaurant, as Ranma had dropped them down an open manhole, fully expecting the gambit to only buy them a minute or two of breathing room at most.
She'd been surprised almost out of her skin when two masked beings had coagulated out of the shadows, one taking her form and floating up through the roof as Zazie pointed to it with a soft 'distract', and the other seeming to be scouting ahead, having left behind a floating will-o-wisp to guide them through the sewer mains.
Ranm would have put Rainyday down then, being for the most part out of danger, but contrary to the manga interpretation of ridiculously spacious tunnels with tiny streams of unidentified stuff between neat and clean catwalks, there would probably be enough room for them to walk side by side... but then they would both be up to their ankles in filth. Just her was bad enough, and she was uncomfortably aware of every squelch and that her shoes were going to have to be replaced after this little trek.
"So... about creepy and freaky..." She wondered aloud. "Just what are...? Some kind of magic?" She finished with an unmistakeable tone of disgust.
"Not magic." Zazie replied immediately, sensing that to hesitate in how to explain it would be somehow unwise. "Nothing within your realm of experience. There are more facets to the gemstone of existence than you realize. You are familiar with only two of the many powers binding reality's weave."
"So... not magic, then." Ranma said, latching on to what she interpreted as the only important bit of the answer. "In that case, it doesn't matter too much."
They were silent for the next few minutes, before Zazie spoke again.
"They are... dreams, of a sort, beings of pure imagination, given form and substance."
"Dreams... huh. They looked more like nightmares."
"Not all dreams are pleasant." Zazie agreed quietly.
Her eyes flashed red for just a moment, but just long enough that had Ranma not already been jaded to the unusual, it would have been really creepy.
"The distraction has been discovered."
"It shouldn't be a problem." Ranma decided. "There's probably no way they could track us down at this point, we've been walking for a while. Have to be out of Nara by now. Still... can't imagine that the day would turn so bad. Looks like I've ruined your free time, Rainyday. I'll have to make that up to you, somehow."
"Quit being so mushy, Master!" Zero declared, apparently having had quite enough. "If you want her, then kiss her and get to it already, or knock it off!"
"Aheh... that's not quite..." Ranma mumbled, another startled blush crossing Zazie's face. "Anyway, the current surroundings are... I'll lay off, okay? Geeze. Grumpy muppet."
It was a while yet after that when they finally clambered out of the sewers, and when they returned to the inn, Ranma was wearing new shoes and had blown the rest of her spending money treating Zazie to things to make up for the first part of the day.
xxx
Ranma was interesting. Zazie had spent the vast majority of the day contemplating the redhead, and the many faces she wore.
She had played many parts in the day, as though a consummate actor. The bored young woman. The naive waif. The irrepressable flirt, when teasing or when going out of her way to con freebies out of vendors. The foulmouthed protector, insistent on not getting her caught up in Ranma's private troubles. The face Zazie was most familiar with, the chilly, brooding ice queen, mind on studies alone, with no interest in, or care for, the people around her. More faces still.
If Ranma had ever thought to join the theatre club, she would have been a hit.
And yet, it didn't seem to be anything so simple as mere acting. Whenever Ranma took on a role, she fell completely into it, to the point that she seemed to forget she had ever been anything else. It was almost uncanny, if Zazie had any right to use such words. Like she was a slightly different person, or more accurately, that her personality shifted, whenever she changed roles. She wasn't acting different... she simply was different, albeit for the most part in very subtle ways.
And then, after sundown and after Nita-sensei had leveled dire threats against anyone caught out of their rooms, Asakura had sprung the idea of a little game, and Zazie found herself carefully noting the new face Ranma had revealed. A maelstrom of swirling anger and disgust.
xxx
"No way in hell!" Ranma said, shooting down the idea with what was, to most of the class, unusually foul language from her.
"Keep it down! You'll get Demon Nita's attention!" Asakura shushed. "Anyway, the rules are simple. Every group will choose two representatives. All they have to do is sneak through the building without being caught by Nita-sensei or any of the other groups, and steal a kiss from Negi-sensei, who's somewhere in the building."
"Like I already said, I'm wholeheartedly and completely against this idea."
"You can sabotage the other teams, but the only legal weapons are pillows, and there are prizes for those who succeed in this game!" Asakura continued, wholeheartedly and completely ignoring and overriding Ranma's objections. "Further, if Nita-sensei catches you, you can't tell him about the game! You'll just have to suck it up and deal with the punishment."
"I've half a mind to track the man down right now and...." Ranma trailed to a halt as twenty five sets of eyes locked on to her and she belatedly realized just how not-fun things could become if she made enemies of, essentially, everyone else in the class in one go. "Tch. Fine. I won't carry tales to Nita, alright? I still don't like this game. You're forgetting that there are only three people in group six to begin with, and Sakurazaki's off taking a late bath or something."
"Let's hold a vote then." Asakura magnanimously offered. "All in favor?"
Aside from one or two other dissenters, who simply weren't keen on the idea of squatting in the lobby all night, the majority was clear.
"Hate you all..." Ranma grumbled balefully.
"The game starts at eleven. Be sure you all have your two representatives picked out by ten thirty, 'kay?"
Ranma spent all the time remaining to her in the effort of hunting down Sakurazaki, so that she could pair her up with Rainyday for this... travesty, was the only word that seemed to properly describe her feelings on the matter. And it wasn't that she didn't particularly like the girls either... she liked both of them well enough, for only being vague acquaintances for most of their time together, but in this situation it was really better for them to take the blow than her.
xxx
Of course, Sakurazaki was nowhere to be found. Either she was moving around the Inn enough, and at the right times, that Ranma had missed her wherever she went, or she had skipped out to check out Kyoto by late night. Either way, she now owed the girl a kidney-punch when she least expected it.
"All right, The War of Lips begins. The teams are, for group one, the Twins! Fuuka is going to go for it, while Fumika seems more worried about getting caught. For group two, Baka Rangers Yellow and Blue! Ku Fei and Kaede seem to be just going along for the ride, really. Group Three, Class Rep Ayaka and Chisame! Chisame doesn't look happy to be a representative, but our Class Rep sure looks excited. Group Four, Yuuna and Makie-chan are going for the gold, and it looks like they're the only team with both members focused entirely on claiming sensei's lips. Group Five, Yue and Nodoka, who apparently confessed to our Negi-sensei today! Yue just seems to be in this as backup for her fellow library club member. And Group Six, by default it seems, Zazie and the Ice Queen! Neither of which look too enthused about our little game, and Ranma seems really mad for some reason, but they're playing along, for the most part, even if they have no intention of winning."
In the 'Broadcast room', Kamo slowly toppled over, drawing a curious glance from Asakura as she wound down the announcement, trying to draw in every gambler she could.
"So... what's the problem?" She asked, after shutting off the mike.
Kamo, who'd appeared to have gone into an epileptic fit on the counter, quickly sprang back up.
"HER!" He declared, gesturing wildly at Ranma's picture. "Her, her, her.... W-why is she... How did... this is horrible! We have to call the whole thing off!"
"Hey, hey! Calm down. Now gimme the whole story, 'Kay?"
"It's... it's too long to tell in one go. That one... she hates aniki like you would not believe! If she's joined up with this, then I'm sure she's plotting something nasty... Aniki's in danger!"
"Ehehe... overreacting much? So I guess I should have given her the option to bow out, then...?"
"Wha-?"
Kamo carefully calmed himself, and got a brief explanation of what Asakura had done while he was not paying attention.
"Okay... in that case, it's not so bad, because that means she's not planned anything. But it's not good either, because now she's pissed. With luck, she won't try to take advantage of the situation..." Kamo mumbled to himself, Asakura shrugging off his complaints, not convinced that a classmate could really be the way the ermine was describing. On her computer, a little blip showed, indicating that someone was watching TV in Negi's room.
"Game Start!" She chirped happily into the mike.
xxx
"Man... what a drag." Ranma grumbled, hefting the pillows she'd been assigned. "Not interested in doing the face-sucking thing with males in general, much less the pint-sized magic teacher."
She ignored that she'd effectively blown Negi's secret as Zazie cocked her head because, really, she couldn't care less, and she hadn't really reacted to the magic-bomb being dropped on her earlier.
"So. Want to just hunt wander around and not really do anything, then?"
Zazie considered the plan and then shrugged. She wasn't particularly interested in the game either.
"Ah, nice. Hey Class Rep." Ranma said semi-cheerfully while at the same time blurring an arm into motion, launching one of those pillows over Zazie's shoulder. To her credit, she didn't flinch, instead turning her head to where Ayaka was standing behind her, pillow raised in one hand, and Ranma's bending her neck backwards from where it had impacted, before dropping with a soft 'whumph' to the ground.
"You know, if you wanna win, then a good strategy would be to target the other players who want to win... not the ones with no interest whatsoever." Ranma chided
"Duly noted." Ayaka grumbled.
In spite of that agreement, Ranma kept a careful eye on the Class Rep until she'd left the room, Hasegawa trailing behind dourly. Only then did she wander over to pick up the hurled pillow.
There were a couple more childish sneak attacks that Ranma deflected, and one close call with Nita, as they wandered aimlessly through the Inn, eventually finding themselves back where they'd started, only with the rest of the players already there, surrounding not just Negi, but apparently his three identical twins as well. Ranma twitched.
"Did... did I die and go to hell...?" She mumbled, mind blanking at the sight. If she stopped to think about it, it would become immediately obvious that magic, of some sort, was to blame, but the sight of the cloned mage was just so inherently wrong that...
Her vision cleared shortly afterwards, as they started getting kissed, and exploding. It was an oddly catarthic sight. One moment, the glaze-eyed punks were getting smooched, and then came the boom. Over and over, until the only one left was the one that Miyazaki had been tripped into kissing. He didn't explode.
Rather than the rational conclusion that this, then, was the real Negi, Ranma, still confused and disoriented from the last couple of minutes, decided that there had been an error with the kiss somehow, and picked up the equally dazed, and partially smoldering, Class rep and hurled her directly at the shrimp.
"Explode this time!" She barked, as Miyazaki pulled away, blushing, to be replaced by a much-faster approach from Ayaka. Liplock was made a second time, the Class rep snapping out of her daze to freeze up in paralysis for several long moments. Apparently, despite fawning over the younger teacher, she'd never seriously considered that she might actually get to this point, and so had made no.... no, Ranma's thought processes stood corrected. She'd reclaimed control of her faculties, and was now, or so it seemed, doing her best to choke him to death with her tongue.
Ranma heartily approved of that goal, if not the particular means chosen. Even so, she was feeling just a touch foolish, having begun to realize that Negi would probably not be exploding any time in the near future. Also, as he was carrying that funky stick, he was probably the real deal, which was a little conflicting. On the one hand, the Class rep was, like the entirety of the class actually, better than attractive and so getting a kiss from her would typically be considered a 'good thing' for the recipient, and she'd directly caused the little mage to strike lucky in that regard, which almost made her want to go dye her hair black and write depressing poetry. On the other hand, he was starting to turn blue, and his arms were gyrating wildly, which could only lead to her happiness.
Sadly, Ayaka came up for air, allowing Negi to take several deep gasps of breath.
"Oh well. Had to hope." Ranma grumbled, shrugging. "I'll just be content with the others then. Right now, I'm going to get to bed before Nita over there comes to."
Zazie considered the wise plan and quickly followed her when it was revealed that he was, in fact, starting to groan softly and stir.
xxx
Ranma left the next morning with a promise to partially obey the whims of authority by meeting up with 'the group', or rather, Zazie, since Setsuna was going to be off stalking the Konoemon girl again, at the Cinema Town theme park. It was a bit irritating, actually, that the other girl seemed to feel so obligated to keep her following the rules...
"Back in the slums, Master...?" Zero questioned from her perch on Ranma's shoulder.
"Yeah. That guy... he was right. No use crying over spilled milk, and if I had the chance to do it all over I'd only have you hurt that idiot more before he went, but all the same I can't afford an enemy like that running around. If he tracks me to the school? I'm pretty sure 'Excuse me, can I step out of class to go fight the thousand Yakuza gunmen outside to the death' isn't going to fly."
"If they attack the school, you have peewee and his partner, plus Eva and the newbie to fall back on, though." Zero pointed out pragmatically.
"Yeah. But honestly, getting them involved in mundane matters like this? I'd really rather get shot to pieces than ask for magic help, and Eva's useless most of the time."
"She's an aikido grandmaster." Zero stated flatly, simply relaying the information. Ranma blinked.
"What... seriously? Then why... I guess when the whole bridge thing went down she was too busy revelling in the ability to throw glaciers and solid darkness around to think about such normal techniques." she snarked.
"Could be. From one point of view, she's still ten, and has always been prone to showboating."
"Tch. Grandstanding with magic...great. Though if she really is any good with more physical arts, I might drop by her place for a while." Ranma mused, Zero's creepy grin widening at the unintended double entrende.
The cocking of automatic weapons around them brought the quiet conversation to a full halt.
"So... once escaping me, not even a full day passes before the battle scientist turns and runs deliberately and headlong into the jaws of death. Should I be pleased, or disappointed, I wonder?" The Yakuza boss mused lightly, a katana sheathed casually at his side, clashing greatly with his suit and the handgun he was carrying.
"Ah... I couldn't leave such a fun game for long, once begun!" Ranma shot back, Zero readying her knives. "I should have you know, I fight unarmed for a reason. It's much easier to cut someone until they bleed out, or use a force multiplier like a hammer, or even a big stick, and even a random six-year-old can shoot someone with a gun, yeah... but it's more fun to beat people with your bare fists. On top of that, I don't usually make a point of killing my enemies. It's much harder to just knock out a bunch of people than it is to kill them, and so I have more fun that way. You could call me something of an adrenaline junkie, I guess. Little Zero has no such restraints."
"I just like to see the beautiful spray of blood." The doll confirmed happily.
"Oh? How quaint. Self-imposed rules for your own amusement. If we're done with the self-aggrandizement and boasts, however, let's get down to business, I do have other plans today."
He snapped his fingers, and the battle began in earnest. Of course, this time it was swiftly revealed that Ranma held the advantage. She wasn't full on ki yet, of course, but was at a much higher level than she'd been the day before, she had slept reasonably well last night, minus the horrible kiss game idea anyway, hadn't gone through a serious battle the night before and so was pretty much at one hundred percent in every respect other than ki reserves, and , probably most importantly, she wasn't forced into a retreating battle due to the need to protect Zazie... although she still hadn't confirmed whether or not she could have taken care of herself the other day. She made a note of asking about the use and limitations of those shadow things eventually.
All told, the yaks were dropping like flies, and Zero was a little hard pressed to keep up the rate of battle. It was wonderful to the psychotic little horror, who was happily giggling as she cleaved limbs apart and otherwise cheerfully maimed the thugs in suits before finishing them off.
The Yakuza, a bit slow to catch on that just escalating their force wasn't going to be nearly enough, began showing up at the windows of the surrounding buildings again. One of them was very surprised when Ranma also appeared in their window, grinning widely as a fist rapidly seemed to grow far larger than it should have been able to.
Rather than run around the hallways of the buildings to flush out the rest of the interior criminals, Ranma made a point of smashing through walls, ceilings, and floors at every turn rather than ever using a door, tamping down the weird sense of Deja Vu and very much enjoying the element of surprise. Those mooks foolish enough to still be leaning out the window, trying to find out where she'd gone, tended to suddenly find themselves on an abrupt flight with a very sudden stop.
The distinctive thrumming of helicopter blades indicated that the Yaks had finally pulled out all the stops as she kicked down the door to the roof, greeted there by not one, but three identical choppers with mounted gatling guns. In a video game, she would be looking for a ridiculously convenient rocket launcher right now. Instead, she just threw the broken door at one of them. It almost evaded, but her improvised attack got caught up in the primary rotor, and apparently something went catastrophically wrong because the machine went into a tailspin, crashing down to the street below.
"Note to self." Ranma muttered, leaping to the next roof. "Cross 'destroy a helicopter with a door' off my to-do list."
The other two quickly moved to pursue, opening fire as she zipped from place to place with shundo before apparently hiding behind a wall. Needless to say, she wasn't there when they circled around.
"Where she... no!" The pilot yelled, as Ranma flickered into place not two feet away, fist already shooting forward to smash into the bulletproof glass, creating a spiderweb of cracks. He panicked, understandably, and began a series of random maneuvers in an attempt to shake her off. When she grinned and disappeared in a burst of speed, leaving him to realize that he was far too close to the other chopper, and moving far too fast, it was alread far too late.
"Two for one!" Ranma remarked at the pyrotechnics that ensued, then ducked the decapitating blow aimed at her from behind.
"Hey, hey now." She chided. "After all of that... you seriously think that having a sword is going to help you any in this fight?"
"Fool." He scoffed. "This is no simple sword. This is the cursed blade, Muramasa. With every life it cuts short, its powers grow. With it, I am invincible!" He roared, the blade beginning to ooze a sickly purple aura.
Ranma pragmatically kicked the damn thing out of his hands without another word said.
"Wh-what!?" He stuttered in disbelief, staring at his empty hands as the blade stuck into the rooftop nearby, followed up by a knee to the stomach to leave him gasping for breath.
"Moron." Ranma shot right back. "So it's a magic sword. So what? Unless it grants you the ability to use it, you're the same as any other dimwit swinging around a sharp bit of metal you've never touched before in your life."
"This... cannot be..." He croaked out, staggering away, then snatching up the sword again. "Muramasa! Give me power!" He roared, clutching feverishly at it.
"Look, I just said there's nothing doing, didn't I?" Ranma said, as the head Yakuza was once more spectacularly disappointed when nothing much happened.
"I... I see. Accursed blade." He spat. "Very well... Muramasa. In exchange for my victory against this impudent bitch... I offer my own soul!"
Another scornful comment from the peanut gallery was cut off short as, the magic words spoken, results were actually produced. The aura surrounding the blade billowed rapidly outwards, wrapping itself about the man's entire body as he screamed, black lightning crawling over his skin, coalescing at his eyes, clothes warping and twisting, the man's body reshaping itself to suit the sword's whim.
Ranma's mouth worked a couple of times before she grunted at the sight of the apparition.
"Okay, see, now your magic toy is starting to look like an actual threat." She admitted.
Without a word, the puppet of Muramasa's will settled into a perfect Kenjutsu stance.
xxx
A.N. Cliffhanger'd! Because I'm stuck on the epic Muramasa v Ranma fight scene. I have one way this could play out already worked out... but you would hate me so much if I actually went and did it.
It boils down to the two liner- 'I forfeit.' Muramasa collapses like a puppet with strings cut. 'Wait, seriously, it was that easy?'
May or may not actually finish it that way, but gotta work out a decent fight scene first. Also, yes, against normal peoples Ranma is Uber. I maintain that at this point any of the heavy hitters of Negima could take out a bunch of armed goons and a trio of attack helicopters, though. If they really wanted to. As you've probably noticed, though, Ranma tends to get the short end of the stick in magic fights. Expect that unfortunate trend to continue.
Ranma: Why do you hate me!?
I tend to hurt the characters I enjoy most. With spikes, glowy red hot stuff, and other instruments of Pain.
Final note, Actions Have Consequences. Ripple/Butterfly effect beginning. Need to look up Ayaka, see if she gets anything decent as a pactio card in that anime, if not then it's time for the good old Artistic License: Make Shit Up no Jutsu. I'm sure I'll figure something out.