Author's Notes: Well here is the latest chapter for The Secrets We Keep. I hope you all are still enjoying this story. I'll say again that what I'm doing here is my interpretation of the characters set forth in the original manga by Rumiko Takahashi. I'm not as familiar with the anime as I am with the manga so I'm basing my character models off of the manga. As far as legal stuff goes, I put this in just to be on the safe side, but I own nothing from Ranma 1/2 and I only have a very tenuous conceptual ownership of Ryoko. If for some reason you want to borrow Ryoko for work in another story that's just fine by me. Let me know and I'll read it. Now on with the show.
Chapter Six
The next morning found Nodoka, Genma, Ryoko, Ranma and Nabiki eating a cramped breakfast around Nodoka's rather small table. Breakfast was a quiet affair. Each individual was consumed with the questions running through their heads. Explanations had been promised for the morning, and for most those explanations could not come soon enough.
So it was a great relief when breakfast was finished and Nodoka cleared the table. Once the dishes were put in the sink Nodoka sat quietly down at the end of the table as she debated on where to begin in her explanations.
Just as Nodoka was about to begin the reunited family was rocked by an explosion from the other room.
As one they ran to where the explosion came from to see what had pieced the barrier spell Ryoko had put up. Rising up from the debris and the newly formed hole in the floor was none other than Ryoga Hibiki.
"Where the hell am I now?" Ryoga shouted
"I thought you set up a barrier all around the house." Ranma said
"I did!" Ryoko insisted "It went all the way to ground level. I never expected someone to come bursting up through the floor."
"Yeah, well you obviously haven`t met the idiots I`m used to dealing with."
Through the settling dust cloud Ryoga heard, and then saw, the target of his rage. All rational thought escaped him as images of violence danced through his head. "Ranma! Prepare to die!"
Nearby, Shampoo was watching with great interest as the barrier spell around the house fell. She was quite glad that somebody had broken the spell. Now she wouldn`t have to waste time trying to break through by herself. She didn`t know who broke the barrier spell until she heard the voice screaming "Prepare to die!" It was the pig-boy worked up about something. She didn`t hear who his target was, but she didn`t care. She took a moment to try to remember that guy`s name. He was always around her Airen, trying to fight him. What was his name? Ryuka? No. Ryota? No, that wasn`t it. Ryuma? No, but that felt close. Suddenly it came to her. Kuruma, of course, that was his name. She silently decided this was a stupid name and resolved to keep calling him pig-boy. Reaching for her chui and sword she jumped down from her hiding spot and headed for the modest house where her target resided.
Back inside the house, Ranma was trying to make sure the rest of his family was okay. Fortunately for him Genma was very good in a crisis. In everyday life Genma was lazy and generally worthless for anything except cheating in board games and insane training methods in martial arts. However, years of training under Happosai and his unorthodox methods drilled into Genma one special skill that he was very good at: running away. If there was one thing Genma knew how to do it was get the hell out of dodge. One his way out he took the liberty of taking the two most vulnerable people, Nodoka and Nabiki, with him. He reasoned that Ryoko could get out just fine by herself.
Unfortunately this was a rather faulty line of reasoning. As the inside of a house was rather cramped flying conditions, and the dust in the air as well as the noise was making it difficult to concentrate long enough to use a teleportation spell. Ryoko did manage to find her way to the front hall with the door waiting just a few feet away. However, when she was within a foot or so of the front the door, and a good portion of the wall surrounding it, exploded inwards. Ryoko was able to set up a simple magic shield to protect her from flying debris, but it didn't help to improve visibility any. She tried to move forward but found her way blocked by a colorfully painted chui.
"Shampoo want talk to you thief girl!" the Amazon girl spat
"Shampoo, funny meeting you here in Japan." Ryoko said nervously.
The way she said it, and her posture was oddly remiscent of somebody Shampoo noticed, but at the moment she didn`t really care to dwell on that thought.
"Shampoo must beat you. Earn big honor for tribe." So saying she lunged after Ryoko with her sword.
The winged girl was able to dodge Shampoo`s thrust and use the new hole in the front of the house to take to the sky.
"You no get away that easily." Shampoo shouted as she leapt after the flying.
Ranma took note of the fact that the last of his family members had fled the house. Though why Shampoo was after his new older sister he didn`t know, and didn`t have the luxury of asking. He didn`t think Shampoo even noticed him, but then he wasn`t exactly standing still waiting to be seen.
He was busy trying to keep Ryoga from destroying his mother`s house. He doubted very much that she would appreciate it being totaled twice in less than a year.
"Hey hold up! Hold on a minute, let`s take this outside!" Ranma tried to appeal to Ryoga`s logic with a plea to move the area of the fight.
Though logic was one thinking process that Ryoga seemed to lack as he kept up his attack on Ranma. Whether or not he realized it Ryoga was at an advantage fighting inside as he was mostly a ground fighter with short to medium range attacks, while fighting inside a house made it difficult for Ranma to make good use of his family style`s focus on mid-air combat. He also had to make sure that Ryoga's blows caused as little property damage as possible. As a result of this he found himself blocking more of Ryoga`s blows instead of outright dodging them, which caused him to take more damage and expend more energy than he normally would.
Ryoga himself seemed to be lost in a blind rage. Shouting "die" and "you will pay for what you`ve done" over and over again. He threw punches, kicks, elbow strikes, and an occasional headbutt Ranma`s way. Seeking to end the fight, Ranma dodged a headbutt and had just enough time to slam an elbow to the top of Ryoga`s exposed head. The blow seemed to knock some sense into Ryoga. He stopped his "die" mantra and fired a point blank shi shi hokodan at Ranma. Ranma had no time to dodge the attack and was forced to take the full impact of the ki blast. The force knocked him through a wall and into the kitchen. Smashing into a water source, namely the kitchen sink, Ranma was once again transformed into a girl.
"Blast it pig boy." Ranma growled "This is exactly what I didn`t want to happen."
Ryoga stayed where he was as the faucet was still spraying water, and getting wet and turning into P-Chan would bring a quick end to this fight. He took up stalking back forth just beyond the reach of the water. He taunted Ranma trying to goad him into leaving the reach of the water.
"C`mon Ranma. At least act like a man. Come and fight me."
Whether he would admit it or not, Ryoga's taunts about Ranma's manhood did have an affect on him. He quickly took stock of his situation. Between the hole in front that Shampoo had made, the hole in the inside wall courtesy of Ryoga, and the destroyed kitchen Ranma decided to throw caution to the wind and go all out.
"I`ve been wanting to try this out anyway." She muttered as she steadied herself. She launched a small ki blast at Ryoga who casually swatted it away.
At least he acted casual, but just the act of briefly touching the ki had nearly numbed his hand with the cold. The blast itself was weak and easy to take care of, but the numbing cold was something else. Ryoga wondered when Ranma had been able to use this level of cold with his ki, but these thoughts were interrupted as another ki blast hit him. No more powerful then the first one except that this one was burning hot. Struggling to adapt to the rapid temperature shift left Ryoga off-balance and vulnerable as more and more ki blasts peppered his body. First freezing cold than burning hot, back to cold and then back to hot. Ryoga struggled to stand up under the assault of at least a dozen small ki blasts and the rapid temperature shifts that accompanied each one . Finally Ranma made a twisting, thrusting motion with his hands and a horizontal whirlwind slammed into Ryoga like a freight train.
"Hiryu Shoten Ha Revised: Dragon`s Heavenly Charge" Ranma announced the name of her new attack to empty air as Ryoga had been knocked off his feet by the force of the blast.
He went flying out the other side of the house and was embedded in the nearest neighbor`s house. Said neighbor decided to use the insurance money he was sure to get to move to a quieter area of Tokyo. Perhaps Juuban, they only had the occasional youma attack instead of crazed martial arts battles.
Inside Nodoka`s now heavily damaged home Ranma paused for just a moment to catch her breath. The Dragon`s Heavenly Charge was definitely not the most energy efficient technique in her arsenal. Generating all that ki and the constantly shifting the temperature was rather tiring. She wanted to think that the technique had taken Ryoga down for the count, but she knew better. A hit like that wouldn`t stop her, so it wouldn`t stop Ryoga who had the resilience of a tank.
Ranma ran outside to intercept Ryoga and finish the fight. She was just barely outside when she dodged Ryoga`s umbrella that he had been thrown from somewhere nearby. Tracking the trajectory of the unusual projectile she spotted Ryoga some distance away. He was sporting some cuts and bruises but otherwise looked alright.
Ranma swore as she dodged another shi shi hokodan and a huge barrage of boomerang bandannas. The area covered by the attack was quite large, but the shi shi hokodan was the most dangerous attack. Ranma was able to avoid it, but this left her open to the ki-hardened bandannas.
Using amaguriken spped she was able to collect a number of bandannas, but the sheer volume of the attack was enough to get a few past Ranma`s defenses. She winced as several of the bandannas cut into her, but the wounds were not deep. She returned fire with the bandannas she had caught before, but Ryoga merely leapt over them. He closed in for a high axe kick, but Ranma rolled underneath the attack and behind Ryoga to deliver an amaguriken to his exposed back.
Ryoga went down from the attack, but he turned it into a roll and used the momentum to quickly turn the tables on Ranma. He struck a single finger from each of his hands into the ground to send a double breaking point attack to Ranma. She managed to jump over most the shrapnel, effectively putting some distance between herself and Ryoga. At the height of her jump she felt something wrap around her ankle and looked down to discover that Ryoga had taken a page from Kodachi's book of tricks.
He had taken off more of his bandannas (how many of those did he have anyway?) and quickly tied them together to create a makeshift whip. He pulled on his end of the whip to bring Ranma towards him. Ranma turned the momentum into a flying kick, but Ryoga stood his ground. What came next was completely unexpected.
Ryoga smiled a vicious smile and said "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken."
Ranma swore again as she was forced to use her feet to block Ryoga`s amaguriken punch. She hadn`t expected him to learn the kachu tenshin amaguriken, but he had apparently taught himself. At least it was slower than her own version of the attack, and she could block it with some quick footwork.
Ranma used the last of Ryoga`s amaguriken punches to vault into a backflip which gained some distance and took the end of the bandanna whip away from Ryoga`s reach. He charged at her ready to launch into a another amaguriken volley, but Ranma was faster. Making use of the bandanna whip still tied around her ankle she wrapped it around Ryoga`s hands and arms to seal their movement. With Ryoga`s arms tied up Ranma was able to quickly apply the same treatment to the rest of Ryoga. She left his head uncovered, but finished wrapping Ryoga with a nice big yellow bow with black spots. Ranma applied a steady stream of ki to keep the bandannas in their hardened state so Ryoga couldn`t break free.
"So" Ranma started in a conversational tone "Not that it really matters to me, but why do want to kill me this time?"
"You-You fiend! You dare ask me that? After all you`ve done you dare ask me WHY?" Ryoga raged
"Yeah, I dare a lot like that. Now are you going to tell me or what?"
Hours ago
"Kill him. He`s of no use to me."
Ryoga smiled a feral smile "Gladly."
He turned to walk away, only to turn around a moment later with a look of confusion on his face. "Wait. Why do you want Ranma dead?"
Ken Kanzuki opened a drawer at his desk and fished out a picture. It was the same photo that Nabiki had taken of Karin desperately trying to get her bra back.
"This is my daughter. Ranma Saotome, and the girl called Nabiki, are to blame for this grave humiliation that was visited on her. They attacked her without provocation. She just barely managed to escape their clutches before they could do worse."
Ryoga could feel his rage building as he looked at the picture. Ranma and Nabiki were going to pay. But a sudden thought hit him.
"Nabiki? Akane Tendo`s sister Nabiki?" Ryoga asked
Ken Kanzuki just nodded.
"You`re not going to hurt her are you?"
"Of course not." Ken Kanzuki said with a shake of his head "I merely want her to sincerely apologize to my daughter."
"All right then." Ryoga said "I`ll bring Nabiki Tendo to you. Along with Ranma Saotome`s broken body."
"It needn`t be in one piece." Ken Kanzuki said
"Even better." Ryoga said as the feral smile returned to his face.
Present time
As Ryoga came back from his memory he could feel knuckles rapping against his head and he heard Ranma`s voice.
"Hey! Anybody home?"
Coming back to reality he found Ranma's face inches from his own while her knuckles knocked on his head like one might to check the alertness of the receiver.
"Would you stop that?" Ryoga snarled and snapped at Ranma as she kept knocking on his head.
"You`ve been spaced out for like five minutes. It`s kinda creepy." Ranma said "You ready to tell me now why you wanna kill me this time?"
"Die Ranma!" Ryoga snapped and literally tried to bite Ranma`s hand as he withdrew it from knocking on Ryoga`s skull.
"Yeah, you`re useless. Say g`night P-Chan" Ranma casually slammed Ryoga`s head into her knee to knock him out.
With Ryoga out for a while. Ranma took the liberty of digging through his pack for a thermos of hot water he carried around for emergency P-Chan situations. Hearing a female cry of pain Ranma was reminded of Shampoo`s earlier appearance and the fact that she was currently fighting with his new found older sister. Quickly using the hot water she found to transform back into his birth form Ranma sought out Shampoo and Ryoko.
He found them a short distance away. Shampoo was standing over Ryoko who was obviously in pain. Shampoo had gotten in a good shot with her chui to one of Ryoko`s wings. Hence the cry of pain and why Ryoko was on the ground instead of in the air.
"You give up Amazon treasure now thief girl?" Shampoo asked
[I can`t. You don`t realize how dangerous it is.] Ryoko answered in Mandarin.
This only seemed to make Shampoo angrier. [You will not sully my language with your lying tongue thief!] She moved to strike Ryoko with her chui.
"Shampoo stop!" Ranma yelled as he intercepted her strike. With a quick touch to Shampoo`s chui and sword Ranma triggered their respective breaking points rendering them both useless.
"Airen?" Shampoo asked "Why Airen help thief girl? And how he know breaking point technique?"
"Ryoga`s used that one on me enough that I figured it out months ago." Ranma said brushing off the question. "Now I don`t know what this is about a "thief girl" but I won`t let you hurt my sister." Over his shoulder Ranma looked at Ryoko. "You all right?"
"Yeah" Ryoko replied with a wince "My wing`s broken, but I just need a little time to heal it."
Looking from Ranma to Ryoko and back again Shampoo finally saw the family resemblance.
"Airen has sister? And is thief girl?"
"Why do you call her a thief?" Ranma asked.
"Perhaps I can explain that Son-in-Law."
Everyone was quite surprised to hear Cologne`s voice as she had managed to arrive completely undetected by anyone. Turning to Shampoo she spoke quickly in Mandarin. [Grandaughter I remember expressly forbidding you from pursuing this path. Your actions here will have serious consequences.] Switching to Japanese Cologne looked at the woman who was just arriving at the scene. "Hello Nodoka. It would seem we have a lot to talk about."
Nodoka took in the scene around her and then looked at the Amazon elder. "It would seem we do old friend."
End Notes: This was my first time trying to write a big battle scene and I hope it came off well. I would really like to know what you readers have to say so if you can spare a couple minutes hit the review button in the corner of this fic and write some thoughts down.
Libri Ignis: I mean no offense at what I'm about to say, and I hope you don't take offense either, but it made me extremely happy to know that I tricked you into thinking that Nodoka was Shampoo's target. That means my job as an author and my intentional misdirection off of the real target was a success. Thanks a lot for the review.
Special Thanks to Richard Riley. He and I have been communicating back forth for a little while. We don't quite see eye to eye on a few things, but the points he brings up make me really think about why I have my characters do the things they do and if it really fits their established personalities.
Until next time people.
Mysterious One D