Zero Interface Chapter 6: The Dirt Down and Dirty, a Ranma + Familiar of Zero Crossover fanfic

Zero Interface
Chapter Six
The Dirt (Down and Dirty)

"Okay, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing."

The Vallière girl did as instructed, sitting in one of the chairs in the inn. Her hands were folding in her lap, and she tried to relax as much as possible. Ranma sat across from her in another chair, while Kirche laid on her stomach, head propped up on her elbows, as she watched the meditation scene play out.

"Breathe in… hold… 1, 2, 3, 4… breathe out… hold… 1, 2, 3, 4…"

Louise complied, following the lesson to her utmost ability.

"Do you think it'll really work?" Kirche spoke from her place, her face a mask of boredom.

"Yeah, don't see why it wouldn't," Ranma replied, not taking his eyes off Louise. "Good… good… keep focusing on your breath… All those thoughts and feelings running around in your head, let them melt off. Just let them all go on their own."

"Mmm…" She rolled over onto her back, eyes up at the ceiling. "It'll be troublesome if she's always aware of what you're feeling."

He nodded absently. "Yeah… really, it would be."

She realized something a moment later. "Hey, you didn't really tell me about yourself."

He looked up at her. "Nothing special, really. Trained a lot, moved around…" His face darkened a bit. "Got cursed." Then it lightened. "Nothing interesting."

"Aw, come on…"

"No, really, it's rather… dull."

Not that Kirche really believed such a thing. However, before she could dig further, a light snore grabbed their attention. "Is she…?"

Ranma frowned, poked Louise. She didn't react.

"She fell asleep?"

"Looks like it," Ranma said.

"That was quick."

"I'm pretty certain that shouldn't have happened. Not unless she was really worn out or something."

"Given how… intense she was earlier, that might be the answer."

Ranma thought about that for a moment before he reluctantly nodded. "A real load off her mind, then, though I don't really get why she's getting my feelings piped into her head."

"An enigma, to be certain," Derflinger spoke from his resting place beside the bed Kirche was laying on.

The martial artist looked over at the sword. "You know something about this?"

"A couple of things come to mind. The girl that kissed you and your lovely companion, are you her familiar?"

Ranma scowled at that. "She summoned me, if that's what you're talking about. I'm not a familiar, though."

"However, you are marked with the Familiar Runes."

Ranma's face scrunched in annoyance. "Maybe…"

"Stubborn, aren't you, Partner?"

He waved a dismissive hand. "Look, I only stayed to help her out. Once she learns Void magic, I'll have completed my job and =POOF= get sent back home so Louise can get a real familiar, right? I mean, how hard would it be?"

Kirche blinked. If Derflinger had visible eyes, they would have blinked, too.

"Darling…"

"Mm?"

Kirche looked at the rusty blade, then at Ranma. "The Springtime Summoning Ritual… it doesn't work like that."

"What do you mean?"

"The only way Louise could get another familiar is if…" Kirche looked away after moment of indecision.

"…if what?"

Derflinger filled in. "If you, the current familiar, dies, Partner."

Ranma looked at the sword blankly.

"It's a full-time job once summoned, the retirement plan being rather permanent."

The air hummed in silence.

Kirche looked the pigtailed martial artist with concern. "Darl—"

He fell over from his seated position, twitching.

"Looks like he took that well," Derflinger commented mildly.

"TV, how could you have lied to me?" Ranma muttered, still slightly stunned from the revelation of his current situation as he prepared to carry the still-sleeping Louise on his back.

"I don't know who this TV is," Derflinger spoke from his position on Ranma's hip. "But I'd recommend never listening to them again. They don't sound very trustworthy in matters like these."

Ranma groaned as he picked up the unconscious girl.

"Cheer up, darling. I'm certain there must be another way to get you home."

"Not that," he commented, setting Louise back down on the chair. "Is Louise wearing something underneath her skirt?"

Kirche blinked. "I… don't think she is." She took a quick peek. "Huh. She really is a child down there as well."

Ranma palmed his face. When it rains…

"Ah! Miss Kirche! Have you come up with a new plan for my business?"

Kirche waved off the nervous-looking lanky former clothes store owner's question. "Reneau, I need a pair of panties for a small girl."

Ranma looked at the bleached white undergarments Kirche held up.

"Those look like men's underwear."

"Reneau doesn't carry anything even remotely sexy for women. As co-owners of his store, we must change that. It's a wonder how on earth his business survived as long as it did."

He shrugged. Might as well do something since he was marooned on a strange world like Halkeginia.

"Well, let's get her all pantied up so we can go."

"What do you mean you can't find Louise's saddle?"

Ranma sighed as a stable boy tried explaining it to an annoyed-looking Kirche. "W-well, the stable head took it to be cleaned… and well, we haven't seen him since earlier this afternoon."

An older, gruff man with a thick mustache and squinty eyes came out. "Ah, is that the noble lass looking for a missing saddle?"

"Y-yes, sir," the nervous stable hand spoke quickly.

The mustached man waved him off, and hurridly he ran off.

"Is De La Croix still in charge of Academy's stables?"

Kirche made a small shrug. "I suppose."

"Then tell him this if he should ask about the missing saddle: 'Percival's cleaning it.'"

"Percival's cleaning it?"

The man grimaced. "He'll understand when you tell him. In fact, don't worry about the horse in the meanwhile. We'll care for it here till tomorrow."

Kirche looked at the man slightly wary. "Fine then, is there another horse for us to use?"

"I'm sorry to say we have not a spare one at the moment." He bowed his head. "My most humble apologies, noble lass. We won't have another one prepared till later tonight."

"Isn't that great?" Kirche muttered, her features crossed.

Ranma walked up beside the redhead. "Eh, don't worry about it. I can go on foot, no problem."

She looked at him. "Ranma, it's three hours on horseback. On foot, it'll take considerably longer."

He smiled. "I'll be fine. You take a Louise and go on ahead."

"You don't even know where the Academy is."

"…thattaway." He pointed in a direction.

"As much as I'd like to take you that way, you're point towards Germania," she said, bemusedly.

He sweated slightly. "Oh... Well, guess I better keep up with you then…"

"But you'll still be traveling on foot."

Ranma grinned, folding his arms across his chest. "I can swim all the way to China from Japan. I doubt a little walk is going to be any worse."

She gave him a sidelong look. "Monsters and robbers do roam the forest at night, you know. It's simply too dangerous for one person to deal with such things, even if it's you, darling."

Ranma's eyes lit up. "Really, now?"

And thus began Kirche's education of what not to say to Ranma when you don't want him to do something.

The twin moons shone light upon the trio as they continued to make their way towards Tristain's Academy of Magic. Kirche had taken hold of the reins of the Academy horse, with Louise snoring lightly at her back. Ranma traveled beside the horse on foot.

"You know, you could go a bit faster than this," Ranma said, his hands folded behind his head.

"I don't wish for you to end up lost," she replied.

"And I told you, I can keep up just fine."

Kirche shook her head. Though she didn't want to think about it, what if he couldn't? Sure, Ranma stole her heart when he obliterated Guiche's bronze golems, but…

"If I go any faster, Louise might fall off."

"Oh, yeah…" He looked up at her. "Man, she's still asleep? How exhausted could she be?"

"I don't really know. You'd think she burned herself out of magic."

"What? You mean you can't keep casting spells all day?" he asked perplexed.

Kirche shook her head. "Of course not. Magic is fueled by a mage's willpower. Every spell a mage casts uses a certain amount of willpower. When that amount is exhausted, the mage can no longer cast spells and would have to rest to recover the lost willpower."

His brows knitted together. "Huh. That's kind of interesting. How do you get more willpower, then?"

She smiled. "Simple: learn another element. Every time you do, your willpower doubles. You can perform stronger magic, although such magic will cost more willpower to use, naturally. However, you could still perform the same dot class magic as a Square-class mage for the same amount of willpower as when you were still just a dot mage."

"So everything's a set price, then, so to speak."

"So to speak."

"Wow," Ranma looked skyward. "Sort of like in the video games, I see."

"Video games?"

He straightened up a bit. "Um, it's sort of complicated to explain."

"I see. Perhaps you can show me these 'video games' someday." Ranma looked over at the mage to see her smiling at him. The way light was cast upon her…

"Mmm… so pretty…"

Kirche squeaked, finding Louise's hands touching her body. Ranma blinked.

"Isn't she asleep?" he asked.

Kirche captured one of Louise hands and tucked it away. The other one, she controlled with her own hand. "Would she still be receptive to any… desires you might have?" she spoke, giving him a knowing look.

"Hey, I hadn't thought of anything like that," he hissed, slightly annoyed with the insinuation. "And, I wouldn't know, anyway. I would've thought she'd've like burned it out or something."

"It'll be troubling if she can't get that part of her under control," Kirche said with a sigh. "I would hate for her to turn into a perverted old man."

Ranma nodded, though he couldn't explain why he had a chill run down his spine at the words "perverted old man."

"Well, let's hope she can push that kind of stuff out of her head once I finish teaching her how to meditate."

"You know," Derflinger spoke from his place on Ranma's back. "Perhaps it's not such a bad exchange. Not all mages need to rest to restore their willpower."

Ranma glanced over his shoulder. "Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Well, I seem to recall one mage that developed an interesting way of restoring his willpower quickly."

"And, just how did he accomplish that?" Kirche asked, a bit intrigued.

"Grope his familiar's butt."

The quiet forest became unnaturally loud in its silence.

Ranma coughed into his fist. "So… preventing Louise from becoming a—"

"Please do," Kirche ordered before Ranma could finish his thought, the thoughts of her stroking Flame's hindquarters while shouting weird phrases leaving her with a decidedly queasy feeling.

"What?" Derflinger asked in puzzlement.

Ranma sighed as the Academy came into view and closing in. They were a hundred yards away from the front gates. "Well, that was kind of uneventful."

"Doubtless Louise would have awoken even if something did happen," Kirche pointed out.

Sure enough, Louise had managed to sleep just as soundly for another four hours on horseback.

She shook her head. "I can imagine her sleeping through a war."

Ranma checked on her. "Huh… I wonder if she slept at all last night."

The comment was answered by a heavy vibration through the ground. The horse reared in fright, and it was all Kirche could do to not let Louise or herself fall off the startled mare.

"What was that!" she cried out.

"I don't know! I don't live here!" Ranma shot back, checking his footing, as another tremor shook the earth beneath. Followed by another and another.

"Hey, take it easy!" Kirche frantically tried soothing the rented ride. "We're still on you, here!"

Ranma whipped his head in an attempt to survey the grounds. There was a thunderous pounding within the confines of the school walls.

"It's coming from the Academy?" he said, dumbfounded. "What kind of magic are they doing down there?"

"Magic? Kyaa!"

The moment Kirche took a little of her focus off of controlling the panicking mare, it bucked her and Louise off. Both girls tumbled into the grass, while the rental horse ran off into the woods.

Kirche let off a curse at the retreating equestrian ride, while Louise sat up oblivious, grass and dirt in her hair and on her clothes. Here eyes were still slanted with sleep.

"What going on?" she asked, yawning.

Ranma helped her and Kirche up. "Earthquake would my best guess."

"Except earthquakes don't attack castle walls directly," Derflinger commented.

"What?" The three teens turned their eyes upon the talking sword.

"Look ahead and to your right."

They could just see the dark shape of a fist gleaming in the moonlight as it reared back and struck forward, creating another banging sound.

"What the hell is that?" Ranma asked, eyes locked on the moving fist.

Derflinger rattled a bit in its sheathe. "Off hand, I would say it's a golem. A rather large one."

Fouquet the Crumbling Earth tsked, noticing how slow punching a hole through the wall was going. At this rate, it would take her all night to break through, and she didn't have that kind of time on her hands. Someone was bound to notice a thirty-five foot golem whacking away at the central tower.

Maybe she needed to double her forces, instead. It'd be taxing, to be certain, but if it got the job done any faster…

A surge of heat slammed into her golem's back, rocking it forward, but causing negligible damage.

"Stop right there!" a shrill, high-pitched voice shouted from the ground below.

Fouquet finally turned to face her disruption.

Or, rather three disruptions.

Academy students… or at least they used to be Academy students, she thought, as she instructed the ironized golem to squish them like bugs.

"Well that didn't work," Kirche deadpanned, seeing her fireball knock out a small chunk of metal from the earth-made colossus. "I think now would be a good time for running."

"That looks a hell of a lot more impressive than that kid's golems," Ranma whistled.

"What is wrong with you?" Louise snapped at the pigtailed martial artist.

"Hmm? What?"

"You… you… you're enjoying this aren't you!"

He blinked. "N… n-no! I'm just…"

"Run!" Kirche dove for what little cover she could find as the golem attempted to step on them.

Ranma snatched up Louise and went flying opposite from Kirche just before the foot stomped on the ground. The shockwaves blew them back more.

"Okay, so how on earth do we stop something that big?" he asked, looking up and the enormous behemoth.

Louise glared at him. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

At that, he kind of shrugged. "Well, it beats boring."

She palmed her face with both hands. "What kind of familiar have I gotten myself…"

He started to open his mouth, but closed it. It just annoyed him that he had it all wrong, the terms of his return – there weren't any.

Louise shook her head. "All right. Let's try magic."

Ranma examined her, surprised. "You discovered something while you slept?"

"Not at all."

His face fell.

"But I'll be damned if I don't try something to stop this wretched vandal."

With mouth set, Louise began chanting the strongest spell she could think of.

"That's not going to work," Derflinger spoke. "She has yet to awaken it within herself."

"Well, I was working on that before somebody shot my hopes down," Ranma spat, glaring at the sentient blade. "And how do you know so much about Void?"

"I once knew Founder Brimir."

Ranma blinked. "You what?"

"Fireball!" Louise cried out, thrusting her wand at the golem.

Nothing happened.

Then the wall behind the golem exploded, revealing a gaping hole in the tower. Someone leapt in through the opening.

Louise reddened, her mouth unable to close itself. "Oops…"

Ranma sighed. "I suppose we should work on her aiming or something."

"Well," Derflinger began. "If you can somehow subdue the mage controlling the golem, the golem itself will be no problem. Unfortunately, no one presently here has wings."

Ranma glanced over his shoulder. "No…" He grinned. "But I got something just as good."

Fouquet had no idea what kind of spell that pink-haired girl used, and she was not one to try and figure things out if it works to her benefit. Though she kind of feared what would have happened had that spell hit her instead. The Academy walls were highly reinforced to withstand any magical attack, and held up quite well against blunt force trauma.

A missed spell that could defeat that kind of reinforcing… she didn't want to think too much about it anymore.

Instead, she quickly hopped into the sealed treasury room and grabbed the item that she came for, and was startled by how incredibly light it was.

Just what was the Staff of Destruction made from?

Tossing aside her wonderment, Fouquet quickly burned her message into the vault's wall. Lightly, she hopped back out onto the golem.

"All right, now to escape," she spoke under her breath, a victorious smile on her lips.

"Well, it's kind of rude to leave without introducing yourself," a voice cheerfully spoke from beside her. Her eyes widened in fright.

How did someone sneak up on her?

=PUNT=

And why was the ground coming up so fast?

She plowed into softened earth, a hastily muttered spell having saved her from some very troubling broken limbs. However, she had no idea what happened, or where she was.

Or what happened to the Staff of Destruction! Shit! A quick glance back showed her golem was several yards away now.

The box containing the legendary staff was nowhere to be seen.

Oh, this was bad! She had no idea what happened and she needed to get out now before someone—

A wand was jabbed right before her face. On the other end of said wand was one pink-haired Academy student. The very same one that punched a hole through a Square-class reinforced wall.

Fouquet gulped. Images of what happened to the wall happening to her were now passing through her mind.

"I'll be taking that off your hands," another voice singsonged, relieving the infamous thief of her wand. The owner of the voice came into view, revealing a busty, tanned redhead Academy student. Somewhere behind her, she could hear her creation crumble into a huge mound of earth.

The great Fouquet the Crumbling Earth… caught… by children…

She buried her face in the soft earth in shame.

"Man, I think whatever's in this box is broken."

Her head shot back up unnerved. "You broke it!" she squeaked.

Two wands were thrust into her face, making the thief flinch.

An annoyed-looking young man with a braid – most assuredly not an Academy student – snapped back."I didn't break anything! You threw it up and it hit off the broken wall!"

She blinked, her lower lip trembling.

The great Fouquet the Crumbling Earth… Caught… by children… and a commoner…

She buried her face in the soft earth in shame.

"Simply astonishing, Partner!" Derflinger cried out as Ranma fiddled with the slender wooden crate in his hands. "I never once seen someone actuallyjump as high as you, not to mention run up on the side of a building without the use of magic! Astounding!"

"Eh, it's nothing really," Ranma chuckled before returning his attention to the strange parcel in hand. "What is this, anyway?" Ranma wondered aloud as he pried off the loosened lid.

He blinked as he looked inside. "This…"

"The Staff of Destruction, you ingrate…" the golem's controller growled out. "How could you break it!"

"This?" Ranma pulled out a long cylindrical device. His left hand started to glow, making his scrunch his face up even moreso in puzzlement.

Kirche took a glance in Ranma's direction. "That's definitely the Staff of Destruction. I saw it once during my tour of the treasury vault."

The pigtailed martial artist started flipping open levers, extending the body of tube and other things.

"Darling, what are you doing?"

"Just… what's in my head." He finalized the last click and placed the Staff of Destruction on his shoulder. He pointed it towards the sky, aiming at one of the two moons overhead.

"Darling?"

"That's just… weird as hell." Within seconds, Ranma had snapped closed everything he had opened up and returned the tube back into the crate. He tapped the nails back into place with his index before shaking his head.

"That's just impossible… totally impossible."

"What is, Ranma?" Louise asked, a worried look on her face.

"That thing you call the 'Staff of Destruction?' It's really called an M72 LAW; it's from my world."

He grinned excitedly. "And I have no idea how it got here."

"Well, this is a rather… unfortunate turn of events…" Osmond stroked his beard sadly as he watched the town guards escort Miss Longueville (aka Fouquet the Crumbling Earth) from the Academy grounds at mid-morning, cuffed in magic-resistant chains. Her wand was also secured.

He really wished he could stroke her bottom once more; it was rather appealing to his hand, after all. Of course, her lack of objection the first time he did so – he met her when she was working as a waitress in a tavern he would frequent – coupled with her honeyed words of praise about his appearance and physique… Well, in hindsight, he supposed she was… misleading him a bit, with her aim of stealing the Staff of Destruction being paramount in her mind.

Beautiful women were deadly mages…

Nodding to himself, he turned his attention from the Far-Seeing Mirror to the three people in his office. Louise Vallière, Kirche von Zerbst, and… that commoner Louise summoned… what was his name again? Something strange… started with an R…

Rhonda…

Ramen…

Rambo...

Osmond shook his head. He'll figure it out.

"An excellent job well done, everyone! Thanks to you, a dangerous criminal has been apprehended, and the Staff of Destruction has been protected."

The old man, whom Ranma learned was Headmaster Osmond, touched both Louise and Kirche upon their heads. "I've already sent a request to the palace that you two shall be awarded the title 'Chevalier.' We should be hearing from them soon enough."

While Ranma didn't know what a "chevalier" was, it seemed like a big deal, as both Louise and Kirche looked expressly happy about getting the title.

Then Louise paused, as she realized something. "Ranma… won't get anything?" Louise asked. Kirche glanced back at him with a slightly concerned look on her face.

"Eh, it's no big deal," Ranma spoke up, eyes cut to the ceiling. While he figured he wouldn't get much respect since he was stuck being tied to Louise as a familiar, it would have been a little bit of a nice surprise to be rewarded like he meant something in the grand scheme of things in Halkeginia. Ungrateful bastards…

Osmond cleared his throat. "Yes, it's a rather unfortunate situation; otherwise, he, too, would be properly rewarded."

"Anyway," Ranma cut into the conversation – he didn't want to have that hanging over him. "The Staff of Destruction, where'd you get it from?"

Osmond blinked at this change of conversation. "Oh?"

"You see, I'm not from this world, and neither is the Staff of Destruction. We both come from the same place in another world. So, how on earth did you end up with this?"

Osmond stroked his beard thoughtfully. A look at, first, Louise, then Kirche.

"Very well, I shall tell you three about the Staff of Destruction, and the tale of my savior." He cleared his throat.

"Thirty years ago, I was strolling through the forest, when I was attacked by a two-headed dragon. I fought it off to no avail. Just as the dragon was about to eat me, my savior appeared, carrying two Staffs of Destruction. He used one and slew the dragon with one fell blast of its magic before he collapsed to the ground. When I approached him, I could see that he had suffered terrible injuries. I hastened to bring him to the Academy and treat his wounds, but they were too great for magic to fix."

"So, he died…" Ranma said slowly.

Osmond nodded his head sadly. Louise hung her head a little, while Kirche looked off to her right, subdued.

"I had buried the Staff of Destruction he used to save my life alongside of him in his grave. The other one, I gave it the name 'Staff of Destruction' and put it into the Academy's vault in order to honor his memory."

The headmaster looked out the window of his office. "The days up until his final moments, he kept asking me 'Where is this place?' 'I want to go back to my world.' Having never heard of other worlds, I had no idea how to help him."

Ranma studied the headmaster acutely. "Did he say how he got here? Who summoned him? Friends?"

"Nothing of the like," Osmond replied. "Even now, I still have no idea how he showed up."

The pigtailed boy nodded, his eyes closed in deep thought. "So, I'm not the only one, then…"

"Darling," Kirche began, clasping her hand around his wrist.

Ranma blinked, jarred out of his thoughts. He turned to Osmond. "Did you find any others like that guy? People that didn't know where they were, how they got here."

Osmond shook his head. "Even though Tristain is a small nation, there are still numerous people. I kept an ear open in the case I stumbled across someone like my savior, but, until you arrived, it was but an empty hope."

"Huh…"

"There's something I'd like to talk about, pertaining to the Runes on your left hand."

Ranma held up his let hand. "These Runes?"

Osmond nodded.

"They're called, Gandalfr. Lets me be able to master any and all weapons, no matter what my level of familiarity is with it."

Osmond blinked, and suddenly felt a shiver go down his spine.

Ranma shrugged. "Or at least, that's what Derf told me when I asked him about it after catching that Fouquet girl."

The headmaster made a face. "Derf?"

"That would be me, kid," Derflinger said in response. "And you will address me as Lord Derflinger."

Ranma palmed his face as Osmond twitched.

Louise and Kirche looked at each other. "Sentient sword," they said to the headmaster simultaneously.

"I… see…" Though the look on his face said anything but that. "So, you know about the Runes, then."

"Well, yeah. Kinda explained the music in my head every time I get ready to fight, or swing a sword."

"Music?" Derflinger echoed.

"Yeah, some kind of weird song or something. I never really could tell what it is or if there's words involved but…. It feels pretty much like something you'd listen to in the heat of a battle."

"…hmm. You're a rather strange one, Partner. Perhaps it has something to do with that 'curse' of yours."

"Curse?" Osmond asked, a growing sense of uneasiness on his face. "What kind of curse?"

Ranma turned around as he realized something. "Hey, since you can't have the palace make me a chevalier or something, how about you do something for me, sort of like a 'Thank You' for catching that thief last night."

"Well, I'll be glad to help you in any way I can, as a sign of my appreciation."

Ranma grinned. "Great. You see, I got this curse, here…"

"You know you've really traumatized a teacher, if their first reaction upon seeing two of you is to either faint, or run away screaming," Kirche grinned as the small group quickly left Osmond's office.

Louise scowled. "Shut. Up."

Ranma toweled his head off after Kirche restored his masculinity. "Well, at least he told us a couple of interesting things before he asked to see the curse in action." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ragdorian Lake, huh? That's where a water spirit lives."

"Well, that was his best guess, seeing that you have a curse that's borne of water. But that can wait for tomorrow. Tonight's the Ball of Frigg! Let's celebrate our good fortune by dancing the night away!" She spun around, laughing.

Ranma couldn't help but smile at her antics. It was just like her to be so childish at times. Though that also made her pretty cute, too.

She paused in mid-twirl, her eyes set upon Ranma. "Oh, that right, before I forget…" She hopped over to him, stole a kiss off his lips, then grinned at a blinking, horrified Louise. "Kissed him last."

She stuck her tongue out and grinned even wider. "With tongue."

"K-K-K-Zerbst! Stand still so I can blow you up!"

Kirche, however, was already running down the hallway. "Not in a million years, Vallière!"

"KIRCHE!"

Ranma covered his mouth with one hand while desperately trying to repress his own thoughts and feelings. He so didn't want to go through this again.

"Ranma," Louise turned upon him when Kirche had already vanished. "I demand that you kiss me and undo that woman's work!"

His eyes bugged out. "Are you out of your mind! I'm not getting into a kissing contest with you, too!"

"Set it right! Set it back to just me!"

Ranma ran. Louise gave chase.

"Ranma! Get back here and kiss me!"

"No way, you crazy chick!"

"I command you to kiss me now!"

"No!"

=BOOM= "Kiss me!"

"Partner, you are a-mazing! I've never seen a Master demand her familiar to take her lips so forcefully before!"

Forget the Ball; just get him a horse and directions to Ragdorian Lake. The sooner this curse was cured, the better!