Disclaimer: Ranma ½ was created by Rumiko Takahashi. I had nothing to do with it. Please do not sue me for I don't write frequently enough to matter.
"Mom's dead. I just found out a few days ago. She was murdered. Not in a fight even; she was poisoned! I…don't know exactly who did it but witnesses told me it was an amazon named "Lotion." What's considered an amazon in China anyway? A woman warrior? A female assassin? Right now all the information I have about them is that they're a group of women strong in the martial arts. Whatever. Mom deserved better than that. She deserved better than to be poisoned by a coward!"
-Brief passage form the journal of Ranma Saotome
The Story Thus Far: Ranma Saotome trained not only with his father for the ten year training voyage but also his mother Nodoka, a kendo master, and Ryoga Hibiki. As a result he became much more adjusted, intelligent and skillful than he would have he been alone with Genma. This "new" Ranma is smart, clever and almost perfect in everything he does. However despite this, or rather because of this, he has made some powerful enemies including Emily Tisdale, a werewolf in love with Ryoga, and Pantyhose Taro, a cursed martial artist with a grudge against him.
Now he is engaged to Akane Tendo and has befriended her sisters Kasumi and Nabiki. But it doesn't take long before his past catches up with him. Amazons and bounty hunters are after him for reasons unclear even to Ranma. And then there's this "Demon of Joketsuzoku" business…
Last Chapter: Ranma related some of his past experiences to Kasumi including that Tenma, the name he has suffered over since he first came to the dojo, was actually some sort of magical copy of him. Tenma died during a dispute with Ranma over how they should go about avenging Nodoka's death. He blames himself for it and has been brooding ever since.
Chapter 7
Interruptions
A week after his fight with Sin Ranma decided it was time for him to return to his normal routine. The Tendo house had become an all too familiar sight lately. The pony tailed youth needed to spend his days away from this place; interact with someone other than Kasumi and Soun. Not to say the eldest Tendo sister wasn't good company. After Ranma spilled his guts a few days earlier the older girl had been amazingly supportive; so much that the young man felt like she was one of his best friends.
However despite his newfound friendship there was no reason for Ranma to remain at the Tendo Dojo to recover. Dr. Tofu had visited and explained that Ranma was mostly fine, but should try not to get into any major fights for about a week. Therefore the pony tailed fighter planned to return to school today and finally start his part time job with the good doctor. The morning paved the way back to normality when Ranma easily defeated his father in a sparring match (though it had to be limited so the boy wouldn't strain himself). Once the fight was over the joined clans of Tendo and Saotome sat down together for breakfast.
Something that hadn't returned to normal was Nabiki's lack of contact to the boy. At first Ranma thought it may have just been her feeling awkward after the events she went through. However her continuing decision to not talk to him made the Saotome Heir wonder if it was something else. Perhaps Nabiki had decided that Ranma was too dangerous to be around and that staying as far from him as possible was the best way to keep her from being caught up in his problems. That was the most logical reasoning, but was that it? He wasn't sure.
To further his curiosity on the subject Nabiki left the table as soon as she was done with her meal; she said she had important business at school. The middle Tendo was a master at hiding her emotions but Ranma was becoming much better at reading her masks every time he looked at her. He decided that he'd talk to her later in the day.
It wasn't long until Ranma found himself walking along his fiancée toward Furinkan High. Unlike her sister Akane wasn't avoiding the boy at all. In fact ever since he started showing signs of getting better the youngest Tendo had bombarded him with questions regarding his past. This morning was no different.
"Why won't you tell me more about it?!' Akane would demand.
And Ranma would reply "I told you enough already. Get over it."
Akane wasn't amused by Ranma's attitude. "I know you told Kasumi something about your past, but she won't tell me anything."
"Uh huh," was the reply.
This didn't help ease the girl's anger. "Don't 'uh huh' me, Ranma! Three people come to town to kill you, one says there's a bounty on you and the other two were monsters. I want to know why there are people after you!"
The pony tailed youth rolled his eyes. "You already know why." Ranma hated to repeat himself, especially when they had to do with his past. Luckily (sort of) he didn't have to since Soun had blabbed the entire story of Emily and Taro. Thankfully the story about Tenma was of course still a secret between Ranma, Kasumi and the still absent Ryoga.
"But," Akane continued. "You still haven't explained why there's a bounty on your head!"
Unlike his fiancée Ranma was actually pretty calm. In fact during this whole conversation he barely even looked at Akane. "I told you I don't know why I have a bounty. I'm really getting sick of having this conversation again and again."
Akane fumed at this. Losing her temper she rose to strike the boy for being such a jerk. To her surprise Ranma effortlessly blocked the attack with his forearm. He looked at her with sad eyes that instantly made her regret her action. Slowly she backed off.
"I told you everything I can right now," was the boy's reply to the attack. He resumed the walk to school. "Let's not kill each over this, okay?"
The youngest Tendo simply stood there as Ranma continued on to school. He did not usually act his way with her. At the most he'd insult her but that would be it. This reaction was a first. It was then she had realized her mistake: she had known Ranma had some issues with his past but she had gotten used to him to the point here had forgotten that aspect. She silently promised to be more understanding of him from now on. He was a jerk, but she still considered him somewhat of a friend. A little.
"I haven't written in a while. Something really weird has been going on the last couple weeks. It started when Ryoga used this magic item thing on me. Next thing I know there's a guy with my face starring at me. His eyes were different but besides that he was...me. His name is Tenma and he's got all my memories. He's actually a pretty nice guy, except he's…cold, I guess. Really cold. He's been traveling with us since then. It's really interesting to spar with someone who literally knows all your moves. I wonder what Pop will say when he meets him."
-Brief passage from the Journal of Ranma Saotome.
Lunch time came around. That's when things started becoming annoying for Ranma. After waking up from his History Lecture he immediately went off in search of Nabiki. He still felt he needed to talk to her about what had happened. However as soon as he walked out of the building he became distracted by a large group of females. All of them had odd, lustful looks and each carried a bento.
"Hi Ranma," they all said at once. It was creepy to say the least.
"Um, hi," was the reply.
"I made an extra lunch. Do you want it?" One said
"Hey, I made lunch for him!" Said another.
"No way, he's eating mine!" Yet another suggested.
At this point it became clear that every girl here had made Ranma lunch. Despite the fact that his baser instincts told him that he should take all their food and happily consume them he managed to resist it. Instead he asked "Uh, I'm gonna have to pass. I'm looking for someone."
All of the girls looked disappointed. One of them stood forward. "We are the newly formed Ranma Saotome Fan Club. We've been waiting for you to come back to school."
The young fighter raised his eyebrow at this. "Ranma Saotome Fan Club?"
"Yes," she continued. "We've all watched you since you first came here."
"It was so cool the way you beat Kuno all those times!"
"Just seeing you move…it's so…so…"
"Beautiful!"
"Yeah, that's it!"
"You're so calm and mysterious!"
"And exotic!"
At his point Ranma countered by putting his hands in a "T-shaped" position. "Time out ladies. You aren't serious about this, are you?"
They all nodded.
"You all heard I'm engaged to Akane by now, right?"
They all nodded.
"We've heard you two don't get along," one said
"She even admitted that you two are being forced by your parents," said another
Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose. He was flattered to be sure, but this was just as bad as all the boys attacking Akane every morning. Plus with of them looking at him like with those big eager eyes it was just plain spooky . He didn't have a lot of time to waste with these girls. He needed a distraction….
Pointing off into the distance Ranma yelled in shock "Hey, isn't that a mysterious and angst ridden pretty boy who just transferred to the school?"
The crowd of girls quickly turned toward where Ranma had pointed all of them unable to contain their interest. However once they realized it was a lie the Saotome Heir had vanished.
Things didn't get better that day. Ranma ended up dodging this new threat, this so-called "Ranma Saotome Fan Club" during any type of break the pony tailed youth got during the day. Of course Ranma was flattered; in fact he understood their feelings. After all he was the one and only Ranma Saotome. However they kept getting in the way in what would be the relatively simple task of finding and talking to Nabiki. Eventually school ended, but even so in a combined effort of the middle Tendo sister rushing off campus (Probably to avoid him) and this fan club getting one last mob rush in (Which made Akane avoid him as well) the young martial artist found the day to be a total waste.
He should have headed back to the Tendo Training Hall; he and Nabiki needed to clear the air sooner than later. He still didn't know what was wrong, or at least wasn't exactly sure. Sadly he absolutely needed to start his part time job with Dr. Tofu, as his injuries had made him unable to start sooner. Nabiki would have to wait.
And so now here Ranma was, sweeping the front entrance of the clinic. It seemed that by "assistant" Dr. Tofu meant janitor. It wasn't exactly thrilling but he had already made the agreement and couldn't back out of it no. Sighing he looked at his handy work. "Seems clean enough," he mused to himself as he headed back inside. There weren't any patients right now as the waiting room was empty. Making his way into the back he found his glasses wearing employer seated and reading a newspaper.
"Oh, done already I see," the friendly doctor said smiling at the young man. "You are a very hard worker."
Ranma just shrugged. "It ain't like it's complicated work or nothing."
Tofu continued to smile. "I suppose. Sorry if it's a little boring. I promise it'll get more interesting eventually." With that the doctor yawned. "Boy, I'm tired. I bet we could both use a break."
Ranma raised an eyebrow, as Tofu hadn't actually done any work since he arrived two hours ago.
The brown haired martial artist excused himself into his bedroom, returning a minute later with a little money. "Why don't you get us some snacks? This should be enough to cover both of us."
The pony tailed youth shrugged, accepting the money. As he left the clinic he stopped by a garden hose and proceeded to splash himself instantly turning him into a girl. Ranma wasn't sure if the doc would condone her using her female form to get free food but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. He'd just have t remember to return the money before he went home.
Back in the clinic Dr. Tofu was in deep thought. Ranma had come along very nicely. The boy was strong to be sure. He had been afraid his injuries may affect his plans, but luckily the Heir to the Saotome School proved to be an amazingly fast healer. Yes, Ranma would do. They had made a good choice when they picked him.
Everything was going according to plan, and the good doctor couldn't help but smile at that.
"Hey, don't you think that's enough," Ranma sneered at her new opponent, clutching the black haired girl's ribbon with disdain. Things had not gone according to plan for the now red-headed pony tailed girl. She had managed to score a great deal of free food, ensuring that she and Tofu wouldn't have to buy any snacks for at least a week. However on her way back to the clinic she found this…girl being attacked by four men, seemingly hiding their identities in bandages. Ranma would have intervened on the girl's behalf if she hadn't brutally beaten her aggressors. The cursed martial artist ended up having to save the attackers from the victim!
The black haired girl had an intrigued look. She wore a school uniform Ranma didn't recognize, but realistically didn't care wither way. "You...stopped my ribbon. Interesting. You are no ordinary girl."
Ranma smiled her cocky grin. "Yeah, I get that a lot."
The mysterious black haired girl snapped her ribbon from out of Ranma's hand, an action that surprised the Chinese clothes clad girl. This chick wasn't bad. "I am Kodachi the Black Rose. I'm sure we'll meet again. OHOHOHOHO!" With that Ranma found herself blinded by a barrage of black rose pedals. When the pedals subsided Kodachi was gone.
Ranma couldn't help but be impressed. That exit was kinda cool. In fact that girl would be cute if she didn't have that horrible laugh. Plus she reminded her of someone…
"Thanks for saving us," a sobbing while at the same time high pitched voice called out. Ranma turned to see the guys she rescued crying.
"Um, don't worry about it," was her response. "But you guys really shouldn't mess with someone stronger than you."
Seemingly upset at being called guys, the bandaged attackers tore off their coverings revealing to in fact be girls. Girls in Ranma's class actually.
Nerima was weird.
"Tenma's a great guy. I mean, yeah, he's supposed to be me, but he's not. It's weird. But anyway, yeah he's awesome. Yesterday we were in a village and we saw these two big guys messing with a restaurant owner. Tenma beat the shit out both of them for 'picking on the weak.' They guy has got one serious sense of duty. Ryoga's been saying he's like an evil clone of me or something. He ain't evil. Just cold. Very, very…very cold."
- Brief passage form the journal of Ranma Saotome
Soap was not, nor had she ever been, nor would she probably ever become, a patient person. Her teacher, Towel, had always tried to steer the young warrior toward that path but something like patience takes years to master if you lack it. Sadly Towel had died before she could give the young blonde any more lessons. In fact both her parents, older brother, friends and pretty much everyone close to her were completely slaughtered very recently. Any sane person would have been using this time to mourn. However Soap was amazon, which meant two things: 1) She was a warrior by trade and had no time to think about the dead while her enemies still breathed and 2) Probably wasn't too stable in the mental department.
In all seriousness even her battle hardened teacher often said Soap probably was not playing with a full deck, even by amazon standards.
Currently, inside the apartment her band of "sisters" were able to secure while in Nerima, the blonde Chinese girl (An interesting mix) was playing with a knife. She did this daily; daydreaming about the various things she could do to Ranma Saotome. She could gut him, maybe even slit his throat. Perhaps she could just blind him. That'd be poetic justice: the Demon of Joketsuzoku forced to live in this world as a helpless cripple…
Of course as soon as she thought the words "Demon of Joketsuzoku" she deadpanned. Ranma wiped everyone out at their village. He was no man but a demon is disguise. She wasn't a match for him and would probably never be able to make those daydreams come true. How depressing.
At that moment the pink haired, and highly attractive, Comb (leader of their party) entered the room. She was, like Soap, seventeen. Despite her young age she was put in charge of this mission for two very important reasons: 1) She was the most qualified in term of skill and rank to do so and 2) Alive, which was more than you could say for the majority of the rest of the Chinese amazon community. Of course Cologne would have preferred someone with more experience in charge but beggars can't be choosers. The older Lotion would have made a good choice if she hadn't...well, that's another story.
Comb scanned the room. No sign of their companion whatsoever. Not good. " Where's Lotion? " She asked her subordinate in mandarin.
" Don't know. Don't really care either. " Was the matter-of-fact reply. Soap hadn't even bothered to take her eyes off her knife.
Comb swore. Lotion wasn't here. But where the hell did she go? They were supposed to be keeping a low profile after all!
" Any word from Elder Cologne? Soap asked, again not looking up.
The pink haired amazon sighed. Soap clearly was itching to attack Saotome. " No, none. I thought she would have sent a reply by now. "
Soap nodded but said nothing. She simply continued to ignore the world around her. Comb was somewhat thankful. Her companion wasn't the best company. Still she had to wonder…
Where the hell did Lotion go?
Ranma's walk home from work was uneventful. He was thankful for that, considering all that happened that day. It would seem that no matter what he did there'd always be something causing him grief. As the young martial artist approached the Tendo dojo he wondered if things could get any more stressful today.
Of course as soon as he said that he heard a noise form a nearby rooftop. Turning quickly and scanning the area Ranma found….nothing. He was sure he had heard something but….maybe he was just tired. With that he continued on home.
From the said rooftop Lotion cursed herself for not being for stealthy. She'd had to be more careful.
Walking through the front door of the Tendo house Ranma immediately was surprised to see who was sitting facing the doorway.
"Ryoga!"
The bandana clad youth was indeed there, his clothes torn and dirty. His facial expression suggested exhaustion. "I suffered to get back here, you know."
Ranma shrugged, not appearing to have any sympathy. "But you got back here, so what's the problem?"
The fanged boy stood up angrily at that, grabbing Ranma by the collar. "And whose fight was it that got me lost in the first place?!"
"A minor detail," was the somewhat cocky response of the pony tailed boy.
Ryoga sneered at that. "That's it! I'll beat an apology out of you for my troubles!"
Now Dr. Tofu had advised that Ranma not get into any big fights so soon after his recent ordeal but on the other hand he owed Ryoga for that loss a while back…
"As if you could actually lay a finger on me."
Needless to say within two minutes the two training partners were scrambling toward the dojo. Upon reaching the door they both got caught trying to squeeze through the door at once, both yelling at the other to move. Finally breaking through the door they were suddenly stopped dead in their tracks by what they saw: Akane, who appeared to have accidentally tied herself up with a ribbon while practicing.
Red in the face at being caught Akane simply said "A little help."
With that both young men burst into laughter.
A little while later, after Akane pounded on her two houseguests for being jerks, it was explained that the youngest Tendo had agreed to sub for the school's martial arts rhythm gymnastics team which seemed like an odd thing for the girl to agree to.
"Well," Ryoga began. "You're clumsy."
"What?!" was Akane's reply.
"What? You want me to lie?" Ryoga continued, now raising an eyebrow. "I'm not exactly sure what made you think that you were graceful enough to do to this but you're not. Oh God you're not."
The youngest Tendo began fuming. She couldn't really understand why Ryoga was being such a jerk. She would have almost certainly bashed his head in with a timely mallet, were it not for her catching Raman's eyes. There was something about them that were…soothing; he was in fact looking directly into her own. She found herself feeling like he should take a breath and cool down. But mostly she felt like Ranma had something to say. So she let him talk.
"Akane," he started. "Do you need any help?"
Both Ryoga and Akane froze in shock. It was Akane who asked first. "What do you know about gymnastics?"
"Martial Arts Rhythm Gymnastics," he corrected. The two continued looking on with blank expressions. "What? You don't believe me."
Their continued silence prompted the young martial artist to pick up a ribbon. With a grace neither other teen thought very probable Ranma demonstrates an incredible skill with the unlikely weapon. In fact at some point it seemed he spelled out the phrase "Fair Play."
"That's not bad," Ryoga huffed.
Akane was dumbstruck. She never realized that Ranma was this talented. "Where did you learn that?"
"Mom made me learn all sorts of weird styles," Ranma explained as he folded the ribbon back into its proper place. "You should try Martial Arts Tea Ceremony. Very relaxing."
Akane smiled. "This is great! Then you'll help me?"
The Saotome Heir smiled. "Hell, I'll even teach you some tricks to give you an extra advantage."
"Tenma and Ryoga don't get along. Ever since Tenma came around Ryoga didn't trust him. Lately it's been worse. I had to break them up twice before they turned simple sparring into an all out brawl. I really hope they can just...calm down."
- Brief passage form the journal of Ranma Saotome
Akane was too tired to go on that night after a few hours of Ranma pounding the lessons of Martial Arts Gymnastics into her. Ranma for his part was a little worried about Akane's overall lack of speed and grace. In fact he wasn't certain that Akane had a prayer against a trained expert in the sport. But this was part of the plan.
He was in his room, doing some thinking. Everything that happened in the time he's been in Nerima, the time he spent in China, the training voyage in general; all of it has been a train wreck. Things had gotten so bad and the future didn't look very promising. He needed to leave soon and to do that he needed to implement his plan on teaching Akane the Saotome Style of their school; it had been Nabiki's great idea after all to unite the schools under rather than going through with the arranged marriage. This was a great opportunity to get started on training her without looking suspicious. If the old men realized what he was trying to do they'd try some scheme to stop him for sure. Whether the youngest Tendo learns enough of Martial Arts Gymnastics to really give her opponent a workout was irrelevant; the true plan was to make her his student.
Ranma's musings were interrupted by the sound of a someone walking around the hallway outside his door. Judging by the weight on the hardwood floor (Which he could tell by hearing the subtle cracks in the floor) he determined it was a girl who was too short to be Kasumi and too lightweight to be Akane. The pony tailed boy quickly rose to his feet and exited his room to find Nabiki coming from the rest room. The two teenager's eyes met and created an intense awkwardness between the two. It was the middle Tendo daughter who spoke first.
"You need something Saotome?" she asked.
Ranma shook his head. "Not especially. I've started training Akane today."
The so-called Ice Queen made no outward response. It bothered Ranma that even he was having a hard time reading her. "Well good for you. I suppose that means you'll be leaving sooner than later."
"Looks that way," Ranma replied. "Akane's kind of a slow learner so it may be a while but me and the old man shouldn't be bothering ya too much longer." He paused a bit before continuing. "So…you've been avoiding me." It wasn't a question.
Nabiki laughed at that notion. "Don't flatter yourself, Ranma. I'm a busy girl, you know. I don't have time to entertain dumb jocks everyday of the week."
The teenaged martial artist nodded at that. "I guess so. Not that I'd blame you for avoiding me seeing as I'm so dangerous and all." Actually Ranma suspected that Nabiki's sudden mood change had little to do with that. It seems all the Tendo girls had a sort of interesting way of coping with the unusual (Something he noticed earlier) so near death experiences would probably not be something to make any of them hate you. But he hoped that saying that may strike a nerve.
Nabiki was taken aback by that comment. She normally wouldn't have been but she had, as of late, been more flustered than calm and collective around Ranma. "It's not that…it's just that…" She gathered up as much courage as she could for this. This was all sort of new to her; she wasn't accustomed to telling people her true feelings let alone telling boys that she has an intense crush on them and is jealous because they might like her older sister instead. But Nabiki Tendo was not one to turn away from a challenge. "Look Ranma, I saw you and Kasumi the other night."
Ranma's first reaction was nervousness. Did she hear the story about Tenma? Was she upset? Disgusted? Sympathetic? He had to know; it was his most guarded secret after all. "What…What did you hear?"
"I heard-" Nabiki was cut off by the sounds of Akane screaming from her room. Before she even had a chance to react Ranma was gone; darting towards his fiancée's room.
Not bothering to knock the pony tailed martial artists kicked Akane's door open and rushed in only to find the girl being assaulted by a familiar face who was armed with a mallet and apparently bent on injuring the youngest Tendo. "Aw hell, not you again!"
Kodachi the Black Rose eyes narrowed at the sight on the handsome stranger who now stood before her. "An interruption. How dull. And who might you be? I'm certain we've never met before."
Ranma frowned at his inability to think before he talked. "Well…what I mean is that I've heard of you, Flower Girl, and you're just as crazy as my pal with the red hair said you were."
The Black Rose smiled evilly at that. "Red hair? The girl in the pony tail from this afternoon perhaps? Interesting. But you have still not given me your name?"
The pony tailed boy was now certain that this crazy chick reminded him of someone…someone extremely annoying. There was a resemblance to Emily Tisdale, or course, but that wasn't who he was thinking of. "I don't give my name to criminals who break into other people houses in the middle of the night.
Akane looked over towards her fiancé. "I think this is the girl I'm supposed to fight at the competition, Ranma. Look at the way she's dressed"
Kodachi's smile had not yet faded. "Ranma? I see, you do have the look of a Wild Horse about you. I resent your tone though, peasant. I merely came here to ensure that both myself and my opponent fight as equals in all fairness."
"How? By breaking her knees while she's sleeping?" Ranma demanded.
"If need be…yes!" With that Kodachi launched the mallet towards the pony tailed martial artist at a speed that he was barely able to dodge it. The impact against the wall was dangerously large…this girl was good! The gymnasts immediately blinded her new found enemies with black rose pedals and made her escape out of the window. Her voice echoed through the darkness. "We shall meet again Akane Tendo…and you as well Ranma. OHOHOHOHO!"
"Damn it!" Ranma cursed. He grabbed the discarded mallet and attempted to chase down the crazed girl leaving Akane to wonder who was going to clean this mess. The pony tailed martial artist followed his prey to the roof of the Tendo home only to realize that the girl was far enough away from him that he wasn't certain he could catch her. Instead he threw the mallet directly toward her, hitting the girl in the back of the head. Knocked silly the Black Rose found herself falling from the roof. "Oh crap," Ranma noted as she seemed to be falling to her doom…or at least a minor injury. He would have gone after her except the he was distracted by all his senses warning him of danger.
Sure enough Ranma just barely managed to duck a dagger being thrown at him from another rooftop. Looking straight at head he saw a Chinese girl dressed in distinctly Amazon clothing looking at him, roughly three houses over.
" Damn, " Lotion muttered to herself in Chinese. " Missed the mark. "
Forgetting all about Kodachi Ranma made his way closer to the new arrival. "Who the hell are you?"
Lotion looked towards the pony tailed boy before producing a very long and dangerous looking sword. "I am Lotion of Joketsuzoku. And this, demon, will go one of two ways: your death...or mine."
A Ranma's face paled when she mentioned her name. "You...you're that rogue amaozn, aren't you!"
Lotion responded with an icy glare. "After you slaughtered the village I was reinstated. They needed every able body."
It was indeed the one he'd heard about! After all this time! It was all Ranma could do to keep himself from lashing out at her, but the cold truth was this woman knew more about what happened at Joketsuzoku than he did. "So they re-hired you, huh? Good for you, but if you ask me their taste in warriors is lacking. What'd they need you for? To kill me?"
"Yes."
"And you're the same guys who put the bounty on me, right?"
"Yes."
"Wonderful. And it's because you think I killed everyone in the village? That I'm the Demon of Joketsuzoku or whatever?"
Lotion hesitated before answering that question. "It does stand to reason that you may not in fact be the one we seek. Therefore we needed to test you; test your power. So far we haven't been impressed. So I shall be the final test. Among all those you have faced thus far you will not hold back your abilities on me."
The Saotome Heir narrowed his eyes. "And why's that?"
"Because I killed your mother."
The pony tailed youth frowned at that. "Yeah…ain't that the truth!"
And with that he pouched on his enemy.
"Tenma died. It was four weeks ago. I couldn't bring myself to write it down at first. He and I got into a fight about avenging mom and he ended up falling off a cliff and I couldn't' pull him up. Maybe I didn't want to. First Mom, now Tenma. He was person, he was my brother. Now he's gone."
-Brief passage from the journal of Ranma Saotome
Ryoga had been oblivious to all of the going on of the Tendo Dojo. Instead he had been lost in the backyard of the house unable to find a door…for hours now! Oh the embarrassment of his curse; to never know where you are or where you're going!
On the bright side at least he didn't turn into a girl.
But even so this was just crazy. Having only just returned to the Dojo he was hesitant in leaving again as it could take him weeks to get back. As silly as it was he'd have to make camp here. Hopefully he'd wake up before Ranma to he could spare his old friend the opportunity to make fun of him.
The bandana clad youngster would have started unpack had he not heard the sounds of a girl screaming in pain. Looking up he saw a leotard wearing girl falling from the roof of the house. Instinctively the lost boy dropped his traveling gear a leapt up to catch her. Doing so with ease the young man returned them both safely to the roof.
"Hey, are you alright?" H asked.
The girl, coming to her senses after the blow to her head, smiled at the kind and handsome stranger. "Yes…now. Thanks to you. What is your name, kind sir?"
Ryoga looked at her puzzled. He wasn't really sure why she was looking at him like that. "Ryoga. Ryoga Hibiki of the School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."
That was all Kodachi needed. Pulling flowers out of nowhere represented them to her savior…which of course shot out a paralyzing powered. Frozen the young fighter was now helpless.
"Sweet Ryoga, please be gentle with me for it is my first time."
"AAAHAHHH!" Is what Ryoga tired to say, but the effects of the powered made it far less clear. Luckily for the boy Kodachi was blindsided by an angry Akane who chose this moment to arrive on the roof. Quickly doing a somewhat slow kick form the Tendo girl the gymnast was forced to back away from her newly discovered beloved.
"Tut tut, it would seem I am interrupted yet again," Kodachi spat.
"Oh don't mind me, I don't care what you and Ryoga do up here...above my room…with no shame," was Akane's response.
The gymnast smirked wickedly. "You're words speak differently from your actions. No matter. Dear Ryoga, we shall meet again! OHOHOHOHO!"
With Kodachi gone Ryoga though he was safe, but Akane stomping on his face made him realize he was wrong.
"Have you no shame!" She demanded. "Right over my own roof!"
"Wasn't…my…fault," Ryoga tried to say, though he was still positioned.
Neither of them noticed Nabiki sneaking out of the grounds towards where Ranma was fighting.
Lotion found herself again being knocked backwards. Ranma had proved to be more than a match for her afterall. However she could tell that the boy was exerting himself in order rot avoid her blows. Why? If he was powerful enough to defeat the entire amaozn nation surely she should be dead already.
Ranma looked over at his foe. He wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to do here. He clearly had the upper hand, and despite what Lotion claimed he had in fact been holding back. His personal code of honor prevented him from killing a weaker opponent, afterall. But then again that same code dictated that he defeat this girl "You give up yet, ya murdering bitch?"
Lotion stood her ground. "It is somewhat amusing to hear a demon say such a thing."
"I ain't a demon. I've never been to your village. Hell, your buddy Shampoo was a friend mine," Ranma responded.
Lotion nodded. "Indeed, I'm starting to agree with you. But I can't give up-" Her thoughts remained unfinished as a bright light blinded both martial artists. When Ranma's vision returned the girl was gone.
"Damn," he cursed. He had been cheated out of avenging his mother as well as learning more about what happened at Joketsuzoku. One thing was starting to become clear. A demon came to that village, slaughtered most everyone there, and happened to look just like him.
Tenma. It had to be. He wanted all the amazons to pay for their mother's death, afterall. If he managed to survive the fall then he had somehow gained the power to do just that. If that was the case than that may mean that somewhere in China, or rather somewhere in the world, was a super powered killer with his face. This of course was all speculation as he had no real proof, but it made the most sense.
By now a familiar voice calling out from below interrupted his "Ranma!" It was Nabiki and from where Ranma was standing she didn't look like a girl who spent a great deal of time masking her emotions. She was worried, even Ryoga would have been able to tell that.
"Yo," Ranma called back down. He leapt from the roof he was standing and landed gracefully in front of her. It was rather impressive. "What's up?"
Nabiki was confused and a little angry at her sister's fiancé. "What was going on? I saw you fighting someone over here? Are you crazy? You only just healed up from your last fight!"
Ranma was pleasantly surprised by Nabiki's reaction. It would seem that she wasn't nearly as indifferent towards him as she wanted him to believe. Even so he couldn't just tell her the truth; that his "evil" clone killed an entire village of people in retaliation for one of those people, the woman he was fighting, poisoning his mother which also led directly to a bounty on his head.
"Looks like that crazy Kodachi chick that Akane's suppose to fight next week wanted some extra insurance or something," Ranma lied. "Guess she brought in some backup."
Ranma had more lies to tell, in case Nabiki was too smart for that one, but he didn't get the opportunity. The middle Tendo girl pulled the boy close and kissed him good and long. Even the Saotome Heir, well adjusted as he was, was taken aback by this. When she broke off the kiss the perhaps inappropriately named "Ice Queen" looked just as shocked by her actions as Ranma.
"I…I don't know why I did that," she admitted. "I guess I' was just glad you weren't hurt."
Ranma nodded. "Well…we probably shouldn't' do that again. Seeing as I'm engaged to your sister. Family honor and all that."
"Oh yeah, totally," Nabiki said, vigorously nodded in agreement. "Family honor is really important."
There was a pause. The two teenagers kissed again, with more passion on both sides than before. Despite this there was trouble in the back of Ranma's mind: Tenma, the amazons, his mother….these issues needed to be addressed and soon.
For the moment Ranma would try to forget these trouble.
From a distance not too far away Lotion angrily looked on at her savior. "I do not appreciate being interrupted, Cologne!"
The aged matriarch looked over the young subordinate with disdain. "Child it was your lack of respect that resulted in your expulsion to begin with. And yet you continue to do so with that mouth of yours. From where I stood were in danger."
"I apologize elder," Lotion said. "But regardless I believe that Ranma Saotome isn't the one we're looking for."
The short wrinkled old woman sighed. "It is true that I sensed no demonic chi from the boy, and the fact that he didn't brutally murder you outright does speak volumes to his character. However we must remember that your fight was within close proximity to that family he's been living with."
Lotion nodded. "Yes, I understand. If he's infiltrated them than he may have been trying to protect his cover should they see anything. You're right of course."
Cologne frowned even more so at her charge. "You were foolish to face him alone, even if you were just testing him. We will not make that mistake again. Take me to the others; we shall give this boy one final challenge to prove his identity once and for all. Even if he's not the demon we sought he may have other uses…"
To be continued…
Next Time: Ranma versus the amazons; Akane versus Kodachi. Plus Kuno returns!
Authors
Note:
Sure it
only took, what, four years? But hey better late than never, right?
This chapter was going to be much shorter but at the last second I
decided to add a few more pages. Oh well. I hope you enjoyed it
because I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out. The
problem with writing a new chapter to a story that you haven't
worked on in a long time is that you tend to forget where you were
going with it. As a result some of the aspects of this chapter may
seem a bit out of left field, but I think it'll work out
eventually. Just like with "Ranma and the Monkey King" I plan to
do a massive re-write to the previous chapters when I get the chance.
I suspect this story needs it more anyway.
