Author's Note: Yes, the pun at the end of the last chapter was bad. Sue me.

I have decided to reduce the Harem by two, removing Kurumi and Natsume, as I have had a few people complain that the Harem is too big. It makes it easier to write as well, so I'm going with it.

Sorry about the length of time it has taken to update, but the temperature where I live has been appallingly high, to the point that even sitting still for any period of time has been most discomforting.

In other news, I have posted a challenge on my profile. Anyone who wants to accept it, please PM me.

Disclaimer: Ranma ain't mine.

"Ranma" -Japanese speech

'Akane' -Thoughts

{Grandmother} -Chinese

Attack -Martial Arts Technique

Chapter 9: Porcine Assassin in the Night

Timeskip, Two Days Later

Tendo Dojo

Ranma leaned against the wall of the dojo and watched with pride as Akane ran through the standard Anything Goes kata. Each movement was precise and economic. Each blow, whether it be from foot or fist, was only just strong enough to make the target know he or she had been hit hard.

She was ready.

"Alright Akane, that's enough." Ranma called, bringing Akane to a stop at the apex of a kick. As she lowered her leg, Ranma looked to where Akane's father stood, an enormous grin on his face and pride emanating from him like heat from a fire.

"Ranma-kun…I never dreamed that my little girl could perform the kata's so…flawlessly." the Tendo Patriarch gushed emotionally, tears waterfalling from his eyes like Niagara Falls.

"It's far from flawless, actually." Ranma corrected, "What it is, Sōun is as close to flawless as a human can get. Akane must have a considerable amount of latent talent to have corrected her error in less than a month."

Akane flushed at the compliment "Ummm…so, what's next?" she asked in an effort to move the conversation onwards and take attention from her reddened face.

After a moment of thought, Ranma said, "Nothing for tonight, Akane. We'll start afresh tomorrow, so you'll be fresh…when I teach you how to draw on an emotion other than fear and anger."

With a squeal of delight, Akane hugged Ranma strongly. The Saotome Heir chuckled a bit and patted her back while Sōun beamed at how his daughter had returned to her former happy self, thanks to Ranma.

As the three martial artists walked back to the house, Ranma looked at the black clouds with a frown.

"Rain tonight, by the looks of it." he mused aloud. Akane looked up and nodded.

"Looks like it." she agreed.

Ranma shifted uneasily and his chi roiled as it reacted to his mood. A sense of heavy depression was enveloping the area, depression laced with the chi of a strong martial artist.

'Ryōga's finally back.' Ranma thought, 'And he should be here soon. A night attack? Really? Does he think he's the Shinsengumi or something?'

He snorted as he remembered a history lesson back when he had attended school with Ryōga. The infamous three hundred strong group nicknamed the Wolves of Mibu had been infamous for committing acts that were considered dishonourable by those who practiced Bushido, and attacking at night had been a favourite tactic of theirs.

The eternally lost boy that was Ryōga Hibiki had called them cowards back then. It seemed that the years had changed his opinions somewhat drastically.

The Saotome Heir frowned again as he considered what to do here. He had no solid evidence that Ryōga was coming here, only his chi sense and a gut instinct that his Guru has taught him to trust.

'Your instincts are important, young one. Trust them and they will guide you true.' he recalled her advice when he had first questioned his instincts during his year of training with her.

Not a lot of help here, because the Tendo family were very much city dwellers, who preferred solid evidence of something before believing in it. His father had proved that even an experienced martial artist had limits to what they would believe was possible. That meant that Ranma couldn't tell Sōun or the girls. The best thing to do would be to wait until everybody was asleep, and then sneak out to wait for Ryōga to arrive.

[Crack!]

Ranma grimaced as lightning lanced across the skies and more rain began to fall.

'An umbrella would be a good investment at some point.' Ranma dryly noted to herself as the rain changed him into his female cursed form, before a thought struck her, 'Wait, an umbrella…Ryōga was carrying an umbrella around. A traditional Japanese umbrella at that.'

Most people who travel around as much as Ryōga seemed to would carry an umbrella, just in case, but unlike his clothes and backpack, the umbrella had been almost brand new, as well as being handmade.

"Oh Ryōga…please tell me you didn't follow me all the way to Jusenkyō!" Ranma whispered quietly.

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Midnight

Tendo Family Home

A shadow-like figure leapt over the newly repaired fence and landed near silently on the lawn. Not that he needed to be silent, the constant downpour of rain and occasional claps of thunder would have obscured all but the loudest noise from the intruder.

Ryōga smirked as he advanced towards the house that Ranma was known to live in. He hadn't even had to do any digging to find the information out, as some weird guy wielding a bokken had ran past him spouting some nonsense about the 'foul sorcerer Saotome' and someone called Akane Tendo.

A little pressure put on a random schoolmate of Ranma's had resulted in the address being divulged. The fact it was a well to do dojo made the Lost Boy's blood boil. For what Ranma had done to him, he deserved to live in the gutters and live out of the rotten leftovers of bins! Not live it up in a house like this!

A growl ripped from Ryōga's throat before he could stifle it. Now he had tracked Ranma to his home, he would attack him within the house, which would limit his adversary's moves to ones that couldn't damage the property of his hosts, as well as preventing him from using those irritating gymnastic skills that he favoured so much.

'Now we'll see who the better martial artist is when he loses his little advantage!' Ryōga though gleefully as he stalked silently up to the house. Before he could so much as touch the window to jimmy it open, a voice spoke form behind him, making him freeze in disbelief.

"Y'know Ryōga, most people would give a bit of advance warning before visiting someone's house." Ranma drawled. He stood under an umbrella, leaning against the side of the house in a relaxed casual way.

"Ranma!" Ryōga hissed angrily.

"Yep. Ranma's my name. Don't wear it out." the Saotome Heir deadpanned, "Seriously, you couldn't do a dojo challenge? It would mean I could try and get some shuteye."

"Revenge knows neither night nor day!" Ryōga snarled as he charged at Ranma, making certain to keep the umbrella held in his hand between him and the pouring rain, confirming Ranma's suspicions.

"Ranma! Prepare to die!" the Lost Boy yelled, abandoning any pretence at stealth in order to attack with everything he has. Drawing back his free hand and clenching it into a fist, Ryōga sent a lightning fast blow at his foe.

Ranma raised one hand and, almost casually, grabbed a punch that would have impressed Lenox Lewis with almost contemptuous ease. Ryōga growled and tried to rip his fist free of Ranma's hold, but was held fast. He might as well be held captive by a troll or something with equally monstrous strength.

"Now, that was uncalled for." Ranma chided the struggling boy, "If you would stop and think for a moment, I am faster than you by a large margin. With your other hand kept busy keeping the umbrella in place, you cannot touch me."

Ryōga froze, ceasing his efforts to retrieve his hand.

"You…" he choked out, "…you know?!"

"That you tracked me to Jusenkyō and fell into a pool?" Ranma asked, "Yes, I know, although I only figured it out earlier on today after thinking about everything you said a couple of days ago and about the fact you kept an umbrella unusually close to hand, just in case."

"It's all your fault!" Ryōga snarled.

"Excuse me?" Ranma raised an eyebrow, "Did I ask you to track me into the mountains of China? No, I really didn't ask for a stalker, especially a male one!"

The Lost Boy choked again. "I am not a stalker!" he protested vehemently.

"You don't call following me across the country and into another one 'stalking'?" Ranma asked in amusement, "What would you call it then?"

"Pursuit!" Ryōga bit out angrily.

"Oh for the love of…! You aren't still going on about that are you?" Ranma asked in a mix of exasperation, incredulity and irritation, "I told you, my old man knocked me unconscious on the third day! By the time I came to, we were on the coast and he had thrown me into the water to wake me up!"

"Shut up! The reason doesn't matter now!" Ryōga shot back, "The point is, I followed you and ended up cursed! You've ruined my life!"

"Hey, I didn't push you into the damn pool!"

"No, some redheaded girl chasing a panda did, but it's still your fault!"

This brought Ranma up short. "Errr…say what?" he asked delicately.

"It's your fault!" Ryōga repeated forcefully.

"No, the bit before that!" Ranma qualified.

"Oh, right…It was a redheaded girl wearing a karate gi." Ryōga explained, "She was chasing a fat panda for some reason and landed on top of me when I reached the top of a cliff overlooking Jusenkyō. The impact threw me off the cliff and I landed in a pool and got cursed. And, just to make this absolutely clear: It's all your fault!"

"Err…you might actually have something of a point there." Ranma admitted, "Y'see…I fell into the 'Spring of Drowned Girl', which means I turn into a girl whenever I'm hit with cold water."

"A…redheaded girl?" the Lost Boy asked slowly for clarification. When Ranma nodded, Ryōga's face twisted into an expression of pure rage.

"Then it really is all your fault!" he roared and lashed out with a kick that slammed into Ranma's midriff and broke the pigtailed martial artist's hold on his fist.

Ranma flew into the yard from the force of the kick and landed in the pond with a splash. She emerged from the water and glared at the enraged Ryōga.

"Hey, If you weren't a creepy stalker, you wouldn't have even been there in the first place, idiot!" she yelled as she waded out of the water and kicked off her shoes.

"If you hadn't run out on our fight, I wouldn't have had to be there!" Ryōga retorted, "And for the last time, I am not a stalker!"

The tension between the two old rivals was so thick it could be cut as they glared at each other. The smallest move on the part of either of them would start a fight in the Tendo Family's back garden.

Fortunately, for the state of the garden at least, they were interrupted by Genma, in his cursed form, throwing a set of heavy workers' boots at the only person he could see, his son in his cursed form. He also held up a sign that said, 'Boy! Shut Up!'

"Geez old man, way to interrupt." Ranma said as she leaned to one side, allowing the boots to sail past her and land in the pond, "And where the hell did you steal those boots, 'cause I know for sure that you don't work!"

The Lost Boy took the opportunity to leap into an attack while Ranma was distracted. Rushing forward so fast that he would be a blur to those unused to martial arts, Ryōga launched a powerful punch at his foe.

'Now that Ranma's a girl, he doesn't stand a chance!' he gloated to himself, 'I've never met a female martial artist that can withstand one of my blows. Once I hit …him? Her? Whatever…once I hit Ranma, there will not be any need for a second strike!'

Just an instant before Ryōga's fist would have impacted on Ranma; the petit redhead blurred and vanished from sight, leaving the Lost Boy gaping in shock.

'Wha…?!' was the thought that began looping through his brain at rapid speeds. Ranma had just moved far faster than he had as a boy! What the Hell?!

"Being a girl may make me lose strength." A cold voice from behind Ryōga informed him icily, "But being a girl actually increases my flexibility, as well as increasing my speed. So you have even less of a chance at hitting me in this form than in my male form."

"Damn." Ryōga said resignedly.

"Now then, time to eject you from this property. See you later…Ryōga" Ranma snarled and the next instant a powerful impact struck the Lost Boy in the back, accompanied by Ranma's voice.

"Sōtenshu! (Double Palm Strike!)"

As things faded to black, Ryōga observed through the eyes of his cursed form, a black piglet, that his umbrella, backpack and clothes were sailing through the air along with him.

'At least getting dressed won't be a problem once I wake up…' he thought as he slipped into unconsciousness.

A panting Ranma groaned in exhaustion as she turned back to the house. At some point, she was going to have to work out how to properly use her chi when she was in her cursed form. Even a move as basic as the Sōtenshu was hard on her as it was and that was a weakness that couldn't be afforded.

Especially if her past in Hong Kong caught up to her.

Right now though, the aquatransexual was going to get to bed and try and get some sleep. She was drained of energy and really tired from staying awake during a part of the night during which she would usually be sleeping at. She could go without sleep; she just preferred no to unless it was absolutely necessary.

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Timeskip - The Next Day

En Route for School

"So, wait a minute." Akane said slowly as she, Nabiki and Ranma walked to school, "You mean to tell me that your old schoolmate invaded our home, attacked you and you sent him flying, all without you letting us know a single thing?!"

Ranma winced as Akane's voice rose to a shout by the end of her rant. "Jeez Akane, I told you, I felt him coming earlier in the evening, but I couldn't very well tell you that. I had no proof and besides, Ryōga is no serious threat to me." he protested.

He had just finished telling the two sisters about Ryōga's attack last night, only omitting the fact he was also cursed by Jusenkyō. It wasn't his secret to reveal, despite the Lost Boy's dishonourable actions.

"Ranma-kun, you shouldn't be so complacent." Nabiki admonished her fiancé, "Even I know that all it takes is a single lucky -or indeed, unlucky- blow to change the course of a fight. Plus, we might have believed you, as you haven't lied to us since you arrived."

Ranma looked a bit guilty at this.

"Sorry." he apologised to the two Tendo Sisters, "I'm too used to my old man dismissing my abilities. Every time I warned him someone was coming our way, he just said, 'Nonsense boy! You rely too much on those cheap tricks that that woman taught you!', right before an incredibly strong martial artist came along and tried to beat my old man's ass for something he did. Then Pop would blame me for not warning him, even though I had."

"I believe that we have given adequate evidence that we are not like your father, Ranma-kun." Nabiki said sternly, her nose wrinkling in disgust at being compared, however remotely, to Genma Saotome.

"Sorry." Ranma repeated.

"Just make sure to let us know if you sense your friend when he's about to perform any further invasions of our home." Nabiki directed him, "I think daddy and A-chan here would like to introduce their fists to his face for his trespass."

Akane certainly didn't look happy about someone trying to break into her house, especially with the intent to attack a guest of her family. The bluenette nodded fiercely in agreement with her sister.

"Next time I see Ryōga Hibiki, I'll send him flying myself!" She declared angrily.

As the trio were just arriving at the gates of Furinkan, a high-pitched porcine squeal ripped through the air.

"Squeeeeeee! Squeeeee! (Ranma! Prepare to die!)"

"Ow!" Ranma yelped as a small black and yellow blur slammed into his chest. He quickly grabbed it and held it as far away from him as he could. Suspended from Ranma's fingers was a pure black piglet wearing a familiar yellow and black bandanna around its neck. It swayed violently as it strained to bite with its teeth or strike with its tiny trotters.

Adjusting his grip so neither of those would be possible, Ranma hitched an eyebrow as he felt the familiar heavy depression and blind rage that usually emanated from the Lost Boy.

'Okay, no wonder he is pissed at me.' Ranma conceded to himself, 'He's stuck with a defenceless form that even a housecat could beat easily.'

"Ranma, what's with the piglet?" Akane asked.

"Dunno." The Saotome Heir replied, "Seems to be pretty pissed at me for some reason. Stop struggling you stupid thing! Take this!"

Ranma tapped the pig on the top of its head and rendered it unconscious.

"Don't worry, I just knocked it out." Ranma assured Akane, who was apparently an animal lover, "Here, you take it. Maybe it won't attack you once it wakes up."

He handed the unconscious Ryōga over to Akane, who nodded in thanks before she began cooing over how cute the piglet was.

'This will make things interesting, once Akane starts to learn how to use her chi properly.' Ranma thought evilly. He may not be willing to reveal Ryōga's little secret, but that didn't mean that Akane couldn't discover it herself.

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Timeskip - After School

Tendo Dojo

Ranma and Akane sat opposite each other in the seiza position and steadily regarded one another.

The two had had their first sort-of fight upon coming home from school. Akane had wanted to adopt the piglet and had already decided to call it 'P-Chan'. Ranma had pointed out, quite reasonably, that the bandanna around 'P-Chan's' neck indicated that he already had an owner.

Akane's response had been a pout that was, admittedly, cute, swiftly followed by her ignoring Ranma during dinner, right up until they had entered the dojo. Then she had icily pointed out that as there weren't any contact details on the piglet, that meant that the previous owner, if there even was one, hadn't bothered to attach their name or address to the piglet, meaning that without proof, the piglet was technically a stray and could therefore be adopted.

Ranma had backed off and that had led them to this little staring contest, which had gone on for ten minutes already.

Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes and sigh, Ranma said, "Akane, leave your beef with me at the door of the dojo. If you actually want to learn to manipulate your chi, you have to learn to leave any grudges and misgivings at the door."

Akane looked surprised. "Daddy never told me that." she said, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Your father never taught you how to use chi, so he didn't really have to." Ranma replied, "For purely physical training, you don't have to be that much in control of your emotions. With chi though, initially you have to meditate until you are in a state of torpor, which is impossible if you are angry or emotional. If you are, it can be very dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Akane asked, "Dangerous how?"

"Well, if you are angry, as soon as you meditate your chi will automatically connect to your anger and I'll have to go through the entire cleansing chakra procedure again." Ranma replied, "Otherwise, it's just a lack of focus leading to no progress."

Akane took a moment to puzzle out Ranma's words. "So, if I'm irked with you or anything minor like that going into meditation, it just won't work?" She clarified.

"Yep." Ranma nodded, "At best you'll just get frustrated. At worst, you'll need a chakra cleansing again."

"Brrr." Akane shivered. She did not want to have to go through that again until and unless it was absolutely necessary. Being forced to watch her deepest fears and self-delusions was not a pleasant experience.

"Right then. Give me a moment to clear my mind." Akane requested before closing her eyes. After a couple of minutes, she opened them and nodded at Ranma, signalling that she was ready to continue.

"Ready? Good." Ranma said, "What I am about to teach you isn't so much you choosing an emotion as it is your chi reaching out for one that is compatible for you to use in battle. The emotion is usually one that is a defining characteristic of who you are. In my case, I am a very self-confident person, so I can use self-confidence, self-esteem and even arrogance to power my Mōko Takabisha."

"What do you think my emotion will be?" Akane asked curiously.

"Anger was the one you latched on to initially because it is a very easy emotion to…'awaken'." Ranma said slowly, "The same goes for fear. As to which positive emotion…determination? Kindness? I honestly couldn't say."

The Tendo Heiress frowned at that. Determination? Kindness? How were those two emotions going to be useful in a fight? She immediately posed the question to Ranma, who frowned in thought.

"Well, determination or stubbornness would likely be defensive in nature, a shield around you or perhaps a coat of armour." he said after a moment, "Kindness, I'm not so sure about. According to my guru, emotions like love, kindness and the like are very rarely used in chi attacks due to their very nature being against attacking. Only about three people have ever used highly positive emotions like love and kindness as attacks and that was a good few thousand years ago. No-one knows how they manifest, because no one is pure of heart enough to use them."

"Huh. Go figure." Akane said absently as she digested the information, "OK then, what do I do first?"

"There is only a single step to meld your chi with an emotion." Ranma told her, "Before that you have to connect with your chi, so you can actually use it. Close your eyes and meditate."

Akane followed his instructions, her breathing becoming slow and deep. Out of the corner of his eye, Ranma spotted Sōun Tendo peering into the dojo. He decided to let the Tendo Patriarch watch.

"Akane, can you hear me?" Ranma asked quietly.

"Yes." Akane replied in a slightly slurred voice.

"Alright Akane, focus on your breathing. Chi is the breath of life, it flows like air. Don't just breath; feel the air move as you breathe, feel the energy move." Ranma instructed.

After a few minutes, Akane's hair began to be buffeted as if by wind and Ranma began to sense active chi from Akane, rather than just passive chi as most ordinary people have. A feeling of power began to emanate from her.

At Ranma's prompting, Akane opened her eyes, which were filled with wonder.

"This is incredible!" she exclaimed, "I feel more alive than ever!"

"Yes, that is the most common reaction." Ranma grinned back at Akane in amusement, "Accessing your chi makes you feel like this whenever you so much as touch it. Quite a bit of the training with chi is desensitising yourself so you can maintain a calm mind while you using it."

"Yeah, I can see why!" Akane had to restrain herself from giggling inanely, "Why didn't I ever try this before?"

"Because you weren't ready, Akane." Sōun said as he entered the dojo, his face radiating pride, "Using chi requires a sense of equilibrium within yourself that you didn't have until now."

"Your father's right." Ranma nodded in agreement, "Now, I'd like for you to release the chi that you're holding. Holding so much chi for an extended period of time isn't healthy."

Akane pouted, but closed her eyes and complied. The emanations of power faded and her hair returned to normal. When she opened her eyes again, she renewed her pout.

"Chi isn't supposed to be contained indefinitely, Akane." Ranma told her, utterly indifferent to her pout, "You have to use the chi that you grab a hold of or it might damage your body. As this was your first time wielding it, there will be no damage, but in future, you should only grasp the absolute minimum amount of chi that you need for any one technique and then immediately execute that technique. Understand?"

"Hai." Akane nodded her head.

"Moving on then," Ranma continued, "I'm going to teach you a technique that uses chi. It isn't an especially powerful one, but it is a good introductory technique as it combines chi with an actual physical strike."

Akane saw why it was a good introductory technique. If it combined a chi attack as well as a physical attack, then even if she failed to use the chi portion of the technique, the physical part would deal some damage to her opponent.

"Alright." Akane nodded and stood up, stretching slightly, "So what is the technique?"

"It's called the Sōtenshu." Ranma told her as he followed her example, "It's derived from Chinese kenpo and is one of the eight strongest of the most basic attacks. Most martial artists who learn it can't use anything more than the first tier of chi, so they merely inflict an admittedly strong blow to their target."

The Saotome Heir then brought out a straw practice dummy he had lashed together the previous day. It was little more than a large bag of straw lashed to a wooden stand, but it was perfect for using to demonstrate a martial arts technique.

"Performed without chi, the Sōtenshu is basically a double palm blow to the target." Ranma told Akane, who was listening raptly.

He then demonstrated the technique, which impacted where the chest would be on a grown man.

"As you know, any blow to the middle of the chest, especially the solar plexus area, will wind and temporarily incapacitate all but the hardiest of individuals." Ranma told Akane, "If you strike the abdominal regions, make sure you dodge out of the way quickly, as the person you hit will, in all likelihood, puke on you otherwise."

Akane's nose wrinkled in disgust at the thought. "Noted." she said dryly.

"Good." Ranma nodded, "And this is how the Sōtenshu is performed when the physical action is made in concert with chi."

Taking a loose stance three steps from the dummy, Ranma quickly leapt forwards and, after moving his hands in a fluid circle, slammed them into the dummy.

The fragile sack of straw was flung back with incredible force. When it struck the wall of the dojo several meters away, the bag exploded, showering the majority of the dojo with straw and scraps of fabric.

Ranma turned to face a slack-jawed Akane and an impressed Sōun.

"That was the Sōtenshu at a third of its full power." he said, jerking his head at the remains of the dummy, "Against a normal person, this would be far more than is necessary to take them down. Against a normal martial artist however, this is just enough to TKO them. Any questions?"

"Ummm…how does it work?" Akane asked. She always liked to hear the theory behind a technique before she performed it.

Ranma looked pleased. "First, you draw a small amount of chi and coat your hands with it. Then, by swirling your hands in a circular motion like so-" he demonstrated it in slow motion "-you amplify it just before you strike the target. The chi is then fired at the target at point blank range, dealing damage as well as sending the target flying."

Akane was barely restraining herself from jumping with impatience by this point. Ranma grinned when he noticed this and pulled out another straw dummy, placing it in the exact spot where the first had been.

"Practice the motions of the physical part first." he told Akane, "Thirty repetitions to start it off."

Grumbling slightly, the Tendo Heiress did as she was told. Her least favourite part of learning new techniques was the mind numbing repetition that was required to beat the motions of the technique into instinctive muscle memory. Fortunately, she was a very fast learner, so it was a very minor, and very temporary, inconvenience.

As Akane made a practice thrust of the double palm technique, Ranma noticed that her hands were slightly out of alignment. He quietly moved behind her and adjusted her hands until they were in the proper position. He also noticed absently that her hair smelled faintly of strawberries, which he assumed was her shampoo. It was…quite alluring.

When Ranma took ahold of her arms in a gentle fashion, Akane's first impulse was to throw him into the wall, but she restrained one of the few remnants of her severe misandry when she recognised that Ranma was merely correcting the position of her arms.

She shivered slightly when she felt his calloused palms on her bare skin. These were the hands of someone who trained himself into the ground in the pursuit of the martial arts, not like that perverted idiot Kuno, who was naturally talented at kendo and assumed that no further training was necessary for one as gifted as he was, the fool. Ranma's body being in such close proximity to her own was becoming very…distracting…as she could feel his body heat radiating out across the near non-existent space between them.

"Make sure to keep your hands on the same level as each other." Ranma murmured in her ear, which made her blush. His warm breath tickled the back of her neck, giving her goosebumps for more than one reason.

"R-right!" she squeaked. She hurriedly made another attempt once Ranma disengaged himself from her body, managing to get the motion right this time.

"You've got it. Now repeat it thirty times." Ranma instructed her firmly. With a muttered grumble, Akane began her workout. Akane's father hid a smile as he glimpsed the trace of a blush on each of the teens' faces.

'Allowing Ranma-kun to train Akane was one of the best decisions I could have made!' Sōun congratulated himself.

"Squeeee! (Ranmaaaa!)" was all the warning the three occupants of the dojo had before a small black blur hurled itself at a resigned looking Ranma, who caught the porcine missile by its bandana again.

"Now see here…" Ranma said to the pig sternly, "If you attack me one more time, I'll be having suckling piglet for dinner. Understood?"

Eyes wide, the piglet 'oinked' and nodded its head furiously. Akane wasn't too pleased.

"Ranma! Stop threatening P-Chan like that!" she scolded even as she continued her exercises.

"Hey, the damn piglet attacked me, not the other way around!" Ranma protested, giving the piglet the evil eye as he spoke, making it quail slightly.

"Honestly!" Akane huffed, "P-Chan's just a pig! It's not like he can understand right from wrong. For all you know, you could just smell bad to him, and that's why he's attacking you."

"What do you think…'P-Chan'?" Ranma addressed the piglet sarcastically.

"Oink! Oink! Squeeee! (Damn you Ranma! I'll get you for this! You will pay for this humiliation!)" the piglet grunted, once again attempting to attack the boy who held him in the air.

"Ranma, I'm serious! Stop bullying that defenceless piglet!" Akane yelled as she finished her repetitions of the Sōtenshu.

Ranma sighed. "Fine. Sōun, could you take this damned pig away and give it a good clean up? Lots of hot water."

The piglet started thrashing desperately at these words, but was helpless to resist the strength of a martial artist of Ranma's calibre. Or of the calibre of the Tendo Patriarch, as he was handed over to the moustachioed man.

"Right." Sōun said with a nod, "I'll leave you two kid to it then. Don't overdo it, Akane."

"Yes daddy." Akane nodded.

As Sōun Tendo turned away, the piglet settled down and glared at Ranma until he moved out of view, the pigtailed martial artist supervising Akane as she did another set of palm strikes, just to make sure that she had gotten the form down pat.

'Ranma….! You will pay for this!' Ryōga swore to himself as he was carried into the Tendo's house, 'So will that girl as well. How dare she claim me as a pet!'

Meanwhile, Akane finished the second repetition of the kata for the Sōtenshu and looked at Ranma slightly pleadingly, making him snort with suppressed laughter.

"You look really cute when you try to do a puppy-dog pout, y'know that?" Ranma chortled, making Akane blush prettily in embarrassment, "Alright then. Time to learn how to consciously draw on your chi."

The Saotome Heir stepped up to the dummy and gestured for Akane to join him. "The first thing is to control your breathing. Inhale when you initiate the technique and exhale when you actually perform it." he told Akane, "Chi is the breath of life; it flows as you breathe, gathering power when you inhale and releasing power as you exhale. As you exhale, concentrate on sending your chi - which should feel like a warm glow, by the way- to your hands, holding it there until you strike the target and then releasing the chi as soon as you do. Repeat everything I've just said."

Dutifully, Akane repeated Ranma's lecture back to him, with only a single minor mistake in amongst the entire thing. Ranma corrected her and made her repeat the entire passage until she could recite it verbatim.

Once Ranma was satisfied that his temporary pupil had memorised everything, he got her to practice her breathing whilst standing up. During meditation, one got accustomed to controlling ones own breathing, so it was a simple matter of adjusting for a different posture.

"Right. You're ready." Ranma told her. Akane nodded and stepped up to where Ranma had stood to perform his Sōtenshu. Ranma stepped back so there was no chance of his chi interfering with Akane's own chi.

After a moment, Akane leapt forwards in an explosion of motion, her hands moving smoothly in the dual circles of the technique before she slammed them into the abdomen of area of the straw dummy.

"Sōtenshu!" Akane yelled as she released he chi. The effects were astounding.

The dummy flew back even faster than the first one, slamming into the dojo wall with enough force to splinter the wood. Rather than exploding like Ranma's had, this dummy was twisted and ripped all across tits entire structure. Even the wooden stand that had held it up was twisted and warped.

Akane gaped at the damage she had caused in amazement. That had been…amazing. She had felt the energy flowing through her, like pure lightning.

Ranma cautiously approached the dummy and prodded it carefully with a foot.

"Well, not bad for a first attempt." he said eventually, "Plenty of power behind it, but you need to focus on the area that you are striking. I could have easily countered that as the chi was dispersed across the entire dummy. Still, a very good first attempt."

Akane beamed at him proudly. Then a scream split the air.

"Daddy?!" Akane gasped. Both she and Ranma ran for the main house.

'Now what?!' was the Tendo Heiresses sole thought.

Ranma on the other hand hid a smirk. Looks like Ryōga's little secret was out. What a shame.

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Next Chapter: Pig in the Middle

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