Ranko walked over to Ryoga who was busy poking holes into the dirt with his finger, obviously depressed by his inability to learn Sarah's technique.
"Hey Ryoga, still can't do that technique?" Ranko asked, smiling from ear to ear as she leaned over him.
"Leave me alone Ranma," The lost boy started, turning away from his longtime rival, "I'm not in the mood."
"Ya know, if she had been teaching me, I'd of learned it by now." Ranko gloated as she hopped around Ryoga so he had to face her.
"Shows what you know!" Ryoga shouted as he stood up.
"Well, you still haven't learned it and your 3 days are just about up." Ranko reminded her rival. 'First I need to get him good an' mad.'
"I'll break you!" Ryoga yelled as he took a swing at Ranko. "It's all your fault! If you weren't distracting me I'd have it down by now!"
Rebecca took a seat and pulled a small soda bottle from her bag and began to drink as she watched Ryoga get worked up.
"Hey! It's not my fault you're too thick to learn it, pork butt." Ranko said as she dodged a few of Ryoga's strikes.
"Quit calling me that!" Ryoga pulled a few bandannas off and threw the sharp objects at Ranko.
"Oh, would you prefer bacon breath?" Ranko easily dodged the cloth projectiles with simple acrobatics. Ranko then stuck her tongue out at the lost boy followed the faster girl to stay in range. 'that's right, follow the bouncing girl.'
"I'm warning you!" Ryoga shouted as he began to charge the girl.
"You're just too pig headed to learn, aren't you?" Ranko said as she finished her spiral 'just a little closer...'
"I'll show you pig headed! Stone Gauntlet!" Ryoga punched right into the ground and pulled out a perfect gauntlet, Ranko's mouth hung open and Rebecca shot soda out of her nose. The mage quickly got up and rushed to get Sarah.
"It's too late for that, Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Ranko finished her technique, Ryoga flinched for a moment but Ranko's moment of shock caused the Soul of Ice to drop, ruining the technique, nothing happened.
"I'll show you too late!" Ryoga swung at his rival with his stone encased fist, knocking Ranko across the yard, towards the surrounding wall. She recovered in mid-air and rebounded off of the stone wall and countered with a kick to Ryoga's midsection that had little effect. The pig-tallied fighter dodged Ryoga's fierce uppercut with a back flip and countered with a series of punches to the lost boy's midsection, most of them were blocked by the lost boy's Ki infused gauntlet. Rebecca had returned with Sarah and the two watched from a safe distance, Sarah taking note of Ryoga's apparent mastery of her technique.
"You can't win Ranma, you can't hurt me!" Ryoga shouted as he swung the gauntlet towards Ranko who easily dodged the attack.
"Swinging that around has to be tiring. You're also slower, why don't ya just give up?" Ranko asked her rival.
"It is heavy," the lost boy noted as he swung at Ranko, the girl just leaned her head to dodge it. Ryoga shouted "Baksai Tenketsu" and the gauntlet exploded, behind Ranko where she was in no position to dodge or block the attack. She was showered by the sharp debris."Good thing I can take it off whenever I want!"
The pigtailed fighter backed away from her opponent to try and think of a plan. 'I can't hurt Ryoga after his Baksai Tenketsu training unless I hit him in the same place over and over and now he can block with that stupid rock on his arm! I can't keep this up forever, so I've got to end this with one final attack!'
Ryoga then yelled "Stone Gauntlet!" pulling another gauntlet out of the ground while his opponent was recovering. He studied his opponent and noticed that she was panting heavily. 'He's tiring out, well when he gets close to attack me again, I'll take him out for good!' the lost boy thought. Ranko crouched down and went of the offensive with "Amaguriken", trying to hit Ryoga in the same location over and over but having little effect. Ryoga took the punches without blocking, relying on his training to pull through. He threw one of his own to Ranko's midsection using the new gauntlet and it was a direct hit. "Baksai Tenketsu!" The gauntlet exploded at pointblank range right in Ranko's midsection. Normally she'd just block, catch, or bat away the shrapnel but at that range she took the full force of the attack and flew back into the dojo's outside wall. When the dust settled, Ranko was KOed.
"I... I won???" Ryoga said as he stood in shock over his unconscious opponent. "I won... I WON!!!!" Ryoga began to jump around and celebrate, he grabbed Rebecca and hugged her, crushing her in the process.
"Too... tight... please... stop."
"Oh, sorry." Ryoga put the small girl down and continued to celebrate, Rebecca tried to catch her breath (and see if she broke any ribs), and Sarah was thinking about what just happened.
'he combined his Baksai Tenketsu with the Stone Gauntlet so he could control it. Instead of the force being launched everywhere with a normal explosion causing damage to everything near it, it was focused and much more powerful. At that range there was no way she would be able to dodge the attack. I'm surprised that he picked up on that, it was the whole reason for teaching him that. I wonder where he's going.'
Ryoga kept celebrating, oblivious that he had walked through the stone wall, left the Tendo's, and was now wandering aimlessly around Nerima. Rebecca walked over to Ranko and put her hands on the downed girl and whispered "Frost" her hands were chilled and she put them on Ranko's bruises to ease the swelling. "Wow, he sure did a number on you." Rebecca commented as she looked at Ranko's battered body. She was shocked when Ranko responded, expecting the fighter to be down and out.
"I'll get 'em next time. Now, about that training..." Ranko asked as she sat up, holding her ribs, the part of her that took most of the attack.
"No training for you." Sarah said "You need to recover, I'm surprised that you're still conscious after that attack."
"This is nothin', I'll be fine by tomorrow." Ranko said as she slowly stood up "Besides, I need ta train for the rematch." She added with a smile.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Rayne entered and noticed Kasumi was getting ready to cook dinner.
"I told you that I'd do the cooking so you would have time to train." Rayne said as she tied an apron around her battle dress, Rebecca still hadn't changed Rayne's clothing.
"I thought that if I helped, it would go faster, and then you could help with my training." Kasumi reasoned while going through the cabinets.
Rayne opened her mouth to argue and then stopped. You just don't argue with Kasumi. "I guess that's OK. I do need a bit more training myself. I've kinda been ignoring it even though that's the reason I came here."
"Good, we can get started after dinner. I need to work on my speed and you're faster than Ranma when you're a girl."
Rayne's ears began to twitch as she heard yelling coming from the yard. "Something's going on outside."
"Oh, it's probably just Ranma and Ryoga. They're such good friends." Kasumi said as she began to cook.
"Yeah, sure." Rayne replied as she rolled her eyes at the comment.
Akane walked into the kitchen and saw that Rayne and Kasumi were cooking. "Can I help?"
"Sure, why not?" Rayne answered before Kasumi could act. Rayne turned away to work on her own food but Kasumi kept an eye on Akane while she cooked.
"Yeah!" Akane said as she put an apron on. The tomboy poured some oil(vinegar) onto a frying pan and cut some vegetables, cutting the board in the process. Next she added the vegetables and grabbed the salt (sugar) and sprinkled it on while flipping them in the pan, several pieces falling to the floor. Akane bent down to pick up the stray food and added it back to the rest, Kasumi turned green at the sight but didn't say anything as she was busy with her own cooking.
Rebecca rushed into the kitchen and asked "Has anyone seen Sarah? It's kinda important."
"I think she was upstairs, oops." Akane replied as she dropped the spoon she was using, she picked it back up and continued to cook with it. Kasumi began adding extra portions to her dish. 'I better make a bit more, we'll need something edible for tonight.'
"Kay, thanks!" Rebecca rushed off again, upstairs this time.
"I wonder what has her all worked up?" Kasumi asked.
"I guess it has something to with the fight going on outside." Rayne said as she continued cooking. "I've been listening to them go at it for a while."
"There's a fight going on outside?" Akane asked, losing concentration on her food. It was beginning to burn.
"Yeah, sounds like Ryoga and Ranko are going at it... I think Ryoga's got the upper-hand but I can't tell from here." the Wolf-girl said as she concentrated.
Abandoning her food entirely, Akane stood behind Rayne asking her what was going on, Rayne tried to tell her what she heard with much difficulty and Kasumi tried to fix Akane's food, also with much difficulty. Kasumi quickly moved back to her dish when Akane remembered her food and rushed back to 'cook'.
After several moments of silence Rayne winced as she was cooking, her tail drooping a bit. "That had to hurt, I think it's over."
"Did Ranko win?" Akane asked, not that she cared about him.
"It didn't sound like it." Rayne replied as she finished up her dish by tasting it and adding a few final touches. Akane did the same by adding some herbs she found to her dish as well, without looking at the lable or tasting the dish. "We better get the food ready, I'm sure that she's going to be hungry after all that." 'besides, she's gonna need the energy to recover from a blow like that.'
Everyone gathered around for dinner as Rayne, Kasumi, and Akane brought out their dishes. Everyone except Rayne, Sarah, Rebecca, and Ranko turned green at the sight of Akane's food, Rayne, Sarah, and Rebecca because they haven't eaten Akane's cooking and Ranko because she was deep in thought.
Ranko was absentmindedly eating her food as she thought. 'Ryoga beat me and I couldn't even scratch him... I wonder what Rebecca can teach me that I don't already know.' Ranko took a bite of Akane's cooking, gagged, and fell over unconscious.
"It's not that bad." Akane said, ignoring the pigtailed martial artist's antics. Rayne shrugged and took a bite of Akane's cooking as well, she began hacking and ran to the bathroom. Sarah raised her eyebrows and quickly emptied her plate into a plant behind her... it wilted. Rebecca wasn't paying attention and also took a bite of Akane's cooking. She then proceeded to cast "Frost" on her self to ease the burning.
Sarah asked the one question on everyone's minds "What did you put in there?"
"Just what the recipe said, I added some herbs to liven things up." Akane replied
"Herbs? What kind of herbs?" Sarah continued to inquire.
"Here, I'll go get the jar." Akane left the room and came back, she tossed the jar to Sarah who read through the contents.
"Hmm... shit." Sarah glared at Akane. "There's wolfs bane in here, why would you put wolfs bane in this?"
"I didn't know." Akane defended. "It was in the jar."
"Should I call Doctor Tofu?" Kasumi asked.
"No, she'll be fine. It only hurts her in large quantities and she only took one bite. She'll won't be able to train tomorrow but other than that she should be fine." Sarah explained. She then looked at Rebecca who froze herself solid with her spell. "But this was probably an overreaction. She'll thaw out in an about an hour or so." Sarah picked up Rebecca and hauled her upstairs to Kasumi's room to thaw, Rayne was throwing up dinner in the bathroom. The master martial artist shouted "After you're done I'd suggest heading to bed, there was wolfs bane in there and you're going to be feeling it for a while." Ranko recovered from Akane's food (poison) and slowly made her way to her bed. Between the food and the fight, making it up the stairs was a challenge in itself.
"Where are you going?" Akane asked.
"I just got beaten by Ryoga and now ya tried to kill me with your food. I'm gonna go to bed before someone else tries to attack me today." Ranko replied from the stairway.
In another part of town, a duck-boy was sweeping the front of a building. Mousse sneezed while grumbling about a certain pig-tailed martial artist, then continued with his work.
Ranko finally made it to her room and slowly shut the door. She began filling her pack with everything she needed for the next few days. After filling her pack she climbed out the window and made her way to Kasumi's room where Rebecca was thawing. Apparently Rebecca's head had finally warmed up enough and she was trying to channel some Mana to melt the remaining ice.
"Ya cool off yet?" Ranko asked as she climbed through the window.
"Har har, guess that was a bit much. I had no idea someone could cook so badly. Does she try to cook that badly or is it a gift?" Rebecca replied as she freed her hands.
"Well, I was wondering, ya wanna go on a training trip? I'd like ta beat Ryoga's new technique and could use your help."
"I thought our deal was..."
"I know, how 'bout we make a new one." Ranko pleaded.
"I'm listening." Rebecca began to use her hands to melt the rest of herself, it was slow going.
"You train me while I stay a girl."
"Hmm... No, that's not good enough."
"What more do ya want?"
"You fight Ryoga in a battle dress I make for you."
"But I'm a guy!" Ranko protested from her perch on the window.
"Take it or leave it." Rebecca replied as she stretched.
"Fine, I'll come get you early in the morning. Pack an' get some sleep."
"How long are we going to be gone?"
"Just a few days, we'll be back before Ryoga. Probably around Thursday, early Friday at the latest"
"Alright, I'll see you in the morning."
Ranko climbed out the window and went back to get some rest, about 30 seconds later Rayne staggered in and fell onto her makeshift bed.
"I'm going on a training trip with Ranko, probably be gone a few days." Rebecca said as she knelt down next to her, changing Rayne's clothes from her battle dress to a large T-shirt and pajama pants.
"Unhhhhhhh" Rayne groaned.
"Come on, it was bad but not that bad. Ranko and I both recovered." Rebecca replied, rubbing the wolf-girl's back.
"Wolfs bane." Rayne mumbled as she rolled over and held her stomach.
"Wait? Was she trying to kill you?" Rebecca asked, forming a fireball.
"No, she just sucks at cooking. Sarah said she didn't read the label. You gonna be back by Friday?" Rayne sat up and put her back to the wall.
"I think so, what's Friday?"
"New moon." Rayne pointed upwards, still lying face down on the bed.
"So... any plans?" Rebecca asked as she changed her own clothes magically.
"Dinner and a movie. I should have a bit of spending money thanks to Nabiki." Rayne shrugged.
"How fancy?"
"You'll need a dress."
"Should I bring two?" Rebecca smiled evilly.
"I'd rather not but that's your choice now isn't it?" Rayne yawned and put her head on her pillow.
"It's gonna be a long week." the mage told her boy/girl friend as she climbed into her own makeshift bed.
"Yeah." Rayne replied as she quickly climbed out of bed.
"Wolfs bane?" Rebecca asked as Rayne made her way to the door.
"Yep." The wolf girl rush down the hall and to the bathroom.
"It's going to be a long night." Rebecca said as she turned over and tried to get some sleep.
Two hours before sunrise Ranko climbed through Kasumi's window. "Rebecca, you awake?" the girl whispered. No answer.
Ranko climbed in farther and poked the mage a few times. "Hey, it's time to go."
"A few more minutes..." the mage grumbled.
"Sorry but we gotta go." Ranko pulled the mage out of her makeshift bed, stepping on Rayne's tail in the process.
"Yeouch!" The wolf-girl whispered "You always have this much trouble sneaking out?" Rayne asked as she held her tail.
"Rebecca won't get up." Ranko said while shaking the other red-head.
"Just throw her over your shoulder and go. She's a heavy sleeper." Rayne yawned "Her pack is in the corner." Rayne rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Ranko grabbed the sleeping mage and made for the window. "Oh and Ranko, take care of her..." Rayne held up her clawed hand "or I'll take care of you."
"I will." Ranko replied as she stepped out the window into the night.