Ranma isn't mine, if he was he would've married Kasumi within a month of moving in. Nor do I own Ikki Tousen, because Hakufu is considered a main character rather than the fan service mascot, which is really all she's good for in comparison to some of the other characters.
I have to apologize to everyone who read the last chapter. Going over it I found so many spelling and typing mistakes it wasn't even funny. Still I went back and solved as many as I could find, so it should read better when i repost it later tonight. If anyone spots any more tell me and I'll go back and correct them. Oh and I know Nodoka comes off as a bit clichéd, but hell it's a funny cliché to play with.
If anyone knows the name of Ryofu's guan do, please tell me, the only name I could find was Sky Piercer. The fights in this chapter aren't nearly as well done as in the last. I wanted to make a point about how weak Ryofu was at this point because of her illness, which will be important in the next chapter.
This story will still be updated once a week and should be finished by the first week of August at this rate.
Chapter 10 Rock Paper artillery shot
The first interested party to appear at Ranma's room at the hospital was the police Commissioner demanding to talk to him. Unfortunately the man in question had literally collapsed as soon as they were out of sight of the Kyosho fighters. Kan'u and Ryomou had barely been able to catch him before he hit the ground.
The numerous serious wounds and injuries Ranma sustained, especially the third degree burns on his hands, would have crippled a normal person. Herb, who had the most knowledge of ki and using it to accelerate the body's natural healing, estimated that Ranma would be out of action for at least two weeks. The hospital staff was astonished at how fast he was healing, and were simply housing him and using an IV tube to feed his body nutrients as it healed itself.
When Kan'u informed him that Ranma was still out and the nature of his injuries, the man grumbled but decided to talk to her instead. After receiving a short summary of what had occurred he decided that yes, this plan was still viable still going forward. This decision was almost certainly based on the evidence of the dragon soul and its fire aura around Sousou, an image that was stuck in his brain and promising sleepless nights.
"But we can't," he said, rubbing at his eyes wearily, "have any more battles that cause this much collateral damage. The amount of damage caused and the money needed to repair it is climbing with every report coming in. The FDPA is going nuts trying to find all the videos from this event and adding enough special effects to make the entire fight look bogus. Luckily people just aren't ready in this day and age to accept that the supernatural exists. But we can't have another fight like that."
Kan'u shrugged unapologetically. The fight from her perspective was truly magnificent, and she was only sad she wasn't yet at that level of skill or power herself. As long as nobody died, and the fight had occurred in an area empty of people just in case, then the collateral damage didn't concern her nearly as much as the injuries sustained by her boyfriend. "The last round of the tournament has been postponed, at least for a few days at least to let the furor this fight kicked up fade. After that who knows."
The number of days was meant to let the furor from the last fight blow over, but also take advantage of the fact that Ranma would not be healed enough to take part. It showed once more that the Emperor, despite being a sadist and a masochist, still had a working tactical brain. She wondered what he would be doing in the meantime, as his forces, despite their losses were still much larger than Seito's. She was also careful not to tell the police commissioner that Herb had already decided to stand in for Ranma.
Sousou and his forces were no doubt going to be licking their wounds for quite a while, and she wondered if Sousou would remain in control of his faction without the dragon soul in him or without his sacred bead, which Ryomou had grabbed before they left the parking lot, knowing that Ranma would want to do something permanent to it later.
The police commissioner sighed. "Is that the best you can give me?" He asked plaintively. "Not even an empty promise or two, just 'well it won't happen again for a little while'?"
Kan'u shrugged. "I won't promise to stop something completely out of my control."
The police commissioner did not find this thought comforting and headed back to his office to talk with his superiors in a very worried frame of mind.
Next to arrive was one very worried mother. Nodoka insisted on seeing her son, and Kan'u allowed her in. She was much more forgiving than Chou'un, and realized that deep down Ranma had spoke more out of hurt from an open wound than any real desire to not have his mother in his life. That didn't mean they would reconcile, just that the chance was there if Ranma could admit it and Nodoka change enough to see the fine man her son had become rather than measure him against her own twisted impression of manliness.
Nodoka looked down at her son lying there and seeming to barely breath, with several medical devices hooked up to him, only a few of which she recognized. She then looked up at Kan'u Unchou, apparently the second of three (and at that thought she had to stop herself from whipping out her victory fans) girls interested in her son and easily the most exotic looking. Her body was in excellent shape from what Nodoka could tell, with nice powerful hips perfect for childbirth and large breasts that would have no trouble producing milk. She looks like she could give me lots of grandchildren, Nodoka thought giddily, but had to again repress expressing that thought.
Kan'u answered wondering why she suddenly felt a spark of arousal and fear. "Prince Herb says he'll be fine eventually, his body is healing itself far faster than modern medicine could. Ranma will be up on his feet in as little as two weeks." She reached down, gently pushing back a strand of Ranma's hair which lay unbound around his head, not even realizing how her face changed as she looked down at him. "How long it will take him to regain consciousness is up in the air.
Nodoka nodded, smiling happily at the love she saw on the younger woman's face. "I see. Would it be alright if I stay with him for a time?"
Kan'u smiled. "Yes, it will be fine by us at any rate, you'll have to clear it with the hospital staff first of course." In point of fact with the return of Chou'un she and Ryomou were on permanent guard duty up here with Ranma and Ryuubi was downstairs guarded by Chou'un and watching over the injured Chouhi. Herb was with them too, though he was probably going to go back to the Chinese embassy soon to make a report to his father and the Chinese ambassador. As the Emperor of the Musk had hinted at a willingness to send an entire company of Musk warriors if need be to help end the dragon curse, and Lime and Mint were rather typical of such, this was no small thing.
Nodoka nodded, determined not to leave her son again until she had patched things up with him. She had nearly lost him twice now when she wasn't there to let Ranma out of her sight now.
The Emperor was wondering what he was going to be doing about Ranma, the numerous cuts and the euphoria of the pain helping him to think through the rising rage and bloodlust that he had felt ever since Sousou lost. He couldn't back out now; he would have to face Saito in the tournament but hopefully not this Ranma person who had so completely defeated Sousou. Without Ranma, maybe he had a chance of winning and thus retaining his position and possession of the Gyokuji. If he could retain his position and not die at the hands of the descendant of Lu Bu then he could defeat his destiny. It never even occurred to him to agree to help Ranma in his quest to end the cycle of the sacred destiny/curse as that would've made him appear subservient to the government. More he wouldn't have agreed to anything that put off fighting now, he had too much rage inside. His small dragon shard, while nowhere near a full portion of the soul was enough to exacerbate and focus his anger and fury. He would fight to live and to serve the dragon whose curse was upon them all. But that didn't mean he couldn't take some thought to the future…
Ryofu found herself looking forward to the next round of the tournament as well. Without Ranma there she would naturally face off with the next strongest fighter Seito had, that meant Kan'u. She could arrange an accident for the dark skinned Fighter, and thus leave the way open to Ranma, after all despite her skill Chou'un was no real threat. It was a decidedly Amazon attitude towards obstacles that Ranma of course would never have gone along with, but to Ryofu it made sense. She didn't even waste a second to think about Saji, who at that very moment was hiding himself among the civilian population, wondering where the hell everything had gone wrong and cursing the object of her lust as hard as he could. He would just have to hope that his contacts with the government came through for him with some kind of weakness he could use against Ranma.
Sousou's camp was in turmoil as Kan'u had supposed. It wasn't so much that Sousou very publicly lost his inner dragon spirit, but because he had lost it all. The plans of Chutatsu Shibai, the strategist of Wei, had never even considered the fact that a fully awakened dragon shard could be beaten. Oh, she wasn't blind to the cost it must've taken out of the other fighter, she could see the injuries from the video and she had no doubt that was only bravado that keep kept him on his feet in front of his enemies. She could respect that even as her plans to rule Wei from behind the scenes went down in ashes around her ears.
Chutatsu pushed some of her spiky pink hair out of her face as she contemplated what she should do now, staring down at the tattoos on her hands. With Sousou and his best and most loyal fighters out of action she could take control of Wei openly either in his name 'until the Ruler recovers' or in her own name. With Teni, bless her psychotic soul, and the other Fighters like Kakuka more loyal to her than to Sousou she could do it and make it stick, but the question was would that help her plans going forward. Much like Saji she wanted to make use of the dragon shards as an unstoppable force to take over the world. She was not blind however, and could see that if there were martial artists out there that could match an awakened Ruler, then that plan was untenable unless she could somehow gather them all together…
Her thoughts were interrupted as the door to her office, which should have been a teacher's, but she had taken it over when she moved in, banged open and Myosai Kakouen charged in, her normal cool composure gone. "What's this I hear about Sousou being defeated!? There's no way Emperor Sousou can be defeated by anyone, they must have used a dirty trick or something! What the fuck is going on?!" She exclaimed.
Myosai was a tall woman, with a athletic build that favored a long white dress slit high up its side, and always wore fingerless fighting gloves. Her most striking feature, besides her overall beauty was the long black hair that fell straight down to her pert rear. She was an extremely skilled fighter, skill wise she may even be better than most A Rank fighters, though that had yet to be proven. She was Sousou's assassin, and incredibly loyal to him for saving her life several years ago. She wouldn't even take orders from anyone else under normal circumstances. On the other hand, none of the current situation was normal, and Chutatsu smirked inwardly. "I believe" she said slowly, looking at the taller woman, "that Sousou has a job for you."
After the long haired girl left, Chutatsu looked over to her closest ally. "Gather up all the Fighters you can convince to work with us, it's time to cut our losses in Wei and move on to someplace else. We'll wait for the next round of the tournament to start before we strike."
Kakuha nodded seriously, not showing any remorse about leaving his 'friends' behind. His only real loyalties were to Chutatsu, who he felt could further his own interest (wealth and safety) best, and Kaku, his on again off again girlfriend. Now all he wanted was to survive and get a shot at the Fighter that had set Kaku up for her punishment from the Emperor. Anything that let him take a shot at Ranma while he was in a weakened state was fine by him.
Hakufu, Goei and Kokin were all appalled by the fight they had witnessed, though Hakufu was strangely energetic and antsy afterwards. Something inside of her was welling up and she didn't know what to do with it. She decided to go on a trip for a little while into the mountains behind her house, the better to control herself. Something in that fight had called something inside of her and she didn't like it.
Goei on the other hand, started to look at life a little differently. What she had seen was so far out of her belief in what she had assumed was an inviolable destiny that it made her question all of her previously held opinions. If someone outside the sacred destiny could be that strong what did that say about the destiny itself? She resolved to find out what this Ranma was doing in the area and she called Kokin and his friend Gakushu over to discuss things. Both of these fighters were ecstatic that this had happened. Recently, since Ryomou's defection the ice cream loving warrior had begun to question whether or not his destiny, or any of their destinies, was set in stone. In fact, this questioning, had begun when Ranma had removed his seed from him and destroyed it later that night. To Ranma's surprise his destruction of the mid level Fighters in his collection didn't have actual personality inside them, just imagery and twisting powerful desires like the lower level beads. Gakushu was not for the first time thinking somewhat clearly, and he knew that he had to change though how and what was still in question.
When Goei was informed about what Ranma was doing in the area she began to giggle and then laugh out loud. She said something about asking for a government bailout and then broke down into giggles again. Kokin and Gakushu just stared at her, not recognizing the reference.
That night Myosai made her way into the hospital via the roof, intent on completing the job Chutatsu had passed on to her from Sousou. She would normally have questioned why Sousou couldn't pass on the orders himself, but since it dealt with killing the man who had so badly beaten Sousou she decided to go with it.
Despite her bright white dress, Myosai was an expert at stealth, and she made her way through the hospital without alerting anyone to her presence. Unlike Nanyo they hadn't bribed someone on the staff to turn off the cameras to the target floor, the staff member responsible for doing so had been found out and fired with cause already. Kyosho's own contact on the hospital staff had simply passed on Ranma's room number, so she knew precisely where she was going. She only had one moment of concern as a nurse on night patrol came up the elevator, but she ducked into the staircase just in time. Myosai then made her way down the staircase to the fifth floor.
She opened the door to that level and looked out. The lights on this level were on, unlike the levels above, and she cursed inwardly before moving forward as stealthily as she could with the lights on, moving from door to door and avoiding the two cameras she could spot. She was able to get to Ranma's door without triggering any alarm, but when she went inside she found herself face to face with Chou'un.
Chou'un had the most advanced ki sense among the Seito girls, even better than Herb who had indeed left late that afternoon to check in at the Chinese embassy. She had replaced Kan'u who had taken her place guarding Ryuubi and the still out of it Chouhi, and had felt Myosai the moment she reached the fifth floor.
No words were exchanged as Myosai dived into the attack, her hands suddenly filled with her signature jade shot, a personal weapon she had created herself with a sharp jade tip atop a long silk wrapped chain. She could use this weapon with consummate skill even in an enclosed space, something she showed now by whipping it in a complicated figure eight to block Chou'un's blade as it came toward in a lightning fast Iai strike.
Chou'un recovered swiftly, and the two began to dance around one another, neither hindered by the small space they found themselves fighting in. Chou'un's draconic eyes were open and hard as she stared at the assassin, and Myosai was similarly focused on her opponent. Chou'un's sword was unable to cut through her enemy's weapon but neither was Myosai able to hit her enemy's pressure points.
She fell back out of the room to give her some more fighting room, and Chou'un followed up almost whispering "Wind strike!" A small wave of air left her sword and nicked Myosai's dress, slicing the side of it as she moved out of the way. Another shot was blocked and she went on the attack, trying to pin Chou'un in the doorway.
Chou'un let her blade be caught by her enemy's rope, but then lashed out with a kick, sending Myosai backward and allowing her to clear the doorway before they clashed again. The sound of their battle spread through the hallway, the sound of clang, swish and swoosh echoing along the hospital walls. The cameras Myosai had been so careful to avoid caught
Myosai was finally able to get through Chou'un's defense, tagging a pressure point in her left arm. Chou'un barely even noticed, as her style was based on one-handed swordsmanship, and she was right handed. In return she slashed more of her opponent's skirt off. Now it was hanging from her from by a slim margin, though her body still hadn't been tagged.
The fight continued, neither speaking as they exchanged blows until Kan'u alerted by the alarm came out of the stairwell, Seryuutou already out and swinging.
Myosai realized that she was now at a severe disadvantage and decided to retreat for now. She reached into her blouse with a free hand and pulled out a small smoke grenade, which she threw on the ground between her and Kan'u. Kanu fell back, coughing as the smoke hit her and Myosai turned, smashing through a window and out into the night air. Chou'un moved to the window to stare out into the night as Mysoai landed on a nearby rooftop, to glare back at them. Kan'u joined her there, staring out at the assassin. "Well, that was certainly interesting she was quite attractive, for an assassin. Was she any good?"
Chou'un nodded, her draconic eye becoming mere slits as she lost sight of her opponent in the darkness. "Oh yes, very good. I think she is going to be a problem in the future."
"I failed!" Myosai cursed as she stomped into Chutatsu's office once again. "I was winning against one of his guards, that silver haired bitch Chou'un, but then Kan'u showed up and I had to retreat!" Her clothes were in tatters and she had a few small gashes and one or two bruises, but she still seemed in fighting condition. Kakuka looked at her body appreciatively for a moment then turned away before she could notice.
Chutatsu, sitting calmly in her wheelchair took her outburst in stride. "I honestly didn't expect our first attempt would work but don't worry he won't be well enough to participate in the tournament and you can strike then when the other strong fighters are busy with fighting the Rakuyo's faction's champions."
"Can I see Lord Sousou before then?" Myosai asked.
Chutatsu shook her head. "Sorry, no one's seeing him until he's well enough to at least speak, even I don't know where he is." That much unfortunately was true. Without the dragon shard in him the ruler was a liability to her future plans, and one she would've preferred to silence in such a way as to point the finger at one of the other faction, but he, the Three Pillared Gods as well as Kakoton had never returned to the school following the fight against Seito, nor did they ever show up at the hospital where Ranma was being trated (that would have been really awkward). Chutatsu had a suspicion of where he was, but if they were all together and where she thought they were it would be next to impossible to arrange an accident, she would have to attack openly and if even one of the Pillared Gods was in fighting form, then that would be a costly maneuver in many ways.
She could leak the information to Toutaku, and let him deal with Sousou, but she had a sneaking suspicion that Toutaku was going to be a little too busy dealing with his own concerns. And arranging that would take away time better spent getting her and those Fighters loyal to her away before the other factions sensed their weakness and finished them off.
Myosai wasn't happy to hear this but shrugged it off. "All right. I'll try again during the tournament. Until then give me everything you have about this Ranma and the other Seito fighters. I want to study them before trying again." That silver haired bitch was a little too good for my liking. She thought rather disgruntled that their fight had been interrupted. Still, who knows, I might have a second try at Chou'un and then we'll see who the better fighter is.
When he reported in, the police commissioner found that his superiors were split on how to respond to the fight. Some were terrified and wanted to make Ranma disappear, shall we say, as a visible danger to the nation, others wanted to find some way to control him, either to turn him into a weapon or to weaken him down to a manageable level. But when the police commissioner finished telling them that the fight against the Sousou and his inner dragon might have been only a preview of what could have been much worse later on, with the berserk dragon revived, that silenced most of them.
Thankfully, in terms of the video of the fight, most people, as had been previously stated were unprepared to deal with supernatural. Those who were however, had already been in contact with Japanese government asking what the hell was going on. The Catholic Church especially took the view that possession was their purview and wanted to be involved from now on. The Japanese government however, had shot that down quickly as they already have enough help at hand. Thankfully the other governments of the world were much more select in what they believed, and only China was prepared to believe the evidence that had already made its way onto the internet. Their ambassador had already been informed of the events, and informed them that Herb would stay and help for the duration of the conflict, until they were certain this dragon berserker would never be able to revive and the curse was gone for good. This actually helped convinced the skeptics in the government about the veracity of the information the police commissioner had passed on, and they decided to start giving more aid to Ranma and his allies.
Thus, when seal master Harumoto opened his door the next day he found five government officials there with a large suitcase full of money and two tickets round trip for him and his attendant to Kyoto and the key to a penthouse suite in one of the best hotels in the area. He would remain on call there and work on his seals there until the problem was solved, just in case they needed his advice. Another expert that Ranma had talked about contacting, Dr. Oden up in a town on the Kitami Range in Hokkaido was given the same treatment a few days later, which was how long it took the government to find his address and get some men there from Sapporo. Dr. Oden was known to never willingly leave his town, but he had already been debating doing so after reading the notes Ranma sent him. When he learned of the luxurious traveling arrangements the government was prepared to provide for him, it helped him make up his mind. The old man had never lived in the lap of luxury and he found the idea appealing.
More the police commissioner was given the go-ahead to start rounding up any Fighter from the Wei faction and any other weakened faction that had broken any laws recently who they hadn't been able to go after before, and was given the go-ahead to use the SWAT and any other resources he needed to do it. With most of Wei's more powerful fighters out of the way, down injured or simply out of the fight, they would be able to round up several dozen, separate them from their beads and hand those over to Ranma to be destroyed. Unfortunately this large a raid would take two days to prepare and when they moved in they would find a surprise. Most of the fighters had already left the school to head for an undisclosed location, leaving behind those fighters most loyal to. It seemed the strategist Chutatsu had abandoned Wei to its fate. Not that Sousou was in any condition to care one way or the other about his faction, he had still hadn't come out of the coma Ranma put him in.
Still that was the only hiccup to the massive number of raids, and Nanban, Nanyu, Yoshuu Private School, and Yoshuu Academy were hit. Gakushuu didn't fight the police when they came for the lower ranked fighters of his school, something that Kokin went along with. Without Taishiji, who Ryofu had crippled weeks earlier in response to his attempted revolt against Toutaku, Youshuu Academy fell without any difficulties. All these raids went off without a problem, though half of this was because Toutaku had pulled in as many Fighters as he could to reinforce his position around Rakuyo. Gogun and Seito were left alone for now. Gogun's leader Ukitzu had actually contacted the government after the fight between Sousou and Ranma, and told them she was willing to work with them so long as she could get an introduction to Ranma. The end result was that when Ranma eventually woke up five days later, he would find a small pile of magatama to analyze and destroy next to his bed.
Ukitzu sighed as she popped the last sweet dango into her mouth, staring out the window of the café she was sitting in. Things had been going so strangely lately, she really didn't know what to think of everything that had occurred since Ranma had appeared in the area. Everything was just so, so, chaotic now! Before she knew what would she was supposed to do, she was supposed to help but Hakufu out from the sidelines until the girl became strong enough to be a challenge for her and then defeat the big breasted ditz and her inner Dragon. This was what she was supposed to do, both according to her destiny and to her master, but lately it seemed as if other events had taken over everything in the region.
It all came down to Ranma and the amount of chaos that his very presence spread. And the fight Ranma had with the ruler of Wei was just amazing! She had tried to record it as it aired, but she couldn't figure out the controls to her DVD player in time to catch it all, and the copies she found on the internet had been changed to look fake, an obvious change to her Fighter's eyes. She had never seen a fight like that before, it was a truly awesome spectacle of martial arts might.
As she guzzled her tea, the thought occurred to her once again that she and Ranma would make a fantastic match, but Ukitzu forcefully reminded herself that Ranma was already with Kan'u and Chou'un. There were rumors going around that another girl had joined them, but the fact was she wasn't into sharing and was as straight as an arrow. Unlike Kanu, who not only accepted but was happy with Ranma's curse, to her it was a major turnoff. That and the fact that she wasn't a poacher made it highly unlikely that any relationship between her and Ranma could ever occur. Kan'u certainly wasn't going to leave him anytime soon if ever, and the other girls seem to be happy to share with one another so...
Her thoughts were interrupted as she spotted someone with black hair and a pigtail walking by outside window of the tea shop she was sitting in. She jumped out of her seat and ran outside only to stop a little confused. From what Ukitzu had seen Ranma always seemed to dress in silk pants and shirt, but the young man in front of her was dressed in army fatigue pants and a muscle T-shirt. On his back was a huge backpack. He was actually pretty good-looking, built along the same lines as Ranma was himself, not hugely muscled but built for speed and endurance much like a swimmer or martial artist.
Ukitzu looked up at the boy and noticed that he had been checking her out at the same time as she had been doing the same to him and she blushed a little. "Sorry, she said, "I thought you were someone else."
The boy smirked a little. "Really" he said, "who do you think I look like?"
For the fighters of Seito the next few days passed relatively quickly, and with no further attempts on Ranma's life. The composition of the rest of the district had been completely changed however. With most of the Fighters of B rank and below out of circulation for various reasons the civilian populations began to act more normally. Shops began to stay open after nightfall again, people, especially women and girls began to move around singly rather than in large groups, and a cautious feeling of optimism was in the air. The construction workers got to work on the various demolished areas (some of them reported seeing a lone martial artist helping them out in various areas, but this was unconfirmed) and the police began to patrol the streets in normal sized teams once again. They were tense, but a lot of progress had been made. Whether or not this progress would continue or be overturned would be decided in the fight between Rakuyo and Seito.
The area designated for the final battle was inside an old abandoned warehouse whose roof had caved in some years prior. The area was clear of all refuse the area having been used by several of the factions on and off for sparring practices and other training exercises. Herb, Ryuubi and the others from Seito were there first, and waited patiently for Toutaku and his party to arrive. When they did, Herb took a moment to study the so-called Emperor, and he was not impressed.
The boy was tall, taller than Herb, and built along the same lines as he was, with wavy blonde hair and dark, almost manic eyes. He didn't have nearly the presence of Sousou, and the most peculiar thing about him was the many, many bandages that were everywhere on his body. Little bandages, as if someone had cut him a little, then patched him up and did it again over and over. It was his eyes, however, that told Herb all he wanted to know about Toutaku. Here was a mad dog, the man who had plunged the entire region into anarchy without remorse in the name of his own power and rule, and Herb determined to put him down.
Toutaku's first words as he, Ryofu, Chinkyu and another fighter named Kousei came up to them in the center of the arena proved this theory right. "My my" Toutaku smirked as he looked at Ryuubi, "Aren't you a pretty one. After we win I might just have to keep you for myself. At least until you're a little too damaged for me to have more fun with."
There was something very definably foul in his words and glance, and Ryuubi flushed first with shame and fear then with rising anger as Toutaku continue to gaze lustfully at her. Her inner dragon rose up inside her, almost physically forcing her to charge forward and erase this little shit from the universe, but she swiftly shook off the thought looking a little quizzical at the completely foreign thought. She wasn't a trained warrior, why did she want to be the one to fight Toutaku? A sudden burning headache appeared behind her eyes and she shook her head. But before she could do anything else the pain disappeared.
Kan'u had stepped forward as these words had left Toutaku's mouth, glaring across at him. "Perhaps you should wait until you win to make such threat." She growled out.
Herb nodded stiffly. "Indeed, such words are beneath one who claims to be in Emperor, let alone a man." Ryomou nodded emphatically.
Emperor smirked at them then looked back at Kan'u. "You have a nasty little mouth Kan'u Unchou, after this is over, I might have to plug it with something."
Kanu made to jump forward but Herb grabbed her shoulder before she could. "I believe," he said to the referee "that we are all here we might as well begin."
The referee nodded and Chinkyu stepped forward, looking a little apologetic at Toutaku's words. Honestly, she really wasn't certain why she and Ryofu-sama were still with Rakuyo, but they had come to fat to back out now.
Ryomou as agreed stepped forward to meet her. She would take out both of the weaker fighters, allowing Herb to concentrate on Toutaku as he wanted to and Kan'u to concentrate on Ryofu.
As soon as the referee signaled the match to begin Chinkyu shot forward, determined to perform well and impressed her Ryofu-sama. Ryomou met the charge calmly smacking aside the younger woman's hands and grabbing her head forcing it down and slamming her knee up into her forehead. The Brown haired girl shook her head but charged forward again and sending out several fast, sharp punches and kicks.
Ryomou grunted as one shot got through to her upper arm, but other than that Chinkyu wasn't having a very easy time of it, taking three shots for every one she landed. Mindful of what had occurred to the younger girl earlier and not wanting to give her any flashbacks Ryomou refrained from using her regular submission techniques, but that didn't mean that she couldn't grapple with the girl at all.
One instant Chinkyu had overextended her kick, the other Ryomou had her leg in her grip twisted, pulled and slammed her enemy's body down onto the ground, still retaining her hold on the leg. Ryomou sat down on the other girl's back, pulling back on the leg like she had seen one of those American wrestlers do on that silly made-up wrestling show. The wrestling may have been fake, but the move was a good one, and the younger girl was forced to tap out or break her own leg to get free. With a look of agony over at Ryofu, who simply smiled and nodded, she tapped out.
Ryomou stood up, dusted her hands off and motioned to Kousei to come forward.
Chou'un calmly waited outside the door to Ranma's hospital room. After the first assassination attempt Ranma had been moved up into the top floor, which was then emptied of other patients. Ryuubi knew that someone else would come along to try and assassinate him again, and so decided to create a battlefield that would be easier to defend. Chou'un had immediately volunteered to guard Ranma, partly because she wanted a rematch with Myosai, who she knew was going to try again.
About 30 min. after the tournament's last round was due to begin Myosai made an appearance just as predicted. Chou'un slowly stood up, sliding her sword out of its sheath. "I knew you would come," she said calmly. "I am ready for you. I believe we have unfinished business to settle."
Myosai looked from Chou'un to the door behind her and then back again, conflicted. On the one hand, she knew that killing Ranma was more important than fighting Chou'un, it was her mission after all. On the other hand she could do that after she and Chou'un fought, and she didn't like not knowing who was better between them any more than the other girl did.
She brought out her weapon and began to twirl it around her, the silk covered chain making a whooming noise in the air. At some unspoken signal they both charged forward. Myosai brought her rope around trying to entangle Chou'un's legs, but Chou'un leapt up above the rope bringing her sword around in a slash that would've cut Myosai in two had she not dodged. Myosai brought up a rope again catching Chou'un on the chin with the jade tip of it, but Chou'un brought her sword down in a stab that nicked her arm.
Myosai catapulted away from Chou'un swinging her rope around in a wide arc, but Chou'un merely used her sword to block it then grabbed the rope and twirled with it bringing Myosai closer again to cut at her side again. Myosai dodged as much as she could getting only nicked by the tip of the sword and responded with a heart punch to the side of the head that sent Chou'un reeling away. Chou'un responded to this by kicking out as she moved back catching Myosai in the chest and sending her backwards.
Both brought up their weapons again clashing and coming around one another. The rope made an adequate defense against Chou'un sword, but this close she couldn't entangle Chou'un with it and still have enough length left to attack her. Chou'un kept the fight close knowing that at medium range she was at a disadvantage, even with her long-range attacks. Myosai was simply too good to expect those attacks to work on her if she had any room at all to dodge with.
The stalemate continued with the two battling it out there in the hospital corridor until a faint sound from one of the doors brought their attention to a shorthaired girl with odd cross shaped markings under her eyes poking her head out of the empty room.
The Imperial assassin cursed inwardly. Their information on the room Ranma was in was wrong as well as not mention his window had bars, and she had been forced to scale around the building until she could find a window that didn't have bars on it. She wished not for the first time that she had some kind of distant weapon because if she did she could have simply broken the glass and shot Ranma through it. To make matters worse that old woman sitting with her target had seen her, and hefted her sword as if she knew how to use it.
If she could just get into the room though, her poisoned knives could deal with the woman easily enough, but she just wasn't good enough at throwing the things while maintaining her position on the wall. If she could get her feet on solid ground she could knife throw with the best of them, but not while she was clinging to the side of the building and having to punch through a window at the same time.
She had barely opened the door to the corridor before a Jade shot took her in the side of the face smashing her into lala land.
Behind the two combatants the door to Ranma's room open and Nodoka stuck her head out. Seeing the woman who had been so ill mannered as to attempt to assault her son via the window lying insensible on the ground, she nodded pleasantly at the two fighters. "I'll just let you too young ladies get back to whatever you are doing" she said pleasantly. While she didn't consider herself that much of a warrior, she was of the samurai caste and knew better than to butt in on someone else's fight. With a click the door closed and the two fighters looked at one another shrugged and then at some unspoken signal began fighting again.
Outside the hospital the bowmistress Teni cursed as she tried another position and found that just as she had thought she couldn't quite find an angle that she could use to fire an arrow at Ranma from. She was an archer by trade and had no close in skills, so the bow and arrow was it. If she couldn't find an angle to shoot from she was next to useless here. Still, at least she could observe Myosai's attempt and report back to her Maria-sama about it.
Back on the tenth floor the fight had continued with neither fighter being able to get the upper hand. Chou'un was having a harder time of it than her opponent, as Myosai had hit upon the idea of bouncing her jade shot off the walls, and while the shots from the blunt jade shot weren't particularly dangerous separately, they were debilitating. In return Myosai had let her defense down a time or two and had several slashes on her arms and legs to show for it. Once again her dress was in tatters, as was the school uniform of her opponent.
Chou'un sensed another shot coming in from behind her and rather than gritting her teeth and bearing it or turning to use her sword to defend against it she undid her sheath from her side and using it with one hand smacked it back to catch the recoiling rope. The rope coiled around it and she spun bringing her sword up and around in slash she shouted. "Wind slash!" Her ki attack was able to slice through the chain of her enemy, and she let her sheath tumble to the ground, holding the jade shot and about 3 feet of length of the rope.
This left Myosai with only 4 feet of length to play with, and no dangerous point at the end. Myosai had responded to this by several hard Palm strikes to Chou'un's chest and a few pressure points strikes, locking up the other woman's side and arm as she turned, but even without that she knew that with Chou'un still possessing her sword she was now overmatched. She backed up worriedly as Chou'un completed her turn back, still twirling the rope in front of her as a defense wondering how the hell she was going to even the odds now.
Chou'un on the other hand backed off. "Might I ask the question?" she asked politely.
Myosai struck by the polite tone of voice in this circumstance responded automatically "yes of course" she said before she could stop herself.
"I believe you work for Sousou of the Wei faction, but what I would like to know is why you are doing this? He didn't strike me as a particularly sore loser, and for all the reports about him confirmed that he didn't really believe in this destiny malarkey."
"Did you just say malarkey?" Myosai asked deadpan. Chou'un waved her word off, blushing slightly. Myosai ignored that and answered her question, seeing no harm in it. "As to your question Chutatsu Shibai told me."
For a moment there she was wondering why about that statement bothered her, Chou'un however put it into words. "And Shibai would never do anything that your Ruler didn't want her to?"
Myosai look blank for a moment as that thought percolated in her head then she blanched. Chou'un nodded "yes I thought that might be the case. Have you even talked to your Emperor, he woke up yesterday you know."
"How do you know that?" Myosai asked suspiciously twirling her rope menacingly.
Choukou Kyocho got in contact with us as soon as he woke up. He wanted to know more about what we were doing the end the curse on us all." This was true, Sousou had been very interested, once he woke u,p to realize that he was no longer plagued by feelings of rage, possessiveness or avaricious greed to control everyone around him. His childhood friend Kakoton and all the others with him didn't have such remarkably change in their attitude, but he realized that he was missing his bead as well as his hinner dragon spirit and connected the dots.
Myosai looked at her and then away "I'll-I'll go see what he wants. If he really doesn't want me to assassinate Ranma that we won't have to fight again. But don't think it'll be easy if if we will."
Chou'un shook her head, smiling slightly, "I wouldn't dream of thinking such a thing." My bruises aren't likely to let me forget. I think I cracked a rib at some point in this fight, and I don't even know how many bruises I have, let alone what she did to my side and arm to make me lose all feeling in them. She thought to herself. Myosai was simply very, very good, and it was only chance and the inspiration to use her sheath that allowed her to end this fight. Well, that and the fact that Myosai was devoted to Sousou and not his faction. Myosai nodded and ran off.
Chou'un turned and entered Ranma's room, wincing slightly as she walked. Nodoka took one look at her and motioned her to a seat by the door. "Sit," she ordered "and strip, let's see what wounds you have." Chou'un looked at the other woman. At first she had been angry with Kan'u about how easy she had agreed to allow his mother to stay, after all she was not the most forgiving of people. But in the end she realized maybe that Kan'u, as in so much else, was closer to Ranma than she was and went along with things. She didn't expect to be mothered herself however, and she sighed as she obeyed the motherly look of concern as she removed what remained of her school.
In comparison to the first fight Ryomou put down Kousei swiftly. Not really wanting to drag it out and having no reason to take it easy on him like she had with Chinkyu, within minutes of entering the ring Kousei found himself locked into her submission hold and falling unconscious swiftly. Ryomou let up as the ref declared her the inner and barely had time to move to stand next to Ryuubi and Herb before Ryofu strode forward eagerly. Kanu grimly moved forward opposite her.
No one said a word as Ryofu and Kan'u squared off in the ring, staring one another down, fingering their respective weapons. Kan'u smiled slightly. "I've been hoping for a match against you." She mused, "With all the training I've been get undergoing, I want to see how well I would stack up against the best fighter in the region."
Ryofu smiled grimly "well you're about to get your wish, but how about we put a little wager, something to make it more interesting?"
Kan'u smirked "and what would you want that I have to give?"
"Ranma," Ryofu answered promptly, "I want him."
Kan'u's smile faded. "He's not a thing you can fight for Ryofu, he's a person with his own feelings and desires you're going to have to work to get his attention if you want to be with him so much. And if you do you want him you're going to have to share him because I'm not giving him up."
Ryofu shrugged, "Ah well it was worth a try." And then without any warning in her stance or eyes she lunged forward with her ji, a speaer with twin cresent shaped blades at its tip, a magnificent weapon named Houtengenki, and the fight began. Kan'u was able to lock at first lunch and preposterous swiftly, their blades clanging together.
Clang, clang, clang was all that was heard for a few minutes as the two tested one another's defenses and styles. Ryofu style wasn't very precise, but what she did have was speed and strength in spades. She also had massive ki reserve and ki attacks, and used them often as shown in the next second when she lashed out with her free fist, firing a beam of ki at her opponent.
Kan'u dodged the first to almost run into another but she got underneath it and fired back with her Crescent Blade's Earth Roar
Ryofu however simply jumped over it and responded with her own ki attack again. She nearly caught Kan'u square in the chest, Kan'u was able to dodge at the last second, but her skirt was shredded by the blast as it went by.
Kan'u however, ignored this and continued to fight, slicing open Ryofu shirt as she came down, the other girl fast enough to dodge being opened up crotch to tits but not quite fast enough to dodge all of the blow.
The fight continued likes this for a while, both of them using their weapons hands, ki, hands and feet to great effect, but not able to land any telling or knockout blows.
As the fight wore on Kan'u began to feel weak, nowhere near as weak as she could have been without the prior training with Ranma, but her endurance still wasn't as good as her boyfriends.
Ryofu too was feeling it, and this was exacerbated by her illness. An hour and a half after the fight began she was hit with a wave of dizziness and stumbled her guan do falling from the correct guard position for just an instant.
Kan'u capitalized instantly. She used her own weapon to smack the weapon out of Ryofu's hand and with a shout of "Explosive Palm!" slammed her palm into Ryofu's chest blowing the other girl away and back into a wall.
Ryofu, unlike her opponents from the second round, was able to shrug this off and get back up and fight again, but her illness once more drove her back down to the ground and before she could move Kan'u had her spear point at her throat. Ryofu glared up at her and brought her hands together too fast for her to see, grabbing the spearhead and wrenching it up and away from her throat as she stood up, but Kan'u ignored the assault on her weapon and kicked Ryofu strongly in her already damaged stomach.
Ryofu took that shot and still holding onto Kan'u's weapon kicked out again, catching Kan'u on the leg. Kan'u winced and nearly fell to the ground as well but brought her spear around butt first and slammed it into the side of her enemy's head. This sent the other woman sailing away, unfortunately toward her ji. Ryofu grabbed Houtengeki up and charged back in as Kan'u went to one knee.
A heavy overhand strike was met by Kan'u raising Seryoutuo in a crosswise position to block the blow and the two stood there straining against one another. Just as Ryofu was about to break the deadlock she felt another wave of dizziness and she cursed as she fell back from the deadlock allowing Kan'u to regain her feet. She brought her ji around intersecting Kan'u's left arm, but Kan'u moved with the below only receiving a large slash that went from her shoulder down to her elbow rather than bisecting the arm entirely.
Kan'u responded by slashing her guan do forward and catching Ryofu in the side, though Ryofu had dodged enough to only be caught in the side rather than bisected. Even that wasn't a killing blow however as it looked far worse than it really was, it was bad, but ignorable.
Ryofu was willing and able to continue the fight until another wave of dizziness hit her. Her body was working overtime trying to keep her in fighting condition despite her wounds and this had exacerbated her illness to the point where it now overcame her. With a final yell she lunged forward, trying desperately to spear her enemy in turn, but Kan'u dodged and Ryofu went stumbling on for a few more step's then collapsed comatose to the ground.
Kan'u breathed a sigh of relief as her opponent fell then, with one hand staunching the blood from her own wound, walked over and checked the other woman's pulse. It was weak but there and she sighed in relief. Then she took the other warrior's magatama and with the referee's help picked her up and carried her over to the sidelines.
Toutaku strode forward certain of his victory now. Ryomou was near nowhere near good enough to face him, and Ryofu had weakened Kanu enough to where she wouldn't be much of a match either. "So," he said smirking evilly over at Ryuubi, "are you going to be the one fighting me? I'm certain I have some grappling techniques I could use," he mused to himself.
Ryuubi once again felt a sudden and terrible rage and desire to kill this pompous little twit, but Herb strode forward before she could move. "I will be your opponent" he said firmly, glaring through draconic eyes at the sadistic bastard across from him.
"Oh?" drawled Toutaku, "I wasn't aware that the tournament allowed ringers. If you're not part of their faction or go to their school I'm afraid you're disqualified" he said gleefully.
Herb's glare if anything became harder at this. "And thus you prove yourself unfit to rule" he intoned darkly, "Rulers aren't supposed to change the rules like that to protect themselves. We are supposed to stand tall and proud not skulk or hide. You are a coward Toutaku unfit to bear the name Emperor, unfit to even be the descendents of that fat scum that she was your ancestor."
Toutaku growled low in his throat, his dragon sliver fueling his rage and overcoming his desire to back out of this fight and retain his position.. "Are you challenging me?"
Herb laughed "Why, I thought that was obvious."
Toutaku snarled and charged his enemy, his fists flaming with scarlet ki. Herb met his charge, battering his attacks aside with a spped and precision that brought a gasp from Kan'u and the other onlookers. Herb would normally have moved around and taken to the air, but he was trying to not only defeat but humiliate this pstule that called himself a rule, so he simply stood there taking everything Toutaku could throw at him, not allowing even a single hit to his person. Not even Ranma could have done so well, but then again he would never have stood still in a fight. Toutaku became more and more incensed and began to use more and more ki in his attacks. Finally he lept back and smashed out with a ki attack that was the size of his own body.
Herb still stood there, and met the attack with his own "Ryu Sei Hisho!" This attack somehow bounced multiple small balls of ki off the ground and into the oncoming attack. This made a huge explosion appear between them and Toutaku began to laugh, thinking he had at last destroyed that irritating face that looked at him with such contempt and scorn.
As the flame explosion dissipated everyone could see that Herb was gone. "Is that all you can do with the soul of a dragon fueling you?"
The voice came from above them, and everyone there craned their necks to look, gasping at what they saw.
Herb was standing in midair, seemingly flying in place. It was a trick only those of the dragon clan could do, using their ki to fly like the phoenix clan. They couldn't keep it up indefinitely, but in this case that wasn't needed.
Below him Toutaku looked up at him with his mouth open in surprise. Inside him, his rage and fury disappeared for the first time in days, gone as if they never were as he felt true terror for the first time since he had been given his family's bead.
Herb looked down on him with the eyes of an executioner, without pity or remorse. After all this was the man who was singlehandedly responsible for the upsurge in violence in the region, for over a dozen rapes and deaths, and now he would pay in like coin. "Here," Herb said in an almost soft tone of voice "let me show you what real ki attacks look like." He concentrated for a moment, concentrating ki into his hands then slashing them forward. "Hito Ryu-Zan Ha!" Two blades of chi sped forward faster than Toutaku could move, impacting his body and going on to slice further into the asphalt behind him.
For a moment Toutaku couldn't feel anything, and began to wonder what the attack was supposed to do. Then he tried to lift an arm, only for the arm to fall to the ground, sliced straight through with an ease as to make the sharpest scalpel seem dull in comparison. He looked up again at Herb and his torso began to slide of his legs. His last thought was that his fate had been different, but the end was still the same.
As Toutaku's body fell to the ground in pieces Herb simply smiled grimly. He landed lightly on the ground, reached down next to the smoking body and pulled off Toutaku's sacred bead. The bead had been chipped and cracked in the explosion as well, but it was still whole, and he now knew that you had to fight the spirit within and overcome it and had suggestions before it could be destroyed. Still he said to himself, as the others looked at him with more than a little fear. "This was a better outcome than I expected." Indeed, Toutaku hadn't put up nearly as hard a fight as he should have and he wondered why that was.
On the sidelines Ryuubi once again had to fight down an irrational spurt of rage and bloodlust, but with Kan'u and her friends around her she was able to do so. She shook her head, and when she opened her eyes she saw them all looking at her in concern. She smiled slightly, not wanting to worry them. "Just a mild headache. Is it over?"
Kan'u nodded, not taking her eyes of Ryuubi. "Yes, this fight was rather anti-climatic in comparison to the last round."
Ryomou shrugged from where she was directing the referee to help them prepare Ryofu and Chinkyu to be taken to the hospital. "Remember its not over until all the beads are destroyed and the dragon shards vanished. Little slivers like Toutaku's, And mine, she thought to herself, can be banished through defeats and death like this one, but the main two remaining anchors will need to be exorcised. Indeed, she had absorbed her own shard during the days after she lost to Kan'u in their sparring match after she joined Seito. It was almost as if the loss, which was the opposite of what her destiny dictated would occur, had weakened its hold on her, allowing her to absorb its power like Chou'un had done with hers months previously.
Kan'u nodded seriously, wondering what would go wrong when they were ready to attempt that final exorcism. She had no idea how bad it would be.
On a plane that wasn't, in a place that had no physical representation, the new intelligence aroused wondered why this was happening now, when it had been so close to achieving its resurrection. Another one or two iterations of the so-called destiny that it's pawns were continually enacting would've given it enough power to release itself. The actions of whatever was weakening it had set it back centuries, and if it continued it might well finish the job the humans had done to it a millennia ago. This could not be allowed, it would have its revenge. It began to strengthen its connection and control to the two main anchors it had remaining, and two of the more powerful secondary anchors that were weak willed. It would take some time to turn the two main anchors, they were strong willed and would fight their purpose, but the others could be made stronger, better, more susceptible for now. And if its anchors were completely unsuitable, then it would transfer their power to other pawns. And then it would face this foe with all its power and defeat it, after which it could leash its pawns minds and hearts once again.
Later that night, Ryuubi decided to have Ranma and the other injured people moved into their temple home, which was much more easily defended and at the center of their territory rather than near the center of the region like the hospital. In this she imitated Sousou, though he had never actually entered the hospital, being whisked away by his friend Kakoton and Bunken along with the others to a safe house Kyocho, who kidnapped a doctor to come and look after the patients and stay with them for a while. The doctor had been returned yesterday, none the worse for wear for his experience. As soon as the group walked into the temple they were greeted by young high-pitched voice squealing happily. "Ryuubi-sama!"
Ryuubi barely had time to blink before she was hit in the chest by a small light blue haired missile. "Koumei-chan!" she exclaimed "You're back!"
Koumei Shokatsuryo looked up at her adoringly, her aquamarine hair bobbing in tis twin tails "Hai, I came back as soon as I could when I saw the reports about the tournament. Koumei, the strategist of Seito, had been called away from the region by a family emergency. Her parents had been in a car accident and couldn't take care of themselves until their legs healed. Being their only child it had fallen to her to take care of them, a chore that she had despised from day one and was well rid of now. She in fact would have remained with them for at least another week if she hadn't seen the tournament fight on the internet. When she saw that, she knew she had to come back right away and it still took her a few days to figure out some other term of care for parents. "Now, would someone pelase explain to me what the heck as been going on while I've been away?"
It took hours to explain things to her, and when she heard of the curse and the real outcome their following the destiny would allow to occur, she immediately removed her magatama from her ear and placed it on the table in front of her then backed away. She may be sly, cunning, and a damn good strategist, but she was also an individual who valued the freedom of thought, the very idea of being controlled was anathema to her. She decided riht then and there to just go along with things, the better to make certain she wasn't being influenced by the curse or her magatama. She looked on concerned however as Ryuubi tok several pain killers, wondering what was bothering her.
The first things Ranma saw when he woke up from his comatose state was his mother and Kan'u by his bedside on one side and Ryomou on the other. Ryomou had been looking at him as he weakly opened his eyes (healing the burns he'd sustained had taken way more out of him than healing normal wounds). "He's awake" she whispered, reaching across him to shake Nodoka and Kan'u awake from their vigil. As Kanu straightened up Ranma could see a large bandage on the upper arm furthest away from him, and mentally frowned, wondering what he had missed. He worked his mouth for a moment, trying to get the dead skunk feeling out before he spoke. "H-How long have I been out?"
"You've been out for five days." Kan'u answered then smiled gently as Ranma's eyes slid from her to his mother sitting beside her. "Nodoka-san has been here nearly the entire time." And rather irritated about missing the assassin that first night. She had gone home to grab a change of clothes and missed the action entirely.
Ranma turned his head a little to look at his mother. "Mama, I… sorry, it's j-just with all the crap and the contract a-and how you reacted when ya f-found out about the curse and Genma and…"
Nodoka smiled sadly. "I think you were completely justified in turning me away Ranma, it was a natural response. But if you think I'm leaving before we reconcile then think again!"
Ranma smirked with a little bit of his usual energy. "Heh, as long as ya don't spout out with that 'manly' stuff again, I think that'd be nice." As Nodoka laughed Kan'u motioned to Ryomou and the two left, leaving mother and son alone to talk.
Ranma and his mother talked for nearly half an hour, and Nodoka left satisfied with the progress the two had made. About five minutes after Nodoka left Kan'u and Ryomou came back in.
Kan'u smiled. "Did you two have a nice talk?" Ranma nodded, and Kan'u nodded back then frowned. "But I am very displeased with you Ranma." Ranma looked at Kan'u quizzically. "I don't like it when you're hurt like this, and after I specifically asked you to be careful. So I decided we're going to torture you a bit."
She grinned at him and he looked at her a little warily, "torture how exactly?"
"Ryomou" Kan'u commanded, as her hands rose to the top of her school uniform, "Strip." Her own for version of The Voice lashed out and Ryomou's submissive side came out, and she hopped to obey. Soon both girls stood there, barely covered in silk chemise rather than their normal fighting attire. Kan'u's was pale white in color, while Ryomou's was black. She also was wearing a garter belt, and a choker, which Ranma hadn't noticed before. Kan'u wasn't wearing anything but the chemise, except for the socks from her school uniform. If it was any other male, they might have died from blood loss at the sight, but not Ranma. He only gaped, blushed and then tried to close his eyes, but something inside of him wouldn't let him.
Seeing this both girls giggled in delight. Kan'u knelt on the bed right next to Ranma's legs on one side and directed Ryomou to do so on the other side. As soon as they were situated she dragged Ryomou into a fierce lip lock. Their breasts pressed together in front of Ranma's astonished eyes. Kan'u broke the kiss, sticking out her tongue and made Ryomou suck on it like it was a certain male body part. This continued for 5 minutes and the two girls made a lot of noise grinding against one another in front of Ranma who was staring, wondering what the torture was he tried to lift a hand and nearly howled in agony when burns on his hand acted up at the movement.
Kan'u broke off from Ryomou's mouth and looked at her boyfriend smirking wickedly. "That's your punishment Ranma. Until you're completely healed you can look all you want but you can't touch and there'll be no relief for you either."
She started nibbling and suckling and Ryomou's neck her hand kneading the other girl's breasts as Ryomou's own hands fondled Kan'u's rear. Kan'u began to play with Ryomou's nipples through her chemise and then decided to move it to the side to play with them without the covering in the way. Ryomou responded by slipping her hands down underneath Kan'u's own chemise, gripping her rear with both hands. They began to kiss again, deeply, tongues out and twirling around one another. This went on for several minutes, with both girls enjoying themselves so much they forgot to look over at Ranma and make certain he was still watching.
Unfortunately for part of Kanu's purpose in doing this (the other part was she just really wanted to make out with Ryomou of course) Ranma had simply closed his eyes and began to meditate. Kan'u twitched her eyes over to her boyfriend and frowned as she noticed this. I should have known Ranma would have more willpower than that, of course he would simply not look. Still, it's not like I haven't other ways to torture him. She reluctantly disengaged from Ryomou who panted for a moment, arousal evident in every inch of her body, but she obeyed Kan'u's wordless order. They stood up and began to get dressed, with Kan'u smirking once more. "By the way Ranma, you missed the last round of the tournament."
Ranma's eyes shot open, and he didn't even notice his girlfriends' state of undress this time. "Wh-what, no way!"
"Kan'u smiled. "Oh yes, in fact Herb took your place for the battle and fought Toutaku Toutaku."
Ranma reflected that Herb was a good choice to replace him. While Kan'u had gotten a lot better, and she had the ki and ki control to fight almost as well as he could she still didn't quite have the endurance or the speed, but Herb did. Herb in fact could match him in speed, judging from the one spar they had before the girls came over that first night. More, he had an even larger ki reserve than any one of the Dragon shards, not by much, but he did have slightly more. He was in fact probably one of only two or three people on Earth who could out endurance one of the Dragon shard. It wouldn't be a pleasant experience, but he could do it. But… but…. "But I wanted to fight that fucktard Toutaku," Ranma whined. I've been looking forward to breaking that asshole's face in for weeks!
Kan'u giggled. "Yep, and the fight was rather anticlimactic the former emperor was no match for the dragon prince. And I fought Ryofu myself."
Ranma whimpered. "Ryofu too?" Damn it, what good fighters did that leave, well that he wanted to fight anyway?
"Should I give you a play by play?" Ranma shook his head quickly, he really didn't want to hear how good the fights were, that was just wrong. "I think you do" Kan'u said wickedly. Ranma tried to turn to somehow cover his ears but couldn't move enough to do so. "First went Ryomou and Chinkyu, that fight began with…" Ranma groaned aloud in agony. Some things were far worse than mere physical torture. Ryomou looked up from pulling on her shoes and smirked wryly. She had certainly fallen in love with a very odd young man, being more bothered about missing a fight and being teased about it than their sexual teasing from earlier. Still he wouldn't be Ranma if he was any other way.
The next morning, Ranma came out of his room under his own power despite Kan'u and the others protesting. His hands were still not usable, the burns healing slowly far more slowly than any of his other injuries, but his feet at least were usable, and despite the pain the burns on his feet caused he was adamant about not using a wheelchair. He sat down at the table for breakfast looking across at the small newcomer quizzically. "Who's the anime fan?" he said. Kanu looked at him quizzically and he replied "What, isn't she dressed like Sasmi from that Tenchi Muyo show?" Koumei glared and was about to blow up at him when the doorbell rang.
Kanu went to answer the door and found an old man, tall, rail thin and with a handlebar mustache standing there. Before she could ask him what his business was there he said. "I understand that a Ranma Saotome is staying here? He sent me a letter a few days ago that I think we need to talk about. I'm Dr. Oden."
Chapter end
As usual review and tell me what you think. The next update for this story will be on Thursday next week.