Disclaimer: Ranma ½ isn't mine, don't sue please.

Author Notes: It's chapter 10 folks… and it's only taken me a little over a year to get here…. Man I'm lazy. But enough about that, on with the show! presses the projector button, bringing up the title screen.

First I Giveth

Chapter 10: Neko-ken Unleashed

By Marik Kurakashi

"Saotome!" Nabiki yelled from behind Ranma. "Don't be afraid!"

"Buwahahahahaha!" Ranma laughed, his eyes crossed in concentration. "You think something like THIS will frighten me!"

"Then why are you shaking!" Akane snapped, her concern for the pig-tailed boy overriding her anger at his bravado.

"N-no reason." Ranma answered, trotting away from the Tendo sisters. "It seemed like a fun idea." He paused to scoop up the unconscious Dai. "Let's go Akane."

"Ngh," Dai answered, still unconscious from landing on his head.

"Wait, don't go that way!" Hiro shouted as Akane silently fumed.

"Huh?" Ranma said, dropping Dai rudely to the ground.

"Too late…" Hiro moaned as a loud growl emanated from the darkness.

"N-nice k-kitty!" Ranma said as he suddenly was face to face with a tiger. "Y-you d-don't w-want to eat scrawny old me, do you?"

"Ranma!" both sisters screamed with concern as he staggered back.

Then something peculiar happened. If the explosion of chaos and weirdness wasn't peculiar enough, what happened next blew both of them out of the water. One moment Ranma stood there shaking like a leaf in a windstorm, the next he had stopped and hunched over.

And this was followed by an inhuman yowl, the kind a human being should never be able to produce. The tiger shared the same look adorning the room's other occupants, sans the unconscious Dai, which was one of total disbelief. It backed away slowly as Ranma started to advance on it.

With another yowl, Ranma burst into action.

The various clubs had stopped their activities and looked at the stage. Weird sounds were emanating from it, but no one wanted to find out the cause. They all looked at each other, and shrugged their shoulders and went back to practicing.

Kuno, meanwhile, was waiting in eager anticipation that Ranma would come fleeing from the stage at any moment. His victory was nigh, he could almost grasp it. His loves would be finally free to shower him with the affection that they truly held for him.

Lost in his fantasy, he wound up affectionately hugging a very scared tiger.

"Mew?" it whimpered, still in wonder of the creature that had sent it flying.

"I'm sorry," Kuno said simply as cats began to rain down. "My heart belongs to another."

"It's not asking for a date you imbecile!" one of the club members yelled, while shielding himself from the feline shower.

Kuno simply placed the animal aside and took up his bokken. Surely, the fiend had unleashed a spell of staggering magnitude to frighten such a beast. If he had, then his magic would surely be low, and how the noble Blue Thunder would smite him!

Even one as delusional as Kuno had to blink at the surreal sight that imposed himself in front of him. There was Ranma, hunched over with Akane, Hiro, whom was also keeping a good grip on Dai, on his back, with Nabiki dangling from his mouth as though she were a kitten in her mother's mouth. Unable to cope, Kuno simply stared as Ranma unloaded his passengers and glowered at the insane kendoist.

The pig-tailed youth, whom was doing a credible imitation of a cat, snarled at Kuno and promptly attacked him.

It was with curious eyes everyone took in the site of Ranma appearing to hover in the air while 'clawing' at Kuno. To everyone's shock, Kuno's bokken was shredded, as was the floor. Tears in his kendo outfit even began to appear as he staggered from under the flurry of furious swipes .

"Excelsior paper?" Hiro said, grabbing a piece of the shredded floor.

"He didn't even touch it!" Akane exclaimed, look over at Ranma as he landed from his prodigious leap.

"What manner of magic is this!" Kuno exclaimed, looking at his shredded bokken. "That fiend has ruined my sacred blade!"

"Mreow," Ranma mewed, his eyes following the movement of the bokken.

Kuno narrowed his eyes as he eyed the cat-acting boy. He quickly moved it again, noticing the boy's eyes follow it even though he didn't outwardly seem to follow it. Kuno smiled as he managed to make the correct realization as a plan formed in his head.

"Fetch," he said simply as he tossed the ruined stick out an open window.

"Mrrow!" Ranma roared and leaped after it, going after it out the window.

"Some invincible technique…" Nabiki observed dryly.

"It seems easy to distract it, even though it was supposed to make a berserker." Akane said, agreeing with her sister's assessment.

"I'll go call Uncle Saotome, you go make sure he doesn't hurt anyone besides Kuno." Nabiki said, starting away.

"Just hurry okay?" Akane called after her sister as she ran out towards the field where Ranma went.

- - -

Pain was an old friend of Hibiki Ryoga's. It always kept him company, whether he asked for it or not. To be fair to Ryoga though, it was impressive for someone to be traversing the wilderness after being blown up like he had been.

He cursed under his breath, another sore banging off a small branch. It had slipped his mind during his panic over Akane's potential plight that he would be a little too sore to travel back the city. He couldn't turn back, as he had forgotten what direction he had come from, added to the fact that he was exhausted from his injuries.

There was no way he'd let Akane down at this crucial junction.

Onward he plugged, doing his best to ignore the pain as he thought about his goal. Akane was the only girl for him, of this he was certain. Most girls were put off by his rugged look but she treated him like he was special. Sure, that was his cursed form, but he'd take what he could get.

It wasn't long before he found himself clear of the trees and on the outskirts of Tokyo. He wasn't sure how far from Nerima he was, but he knew he couldn't stop now that he was back where he wanted to be. The fires of Hell itself wouldn't stay him from this mission, he would save Akane if it was the last thing he did.

Unfortunately for Ryoga, he was far too exhausted to continue on.

"Akane-san," the lost boy moaned as he collapsed to his knees. "I can't stop… have to warn her and Ranma."

"Huh?" An older male voice was heard as Ryoga's face met the ground. "Oh kami, this boy has been severely injured. I better get him inside."

Ryoga felt himself be lifted up by surprisingly strong arms, a sensation that was very foreign to him. Managing to look up, he saw the face of his rescuer, a man with brown hair and glasses as the man turned about and went into the clinic. Ryoga thought he had seen this man before, but couldn't remember where it had been.

His contemplations were cut short by him finally succumbing to his exhaustion and blacking out.

"Hang on Ryoga," Dr. Tofu muttered to the unconscious boy, hoping that he could help the boy in some fashion as he set him down on an examination table.

- - -

Akane had finally managed to track Ranma down, which had taken her all of five minutes to do. She had approached the gathering of students and quickly shoved her way to the front to feast her eyes on the bizarre sight up close. There was Ranma, up in the tree scratching behind his ear with his leg like a cat.

The neko-ken was cause of this, turning Ranma into some giant cat in human form. It was apparent that the change wasn't solely mental, as he appeared twice as limber as he usually was. He sounded like he was even purring a bit, but the reason for that escaped her at the moment.

Genma's sudden appearance nearly knocked her over. The portly man had managed to make it to Furinkan in what appeared to be record time, with a giant white bag of some kind to boot. Solemnly, and dare she think it, sorrowfully the elder Saotome looked up at his son as the boy continued to preen himself.

"I'm such a fool." he muttered quietly to himself.

"What was that?" Akane asked, not sure she heard him.

"Nothing." Genma grunted, looking at her. "I got here as fast as I could, I hope Nabiki isn't offended by me dropping the phone like that."

"Oh, I'm sure she doesn't mind." Akane said, while a small bout of worry wracked her. 'Why is Nabiki acting so concerned for Ranma lately? I just don't get it.'

"When Ranma went into this as a child," Genma's voice sliced her thoughts, brining her back to reality as she listened to the elder Saotome. "He only came out of it when he was petted by a kindly old lady."

"So the fiend even accosted the elderly in his youth?" queried Kuno, whom had just shown up in the middle of Genma's explanation.

The portly martial artist frowned at the insult directed at his son. He looked up at Ranma, whom hissed down at his father upon the sight of the man. Quickly, Genma's gaze snapped back to the kendoist and an idea popped into his head.

"Hey!" Kuno shouted as Genma roughly seized him and reached into the bag, pulling out some clothes. "What dost thou think thy art doing knave? Take thy hands from my person at once!"

"Finished!" Genma proclaimed, stepping back and revealing the Blue Granny of Furinkan High.

"Oh my…" was all Akane could manage before dissolving into giggles.

"W-what?" Kuno managed to get out, as the laughter from everyone else began in earnest.

"Up you go!" Genma said, tossing the boy up into the tree. "Try to calm Ranma down."

"Come here, foul one." Kuno said, trying to imitate a sweet old lady and failing miserably.

Ranma hissed loudly, which was the only warning the pompous temporary cross dresser received before he was attacked. The tree top exploded into a cloud of dust as Kuno's shrieks mingled with Ranma's growls in a chaotic symphony. As everyone gawked at the sight, more and more of the tree disappeared.

"I guess… this would be like tossing napalm on a wildfire." one of the students observed as Kuno landed on the ground, the granny clothes, along with his regular ones, were completely shredded.

"MROW!" roared Ranma as he sprang away.

"Ah.. Ranma!" Akane shouted as the boy seemed to be leaving the immediate area.

"Akane! We have to stop him!" Nabiki yelled as she finally made her way through the crowd.

"I brought something in case the old lady get-up failed to quell him." Genma said, opening the bag for the Tendo sisters to peer into.

"Catnip?" Nabiki asked, looking up at Ranma. "How're we supposed to get it up to him?"

"Maybe we can toss it?" Akane suggested, looking at Ranma as well.

"Too inaccurate," Nabiki said, dismissing the notion. "We need something that will get it to him on a sure thing, not pure luck."

"Like…" Akane started, not too sure of what it could be.

"…A bow and arrow?" Genma finished, tying the sack back up.

"That would work," Nabiki said, "but where do we get one."

"Maybe we can borrow his?" Genma said, pointing at a student holding a bow, the quiver slung over his shoulder.

"Hey," Akane called, making her way towards the student. "Can I borrow this?"

"H-huh?" the boy replied, before noticing she was pointing at his bow. "S-sure, Tendo-san."

"Thank you." Akane said, taking the bow and quiver before heading back over to Nabiki and Genma.

"It's up to you Akane," Nabiki said, watching her sister load the bag of catnip on the arrow before nocking it. "If you miss, we won't get a second chance."

"I know, now be quiet." Akane said, her gruff tone showing annoyance as she took aim at the pig-tailed youth whom was sailing through the air like a bird, even if he thought he was a cat at the moment.

TWANG!

The bow sang as Akane unleashed her shot, the arrow zooming towards Ranma. It was a beautiful and very accurate shot, which came to the shock of the youngest Tendo, as she never did that good in archery. Both sisters waited with baited breath as the arrow came closer to Ranma, appearing as though it would knock him from the sky.

To the shock of those who were just arriving on the scene, Ranma suddenly twisted in mid-air and "pawed" the bundle with his right hand. The effect of this caused the bag to explode, releasing the catnip directly into Ranma's face. The surprised boy, who thought he was a cat, promptly dropped from the sky, landing nimbly on the ground as the catnip showered down from above.

A mind-boggling long silence followed this, as everyone watched to see what Ranma's reaction to the catnip would be. As the quiet hung thick in the air, many spectators' brains began to actually try and gauge just how reaching the silence was. Now this, their brains concluded, was a bad idea, and several of them collapsed in agony at the sheer magnitude of the silence.

Fortunately for those who did not collapse, their brains were spared the agony by Ranma suddenly exploding into motion.

He sprang into the air with a thunderous whoop of delight that cause several people closest to him to back away in terror. Those people then had to flee in terror as Ranma started bouncing about like a super ball. Slowly, he stopped bouncing around and suddenly made his way towards the Tendo sisters.

"Uh-oh," Akane said, as she stepped in front of Nabiki in order to shield her from Ranma.

"Why is he coming at us like that?" Nabiki asked, looking at the bouncing boy who erroneously believed he was a cat.

"I don't know, either he's ticked off or he's really happy about something." Akane answered, looking worriedly at the approaching pig-tailed youth.

Ranma meowed loudly and zoomed down from the apex of his latest leap. Akane reflexively brought her hands up to block him, but it did her no good. The boy, still misguidedly thinking himself a feline, daintily bounced of her outstretched hands, which cause her to fall forward onto her face.

Nabiki gasped in surprise as Ranma practically pounced on her. The cat acting boy gently tripped her down into a seated position and made himself comfortable. Confused at first, she caution reached out and petted Ranma, which in turn made him purr.

"What in the…" Nabiki said, still unsure of what happened.

"R-Ranma?" Akane questioned, having finished rubbing her face after being rudely dropped on it.

To both sisters shock, Ranma suddenly leapt from Nabiki's lap and toppled Akane over before making himself comfortable in her lap. Akane, like Nabiki before her, hesitated before she petted him gently. He again started to purr, as though the change didn't really matter to him.

"I don't believe this…" Akane said as she tried to make sense of this.

"I don't either," Nabiki agreed, shaking her head.

Ranma's head jerked up at the sound of Nabiki's voice and suddenly vacated Akane's lap for Nabiki's, curling up as though he hadn't left it so suddenly. Both girls looked at each other than back at the comfortable Ranma, before Nabiki cautiously resumed petting him. A small smile curled the edges of her lips, which caused Akane's left eye to twitch in annoyed fashion.

"Oh Ranma…" Akane said, her voice dripping with enough honey to attract a bear. It did, however, attract Ranma like she had intended. She sat there, petting Ranma while she stuck her tongue out at her sister.

Nabiki frowned at her sister, with her teeth grinding slightly at her sister's behavior. Here she was, trying to calm him down and Akane had to rile him up again! She wasn't upset because she had lost her lap warmer, oh no, that was the farthest thing from her mind. Even if a small part of her was analyzing everything and doing the math on all things that could be considered by this latest wrinkle in her potential fiancé, including that which would make even the most brazen of girl blush.

"Hey, Ranma-kun!" Nabiki called in a sing-song voice, which had the desired effect of summoning the cat behaving boy to her lap. She stuck her tongue out at her sister as she resumed petting him, a small part of her relishing the chance to play with Akane like this again.

Akane's face screwed up in anger, as Nabiki taunted her about getting Ranma to abandon Akane. Her brain froze up at that thought, as there was something not quite right about that thought. Ranma abandon her for Nabiki? That was the very definition of absurd wasn't it?

…Wasn't it?

Before Akane could dwell on that, or think of reclaiming Ranma as a lap warmer, a sign landed smack dab in the middle of her face. Peeling the sign off, Akane quickly recognized the poor penmanship of Genma, though to be fair, he probably wrote better than most pandas. A flash of irritation flashed through her as Genma had haphazardly chucked the sign without care if his target might be harmed. Squashing it down, she quickly set about reading the darn thing and what Genma wanted.

"Akane, be quiet and let Nabiki distract Ranma," the sign read, upon finishing that side, she flipped it over and read the back side. "Please, fetch some cold water. It might snap the boy out of it."

Briefly, Akane thought of disobeying the order. Who was Genma to be ordering her anyways? Her potential father-in-law, that's who. If she disobeyed him, then what kind of daughter-in-law would she be? A very poor one, she decided, one that no one would really want to have their son marry.

Without a word, nor a glance spared at her taunting sibling, Akane got to her feet and quickly shuffled away from the pair. A part at her screamed at her for giving in, for just letting her sister sink her claws in deeper. Wasn't she supposed to be saving Ranma from her devilish sister, not allowing him to be lead to slaughter? Another part quickly voiced its own doubt to this course of action, which caused Akane to quicken her step.

There was no way she'd let Nabiki see her waver, no way she'd show that she couldn't defeat her sister's wily schemes.

Nabiki, meanwhile, gawked at the sight of Akane moving away. Was her overly possessive sibling giving up on something the younger sister felt was hers? The very idea itself was ridiculous and nearly had no business being dwelled upon in any fashion. Yet, Akane made no move to summon Ranma back to her, made no move to yell at Nabiki for trying to take her fiancé, as absurd as that would have sounded.

Her, the Ice Queen of Furinkan High, looking for a fiancé? An even bigger anchor and burden than a boyfriend? The notion made Nabiki want to toss her head back and laugh about it, if not for the fact that she didn't need to scare Ranma is his cat-state.

The notion she was allegedly seeking such a permanent attachment was still amusing, as such, a slight light of mirth filled her eyes as she stroked Ranma's back. His shirt made a poor replacement for a coat of soft fur, but the feeling of all the subtly toned muscles under her hand made her feel something, but that wasn't all to clearly defined. It could range from affection to base lust, an inner perversity that demanded its thirst be quenched.

But whatever it was, it didn't really matter to Nabiki at this point.

Akane reached the water fountain when it dawned on her she didn't have anything to carry the water back to Ranma. She quickly looked for something, anything that would aid her in getting some cold water for Ranma. She didn't particularly like the idea of her sister being alone with Ranma right now.

Once again, her doubts rose up to voice their protest of her actions. Why was she getting some cold water rather than separating her sister and Ranma? Nabiki could get cold water just as easily as she could, it made no sense to send her.

It was then she realized how her actions over the past month had been viewed by others.

She had always seemed to resent Ranma being too close to her. It didn't help that she had yelled at him in the morning during his first week there, but she didn't mean anything by it. She felt trapped, and the way Ranma had a habit of nearly smothering anything that piqued his interest, was it any wonder she lashed out at him?

But maybe that was the problem here. On the outside looking in, maybe whatever budding feelings one may hold for the other is simply washed out by the projected perception of the two. Maybe that was why Nabiki was trying to steal Ranma away, after all, they didn't look like that much of a couple.

Not that they were a couple of course.

Shaking her head, she cleared the distracting thoughts away she found a discarded bucket near the fountain. Clearly someone had dropped it in their rush to see what was happening, so thusly they wouldn't miss it. Having swept aside any possible moral dilemma, Akane quickly filled the bucket with water.

Once she had enough, she swiftly turned on her heel and hurried back to where her sister was keeping Ranma busy. She stopped in front of the two, staring as Nabiki continued to pet Ranma like he was a long lost pet of hers. A wicked thought raced through her mind, Genma didn't say how she was supposed to splash Ranma, now did he?

Nabiki would be mad at her, but what did that matter?

A whole lot, she realized. For one, her sister had a way of gaining revenge in such a fashion you never wanted to experience it again. She still hadn't quite shaken off the effects for the last time she had made Nabiki mad.

Secondly, Ranma would probably be embarrassed to find himself snuggled up to Nabiki like he currently was at the moment. He didn't seem to appreciate the impromptu cold showers she would occasionally give him, so he wouldn't appreciate this one either. But the deciding factor for Akane had to be the fact that she wasn't as petty as Nabiki was at times.

Her older sister WAS an admitted prankster and often went too far for a laugh.

So it was with great regret that Akane did not splash her sister. After all, if she held back when her sister wouldn't, it would just prove that age isn't tied to maturity. Genma noticed her and seemed to wildly gesture for her to douse the both of them, but Akane shook her head.

"Hey Ranma!" Akane shouted, leaning back with the bucket ready to toss its contents.

The cat acting boy's head shot up and he immediately began searching for the source of Akane's voice. Once he found it, he immediately pounced towards her, sailing gracefully through the air. Alas, the pounce was not to be as Akane quickly splashed him, turning him into a her.

"What the heck!" Ranma-onna gasped, landing on all fours and jerking her head around as she tried to get her bearings.

"Finally back with us Ranma?" Akane asked, a slight smile crossing her lips at the redhead's antics.

"Akane?" the redhead queried, standing up straight. "When did we get outside?"

"You mean… you don't remember?" the youngest Tendo asked, blinking in shock.

"Well," Nabiki spoke up as she got to her feet, "I'd assume it's hard to remember things when you're being driven mad by fear."

"Yeah," Akane agreed, "that makes sense."

"So…" Ranma-onna interjected, her hands on her hips. "What happened?"

"Long story short," Nabiki said, eyeing the redhead with minor scrutiny, "we were down in the stage's trap door area and your fear of cats triggered the neko-ken."

"Oh," the redhead replied, looking down at herself and noticing she's a girl. "and I'm a girl… why?"

"Only way we could think of bringing you out boy." Genma answered, having returned from getting himself some hot water.

"Pop? What are you doing here?" the pig-tailed girl asked in confusion.

"I called him, explaining you had gone cat." Nabiki answered, taking the kettle Genma had in his hand and giving it to Ranma.

"Oh, thanks," the girl said, upturning the kettle over her head and returning to being male.

"So…" Akane said, looking around, noticing that everyone was now leaving. "Now what?"

"Go home I guess." Ranma said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, we have a LOT to discuss," Nabiki said in a tone that gave no room for argument as she came over to flank Ranma on his left.

"Yeah," Akane said in agreement as she walked over and stood next to Ranma right. "We do."

All significance of their mutual action was lost on Ranma. The only thing he really knew for sure was he probably wasn't going to like what they had to talk about. But, there was no avoiding it for now, and running away would surely land him in very hot water with both sisters.

With sigh, Ranma started off towards the dojo at a lazy pace. Both sisters matched it quietly while Genma followed silently behind the trio. The uncomfortable silence that surrounded them was not of their own doing, but of the forces surrounding Nerima.

This calm before the storm would soon be the last calm they would know for a while.

End Chapter 10

Teaser for chapter 11

Xian Pu.

The name rattled around in the brain of Elder Khu Lon as she sat in the cargo hold of the plane. Her great-granddaughter's apparent desertion of her duties as Village Champion had stirred up quite a fuss back home. The other elders were furious, raging about how they should send hunters after their errant champion, as the girl could not be allowed to live after betraying them all.

Of course, Khu Lon was quick to counter that the hunters wouldn't return alive, as Xian had been both the best warrior and tracker.

It was obvious that the other elders only wanted Xian dead to weaken Khu Lon's own position. Internally, she had seethed that they would be so cowardly to be that blatant about it. Externally, however, she simply suggested that they send their own personal protégées after Xian if they were so gung ho about killing her.

THAT had gone over about as well as a snowball's chance to survive in the desert.

So here she was, trailing after her responsibility challenged heir like a common warrior. While many of the other elders would never dream of leaving the village in order to go out amongst the Outsiders, Khu Lon had no qualms about it what so ever. It had been hard to lay down her weapons and accept her cane and status as Elder, as such, she often searched for ways to depart again.

And for Xian Pu, her darling little Great-Granddaughter, this was a fate worse than death.

Author notes: Whew, finally cleared the hump and got this done. Ja ne!