Volume 2 Part 4
The Duel Continued
In the large section of northeastern Tokyo known as Nerima, within the yard of one of Nerima's high schools, Furinkan, two young men were engaged in battle. One of them was determined to fight to the death; the other could only be described as sardonic. He had been training with his malicious father for most of his life, and understood that it takes a great deal of effort to kill someone in a fight with the bare hands, especially someone as hardened as he was. Ranma clearly did not take the battle as seriously as his unexpected challenger did.
Ranma's casual attitude toward his opponent alarmed Akane. She had tried to lift the challenger's umbrella and it was so heavy that she could barely lift one end of it, yet the young man in the yellow hemp shirt handled it as though the umbrella were a mere feather.
"Ranma!" Akane shouted, "That guy has the strength of a real monster, so keep your fighting distance right!" Akane fell silent, hoping that she had not let notes of panic creep into her voice.
Out on the field, Ranma's opponent gave him an knowing grin as he locked the muscles in his left arm and drew back his right. "Ha, your realization is late!" The random return man shouted as he attempted to seize Ranma by the throat with his hand held in a rigid claw-like state.
Ranma was not the least bit dismayed; he fell back so that his full weight pulled at Ryoga's wrist, and took full advantage of Ryoga's horse riding stance by driving his feet between the larger boy's legs. Ranma then landed a double kick to Ryoga's upper back by pummeling him with balls of both feet; he then rode his momentum further, forcing Ryoga to bend at the waist and collapse to his knees. This ended with Ryoga in a three point crawling position with Ranma sitting astride Ryoga's back as though he were riding a horse.
"So, Ryoga, what was it that you were wishing for?" Ranma asked in cheerfully mocking voice.
"How dare you force me to crawl!" Ryoga shouted back. He was down on both knees and one hand, because he had tied his other hand tied to Ranma's, and Ranma was pulling on it hard enough to strain Ryoga's arm socket.
Then the Random-Return-Man's face reddened; his greenish ki flared around him and Ranma in stormy swirls. He kipped his legs and Ranma into the air so that he was doing a one-armed handstand still clinging to his back with both knees gripping Ryoga's rib cage.
The the teenagers in the crowd watching were amazed at this. A wave of gasps and murmurs rolled through the gathered observers; even Akane stared in wide-eyed horror. They were shocked into open mouthed silence when the furious challenger did something even more astounding. Using his one free arm, he bent it at the elbow and launched himself and Ranma high into the air.
One boy in the crowd exclaimed, "With just one arm? Unimaginable!"
Another said, "It can't be so!"
Genma had taught Ranma that there would always be someone bigger and stronger than him, so he remained calm and reflective. While he and his hemp wearing opponent were airborne, he threw his weight around and pulled against the bandanna that held their wrists together so that they were now head down, with Ranma about to hit the ground first. Ranma put out his left hand to catch the weight of the two of them, bending his arm at the elbow to cushion the impact. Had he not trained daily for years against his much larger father, he would have simply butted the ground with his face, instead, Ranma stopped their motion with his bent arm and then straightened his legs out in another double kick. The bandanna snapped as his now stunned opponent sailed off into the burning blue sky. The hemp-clad monster was clearly unconscious as he sailed away.
"Wah!" Shouted one observer.
"What madness!" Exclaimed another.
Ryoga sailed over their heads and slammed into the embankment at the feet of a completely shocked Akane Tendo. Ryoga had recovered his consciousness by then, or the fight would have ended then and there, but he was conscious by the time his shoulder blades and the back of his head slammed into the grass covering the hard packed dirt of Furinkan's yard. Before Ryoga could re-orient himself, Ranma pressed his counterattack. He had leapt into the sky right after he had kicked the Random-Return-Man off into the wild blue. By the time Ryoga hit the ground, Ranma was descending and delivered a roundhouse kick to his opponent's head.
The hemp clad Hibiki was nothing if not tough and determined. He kicked at Ranma with his left leg and then rolled onto his belly and scrambled toward his nearby umbrella. Ranma was unable to stop him because he had been forced to fend off Ryoga's kick.
Ryoga seized his umbrella with his right hand, then lunged at his hated opponent shouting, "Take this!"
Ranma was once again in the air, but he dodged the thrust by twisting his upper body to his right, but something sharp on the end of the umbrella snagged the heavy cloth of his shirt, ripping it open as though it were mere cellophane.
As his feet touched the ground, Ranma shouted, "I really liked this shirt! What have to say for yourself?"
"We are in the middle of a fight! Stop screeching like a little girl!" Ryoga shouted back.
This infuriated the Saotome-childe. He launched a right-legged side kick at Ryoga who leaped back into the air to avoid it as best he could.
"Oops!" Ryoga shouted out in surprise.
Ranma had jumped so hard that a swirling cloud of grass leaves fluttered behind him as he sailed toward Ryoga.
"Wha!" the crowd shouted in chorus. They had never seen a fight like this one. Ryoga sailed over the five meter high hurricane fence backwards and Ranma followed with a mighty leap that carried him up so high that he cleared the tall fence by at least a meter.
The two combatants bounced off the hard ground on the far side of the fence as though they were a pair of soccer balls, with Ryoga leading the way.
"They jumped over the fence!" a member of the crowd shouted.
"Let's all follow them!" shouted another as they stampeded to their right to get around the tall fencing.
Ryoga landed on a drinking fountain and looked over his shoulder only to see the now descending Saotome-childe, whose eyes were focused on Ryoga like those of a stooping peregrine coldly seeking its prey.
"Now you take back what you said!" Ranma screamed as he missed Ryoga with his right foot, striking the concrete drinking fountain instead. The drinking fountain shattered and the plumbing inside was ripped open as the concrete failed under the Saotome-chlde's slightly off-target assault.
The following crowd stopped and stared at the column of water that spewed high above the treetops.
"What's with the water column?" one of them asked in a loud voice.
"Ranma..." Akane whispered in alarm, knowing that Ranma's curse would be invoked if he had been hit with cold water. He would be at a great disadvantage against the unimaginably powerful Random-Return-Guy in his cursed form. His girl side lacked the reach and power of his male side, and the Random-Return-Guy was like an ambulatory bronze statue. He would make very short work of Ranma in his cursed form.
Ryoga was so busy shielding himself from the spraying water with his now opened umbrella that he lost track of his opponent. His keen sense of danger kicked in just in time to save him. A pissed off and shoe less Onna-Ranma came flying over the rim of the red umbrella and touched down lightly on his now dainty feet. Ryoga was taken aback at the sight of this extraordinary girl.
Where did she come from? He wondered. Did she just pop up out of the ground or something?
"Let's go!" Onna-Ranma shouted in her screechy voice.
Onna-Ranma's ample breasts peeked out at Ryoga from the tear in Ranma's Chinese style shirt. Ryoga was very distracted by the appearance of Onna-Ranma's pinkish nipples and jiggling flesh.
"Wa...wait just a second!" Ryoga choked out. Now to embarrassed to fight. "Who are you?"
"What? Are you half asleep, you son-of-a-bitch?" Onna-Ranma screeched back as he took to the air again, sailing in the Random-Return-Guy's direction. Onna-Ranma got close enough to get in a solid right to Ryoga's left ear thanks to Ryoga being so captivated by the sight Onna-Ranma's breasts. Onna-Ranma followed up that blow with a sharp front snap kick to Ryoga's chin which staggered the ambulatory piece of bronze back a few steps. The kick also reminded Ryoga of someone he had fought before.
"Ra...Ranma?" Ryoga stammered.
"Who are you staring at, you great idiot of a bastard?" Onna-Ranma screamed out. Onna-Ranma was now beside himself with fury and embarrassment.
Off to Onna-Ramma's left, Akane was embarrassed as well. "Wait, Ranma, your breasts..."
Onna-Ranma looked down at his bust and stared in horror.
"Eh! Ah!" Onna-Ranma gasped out.
Akane was deeply disturbed by Ranma's plight. "You didn't even feel it when you changed, did you?"
Ryoga was stymied as well. "Ranma, you..."
"Fooey! This is so strange that you should be laughing your ass off!" Onna-Ranma choked out. "Ryoga, I don't know why you are so bitter, but I have body like this and I stay bright and move on."
Ryoga responded with a long, bitter laugh. "How disgusting you are! You son-of-a-bitch you dare to speak of misery to me?"
Ryoga began pulling his bandanna and it came away in his hand, but to the surprise of everyone watching, there was still another bandanna. He pulled at that bandanna and it came away in his hand. He repeatedly pulled at the damned thing and every time another bandanna came away in his hand. While he was pulling off one bandanna after another, he began shouting, "You have that sexy figure and pretend to be sad?"
Ryoga then did something strange with the bandannas and they became straight and rigid. He bobbed his fist and they began spinning like metal propellers.
By this time, Onna-Ranma had learned to use his curse against the male population around him; he was now doing his best to look like a miserable innocent little girl who did not know what to do, but the robot-like Hibiki knew Ranma for his cunning, and was determined to show his long hated opponent how cows eat cabbage.
"That is the very definition of ridiculous!" Ryoga screamed as he flung the rigid bandannas at Onna-Ranma.
"Wah!" Onna-Ranma yelped as the now rigid and sharp bandannas whirred and hummed through the air around him and Akane.
The crowd following the battle was catching up. They had rounded the fence and were running through the trees to get to the fight.
One of them shouted, "Follow me!"
Another was shouting, "This way! This way!"
But they were surprised and brought to a panicky stop by Ryoga's steel-like bandannas. The dangerously sharp pieces of cloth slashed small limbs and leaves around the boys in the crowd as they approached, forcing them to duck and dodge while making frightened noises.
Akane had seen many a disturbing fight in her young life, but nothing like this. She knew that the best and safest way to put an end to it was to rid her fiancée of his curse.
"I'll fetch hot water!" She shouted as she turned to run back to where she knew a kettle was simmering for tea.
Onna-Ranma believed this to be a mistake. That no one should ever turn their back on what was, in essence, an enraged animal, which is precisely how the raging Hibiki was behaving.
The Random-Return-Guy had allowed his temper to seize full control of his person, which was what Ranma tried to do to every opponent he met. If you cannot think and fight on instinct alone, you are vulnerable and, as we have seen, Ryoga was much like an ambulatory statue made of gun metal. He was hard to hurt under normal circumstances, so long as he was able to think, he was very dangerous.
Ranma had been teasing him into a mindlessly enraged state since they had first met, but there are definite shortcomings to such a technique. A mindless martial artist is just like a pawing bull. If you run, he'll chase you and Akane, however good her intentions, was running away from the dangerous animal that was Ryoga Hibiki.
"No, you idiot!" Onna-Ranma screamed in his screechy female voice he hated. He turned and reached in vain after the quickly moving Akane Tendo.
Gotta hand it to her, she's fast when she's motivated, Onna-Ranma thought. Too fast.
"It's time to stop this shit! I'm fetching you some hot water! I'll be fine."
And, Akane would have been fine had it not been for the misplaced root of a nearby tree. Her toe hung on it and she fell to the ground-hard.
Ranma broke his own rules of combat, long ago written in both sweat and blood when turned his back on a still raging opponent, and compounded his error as he ran after Akane to see how badly she was hurt.
Dammit! I'm not supposed to be falling for the mark, Onna-Ranma thought. Why am I doing something this stupid?
Ryoga was, true to his enraged state, ready willing and able to take full advantage of Ranma's distraction, uncaring about the nature of Ranma's distraction, this was Ranma he was fighting and this was payback.
The only thought in Ryoga's head was, He's vulnerable; attack now! And he used his folded umbrella as though it were a heavy spear, launching at the hated Saotome-childe's back.
