A New Challenge
- Chiba Hiro
(I do not own Ranma ½ or any of its content. All of it belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, and other creators of the series.)
Chapter 13: A Dangerous Game
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"I accept your challenge, buddy!" Ranma declared, but he was answered by terrible laughter.
"Ranma, can you find me on pure instinct alone?" the voice called out after the laughter stopped.
"I won't get anywhere if I don't try anything. Tell me your name first." Ranma said.
"My name is Shiru, and the game starts now!" Shiru declared.
Ranma looked around for a sign of Shiru, but everything was shrouded in blackness. Where is that guy? I wanna give him a piece of my mind, he thought. Who cares if I use his ki signatures to find him, I gotta rescue the others, fast!
He closed his eyes and focused on a trail of ki in front of him, then he followed it, but it branched off into two ki paths, and then it twisted and converged into thousands of ki paths in the blink of an eye.
What the-? His ki signatures have split into thousands! I can't sense the real one! Ranma thought.
"Trying to catch me by using your ki signature tracking abilities? Well, it won't work because my specialty is to hide or split my ki signatures into many! You won't be able to find me with such an easy technique, Saotome! You'll have to find me by using pure instinct, plus you have less than an hour to find me, leave, and rescue your friends on time!" Shiru said.
If I can't find him by using my ki signature tracker, then maybe I could find him by listening, he thought. Ranma closed his eyes and focused on Shiru, trying to figure out where his voice would come from. He may be able to mask his ki signatures, but his voice can't be masked, so his sound waves should be able to lead back to him if I listen hard enough, he thought.
"If you're trying to find me by listening for my voice, it is useless. I have placed talismans all over the cave, and they will be projecting my sound waves from all directions! It is impossible to track me down without making a dozen mistakes." Shiru warned him as if reading his mind.
Is he reading my mind? Ranma thought.
"You haven't moved from that spot in a while, I wonder what's wrong with you! You'll never find me if you never move!" Shiru taunted.
There! Ranma thought, and he shot a blast of ki in all directions.
"Giga Blast!" Ranma shouted.
The cave went up in smoke, and a sound was heard! The sound of a thud, and a thud means that one of his blasts must've found its way to its target.
The smoke cleared, and a figure appeared, sprawled on the ground. Ranma ran up to it, and immediately rejoiced at the sight of his fallen enemy.
"When in doubt, shoot in all directions! It works every time!" Ranma boasted.
"Not so much as you think." Shiru's voice rang out, and a kunai came past Ranma's right ear, straight at the wall.
"Where'd that come from?"
When Ranma looked down at the figure who had fallen, he had vanished, and in his place, a piece of paper lay.
"I can't let myself be brought down by a ki technique like that. I won't be so stupid as to be brought down by a trivial all-direction shot. One thing I forgot to mention is that I am a master of Shikigami, and I may fill my place with a paper decoy!"
Ranma took the kunai and threw it in a random direction. The sound of kunai met with another kunai was heard, and Ranma fired a ki technique in that direction.
"Ah! Very clever, Saotome! You threw the kunai I sent you in the direction of my voice, and I thought you didn't have a sharp enough ear to hear my true voice!"
"Nah, I just knew where you were with pure instinct! Your voice had nothing to do with it." Ranma bragged.
"Oh really? Can you tell where I am now?" Shiru bellowed and a volley of kunai rang out in all directions, and fired at Ranma, leaving no blind spots targeted.
Ranma dodged two kunai, and jumped three, he rolled under the volley of five kunai, and spun blocked the oncoming of twelve kunai, all in less than thirty seconds.
"Is that all you can do?" Ranma taunted.
"There's plenty more where that came from." Shiru said, and another volley came at Ranma, but they had exploding tags attached to them.
When Ranma dodged five in the previous manner, they exploded when he got out of range of their striking points. All of the explosions caught Ranma by surprise, and his skin burned to a crisp when the volley finished, and he dodged all of the kunai, but couldn't avoid the explosions.
Exploding tags? Isn't that playing unfair? He thought.
"Have you given up yet?" Shiru asked.
"No way! Ranma Saotome never gives up! Even when his skin is burnt to a crisp, I'll send one of those knives back at you!" Ranma declared.
"Persistent, aren't we? All of my victims would have fled by now if they had survived all of my exploding tags, but you're different. Maybe I'll send you a special knife, one to your liking."
"No way, I don't play with knives." Ranma cracked a joke.
"You don't have the time or luxury to joke around with me!"
As he promised, another knife came hissing at Ranma, and he dodged it, as expected.
He's gonna have to try harder than that if he wants to get rid of me! He thought, then he got what he wished for. The kunai exploded again, but Ranma anticipated and he managed to avoid the explosion, but another explosion came from the back, and he was caught up in it.
That kunai was just a diversion, and the real explosion came from the back! That's really smart, he thought, and he hobbled on. If I'm struck by any more of those knives, I won't be alive to rescue the idiots!
"I hope you didn't have any plans for victory, or escape, because while you think you're a danger with all your fancy powers, yet you haven't found me. I'm safely hidden and I can see you perfectly."
"That won't be such a problem, buddy! Why don't you come out and fight me like a man?" Ranma taunted.
"Don't talk big if you don't have actions to back up your words, Saotome."
"It's not just big talk, I have the persistence of a bull, and I see you for what you are!"
"What are you talking about?" Shiru asked.
"You're a coward and you have shamed the name of martial artists everywhere! I see your reluctance to show yourself, and fight me like a man!" Ranma stated, and leaped toward a random place.
"You're striking out, without knowing where I am. How stupid."
"I don't have any choice, do I?" Ranma struck out, and grabbed the shadow in front of him. Immediately, he grabbed the shirt of Shiru, and held him at eye level.
"I found you!" Ranma stated.
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"Hey, let go of me! How the hell did you find me?" Shiru asked.
"Not until you tell me where I can find my friends! I found you fair and square, now tell me where I can find them." Ranma threatened.
"Alright! If you go further down this corridor, and take the passage straight ahead, you'll hit the final level, but I must warn you, the path beyond that is even more winding, and the one waiting for you wishes to duel with you." Shiru explained.
"Who is waiting for me?" Ranma asked.
"My master, Hikari." Shiru answered.
"Alright, tell me, who is this Hikari?" Ranma asked.
"He comes from Japan, and he has heard stories of the infamous pigtailed martial artist, named Ranma Saotome. When he heard of you, he wanted to meet you personally, and he currently resides in Jusenkyo's underground catacombs." Shiru explained.
"Why did he do this? Was me getting a job here in Jusenkyo as a guard all apart of his plan to fight me?" Ranma asked. "If he wanted to meet me properly, and fight he could've sent me a challenge letter, and I'll find him, no problem."
"Don't joke, boy. Do you honestly think you can find him here on your own? Only I know his whereabouts, and your friends are probably somewhere else."
"How did you meet this Hikari in the first place?" Ranma asked.
"He found me like all the others. He saw my talent, and picked me up off the street to serve him in this plan."
"Couldn't he have sent you to guide me here instead of setting this all up?"
"He researched that, and found that you hate doing things the easy way. So, in recognition of your love of challenges, he assembled a small force and kidnap your friends, and it led you here."
"You didn't answer my previous question. Does me being a Jusenkyo guard all apart of his plan?" Ranma asked.
"Yes, all of it. He knew that if we lured you with the chance of a job offer, you wouldn't have refused a chance to gain a cure and get a job at the same time in Jusenkyo. It worked too." Shiru explained.
"Yes, I can't argue with that fact, but how did he involve the chairmen and that old geezer?"
"It was all simple, really. But, all will be revealed in due time. Now, you don't want to keep your friends waiting. My master has planned to do something dastardly to them." Shiru said.
"What was he planning to do?" Ranma asked.
"If you took too much time in getting to him, he would take your friends and kill them where they stand."
"He knows that those two will never give up so easily!" Ranma protested.
"Yes, but when we were ordered to capture them, we were told to transform them." Shiru said.
"He can't! He knows that their weakened forms can't fight back!"
"Right, so why are you still hanging around here? He is expecting you." Shiru initiated.
Ranma tightened his grip around Shiru's shirt, and then loosened it, and let him go entirely.
"When I'm through with your boss, I'll come for you next! You guys will pay for setting me up!" Ranma threatened, and disappeared down the corridor Shiru indicated.
"If you get done with him." Shiru doubted.
Little does he know that his greatest challenge has yet to come.
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A/N: I'm just delaying the inevitable end. I'm planning to end this story on a good note, so look forward to the next few chapters! The climax is almost here! Please rate, comment, and review this chapter, and I'll see you next time! Thanks!