Title: Ranma's… Husband? 14: Tick, Tick, Tick.
Rating: Teenish
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is not mine, and I am making neither profit nor prophet from this.
Official Pairings: Akane/Mousse, Kiyoshi/Ranma.
Author's notes:
So sorry it took this long to finish this. Between moving furniture, fish-tank melodrama, stupid cultural studies essays and a visit from my Aunt who has a (diagnosed) Narcissistic Personality Disorder… well… I've been a little busy.
Narcissists suck.
Gender pronouns apparently worry a few of you… I don't know what to do because my brain can't see Ranma thinking of himself as female even when he is. I'll try to make sure everyone else refers to him as the gender he is physically from now on though. I'm still thinking how to deal with Ranma, but since he'll be stuck female for a while longer it's pretty safe to imagine him female unless stated otherwise.
Things That Might Make You Want to Jump Ship: (oh yay, a new category)
I don't like Shampoo, so she's not going to come off that well here. You know how I said that 'Narcissists suck' up there , well, Shampoo's always come off way too narcissistic for my tastes. If you like Shampoo you may want to jump ship now.
Ryouga. I don't always like him either, so he's gonna have a few bad things happen. Bwa Ha Ha Ha.
Akane/Mousse. Well, Akane's going to be wearing the trousers in that relationship… so if you have a problem with that…
The story will be neither shounen ai nor het. I'm hoping to get Ranma to a point where he is comfortable with his entire self. So the gender he is at any given moment doesn't really bother him, and he'll choose whatever gender is most situation appropriate.
Other
things I think should be mentioned:
1. I thought I might just mention that I don't necessarily agree with the world-views of my characters… e.g. Nodoka's gender ideology. I for one believe that gender and gender rolls are largely the constructs of society and time… that they are cultural much more than they are natural… (But I won't get into this too deeply here) I am also a feminist of the bent that feels that as a part of equal rites should be that a woman should have as much right to be as obnoxious, perverted and stupid as any man.
2. I just thought I should explicitly state that what happens in the heads of individual characters is not necessarily a reflection of the reality of the plot, or even the opinions of other characters. Reality is subjective. Reality is always subjective.
3. WHEN HAVE I EVER SAID THEY'D (Kurosawas) ACTUALLY GET AWAY WITH TURNING RANMA FEMALE?
4. Yes I know that what Aiko is planning to do is pretty much as bad as what Ranma's other fiancées do.
000
(Ukyou's POV)
Being sexy was harder than it looked. Much, much harder. Her clothes were trying to kill her… But tight and skimpy was supposed to be seductive… right? So it didn't matter.
The high-heels were impossible; she couldn't understand how people walked around in them everyday. They were wobbly. She was going to fall flat on her face any minute now… which considering how short her skirt was, would probably end with her flashing a lot of things she'd rather not flash. Stupid g-string. So uncomfortable.
It would be worth it though, if she could just win Ranchan back. It was more than her honour that depended on her marrying him. If she was honest she… well she… she kind of, maybe, perhaps, was in love with him. Just a little bit.
She'd thought, before all this new trouble with that boy had happened, that maybe she had a chance. A real chance. He seemed to like her, like her company. More than he seemed to like the company of his other fiancées.
Maybe Shampoo's right, maybe he only likes me because I look the most like a boy… whispered a small voice in the back of her head. No. No, I'll prove it. When he sees me like this he won't be able to resist me… and it won't be because I look like a boy.
She paused for a moment to straighten her incredibly tight mini-skirt, which seemed to inch up with every step she took, and make sure the okonomiyaki that she'd prepared for Ranchan's lunch had survived her various stumbles. Seeing that everything was right to go, she started off again limping and stumbling every few steps as she tried to walk with a sexy saunter.
Ranchan isn't going to know what hit him.
000
(Mousse's POV)
He wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve this. He really, really didn't know. Though it made him cringe to think it, he suspected that Xian Pu might be a lot more selfish than he'd ever suspected…
…
He loved her. He had to love her. He'd always loved her.
…
She'd left him to get dressed while she made lunch for Saotome. He glanced at the small pile of clothes on his futon and cringed. He wasn't looking forward to this.
On the plus side… sort of… if you didn't consider how it reflected on Xian Pu… over half of the massive amount of clothes that she'd bought on their shopping trip had turned out to be for herself. That was a relief. Even if he considered that she'd spent money that he really shouldn't be thinking of as his on them.
He glanced again at the small pile of clothes and sighed when they hadn't disappeared. Why did she have to make a fool out of him? He loved her. Unconditionally. Which he'd thought was something noble and grand, but maybe conditions were a good thing… if he'd had conditions cross-dressing would surely be one of them. He didn't really want to love somebody who got so much pleasure out of humiliating him.
…
What was he thinking? How could he be thinking like that? He was an Amazon. He was a male. And Xian Pu was all he'd ever wanted out of life.
Cringing and sucking in a deep breath he quickly stripped down and started to get dressed in what she'd left for him. He had a brief moment of difficulty when his bangle got stuck in one of the arm holes, but he found it too comforting to remove even for the convenience of getting dressed.
Well…
Maybe if he killed himself before Xian Pu came back he wouldn't have to go outside dressed like this…
Why did she insist on dressing him in pink? Why? And what was with the ducklings?
He suspected that she was making fun of him… and he didn't like it.
His new personal torment consisted of a pair of slate-grey denim overalls that ended in very short shorts with a little embroidered white duckling on the bib, a very-pale-pink off-the-shoulder top with short sleeves and a pair of white over-the-knee socks as well as the same shoes as he'd been wearing earlier.
…
He supposed that he could hide more weapons in the overalls than in what he'd been wearing earlier… that was a good thing, wasn't it?
…
Maybe suicide really was the answer.
Before he had a chance to do anything but vaguely contemplate grabbing a knife and putting himself out of his misery Xian Pu breezed back into the room. She was wearing the frilly, pale purple thing from earlier. The frilly, pale purple thing turned out to be a dress… a dress. She'd been going to buy a dress for him…
She might have already bought a dress or even dresses for him. It wasn't like he'd been playing any attention to the things she'd been picking when they'd been shopping.
…
…
Whimper.
…
"Ahh! You look so cute." She cooed, looking him over with sharp eyes.
"Um… Xian Pu?" He began, about to ask her why? Why him? Why the stupid clothes? Hadn't he been good to her? Devoted to her? Why did she have to do this to him?
"But you're not ready yet. We have to do something about your hair." She mused as she walked around behind him.
He was surprised to find that he flinched away from her when she got too close. He couldn't understand why he did it, and it seemed to irritate her if the way she grabbed his hair with a sharp tug was anything to go by.
He tried not to say anything as she forcefully yanked his hair into whatever style she was putting it into… but it hurt. When she was done he found his hair to be back in the high pony-tale from the day before and that she was now coming at him with the wretched, pink lip-gloss.
"You have five minutes to get your weapons and then we're going. Don't keep me waiting." She said when she was happy, and his lips were pink and feeling sticky. She flicked her hair back and flounced out of the room.
He wasted about thirty seconds of the five minutes just standing there, with his arms wrapped around himself, trying to stop shaking. He sort of felt like he was going to die…
Slowly he recovered from his paralysing panic attack, to find himself once more rolling the bangle on his wrist. It meant that he was worth something… even if it hadn't been meant like that.
Quickly shaking off the last of his disorientation he started to arm himself, noticing as he did that his hands were still shaking a little.
When he was ready he took a few deep breaths, reached up and re-adjusted his glasses and went to find Xian Pu; remembering that he'd done the exact same thing earlier in the day. As he walked through the restaurant looking for Xian Pu again, he spotted Ku Lon who had obviously spotted him.
They stood there for about forty seconds, just staring at each other. He noticed with some detachment how she quickly took in his appearance, focusing intently on the bangle. Her face contorted into a fierce frown and she appeared to be about to say something when Xian Pu breezed up, grabbed him and started to drag him out of the shop.
He heard Ku Lon tutting behind his and turned around to see her shaking her head. Before he could really wonder what she was thinking Xian Pu had dragged them out onto the street and was declaring in Japanese:
"Hurry up stupid Mu Tsu. Husband lunch get cold if we no get there soon."
000
(Ryouga's POV)
He was hungry. It was lunch time and he was hungry.
But at least he'd found some hot water and turned himself back human.
He had no idea where he was, but he thought he must be heading towards Okinawa.
Maybe he could find some lunch somewhere along the way.
000
(Akane's POV)
Ranma really made a terribly cute girl. That was the only way to put it.
Her fiancé and Kiyoshi had shown up at the school with only seconds to spare before the bell. The way Ranma was dressed… it was… it suited 'her'. So cute. So innocent of how cute 'she' was.
The shorts left 'her' long, shapely legs on display, and Akane felt a brief moment of combined envy and something else… but then she'd always known she had a thing for an attractive pair of legs.
Botan had looked so very cute in shorts.
After her revelation about being a glasses-pervert she'd been thinking long and hard. She really needed to know if she was attracted to Ranma. She wasn't sure. She'd thought she was… kind of, sort of, maybe… sometimes. Except that she'd never had the same heart-stopping feeling looking at him that she'd had looking at Mousse on their date.
She had a horrible feeling that she might be more attracted to Mousse than her fiancé.
Mousse
Mousse.
Of all people…
It had to be the glasses. Which was why she'd devised a little scheme to see, once and for all, if she was attracted to Ranma. Because if she wasn't she'd decided that she'd do what she had to to make sure they never married.
She wasn't going to marry a person she wasn't attracted to.
So she'd gone up to one of the girls in their class – Mayu Ando (who wore very thick coke-bottle glasses, and was well known for always keeping a spare pair on her) –and borrowed the spare.
When she got a chance she was going to take Ranma aside, splash her and turn her male, and then force him to put on the glasses. If she wasn't attracted to her fiancé even with the glasses then she'd know it was a lost cause.
She just hoped that Ranma wouldn't explode in her face, like 'she' had with Kuno. Her fiancé was looking increasingly worn around the edges, and whatever had happened the night before with Ryouga only seemed to have made it worse.
She didn't understand it. After she'd heard what had happened she'd been going to give Ranma a piece of her mind about bullying poor Ryouga but the look on Ranma's face had deterred her… that look said that there was something wrong.
It left her feeling a little bit uneasy… Ryouga wouldn't really try to do that, would he? Sure, there was the whole Koi-Rod incident… but still…
Anyway!
The bell was about to ring for lunch and then she could corner Ranma with the glasses. She took a deep breath and gathered her things, as she walked out of the classroom after Ranma she vaguely noted that Ukyou wasn't there making an embarrassment out of herself.
000
(Ryu's POV)
Unfortunately it was time to go home. Not for long mind you, but he probably needed to report back to his ma.
He'd found out a fair bit about Ranma over the last couple of days of talking to Nodoka. He'd also… borrowed some of the photos she kept with her at all times. Photos of Ranma as a baby, as well as some later ones that panda-man had apparently sent her during their travels.
Whilst his information wasn't complete, and he was sure that Kiyoshi knew things that he was being his usual incommunicative self about, it was a good start on the portfolio that they'd have to send Jacob.
The main thing he needed now was some pictures of Ranma in female form… but since Nodoka was hanging around Ranma was stuck that way so it shouldn't be too difficult.
He was in a good mood, the weather was nice, and he'd probably have a couple of hours later to go out and satisfy the cravings of his libido…
Ah… Nerima was nice.
He reached their rather nondescript house and took a moment to just savour the day before going inside, he didn't have long his ma would have to get going to 'Kurosawa's 2' soon.
As he entered the house he became aware of his mothers laughter, which was almost hysterical. He followed it to the room that housed their personal bar and found her sitting on one of the bar-stools, draped over the bar, and laughing so hard tears were running down her face.
At her feet was an almost empty sack, a pair of French knickers peeking out of the top.
"What's so funny?" he drawled, and smirked when she startled.
"Ha ha ahaha snort ha. I… hahaha, Happi, ahaha ah… panties." She mumbled in between chortles, barely coherent.
He decided to take the opportunity to pour himself a drink while he waited for her to calm down. He was nursing his single malt scotch when she finally regained enough composure to speak.
"Your father, he was a good man. I am so glad he decided to train me that little bit. If he hadn't I would never be able to wander around on top of any building I chose." She purred.
"Is there a point to this narrative?" he queried, still smirking.
"Of course, there's a point to everything… I'll tell you what I've been up to while you and your brother have been gone. I happened to notice Hap-pi wandering around being his usual perverted self and then an idea came to me… I've spent… oh I don't know how long… leading him around Nerima. Hanging panties from the highest and strangest places I could find… and just when he though that he'd found them all I'd put some more up… ha aha haaha I won't tell you where I got the panties… but… ha ahaha ahahah aha ahah aaha aha aha." She chortled.
"Is that all… what about finding a way to trap Ranma in his… exquisite female-form." He said, non-plussed.
"Is that all?... Well I find it funny. Anyway, I needed a break. I've been getting nowhere. No one seems to know how to trap a person in their cursed form; the only leads I've been getting have been something about China and herbs… I don't know, but I'll keep trying. What have you got for me?" She muttered, looking less than happy.
"Not as much as I'd like, but I have some. I think Kiyoshi knows more than he's letting on." He said, handing her the folder of Ranma-facts.
She idly flipped through it making approving noises. "Mmhhmm, very good Ryu-chan." She purred, looking pleased before continuing with: "don't worry about your brother; I'll have a word with him."
"Fine, fine. I'll get going now… and you'd better too. You don't want to open up late." He said, with a nonchalant wave, before turning around and walking out of the house.
"Bye, bye. Ryu-chan." He heard as he left. He wished she wouldn't sometimes call him Ryuko or Ryu-chan; he was a man, not a woman or a kid.
As he strolled back to the Tendou Dojou he idly watched the… scenery. He felt like a nice, clean cut girl today. Or, at least, a girl who seemed clean cut… maybe a couple of girls…
He offhandedly noticed Kasumi Tendou walk past on the other side of the street carrying a big, overly full basket. Hmm… he wondered where she was going… Oh well.
Tomorrow was Saturday… Saturdays were good days. Well… Saturdays had good nights.
000
(Akane's POV)
Well… that was that wasn't it? It was done. She had her answer.
It felt like she could breathe for the first time since Ranma had shown up. Such a great, smothering, destructive weight had been lifted from her chest.
She'd dragged Ranma aside, somewhat forcefully, and into the empty nurse's office. A quick splash of hot water, an argument over the glasses, a good long look at him later and she knew.
She was more attracted to him with the glasses, but she found him nowhere near as attractive as she'd found Mousse. They wouldn't work out. He wasn't her type. She wasn't going to marry him.
She was free.
All she had to do was tell him…
Because after she'd forced the glasses on him and taken her look, he'd flounced off after turning himself back female with what appeared to be Ryu's flask. Ranma didn't seem particularly inclined to talk to her again either.
He was, of course, lurking around Kiyoshi again. She didn't get it… and she didn't even know if it was any of her business anymore. The large Kurosawa seemed to somehow reassure Ranma, but she wasn't sure why. She also suspected that Ranma wasn't aware that 'she' was being reassured.
She wondered if, now that she'd decided not to marry Ranma, maybe they could be friends. When they weren't arguing about something incredibly stupid they got on reasonably well… and she could still remember the sort of sisterly feeling she'd felt towards Ranma when they'd first met and she didn't know that Ranma was a boy.
It would be worth it, to be Ranma's friend.
Making up her mind she squared her shoulders and made her way over to where Ranma was sitting next to Kiyoshi on the ground underneath one of the trees at the edge of the forest on the Furinkan High grounds.
She plopped herself down opposite Ranma, who was picking at something he'd gotten from the cafeteria, and began to eat the bento that Kasumi had packed for her. He quirked his eyebrow at her but shrugged and went back to his food when she didn't say anything.
She noticed that Kiyoshi was giving her a bemused smile and she frowned at him. He just smirked back at her, shook his head and gave Ranma a proprietary glance that her ex-fiancé didn't notice.
She was just wondering if he'd caught on to her giving up Ranma when a series of whistles, whispers and catcalls dragged her attention away.
…
Poor Mousse.
…
…
Poor, poor, Mousse.
…
Shampoo (who was wearing a horrible, frilly, lilac monstrosity) was dragging the boy, who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else, towards them. He was dressed in a new, highly pink, very girly outfit. She felt embarrassed just looking at him… and considering that everyone else in the school was also looking, it wasn't surprising.
"Oh Gods…" whimpered Ranma; she whipped her head around to look at him to find 'her' very pale and looking very unhappy.
"Ahh, husband! Xian Pu bring dumplings and Mu Tsu. He look cute, yes?" the Amazon girl simpered when she saw them.
"No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Shampoo what are you doing?" snarled Ranma, his whole body tensing up.
"Xian Pu bring lunch for husband. Mu Tsu feed lunch to husband. Is old-fashioned, but some Amazon husband still feed wife. Though husband no Mu Tsu wife… but in Japan make sense, yes?" Shampoo chirped, opening the food delivery box she was carrying and removing a plate of dumplings.
"He's not feeding me!" snapped Ranma at the same time that Mousse shrieked:
"Xian Pu! You didn't say anything about feeding him! I'm not feeding Saotome!"
"We discuss what happen if Mu Tsu no do what Xian Pu say, yes?" Shampoo said, with a completely insincere smile, to the Amazon boy. She frowned at him for a second before reaching out and grabbing his glasses, even as he flinched back, and flinging them onto the ground.
"Mu Tsu no look cute with glasses." Was all she said before turning her attention back to Ranma.
She could vaguely hear Shampoo simpering at her ex-fiancé, but her attention was riveted elsewhere. Mousse had bent down to pick up his glasses and was inadvertently giving her a very good look at his very long, very smooth legs… as well as a plump and curvy bottom.
…
She wasn't just a glasses-pervert. She was a plain old pervert.
…
As well as a hypocrite.
How many times had she called Ranma a pervert? Too many. Far too many if looking at Mousse's legs was making her feel weird and breathless.
She was brought out of her perturbed musings when Ranma shrieked: "Ukyou?!!!" in abject horror.
Looking up she saw Ukyou stumbling towards them dressed like some sort of… something.
…
Poor Ranma.
000
(Ranma's POV- Female Form unless otherwise stated)
Hiroshi and Daisuke were speaking to him again… which would have been a good thing if they hadn't patted him on the back and given him a speech on how they accepted his 'differences' and how it only made sense for someone with his unique 'talents' to be attracted to men…
He had a vague and horrible suspicion that they might have been jealous…
Blech!
He was really starting to get why Akane didn't like men.
The rest of the boys were still avoiding him though… except, of course, for Kuno; but after he'd nearly flattened Kuno when the older boy had come rushing over to embrace his 'pig-tailed goddess' Kuno had been skulking around looking deeply offended.
He may have been slightly more brutal than usual… but even looking at Kuno rushing towards him with open arms had given him a feeling of immense dread combined with white-hot rage.
Oh well.
Akane's weirdness was continuing. Just after the bell for lunch had rung she'd dragged him into the nurse's office… he'd had a brief moment of worry that she was going to try to seduce him straight as well… of course if she tried he'd have been forced to knock her out and flee.
But all she did was splash him so he was male (which he wasn't happy about considering what he was wearing and the fact that said clothes had gotten unpleasantly tight), and forced him to put on a pair of coke-bottle glasses. He wasn't too happy with the idea but he'd done it, even though looking through the lenses had been deeply unpleasant and made him feel sort of sick.
When he'd put on the glasses she'd just stood there and stared at him for a bit and eventually he'd lost patience, taken off the glasses given them back to Akane rather forcefully, turned himself back female and stormed off.
He didn't get her… he really didn't.
And now she was sitting with him and Kiyoshi… who he was only sitting with because other people tended to avoid him if he did, and he suspected he was rapidly coming to the point that he'd lose his already frayed temper if he had to deal with anymore stupid from other people.
He was picking at the whatever-it-was that he'd distractedly gotten from the cafeteria, not really feeling like eating for once, when a feeling of inescapable dread overcame him.
Looking up when he heard the catcalls and whistles he saw Shampoo dragging Mousse towards him. Mousse was once more wearing girls clothing… only it wasn't as funny today, not with Ranma himself dressed like he was.
He idly wondered where the bicycle was, as Shampoo didn't usually show up on foot, but quickly put it out of his mind, he had more pressing concerns.
"Oh Gods…" he, well to be honest, whimpered. Why couldn't they leave him alone?
"Ahh, husband! Xian Pu bring dumplings and Mu Tsu. He look cute, yes?" Shampoo asked him. Did Mousse look cute? No. Not at all. Mousse looked freaked out, yes, but cute… no.
"No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Shampoo what are you doing?" he snarled, he didn't need this. Not here. Not at school… not ever.
"Xian Pu bring lunch for husband. Mu Tsu feed lunch to husband. Is old-fashioned, but some Amazon husband still feed wife. Though husband no Mu Tsu wife… but in Japan make sense, yes?" declared his now least-favourite person, displaying a plate covered with what were truly delicious smelling dumplings.
"He's not feeding me!" he snapped as he heard Mousse shriek:
"Xian Pu! You didn't say anything about feeding him! I'm not feeding Saotome!"
No way was anybody feeding him. He could feed himself.
He watched Shampoo threaten Mousse and fling his glasses on the ground and wondered why Mousse put up with her.
His attention was dragged away when he heard Akane make a small choking noise, he turned to face her only to find that she'd gone a bright brick-red and had the weirdest look on her face. Akane was weird.
"But Xian Pu make dumplings special for husband. They good. Special recipe, traditional dumplings made by husband for wife. Very good for Mu Tsu to feed to husband." Shampoo simpered, waving the dumplings under his nose. He had to admit that they looked good; but he wasn't hungry and he wasn't being fed by Mousse.
He was saved from having to answer when a second set of whistles and catcalls drew his attention to… Ukyou?
"Ukyou?!!!" he shrieked, his very bad feeling becoming worse.
"Hiya Ranchan." Ukyou sort of… tried to purr as she came up to them and sat down next to him right in his personal space.
"No. no. Ukyou… what are you doing?" which was surprisingly like what he'd said to Shampoo only minutes before. What were they doing? Did they think that humiliating him was any way to win his affections?
He started to inch away from her.
"I've brought you your… lunch." She breathed, bending forward and giving him a look down her top that he didn't want.
He inched further away from her.
"It no use Ukyou-girl. Husband gay. See he back away from you." declared Shampoo, who looked incredibly smug.
"He's just a little shy. Don't worry Ranchan; I can bring you 'round." Ukyou whispered, moving closer to him in what she must have thought was a seductive way.
He tried to inch further away, but he'd run out of inches unless he wanted to crawl into Kiyoshi's lap.
…
He wondered if that would deter her.
Before he had a chance to try she'd reached out, grabbed him and was trying to kiss him.
…
He lost his temper.
"Stop it Ukyou! Just STOP IT!!!" he shouted, pushing her backwards and standing up.
She landed awkwardly with her skirt showing a lot of other things he didn't want to see.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!! Look at you. This isn't you Ucchan!" he shouted, clenching his fists. He was choking on his rage.
"Ranchan… Why?... It's true isn't it? You really are gay." She said, looking up at him with huge eyes.
That was it, that was the final. Fucking. Straw. Why him? WHY?
"Shut up Ukyou! I'm NOT GAY! Why did you think I'd find this seductive? You look like a WHORE!" he yelled, looming over her.
"It doesn't matter Ranchan. Shampoo's not the only one who can be supportive. I understand." She said, completely not listening to him.
"Ukyou… leave. Leave now." He whispered, barely stopping himself from lashing out physically.
"Ranchan…" she whispered, apparently finally noticing that he was losing his temper.
"NOW!" He screamed, lunging towards her.
She scrabbled backwards and managed to stand up. She looked at him for a second, probably seeing the way he was twitching with wrath. She seemed to think for a moment before taking off her shoes and running as fast as she could away from him.
He stood there frozen. Panting as he struggled to contain himself.
His anger was devouring him, he could feel himself become lost, immersed in white hot wrath. At the same time it also felt like part of his consciousness was sort of floating back into his mind.
"Ah. See. Ukyou-girl no as understanding as Xian Pu. Xian Pu make better wife." came Shampoo's perky chirp, through all the layers of his fury.
He was moving before he'd even thought about it. His arm lashed out towards her face, he just wanted her to shut up. All his pain, all his fury, all his battle aura went into the strike.
Somehow he managed to pull himself up short, stopping the strike, and somehow his battle aura, before it made contact with her.
He didn't hit girls.
He especially didn't hit girls with strikes that would in the least crush their nose, if not their entire face.
He slowly turned to face Shampoo, who had gone totally still with her eyes as large as plates focused on the arm he held barely a centimetre from her face. He just looked at her for a second, feeling his fury bubble under the surface, before he dropped his arm and staggered into the trees.
"Xian Pu!" he heard Mousse shriek behind him, but he ignored it. He ignored them all.
He stumbled deeper into the trees until he ran into one. Slowly turning around he let himself sink to the ground with his back against its trunk.
If that strike had landed it probably would have killed her, martial artist or not.
He didn't know what to think.
But he was still soo angry; he was still choking on it.
He stayed there huddled against the tree trying to calm down. He'd almost reached an unearthly stillness when he heard the sound of a twig snapping.
It was most likely Kiyoshi, coming to check on him… which made him feel strange. Sort of relieved.
When he looked up however, he found himself making eye-contact with Ryouga Hibiki.
They froze there staring at each other for a second.
He felt odd. Sort of like he felt just before the Nekoken; except that instead of the cat welling up in his mind as his consciousness retreated, it felt like pure, white, light.
Pure, white, fury.
000