Chapter 27

Things had been going well for Ranma. Very well in fact. He had gotten used to his curse, the seppuku pact was dissolved and most importantly, he had finally told Akane how he felt about her. He had even begun thinking about the possibility of marrying Akane and having a happy life with her.

As he stood in the courtyard, he thought about his future with Akane and smiled as he came to one particular condition. "We'll be happy alright." he said to himself "Just so long as I cook!"

Then he heard a noise and quickly spun round and took his stance. "What was that?" he thought to himself, before the same noise happened again. This time Ranma listened to where it was coming from and made his way over to the bushes. As the noise continued, Ranma felt nervous (not afraid, he would never admit that, but nervous).

As he moved towards the bushes, he spotted something moving and his nervousness dissipated, allowing confidence to ensue. "Hey come on out of there!" Ranma shouted, preparing himself. But what came out of the bushes was something Ranma couldn't possibly have prepared for.

"Now focus Akane," Kiagi said as he stood behind Akane as she began to pour, "Your measurement needs to be exact."

Akane steadied herself and poured the green liquid into the cauldron carefully. "Just a couple more drops," she said, before she heard a scream from the other side of town that sounded very familiar.

"That sounded like Ranma!" she shouted, dropping the bottle onto the floor leaving its contents to spill out and dissolve the floor as she ran outside and back home.

"Oh crap," Kiagi sighed as he looked at the massive hole in his floor and cupped his face. "I knew I should have put a rug down." He then grabbed a glass of water and followed his assistant outside.

As Akane ran home she was surprised to be scooped up into the air by Kiagi in dragon form. "So where are we going?" he asked, throwing Akane onto his back.

"I need to get back home," she said, holding on tightly "I think Ranma's in trouble!"

When they arrived at the Tendo dojo, Kiagi landed in the courtyard and let Akane down, before conjuring a ball of hot water and dousing himself with it. "Ranma!" Akane shouted, looking for her fiancé, before finding him in a catatonic state on the floor with a small black kitten sitting on his chest.

"Quite the catch, you've got there Akane, isn't he?" Kiagi said sarcastically as he shot a stream of cold water into Ranma's face, waking her up.

Coughing and spluttering, Ranma sat up and looked up to who was attacking her. "Kiagi?" she said, looking around and spotting Akane "Akane? What's going on?" She then spotted the kitten again and shrieked, jumping almost ten feet high and wrapped herself around the nearest thing she could, which happened to be Kiagi's head. "Argh! Keep it away from me!" she screamed.

"I think I liked it better when she was unconscious." Kiagi muffled from within Ranma's bosom, before snapping his fingers and causing her to levitate off of his head. "Seriously, you could suffocate somebody with those."

In an attempt to calm Ranma down, Akane picked up the kitten and carried it out of her sight. She then came back and stood beside her levitating fiancée. "Ok Kiagi," she said opening her arms, "You can drop her now."

Kiagi then snapped his fingers and dropped Ranma slowly so that Akane could catch her in her arms. "You're safe now Ranma." Akane said softly as she ran her fingers through the trembling girl's hair. "It's gone."

"Ailurophobia, isn't it?" Kiagi asked as he sat down on the grass.

Akane nodded, "It's because of the cat-fist training, when she was young."

Ranma then poked her head out of Akane's embrace. "It's all pop's fault!" she shouted before taking Akane's arms off of her. "I'm ok now Akane."

"Cat-fist?" Kiagi asked before realising "Oh yes, that's right. You used that technique against me. So there are people stupid enough to try that." He then conjured up a small book, which explained everything about techniques, which were seen as too dangerous to try.

"Now let's see," he said thumbing through the pages, before finding the right technique. "Ah ha! Here we are Cat-Fist, Neko-Ken, and Cat- Fu, whatever you want to call it." He then continued to read out the steps of the dreaded technique.

Step One: Wrap the trainee in fish sausage and make sure to tie tightly.

Step Two: Throw trainee into a pit, filled with starving cats and leave for three days.

Step Three: Repeat the process every week for one month, changing the food each time.

Warning: This technique is extremely dangerous and only an idiot would even consider learning it.

"It's a horrible technique." Kiagi said putting the book back to wherever it came from. "Apparently everyone who's ever tried it has gone insane with fear. But I think I might be able to help."

"Really? How?" Ranma asked as she sat down beside Kiagi.

Kiagi took a deep breath and moved away from Ranma before explaining. "You're not going to like It." he said "One might even say that you're gonna hate it."

"I don't care," Ranma said standing tall and proud "If it means curing me, I'll do whatever it takes."

"It involves cats." Kiagi said coldly, knocking down Ranma's pride "Lots and lots of cats." Ranma then proceeded to jump into Akane's arms again "I don't wanna." she cried "I don't wanna!"

"Oh for crying out loud." Akane said as she knocked Ranma out cold and put her down. "Are you sure this will work Kiagi?"

Kiagi stood up and conjured a ball of cold water. "No," he said "But it's worth a try." He then threw the water onto himself and transformed, allowing Akane to put Ranma onto his back and climb on herself.

"Hold on tight!" Kiagi said as he lifted his massive body into the air and took off towards the Dragon's Eye.