Keima

I suckled sweet breath between waves of sweat. Each step sent needles pumping through my veins. My stomach heaved, and I finally collapsed.

"Kaminiisama!" Elsie landed next to me. "What's wrong! We'll never catch up if you just lie there!" She tried to pull me up, and managed to get me sitting.

"Elsie... I don't think I'll be able to survive for much longer like this. We haven't even been making real progress due to her monstrous strength."

"So what are we going to do?"

"I've been thinking about this, judging from how she acts and based on the information we received from her companions, I think it's time we launched an attack." She immediately slid away from me and sat up.

"What do you need me to do?"

"First, I need you to find an open area, that is about... 5 kilometers around. There can't be anything flammable in that space. And then I'm going to need some form of fire proofing."

"What are you going to be doing?"

"Sleeping."

Fortunately, Elsie is best with these menial tasks. I woke in the late evening, and picked out a cheap restaurant nearby the site Elsie had left for me on a note. I loaded up my PFP and sped out the door to the park. Elsie met me there.

"Are they still training?"

"Yes. They ate about four hours ago."

"Stay here." I slipped on the fireproofed suit disguised as a school uniform and waltzed out onto the field. Ranma greeted me.

"Did ya give up or something?" He asked.

"I'm not making progress with the training, so I'm taking a more direct route. Could I pull Pahhur out of training for the evening?" He chuckled.

"Of course you didn't see progress, you only tried for three days. But Pah is mine until nine, pick her up then."

"Then I assume you're fine with her melting the equipment every few hours." He paused.

"Do you have some sorta plan I should know about?"

"Let me take care of her for the evening and I should be able to get that spirit out of her." He considered me for a moment.

"Alright, but we're going with you."

"Fine, but stay out of sight." He finally stepped out of my way. Allowing me to walk up to Pahhur while she was doing crunches on the pull-up bar.

"You made it! I was worried when you didn't show up." She said.

"Ranma just said we could take a break to eat, I know a great restaurant we could go to. I'll pay." The bar melted under her legs.

"Really!" She said, from her new position on the floor.

The sun was dipping down over an empty landscape of concrete, cracked lines coated the old tar. Plant life didn't grow for at least a kilometer in any direction.

"So where's the food?" She asked, tears of drool dripping from her mouth.

"Listen Pahhur, before we go, I want to ask you. Will you go out with me?" Her smile fell from her face. Her eyes stared out at nothing. Her body lit up, fire poured off her flesh, my clothes began sizzling. I slid a mask over my face and covered it with my sleeves. I tried to stand as close to the raging flame as possible without getting burned, but it was quickly becoming a slow retreat.

"What happened!" Ranma yelled. He jumped out from behind some bushes a few yards away.

"Stay back!" I yelled back to him. The tar melted in the fire, pooling around her feet before evaporating into black steam.

"Pahhur! You've got to get control!" I yelled into the inferno. "I know you're hurting! But you can talk to me! We can work whatever is troubling you out, but if you can't get control back you'll burn up your friends!" Her eyes snapped into focus, but the flames grew.

"I, I can't stop them."

"Elsie! The spirit has really gone out of control! How long can your hagoromo protect me!" She hovered down to me.

"I don't know. I can try to get you to her." Her pink cloak fluttered around me and I bolted into the blaze. Sweat made my shirt cling to my body, my nose filled with the scents of burning hair and wool. My foot slid into the small crater forming around Pahhur, I kicked off and the cloak burst away from me. I swung my arms around Pahhur and dragged her mouth to mine.

Wind whipped around me, letting cool air blow across my exposed limbs. The spirit burst out of her, spiraling upward where Elsie managed to capture it. I set Pahhur down while she was still dazed. She blinked a few times.

"Where are we?" She asked. Ranma bolted over.

"Is she alright?"

"She'll have lost a few memories, particularly of me and Elsie but the spirit is gone now. She should be fine." I left, Elsie caught up with me.

"That was amazing Kaminiisama." She said.

"We're going to have to stick close to them, that wasn't my usual capture. I don't think I fixed the hole in her heart, just patched it for now."

"Well that's alright, I talked to Akane, and she agreed to take up your training." My jaw slid open.

"What were you thinking!" I yelled gripped her broom and smacking her with it.

Leukos

Trees stretched out and climbed the flat face of a mountainside. Flat except for four large faces carved into the stone wall.

"Come on!" Ukyo shouted up to me. "We're loosing daylight, we need to take these letters to that village before they close their gates!" I slid down the tree I was perched in.

"I'm not too worried."

"Just because you can go really fast doesn't mean the rest of us can. And I'm the one with the letters, so come on!"