"Ran-chan!" – Regular Speech

'Stupid Spatula Girl!' – Thoughts

"Hiryū Shōten Ha!" – Martial Arts Technique

{Grandmother!} – Mandarin/Language other than Japanese Speech

Chapter 23: A Clash of Four Chi Blasts! The Shishi Hōkōdan!

A Couple of Weeks Later

Okonomiyaki Ucchan's

Ukyo gave the counter one final wipe before nodding in satisfaction. The place was as clean as a whistle now, and only twenty minutes after closing time to boot. Now all she had to do was set up for tomorrow and she could do a bit of training…

As she thought that, the Osakan Chef's mind recalled, for the nth time, the liplock and declaration of intent that Shampoo had given her two weeks previously. That had been quite possibly the most arousing kiss she'd ever received or given in her life and she'd had to 'take care' of herself that night to settle down enough to sleep.

Ever since, she'd been even more hyper-aware of Shampoo's presence whenever the purplette was around than she had been before. Not only that, but every now and then Shampoo's words about marrying both her AND Ranma started to get to her. It wasn't a bad thought, really; she loved Ranma already and she could easily see herself falling for Shampoo as well…

...oh, who was she kidding? She already HAD fallen for Shampoo. The genuine rage in her eyes when she had helped Ranma storm Nekonron and beat down Prince Kirin had been touching, and the way Shampoo had scolded Ranma on her behalf during the Secret Sauce fiasco had made her heart skip a beat, she had to admit.

This kiss from her then had been nice too…

'Gah, mind OUT of the gutter, dammit!' Ukyo thought to herself as she felt her body heating up in response to her thoughts. 'This ain't China and it sure as hell ain't inside the Joketsuzoku's village! Besides, Ran-chan ain't gonna want to marry both of us...right?'

She didn't know why, but the thought of Ranma not wanting both of them...hurt a bit, a marked difference to how it had been before the Love-Aid Band-Aid incident.

It was odd, really. Without the tensions between them over Ranma, Shampoo was a lot easier to get along with, especially thanks to training together most of the time. She was funny, and cute and was a lot smarter than her pidgin Japanese suggested she was.

As for Shampoo's physical attributes...well, the Chef's time crossdressing as 'Ukyo-kun' had allowed her to see things through the eyes of a guy, and those eyes very much liked what they saw when it came to Shampoo, just as much as they liked Ranma's Cursed Form, in fact.

Sighing, Ukyo shook her head and started towards the stairs leading towards her apartment. She needed a shower...a cold shower...to get her mind away from thoughts of the bodies of her fiancé and fiancée(?) before she had to cool down a different way.

Two Days Later

Back Yard of the Nekohanten

Ranma concentrated as the pure white orb hovering above his hand flickered slightly.

"Focus, Son-in-Law!" Cologne reprimanded him. "Pure chi energy requires you to focus!"

"It ain't...as if...I ain't...tryin'...Old Hag!" Ranma grunted as he redoubled his focus. "It's only...twice the size...of the ones I used...against the Old Freak...so why...is it so...much harder?!"

"First, because there are no demons around to focus your mind and intent upon." the Matriarch replied easily. "Second, because instead of throwing them off as soon as you form them, you are actively maintaining their presence in this world, which is against the nature of chi, which naturally prefers to either be within a person's body or floating free in the air."

She paused in thought for a moment. "Another reason might be due to your curse, Son-in-Law. The chi of most people are biased due to their gender; males typically have more yang-aligned chi, while females typically have more yin-aligned chi. There are cases where the opposite are true, but those are quite rare. You, on the other hand, regularly switch between male and female, changing your chi every time. It's increasingly likely, due to the fact you have been at this for over three weeks, that you have chi that has as close to a perfect 50-50 balance as there can ever be. In theory that should make it easier to wield, but practically-speaking, it's throwing you off..."

"Damned...curse…!" the aquatransexual griped.

While Ranma fought against his own chi, Shampoo was coaching Ukyo through her own chi exercise, as the Chef was trying to learn her own version of the Emotional Chi Blast.

"Darn it!" Ukyo cursed as the light brown chi around her hand flickered out. "This is impossible!"

"Is not. I did it." Shampoo countered with a reassuring smile. Her pidgin was rapidly improving as she threw her spare time into not sounding like a backwoods hick at Japanese. "I had ad...an advantage because I've been trained in martial arts and martial arts theory since before I could walk. Take your time and you'll do fine."

"Y-yeah...I'll try again…" the Osakan girl blushed. It was still hard to look at Shampoo and not remember that smouldering hot kiss.

"Do or do not, there is no try." Shampoo quoted. "The main problem when Shampoo...when I practised my Shuhyō Jōnetsuen was that I was trying without expecting to succeed. For a martial artist, that means failing before even starting."

"Quotin' Yoda aside, ya have a point." the Chef sighed. "Usin' chi for internal enhancement's a whole different kettle of fish compared to using it externally. I see you and Ran-chan doin' all that stuff, but I can't believe that I can do it. Fallin' before the first hurdle, huh?"

"I used it properly for the first time against Mousse, back during the Shadow Clone Incense Incident, you remember?" the purplette asked rhetorically. "Back when Mousse's Shadow Clone almost kill our husband to be."

That made Ukyo flush as she recalled that technically, she was now engaged to both Ranma AND Shampoo at the same time. Wow, was it getting hot in here or something…?

"At the time, I was angry and humiliated by Mousse's actions towards my Airen." Shampoo reminisced with a slight frown. "I wanted nothing more than the power to punish him severely for acting in such a manner, dishonouring the tribe like that. I desired it, strongly, fully and deeply. The end result of those three feelings was unbridled passion, which allowed me to unleash the Shuhyō Jōnetsuen."

"And then Mousse got more airtime." Ukyo snickered, before sighing. "My emotion's determination though...the way you think of it is a lot different than passion or depression."

"True...passion is hot, quick and moves forward swiftly, whereas depression is cold, stagnant and presses down on you." the Amazon Champion acknowledged. "To me, determination is a bit similar to passion in that it keeps moving forward. Maybe not as swiftly, but it doesn't let anything get in its way, forcing its way through obstacles and shrugging off any who come near it. It really does suit you, Ukyo."

OK, her face was now doing a very good imitation of a ripe tomato.

BOOM!

"The heck!?" Ukyo yelped as one part of the fence exploded. She instinctively started knocking various pieces of wooden shrapnel sent flying in her direction away with her hand. Before she'd started training with Cologne and Shampoo, she'd have needed to use tools to do that. She was idly impressed with how far she'd come in such a relatively short period of time.

"This style of entrance…" Cologne's eye twitched a couple of times. "I am going to make him pay through the nose for the rebuilding of the fence!"

And sure enough, when the dust cleared, the one standing there was one Hibiki Ryōga, although Ranma could feel something different about his old rival. His chi felt a lot...heavier, for lack of a better term. Also slightly cold, for some reason. He also had a large bag slung over one shoulder in addition to his usual pack and umbrella.

"Ryōga? What the heck, man?" he called out.

The Lost Boy turned around and blinked. "Ranma? What are you doing on Sakhalin?"

"This ain't Russia, P-Chan, this is still Tokyo, Japan." the pigtailed boy rolled his eyes. He could swear that Ryōga was becoming a bigger and bigger space case with his sense of direction recently.

"I sincerely hope you have some money to pay for the fence you just destroyed using the Bakusai Tenketsu, young man." Cologne said icily, making the fanged boy pale slightly as he realised where he was and whose fence he'd blown up.

"Err...sorry about that. Some irked Russians were chasing me and I got lost and still thought I was on Sakhalin." he said weakly.

"Understood. You're still paying for the repairs, boy." the Matriarch said indifferently. "Either through working in the cafe or by cash."

Reluctantly, Ryōga pulled out his wallet and started forking over wads of Yen notes to Cologne as he explained in more detail exactly why he had been running. Apparently, he had managed to piss off a Combat Sambo Dojo after defeating the dojo master in a challenge, and they had chased him all over the city before Ryōga had (somehow) found himself outside the Nekohanten's fence and had panicked at the sound of running nearby, which had left him to use the Bakusai Tenketsu.

"Seriously, how you manage to get inta these messes…" Ranma shook his head.

"Shut up." the other boy grumbled as he finished paying Cologne for the fence he'd broken, to the amusement of Shampoo and Ukyo. "Have a look at this."

Casually tossing his extra bag to the ground, it opened up, spilling out over a dozen dojo signs in the process.

"Been doin' a dojo challenge spree, huh?" Ranma noted with interest.

"A little." Ryōga admitted modestly. "Now I'm here to challenge you, Ranma."

"Later. I'm kinda in the middle of my training at the moment." the Saotome Heir said instantly, making Ryōga faceplant.

"WHADDYA MEAN 'LATER'?!" the other boy yelled once he recovered. "I just challenged you, dammit!"

"Yeah, but I'm in the middle of training." Ranma reiterated. "That's more important than a challenge, P-Chan. I'll kick yer ass tomorrow, so hold yer horses until then, OK?"

Vein beating a tempo on his forehead, the Lost Boy glowered at Ranma darkly, even as the oddly cold and heavy feeling dissipated from him. "Tch. Fine. Meet at the usual lot tomorrow. And don't be late!"

With that piece of absurdly hypocritical advice, the boy gathered up his bag of dojo signs and left.

Ranma glowered back at where his rival had vanished into the streets. "'Don't be late' he says. Hah! He'll be wandering Japan for the next week, and he tells me not to be late! That's rich."

"Is it just me, or was there somethin' off about Ryōga just now?" Ukyo asked, her head canted slightly to one side in thought. "Dunno what it is, but there was somethin' different about him."

"Huh, you noticed as well, Ucchan?" Ranma asked with a blink. He wasn't surprised that her sensitivity to chi was getting to the point that she could feel changes in the chi of people other than herself after training to use an emotional chi blast, but it had only been a couple of days since she had started. Wasn't it a bit soon? He'd only noticed this kind of thing after training for a couple of years with the Pure Chi Attack.

"I noticed as well, Ranma." the Amazon chimed in. "His chi was oddly cold and heavy, far more than usual."

"Hmm…" Cologne pursed her lips. She had an inkling as to what had caused such a change, but decided to not say anything for the moment. Helping a student too much was actually worse than not helping them at all in her opinion. "Back to work, all of you. I have to call some joiners to get this fence fixed. Keep an eye out for anyone looking to take advantage of the hole."

As the aged Amazon hopped off to get the ball rolling on a new fence, she wondered if Ranma would put the pieces together regarding the change in Ryōga's chi and the similar but different change that had occurred in Shampoo's chi once she had learned the Shuhyō Jōnetsuen?

A Week Later

Empty Lot, Nerima

"So, you finally showed up, Ranma!" Ryōga challenged him as the pigtailed boy entered the lot, where his tent was pitched.

A tick mark appeared on Ranma's head. "This comin' from the guy who took a week ta show up to the fight you challenged me to!"

"Man, Ryōga don't change much, does he?" Ukyo commented. She and Shampoo were watching, but away from possible friendly fire from the upcoming fight.

"Not in the time I've known him." Shampoo replied dryly. "Airen...Ranma's never lost to him in a straight fight yet, I don't think. Why does the Pig Boy keep trying to win when it's obvious that Ranma's out of his league?"

"He's a pig, so he's stubborn." the Chef deadpanned. Both the girls giggled at that, making the two boys look over at them.

"...it is so creepy when girls giggle like that." Ryōga deadpanned. "You can never know what they're plotting."

"Eh, nowadays, it ain't usually anything that bad...unless another girl's aimin' at me." Ranma shrugged. Honestly, it was much better than when Akane was added to the mix, in his opinion. No getting sent flying via Akane Mallet Airlines, no getting thrown into Koi ponds early in the morning, no perverted old men splashing him with water and then trying to make him wear fancy lingerie at all hours of the day, no having to fight with a fat panda for food at the table...the list went on.

"You are so weird, you know that?" the Lost Boy shook his head. "Anyway, let's get to it, I suppose..."

Ranma raised an eyebrow at the sudden increase in the heavy and cold feeling about Ryōga's chi, not to mention the way he acted so...listless, for lack of a better term. Seriously, it was like someone had told him that dog of his, Shirokuro, was dead...wait…

"There ain't nothin' wrong with Shirokuro is there?" he asked, just to double check.

That off-the-wall question made the fanged boy blink. "No, he's fine. I was miraculously home last week, he's just as healthy as ever. Why?"

"No reason." Ranma replied, a bit of relief. Beating on a guy grieving for his dog wasn't his thing. Now that he was assured that wasn't the case, he could fight without a problem.

Assuming his stance, the pigtailed boy waited for Ryōga's first move. As the one who issued the challenge, he got to make the first move.

Bringing his arms up, Ryōga thrust them out in a gesture familiar to Ranma and shouted, "Shishi Hōkōdan! (Lion's Roar Bullet!)"

Instantly, a light-crimson beam erupted from the Lost Boy's hands and shot towards Ranma like a bullet. The boy was barely able to avoid it because of his lightning reflexes and his familiarity with Emotional Chi Blasts thanks to training with Shampoo.

The blast flew past Ranma and into a wall, causing a seriously big crater in it.

"Holy crap! That's the original one, isn't it?" Ukyo gaped at seeing Ryōga, of all people, pull off a chi blast. He was way more of a physical kind of fighter, so seeing that was a surprise.

"Like Great-Grandmother said, Pig Boy is suited to the original technique." Shampoo shrugged. "He's too-too gloomy."

"Whoa! Ryōga, where'd you learn an emotional chi blast like that?" Ranma called as the Pig Boy furiously sent blast after blast after him, disbelief on his face that his rival was dodging every single one like that.

"Got stuck in a mine that the Bakusai Tenketsu couldn't get me out of." he shot back between blasts. "Construction worker showed me it and I learned it in a day."

"A day?!" Ukyo and Shampoo were shocked at that. It had taken Shampoo weeks before she could use the Shuhyō Jōnetsuen, and even longer before she could use it at a level she was comfortable with, while Ukyo was still bashing her head against a wall with her own, unnamed version, and Ryōga had managed to learn and use the original technique in a single day?!

"Huh...well, congrats on the new technique. Looks as if it's pretty compatible with you if you could use it so easily." Ranma commented as he executed a backflip to get away from another blast.

"Will you stand still, already?!" Ryōga hissed in frustration.

"Eh, nope. See, Shampoo knows an emotional chi blast too, so I know the weaknesses of the partial technique, what you're doin' right now." the Saotome Heir replied nonchalantly. "Ya need to constantly maintain the emotional state that the chi blast needs. If ya lose it, ya can't use the blast, at least in the early stages of learnin' the technique like you are. Shampoo can pull on her emotion without needing to keep it at the front of her mind right now."

"Grrr…!" the Lost Boy ground his teeth in frustration. He'd been hoping that his newly-learned secret technique would be enough to beat Ranma into the ground. He'd never expected Ranma to be so familiar with it!

'I guess hanging around with that old crone Cologne has its advantages!' Ryōga though darkly. 'Dammit! Now what?!'

As he felt depressed about his technique being far less effective than he'd anticipated it to be, that rush of negative emotion fed his next blast, making it twice as powerful, and twice as large, as before, which took Ranma off guard and managed to clip him as he dodged.

"Gah!" the Saotome Heir grunted as he span in mid-air until he hit a nearby house head-first, stunning him.

"An opening! Shishi Hōkōdan!" Ryōga had absolutely no qualms of taking advantage of Ranma's condition, something he'd picked up from Genma during his time as the Heir to the Saotome School.

In an instant, Shampoo had intervened. "Shuhyō Jōnetsuen!"

The beam of brilliant vermilion flames slammed into the crimson blast, smashing it to one side fairly easily. Meanwhile, Ukyo headed over to check on Ranma.

"What?!" Ryōga gaped at his technique being defeated so easily. "How dare you interfere!"

"In a match, it's proper courtesy to let your opponent recover after leaving the designated combat zone, not to mention striking their head." Shampoo said frostily.

"…" Ryōga gaped. "Since when could you speak Japanese properly?"

One of Shampoo's eyes twitched at that. "For quite a while. You've been busy bumming around Japan while things change in Nerima."

"Ran-chan! Are you OK?!" Ukyo ignored the byplay behind her and focussed on her injured fiancé.

"Owwww…yeah, I'm fine….just as soon as the world stops spinnin', anyway." the pigtailed boy said as he held his head gingerly. "Urgh, I'm gonna feel that one in the mornin', you can bet."

"Out of the way, Shampoo!" the Lost Boy demanded. "I'm in the middle of a match with Ranma!"

"He just hit a building with his head; I'm taking him to Great-Grandmother to get looked at!" the Amazon snapped at the pigheaded pig boy. "My Chi Blast is fully mastered, unlike yours, so don't think you can beat me with it!"

"Tch...let's see if you can back up your words with action!" Ryōga growled. "Shishi Hōkōdan!"

"Shuhyō Jōnetsuen!" Shampoo countered, the two blasts of crimson and vermilion clashing once again in between their users. Unlike the last time, this was a head-on clash, and the difference between a partially mastered technique and a fully mastered version was made self-evident. The vermilion blast overwhelmed Ryōga's technique instantly, smashing it to pieces and slamming into the shocked user, sending him flying out of the lot and into the distance.

Naturally, the Lost Boy blamed one person for this outcome…

"Damn you, Ranmaaaaaa!"

"Why does he blame me for this when it's Shampoo that kicked his ass?" the boy in question growled. "I swear, he and Akane are just as delusional as each other sometimes…!"

"Darn right. Those two deserve one another." Ukyo agreed. Although she disliked Akane for her hit-first-ask-never tendencies, as well as Ryōga for his unthinking tendency to blame her Ran-chan for anything that went wrong in his life, she didn't dislike them to the point that she didn't want them happy; if getting together made them happy, the more power to them.

(It would also stop Akane from ever getting together with her Ran-chan, but that was just a side benefit...really!)

"Let's get Airen to Grandmother." Shampoo said, dismissing Ryōga from her mind, replacing him with concern for her husband-to-be. Helping him up, Ukyo supported Ranma and headed towards the Nekohanten.

Later

Nekohanten

"Hmmm...so, Ryōga has learned the Shishi Hōkōdan…" Cologne mused. She had finished examining Ranma earlier, and he was perfectly fine after she used an old Joketsuzoku trick to take care of the minor concussion he'd gotten. "Shampoo, how far along would you say he is with it?"

"About halfway there, great-grandmother. Maybe a little more." the younger Amazon said after a moment of pondering. "He had a fair understanding of it and a good resonance with the emotion of depression. I think another week, perhaps ten days, and he'll be able to unleash the full power of the technique."

"What I wanna know is how the heck he learned it in just one day!" Ukyo wondered, looking slightly put out. "I've been banging my head against it for over a week and I still can barely make the chi appear."

"There are likely three reasons for that." Cologne said thoughtfully. "First is that the Shishi Hōkōdan is the first and original emotional chi blast, thus there is a wealth of knowledge about it, including how to induce the correct mental state and several tricks on channelling depression-tainted chi. The second is, as I stated before, that Ryōga is an easily depressed individual, so he's very familiar with it, and it has likely made it easy to summon up the correct mental state. Third is because he had to. He was trapped in a caved-in mine with no way out. As the saying goes, needs must when demons drive you."

"Makes sense…" the Chef nodded glumly. "So what's your plan, Ran-chan?"

"Fight fire with fire." Ranma said instantly. He'd been running through a kata to make sure everything was working properly. "If Ryōga thinks havin' a chi blast is enough fer him to get one over on me, he's oinkin' up the wrong tree."

"I sincerely hope you aren't thinking of trying to do a Shishi Hōkōdan face-off…?" Cologne said severely.

"No way." Ranma snorted. "If I hadn't watched Shampoo make her own chi blast, I mighta gone for straight out copying it, but with what I know now, no way. I've even got one that suits me perfectly...pride...or self-confidence, if you want something that sounds better."

"Ah-ha! That is a perfect fit for you, son-in-law!" the old Amazon cackled. "Considering you've spent quite a bit of time watching Shampoo and Ukyo train to use their blasts, I expect that you'll get one up and running pretty easily. Meanwhile, Shampoo and I shall train Ukyo in properly creating her own. I have been a little too absorbed in ensuring you don't blow your chi pathways up to properly see to her for the past week."

"Sounds like a plan. Ucchan just needs a push." Ranma said confidently, as if his childhood friend would of course succeed in accomplishing what a great number of the Joketsuzoku couldn't do and use chi externally.

"Ran-chan…" Ukyo pinked at the confidence her fiancé had in her. It put a bit of steel in her spine and fuelled her determination to master this blasted technique if it was the last thing she did. If a thick-headed moron like Ryōga could use it, then there was no reason why she couldn't!

Shampoo smiled at seeing how her husband-to-be supported and encouraged their mutual wife-to-be. This was what she had always wanted in her partners, male or female; a sense of genuine trust, respect and mutual rapport. Ever since the Love-Aid Band-Aid incident, their little trio had grown closer and closer, something she now suspected that her grandmother had been angling for the entire time. Ukyo would be a worthy member of the tribe, and Shampoo was looking forward to the ceremony, but she wished that her ancestor would have told her the plan first!

Two Days Later

Nekohanten Kitchen

Cologne was distinctly irked with herself. She had neglected something rather important with Ukyo, which she had only just discovered the previous day; unlike Shampoo and Ranma, the Osakan girl hadn't been taught Qigong or Neigong exercises, meaning that she had no experience projecting chi outside of her body aside from with physical objects she was touching.

This was a rather large oversight by a Matriarch's standard. It also made Cologne's estimates of Ukyo's innate talent soar. Despite lacking experience with the regular exercises that allowed a martial artist to manipulate their chi, she had mastered the Hōsha Kōtei no Tsue, the Imperial Chestnut Fist, the Kyū Rin Tekken, the Parlay du Fois Gras and the Taka no Me technique, purely with hard work and determination. The emotional chi blast was beyond that, however, so she was stuck.

'Which is why Ukyo will be taught Qigong and Neigong as soon as she comes over after she closes up her restaurant.' the old Amazon thought with a chuckle. 'It would ordinarily take quite a few months to get someone in touch with their chi, but as Ukyo has been using her chi, albeit unconsciously, for years, teaching her the proper way to manipulate and direct her chi should only take two or three days at most. While Shampoo and I are doing that, Son-in-Law will make strides with his own version. He's already focussed on drawing the emotion out, and with a little bit of work, he should have it down pat before Ryōga shows up again.'

Settling in, Cologne started to cook vigorously.

Later

And, sure enough, it only took a couple of hours that day for Ukyo to properly connect to her chi once she'd learned Qigong and Neigong exercises. Shampoo was very happy for her and glomped her, making the poor girl turn red as a result.

Ranma had also progressed well, as one would expect from someone of his talent. Although he would not learn an emotional chi blast in a single day like Ryōga had, another couple of days and it would be fully complete. Cologne was very pleased with him.

"Er...Cologne…" Ukyo came up to her after Ranma had left and Shampoo had headed out on a late delivery. "Can I talk to you about...well, Shampoo kinda-sorta proposing to me?"

"Ah, so she finally did it, then?" the old Matriarch chuckled. "I was wondering why she was looking so pleased with herself recently…"

"Wait...you aren't angry that she did it without telling you?" Ukyo looked slightly poleaxed.

"Even as the Matriarch of her family, I have no business forcing a Warrior to detail everything she's planning on doing all the time." Cologne replied. "Furthermore, she already asked me for permission to formally court you quite a while back, permission which I gave. Is there anything the matter?"

The Chef blushed. "It's just...I never expected to fall for two people at the same time. I love Ran-chan, and I have done since I was little, but now I also like Shampoo. It's just...outside of any of my experiences."

"The Western influence over the last two-hundred or so years has changed things in Japan, I fear." Cologne huffed. "It did not used to be such a problematic matter, but that's the advance of civilisation, I suppose. In the Joketsuzoku, it isn't out of the question for one or more warriors to share a partner with one another, male or female. There are even more than a couple of permanent triads who are around Shampoo's age. Considering how odd the customs of those outside of the village have become recently, I suppose this would be something of a surprise for you."

The Osakan girl sweatdropped at hearing two centuries being referred to as 'recently' by anyone, although it did make sense coming from someone who was over three centuries old.

"If there is anything that you're concerned about, feel free to ask me, child." Cologne reassured her. "The last thing we want is for you to be scared off by a lack of knowledge about your situation."

"OK, so...how does this whole marriage thing between me, Shampoo and Ran-chan work, anyway?" the brunette asked.

"Hm. Well, essentially, you three would all be married to one another at the same time. You would be Shampoo's wife and Ranma's wife at the same time, while Ranma would be your husband, as well as Shampoo's." Cologne stated. "The actual ceremony is a secret to those who have not undergone it or are about to undergo it, so I cannot tell you anything about that, but it will essentially make certain that it is a marriage of equals."

Filing that away as 'suspicious' for later consideration, Ukyo raised an eyebrow. "And what about the whole 'tribe' thing? Do Ran-chan and I join the Joketsuzoku then?"

"Exactly. As outsider-born, you won't be held to all of the strictures of the tribe, nor will you be required to join a war party if we ever quarrel with another tribe...not that Shampoo would ever permit it either." Cologne smirked. "At the same time, your children, when you eventually have them, will be full-members of the tribe."

"Do wars happen often?" Ukyo blinked.

"Not with the Joketsuzoku; the last time we were involved in a war was a couple of hundred years ago, against the Musk Dynasty." Cologne reminisced. "Aside from the nigh-mythical Phoenix People, the Musk are the only tribe in our area of China with the strength to oppose us. They're patriarchal sexist pigs, which naturally puts the Joketsuzoku at loggerheads with them a lot of the time, but they lost the last war rather badly, through arrogance and carelessness on their part, so they've closed up since to rebuild their strength. We likely won't be seeing them any time soon."

"Hope not." the brunette muttered. She'd had her fair share of sexist bastards dissing her in her time, so the idea of super-strong martial artist sexist pigs made her queasy.

"Anyway, there are some other rules and the like, but that doesn't matter unless you plan on accepting Shampoo's proposal." the old Amazon stated with an enquiring look at the Chef. "Have you decided either way?"

"It's only been just under a month since she confessed." Ukyo mumbled, face red. "And it ain't just me that needs ta approve of this...what about Ran-chan? Even if I say yes, it's kinda pointless if he nopes the idea."

"You leave convincing son-in-law to me." Cologne smirked. "You just let yourself get used to the idea of marrying him and Shampoo...daughter-in-law."

That made Ukyo flush bright red yet again.

Two Days Later

Ukyo narrowed her eyes at Shampoo, who was standing confidently in front of her, several meters away. She had almost managed to form her emotional chi blast, it was within reach, she could feel it! All she needed was one little push and she'd have it!

Ranma had demonstrated his newly made chi blast, the Mōko Takabisha (Pride of the Fierce Tiger), to them earlier and damn, did it look pretty cool; a bright yellow blast that left her feeling more confidant and focussed just by being near it. Both of her crushes had their own blasts and she wasn't going to let herself fall behind them, dammit!

Feeling that rush of determination at that though, she thrust her hands out and cried, "Yamaneko Kesshinha! (Wildcat Determination Wave!)"

At her words, a beam of pure energy erupted from her hands. Unlike the Shuhyō Jōnetsuen, the Shishi Hōkōdan or the Mōko Takabisha, this one resembled the Tiger's Eye gemstone in colour and appearance, a golden colour that seemed to sparkle as it hurled itself forwards, thin black stripes mingling into it.

"Shuhyō Jōnetsuen!" Shampoo countered, her vermilion blast lancing forth to slam into Ukyo's own. Unlike with Ryōga's attack, Ukyo was able to hold her own for a good minute before the Shuhyō Jōnetsuen pushed the Yamaneko Kesshinha back.

Cologne leapt in and slammed her cane down and severed he two chi blasts, preventing either from claiming victory. Utterly spent by her first use of her chi blast, Ukyo slumped down to her knees, panting like she's just run a marathon.

'I actually had to put in some effort to sever those blasts…' the old Matriarch thought in slight shock. 'It seems that Son-in-Law is the only one of the three with an orthodox chi blast; Shampoo's has taken on the elemental qualities of fire, and Ukyo's has actual physical presence akin to the stone it resembles. Heh...the younger generation keep surprising me, even after all I've seen…'

"Holy crap! You OK, Ucchan?" Ranma leapt over to crouch next to his childhood friend in concern.

"Y-yeah...I guess usin' this technique takes quite a bit outta me." Ukyo replied ruefully. "I think this'll just be an emergency-only technique for me."

"You simply lack a great amount of chi." Cologne disagreed. "Unlike Shampoo and Son-in-Law, who have been practising Qigong and Neigong for a number of years, you have not. In time, you shall build up enough that a simple chi blast won't tire you out."

"Great-Grandmother, can you use emotional chi blasts?" Shampoo asked, keeping a careful eye on Ukyo as she walked over to her elder.

"Several." Cologne chuckled. "As you grow older and more self-aware about yourself and your emotions, you shall be able to use various emotional chi blasts, although you shall never be able to use one that directly contradicts your first one. In all of your cases, that effectively locks you out of the Shishi Hōkōdan, as that is the polar opposite of self-confidence, is the anathema of passion and kills determination."

"Huh...makes sense." Ranma nodded. "Wouldn't really wanna use the depression one anyway. It ain't me."

"Very true, Son-in-Law." Cologne nodded in agreement. "All that is left to do now is for Ukyo to continue training her Qigong and Neigong, and for you to practise your Mōko Takabisha until Ryōga shows up again. Knowing him, it should be in another six days or so."

"Knowin' P-Chan, probably." Ranma snorted. "Seriously, how he doesn't wind up in Timbuktu half the time I dunno. I could swear that he's been gettin' worse recently."

Cologne chuckled to herself darkly. Even she had no clue why the Hibiki family seemed to be cursed with a perpetual and unending lack of any sense of direction; it could be a curse on the family lineage, cast by a Kijō or priest, it could be a mental defect or the result of some form of Yōkai's mischief. All she cared about was that it generally speaking kept the stubborn porcine-morph out of Nerima and away from the budding romance between her three charges for extended periods of time.

If he kept on coming and picking a fight with Ranma out of stubbornness though, she'd have to do something about him...perhaps an application of Xi Fa Xiang Gao to make him forget the situation in which he had been cursed, for example.

'Another option would be to make that irksome little girl Akane fall for the boy; he'd be too distracted getting lovey-dovey with her to interfere with Ranma.' she considered. Cologne personally felt nothing towards the youngest of the Tendo sisters, aside perhaps from a slight amount of exasperation at her continued inability to recognise that she was out of the running for Ranma's heart, so arranging for her to distract another annoyance and possible interference to the Matriarch's own plan held no problems for her.

Several Days Later

Empty Lot, Nerima

"Jeez, man, what the heck happened to you?" Ranma asked curiously as Ryōga staggered into the lot, looking like he'd just been in a fight with all of the Seven Lucky Gods at the same time. He was leaning on a stick, his top was shredded, his bandanna was covered in mud and one of his eyes was twitching somewhat spasmodically.

"You sent me flying to Okinawa!" the Fanged Boy growled angrily. "I had to fight tigers and bears! I had to beat down yakuza! I even had to, urgh, sneak around using my Cursed Form in order to catch a ferry from Okinawa because I left my wallet here!"

Ranma, not to mention Ukyo, Shampoo and Cologne, just blinked at the Lost Boy in stupefaction. There was no physical way that Shampoo's Shuhyō Jōnetsuen could have sent him all the way to Okinawa, so presumably he'd landed in a truck, gotten knocked out and woke up in Okinawa. More importantly, though…

"...are bears and tigers even a thing in Okinawa?" Ranma asked doubtfully. "I mean...I've been there, years ago, and I don't remember bears and tigers. Dugong, pit vipers, Iriomote wildcats, jellyfish and sea turtles, yes. Not so much in the way of bears and tigers."

"Shut up!" Ryōga shouted. "I am going to take everything out you, Ranma...once I change and have something to eat!"

"Yeah...go ahead…" Ranma said, one eye twitching at the state his rival was in. He was practically teetering on the brink of exhaustion. If he didn't collapse asleep in the next few minutes, the Saotome Heir would be very surprised. "And just to remind ya, P-Chan, Shampoo was the one who sent ya flyin', not me."

"Your fault." the Lost Boy mumbled as he staggered to his tent (which Ranma had kept the less scrupulous members of Nerimian delinquents away from while Ryōga was who-knows-where) and crawled inside it. Seconds later, a loud snoring sound came from within it.

"And how'd you know he was coming here?" Ranma asked Cologne incredulously.

"I happen to be somewhat sensitive to chi signatures of those I am familiar with, Son-in-Law." Cologne cackled. "While it's useless for detection when fighting up-close and personal, it is rather useful to tell where people are, inside of a certain radius anyway. It isn't foolproof though; any chi concealment technique makes it pretty much useless."

"Huh…" Ranma said, idly making a mental note to learn one of those concealment techniques at some point. "So when do ya think Ryōga'll wake up?"

"Probably sometime tomorrow." the elderly woman said judiciously. "He's very obviously pushed himself beyond his limits in order to make it back here as fast as he could. He'll be fine though; if nothing else, the boy has endurance and resilience in spades."

"Yup, that's Ryōga for ya; tonka tough and hard workin'." Ukyo acknowledged. Say what you like about the Lost Boy, but he could take hits and go for miles.

"I hope that he stops coming after Ranma after this; it's getting tedious by this point." Shampoo stated with a cute pout.

"A rival's good for the soul, Shampoo." Cologne lightly chided her. "Pushing you to train hard and go beyond your limits so you do not fall short. Admittedly, Son-in-Law's rapid progress recently has left Ryōga in the dust somewhat, but all he needs is a push now and then."

"I'm standin' right here, just so ya know." Ranma informed her tartly.

As he and the old woman playfully squabbled on their way out of the lot, Ryōga snarled in his sleep. "Damn you...Ranma…! Gonna...smash you...Shin Shishi Hōkō...mphg."

Three Days Later

"So you arrive at last, Ranma!" Ryōga declared.

"P-Chan, you wandered off again." the Saotome Heir reminded him. "If Cologne hadn't tied a rope to you and left the other end tied to the fence here, you'd be in Hokkaido or somewhere even further away by now."

This, very predictably, earned him an ungrateful glower from his rival. He'd been lucky that several shops and public restrooms were within walking distance of the empty lot, otherwise he'd be complaining!

"Enough about that!" Ryōga snapped. "This time I'm gonna beat you! I wasn't just wandering around Japan for those ten days! I took the time to practice and perfect my technique! This time, you'll know the true power of the Shishi Hōkōdan!"

"Izzat so, P-Chan?" Ranma asked cockily. "Lemme ask ya somethin'...do ya really think that I did nothin' but sit on my hands while you were wanderin' around Okinawa's zoos, hmm?"

A wary look passed over Ryōga's face before his pride and certainty in his technique won out. Even if Ranma had managed to scrape together a technique to counter the Shishi Hōkōdan that he'd seen last time, unless he'd seen a full-powered version, there was no way he could have any idea of the sheer might of the depression-powered blast at its zenith.

Ranma felt the urge to sneeze for some reason.

"Ranma!" a female voice shouted, making the Saotome Heir close his eyes and count to ten. Opening them, he turned around to see Akane glaring at him furiously, despite being held back by Ukyo and Shampoo.

"What now?" he asked her. "Ain't you supposed to be doin'...whatever it is ya do when ya ain't tryin' ta hit me with a mallet?"

"I heard about you picking on Ryōga again!" Akane growled.

"Me, pickin' on him...yeah, no." Ranma said flatly. "He challenged me fair and square. Butt out, Akane."

Honestly, he was really getting sick of Akane's continued skewed perception of him bullying Ryōga all the time. Most of the time, it was thanks to the fact that Ranma was deliberately hiding the fact that Ryōga was her pet piglet. He couldn't tell her that 'P-chan' and the Lost Boy were the same person without breaking his honour as a martial artist, so he hid the fact...and got zero appreciation from either party for it.

Maybe Cologne had a few ideas…

"Ranma, don't talk to Akane that way!" the Pig Boy growled. "Shishi Hōkōdan!"

The crimson blast launched from the Lost boy's hands just as swiftly as it had done the last time. Unlike the last time, however, Ranma didn't dodge. Instead, he simply whirled around thrust his arms out and shouted, "Mōko Takabisha!"

Much to Ryōga's shock and astonishment, a beam of solid yellow light erupted from his rival's hands and slammed into the Shishi Hōkōdan like a hammer. And unlike when he had faced Shampoo's Shuhyō Jōnetsuen, it was the Lost Boy's blast that was pushed back. The yellow light surged forward, even as Ryōga tried to push more heavy ki into the attack, until the two beams were equidistant from their owners. Golden and crimson energies pushed relentlessly against each other for what felt like a minute, before the clash ended with the struggling bolts detonating in an explosion of light and displaced dirt like something out of a shōnen anime, with both their users instinctively flinching at the result.

"What the hell, Ranma?!" Ryōga shouted, shaking his head to rid himself of the ringing sound. "What kind of chi blast was that?!"

"The best way to counter depression...is with confidence!" Ranma smirked at his rival proudly. "I see your lion's roar, and match it with a tiger's pride, Pork Chop!"

'It can't be...he created an emotional chi blast in just a handful of days…?!' Ryōga thought in disbelief. The miner who had taught him the Shishi Hōkōdan had also told him about a couple of other chi blasts that were considered orthodox and traditional, with plenty of history behind them; the Mōko Takabisha wasn't on that list. Neither was the Shuhyō Jōnetsuen, for that matter. 'Creating an emotional chi blast isn't easy to do, or so the miner guy said...so why can Ranma do this out of nowhere?! It hasn't even been thirteen days, so how the hell did he kludge together a working chi blast, one more powerful than the incomplete form of mine no less, so quickly?!'

Every time he thought he had a leg up on Ranma, the pigtailed boy turned it around on him. It was like that stupid Western cartoon about that blue cat and brown mouse constantly fighting one another. It was just so…!

"...depressing…!" Ryōga moaned, slumping forward slightly.

Ranma twitched slightly as the feeling he had come to associate with depression-laced chi redoubled within Ryōga, an almost visible aura surging around the boy.

"Aw crap...looks like he really did figure out the real form of the technique." the Saotome Heir grimaced. Having seen the Shin Shuhyō Jōnetsuen when Shampoo beat Mousse for once and for all, Ranma was well aware that being hit by an attack of such power was A Bad Idea. "Shampoo, Ucchan, get yourselves and Akane outta here! This ain't gonna be pretty!"

"Gotcha, Ran-chan!" Ukyo replied. Unfortunately, Akane was, lacking in skill or not, a physical powerhouse. The Chef had no ability to move her. The same could not be said for Shampoo, however, who simply jabbed the stubborn Tendo Heiress in a nerve cluster before throwing her insensate body over her shoulder and booking it, Ukyo hot on her heels.

"Shin Shishi Hōkōdan! (True Lion's Roar Bullet!)" Ryōga roared...before he slumped forwards, looking utterly hollow. Blinking at this apparently non-starter of an attack, Ranma was about to ask what was going on before his danger sense screamed at him and he looked up, gaping at what he saw.

A massive pillar of depression-tainted chi bore down him like a train off the tracks. Instinctively using the Mōko Takabisha to try and block it, he grimaced as he felt his confidence wavering. He knew that there was no way for an incomplete, imperfect chi blast to beat the real deal, and he hadn't had the time to do what Shampoo had done and master the real version.

Before he could decide what to do, however...

"Yamaneko Kesshinha!" Ukyo shouted from where she had appeared next to him on the left, the golden chi blast she had recently invented slamming into the Shin Shishi Hōkōdan alongside his own, temporarily arresting its fall.

"Ucchan, this is a challenge!" he shouted.

"Use your brains, Ran-chan! If that touches down, it won't just mess you up; it'll destroy this lot and the houses next to it!" Ukyo shouted back. "We have ta get him to stop!"

"Good luck; the lights're on but nobody's home!" the pigtailed boy nodded towards Ryōga, who was clearly out of it.

"Shuhyō Jōnetsuen!" Shampoo slammed into place on Ranma's other side, her vermilion chi blast joining their own. "I'm with you!"

"Heh...well, awright then...let's kick some ass!" Ranma grinned savagely, his confidence shooting up again at his two...friends...standing beside him. In the past, he's mostly had to deal with this kind of thing alone, mostly thanks to his idiot old man, but having people who he recognised as genuinely caring about him standing loyally by his side...well, it did wonders for a boy's self-confidence, especially since both were pretty girls.

The struggle between the three incomplete chi blasts and the single complete version waged for a while before Ranma looked over at Shampoo.

"Can you use your complete version to stop Ryōga's?" he asked hurriedly.

"No, the Shin Shuhyō Jōnetsuen can't be angled upwards." the Amazon Champion denied. "It has to be fired towards where I'm facing, and if I withdraw to reposition, the blast up there will squash you both!"

"I can't...hold on much longer…" Ukyo groaned.

"We have to work together! Meld our chi together!" Shampoo shouted. "Separately, we're holding it back, but if we truly combine our blasts into a single one, we should be able to defeat the Shin Shishi Hōkōdan!"

"How?!" Ranma shouted.

"Trust us! Believe in us! Allow us to be as one!" Shampoo informed him quickly, a bit of her old pidgin dropping back into her words as she spoke. "We do same and too-too badly beat Ryōga!"

Closing his eyes, Ranma tried to do as Shampoo had told him, but fourteen years of nigh-total isolation were not easy to break. He quickly decided to boil it down to the basics; did he, or did he not, trust these girls?

Yes.

Suddenly, warmth seemed to flood into him from both sides. He opened his eyes to see that Ukyo's golden Yamaneko Kesshinha, Shampoo's vermilion Shuhyō Jōnetsuen and his own bright yellow Mōko Takabisha were spiralling together into a single blast. Words came to him, and he shouted them out alongside the two girls.

"Sanjū Gōitsu! (Three Beasts, Roar As One!)"

Strangely, as they did so, each of the three participants thought they could hear the snarling yowl of their separate beasts as the spiral of chi energy, pure white, slashed the Shin Shishi Hōkōdan into motes of chi energy, leaving Ryōga, who had utterly expended all of his chi, to collapse to the ground, eyes rolled back and unconscious.

Not that Ranma, Ukyo and Shampoo were any better off; each of them had fallen to one knee, panting in exertion. Oddly enough, a slight glow of gold, yellow and vermilion seemed to seep into each of them before vanishing.

From her perch nearby, Cologne's eyes were wide as dinner plates. "The legendary emotional chi blast combination technique, Gōitsu (Roar As One), recreated in front of me...ha! If any of those old fools in the village think that Ukyo is lacking in talent, they'll be in for a sharp shock at this!"

She had told Shampoo of the legends in the past, of users of emotional chi blasts being able to combine their complete forms into a single massive blast powerful enough to defeat an army, but she had never expected her granddaughter to use the vague details of the stories to recreate it with the incomplete versions!

'Perhaps Son-in-Law's penchant for thinking outside the box is rubbing off on Shampoo…' Cologne considered. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing to happen; if Shampoo had any stark failing as a warrior, it was that she tended to think far too linearly, too rigidly. A more flexible outlook could only serve to aid her.

Looking up, she spotted dark clouds on the horizon. The weather forecast had said that there would be heavy rains due sometime in the next few days, but Cologne hadn't suspected that they'd come now.

She had better get the three victors out from the possible incoming shower quickly. Shampoo, while no longer afflicted by a Jusenkyō curse, still had a hearty dislike for getting soaked in her clothes due to the innumerable times it had happened to her while she had been cursed, and it also tended to make her quite irritable, and the last thing they needed was to get the victory mood down over something so silly.

"The things I do for my descendants." she sighed and started hopping over to the lot.

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Next Chapter: The Disgusting Happō Dai Kabin!

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