Circuitry hummed. Electricity sizzled. Machinery whirred. Strange lights and consoles blinked.
All in all, a typical day at Mishima Heavy Industries.
At the center of it all, a lovely woman with long raven hair tied back in a ponytail, with piercing violet eyes that held a touch of mania to them, presided over the equipment, checking readings and making sure that everything was just so. Her name? Dr. Sakura Okun, head of Research and Development, and co-inventor of the Neogenic Recombiner. Just now, as a matter of fact, she was storing the long apparatus that served as the "gun" component of the Recombiner.
"Hmm, have to keep track of that one," Dr. Okun mused aloud, referring to Shampoo. "I didn't think it would have that effect on her. I wonder who that gentleman in the red and blue was? If his power was added to her prowess in the martial arts, then she'll have limitless potential." This statement was accompanied by a look akin to a cat with a canary in its clutches.
Striding over to a computer, she punched up a picture on a security camera. The picture showed a young male, going through a kata with a bokken. Fluid motion followed fluid motion, as the bokken-wielder continued his workout.
"Ah, young Tatewaki, you make a splendid specimen indeed. How you've grown..."she trailed off, a bittersweet recollection of times past springing to mind. "How noble, how honorable. You make your mother proud. I must pay you a visit soon...along with your little friends."
And with that, Dr. Sakura Okun, formerly Sakura Kuno, mother to Tatewaki and Kodachi Kuno, laughed, not as maniacally as her daughter, but close enough.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tatewaki Kuno finished his workout, and walked over to the bench where he put his sweat towel. Every once in a while, he'd glance over his shoulder.
"Methinks someone watches. 'Tis a queer sensation I feel, that of eyes on my person," he said loudly, trying to scare whoever might be watching him out of hiding.
"Oh, that's just paranoid schizophrenia setting in, Brother dear," called a voice in a lilting, mocking tone. Kodachi waltzed in, in her favorite green leotard and with one of her ribbons in hand, ready for her workout.
Kuno bit back a scathing remark about sanity, opting for the moral high ground. "Sister dear," he said in the same general mocking tone Kodachi used, "may you have a wondrous workout." With that, he walked out of the dojo and closed the door.
At the moment he walked out, Kodachi dropped the green leotard guise and shifted to her Blood Rose aspect. She also ditched the ribbon, another pretense she adopted so as not to raise her brother's suspicions. Though Tatewaki Kuno was known for having the perceptive powers of mentally deficient roadkill, it was best not to take chances.
Seeking to test the limits of her new powers, she set to hopping all over the dojo, from wall to wall, from floor to ceiling, pausing every once in a while on the walls to test her ability to cling to them. As she flew around, she let her senses go, finding them enhanced as well. She could sense even the tiniest eddy of air current about her as she flew through the air, could hear the smallest squeak of the wood as she impacted, could feel the curvature of the wall change as she sprung off. It made for a heady experience.
As she alighted in the middle of the dojo floor, she let out a loud, ringing laugh, slightly different from her usual maniacal banshee wail. It was tinged with true joy, joy in the sensations, the feeling of true power she sensed.
"Oh, how wonderful this feels! But whatever am I do to with myself now that I have all this power? Ah! Now I am definitely worthy for my Ranma-sama. I can just go kill that annoying Akane Tendo and...."
Kodachi paused. She felt unusual when she said that, so she tried again, slowly. "I can kill Akane...." This time, she couldn't even finish the sentence. What was this she was feeling? It felt like....revulsion. Disgust. Anger at herself for suggesting it.
It surprised her. Why, all of a sudden, would she not want to kill her primary rival for the heart of Ranma? *Could it be that this astounding costume has instilled me with a conscience?* she wondered.
"Nah!" she said quite forcefully. As she set to continuing her workout, she couldn't help but wonder why she no longer felt the need to kill ANY of her rivals, not just Akane. It was almost as if she had been in a bank of clouds before, clouds which blinded her to the proper way of action. Now that the clouds were clear, she found that she had no desire to kill anyone, finding the act wrong and abhorrent. In fact, all her thoughts seemed clearer, somehow.
As she pranced about the gym doing a floor exercise, she continued to wonder what had caused this sea-change within her. She still wanted Ranma, but she also realized bitterly that he didn't like her in the same way, and it was mostly her fault for acting like a complete psycho. She realized that her actions in the past were horribly unbalanced.
She had been sick. Mentally sick.
"I guess I shouldn't have made that crack to Tatchi about paranoid schizophrenia," she said with a frown. After commanding her costume to form a mask over her face, so as not to be recognized, she leapt out of the dojo, intent on taking a little "stroll".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a lovely day, filled with birds chirping, sun shining, and Ryogas hopelessly lost.
"Where on earth at I now?" he muttered in a lower register than his usual hopelessly lost wail. He stared at a map of Lichtenstein as he pondered where to go. This would usually be a good thing....if he were in Lichtenstein. But, seeing as he was standing in front of the Ucchan's, it didn't do him much good.
"Lost again, sugar?" drifted a pleasant female voice from the doorway behind him. Ryoga turned to see Ukyo flipping one of her throwing spats up in the air and catching it.
"No, I'm not lost, I'm just trying to find my way to the Alps from here.....wait, what are you doing in Lichtenstein, Ukyo?" puzzled Ryoga.
Ukyo raised an eyebrow quizzically. "And just how do you plan on getting to the Alps from downtown Nerima?"
Ryoga flushed, as he realized that he was indeed back in Japan. "Ah, well...nevermind that now. You busy? Wanna walk to the Tendo Dojo?"
Ukyo knew that Ryoga was too prideful to come out and admit that he was asking her because he couldn't find his way there if it was 2 feet in front of him. "Eh, sure. I can see why Ranchan's been missing lately. Knowing Akane, she knocked him halfway to Tibet, and he's slowly making his way back."
"How can you like such a jerk anyway, Ukyo? I always thought you had better sense than that."
"Hush up, jackass...I could say the same about Akane, you know. She's not all peaches and cream."
"Leave Akane out of it!" roared Ryoga helplessly. "She's the greatest..." And with this, he developed a goofy grin while thinking about Akane.
Ukyo just shook her head. "You're hopeless, man." They continued on towards the dojo, until they saw an increasingly unusual sight.
What they both saw was Happosai, jumping around with panty-raiding gear. This wasn't that unusual in and of itself, but the person following him was.
She wore an all purple spandex bodysuit, which covered her from head to toe. Over this was a sweatshirt, all in black, sleeves torn, with a purple spider emblazoned on its chest and back. When Ukyo got a good look at the face, all she saw was a purple visage with two large white patches where the eyes would be.
"Who is that?" Ukyo and Ryoga said, almost in unison. "Well, whoever it is, they're really good...they're keeping up with the old lecher, and they don't even seem tired," Ukyo noted.
The stranger in purple then shot a weird looking string from her wrist. It shot ahead of Happosai, and stuck to a tree. She then used her forward momentum to swing ahead of the perverted master, and begun to swing back towards him. Happosai was surprised by this maneuver, but was quick enough to react and duck under the kick that the stranger attempted. Said stranger then fell onto the floor and skidded, as her momentum would have predicted her to do.
This exchange had Ryoga's jaw on the floor. He was astounded by the agility of the stranger, and the rope technique that she had used to swing around and take aim at Happosai. Ukyo was flabbergasted too, but she recovered much quicker than the Eternal Lost Boy did. *Hmm, looks like I'm not the only one that's got some powers, after all. No normal person can move that fast....I think even Ranchan might have trouble keeping up. Happosai was lucky there.*
All of a sudden, they saw a huge burst of light and sound. Apparently, Happosai capitalized on the strangers miss, and nailed her with a Happodaikarin. This snapped both Ryoga and Ukyo out of it, and sprung them into action.
Ryoga went to face off with Happosai. "Hey Old Pervert! Why don't you try picking on a man, instead of a girl!" As he leapt forward, he grabbed a bunch of bandannas and flung them at Happosai, hoping to distract him with them while he set him up for a Shi Shi Hokodan.
"Ah, but she started it, my boy! And if a pretty lady wants to play, who am I to refuse?" bantered the Perverted Master as he dodged all the bandannas, unwittingly putting himself right into the line of fire of a.....
"SHI SHI HOKODAN!!!!" Ryoga screamed as he let loose a ball of concussive depression chi. It connected solidly, sending Happosai into the outer reaches of the stratosphere.
Meanwhile, Ukyo went to check on the strange girl that had been fighting Happosai. "Um, miss? Are you alright? My companion and I saw the fight, and we thought we'd help...."
"Why you interfere? I had old pervert where I wanted him," she said, in an unusual voice that made Ukyo think she was deliberately trying to deepen it, and speak more articulately. "But...thank you anyway."
Ukyo felt rather suspicious. "And what's your name, sugar?" pouring on the nice routine. *What's that gaijin saying? Ah, catch more flies with honey....*
"Black Arachnia," she said without hesitation. "Thank you again for help. Now, I must go follow him. Excuse me."
And with that, she leapt onto the nearest tall building, over 70 feet down the street and at least 6 stories high. She made it look like she was doing a short broad jump across a puddle in the street.
"Gonna have to watch for that one...." Ukyo said under her breath, slightly amazed, though not overly so. After all, it's not like this "Black Arachnia" is the only one that has power around here....
"What the hell was that?" Ryoga asked, genuinely amazed at the display of agility, speed, and strength that was Black Arachnia's leaping. "How can she leap around like that? Even Ranma and I would be hard-pressed to do that."
Ukyo noted that Ryoga had acknowledged Ranma's skill as an afterthought, but decided against pointing that out to him. Instead, she began to say, "Yeah, that's amazing. Wonder how she...."
But before she got to finish the sentence, they had an unexpected visitor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Blood Rose had been out on her "stroll", and seen nothing of note. She had been mulling over in her mind why she all of a sudden didn't feel the urge to obliterate her competition. It never bothered her before, so why should it now, when she now has more than enough means to do it?
The only thing she could think of is that the costume somehow instilled her with a conscience, something to prevent her from doing evil things such as that. "But, that's just silly! That can't be true...."
No, that wasn't true. The truth, Kodachi realized painfully, was that she had been sick. She had been delusional and near-psychotic, and now she wasn't. Thanks to this costume, she was now normal, even metahuman in certain aspects. This included the chemical imbalance that she had within her. Now, the only mental unbalance she had was one purely of thought patterns and trauma she had experienced. Those could be fixed, in time.
But in the meantime, due to her new-found clearness, she had come to a couple of realizations. One was that Ranma found her to be the least appealing of the fiancee crew, because of the aforementioned delusional state. Another was that she couldn't fix things by killing off her competition; if anything that would make things worse.
So what was she to do? As she pondered this, she ran across Ryoga and Ukyo.
"Ah....the chef and the Lost Boy! What a pleasant surprise," Kodachi said as she swung in to join them in a pleasant conversation.
Ryoga and Ukyo exchanged glances. "Um, do we know you?" they said, again almost in unison.
"Hmm, perhaps....I am the Blood Rose." With this, she took a bow with a flourish. Tendrils of her costume snaked about her, as if a snake's tongue, picking up information out of the air by plucking it directly from there.
Ukyo was instantly wary. She reached for a spat and charged it, behind her back so as not to alert anyone to her intent. "Really? Quite a suiting name for you. You have a thing for roses?"
"Why, yes.....they're lovely flowers, aren't they? I believe another girl around here has a fixation quite similar....only to black roses. Isn't that the silliest thing! There are no such things as naturally occuring black roses."
Still wary, Ukyo said, "Yeah, but the same could be said about bleeding roses, too."
Even though she couldn't actually tell, Ukyo could swear that the girl's face behind that mask twisted....with anger or amusement, she couldn't be sure. "Now, did I say 'bleeding', my dear girl? I said blood, as in the color of."
A disgusted look cross Ukyo's face. "Lovely image there, darlin'. Now, whatta you want?"
"Oh, I saw you two standing about, and felt like having a pleasant chat. Why, am I upsetting you?" the Blood Rose said, in a tone that practically screamed "I hope I am".
"Maybe," Ukyo said, then immediately vaulted to the side and flung her charged up spat at the ground in front of the Blood Rose's feet. Upon contact with the asphalt of the street, the spat exploded, releasing the pent up kinetic energy that Ukyo had suffused it with. It blew up a small portion of the street, spraying rocks everywhere.
This suprised the Blood Rose, who fell back from the shockwave of the explosion. When she landed, she screamed in shock and anger, "I try to be nice, and this is how you repay me!? Take this!" With that, she extended a tendril of her costume, formed it into a throwing shruiken, and flung it at Ukyo. It clipped her in the shoulder as she was leaping away, causing her to stumble slightly. Ukyo, determined soul that she is, kept going, not stopping.
Muttering under her breath, Kodachi said, "Stupid wench...." as she extended another tendril of costume to swing away with.
Meanwhile, Ryoga just stood there with a look of stony shock on his face. Finally, about a minute later, when his mind caught up to his senses, he managed a "Huh?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nabiki was deep in concentration. She was busy trying to figure out how to use her newfound power to profit. While she was doing this, she was in the middle of a 3 meter bubble of frigid Arctic air. Hey, a girl has to keep in practice.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Nabiki shut down the mini-snowstorm, made sure there wasn't any patches of ice laying around, and went to answer the door. When she opened it, she was slightly surprised to see Akane there. Not that she didn't care for her sister, it's just that they tended never to go to each other's rooms.
"Hey Onee-chan, whatcha doing?" Akane said with a bright smile. Suddenly, as she walked into the room, she let out a slight shiver. "Um, is it just me, or is it kinda cool in here?" she said as she compensated by releasing microwave-spawned heat, at a very small rate, to warm herself a bit.
"Nah, it's just you Akane. In fact, I think it's getting a tad warmer in here," Nabiki said as she noted that with Akane's entrance, it got suddenly warmer. She started to cool the air about her to keep her cool, literally.
Akane shrugged. "I just came by to ask you if you saw a brick in the dojo. I had left one out for my afternoon workout, but it's gone..."
"Nope, didn't see one sis," Nabiki quickly, but smoothly, added. "Maybe you should just get another one?"
By this time, both had aquired a near visible aura about them, the signal that they were manifesting their powers. They were oblivious to each other's auras, because they were too worried that the other would spot their aura. At the same time, it began to get quite cold on Nabiki's side of the room, while it was quite warm on Akane's side. If they had been circling each other, a Hiryu Shoten Ha could have easily been performed.
Still, both sisters were ignorant of the other's powers. "Yeah, guess I'll have to. I'll do it after my jog. See ya Onee-chan!" Akane said cheerfully. *Time to fly!*
Nabiki gave her patented smirk, and said, "Later Akane."
After Akane left, Nabiki let a breath out that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Can't have anyone finding out about this yet....if at all," Nabiki said.
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"I'm getting that creepy deja-vu feeling," Ranma-chan said.
Her and her father were walking back towards the dojo. Thanks to her father's impromptu training trip, she ended up being out of Nerima a week. Now, she returns with a panda for a father, and in girl form. She couldn't help but think it was rather similar to when she first graced the Tendo's front door, only this time she wasn't being dragged kicking and screaming there.
:"Ya HAD to forget the hotplate, didn'tcha oyaji?" Ranma-chan growled at her hapless panda- father.
Genma held up a sign stating, "Well, you should've double check our packs, boy!"
Ranma had an incredulous look on her face. "Now how was I supposed to do that when you just threw my pack at me, grabbed me, and we left?!?!"
"Always be prepared, boy. You never know when a training trip will arise," the sign that Genma held up said.
Ranma gave the panda a look, grabbed the sign out of his hand and smacked it over her father's head.
"Mrrrrrr...." Genma growled weakly.
"Useless ball of fur...." Ranma muttered. Just then, something caught his eye.
It was an orange streak across the sky. When it swooped by, it resolved itself to be a girl. She wore a form-fitting maroon bodysuit, with shoulders decorated in orange flames, and boots decorated in red flames. She wore what appeared to be an orange-mirrored visor, hiding her eyes. Her hair was deepest black, except for various streaks of brightest red mixed in.
Ranma could do nothing but stare at her in absolute awe. This girl radiated power, and grace, and beauty, and she was flying - FLYING, mind you - across the sky.
She looked like an angel.
Suddenly, the angel stopped, as if noticed. She saw Ranma staring up at her, and slowly a smile spread across her face. She seemed to recline in the air, as if satisfied that Ranma's gaze was fixated on her with such unabashed infatuation. She seemed to sit upon the air for a beat, then waved, blew a kiss at Ranma, and flew off.
Ranma stood stock still. It wasn't until she heard her father begin to stir that she came out of her reverie. All the way home, she thought of nothing beside the beautiful girl that flew by, and smiled and waved at her, and blew a kiss at her.
As Ranma entered home, she saw Akane standing at the doorway, a small smile across her face. Her most kawaii smile. She thought to herself, still in shock and awe, *First that really cute flying girl, now Akane's smiling cutely at me. Whatever I did right today, Kami-sama, tell me so I can keep doing it....*
He didn't even realize that he didn't think of Akane as uncute.
"Hey Ranma, how was the training trip?" Akane asked, genuinely curious.
"What?" Ranma said intelligently, still fairly out of it.
"Nothing, Ranma. Kasumi's almost done with dinner, you should go wash up now," Akane said, the small smile still playing across her face.
"H-hai, Akane. 'Scuse me a sec," Ranma said as he headed to the furo.
Akane was enjoying this immensely. For once in her life, she had made Ranma go gaga over her. It was one of her duties to keep that going, the best way she knew how. And one way was to ask the only person she could for advice, Dr. Tofu.
*But that can wait,* thought Akane, as she went inside to prepare for dinner, and take off the bodysuit she still had on underneath her jeans and sweatshirt.
All in all, a typical day at Mishima Heavy Industries.
At the center of it all, a lovely woman with long raven hair tied back in a ponytail, with piercing violet eyes that held a touch of mania to them, presided over the equipment, checking readings and making sure that everything was just so. Her name? Dr. Sakura Okun, head of Research and Development, and co-inventor of the Neogenic Recombiner. Just now, as a matter of fact, she was storing the long apparatus that served as the "gun" component of the Recombiner.
"Hmm, have to keep track of that one," Dr. Okun mused aloud, referring to Shampoo. "I didn't think it would have that effect on her. I wonder who that gentleman in the red and blue was? If his power was added to her prowess in the martial arts, then she'll have limitless potential." This statement was accompanied by a look akin to a cat with a canary in its clutches.
Striding over to a computer, she punched up a picture on a security camera. The picture showed a young male, going through a kata with a bokken. Fluid motion followed fluid motion, as the bokken-wielder continued his workout.
"Ah, young Tatewaki, you make a splendid specimen indeed. How you've grown..."she trailed off, a bittersweet recollection of times past springing to mind. "How noble, how honorable. You make your mother proud. I must pay you a visit soon...along with your little friends."
And with that, Dr. Sakura Okun, formerly Sakura Kuno, mother to Tatewaki and Kodachi Kuno, laughed, not as maniacally as her daughter, but close enough.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tatewaki Kuno finished his workout, and walked over to the bench where he put his sweat towel. Every once in a while, he'd glance over his shoulder.
"Methinks someone watches. 'Tis a queer sensation I feel, that of eyes on my person," he said loudly, trying to scare whoever might be watching him out of hiding.
"Oh, that's just paranoid schizophrenia setting in, Brother dear," called a voice in a lilting, mocking tone. Kodachi waltzed in, in her favorite green leotard and with one of her ribbons in hand, ready for her workout.
Kuno bit back a scathing remark about sanity, opting for the moral high ground. "Sister dear," he said in the same general mocking tone Kodachi used, "may you have a wondrous workout." With that, he walked out of the dojo and closed the door.
At the moment he walked out, Kodachi dropped the green leotard guise and shifted to her Blood Rose aspect. She also ditched the ribbon, another pretense she adopted so as not to raise her brother's suspicions. Though Tatewaki Kuno was known for having the perceptive powers of mentally deficient roadkill, it was best not to take chances.
Seeking to test the limits of her new powers, she set to hopping all over the dojo, from wall to wall, from floor to ceiling, pausing every once in a while on the walls to test her ability to cling to them. As she flew around, she let her senses go, finding them enhanced as well. She could sense even the tiniest eddy of air current about her as she flew through the air, could hear the smallest squeak of the wood as she impacted, could feel the curvature of the wall change as she sprung off. It made for a heady experience.
As she alighted in the middle of the dojo floor, she let out a loud, ringing laugh, slightly different from her usual maniacal banshee wail. It was tinged with true joy, joy in the sensations, the feeling of true power she sensed.
"Oh, how wonderful this feels! But whatever am I do to with myself now that I have all this power? Ah! Now I am definitely worthy for my Ranma-sama. I can just go kill that annoying Akane Tendo and...."
Kodachi paused. She felt unusual when she said that, so she tried again, slowly. "I can kill Akane...." This time, she couldn't even finish the sentence. What was this she was feeling? It felt like....revulsion. Disgust. Anger at herself for suggesting it.
It surprised her. Why, all of a sudden, would she not want to kill her primary rival for the heart of Ranma? *Could it be that this astounding costume has instilled me with a conscience?* she wondered.
"Nah!" she said quite forcefully. As she set to continuing her workout, she couldn't help but wonder why she no longer felt the need to kill ANY of her rivals, not just Akane. It was almost as if she had been in a bank of clouds before, clouds which blinded her to the proper way of action. Now that the clouds were clear, she found that she had no desire to kill anyone, finding the act wrong and abhorrent. In fact, all her thoughts seemed clearer, somehow.
As she pranced about the gym doing a floor exercise, she continued to wonder what had caused this sea-change within her. She still wanted Ranma, but she also realized bitterly that he didn't like her in the same way, and it was mostly her fault for acting like a complete psycho. She realized that her actions in the past were horribly unbalanced.
She had been sick. Mentally sick.
"I guess I shouldn't have made that crack to Tatchi about paranoid schizophrenia," she said with a frown. After commanding her costume to form a mask over her face, so as not to be recognized, she leapt out of the dojo, intent on taking a little "stroll".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a lovely day, filled with birds chirping, sun shining, and Ryogas hopelessly lost.
"Where on earth at I now?" he muttered in a lower register than his usual hopelessly lost wail. He stared at a map of Lichtenstein as he pondered where to go. This would usually be a good thing....if he were in Lichtenstein. But, seeing as he was standing in front of the Ucchan's, it didn't do him much good.
"Lost again, sugar?" drifted a pleasant female voice from the doorway behind him. Ryoga turned to see Ukyo flipping one of her throwing spats up in the air and catching it.
"No, I'm not lost, I'm just trying to find my way to the Alps from here.....wait, what are you doing in Lichtenstein, Ukyo?" puzzled Ryoga.
Ukyo raised an eyebrow quizzically. "And just how do you plan on getting to the Alps from downtown Nerima?"
Ryoga flushed, as he realized that he was indeed back in Japan. "Ah, well...nevermind that now. You busy? Wanna walk to the Tendo Dojo?"
Ukyo knew that Ryoga was too prideful to come out and admit that he was asking her because he couldn't find his way there if it was 2 feet in front of him. "Eh, sure. I can see why Ranchan's been missing lately. Knowing Akane, she knocked him halfway to Tibet, and he's slowly making his way back."
"How can you like such a jerk anyway, Ukyo? I always thought you had better sense than that."
"Hush up, jackass...I could say the same about Akane, you know. She's not all peaches and cream."
"Leave Akane out of it!" roared Ryoga helplessly. "She's the greatest..." And with this, he developed a goofy grin while thinking about Akane.
Ukyo just shook her head. "You're hopeless, man." They continued on towards the dojo, until they saw an increasingly unusual sight.
What they both saw was Happosai, jumping around with panty-raiding gear. This wasn't that unusual in and of itself, but the person following him was.
She wore an all purple spandex bodysuit, which covered her from head to toe. Over this was a sweatshirt, all in black, sleeves torn, with a purple spider emblazoned on its chest and back. When Ukyo got a good look at the face, all she saw was a purple visage with two large white patches where the eyes would be.
"Who is that?" Ukyo and Ryoga said, almost in unison. "Well, whoever it is, they're really good...they're keeping up with the old lecher, and they don't even seem tired," Ukyo noted.
The stranger in purple then shot a weird looking string from her wrist. It shot ahead of Happosai, and stuck to a tree. She then used her forward momentum to swing ahead of the perverted master, and begun to swing back towards him. Happosai was surprised by this maneuver, but was quick enough to react and duck under the kick that the stranger attempted. Said stranger then fell onto the floor and skidded, as her momentum would have predicted her to do.
This exchange had Ryoga's jaw on the floor. He was astounded by the agility of the stranger, and the rope technique that she had used to swing around and take aim at Happosai. Ukyo was flabbergasted too, but she recovered much quicker than the Eternal Lost Boy did. *Hmm, looks like I'm not the only one that's got some powers, after all. No normal person can move that fast....I think even Ranchan might have trouble keeping up. Happosai was lucky there.*
All of a sudden, they saw a huge burst of light and sound. Apparently, Happosai capitalized on the strangers miss, and nailed her with a Happodaikarin. This snapped both Ryoga and Ukyo out of it, and sprung them into action.
Ryoga went to face off with Happosai. "Hey Old Pervert! Why don't you try picking on a man, instead of a girl!" As he leapt forward, he grabbed a bunch of bandannas and flung them at Happosai, hoping to distract him with them while he set him up for a Shi Shi Hokodan.
"Ah, but she started it, my boy! And if a pretty lady wants to play, who am I to refuse?" bantered the Perverted Master as he dodged all the bandannas, unwittingly putting himself right into the line of fire of a.....
"SHI SHI HOKODAN!!!!" Ryoga screamed as he let loose a ball of concussive depression chi. It connected solidly, sending Happosai into the outer reaches of the stratosphere.
Meanwhile, Ukyo went to check on the strange girl that had been fighting Happosai. "Um, miss? Are you alright? My companion and I saw the fight, and we thought we'd help...."
"Why you interfere? I had old pervert where I wanted him," she said, in an unusual voice that made Ukyo think she was deliberately trying to deepen it, and speak more articulately. "But...thank you anyway."
Ukyo felt rather suspicious. "And what's your name, sugar?" pouring on the nice routine. *What's that gaijin saying? Ah, catch more flies with honey....*
"Black Arachnia," she said without hesitation. "Thank you again for help. Now, I must go follow him. Excuse me."
And with that, she leapt onto the nearest tall building, over 70 feet down the street and at least 6 stories high. She made it look like she was doing a short broad jump across a puddle in the street.
"Gonna have to watch for that one...." Ukyo said under her breath, slightly amazed, though not overly so. After all, it's not like this "Black Arachnia" is the only one that has power around here....
"What the hell was that?" Ryoga asked, genuinely amazed at the display of agility, speed, and strength that was Black Arachnia's leaping. "How can she leap around like that? Even Ranma and I would be hard-pressed to do that."
Ukyo noted that Ryoga had acknowledged Ranma's skill as an afterthought, but decided against pointing that out to him. Instead, she began to say, "Yeah, that's amazing. Wonder how she...."
But before she got to finish the sentence, they had an unexpected visitor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Blood Rose had been out on her "stroll", and seen nothing of note. She had been mulling over in her mind why she all of a sudden didn't feel the urge to obliterate her competition. It never bothered her before, so why should it now, when she now has more than enough means to do it?
The only thing she could think of is that the costume somehow instilled her with a conscience, something to prevent her from doing evil things such as that. "But, that's just silly! That can't be true...."
No, that wasn't true. The truth, Kodachi realized painfully, was that she had been sick. She had been delusional and near-psychotic, and now she wasn't. Thanks to this costume, she was now normal, even metahuman in certain aspects. This included the chemical imbalance that she had within her. Now, the only mental unbalance she had was one purely of thought patterns and trauma she had experienced. Those could be fixed, in time.
But in the meantime, due to her new-found clearness, she had come to a couple of realizations. One was that Ranma found her to be the least appealing of the fiancee crew, because of the aforementioned delusional state. Another was that she couldn't fix things by killing off her competition; if anything that would make things worse.
So what was she to do? As she pondered this, she ran across Ryoga and Ukyo.
"Ah....the chef and the Lost Boy! What a pleasant surprise," Kodachi said as she swung in to join them in a pleasant conversation.
Ryoga and Ukyo exchanged glances. "Um, do we know you?" they said, again almost in unison.
"Hmm, perhaps....I am the Blood Rose." With this, she took a bow with a flourish. Tendrils of her costume snaked about her, as if a snake's tongue, picking up information out of the air by plucking it directly from there.
Ukyo was instantly wary. She reached for a spat and charged it, behind her back so as not to alert anyone to her intent. "Really? Quite a suiting name for you. You have a thing for roses?"
"Why, yes.....they're lovely flowers, aren't they? I believe another girl around here has a fixation quite similar....only to black roses. Isn't that the silliest thing! There are no such things as naturally occuring black roses."
Still wary, Ukyo said, "Yeah, but the same could be said about bleeding roses, too."
Even though she couldn't actually tell, Ukyo could swear that the girl's face behind that mask twisted....with anger or amusement, she couldn't be sure. "Now, did I say 'bleeding', my dear girl? I said blood, as in the color of."
A disgusted look cross Ukyo's face. "Lovely image there, darlin'. Now, whatta you want?"
"Oh, I saw you two standing about, and felt like having a pleasant chat. Why, am I upsetting you?" the Blood Rose said, in a tone that practically screamed "I hope I am".
"Maybe," Ukyo said, then immediately vaulted to the side and flung her charged up spat at the ground in front of the Blood Rose's feet. Upon contact with the asphalt of the street, the spat exploded, releasing the pent up kinetic energy that Ukyo had suffused it with. It blew up a small portion of the street, spraying rocks everywhere.
This suprised the Blood Rose, who fell back from the shockwave of the explosion. When she landed, she screamed in shock and anger, "I try to be nice, and this is how you repay me!? Take this!" With that, she extended a tendril of her costume, formed it into a throwing shruiken, and flung it at Ukyo. It clipped her in the shoulder as she was leaping away, causing her to stumble slightly. Ukyo, determined soul that she is, kept going, not stopping.
Muttering under her breath, Kodachi said, "Stupid wench...." as she extended another tendril of costume to swing away with.
Meanwhile, Ryoga just stood there with a look of stony shock on his face. Finally, about a minute later, when his mind caught up to his senses, he managed a "Huh?"
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Nabiki was deep in concentration. She was busy trying to figure out how to use her newfound power to profit. While she was doing this, she was in the middle of a 3 meter bubble of frigid Arctic air. Hey, a girl has to keep in practice.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Nabiki shut down the mini-snowstorm, made sure there wasn't any patches of ice laying around, and went to answer the door. When she opened it, she was slightly surprised to see Akane there. Not that she didn't care for her sister, it's just that they tended never to go to each other's rooms.
"Hey Onee-chan, whatcha doing?" Akane said with a bright smile. Suddenly, as she walked into the room, she let out a slight shiver. "Um, is it just me, or is it kinda cool in here?" she said as she compensated by releasing microwave-spawned heat, at a very small rate, to warm herself a bit.
"Nah, it's just you Akane. In fact, I think it's getting a tad warmer in here," Nabiki said as she noted that with Akane's entrance, it got suddenly warmer. She started to cool the air about her to keep her cool, literally.
Akane shrugged. "I just came by to ask you if you saw a brick in the dojo. I had left one out for my afternoon workout, but it's gone..."
"Nope, didn't see one sis," Nabiki quickly, but smoothly, added. "Maybe you should just get another one?"
By this time, both had aquired a near visible aura about them, the signal that they were manifesting their powers. They were oblivious to each other's auras, because they were too worried that the other would spot their aura. At the same time, it began to get quite cold on Nabiki's side of the room, while it was quite warm on Akane's side. If they had been circling each other, a Hiryu Shoten Ha could have easily been performed.
Still, both sisters were ignorant of the other's powers. "Yeah, guess I'll have to. I'll do it after my jog. See ya Onee-chan!" Akane said cheerfully. *Time to fly!*
Nabiki gave her patented smirk, and said, "Later Akane."
After Akane left, Nabiki let a breath out that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Can't have anyone finding out about this yet....if at all," Nabiki said.
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"I'm getting that creepy deja-vu feeling," Ranma-chan said.
Her and her father were walking back towards the dojo. Thanks to her father's impromptu training trip, she ended up being out of Nerima a week. Now, she returns with a panda for a father, and in girl form. She couldn't help but think it was rather similar to when she first graced the Tendo's front door, only this time she wasn't being dragged kicking and screaming there.
:"Ya HAD to forget the hotplate, didn'tcha oyaji?" Ranma-chan growled at her hapless panda- father.
Genma held up a sign stating, "Well, you should've double check our packs, boy!"
Ranma had an incredulous look on her face. "Now how was I supposed to do that when you just threw my pack at me, grabbed me, and we left?!?!"
"Always be prepared, boy. You never know when a training trip will arise," the sign that Genma held up said.
Ranma gave the panda a look, grabbed the sign out of his hand and smacked it over her father's head.
"Mrrrrrr...." Genma growled weakly.
"Useless ball of fur...." Ranma muttered. Just then, something caught his eye.
It was an orange streak across the sky. When it swooped by, it resolved itself to be a girl. She wore a form-fitting maroon bodysuit, with shoulders decorated in orange flames, and boots decorated in red flames. She wore what appeared to be an orange-mirrored visor, hiding her eyes. Her hair was deepest black, except for various streaks of brightest red mixed in.
Ranma could do nothing but stare at her in absolute awe. This girl radiated power, and grace, and beauty, and she was flying - FLYING, mind you - across the sky.
She looked like an angel.
Suddenly, the angel stopped, as if noticed. She saw Ranma staring up at her, and slowly a smile spread across her face. She seemed to recline in the air, as if satisfied that Ranma's gaze was fixated on her with such unabashed infatuation. She seemed to sit upon the air for a beat, then waved, blew a kiss at Ranma, and flew off.
Ranma stood stock still. It wasn't until she heard her father begin to stir that she came out of her reverie. All the way home, she thought of nothing beside the beautiful girl that flew by, and smiled and waved at her, and blew a kiss at her.
As Ranma entered home, she saw Akane standing at the doorway, a small smile across her face. Her most kawaii smile. She thought to herself, still in shock and awe, *First that really cute flying girl, now Akane's smiling cutely at me. Whatever I did right today, Kami-sama, tell me so I can keep doing it....*
He didn't even realize that he didn't think of Akane as uncute.
"Hey Ranma, how was the training trip?" Akane asked, genuinely curious.
"What?" Ranma said intelligently, still fairly out of it.
"Nothing, Ranma. Kasumi's almost done with dinner, you should go wash up now," Akane said, the small smile still playing across her face.
"H-hai, Akane. 'Scuse me a sec," Ranma said as he headed to the furo.
Akane was enjoying this immensely. For once in her life, she had made Ranma go gaga over her. It was one of her duties to keep that going, the best way she knew how. And one way was to ask the only person she could for advice, Dr. Tofu.
*But that can wait,* thought Akane, as she went inside to prepare for dinner, and take off the bodysuit she still had on underneath her jeans and sweatshirt.