Permanent Ch.11

When one is lost...

++++++++++

Ranma stood with her two opponents facing her and breathed
heavily. She was bleeding from a small cut on her elbow that the one
called Ko-li had inflicted on her and was otherwise uninjured; she was
however getting worn down.

The pair was attacking in unison and Ranma was
hard pressed to avoid both of them at the same time. They were very good,
but Ranma was better. She jammed her elbow into the back of Talcum's neck
causing her to slam into the ground. The younger girl had abandoned her
spear in favor of a pair of nunchaku when the fight had started. She was
giving Ranma the most trouble out of the two. Ko-li jabbed the spear at
Ranma who jumped up over the weapon and backhanded the her in the face.
Talcum jumped up off the ground and swung at Ranma with the nunchaku,
Ranma blocked and nearly broke her arm on the weapon. Ko-li slashed at
Ranma's shirt barely missing the girl and Ranma rolled under Talcum's legs
to escape. She kicked straight up when she was directly under her and the
girl hit the floor after being lifted three feet in the air by the force
of the kick. She was out for a short time.

Ko-li frowned when her partner was put out of commission. She took
a relaxed stance and held her left arm in the air. Her right arm was
pointed at Ranma who was on the other side of the room. Ko-li smiled and
jumped straight up and spun in the air releasing a volley of throwing
knives at Ranma.

Ranma smiled and raised her hand. She began to glow blue
and the knives stopped in mid air. Ko-li gasped as she landed and her
knives spun towards her in mid strike. "Aiya!" she cried as she was pinned
to the wall by her clothing.

"Now what should I do with you?" said Ranma with a small grin. It
was short lived as the Amazon promptly removed her top and ripped her
pants free easily.

"Feh, I've had enough of this," snorted Ranma as she raised her
hand and pushed at the air. The air in front of her distorted, looking
almost like water, and seemed to rush forward pinning the hapless girl to
the wall. "I'm much stronger than when I defeated Shampoo," she said with
a small amount of laughter. A look of terror crossed the Amazon's face and
she prepared to die.

Talcum rushed Ranma from behind and almost grabbed her. Ranma
jumped straight up into the air and came down on the girl's back. A ball
of fire formed in Ranma's hand and she smiled as she aimed it at the
pinned girl's head.

"I will not go through this again," said Ranma angrily. She raised
the hand that was holding the spell keeping Ko-li against the wall and the
girl was lifted up and the Amazon started to choke.

"Leave them, they will not attack again," said an aged voice from
the back of the dojo.

"What?" said Ranma as she spun around to face the new comer. Ko-li
was thrown to the side against the opposite wall and began to clutch at
her neck desperately as if trying to pull away an invisible hand; and
Talcum screamed in pain as Ranma twisted her foot on her back tearing the
muscle there.

Cologne stood at the back of the dojo and smiled at Ranma. "I am
Cologne, the elder of the Amazon tribe, They will not attack you again."

Ranma released Ko-li from her grip and the fireball vanished. She
kept Talcum pinned to the floor with her hand ready to make another.

"Relax dear this was just a final test; I knew you would not
fail," said the old woman.

"Test?" said Ranma warily.

"Yes my dear. Shampoo gave you the kiss of death when you defeat
her the first time, You destroyed her in combat and she died honorably.
You have proven yourself worthy to become an amazon, you are now one of
us. Isn't that nice?" said the old woman with cheery looking smile.

"What?" said Ranma with a look of horror on her face.

Cologne sighed and sat down across from Ranma. "Our way is to
remain strong, Shampoo was my great granddaughter and I will mourn her for
a very long time; however, I realize that you did what you did to survive.
Just as we have. We live in a cold and hostile environment, in order for
our people to survive the harsh communist government of our country we
must remain strong enough to fend for ourselves, we use this to weed out
the weak and create strong blood ties in our tribe. It is how we survive."

Ranma stepped off Talcum and sat down next to Cologne with a hard
stare. "If I refuse to join you?" she asked.

"You cannot, You are now a member of our tribe," said Cologne
simply.

"I'm not going back to China." said Ranma.

"If that is your wish I will honor it, we ask only to have the
privilege of your help when it is needed, that you at least honor our laws
and abide by them, and allow access to your knowledge. You are a very
powerful mage, you have collected more magic than our tribe has in three
thousand years of history. In return we will teach you to be a greater
warrior and give you access to our own vast library. It is a simple trade
of information, if you would like to put it that way. I am aware of your
'condition' and we will not ask you to marry," said the matriarch.

"I will not give you full access to my library ghoul," said Ranma
with a sneer.

"What?" said Cologne in surprise.

"I have books that were never meant for human eyes and I intend to
make sure they stay out of reach."

Cologne smiled and stood. "We'll be leaving now, I shall talk
again with you later. You must be made familiar with amazon law."

"Whatever," snorted Ranma.

"Goodbye sister Ranma," said Talcum and Ko-li as they bowed
shakily and followed Cologne as best they could in their condition.

Ranma walked into the yard and jumped back into her room.

+++++++++

"What about pill?" asked Talcum.
"I have plans for it, she will receive it in time. Besides, I have
plans for the young Saotome, she will return to China with us of her own
accord, it may take some time though," said Cologne as they jumped from
rooftop to rooftop towards the newly opened 'Cat cafe'.

Ko-li frowned as she followed. "She is likely to ignore us, how
can we be sure we can convince her?"

"Simple child, we'll offer her a job. In time she will grow
accustomed to us and no doubt the two of you will get along quite well
once you get past your differences," snorted the old woman. "The three of
you have more in common than you think."

"You seem to know a lot about this." said Ko-li.

"Your fighting abilities weren't the only reason I brought you
young one." thought Cologne with a smile.

++++++++++

The next day after school Ranma sat with Gosunkugi in his room.
"Try again," she sighed.

Gosunkugi frowned and looked at the book. "I'm sure I followed the
instructions..." he muttered as he flipped through the pages. "Wait, these
two are stuck together. What was I doing?"

++++++++++

Outside Hiroshi and Daisuke walked by the home. "I hear Ranma's
been hanging out with Gosunkugi. Seems our prediction came true," snorted
Hiroshi.

"What does she see in him?" muttered Daisuke.

Then as they passed the windows of the home exploded in flames and
a deafening roar was heard from within the home.

"What was that?" cried Hiroshi.

"Nothing we didn't see a thing; keep walking," said Daisuke as he
dragged his friend down the sidewalk.

++++++++

In the room Ranma sat in a corner with a blue glow dying down in
her hand with a look of shock and surprise on her face. Gosunkugi cowered
on the bed with a look of sheer terror.

"Damn it! How the hell did you get a light spell mixed up with a
low-level demon summon spell?"!!" she cried angrily.

"I'm sorry! The pages were stuck together!" whimpered Gosunkugi
pathetically.

"Whatever, we'll continue this later. Study the book and you'd
recognize that you weren't reading the right spell any more. I'd better
see some improvement next time or else," warned Ranma as she reverted the
room back to normal with a small spell. "I'll see you later."

"Bye sensei," muttered the pathetic boy as he opened the book and
started to study it carefully.

++++++++++

"Ah, Ranma dear, How are you?" said a familiar voice from next to
Ranma as she walked home.

"Not today ghoul I'm not in the mood," she muttered.

"Too bad I was about to offer you a job," said Cologne.

"I already have one thanks," snorted Ranma bitterly.

"I am aware of your current employment, this one pays twice as
well and you will be working with your 'sisters,'" said Cologne
cheerfully.

"No thanks," muttered Ranma as she turned to take a different
route along the fence.

"Not even if it means you could acquire this?" said the elder
Amazon as she held up a small clear pill with distinct markings on it.

Ranma froze in her tracks. "Where did you get that?!"

"A certain counsel of mages, only one is created every five
hundred years," said Cologne with a wicked smile. She knew she had the
girl.

"The Saint pill?" said Ranma with a haunted look.

"Yes, it can cure any curse," said the woman with a dark smile.
"If I should lose it during the course of the day at work..." said the
ghoul with a mocking far off gaze; Ranma knew what she meant, If she
wanted it she had to take it from her.

"All right ghoul, you got a deal," she said with a small smile.

+++++++++

The next day Ranma came home and sat down at the table across from
her father and Mr. Tendo who were both playing Shogi. Akane sat next to
her with a frown on her face. Mr. P sat in her arms and looked at Ranma
with small pig chuckles. Ranma glared at him. In recent weeks he had
become an almost permanent fixture on Akane's chest.

"Ranma...what happened?" asked Akane.

Ranma seethed as she rubbed at her arms. 'Reject' was stamped on
them in bright red ink up and down the length of her forearm.

"My new boss is a slave driver that's what," she muttered.

"New boss?" said Mr. Panda's sign.

"Yeah, I got another job at this place called the 'Cat cafe'. I get
fewer hours but they pay much better. I even got a few of my regular
customers going there now. A lot of the guys from school found out about
it some how too," said Ranma with a small frown.

Nabiki just looked at the ceiling innocently.

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with those marks?" said Akane
looking bewildered.

"Lets just say they are a bit competitive," muttered Ranma.
"Stupid ghoul, I'll get that pill yet."

+++++++++

A week later...

Akane walked into the relatively small Chinese restaurant and
looked around. "Ranma?" she said with a small smile as Ranma walked by
lazily balancing seven bowls of Ramen as she rushed by to a table.

"Here ya go," she chimed cheerfully. A slam followed by a few
crashes could be heard and Ko-li dusted her hands off as she turned from
around a corner and walked over to a chalkboard with some Chinese writing
on it. She made a mark under one of the columns.

"Hey Akane! Come for lunch?" asked Ranma as she gave the Chinese
girl an approving smirk.

"Thought I'd stop by...what is that?" asked Akane as she pointed
at the board. It had close to thirty marks on it with most of them under
the only symbols she recognized on the board; they were the Kanji for
'Ranma'.

"That's just something the girls and I came up with after I
started working here. We keep score on who teaches the most people about
the 'no touching rule'. Most people sort of got the hang of it pretty
quick so its not anything like what it used to be," said Ranma with a
smile as she led Akane to a table.

"That's...weird. I like it, but its still weird," said Akane with
a smile.

"Ranma come here," said Cologne from her perch on a counter.

"What is it?" asked the girl with a little sarcasm in her voice.

+++++++++

She and Akane were lead to the back alley. Akane had followed out
of curiosity and watched cheerfully as the old woman began to start a
fire.

"What's up ghoul?" snorted Ranma.

"Watch," said Cologne as she pulled a bag of chestnuts from her
robes and threw them into the fire. She let them burn for a moment and
then jabbed her hands into the fire. In a split second her hands vanished
and then reappeared holding two handfuls of roasted chestnuts. "That was
the Katsutenshin amaguriken technique; learn it and taking the pill will
be child's play.

"I couldn't even see her hands move," gasped Akane.

"Interesting," said Ranma as she looked thoughtful and returned to
the restaurant; Akane had never seen Ranma look quite so determined
before.

"You're really going to try to learn that?" asked Akane.

"I just might," replied the girl with a smile.

"You'll get burnt," warned her friend.

"Hey, since your here I'll buy you lunch," said Ranma as she lead
her back to her table.

++++++++++

Several days later...

Ranma sat in the yard with a grim look on her face, Akane and her
family looked dressed up in their Kimono and were preparing to leave for a
summer festival. Akane giggled with Mr. P in her arms and kissed him on
the nose. "I wish I could take you to the festival Mr. P," she said
cheerfully.

Ranma simply smiled wearily and stood adjusting her own Kimono. "I
guess we should go soon."

"I think it's great your coming with us," said Akane with a smile

"Well, I am supposed to help out with the haunted house later
tonight anyway," said Ranma as she shrugged her shoulders.

"So Ranma, have you mastered the Amaguriken technique yet?" asked
Cologne from the wall above them. She held out a small case and Ranma
lunged for it. The pair exchanged blows for a moment and Ranma's arms were
covered in reject signs again, she growled at Cologne.

"You're still to slo..." Cologne stopped as she realized that Ranma
was not growling but laughing.

Ranma held out her hand and flipped the clear pill in the air
casually. "How did you get that?" said Cologne in shock.

"Got ya!" said Ranma.

"No! If he uses it and returns to a male now my plans are ruined,"
thought Cologne desperately.

Then Ranma did something completely unexpected. She reached over
and snatched Mr. P from Akane's grasp causing her to gasp in surprise.
Then she shoved the pill into his mouth and covered his snout tightly. The
pig struggled in confusion for a moment and then went still. Ranma dropped
him and he began to squeal in pain.

"What have you done to him?!" cried Akane in shock as she reached
for him. Ranma stopped her and shook her head.

Mr. P began to writhe and grow on the ground as his skin became
lighter and his squeal turned into a scream.

Cologne and the Tendo family watched in shock.

Ryoga Hibiki stood and looked at his hands in complete and total
wonder. "What?" he said. He clutched his throat as the sound and feel of
his voice felt strange and alien to him now. He looked at Ranma and then
Akane. His face twisted and tears fell down his cheeks. "I'm a man again?"
he said as his voice cracked.

"Again?" thought Akane even through her shock.

Cologne only stared in disbelief at what Ranma had done.

"That means...Ranma..." said the boy as he fell to his knees.

Ranma smiled as she looked at Ryoga. He stood...and punched her
dead in the face. "Ranma! How dare you!" he yelled in anger as he took up
a ready stance.

TbC...