Chapter 2 Hell has no fury as..?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Ranma characters, don't sue cause I'm a poor
student.
"Shampoo?" Ranma repeated.
The lavender-haired girl just stood there speechless. [Uh oh, I'm in
big trouble now.] She quickly spun around and prepared to take off.
However, Ranma got in front of her first. "Wait, Shampoo, we're not
here to hurt you."
Shampoo considered her options. She could try running, however that wasn't
possible, since she probably couldn't shake away a good martial artist like
Ranma. Just because she got one lucky hit in doesn't mean she'll get another.
"I'm not the killer," Shampoo said finally.
"We know," Ranma said. "That's not the reason we're here."
Now that Akane realized Shampoo saved her, she was beginning to believe her
innocence.
Shampoo looked at Ranma in disbelief. "If not, why are you here? How do I know
your not trying to trick me?"
Ranma thought, then he considered how
much he had changed after the incident.
He held out a bag of stuff and threw it on the ground in front of Shampoo.
"Well, your great grandmother told us to give you this if we find you," Ranma
said. "It's your decision if you want us here or not. If you don't want us here,
we'll leave right now."
Shampoo looked into Ranma serious eyes and quickly discovered that he wasn't
joking. She shook her head. "It won't matter, Ranma and Akane already know about
the place, there isn't a point on you going back. Plus, if you wanted me dead, I
would have already been dead." She stated. "So long as you guys are here, why
don't you come in?"
Ranma and Akane shrugged.
"Sure." Ranma mumbled.
Before they could get into the house however, a certain boy was lost in the
Area turned around and found himself...
Face to face with the purpled haired Amazon. Anger swelled in him as he
remembered what happened on Ranma's birthday. "Shampoo! For what you done for
done to Akane, prepare to DIE!" He took out his bamboo umbrella and attacked.
Shampoo quickly dodged and pulled her sword out and cut the umbrella in half.
That caught her off guard. Sure it was a sword, but it was a simple regular
sword while Ryouga's bamboo umbrella was specially made to dish out some serious
damage. Perhaps those things her great grandmother told her to study was worth
it after all.
Ryouga looked at his broken umbrella in disbelief. The umbrella was so powerful
that it could shatter rock, how did she slice it half?
"Hey! That was my favorite umbrella! BAKSEI TENKETSU!" He jabbed his finger in
the ground next to Shampoo.
The ground next to Shampoo instantly shattered into pebbles that flew straight
at her. Shampoo decided to push her luck further, held the sword and swung it
around her deflecting off all the debris flying toward her.
When she was done she swung the blade a few times then laid the flat end on her
back. Raising two fingers and raising one foot off the ground she finished the
move, without a scratch on her. [Wow, those do work. Got to thank great grand
mother sometime.]
Ryouga backed up in surprise as one of his strongest techniques didn't work. He
threw some punches at the girl, who blocked with the flat end of the blade,
obviously not wanting to hurt Ryouga.
[This is insane!] Ryouga thought. [When did she become so good? Or has she been
holding out all this time?] Ryouga tired his breaking point technique again
hitting a bolder besides the Amazon.
The bolder shattered instantly as Ryouga finger flicked the weakest point on it,
as the pebbles flew everywhere.
Ryouga opened his eyes in amazement. Shampoo was doing what he thought was
impossible, she was using the pebbles as stepping stones as she 'leaped' from
stone to stone.
Ryouga let out a panicked punch, just when Shampoo just got in front of him, she
held up her arms to block it. WHAM, the hit sent her back and falling back first
on the ground.
[Well..] Shampoo thought to herself. [This training is making me faster, but I'm
just as weak as I was before, I can't take any hits.] She rubbed her arms in
pain.
Ryouga smiled, time to finish it. "SHI SHI.."
Akane walked out and pulled Ryouga's arm. "Wait!" She said.
Ryouga jumped at this, "Akane! What are you doing in Okinawa?"
Ranma jumped on Ryouga's head. "Okinawa? We're not in Okinawa, you idiot! We're
near Tokyo!"
"RANMA! What is going on here?" Ryouga exclaimed. "Why are you with this... this
murder!"
Shampoo got up slowly and dusted her clothes. "I'm not a murder you stupid pig
boy!"
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PIG?!" Ryouga exclaimed.
"Just because I was in the wrong time at the wrong place, doesn't mean I'm a
murder," She replied.
"Ryouga..." Akane said. "After looking at it more closely, we discovered that
she didn't shoot that arrow, several things that we overlooked can prove that."
[Why did Shampoo call Ryouga pig boy anyways?] She wondered.
Ryouga looked at them baffled. "What are you guys talking about?" he asked.
Before he could continue, Shampoo cut in. "Why don't you all come in?" She
invited, "Maybe we could explain better, Ryouga."
Ryouga stared at her for a long while, then he realized that Akane will be
there, there was no way that he was going to let Akane be around Shampoo without
him around! Although Akane says otherwise, he still doesn't fully trust Shampoo.
She was way to devious, even before the birthday.
Shampoo led them to her 'guests' into her hut, each had a different reaction
seeing how simply she was living now.
Akane: [Wow, she been living like this? Impressive. No electricity, no running
Water. Gotta give it to her, I wouldn't be able to stand living like this.]
Ranma: [Geez, it's sorta my fault that she's living like this. Guess Shampoo is
stronger than I give her credit for.]
Ryouga: [Reminds me how I been living on the road.]
"Sorry, this isn't much," Shampoo explained shrugging. "Since I don't want to
attract unwanted attention."
Ranma nodded silently as he took a seat on a wooden chair. "No no no.." Ranma
insisted. "This place looks uh... comfy right Akane?"
Akane felt like malleting Ranma right there for flirting with Shampoo, but she
managed to control her anger. "Uh... yea... looks very comfortable."
Shampoo let out a small forced grin. "That's okay, you don't have to be so
polite." She said, handing the trio some tea, which they accepted, then sat
around a small round table.
"Why don't you guys talk to each other while I finish checking the stuff that
Ai..er..Ranma took here." Shampoo added.
Akane cringed as she heard Shampoo's 'slip' but remained silent, although she
would never admit it, she was sort of jealous of Shampoo's frankness in the
'fiancée' war, not that she was interested in Ranma of course. (Riiight)
Ranma shuddered when he noticed that 'slip' and tried the best to ignore it. The
trio started chatting away as Shampoo went in her room, and opened the stuff.
Ranma and co. started to hear clings and clangs as Shampoo rummaged through the
Bag. They all exchanged some clueless glances at each other.
"Shampoo!" Ranma called out. "Are you okay in there?"
Some loud angry Chinese words were heard from where they sat, probably curses
where she didn't want people to understand. Shampoo walked out face etched with
annoyance.
Akane yelped in surprise when she saw Shampoo like that. She thought she seen
Shampoo mad before, but it was nothing compared to what she was seeing now.
"Are you okay?" Akane summoned all her courage to ask, secretly fearing nothing
will come good out of this.
Shampoo took a deep breath. "Yes, I'll be fine. Let's get everything
straightened out shall we?"
So, that's exactly what they did. Of course it wasn't easy explaining to Ryouga
considering he went ahead and got himself lost (No surprise there) and missed
out on all the details that happened during that time.
Finally, after the explaining with visual aids and stuff, Ryouga finally got the
idea that Shampoo didn't try to kill Akane. He apologized for the sudden attack,
which Shampoo gracefully accepted.
"Oh, look at the time!" Ranma exclaimed, looking outside. "We better head back
home now. Thanks Shampoo, for your hospitality."
Shampoo looked outside and silently gasped at how late it was, "You guys should
probably stay here for the night. Going out in the forest late at night could be
dangerous." She said. "I don't have a lot of room here, but I think we can
manage four people."
"I think we could handle whatever danger is out there, Shampoo," Akane replied.
"Don't worry about us."
Shampoo shrugged. "The forest also has a really annoying aspect of raining when
you don't want it to." She added.
This caused Ryouga to sweat after Shampoo said this. If they get caught in this
rain, the results could be disastrous. Before he could say anything coherent,
Akane asked an interesting question.
"How do you manage if you get caught in your cursed form?" Akane asked,
wondering why Ryouga seemed so nervous all the sudden.
"It's hard, but once I learned a few trick out of the scrolls great grandmother
gave me; but before then, I had to try to start fire as a cat, not very fun,
mind you." Shampoo replied, picking up the teacups and cleaning the table.
"Hmm..." Ranma muttered, "Maybe it is a good idea to stay the night, at least
for tonight, it is getting quite late." He stood up and looked around the living
room. "I guess me and Ryouga here can take the living room."
"Akane, you can sleep in my room if you like, that way these two MEN..." She
pointed to the two guys "Don't get any funny ideas."
Ranma, who was just about ready settle in suddenly noticed the scrolls sitting
on the counter. His curiosity got the better of him, he picked one up..
"No, Ranma don't touch that!" Shampoo cried, but it was too late, the scroll
opened up and accepted him with a flash of light.
As the light faded away, Ranma vision began to clear, he saw an opened scroll in
his hands, "The Red Serpent" the title read, "Hey, what's this Shampoo?" he
asked.
Shampoo wasn't responding, instead she was banging her head on the table.
***
It took some explaining, but finally Shampoo told the whole story about her
discovering the letter and what the letter meant. She also took the time to tell
them about the encounter she had with the two masked men.
"So, are you telling me this scroll contains a secret technique? COOL!" Ranma
exclaimed.
"Ranma," Shampoo said sternly. "Remember, this comes with a very big
responsibility too. If everything written in this letter is true, we might be
facing something like nothing we faced before."
"Don't worry, I can handle anything remember?" Ranma said arrogantly. "And if
this technique is as good as you say it is, I wouldn't have a problem at all!"
Shampoo felt like bashing his head in that moment, but she didn't think
that would accomplish anything. Ranma was just being Ranma after all. "Maybe
you didn't hear me clearly last time Ranma, but the three techniques pretty much
cancel each other out, and you can't learn all three either."
"Hey Shampoo, don't worry, I'll have this down in three days tops!" He
exclaimed. "Plus I'm the best remember? I never lose!"
"I don't think so. You won't be able to just learn this in three days, since
it's written in Chinese," Shampoo replied getting out a few futons so that
Ranma and Ryouga so they could sleep on them for the night.
Ranma quickly opened the scroll up, checking to see what language the scroll was
written in. "Uh, Shampoo, there must be some mistake, this is written in
Japanese."
"What?" She replied as she grabbed the scroll, "I don't know what you're talking
about, it looks Chinese to me."
Akane grabbed the scroll and scanned through it. "I don't know what either of
you are talking about, this scroll is fake... it's completely blank!!"
"Huh?" Ranma said, taking the scroll off Akane's hands. "What are you guys
talking about it's clearly in Japanese."
"Wait, maybe there is an explanation to this," Shampoo said. "The scroll choose
Ranma, it probably has an ancient spell that makes it only readable by the
ones that the scroll wants it to read."
"Makes sense," Ranma replied. "But why could you read it also?" He carefully
placed the scroll back on the dinner table, mentally reminding himself not to
forget it the next morning.
"Did you forget that I was also picked by a scroll? I believe that's the
reason." She replied, stretching her arms a little. "Anyone up to sparring a
little, before we all turn in?"
Akane practically jumped at the chance. Although she had never (formally) beaten
the Amazon before, but she wanted to see if she improved any.
Ranma figured he would work out some of the stress also, so he followed along,
seeing if he could get some light exercise done too.
Shampoo and Akane both bowed to each other as they prepared the small match.
Ranma gave a look to Shampoo, giving her a silent message.
Akane wasted no time and rushed in, trying to get an early advantage, launching
a few attacks, which Shampoo dodged with relative ease.
After a few attacks, Akane decided it was time to surprise Shampoo with the new
techniques that she had learned. She jumped up positioning herself, then brought
her fist down, her opponent quickly dodged to side...
BLAM!! The ground shattered in the impact of the blow, forcing Shampoo to dodge
a more shards of debris.
"Hey, Ranma?" Ryouga asked. "When did Akane learn the Baksei Tensetu?"
"I don't know," Ranma responded. "I have a feeling this was a bad idea..."
Akane looked at her handy work. She even amazed herself with the display she was
putting on.
Shampoo was equally surprised. Akane always showed superior power, but never
like this. She suddenly had this weirdest feeling that Akane wanted to pay her
back for humiliating her so many times before.
Akane sent a punch aiming for the purple one's face. Shampoo grabbed her arm
quickly and then, using the momentum that still existed, guided it to a bolder
nearby. The bolder also shattered upon impact.
"When did you get this strong?" Shampoo asked.
"Surprised? Don't be. I'm not so weak anymore huh?" She replied, throwing a few
more punches.
Akane expected the Amazon to show some degree of fear, not that she was much
better, but instead Shampoo still had the clam and confident looked on her face.
Well she was just going to have to show her the meaning of fear.
The sudden increase in skill did catch Shampoo off guard a little, but she has
been studying too. She decided to try some of the things that the scroll that
she learnt.
She waited and parried a few hits from the attacker, trying to get enough
control to not hurt her sparring partner. She ducked under one of the attacks
that was meant to hit high.
Akane felt her fist hit nothing but air then she couldn't tell what happened
after that. She felt getting hit by a barrage of kicks, though all she could see
was a image of a purple dragon as they hit full force upon her.
Then she flew and hit a tree as she struggled to get back some control, but she
couldn't. Then she heard someone shout, "AKANE!!"
"Shampoo, that was unnecessary! Are you nuts? You could have killed her!"
Ranma yelled at the purple haired girl.
"Don't worry, I held back enough. She's just a little stunned, nothing serious."
She responded, panting slightly.
Ryouga trotted over without getting lost, by everyone's surprise. "Be more
careful next time, or I might be forced to hurt you." He said dangerously.
Shampoo gave a offended look, "No need to get hostile. She wanted to spar and I
did so. What's the big problem?"
"You were supposed to be sparring not street fighting," Ranma clarified, with a
look of dissatisfaction etched on his face.
Shampoo was getting downright annoyed now, but before she could say anything
Akane spoke up. "She's right. I choose to spar and it's just normal that you
get hit once in a while."
Shampoo got caught off guard with this; Akane helping her? That's something
really new.
"But..." Ranma started.
"Oh stop it, it's no big deal. Besides I wasn't exactly holding back either."
Akane replied.
After that they decided to let the matter drop. Shampoo led them to a nearby
river to wash off all their sweat. Of course, the water wasn't cold enough to
trigger the curse, Shampoo added, and it took awhile for her to find such a
spring.
Ranma pulled Ryouga to the other end of the pond, not wanting to be called
'pervert' for the wrong reason again.
Shampoo and Akane on the other hand settled on the other far end of the pond to
avoid being seen by the two guys.
After awhile both groups finished and met back at the hut. All of them agreed
that they were in no such condition to do anything else but probably fall
asleep, they all went to their assigned place.
Akane put a futon on the ground, as Shampoo got on top of her bed. Still though,
there was one question that Shampoo had to ask, or it would do nothing but bug
her all night.
"Why did you help me back there? I would think that it would have been the
perfect chance to get back at me."
Akane looked offended at the comment. Shampoo covered her mouth quickly as she
discovered that her choice of words had come out really bad, worse than she
intended it to be.
"I mean..." she tried to save some ground.
"Don't worry about it," Akane interrupted, smiling. "I know what you meant to
say. Why did I help you back there, right?" Shampoo nodded in response. "All
right, it was because you saved my life against those thugs, so I just
thought I would return the favor."
Shampoo nodded. She was sure that it wasn't the only reason, however she also
knew that was all Akane was going to tell her this time around.
"Now, if I may ask you a question," Akane said, pulling up some blankets, making
herself comfortable.
"Shoot." Shampoo replied, trying to make herself comfortable.
"Why did you save me back there?" Akane asked, she laid down on the futon,
trying to make her comfortable. "You could have gotten yourself killed."
Shampoo gave a light shrug as a response. "It was the right thing to do, I
suppose. Plus, there's something big going on, I know it."
Akane closed her eyes. [Big? What does she know? Well, doesn't look she's ready
to spill the beans yet, just going to have to ask her next time.]
Without another word, the two fell into deep sleep immediately afterwards.
***
The next day...
Akane woke up, noticing that the bedroom was empty. She looked over to the clock
discovering that it was barely seven o'clock in the morning, then yawned and
stretched her arms.
Reluctantly, she got up and moved toward the living room, where Shampoo was
preparing some breakfast. Ryouga and Ranma were already awake and were sitting
across from each other, engaging a civil conversation for once.
"Good morning, Akane!" Ryouga said quickly, look up from the table where he was
sitting.
"Good morning." She replied back, yawning.
Shampoo, who just finished making breakfast, passed food around to everyone.
The group soon gathered around the table and started breakfast. It was rather
quiet; surprising, considering the history that they had with each other. Maybe
time has really taken a toll on everyone. Time heals all wounds or so they say.
After the short but pleasant meal, Shampoo's three visitor decided it was high
time for them to get going back to town.
"Don't worry, Shampoo, we'll get this cleared up as soon we can," Akane said, as
she stepped out of the house.
"Yea, you can't go on living your life like this forever," Ranma added. "We'll
come by the next time the old ghoul needs us to do her a favor."
Shampoo just nodded. [Not very likely this is going to be solved anytime soon,
not with those guys getting involved.] "Thanks, I'll keep my fingers crossed,
and next time we meet, Ranma will probably already learn everything on the
scroll eh?"
"You got that right," Ranma said arrogantly. "I'll have it learnt then perfected
by that time."
"Oh by the way," Shampoo cut in. "Could you give this to my Great Grandmother?"
She handed them a letter.
"Sure thing," Akane replied, putting the letter away "You take care, okay?"
The purple haired girl just gave another silent nod. "The doors are always
welcome for you guys, just be sure your not followed okay?"
Ryouga, Akane, and Ranma quickly nodded and then left. Shampoo watched them
leave, after their shadows disappeared from view she sighed.
Shampoo looked at the letter that the elder sent her. "I really hope that this
is wrong, or else things start to look very bad for the people responsible for
this. As people say 'Hell hath no fury against the Amazon's rage.'"
End of Chapter 2.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Ranma characters, don't sue cause I'm a poor
student.
"Shampoo?" Ranma repeated.
The lavender-haired girl just stood there speechless. [Uh oh, I'm in
big trouble now.] She quickly spun around and prepared to take off.
However, Ranma got in front of her first. "Wait, Shampoo, we're not
here to hurt you."
Shampoo considered her options. She could try running, however that wasn't
possible, since she probably couldn't shake away a good martial artist like
Ranma. Just because she got one lucky hit in doesn't mean she'll get another.
"I'm not the killer," Shampoo said finally.
"We know," Ranma said. "That's not the reason we're here."
Now that Akane realized Shampoo saved her, she was beginning to believe her
innocence.
Shampoo looked at Ranma in disbelief. "If not, why are you here? How do I know
your not trying to trick me?"
Ranma thought, then he considered how
much he had changed after the incident.
He held out a bag of stuff and threw it on the ground in front of Shampoo.
"Well, your great grandmother told us to give you this if we find you," Ranma
said. "It's your decision if you want us here or not. If you don't want us here,
we'll leave right now."
Shampoo looked into Ranma serious eyes and quickly discovered that he wasn't
joking. She shook her head. "It won't matter, Ranma and Akane already know about
the place, there isn't a point on you going back. Plus, if you wanted me dead, I
would have already been dead." She stated. "So long as you guys are here, why
don't you come in?"
Ranma and Akane shrugged.
"Sure." Ranma mumbled.
Before they could get into the house however, a certain boy was lost in the
Area turned around and found himself...
Face to face with the purpled haired Amazon. Anger swelled in him as he
remembered what happened on Ranma's birthday. "Shampoo! For what you done for
done to Akane, prepare to DIE!" He took out his bamboo umbrella and attacked.
Shampoo quickly dodged and pulled her sword out and cut the umbrella in half.
That caught her off guard. Sure it was a sword, but it was a simple regular
sword while Ryouga's bamboo umbrella was specially made to dish out some serious
damage. Perhaps those things her great grandmother told her to study was worth
it after all.
Ryouga looked at his broken umbrella in disbelief. The umbrella was so powerful
that it could shatter rock, how did she slice it half?
"Hey! That was my favorite umbrella! BAKSEI TENKETSU!" He jabbed his finger in
the ground next to Shampoo.
The ground next to Shampoo instantly shattered into pebbles that flew straight
at her. Shampoo decided to push her luck further, held the sword and swung it
around her deflecting off all the debris flying toward her.
When she was done she swung the blade a few times then laid the flat end on her
back. Raising two fingers and raising one foot off the ground she finished the
move, without a scratch on her. [Wow, those do work. Got to thank great grand
mother sometime.]
Ryouga backed up in surprise as one of his strongest techniques didn't work. He
threw some punches at the girl, who blocked with the flat end of the blade,
obviously not wanting to hurt Ryouga.
[This is insane!] Ryouga thought. [When did she become so good? Or has she been
holding out all this time?] Ryouga tired his breaking point technique again
hitting a bolder besides the Amazon.
The bolder shattered instantly as Ryouga finger flicked the weakest point on it,
as the pebbles flew everywhere.
Ryouga opened his eyes in amazement. Shampoo was doing what he thought was
impossible, she was using the pebbles as stepping stones as she 'leaped' from
stone to stone.
Ryouga let out a panicked punch, just when Shampoo just got in front of him, she
held up her arms to block it. WHAM, the hit sent her back and falling back first
on the ground.
[Well..] Shampoo thought to herself. [This training is making me faster, but I'm
just as weak as I was before, I can't take any hits.] She rubbed her arms in
pain.
Ryouga smiled, time to finish it. "SHI SHI.."
Akane walked out and pulled Ryouga's arm. "Wait!" She said.
Ryouga jumped at this, "Akane! What are you doing in Okinawa?"
Ranma jumped on Ryouga's head. "Okinawa? We're not in Okinawa, you idiot! We're
near Tokyo!"
"RANMA! What is going on here?" Ryouga exclaimed. "Why are you with this... this
murder!"
Shampoo got up slowly and dusted her clothes. "I'm not a murder you stupid pig
boy!"
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PIG?!" Ryouga exclaimed.
"Just because I was in the wrong time at the wrong place, doesn't mean I'm a
murder," She replied.
"Ryouga..." Akane said. "After looking at it more closely, we discovered that
she didn't shoot that arrow, several things that we overlooked can prove that."
[Why did Shampoo call Ryouga pig boy anyways?] She wondered.
Ryouga looked at them baffled. "What are you guys talking about?" he asked.
Before he could continue, Shampoo cut in. "Why don't you all come in?" She
invited, "Maybe we could explain better, Ryouga."
Ryouga stared at her for a long while, then he realized that Akane will be
there, there was no way that he was going to let Akane be around Shampoo without
him around! Although Akane says otherwise, he still doesn't fully trust Shampoo.
She was way to devious, even before the birthday.
Shampoo led them to her 'guests' into her hut, each had a different reaction
seeing how simply she was living now.
Akane: [Wow, she been living like this? Impressive. No electricity, no running
Water. Gotta give it to her, I wouldn't be able to stand living like this.]
Ranma: [Geez, it's sorta my fault that she's living like this. Guess Shampoo is
stronger than I give her credit for.]
Ryouga: [Reminds me how I been living on the road.]
"Sorry, this isn't much," Shampoo explained shrugging. "Since I don't want to
attract unwanted attention."
Ranma nodded silently as he took a seat on a wooden chair. "No no no.." Ranma
insisted. "This place looks uh... comfy right Akane?"
Akane felt like malleting Ranma right there for flirting with Shampoo, but she
managed to control her anger. "Uh... yea... looks very comfortable."
Shampoo let out a small forced grin. "That's okay, you don't have to be so
polite." She said, handing the trio some tea, which they accepted, then sat
around a small round table.
"Why don't you guys talk to each other while I finish checking the stuff that
Ai..er..Ranma took here." Shampoo added.
Akane cringed as she heard Shampoo's 'slip' but remained silent, although she
would never admit it, she was sort of jealous of Shampoo's frankness in the
'fiancée' war, not that she was interested in Ranma of course. (Riiight)
Ranma shuddered when he noticed that 'slip' and tried the best to ignore it. The
trio started chatting away as Shampoo went in her room, and opened the stuff.
Ranma and co. started to hear clings and clangs as Shampoo rummaged through the
Bag. They all exchanged some clueless glances at each other.
"Shampoo!" Ranma called out. "Are you okay in there?"
Some loud angry Chinese words were heard from where they sat, probably curses
where she didn't want people to understand. Shampoo walked out face etched with
annoyance.
Akane yelped in surprise when she saw Shampoo like that. She thought she seen
Shampoo mad before, but it was nothing compared to what she was seeing now.
"Are you okay?" Akane summoned all her courage to ask, secretly fearing nothing
will come good out of this.
Shampoo took a deep breath. "Yes, I'll be fine. Let's get everything
straightened out shall we?"
So, that's exactly what they did. Of course it wasn't easy explaining to Ryouga
considering he went ahead and got himself lost (No surprise there) and missed
out on all the details that happened during that time.
Finally, after the explaining with visual aids and stuff, Ryouga finally got the
idea that Shampoo didn't try to kill Akane. He apologized for the sudden attack,
which Shampoo gracefully accepted.
"Oh, look at the time!" Ranma exclaimed, looking outside. "We better head back
home now. Thanks Shampoo, for your hospitality."
Shampoo looked outside and silently gasped at how late it was, "You guys should
probably stay here for the night. Going out in the forest late at night could be
dangerous." She said. "I don't have a lot of room here, but I think we can
manage four people."
"I think we could handle whatever danger is out there, Shampoo," Akane replied.
"Don't worry about us."
Shampoo shrugged. "The forest also has a really annoying aspect of raining when
you don't want it to." She added.
This caused Ryouga to sweat after Shampoo said this. If they get caught in this
rain, the results could be disastrous. Before he could say anything coherent,
Akane asked an interesting question.
"How do you manage if you get caught in your cursed form?" Akane asked,
wondering why Ryouga seemed so nervous all the sudden.
"It's hard, but once I learned a few trick out of the scrolls great grandmother
gave me; but before then, I had to try to start fire as a cat, not very fun,
mind you." Shampoo replied, picking up the teacups and cleaning the table.
"Hmm..." Ranma muttered, "Maybe it is a good idea to stay the night, at least
for tonight, it is getting quite late." He stood up and looked around the living
room. "I guess me and Ryouga here can take the living room."
"Akane, you can sleep in my room if you like, that way these two MEN..." She
pointed to the two guys "Don't get any funny ideas."
Ranma, who was just about ready settle in suddenly noticed the scrolls sitting
on the counter. His curiosity got the better of him, he picked one up..
"No, Ranma don't touch that!" Shampoo cried, but it was too late, the scroll
opened up and accepted him with a flash of light.
As the light faded away, Ranma vision began to clear, he saw an opened scroll in
his hands, "The Red Serpent" the title read, "Hey, what's this Shampoo?" he
asked.
Shampoo wasn't responding, instead she was banging her head on the table.
***
It took some explaining, but finally Shampoo told the whole story about her
discovering the letter and what the letter meant. She also took the time to tell
them about the encounter she had with the two masked men.
"So, are you telling me this scroll contains a secret technique? COOL!" Ranma
exclaimed.
"Ranma," Shampoo said sternly. "Remember, this comes with a very big
responsibility too. If everything written in this letter is true, we might be
facing something like nothing we faced before."
"Don't worry, I can handle anything remember?" Ranma said arrogantly. "And if
this technique is as good as you say it is, I wouldn't have a problem at all!"
Shampoo felt like bashing his head in that moment, but she didn't think
that would accomplish anything. Ranma was just being Ranma after all. "Maybe
you didn't hear me clearly last time Ranma, but the three techniques pretty much
cancel each other out, and you can't learn all three either."
"Hey Shampoo, don't worry, I'll have this down in three days tops!" He
exclaimed. "Plus I'm the best remember? I never lose!"
"I don't think so. You won't be able to just learn this in three days, since
it's written in Chinese," Shampoo replied getting out a few futons so that
Ranma and Ryouga so they could sleep on them for the night.
Ranma quickly opened the scroll up, checking to see what language the scroll was
written in. "Uh, Shampoo, there must be some mistake, this is written in
Japanese."
"What?" She replied as she grabbed the scroll, "I don't know what you're talking
about, it looks Chinese to me."
Akane grabbed the scroll and scanned through it. "I don't know what either of
you are talking about, this scroll is fake... it's completely blank!!"
"Huh?" Ranma said, taking the scroll off Akane's hands. "What are you guys
talking about it's clearly in Japanese."
"Wait, maybe there is an explanation to this," Shampoo said. "The scroll choose
Ranma, it probably has an ancient spell that makes it only readable by the
ones that the scroll wants it to read."
"Makes sense," Ranma replied. "But why could you read it also?" He carefully
placed the scroll back on the dinner table, mentally reminding himself not to
forget it the next morning.
"Did you forget that I was also picked by a scroll? I believe that's the
reason." She replied, stretching her arms a little. "Anyone up to sparring a
little, before we all turn in?"
Akane practically jumped at the chance. Although she had never (formally) beaten
the Amazon before, but she wanted to see if she improved any.
Ranma figured he would work out some of the stress also, so he followed along,
seeing if he could get some light exercise done too.
Shampoo and Akane both bowed to each other as they prepared the small match.
Ranma gave a look to Shampoo, giving her a silent message.
Akane wasted no time and rushed in, trying to get an early advantage, launching
a few attacks, which Shampoo dodged with relative ease.
After a few attacks, Akane decided it was time to surprise Shampoo with the new
techniques that she had learned. She jumped up positioning herself, then brought
her fist down, her opponent quickly dodged to side...
BLAM!! The ground shattered in the impact of the blow, forcing Shampoo to dodge
a more shards of debris.
"Hey, Ranma?" Ryouga asked. "When did Akane learn the Baksei Tensetu?"
"I don't know," Ranma responded. "I have a feeling this was a bad idea..."
Akane looked at her handy work. She even amazed herself with the display she was
putting on.
Shampoo was equally surprised. Akane always showed superior power, but never
like this. She suddenly had this weirdest feeling that Akane wanted to pay her
back for humiliating her so many times before.
Akane sent a punch aiming for the purple one's face. Shampoo grabbed her arm
quickly and then, using the momentum that still existed, guided it to a bolder
nearby. The bolder also shattered upon impact.
"When did you get this strong?" Shampoo asked.
"Surprised? Don't be. I'm not so weak anymore huh?" She replied, throwing a few
more punches.
Akane expected the Amazon to show some degree of fear, not that she was much
better, but instead Shampoo still had the clam and confident looked on her face.
Well she was just going to have to show her the meaning of fear.
The sudden increase in skill did catch Shampoo off guard a little, but she has
been studying too. She decided to try some of the things that the scroll that
she learnt.
She waited and parried a few hits from the attacker, trying to get enough
control to not hurt her sparring partner. She ducked under one of the attacks
that was meant to hit high.
Akane felt her fist hit nothing but air then she couldn't tell what happened
after that. She felt getting hit by a barrage of kicks, though all she could see
was a image of a purple dragon as they hit full force upon her.
Then she flew and hit a tree as she struggled to get back some control, but she
couldn't. Then she heard someone shout, "AKANE!!"
"Shampoo, that was unnecessary! Are you nuts? You could have killed her!"
Ranma yelled at the purple haired girl.
"Don't worry, I held back enough. She's just a little stunned, nothing serious."
She responded, panting slightly.
Ryouga trotted over without getting lost, by everyone's surprise. "Be more
careful next time, or I might be forced to hurt you." He said dangerously.
Shampoo gave a offended look, "No need to get hostile. She wanted to spar and I
did so. What's the big problem?"
"You were supposed to be sparring not street fighting," Ranma clarified, with a
look of dissatisfaction etched on his face.
Shampoo was getting downright annoyed now, but before she could say anything
Akane spoke up. "She's right. I choose to spar and it's just normal that you
get hit once in a while."
Shampoo got caught off guard with this; Akane helping her? That's something
really new.
"But..." Ranma started.
"Oh stop it, it's no big deal. Besides I wasn't exactly holding back either."
Akane replied.
After that they decided to let the matter drop. Shampoo led them to a nearby
river to wash off all their sweat. Of course, the water wasn't cold enough to
trigger the curse, Shampoo added, and it took awhile for her to find such a
spring.
Ranma pulled Ryouga to the other end of the pond, not wanting to be called
'pervert' for the wrong reason again.
Shampoo and Akane on the other hand settled on the other far end of the pond to
avoid being seen by the two guys.
After awhile both groups finished and met back at the hut. All of them agreed
that they were in no such condition to do anything else but probably fall
asleep, they all went to their assigned place.
Akane put a futon on the ground, as Shampoo got on top of her bed. Still though,
there was one question that Shampoo had to ask, or it would do nothing but bug
her all night.
"Why did you help me back there? I would think that it would have been the
perfect chance to get back at me."
Akane looked offended at the comment. Shampoo covered her mouth quickly as she
discovered that her choice of words had come out really bad, worse than she
intended it to be.
"I mean..." she tried to save some ground.
"Don't worry about it," Akane interrupted, smiling. "I know what you meant to
say. Why did I help you back there, right?" Shampoo nodded in response. "All
right, it was because you saved my life against those thugs, so I just
thought I would return the favor."
Shampoo nodded. She was sure that it wasn't the only reason, however she also
knew that was all Akane was going to tell her this time around.
"Now, if I may ask you a question," Akane said, pulling up some blankets, making
herself comfortable.
"Shoot." Shampoo replied, trying to make herself comfortable.
"Why did you save me back there?" Akane asked, she laid down on the futon,
trying to make her comfortable. "You could have gotten yourself killed."
Shampoo gave a light shrug as a response. "It was the right thing to do, I
suppose. Plus, there's something big going on, I know it."
Akane closed her eyes. [Big? What does she know? Well, doesn't look she's ready
to spill the beans yet, just going to have to ask her next time.]
Without another word, the two fell into deep sleep immediately afterwards.
***
The next day...
Akane woke up, noticing that the bedroom was empty. She looked over to the clock
discovering that it was barely seven o'clock in the morning, then yawned and
stretched her arms.
Reluctantly, she got up and moved toward the living room, where Shampoo was
preparing some breakfast. Ryouga and Ranma were already awake and were sitting
across from each other, engaging a civil conversation for once.
"Good morning, Akane!" Ryouga said quickly, look up from the table where he was
sitting.
"Good morning." She replied back, yawning.
Shampoo, who just finished making breakfast, passed food around to everyone.
The group soon gathered around the table and started breakfast. It was rather
quiet; surprising, considering the history that they had with each other. Maybe
time has really taken a toll on everyone. Time heals all wounds or so they say.
After the short but pleasant meal, Shampoo's three visitor decided it was high
time for them to get going back to town.
"Don't worry, Shampoo, we'll get this cleared up as soon we can," Akane said, as
she stepped out of the house.
"Yea, you can't go on living your life like this forever," Ranma added. "We'll
come by the next time the old ghoul needs us to do her a favor."
Shampoo just nodded. [Not very likely this is going to be solved anytime soon,
not with those guys getting involved.] "Thanks, I'll keep my fingers crossed,
and next time we meet, Ranma will probably already learn everything on the
scroll eh?"
"You got that right," Ranma said arrogantly. "I'll have it learnt then perfected
by that time."
"Oh by the way," Shampoo cut in. "Could you give this to my Great Grandmother?"
She handed them a letter.
"Sure thing," Akane replied, putting the letter away "You take care, okay?"
The purple haired girl just gave another silent nod. "The doors are always
welcome for you guys, just be sure your not followed okay?"
Ryouga, Akane, and Ranma quickly nodded and then left. Shampoo watched them
leave, after their shadows disappeared from view she sighed.
Shampoo looked at the letter that the elder sent her. "I really hope that this
is wrong, or else things start to look very bad for the people responsible for
this. As people say 'Hell hath no fury against the Amazon's rage.'"
End of Chapter 2.