A Ranma 1/2-Rurouni Kenshin fusion Return of the Warrior

By: Q Ranma 1/2 and Rorouni Kenshin do not belong to me and are being used solely for non-profit purposes.

"Look why don't we just talk about this?" offered Ranma "I mean, why beat up some innocent guy in the woods.?"

"I guess... but still you saw me steal from those guys." She gave Ranma a pointed look.

"Yeah about that... If I'm not mistaken they were thieves right, so why would I care if you stole from them?" The innocence in his voice was almost enough to get her to lay off.

"Really? you don't care?... well alright, I guess I'll let you slide this time." She smiled at him.

'I can't believe I actually got out of a fight.' Ranma congratulated himself "Good, I didn't really feel like picking on some little girl..." Ranma spoke more to himself than her. Unfortunately that didn't stop her from hearing.

"Excuse me?" She began to stalk towards Ranma.

Continuing to walk to his camp site, Ranma didn't bother to turn around to address the girl. "I was just saying how I don't like fighting little girls, well girls in general really."

"I'm not a 'little girl' I'm fifteen years old!" She began to close her fist, just a few more steps and she'd be on him.

"I figured that much. Like I said, a little girl."

"You're mine!" The young girl, well woman pounced upon him leveling a jump kick into his back. Hopping back while trying not to grimace from the pain in her foot the girl looked at her opponent in shock. 'He barely felt that kick!' She continued to gape as he looked at her in a questioning manner. "Holy Mollie! What kind of monster are you?!"

'Holy mollie? what the hell does that mean.' "What? You mean your kick?" Ranma cocked his head to the side. "It was kind of weak. Sure you got most of the tomboy thing goin' on and everything, but you need to work on your strength to finish it."

"What. Did. You. Call. Me?" She stomped with each word.

"But don't worry to much about it, you still got plenty of time to work on that." Ranma tried to cheer her up.

"Alright! This time for real!" The young... woman broke out into a run. As she reached him she threw a haymaker with everything she had.

'I've got the weirdest feeling of deja vu...' Ranma ducked backwards at an almost impossible degree, easily evading the powerful... wait, strong... no, maybe desperate? yes he easily evaded the desperate punch aimed for his head. After righting himself back up Ranma blinked at the girl who seemed completely baffled at the turn of events. "Control your swing a little, it'll help. You should also..." Ranma took a moment to pause and duck the following kick before speaking again. "try not to telegraph your moves so easily." He raised an eyebrow as the girl dived away from him when her body had turned in the opposite direction of him, due to her putting so much strength into her kick.

After diving away in hopes of avoiding the counter she knew her opponent was about to unleash, she sweatdropped as she looked back to notice him just staring at her. 'He didn't even attempt to attack me when my back was to him. Guess I'll have to get him to stop underestimating me with my special technique!' She grinned at him as she stood. "I'll now show you my spe... hey what's that in your hand?"

Ranma smiled sheepishly at her. "Well since you attacked me I guessed it was alright if I borrowed some of your money. It's okay right?" 'That's really not going to work...'

"No it's not okay!" She screamed as she jumped into the air. "Bat Boomerang!" She called out as several oddly shaped... shurikens came out.

'Did she just say bat boomerang?' Ranma sweatdropped before blocking the projectiles with the bag of money he had stolen from the girl, who had stolen it from the men, who had stolen it from... well you get it.

"AHH! the money!" The girl ran over as the money spilt out the bag and flittered to the ground.

"Whoops, Sorry." Ranma bent down to help pick up the money and handed it to the girl. "Well I guess I'll be on my way then." Ranma waved before taking off in a run.

"Hey that was pretty nice of him to actually give me back my money." As the young girl turned around she locked up. 'Wait a minute this money feels a lot lighter than it did when I first took it...' "Son of a... You come back here!"

And so the chase was on. *****

"Crazy ninja girl..." Ranma muttered to himself as he lay on a medium height rooftop back in the town he earlier ran away from. Deciding to get something decent to eat the next day with some of the money he... confiscated from the pickpocket ninja, Ranma rolled out his mat and slept.

The next day found Ranma eating at a small noodle stand. Unfortunately the 'crazy ninja girl' also found Ranma at the noodle stand. "Hey you!" Accustomed to having women shout at him at the most inopportune times Ranma didn't bother to look her way, instead he tossed a few notes of yen at the man serving him and made a bee line for the town exit.

"How dare you run from me!"

Sure that there was no right answer he could give her, Ranma wisely kept his mouth shut. Once he reached the same woods he had tried to camp in day prior, he took to the trees to hopefully lose the girl. Glancing back he heaved a sigh at the sight of her still hot on his trail. Getting tired of trying to loose some wannabe ninja Ranma cried out "Why don't you forget about the money I took, it's not even that much compared to what you still have?"

"I need every yen I can get to make it back to Kyoto!" Was the reply. Ranma froze on the next branch he landed on and swiftly turned to his pursuer "You're headed for Kyoto als... oof!" only to have her jumped into his arms, kind of. It would seem that the young girl still had some training ahead of her when it came to racing across tree limbs, particularly in learning how to stop. *****

"So you say the girl managed to run away and hide, when you thought you had knocked her out?" An imposing man asked Yota.

Even as the sweatdrop appeared on Yota's head he answered his boss. "Yeah, we had roughed her up a little and when we tuned around she was gone... I- I'm sure she's hiding around here somewhere."

His boss decided not to mention the fact that all of his men who had went to rob the small store had returned sporting numerous bruises. "Riiiight. Anyway you better hope we find..."

"Why don't you forget about the money I took, it's not even that much compared to what you still have?"

"I need every yen I can get to make it back to Kyoto!"

"...her." he trailed off lamely as the voices from further down the forest reached them.

Yota blinked then shrugged "I think we found her boss..." *****

As Ranma scrambled to get out of the compromising situation he found himself in, he was laying under the young girl with his arms wrapped around her, he tried to get back to the subject that had originally piqued his interest. "You're going to Kyoto too miss..." Ranma blinked as he remembered she hadn't introduced herself to him.

"Yes I'm going to Kyoto too, and my name's Kaori Ichibana. Um... what do you mean 'too'?" Kaori asked.

"I'm headed to Kyoto as well." Ranma answered. Ranma narrowed his eyes at the girl 'Another young girl martial artist... could Daigo have sent her? Is she hear to draw me into a false sense of security only to stab me in the back? Or maybe she...' Ranma came out of his introspective mood when he felt wandering hands on his body. He sweatdropped at the girl as she patted him down and rubbed some places that he only let Shampoo rub... wait, that didn't come out right. Trying not to think about such guilty pleasures..."Ahem, what are you doing?" Ranma tried to give her a stern look. It's effect was less than desired as the girl ignored him and continued to search his body. Jumping back Ramna tried to cover his body with his hands, realizing what he was doing he quickly drooped his arms and tried to get the girls attention again. "I would appreciate it if you would not rub all over my body."

Kaori blushed a deep cherry color. "I'm not rubbing all over your body! I'm looking for my money. Besides why would I rub your body, I already have a fiancee."

Ranma blinked before opening his mouth only to be beat to the punch by a new voice.

"That's our money, girl."

Ranma and Kaori both were surprised that they were unable to detect the men coming up on them. They each silently blamed the other for distracting them. Ranma took in the appearance of the man in front, He was taller than Ranma and his body was covered in muscle. Behind him were the four goons from the day before. Ranma's eyes scanned the rest of the forest as he sensed even more men approaching them.

"We'll beat you this time for sure girl! With you surrounded like this you can't win." Yota grinned 'I've got a score to settle with that girl for kicking me in my...'

"I thought you all beat her the first time?" His boss asked him.

"Ahehehehe, I mean we'll beat her again this time... Um, this time again? Right, we'll beat her this time again!" Yota threw his arm in the air causing all the men to charge the pair. Yota looked at his boss who hadn't taken his eyes off him yet and decided to charge as well, his boss not far behind.

"There sure are a lot of them, maybe a dozen even...I hope you can take care of some of them, with all that crap you were talking the other day..." Kaori whispered to Ranma as she reached for her shurikens. She eeped as she was picked up by Ranma and watched as he jumped from one mans head to another eventually landing on the outside of the circle the men made. As she was placed on the ground she took a step back from the grinning face of Ranma. "Watch this kid." he told her before he threw himself back into the fray. She sweatdropped as she observed Ranma dodging the blows erratically, never really trying to return any of his own attacks. He seemed to be perfectly content to just insult them, he called them 'slow', 'ugly', 'fat', 'stupid', and even 'pathetic'. After a few moments she thought she had found an actual pattern to his evasions, however she tabled those thought for later as she noticed he had placed himself at the center of the fight again. Rushing in to help him she wondered why he had just throw a punch that connected with no one.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" *****

"You could have warned me you know." Was the first words that Kaori spoke.

"Whatever. I got you out of it didn't I?" Ranma argued.

"...Yeah... You know that was pretty amazing." Kaori admitted. "But, my fiancee is even better! The heir to the Anything Goes style..." Kaori went off into some daydream.

Ranma eyes snapped wide open as he gasped at her declaration.

"I wonder if he's finished mastering his families secret techniques? I hope so, then he'll finally be Ranma Saotome MASTER of the Anything Goes style." Kaori raised a fist into the air at the title.

"Ra-Ranma Saotome?" Ranma's voice caught in his throat.

In the blink of an eye Kaori was on him "You know Ranma?"

"Um... well... you know..." Ranma tried to gather himself before he said something stupid.

"You do! You've got to tell me where he is! Did he finish his training? Is he coming back?" Kaori started shooting off questions.

"I... um... don't know...well look, here's the rest of the money I took" Ranma threw it in the air before taking off "Bye!"

Snatching the money out of the air Kaori growled. "I don't think so..."

And the chase resumed. *****

Akane unceremoniously dropped onto her rear end. 'This just isn't working!'

"Akane?" Ryouga tentatively called "You okay?"

"No, I'm not okay! For one thing we're lost and secondly, I can't even get this stupid ki attack to work!" Akane started to grumble to herself "Stupid Ranma can just make up an ki attack like it's nothing... show off."

Ryouga backed off as Akane generated an angry red aura. "I should go practice some more..." He whispered in case she didn't want to be disturbed, after all a disturbed Akane, well disturbed him... *****

"Alright, we have the first part down, now what?" Ukyo asked Shampoo. Ukyo had woken up feeling extremely refreshed considering how out of it she was the day before. 'I wonder if this environmental ki thing has anything to do with it?'

"Shampoo not unders... Excuse me. I don't understand the next part yet." Shampoo answered. 'Impress Airen with improved speech' Shampoo snorted very unladylike 'Grandmother better be right, this is really annoying.'

"Is it strictly in Chinese?" Came Nodoka's motherly voice.

"No is not... No it isn't." Shampoo closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"It's alright dear. I know learning a new language must be diffucult. But at least you actually are doing it, and well if I might add. My foolish husband not to mention my son never took the time to attempt it." Nodoka smiled at her.

Shampoo blushed under Nodoka's praise. Ukyo grumbled to herself, before admitting that Shampoo was getting a lot better. Nodoka spoke up once again "Would you mind if I took a look at the instructions your grandmother gave you?"

"I... don't mind." Shampoo handed over the scroll.

"Hmm... Oh my."

Shampoo and Ukyo shared a look. *****

Cologne allowed herself a small sigh as she sat alone in the Cat Cafe. With nothing better to do, she began to put away the scrolls she had been looking over. In order to always be prepared, periodically she would re- read the scrolls.

"What's this?" Cologne mumbled to herself "I thought I gave this to Shampoo..." Thinking back to the day when she handed Shampoo the scroll she twitched an eyebrow. 'I know I was a bit emotional when I finished talking to Mrs. Saotome... but could I have made such a careless mistake?' Taking one final look at the scroll in her hands she came across an even worse notion "If I have this scroll than what scroll did I give to Shampoo?"

Rummaging through the few techniques she had still laid out, she quickly deduced which one was missing.

Those passing by the Cat Cafe at that moment were subjected to a most unpleasant sound.... A three hundred year old women loudly cackling. *****

"So this is all we have to do?" Ukyo made no attempt to hide the suspicion in her voice.

"W-well yes I believe the two of you are to stand across from each other with your palms touching..." Nodoka's tentative tone did nothing to ease Ukyo's doubts.

"Is you... Are you sure?" Shampoo had never heard of any martial arts technique in her village that went like this. There was that marital one that did seem awfully similar to this...

"Yes that's really what it says. Now with your palms touching force the ki you gathered yesterday into your partner, taking turns mind you. While one of you is pushing the ki the other should let the extra ki flow back into the earth. Be careful though, you don't want to push it all at one time. Take it in moderately sized intervals. Continue even after you pushed all the ki you gathered, this should help you get in touch with your inner ki." Nodoka instructed. 'Even though this will help them become stronger, I'm not sure how the two of them will handle the side affects...'

Giving each other a final look of reservation, Ukyo and Shampoo began the second phase of their training.

As the two continued to move ki through one another, the color of their auras slowly began to change. Originally a yellow hue, both of the girls now sported blue ki. Once the yellow environmental ki completely dispersed Ukyo passed out while Shampoo dropped to the ground, barely able to stay conscious.

'I wonder how long it'll be before the girls begin to experience the true nature of the 'technique' Cologne gave them.' Nodoka fretted before moving the girls into their tents. *****

"Hey! Answer me!" Kaori screamed from behind Ranma. "I know you've heard of Ranma, so out with it!... Fine if you won't tell me I guess I'll have to travel with you to Kyoto." Kaori nodded her head.

"I don't think that would be a good idea..." Ranma finally spoke up while looking around for any prying eyes.

Completely misinterpreting his actions, Kaori tried to reassure him "Calm down, you don't have to worry about getting attached to me. I'll make sure you remember I'm a taken girl." 'Poor guy is so overwhelmed by my beauty he can't even look at me.'

"Wha... To You?! Please I've seen way better in the mirror." Ranma tossed over his shoulder. The sky darkened as if in warning.

Kaori fumed behind Ranma "What. Did. You. Say?" The sound of lighting could be heard in the distance.

Ranma turned to her "I said 'I've seen way better in the mirror." It was at this point Ranma noticed several things.

1. He just referred to his curse form in front of someone who didn't know about it.

2. He also just insulted said person about their feminine figure.

3. And finally the darkened skies and sounds of lighting could only mean one thing...

Kaori bristled "What's That supposed to mean?!......

It began to rain.

...oh."

Ranma now in cursed form waited for Kaori's reaction.... and waited... and waited... until she walked up to her and peered into the younger girls eyes. "Hello? Anyone home?" Lightly knocking on the girls head, Ranma sweatdropped as the girl tipped over while still in a standing position.

Looking around Ranma noticed that the land was completely dry only 20 feet away.

"This sucks." *****

Ryouga jumped into his tent when he though he heard lighting in the distance.

"What's wrong Ryouga?" Akane asked.

"Um... I don't like the rai... lightning?"

Not being able to figure out if he was telling or asking her, Akane ignored it. It couldn't be really all that important anyway right? "Hey Ryouga I'll cook us something for dinner, okay."

"Yeah, um... shouldn't you be practicing?" Ryouga's timid voice come from the tent.

"Just what are you really trying to say Ryouga?" Akane dripped venom out her mouth.

"I was saying how thoughtful of you to cook us dinner, when you really want to practice."

"Good."

'Damn you Ranma!' *****

Kaori walked alongside the other red head staring at her intently. Ever since that morning when she woke up she had been opening and closing her mouth trying to find the right way to ask her question.

Ranma ignored the young girls predicament, after all she really didn't want to explain the curse yet again. But she knew the girl would get around to asking the question anyway. "Dammit! What the hell are you?!" Ranma cringed slightly at the wording. As much as she hated to admit it, her curse was a sore spot for her. Especially when people treated her as a 'it' or 'thing' because of it. "I'm a person. This is a curse. Any questions?" Was Ranma's gruff reply.

"Any questions? Of course I got questions!... What kind of curse is this? Are you a boy or a girl? Where did you get it? JUST WHO ARE YOU?" Kaori had been plagued by the last question since she first attacked him... her... whatever.

"Well, it's a gender shifting curse that is activated by water, I'm a man, It's from China, and I'm Ran....ko, Ranko Tendo."

"A chinese curse that's activated by water... wow." Kaori went from confused and angry to sparkly eyed with uncanny speed. "I never thought magic really existed, this is so cool!"

'This is my chance!' Ranma thought as she took off like a bat out of hell.

After coming out of her daze Kaori looked to where Ranma was a moment ago. "Say Ranko...Grrr Why do you keep trying to run away from me!"

"'Cause you keep trying to catch me!" Ranma yelled back.

"Stop running and I won't try to catch you, idiot!"

"Sorry can't do that." The skies began to get darker as they did the other afternoon. "So that's how it's going to be." Ranma grumbled to the sky as the rain began to fall. Not in the mood to be caught in the rain he moved over to sit under a small canopy made up of tree branches.

"Guess you don't like the rain, huh?" Kaori smirked at Ranma.

"Whatever."

"Ah don't be like that. Since you told me about your curse why don't I tell you about my fiancee?" Kaori clasped her hands together.

"You really don't have to... I mean really."

"It's no problem. Well since you've heard of him I guess you might know some of what I'm going to tell you." She ignored the other girls snort. "Even though I didn't meet Ranma until a few months ago, my father and his engaged us back when we were young. My dad was on the road and ran across the two of them while they were traveling. My dad says he could tell Ranma was going to be a great martial artist one day. After watching Ranma and his father spar for a little while he offered the two of them something to eat out of camaraderie. Even though he's kind of sketchy on the details our fathers agreed to engage us to one another."

"Wait you said you met him a few months ago?"

"Yeah he was traveling through Kyoto when he came across our dojo. His father had passed away and he didn't even know about our engagement. After staying with us for a while he heard rumors about the grandmaster of his style and left." Kaori became subdued at that point. Hanging her head she continued "I've been searching for him for the past month. He seemed so lonely when he came to town, he should have some one to travel with." As if empowered by her last point she looked back up at Ranma. "Don't you... for the love of god... STOP RUNNING FROM ME!"

Ranma, who was a good 30 feet away, hung her head once she was caught. *****

"Ryouga do you think you need to go to the hospital?" Akane tended to his side.

"No, don't worry about it. I'm sure it was just something form yesterday that I ate... I mean, drank. Ha ha, my water probably went bad..." 'Not even Akane will buy that..' Ryouga closed his eyes and waited for the pain.

"Really? well it looks like it's going to rain so we can fill up your water canister." Akane said while looking up at the darkening skies.

'That was a close one.... she didn't just say...' Ryouga snapped open his eyes to look at the sky "RAIN!" Seemingly ignoring his pain Ryouga quickly unpacked his tent and set it up.

"Ryouga? oh you worried that it's going to thunder again?" Akane called to him.

"Who's worried about thunder? it's raining!... oh that's right, I'm supposed to be worried about thunder and lighting. hehehehehe" Ryouga trailed off while rubbing the back of his head. Once he noticed the first drop of rain he clamped his mouth shut and flew into his tent. 'Damn you Ranma!'

"Okay...." Akane sweatdropped. *****

Nodoka didn't know whether to be worried or amused by the actions of the two young girls sitting in front of her. 'It didn't take long for the aftereffects to occur.' Deciding to ease the tension in the air Nodoka dropped the bomb. Even as she began to speak she wondered what was it about that last thought that seemed wrong. "Girls the training you two did was less of an advanced martial arts move and more of a marital... advancement... strengthening... or something like that... um, move." Nodoka blushed as she fumbled with her description.

"Aiyah! Shampoo new it was marriage move!" Shampoo threw away all pretenses of learning to speak proper japanese.

"What exactly does this technique do?" Ukyo asked, 'as if I haven't already guessed some of it...'

Shampoo spoke before Nodoka could. "Shampoo have weird dream last night. It have very young airen playing with young spatula girl. See airen leave spatula girl crying in the street while waving goodbye... very sad dream." Shampoo lowered her voice near the end. "I feel little spatula girls pain in dream..."

Ukyo gave Shampoo a sad smile. "I guess now I'm sure what my dream was all about... I saw Shampoo watch Ranma splash himself with cold water and tell her he was really a girl. I even saw Shampoo run off in tears..."

"Shampoo no cry!" Shampoo stood up defiantly. All it took was one look at Ukyo to sit Shampoo back down.

"Mine was a very sad dream too." Ukyo continued to look at Shampoo.

The silence that followed didn't let up until the rain began to fall, sending everyone back for cover. *****

With the rain lasting only half a hour, Ranma and Kaori quickly fell back into a silent walk. Ranma slightly ahead since Kaori never completely moved up beside her when she tried to run.

'Great, what am I supposed to do? Tell her I'm the real Ranma and I'm her fiancee, or do I let her believe that other guy is her fiancee... especially since I have a good idea of who that guy is. If I tell her the last place I saw him was in Nerima, she'll probably go there and find out the truth about me... If I tell her I don't know where he is, she'll follow me... And if I tell her the truth, who knows what she will do.' Taking a moment to collect her thoghts she realized what to do...

"What the hell is with all the running! You do it like it was some kind of secret technique or something!" Kaori yelled while chasing after the pigtailed girl.

Ranma sported a sweatdrop at the comment 'How did she figure out the Saotome secret technique so fast?'

'This guy... girl... person, sure can run. I don't know how much longer I can keep up with... Ranko. Now that I think about it Ranko is pretty good... maybe she...he... whatever, fought Ranma.' Kaori took a moment to think about that before she was smacked across the face with a low tree branch. After rubbing her nose she looked up to see Ranma missing. It only took a few steps forward before she spotted Ranma facing her with a serious expression. She cautiously walked forward, trying to figure out why the sudden change in demeanor.

"It's been interesting traveling with ya... but we part here. See ya" Ranma waved as she turned away.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily!" exclaimed Kaori as she ran to catch up with Ranma. She skid to a halt when she came across a deep gorge in the woods. 'If I'm not mistaken there's a bridge further down the trial... but by the time I get there and back Ranko will be gone. I'll just figure out the way she got across...' Kaori blinked as she noticed there wasn't any high trees one could jump from to land on the other side. ' Just how did she get over there? She couldn't have... no way did she jump across. It can't be possible to jump that far!' As Kaori tried to figure a way across the gap Ranma resumed her walk. 'Regardless of how she got over there I have to stop her from leaving!' Pulling out her bat like shurikens Kaori tried her special attack again. "Bat Boomerang!"

Heaving a sigh, Ranma caught all the shurikens with his amaguriken. 'Jinkies! He caught them all!' Kaori was speechless.

"Enough. Ranma decided to continue his training alone, let him be. Just go back to Kyoto... If he truly cares for you he will return... if he can..." Ranma didn't know if she was still referring to Kumon or herself. Not wanting to dwell on it any longer, Ranma gave Kaori one last look before starting to leave.

Kaori was momentarily frozen from Ranma's tone of voice. Turning around dejectedly and struggling with the words spoken by Ranma, Kaori could no longer hold in her anger. Spinning back towards the other redhead, Kaori broke out into a sprint. "You don't know what your talking about! Wait for him to return if he can? It's because I care that I can't just wait when he might not be able to come back!" Having said her peace she put everything she had into her jump as she tried to clear the space between the two of them.

Ranma flinched at Kaori's last words. Before realizing that the young girl was actually going for the jump. "Don't be stupid! You can't clear it!" 'Damn' Ranma swore to herself as she ran towards Kaori. It was obvious that Kaori wasn't going to make it all the way. Pumping ki into her legs, Ranma jumped past Kaori snatching her along the way. Once she secured the girl in her grasp she spring boarded off the side of the cliff Kaori jumped from back towards her own leaping point.

Kaori's heart stopped for a second once she grasped the fact that she wasn't going to make it across. Her eyes got even bigger when she noticed Ranma leap towards her in mid-air. When Ranma bounced off the face of the cliff she couldn't take anymore and allowed her brain to shut down for a while with her last thoughts being 'Ranko's really amazing... She's had to have fought Ranma, but she couldnt't have beat him.... could she? There's no way she could beat a master of Anything goes...' *****

Half an hour later found Kaori waking up while riding Ranma's back. "W- what's going on?" groggily spoke up the newly awakened girl.

"You don't remember your crazy stunt?" Snorted Ranma.

"Huh.... oh I remember."

A moment of silence past between the two, until Ranma sat Kaori onto the ground. "Look Kaori, I'm kind of in the middle of something big here... so if you won't allow me to go alone then at least keep your distance, otherwise you'll be putting yourself into unnecessary danger."

"Okay." Kaori replied with confusion evident in her voice 'I don't know what she's talking about but she's not trying to get rid of me anymore at least...' "Oh, don't think that because I'm keeping my distance that I forgot about finding out about Ranma." She smirked.

Ranma just grumbled. *****

"Sham... I have an idea. Why don't we try to learn the kacthu tenshin amaguriken?" Shampoo spoke to kill the silence that that had plagued them since it started to rain.

"What? Isn't that an advanced technique?" Ukyo asked, if she remembered correctly it took Ranma some time before he was able to get it.

"Yes, but it's not that difficult. Besides with our growing ki reserves we should be able to learn pretty soon... I think." Shampoo tried to give Ukyo an encouraging smile.

"I don't know if it'll work... but if it's for Ran-chan!" Ukyo raised a fist.

"I'm so proud of you girls." Nodoka gushed making both Ukyo and Shampoo blush.

"So how do we learn the move again? I remember Ran-chan saying something about cooking chestnuts or something."

"Well..." *****

"What's wrong now Ryouga?" Akane asked exasperated. "It didn't even thunder, it just rained. And even the rain has stopped."

'But there's a lot of puddles around!' Ryouga wanted to scream, but knew better. "Nothing's wrong. I just trying to think of some new training ideas to try."

"Really? Like what?" Akane peeked into his tent, not noticing the way Ryouga was starting to squirm.

"I don't know maybe teach you the breaking point..." Ryouga blurted out in panic.

"I... guess. It would help wouldn't it?" Akane asked while biting her bottom lip.

"Huh? what would help?" Ryouga calm down at Akane's question.

"Me learning the breaking point." She answered.

"You want to learn the breaking point!" Ryouga jumped to his feet incidently breaking down his tent. "What...are you... thinking?" Ryouga finally got out, wrestling with a tent is not the best time to talk, he found out.

"Yeah, why not? Don't think I can handle it?" Akane reached behind her back.

"The breaking point it is then." Ryouga conceded 'As much as I hate to see her hurt, I know I can't convince her not to now. Besides I'm really starting to hate that damn mallet. Why is my life so difficult?... That's right because of Ranma. Damn you Ranma!' *****

Ranma took a moment to look at the skies, it looked a lot brighter today. 'hopefully there won't be any rain.' He had changed back to his male form that morning before continuing his trek. "Hey Ranko..." 'This path should still be heading for Kyoto.' "Yo' Ranko..." 'Hopefully we can stop by a town soon to pick up some supplies.' "I'm hungry let's have lunch..." 'I need to buy some... woah!' Ranma dived to his left as he heard the whistling sound of something coming for his head.

"Now will you pay attention to me!" Kaori growled. "Or were you trying to find some path to lose me on? Maybe you want me to starve and get left behind."

"As nice as it would be to loose you or leave you behind, I was just thinking about supplies to pick up." Ranma replied while checking himself for any cuts.

"Well why don't we have lunch?" Kaori asked cheerfully.

"You can go ahead, we should keep walking though. I don't have any food left so I'd rather walk on, instead of watching you eat." Ranma answered.

"Okay, let's keep moving." Kaori shrugged. "So Ranko you must be pretty hungry right."

Ranma's lifted eyebrow went unseen by Kaori since she was behind him "I wouldn't mind something to eat."

"Well if you tell me about Ranma I'll share mine with you."

"Please don't inconvenience yourself on my account." was his sarcastic reply.

A few minutes later Ranma was once again in his own world as he walked ahead of Kaori breaking branches off of trees in their path. "So then he came in and said he was looking for the master of the Anything Goes school, but dad didn't know..." Ranma swiped a spider web down with one of the broken tree limbs. "...stayed with us for a few months..." Ranma swept away some leaves that were hiding a small hole in the ground. "RANKO!" Ranma cringed at the tone for a moment.

"Stop ignoring me! Do you really find the tree limbs that more interesting than my story about Ranma's appearance at my dojo? I mean really what the hell are you doing picking tree limbs?"

Ranma looked at her in confusion "You don't want them to smack you in the face do you? plus it makes it easier to see my path doesn't it?"

Kaori blinked 'I though he would love to loose me, especially if it was my fault instead of him running off... Now that I think about it he's a lot like Ranma, really cocky and proud but hiding a caring side.' "Tell you what Ranko, you can have some of my lunch... but not much."

"Really? Thanks." Ranma grinned before taking a closer look at the rice ball in his hands "I wonder... could this be drugged? maybe an amazon secret technique or secret ingredient?" he whispered to himself. It might have been better if he whispered away from Kaori's face.

"NO IT'S NOT DRUGGED!" Kaori seethed.

*snap*

Both paused at the faint sound in the distance.

"What was that?" Kaori asked.

"Shh. Remember stay back, things could get dangerous." Ranma whispered before jumping into the trees.

"He was serious about dealing with something dangerous?" Kaori asked herself. Cursing herself for not paying attention, she jumped into the trees after him.

Like before it didn't take long for Kaori to find Ranma. Jumping down beside him, she covered her mouth at the sight. "Is she?" Unable to finish her question she looked to Ranma. He was slightly shaking, but still moved down next to the women covered in blood holding a young boy. After checking her pulse and finding where the blood was coming from he looked back at Kaori. "She's really banged up, but if we patch up her wounds and let her rest she should be alright. The kid seems fine probably just exhausted."

So saying the two of them got to work on the young women. Once wrapping her head, where she had been bleeding, as well as her back. Ranma found the young boy watching them. "Hello. I'm Ranko. Can you tell me what happened to her?"

The young boy of about 9 or 10 looked at the heavily bandaged girl with watery eyes before turning back to Ranma and nodding. "My sister was returning home from a martial arts competition when she found me hiding in the woods. She tried to talk to me but I was so scared... Then those guys came and my sister fought them. I think some of them had knives and other stuff like that. After fighting for a while Sachiko, my sister, started to win so the guys got in a few more hits before running off. I... I still was to scared to do much so she picked me up and started running away from the village. That's all I remember."

"I see, so why were you being chased by those men?"

"Well, my dad runs the only dojo in town and lately a lot of gangs have been showing up. He tried to fight them off with some of his students, but they just kept coming. They were being led by some guy from 'the band of the fang'. And rumors say that the leader of the band is coming into town any day now."

Ranma frowned at the information "So, because your father was causing them trouble they decided to finally do something about it since their leader Daigo was coming."

"Daigo?" Asked Kaori from behind Ranma.

If she had surprised him she couldn't tell. "Daigo Mitsurugi is the leader of 'the band of the fang'. I was headed for Kyoto to face him actually" Ranma turned his attention back on the boy "Look kid stay here with your sister, I'll go deal with this gang."

"Will you find my parents?" He quickly asked.

Ranma blinked at him "They're still aliv... um, sure kid." Ranma briskly walked away. Coming up on Kaori he quietly spoke to her. "Watch the kid and his sister. Even though I should keep most of everybody busy, and since no one was looking for them they should be safe, but I'd prefer if someone was here to keep an eye on things."

"Sure."

Ranma decided not to question Kaori's surprising agreement. *****

Taking in the condition of the town, Ranma could tell that it had been slowly falling apart. After living in Nerima for as long as he had he could tell the difference from from huge damage to slowly built up damage. His fights with Ryouga caused huge damage to the streets of Nerima, while his quarrels with Akane caused built up damage in the Tendo home. 'What a coincidence that Daigo just so happens to be visiting this town when I arrive.' Ranma was taken back as he turned a corner and spotted the two bodies being kicked and beat on. Ranma took a good guess that they were Sachiko's parents.

Not far behind Ranma, crept Kaori and the young boy. "Quiet shinji, Ranko's a really good martial artist if you make just a little noise he'll hear us." 'Still as good as he is he shouldn't be doing this alone.'

As the two slowly approached Ranma still form, they could only blink when he broke out into a run. "Hurry!" cried Shinji as he turned the corner only to stop himself.

"What's the mat..." Kaori trailed off as she watched Ranma approach a mob of men who were stomping on something on the ground. She was hesitant to guess what that something was.

"That's not... That's not my parents is it?" Shinji whispered with wide eyes.

Ranma wasted to time, as he jumped past about half a dozen men he cried out "Katchu tenshin amaguriken!" Like the time against Mousse in their first duel he used an moving airborne version of it. Instead of jumping up however he jumped horizontally, taking out all six men. The attack stopped the beating the two prone forms were receiving.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked one of the bigger men in the mob.

"Someone you don't want to fight, that's who." Ranma replied in a cool tone.

"Oh, why's that?"

"Because you've really pissed me off." Ranma returned to inflicting proper punishment on the group. Even though they numbered close to 30, Ranma weaved in and out of them with out problem. Instead of going for the hiryu shoten ha, Ranma wanted to make them feel pain and instead delivered well placed attack to their necks, lower regions, and back of the head. Once the majority of them were all together, being herded there by Ranma, he let loose a huge Mouka Takabisha. Taking out 7 already injured men as well as 4 fresh ones, Ranma once again became a moving twister of punches and kicks. Destroying anything in it's pace, the enraged martial artist took out 8 more injured fighter as they tried to run from him. Slowly slipping into the Cat fist in his rage Ranma began to simply swipe at the others as they either ran or tried to sneak up on him.

Kaori was getting dizzy from trying to add up all the amazing things Ranma could do. She was so out of it she almost missed the fact that one man had managed to get away and was now headed for Shinji. "Shinji!" Kaori jumped at him knocking him down and out of the path of the thugs brass knuckles. "Bat Boom..." Reaching for her shurikens she was brough up short when she noticed the thug unmoving. Slowly blood started to exit his mouth, then he fell to the ground. Dumbfounded Kaori simply tracked his descent to the ground before looking back up and peering into the coldest pair of green eyes she had ever seen.

Lee raised an eyebrow at the girl before him. 'Those shurikens... you got to be kidding me...'

Ranma turned as he sensed the new ki charge. "Lee." Ranma slowly walked over to him, stepping on knives, chains, and other weapons the thugs had that he hadn't even paid attention to. Flicking a finger over his shoulder, Ranma sent a small ki claw at the creeping thug behind him, never once taking his eyes off Lee.

"I have to admit I didn't expect to see you here." Lee grinned at Ranma.

"I could say the same thing. I would ask you what you're doing here dealing with local thugs but obviously you've heard Daigo was coming here."

"Obviously." Lee shrugged. "So Ran..."

Kaori cut in "Hey you two know each other?"

Ranma let out the breath he didn't even know he was holding, and incidentally snapping out of the cat fist 'How can I tell Lee to call me Ranko instead of Ranma?' "Uh, yeah. Me and Lee go way back. The two of us were training partners. We're two of the best, everybody used to say 'Lee and Ranko are great!' 'Lee and RANKO are amazing!' 'Wow look at Lee and RANKO!' they would say. hehehehe." Ranma laughed a little to loud.

Everyone just sweatdropped at him. "So Ran...ko." Lee grinned "What's up with batgirl here?"

Ranma cringed "Lee don't get on her bad side...what?" Ranma blinked at the look Kaori was giving Lee. Kaori looked at Lee in awe, or something close to it as far as Ranma could tell.

"You know about batgirl?" Kaori asked with hope radiating off her.

"Sure, I've spent some time in the States. I saw some of the TV shows and movies."

"YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIES?!" Kaori grabbed Lee by the shirt.

Lee once again raised an eyebrow. Ranma blink a few times. "Batgirl?" Ranma finally spoke up.

Lee looked back towards Ranma, with Kaori still griping his shirt. "Yeah, I heard her say 'Bat boom..' before stopping. Plus her shurikens look like really weird bat boomerangs, which is really weird since bat boomerangs look weird enough as it is, plus look at her outfit."

Ranma finally took the time to really look at her get-up. It was a gray ninja suit. She had blue arm bands, belt, and scarf. Now that he though about it, her outfit was really strange to wear in public. But after hanging around Susuke and Kodachi one gets used to such things. "I'll admit it's a bit... unique."

"Obvously you're not familiar with the superhero 'BATMAN'."

Ranma shrugged at Lee's comment. "Well you know, life on the road and all."

"Right. So anyway what's going on here?" Lee asked. He didn't show it, but he was happy that the weird batgirl had let go of him when he asked the question.

"That's right! Shinji's parents."

"Shinji?" Ranma and Lee asked. Before Ranma continued "Is that the boys name?"

"Yeah. Anyway we need to check on his parents!" Kaori ran over to Shinji who was already trying to wake them up.

"His father ran the only dojo here. The family was attacked when news of Daigo's visit spread." Ranma informed Lee as the two of them walked towards the others.

After checking on them they came to the conclusion that the two would be okay once they got some medical attention. Lee carried the father as Ranma carried the women to the local doctor. As they slowly reach the door they heard a latch click. Looking at each other Lee and Ranma continued towards the door to the clinic. "Hey Kaori could you get the door?"

"No probl... It's locked?" Kaori blinked. "I thought they were opening the door." Kaori knocked on the door several times to no avail. "What's going on?" She turned to others.

"It's the townsfolk. With Dad no longer able to help fight off the gangs, I guess everyone else is going to just do what they're told." Shinji bowed his head.

"Damn. Lee you know a little about dealing with bad injuries right?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, especially after our last fight at the school." Lee smirked when Ranma looked away.

"Alright we'll treat them back where your sister is." Ranma told Shinji. Before turning away form the clinic in disgust.

'They just don't understand' thought the doctor inside his clinic. *****

As Ranma massaged and bandaged up the two, Lee was getting the ki to flow through them to speed up healing.

"Hey, how did you know to come here anyway? Who told you?" Kaori asked as she watched Lee and Ranma go to work.

"I work with the government, on occasion." Lee answered while still paying close attention on his 'patients'.

"If they know what's going on in this town then why did they just send you?"

"The thugs are part of Daigo's group, even as far from the top as they are. So all the government officials are trying not to provoke him by moving against anyone in his group. They don't mind if I try something since they believe Daigo knows that I'm an outsider, not a true government agent."

He actually finished his explanation at the same time that he finished with Shinji's parents. Standing up, Lee continued to speak more to Ranma than to answer any question Kaori had asked. "Daigo has already begun to heavily influence the government, including the police, and now is moving on to towns. Soon large cities will feel his presence. You and I, we are need now more than ever." Walking past Ranma only to stop a step behind and facing away Lee continued, not whispering, but speaking for only Ranma to hear "I've got Daigo's location. Shall we pay him a visit?"

Ranma narrowed his eyes and replied in a dangerous voice "Yeah, I think we should get reacquainted." He turned to face the same direction as Lee before walking off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, just where do you think you two are going? To see that Daigo guy? Well I'm going with you!" Kaori interrupted.

"This is no place for sidekicks girl." Lee called over his shoulder.

"Hey!" Kaori yelled in indignation.

"Please, I need you to watch over Shinji and his family." Ranma pleaded. When Kaori didn't protest he continued on with Lee. *****

Daigo grinned at the voice. "He may be calmer than me, but he's still impulsive. Well show them in and tell Goro to get ready"

Daigo sighed as he continued to lounge on the bed of jewels the previous owners of the large estate left behind. His two assistants rubbing the other jewels across him. 'These jewels feel good on my scales...' *****

Kaori paced back and forth as she watched Shinji's family sleep. They were breathing normally, his sister even work up for a moment, they were all perfectly... well not perfectly, but they were doing fine and didn't need her protection. Mind made up Kaori began to follow the trail left by Ranma and Lee. "Hey where are you going.?" Kaori silently cursed to herself for being caught.

"Look Shinji, your parents are going to be okay and your sister is pretty much fine now. So I'm going to help Ranko and that creep Lee. See ya later." Kaori waved before jogging down the trail.

"Be careful." Shinji whispered. *****

Night had fallen by the time Ranma and Lee made it to the large home Daigo had procured for himself. It was just a little short of being twice as large as the Tendo estate. As Lee and Ranma looked around for any sentries or look outs they were both surprised when the door they had been walking towards, before taking a quick survey of the area, now had a young girl standing in front of it. 'I didn't hear the door open or close, and I know she wasn't there a moment ago...' went through Lee's mind. Ranma on the other hand groaned 'not her again.'

Innocently smiling at the two, Ayame greeted them. *****

To Be Continued

Thanks to the reviewer 'Ranae Milae' at Fanfiction.net for pointing out some huge mistakes, and since I forgot to mention it before I'd like to thank 'Zsych' also from fanfiction.net for the title for the story.

quail12001@yahoo.com