Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

Chapter 2: Attack of the Icy Woman from China

"You're that Ukyou. Ukyou K.?" Ikuyo asked.

"Yeah." Ukyou said as she shook her head and picked up the spatula. She put it on the counter and pulled another one out. She finished cooking it and handed the finished okonomiyaki to her old friend.

"But…I still want Ranma." She said as she looked at the black haired girl.

"We can fight for him if you want. He is my fiancé after all." Ikuyo said slyly.

"Maybe. That'll be interesting. To see how much you've improved." Ukyou said with a wink. "Well, better open up."

"See ya. Thanks for the okonomiyaki." Ikuyo said as she walked out and down the street toward her shop.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"Place your finger on this button, now blow." She instructed to her student.

"Kijota Ikuyo! I've come to slay you!" a booming voice came from the ceiling.

"Go, quickly." She whispered to her student. "And remember to practice!"

"Yes ma'am!" the student said as she skipped out of the shop.

"You come to slay me?" Ikuyo asked.

"Yes, my dear daughter." The chilling voice said.

Ikuyo cringed as she felt the familiar shiver run through her body. She pulled her clarinet off her back and held it to the side. "You come from Lanxi just to attack my family. Then you go and marry my father! That stupid spell won't work for long you lowlife wh—"

"I came to do you in not talk about our past meetings." The woman said as the wall burst out to reveal a woman with short blonde hair. She had a small dagger in one hand and a long monk's staff in the other.

"Did you steal that from some lonely monk? You traded his life for the staff, eh?"

"More or less. The monk sold his own life, the drunken idiot. Anyway, I will use this as a weapon." She said as she twirled it in her hands. Five reeds slid against her cheek in the blink of and eye. Blood trickled down her cheek and arm as the wooden reeds wedged into the wall.

"You're speed." She said in a stunned fashion.

Ikuyo twirled the clarinet in her fingers and knelt down on the ground. She put the mouth piece to her lips and blew in making a sweet note play into the ground. The cement rumbled and jagged pieces of cement pushed out of the ground. Ikuyo pointed at the woman and the chunks of cement flew at her knocking her out of the building. She followed and jumped through the hole.

"What was that? Your father never showed me that." She asked from the ground.

"It's an embarrassing name for an attack." She said. A faint blush crept across her cheeks but she still kept her guard up.

"Tell me." The Chinese woman said innocently.

"Goshinsake" Ikuyo said quietly but angrily.

"What does it mean?" the woman asked as she pushed herself up with her arms.

"That's the embarrassing thing. It means nothing. It's just a name. Maybe in my fathers' own language. To him it means snowing chunks. Embarrassing huh?" she asked as her face got redder.

"I have something like that. It's called. Killing Snow!" she yelled as she lifted the staff and thrust it into the air.

"What's going on over there?" Akane asked Ranma.

"It sounds like a battle." He said as he jumped over to Ikuyo's house.

*--*--*--*--*--*

"Ikuyo! Who did this to you?" Ranma asked as he saw her shivering snow covered body. She was breathing fast and her clarinet was broken in two. There was a large bleeding gash across her cheek and three more on her leg and her arms.

"It was…Kiyoja." She whispered as she grasped his arm. "Akane-chan, watch…you're…back." She said as her consciousness slipped from her grasp.

"Ikuyo." Ranma whispered. "Akane, who's this Kiyoja," he asked.

"Her step mother." She answered in concern. "This looks like a blizzard came through here."

*--*--*--*--*--*

Ikuyo shivered for the tenth time in two minutes.

"Her fever isn't going down." Kasumi informed the crowd. "Who did this?"

"Kiyoja." Akane said.

"Kiyoja?" Kasumi echoed.

"Her stepmother."

"She said…she came…to…slay me" Ikuyo panted.

"Slay you? What kind of stepmother is she?" Kasumi said as she wet the cloth on Ikuyo's forehead.

"She's a demon." Ikuyo said quietly.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"What happened?" Ukyou asked Akane and Ranma as she served them some okonomiyaki.

"She was attacked by her stepmother and now she's unconscious." Ranma said as he ate his okonomiyaki.

"Her stepmother? That's awful." She said.

"Hmm. Why would a woman ever do that to her daughter?" Akane asked herself.

"Maybe we should ask Ikuyo?" Ranma asked as he stood and started walking out of the restaurant.

"Ranma wait!" Akane called after him.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"Ikuyo, you feelin' okay?" Ranma asked the girl.

"Her fever hasn't lowered still. This is everlasting." Kasumi said with worry.

"It's a curse." Ikuyo said. She coughed and sat up slowly. She was wearing a blue kimono with pink flowers on it and her hair was down across her shoulder. "Thank you Kasumi. I'm a bother. I can go home now."

"No." Kasumi said sternly. "You must get some rest. I don't mind you here."

"Thank you." She said as she slowly closed her eyes and fell back onto her pillow.

"And there she goes." Nabiki said from the doorway.

"Nabiki? Do you know anything about this?" Akane asked.

"300 yen." She said simply.

Akane angrily slapped the money into her sisters' outstretched palm. "Start talking."

"Well, I saw the whole battle." She said as she counted the money.

*Flashback*

"Killing Snow!" the woman yelled. She thrust the staff into the air.

"What technique is this?" Ikuyo asked as she backed up against the wall.

"This snow will enter your body, freezing you on the inside. But, you'll be burning on the outside." She explained. A beam of white light shot out and hit Ikuyo in the stomach. When it stopped she collapsed to the ground, frozen all over.

*End Flashback*

"How awful. What kind of mother would do that to her child?" Kasumi asked.

"She has a spell on my father. It made him unaware of her monstrosities and she controlled him from the inside." Ikuyo explained coldly. "That woman will be dead when I'm through with her."

"Ikuyo, why did this woman pick your village to rampage through?" Akane asked.

"Our village is very sacred. The cows' milk can change any human into the purest of the gods. Our village is a forgiving village, where you can renew yourself of all the terrible things in the past you have committed. It completely revives you." Ikuyo explained weakly as she pushed herself up again. "I think it can rid you of your curse, Ranma-kun."

"Really?" he asked. He grabbed her hand and looked hopefully into her eyes.

"I can't stand this." Akane muttered as she stood and walked out of the room.

"Akane, where are you going?" Kasumi asked.

"A bath." She growled.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"Geez, I can't believe the way Ranma looked at her. Just because her village holds the cure for his curse. Ikuyo said that she would fight over Ranma until I tell him how I feel. I don't know how I feel." Akane thought out loud. "Why am I jealous? Ikuyo and I are friends when we aren't around Ranma. She's just like all the other fiancé's, though, when she is around him." She sunk down into the tub.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"Jealous, me? Yeah right. I probably ate something." She said as she walked down the hall, drying her hair.

"Nope. It's jealousy." A voice said from behind her.

"Ikuyo. Why are you up?" Akane asked.

"I'm hungry. I was going to the kitchen." She replied. She slowly walked over to her and put her arm over her shoulder for support. "Listen. I love Ranma. I'm telling you this. I'll fight until I have him. But I'll stop right away and force the others to as well, when you tell him how you feel. And I know you don't hate him by the way you get jealous when he's around me."

Akane narrowed her eyes and snorted. "Like I would be jealous over that jerk and you. I'm just his uncute fiancé who he probably wishes he never had."

"Now I can tell your lying by the way your mouth curves at the edges. Look, you can't lie to me, I'm trained. I can read emotions just by looking at your mouth." She said slyly. She coughed took a shaky breath. "I'll kill that woman."

"What is she after?" Akane asked.

"The money and the milk." She answered weakly.

"Sounds like Nabiki." Akane muttered. She turned into the kitchen and helped Ikuyo into a chair.

"I can cook something for you." She said happily.

"Are you trying to kill Iku-chan?" Ranma asked from the door.

"Shut up" she said as she closed the door in his face.

"I'll help you. Is your cooking that bad?" Ikuyo asked.

"I've been working on it." Akane said sadly.

"Let's try a simple recipe." She said as she got up and opened the cook-book next to Akane. "Can you make rice?" she asked.

"It doesn't have the right stickiness." She replied.

"Okay then, I'll help you make terrific rice. Has anyone ever helped you, or do you always push away their help?" she asked.

"Both."

"Okay then, I'll help you, and then you're on your own for the next recipe although I think I should supervise." She said with a warm smile.

Akane nodded and they got to work on the rice recipe.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"Dinners ready." She said to the surrounding people at the table. Ikuyo was standing next to her with her arm over her shoulder. She winked at the dreading Ranma and sat next to Nabiki.

"Akane. You made this?" Soun asked.

"Yes, daddy." She said with a smile.

He swallowed hard and put his chopstick into the pork bun.

"With the help of Ikuyo." She added.

Soun took a bite and closed his eyes hard. After a few seconds he opened his eye. "This is good." He said as he ate more."

"Did you put a spell on it or something?" Ranma asked.

"No, I had supervision." Akane said hotly.

"I helped her make the rice and then broke down the recipes so they were easy to follow." Ikuyo said as she ate her rice slowly.

"You're a good teacher." Akane said.

"I'm not the best cook but I can cook a variety of things." She said softly.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"I'm sorry I can't get out of here just now. I'd love to leave you to your lives but I don't think I would be able to get home without passing out in the middle of the rode." She said

"That's alright. With you here to supervise Akane's cooking we can all sleep well knowing that the bathroom will be free all night." Genma said.

Akane narrowed her eyes at him and turned away with her arms folded.

"Well, we should be getting to bed." Kasumi said as she hustled everyone away.

"Good night, Ranma-kun." Ikuyo said. She winked at him and smile as warm smile. "Good night, Akane-chan."

"Good night." Akane grumbled as she walked up the stairs behind her sisters.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

I was trying to answer the question of why Ikuyo's father would marry the monstrous woman. I think I did, didn't I? Anyway. Please review for me. I tried to change Akane's thinking about Ikuyo and tried to make Ikuyo a little like Ranma's other fiancé's. Did I do it?

Please review for me and I'll update as soon as I can.