Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma and co…

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Chapter 11: Hitting the Pressure Points

"Akane!" Kasumi ascended the stairs to her younger sisters room. "Akane, dinner's ready." She knocked on the door.

No reply.

"Akane?" turning the knob she looking around the room.

The door flung open wider, out of the eldest sisters hand to reveal Akane, leaning against the doorframe. The door bounced off the wall.

"Aka-." Kasumi's eyes went wide.

Akane smirked as her sister fell limp. The youngest sisters fingers planted in her chest and back.

She let Kasumi fall to the ground and turned to the door, the dress of her uniform whipping over the unconscious body of her sister.

"Sayonara, onee-chan."

*--*--*

"Ranma-kun, something's up, go check on Kasumi and Akane." Nabiki said as she flipped a page of her magazine.

"Okay…" Ranma stood and walked out of the room and up the stairs to Akane's room. He knocked on the door and pushed it open. "Akane? Kasu-." He looked down as his foot hit something.

Kasumi lay at his feet in a ball. He picked her up and ran out of the room, the door closing behind him.

*--*--*

"It's so cold out! I gotta close up early." Ukyou rubbed her hands together and turned off the grill as she shut the windows and brought the sign in.

"Wait!"

"Huh? Ryoga?" she watched as he ran down the street toward her. "What's the matter?"

Ryoga stopped in front of her and looked inside. "May I ask to stay here for the night?" he asked politely.

"Uh…I guess…" she said reluctantly.

"Thank you, Ukyou-san." He bowed awkwardly and stepped inside.

*--*--*

"No…no put your pinky there…no not there! Put it--don't foam at me!" Ikuyo slapped her students' arm lightly.

"Sorry." He muttered. "But my friend said you could fight with your clarinet. I wanna learn!" he whined.

"No." she said sternly.

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No, Yoshiro!" she yelled. "I'd teach you but your serious about the actual instrument. If you really wished to be a instrumental martial artist then you need to first be devoted to the instrument, treat it as your best friend, take showers with it, clean it every day." She said passionately.

"Take showers?" he looked up at his teacher. "Ikuyo, where did you learn your fighting techniques?"

"Yoshiro." Her voice threatened him.

"Where?"

"Yoshiro! Play the chromatic b scale, now!" she yelled.

"Hai…"

*--*--*

"What happened to her?" Soun asked. His face streamed with tears. "Ranma-kun! You should've protected her!"

"How could I've known she was gettin' attacked?!" Ranma defended himself.

The door slid open slowly. Akane stepped out.

"Akane, Kasumi is—Akane?" Nabiki walked over to her younger sister. "Akane?" she waved her hand in front of her face.

Akane's hands shot out and grabbed her sisters' wrist, pressing hard and pushing a place on her neck as well. Nabiki's eyes rolled to the back of her head and her fell to the ground.

"Akane!" Soun wailed as he burst into more tears.

Akane turned her lifeless eyes to him.

"D-Don't look at me l-like that Akane! I'm your father! Akane!" she stepped forward and lunged forward but Ranma stepped forward and grabbed her around the waist and wrists.

"Akane, what's gotten into you?!" he yelled at her.

"Ran—ma….help…me…" a small voice whispered. It sounded distant and in pain.

"Akane?" her body twisted and her hands shot forward.

Ranma dodged her quick attacks.

"Ranma-kun! I came to bring you some—Akane-chan!" Ikuyo dropped her bag as she looked on.

"Ikuyo! Can you…see…what's wrong…with Akane?!" he called out to her between dodges.

"Hai!" Ikuyo pulled some reeds out of their holders and threw them at the attacking martial artist.

Akane was pinned instantly to the floor, her body writhing.

"Ranma, hold her legs!" Ikuyo ordered.

"Right." Ranma grabbed her knees and knelt on her feet to keep her from kicking the two other martial artists.

Ikuyo knelt by Akane's head and grabbed her chin, pulling it roughly toward hers. She looked closely into the girls' eyes and gasped. She dug into her pockets until she pulled out a thing of cork grease she rubbed it on her eyelids and held them closed, then she pulled out a small glass bottle with violet powder in it.

Akane's hand shot out from pinning reeds and her fingers stabbed Ranma on the hand. Her fingers buried deep into his hand. He winced but held fast until her whole fingers disappeared. He yelped and pulled away.

"Uh-oh…" Ikuyo jumped backward. "Tendo-san, run!" she yelled to Soun.

"My Akane…" he was gone in an instant though.

Ikuyo pulled her clarinet halfway off her back and got in a fighting stance.

Ranma nursed his bleeding hand.

"That's the worst pressure point to hit. It hurts like hell." Ikuyo called over to him.

He recovered quickly and got in a fighting stance as well next to Ikuyo. "What's up with her?" he asked with concern.

"She's being controlled! She's hitting the painful pressure points in people's bodies to knock them out and sap their energy for herself. It's a dangerous technique in ancient Chinese scriptures I've been forced to read and it's not something that is easily cured." Ikuyo dodged as Akane lunged forward toward her. Her eyes snapped open and the Vaseline substance slid off her face like tears of a child. "It's a very hard curse to reverse and it takes intensive weeks of watching and containing the victim. Sometimes they don't even live."

Ranma jumped upward and dodged Akane's fast hands. "Why?!" he yelled.

"Their will to live is too weak!" Akane's fingers swiped across her face leaving a deep and long gash.

"Let's take this outside, Ranma!" Ikuyo called as she pulled her clarinet fully of her back and impaled the round end into Akane's stomach sending her flying into a tree outside.

Ranma glared at her momentarily and jumped out of the house as well.

Akane fell slightly and caught herself on her hands before her face hit the ground. She jumped upward and landed in a tree limb. Instantly she propelled off, impaling her fists into Ikuyo's stomach.

Ikuyo coughed up blood as she was thrown backwards into the pond. When she emerged in her dog form she sputtered a bit, blood trailed behind her in the pool.

"Ikuyo…" Ranma turned his gaze from the unconscious puppy to his "fiancé". "I'll help you, Akane, so just trust me." He whispered as he lunged forward and rapidly punched her in the stomach until she sputtered a bit like Ikuyo had and fell against his arm.

He smirked and held that position for a while.

"You—haven't….won yet." Her bloody hand grasped his wrist and pulled it out of her abdomen area, then lifted him upward by his hand and threw him upward, releasing him.

Ranma's eyes went wide as she jumped up after him.

"Sayonara, Ranma-kun." Her fingers connected with his throat and bleeding hand.

"A-Akane…" he eyes closed slowly and he fell unconscious in mid air.

*--*--*

Ikuyo gained consciousness as Akane threw Ranma up into the air.

She gasped and ran as fast as her exhausted body could move her. She pulled a pot of hot step from dinner and dropped it on top of herself as she grew to her normal self. She pulled on her clothes that she had dragged with her and ran out just in time to catch the unconscious Ranma before he hit the ground.

"Ranma!" she shook him lightly then looked upward as Akane landed ungracefully. Her eyes closed slowly and she fell backward, slipping on the wet rocks Ikuyo had climbed up on and into the pond.

Ikuyo lied Ranma down and fished the unconscious girl out of the water.

"Kiyoja's at work here…you'll pay, bitch, you'll pay." Ikuyo clenched her bleeding hands around her clarinet, the keys piercing her skin from the strength she held.

"Surely you would realize she isn't working by herself." A voice called.

Ikuyo twirled around and met the warm brown eyes of a woman her height.

She wore a white gi and red hakama with a katana at her waist. She had a welcoming air about her. She had a stalk of something in her hair. An herb from the strong smell that wafted off. Her long black hair was over her shoulder in white ribbon. It looked like silk ribbons as it slipped around her creamy face.

"Who are you?" Ikuyo asked cautiously.

"Not the enemy if that's what you're thinking. I am a miko. Kaira. Yuri no Miko." She bowed politely and smiled. "I'm here to help. Let's bring them inside." She pointed to the two unconscious martial artists.

"Hai." Ikuyo grabbed Akane and limped inside where the two women placed their charges on futons in Akane's empty room.

"This girl is cursed, I'll help with that." Kaira pulled the herb branch from behind her ear. "This is manjushage." She informed the musician.

Ikuyo just simply nodded and held her arm across her stomach. She wiped her mouth of blood and felt her vision blur.

"Reifujin?" she heard the miko question as she fell backward.

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

Reifujin- Lady

Manjushage- red spider lily

Miko- priestess

Yuri no Miko- Priestess of Lily

Sayonara- goodbye (Duh!)

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A/N: Okay! Sorry for the long lack of updates. I got some motivating reviews like:

You better update or I'll kill you!!!

Threaten me? Okay…that's a little extreme but it worked! Great job!

I have to say this chapter was fun to write. I can't wait till the next chapter. I hope you all like it so far and I'll try and update faster. I have PMS and a cold so…I've been grouchy lately.

Anyway, next chapter:

Chapter 12: I'm Sorry, Akane