Disclaimer: All characters and places are the property of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. Except for the original characters and places, that is.

Author's Note: Okay, so this chapter is up this soon, but I'm currently trying to get it out as fast as possible, with the best that I can do. Now I hope I don't get any of the characters OOC. Anyway, any honest and constructive criticism is welcome, and review as much as possible!

It's Gonna Rain

A Ranma ½ Fan-fiction

Part I: Storm Clouds

Two figures could be seen jumping from roof to roof on the steep and tall buildings. Those who were unused could be seen staring openly at the duo, jaws slack and eyes wide open. The locals, or rather, those who lived near the infamous Tendou Dojo were already used to it. Now they were the ones who, after a brief glance, carried on with their work.

"What the-! Who the hell was that?! That sure was crazy!" One of those belonging to the 'unused' category asked uncertainly.

"Ah, no need to worry, everything's perfectly fine," the other soothed. "Life in Nerima is always like that. You just have to get used to it."

The other person looked doubtful. "If you say so..."

"I'm positive," the other said, a wide grin spreading across his face. "If you say this is extraordinary, then there's even weirder stuff happening almost all the time."

The first person looked rather unhinged. I don't think I'm going to stay here much longer...

Meanwhile, the two figures had made their way across all the buildings nearby to the wide, concrete bridge. The first figure abruptly skidded a halt and turned back. This was Saotome Ranma.

There was nothing extremely extraordinary about his appearance. He was tall, slightly taller than average, with a good muscular physique. His black hair was long, longer than most guys would care to grow, tied back into a Chinese style plait down his back. His comically dancing grey-blue eyes scanned the area, a quick grin forming on his face. Dressed in a Chinese-style red shirt with folded up sleeves, a pair of black pants, and, yet again, Chinese-style shoes, he looked confident and at ease, like a lion ready pounce.

"Oy, Ryoga! Are you too slow or something? I can't even believe that you've gotten this slow! And I taught you said you've gotten even better?" He taunted the other.

"Ranma!" Hibiki Ryoga jumped towards Ranma, landing squarely and neatly in front of him. Nearly just as tall or possibly even taller, his dark hair was swept away from his forehead by a yellow bandanna, and clad in a long sleeved yellow shirt and a pair of dark green trousers. He also looked quite confident, but there was an air around him that seemed to make others feel that he was actually fuming.

He was, in actual fact. Ranma was the one who ran away from him, and yet he had the nerve to say that he was slow? He felt an urge to attack Ranma immediately, but knew that it would be suicide. Ranma was a lot faster than he looked, and not only could he be able to see his attack coming and dodge quickly, but could also attack him just as quickly.

Ranma smirked. Well... So it's the same exercise all over again, huh?

"Face me, Ranma! I will defeat you today for sure!" Jumping into the air, he launched an attack at Ranma.

Ranma jumped into the air too, all prepared to meet Ryoga and defeat him. For the fiftieth time, at least. "When you are!"

The two forces collided.

"Heh, and you consider yourself to be a superb martial artist? That's not even worth half of my attack. It's no wonder that you lost. Stick to cooking."

Kuonji Ukyo bristled but did not retort as bitingly as she would have normally done. It was true in a way – she'd not been training lately, having considered, as Ranma's cute fiancée, to cook lunch and dinner for him everyday, and with school and the shop to take care of, hardly any time remained for her to train or even socialize.

It had been a particularly good day for her shop. She had just gotten to close the shop, when a knock sounded and she had appeared, asking for a fight. Of course she had agreed. She just never expected her to be that strong. But Kuonji Ukyo had always been stubborn, and this had never changed all through these years.

"Well, I consider myself good, and I will never give up! I, Kuonji Ukyo, swear that I will defeat you!" Slamming her giant spatula into the ground to emphasize that fact, she glared with hostile eyes at her opponent and slowly picked herself up from the ground. Every muscle of her body ached, her head felt extremely light.

This is bad... she's way too good for me...

The opponent merely smiled condescendingly at her. "Don't bother, at that state, you will never be able to defeat me."

"And it's been said that you should never underestimate your opponent." She raised her giant spatula, pointing it straight at her. "Get ready!"

She sped towards her opponent. The other girl did not even move, did not even bait an eyelash. She merely waited for Ukyo to close in on her before leaping into the air, flipping midway and landing straight on Ukyo's back before she could even react.

Needless to say, the resulting force was the deafening impact of Ukyo's body slamming head first on the floor. She leaped off the girl's body, and smirked coldly. "I told you. You could never defeat me."

"You're wrong..." Ukyo's voice, though faint, was unmistakable.

The cold smirk froze in place. "What did you say? I defeated you, you cannot deny the truth."

"... I don't deny it. My pride is hurting me, but I am honest. But there is something else... You may have been able to defeat me, but there is one person you can never ever defeat..." Before even finishing her sentence, she slumped, hair falling limply around her face.

Shoken Koname looked upon her limp body with cold, unfeeling eyes, the smirk vanishing from her face. Her eyes narrowed in anger.

"I will definitely defeat this person whom you talk about. No mater how strong, I will not let anyone get into the way of my goal."

She walked off into the darkness.

A fist nearly slamming neatly into his face was dodged swiftly. Somersaulting into the air, Ranma aimed his feet under the unfortunate man and flipped, sending the unfortunate man who was slow to reacting into the air and into the river under the bridge.

"I won."

High-pitched squeals could be heard from the river, catching Ranma's attention. He looked over the bridge, and spotted Ryoga's unmistakable clothes floating on the water surface. Except that he was not in there. Scanning the river, he found a small black pig with Ryoga's bandanna around his neck, squealing hysterically and somehow rather angrily. If his squeals could be translated into words, it would definitely have been, "You filthy bastard! I will defeat you one day!"

Ranma looked at the pig, disinterested after checking for its safety. "Too bad, I won. Best get back to Akane, so that she can look you over." He turned away, casually whistling. It was then that he realized that he felt ravenously hungry.

Ah, well. He could always visit Ukyo's shop.

Ukyo came to slowly, her head buzzing painfully. Groaning, she picked herself up unsteadily from the floor, then fell onto her knees painfully. The whole place was a huge mess. Her whole body hurt, especially where she had been slammed into the floor. But what hurt most was her pride. That she could not even defeat a girl, she felt worthless.

I wonder if Ranma would even like me now...

The still-intact door slid open, causing her to start. Ranma's familiar voice filled the store.

"U'chan, you here – U'chan?!"

She dared not look up, a faint blush filling her cheeks. Of all people, Ranma had to see her like this. Granted, if it was someone like Shampoo, it would have been worse, but having Ranma see her like this hurt more than anything. However, the next moment, she felt a strong arm holding her steady, and saw Ranma's eyes in front of her, looking very concerned. Despite her condition, she felt her heart beat faster.

"What happened?" He asked urgently. It sounded rude to some, but she had already been long used to his manner of speech.

"A girl challenged me. I agreed, but I... lost. She's dangerous, Ranma. I've a feeling she's after something, though I'm not sure what exactly."

She saw Ranma's eyes widen slightly, then narrow. "Whoever did this won't be getting away with it, I swear," he said lowly. "Come on, I'll take you to Tofu-sensei's."

She felt herself being picked up by Ranma and smiled. Feeling safe, she allowed her exhausted body to rest.

A lone figure slouched out of Tofu-sensei's clinic, hands in pockets, eyebrows furrowed. If anyone who knew him well enough could see him now, they would have been rather surprised, for that was an expression seldom seen on his face. He looked troubled, for once.

Ukyo was going to be okay, Tofu-sensei had said so. That was a great relief to him. Ukyo was a fighter, and she would definitely be fine. But what troubled him was something else. He had a strange hunch that this person, whoever she was, would be after him and probably Akane next.

He wasn't concerned about himself – he was sure he'd handled worse, but somehow imagining Akane fight that woman sent shivers up his spine.

If Ukyo couldn't defeat this woman, then Akane surely would not be able to. And, although he refused to admit it outright, he hated to see Akane hurt.

Dammit...

Author's Notes: Well, this was much longer than what I normally would write for a chapter. Oh, well. I hope it wasn't horrible. And I really, really hate writing battle scenes...

Yokai Cesia and Chi – I'm thrilled to know that you think it's great! And I can never ever visualize the battle – that's the problem. Seriously, I was nearly cracking my head just trying to figure out how to type it out... But thanks anyway!

FreedomGundam – Wow, I'm really happy to see that you think it's awesome! Thank you so much for your review!