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Jin Lu Zi Lao
A Ranma ½ Fanfic by PansutoTaro5925
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DISCLAIMER: Ranma ½ is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Video. I make no claim to these properties. This fic not to be distributed for commercial gain.
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The next morning Ranma walked down to breakfast only to be handed something by Nabiki. "What's this?" Ranma asked, opening it.
"A challenge letter from Ryoga. I forgot to give it to you last night, too busy being dazzled by your hand speed last night. Say, I have a business proposition for you," Nabiki said, as Ranma was semidistracted by the challenge letter. "Could I get you to challenge a few people to this simple shell game? It's very-"
"No," Ranma said, interrupting her. "Heh, Ryoga wants to fight today. What are the odds of that happening?"
"I'll give you five to one against," Nabiki answered.
"Sold!" Ranma said, shaking Nabiki's hand. "I bet a thousand yen," he said, before walking off to train some more.
"Easiest thousand I ever made," Nabiki said to herself after he left. "Ryoga's set up camp behind the school." That's how she had gotten the letter, after all. She chuckled to herself as she walked over to the bathroom.
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Shampoo blearily greeted her cousin as she came down the stairs. "You snore. Loudly," she complained, "and often."
Mifa was eating her breakfast and blnked. "So? Didn't you close your door?"
"You also sleepwalk," Shampoo continued, "and opened it."
"Oh."
"I'm buying a lock at the hardware store today," Shampoo grumbled, before getting herself some breakfast as well.
"Are you going to bring me some more ramen at school today?" Mifa asked.
"Of course," Shampoo replied, "after I take a nice, long nap." Mifa nodded and went back to change into the stupid, worthless in fighting outfit they wanted all the female students to wear. She paused. Ranma blew off the stupid uniforms, too. Why not her?
Taking up her school stuff, Mifa walked off to Furinkan High.
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Lunch started much like yesterday - Mifa and Shampoo in a tree, surrounded by much of Furinkan's male population - excepting the fact that Nabiki hung around Ranma like a dark cloud of doom.
"Will you get out of my sunshine?" Ranma asked her crossly, turning around to look at her. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"Just waiting," Nabiki answered.
"For what?"
"For Ryoga. Here he comes now. Can I have my thousand yen now?" Nabiki asked, holding out her hand. Ranma stood up and handed her the yen in annoyance and walked over to Ryoga. The crowd of boys over by Shampoo and Mifa quickly shifted focus to the expected fight.
"What's going on?" Shampoo asked her cousin. "Who's that fighting your husband."
Mifa's face paled. "He's the pig-boy I nearly killed in China. What's he doing here?"
"Fighting Ranma, apparently."
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Ryoga unslung his umbrella and let his backpack slide off his shoulders. He flipped it aside, unwilling to let its weight hinder him in the fight. Ranma was too quick to face with that kind of handicap. "I've been training, Ranma."
"So have I, Ryoga," Ranma answered. Unspoken was the part that said 'just not for you.' Ranma cracked his knuckles, his arms still covered in bandages. He winced as pain shot up his arms. The burns on his hands and arms would certainly make punching Ryoga fun. Still, he relaxed into his stance and beckoned for Ryoga to attack. "Come on, porky, show me what you've got," he taunted with a huge grin on his face
"Fine. You'll take that smile," Ryoga yelled as he darted forward, swinging the umbrella in a grand, powerful backhanded sweep, "to the afterlife!" Ranma bent backwards at the waist, dcuking the blow, then leaping after the return stroke and pushing off Ryoga's head with his foot to flip lightly to Ryoga's left. "Just die!" Ryoga said, stabbing at Ranma with the tip of the umbrella. Ranma danced nimbly about the umbrella and slapped him.
"You're going to need to try a little harder than that, P-chan," Ranma taunted. He ducked another frenzied swing from Ryoga and slapped his opponent on the other cheek.
"Stop slapping me, you little girl!" Ryoga roared as Ranma continued to dodge around. Ranma's eyes narrowed and he punched Ryoga in the gut the next time. Waves of pain shot up his hand as the burned tissue split painfully and began to bleed.
I can't punch him again, Ranma thought. If I tear up my arms, I won't be able to continue my training today. "Hey, Ryoga. I bet I can beat you up using nothing but my feet."
"What?" Ryoga said, before Ranma kicked him in the chin. Ryoga grabbed the offending leg and smashed his umbrella into Ranma's hip, causing Ranma to hop away as his leg went numb.
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"He's not too bad," Shampoo noted as the fight wore on. "Slow, but strong and very tough."
"Are you thinking about challenging him?" Mifa asked Shampoo. Ryouga wasn't her type, for obvious reasons - she considered herself to have been unimaginably fortunate to be beaten by Ranma - but for another Amazon...
Shampoo shrugged. "I don't know. Depends on how well he does here, I guess."
Mifa shrugged and turned back to the fight.
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Ranma hopped back. He kept his hands loose and untightened, not wanting to aggravate the burns. He had a couple of bruises on him and a cut above his eye that was going to be very annoying if this fight continued.
Ryoga was in worse shape. His right eye was nearly swollen shut from Ranma's repeated kicks at his face, and he was favoring his left side, probably because Ranma had worked it over with punishing kicks. His right side was more protected by his umbrella, mostly because Ryoga had taken to keeping it open in front of himself like a shield and lashing out at Ranma with his fist from around the edges. It was an inspired tactic Ranma hadn't expected to see from Ryoga. Kicking around it was dangerous because he kept the thing spinning like a buzzsaw.
It was unlikely Ryoga could keep it up without growing tired, Ranma thought, but there wasn't much time during the lunch break left and he had no particular desire to be late. Finally he made up his mind and lashed out with another kick.
Up came the spinning umbrella to deflect the high kick, momentarily masking Ranma from his opponent. Ranma kicked out his other leg and braced with both hands on the ground, yelling as his burned hands sent their opinions of the move to his brain. The umbrella jerked to a halt in Ryoga's hands and Ranma kicked it, correctly guessing that the twisting motion had loosened the lost boy's grip on his weapon.
The handle flew in and struck Ryoga with a loud THWACK in the collarbone, and he dropped the umbrella. Ranma quickly sprung back to his feet and rained kicks on Ryoga, knocking him off his feet.
"Ranma, enough!" Akane yelled. "You've beaten him enough!"
Akane, Ryoga thought, looking to the side. She pities me. Pities me because... "No!" Ryoga said, getting to his feet and lunging at Ranma. "This isn't-"
In an eerie re-enactment of an earlier fight with Kuno, Ranma cartwheeled away from his opponent, his leg blurring out kicks hitting every vital point square on. Ranma put his hands in his pockets and walked away.
"...ow..." Ryoga said softly, then collapsed.
Akane ran after Ranma, stepping on the unconscious Ryoga in the process. "Ranma!" she yelled. "You didn't need to beat him that badly."
"What? Are you blind, tomboy?" Ranma blurted angrily. "He wasn't down yet and he wasn't giving up!"
"Ranma, you jerk, I wasn't referring to that. You embarrassed him in front of the whole school, beating him without using your hands," Akane growled.
Ranma held out his bandaged arms. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Sane training methods, just maybe?" Akane shouted back.
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"Not bad," Mifa said, still talking to Shampoo. "He has potential. You going to chase him?" she asked, hopping down out of her tree. The bell rang, drawing all the students to the door like a magnet, but she remained to talk a bit to her cousin.
Shampoo nodded happily. "A strong warrior who isn't Mousse, it's just what I want."
"Maybe you should wait, see if anybody else is a better fighter?" Mifa asked. Shampoo could be far too hasty for Mifa's tastes, always seeming to take a shortcut, always looking for the fastest way to do something. Then again, she was well aware that her cousin considered her to be dreadfully slow to do anything.
"You're going to visit your husband today, right?" Shampoo asked, frowning.
"Yes, Cologne," Mifa said flatly.
"Hey!" Shampoo said.
Mifa turned and ran for the door. "See you after class! Bye bye!" she yelled over her shoulder, quickly scooting inside and away from her cousin.
Shampoo sighed and picked up the remains of lunch. Walking out of the gate she shook her head. If her cousin didn't start pursuing Ranma a bit more agressively, she'd have to help her along.
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Ranma was busy killing time while is equipment heated up. Well, actually, he was removing his bandages and looking at the tender, pink flesh that was revealed, skin that had been repeatedly scalded the day before. "I swear, Saotome," Nabiki said, looking over his shoulder, "what are you, some sort of masochist?"
"Ranma," Akane said worriedly. "You don't need to push yourself this hard. All she did was beat you in a fight, right? It's no big deal." Ranma twitched, but didn't reply. Smiling, Akane continued: "Why don't you just forget about that Amazon girl?"
Ranma tensed. "I don't lose fights, Akane. I just lose rounds. I ain't starting to lose any fights now." Nabiki calmly loaded her camera in the background, as Ranma crushed the can of soda he was carrying. Ranma turned around to look Akane in the eye. "I can't forget, Akane, not until I beat her."
Akane growled. "Then why don't you train with me, instead of practicing cooking your hands like you are now. It might help you fight a girl if you actually, you know, actually fight one?"
"I can't do that, Akane," Ranma said.
"Oh?" Akane said, "Why not? You fought her. You fought Kodachi. You fought that weird little skater girl, I forget her name-"
"Azusa," Ranma supplied absently.
"Azusa," Akane continued, "but you won't fight me?" Akane slammed her fist down on the table, causing it to crack slightly. "WHY?" she demanded.
"Uh," Ranma thought frantically, looking for a reason. "Because you aren't a challenge?" No sooner did he blurt it out than he realized it was a spectacularly wrong answer.
Akane fairly crackled with anger, looked around, saw nothing really suitable for smashing Ranma with but a cracked table, and elected to kick her fiancee into the pond. "Ranma, you jerk, I hope she beats you like a drum!" With that she ran up the stairs and into her room.
Ranma surged out of the koi pond, water sloshing everywhere as she went, and walked into the dojo. "OK, that was a stupid answer. Why don't I just shut up?"
"I don't know, Saotome, you tell me?" Nabiki asked, holding out a kettle.
"Why are you being so nice?" Ranma asked. She was automatically suspicious of strange things - like a generous Nabiki.
"Kuno wouldn't pay for photos of his pigtailed girl sticking her hands in boiling water and oil," she explained, following him.
Ranma snorted and poured the hot water over his head. "As long as you don't distract me, I don't care."
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Mifa lounged in her chair and flipped through the various channels. There wasn't anything on, but the novelty of the TV hadn't worn off on her yet. Besides, the chattering Japanese would help her language, she rationalized. At least the Turtle House was ready to go, the floors polished, counter sparkling, and all the dishes cleaned and waiting. After all, she was going to be living here, and she'd need to earn a living. "I just wish it wouldn't cut into my training."
"What training?" Shampoo asked, coming down the stairs. "All I see is you sitting in front of the TV." Shampoo paused at the bottom of the stairs, leaning on the railing. "I thought you were going to see your husband?"
"Yes, Cologne," Mifa said, precisely duplicating her earlier tone and expression. Shampoo immediately grabbed a broom and, turning it upside down, shakily balanced on the tip, crouched over to approximate the smallness of her elder.
"Don't disrespect your great-grandmother, Mifa!" Shampoo said, in a gravelly voice that sounded nothing like Cologne, but was extremely funny nonetheless. "Why can't you - oof!" Shampoo said, tripping on her hair as she attempted to pogo forward as her great-grandmother did. Mifa fell out of her chair in hysterics.
When she finally regained her voice, Mifa sat up. "If Cologne saw us, we'd be cleaning every toilet in the village!"
"It's a good thing she's in China, right?" Shampoo asked.
"Right," Mifa said. "I'll go over and check on Ranma anyways. I wouldn't want to rush her, but I need to organize a rematch anyways." Mifa charged out the door and jumped up on the rooftops, bouncing away out of sight.
Shampoo shook her head at the slip. Her cousin was entirely too slow. She'd have to do something about that. Fortunately, her great-grandmother had given her the means of doing so.
Shampoo's planning was disrupted when the door was flung open. "Shampoo! I've finally found you!" came the voice of the prson she was least interested in seeing.
"Hello, stupid Mousse," Shampoo said, closing her eyes angrily.
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