Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, nor claim to.
Chapter Twenty Five: Lighting the Match for . . .
"Plug them in and turn them on, process the data, make yourself the bomb. What is your target, what is your reason? Do you have emotions, is your heart freezin'?" Papa Roach: Dead Cell
"See anything yet?" Sauske asked calmly as he jumped back down from the fence, running alongside his sister.
She glanced down another street, but upon seeing nothing there, shook her head slowly. "Nope, haven't seen him yet." She paused, glancing over at the boy. "You?"
"Nothing." Sauske replied with a sigh. Sakura nodded. "Maybe we need to get closer to the edge of the district?"
"Makes sense." Sakura replied quietly, continuing to run, her kendo sword at her hip, ready for anything. She muttered something under her breath, which her brother couldn't quite make out.
The boy turned to look at her, when he noticed the faint glow. Red. He cold see it glowing in the small space in her ear, and between the back of her ear and her head. A red aura had formed. Sauske changed his mind about asking her.
She was angry; Sakura had to be in order to force out a red aura. His sister needed to be much angrier than he did in order to create one; then again, it was easier for her to show red than for him to form blue. But that was the nature of the red aura. Quick to anger, slow to forgive, people would always say about each other.
But when the time came, they would both kill away that anger. Sakura, so she could use her stronger aura. And Sauske, so he wouldn't use one at all.
- - -
Shampoo sighed, looking over at Ukyo. "I saw nothing." The Amazon replied flatly.
"Darn, I thought for sure there was someone there." The chef replied, releasing her grip from the handle of the battle spatula. "Did you see someone down there, Akane?"
The other woman glanced over at the chef, before shaking her head. "Nope, nothing."
Ukyo scowled, leaning back up from the edge of the roof, which Shampoo, standing next to her, did as well, shuffling her grip on her bonbori. "Akane's right." Ukyo thought to herself. "I do need to start training again. Here I am, imagining someone running by on the street. I got to focus."
- - -
"Naruto!" Keira shouted, glaring angrily back at the boy running behind her again. "Can't you run any faster?!"
Naruto glanced up at her, running up to the stopped form of the girl. "Not . . . not really." He huffed, gasping for breath at each step. "Can't . . . we go a little . . . slower?"
Keira sighed, rolling her eyes secretly. She was already going slow, much more than she wanted to, but if Naruto couldn't keep up . . . "All right, let's take a break for a second." She said, sighing to herself, and walked over towards him. She leaned on the nearby wall, giving him a chance catch his breath.
Naruto's face brightened as if he had seen an angel. "Thank you!" he huffed out, before stopping himself to lean on the wall with one hand, panting heavily and hunched over.
- - -
Haku smiled as he tossed the dice onto the board. They clinked along, before rolling to a stop. "Seven! Yes, I am so buying the Tokyo Tower!" he shouted, scrounging together the paper bills and shoving them across the table to Joseph.
"All right, all right!" Joseph replied, snatching the bills away and handing the boy the small paper card in its place. "Sheesh, it's just a game." He continued, before coughing.
"You're just mad because I'm beating you." The ninja-boy replied with a smirk.
Joseph stared at him for a moment, before turning his head away to hide the fact that he muttered, "That too," quietly. The ninja smiled.
Then, it was Pai's turn. Reaching out, she grabbed the dice, before taking them in both hands, shaking them high above her head. Swinging them around in her right hand a few times, she let them loose onto the board. "Twelve. Again!" Auska said cheerfully. "How do you keep doing that, Pai?" It was her fourth twelve in a row.
Squeaky-Squeaky! "I am a good roller!" the girl held the sign high, smiling brightly. Auska opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a strange sound.
It was static, like the kind the TV makes when the channel doesn't come through clearly, or the radio is tuned to the wrong station. Haku was the first to find the source, pulling the little Palm Pilot he had stuffed about twenty wires into.
Everyone else, especially Pai, watched the boy as he fiddled with the gadget. He was the only one at the table who could rig up anything with technology nowadays, and he did it with skill. Most of the stuff he knew how to do was well above what even Joseph could understand. He put a lot of the money he got over his life into computer equipment like what he had, taking what was cheap and making it better. So, when things weren't working, he lost interest in most everything else. The room was silent, except for Joseph coughing again, as the boy continued to examine the pad.
Tugging at a wire or two, he pressed the buttons and keys on the little pad, before sighing. "Better go check the camera." He muttered to himself, before standing up.
"I'll help." Auska said suddenly, standing up as well.
The boy paused, before looking back to her. "No, it's okay, Auska, I can handle it. Besides, it's your turn."
"Are you sure?" the girl asked.
"What's going to happen? It's probably just a loose wire. I'll be up and back in a minute." He said with a serene smile. Noticing that everyone was watching him with the same slightly worried expression on their faces, he smiled a little more. "Nothing's going to happen. It'll be fine."
The other five watched him walk away, around the corner, and out of sight into the house.
- - -
"See him yet?" Ranma asked, before realizing that may not be the best question.
Mousse shook his head anyway. "No, no sign of the old man. I think we may be in the wrong area."
"We have to keep goin', then."
"Obviously."
- - -
Tenchuu sighed as he leapt back down from the roof, before snapping the chain free from the edge, letting it fall to the ground. Once it clinked on the ground, he began to pull it back into his sleeve, causing it to disappear in his long robes. "He's not up there, brother. I believe we are in the quietest part of town."
"Really? Darn, I wanted to get a chance to fight."
"Even though he will crush you, since we promised . . ."
"I know, I know." Chii replied, and the two boys continued on their area of search. "It is for the best, even if I have to lose so much."
His brother simply nodded in reply.
- - -
"So, why do you like my brother so much, anyway?" Kite asked. He could see Aki slip a little in her next step, but she quickly recovered, running normally again. "I mean, you were pretty interested in him, to me, whenever you came by."
"Naruto-kun is . . . my friend, and no more . . . besides, I am . . . already engaged to Sauske." Aki replied, not even glancing at the boy next to her.
"Then why did you drag him around everywhere, training and such? And it seemed like you were the happiest person alive whenever my brother showed up. If that's not love . . ." The boy was cut off.
"It's not!" Aki said quickly, a little flustered, before recovering her cool attitude again. "He was my . . . best chance to . . . draw out Sauske's aura."
"Sauske's aura?"
The girl nodded. "He has been . . . hiding it from me . . . and I want to know . . . what he has hidden."
Kite sighed. "Whatever you say."
Aki glared at him openly for a moment, before something clicked in her head. "Have you . . . ever seen Sauske's aura?"
The boy glanced over at her, linking, before turning back and trying to remember. Slowly, he began to talk. "I . . . I think I did . . . yeah, yeah, I did, a few times . . . last time was about . . . eh, seven or eight years ago, a little after Happosai left. Yeah, it was after that. We had a good sparing match, and I remember him having a weak blue aura, and he trounced me. I haven't seen it since, though. Hell, in the next fight we had, I crushed him, and he didn't even seem to think about using his aura. I don't know why." He shook his head. "He'd just come back from a big training trip too, and I crushed him like paper!"
The boy glanced over at Aki, only to see she was obviously deep in thought. The two continued racing down the road, before Kite remembered what they were doing here. "Well, anyway, we got to find Happosai."
Aki simply nodded.
- - -
Haku sighed to himself. The hall was empty upstairs. Except for Nabiki and Brandon downstairs, and Akari, who went to spend time with the Tofu's, all the adults were watching for something outside, or out hunting. So, the hallway was dead silent. Not a comforting sound to be all alone in.
He sighed again. It was nothing to get worked up about; there was nobody here. He walked slowly along the corridor, approaching the camera that had been malfunctioning. He had figured it out the problem before he even reached it.
One of the wires had come loose. The boy sighed to himself, taking the wire up from the ground, and stepping on the stool left here, placing his hand on Auska's door for balance. With a quick movement, the wire was put back into place, and the camera was fixed.
"I wonder what made it come loose." The boy muttered to himself, but didn't search, walking back down the hallway and down the stairs. Turning the corner, he re-entered the living room. "What did I miss?" he asked loudly, as everyone watched him return to his seat.
"Auska got a get out of jail card, and Amy owes you rent for the Tokyo Tower." Joseph replied.
- - -
"There he is!" Konatsu said quietly, directing Ryoga in his direction. The other man turned to look, and spotted Happosai jumping along the road, carrying a large bag of stolen goodies. "Follow me, quick!"
Ryoga locked his eyes on Konatsu, and followed as best he could.
- - -
Sakura slid to a stop. "There, Sauske!" she shouted, pointing ahead towards the man jumping towards them. Sauske barely had time to stop before his sister shoved him to the side, putting them both behind the corner of the wall.
"Are you sure?!" Sauske asked in a shouted whisper.
"Definitely. He's coming this way." The girl replied, pulling her wooden sword from her belt. "Get ready."
"Dad said we should wait for someone!"
"We can't let him get away, Sauske!" she said angrily, but did not turn away from glancing around the corner and down the road. "Besides, if we attack, we're bound to draw attention, and everyone will start coming to us."
Sauske paused, gritting his teeth. He had a bad feeling about this . . . but . . .
"Here he comes." Sakura whispered, as the old man came down the street towards them, only fifteen meters away. There was a pause. "Get ready." She murmured, as Happosai reached eight meters away. "Almost . . ." Three meters.
"NOW!" The girl shouted, a bright explosion of blue flying away from her, a wave of hot air smashing into Sauske's face. Sakura dashed out sideways, slashing the bag, and knocking it out of Happosai's hands, before running forward to catch up with it. Turning, the girl smashed it back, tossing it directly at Sauske, who caught it easily. "Get it out of here!"
The boy blinked, before turning and running. Sakura turned to Happosai in time to catch a metal pipe in her chin, flinging her back several meters and off her feet. The girl had barely touched the ground with her back when she flipped back up, however, even with a bleeding lip and a dark blue-black bruise already forming where she was hit.
Happosai landed calmly from his attack, spinning his pipe on his finger as he examined the girl. Her aura was impressive, a good fifteen times her own body size. It was a bright blue, with the radiant hot air flowing around. But there was something odd about it. There was no form, no shape to the aura. Most often, the energy would follow the general shape of the body, or, if it was a unique aura, form the shape of some animal. Hers was different.
It was a bright flame, flickering and flowing both with and against the wind, bathing all the space around her in a bright blue hue, not the normal dull color. Her face was calm and stoic, and she didn't even seem to notice the fact that she had been hit only a moment ago. The girl was standing, strong and ready, staring down Happosai without even questioning the slightest thing around him. Her whole life seemed centered on him at this very moment.
"So, what made you so determined?" Happosai asked casually, continuing to twirl his pipe on his finger.
Sakura gripped her hands tighter. "You're not getting away anymore, Happosai. This is the end for you."
"Really?" the man asked, before slowly starting to walk towards her. "And how do you plan on doing that?"
The girl covered the eight meter distance in seven tenths of a second. "Like this." She said in an absolute-zero voice, before slashing straight down with the sword.
CHNK! Happosai met the wood with his pipe, before slipping aside, and out from under her sword. He hopped back, before Sakura released one of her hands, jabbing the sword forward using only her right arm. Happosai hopped back, while Sakura stepped forward, jabbing again. The old man again leapt back, before hopping a third time when the girl jabbed a third time as well.
Drawing her sword back behind her as she stepped forward after her third miss, Sakura swung forward, slashing up. Happosai leapt back, flipping, and again safely avoiding the sword. "He's too fast!" Sakura shouted in her head. "Too fast for me, even now!" With her sword above her head, she swung straight at Happosai again, before releasing the handle, letting the weapon fly forward at the old man.
Happosai swung his pipe effortlessly, deflecting the wooden sword away. He then noticed the girl close to him again, before a flurry of fists appeared in view. "The Katchu Tenshin Amiguriken, eh?" he thought to himself, smiling a little, before stabbing with the metal smoking pipe equal to Sakura's attack. Each fist was met with cold iron.
Left. Right. Center. Top-right. Bottom. Bottom-right. Bottom-right. Bottom-right. Left. Center. Left. Top-left. Top-center. Top-right. Bottom-left. Center. Right. Right. Right. Left. Center. Bottom-center. Each swing was perfectly traced by Happosai, and met with an opposing strike from his tobacco pipe. The strikes continued, until a few seconds, and several hundred more punches, later, when Sakura slid back from her assault.
Happosai landed gently, staring up at the raven-haired girl standing in front of him. He had heard quite a loud crack midway through, and glancing at her right hand, her ring finger was dislocated. The rest of her knuckles were cracked and bleeding, but the girl ignored it completely, staring at him with the same force as before. Her face and body didn't even seem to notice the sheer pain her hand must be in.
"Giving up?" Happosai asked, staring at her.
Sakura stared at him. "I have to go further!" she shouted in her head. "I can't hold anything back, no matter how fast I'll go down when I'm done! I have to stop him!" In response to Happosai's question, however, the girl said nothing.
She simply doubled her aura's size, up to thirty times her own body size.
Happosai felt a sharp pain is his gut as he was kicked into the air, before realizing Sakura had done it, pushing him up to fist height. Using her left hand this time, the girl began another round of Kachu Tenshin Amiguriken. There was something different this time.
The punches were much faster.
Happosai lost count at thirty-three, which wasn't even close to the number of times he was hit in the first second. The man simply tightened his body, hoping to absorb as much of the damage as he could. The fists came sharply and quickly, but after the next second, the beating subsided.
Sakura stepped back, swinging her left hand behind herself and opening her hand, letting her fingers swing out as far as possible. A small ball of Ki formed in her palm. Her fingers stayed outstretched for a moment, before clamping down on the sphere of energy, crushing it into a million pieces. She swung her hand forward, opening the fingers again just as she neared directly pointing at Happosai. A single shout filled the empty streets.
"TOBIHI KAEN!" (Soaring Sparks)
B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BOOM! The million tiny spheres of energy flew out in a spray, hitting Happosai with thousands of miniature energy blasts, tossing his body around and away, before he landed on the ground several meters away, sliding along the street until he hit the curb at the other side.
Sakura let her aura drop, disappearing inside her, before she fell down onto her knees. She sucked in air, clenching her teeth and twisting her face. Her mind was racked with pain, and she could feel that one of her fingers had been knocked out of place. She lowered her body down, resting her chest on her thighs, and leaving her face just above the asphalt. Her hands were draped at her side, dropped onto the ground, as she breathed hard. All she could feel was pain and exhaustion. She was so tired . . . all her energy was spent . . .
"Not bad." Happosai said, standing up and dusting himself off. Sakura looked up immediately, still clenching in pain from her hand and face. "Your aura grants you plenty of speed. But, not much power. And then, instead of continuing to punch and kick, you made yourself even weaker with that Tobihi Kaen. A bunch of little orbs of ki?" Happosai chuckled a little. "All that did was spread the strength out more. Your father needs to make some more concentrated techniques."
Sakura gaped at him, but could do little else as the man approached. "You hurt me, a little, but you're too weak. You have no strength, Saotome Sakura. And your sword is just a clumsy add on to make up for your lack of power. Too bad you can't even swing it fast. And you call yourself an apprentice of the Anything Goes style?"
CHK-CHK-CHK! CHINK-CHINK! Three throwing stars and a pair of kunai imbedded themselves in the spot where Happosai had been a moment before, but the man was gone, in the air and several meters in a safe direction. "SHI SHI HODOKAN!"
Sakura turned to see several Konatsus and Ryoga running towards her, focused on Happosai. Glancing back, the old man jumped up three stories, landing on the roof of a large building nearby. One of the Konatsus turned to look at Ryoga, shouting "RYOGA! Follow Happosai!" He nodded, following the other six ninjas up onto the roof of the building.
The seventh ran up and stopped in front of the girl. "Sakura! Are you all right?!" The girl nodded, slowly dulling the pain in her hand and face from her mind. "Here, I'll get you to Dr. Tofu!"
Sakura was suddenly very energized again. "No! I'll be fine! We have to stop Happosai!"
BOOM! A large explosion from the roof threw one of the Konatsus away, before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Five left." Konatsu thought to himself, before he winced at two powerful swings from the old man smashed two of his clones. "Three left. Damn, he's fast!"
"Go, fight him! I'll be there in a second!" Sakura shouted.
Konatsu turned back to the girl. "No, you're too hurt to fight! We have to get you to the doctor!"
"Someone will be here in a second! You have to help Hibiki-san!"
The ninja scowled, before clenching his teeth as another explosion blew two more clones away, before they reverted to smoke as well. "You're not fighting anymore! Go straight to the doctor as soon as you can!" And with that, he turned and ran, dashing up the building and onto the roof, continuing the fight.
The girl nodded at the ninja as he left, before groaning as she leaned back up. With her good arm, she pushed herself up onto her feet in a crouch. "SAKURA!" the girl turned to see who had shouted. It was her father, with Mousse and Sauske running behind him.
"UP THERE!" she screamed, pointing with her left hand towards the roof, as another clone was knocked away, disappearing at the second story into another cloud of smoke. The three people stopped, staring at her. "GO! THEY NEED YOUR HELP!"
BOOM! "RAAAAAH!" Ryoga shouted, followed by the sound of clay tiles being smashed up as he slid along the roof. Ranma cringed, before turning to the two following him, shouting something Sakura couldn't understand. Ranma and Mousse then turned to the building, jumping up. Konatsu was knocked off, spinning wildly in the air, before landing oddly on his feet. He paused, balancing himself and rubbing his chest, before jumping back up and re-joining the fray.
Sauske slid to a stop next to his sister. "Sakura, here!" He said, reaching out his hand. "I'll get you to Uncle Ono's!"
"I'm going to keep fighting!" Sakura said defiantly, standing up, slowly and painfully, on her own. She had used up all the time she could afford in her aura without going unconscious, her right hand was useless, and the bruise on her face could only hurt more if it was covered with salt and hydrogen peroxide, but she would not be deterred. She had to keep fighting, until she was defeated. Nothing else could change that.
"Sakura, you can't!"
"They're up there!" Kite shouted, running around the corner, pointing up at the building. Aki nodded, before they realized they had heard Sauske nearby. Turning, they saw him and her sister standing by the road. Sauske was fine, but Sakura was obviously hurt. "Sakura!"
"I'M FINE!" she screamed, before brushing her brother away, and walking forward towards her sword. Kite and Aki raced up to her just as she began leaning up again, gripping the wooden blade in her good hand. The Saotome soon found herself surrounded by three martial artists, set on not allowing her to move.
"Sauske, Aki!" Kite commanded. "Go up and help everyone else! I'll get her to the Doc's." Aki nodded, bolting off and jumping up to the roof. Sauske paused, before nodding, and following after the Amazon. "Come on, Sakura," the boy continued, a bit softer, as he took her by the arm, "let's get you to Doc's."
"I'm going to keep fighting!" Sakura replied, more demanding than commanding.
"You're hurt!"
"I have to help! I'm not going to let him get away again!"
"You can't help if you get in everyone's way! And if you're hurt, everyone else has to watch you!"
"I'm going up whether or not you let me! If I have to get there myself, I will!" The girl pushed past him, brushing his hand away, and started to hobble across the sidewalk and down onto the road.
"Arrogant, annoying little . . . EERGH!" Kite shouted. "FINE!" he screamed, running forward, scooping up the girl, and heading for the building with the Saotome in his arms.
- - -
"Keira, do you see it?!" Naruto shouted from the ground, as Keira watched the scene in front of her on top of a small building, using the binoculars Naruto had been carrying to search for Happosai.
Ranma was fighting Happosai, but the other three adults were gone. Beaten, apparently, since there were kunai, throwing stars, bandannas, and a whole slew of chain weapons all over the roof. The girl gulped as she watched Aki and Sauske hop onto the roof, before Ranma shouted something, and both of them stopped. There, they stood, watching, on the far side of the shingles, watching the fight continue. Somehow, it seemed the battle was becoming one sided. In Happosai's favor.
"We have to go!" Keira shouted, before she began sprinting along rooftops at her maximum speed.
Naruto looked up to see the girl was long gone. "What?! Where?! Keira?!" When he got no response, he groaned, and began running to where he thought the girl had gone.
- - -
"I don't know where it came from!" Chii shouted, looking around wildly, and not spotting anything.
Tenchuu began searching with his eyes as well, before the two of them continued on to the next intersection. "Keep looking! We need to find out where those explosions were!"
- - -
Haku smiled as he tossed the dice again. "Eleven! Yes, Chance!" He slid his piece over to the spot, before drawing the second "Get out of Jail Free!" card. He was about to celebrate, though, when something caught his eye.
Placing the card down on the table, he picked up the palm pilot, as it continued to display four cameras' views for a few seconds, before turning to the next set of four. Fiddling with the buttons, he cycled through until he found the problem. One view was completely black.
"Is something wrong, Haku?" Amy asked, peering over at the screen with everyone else.
The boy paused, before looking up with a smile. "Nope! Let me just go fix some little thing, then I'll be back." Slowly, the ninja rose from his seat, walking towards the hallway.
"Need any help?" Joseph asked, before coughing again.
The Kuonji turned back, smiling more. "Nah, it'll be quick." And then, he dissapeared out the door.
Squeaky-Squeaky! "Are you getting a cold, Joseph?" Pai scribbled, swinging the sign into view.
Joseph looked over, before shaking his head. "It comes and goes. I'm fine."
- - -
Keira was running scared. Her father was already down, and Ranma was the only one of the adults still fighting. She had to hurry. She knew if she could get there, she could help, but she still had to get there.
Her feet began to run faster, leaping from rooftop to rooftop smoothly and perfectly. The distance was closing; she would be there soon. Keira had already let her aura go fully, a well formed trail of herself in dull blue, but, wanting more speed, she began trying to force more out. It was next to impossible to do, straining and burning her muscles, but it did give her just a little bit more speed.
She had to make it!
- - -
"Ukyo?" Shampoo asked, looking over at the woman. "Something wrong?"
"Just . . . a bad feeling, or . . . I don't know." Ukyo muttered.
Akane nodded knowingly. "Something's coming. Whether it's here or with them, something's coming. Something big."
- - -
Haku sighed to himself as he approached this camera. The door to Auska's room, the closest nearby, sat slightly ajar, just like before, along with every other door in the hall. Nothing had changed, and yet this same camera decided to break again. Stepping up to the door, he glanced up at the back of the metal box attached to the wall.
And stopped.
None of the wires had come out. That was odd. Then why was the screen black? Turning the camera with his hand, he saw the problem. There was something on the lens. Carefully reaching up, he lightly touched the lens with his finger, before bringing it down to examine it.
"Paint?" Haku said to nobody. "How did paint get on the lens? Did . . ." Suddenly, something went around his neck.
Then everything went black.
- - -
Ranma groaned to himself. He was not doing as well as he had hoped. And now Sakura was standing on the edge of the roof with Kite, Aki, and Sauske, instead of going to the doctor's like he had said. This was not good.
The roof was battered, with pieces of broken red-clay shingles everywhere. The location could have been better for Ranma, seeing how little room he had to move in. It was peaked, which made it very hard to keep level all the time, and at each end, about a forty meter distance, the roof rose another story, leaving a flat wall at either end.
"I told ya, the answer is no!" Ranma shouted, sliding his feet into a more secure position.
Happosai sighed. "Ranma, all I need is one more. One more apprentice! Someone to lead the Anything Goes Style on into the future!"
"What the hell do ya think I've been doin', moron?!"
"I meant the pure, original Anything Goes! Not your watered-down version!"
"Well then, I guess you ain't gettin' what you wanted!"
"Happo Fire Burst!" The old man shouted, flinging a bomb directly at Ranma again. He caught it gracefully in his hands, before throwing it straight into the sky. BOOM! The burst was totally harmless, and so Ranma turned his attention back to his opponent.
"So, you run out of tricks?"
Happosai blinked. "Tricks? Is that all you think I can do?" He reached back, pulling a new, larger bomb out. "Then I shall not disappoint you, Ranma!" Striking the match on his side, he swung the small flame onto the fuse, before hurling the object at his opponents.
Ranma watched the trail of the newly lit bomb, before he realized the path. "Dammit!" he shouted, before running to where he thought it would go.
- - -
Keira gasped as she saw the explosion just up ahead, high in the sky. "I have to hurry!" she thought to herself, before forcing herself to run even faster. When she reached the building, she drew the grappling hook from her pouch, attached the piece of cable she had in one smooth motion, and threw over the edge of the roof. Something had to be left for Naruto, after all.
With her partner's route up prepared, and as she let the cable go from her hand, the ninja leapt up for the roof.
- - -
Kite, seeing the bomb coming towards the four of them, dragged Sakura to his other side, before stepping in between her and the bomb. "Get back, everyone!" It was heading for him now, and so, he would just . . .
"I don't think so, Happy!" Ranma shouted, sliding along the ground. Flicking himself into the air, he did a flip kick, shooting the bomb across the roof to the empty space. The bomb went spiraling off to the other side of the roof, the fuse trailing down. Then Ranma saw something terrible.
Without a sound, Keira landed on the roof, directly in front of the bomb. "Keira! MOVE!" Ranma shouted.
The ninja looked up to see the bomb less than half a meter away. Her arms swung up to protect her face.
"KEIRA?!" Sauske screamed, taking a few steps forward, before stopping when the force of the explosion hit him.
BOOOOMM!
"KEIRAAA!"
Next Chapter: A giant fighter and a demon of fire face off as the current battle with Happosai comes to a close.
And there you go, chapter twenty five.I think the fight in this chapter came out well, but I'm not a hundred percent sure of myself, since I haven't done this long a fight scene recently. And, if I'm guessing correctly, there's plenty of pent-up suspense in this chapter, although you'll have to wait until next time to find out what happens. Sorry.
Tobihi Kaen literally translates to "Flying Spark Flames".
Anyway, on with the reviews:
Sleepingbear: Okay,I know there is not a lot of humor right now, and the story is really serious. But, in the kind of story and path that the kids are in right now, it's not only hard for me to put in humor, it would spoil the serious mood that the situation really needs. But, don't worry. Once the whole arc about Happosai comes to a close, the story will get a lot lighter in mood. Also, as for there being little Ranma 1/2 fanfiction that is still good,I think that this is definitely not the end of Ranma 1/2. Plenty of people are still writing, and as long as somebody is writing and someone is willing to read, it will not end.
And yes, Pai is adorable.
Paige C: Glad to improve your impression of the ninja girl! And, as you can tell, yes, the fight with Happosai has begun. As for Sauske's mark and his use of the secret power . . . well . . . you'll just have to wait a little more to find out.
Oh, and don't worry about a long review. I love long reviews! In fact, the more you put into the review, especially real comments and criticisms, along with questions and concerns, is great because it gives me a better view of what you all think of the story. (Oh, and more to write here.)
Shinjiku: Okay,I have to disagree with you here about Keira. WhenI read what she does,I see her as planning out exactly what she's going to do and say before she does it. I see her as planning out that whole speech she gave to Aki about how Sauske's aura was dangerous the day after the fight between naruto and Sauske. But,I do agree that she doesn't listen, preferring to say everything she has without giving anyone, especially Aki, a chance to respond until she's done. But it could go either way, soI can see that as a definite possobility too.
The Liz: Well, they went BOOM!, and they will again. So, hope you enjoyed the fight. And hey, someboyd has to fill the void that Nabiki left. Even if it's only part of it.