Chapter 11

"A Little Shot of Hypothermia"

Trey lugged around a pail of water as treaded towards Ranma who was sitting by their lanai. He approached the brunette martial artist slowly, careful not to make any sound. He dipped his hand in the bucket, instantly the temperature of the water began to drop. He bit his lip to stop himself from snickering as he lifted the pail from the ground. Trey tipped the bucket over and dropped its freezing contents straight onto Ranma's head.

"Wow, so you do turn into a girl." Trey mused as he tried to keep his laughter in.

Ranma stared straight at Trey, drenched from head to toe. He— I mean 'she' gritted her teeth to stop her lips from chattering. "D-didn't Kasu-umi e-explain th-that to y-y-ou?" she hissed. She crossed her arms to warm them from the cold.

Trey scratched his sky blue hair, "Well… I won't believe it until I see it with my own two eyes." He chuckled.

The water was freezing and the night breeze was cold. Trey noticed Ranma's lips turn blue. He noticed Jun step outside and gasp at the drenched red-head. "What happened here?"

Just moments after those words left her mouth Ranma collapsed on the wooden floor.

"Oops." Trey mumbled as he stared down at the fainted girl by his feet.

Jun ran towards Ranma and checked her pulse. It was barely there.

"Well?" Trey asked.

Jun looked up to Trey and scowled, "Don't just stand there. Call for help!" she barked.

Trey jumped back in surprise and darted off. He lost his footing and slid across the floor, stopping as he collided onto Rio. Rio toppled over and fell on his bum.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Rio screamed as he rubbed his sore bum.

"Th-the Ranma guy— I mean girl. Guy. Whatever!" Trey stood up. "Need to get help. Fast!" he muttered as he sped on.

Jun called on Lee Pai Long to carry Ranma to a warm place while Trey called for help. Hypothermia doesn't set that fast— but if you had spirits by your side…

Ranma continued to shiver as Lee Pai Long set her on a futon. Jun covered her with blankets and began to worry as she watched Ranma's lips turn to a darker shade of blue.

Akane walked by, she noticed Jun leaning over someone. She placed her hands over her mouth and gasped as she saw her fiancée barely breathing on the futon. "Oh my god! What happened to Ranma!"

Jun lighted some incense next to the bed to lighten up the damped atmosphere. "He was hit by hypothermia."

"H-how!" Akane whispered as she sat next to the occupied futon.

"It's best not to know."

"I (pant) brought (pant) the (pant) doctor (thud)" Trey managed to say that before he too collapsed on the floor.

Jun mumbled something under her breath in irritation. Lee Pai Long carried Trey to another unoccupied futon.

Dr. Toffu stepped in the room carrying a small pack of medical supplies. "Who should I treat first?"

Akane and Jun pointed to Ranma whose condition was worsening every passing minute. Toffu attended to Ranma's needs as Lee Pai Long shut the door to avoid any unwanted people or noise.

Akane and Jun offered to help Dr. Toffu wrap several more blankets around Ranma.

"Should I get sake?" Akane asked.

"No, no, no. Alcohol usually causes loss of heat. That is something we don't need right now." Toffu told her. He looked at Lee Pai Long by the door, "You there, call everyone in this house to get in this room, we need as much heat as possible—but before that could you please transfer him," Toffu pointed to Trey. "somewhere else? He needs air and as much room as possible but don't let him get chilled."

"Of course." Lee Pai Long replied. He dragged Trey's futon out of the room with Trey slung across his shoulder.

Dr. Toffu sighed. How Lee Pai Long handled Trey wasn't proper for a fainted person—but there are worse matters to attend to. He looked at Jun, "Do you have any more of those candles lying about?"

"I'll check." Jun stood up and strode out the door.

Lee Pai Long wandered around the house calling out to its occupants. He saw Len sitting by the table, alone. He was applying ultra-mega-rock-hard gel to keep that spike of his pointy and lethal (if used properly. grins ).

"Master Len," Lee Pai Long spoke up.

"What is it now, Pai Long?" Len spat. He picked up a mirror to check if that spike of his was symmetrical and placed directly in its usual spot.

"You are needed in the room down the hall."

"For what reasons? Will someone die if I don't come along?" he joked with a very sarcastic tone. (Len's humor is very bland)

"In these circumstances… yes, Master Len. Someone will." Lee Pai Long replied.

Len sighed as he put down the mirror. "Alright, if it's that important." He strode towards the room where Ranma was currently occupying.

Anna walked out to the lanai. She needed a little escape from all the hassles that came with such a house. She shouldn't have come, somehow she knew that all this would happen. But why did she decide to come along? She sighed, Yoh has done many things for her (well… mostly she ordered him around to do those things for her… but never the mind), and maybe this was a way to pay him back. She noticed a big puddle of water next to her. Probably a spill… The people in this house are such slobs. She thought.

Gosunkugi kept as quiet as possible as he watched from above the tree. He wondered why the spirits chose to reside in Akane's house—but that wasn't why he was here. He followed the two spirits here using a special divining rod he found in his attic. It broke though—the rod was responding so strongly that he got too excited. He ran straight onto a wall and the rod broke into pieces.

He didn't watch Anna. Why should he care about a little girl? But he kept his eyes on the pentacle he drew across the lanai floor. He grinned in satisfaction, only people with the third-eye could spot that pentacle, it was perfect so one else would notice. If any spirit were to come across this pentacle of his, it would be bound within that spot instantly.

Anna felt something crawl from beneath her feet. It felt like surges of small voltage electricity was going through her legs. She looked down and noticed a huge hand-drawn pentacle (try to draw a pentacle free-handedly on a piece of paper with your drawing hand hit by arthritis—that is how Gosunkugi's pentacle looked on the lanai floor). She stepped away from the pentacle and sighed an irritated sigh. "What kind of idiot would think he could capture a spirit with this kind of pentacle?" she muttered angrily.

Gosunkugi's heart beat faster as the girl looked as his wonderfully drawn pentacle on the ground. How could she notice it! No, no, maybe she was just looking at the ground. Yes, that's it, she's just staring at the ground. But then, he saw the girl remove her blue beaded necklace and sway it over the pentacle. She seemed to be in a trance-like state, Gosunkugi noted. His eyes moved back to the pentacle that was slowly adding away. "No!" he barked. Just noticing his mistake he quickly shut his own mouth but fell backwards once again on the solid hard ground.

Anna broke away from the trance one the pentacle was fully gone. She heard a small yelp coming the trees. Curiously she walked towards it.

"Miss Anna."

Anna stopped and looked over her shoulder. It was Lee Pai Long. "What?"

"Your presence is needed in the room down the hall."

Anna looked back at the tree. Nothing seemed to be moving there now, she turned to Lee Pai Long and followed him to Ranma's room.

Back to the room. The ambience was now eerie due to the hundreds and hundreds of candles littered about the room. The air was thin and it was hot. How could it not be hot with more than ten people crammed in such a tight space. (Note: Nabiki told Kasumi not to come along for hundreds of various reasons)

"Can I make a wild guess on who might be the cause of all this?" Len spoke up. He was definitely irritated.

"Come on, Len. Don't make assumptions that Trey did this." Yoh told him.

"Yoh, Trey is the cause of all this in the first place." Anna shot at him.

"Guys…" Morty mumbled. "I don't think that this is the right time to fight."

"Oh shut-up shrimp." Anna barked, she felt really annoyed and irritated—the heat in such a cramped area didn't do much help on her mood either.

Sweat dripped from Dr. Toffu's forehead as he watched the color return to Ranma's cheeks. He sighed in relief, "Well, you can all leave now, but keep the candles in place. Ranma needs to rest for a couple of weeks until he's all better."

XXX

"What is it about the 'Anything goes Martial Arts'?" Rakgi asked.

"They're all fools. Like the rest of the idiots I beat to a pulp." Reiji answered.

"You didn't actually beat them."

Reiji held a small glowing bottle in his palm, "To do this," he pointed to the bottle, "is a skill that I had to master since I was borne into this world." He chucked it in his backpack together with the small stuffed toy. "I didn't exactly beat them to a little pulp it's their ego I mashed down on the filthy dirt-ridden ground. But I did beat them all the same." He flipped through the pages of his father's blood-stained notebook before he jammed it in his bag. He slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"Aren't you going to bring the other bottles along?" Rakgi looked at the collection of multi-colored glowing bottles at the far corner of the room next to the huge pile of wooden signs.

"Like I said 'they're all fools'. I only need half as much energy to mash them on the ground than the other guys."

"What makes you say that?"

"They're idiots."

"Said like a true master." Rakgi mused. "But, wait. Didn't your father list the dojos down from weakest to strongest?"

"Ahh… you are mistaken, my dear Rakgi. Father listed it down from the people he could still tolerate to the people he could damn to hell due to his burning hate."

"How are you so sure about that?" Rakgi called out to his silver-haired master who was walking out the door.

Reiji stopped and looked over his shoulder, "Honestly? I'm not sure." He told the dragon spirit. He stepped out of the dingy old room as Rakgi entered the small plush dragon toy within Reiji's bag.

Zeke (geez… I know this name of his sucks… but all the other character names I used in this fanfic were all dubbed. It just won't be fair if I use 'Hao'.) watched from above the buildings with the Fire Spirit. He has been observing this individual for weeks on end, waiting for the day this person would use his potential to the fullest.

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(A/n) I'm so truly sorry that this came out so far so late. One of the reasons why I couldn't submit this was that I couldn't log in. All the servers were all blocked… but that was like months ago. Yes… I am getting lazy… but I'm working on so many stories right now not to mention two new fanfics that I couldn't find time to cram this in. Hey… but I love the next few chapters coming up… I don't know if you'll love them too. Oh well…

Speaking of fanfics… I'm working on another Shaman King fic entitled 'Impyerno'. Based on Dante Alighieri's 'Inferno'. It's about Yoh or Hao (take a pick. I don't know who to choose as a main character in this fic so you guys choose for me) and his voyage through hell searching for something (hey, I don't know yet… but if you have any ideas… just type em out).

Oh yes… I'm starting out on this other fanfic. A CSI fanfic to be precise… starring Reiji Zephyr. (Rakgi not included)

Uhm… I need help thinking for a better title for this story and a better summary too. I'm catching so little publicity with the current title and summary.

And if you guys have Yahoo Messenger add me in your contacts list. Please?

Truly yours or yours truly,

Pazaway-tiger