Ranma ½

Chapter 15

Showdown Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own this series or any other series. I am just floating an idea. I am making no money, nor plan to, off this venture. If you think of suing me over this, then grow up.

First off, I am sorry this chapter took so long; I was constantly adjusting it, trying to bring in more detail and believability in Nabiki's desires to make Ranma's life better.

I would like to first personally thank all of those reviewing my stories. I enjoy reading your comments, and try to correct the grammatical errors I miss with my final read-through as well as my spell checkers. The suggestions you all make will help make this story better for everyone to enjoy, as well as allow my to fix some plot holes I may unintentionally leave.

I find that if I let things sit for a while in my head; I can play them out farther. Plus by trying and keeping my chapters between 2500 and 3000+ words, it helps keep me from making the story slide out of control, turning a diamond to a pile of shit.

I also plan to start sending these out to have someone else proofread them before I post them. Volunteers are welcome. I have found a website (wwwwot-cluborg.ukRanmaFAQartsspecial.html#ranma1) where the moves have been listed. Just replace the with /. If I spell them incorrectly, then I apologize, as this is my guide.

If you need help, have questions about why my plot is turning out a certain way, or would like some help to bust through your own writer's block or write a new story on your own, tell me either through e-mail or reviews. I'm glad to help when I can.

Now, on with the show.

Special thanks to Howard Russell for the main conflict idea and the pre-reading.

Okay, I, for one, will admit I haven't seen everything in this world. I've seen a man who defeated not only the descendent of a ki dragon, but also an immortal phoenix god. I've seen shape changing curses, split personalities, food that can walk and fight, and people without a sense of reality that still move forward in the world. I've seen people with no sense of decency make others cringe. I've seen many things.

I never, and I mean never, thought I would see the day Akane Tendo could pull off a Hiryü Shöten Ha.

Okay, granted, she pulled off one of the most fucked-up versions I've ever seen. To do what she did, she only needed to be slightly calmer than she ever was in the previous timeline. I, on the other hand, must have been putting out way more hot ki than she was ever able to produce.

I'm reminded of the revision Ranma once told me about, reversing the flows to make the dragon descend instead of ascend.

Damn, I could've reversed it and used it on her!

Oh well, she's still alive. And knowing my little sister, I'll have another opportunity to teach her.

But that's beside the point.

My sister, with an imperfect Soul of Ice—or whatever she was using—was able to create a warped Hiryü Shöten Ha and launch my ass into the sky. If she had a better control over her ego and her rampant emotions, she might have won.

I was just lucky her control was fleeting at best. If not, I never would've had the null zone with which to defeat her.

But it came at a cost.

I had to use the Shishi Höködan.

I never wanted to use that.

I remember when Cologne told me about it, showed me the scroll with the technique. I remember watching Ranma and Ryoga each practice their variations of it.

But I knew enough not to make it a main weapon of choice. Any emotion you use is bad. It makes you more prone to it.

And if it fails…

Shishi Höködan.

If you fail…the emotion changes to depression so quickly, you have no time for afterthoughts. You shoot a Shishi Höködan into the air and wait for it to come down and kill you.

That is why the Shishi Höködan was the only one written down; it isn't a beginning technique, it is the ending result.

It's what you use to kill yourself.

While I had hope...while my future self had a path outside of what I did to survive, I worked hard to build a pure ki attack. Even the Amazon Elders agreed with me. A pure ki attack would plow through an emotional chi one and it wouldn't change the user's mentality any. No matter how many times you fired one off, you'd still be the same after every shot.

I was close, I knew that much. I remember the feeling when I was close to mastering a move; I remember how I felt when I mastered a move my mother or father showed me.

But then the rug was yanked out from under me by my worthless husband.

Don't get me wrong, I had no problem that he was gay. If you swing that way, and you can find someone who completes you, who makes you happy in this often Kami-forsaken world, I say go for it. I have no right to interfere if what you do does not hurt me or any others. That was one of the things I hated about those nut jobs who protested about such things; claiming a gay couple has no right to raise a kid going on that they'll turn the kid gay.

Yeah, right. Like the straight parents who had the gay children did such a glorious job.

What I hated him for was using me. Forcing me to be unhappy while he was hell bent on saving his own ass, his own sense of fitting in. He destroyed my life and the life of countless others simply because he couldn't handle being seen as a gay man.

Tell that to the thousands of people he sent to unemployment trying to make me come back to him.

I had to give up the art; I had to give up the dream of being good enough for Ranma when he returned.

I had to survive.

And for the last three weeks, I have pushed myself beyond what were my limits to try and get back to my…well, would former glory be the right expression when you're in your past before you even had a glory to state it being former?

Whatever.

It should have been months or even years before I could pull off a pure ki technique.

Well, it should have been. Fighting my sister, I found my old reserves. Reserves that by all rights should not exist, should not be there.

But they were. My chi and ki reserves were at their levels at the height of my training with the Amazons.

How, or more importantly, why they were there is beyond me. I know for a fact that the only thing that came back was my future personality, my soul from that time.

Could my reserves have been connected directly to my soul?

I'll have to ask some masters and maybe even Cologne when she arrives. I doubt she'd believe that Akane pulled of the Hiryü Shöten Ha without the Soul of Ice.

"How strange girl know Amazon moves?"

Then again, I'm assuming I'll live long enough to ask her.

Nabiki sighed. She definitely did not have the strength or the energy to take on the scandalous Amazon, even if she'd been at peak form. She turned towards the girl and spoke in perfect Mandarin, "Hello, Xian Pu."

Oh, and my day was going so well too.

For a normal person—normal as in the rest of the world, not normal as in Nerima-normal—it would be a good thirty minute walk from the park to Dr. Tofu's clinic.

For a martial artist of Ranma's caliber, with roof hopping, it would take about seven to ten minutes.

He made it there in slightly less than four.

Akane had been cradled in his arms the whole way, now wearing his red silk shirt to give her some modesty. All she could do was occasionally mumble about how what her sister did was impossible, about how she couldn't have lost. She mumbled about how Nabiki had to have been crazy to yell at her for things she never did.

Ranma, for the most part, wasn't even paying much attention. He was focused on getting her to the clinic and going back for Nabiki. She may not have looked hurt, but even he himself wouldn't have gotten out of such a battle without a scratch, and he was leagues ahead of the girls.

But why am I so scared? Why am I so scared at seeing them hurt like this?

The nightmares had been occurring more and more frequently, still showing him/her drowning, still the look of defeat on his face, and still holding a photo of people he couldn't make out. The torture of it was taking a toll on him. His emotions were coming in surges, often overwhelming his control over them and adding fuel to his fighting spirit. Add to that the rumors at school and the incident today…well, he was lucky to have a straight thought.

"DOC, INCOMING!"

He burst through the doors and found the doctor already prepared for him. Ranma ran with Tofu to the examination table and laid Akane down. As he tried to withdraw his arms so he could leave and fetch Nabiki, Akane grasped his arms painfully, crying out about how Nabiki had gone mad.

She couldn't continue much after that, as Tofu hit an instant unconsciousness shiatsu point.

"Doc, I'll be back with Nabiki. Do what you can for Akane."

Tofu wanted to ask him about what had occurred, but Ranma had just quickly left as he had arrived.

The doctor only shook his head, before turning his attention to the youngest Tendo and began to treat her wounds. Whatever hit her must have packed quite a wallop. I don't think I've ever seen wounds like these before. It's almost like she was at ground-zero for an explosion.

"So, you speak this one's language. This one was beginning to think all Japanese were too stuck up to learn our language."

Nabiki stared at the Amazon. "Be quiet, Xian Pu. You have the gall to trespass in my lands, and yet call my people stuck up? You had best remember that these are not your lands...and here, our laws reign supreme."

Xian Pu stared at the woman who dared to challenge her. "You believe you may defeat this one?"

Nabiki could only smile. "Don't tell me that the great-granddaughter of Elder Khu Lon has such disrespect as to challenge the victor of a battle when she is barely able to stand. This one would have thought that children, such as you, were taught better. Perhaps, the Elder has spent too much time teaching you how to fight and not enough teaching you how to act.

"This is not the land of the Chinese Amazons, Xian Pu. This is the land of this one's Amazons. Our rules are different than yours, so do not dare act as though you are the superior here. Now state your business, or let me be so that I might patch myself up some before my beloved returns."

Xian Pu squinted her eyes, trying to establish dominance in the situation. But Nabiki was too confident, too proud to be undermined by the foreign girl. "This one meant no disrespect. This one was just unaware that Japanese Amazons existed, let alone that you knew so much about us."

Nabiki smiled, enjoying the sight of a humbled Amazon. She had been planning this event for weeks. She knew she would have to play things out just right, especially if she wanted to keep Shampoo from having any claim to Ranma. It would be bad enough with Ukyo, the only girl to have a valid claim on Ranma. Here, she could try and eliminate some competition. "You are forgiven. The Amazons here are few, but proud. We have little use for some of the backwards laws your Elders insist on sticking with. We prefer to grow and adapt to the world, rather than hide in Joketsuzoku. We would prefer not to have to wait for strong allies to come to us if we should problems arise with the Phoenix or Musk. I, myself, have found a strong male, who was betrothed to me at birth. And just because you do not know of us, does not mean we do not know of what our sisters are up to."

Xian Pu was shocked. "He did not defeat you for Right of Marriage?"

"He could have." Nabiki smiled at how much joy she got from her sparing sessions with Ranma. Oh yes, he could have easily defeated her, even with her Amazon Wu Shu training. "But such laws as the Kiss of Marriage and the Kiss of Death are of little value in the outside world. Why kill a person better than you when you can get them to train you? Why accept any male who can defeat you in battle when his personality may be more harmful to your people than his blood? We are to be wed for love, not by old rules which have long since passed being useful."

The two stayed silent for a bit, while Shampoo watched Nabiki draw ki into herself from the environment. Her great-grandmother had mentioned such techniques, but had not yet taught them to Shampoo. Maybe she could get this Japanese Amazon to teach them to her. She had shown great skill in defeating that challenger.

"Why are you here, Xian Pu?"

"This one is chasing a female named Ranma. She has red hair and is a great fighter. She defeated this one at the tournament and this one must hunt her down."

Nabiki slowly raised her head, focusing on the Amazon with a furrowed brow and squinted eyes. "You would dare bring a Kiss of Death challenge onto my lands? You would dare hunt down a person for simply being better than you?"

Nabiki shakily stood, bringing her full gaze on Shampoo. "Your people's arrogance seems to exceed that of Saffron and Prince Herb combined. To think the Elders had truly turned as senile as to send you to take on such a chore. Surely they must have forced you to give the Kiss."

Shampoo looked away. "This one gave it after she defeated me for the feast."

Nabiki shook her head. "Then you will need to contact your Elder, Xian Pu. You see, the woman you chase is my beloved. One would think that those who live so close to the Accursed Pools would make certain that what they were fighting was in its true form."

Her eyes opened wider then they ever had. "You…you mean that the female Ranma is actually a cursed male. How? No male can be better than a female!"

Shaking her head—painful as it may be—Nabiki continued to smile. "If that were true, no Amazon of your tribe would ever marry. My beloved was trained in ways no Amazon would ever train. His teacher had no care if he survived or not. It is only recently he has begun to see my people's way—that both male and female warriors can be the best; no one gender greater than the other. As a reward for his growing acceptance of this equality in fighting, I have begun to teach him our fighting style. This one wishes her beloved to be prepared should our Amazon sisters in China call for our help. But with your elders and how you yourself have been taught to view outsides not of your tribe, I fear they will not ask for help until they are already falling into their graves."

"Nabiki!"

The two turned to see Ranma standing before them. She could tell that he was nervous with Shampoo so close to her, so she decided she would have to postpone her efforts to control the situation for a while longer. "Xian Pu, this is my beloved. While you are here, you will obey me as you would your Elders. Cross me, and this one will ensure you return to your people with such disgrace, they will either permanently lock you in a cursed form, or throw you in the Spring of Drowned Boy. Does this one make herself clear?"

"Yes."

Nabiki turned towards Ranma, switching back to Japanese. "Don't worry; she won't be hunting you now. But I would still be careful around her. Now, let's get to the clinic."

It was close to dawn before she woke up. While the doctor had let her stay awake through most of his treatment—even allowing Shampoo to help him—he had insisted she sleep.

He didn't even need to use the pressure point he had on Akane. She drifted off as soon as Ranma laid her down on a clean bed.

But she was awake; the glowing numbers of the clock on the wall informing her that sunrise was still an hour away. Not that she had much to wake up for, mind you. School was closed while they repaired the damage from the explosion. Akane had been lucky no one was killed from the stunt she pulled.

Moving her head slowly, so as not to make any of her stiff muscles scream out again, she spied a hand still on her bed. He stayed; he stayed to watch over me.

Ranma had his head down on the bed, his arm still staying outreached, as if he had been holding her hand during the night.

She smiled; a feeling of happiness returning to her at the sight of the man she loved, having enough trust and care for her to still be there for her.

But he wasn't asleep.

"Nabiki we need to talk."

If I messed anything up, then let me know including typos.

Any suggestions on how I should continue the story or improve it would also be accepted.

Also, if you have any suggestions for how this should go, let me know. My own imagination, while vast, always enjoys a new thought. Also, catch me if you don't think I am making the characters true to form, or a way to make them better.