Ranma Tales ½: Chapter 9- Xian Pu's Revenge

Part 1: When creatures attack

Akane and Ranma are still standing there several minutes after the two ghosts disappear. Finally Ranma moves his arm from Akane's shoulders and says "I um hope you know I didn't tell them we were a couple or anything... They came up with that entirely on their own."

Akane frowns and says "Sure whatever.", trying to push him away with words to hide her own feelings.

Ranma sighs and says "Well now what?" He glances around at the girls sprawled on the ground, most of which ended up sleeping after they fainted. It had been around midnight just a little while ago after all.

Akane looks around and says "I guess we need to wake them up, we can't just leave them here after all and we can't carry all of them home..."

Ranma shrugs and says "I guess so... Um..." He gets cut off as his supernatural danger sense kicks in. He glances at Akane and from the look in her eyes she felt it to. He says "I think we just let our guard down a little to much... I knew something was wrong a week ago when Shampoo didn't attack like she promised... I guess she was just biding her time until we forgot about her..."

Akane growls "Well she waited to long! I'm a lot more dangerous than I was last time around!"

Ranma smiles and says "That's the Akane I know." He then frowns and says "If it is her though I guess she's gotten pretty corrupted to create things with this kind of presence... It feels a lot like that creature that attacked the dojo..." Akane nods even though she didn't have her senses active at the time the last attack happened she could still feel it and would probably never forget that feeling.

Suddenly the two hear a deep growl from near the trees and a creature much like the one that attacked the dojo creeps toward them. Not long after it is joined by a second, then a third. The fourth to arrive howls much like some sort of dog or wolf. Son a dozen of the creatures are all slowly advancing on the pair.

Ranma curses thinking to himself 'This isn't good! I can't handle all twelve and even if Akane could take one or two this still isn't good odds! I guess I have to pull out all the stops...' He pulls the katana from last time out of himself again as Akane watches.

Akane wonders 'What is up with that sword? I know he's not big on weapons, so why does he pull that out against these things? Where does it come from to? I'd really like to know!'. Her thoughts get interrupted by the sound of lightning not to far away, she glances out to see storm clouds across the night sky.

Ranma hears the thunder and smiles saying "Thank you Kami" before he holds his sword out in front of him and starts gathering his energy. As he starts to glow to Akane's inner eye and then her normal eyes even a glowing circle forms under his feet with glowing old fashioned characters forming around it's edges. From what little of it she can read it says something about honoring the spirits of the air and asking for aid in a time of need.

A surge of power flows through the air and everything nearby can taste the smell of ozone in the air. Then suddenly Ranma opens his eyes and calls out "Storm's Fury Assault!" or at least that's how it translates. An arc of lightning shots from the tip of his sword to strike several of the creatures as another arc comes upwards from the ground and shoots up into the heavens passing through the group of creatures too fast for the eye to follow. The after image however lingers for both Ranma and Akane.

Four of the creatures that had been struck fall over and start to dissipate. Another two whimper and fall to the ground, impaired. That however leaves six creatures still who are less than happy campers. The attack however does seem to have convinced them the needed to act now. Almost as one they all lunge forward at the pair.

At the same moment Sayuri and Yuka wake up from the sound of thunder almost on top of them, along with the rest of the girls. Of course none of them can see these creatures, though even they can sense their vile presence. They can also sort of hear some of the noises they make, which prompts a scared Yuka to ask "What on earth is that sound?"

Akane glances behind her to see the girls waking up and cursing she replies "Don't worry about it just stay back by the pool!" Just as one of the beasts leaps at her. She pulls on her element again instinctively and flames leap around her hands as she strikes out, landing a blow on the underside of the creatures throat. It howls an unearthly howl of pain as it lands to the ground.

It's head was also visible briefly in the glow of the fires surrounding Akane's hands even to the girls. They also had no problems hearing it's howls of pain from where it lay. This of course starts all the girls screaming in incoherent terror.

Ranma sighs as he faces down two of the creatures and he says "Akane stay by the girls and protect them!" He briefly wonders if he should make them visible so the girls could at least see what's attacking them. He decides against that 'No I don't want them to become screaming panicking incoherent terrified girls, just the screaming and incoherent parts are bad enough... Anyways I'm pretty low of power after that technique I need some time to recover.'

Ranma then slashes at one of the creatures waving around in front of him looking for an opening in his defenses. It didn't get out of the way fast enough for his blade and he takes out it's eye. It shrieks in pain and moves away. Unfortunately that lets two others join the other one still in front of him. Finally as the two newcomers attack the third leaps forward and gets through Ranma's guard as he beats the other two back. The third pushes Ranma into the pool as he tries to keep it's jaws (and it's drool) away from his face.

Akane sees Ranma hit the water with the creature on top of him and shouts "Ranma!"

Part 2: Akane's Challenge

She doesn't have much time to worry about him however as one of the creatures notices she's distracted and leaps at her. She turns back around her eyes blazing and yells "Get the hell away from me! I need to help Ranma!" as she lands a blow right on it's snout that sends it flying back into the trees.

Even with one more down it still wasn't looking to good for her, and since she wasn't sure exactly how you killed them that one might get up again. The next one had of course feel in the water with Ranma. Another had lost it's eye to Ranma's blade and didn't seem interested in attacking right now. One of the others that had attacked Ranma before he'd been knocked under had lost it's right clawed 'hand' when Ranma had forced it back with his blade. The last of the three that had attacked Ranma however seemed just fine and it eyed her dangerously. That left one other which was the one she'd injured earlier.

In other words that leaves four injured and one that hadn't been hurt yet. Akane sighs internally and thinks 'This is seriously looking bad. I have enough problems with one, but five? Even if four are injured...' Her thoughts are interrupted by a rush from the uninjured one who decides to take that moment to attack.

It leaps high to land right in front of her and lashes out with it's front claws, Akane just barely stays out of it's reach with a backwards slide of her feet. Then she rushes forward with a ki assist and deciding to do something it didn't seem to expect she slides right under it to kick it in the guts on the way beneath it. It gurgles and howls as she kicks it in the guts before it can use it's jaw on her. Using it's moment of distraction at the pain she rolls to her feet and shifting her weight she launches her fist into the creatures rump. With a rather sickening crack it's body slams belly first into the ground sending dirt flying across the ground. It's head drops to the ground and it slowly begins to fade away.

She gets the chance to think 'Well one down' before she sees the one she'd hit in the throat earlier rush toward the still screaming girls. Akane realizes that taking out this last one moved her almost thirty feet from where the girls were, already the creature was less than five from the helpless girls. She just couldn't get there fast enough. With a quick thought she realizes she does have one option even if she's never managed to make it work before.

She reaches out her hands and gathers energy from around her, a dozen balls of fire appearing in front of her around her hands. With a shout she says "Seal!" and the balls fly toward the creature wrapping it head to toe in red/gold bands of light. It crashes into the ground not more than six inches from the terrified girl who had kept alerting the others of the ghosts earlier. Feeling it's breathe against her face the frightened girl passes out yet again from terror overload.

Her attention focused away from the rest of the creatures however was bad for Akane. The one she'd hit in the nose not more than a minute ago had charged her from behind, head down. While it's jaws were a mess, since she'd broke it's jaw in more than one place and it couldn't open it's mouth anymore it didn't seem to care at the moment. Akane's senses had been strained in tying up the now bound creature with the seal technique, so her first warning of the in rushing creature was the sudden pain as it slammed into her back . Then fire running through her arm as one of it's knife like fangs brushed against her arm. Luckily she was wearing her leather jacket as the fang was probably sharp enough to cut through concrete, instead the leather managed to divert the tooth slightly so it only brushed her skin. It did however open a bleeding cut at least six inches long down her upper arm.

Akane lands half way to where the girls are flat one her face. The wind knocked out of her as she lands. It does give her a chance to think though 'Well this is sure going well. Good lord my arm hurts... Well not just my arm, my whole body hurts after that landing... Remember next time to roll with the fall... God I need to get up or I'm dead...' She slowly flips herself over and manages to look around as the disfigured creature and it's two remaining friends stalk toward her.

'Ah, crap... This can't be good...' Akane thinks as she prepares to defend herself against them.

Part 3: Ranma's Challenge

Meanwhile the now female Ranma has been having just as much trouble. 'This damn thing must weigh a ton, I won't to know how it stays so damn buoyant that we never get to the bottom! Damn it, that wouldn't help me anyways unless I can get it's claws off of me! And my hands are a bit to busy fending off the jaws of doom here... Can't anything ever go easy?'

The creature has it's fore claws wrapped around Ranma's shoulders, basically pinning her right to it's face. Hence Ranma is desperately trying to use his arms to keep it's face away from his. Even if it didn't have six inch long fangs, nothing in it's right mind would ever want to get this close to something as disgusting as this.

Ranma gets a brief glimpse of the toothy doom and thinks 'Eww! I think I just saw bits of some sort of small fury creature stuffed down it's maw! I guess it doesn't stop this thing from being hungry though! No way am I ending up it's next meal! That ain't happenin'!'

Ranma's legs however are the only things not busy elsewhere and they are bent back behind him. With nothing to hit against they can't do much good anyways. Except flail around helplessly in the water of course.

Ranma practically screams to herself 'Come on think! There has to be something, Oh wise and all-knowing martial arts master! Giving up isn't for you!' after a pause she thinks 'Well techniques are out, even without my hands to focus with I'm underwater... Their isn't any air to draw power from. Heck even the air in my lungs won't help too much longer! All this thing needs is to wait until I end up drowning! It's a spirit after all and doesn't need to breathe even if it thinks it does... Wait... Let's look at things a different way... All reach out with my senses and see if that helps out any with options!'

Ranma looks inside and bends his will outwards as far as he can. He can feel Akane's presence above him as she fights off the creatures. Her presences feels like an incandescent candle to his minds eye as she fights on. Just as he's about to loose himself in thoughts about Akane, his foot contacts... Something.

She reaches out with her senses toward whatever her foot hit and realizes her foot hit the creatures right hind leg! 'Well now if I could just manage some force against that darn leg, I'd have some options!' was her first thought. Then in a flash of insight she realizes there is a simpler course she can take. Waiting for it's leg to pass by again she uses all the ki she can muster to smack it in the knee joint. It jerks at the sudden pain and while it doesn't let go of her, it does however end up dropping further below the surface of the water. Just enough in fact to have her other leg touch the bottom of the pool.

With a quick mental yell of 'Yes!' Ranma uses some ki to attach his foot to the bottom of the pool. Which is easier said than done when a half ton creature tries to go back up. Ranma feels sharp pan spread through his shoulders as the creature tries to rise back up, which adds to the pain forming in her lungs. She does however get lucky and her blade ends up smacking the creature in the eye as it jerks around trying to rise. That causes it to finally release it's death grip on her shoulders.

Ranma sinks to the bottom as the know nearly helpless creatures tries to swim (and fails badly) toward the edge of the pool. Ranma crouches n the bottom of the pool and readies herself to lunch out of the same said pool, when she feels Akane's pain as the one creature slams into her above. 'No one and I mean no one hurts my friend!' is Ranma's thought as she changes tactics and decides this helpless creature needs to die first. She uses some ki and launches herself off the bottom of the pool to skewer the helpless creature in the guts and gathering the last of her power into the sword she starts dispersing it.

She pulls her sword out and in a mad dash for the surface pops her head out of the pool. Gasping for air she rests her body against the pool edge. Heaving in breathes. 'Good lord I'm glad sensei decided to teach me breathe training!' Was the only clear thought for a few moments.

Not one to rest while her friends are in danger (and who could really rest with screams still coming from several terrified girls anyways?), Ranma pulls herself from the pool to see Akane in a fairly bad situation. Akane was surrounded by three of the creatures and was on the kneeling on the ground on top of that. Ranma thinks 'Well two down... Err wait, one down, 1 bound... That's not to bad. Didn't think she could pull off a sealing technique quite yet. Guess I underestimated her resolve and ability to learn... That or I'm a better teacher than I think I am...' Then it's time to act.

She then rushes forward with a yell and finishes what she started on the one missing it's fore claw. The blade punches right through the creature from above and skewers it to the ground. It did however severe the creatures spinal cord. Even the physical form to spirits still had some physical limitations and that still seemed to be one for these as it didn't even trash on the ground after being cut. It starts to dissipate to slowly for Ranma's taste.

Akane glances behind herself and sees a drenched Ranma over the corpse of the now dead creature that had last been there. A feeling of relief runs through her. 'Ranma's ok! She even got another one! Now just two left!'

Ranma smiles at the look in Akane's eyes and then glances around to see the last two creatures. Then he looks around and realizes the other two he injured with his lightning attack at the start of the battle had disappeared. She briefly gets a chance to think 'That can't be a good thing', before yet another interruption happens.

Part 4: Xian Pu

A feminine voice calls out something in Chinese, which Ranma recognizes as a word that basically means 'return'. The two standing creatures turn and run back toward a figure that walks forward. Long flowing purple hair tied in buns at each side of the head, pretty much proved who it was. The nearly black though actually deep purple chines dress and pair of wooden maces proved it without a doubt. Xian Pu stepped into the light and cried out the word "Recall" in Chinese. All five remaining creatures suddenly swirled apart in a sort of dark ominous cloud. Each cloud slowly merging with the others.

Akane just stares as the bands of her seal falls to the ground and in a surge of power bursts into a shower of light. The creature that had been bound was now a cloud that oozed across the ground until it meet with the others in a billowy mass of black. The chines girl then smiles an evil smile and says another word in Chinese which Ranma understands as "Reform". Before both sets of eyes two creatures tackle form, both slightly larger than the last ones they had seen. These new creatures growl.

The terrified girls had almost thought this new girl would prove their rescue from these frightening events, but that ended when the dark cloud, which they could see, had formed next to her. They also hadn't seen the creatures before, but could see these two new ones. Each of the girls panics nearly simultaneously and they try to stand on legs that refuse to support them. So instead they huddle together in continue screaming.

Ranma says "So you have been controlling them, huh?" Not really expecting a response from Xian Pu. Idly wondering how long it would be before any of the girls could talk again after all the screaming they were doing.

Xian Pu smiles "Of course Ranma. Who else master the dark forbidden arts just to kill you?" She pauses frowning and adds "It wasn't nice to sick your master on me though."

Ranma starts "You've seen sensei? Here?"

Xian Pu nods "Yes." which from her sounds almost like a hiss. She then adds "He caught me by surprise when I come look for you the next morning after purpose announced. He use stupid seal to bind me and put me in basement somewhere. It take me several days, but I free myself and continue hunt! Now I find you again!"

She grins evilly again and says "Now done talking! Ranma you die!" and she lunges for Ranma. The tired redheaded Ranma blocks with her sword and tries to simply avoid for now. Akane starts to head toward them.

Xian Pu leaps back a ways and without looking back orders her spectral minions "Kill other girls! They starting to annoy me with all their shrieking!" Her eyes dance with her glee at getting rid of the silly interfering girls.

The creatures lunge into action heading at a dead run for the helpless girls. Akane stops heading toward Ranma remembering the order Ranma had given her earlier to protect the girls while he handled the rest. She thinks to herself 'I hope to hell you know what your doing Ranma. Don't die on me! I just hope I can take these two creatures!' She charges toward the closest one and it changes course to head straight toward her. She gets just enough time to think 'Oh Crap! Well that's not good...' before she's to busy to think.

Xian Pu attacks Ranma again with a leaping strike. Ranma parries with her sword. Ranma thinks 'Well this is bad. I still have almost no energy. My internal reserves are so low in fact I don't think I could pull energy from outside myself right now. I'm tired as only near drowning and a desperate battle started by calling the strongest attack technique I know can cause. On the other hand Shampoo is fresh as can be, using very little energy to change the shape of her minions. Oh why couldn't I have bothered to learn some summoning and have summoned up a few helpful creatures days ago to help me out...?'

She doesn't get much time to think as Xian Pu rushes in again and is yet again blocked by Ranma's sword. Xian Pu decides it's to even without using some of the other secrets she's learned, but first "So Ranma, Were you so afraid of me that you send master to defeat me instead? Very cowardly tactic."

Ranma frowns as he blocks another blow from Xian Pu and says "I didn't send anybody! While I've never wanted to fight you, I don't run from facing a fight! What sensei chooses to do is his business, and frankly I don't think anyone is crazy enough to want to get in his way!"

This tirade from Ranma though was what Xian Pu was waiting for. She drops both Baritones in a flash taking a already distracted Ranma further off guard, and in a move faster than the blink of an eye Xian Pu hits Ranma in the abdomen open palmed, combining a power blow with a pressure point attack. It send Ranma flying back a couple dozen feet before coming to a stop.

Ranma staggers to her feet and and giving Xian Pu an evil look she says "So that's how you want it, huh?"

Xian Pu grins evilly at Ranma and says "I learn secrets of Hsing-Yi Chuan among others, great grandmother would be most displeased... But I no care! You die now!" She starts to walk toward Ranma, until the expression on Ranma's face stops her.

Ranma is grinning as an idea strikes her 'Well I don't have much energy left as a normal fighter, but I do have one secret still... And as luck would have it I'm in my female form so this can work. To bad for Shampoo that she decided to attack near a giant source of cold water, if this had been a desert in my male form she may have won.' She twists her lips into a friendly smile and uses a small mental technique...

Ranma's body seems to change slightly. Darker stripes of skin formed on her skin across her body, including a stripe across her upper cheek on each side of her face and another across her lower jaw line. Her pupils in her eyes changed into a vertical slit more like the eyes of a cat and they glowed faintly. Even her hands changed slightly, though it was hard to see on the hand still holding her sword. The other hand was easier to see though as the way the fingers curled seemed to change and ki projections formed on the tip of each finger like claws.

The biggest change though for those who could see it was her aura. Before where worry and a certain fear had tinged the aura, there was none now. Now there was only a sort of mixture of excitement, pride, strength, and a confidence that didn't understand defeat. It practically spoke saying 'I am the biggest predator on the block and you my tasty morsel are just right for my snack'. The look in Ranma's eyes just continued the message.

As Ranma stared Xian Pu down she practically hissed and then said "Ok bitch, now let's play!" with a feral grin crossing her face.

For the first time in her young life Xian Pu knew fear.

Author's Notes:

Btw when I submitted it I realized last chapter was the longest yet... Just thought I'd let you all know that, it kinda shocked me... But I did mutilate the ghost story which was originally an entire episode from where I grabbed it out of. Let alone the photo discovery... Oh and finally advancing the number of days that have passed by, once this fight ends about two weeks will have passed since Ranma arrived... Prepare for more fighting fun next chapter... Titled: Enter the Amazons, but that's all the teaser you get for now!

Oh btw I hope you like my modified Neko-Ken! The story behind why it looks the way it does is coming soon, though as I hinted before it has something to do with some of his/her last training with Shadow before heading to Nerima. You get to see it in action for a bit next chapter, though I'm not sure if the explanation comes next chapter or will have to wait one more right now... But it will get explained!

I also hope you have started to realize by now that Ranma is kinda clueless when it comes to relationships, he really does just think of Akane as a friend right now... He doesn't really understand (yet) that he cares about her as more than what friends normally do... He just knows he'd do anything possible to make her happy. Akane on the other hand keeps having everyone (including the gods with their little red ribbons) tell her she is meant to be with him. Not one to just do as she's told she's deciding she needs to fight against fate and not fall for Ranma... Of course she already has, so she's just denying the truth... Ah, even in my fanfiction these two can't have it that easy!

Lastly you may start to realize Shadow has his own agenda and seems to know a lot more than he lets anyone know about... I may post up some of my non-fanfiction stories that Shadow actually comes from sometime, though of course not here with the fanfiction. I have a tendency to never finish the many many Shadow Tales I've started, so it will probably have to wait so it doesn't look like such a mess... Expect more random events with him as he tries to sidetrack some of Ranma's traditional crew.