The Hunt for the Red Pig-Tail
Disclaimer : I do not own Ranma 1/2. It is owned by Rumiko Takahashi. GOD BLESS RUMIKO TAKAHASHI! I do own characters like Kurtis who are not in the actual Ranma 1/2 series.
A teenage boy looking the age of about 16 wearing a large, black robe, waltzed through the streets of the capital city of the kingdom of Nerima. He looked around for his companion who had somehow wandered off. "Kurtis? Hey, Kurtis? Where are you?"
Another teenager who looked a little older than his friend and who was wearing a brown robe snuck up behind him and dinged him off the back of the head. "Hey Ranma! What's up?"
The teenager named Ranma glared at his companion. "Kurtis. Don't do that. I really hate when you sneak up on me like that." Kurtis just smiled, causing Ranma to sigh. "Come on. Let's go find somewhere to stay the night and then tomorrow we'll get some supplies and leave." Kurtis nodded and they started off.
After walking for a few minutes they heard loud commotion. "What was that?" Ranma yelled at his friend.
"Beats me! Let's go check it out!" They ran forward as quickly as they could. And by how they ran, it was easy to tell that they were martial artists. It was easy to tell because there were a lot of martial artists in Nerima. And as being martial artists, they could run quite fast.
After running for a few seconds, they saw what made the commotion. It was a large grey monster. It was easily eleven feet high. It had claws and teeth bigger than Ranma's head, which as Kurtis joked a lot, was rather big. It's eyes were blood red. The two friends looked at each other and nodded. Ranma jumped onto the roof tops while Kurtis stayed to the streets.
It was a simple maneuver they had initiated many times to stay alive. Kurtis would be the distraction while Ranma would go in, literally, for the kill.
Kurtis ran in front of the monster and after pulling out one of the katanas strapped to his side, slashed the monsters lower body to get it's attention. Now most martial artists would say using a weapon was for the weak but Kurtis balanced weapon and hand-to-hand fighting extremely well. He also was very good at using random items as weapons.
The slash did the trick. It made the monster turn it's attention from the screaming and running villagers to the small, puny human who would soon be dead. Or so it thought. As it raised it's foot to stomp him into the ground, Kurtis sped under it's open legs, cutting the thighs as he went. He turned and went with the same tactic two more times before the monster caught on. 'Wow,' Kurtis thought. 'Never fought one this stupid before.' He looked up to Ranma who was waiting for his signal. Kurtis nodded and held up five fingers as he dodged another blow from the monster.
Five. Four. Dodge. Three. Slash. Two. One. Jump. Zero. "HYAAHH!" Kurtis and Ranma screamed as Kurtis stroke upwards, cutting into the monster's chin while Ranma kicked the monster's head down, impaling it more onto Kurtis' blade.
Several minutes later Kurtis was still looking at the monster blood on his sword with disgust. He turned to Ranma and smiled. "Get down with your bad self. Oh right. Go us." They high-fived each other.
"Good work, Kurtis." He smiled at his best friend.
"You too, Ranma." Kurtis smiled wider at his best friend. "Quickest kill yet. Not much on smarts. That's for sure."
"That's for sure."
The people began coming out to see what had happened. They really weren't expecting to see two young bo.. men to have killed a large monster some of the weaker martial artists, who still were champions of some tournaments, hadn't been able to kill. The Morchai were especially not happy. Two kids had taken the cop's kill.
One Morchai walked over to them. "HEY! You two!" Ranma and Kurtis looked at the man. "Do you have a permit to kill that monster?"
"NANI!" They both yelled at once. Permit! What permit? There had never been a mention of a permit from any of the other towns or villages or cities they had helped.
"I guess that's a no." He was a teenager looking about the same age as Ranma. He had black hair and yellow-spotted bandana on his head. "Well. I'll have to put you under arrest."
"Under what charges!" Kurtis yelled at him
"Killing a Teres without a permit, that's what." He replied cooly.
"Well none of the other villages had a problem with us." Kurtis replied with a hint of anger.
"A confession? Hmm.. So it seems you have done this before. I have no choice now."
Ranma was holding Kurtis back from beating the crap out of the cop. "Why you! I'll.. I'll!" WHACK! Ranma hit Kurtis over the back of his head with one of Kurtis' sheaths.
"Calm down Kurtis. We don't want any trouble." He whispered in the slightly dazed Kurtis' ear. He turned to the cop. "Well officer. Let's go. He won't be anymore trouble. I promise on my word as a martial artist." He glared at Kurtis. "Isn't that RIGHT, Kurtis?" Kurtis simply nodded, still with stars in his eyes.
The officer took them down to the police station. It was a large building with many windows and doors. Kurtis looked at the windows nervously because most had bars on them. He turned to his friend. "Ranma?" Ranma looked to him. "I'm kinda not too sure about this. Remember the last time we were arrested?" Ranma nodded. "Ya. This seems like then all over again." He got pinged off the head by a rock thrown by the cop that had arrested them.
"Shut up! You can tell your story later. And we'll decide what to do with you." Kurtis glared angrily at him.
They were led into the station. All around them were Morchai of different kinds. "There were tall ones, short ones, fat ones, skinny ones, muscular ones, wimpy ones, martial artists, warriors, males, females. Kurtis whistled at the sheer variety of people there. But he was getting really anxiuos now. Because, because they had a record. A rather, shifty, record. Something they would be sure to get in trouble for.
They were in the middle of the large entrance when Kurtis got an idea. He whispered it to Ranma who looked sceptical at first then nodded. Kurtis began squirming and writhing in Ranma's grasp. "Let me go! Let me go! GAAH!" People began looking at them. They had heard of two boys that had taken down a rather large Teres and then were arrested for 'not having a permit.' What a load of bull. But here were two boys, both in large robes, one with two empty weapon sheathes who was struggling in the grasps of another boy. "LET ME GO!"
"Okay." Ranma let go.
Most people said after that that they were Teres in disguise. Kurtis single-handedly took down over half of the Morchai station, while Ranma just stood there with a smirk on his face, taking out any that got too close.
Kurtis was mad, scared, annoyed, hungry, and tired. Not a good combination for someone like him. He was punching, kicking, smashing people over the heads with chairs and a couple desks, and for one rather annoying Morchai, Kurtis-Fuing him into submission. What guy wouldn't after facing the wrath of the Kurtis-Fu Special Technique, 'Triple Crotch Kick.' Which was exactly what he did. Poor guy.
Ranma and Kurtis looked around at their, or Kurtis', handiwork. Unconcious bodies were spread out all around the room, same with broken furniture, and men in painful positions with pained looks on their faces. Kurtis turned to Ranma. "I think that went well. Don't you?"
"Ya." Ranma smirked. "Ya it did."
Kurtis snickered. "I took care of this one. You have it the next time we get arrested."
"Next time? Whatever do you mean?" Ranma asked with a mock confused expression.
"Oh please, this is the third time this month we've been arrested. It would take a miracle or diplomatic immunity for us to keep out of jail. And next time you play the angry criminal and I'll play the nice one."
Ranma sighed. "Fine." He smiled. "Come on, let's get out of here." Kurtis nodded.
As they were walking out the door a young woman came running in, nearly knocking Kurtis over. She had long brown hair tied in a ponytail with a ribbon and a simple yet elegant dress. She grabbed onto his shirt. "Please! Please help save my sister! She's being attacked by a Teres! Please help me! Please help my sister!" He soothed her while she cried and looked to Ranma.
"Shall we?" Ranma nodded. Kurtis raised trhe chin of the woman. "Don't worry ma'am, we'll help your sister. Now show us where she is." She nodded with tears of happiness and relief overtaking tears of fear.
She stood up. "This way. Sniff She's in the castle courtyard. Come on. Hurry."
She ran off and the two friends looked at each other and nodded.
A girl with long blackish-blue hair and a fancy martial artist gi was dodging a large Teres that was slightly larger than the one before. It looked like the other one and had come screaming after finding the other one dead. 'Damnit! This isn't going well! I'm.. I'm not going to be able to beat it!' She looked around frantically. 'Where are those damned Morchai when you need them?' As her thoughts wandered the Teres was able to get a hit in, making her go flying into the eastern wall. It began advancing on her.
"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HER YOU BASTARD!" A yell came from across the courtyard. She turned to look and saw her sister with two people in long robes, one black, and one brown. The yell seemed to have come from the one in black. The brown one looked to the black one in what she guessed was shocked.
"AKANE! ARE YOU OKAY!" She heard her sister's voice.
"KASUMI! THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE!" Her sister smiled with tears of happiness coming from her eyes.
When they saw the monster hit the girl, something snapped in Ranma. No one hits a girl, even if she wasn't completely defenseless. "HEY! GET AWAY FROM HER YOU BASTARD!" Kurtis looked at him quizzically and turned again when the two sisters called happily out to each other. He turned back to Ranma.
"What we used before ain't gonna work this time. We need to hit it harder from the looks of it's armor." Ranma nodded. Kurtis had always been the smarter of the two and had always been better at planning things in advance. "Let's use 'them.'" Ranma looked at him in shock then nodded.
"Right. Let's go."
The two sped off in opposite directions. Ranma ran in front of the monster and grabbed the girl the woman, Kasumi, had called Akane. "Ma'am. We're here to help. We've done this many times before."
Akane blushed. She thought she would die, then her sister had come with two people and, he was so strong. She felt safe and almost moaned in reluctance when he put her down beside her sister but caught herself and blushed harder. He turned back to help his friend..
Kurtis was attacking it from behind, causing it to lose it's focus on Akane and turn to him instead. Which may have not been the best idea because it was bigger than the last one by a good four feet and had much bigger claws and teeth. He gulped and turned to see Ranma attack from the other side.
With a timing that could only have been practiced by most, the two jumped back. Kurtis readied his two swords and Ranma got into a position with his hands cupped to the side. They nodded. "HITEN KAGEN RYU!" "MOUKO TAKABISHA!" They yelled at once.
Out of Kurtis' swords, two waves of red energy shot out, and out of Ranma's hands, a large ball of red energy shot out. Ranma's blast hit first and sent the monster into Kurtis' waves, cutting it into four pieces. Ranma smirked while Kurtis put on a large smile and thrust his two fingers out into a 'V'.
"Good job Ran."
"Good job yourself Kurt."
Akane and Kasumi ran up to the two smiling martial artists. Kasumi cried in thanks and gave both of them kisses on the cheeks, causing them both to redden. Akane walked up and smiled sheepishly to Ranma. "Thanks." She said in a sheepish voice. "If you hadn't come, I, I don't know what would have happened."
Ranma rubbed the back of the head of his robe in embarassment. "Don't worry about it. That's what we do."
She smiled at him. "Ya, well, thanks."
He felt his face go red at her smile. He laughed nervously and turned to Kurtis who was stifling his own fit of laughter.
"MY DAUGHTERS!" A voice yelled out. "YOU'RE SAFE!" A tall man came running out into the courtyard. The man glomped onto his daughter and wept in happiness. "You're safe, you're safe." He then glomped onto Kasumi doing the same thing. He had a nice robe and, "A CROWN!" Both boys yelled out in surprise.
He looked to them. "And who are you?" 'Better not be after my daughters or I'll kill them myself.'
Akane walked over to the shocked pair. "Daddy, theses are the two that saved me. Umm.. Who are you?"
Ranma was the first to speak up. "Ranma Sa.." Kurtis stepped on his foot. "Ranma. just Ranma."
Kurtis bowed. He had figured it out. "And I, Your Majesty, am Kurtis. Just Kurtis." Ranma looked at Kurtis, then the king, then Kurtis, then back to the king in shock. "Yes Ranma, he's the king of Nerima. And I'm guessing these lovely women are the princesses." Both blushed at being called lovely and nodded.
The king smiled at them. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because of you my kingdom, and more importantly my daughters, are safe. Thank you." He bowed, shocking all of them. Akane and Kasumi because he had never bowed to anyone except their mother before, and Ranma and Kurtis because they didn't think they deserved to have such praise. They rubbed the backs of their heads in embarassment.
"Think nothing of it, sir. We just did what any martial artists would do. It is after all a martial artist's duty to protect people and fight monsters." Kurtis said.
"Well, I thank you again. My name is Soun Tendo and these are my daughters Kasumi," he pointed to Kasumi, "and Akane." He pointed to Akane. The two boys bowed deeply to the princesses. 'Hmm. Ranma. I wonder. And Kurtis? Hmm. This requires some looking in to.' "Please, may I be so brash but to ask you to stay for a while? We could use your help with the Teres."
The two friends looked at each other then back to the king. They stepped back a bit and turned to whisper. "Kurtis. This may not be such a good idea."
"Ya. Especially if those damn Morchai come back. That would be trouble." Ranma nodded. 'But if I can get Ranma and the princess together, seeing as they were almost eating each other up with their eyes, then he would be above the Morchai, and me being his best friend...' "I say we give it a try."
"Nani!"
"Just think! We can actually get GOOD food, a real place to sleep, and Ranma, all the free Ramen we could ever want!" Their mouths started to water and they nodded. They walked over to the royals. "Sure. We'll stay."
Soun was sitting in his den, thinking of his old best friend. His best friend had supposedly died several years ago. He had been the king of Tenin and they had made an arrangement for their kids to get married so the two kingdoms could be united. He sighed. How he missed his old friend. His thoughts changed to the two boys that now stayed at the castle. Kurtis and Ranma. His friend's son had been named Ranma. 'I wonder?'
Kurtis and Ranma had died and gone to heaven. There was free food wherever they turned. They were almost constantly eating something. Right now, they were on their sixth helping of Ramen, their favourite food. "Ranma. This is AWESOME! I am so glad we decided to stay here!"
"Ya! The food is great, there are beds..." Akane walked past him and smiled
"And the scenery ain't bad either, huh?" Kurtis asked sarcastically.
Ranma's face reddened. "Shut up."
"Oh please. You have been watching each other every time you see her. Go ask her out."
Ranma sighed. "I can't. She's a princess and... I'm..."
"A good guy, a martial artist, a great friend and travelling companion, a bit of a jerk sometimes, but hey, who isn't?"
"That's not what I meant Kurtis. I'm just a wanderer. Same with you. We'd never be given consent to ask a princess out, let alone marry. No, we're just, nobodies to everybody."
They both sighed. "If you told them who you were..."
Ranma shook his head. "No. That would be terrible. I can't do that."
"Hey wait. What did you mean WE'D never get consent? I was talking about you."
Ranma laughed. "You never know Kurtis. You never know. And besides, I saw how you looked at Kasumi." Ranma broke out in full body laughing while Kurtis fumed and grabbed a roller pin.
"I'LL GET YOU!" Kurtis began chasing after a laughing Ranma with the roller pin, trying to hit him on the head. They ran from the hallway into a room where Akane was at the moment. Ranma was too far away from Kurtis to hit him close range so Kurtis threw the roller pin, only to have Ranma move out of the way. The roller pin flew over the head of a bemused Akane and hit the wall, which pushed over a large stone, which in turn pushed another large stone, which was previously blocking a large stone tablet.
They all watched in shock as the stone tablet came to view. They went up to it and tried to read the slightly faded writing. "I.. I can't read it." Said a slightly annoyed Akane.
"Me neither," replied Ranma.
Kurtis just stared. "Kurtis?"
"'In the time when danger's nigh, And the moon is red and full. A fighter will come to quench the pain. They will rise to defeat, The ancient evil, And let the battle be won. But if the fighter shall fail, Then all is lost in the battle come, So if you seek the fighter strong, Then seek the red pig-tail.'"
They all looked at him in disbelief. "You.. You can read that!" Akane asked in disbelief.
"It's an old language from where I came from, from the land I left, so many years ago." He got a wistful look in his eyes. "But that passed a long time ago. And there is more."
"'If the red pig-tail, cannot be found. Then seek the black, the prince's crown. With him comes, a warrior true, Of hate, of dark, of love, of light. With the ones, journey to the land of sorrow, And there you shall find the red pig-tail. And you shall live to see the 'morrow.'"
Ranma had frozen up when he had spoken of the black, the prince's crown. Him. The black pig-tail, the crown prince. Kurtis looked to his friend. He knew most of what the second part was talking about. Ranma. "Things are never easy. They may at times seem like that, but they hardly ever are. Come on, let's get out of here." Ranma nodded and the two of them left. Akane stood there, wondering.
Two days had passed since the prophecy had been uncovered. Soun had sent out search parties for the 'red pig-tail' or the 'black'. The moon became red in two weeks.
Ranma and Kurtis were sparring in the courtyard. To anyone who did not know martial arts, it would have looked like a graceful and amazing dance. To anyone with prior knowledge, it would have looked like a fierce battle. And that it was. The two were both very good at what they did. Hell. For the whole time they had been in Nerima, their robes had never fallen off.
As they were fighting, Akane came out to watch. She was amazed and slightly jealous of their skill. They moved so fast, so gracefully, it was, amazing. She smiled and watched Ranma the most. He was so nice, his voice was powerful and yet sweet, and he was so muscular. She felt her face getting hot.
BOOM! A resounding explosion careened through the courtyard. They all turned and saw one of the biggest Teres any of them had ever seen. It was close to twenty feet tall, with claws and fangs almost the size of Akane. Kurtis and Ranma gulped. They hadn't fought one this big since Joketsuzoku. And even it hadn't had such big claws.
"Why, what big teeth you have." Kurtis said nervously. He looked to Ranma. Ranma looked to him. They both gulped, then nodded. They rushed the Teres.
Ranma ran to the right while Kurtis took to the right. Kurtis pulled out his swords and took no time in yelling out to Ranma. "Ranma! Use 'IT'!" He couldn't see him but he knew Ranma nodded. They both stopped their movements. "HITEN KAGEN RYU!" "MOUKO TAKABISHA!" Just like the last time, Ranma's blast shot the monster to Kurtis' blasts, but this Teres was able to withstand the blow and not be killed. They looked at it shocked for a few seconds until the need to survive overtook them. Ranma grabbed Akane again and put her in a safe place while Kurtis just kept blasting it. Nothing was working.
They ran to beside each other. "Ranma! I have a plan! I just hope it works."
"What is it?" Ranma asked hurriedly as they dodged another most-likely-fatal slash.
Kurtis gave Ranma his one sword. "We combine our ki attacks. We Hiten Kagen Ryu, Isei Dageki, and Mouko Takabisha it into oblivion." Ranma nodded, it was their best plan.
They stood side by side. Ranma and Kurtis both held their swords in their left hand and pointed their right towards the demon. "HITEN KAGEN RYU!" They yelled together. "ISEI DAGEKI!" "MOUKO TAKABISHA!" All four, red ki blasts shot out at the Teres. They all hit it at once, which caused a bright flash, a loud explosion, a large wave of dust, and a rather warm blast of air. It vaporized the monster, but not before it swiped it's claws out in a last ditch attack, cutting the top of Ranma's robe off.
When the dust cleared, two figures still stood. Akane ran to them and hugged the taller one, Ranma. Kurtis mocked being miffed, then smiled as Kasumi walked over. He turned to Ranma and his eyes opened wide in shock and fear.
Ranma looked at him quizzically and touched his head, his eyes opened wide. "Uh oh." No more hood.
Akane looked up at him with puzzlement. For the first time she saw his face. He had a strong face and was quite handsome. She saw the black hair, then looked slightly closer. His hair was tied into, "A PIG-TAIL!"
I am evil. Can you say cliffhanger?The questionsrhetorical by the way.
The Morchai are the police and monster hunters. The Teres are the monsters. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and forms.
So, what did you think? Please R&R.
Thank you, Arigato.
Oni Tsubasa