It had taken a long time for him to master just the one move, but he finally had it down. Remembering the story of how Ryouga finally managed to beat Ranma one on one with the addition of just one move: the Roaring Lion's Bullet, he figured he would be able to accomplish the same thing. So with a spring in his step and an excited smile on his face, Mousse made his way to Furinkan High School to make his formal challenge.

This was going to be a very interesting fight to be sure. For the first time since he arrived in Nerima, he was going to be fighting for himself; he would be fighting for his own pride as a man and a martial artist. He went back to what Cologne told him, how his obsession with Shampoo was holding him back from living up to his true potential. Truth be told, he couldn't really tell a difference between then and now, save the fact that he had the scroll at his disposal now. Of course, he was having fun now learning different techniques; even with the great frustration he endured after messing up over and over again, the great elation he felt when he finally perfected the Phoenix Inferno more than made up for it.

Now that he thought about it, he was able to learn the Crashing Albatross Kick and the Phoenix Inferno quicker than he had ever learned any move before. It must've been because he was totally focused on his training and not distracted by brooding over Ranma or Shampoo. Maybe that was what she was talking about? The old woman really did know her stuff. It's too bad they didn't have a better relationship while they were living together. Without the Ranma/Shampoo thing giving him tunnel vision and putting he and Cologne at odds, he could've learned a lot from her. Well, it was water under the bridge now.

As he approached the school, his jaw dropped. The front of the building had cracks and holes all over the place. Trees were uprooted, the front gate was totally gone and there was a huge crater that spanned from the school grounds to the street. Looks like someone had a party before he even got there. Whatever happened, at least the school was still standing this time. "I hope no body beat Ranma up too bad," Mousse said to himself, working his way around the rubble. "That's my job!"

-

Dreamweaver Studios Presents

Ranma½

And the Beat Goes On

"And the Beat Goes On"

-

Ukyou's eyes fluttered open, then closed back again from the intense pounding in her head. Painfully, she sat up and rubbed her temples. So as not to make the pain worse, she turned her head slowly, trying to gather her bearings. For some reason, she had small bandages on her arm and face and she was on a bed.

"So, you're finally awake, hmm?" Looking to her right, she found Dr. Tofu.

"Dr. Tofu? Wha-where am I?"

"You're in your school's nurse's office," he said. "You've been unconscious for about four hours. From what I understand, you took quite a wallop getting sucked into a twister. You were fortunate, though. All you have are a couple of bumps and bruises, nothing serious." Twister? Oh that's right. Ukyou remembered seeing one before everything went black. But it was so localized it couldn't have been natural. Dr. Tofu walked across the office and bent over another bed, "Now this guy, on the other hand, was very beat up."

She looked over to the other bed and found "Ryouga!" Ryouga was indeed very beat up. He had dark bruises all over his arms. There were small band-aids all over his face and arms, along with a larger set of bandages wrapped across the small of his back. "What happened to him?"

"What else? He was in a fight."

"Ranma?"

"No, actually, Ranma helped me to get the three of you in here." He pointed to the third bed in the office and she found Hayate laying in it. "From what Ranma told me, he was the one that created the twister that knocked you out." So they did have their fight. And Hayate can make a tornado like Ranma. Dr. Tofu continued, "And that Ryouga jumped into the twister and pulled you out. Not the smartest thing to do, I have to say. Very brave, though."

Ukyou stood up and leaned over to check her employee. Unconsciously, she ran her finger over the contour of his face. "How is he Doctor?"

"He just needs a few days of rest and he'll be just fine."

She smiled and let out a sigh of relief, "That's great to hear..."

----+----+----+----+----

Mousse waded through the huge throng of students that populated the fields in back of the school. Apparently it was lunchtime and it looked as though the entire student population was dining outdoors today. Even though Ranma would be easily identifiable since he never wore the school issued uniform, it would still be very difficult to find him in this huge crowd unless he had some idea where to look.

"Yo, Mousse! Over here!" Well that gave him a good idea. Following the familiar voice, he found Ranma on the far side of the field waving at him under a tree. Akane was sitting next to him looking slightly miffed. Mousse walked over to them, hoping he wasn't about to get involved in one of their arguments. Once he was close, Ranma put his arm around his neck. "Hey, buddy! How's it going?"

Mousse sweatdropped. Did he just step into the Twilight Zone or something? "Erm, what's going on?" he asked.

Ranma leaned in and whispered, "Man, you came just in time. Akane surprised me by making my lunch for me today." Mousse blinked, completely confused by what he just heard. Ranma leaned out and asked normally, "So! What brings you to Furinkan?"

"Ah yes!" went Mousse with a smile. "You remember when I said that I would challenge you to a duel one day, right?"

Nodding, Ranma said, "Lemme guess, you're here to give me that challenge now, right?"

"That's right. I've finally perfected a couple of new moves and I'm itching to try them out in an actual fight."

A smile grew on Ranma's face as well, "Is that so? Sounds interesting. So when do you want the duel to take place?"

"Well I was going to suggest here tomorrow, but it looks like someone beat me to it."

"Ah, yeah. That was Ryouga and Hayate."

Mousse raised an eyebrow, "Hayate? Who's that?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell ya later."

"Okay...well, I guess we could do it in the park then."

"You got it. Tomorrow in the park."

"Make it this weekend," interjected Akane. "Remember, you want to do better in school so you don't have to stay here any longer than you don't have to, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," went Ranma. "Well, you heard her. This weekend."

"Okay. This weekend then," said Mousse.

Akane smiled, "Now that that's taken care of and since you're here, would you like to join us for lunch? I made an extra box just in case Ranma conveniently lost his."

Ranma vigorously shook his head, trying to warn the be-speckled martial artist. Mousse, however shrugged and said, "Why not?" Ranma groaned and buried his head into his hand. Mousse sat down next to Akane and took the box she offered to him. He opened the box, split apart the pair of chopsticks that came with it and took a bite. There was a long pause, after which he finally said, "Mmmm...that really tastes...interesting. Er, I just remembered, I have to get back to Autumn to help with the shop! Thanks for the lunch." And with that, he quickly put down the box lunch, stood up and left.

Akane smirked at Ranma, "You see? He thought it was good." Before Ranma could respond, loud wrenching sounds came from the direction Mousse ran off in.

----+----+----+----+----

It took a little while longer, but Ryouga and Hayate finally woke up from their battle. Both sat up silently in their individual beds and allowed Dr. Tofu to give them a check up. He checked their backs, joints and each of their limbs, with the both of them flinching in intense pain. Fortunately, neither had any permanent damage done to them. He ordered both to take it easy for the next couple of days, just to give themselves a chance to recover properly. After making his recommendation, he left.

Once the doctor was out of the room, Hayate got to his feet and picked up his umbrella, this one now badly bent as well. He walked over to the door, but instead of walking through, he turned to Ryouga and bowed slightly, "I will concede defeat to you today, Hibiki. But I would warn you to watch your back. I will not stop until I defeat you; count on it." With another bow, he opened the door and painfully limped out.

Ukyou gingerly put Ryouga's hand in her own and smiled at him, "So, how does victory feel, hon?"

"It hurts," he groaned.

"I would guess so. You're a mess." Unconsciously, she stroked her thumb across his hand. He looked down at it and silently wondered if she knew what she was doing. He blushed, but Ukyou couldn't tell, as it blended in with his bruises. "I heard you threw yourself into a tornado to save me. I can't believe you would do something so stupid..."

He couldn't stand for the insult, but with her thumb constantly running over the top of his hand, he was too distracted to think of an effective comeback. "W-well," he stuttered, "When I saw you g-get sucked in, I just...just acted. You've been hurt because of me t-too many times already. I...I..."

She favored him with the warmest smile he had ever seen, even from Akane. It completely took his breath away. "It looks like I owe you another one," she said. Ryouga felt a familiar queasiness in his stomach. A lump formed in his throat and sweat beaded up on his forehead. This couldn't have been happening, could it? He regarded it as something of a small miracle when they started regarding each other as friends. But this?

Her thumb stopped moving and she squeezed his hand, all the while her eyes were locked in on his. Ryouga's entire body began to tremble and his mouth went dry as her head inched closer and closer to his. He expected to clam up, he expected to pass out, he expected to do something incredibly stupid, but he stayed stock still, waiting for the inevitable. He swore he could hear both of their hearts pounding in his ears.

-Thoom!-

Ryouga blinked. That wasn't their hearts...

-THOOM!-

The outside wall of the nurse's office blew inwards, sending debris everywhere. Before either could react, a blur flew through the hole, tackled Ryouga and pinned him against one of the surviving walls. "R-Ryouga!" Ukyou said, coughing from the thick dust that permeated the room now.

Ryouga took a good look at the intruder that pinned him. It was a girl, that much was obvious. From the look of her outfit, she seemed to be a ninja of some sort; her nose and mouth were covered with a mask, but with that outfit she wore, it was about the only thing effectively covered. Looking at her eyes, he couldn't find any mal intent in them. In fact, if he had to guess, he would've said she was...smiling?

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" she said.

His eyes widened, recognizing the voice. She lowered her mask revealing her face and she was, indeed, smiling. "No...not you!" Ryouga went into full panic mode. "How did you find me?"

"By accident, actually. I was just passing through this town when I saw you. Come to think of it, you were being chased by her," she motioned her head towards Ukyou. "And...you were dressed nearly the same way you were the first time we met." Oh no...she still remembered. No doubt she was hunting him looking for revenge for what happened back then. She was probably watching his fight with Hayate and waited until the end when he was too tired and too beat up to defend himself to make her move. "I saw your fight earlier..." Crap, he was right. "I was wondering if your beating me before was just a fluke or not," she said. "Now I know it wasn't. You are quite strong...much stronger than I thought." She narrowed her eyes and reared her hand back, "Now, it's quite clear what my course of action must be..."

Ryouga tensed up, "NO!"

Ukyou sprang into action to try to rescue her friend, "RYOUGA!"

The ninja girl's hand shot forward and grabbed his neck. She yanked his head forward and pressed his lips into hers, catching him in a long, drawn out kiss. Ukyou froze in mid stride and her eye began to twitch. The ninja girl disengaged the kiss and released his neck. "Mmmm...nice. I have a feeling you're going to make a great husband." Wrapping her arms around his waist, she rested her head on his chest and released a content sigh. Ryouga blinked, wondering what in the world just happened. Looking at Ukyou, who had steam coming out of her ears and was shooting daggers at him with her eyes, one thing was certain...

He would've been better off if the ninja girl had just tried to kill him.

----+----+----+----+----

----+----+----+----+----

-End Book Two.