I'm back, after messing around the whole summer,I managed to write this next chappie. It's a bit slow around the begining, but i sprinkled in some humor, some torture, and some angst for my fans. Good day my peoples
Shampoo leaped across most of Tokyo's smaller skyscrapers while carrying her load. She stopped for a second on the roof of a local sushi restaurant to see how her captive was doing, seeing as she had stopped struggling about five minutes ago. Opening the burlap sack slung over her shoulder revealed a smaller girl with red hair curled up inside, a red mark against her head.
"Shampoo no remembers hitting Ranma that hard." She muttered as she scratched her head, "Oh well, this as good place as any."
The Amazon rifled through her bag, pulling out bottle after bottle of marked potions. Frowning in disappointment as each turned out to be wrong and naming them as she went, "Memory remover 611, memory modifier 511, lust potion 411, love potion number 9, Ahh, shampoo 911!"
Xain pu uncorked her shampoo bottle and poured a small amount of liquid that, instead of the shampoo-like pooling in your hand, actually ran off like water. Xain pu turned over the bottle, it was still under the freshness date, so what was wrong? Mentally Xain pu flashbacked to stocking up on the materials, getting her grandmothers blessing, taking a shower to look good for her future husband, getting Mousse to hand over her shampoo pouch, having lunch… Wait, MOUSSE handed over her shampoo pouch. Xain pu mentally slapped her forehead and punched Mousse as she realized that he must have sabotaged the shampoo to prevent Ranma from regaining his memories. By now he had probably destroyed the remaining bottles back at camp.
Hmm, camp. Camp where her grandmother was waiting for the heir of Jusendo, the one who had given Shampoo the worst possible curse that could have been had for marrying ranma, a curse that time and time again had stopped her and Ranma from getting intimate, in any sense of the word. A thought had formed in the eye of shampoo's mind, if she took Ranma back to china under the guise of getting more shampoo she could feign to have been pushed by the little girl ranma and fallen into the drown girl spring, curing herself at last. But if the elders found out her punishment would serve far and beyond turning into a cat. She couldn't risk too many witnesses; even having her great grand mother there would cause too many questions.
Take Ranma, yes, that was the best way, take Ranma and go to china. There some 911 shampoo could be found, and she could use the village to find the mushroom forest. Xain pu nodded sagely, and then re-bundled up the sleeping redhead, who at the time was currently mumbling something about candy, and bounded off to the south.
Back to Ryoga
"You can't run from me!" Ryouga's muscles twitched as he rendered another tree into sawdust, "I find you! I'll find you and drag you back!"
Ryoga had been in his own little world for the past two days, his own little world being the forest he was currently pushing himself deeper into. During the past two days in which he searched for Akane- uselessly actually, because she had turned off into an adjacent park and headed home within the first 3 hours of entering the forest- and had made himself a neat little path of devastation that followed him when he got angry. Red ki compressed into itself, becoming heavy with depression as it launched from the ground, only to fall back and flatten tree's for acres around from the resulting shockwave.
"Nothing" the only standing figure amongst row after row of destroyed trees mumbled, "nothing will ruin my happiness again, I will find you Akane, and we will live in bliss. Even if I have to break your bones to do it."
Shampoo now
Shampoo (I use THIS spelling now that I don't have Shampoo using shampoo) had removed Ranma from her bag. She had woken up several times in a dazed stupor, but shampoo always… 'gently' helped her back to sleep. Shampoo was currently holding the sleeping little girl against her chest as she entered town. It was a small fishing village, but the boats here had three things going for them: they took passengers, the men didn't go after amazons (bad memories), and they didn't ask questions about your cargo. Shampoo hoped that last one spilled over for passengers too.
Shampoo wasn't exactly in luck that day, it being summer the fishing and travel boats were out dropping passengers off at their ports or on extended cruises. The only ship left was a good sized cargo loader with its name written boldly on the side. "The Sea Hawk" was a good enough vessel for this trip, as these were the usual types that stopped in the Amazon ports, and they didn't seem to mind taking on a few traveling Amazons seeking fare.
"Shampoo needs travel to Amazon village." She stated as she made her way up to the burly deck hand, "You help, yes?"
The man had gotten fairly depressed at the mention of the Amazon village, but stuck to his case, motioning onto the deck he pointed out a bearded man with a list in his hand, "That's the crew coordinator, he should the one to talk too."
Shampoo nodded sharply and leaped 20 feet to the ramp leading to the deck, clearing 6 heads. Making her way up the ramp, careful not to hit anything that would jostle the sleeping child in her arms awake she found her way to the crew coordinator.
"Shampoo needs transport to Amazon village, was told you can help." The crew coordinator raised an eyebrow at her murder of the language and answered her in a gruff voice.
"Fare for all Amazons is too work on what needs work, you will jump when we tell you to jump, you will do what we tell you to do, I can guarantee no man on this crew will go after you. Understood?" Shampoo seemed a bit peeved at having to be at the beck and call of him, but it was the fastest transport, so she nodded slowly, "Excellent, now there are a few basic rules put in place, no damaging the ship, no intense physical training, no fighting with the crew members, and, last but not least, no poisons, mind altering substances, or shampoo, I don't want to come out here and see that my crew thinks they are fighting batman. Oh, and you should watch your sister, there's some open machinery on this boat."
"Sister?" The coordinator cocked his head and motioned to Ranma, "Ranma not Shampoo sister, is Shampoo Airen."
"Riigghhttttt. Welcome aboard." The poor man walked away shaking his head as he thought to himself, "Note to self: don't find a spouse in china."
Shampoo walked to the crew quarters and set up her bed as she felt the boat lurch as it began its week long trip to China, and to Jusenkyo.
TENDO HOUSEHOLD
Akane woke from her restless slumber as Nodoka's scream pierced the room. Akane had found her way back home hours after she had fled the scene. She passed Kasumi as she hurried to Ranma's room and the source of Nodoka's scream. The window of the little girls room had been jimmied open and several items had been removed, someone had made it perfectly clear that they had planned on taking ranma for a good long time.
The general consensus that Genma had pulled his old trick and made of to repeat Ranma's training was broken as Genma stepped out of the bathroom in his panda form. Nodoka was in tears at what might have happened, her sobbing frame lurched over Kasumi.
"What can I do now?" Kasumi's thoughts trailed off as her thoughts fell on the one person misguided enough to take his own hatred out on a defenseless child. Kasumi nodded to Akane with daggers in her eyes. Akane nodded back as she turned to hunt down a certain bandana clad ex-fiancée.
At the 'defenseless child'
"I wanna go home!" a small red head shrieked out, earned a few chuckles from the men in the cabin at the frazzled Amazon, "I wanna go home!"
"Bratty child stop yelling!" Shampoo's scream had silenced most of the cabin, even the drunk guy in the corner stopped telling hooker jokes for a second, "already tell you that we going training, what more you want!"
Shampoo had never babysat before; she assumed that since Ranko, being Ranma in another form would be similar to Ranma. She was dead wrong. Instead she got a confused, wailing child who, as it would happen, was still used to spending all her time with someone she knew around, and which now was currently crying and screaming.
"Calm down." Shampoo tried to think of a way out of this unpleasant situation as she soothed the screaming child, "What wrong with Ranma. Should want return to Jusenkyo."
"I'm Ranko!" the frazzled child beat her hands uselessly on Shampoo's leg, "I wanna go back home to mommy!"
Shampoo tried to switch to another tactic, the truth wasn't working.
"But… Ranko asked Shampoo for training." Ranko stopped wailing for a second as she thought back to the past few weeks, "Shampoo came back to finish deal."
"b-but you t-took me." The small girl sniffled and got a few looks from the closer bar house patrons.
"Quiet!" Shampoo tried to silence that last fact before it was uttered, "Little girl had bad dreams."
"R-really?"
"Right. We go to Amazon village for supplies. Sister-in-law stay on boat and not scream for all trip, is good?"
"…" Ranko wiped away a tear with her fist, "but what about my stuff, and Akane and daddy and Ranma?"
"We… 'Meeting' Ranma in China set up to meet whole family."
"Really! Is he ok?" Ranko jumped excitedly for the first time since this trip started, "I thought something bad happened."
"No, he fine, Shampoo has to work as maid for slave driving failure of boat master, you stay here for rest of day." Turning to the rest of the crowd, "If anyone touches child, they no have child, ever."
Awkward silence reigned for a full 15 minutes after Shampoo left, leaving the small redhead in the ships galley/bar.
Back Again
It wasn't all that hard to find Ryoga's trail, the guy didn't stop at annialating trees in his path, he turned them into a fine dust. Akane and Nodoka quickly followed Ryoga's trial, Nodoka cleaning her blade along the way. Neither of them spoke about what could have happened, but both of their thoughts were on the little girl that must be being tortured right now.
Torturing
"How you no like it if you no try!" Shampoo had been unsuccessfully trying to get Ranko to eat the catch of the day, which, being on a small boat, was all there was for meat, "Try it."
"I know I won't like it." Ranko stuck her nose up in contempt at the meal, "it's looking at me."
"It dead!" Shampoo couldn't argue with 4-5 year old reasoning, "it like beef you eat in stew, just with head!"
"I won't. It tastes bad."
"How you know! You not try!"
"Fish smell bad, so they must taste bad."
"That before it cooked!" Shampoo was going mental, she had to do something before she hurled her fiancée out and let him/her swim to shore.
"Fish tastes bad."
"Fish delicious!"
"You only think you because your half cat." Shampoo balked at that because technically it was true.
"Fish reason cats are so flexible and strong, eat fish, you grow up strong."
"Cats are worse than fish."
"Than eat fish before Shampoo makes you eat cat!" That worked. As shampoo watched the little girl freak out at the thought of seeing a cat she realized that she had found the best way of dealing with children, nonsensical threats.
To the hunt!
After 3 days of following Ryoga's winding, explosive trail, Akane and Nodoka had found the lost boy motionless at the forests lake, on the pier.
"This is too good." Akane whispered to her partner, "Ryoga's cursed form is helpless; all we have to do too capture him is give the kidnapper a hard shove."
"I thought our plan was too get Ranma." Nodoka cocked her head.
"True, but that will be easier with Ryoga being a squealing piglet."
"Good point, where do you think he put he put her?"
"We're about to find out." Akane stepped from the bushes while making her way to the young man sitting on the edge of the pier.
THE BOAT
"Shampoo!" The Amazon in question sighed and turned to face her current boss, a thin, white man with an Italian style mustache, he was currently followed by a battered looking worker dressed in plaid wearing overalls, that man was escorting A very scared looking Ranko, "We found your sister playing on the machine deck, when we tried to escort her out she got scared and knocked out one of our engineers with… I don't even know what it was, but it was bright and it made an engineer-sized dent in the hull. Your village will receive the medical and repair bills within the week. You should keep better tabs on your responsibilities."
"Yes, sir." Shampoo rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger, "Promise that Sister-in-law not damage ship anymore, but be easier to watch if Shampoo not working." Hopeful smile.
The boss narrowed his eyes and replied, "If you like we could supply you with a rowboat, and then you wouldn't have to work for your fare."
"No sir." Shampoo wasn't looking forward to spending her remaining days of this little voyage listening to Ranko shriek on a tiny inflated raft. She took the small girls hand and gave the two men a weary thumbs up as they turned, then she turned mean as she looked down at the little girl, who was currently stroking her pigtail (like on the show, remember after she fought Akane?).
"Am I in trouble Shampoo-oneesan?" big puppy dog eyes hit a hard wall of battle trained Amazon ice, Ranko gulped, "Yes?"
"Yes, but Shampoo busy now. Stay in room for rest of day, Shampoo will deal with this later."
The Pier
Akane tiptoed behind her target, there was one shot at getting him in the water, if it failed he would return fire and the chance to keep him conscious to find Ranma would be lost. She sweated nervously, her body tense as she summoned her strength to blast him the remaining 10 feet along the dock and into the open water. When the time came her arm uncoiled like a snake and found its way square into Ryoga's back. Akane couldn't withhold her emotions as she felt her powerful fist push through Ryouga's back and out the front.
The boat, boss, the boat!
This was Shampoo's favorite time of the day. The time between night and day, Ranko was put to bed, and she could pass the time in her favorite way. Shampoo brought her copy of brain puzzles out and positioned it into the light (c'mon people, Ranma came back from China trailing Shampoo for 4 months, in said 4 month's between tracking Ranma and Genma and doing everything necessary for living she managed to learn Japanese. She also uses advanced alchemical formulas, she has to be smart.).
"Shaaampooo." Shampoo put her book into her face.
"God no, please God no." She muttered as she reluctantly got out of her bunk and made her way to the small child, "Yes Sister-in-law."
"I need a glass of water, I'm thirsty."
"Shampoo no going to crowded bar, filled with drunken sailors to ordering water. Not happen. Shampoo will get in drinking contest when men taunt. Go get yourself."
"B-but I'll get lost."
"What?" Shampoo cocked her head; Ranma didn't have an excellent sense of direction, but normally should be able to find his way around, so why couldn't she?
"I get lost; Ryoga was helpin, but he and 'kane got mad, so we stopped." Shampoo stabbed her wrist with her nail to make sure she wasn't asleep; it hurt like hell, so that meant this was an alternate reality.
"Why… Lost boy helping Sister-in-law with direction? He get lost too."
"Nope, not anymore, me and 'kane went to meet him when he stopped getting lost, cause my medicine didn't work."
Shampoo sat down with the child and continued into a long discussion about what others things had happened while Shampoo was away.
The Lake
Akane's hand ripped in and out of Ryoga's torso. She stared in shock as the body fell to the ground without noise. Oblivious to Nodoka's cries she felt herself slowly sinking, she had destroyed their only chance at finding Ranma. By the time she began actually listening to what Nodoka was crying out about she realized that the falling sensation was real, a pair of hands had broken through the deck and dragged her onto the beach below.
Still in shock she could barely sense the fist streaking for her captured leg before it connected. The hand released and Akane crumpled, her leg was bent at an awkward angle and was in blinding pain. A shadowed figure stood in front of her, naked except for his boxers and bandana.
"I made a promise that I would drag you back and make you love me." Ryoga cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck, "Even if I need to mangle you to do it."
Akane looked at him in shock, "How can you still- why are you…H-how'd you survive that?"
Ryoga chuckled as he pointed up, a light rain of feathers drifted from the hole that she had been torn through, the Ryoga dummy suspended halfway onto the pier, a hole through its chest.
"Neat trick, huh?" Akane's aura glowed with fury, but the pain in her leg prevented her from moving from her sitting position, "Now, once I get all those other limbs out of the way we can finish what we started. Okay?"
Akane was verging on fainting; her leg bone must have shattered. The pain was intolerable, as she struggled to remain conscious she choked, feeling hot sick raise in her throat. She could barely protect herself as Ryoga seized her arm and began to bend it the opposite direction. Fire engulfed her body as she felt the bones and tendons' slowly popping out of place, her only respite for the fire was a wave of cold and the sweet, sweet sleep that took her.
The boat
Shampoo was finally free. She watched with tears in her eyes, holding the fidgeting child as they dropped the walkway into place and the workers began to pile out. She was in China, she could make her way back to Jusenkyo now, and she could finally get a cure for her curse and fix Ranma. Everything was going to be alright. She loaded onto a nearby bus and sat back, waiting until she got close enough to the village for her and Ranma to get to Jusenkyo. Life was sweet. As the bus lurched forward out of town she heard a soft voice beside her.
"Shampoo-oneesan, I need to go pee." Life was hell again.
To the Trackers!
Akane woke up to buzzing, her left side was on fire and her vision still blurred. She blinked a couple times to get the world into focus, the buzzing gradually turning into a steady beat, and her left side still felt like she dipped it in acid. Can't win 'em all, can you. She turned her head to look at her side, her arm was in a sling but it was still better off than her splinted and cast covered leg. Dr. Tofu turned from his counter to get another medicine bottle when his eye connected on Akane, trying to get a better view of her broken limbs.
"Back to the land of the living, eh?" Tofu still had that smile that she had fallen for many years ago, "Your lucky Ranma gets his speed from Mrs. Saotome."
"What happened?" Akane groggily shook her head and tried to remember anything beyond falling onto the beach, "Did Ryoga die?"
"No, Ryoga's quite fine, Mrs. Saotome brought him as well." Then to an intercom, "Mrs. Saotome to room 6, Mrs. Saotom…" he didn't have time to finish as the lady herself broke through the door, holding a pet carrier.
"Akane, are you alright, your not crippled are you? I would never forgive this bastard if…" her ranting was cut off by Akane.
"I'm fine, just a little confused, what happened after I punched through Ryoga and fell through the pier?"
"You never punched through Ryoga, he had a dummy set up. And as far as what happened after, this bastard broke your leg as you fell and almost finished dislocating your arms when I… removed him from the running."
"How did you beat him Mrs. Saotome?" Dr. Tofu seemed confused, "Even with your sword, I did study Ryoga here, and his skin has a hardness that amazed even me, and I've tended with Ranma's pressure-point wounds. I don't see how a middle aged woman could have cut through his skin."
"I didn't have to; all I had to do was cut through some water." To demonstrate her point she skimmed her sword across the surface of a pool of water in a nearby sink, spraying it onto the pet carrier. Akane noticed the pet carrier for once, thought for a second, then smiled.
"I'm surprised you didn't make pork chops."
"Too small, but I was thinking of taking your 'pet' to the vet. He hasn't been neutered yet, has he?"
Squealing shrieked through the hospital.
Amazon!
This was too much, even for an Amazon. After making enemies with the bus for asking to stop the bus to let her Ranko go to the bathroom, said little girl had complained the whole way because they hadn't met Ranma yet.
"You said we'd meet him in China!"
"Shampoo says we meet in Jusenkyo, now stop yelling!"
"No! I want Ranma! Ranma! Ranma!"
That little outburst had got them first class tickets off the bus. At this point Jusenkyo was a lot closer than the Amazon village. And so, Shampoo ended up giving Ranko a piggyback ride all the 10 hours it took for them to make it to the mountain village at the foot of the path which led to Jusenkyo. After resting for a day, Shampoo and her little friend began a treacherous hike up the mountain hill to the legendary training ground. Alone, Shampoo could have handled it in a half hour, with the child, it took a full three hours, most of which involved her carrying the girl before she collapsed, exhausted onto one of the many overhanging cliffs to Jusenkyo.
"You-you be good and st-stay here, Shampoo rest for few minutes." Shampoo still panted heavily and stayed where she lie, collapsed on the ground. Ranko, being a little girl in the most accurate sense of the word, decided to go off to find some flowers to give to Ranma.
Shampoo brought herself up about 15 minutes later. And immediately went mental when Ranko wasn't right there. After a half minute of screaming her name out the child finally answered back.
"I'm over here Shampoo, I'm getting flowers for Ranma." Shampoo sighed inwardly as she stepped through some tall bushes to get a clear view of the girl, then froze in her tracks. Ranko was crawling on her hands and knees out to the edge of an overhanging lookout. Her small hand reaching for a bright weed to add with the others in her opposite hand.
"Ranma! Stop! Is not safe!" Shampoo raced to the edge when the little girl shot up at her 'brothers name.
Shampoo's hands closed on air as Ranko lost balance and slipped off the edge, into the waters of Jusenkyo.