It's been far to long since I made a new chapter, in fact,its about 10 months since this started, and now im done. slightly depressing victory, but its done. I want to thank Dana-san for her help and pre-reading stories (perphaps not the best at finding errors, but good for spirit.) I tried with several endings, butI liked this one best.
"You always were a lucky one Ranma." Ryoga felt his chest. A few muscles had been torn loose, his third rib had cracked, "Lucky, lucky, lucky. Lucky in love, lucky in fights. And now lucky enough to have a smart and well trained little sister. I suppose this was how it was always meant to end, both of us at full power."
"I thought honor meant something to you." Ranma glared intently, no muscles moving even slightly as he watched Ryoga examine his body and pick himself up, "Why did you do all this?"
"Many reasons." Ryoga tried to rub the section of broken ribs to get more blood flow, "Many of which I already explained. But I suppose the kicker was just the overwhelming opportunity of the situation, it fairly cried out that I act."
"That's no excuse."
"Most people have a different view of these things."
"You've done more then enough damage to prove that your view of things isn't the right one."
"And yours is? All your life has been devoted to one thing. You haven't learned responsibility or how to love, just to hurt and maim. You couldn't even confess your love to Akane. Well it's too late now, she can't look at you the same way again, and I've made sure of that."
"I don't want to have to kill you."
"Hmm, that's what this is boiling down to isn't it. The final showdown. Good versus evil, Etc., Etc." Ryoga raised his left hand to the sky, "You should know by now that these things are never as black and white as you try and make them seem."
Ryoga's red ki flowed off his body in waves, condensing and twisting to the palm of his hand as he shaped a perfect sphere.
"Let's all die right here. I think I'm finally ready for it."
"That's not going to happen."
The ki resonated in Ryoga's hand as he began to smirk. It gradually turned into a chuckle and he soon began giggling madly. The ki dispersed back into Ryoga's body and he lowered his hand.
"That's good to know."
Ryoga's form flickered in the air for a split second and slowly began to fade. Ranma fell into his natural ready position and began to feel the surroundings for Ryoga's telltale depressive aura. A carpet of leaves kicked up into the air and fell silent again, a clear path blazed down its center.
Minutes passed with no motion. It seemed like Ranma was held in place with razor wire, if he moved an inch of the spot he would be cut by the air itself. Ever so slowly his eyes moved back and forth, pointing in one direction before shifting to the opposite side. His fingers moved now, feeling the air. Three small marbles forged entirely of ki shifted between his fingers, growing in size and definition as he felt the air.
Another minute passed before Ranma made his move. He positioned one of the marbles resting on his thumb and index finger and flicked it like a coin just to the left of his sister's head. He positioned a second and fired it at the knot of a large oak to his right. The final marble he shot a second after the other, directly at the large tree limb above him.
The first marble ricocheted off of the tree behind Ranko and flew back across Ranma's face. Ryoga was in mid leap when it struck him in the leg. Cursing, he began spinning in the air to correct and land on his feet when the second fired marble caught his arm, sending him into a gyro-like spin as the third marble bounded off the large limb above Ranma at an angle, flying to catch Ryoga square in the middle of the head.
Ryoga's hand caught a hold on dirt as his body dragged across the ground, tossing head over tails along the ground. Ranma kicked off before Ryoga even pushed himself back up, he brought he hands to cross in front of his face as he sailed through the air. Uncrossing at the second Ryoga pushed himself up he tried for a two handed blow to Ryoga's head.
Ryoga fell back onto his hands and feet, crab position, kicking his feet off the ground while keeping his hands planted and used the momentum of his kick to pry apart Ranma's hands, he lifted his left hand to Ranma's unprotected face.
"That three month break didn't help your strength, did it Ranma?" Ryoga flared his ki from the palm of his left hand and catapulted Ranma back to the camp, crushing the supply pack as he tumbled. Ranma's hand seized onto a hold and flexed, pulling his body over its self and stabilizing his grinding tumble and allowing him a hold to catapult himself off of. Unfortunately he had seized the handle of a trunk Shampoo had her bonbori in, heavy as they were, Ranma's now sheer lack of speed and momentum caused his feet to fall out from under him, leaving him temporarily suspended in the air.
"Die Ranma!" Ryoga materialized with incredible speed, drawing his leg back he used the momentum of his entire body to deliver a streamlined kick into Ranma, still hovering in the air. Ranma grimaced in pain and curled his body around Ryoga's leg, whipping his head and neck at high speed, effectively folding him in half. Ryoga twisted his body and preformed a midair combo, striking the back of Ranma's head with his sealed left fist and driving him into the ground.
Ranma and Ryoga lay there for a few seconds, frozen in the exact position, Ryoga's hand still imbedded into the scruff of Ranma's hair. Ranma lying on the ground, motionless save for the odd strangled breath coming from being forced into the powdery dirt by your rival. Ryoga untensed his fist and pushed Ranma over. Ranma had a gash across forehead and gingerly brought his hand up to the sides of his head, it was throbbing and pulsing and felt like he would pass out at any second. The only thing that stopped him from falling back into sleep was the thought that if his concussion were bad he might not wake up.
Ryoga got up and eyed Ranma, then his gaze fell back to the destroyed camp and the supplies in specific. Ranko scuttled out of the way of the one person she felt her brother had ever lost to as he stepped with his uninjured leg to the supplies. He knocked away most of the valuable Chinese artifacts and seized something, he quickly shied it away from sight and walked back to Ranma.
"Ranma, Ranma, Ranma." Ryoga started, "You always spoil my fun, and this was supposed to be a grand battle to be sung about for the ages, not a bowl over, hell, I'm not even panting."
Ryoga seized Ranma and supported him into a sitting position, Pulling the Eldest mushroom out from his clothes. The mushroom was on its last legs, its wrinkles had creased deep and turned black, it was a mighty mushroom, 67cm from the base. Ryoga grabbed by its stock and waved in front of Ranma's eyes. They were already starting to dull and lose focus on reality.
"The second you pass out I'm going to force this down your throat." Ryoga;s eye's glimmered and danced with a watery reflection, looking like he might burst into tears at any minute. Those eyes were probably what brought Ranma back. His eyes sprang into focus and stared into Ryoga's, those insane, broken eyes, "Let's see you fight without a walker!"
Ranma didn't focus on anything but those eyes now. He thought back to all the times he had bugged Ryoga, going to far once or twice, but nothing Ryoga couldn't handle, right? But staring at these eyes brought something else, a memory of his own image, remembering when his father had tried to teach him tracking at the age of 6. The all encompassing, childlike fear of being alone, that nobody cared for you.
'Did I cause this?' Ranma felt back into the fog of his mind, to the first time he had met Ryoga, those same dancing, crying eyes stared at him. He didn't care then, he couldn't stop caring now. Was there still a way to make everything better? Ryoga was still in mid sentence when Ranma blew across the mushroom, spraying thousands of tiny spores across Ryoga's surprised face and mouth.
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Time skip
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Ranma and his wife of many months slept in their modest bed. Their arms around each other and their legs entwined. He and Shampoo were living out their life in Shampoo's ancestral home, not far from the cursed springs that had led them along the path of destiny to this point. From being cured, to married, and now living in near bliss as the most likely couple to take over as the villages powerful leaders. Soft crying and wailing awoke the new mother.
"Ranma?" She poked her husband and received a half blurry reply of 'tango fish', "Your child is up."
"She's your child too Shampoo." Ranma had begun to speak Chinese, but Shampoo had mastered Japanese already, and as apposed to speaking fractured languages around their children, she speaks Japanese around the home, "And I don't have the equipment to feed her."
"Get a bottle."
"Too much effort."
"She'll grow up with a complex if we don't do something."
"My dad starved me of food plenty of times."
"That's were I got the idea."
"Ha ha Shampoo. Why don't we both go?"
"I don't wanna get up, its 3 A.M."
"You wanted a baby."
"It would have been far to hard once I rule the village to have a child."
"And the secret Amazon contraception technique you were doing when we first started having sex?"
"Should have told me it wouldn't work on you."
"I've seen men are weaker than women for the most part here, so I guess your technique of punching them in the face when they're about to come is useful for the most part."
"Fine, getting up."
The two sleepy parents stumbled passed Ranko's room, she was dead tired after her day of training and even the cries wouldn't wake her. They walked a bit farther into their child's nursery. Akaira, their half Chinese, half Japanese daughter was sniffling and waving her arms at her mother. Shampoo scooped her up and held her, the Childs father staring lovingly at the both of them. Then turned back towards the crib.
"Still wondering, Airen?" He smirked at that; 'Airen' had become a more pet name than anything else now, "Have we done the right thing?"
"I think so Shampoo, I think so." Their looks drifted down to their son, the elder child with the distinctive neckerchief and the protruding fangs. The one who would grow into a powerful warrior, with a positive outlook on life, helped by his family.