Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ use it merely for entertainment purposes.
There was an odd occurrence happening in Nerima. It was quiet, except for the occasional rant/speech from a Kuno, and for Nerima this was incredibly strange. For no matter what Nerima was never quiet. And thus the citizens of the Ward were feeling high levels of anxiety everyday. The only ones that did not seem to be nervous at all hour of the day were the ones that were often around the people that made Nerima so lively, namely the Tendo Dojo and the restaurant Uchan's. The result of this was very profitable for both places. Nearly everyone ate at Uchans at least one a week now so the place was packed when it was open and everyone was paying Nabiki money for information. The reason for both was they wanted to as soon as possible when the quiet would end. Everyone thought that if anyone would know when the agonizing yet peaceful time would end it would be what was left of the Nerima Wrecking Crew.
At the Tendo Dojo Nabiki was in the living room working of the expenses for the house and Dojo. She had taken up this practice not long after she shipped Genma off to the zoo. Her reasons were simple, she did not have to fear the Panda-Man knowing where the family's money was kept and she wanted to spend more time with her elder sister. The shared secret about Ranma being Lupine Lycanthrope had drawn them closer together in the past two months.
In front of Nabiki on the table were several financial forms, bills and recites from various companies. What was strange was that instead of trying to figure which needed to be paid first like she normally did Nabiki was paying all of them at once. With the absence of Genma and the steady influx of money people paid her to warn them when the others came back she was able to pay off everything at once. In some cases she was even able to pay the bills in advance. "Without that freeloading Panda I'm actually able to keep us in the black," Nabiki thought. "And Dad learned his lesson after that night in jail and hasn't tried to free him yet. At least not in broad daylight anyway." Soun never told any why he was covered in deep scratches one morning but after hearing about a break in at the zoo of one of the bear cages Nabiki could easily guess what happened. Soun probably broke into the wrong bear cage.
"Would you like something to drink Nabiki?" Kasumi asked from the kitchen.
"Sure," Nabiki answered. "My usual drink please." A few seconds later a high caffeine drink was placed on the table next to her pile of papers.
"How are we this month?" Kasumi asked. She had always been a part of the financial discussions of the house as she was in charge of grocery shopping.
"We're actually ahead this month," Nabiki answered with a smile. "Now that you're cooking for four instead of twelve now there is much less strain on the budget."
The front door opening and angry muttering, "I hate boys. I hate boys. I hate boys." interrupted their conversation. Akane had come back from her friend's house and it was clear another mentally challenged male from Furinkan High had attacked her once again. It had gotten so bad to this point that boys from the school were trying to 'ask' her out for a date where ever she went. Needless to say Akane had become much more irritable and even quicker to anger than she normally was.
"Do you think you should try and stop them?" Kasumi asked. Her love for her youngest sister had decreased substantially in the recent past but she still cared for Akane. She was worried what all of this was doing to her.
"I've tried Kasumi," Nabiki answered. "But no one is listening to reason when it comes to Akane. I'm afraid there is nothing I can do."
The front door opened again and this time Soun was the one that staggered into the house. "Looks like Daddy failed to free his Baka friend again," Nabiki commented. Soun was crying his eyes out blubbering about the cruel fate that was handed to his friend. What was ironic was that Genma was actually quite content where he was for the time being. People loved to throw food to him when he held up his sign asking for it. And since he did not have to doing anything other than that he was happy where he was.
At the Uc-chans the restaurant was once again packed with customers. Ukyou was up struggling to keep up with all the orders and could only manage because Konatsu was there to help her. As she finished another okonomiyaki another customer came in. Like many in the past few days the customer asked, "Is that Saotome boy around?"
And like many times before Ukyou first said, "Ran-chan's not a Saotome anymore. He's now a Wolf's Eye. And no he isn't around and no he did not get married to another one of his fiancés that came seem to show up every couple of weeks." The customer blinked a couple of times in confusion wondering not why but how Ranma changed his name. Everyone in Nerima could think of at least six reasons why Ranma would want to change his name, but could had to wonder how he was going to do it. With a slight shrug the customer sat down at the counter and placed an order.
After the dinner rush ended and Ukyou and Konatsu were starting to clean up Ukyou started to think once again about the dilemma she faced when Ranma got back. "Do I tell him what I am or do I just give up on him?" Ukyou asked herself. It was a question she repeated to herself more times than she cared to count. In one way or another Ukyou's life had been centered on Ranma for over ten years and she had to think of letting that all go. And to make matters worse, for her anyway, it was her decision to make. She had learned to live with the idea that Ranma might not pick her, especially after it was revealed Ranma was not Genma's son, and would accept. But know she was faced with the decision of all or nothing. Before she became Kitsune she could still count being his friend, now however if she stayed near him she could be dragged into his newest set of enemies. Because the Kitsune did not want to be involved with the fighting other Lycanthropes Ukyou had to decide on either being with Ranma completely or leaving him forever. "And once again I want to wait until Ran-chan gets back before I decide," Ukyou said softly. "Konatsu let's go ahead and close up. I'm kind of tired and you look pretty worn out yourself." Konatsu could only nod with a grateful smile on his face because the truth was he was too tired to talk.
At the Joksuzoku, the Amazons were waiting with anticipation for the return of the scouting party. That had been four days ago and in that time two more Lupines had shown up and were quickly integrated into the village defense. It was not uncommon to see two or three Lupines on look out and another coming and going with the patrols through the gates. The Lupine that was not part of either the patrols or the lookouts was Ryouga. His lack of direction made him ill suited for those positions. What he did do that helped in the preparations for the Weretigers was he constantly sparred with several of the warriors. The constant drilling kept the warriors in top shape for when the real fighting would begin.
It was late in the evening when one of the Lupine lookouts called out, "Someone is coming!"
Almost instantly Ku Lon was right next to the one that sounded the alarm, "Do you know who is approaching?"
The Lupine took a few seconds to sniff the air, "It's a Lupine and he or she is approaching at a fast pace." He sniffed the air again, "I'm also smelling three other people…one of them is injured I can smell blood!"
"OPEN THE GATE!" Ku Lon shouted. Her order was immediately obeyed and not more than thirty seconds later a large silver female wolf came running thought. On her back were three Amazons that had been in some kind of fight. All three of the Amazon warriors appeared to have some injuries but one seemed to be more serious than the others. As her torso was heavily bandaged.
When the wolf stopped it lowered to the ground and the two less injured Amazons helped the third off its back. The three were quickly helped to the healers as Aishia and Ku Lon ran up the wolf. "Ranma what happened?" Aishia asked.
"We were attacked," Ranma-chan answered.
"Get changed and come to the Meeting Hall," Ku Lon said.
A few minutes later a male Ranma in bipedal form was standing in front of the Elders and the Lupines in charged. "We were attacked because the Weretigers caught us by surprise."
"What exactly happened?" Lo Xian asked.
"We were returning from Musk territory when we were attacked…" Ranma began.
Ranma, in human form, and his three Amazon companions were just about to leave the territory formally controlled by the Musk. They had avoided the actual Musk village so they would not be caught. With Ranma's nose and Ki senses they were able to get a fairly good idea of the number of the Weretigers in the area. Ranma was able to discern a number of individual scents numbering in the neighborhood of about twenty Weretigers. Not a comforting number when the Amazons had witnessed that one Weretiger could match an Amazon Elder on equal footing. They knew that there were probably more than that in the interior of the Musk territory but not even Ranma using Ume-sen-ken would risk going to deep.
After they felt they had at least a descent idea size of the force they started to make their back to Amazon lands when Ranma's danger sense flared in warning. Unfortunately he was too late as two Weretigers in bipedal form jumped from the bushes catching the three Amazons off guard. Cond Shur was hit by a swipe with the Weretigers claws right across her stomach taking her out of the fight right off from the beginning. Bru Chu and Sta Quing were able to avoid serious injury but were still clipped by the claws of the second Weretiger. Ranma had been able to avoid attack because of his Lycanthrope reflexes.
It took only ten seconds for the Amazons and Ranma to regroup. Ranma stood in front of the Amazons, having changed into his biped form, with Bru Chu and Sta Quing to his left and right and Con Shur in the middle of the three. As they prepared to fight the two Weretigers whispered in English, "Nathen have you ever seen a white Lupine like him before?"
"No," the Weretiger called Nathen answered. "At least not like him. I've seen a couple with white fur but not this white. I wonder what kind he is?"
"No idea," the first Weretiger said. "We should take him alive and see what Dorian has to say."
"What about the women, Brode?" Nathen asked. "They look too good to just throw away." He leered at the Amazons causing them to tighten the grip on their silver weapons.
"Well we are looking for good breeding material," the Brode replied with a smirk.
Ranma not liking what he was hearing prepared an attack. He gave a brief signal indicating that his intentions to the Amazons behind him. When the Weretigers were about to charge Ranma beat them too it, "FIST OF FENRIS!" The technique was one he learned from the manual he got from Scot while in England. It was a powerful double punch that was charged with Ki to the targets sternum and neck. His target was the Weretiger Brode. And Brode was caught off guard and scent sprawling back.
His partner Nathen angered by the sudden attack failed to see the spear thrown by Sta Quing. The silver spearhead embedded itself into the Weretiger's lower back. The silver caused a sever burn that resulted in the Weretiger releasing a tremendous roar in agony. Ranma who kicked him in the head knocking the roaring Weretiger out quickly silenced him. "We need to get out of here! That loud of a roar will draw more here!" Ranma exclaimed. There was no argument from the Amazons. Ranma shifted into his full wolf form and the Amazons climbed on his back and they ran off.
When Ranma finished he asked, "They're not going to turn into Weretigers are they?"
"We have methods that can keep a human from being turned," the Lupine Quanchi answered. "I'll see to it that they are applied." Quanchi excused herself from the meeting and headed for the healer's hut.
After she left Ranma noted the serious faces on the two remaining Lupines, James and Aishia. "What's wrong Aishia?"
"You said they mentioned a 'Dorian.' No Lupine has ever met him in person but some other Lycanthropes we know have." Aishia had the attention of everyone in the room on her as she explained why she was so serious. "What we know is that he is at least five hundred years old, relatively young for a Lycanthrope, but has been able to take a position of great influence in Weretiger society. And because no Lupine has met him so we can be sure but the other Lycanthropes have stated that he is an Ebon Cat."
In the Musk Lands the two injured Weretigers, Brode and Nathen were standing before a very large, black Weretiger. They had told of their encounter after they regained consciousness an hour ago. "Sir, just what kind of a Lupine was that?" Brode asked. "He used a Stalker technique but I've never seen a stalker like that before."
"That Lupine you saw was something I have been hoping to fight for centuries," the black Weretiger, Dorian, answered. "They are known as the Great White Hunters of Northern Lands. They drove the Siberian Clans off their lands thousands of years ago. According to those stories they were the strongest of all the Lupine Packs. Ever since I first heard the legend I have dreamed of fighting one of them." Dorian stood up from the throne that once belonged to Prince Herb. "Leave me." The two Weretigers left without a word leaving Dorian alone. "It has been a long time since I had a good fight. This will defiantly be a fight I can sink my claws into." He smiled as he flexed his claws as a red glow appeared over them.