There is one word that describes why this update took so long: Hiraishin. The worst possible self-insert ever:

Laying it on the Line by Lioconvoy.

Ranma ½ is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, and Angelic Layer is the creation of CLAMP. I own none of their characters nor do I own any of other well knows characters that may appear in this story. The story itself is mine and I ask for no money, but please ask permission before posting this story anywhere.

Chapter 3: Steps

Mu Tzu retuned to his apartment after a long morning jog. He sighed as he tried to decide what to do today. Normally today would be a maintenance day for him, a day to remind him who he truly was. Spending as much time in his cursed form as he had been was really starting to affect him. Putting on female clothes was second nature now, and he didn't even mind wearing the revealing Chinese dress he had to wear at work anymore.

He definitely needed to be a man today; however last night Ranma's guardian had invited him and his friends to the Angelic Layer tournament site. This would be a good chance to practice on a tournament Layer, which differed from a normal layer because of its holographic environments.

Still the invite was made to Lyn, so how would the others react to a life size version of Lyn's Angel showing up instead.

-v-v-v-v-v-v-

Ranma put the finishing touches on his Angel. He designed Megumi after his cursed form with a slightly smaller chest. Megumi was light weight with an emphasis on speed and flexibility, according to the notes Lio lent him on angel making that was the norm these days. People like to copy the most powerful style and it was a light weight that held the championship for the last five years.

"Ranma, Lyn just called she's not coming."

Ranma looked up from his spot on the living room floor saw Lio with the phone. "Really, she seemed so interested yesterday."

"Maintenance day. She asked if a friend could join us. I'm guessing she'll be coming in her true form." Lio smile as he put the phone down in its station. "I wonder why he just doesn't tell the others about his curse. They accept you and yours."

"What makes you so sure Lyn is a guy?" Since Ranma first introduced Lyn to his guardian, Lio had insisted she was also a victim of the Nyannichuan.

"Haven't you notice the way she looks at you? It's not a look of interest, it's one of curiosity. I'm sure she wonders how you don't let your curse affect you. I'm guessing she wasn't aware the only time you were female besides school was when you hung out with your friends. She probably thought that like her, you spent more time female then male." Lio sat down on the couch and too a looked up at the ceiling. "Although I wonder how did she know about your curse?"

Ranma sat dressing Megumi in an outfit similar to Lio's Recca; sort of a teacher apprentice thing. "I guess maybe you have a point… I mean the she gave me the same look before and after I revealed my curse."
-v-v-v-v-v-v-

Akane looked at the clock on the wall. The small hand finally reached the five and the big hand was now on the twelve, one more hour left of work. She put on a smile as a pair of customers came in. "How may I help you?"

"Well luv what would you like." Marcus said smiling.

"Two scoops of mint chocolate chip." Sai replied emotionlessly looking at the girl behind the counter. The girl seemed familiar.

"I'll get that smile from you yet Sai." The brown haired gaijin chuckled, this date had gone pretty good so far, and even if he didn't get a kiss at the end he'd consider it a success. He was wearing Sai down.

Akane started to get the woman's request. She liked working at Bobsson, but it always annoyed her a little when couples came in. Her own love life was a wreck thanks to a certain sword boy.

"You're Tendo Akane aren't you?" It finally hit Shirahime's Dues where she'd seen this girl before.

Putting the second scoop of ice cream on the cone the youngest Tendo was puzzled at the young woman's comment. She didn't recognize the brown haired, red eyed woman. "Do I know you?"

"Ah, so this is Nabiki's little sister. The way she described her though I thought she be younger." Marcus wasn't a regular to his girlfriend's little group since he wasn't in Japan often, but he heard a few stories of Nabs' sister.

Akane handed Sai her cone. She slightly wondered how these two knew Nabiki. They were at least in their twenties and didn't seem like the gullible sort. Then again the guys comment sounded like he was a friend and not a victim of her sister. "Will that be all?"

"No, I'll have a double scoop peanut butter."

"Nabiki mentioned you got a job to pay her back. She never said what it was though." Jounouchi looked over her friend's younger sister. She could see the family resemblance was definitely there but she wasn't a clone of Nabiki. She wore her hair shorter than her sister and it was balck and not brown as her older sister's was. She did share Nabiki's brown eyes, but there was a different look to them. Also the way she was behaving now it was hard to believe she was as violent as Nabiki described her.

"Unless one of her spies told her, she wouldn't know. I got a job outside of the Nerima ward so she wouldn't know how much I made." Starting to scoop the peanut butter ice cream for the young man, she couldn't help but wonder if these two were actually her older sister's friends. She didn't even know Nabiki had actual friends.

"I thought Nabs gave up on the spy business."

"Marcus, don't butcher Nabiki's name." The middle Tendo had given up on the spy business, but it wouldn't be surprising if her younger sister didn't know. Nabiki did tend to act differently around everyone outside their group.

Handing the young man called Marcus his cone, Akane went over to the register and rang up the couples cones. "That will be $6.85"

"How well do you know your sister, maybe you should get to know her better? Why not give Angelic Layer a try?" After passing his cone to Sai, the gaijin then pulled his wallet. He first started to take out a few pound notes but his companion cleared her throat and he grabbed the right currency.

As the couple left, the youngest Tendo daughter wondered what there relationship with her sister was. Also what would Nabiki have to do with Angelic Layer? Wasn't that the game with fighting dolls, Nabiki wasn't a fighter.

-v-v-v-v-v-v-

Outside of the residence of Lioconvoy and Ranma; Christine, Sarah, and another young man had just arrive.

Christine was very happy by the presence of Sarah's neighbor. Although she wasn't as guy crazy as her friend was, she had a crush on Kevin Kuno since she entered high school. Unfortunately the upperclassman liked Lyn.

"I wonder what Lio will think of the uninvited guest." Sarah said with an annoyed tone in her voice.

"Come on the more the merrier right? Side's I'm a friend, don't I have the right to the same advantage you guys are going to have?" Kevin smiled. Today was going to be a great day. He'd get to spend it with Lyn, and he'd get to have an Angelic Fight on an official tournament layer.

The Door opened and out popped Ranma and Lio. Lio looked over the three with an unsurprised expression on his face. "Really Kevin you say that you like Lyn but you seem to follow Sarah around like a lost little puppy."

"Mr. Convoy, that's disgusting." Sarah gagged

"Yeah, Sarah's like an annoying little sister to me that's all." A thought passed through Kevin's mind of himself and Sarah as a couple then he started feeling sick himself.

"Who's the annoying one?"

"Sarah, It's not Mr. Convoy, Lioconvoy is one word. If you feel calling me Lio is too informal then Mr. Lioconvoy will do." Lio shook his head, he explained this countless times already, but both Sarah and Christine still got into the habit of calling him Mr. Convoy.

Christine started looking around for their Chinese friend. It wasn't like Lyn to be late and they agree on meeting at seven-thirty. "Did Lyn call to say she be late?"

"Nah, she called to say she isn't coming. Said she send a friend in her place." Just how normal was it to send a friend in ones place? Despite his last year living in America he still wasn't familiar with what was and wasn't normal here. Rubbing the back of his braid, Ranma wondered when this so called friend would show up.

"How can you say that so nonchalantly?" Sarah said tilting her head. "What's her friend like?"

"Turn around and you'll see."

Christine was the first to turn around. What she saw was a Chinese boy that looked allot like Lyn's Angel. Although her Angel wore thick glasses so you couldn't see its eyes, this boy didn't and he had eyes as black as coal, also his long black hair was tied back, where as Mu Tzu's hair was free flowing, the final difference was the clothes. The young man in front of her wore black silk pants, and a white silk Chinese style shirt instead of the robes the Angel wore. Not surprisingly Sara was drooling, he was cute, just not her type.

"Just what are you to Lyn?" This man had to be a rival for Lyn. Then again…Lyn based her Angel after him, didn't she. Kevin sighed, it wasn't likely he stood a chance against this guy, and unlike his cousin, he knew when he was beaten.

Lio had to be right, Lyn was cursed too, although the former Saotome wondered, if this was Lyn's true form, or if the way he knew her was.

"Well now if were all here, let's be on our way. We can introduce ourselves as we walk to the tournament site.

-v-v-v-v-v-v-

Hiraishin's Dewstral form walked about Lio's empty house. He had missed him apparently. Mindless destruction was good for the soul, but bad for getting to places on time. He would have to try again tomorrow. It was unlikely that he would see his former partner here again today.

-v-v-v-v-v-v-

In the Tokyo zoo, a male Panda wondered why he didn't change back when the Zoo Keeper bathed him that afternoon. Had he spent so much time a Panda that he was now forced to remain this way for the rest of his life?

"Hello Genma."

The Panda turned to see a face he had hoped never to see again, not after what Hiraishin had done to him. He quickly held up a sign that read "Master how good it is to see you"

"I can't say the same Genma. Not after what your student did to me. I will have my revenge on the both of you though. I'm sure you've already noticed you don't change back with hot water anymore. That's thanks to an item I stole from that masked fool. I wonder if he even knew what this is. It's called the Chiisuiton it locks a person in their cursed state forever. I've just come back from China and I have some cursed waters to use on him too."

Genma sat there shocked did the master just say he was stuck a panda permanently. What was he going to do…well this Zoo did feed him well and there was cute young female Panda also here. It wasn't the life of luxury he wanted but without Ranma it's was certain he'd never get what he wanted anyway.

-v-v-v-v-v-v-

Hiraishin returned to his body and decided to look over his things. He needed something to entertain himself and he no longer was in the mood for mindless destruction. One by one he started pulling things from his bag.

First he pulled out a book that had a cover made of flesh and pages that were written in blood. Next came a sword, it had a mystical air about it, but smelled like fish. Then he pulled out a blue hood, above the forehead was a red Cobra.

As he grabbed into his bag he expected to pull out a bucket and ladle. Feeling around in his sack, he couldn't find it. Who would dare steal from a Dewi Master? Even the middle Tendo was not so stupid as to do such. Someone would pay dearly. Dearly indeed.
-v-v-v-v-v-v-

After a bit of a walk the five teenagers he escorted reached the site of the Angelic Layer Tournament. Like other sites around the world it doubled as a theme park. Although it wouldn't be open to the public till the after the tournament started, with his connections Lio had no problem getting everyone in. "This will be the first time the U.S. will participate in the WALT. So after this you five will have a leg up on the competition."

"WALT?" Ranma looked at his guardian puzzled.

"It stands for World Angelic Layer Tournament." Christine said looking around. She had seen the park from the outside, but from the inside it seemed much bigger. "I think Mr. Lio made the acronym up himself though."

The adult rubbed the back of his hair, a bad habit he picked up from Ranma. "Yep. You got me on that one."

"Why is it they only use the environmental layers for the tournaments?" Kevin said looking ahead at the huge building surrounded by the life sized versions of the Angels belonging to Elite Four and some others he didn't recognize.

"Bugs in the system, Icchan is still working them out. It takes allot to program the environments and they need on hand support should something go wrong. It normally takes a team to keep them functional. Icchan had thought it be simple to use the technology on the average Layers, but thing haven't gone as smoothly as he planned. He's blamed the whole mess on Ogata."

"Mr. Convoy, you know the creator of Angelic Layer on a first name basis?" Sarah said looking at their chaperone.

Mu-tzu rolled his eyes. He wondered if the blonde got people's names wrong on purpose. After he introduced himself she kept calling him Mousse, she said she wouldn't call him Mu-tzu because she didn't want to confuse him with Lyn's Angel. Although, she called the Angel Mousse anyway.

The redhead just sighed and nodded. "Yes, Icchan and I are friends. I was even present at his wedding."

"Hey Lio, who are all those girls surrounding the building." To Ranma they looked like Magical Girls almost, yet Lio said that Angelic Layer was for everyone, so why would they have Magical Girls as mascots.

"Those are statues of the Elite Four, as well as some of the other various national champions." The male Amazon had been studying everything he could about the angels that stood in front of them. No matter what he'd make it to the finals and see Xian Pu.

"Elite Four?"

"The Angels of the Top Four Dues's; Misaki Mihara, Hatoko Kobayashi, Kaede Saitou, and Sai Jounouchi. They are considered the best of the best, even though all of them have taken losses. The redhead, Hirkaru, is the angel of Misaki Mihara the current Champion five years running. She's also the step daughter of Ichiro Mihara the founder of Angelic Layer." Christine beamed with pride as she talked about her heroes.

"Does that mean her Angel is top of the line?" Ranma figured it was no wonder she was the champion with that sort of advantage.

"Actually Hikaru is an older model as is Suzuka. Blanche and Shirahime are like Recca, they're both from the first release. It doesn't matter how advanced an Angel is, the winner is decided by the spirit of the Dues and their faith in their Angel." Lio looked at all the statues as they climbed the steps of the building. He was a bit surprised to spot Recca, but more surprised that Athena was no where around.

"Hey where's Athena?"

Apparently Kevin voiced his own thoughts. "I was wondering that myself"

Lio's ward looked about expecting to see an actual woman they were supposed to meet or something. "Who's Athena?"

"Athena is the Angel of the first champion and mother of Angelic Layer. She's also the mother of Misaki and wife of Ichiro Mihara." Sarah joined the search for who was in her opinion the greatest of all angels.

"When most people think of Angelic Layer they think of Athena, even though Shuu retired after Misaki beat her for the first time and Athena hasn't been on the layer since." Kevin's mind wandered to his cousin who had stolen one of the statues of Athena and kept it in his room. Tatewaki was such an idiot.

"Oh." As Ranma looked around he noticed Lio's Angel. "Hey old man you won a championship?"

"No, I'm not sure why Recca is there."

"Recca?" Christine was answered by Lio pointing to a female redheaded angel dressed in male ninja garb. "That's your Angel?"

"Yep." Lio took out an ID card and slid it through a slot by the door. Slowly the sliding doors opened. "You guys ready to see the layer."

-v-

- Lio's Corner:

-Ranma's Angel is named after Megumi Hayashibara, the voice actress for female Ranma in the Japanese version of the Anime.

-Why did I use dollars in Japan? I'm not to well versed in Yen for one. Second in the Japan scenes the characters are speaking Japanese, it's just auto translated, same thing for the scenes in China.

Q-Q

Hiraishin's Omake:

Lio stared at Hiraishin who walked throught the door with not his normal mask, but a blue hooded cowl.

"What in God's green Earth did you do now?" Hiraishin stared defiantly at Lio.

"Hiraishin hath done nothing wrong! Hiraishin hath only beat the holy hell out of some punk that tried to get the last Mountain Dew, but Hiraishin was victorious and as a penalty Hiraishin took his mask and now Hiraishin wears it as a prize." Lio rolled his eyes.

"Yeah whatever. I'm leaving before something else happens." As Lio left, A man decked out in a red uniform with a symbol of a corbra in white came running up to Hiraishin.

"Cobra Commander! At last we found you! Hurry! Zartan has gone mad and eaten Wild Weasel!" Hiraishin grinned beneath his mask.

"Sweet!"