Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I do not claim any rights to any of the characters or concepts created or owned by Viz Video or Rumiko Takahashi. This is just the work of one fan to the others. The only characters or concepts that I claim are the ones I created or introduced. That said, I bring you:
For Love and Money, the War of the Horse. A Y3 story.
Chapter 10: The Actors take their places…
Ranma had tracked the force and had spotted two bodies that had been cast aside along the way. Left to lie on the side of the road, they still had the uniforms that they had worn while they worked with the other renegades. It would appear that not all of them had been welcomed back into the fold, but it did give Ranma information into what she might be inserting herself into. Right now, she wanted answers to the questions she had, and to find out how to undo whatever lock had been placed on her curse.
She really hoped that there was a way to unlock it once more. She knew that she would adjust if there was no way, an idea that would have been completely alien when she had been young and freshly cursed. When she had still been trapped in the mentality that her idiot father had instilled into her. Her time in the Yakuza had definitely changed her outlook on the world, as had her time making peace with the Amazons.
The time when she had started to get closer to Khu Lon and Xian Pu, along with the others that had been lost in the village.
And, of course, Nabiki had completely upended her life in many drastic and wonderful ways. Her wife had shown her possibilities that she had always thought would be out of her reach, and she could never repay her. That said, the one thing she could do was to finish this and come back in just one piece.
Ranma looked at the object that sat in a covered wooden box once more, and wondered if it would actually be needed. She had been able to get a good description of the ladle and bucket that had been used to lock her in her cursed form, and had found one that fit the description in the village. She needed to know if there was a way to undo the lock on her curse, and if so then it was likely kept in the same place, or so she hoped.
Most people would want to keep a way to undo a locked curse close at hand, in case they managed to get themselves, or at least that was the logic that Ranma had decided to work under. The other bargaining chip was the other containers that were packed into the back of her vehicle. The mercenaries had a truly impressive amount of C-4 with them, and a sufficient number of radio detonators, as well. Whatever they had planned on blowing up, they had made sure that they were well prepared for it.
More than likely they had intended to destroy the village, or perhaps even the springs if it came to it. It would fit with what she had heard about Rai Zur so far. Now, it was just a matter of making sure that when he met with this Prince Herb again, that the situation turned out differently than the last time.
After all, Ranma Tendo never lost.
How many engagements you won or lost in a battle didn't matter, as long as you were the one left standing at the end of the war. That was something that she had learned over the years, and it had shaped how she had learned to handle conflicts.
It was a lesson that people like Herb and Rai Zur would never be able to accept. They would see every fight as being potentially decisive, every defeat as a major setback, unless they were only trying to assess the strength of a potential enemy, as when she had fought Rai Zur that first time. Even though the renegade Amazon had almost surely taken the job simply to test out what she could do against Ranma, she had still tried to kill Ranma in earnest.
People like them found it hard to learn from a loss. They also tended to be dismissive of those that they had beat, living with the idea that they could never be bested by someone they had defeated before. It was honestly part of what Ranma had decided that she could count on when she started to work out a strategy to handle Herb. She could not remember a lot of the fight, since she had let herself slide into the altered mentality of the Neko-Ken.
That was something else she had to keep in mind. Herb had beaten her in the streamlined combat mindset of the Neko-Ken, so it was unlikely that she would be able to take him head on in a direct fight, not without digging into the bag of tricks that she had learned over the years from the people in her life. Hopefully it would not come to that, since she preferred to keep as many secrets as she could.
As Ranma eased around another curve, she thought about what she had observed from the bodies that she had passed so far. Herb's control over his men was not absolute and unquestioning, but the manner of execution said a fair amount, as well. From the blood splatter and angle of the cut, the men had been kneeling on the ground. They had knelt before their former lord and waited for death. It either spoke of unquestioning loyalty, or that they knew that if they fought, if they struggled, it would be much worse for them.
Even that bit of information was useful, with how capable Parsley had been. Ranma knew that most would find what she had concluded to be overwhelming. Perhaps it would weaken their resolve, or crumble their determination to carry on. Ranma, though, always enjoyed a real challenge. An opponent that could challenge her at her best.
It was, after all, how she had met Konatsu. They had started as enemies, then became rivals. In time, they had become friends, and now… Konatsu was just as much part of her family as Akane, Kasumi or their own children.
Of course, Nabiki had to make her own comment on the matter. She had said that if Ranma ever ended up sleeping with Konatsu, she couldn't really be mad. Of course, that would mean that SHE was cleared to sleep with her, as well.
Ranma had been mostly sure that she had been joking. Mostly.
Ranma slowed the truck as he came to the last corner before the abandoned temple would come into sight, and parked the truck in a grove of trees. She shouldered the heavy packs that she had placed the charges into and with her rifle over her shoulder, she started to make her way stealthily into a good vantage point to look over the temple.
When she caught sight of it for the first time, she had to reassess what she had expected. It was more of a fortress than the temples she had grown accustomed to. But still, a considerable portion of the mountain side that the temple had been carved into had been removed. It had to have been an impressive feat at the time, something that surely had taken many, many years to accomplish, only for its creators to fade into history without leaving any proof of their existence except for the temple itself.
From what she had learned from Khu Lon and the other elders, such things were not uncommon in this part of the world. Secret societies, hidden religions and peoples that were thought to only exist in myth and legend.
Like Chinese Amazons.
Ranma pulled his full attention back to the temple, and settled in with the shielded scope that she had removed from the rifle to observe the temple, and watch those that guarded it. She figured that the Musk would be leaving in the morning, unless something delayed them.
She planned to be that delay, if needed.
Ranma smiled a grim smile as she waited for sundown to make her next move. It had proven to be a good thing that she had trained with Konatsu on stealth, along with the two former special forces soldiers. Amaya was stealthy in an entirely different way than Konatsu, and Michi might not be the best at stealth but the special forces combat medic had a very… Unusual toolbox of tricks.
One of which had been demolitions. A training regime that would be coming in oddly handy in what she would be doing tonight.
The real challenge would be getting in without killing anyone. Ranma had decided that the best option if she wanted to avoid a fight was to not just go through slaughtering every one of Prince Herb's men that got in her way. Herb would probably be a lot more open to negotiations when she made her offer to him. And well, if he didn't want to listen, then the detonator she would have with her should make him a little more open to reason.
As her wife had often said, most people would come to a good compromise if you could convince them that the alternative was worse. Ideally, you could show them how it would benefit them, as well. But, when in doubt, negotiate from a place of strength. And always be true to your word, no matter what it was. Didn't matter if it was a threat or a promise, if you didn't carry through then you no longer had any ground to stand on.
Ranma slipped back to the truck and double checked the bags of charges and detonators again before she jacket into place and tugged her hat on before she started to move towards the temple. She slipped from shadow to shadow as quiet as a cat as she made her way to the entrance she had chosen from her observations.
Ranma observed the lone guard at the entrance. He was a tall, thin man with a pronounced nose and large eyes. He moved in swift, sudden spurts of energy before he would settle back in. Ranma figured that he would not be replaced for a few hours, and had seen no evidence of any sort of communication equipment. This entrance was her best shot, and she would take it.
While trying not to break the guard. Or, at least not in a permanent manner. One of the interesting tidbits that the old woman who had tended to her had told her was that the Musk had one particular odd weakness.
They were pretty much useless when it came to pretty women that were not actively trying to kill them.
Ranma grinned a predatory little smile as she slipped out of the large jacket and smoothed out the dress she had borrowed from one of the girls. She placed some fruit, bread and cheese into a basket and sashayed her way around the boulder. She smiled warmly and brushed her mane of red hair behind her ear as the Musk guard snapped to a guarded position before his eyes predictably slid down to her ample cleavage that strained to escape from the confines of her bodice.
Ranma smiled a shy, coquettish smile as she blushed and met his eyes for a moment before she looked away. She kept walking towards him slowly, as she acted like a shy village girl. She stopped as he shook his head finally to clear his head and looked at her.
"What are you doing here, girl?" He said, and she had to give him credit that he almost kept his eyes off her heaving bosom while he talked to her.
Ranma met his eyes and smiled shyly before she answered in Mandarin with the local accent. "I… came from my village down in the valley, sir. I wanted to thank liberated us from the men that kept raiding us." She bit her lip and took a heavy breath. "Can I offer you something?"
He blinked and looked at her, then swallowed hard and nodded before Ranma sashayed towards him, and started to lay out the food before him as she turned her back to him and swayed her hips slightly in front of him as she worked away. As she expected, she felt a very tentative, light touch on her ass. She squealed and jumped a little before she turned with her face and neck colored by a deep blush.
"W…what? Did… Did I do something to displease you? Is… is the food not to your liking?". She swallowed and fidgeted. "Was… was there something else that you wanted?"
Ranma could see his eyes as they dilated, and she arched her back just a tiny bit to force her heaving bosom to threaten to spill out of the tight bodice even more than it had already. She could see as his eyes slowly glazed, and he started to reach for her. She stepped forward, and into him as he found himself suddenly with two hands full of breasts. He practically hyperventilated on the spot, his mind basically shut off as Ranma stepped in closer to him, and leaned up as if she was going to kiss him. As he leaned down, she gave him a quick yank to make sure he was out of sight before she sent him sprawling, and knocked him out with a quick chop to the back of the neck. She moved him farther into the shadows, and checked him once before she tied him up and gagged him. No need to cause any problems if he woke up sooner than expected, after all.
That taken care of, Ranma sneaked back to where she had stashed her gear and quickly slipped out of the dress and into the tactical gear that she had looted from one of the dead female mercenaries. One last check, and she hefted the packs and made her way into the temple to make her arrangements.
Unseen by Ranma, a small shadow slipped from the darkness of an overhang and smiled happily before she practically skipped over to the unconscious guard. She looked down at him for a minute, as if she weighed two options before she rolled him onto his stomach and kneeled down on his back. She slipped one hand under his chin, and rested the other on the back of his head before she made a quick motion and snapped his neck with an almost effortless efficiency to the act.
"Silly little Ranma, you should never leave anyone behind. You never know what they might tell someone who isn't supposed to hear something secret. You never know what kind of naughty things they might do, after all." Hinako said in a childish sing-song before her face morphed into something much more horrible and wicked as she patted something in her pocket before she stealthily followed Ranma in. The lessons that the Master had given her had paid off once more, since she could follow Ranma without the martial artist being aware of her. You just had to hide your malice and murderous thoughts, so that you didn't set your target off.
The fact that she enjoyed what she did, and only felt a sense of glee and satisfaction might help, but she honestly didn't really think too much about it.
The reasons did not matter, as long as she could be of use to the Master.