Miss Ranma
!SOUND EFFECTS! "THOUGHTS"
Chapter Two
FLASHBACK
"For you to go home, you must pass through land of Amazon warriors. I have too much work here so will let daughter guide you through. She good girl and will direct you right," the Jusenkyo guide said, motioning to a teenage girl dressed similarly to him except that her uniform was a much brighter light blue/white color.
"Let us be off, customers. No time to waste," the cute girl with a short round body and two pigtail braids called out to them, motioning for them to get a move on.
FLASHBACK ENDED
"What was all that girlish laughter and giggling I heard earlier? And why were you practically naked?" Genma demanded, regarding his daughter who was wearing a spare karate gi as they trudged through the mountain path along with the Jusenkyo guide's daughter who was acting in his place.
"Oh, nothing."
"Nothing?!"
"I was in a fight, all right, Daddy?"
"Really? How did it go?"
"He practically surrendered and ran off as soon as I got serious."
Genma looked at his daughter for a moment, scrutinizing her. "At least you fight well for a girl. Nice to know all my hard work wasn't for nothing. But why were you naked?"
"The guy attacked me with blades, slicing up what I was wearing, Daddy, but despite all that, I ran him off."
"I see. If only you were a boy, you'd be invincible!"
Ranma turned angrily towards her father for a moment. "Who says I can't be invincible now?! Or are you upset because I'm not some dimwitted jock you can jerk around?"
"Silence, Ranma! You can't be invincible as only a girl, no matter how much you train. My only hope now is to marry you off to some rich guy who might be impressed by your womanly attributes," her father answered, giving a short look at her bosom which threatened to come out of her too tight, midriff opened karate gi with every breath.
"What? I got news for you, Daddy. I'm not marrying some rich guy so you can take him for everything he's got. Besides, I Want to marry someone I love and care..."
"You'll marry for honor and that's final! My best friend who is also a master in our martial art, Anything Goes, and I made a pact long before you were born. The oath was that we would unite the schools by having our children marry and produce a family thus bringing the schools together. If you had complied with my wishes to be turned into a boy, you would have honored our agreement. Now you have dishonored our clan, you selfish child."
"I dishonored our clan by being born a girl and falling into the wrong spring? Stuff it, old man! Unless your friend has a son hidden somewhere, there's nothing else to talk about. And don't try engaging me to anybody else right now because I won't accept it."
"Why, you ungrateful boy! I'll..."
!SPLASH! "You'll what, panda man?!" Ranma called out, having deftly kicked a puddle of water on her father.
"Ah, Customers. Here is village of amazons!" the young guide interjected before the two could go at it in another fight as they had done for most of the journey.
"Oh, I see. So this is where they live," Ranma said, looking intently at the village which was surrounded by flowing rivers and contained huts instead of houses. There was plush vegetation with trees bearing ripening fruit all over the area.
[You know about this?] Genma-Panda's sign showed.
"A little bit. The guy who attacked me said he was an Amazon himself. But I sort of figured amazons were all women," Ranma answered.
"Most Amazons are women, at least warriors are. How powerful was male amazon you fight?" the guide asked, turning to Ranma, enthused.
"He was very powerful, but he relied on weapons that he made appear out of thin air."
"Hmm. Strong amazon male is unusual. It best if you stay panda for meantime, Customer," the guide said, motioning to Genma-Panda.
[Why is that?] the panda's sign showed.
"Women here see men as second class citizens, easily offended at anti-women tirades," the guide explained, thinking about all the things Genma had said about women being weak and inferior while he was with her dad.
!CLANG!PING! !POW!CRACK! "What's all that? Sounds like a fight's going on."
"It is fight, Customers. These amazons very strong. They show their skill now in big tournament."
Ranma's well-trained senses took apt notice of the clearing which was surrounded by a lot of women watching a fight between two well trained martial artists, fighting on a large log suspended on two ropes, one on each side. One of the martial artists was a busty, purple-headed girl, utilizing two bon boris which looked like massively huge lollipops. These weapons came into contact with the multi-razor ended staff used by her opponent who was twice as big as the purple-headed girl.
The battle went on until finally, !WHAM! "Eeeyaaargh!" the giant-sized amazon screamed, flying off into the atmosphere in defeat from purple-headed girl's powerful blow.
"Winning martial arts tournament is great honor."
"That girl's got some serious power," Ranma said in admiration.
"Mmm. Free food," Genma-Panda thought to himself as he regarded the spread of all kinds of Chinese culinary masterpieces which some men had put down on a large wooden table. !CHOMP!CHOMP!
"Mr. Customer? What you eat there?" Both Ranma and the guide turned to see Genma-Panda gorging himself on all the delicious food.
"Daddyy! You can't just start eating food that's not yours!" Ranma admonished. !SMASH! "Yeow!" Ranma leaped into the air to avoid the attack of the purple-headed girl's fast-moving lollipop-shaped weapons.
"You there, woman and panda! Why do you steal my prize?!" the guide translated for the angry Amazon.
"Every year is special martial arts tournament. I am now champion," the guide explained in translation.
"Then you'll have no problem if I defeat you, right?" Ranma answered, standing up, readying herself for a fight as the guide translated.
"She want you to get on suspended log so you two can fight from there," the guide explained.
"No problem!" Ranma leaped up into the air, practically floating towards the log, doing two somersaults before deftly landing on the said log, standing on one leg in the crane stance to the amazement of the audience.
The Amazon warrior growled as she too jumped onto the log with less agility and finesse than Ranma had shown. Then she attacked!
!WIFF!WIFF! "Too slow, sister." !WOOSH! Now watch this!" !KRAK! Ranma easily struck the purple-headed girl, knocking her off the log with a well-placed kick that sent her opponent into unconsciousness.
"She is won!" the guide exclaimed in shock.
"How was that?!" Ranma announced, leaping off of the log with a triple somersault flip, landing on her feet like a cat.
[Quit showboating, boy!] Genma-Panda's sign showed.
"Don't get mad at me, Daddy. And don't call me boy!" As Ranma looked around she noticed angry looks from the women around them.
Then a diminutive old woman, bounding along on a stick, came up to the downed girl, pressing pressure points that forced her to wake up. As soon as the girl had gotten up she walked over to Ranma and kissed her on the cheek.
"Gasp!" the crowd exclaimed.
"You're a nice looking girl and all but I'm not into other chicks."
"That's not what she meant!" the extremely old woman with long white hair said in fluent Japanese. "My great-granddaughter, Shampoo, has just given you the kiss of death. You're not long to live on this earth, girl. I suggest you enjoy what little bit of time you have left."
"We must leave now, Customers!" the guide said frantically, grabbing both Ranma and the pandafied man, running as fast as her stubby legs could run, surprising Ranma and her father with her speed.
"What's this Kiss of death?" Ranma asked.
"Amazon has very big pride," the guide explained. "Losing to outsider is worth shame than death. Kiss of death is promise to chase you to end of earth, and kill! And when they say to the ends of earth, they mean it!"
"Oh, that's great, Thanks a lot, Daddy. Did you have to eat up all their food like that?"
[Shut up, boy! It was for the art!] his sign showed.
"What does stuffing your face with someone else's food have to do with the art?"
[I needed the nourishment!]
"Come to think of it, you've been stealing food from others for a while now. What's up with that?"
"Oh, no, Customers! Amazon gaining. Must increase our pace!"
"I'm through running." At that point, Ranma let go of the guide, stopped short and turned around to face her pursuer.
"She kill you, Customer!" the guide exclaimed.
"Don't worry about it. I beat her before; I'll beat her again." With that Ranma made her way towards their pursuer. In seconds she came in contact with the Amazon warrior who immediately attacked with her weapons.
!WIFF! "Listen here, girl." !WOOSH! "Even though you have a ridiculous reason for trying to kill me, I'm not going to run away from you for the rest of my life." !WIFF! "Besides, having someone like you trying to kill me will help to keep me in fighting shape. So let's do this. Hyaaa!"
!POW! "Ungh!" The purple-haired girl went down as soon as Ranma took advantage of a wide opening she saw, allowing her to get a powerful kick in.
"Had enough, friend?"
"Aiyaa!" The Amazon quickly got to her feet and renewed her attack.
"You're still too slow. I bet if you got rid of those weapons you'd be a little faster."
"Aaagh!" the girl screamed as Ranma kicked the bon boris out of her hands, attacking the specific nerve areas of her wrists, forcing her to open her hands and drop her weapons.
"Now let's see how well you can fight without your weapons. Come on," Ranma motioned with her hands for her to fight her.
"Shampoo kill!" the girl said in her tongue, charging Ranma, attacking with several fast, powerful kicks and punches seemed to be moving in slow motion to Ranma. "This outsider's hardly moving as I attack her. What am I doing wrong? Is she reading my moves?"
"That's right, Shampoo. I'm too skilled for you," Ranma answered, seeming to be able to read the girl's mind as she read the girl's facial expressions. "Want some more?"
"I no give up!" the girl spoke in broken Japanese. "Hyah!" Shampoo leaped towards her opponent with a flying kick that Ranma bypassed rather easily. Then the pigtailed girl flew into the air, doing a flawless acrobatic flip, coming down and striking Shampoo in the back with a powerful roundhouse kick. "Ungh!"
But the Amazon wasn't out of it yet. Getting up, she rushed Ranma again at an inhuman speed. "Tenshin amaguriken!" the girl screamed, hitting Ranma with hundreds of blows, or so she thought.
"You're pretty fast," Ranma said, blocking most of her attacks. "Let's go at it toe to toe." Ranma immediately struck back with, even more, faster punches, attacking with superhumanly fast, low Wing Chun kicks as well, getting in four hits for everyone she took.
!KAPOW! "Aiyaaaa!" Shampoo screamed as Ranma knocked her to the ground with a powerful punch and kick combination that sent her into a world of unconsciousness.
"Aah!" Ranma sighed, having enjoyed the fight, her breasts heaving with the satisfied breath she took. "You got a lot to learn before you beat me. Better luck next time, Shampoo." With that Ranma began to walk off.
"Not bad," a young man said, appearing out of nowhere right behind her.
"Do you want to fight me again, Mousse?" Ranma answered, turning around and getting in a stance.
The amazon male adjusted his glasses, looking down Ranma's wide opening shirt. "No. You're liable to come out of your clothes again and render me helpless by the sight of you."
"What? You're not making any sense. Do you want to fight or not?'
"What I have is a proposition for you."
"And what is that?" Ranma asked, getting suspicious, beginning to notice where the boy's ardent gaze was directed.
"It doesn't matter how many times you defeat Shampoo. She will keep coming back. However, if you were to marry me, you would be part of the tribe and no longer an outsider. Shampoo would hate that but there would be nothing she could do about it."
"No! Ranma, I didn't raise you to be an Amazon living in some tribal village!" Genma interjected, running over to them, having since doused himself with hot water.
"Take it easy, Daddy. I have no intention of living out here in the boondocks for the rest of my life. Sorry, Mousse. We have to get going."
"Am I that hideous to you?" the boy said with a charming smile that almost made Ranma melt.
"It's not that," Ranma said with a blushing smile. "I just don't want to live here. I want to see the whole world. You're a nice, looking guy. I'm sure you'll find someone to be with."
As they walked off, Mousse stood there, contemplating the situation. "I'll find some way of getting you, Ranma. You have beauty, brains, and power, making you worthy enough to lead the whole Amazon tribe in time. I'll never give up."
"Oooh," the girl on the ground moaned.
"It's over, Shampoo. She beat you again," Mousse said, speaking Chinese to the rising amazon.
"Shut up, Mousse! You're such an idiot! I'll never marry you!"
"That's OK, Shampoo. The girl who just left here is a whole lot better than you in every way."
"You can't marry her. I have to kill her!" Shampoo said with a tinge of jealousy as she picked up her weapons.
"I will marry her even though she said she wasn't interested. I have a few tricks up my sleeves."
"Stupid tricks are all you have, Stupid Mousse." With that, the amazon girl ran off in the direction of her quarry.
"Be careful, Shampoo! She might hurt you next time!" Mousse called out to her departing form.
"That went well."
"Grandmother!"
Standing before the youth was a woman who seemed to be in her sixties, was the medium height for a Chinese woman, was and still rather comely with her graying, brown long hair. "Do you still think you can bring her into the tribe?"
"She'll come around."
"We should follow them to Japan, you and I. You need to be close to her to woo her to yourself. But there's one good thing about this."
"What's that, Grandmother?"
"Ranma's presence has gotten you to give up on Shampoo."
"Well, I guess so."
"It's for the best. Ranma's a whole lot better than the brash Shampoo. Anyway, when you've gotten Ranma to marry you and brought her back to the tribe, your great-grandmother and I will train her in all the Amazon secret techniques. In time she'll be a great Amazon, becoming a great Amazon elder, maybe even Amazon leader! Won't Cologne be upset when it's Ranma, not Shampoo who's the greatest Amazon of her generation?"
"Yes, but I'm still in love with her, Grandmother," Mousse said wistfully, staring off into space.
"I know that, child. I was disappointed when your mother, my only daughter, died in childbirth, bearing you, a male, but now there's hope. Our family line will rule the Amazons in time!"
"Then what are you waiting for, Aloe?!" a crackling voice called out.
"Mother!" Aloe looked up to see a very old, doll-sized woman standing on a stick, high on the opposing cliff, making her way down to them, hopping on her stick as she went.
"It's very important you bring this girl in, Mousse. Women like her are one in a million. You must get her to marry you. You must stop at nothing to achieve this end."
"Yes, Great-Grandmother."
"Eventually, I'll show up later to look in on you to see how you're doing. But right now I have to go back to make sure Elder Cologne doesn't suspect anything."
As she hopped away on her stick, she turned around and said, "since your grandmother is a great Chinese chef, you'll set up a Chinese restaurant near where Ranma lives. As soon as everything's ready, I'll send along some more members of our clan to help out. Now go!"
XXX
Ranma, her father, and the guide arrived at a bustling marketplace that was within walking distance of the nearby port. During this time there was a carnival going on so there were all kinds of pleasant food aromas going back and forth in addition to various kinds of performers.
"You can go get back to Japan from here," the guide said, pointing at some ships. "So long." With that the portly girl left them, disappearing into the huge crowds.
"Well, Daddy. Are we going to swim back to Japan the way we did on the way here?" Ranma asked with a small smirk on her face her father couldn't miss.
"Foolish girl! You know full well that my panda body will be too heavy to stay afloat for too long." Then he looked at her for a moment. "You'll have to use your feminine wiles to get us some money for the voyage back."
"And exactly how do you suppose I do that?" Ranma asked with her arms folded on her chest, narrowing her eyes at her father.
"Simple. Just walk over to some sailors and show off your womanly attributes to them. When they're distracted I'll pick their pockets."
"What?! Forget it, Pops."
"Listen, you rebellious bitch! Get your sweet ass over there and..."
"Zip it, old man!" Ranma looked up and noticed that a giant-sized man was beating another man to a pulp on a large stage that was six feet off the ground, being 50 by 50 feet square. Upon the end of the fight, a medium-sized man ran up to the stage and started speaking through a megaphone, making himself heard throughout the whole area.
"Come one. Come all!" the announcer called out, pointing with his thumb to the large, seven and a half foot, muscular man, standing next to him. "I'll bet anyone ten gold pieces to five that he can take Kong on and beat him. Are there any more takers? If so, take your bets!"
The friends of the man whom Kong had just defeated dragged him off as the announcer kept on talking. "I told you Chen wasn't strong enough to take on someone so big and strong."
"I thought all those muscles would slow the bigger man down," the other answered.
"Oh, never mind, Tan. Wait until the master hears about Chen's defeat."
"Look over there!" Ranma called out, impressed by what she had just seen.
"You expect me to fall for that?"
"No, I'm serious. There's a way for us to make some money for the trip home. All I have to do is beat that guy over there up and I'll win the money."
Then Genma looked up, noticing the large, Manchurian man on the upraised stage, wearing green baggy pants, sporting a Fu Manchu mustache, strutting around bare-chested showing off his muscular body and sinewy limbs with large, powerful hands, being bald except for the thick, long braided queue running from his head down his back.
"That guy is too big and strong for a little girl like you to take on, Ranma. Now, simply do as I told you to do earlier and... Wait! Where are you going?"
Before Genma knew what was happening, Ranma was already running towards the stage. And in the blink of an eye, she had leaped up, doing three expertly executed somersaults, landing right in front of the startled announcer.
"I want to take this guy on for the money!"
"Wha... What?! You want to take Kong on?" the announcer said with a laugh as the crowd joined in.
The large man smiled at Ranma, looking her over with a lascivious grin, practically drooling all over himself. "How about you and me wrestle afterward, sweet cheeks? Heh, heh."
"Weeell. I don't have any money. But I'll make a deal with you. If you beat me we can have some fun together later. But if I win I get the ten gold pieces. Do we have a deal?" Ranma said with a sweet smile, allowing her opened midriff gi to open a little bit more, giving the tall warrior a birds-eye view of her womanly pulchritude.
"Now wait..."
"You got a deal, toots!" the big man bellowed. "I'll try not to damage you too much. I want to enjoy that pretty body of yours."
"Hold it, Kong! I have a condition to this deal," the announcer said, stopping him with the motion of holding his hand out. Then he gave Ranma a once over with a huge smile on his face.
XXX
"And now we have the battle of the sexes! This young female fighter is going to take on Kong Wong, going for the gold!" the announcer exclaimed, regarding Ranma who now had a change of "clothing." She was wearing what looked like a slingshot bikini, the top being composed of one four-inch in length silk piece of cloth going from three inches left of her navel on the waistline of her skimpy bikini bottom which left her hips exposed, going up the front of her body, coming around her neck then down her front again three inches to the right of her navel on her waistline. Thus her back, sides and much of her midriff were bare, leaving little to the imagination. Everyone marveled at her startling, gravity-defying hard body, her slender muscular physique, showing off beautifully, lightly defined abdominal muscles and femininely yet muscular arms. She had even discarded her pigtail for this fight, letting her luscious red hair cascade down her milky white shoulders.
"What a gorgeous body!" someone called out from the audience.
"I'll say!"
"You can say that again!"
"Wow! I'm glad I decided to show up here today!" an American sailor called out. "Whoever said Asian women were flat-chested was flat wrong!"
"I hear that!" one of the sailor's comrades said in agreement.
"Man, this strap of silk cloth is tight, even it feels nice against my skin; what little there is of it. If I didn't have so much control over my breathing the top would surely come off during the fight," the scantily clad teenager thought to herself, calmly priming up her body, mind, and spirit for the upcoming battle.
"This girl is indeed a jewel. No, a first-rate diamond! When Kong Wong is done with her I'll have her sold into slavery for a great deal of money. How I can't wait for her to come out of that thing!" the announcer thought to himself.
"And now the fight begins!"
"Rooarr!" The giant-sized man a beeline for Ranma's bosom, trying to grab and put the squeeze on her, but to no avail.
"Missed me."
"You're a fast pretty young thing, aren't ya? No matter. I'll get my hands on you sooner or later. Now stand still!" The large-sized warrior came running at Ranma in a speed that belied his huge size but before he could even get to the object of his desire, Ranma had vanished again.
"You're just too slow," Ranma said with a sweet smile and a wiggle of her cute little but.
"You're getting me angry, little girl. You better surrender quick or I'm going to be rough with you later on!"
"Uuuuh. No."
"Bitch! You'll pay for your arrogance! Roarr!" The man came at Ranma with another full head of steam but this time Ranma moved in on him a whole lot faster, hitting him with a powerful right-handed forward punch to his solar plexus, the power of the blow increased by her super-speed momentum. When the strike connected the big man fell back several feet, crashing to the ground.
"Ungh!" the warrior moaned, getting up. "So you can fight. You should have just laid down for me like I wanted you to. Now you're gonna get it."
"Bring it on, big boy!"
"Aaaah!" !STOMP! Kong struck the resilient stage with his foot in a rage, creating a shockwave that sent Ranma flying high up into the air with a bounce. Attempting to seize the opportunity, the giant leaped out towards her. But to his surprise, Ranma had kept on going up, doing an acrobatic flip that sent her up and over her charging opponent. When the big man turned around in midair, trying to find out where she was, Ranma was right in front of him, striking with a countless roundhouse kicks in a helicopter propeller fashion, her legs positioned as if she was doing the splits.
Stunned after Ranma's rapid-fire attacks, the Manchurian went crashing to the surface of the reinforced stage as Ranma deftly landed on her feet.
"You want to give up before you get hurt, big boy? Things will only get worse from here on out."
"With the way she moves how is she staying in that skimpy thing?!" someone from the audience called out, amazed at Ranma's agility and fighting prowess.
"No! I'm the strongest man in the world! No one embarrasses me like this. Nobody!" The over-sized martial artist came at Ranma again with even more speed than before but this time Ranma used a textbook martial arts throw maneuver, slamming her opponent to the ground using his own strength and momentum against him.
"That was a chicken *#% woman's move!" the giant bellowed, getting up, moving with uncanny speed and taking hold of the fiery redhead from behind including grabbing her by the neck. !RIP!POP!
"Heh, heh. I got you!" he said with a lustful leer, looking downward. "No one can get out of my grasp. You're my bitch now!"
"Watch the hands!"
"I'll do whatever I want to you!"
"Don't even think it," Ranma answered, struggling to get out of the giant's binding hold, using her heel to strike her captor's shins."
"I think what I like; I do what I like as you'll find out later. Feel my power!" The powerful Manchurian increased the pressure he was bringing to bear on the young girl. But despite her compromising position, Ranma had finally managed to get some leverage, turning around and kneeing the big man. !CRUNCH! Then as he lurched forward, screaming and clutching his groin, she struck him in the chin with a Thai-kickboxing elbow strike, rocking his head back.
"She's busting out all over!" a spectator in the audience called out as others gasped in admiration.
"Now, that's hot!"
"Wow! That girl's kicking some serious ass!"
"You ain't seen nothing yet!" Ranma answered the crowd. !POW!POW!POW!POW!POW!POW!KAPOW! Ranma struck the large man countless times, ending her fist barrage with a powerful uppercut, sending the giant ten feet high into the air up and over the stage crashing to the ground with a large thud from which he did not get up.
"Ta daaaa!" Ranma twirled around in a victory dance, ending the spin with the two-fingered victory sign to the delight of the audience who fervently cheered for her, making all sorts of catcalls and wolf whistles, surprising Ranma a little when the men in the crowd kept on cheering so enthusiastically.
While the crowd cheered loudly, the announcer re-thought the situation.
"I don't believe it! How could a pair of tits beat Kong? Well, at least I made a lot of money selling all kinds of food and merchandise to the spectators. Oh, here she comes now."
"Where are my gold coins?" Ranma asked, impatient to get all that money in her hot little hands, oblivious to her state of undress.
"Um. Well. You see..."
"Show me the money! I played your game of putting on this ridiculous getup, giving everyone here a free skin show. Now pay me or else!"
"You think a hot piece of ass is going to frighten... Gakk!"
"What did you say?" Ranma threatened, holding the man up by his neck.
"All right! All right!"
"That's what I thought you said. Now, where are the clothes I was wearing before I put this strip of silk cloth on? I want to get dressed in my old clothes as soon as possible."
"Uh. I had my men throw them out."
"Why did you do that?" Ranma said angrily.
"We figured you'd lose and become our property. The last thing we wanted was for you to be wearing a karate uniform."
"Oh?"
"And on top of that, you've torn the very expensive silk outfit you've been wearing. I can have it repaired but I'll have to have it back," the man said, leering uninhibitedly at Ranma's exposed pulchritude despite his normally calm and cool demeanor.
"You are so dead!"
"I think not." Ranma then sensed that she was surrounded by ten men who wore red Chinese tunics and green pant legs, armed with custom made Chinese swords, one of them brandishing an even more impressive looking sword than the others.
"Surely, you're exhausted from your previous fight with Kong Wong. That being the case, I suggest you do as I tell you to do before you get yourself hurt, little girl."
"Little girl? You're not much taller than I am, you cheat. Anyway, it's obvious to me that you guys can't stop underestimating me even though I defeated the toughest guy in the area. After I've beaten up your goons, I'm coming for you," Ranma threatened, regarding the announcer with a vicious sneer.
"Hmm. Get her, Ching-Lin!" the announcer commanded the head swordsman, escaping Ranma's hold and jumping backward like a cat with an impressive acrobatic leap of his own, getting out of the way of the upcoming melee.
"Not bad." !SWIPE!SWIPE!CHING! Ranma dodged and evaded in such a way that her attackers either crossed swords with themselves or missed her all together.
"You cannot win now, you half-naked whore," Ching-Lin said, regarding the young girl's current state of undress. "I am the best swordsman in the province. And my brothers here are the best second to me. No one can defeat us," the leader said, taking skilled slashes at Ranma that found only air.
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Now take your place as a good whore should or I'll pick your fruits," Ching-Lin threatened, using his sword to point at Ranma's hard body bustline.
"Go screw yourself!"
As the men closed in on her, Ranma evaded their sword thrusts, nailing her attackers with low Wing Chun kicks that cracked shin bones. While the henchmen were stunned, the bare-chested girl jumped a few feet in the air, spinning around in a helicopter fashion, kicking the swords out of most of their hands then nailing several of her attackers, sending them to the ground, unmoving.
"There's only five of us left. How can one woman move with such speed and skill? She's like a whirlwind." the lead swordsman thought to himself.
"Follow my lead," the leader ordered.
"Let's see how tough you are by yourself, Ching!" In the blink of an eye, Ranma leaped up and over the leader, wading into the four henchmen, spinning around at superhuman speed, knocking all of them out, leaving only the Ching-Lin left.
"She's coming towards me! Have to do something!"
"I guess it's just you and me now. Tatsumaki Ken!" The lead swordsman spun around, using his sword to create a small man-sized tornado, sending it in Ranma's direction.
"Whoa! Not bad!" Ranma commented, leaping up and over the tornado, blasting her opponent with a ki blast.
"Aaagh! I'll still beat you! This sword is one of the most powerful in the world!" the warrior proclaimed, not being able to take his eyes off of Ranma's impressive physique.
"Why are you so distracted? You should be paying attention to the fight," Ranma commented.
"You dare instruct me? After I've defeated you, I'll enjoy you myself. Kong can go hang for all I care."
"You'll be joining your large friend in dreamland in a minute." With that Ranma landed on the ground, running towards her opponent at full speed, Ching-Lin responding in kind.
Ching-Lin took several swings at his adversary, only finding air, Ranma seeming to have vanished. "Where did she go?" Then to the surprise of the swordsman, he found that Ranma was standing on the flat of his blade, regarding him.
"Here I am."
"What the... But how?"
"You're not as good as you imagine, Ching. Is that sword making up for something small down there?" the girl inquired with a wry smile.
"Get off!" the man demanded, trying in vain to shake his opponent off of his prized blade.
"All right." Ranma flew straight into the air, shooting up like a rocket. Then she came down even faster, smashing into the shocked swordsman, him looking a deer-in-the-headlights for a split second which was all Ranma needed to hit him with hundreds of punch and kick combos, sending him to the ground in a heap.
Upon her victory Ranma surveyed her surroundings, making sure there was no one else to fight. This having been done, she searched for the announcer. "There you are!" Ranma bounded off the stage, flying straight for the fleeing man who turned back in surprise when he saw Ranma flying towards him, gaining on him. She would have caught up to him soon enough but he ran straight into Genma!
!SLAM! "What the... Who are you?" !POW! "Ungh!"
"Hey! I was going to..."
"Forget about them, Ranma. While you were out parading yourself, I went backstage and foraged. I now have all their money and even some new clothes for you. Now put these on and end your shameless display!" Genma said, handing her several sets of clothing.
"Shameless display?! What are you talking about?"
"Take a good look at yourself. Oh, why couldn't I have had a son?" Genma shouted, looking to the sky as if he was going to get an answer from up there.
"Huh? Oh!" Ranma gasped, blushing beat red and smiling sheepishly in her embarrassment. Faster than the eye could follow, she quickly took the offered clothes, grabbed a set of them and put them on.
"All right, Daddy. I'm decent now." Ranma was now wearing the same kind of red Chinese shirt and green pants that her earlier attackers had on even if the tunic was a bit tight.
"Fine. Now let's go."
"Oh. There's one more thing." Ranma went to where the gold pieces were located in a large bucket and grabbed it, placing it in her subspace pouch along with her new outfits. "Now can we get something to eat? I'm starving."
"We have plenty of money so we can eat anywhere," Genma said, looking around.
"Aren't you proud of me, Daddy?" Ranma asked, looking up at her father with puppy eyes as they walked through the streets, everyone giving them a wide berth.
"It wasn't all that impressive. You simply used your good looks to distract your opponents," Genma replied, unimpressed.
"As if you could have done any better."
"You'll have to do a lot better if you want to inherit my school of Anything Goes. But there's one thing that bothers me."
"What's that, Daddy?" Ranma asked innocently.
"When did you learn Chinese and why have you pretended not to know any up until now?"
"I learned from those Shaolin monks we stayed with back when I was ten years old for the most part. And as time went on I got better and better at the language mostly by listening and learning from many of the different masters who were kind enough to share their martial arts with me. Then there was the time I was in the Jusenkyo spring. What I went through there really increased my learning curve, helping my mastery of Chinese to be complete the moment I came out of that spring."
"You should have made it clear that you had learned Chinese. It would have made the training trip through China a whole lot easier," Genma said, giving his daughter a stern look.
"You didn't ask. Besides, I learned what people really thought of me when they thought I couldn't understand what they were saying."
"Hmm. I see. We might as well find someplace to eat now. Let's go!" As father and daughter made their way to the nearest restaurant, two others watched them go.
"Did you see that, Mousse?"
"Yes, I did, Grandmother. Ranma continues to amaze me. At this rate, she could pose a challenge to even Elder Cologne."
"Yes. I also noticed how you couldn't keep your eyes off of her barely clothed form. She has some nice assets, doesn't she? Hmmm?" the matron said, making the youth blush. "Don't be so embarrassed. You know you liked what you saw."
"Grandmother!" Mousse's face became beet red with embarrassment as his grandmother regarded him.
"All right. I'll quit teasing you. But we need to keep up with them so we'll know exactly where in Japan they'll go so we can follow them. Come on. Let's be off."
XXX
At a very elegant, Michelin rated restaurant, wearing nice new clothes, Ranma and Genma sat at a booth where a beautiful view of the ocean was visible from the adjacent window. Sitting down and relaxing for the first time in a long time they enjoyed a feast, dining on the best Chinese food they had ever tasted.
!CHOMP!CRUNCH! "After we've enjoyed our meal, we're going to visit my friend, Soun Tendo," Genma stated, stuffing his face. "Mmm. This food is really good."
"The food here is good," Ranma answered, eating with much better table manners. "But what is the point of going to your friend's house now that my womanhood is unchangeable?"
"It's called good manners, girl. Since I've already sent him a letter saying that I would be bringing him my 'son' for one of his daughters to marry, I owe him an explanation.
"I also need a place to stay until I figure out a way to marry Ranma off to the highest bidder and live off of him since I can't live off of Soun the way I had planned."
"I see. All right. Once we've explained to them the facts of life, we can get an apartment somewhere. There are a whole lot of other tournaments in and out of Japan for us to make enough money to live on."
"Where did Ranma learn how to speak like that way? And who taught her to eat with such table manners? She eats like a dowager princess. I'm going to have to change that if I want to keep her in control. So it's time for some more training. Heh, heh."
Thus Genma made a fast reach for one of Ranma's egg rolls but didn't quite reach it. !ZAP! "Ow! What do you think you're doing?"
"I won't have you stealing my food anymore, Daddy," Ranma stated, her hand still glowing with energy.
"How dare you disrespect me like that? All of my efforts have been for your training. And besides, I'm the one who bought all this food. I did all this!"
"First off, I get enough training. Second off, I'm the one who made that money. I was well on my way to getting that piece of garbage to give me what was rightfully mine after literally putting my ass on the line. So don't act as if you did all the work."
"Why you ungrateful child!"
"Can we enjoy this nice meal, Daddy, or are you going to curse me out for the whole evening? And another thing, since we have enough money, there's no need for you to steal from anybody. I hate when you do that, "Ranma answered, looking at her father intently.
Genma stared back at his daughter for a moment, saying nothing.
"Who does Ranma think she is?! Despite her unforeseen increase in power and the victory over that Manchurian giant notwithstanding, she's still wet behind the ears. She just thinks she's smarter than she is! Oh, what did I do to get a daughter instead of the son I've always wanted?!"
!SMASH! "Ranma I kill!" the purple-headed amazon screamed upon making her way through the pane glass window, having shattered it with her blunt weapons.
"Not her again."
XXX
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks for all the reviews and story alerts. This helps to spur me on. Now I would like to give props to the ones who gave me reviews for the last chapter.
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