Force of Will
By
Sam W. Ryder
Attention: I am running a special campaign on my . If you join before the 22nd, as an aficionado or higher you'll not only get the benefits of the tier you join such as early access to chapter, different levels of voting in the polls, and character art, and more. You will also receive an exclusive custom sticker created by yours truly.
I have a discord channel on the third Saturday of every month starting at eleven. This time we'll be talking codenames. Starting with one for Shirou, in my story A True Titan. It's a Teen Titans and Fate crossover. You should check it out.
That said please enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 6
From her perspective deep within the flame, everything was different, not that it was any better, Aizawa was still down pinned there by the scarred black behemoth with a bird-like face and exposed brain, Shigaraki was still chuckling darkly as he turned his attention toward the shore, where three of Ranma's classmates hardly seemed to notice and the mist villain was standing by. By all rights, everything had turned to shit.
But still, as she absorbed the heat from the fire, Ranma felt truly invincible, like she did amidst battle. It had always been that way, her father called it the core of the art, the true feeling of losing oneself in the fight, the single-minded focus when nothing else mattered. Ranma just thought it was the fact she had so much energy pumping through her and skin that would burn anyone who touched it.
"Ranma-san." She could faintly hear Yaoyorozu calling for her but Ranma paid it no mind.
She didn't have time to. In the palm of her left hand, three orbs of fire blazed into being and began to spin in place their outer shell turning white a glowing yellow-white. "Incantation Nine: Wildfire Grenade!"
With three large cracks like the booming of thunder, the orbs sped away, a shimmering haze trailing behind making them look like super-condensed comets. The first and smallest of the three impacted the closest target in just over a second, the exposed side of the beast that was in the process of crushing her teacher's skull. It didn't even blink as the orb burst and consumed the upper half of its body.
The second struck the ground where Shigaraki would have been if he hadn't jumped back and out of the way, it exploded upon impact a shockwave kicking up sand and throwing the three back into the water out of Shigaraki's reach and sent sand flying through the air where the following wave of fire impacted it and sent the glowing silicates scattering through the air.
The final one, which wasn't sent toward anyone but instead at the glass ceiling was intercepted by a torrent of black mist. The mist appeared a moment later sending it hurtling back at Ranma. Her eyes went wide, the third was the biggest of the orbs. She'd practiced the technique often enough to know that the one now plummeting toward her was one that would put the blast of an equal amount of TNT to shame.
Two things happened at that moment, first Willa sped from his body toward the incoming orb, the sparks she trailed more than triple their normal amount and Ranma turned her attention to the shadows on the other side of the fire that were her classmates.
"Run!" She shouted, extending a hand Ranma stopped absorbing the fire and jerked her hand sending the orb back up into the air. She hoped that her classmates did as they were told, it wasn't that she couldn't control the fire but she didn't count on anyone beside him being able to do so even if it was through portals, there was nothing she'd be able to do if the mist villain was to release it in the middle of her friends.
Once more the mist enveloped the attack and Ranma readied herself to re-exert her control on the fire, then the ground was gone from beneath her feet and she found herself once again falling but not in the rain zone but above the lake. A moment later his wildfire grenade was flying at her again on a collision course and Ranma smiled.
"Willa," she barked and the flaming ball of death turned on a dime and flew skyward once more. He had a feeling that Kurogiri would have been a bit single-minded in returning the attack on him and had discounted the fact that Willa had merged with it. Reassured the empowered blaze would reach its target she turned her attention to the rippling water below.
Her predicament had multiple problems, one it would rob her of the heat she'd gained from the fire, two, combat in water was more than a touch difficult. Her greatest advantage, especially given what body she was currently in, her speed, was about to be majorly negated and if they had anyone like Kaminari or someone with a water or amphibian quirk, well, combat became all but impossible. The worst part, if it could be called the worst part, was the fact that if she tried the same technique he used in the downpour zone, she wouldn't make it to shore and if she did manage it well he'd be left half-dead from the cold.
He was meter's from the water when he saw Asui pull both Midoriya and Yuuga back onto shore and All Might standing at the top of the stairs looking furious.
As he was about to breach the surface of the water Ranma's eyes widened as a memory flashed before her eyes.
He was eleven at most. He and his father were somewhere in the wilds of Japan but despite his father's insistence that they were training, the old man was doing nothing but lounging about in a hammock.
"Here boy," He said and pushed a metal cup into his son's hands and Ranma sighed before he started pulling the heat from the cup and it's contents before handing it back to his father.
For the six days they remained there beside the lake he would only spar with his father once per day and his father would always leave him battered, bruised, and half-frozen on the shoreline when Ranma had exhausted his quirk.
On the seventh day, they left with Genma grumbling about how much it had wasted his time.
Ranma flooded the fire from her body into the water, it steamed and bubbled, and then she was underwater. It was an odd sensation, part of the water was warm bordering on hot, part was cold bordering on warm, and about her feet, it was like ice, it was truly disturbing. Then she began drawing the heat in as quickly as she could. In seconds she could feel it, ice no bigger than the nail of her pinky and lots of it like hail collected in a bathtub sweeping against her.
There was no bone-deep ache, the fire in her was still burning strong if weaker then when she'd been in the fire itself. Above her sheets of ice formed, flipped, and crashed against the surface of the water shattering like so much glass being battered by ball bearings.
Her lungs burned demanding oxygen and Ranma loosed a small stream of bubbles as she continued to collect the heat.
The chunks of ice battering at her, once smaller than ice cubes had swelled until they were larger than her fists, and sheets of ice at the top were just as thick. Ranma kicked her way toward the surface. From the dark distance came a blur, the water rippling around him as he speared his way through the water like a torpedo.
She kicked harder, it was a race she knew she was going to lose, but she had to try. In seconds the human torpedo was close enough to make something out. He was a humanoid shark with what looked to be an oxygen tank on his back. He also seemed to be slowing down.
The ice was now the size of her torso and as one began passing her by, Ranma grabbed hold of it, turning it between her and the shark-man. He'd run into a few sharks on his trip to China, she didn't learn too much but he did learn contrary to popular belief, sharks have great vision. Ice spread across her fingers and up her arms as she continued to ascend and with each passing second it moved faster. Both the ice growing in the water and the ice coating her.
She broke the surface of the water only for a split second before impact, the veritable ice boulder bashing into her and sending her back under the water. Frantic, Ranma looked around, searching for the man-shark, it didn't take long. He was creating a large wake after all. Ranma exhaled a small stream of bubbles as she stopped gathering heat and the cold instantly returned, it was a strain to keep her teeth from chattering. But the timing was everything and she could afford no distractions.
With a jerk of her arms the ice came away from everywhere but her hands. The minute amount of air she'd managed to get was already running thin and with each small stream of bubbles she released, the amount of time before she had to release the next grew shorter. She was running out of time. The villain passed the furthest piece of ice and only a split second remained and Ranma swung with all the force she could muster.
The water the ice chunk pushed away, closed in behind it pushing it even faster until it impacted the shark villain in the face and sending him spinning away. Ranma flexed her hands and the ice broke allowing the frozen boulder to speed after him as she kicked her way back to the surface.
As she breached again she took a large breath of warm air, her attention locking on the misty portals above. Why they were there was explained a moment later as the grenade Willa controlled flew out of one and they both disappeared.
Had that been going on the whole time she'd been under? Ranma wondered, why hadn't the mist villain just opened the portal underwater? Turning his attention to the shore that answer became readily apparent. The mist villain along with the black-skinned creature and Shigaraki were in the middle of a battle with All Might. Even with the three of them, they were having a hard time with the number one hero.
As another portal swallowed her grenade Ranma stretched out a hand and as it appeared she spread her hand wide causing it to split a dozen times and extended a hand toward the shore.
A hand wrapped about her ankle and pulled her back down under the water. It was the shark-man and despite his face had swelled so much it looked like he couldn't open his mouth he seemed ready for round two. Which Ranma quickly learned was 'drag your opponent down to the bottom of the artificial sea and find out which one of them drowned first.
Having already seen the tank the mutant villain wore, Ranma knew if she did nothing then it would undoubtedly be her. So, the question was what could she do? The shark-man had her foot so she could pull herself down and kick him but the chances of hitting anywhere vital were slim, she'd no access to her fire and there was no way to collect the heat from the water fast enough to be effective. So option one it was.
She jerked her leg as hard as she could, bending it as she went and closing the distance between the two and the dark form dragging her down became far more visible and one specific part caught Ranma's attention. The tank.
She was swinging her fist even as the shark man turned his attention back toward her and caught him squarely in the eye. She ripped at the straps on the tank pulling them from the dazed shark-mans arms and jammed the mouthpiece into place. She was still getting the tank strapped on to her back when the shark man shook himself and clutched at his mouth terrified. Ranma's fist met his head again and this time his eyes slipped closed.
She couldn't deny she was half tempted to leave the villain who she'd just dubbed shark bait, behind but quickly decided against it. Her journey back to the surface took much longer this time, she was further down after all and she did have to stop long enough to get shark bait filled with air which would wake him up thrashing and she'd then send him back to join that pink blob guy that Nabiki watched as a throw-back or whatever she called it in his place in dream-land. When she did breach the surface of the water she found herself much closer to the edge of the shore than before.
The scene before her was a tense one, All Might was duking it out with the brain baring behemoth while Katsuki and Todoroki were duking it out with Kurogiri and Shigaraki. The three were losing ground, All Might for as many blows as he was edging in didn't seem to be doing much at all in the slugfest while Todoroki was far more mobile while fighting than Ranma had ever seen him, probably because part of his wrist was showing muscle. Katsuki on the other hand, his arms were shaking badly and he still couldn't seem to close the distance between him and either of the villains.
She raised a hand from the water gathering a compressed blue blaze into her palm when a long pink appendage wrapped about his wrist but didn't jerk it. He followed it down its length to Tsuyu who shook her head and pointed toward the ground a few short yards behind All Might. To the prone form of Izuku Midoriya.
Ranma nodded, the tongue retracted and the blaze thinned and stretched until it was the length of a javelin. A quick check on the tether for lack of a better term that he felt when he and Willa were separated. She was still high above and just like that the trajectory of the javelin changed to ninety degrees and sped away.
Wading on to the shore, Ranma slung shark bait to the ground and shivered in the artificial breeze. Well, Ranma decided, it was time to turn up the heat. Dozens of miniature twisting blue bolts of fire bloomed around her.
"How many lives do you have saved up brat? Or are you using cheat codes?" Shigaraki demanded.
Ranma smirked, "just the one. I hope you've got some burn ointment. It's about to get hot. Invocation one: Firestorm!"
She took a deep breath and all hell broke loose, the fire floating around him rocketed away. Churning about they moved in all different directions attempting to converge on the villains, with each passing moment the air got hotter, and the fire would split causing the swarm to grow.
Ranma was sweating, his attention was split between controlling the fire to keep it away from his comrades and the rest was directing it toward the villains who were having a harder and harder time avoiding the miniature fireballs. At one time firestorm had been his strongest incantation and one he'd used to defeat his father and then he'd found out its weakness. He couldn't maintain it on the move. He could see the mist surging around Kurogiri who no doubt noticed Ranma's stillness and Ranma smirked. It was also the reason he'd changed the firestorm from an incantation to an invocation.
But he would bet Kurogiri couldn't use his quirk while he was moving, he'd noticed it when Kurogiri had begun warping her grenades about. He probably hadn't come up with a way around it either. Ranma was proven right a moment later. The javelin she'd thrown into the sky was guided through the air by Willa and into the metal plates settled within the mist. The villain screamed and threw himself into the water.
"Noumu!" Shigaraki snapped as he ducked under a swarm of flames and rolled away from a trail of ice. "Remove the fire brat! One pyromancer's enough!"
A sense of danger welled within Ranma, it was a sense that had served him well through his life with all of his father's surprise attacks and sneaky techniques and it had been honed very well. But just because he knew it was coming didn't mean he could stop it. If it wasn't for All Might, Ranma was sure she'd be a bloody smear on the ground. Instead, she was sent flying through the air and struck a rock outcropping behind her.
Breath left her chest as she slid to the ground wheezing and gasping, tentatively she pressed on a few of her ribs and grimaced. They were broken. The pain, the shock, the exhaustion all flooded her at the same time and darkness began encroaching on her vision but Ranma raised a hand summoning all of the fire she could before she left herself frozen.
"Incantation number three: sniper." She wheezed, her arm shook violently as she took aim and released the shot. She watched as it missed her target which had been the creature's ever-open mouth and struck home in its eye, burning the socket to ash. All Might, not one to ignore a potential advantage, began to strike the humanoid monster that if Ranma didn't know any better had multiple quirks and sent him flying through the air. Then the darkness claimed her.
Sharp pain in her chest woke Ranma, though she wasn't quite sure how much time had passed, and then everything came back. Bright blue flames flared like torches around her as she tried to scramble to her feet when she found herself wrapped in thick straps keeping her in place, stopping her ascent.
"Easy Saotome-san, easy." Came a woman's voice from off to his side, she'd dark skin, long brown hair, and a uniform in various shades of purple, she was smiling at her reassuringly but Ranma still wasn't sure. "The villains are gone." She added.
She didn't dismiss the flames, nor stop trying to lean forward and the woman must have realized she wasn't going to stop as the flames grew along the length of the straps. In a few breaths they'd been burnt away and Ranma ambled to her feet grasping her ribs as she went. Gently she prodded them and winced, at least four were broken.
Looking around Ranma did her best to take everything in, Aizawa was nowhere in sight, a slew of teachers, police, and emergency medical personnel was scattered around though only a handful of students remained, Yaoyorozu, Tsuyu, and Kirishima were speaking with the principal, a bloody Sero was being walked out on a stretcher, though from the steady rise and fall of his chest he was at least stable. Turning her attention to where she'd been laying Ranma found that she'd been placed on a stretcher as well. Beside Sero was Ojiro who seemed well enough despite his slumped posture. When a flaming blur flew into his face radiating a soothing warmth Ranma finally calmed.
"Reassured yet? Your little friend was extremely helpful by the way."
Ranma was barely listening, sure Willa being helpful was great but there was a
problem settled firmly in her mind. She'd lost. In one hit too. It didn't matter that the thing went one on one with All Might, she shouldn't have ignored the possibility of an attack from it. Yet she did. She grit her teeth and the fire around her careened higher into the air.
"You need to calm down." The woman snapped as she took a step back. Ranma was set to continue ignoring her as Willa took up her normal position within her, she began to pace until a pressure spread equally across her body.
Her attention firmly on the woman, Ranma grit her teeth. "No chance."
The woman was telekinetic and a powerful one, all of her focus turned to glaring at the woman and lifting her right foot which slowly followed her command and the woman frowned. Obviously, she either wasn't used to someone ignoring her orders or overpowering her quirk though she probably wasn't using it at full power.
A soft clearing of a throat stopped Ranma cold, and rigidly she turned to find the Principal there, and he looked less than amused. He held her gaze for a few moments before he bowed. "Saotome-san, let me first say we are truly grateful to have you here at Yuuei, your actions today saved lives."
Ranma was struck speechless, he was all set for another lecture on the need to pick one's battles and other things on that track. Rapidly, she waved her hands in front of her chest and shook her head, "I didn't do nothing the others didn't."
"I would like to think you are correct and I've no doubt they acquitted themselves remarkably. It, however, does not diminish the fact that your choices today were those of a hero. I am grateful."
She didn't quite know how to react to that, it wasn't the first time someone thanked her, she'd tripped her fair share of muggers and even ran through some woods to fetch some herbs and the like for a small town chemist. But, no one had ever said anything like that to her before. She moved to scratch the back of her head and look away when she found herself once more held fast.
"I apologize Saotome-San, I want you to know that I meant every word I said." The Principal said before looking off to the side and nodding ever so slightly.
He tried to turn his head and while he failed in moving even a centimeter he could make out the short form of Recovery-Girl, her lips were stretched up toward her and as soon as they pressed to her cheek lead seemed to fill his body and she could feel herself wobbling as the darkness encroached on her again.
"I thought I told you not to let him up! Just because I'm performing triage somewhere else doesn't mean I should have been ignored!"
When Ranma came to again, he found that he was a he again. He was laying in a rather plush bed, then again it may not have been all that plush considering he'd never slept on anything more comfortable than a futon and or hastily made rope hammock. Or if he had, he didn't remember it.
A handful of his classmates lay in the beds across the room, none of them were conscious. Heck if it weren't for the rise and fall of their chests, Ranma would be half certain that they were dead. Most of the beds were like his own lacking guests with only two exceptions; beside Izuku was a plump woman, who could be no one else other than his mother. She smoothed his hair with a watery smile.
Beside Mina Ashido, was the floating uniform of Hagakure and beside her was Asui, both were speaking quietly. No doubt in an effort to not wake Mina.
"I must say, young man, the amount of stamina you have is nothing less than astounding." Ranma jumped at the sound of Recovery-Girls' words and he whipped around to face her. "I was expecting you to sleep a bit longer."
He answered with a smirk, "Watcha expect? I'm the best."
Recovery-Girl snorted, "Don't get ahead of yourself boy. Your broken ribs would argue you have a fair amount to learn yet."
Ranma winced. There wasn't much he could do to argue that point. He'd have to up his training in the art if he wanted any chance if he came across that monster again. The first thing he'd do when he got back to the dojo was to challenge the old man to a spar. Recovery-Girl must have noticed the look of resolve on his face because she clucked her tongue.
"Any training you have planned is going to have to wait until you're strong enough for another dose of my quirk dearie. Your ribs seem mended but we don't take chances."
He looked away, refusing to acknowledge she'd somehow known exactly what he was thinking. Instead, he prodded at his ribs and grit his teeth as they ached, still, it was no worse than they felt after his father was on the winning side of their spars. The pain faded away moments later.
She slapped his hand away as he went to poke at them again, "enough of that, just because it's stopped hurting doesn't mean you should poke it to see if it still hurts. I swear you boys are all the same." She stood and leaned against her syringe cane.
He shrugged, "Can't help it." He grunted and folded his arms across his chest petulantly.
"Yes well, we have an officer here to take your statement. As we were unable to get into contact with your parent's however, you may decide not to answer questions until such a time as we can." She droned the words out as if she were speaking from a script and a long-practiced one at that.
Drumming his fingers on his leg Ranma nodded, after all, it wasn't a surprise that they weren't able to get ahold of his father. The man tended to have one of two responses when a situation arose. The first was that he'd blow his top and attack in some fashion and the second was that he would run and hide. That he became a panda when exposed to cold water only made the hiding part easier.
"Sure, I don't mind," Ranma said and pushed himself up to sit with his back against the wall and received a knock to his head via Recovery-Girls cane.
"Move slower." She snapped before shuffling off. When she returned it wasn't just with the officer Ranma was expecting who would have looked totally normal if he'd been wearing sunglasses but his eyes seemed to be made out of metal and had no hint of pupils, but with the Yuuei Councilor Houndog as well. The dog man wasn't looking at him with sadness or pity, however, but with curiosity. It made Ranma all the more nervous.
Ranma raised his hands and waved them back and forth, "look I'm sane, don't need a head shrinker."
Though his attention was on the officer and counselor he swore he heard an almost non-existent snicker from Recovery-Girl. The first two adults just stared at him in shock, as if his head just mutated into a skull.
"Saotome-San," Hounddog spoke slowly, "I am not here to head-shrink anyone. I am just here to act on your behalf."
The officer nodded and took a seat as he pulled a notebook and pen from his jacket pocket. "Saotome-san, I am Officer Rekka Shu, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. I promise my questions won't take long.
Ranma shrugged, "now or later ya know? Ask away."
"Right to it then, can you give me a step by step rundown of what happened to you? Try to remember as much as you can, every detail helps."
So Ranma did, he started with the fact that he launched himself at the mist villain first and was transported several hundred meters into the air in the downpour zone along with several of his classmates, his encounter with the once hero, Cold Front and continued until he reached the point where the bird guy thing had hit him and knocked him out.
As he spoke he was mentally slapping himself, going over things there were better ways to handle. Instead of attacking Kurogiri with his fist, he could have created a barrier with his fire to aid in escape. Rather than trying to melt the steps, he could have just collapsed the area to begin with. Even toward the end when he started launching his wildfire grenades he could have made them smaller and had them rain down or he could have used his most powerful technique.
His chances of victory would have gone up a hell of a lot, but he didn't know if he was capable of ending the fight in ten minutes. If he didn't he would've been in worse shape but he should have tried. He didn't notice but around him, balls of white-blue fire began to fill the air.
Hounddog placed a furry hand on his shoulder getting Ranma to look up and wince seeing the fire. It vanished a split second later.
"Easy now Saotome-san. Under the circumstances you did remarkably, no one could ask for more." Hounddog stated and the officer nodded as he tapped his pen to the page. Suddenly he flipped the pen through his fingers and clicked the pens button and flipped his notebook closed.
Then the officer stood. "You've given us plenty, Saotome-San, if we need anything more we will contact you. Thank you for your time." He said and made his way back the way he'd come.
Hounddog however, remained. "Due to the incident today and the fact that we need your class to heal we're giving you all tomorrow off."
Reluctant though he was, Ranma nodded.
The counselor tapped his chin for a moment before addressing Ranma again. "Will you need any assistance getting home? Your parents are the only ones we were unable to get into contact with."
"Nah," Ranma said. It wasn't anything new to him, his father's philosophy and in many ways, his was 'no aid offered and none asked for.' Most of the time during their travels Ranma had to get around with some injury or another, and the times he couldn't make it unassisted he fashioned himself a walking stick. So, it was par for the course as far as he was concerned. "I'll make my own way home."
Hounddog didn't seem pleased with his response but nodded his understanding nonetheless. "If you're sure, I'll see you Monday." He said and made his way from the room.
For a time Ranma sat alone listening to the ticking of the clock as he tapped at his bed each strike faster than the last as he watched as Recovery-Girl made her rounds through the room. A few minutes later he'd had enough and slipped from the bed. Dread slowly settled over him as he looked for his clothes and found none which made sneaking out all but impossible. The room was wide open after all and there was no way he was going to be able to slip out while wearing a gown. No doubt his clothes were still in his case which should be at his desk.
That however didn't mean he wasn't going to try.
He double-checked to make sure all of his ties were fastened well and glanced at Recovery-Girl. She was bent over Sero and he took his chance. Barely lifting his feet from the floor he took as even a stride as he could and began making his way to the door.
Though he hadn't drawn the old medics attention, it didn't mean he hadn't gain anyone's. Tsuyu's attention was firmly locked on him as was Midoriya's mother. He honestly couldn't tell if Hagakure was watching him but it didn't matter. Though they watched him none of them had done anything to get Recovery-Girl to look his way.
And then he was at the door only for it to swing open without him touching a thing. And on the other side was Shoji, Jiro, Yaoyorozu, and Nabiki.
"Right on time then, huh Ranma-baby?" She asked, holding up a bag.
One of Shoji's tentacles drew closer to him and changed into a mouth but before he could speak Jiro had stepped closer and smacked him on the side of the head. "You're an idiot."
"Jiro-san he is injured," Yaoyorozu said, almost seemingly scandalized. "And you Saotome-san I doubt Recovery-Girl has released you if you're looking that panicked."
Ranma was indeed looking panicked. The moment the door opened Recovery-Girl's attention had turned to it. A Hero thing if he were to guess. But he was supposed to be out of the room before she could say a word. Suffice it to say that chance went over about as well as throwing a rock and calling it flight.
"It would seem that we have impeded your escape attempt." Shoji's tentacle mouth stretched into a wide smile. "My apologies."
If there was anything Ranma was truly certain of at that moment it was the fact that Shoji was being sarcastic. He was torn between deadpanning or actually laughing. In the end, he chose neither.
Ranma snatched the bag from Nabiki's hand and bolted into the washroom as fast as he could manage.
"Slowly!" Recovery-Girl roared after him.
As Ranma frantically changed into his clothes he searched for a way out. Though there was a window, it was barred. Apparently, he wasn't the first to try and make an escape when the good doctor wasn't looking. There was no other way which meant if he wanted to get away he'd have to either face the music or destroy school property… It wasn't a hard decision.
When he opened the door he found that the entire group was still waiting for him with the addition of the doctor. Awkwardly Ranma stepped out and took a knock to his head from the short woman's cane. "Boy, all you had to do was get my attention, there is a call nurse function on the bed and I would have told you, that you were cleared to go as soon as your clothes were brought in."
Ranma stared at her, his jaw slightly open, there was a button for that?' He wondered surprised.
"You're an idiot," Jiro said again and beside her, Nabiki hmmed in agreement. Ranma had enough, sure he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box or the sharpest knife on the rack but what did they know?!
"Who you calling an idiot?" Ranma snapped, "I may not be the smartest guy but I know my body and I'm fine. Never needed a damn doctor before." All of them reeled from his tone and Jiro and Nabiki grew red. The doctor placed a hand on their arms stopping any reply they could have made.
"It's been a long day for us all. I suggest you all go home and get some rest." She said
Ranma was too busy to respond, all of his attention was focused on glaring at the girl who'd insulted him and she was matching his gaze with one of her own. Ranma was ready to snap off an insult of his own when Nabiki stepped between the two. "Come on Saotome, I do like my leisure time you know."
She took him by the hand and guided him from the room all the while Ranma was glaring over his shoulder.
A frowning Ranma stood a short way from Nabiki, his back against one of the bars running from floor to ceiling of the train on which they rode. He hated taking the train or any mode of relaxing travel. It was just plain boring, and boredom just wasn't something Ranma Saotome would allow himself to fall to. So, he settled for staring at the crowd, guessing the other passenger's jobs, and making sure none of them groped Nabiki. He was certain she could handle herself, while her body language didn't scream of constant training like her sister's she did move with a precision that on average the ordinary civilians lacked, still, he wasn't going to let anyone touch her. For the most part, she was surrounded by people Ranma wouldn't call a threat, There were two housewives one holding the hand of a child while the other was carrying a toddler. A younger teen girl carrying a model plane. A few construction workers who were deep in hushed conversation. No one that seemed to notice her.
He shifted ever so slightly when a heavy man but not quite so large as to earn the title of morbidly obese moved from somewhere behind the housewives and up beside Nabiki. At first glance most would probably think him a business-man, but his tie looked to be tied with the wrong knot, his shoes and belt were brown and black respectively, and the way his fingers jerked and twitched in a way that a businessman's usually wouldn't. Then it happened and Ranma leaned away from the pole as the jittering hand moved forward as they hit a bump. However, as Ranma moved, the hand didn't latch onto Nabiki's derriere but pressed something into her hand. He almost missed it.
Ranma watched confused as the man lumbered away already loosening his tie.
"He really needs to work on passing himself off as anything but the perv he is," Nabiki muttered as Ranma drew closer. In her hand, she held a slim piece of folded paper.
He waited until she put the paper away for her to say something, anything that might have explained what that was. "Well, who was that?"
Nabiki raised an eyebrow at him in a way that he knew meant she wasn't pleased. "His name is Hiroki Hikkitani, he gathers useful information for me."
She didn't elaborate further and while Ranma wanted to push he knew Nabiki when she was like this, she was on the defensive and he wasn't going to get anywhere. Unless he wanted to try and give Akane a cooking lesson, though since he'd only heard rumors it might not have been as bad Nabiki suggested.
They got off at the next stop and wandered down the streets back toward the dojo. He saw Nabiki take a few more notes though much more discreetly than Hiroki's. Though he was certain he saw them all. Two older men, one in a grey suit and the other holding a sign advertising an Okonomiyaki Restaurant that Ranma thought may have been the one he'd gone to with his classmates, one other teenage girl with bat wings and a devil's tail, there was even an old woman with a ladle.
Though he wanted to ask he didn't and as they continued Nabiki seemed to relax. Amidst the relative peace of their walk, Ranma found himself returning to the fight earlier that day. About how he could have engaged the Noumu creature rather than just getting knocked flying like a ragdoll. He applied every technique he could think of and no matter what he thought of the outcome didn't change. Even the ones used in conjunction with his quirk at best he figured he could only avoid the first strike.
He was ready to rip his hair out.
"So Saotome," Nabiki started dragging Ranma from his thoughts. "What was with the chemistry between you and that girl?"
Ranma choked and stumbled. He stopped and Nabiki moved to stand in front of him with a smirk and continued.
"I suppose she's pretty enough but I figured you would have gone for that other girl. She looked like she had real talent," she said.
Ranma took a half step back his hands in front of him when a shiver ran up the length of his spine but the warning was rendered moot as someone screamed. "Ranma Saotome! Prepare to die!"
Turning his attention skyward Ranma found himself looking at a descending shadow. Wrapping an arm around Nabiki's waist he leaped back a good few meters as the shadow impacted the ground crushing the asphalt until he was kneeling in a crater.
End.
A/N: I know, I know, another cliffhanger. Believe it or not, it wasn't my intention I was going to add the conclusion of this in this chapter but I found that while I have plans for the next chapter they were a little light. Anyway's the next chapter in the rotation will be Phantasmal Soldier. It'll be a blast.
But, it won't be out until sometime around the end of the month or the starting of October. I'm currently working on a few chapters of some original work for my patrons.
Also, I'm trying out a new editing tool. Tell me how it went!
Responses:
K0tar: I understand what your getting at and I hope I fixed the chapter up a bit. My issue is sometimes I forget which body he's in as Ranma is always a he in my mind. I did the same in this chapter but I think I caught all the switch ups. Thank you for taking the time to review.
Sceonn: Well in all fairness, Ranma's not the brightest guy around. As for the flight bit, well he's never seen it himself so part of its lost on him. Though, I'm still unsure if I want Ranma to fly. At least like that it would just remind me a bit of the human torch. Thanks for taking the time to review.
Treant Balewood: Thanks the twisted twelve and cold front are a fun set of characters and MHA seemed to be a bit lacking in villain teams to me. Especially ones who are only in it for the money and mayhem because those guys exist.
Temsen: You would think Ranma smarter, and the sealed techniques being sealed, well thats for later. Thanks for letting me know about the mix ups and I hope I have them fixed now. I appreaciate you taking the time to review and I hope you'll continue to enjoy the story.
CRose: Thank you for your support! I appreciate it and I hope you've enjoyed the story.
Ferdiad: Thank you for all your help last chapter. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Ranma and Noumu were a hard decision for me and part of what took so long with this chapter was deciding exactly what I wanted to do with it. While I'm not fully satisfied with the outcome it was one of the ones closest to what I wanted.