Chapter 2

Kyoshi Battle

Ranma stood on a shoreline having been awake since the first ray of sun hit his face. Since arriving at his strange new world and meeting his rather unique friends, he decided to start to learn Air Bending from Aang. Surprisingly the airbending was rather hard at first concentrating your ki and letting build using the air around himself then launching it at the tail end of a move. Difficult but Ranma Saotome was always good at adapting, eventually he was on par with Air bending as Aang was. Right now though he was trying to apply what he knew about bending and what he mastered in Northern Shaolin to perform fire bending. At most he could cause a spark and that's it, he hadn't even attempted trying Water bending afraid getting hit with cold water and activating his curse, which so far hadn't shown it's ugly face.

"Wow, Ranma you're up early," Aang replied sitting up sitting in a cheerful lotus position. "Almost time to reach that island with the giant Koi fish."

"Good luck with that, I ain't getting anywhere near da water than I am right now," the pig-tailed martial artist stated moving through the Tai-Chi kata noting the water was moving to his movements thankfully not being drawn up like how Katara had been doing.

"You're pretty good at that, is this what you meant by knowing some Water bending?" Katara asked having waken up because of Aang and Ranma conversing.

With a slight nod Ranma finished his kata and bowing in respect of the sea. "I'll wait until I either read something about it or have someone teach me at length about it, wouldn't want to have an accident."

"In the mean time we better get going," Katara explained all three trying to wake Sokka, until Ranma kicked Sokka sleeping bag and all onto Appa.

The trip was long having Appa flying over the ocean; Ranma and Sokka were sharing one thing in common namely being bored stiff. Katara was busy mending a hole in Sokka's pants while Aang was trying to get Katara's attention showing her some airbending trick using marbles. Ranma found rather stupid but then he wasn't trying to impress a girl. Clearly the young monk hadn't met a girl before he met Katara, no doubt being raised in a monastery with other boys and no girls even close to being present it must be something new to experience. Ranma himself felt a kinship to Aang in that regard, he spent ten years of his life on the road with his father, going to from martial arts school to martial arts school or a monastery to train under monks Ranma hadn't really been exposed to girls until he arrived in the Amazon village after being transformed into a girl himself. The whole thing had been utterly confusing more so when he fought Shampoo and she turned around was trying to kill him. His experience was a little harsher than Aang's so while there was a kindred spirit it wasn't a close kindred.

Upon landing at their destination Aang swiftly strip to his underwear and leapt out into the ice-cold bay waters. Using the giant koi as wind surfboard Aang sped around the bay. The only thing Ranma could think is how many fish dinners the koi could make. A second later he saw a huge black fin chasing down Aang and the koi, "Aang! Get out the water!"

Aang turned his head and saw the huge fin, "AAAAAHHHH!" he shouted as the fish was taken under by the huge Hyungi. He raced toward the shoreline literally running on water until he collided with Sokka.

A few minutes later while Aang was getting dressed, "Okay, now that's over with let's get going," Sokka address before he was grabbed from behind having his shirt pulled over his eyes. Both Aang and Katara followed, Ranma however rolled out of the way coming up into a crouch facing about five young women dressed in a dark green dress with armor, and face paint. At seeing this Ranma dropped his guard trying hard not to laugh, but it was enough for three more to grab him pin him to the ground.

Upon reaching a village the foursome were tied to a center post and their blindfolds removed. "What's going on here," Sokka shouted out.

"Shut up Fire Nation spies," an old man appeared holding a staff looking at each of them scrutinizing Ranma most of all. "What are you doing on Kyoshi?"

Aang sighed sadly, "it's my fault I came here wanting to ride the giant koi, we didn't mean any harm, honest," the young monk frowned a bit, "Why's this island named Kyoshi?"

"It's named for the great Avatar Kyoshi; she was born and raised here," the elder stated proudly.

"Hey I know Kyoshi, I'm the Avatar," Aang replied cheerfully. The elder gaped a moment before his eyes narrowed coldly.

"You dare say such things, " he made a mental nod to the girls in green Ranma snorted kicking out suddenly causing the girl in front of him to double over. Ranma winced slightly watching the girl cry out in pain. "Toss them into the sea."

"Um, Aang show them some airbending," Katara whispered with worry. Aang simply leapt up from his spot blowing the ropes off he did a nice front flip landing on his feet he then reached into his pocket pulling out some marbles and doing the marble trick to the crowd gathered.

Everyone looked on in awe, as the girls in green slowly untied Aang's friends. The girls Ranma kicked in the stomached looked at the pig-tailed martial artist with interest, causing him to groan, "Great another Shampoo," he muttered under his breath.

Aang and company were then treated to feast, where of course Sokka started to pout, "I can't believe some girls caught me off guard," he growled softly arms crossed leaning heavily against the wall.

"In their defense they are pretty good, not as good as me, but still pretty good," Ranma boasted.

"Oh then how come you got caught?" Katara asked slyly.

"It's da stupid outfits they was wearin', and dat face paint looked like a bunch of samurai geisha girls," Ranma snorted then started laughing. A second later something collided with Ranma's skull knocking him to the ground. He pulled the thing off of his face looking at it half expecting a mallet, what he saw was folded up fan. Looking up at the girl who threw it, "Yer last name ain't Tendo by any chance?"

"No it's not and for your information these uniforms are honor robes for our fighters, do not mock them," the stated hands on her hips before she turned and left.

"Looks like you struck a nerve Ranma," Katara stated.

With a light shrug the Pig-tailed boy stood up, "Not like it hasn't happened before in my case, so I'm used to it," with that he left. Walking along the back trail Ranma felt a sense of overwhelming depression hit him. So far nothing in this world had much to remind him of the world that he was taken away from. But the incident with the fan and pain hit close to home. Up until now he put away the nightmares and hopelessness he had and felt every night since arriving. He didn't know if Akane was alright, he didn't know if she was hurt, dying, or dead. His nightmares did little to appease him, most involved him in his girl form holding Akane's lifeless corpse screaming to the heavens in anguish. With a shudder stood looking out over the village of Kyoshi, and began to focus on his center and began to practice his Air Bending.

It was a little after noon when Ranma came down from his perch on top of the hill after spending hours of practicing Air bending and blending it into his anything goes style which worked extremely well, with his Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken technique, which now incorporated compressed air attacks with each punch. But it was nothing compared to what he could do with Air Bending and his Moko Takabishya ki blast, combining the two had been remarkable, energy actually expanded enough to the size of a boulder. The speed in gathering the blast also increased, the Ba Gau was an excellent addition to his style, and he had a feeling it would help stay aloft in a fight longer than before. The feelings of depression and angst in him left after discovering, these wonderful new aspects and skills. "I can't wait until I learn Water and Fire bending, I can just imagine what moves I can do using those, heh, I'd probably be able ta do da Hiryu Shoten HA without a spiral. If I ever find a way back home I'll challenge the old ghoul and beat da pants off her."

Ranma was still mentally thinking of the damage he could do to a certain ancient Amazon when, something hit his nostrils. A faint scent of fire burning, looking up from his musing he saw several buildings on fire and men in red and black armor fighting the girls in green. "What's going on?" he asked and was confused initially until he saw one of the girls go down from a fire blast. "HEY!" he growled running down the rest of the way leaping high into the air coming face to face with one of the men in black and red. This man however caused a new kind of anger that of cold rage, "YOU!" he snarled darkly. The Fire Nation warrior was dressed similar to the others only his hair was cut bald except at a point where it was tied off into a ponytail, he had an angry red scar on the left side of his face.

Prince Zuko dropped into a battle crouch wondering where he could have met this person. "I don't know who you are but if you get between me and the Avatar you'll regret it."

Ranma slowly stocked Zuko, "And yer goin' ta regret sending me here, Kiro and I don't know how ya got here and I don't want ta know, I'm just goin' ta beat ya senseless," with that Ranma launched at Zuko dodging the various fire blast coming in close before launching into series of ridge hands, kicks, and leg sweeps. Zuko was hard pressed to try and counter each move, but at such a close proximity he couldn't use his fire bending.

"I don't know this Kiro, I'm Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation and you're in the way of my mission of capturing the Avatar, oof," Zuko went flying back gasping hard as one of Ranma's kicks pushed through Zuko's defenses. He leapt back to his feet as Ranma zipped in at almost Air bender speed, re-engaging. The two went at it, Zuko was good but Ranma having spent his entire life in constant training, and the last two in hard fought combat was better. Every combo Zuko could think of using his fire bending fight style Ranma had a better and brutal counter.

"Ranma!" Ranma flipped far enough out of range to look up, he saw Aang, Katara, and Sokka, in one of the girls in green dress on Appa. With a good leap upward, Ranma landed on Appa's back. "Welcome aboard," Aang stated solemnly as they flew away from Kyoshi.

Ranma stared down at Zuko who was trying hard to pick himself up, the cold fury slowly flowing out of him. "Next time," he muttered softly. Just then Aang leapt off Appa and used Hyungi to put out the fires in Kyoshi also dumping a few gallons of water on the fire benders. When the monk reappeared on the flying bison he looked sheepish.

"I know, stupid and dangerous," Aang stated with a dry smile.

"Yes, yes it was," Katara stated a strange smile on her face a moment before grabbing Aang in a hug.

Ranma took a few deep breaths clearing his mind wondering why he reacted in such away before glancing at Sokka, "Hey Sokka, why ya wearing a dress, didn't know ya swung that way."