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Chapter 4: Humanity
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Ran couldn't sleep.
She couldn't understand what was currently going on, she had managed to change from this human form to her true, beast form more than once and couldn't figure out how. Why did she keep returning to Human form? Why could she not perform the act of transformation again? Why was she feeling so comfortable in human form? And who the hell was the human she knew as her enemy?
Onna-Ranma couldn't take it anymore, and decided to go for a walk.
Cologne couldn't sleep.
The Amazon elder had this gut feeling that something was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon, she could swear that the students of Happosai would try something, especially the fat one, she could sense an evil intention from him, and had a feeling he would try something tonight. Might as well patrol the village, you can never be too sure.
Genma couldn't sleep.
He couldn't believe that after all this time, he had finally found Ranma. He still couldn't believe what he did after losing him in the first place, wandering into that forest with the huge animals and coming across a young boy, the boy had no memory, and actually had to write his name on the back of hishand to keep himself from forgetting it. After seeing this Genma had tricked him into erasing it by dropping something into the stream, the boy reached down and grabbed it causing the ink on his hand to wash away, then all he had to do was write 'Ranma' there when the boy wasn't looking and convince him he was his father. Now Genma had to somehow reverse that, and hopefully convince him the brother he lost at Jusenkyo was actually his sister. Probably wouldn't be too hard, just remove that bracer that fixed his memory problem and tell him something different. Then the only problem was getting the real Ranma back, the
girl seemed to hate him for some reason, and it also didn't seem that she spoke Japanese anymore.
Genma needed to take a walk, it helped him think.
"Ranma" couldn't sleep.
Ever since he had knocked out Shampoo with the fire beast girl, he couldn't go anywhere without that Amazon girl following him, the old one said something about her being his wife because of some strange law. And he couldn't get out of it either, it was either her or that red head, and the idea of marrying a girl who turned into a giant flaming tiger wasn't all that pleasant.
Maybe some fresh air would help him relax.
Shampoo slept like a log, she was incredibly tired, after all.
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Ran looked up at the night sky and sighed, she just couldn't get a hold of it. The redhead had been trying over and over to return to her beast form, but it just wouldn't work. What was different about the two times she changed? Ran stopped when she heard a noise and turned quickly, scanning the darkness of the night with her keen sight, she heard another sound, and looked towards the hut Shampoo slept in, to see 'Ranma' walk out.
"Man, what am I gonna do about this?" He asked himself, looking around for a minute and spotting Onna-Ranma a few feet away.
"Heh, I guess she couldn't sleep either." The black haired boy looked up at the stars for a moment as Ran turned away from him, no longer paying attention to his presence.
("Strange creatures, the humans. How do they understand each other with so many different ways of speech?") Ran just shrugged and concentrated on transforming again, sweat began to pour down her face as she screamed in frustration and fired off a pillar of flames into the night sky.
"Whoa!" 'Ranma' looked at the angry girl a little amazed, he had never seen such techniques before. He looked slightly confused when she began muttering in Chinese in a way that seemed to be constant swearing. That WASN'T what she was trying to do!?
Ran looked around a few times and ignored the smoking crater her rage created; she then began moving around as if fighting an enemy that wasn't there. She had seen many humans do it before while living in her mountains and assumed it was calming. Those humans she liked. They were beasts at heart. They may have been humans, but they perfected their bodies, and thier minds. Before Herb came she would sometimes watch the monks in the temples near her lair.
Something about what they did seemed so familiar, but she never knew what. The kata she was unknowingly performing as she though got more complex as she began to jump around, often covering her fist or leg in flames before attacking, intensifying the make believe battle she was having with nobody. The redhead quickly stopped when she heard several shouts in Chinese, and turned her head towards the general direction they came from.
("WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!!") Someone screamed, Ran growled under her breath and began running towards the middle of the village, not really knowing why she was heading towards the fight and not really caring as she soon arrived at the scene, several guards were lying around, either unconscious or dead, and a strange creature stood in the middle of the village, it looked like a werewolf, except its features were slightly demonic and electricity was playing over its body, as if it was being generated by the creature.
("Another human? Get out of my way, girl! Or you shall burn from my power.") The electricity intensified and surrounded the creature to the point it actually looked like he was nothing but energy, a bolt of lightning shot from his body and struck the ground where Ran was standing a split second earlier.
("You may be nimble, but you can not dodge forever. I know another of my kind is in this village, and I will slaughter every human I see until I find it.") Another bolt of lightning shot out of the creature, flying right past the Redhead as she dived away and rolled back to her feet, rushing forward at the creature and coming around with a kick to the head, only to have several thousand volts of electricity flow through her body upon contact with its body.
("Heh, foolish humans, it is quite hilarious when they do that.") The werewolf swatted Ran away from it and caused her to crash into a wooden post, the post shattered from the impact as the redhead struggled to stand.
"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!!" Several large, jagged rocks are sent flying at the creature, it nimbly dodged around them and turned a glare in the direction they came from, seeing an aged woman standing there with her finger pointing at a hole in the ground.
("Monster, how dare you attack our village during the night, are you such a coward that you can't come when we are rested and ready?") The werewolf growls a bit before firing off a lightning bolt at Cologne, the Amazon elder dodged long before the shot neared her and fired off a chi blast, impacting the creature in the chest and sending it back.
("Damn human, I will destroy you and all of your people if I must.") Four more bolts of lightning went flying from the werewolf, three towards Cologne and one into the air, the Amazon Elder dodged all three bolts only to be struck by the fourth, that came back down from the clouds. The creature began to smirk only to scream out in agony as it was hit by a spray of water from behind, it fell to its knees as the electricity died away from around him, the werewolf slowly turned his head to see a smirking 'Ranma' holding a bucket.
"Any idiot knows that water and electricity don't mix." The creature got to its feet and faced "Ranma", seeing no buckets nearby he surrounded himself in the volts again and sent a huge surge of energy at "Ranma", who didn't move in time to dodge.
"And any idiot knows that humans and lightning don't mix either." the thing sneered as Ranma began screaming in pain, strands of his hair turning white from the massive amount of electricity passing through his body. Ran began to stir at the screams of the boy, her body changing and being surrounded in flames as her anger for the creature before her raised.
("Die!!") The Werewolf barely had time to look surprised before a fireball larger than he was engulfed him and stopped his attack on Ranma, who fell to the ground smoking from the attack.
("So, you have finally shown yourself...") The werewolf's electricity died away as he looked at Were-Ranma covered in flames and looking at him rather pissed. A few fireballs are sent flying his way as the werewolf leaps over them and right into a blast of flames that engulf him, causing him to fall to the ground, smoking.
("I can't believe it, you're protecting the humans..") The creature struggles to stand as the flaming tigress prepares another blast.
("I am protecting no one, this is simply revenge!") Were-Ranma hurled her blast just as the creature puts the volts back in place, it doesn't do him much good as the flames engulf him anyway.
These flames are too much, I will lose if I don't get out now! The werewolf dug his feet into the ground and cross his arms in front of his chest, building up a large amount of electricity. He suddenly discharges the buildup into the sky, causing a massive lightning bolt to come crashing down on top of him, everyone present has to shield their eyes from the flash, but once it died down, the creature was gone. Were-Ranma looked around in confusion trying to locate the beast again. The flames around her died as she collapsed to one knee, briefly acknowledging the fact her clothing had stayed intact this time before passing out from blood loss, a rather large wound on the back of her head bleeding freely in the night.
("Quick, we must get her to the village doctors.") Cologne and a few of nearby amazons grabbed Ran and carried her to the hut containing the doctor, while 'Ranma' regained consciousness and began wondering why he felt like his insides were on fire.
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-flash-
"Come on, boy! Play nice with the little kitties!"
"Please papa, no!!"
-flash-
"Worthless boy! Can't you do anything right?!"
"S…Sorry pappa, I'm just not as good as you are."
"You're not giving me that, you'll do it till you do it right or you won't be fed, boy!"
-flash-
"Why you little piece of shit! That's it, you've been lagging to far behind in your training! We're going straight for the extremes. We're going to china boy, and don't start complaining since your swimming there!!"
-flash-
"What the hell is that thing!?"
"RRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!"
-flash-
("AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!") Ran awoke and fired a large fireball directly in front of her, blowing a hole in the hut wall. The redhead looked around her and once again found herself in a human cave on a pile of animal skins.
("The pictures behind my eyes, they still haunt me…") Ran turned when she saw cologne enter the room, the shrunken old woman approached the bed the redhead was sleeping in and examined the bandage on the back of her head.
("How are you feeling young one?") Cologne turned to the still slightly burning hole in the wall before turning back to Onna-Ranma.
("Well, I presume...") Ran looked to the shrunken woman balancing perfectly on her staff for a few seconds before turning around in the bed.
("What was that creature?") She asked.
("Actually I was hoping you could tell me, it seemed to be much like you.") Cologne responded, Ran shook her head and addressed the elder again.
("I've never seen a creature like that before.") Just then, an Amazon warrior opened the door.
("Honored Elder Cologne, the fat outsider has broken into our treasury, he's stolen the scrolls to some of our secret techniques!")
("WHAT!?") Cologne shouted in surprise, the Amazon quickly left the room as cologne turned to Ran.
("Well, young one, I guess you have another opportunity to rip that fat human limb from limb.") : The way she's going the counsel will practically beg her tojoin the tribe. : Cologne added to herself. Ran grinned before following Cologne out of the building, the idea of killing Genma seemed rather nice to her.