Disclaimer; This fanfiction uses existing ideas, characters and or worlds, but is an independent work of art. I own nothing, hence the reason for publishing my writings here instead of in real books where I could make some money.
Ranma was making his bed, preparing the roll-out mat for slumber.
After the giant golem had been felled, Ranma had been introduced to several people.
The first had been Brianna's mother, Julia Brigand Diggers, the current Arms-Master of Jade.
The second had been Raphiel, a sentient golem in the form of a werecheetah.
Then there had been Sheila, member of the Northern Edge Guard, though Ranma felt that difficult to believe, as she looked little older than fifteen. She kept alternating between acting miffed at him and going into a stutter. During these stutters, her heart rate would increase and she would smell … stronger, but not in a bad way … actually, the scent made Ranma uncomfortable and gave him stiffness problems. What did Hiroshi and Daisuke call it? Wood? Bah! Didn't matter, it wasn't like he would so something about it, and demanding the young woman to stop smelling would not only be insulting, but would make everyone aware of his problem, because he'd have to explain why she needed to stop smelling. The last time he had been unfortunate enough to draw attention down there had been when he rescued those women from imprisonment and death in the lair of the first bandit group he had run across, three women fainted and another few started drooling while staring at it. Why on earth would they do that?
Gar was the brother of Sheila, and a fellow member of the Northern Edge Guard. The two were jagweres. Gar also seemed the overprotective type, weary of anyone approaching his sister, and Ranma could tell that if some fool would hurt her, whether emotionally or physically, he would be there to hand out some major whoop-ass.
Tirga was a weretiger, and from his behaviour, Ranma pegged him as a womaniser. Unfortunately for the women of Jade, he was also a member of the Northern Edge Guard. Ranma was fairly certain that the man's bedpost was hardly able to carry any weight from all the notches he had put on it, numbering each conquest.
The werepanther was Thropan, a troubadour at heart, magic user and inventor, and finally member of the Northern Edge Guard. He seemed like a very pleasant fellow, and was one of the first to introduce himself. He did it like an equal, making Ranma like him immediately. First impressions are important, which is why introductions are so important. If one came across as pompous, there would always be some part of one that expected this person to remain that way.
The large werelion was Onoli, the leader of the Northern Edge Guard. Now, this was a person Ranma could like. He was big, strong, and kind. When Ranma heard he had been raised by monks, this made a lot of sense.
Then there was this teenage boy about Ranma's age, wearing a similar outfit to the one who claimed to be the sheriff, only his was grey. This was Seance, the apprentice of Brianna's father, an Arch Mage named Theodore Diggers. Ranma got the impression that he was slightly uncertain of himself and his skills at times, but would not run away when the "chips were down".
Genn was the lovely petite girl about Seance's age, with horns sticking out of her pale hair along her head, not unlike those of an antelope. She was a rakshasa, a shape-shifter, able to assume any form it needed, and lived off the aura energies of others. At that moment, she had chosen to remain female, and judging from the looks she was giving Seance, he was the reason for her decision. There was a look of adoration in her eyes as they shifted focus onto him.
Finally, there was Brianna herself. She was apparently a failed experiment of some kind. Her sisters, Gina and Britanny Diggers had been cursed while on an expedition, the same one where they picked up Genn, and in an attempt to get rid of the curse, they made a mass of DNA goop of their combined DNA which they tricked the curse into latching on to. The two girls were free of the curse, but Brianna was the result. When she first gained conscience, she tried to kill them to have her own life, but was convinced into turning into her own person. She had the memories of both girls, and several physical similarities with them, even if one was adopted into the family. She was the link between them, their sister.
Lately, following the wedding of Britanny, Brianna had come to Jade to bring back Raphiel, who had been destroyed nearly completely during the wedding. Only one piece was left behind. Not long after she had arrived in this realm, there had been an eclipse, which had changed her body into that of a werecheetah with some human features instead of the opposite, which was normally true. Ranma suspected that the eclipse had some rather special results throughout the world that he had not thought of before. Anyway, after getting a slight hit to the head, Brianna had a second personality take over, a situation Ranma was very familiar with, which tried to get back to earth to kill Britanny and Gina to make herself her own person, out of the shadow of her sisters. The two personalities had then been split, and they had to fight each other. Again, something Ranma was familiar with from a cursed mirror he had run into once. In the end, Brianna and Grave had been merged back together, and there was no longer any desire to kill her sisters, and she had changed to a more normal form, barring the ears which were still cat-like.
As they returned to Seer's Hamlet, Ranma listened to their stories, and told some of his, leaving out his curse and family name, as the last always brought with it disaster whenever someone found out about it, and the first always made people think he was a pervert or freak of some kind.
He was taken to the Edge Guard headquarters along with Brianna and the others, where he was offered a room for the night. The room was little more than a cupboard, but it was available and large enough to accommodate him.
Before he ended up where he currently was, making his bed, he had been sparring with that girl Sheila. For some reason she had thought he was a womaniser, but whenever he asked her what he had done, she would answer that if he didn't know, then she certainly wouldn't tell him … women. She did have some skills, though, but not much beyond Akane with a little more grace, speed, strength and precision.
After he had dodged, weaved, danced around, evaded, ducked and leapt out of the way of her attacks for nearly half an hour, with only light taps in retaliation, the girl got mad and shifted to human form, which was that of a seven foot and a half tall woman with impressive curves and talents, and long flowing red hair. Seeing as the woman was wearing Sheila's clothes, which were made for a much smaller person, nearly smaller than Ranma's hybrid form, those clothes stretched magnificently, putting what she had to offer on display, which made Ranma stumble slightly in his evasion, but as soon as that large fist was headed for him, he collected his wits and changed to human form as well, thinking it only fair.
Sheila had frozen nearly solid from the shifting. Ranma could see how surprised she was. She merely stood frozen in place, her eyes as wide as dinner plates.
Ranma was starting to worry, when he was suddenly swept into a very firm glomp, and was bounced around the room with the big, strong woman as though he was her teddy bear and she had just found out Christmas was going to come early this year because she had been so good.
During this bouncing, between gasping for breath on the ascensions due to the talents smothering him on the return to the ground, Ranma heard Sheila squealing excitedly about her not being the only one with a birth defect.
Ranma could tell that this was a big deal to the woman, and wisely kept his mouth shut.
He couldn't remember how he had gotten out of that situation, but he didn't know if remembering any of it was such a good idea.
It was time to go to sleep.
The sun was starting to peek over the horizon of Seer's Desert when Ranma first awoke.
With there being only a tiny window along the roof of this room, Ranma could barely tell what time it was until he had stretched and taken a look.
It was still very early, and not many would be out yet … perhaps a bath would be in order … Brianna and Sheila had recommended a place during their trip back to Seer's Hamlet, maybe he'd try that place, a hot bath … It seemed like months since the last one, so he should take the opportunity while he had it.
There had been placed a fresh towel out for him along with a pair of pants Gar had outgrown a few years ago, but he had never gotten around to throwing them away … Sheila insisted that he wouldn't mind Ranma using them.
With these two items, Ranma made his way outside, and followed the path the women had described.
He came upon the large body of water not long after setting out, and was indeed impressed.
The women had said something about a possibility of insects possibly residing there, but Ranma sensed none, and placed his things against a tree to keep them out of the way.
After stepping into the water, Ranma realised that taking a hot bath as a man was not as relaxing and nice as when he was a woman, so he shifted. It had happened on occasion in Nerima that she had been stuck in female form, and it had been during those times that she realised that a hot bath was more comfortable with a female body.
Ranma waded around in the chest-high water, searching for a good spot to lie down and relax without drowning in the warm water.
She eventually found a big, flat rock jutting diagonally out of the water, and decided this would be a good place to relax.
Brianna and Sheila were right, this was a good place to relax, to let stress just melt off and get washed away with the currents.
"Hey there, beautiful," a male voice interrupted, greasy with confidence and assumed charm. "'Come her often?"
Ranma cracked an eye open to see Tirga standing there in his birthday suit, towel over his shoulder and his privates hidden barely below the water level. His eyes had a lecherous gleam in them as they roamed her body, while doing his best to keep from drooling. Oh, Kami-sama, not another pervert admirer.
Deciding the best way to make the problem go away was to ignore it Ranma closed her eye and pretended the nude weretiger didn't exist.
This got a lot more difficult when his presence was within her privacy zone of one foot from her being, leaning over her, poised to play the part of Prince Charming waking Sleeping Beauty. The heck he would!
Ranma's hand shot out and covered the man's face, giving it a light shove and sending the weretiger backwards, off balance, into the water. This created a great deal of splashing and gasping for air before Tirga regained his composure and slicked his wet hair back, not intending to give up just yet.
"Playing hard to get, eh?" panted Tirga, trying to sound suave and nonplussed by the sudden fall.
"No," denied Ranma coolly. A slight mist started to form around Ranma from the conflicting temperatures of the water and her aura. "I'm impossible to get. There's a big difference."
"Aw, c'mon, babe," Tirga pouted in what he assumed was a cute manner. "Y' sure there's nothin' I can do to … convince you?"
"Not a thing," affirmed Ranma sternly and returned to a relaxing position. "Now leave, or I'll have to break every bone, vital organs and cartilage in your body … including the tiny sponge tissue and minute twin baby factories between your legs."
If it hadn't been for the ice forming along the surface of the water surrounding Ranma, and the cool tone of her voice, Tirga would have thought she was still playing hard to get.
This woman was obviously a magic user, most likely an element user, and her element seemed to be ice … just like Sheila, and she wasn't all that bad once she got to know him … what harm could come out of getting to know this one?
"OK, I'll leave," sighed Tirga dramatically. "But it'll cost you one kiss!" he added playfully, and puckered up.
Ranma was not going to stand for this harassment any longer, and decided to use the anti-Kuno method to get rid of the annoyance.
-SMASH!-
Tirga didn't know what hit him, only that his jaw felt like it had been fractured in several places, and a couple of teeth felt loose. It also seemed he was flying, something he didn't know a weretiger was capable of doing.
-CRASH!-
The wooden wall that was in Tirga's way broke his fall, and caused him to crash through it, landing on something soft, furry and warm.
"TIRGA!" exclaimed a voice that sounded remarkably like Sheila. "YOU PERVERT! KAPOWIE!"
Ranma was very pleased with herself to hear that loud, resounding, meaty thwack that could only be the sound of righteous womanly fury.
However, her bath had been ruined, she wouldn't be able to relax again for a little while, so she shifted back, scrubbed off whatever dirt he could find, and walked back to dry land to dry off and put on the pants … although why he only had a pair of pants and nothing more, he didn't know.
In her sleep, Brianna smirked as she dreamt of how the cute werecat would look without his shirt on, making her glad she had removed that pesky item of male clothing before she went to bed. Now, if she could only lure him into her bed and get rid of the equally pesky pants … Purrrrr!
Ranma still had some time to kill before breakfast, after having dried off and done a few kata, so he decided that tuning up his car would be first on his agenda. There were a few things he had yet to install, and he didn't want to wait too long before doing them, as one tended to forget if one postponed too much.
He looked around the training room he had just trained some in, and saw no one, so he did the seemingly impossible by making a pulling, then pushing motion with both arms, and made his car appear in the middle of the room. The pulling motions had been to get a hold of the big car in his stuff space, the pushing had been to get it out. It was rather taxing on his stuff space to have it there, but if he kept stashing stuff in there, his capacity would grow along with his control. If he kept things up, he would have enough room to hide an entire office building in stuff space within a year, if his estimations were correct, which they normally were as far as his own abilities were concerned.
Ranma got right to work.
What he hadn't told anyone, even President Iwo, was that he had invented an entire new type of technology, which made the production of the Stuff-Space generator possible. He called it Ki-Tech, due to the source of energy this technology had. With it, one could do pretty much anything, provided there was a living being at the controls. At its current stage, Ki-Tech could do only so much, because it was not yet perfected. It had so far been limited to small tasks, like generating a small fold in space within a container, generating the power needed to provide lighting to a car, add a little "personality" to Artificial Intelligence … once he had gotten the wiring and programming right.
It was one of these was the task he was adding to the car, lighting.
He liked driving this thing … it was relaxing not having to make tall leaps and bounds to get somewhere. And when he was done with this, he'd be able to drive at night as well.
This was why he was boring small holes into the seat and steering wheel, using his claws as drills. He was going to plant slightly larger receptors for bio energy radiation in those holes, and they would be connected to the lights, and now that he was at it, he was going to add a speedometer and a tightening mechanism to the car as well. The speedometer would be to let him know how fast he was going, and the tightening mechanism would set off a blinking light on the dashboard, about where the fuel gauge would be, when the springs in the engine that should be tight were slacking too much. As he was well aware of, the springs would only run infinitely in theory … in reality, however, the spring would slacken slightly, hardly noticeable, for every time it had run through the cycle of tightening and slackening because of the energy expended in the process. The accelerator helped keep it tight to a certain extent, but it wasn't enough. At some point, he had to open the engine up and tighten it manually … unless he could figure out some way of doing so from the drivers' seat … using Ki-Tech would probably work, creating some mechanism that would allow him to press a button or pull a lever to make the springs tighten back to optimal tautness.
Ranma lost himself in his work, barely finding himself thinking instead of doing. Only when he was faced with some problem did he stop to think for a moment before continuing to overcome the problem.
So engrossed was he in his work with the car, installing the modifications he had thought up along the way, that he didn't sense the arrival of someone else.
"Ooooh, a car!"
Ranma banged his head against the open hood in surprise. That almost hurt!
"How'd you get a car all the way in here?" asked a curious Brianna, who latched on to his back, while looking over his shoulder, grinning in excitement. "Hey! There's nothing in there but clockworks! A car can't run like that!"
Ranma stood upright, but didn't manage to dislodge the foreign body from his back. The soft hand running through his fur was a very distracting sensation.
"It works," Ranma stated as plainly as he possibly could. "I've driven it a couple of times through the desert."
"Looks heavy," commented Brianna from her position clinging onto his bare, furred back. "What kind of weapons does it have?"
"None," deadpanned Ranma. "This car is for transportation, not warfare. I'm dangerous enough in that department without weapons."
"C'mon," coaxed Brianna, mussing up his little patch of hair while making sure to press her entire front against him. This was a good potential source of nookie, and she wouldn't let him get away that easily. If they had problems, she would see if they could be worked out, but so far, she'd gone for a long time without, and she was getting an itch. Just thinking about it was exciting … "I know just the weapons that would fit perfectly in this thing!"
"No weapons," repeated Ranma. "I will not cheapen myself by using weapons. This is a car for transportation, nothing else."
"Please?" pleaded Brianna, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. Few men to date would have been able to resist this very dangerous technique, and Ranma would not have been among them, had not Sheila decided on doing a little morning work-out before breakfast. Having gotten that nasty wake-up call from Tirga had not been pleasant for her. Who did he think she was, breaking down her wall, in the nude, trying to bed her so early in the morning without her consent. But she taught him the error of his ways …
"WHAT THE-" she screamed as she saw what was standing in the room. "BRIANNA! STOP FIDDLING YOU YOUR TECHNOLOGY HERE! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET INTO MORE TROUBLE?"
"Don't get your panties in a twist," replied Brianna, slightly annoyed at automatically being pegged as the guilty party just because there was technology present. "This is Ranma's mess, not mine … he doesn't even want me to help him with his weapons …" –Sniff!-
"RANMA!" screeched Sheila, now directing her ire at him.
"I'm not destroying my car to keep anyone from finding out about it," replied Ranma distractedly. Females and their hurt feelings would be the death of him, he knew it. It took a lot of will power not to simply give in to Brianna's request about adding weapons now that she played the "hurt feelings" card. "And you can forget about me going to jail for it! This car works well within the parameters set for allowable technology," mentally he added that he had of course some more things in it than they could see, but didn't say it aloud because it would then be violating a law about technology. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
"Oh," Sheila was slightly embarrassed over having lost her temper like this. "I guess that is OK then …"
"And I'm not adding weapons," added Ranma for Brianna, who had gotten an eager gleam in her eyes at the sound of Sheila's approval of this vehicle.
"Phooey," grumbled Brianna. After a short moment, enough for Sheila to come up and see the engine for herself, she added, "How about you get a logo on it? Every cool car has a design or logo on it!"
Ranma wisely kept his mouth about designs on any private transportations being too girly. It was not a valid reason like his refusal for weaponry, and he knew it. He would only get pounded if he said it. Ranma knew he would have to cave on something, or the woman would hound him about them for a long time. This was his experience speaking.
"OK, I'll put a design on it …" he sighed. And he had thought the pure black colour was so cool on its own …
With another pulling motion from his person, he pulled out a plastic cover to cut out the design from, and paint to spray on, silver in colour.
Even with the weight of Brianna on his back, Ranma went to work, cutting out the only design he could accept from the plastic with his claws, and working quickly enough for the two women to only see a slight blur interfering with their view of the hood, where the apparently crudely cut circles of plastic were being attached, and suddenly silvery paint was starting to appear along the edges of the circles, like an outline of silver, or maybe volume lighting from behind the design.
And as suddenly as he started, Ranma was finished, and the supplies he had used were gone, leaving only the paint design on the hood of the black car as evidence that it ever happened.
The design was very simple, composed of only five organic shapes, one large and four small. Together, the five shapes formed a cat's paw, with slightly tapering toes, like claws, surrounded by silver.
"A black paw?" asked Brianna curiously.
"Yup," replied Ranma with a smirk, not about to give any reasons. He had given in, they should be happy.
"Very nice- HEY!" started Sheila, then realised something. "Wha- how did you do that?"
"That … is a secret," answered Ranma. "I painted a design on, like you two asked, happy now? Will you stop hounding me about the weapons?"
"Nu-uh!" replied Brianna with a gloating grin, shaking her head. "Never!"
Ranma would have growled, but his stomach beat him to it.
"Sounds like someone's hungry!" chirped Brianna in a singsong voice. This sugary behaviour was starting to get annoying … either that, or he was getting cavities from it and it was grating on his nerves.
"I think Onoli was making some breakfast when I walked in here," stated Sheila, slightly nervous about the silver colour on the car. "I'll bring you a plate if you want to stay here and work some more." A slight blush decorated her features. The only reason Ranma noticed it, was because he happened to be reading the aura of the two for any signs of what they would think of next. What did she have to blush about? Was he indecently dressed? Did she pass wind? Was there an odour he was unaware of?
"Nah," sighed Ranma. "I'm done … for now. But why don't you two … go save me a seat," he finished. He had wanted to tell Brianna to get off his back, but by the way she was locking her limbs about him, she was not likely to let go anytime soon, and a blunt demand would get him beaten, he knew that much from experience. This had been the best way he could think of to get her off while he stowed away his car.
Brianna shook her head, and nearly started purring.
Sheila sighed and grabbed a hold of Brianna's top, before pulling the resisting woman along. It was a good thing the material of that top was as strong as it was, or it would surely have torn apart at the force necessary to rip Brianna off Ranma, who stood as firmly rooted as a mountain.
As soon as the two were out of sight and hearing range, Ranma let out a breath. He never really had much of a resistance where women were concerned, probably because of his lack of exposure to them in his childhood on the road, and the close contact Brianna insisted on was waking those annoying sensations that he so long had combated. Had those two stayed for much longer, he would have slipped up and ended up insulting them or coming out of the ordeal as the pervert because of something he did or said.
He took a moment to regain his composure, then with a little effort, stowed the car back in stuff space. Ranma knew he would have managed to install a couple of seats more if he hadn't been interrupted during his zen state of working, but couldn't bring himself to resent the two for their interruption.
-Rrrroooowwl-
"Okay, I'm goin'!" exclaimed Ranma and left the training room. "Geez, even my stomach won't leave me alone …"
Wandering down the street, Ranma wondered what to get.
Mrs Diggers had been kind enough to lend him enough money to get himself some clothes and other necessities or souvenirs. Ranma had promised to pay her back as soon as he got some money to pay her back with, there should be enough in his account back home to cover the loan he got, but he had to be able to get in touch with his bank first, something that was virtually impossible to do at that time and place.
However, Ranma had no idea of what to get.
He knew what he liked, he knew how much money he had, but he had no idea where to get clothes, nor what he would get as souvenirs. He felt certain that Kasumi would be insulted if he went to a different Realm and didn't bring her anything … she'd never let on, but silently hurt inside. Akane would bash him into the ground … come to think of it … she would most likely do that anyway, since he had been away for so long, doing who-knows how many deeds of perversion. Nabiki would get over it by adding to his debt. His mother would get over her disappointment if he said he had been manly with several women and she was about to become a grandmother. The last was a lie, as he had never done anything like it, and didn't intend to until it was part of the marital obligations. Ranma had seen how miserable married men were, and assumed this was because of the husbandly duties they had to perform every now and again … he had no intention of becoming like them without a fight. It was better to be free and happy, than tied down and miserable.
Because he had been foolish enough to confess that he didn't know what to get, Brianna had offered to come with him. Sheila had also said she'd come, because she was after all a local, and knew where the best bargains were. Since the Northern Edge Guard hardly had any authority left, there was little she could do in form of duty, so she was free to tag along.
It was Hell … But not the town in Norway.
The two pulled him from shop to shop, from stall to stall and merchant to merchant in search of clothes and souvenirs. Most guys usually shop by merely walking into a shop, looking for something in their size primarily, then basic colouration secondary and lastly within their price range. It didn't matter if the colour didn't match ones jacket or shoes, as long as the clothes covered what they were supposed to and had an agreeable basic colour and size. Ranma was no different. But these two seemed to have several black belts in Shopping, and clothes to match, though not literally speaking.
In the span of three hours, Ranma had only gotten three items of clothing, because they didn't like the fabrics or colours on him, or there was something wrong about the person selling the items.
The clothes he had gotten were a pair of pants, fortunately not too unlike those he had arrived in this realm with. Second, was a vest in black, with golden squiggly lines along the borders that Sheila claimed was a set of enchantments of neatness written in ribbon, one of the primary written languages of Jade. Finally they had gotten him a black mage suit, because they were certain he was one, despite his denials of being only a martial artist. He couldn't really protest about the outfit, as it was a perfect fit and had holes for his hands, tail and head, though the tail hole would supposedly seal itself when no tail was poking out of it. Another plus was that it was supposed to repair itself if damaged within reasonable limits.
They would have gotten him a decent pair of boots, but Ranma outright refused, because they made him feel like he was losing touch with the ground. Something about feeling the small pebbles, sand and other things under his thin soles made him feel more at peace.
He had managed to get a couple of souvenirs. For Kasumi, he had gotten a bag of holding. It would make shopping trips much easier for the woman he had come to look at as somewhat of an older sister, as it could hold a near infinite amount of items and would never get heavier. Nabiki would get an abacus. He didn't like the way her world revolved around money, and thought something simple in contrast to what Kasumi got would make her realise what her greed could do. Namely alienate people. The real gift, for when she would be disappointed with her crummy gift, was a red mage suit. He thought giving her a piece of clothing that never needed to get fixed or altered would be appreciated. And that it covered all but concealed very little would most likely also help, as he knew how much the young woman loved to tease men. That she wasn't a mage didn't matter. He didn't get anything for his pops, as the greedy bastard would only demand to know where he had gotten the money to get it all. Ranma didn't know what to get for Akane that would make her happy, and he sure wouldn't give her any weapons! She would just have to be happy he came back. Now, his mother was a tricky customer. She would benefit from having a bag of holding as much as Kasumi, but it seemed a bit excessive to purchase two bags of holding. Ranma spotted a blacksmith's shop. Perhaps … yes, perfect.
The souvenirs were stuffed into the bag of holding, which was stowed into his stuff space, and his new clothes were put on, all three items. He didn't like having himself on display, so the pants did an admirable job of hiding it over the mage suit. The vest was put on more out of respect for those that helped pick it out than necessity.
This shopping trip would have continued if Ranma had not insisted on ending it. It was soon time for their next meal, and he wanted to seek out the nearest dojo, where he would test his skills on what was taught to fighters on Jade.
Apparently, there was only one such place in Seer's Hamlet, and Sheila was reluctant in bringing him there. She must have thought the sensei, Weapons-Master Karia, one of the ten best Jade had to offer, would hurt him beyond his ability to heal quickly.
Ranma found the dojo impressive.
All over, people were sparring, stretching and lifting some form of weights.
It was how a dojo was supposed to be run. There was not a one that stood around smashing bricks as the only method of training, nor were there any poetry-addled swordsmen proclaiming their undying love for every pretty female face.
Along one wall, a dark woman with spiky black hair was speaking with Mrs Diggers, and Seance was also there. Somehow the lad seemed stronger than this morning.
Sheila pointed at the dark woman and said that this was Karia.
Ranma gestured for them to stay a little behind, and marched up to Karia.
"Weapons-Master Karia?" he asked seriously.
"Yes," she answered. "How may I help you?"
"I wish the honour of having a spar with you," announced Ranma. "I want to see what Jade has to offer before I leave, and to do this I need to fight the best there is."
Karia looked him over, judging him.
"Before I fight you," started Karia, "I need to judge your skill by fighting one of my students. If you defeat my student, you may fight me."
Ranma nodded in understanding. This was a common practice for challenges to any dojo. To fight the Master, one had to best the Student.
Karia looked over her students, and judged their skill level to best represent her school of fighting.
Her eyes came to rest on a well stacked woman with short brown hair, doing stretches between the others. Her level of skill seemed to be the best of her students at the moment.
"You there!" called Karia, pointing at the woman. What was her name again … ah! "Hanza! Front 'n Centre!"
The woman scrambled to her feet and came to a halt before Karia.
"You are to fight this challenger to gauge his skill, to see if he is worthy of facing me," explained Karia.
Hanza nodded and dropped into a defensive stance, facing the short werecat, who was simply standing there with his arms behind his back. He was studying her. His eyes narrowed for a moment.
"How long has it been since you last were a man?" he asked suddenly.
"What?" asked the woman in shock. Nervous sweat started emerging from various pores all over her body.
"Your aura," explained Ranma helpfully. "It's showing a slowly fading taint of masculinity that can only be caused by a magical change of gender. You have been a man lately, and was changed into a woman, a week ago at the most."
The woman was by then sweating profusely, and suddenly turned and bolted.
Ranma watched the woman run. She really had to start accepting her change, or she would be in for some real trouble.
"That was … surprising …" commented Sheila.
"Yup," agreed Brianna. There was something familiar about that woman … and what Ranma had said about her …
"Well, can I have that spar now?" asked Ranma politely.
"I suppose," sighed Karia. None of her students had run out of a fight before, no matter the taunting, why did they start now? How bad an impression did this give her school?
"Ready when you are," chirped Ranma, getting into a real defensive stance. This was supposed to be a real master, so he couldn't show her disrespect by facing her like any other fighter. He needed to assume she was his better and behave as such.
Karia took a stance as well and looked his defences over for holes. Ranma was doing the same.
With a slight nod, the two fighters attacked simultaneously.
The battle was joined.
The Amazon hunting party was patrolling through Seer's Hamlet. Their prey was bound to be here somewhere. All day, they had been patrolling with no results.
"We should keep guard at every school of war or arena in the area," commented Cologne. "He is most likely to seek out anyone who might be able to teach him something. Son-in-Law is unable to resist a challenge, and if he is anywhere near here, he will not be able to resist going there."
The Amazon leader mulled the information over. If they followed it, their mission was likely to end sooner, meaning less gold. If they didn't, their reputation as the best trackers and hunters in all of Jade would be lost. Choices, choices, choices.
"There is only one such place in this town, and that is the Training Centre the Weapons-Master Karia runs," answered the leader, "do not get on her bad side because she is capable of wiping the desert floor with all of us without breaking a sweat." She warned.
"Then that is where we will find Son-in-Law," confirmed Cologne. The boy always was a glutton for punishment.
The group travelled through Seer's Hamlet, with a set destination in mind.
They finally arrived in view of the saucer-shaped building.
"This is the place," said the Amazon. "Remember my warning, do – not – annoy – her!"
"Understood," agreed Cologne.
-CRASH!-BOOOOOM!-
The ceiling of the school exploded outwards with a humanoid projectile.
The form curved, reached its pique and came rushing down to the ground.
-CRASH!-
The form created a crater three metres in diameter, sending rock fragments from the cobbled road spraying anyone within a fifteen metre diameter.
When the dust settled, the Amazons saw a dark woman struggling to get back up.
"Weapons-Master Karia," gasped the Amazon leader.
Karia struggled out of the hole, and shook her dizziness off. Ignoring everyone around her, the Weapons-Master staggered her way back to her school, picking up pace as she went, until she was running.
"Hey, Romeo?"
"What, Moisha?" sighed Romeo, they had arrived in town today and abandoned the horses. They knew their prey was around here somewhere.
"Like, would a chargin' black elf be a bad thing?"
"If it was charging against us, yes, if not, I pity the fool that enraged one," replied Romeo. "Why?"
"'Cause that one just got, like, blown out of a building and is, y' know, chargin' back in!"
"I wonder who got Weapons-Master Karia's panties in a twist?" commented a passing weretigress.
"That's a f#&ing Weapons-Master?" exclaimed Lydia. "What f#&ing moron took on a Weapons-Master?"
"I heard the mysterious werecat challenged her to a spar," replied the passing weretigress in a conversational tone. "Did you see the illustrations of him running around? He may be short, but he seems very well equipped!"
"We gotta see this!"
From a higher vantage point, a small mechanical bit bomb A.I. was watching the events transpiring near its creator. It had been following her and her group all day, waiting for anything to happen.
Something now seemed to be happening.
Ranma was having the time of his life.
The fight had been evenly matched from the very start. Blows were blocked or dodged with ease, and returned in kind.
Their environment was little more than obstacles to be fought around without harming. They lost themselves in the Art.
At one point, Ranma had managed to launch Karia through the roof, but she had charged right back in and retaliated by sending him through a supporting pillar. The roof had become slightly uneven as a result of one support being destroyed.
Ranma ducked a kick that would have taken the head off a normal person, and flipped Karia around by grabbing the extended leg and pushing up.
Karia kicked him in his stomach on the way down, and swept his feet out from under him.
They both got back to their feet and traded blows.
So far, they had not used any special skills in the fight, but this was changing, as their physical abilities were apparently equal at their best.
At an unspoken signal, the two unleashed force bolts of varying kinds at each other, while still within striking range. This was not a good idea.
-BOOOOM!-
From its elevated vantage point, the Peebo witnessed a grand explosion from the building her creator had entered not long ago.
Being curious, the small thing rolled at full speed down to the smoking crater to examine it. It didn't feel its creator being injured, but there had been no explosives in that building, how had that explosion come to be?
The three wererats arrived at the scene just in time to get blown back from the air pressure of the explosion.
With fearful expressions, the three got back to their feet and approached the smoking crater.
Around the edges were the audience of the fight, charred and in shock. People were pouring in from all over to see what had happened, and if anyone were hurt.
There, in the bottom of the crater, lay two forms.
The top form was that of the Weapons-Master, only enough clothing was left to cover her decency, and several dark bruises and burns decorated her exposed skin.
The bottom form was a black werecat wearing a black mage suit, with hardly any scratches visible because the suit was closing up any damage to it.
The Amazons were knocked unconscious by the debris and shock wave, but only from watching some of the fight the Jade Amazons had to agree with the Earth Amazons in that the boy was worthy of this chase.
Had they been conscious, they would have now been able to snatch the boy up and run for it without resistance. But, alas, they were not.
Peebo #042 was in awe.
The destruction caused here was simply spectacular! And no explosives had been used!
It scanned ground zero, and found two shapes. One was a female, the other was male.
One or both of these two had done this.
The male one was the one that had been with the creator all day, maybe he had a hand in this …
What Brianna was not completely aware of when she built her bit bombs, was that she put a little bit of herself in all her work. This particular Peebo had assumed the female gender for this reason, and thus also had a liking for men, but was not yet named beyond production number. But it made a serious decision that day.
If she had to, she would die for this lovely specimen of a man, and she would follow him to the ends of the world.
She was in love.
-Sigh- If only she had arms, then she would give him a hug.
On Earth, Nodoka stiffened in mid pour.
She and Kasumi were having tea, and having a talk about her studies to go with it.
The cup ran over with the hot fluid, and Kasumi squeaked in surprise before forcing Nodoka's hands to the table to release the pot.
"Auntie, what's the matter?" she asked, worried that something serious was wrong.
Nodoka's eyes were misty as they turned on her.
"My son … is … MANLY!"
The middle-aged woman grabbed Kasumi in a bear hug and started dancing about the room, squealing about how she would have grandbabies.
Author's Notes; Another revised chapter over and done with … there were a few mistakes in this one as well, no surprise there, and a few small things have been changed to better fit the story, but the most important change was that I added a slight explanation as to how Ranma knew that taking a bath as a woman was better than as a man. This was added because someone pointed out to me that Ranma used to change back to male form with hot water, so taking a hot bath was not really an option … I hope this explanation is to everyone's satisfaction.
