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.
"Mmmm!"
Food, one of the quickest ways to wake Ranma without making him grumble, more effective than smelling salts, more humane than a bucket of ice cold water or an impromptu flight out a second storey window.
The scent of a traditional Japanese breakfast wafted into Ranma's sensitive nose, rebooting the mental computer that was Ranma. Breakfast was good, there was no feeling of impending doom that usually meant someone would hit him in order to get him up, and the lack of any ki in the room told him it was a benevolent source of food.
"Good morning, Ranma!" chirped a sweet female voice cheerfully from his left side, on the bed.
"'Morning Beebee," yawned the weredinictis and turned to look at her. "Did you have a good night?"
The bit bomb nodded and blushed.
"I made you breakfast," she added and nudged herself towards the bedside table, where a super-sized bowl of Miso soup was standing at the ready, chopsticks already unwrapped, clean and sitting on the edge of the bowl.
Ranma's affections towards the small robot doubled at the sight of his favourite dish … food!
Had she been organic, Ranma would have offered Beebee to eat with him, but he didn't know how much damage it would do to her currently inorganic systems, or if she even could get the stuff in.
How she managed to accomplish this without any arms or hands, Ranma didn't really want to ask … some mystery was the spice of life.
For every bite, Ranma swore he could see Beebee puff up with more pride, with every slurp he made, she would practically beam. Ranma realised that this was how Kasumi reacted at every meal, though Beebee was far less subtle about her reactions … she felt appreciated … being so small, there was little she could do to make herself known, apart from blowing up, but Ranma had asked her not to do that to get his attention. Being his self-appointed secretary gave Beebee a higher purpose in life, and it was making her happy so he allowed her to do it.
Wait a minute … was she starting to manifest an aura?
That couldn't be, he must be imagining it.
Ranma was almost tempted to lick the bowl clean when he finished, but it was bad etiquette to do so, and he neatly placed the bowl on the bedside table.
"That was delicious, Beebee," announced Ranma. "Thank you very much."
"You're welcome," blushed Beebee.
Ranma swept the bit bomb into his arm and the bowl in the other.
"I may have to apply for another patent," sighed Ranma in way of conversation as they made their way to the kitchen.
"I understand," agreed Beebee.
"I didn't want the world to know about it, but Iwo forced my hand …"
"Of course," agreed Beebee. "And with the correct times to call your mother, you will not have to worry about her."
"What times?" asked Ranma.
"She called last night," said Beebee. "She was disappointed that you had gone to bed, but was kind enough to leave the appropriate times to call her with me."
"That's great!" to be honest, Ranma was more relieved now that he knew his mother was fine. That was one less burden to bear.
"And I'm sure Gina can give you a hand with your patent applications," added Beebee.
"Good to know," replied Ranma. "I'll speak with her after lunch."
After putting away his bowl in the kitchen's dishwasher, Ranma sought out the workout room. He had yet to see it, but from the way Britanny bragged about it, it must have been a nice place to increase his strength, what with the hydraulic weights that could be set for resistance of a certain amount of weight instead of making physical weights that weighed as much as printed on them. This would allow for a bigger challenge in how much one could bench press.
This is what he found Britanny doing … pressing the bar above her head at nearly two tons worth of resistance.
Not wanting to disturb her with more than a ton in her hands, Ranma went over to the tread mill and started its program.
Beebee made her place next to the machine and observed.
After a short while, the programming of the tread mill started to speed up steadily.
Ranma loved this challenge, it was not often he got to run at top speeds without having to worry about obstacles popping up along the way or having to make any sudden turns or shifts of momentum to shake pursuers off his trail.
To any normal person, Ranma was little more than a stationary black blur. The tread mill was approaching its maximum safety speed which was what Britanny could run at top speeds. However, only Beebee was present to see it, and even her optical sensors were having a hard time keeping up with enough frames per second to capture his movements.
She made a note to get her optical sensors upgraded in the near future. Maybe along with the other upgrades she had thought of.
Ranma suddenly leapt off the tread mill, and started doing stretches.
The speed bag was his next victim, and it was moving so fast, it looked like it didn't know if it was coming or going.
Finally, after another set of stretches, Ranma started a light kata. It was composed of several different styles, flowing from one to another to give him the best balanced stance, power and grace. How stylish it was had no say in the matter, what did matter was that it got the job done quickly and with enough power behind it to be a threat, but without being overly wasteful.
To most people, this light kata was equal to what Martial Arts Masters and Grandmasters would show to draw students to their schools. It was beyond normal limitations.
It was during this kata that Ryan stepped inside to give the equipment a try, and he stopped to watch the kid go through it. Britanny also ended her reps during this time and watched the fellow lycanthrope fight invisible opponents. It was an impressive sight.
For several minutes, there was no movement but Ranma's.
Finally, Ranma slowed down to a halt and started stretching again.
Applause met his ears.
Britanny and Ryan were clapping their hands in praise at his performance, and Beebee was simulating the sound on her own with a studio recording of an audience.
This stroked Ranma's ego somewhat. Sure, he had killed the demigod Saffron, fought Herb the dragon descendent to a standstill while levelling a mountain, and fought a Jade Weapons-Master to a standstill without the use of some of his more exotic techniques … but it was still nice to leave people impressed with his skill.
He was about to ask either of the two for a quick spar, when she entered, clapping and with an appraising look on her face.
"Wonderful performance … Ranma, was it?" complimented Madrid huskily.
Beebee glared at the Djinni, already registering the increased pheromone output she was giving off to attract her love.
Ranma immediately slipped into the Soul of Ice, refusing to give away anything in expression, and nodded stiffly.
His body was trying to react to the saunter the well put-together woman did in closing the space between them, but his grip on the Soul of Ice prevented it.
Ryan, who had puffed himself up at the sight of the sexy woman was disappointed when she went right past him without offering him a glance. What did the kid have that he didn't? He had bigger muscles than the kid, he probably had him in the brains department, he was stronger, faster and probably had greater endurance than the kid … provided, the boy had some skills, but he wouldn't be able to apply the practiced knowledge he just showed he had in an actual fight, right? After all, this was just a werecreature kid from Jade, right? From what he had heard, they didn't have technology much beyond the wheel and blades, and judging from the mage suit, he was no more of a physical fighter in real life than Seance had been. In short, the guy had to be a wimp.
Now, let it be noted that Ryan has never really showed an interest in learning anything about Ranma other than where he had just come from and what his name was. It should not then be surprising that he was blissfully unaware of Ranma's true skill, intelligence or origin.
Madrid pressed herself against Ranma, making sure he got an eyeful of her goods and started playing with his tail.
"No," said Ranma without needing to hear the question.
"No to what?" purred Madrid.
"No," repeated Ranma icily. "I will not take part in whatever you are scheming, no matter what it is."
Of course, Madrid's ego became bruised at this blow, but she didn't let go once she had set her sights on someone.
"Oh, why did you think I was scheming something?" she asked, making sure to sound hurt. "I'm just trying to be nice!"
Even to Ranma, who was deep in the Soul of Ice, this sounded very genuine, but he knew that trick very well and wasn't going to fall for it no matter how well it was played. He had made a promise to himself not to be as easy to trick or manipulate as he was before, and giving in at the slightest show of emotion could get him killed one of these days if some assassin figured out his weakness for sad girls.
"Nice try," he commented. "Not falling for it, and I'm still not going to take part in your schemes."
The annoyed and offended Djinni stomped her foot, which she had placed over his, and stomped over to Ryan where she again started up her charms. Ranma was not hurt any more than he would if a ball of cotton were to hit him from a height of three inches.
Ryan seemed to have gotten over the jealousy now that the attention was directed at the right person, and was flirting as much with Madrid as she was with him.
Ranma picked up Beebee and stated to the room in general that he was going outside to meditate.
Britanny watched him go before glaring at the back of the cheating boyfriend of Gina, then cast a look at the security camera mounted in a corner of the room, hoping her sister hadn't seen this. She was fragile enough in the world of love without having yet another failed attempt at it to bring her down.
In her lab, Gina was nearly crushing her microscope as she watched the security feed from the workout room. Her glasses were in the way of drying her eyes at the betrayal, and she was tempted to run down there and make sure Ryan never did anything like this to another woman for as long as he lived, but a calming hand brought her out of it.
"There's no use getting angry, Gina," said Dao, the four-armed male Djinni. "That is what Madrid does … why do you think I divorced her? Let it pass and life will get better."
Gina huffed for a few moments before forcing herself to calm down.
"Alright," she agreed. "We still have the new Hurtbot Beta-tech prototypes to finish … and Ryan better hope he's out of the house before they are done, or I might feel tempted to test them on him …"
As she started to focus her attention on her work, she wondered why her boyfriend couldn't exercise as much restraint as Ranma did.
Wasn't she pretty enough to have constantly in the back of his thoughts?
Weren't their relationship serious enough to give her the courtesy of remaining faithful?
Why did Ranma seem more resistant to the Djinni's charms than Ryan? He didn't have anyone back home to remain faithful to, she checked, they had all moved away from the area only days after Ranma said he had appeared on Jade.
Did this mean that he had feelings for someone here?
Who?
Why did she suddenly feel hopeful that she was the one?
Ranma managed to get outside without incident. He had stopped by the kitchen for a drink of water, but that was it.
Outside, Ranma found a soft patch of grass and sat down, placing Beebee in front of him.
"Please, don't be insulted, but I'm going to be meditating now, and that means I'll have to ignore you for a little while," said Ranma.
"I'll be fine," replied Beebee. "You would have to do a lot worse to insult me … but what will you meditate on?"
"While on Jade," started Ranma, smiling at the memory, "I witnessed several techniques that I've not been able to repeat on my own. I need to review those moments, see the flows of energy and try to find a way to copy them … should be a bit different, though … they used some sort of external energy source, I'll be using my own.
"Now, if you'd excuse me …"
Beebee silently nodded, well, tilted her front body up and down to simulate a nod in acceptance, and made herself comfortable as Ranma started meditating.
A faint distortion was visible surrounding Ranma, not unlike how the air distorts along heated pavement, a sign that he had started his deep meditation.
In his mind, Ranma was going over the techniques he had seen used while in Jade.
"There was Fire Ball, which spewed a ball of fire at me, not unlike what Saffron did …" he muttered. "Force Bolt was just a ball of compressed air that would explode upon impact … Lightning Bolt caused a bolt of lightning to be shot at me, but due to the patterns it makes in the chi of an area before discharging, it is a bit predictable and easy to avoid … Crescent Cutter is a bit like the Yama-Sen-Ken techniques, only with more flare … Sleep seemed to convince a person that they were tired and needed rest without having to worry about the goings on around them … Freeze seemed to encase the victim in a cube of ice … and it looked like one of them could use Telekinesis, if I remember the terminology correctly …
"Now, how to make them on my own …"
On the roof of the Diggers home were three wererats in ninja costumes, hiding behind the apex of the roof.
"I can't believe our good fortune!" whispered an excited Romeo. "We came for the werecheetah and ended up finding our target! Now we can hand them both over to Lord Gothwrain and be honoured as heroes!"
"Like, we may even get, like, a raise!" added Moisha. "What do you think, Lydia?"
The two turned to the usually brass wererat to see her staring at the werecat with wide eyes.
" Lydia?"
No response apart from a slight blush emerging from behind her mask.
" Lydia!"
-Smack!-
"Ow!" winced Lydia, rubbing her posterior where Moisha had whipped her with her own tail. "What the f#& did you do that for, b#&?"
"You were, like, drooling after our target!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too, repeated infinitely! Like, I win!"
"Was not, repeated infinitely plus one!"
"Like, you can't do that!"
"Can too!"
"There isn't, y' know, more than infinity! You can't, like, add one more onto it!"
"Can too!"
"Can not!"
"Can too!"
"Can not!"
"Will you keep quiet!" hissed Romeo, interrupting what could have turned out to be one of the greater philosophical debates of the millennium. "I say we attack now, while he's distracted and vulnerable!"
"Like, Okay! Let's do it!"
Meanwhile, along the fence that surrounded the property, another trio was watching Ranma meditate.
"Damn, that boy is good looking!" complained Zelda.
"He is?" asked Ionis. "Why didn't you think so when we were looking at his picture?"
"I don't know, I wasn't focusing as much on his … wonderful physique as much as I was focused on the mission …"
"I believe something is muddling up your thoughts on the matter," commented Daishi, studying the boy. "He seems to have some skill … probably seventh dan black belt …"
"What style?" asked Ionis, fighters of certain styles tended to have an easier time avoiding his spells.
"All of them."
"C'mon, he can't be that good!" protested Zelda weakly, lingering on Ranma's chest through his mage suit. "He's a scientist! And by the looks of it, a mage!"
"I must confess, it is unprecedented to have a student or master of the disciplines of Mind, Body and Spirit, they are not always compatible with each other," agreed Ionis. "However, we should use caution upon approaching him, his aura is very chaotic!"
"Let's kick some werecat tail!" called Zelda enthusiastically, brandishing her silver knuckles. "Dibs on him when we're done getting the samples!"
Ranma was close to a breakthrough with one of the techniques when he felt the fur along his neck rise. Danger.
He grabbed Beebee and rolled backwards.
Not a second later, a bald woman, in a green one-piece bathing suit and green knee-high boots, crashed feet first into the ground where he had been sitting in a high powered stomp, creating a three foot wide crater.
As soon as Ranma's feet touched the ground, he thrust his legs, reversing his direction and sending him into the air in a parabolic arch over the bald woman. Again, not a second after he moved, the spot where he had been was exposed to an attack. A silver shinobigatana was sliced into the ground, held by a ninja, who was tracking his trajectory with a slightly slower movement than Ranma was doing.
In the middle of the leap, Ranma shifted his weight and changed trajectory, avoiding what he identified as a Force Bolt fired by a bald black guy with a floating tome in the air before him.
As he touched down, Ranma stepped aside, narrowly avoiding a volley of shuriken thrown by another ninja, this one with a rat's tail sticking out of his posterior.
Calmly, Ranma bowed forward, ducking under the first ninja's silver sword which was sweeping in from behind.
Reversing his body, he bent over backwards, balancing on one leg and punched the ninja who was still finishing his swing in the solar plexus. Then in an impressive display, did a one-handed back-flip over the hunched ninja, easily avoiding a double hammer blow to his stomach by the bald and endowed woman with the slim sunglasses and tight suit.
As he landed, Ranma went limp, flattening himself to the ground in time to avoid another Force Bolt that sailed over him and hit the recovering ninja in the back, sending him careening into the bald lady.
Ranma rolled over in time to avoid another volley of stars thrown by a very well endowed female ninja with puffy purple hair and a rat's tail.
Tucking his feet in and rolling forward, Ranma avoided the fist of another female ninja with a rat's tail and launched himself into the air once more. Once more, he changed directions in mid air, and avoided a Force Bolt that took out the upper Southeast corner of the house.
Despite his past history, Ranma realised that the trio of rat ninja were not cooperating with the others, and that he had somehow in the course of his week here managed to egg on two very hostile groups … lovely.
Upon landing, Ranma crouched under another volley of stars and did an unassisted back-flip, landing on the "talented" rat-ninja's shoulders and forcing her into the ground, becoming a springboard to launch himself higher and avoiding a fireball sent by the mage. The fireball flew over the downed rat-ninja and crashed into the recovering ninja and bald lady, exploding in fiery glory. The two burning figures ran about in a panic to put themselves out, rational thought having left them.
Having had enough of the cowardly mage, Ranma altered his trajectory and crashed into him feet first, much like how the bald lady was planning on doing to him in her initial attack.
The male rat-ninja came at Ranma with a dagger, and Ranma ducked under it with a low sweep kick that made the rat-ninja fall face first into the ground. This was followed by an elbow to the back of the rat-ninja's head.
The two female rat-ninja had seemingly decided that cooperation was in order and were rushing in before jumping into separate kicks, the well endowed one going low and the other going high. Ranma stood his ground and grabbed hold of the leg headed for his face, using the leverage to fling the rat-ninja into the air, causing her to become little more than a dot in the sky, much like Happosai used to do to him. The other lost her balance from the kick that failed to knock Ranma down, and was distracted enough to allow an elbow to find the back of her head.
Ranma sat Beebee down on the ground.
"Beebee, go inside and find someone who might be able to deal with these people," he said gently to her. The rapid and sudden motion she had been a part of for the past minute had disoriented her a little.
"Roger!" she squeaked and zipped inside as fast as her little wheels could carry her.
After seeing her gone, Ranma held out his arms.
-Thwump!-
The female rat-ninja was still very shocked and disoriented from the unexpected flight, and was unable to figure out that her opponent had caught her.
Ranma calmly set her on the ground and turned back, clapping his hands together.
From seemingly nowhere, a silver shinobigatana materialised between the palms of the weredinictis, held by a scorched ninja, who looked to be struggling with it.
"It is one thing to attack me," growled Ranma. "But I will not accept you endangering the lives of others!"
Because of the effort the ninja was putting into holding the sword, it was easy for Ranma to twist it out of his grip.
With unnatural grace, Ranma bent over backwards and ran the silver sword through the thick tome behind him, which the battered mage had been slowly making his way towards, and struck the mage's face, knocking him out. As he bent, Ranma's foot flew out both to balance himself and to land a solid kick to the ninja's chin, sending him flying several feet backwards.
The technique he had been working on just came to him as Ranma straightened himself.
"Freeze!" he growled icily, extending his arm at the crumbled ninja.
The air surrounding the ninja solidified, and suddenly, the ninja was encased in a thick ice cube.
Looking around the yard, Ranma was disappointed to see that none of the six were able to fight any longer.
"C'mon!" he called out with disappointment. "Just five more minutes! I'll even tie the other arm behind my back!"
Seeing that no one were making any move to attack him any more, Ranma was about to head inside to see what was taking Beebee so long when he noticed that the rat-ninja he had sat down was staring at him in shock, quivering slightly.
"'You okay?" he asked cautiously. "Did I hurt you?"
Getting no response, Ranma waved his hand in front of the rat-ninja's face.
With a squeak, the eyes of the rat-ninja rolled back into her head and she fell over, landing with her head down the cleavage of the female rat-ninja that had an abundance of said part.
Not wanting to get painted out as the bad guy, Ranma decided to bring these people inside so he could find out why they had a grudge against him and how to make it up to them. He might as well start with the one that had just fainted.
Gently picking the rat-ninja up, Ranma carried her inside and placed her on the living room couch.
Still not seeing any sign of the other residents, Ranma went to the bathroom and soaked a washcloth before wringing it out, leaving it only moist, then returned to the living room and placed the neatly folded cloth on her forehead, removing the mask she wore.
When Ranma returned to the yard to pick up the next attacker, he found the yard entirely empty of everything but the destruction the fight had caused.
Craters littered the grass. There was a hole through a tree and the fence where two Force Bolts had struck. There was another hole in the corner of the roof, which had also taken out a corner of the house from a third Force Bolt. There were tiny divots where the volleys of shuriken had impaled the ground, and a long gouge where the silver sword had slashed through. There was an indentation of a man's torso in the ground where the mage had been taken down. Across the yard from that were scorch marks where the Fire Ball had struck and where the two burn victims had tried to put themselves out.
"Somehow, I just know I'll be blamed for this …" sighed Ranma. "They could have at least cleaned up after themselves when they left … it's bad manners leaving the host to clean up others' mess …" it struck him how Kasumi must have felt when his fights caused such a mess back in Nerima. He would have to apologise to her when they next met.
Nabiki was very pleased.
She had done it! She had managed to convince Kashima Iwo to turn over the responsibility of Ranma's finances and deals to her.
Sure, she had to resort to threatening him with letting the public know of his … indiscretions, but she had done it.
She did not know, nor did she want to know, how he had managed to get that female Science Club member to agree to play "slave" with him, nor did she care that he pretended he didn't recognise her outside their "dungeon", the "equipment" used was the important deal, but what it was used for or whom it was used on, she did not want to know, and Iwo apparently didn't want to let the world know either … those images had been very disturbing to sort through, and Iwo had hurriedly agreed to hand her what she wanted as long as he got every copy and the originals for those images.
As Ranma's manager and accountant, she was only entitled to a certain percentage, which was very flattering in amount … it was a lucrative deal, but not as lucrative as she wanted it to be. It was just too bad that she had to get the signature of Ranma to get the percentage changed. She couldn't forge the signature, because then people would start asking questions about his whereabouts, and she would easily get arrested for fraud and embezzlement.
It didn't really matter. If Ranma did show up, Nabiki was certain she could persuade him into signing the required forms for her increased pay, or even marry him and divorce him then fleece him for over half his money and future money. If he didn't return, the business and money would be handed over to Auntie and Ranma's manager. It was a win-win situation.
Now, if she could only figure out why Auntie had been walking about with her head in the clouds since yesterday.
"Note to self," she spoke into a portable tape recorder. "Count the Happy-Pills when I get home. If they are coming out short, hide the rest … Auntie should not be this deliriously happy when her son is dead, even if she is getting all his money in an account she can access."
-Atchoo!-
Tatewaki Kuno was not a happy kendoist.
Yesterday, the recently employed sensei of the Kendo Club had not made an appearance, calling and saying that she had missed the train due to a family crisis. Since Sensei Koki could not make it, the great Blue Thunder had taken it upon himself to better his fellow students by broadening their minds and basking in his greatness. Those that objected to his suggestion had quickly been subdued by his great sword, though he still lacked some power for his sword after he had gotten healed by the best in the business … the broken bones had been the worst to heal, and actually still stung a little when he put strain on this body. The police commissioner of the ward had been heavily bribed to get him away from their scrutiny, so there was no need for him to worry about any punishment for disposing of the foul sorcerer Saotome.
Today, when the sensei arrived and heard of his supreme leadership, she had not been pleased, but for what reason Tatewaki could not fathom. The mutinous members of the Club had been excused, and his loyal fellow students had been taken to the football field, or soccer field according to the Americans, while wearing weighted clothing. She had them move the great metal goals to the middle of the field, and instructed them to strike the poles five hundred times single-handed with each hand.
As Sensei Koki left the field, she waved at someone, and from the very earth, rain started pouring in great streams that collided with each other above the seven still in the field.
Tatewaki was greatly honoured that Sensei Koki saw him and his fellow students were advanced enough to go through such endurance training, and attacked the pole with great enthusiasm. Even when he at the three hundredth strike started to bleed from his tight grip, he carried on. As they went through this exorcise, the Blue Thunder made sure to call out poetic encouragements to his fellows to keep their spirits up and do honour by their sensei through the completion of this task. He would show those doctors that his nobility and strength were enough to overcome this illness they had claimed he had in addition to his mending bones. Whatever Sterility was, he was certain he would overcome it. The cold and damp clothes did not bother him, he was of noble blood.
-Atchooo!-
Which brought his thoughts back to his present.
He had not been strong enough. Sure, he had done the five hundred strikes for each hand with ease, but his health had not lasted that long, and his nose was starting to get sore from the constant wiping of it.
Surely, nobility like him deserved to be above such common illnesses as a sniffle.
"Ah," groaned the Blue Thunder, walking into the kitchen. "It appears my twisted sister has been kind enough to set out some warm herbal tea to help remedy my ailment."
Author's Notes; Another chapter reread … most changes were merely cosmetic, such as correcting a few words, rearranging another few, and adding forgotten ones. The biggest change, however, was adding an explanation for how Kuno recovered from his broken body, and escaped prison … they may not be believable explanations, but if anyone out there can think of better ones, please share them with me.
