Ranma Puff Z
By Skye Silverwing
Disclaimer: No, I still don't own any of this.
Chapter 2: Awakening
Several months had passed since the incident that had become known as the "Day of the Iceberg". It was then that the monsters began to appear, attacking and tormenting the citizens of Tokyo City and the surrounding wards. It was also that day, however, that the city's greatest defenders, the Powerpuff Girls Z, were born. Using their Super Powers, Hyper Blossom, Rolling Bubbles, and Powered Buttercup stood fast against the ensuing tide of evil.
The girls did not spend all of their time fighting evil, though. During their off hours, Momoko, Miyako and Kauru lived normal lives, having fun, hanging out, and spending time with their friends. At least they tried to.
As is often the case when a group of girls share a secret, it was only amongst themselves that they felt like they were among friends. Only with each other were they equals. All of their former friends began to fall by the wayside in the face of the camaraderie that comes with fighting side by side.
Some friends don't stay by the wayside for long, though.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
It was almost lunch time at Furinkan high school. Kasumi Tendo sat lazily by the window in her class, thinking about her friend, Miyako. The girl had been increasingly distant lately: always a little closed off, seeming a little tired, and having to run off at random times with strange reasons.
The more Kasumi thought about it, the more she wondered if her friend had gotten herself mixed up in something dangerous, perhaps even involving the monsters that had been appearing lately. She sighed in concern for her friend and glanced down by the school gate, suddenly spotting someone she recognized.
"Akane!" she said, wondering why her sister, a middle-schooler, had come to her high school. She hurried down to meet her, and was joined on the way by her middle sister, Nabiki.
The Nabiki nodded in greeting. "You saw her, too?" she asked.
Kasumi nodded. "What could she be doing here?" she asked.
Nabiki shrugged, and the two of them proceeded out to the gate.
Akane smiled to see her sisters. "Kasumi! Nabiki!" She called, waving happily.
Kasumi looked her sister over, making sure that she was not sporting any injuries that might explain her presence here. "Akane," she said calmly, "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in class. You didn't get in another fight again, did you?"
Akane shook her head. "The Middle School got let out early." She said. "I heard there was a gas leak in the Home Ec. Room."
Kasumi nodded remembering how the Middle school's Home Economics Room had been more than a little dated when she had been there. She was amazed that the building had not burned down years ago. "Alright, then I guess you will have to go home." She said.
Akane's face fell slightly. "But-But I wanted to spend the day with you guys," She said, "and Dad has been drinking again."
Kasumi sighed and wished- not for the first time- that their father had not become such a useless wreck when their mother died. When he was drunk, the man would begin gushing tears like a faucet and wailing at the drop of a hat. It was honestly hard to spend time with the man, because there was no telling what would set him off.
Kasumi was trying to figure out what to do when the lunch bell rang. Nodding to herself she smiled at her sisters. "Then I suppose Akane can spend lunch with us." She said, turning to look at Nabiki, "That is, if you don't mind eating together as well, Ms. "Ice Queen"?"
A faint smile appeared on the beginning mercenary's face at the nickname she had gotten for being cold and calculating all the time. "No, I don't mind." She said, "But she can't stay after lunch, since we have class."
Kasumi nodded. "Then it is settled." She said, "Akane will eat with us and then she will go see Doctor Tofu, to return the book I borrowed."
Akane's face lit up at the mention of the Doctor. She liked him. He was kind and gentle and strong and skilled…
The pleasant line of thoughts was interrupted by a loud shout. "Loe, what has met my noble eye, but the most beauteous creature I have ever lain eyes upon."
The three girls turned to see a man that the two elder sisters had immediately recognized as Tatewaki Kuno, the Schools star Kendo fighter. He had his eyes locked on Akane and was moving swiftly across the field toward them.
Nabiki glared at him. "What do you want, Kuno?" she demanded, recalling how cruel and brutal the boy could be in a fight.
Kuno smiled. "I only wish to spend time with this lovely lilac blossom." He said, wrapping his arms around Akane. "She is surely the most lovely and fragile flower I have ever- Uf!"
Akane, angry at Kuno's invasion of her personal space, lashed out with a devastating uppercut to his jaw, followed by a whirling roundhouse kick that sent the boy flying across the school yard to land in a heap beside the kendo club.
The three Tendo girls were just about to go back to their business when they heard a collective gasp from the assembled watchers. They turned to see Kuno pushing himself back to his feet. "Surely, I was wrong to call her a fragile blossom." He said, reaching out and grabbing a boken from the back side of the wrack. "Truly, this girl is a fierce tigress, one worthy of the attention of one such as I. So you express your love through might. I can accept that! Have at thee!"
With that, Kuno pulled the sword to front, and black lightning began to arc along its length. Then, all hell broke loose.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Lunch had just begun and Momoko, Miyako and Kauru were on the roof of their school, eating their lunches in companionable silence. They liked times like this because there was not rush to go anywhere, no cause for stress and no penalty for just sitting there eating with their friends.
Suddenly, the lights on their belts started flashing. They sighed and stood, opening their compacts. The face of the Professor appeared on the screen. "Girls!" he said, "There is a monster attacking at Furinkan High School in Nerima!"
Miyako blinked. She knew she had heard of that school somewhere before. Shrugging, she nodded to the others and they all began their transformation.
"HYPER BLOSSOM!"
"ROLLING BUBBLES!"
"POWERED BUTTERCUP!"
"POWERPUFF GIRLS Z!"
A moment later the trio of super heroines took off, lancing across the sky toward Nerima.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE WE NOW!" Ukyo cried in frustration.
She and Ryoga had been traveling together for some time, and while it had only taken her a few days to realize that he did not know where he was going, it had only taken her a few more to realize that she did not know either. With Ryoga, she would find herself in a new climate zone every couple of hours. She hoped that with all that traveling, they would get to a place that she had at least some means of coming back from. Sadly, she had yet to see a map, and never recognized her location wherever it was. It was frustrating, but she ultimately decided that she had to rely on Ryoga to lead her to a place she could find her way back from.
That did not stop her from smacking the directionally challenged idiot with her spatula every now and then for leading her to an entirely different area that she could not recognize, of course. And this was one of those times. The view from the top of this mountain was nice, but it was not revealing anything she could recognize. They looked out upon a sea of clouds as far as the eye could see. As she brought her weapon down on his head, she wished that she could do the same to that Jerk, Ranma Saotome.
Suddenly the light on her belt started blinking. She looked down at it. "Oh, no." she said, "Not again!" then she transformed against her will.
"ULTRA BUNNY!" she cried, shifting into the purple outfit. She cringed in anticipation of what was coming, and was not disappointed as black lighting started arcing painfully over her skin, before finally exploding and hurling her and Ryoga from the mountain, sending them hurtling into the clouds below.
Behind them, the winged woman, Kiima, emerged from the shadows, wondering what that had been about. She did not know how the landlings had gotten up there, but she would have to investigate. With that, she nodded to herself and leapt from the mountain in pursuit.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
For Ryoga, the past several months had been nice, even if the girl he was traveling with was a bit violent from time to time, and in some ways especially so. Ukyo knew just how to hit him to make it hurt, and that helped him get tougher in the long run.
More than anything, though, the Lost Boy loved the companionship. Just having the girl around alleviated one of the worst aspects of his affliction: loneliness. Usually he would find himself traipsing through the wilderness for months, all alone, with no one to talk to but the occasional woodland creature. If he had not been used to it, he was certain it would have driven him over the edge of madness years ago. Having Ukyo as a companion had changed all of that, giving him someone to talk to and hang out with when he would have been walking in silence otherwise.
In some ways it kind of reminded Ryoga of Ranma, though he would never admit it. The pigtailed boy had been there for Ryoga during those perilous walks to school when one false step could have sent him half way around the world and allowed the loneliness to consume him. In truth, Ranma had been a great friend, when he wasn't snatching victory out from Ryoga's face.
That was beside the point, though. Now, Ukyo was Ryoga's companion while the two of them were hunting Ranma down to exact their revenge for the boy's lack of honor. Ryoga had to be there for Ukyo and protect her whenever that weird change hit her. Then he had to protect her from whatever came of it. It often hurt when she exploded, but he had to stop her from getting injured when she hit something.
As such, when the two of them were hurled off of the mountain several hundred meters over the Valley of Jusenkyo, Ryoga wrapped the girl in his arms and spun so that he would take the brunt of the impact while trying with all his might to bleed off the momentum so that they could both survive it. Looking down below, he saw dozens of pools of water and bamboo poles. A last-ditch effort formed in his mind, and he angled toward one of the poles catching it and bending it to absorb as much of the energy as he could, her gave a mighty shove, launching girl in his arms to a hopefully soft landing in one of the other pools even as the bamboo pole shattered, dumping him into the spring below.
With the last of his strength, Ryoga pulled himself from the water and collapsed on the soft, muddy ground. As his consciousness faded, he hoped Ukyo was okay as what appeared to be a giant man hurried over to him.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Back at Furinkan, Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi struggled to survive the nightmarish Dark Samurai creature that Kuno had become. The Beast had four arms, each equipped with a razor sharp katana, and black classical Samurai armor. It moved with great purpose, professing its love even as it attacked.
Its main target was Akane, but with the number of weapons it was striking with, Kasumi and Nabiki were having trouble getting themselves out of the line of fire, let alone helping Akane.
The Youngest Tendo used all of the speed she could manage, trying to avoid the blades long enough to counter, all the while leading the beast away from innocent bystanders. Finally managing to draw Kuno away from her sisters, Akane began to push the limits of her Anything Goes training to keep herself clear of Monster Kuno's four lethal blades.
As Akane fought, Kasumi was unsure what to do. Sure, monsters had attacked the school before, but never as a student!
Nabiki, on the other hand, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed the number she had seen on TV and billboards. It was a hotline especially for monster attacks. "Hello?" she said, "A monster is attacking Furinkan High School!"
The voice on the other end tried to sound reassuring. "Don't worry, we are sending the Powerpuff Girls Z." he said, "Help is on the way."
Nabiki half growled. "We need help NOW!" she demanded, "My sister is fighting that thing all on her own!"
The man's astonishment could be heard through the phone. "Your sister is fighting it?" he asked, "How?"
Nabiki sighed. "This is Nerima." She said, "This place has more martial artists than grains of sand. My sister is among the best."
The man seemed to understand. "Right." He said, "The girls should be there to help any moment."
Back in the battle, the Monster Kuno continued its onslaught against Akane. "I love you!" It said, "As soon as I prove myself superior to you in every way, I would date with you!"
Akane ignored the monsters words as she vaulted between two of its swords and slid under another. She knew she could not remain on the defensive for long. She had to find an… There! An Opening!
Akane rolled to avoid the fourth sword and came up, delivering a devastating kick to the monster's chin. "DATE THIS!" she shouted as the force of the blow flung the monster through the school wall. She clapped her hands and held up her fingers in a "V" sign. "I won!"
Suddenly the monster lurched from the rubble. "I FIGHT ON!" It shouted and lashed out, stretching one of its arms at a high rate of speed and leaving a deep gash in Akane's left leg.
Akane cried out in pain, and dropped to one knee. The monster was quickly bearing down on her like a tidal wave of steel. Injured, she knew she could not hope to weather this onslaught. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.
"STRAWBERRY SHOOT!"
Akane opened her eyes hesitantly to see that a pink yo-yo had looped around two of the monster's weapons, and was holding it fast. On the other end of the string floated a red haired girl in a pink skirt. "You can't force someone to love you!" she said.
"BUBBLE BOING!"
The other two swords impacted with some rainbow colored bubbles being emitted by a wand held by a second girl, this one blonde, wearing a blue skirt. "And it isn't nice to kill people just because they don't love you." She said.
"GRAVITON DRIVE!"
A third girl, this one in green, slammed the monster in the chest with a large hammer, hurling it back into the wall once more. "We won't let you win with a cheap shot like that one!" she said.
The three girls jumped together between the monster and Akane and struck a pose. "We are the Fighting Science Legend, Powerpuff Girls Z!"
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
In truth the girls had been watching Akane's fight, waiting to step in until the girl got overwhelmed. Oddly enough it had been Bubbles's idea, though Buttercup had immediately agreed, based on the girl's prowess and the pride of the martial artists in Nerima. They had thought the fight over until the monster got back up and hit the girl with that cheap shot.
Buttercup was still concerned about stepping in on another girl's fight, but after they announced who they were, she saw the relief in the other girl's eyes, showing that she had realized she was over her head.
Determined not to fall for the same trick Akane did, the girls watched the pile of rubble, knowing that the fight was certainly not over yet. Thus, it did not come to anyone's surprise when the monster resurfaced. It surveyed the three new arrivals to the battle. "Such exotic beauty." It said, "How could I possibly choose just one? NO! I MUST HAVE THEM ALL!"
With that, he lengthened all four arms into blade edged tentacles. It lashed out at all three Powerpuffs as well as Akane, forcing them to scatter. The Powerpuffs took to the air and surrounded the Monster, hoping that it would increase its ability to attack Akane.
The writhing tentacles slashed at each of the girls, trying to enwrap them. Blossom and Buttercup fought to keep the rogue appendages at bay by striking them with yo-yo and hammer, but Bubbles could only block with bubbles and dodge. Akane used her uninjured leg to jump and dodge as best she could while punching and kicking the tentacles.
At first, the battle seemed a little one sided. Four girls battled against one monster, and it seemed like they had the fight well in hand.
Suddenly, though, the tide changed, as the tentacle that had been menacing Bubbles suddenly lashed out, wrapping around her leg, dragging her down and slamming her hard into the ground. The others both cried out in concern for their friend, dropping their own guards for a moment, and the tentacles that they were facing Wrapped around Buttercup's arms and Blossom's stomach. The girls were lucky that their power reinforced bodies were tougher than normal, but even so, a trickle of blood was beginning to flow down Bubbles's leg where the tentacle was cutting into her.
Akane's finely honed reflexes were the only thing that kept the tentacle from capturing her as well. She threw herself to one side to avoid a slam and made a one legged jump to avoid it as it swept under her. It was very difficult with the injury to her leg, and she was unsure how long she could keep it up.
Suddenly, Bubbles shrieked as the tentacle holding her slid further up her leg and over her inner thigh.
All at once, the tide of the battle changed once again as in a flash, a flaming red battle aura surrounded Akane, vaporizing the tentacle that was attempting to ensnare her. The light coalesced into a shape of a large wooden mallet in her hand.
Nabiki gaped as Kasumi smiled proudly at her sister. The ki weapon technique was one of the stronger techniques in the Tendo School of Anything Goes. Akane had never been able to gather sufficient ki to perform it before, since their father had stopped training them when their mother died.
Akane charged at the monster, Ki-born Mallet in hand, with a level of speed that was even hard for the super-heroines to follow. Monster Kuno had only enough time to flinch before she was in striking distance.
"KUNO NO HENTAI!" she shouted as she brought the Mallet down with a devastating crash and a rush of ki that vaporized the remaining three tentacles, freeing their victims, and left Kuno, back in his human form, lying in a crater looking rather singed and clutching the incinerated remains of the boken that had started this mess.
The Powerpuff Girls looked in awe at their savior as she stood over Kuno, still holding the Mallet, breathing heavily, and glowing with fiery red ki. After a few moments, the glow abated, the mallet vanished, and Akane began to calm down. A moment later, without the anger and adrenaline fueling her, her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted dead away.
Three pairs of gloved hands caught Akane as she fell, laying her gently on the ground.
It took a moment more for Kasumi to kneel beside her sister, checking her vitals and examining the wound on her leg. She turned to the Powerpuff Girls, concern showing deeply in her eyes. "She has completely exhausted herself." She said, "If she is not taken to someone who can help soon, she could die! Please, fly her to Dr. Tofu's clinic. He will know what to do." She quickly wrote down the location.
Bubbles nodded quickly and took the address. "Absolutely, Kasumi-san," she said, "we will get your sister to the Doctor right away!"
With that, the three of them picked up the injured girl and flew off toward Tofu's clinic, leaving a concerned Kasumi and a contemplative Nabiki behind them.
As the two Tendo's turned to follow, Nabiki cocked her head. "Hey, Kasumi," she asked, "When did you tell them your name?"
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Ranma grumbled irately as he struck the camp on his father's order. The old man, of course was just standing off to the side, watching as he did all the work, and even complaining about how slow he was going. Ranma muttered a few choice words that would have earned him a slap from his mother, if he had one.
Ranma had never really forgiven his father for choosing that specific day to leave Tokyo City. He hated not having been able to wait for Ryoga to overcome his lack of direction sense. He hated not being able to meet his friend for a fair fight.
The one thing he was happy about from that day was that his father confirmed that he had saved that girl from whatever that light was. It was a martial artist's duty to protect the weak, after all. Still, he would have liked to know she was safe.
By the time they were on their way, the sun was well above the horizon. Ranma was glad that they were finally to the last of the "Legendary" Training grounds on his father's list. You can only get so much of ancient temples, and thousand stair climbs, and high lofty perches and…Bamboo poles.
Ranma rolled his eyes the instant they rounded the last bend. Wonderful. Hundreds of springs of water to land in while using Bamboo poles to practice aerial combat. Again. Well, at least this time, the poles seemed to be actually growing where they were, rather than just stuck there. He recalled the splinters he had to deal with at the last training ground with this kind of setup.
Genma was of course, elated to see it and insisted that they start right away. "All right, Boy," he said, "The training is to fight on top of the bamboo poles and try to knock the opponent into the springs."
Ranma sighed. Dropping his pack, he leapt to the top of one of the poles and faced off against his father for the two hundredth time this trip. Each blow he had landed was a little of his retribution against his father for taking him away from all of his friends in the past.
The battle got off to a slow start, the two of them getting a feel for the poles and mainly making attacks that they knew they could recover from. Each of them moves nimbly from pole to pole and they soon began taking greater risks and making bigger jumps in their attempts to knock the other into the chilly looking water below.
As they continued their training, a man below started to yell. Something about a curse and it not being good to fall in the water.
Ranma had heard a lot of superstition over the years, so he ignored the man's cries and kept focused on his father. The old fool was getting sloppy. The jumped from his most recent perch a bit too early, allowing the boy to get the better of him. Ranma leapt high, catching the old man in the face with his knee, and granting himself sufficient spin to kick the man down from behind. As he landed on the pole nearby he heard a satisfying splash.
A moment later, something shot past him, falling from above. As it did, it caught a nearby pole and bent it nearly double, as it did so it revealed itself to be a guy with a girl in his arms. He threw the girl into the air even as the Bamboo pole shattered and dumped him in the water below.
To Ranma's surprise, the girl landed in his arms. As he looked at her, he knew there was something familiar about her. Not that he had more than that moment to figure out why.
A Panda suddenly shot up out of the water below and struck him hard with its panda fist, hurling him, and his unwitting passenger, into the pool below.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
The Powerpuff Girls carried their injured ally to Doctor Tofu's clinic as quickly as they could without aggravating her injuries. They burst through the door, and Buttercup was first to speak. "Hey! Doc!" she shouted, "We've got an injured girl here!"
Doctor Tofu, a tall man in his early thirties, ran out into the lobby, gasping when he saw the state that Akane was in. He scooped the girl up and carried her into one of the exam rooms, laying her on a table as the other girls followed. "What happened?" he asked as he began to clean the wound on Akane's leg.
Blossom stepped forward. "There was a monster attack." She said, "She was fighting the monster when we arrived, and then we got into trouble, and she…"
Buttercup noticed her friend struggling to think of a way to describe what happened next and stepped in. "She got mad and started to glow." She said, "She focused the light into a weapon and bashed the monster with it, but then the light stopped and she passed out."
Bubbles decided she had something to contribute as well. "Her sister told us to bring her here." She said. "Can you help her?"
Tofu nodded. "It sounds like she finally learned how to tap into her ki." He said, "She over used it and exhausted her life force, and the bleeding did not help. I can stop the Bleeding, but we need to restore her energy. Can you help?"
The three girls looked at Tofu in confusion, then looked at each other and nodded. "We will help in any way we can." Blossom said, "How can we help?"
Tofu motioned for the girls to take places on either side of Akane. They did so, and the Doctor began instructing them in channeling their excess energy, directing their abundant live force to restore hers. This was made easier by the fact that much of the girls' powers involved moving their energy in a similar fashion.
After a few moments, Doctor Tofu nodded. "Thank you, Powerpuff Girls." He said, "This would have been considerably more difficult if you had not been here."
The girls smiled at the praise. "No problem, Doctor." Blossom said happily, "It is what we do."
With that, the girls departed, leaving a speculative Dr Tofu behind them.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Ukyo awoke to the sensation of being dunked in cold water. As she surfaced, she sputtered and cursed the stupid transformation that had once again ruined her day. She guessed that the blast had knocked them off the mountain, but she was not sure how she had survived the fall. She figured she would have to ask Ryoga.
Suddenly a tingly feeling went up her spine. She whirled, suddenly aware of a white-haired girl who was now drifting up in a show of white light.
"WILD BELL!"
Ukyo watched in awe as the other young woman danced through a transformation not unlike her own, though the girl's final outfit was white as snow, trimmed with black, with a white and grey top, and she had a black headband that suited the overall look, offsetting the white of her hair. In her hands, she carried a pair of folding fans.
As the change was completed Ukyo rolled from the water, clearly expecting the girl to explode with arcing black lightning, as she always did. A moment later, the girl touched down on the ground beside the pool, staring down at herself in confusion. "A-A-A skirt?" she said in horror. "Why am I wearing a skirt?"
A small man in a green uniform approached. "Ah! Young sir and miss fell in Nyaniichuan, Spring of Drowned Girl." He said. "Very tragic tale of young girl drowned in that spring two thousand year ago. Now anyone who fall in cursed to take form of girl. Older sir fall in Shonmouniichuan, Spring of Drowned Panda. It also have tragic curse. Other sir fall in spring of drowned piglet. Now is in form of small black piglet."
Ukyo gasped as she recognized Ryoga's bandana. "Ryo-chan!" she cried, running to the guide and gathering the pig in her arms.
The white-haired girl's eyes hardened. "I have been turned into a girl…" she said, softly. "If you will excuse me, I have to fillet a panda." With that, she opened her fans and charged after the fleeing panda.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
As the Powerpuffs flew back to their school, Buttercup had a thought. "Miyako…" she said, not afraid to use the other girl's civilian name while they were flying, "How did you know those girls' names?
Bubbles thought about it for a moment. "Because the eldest sister is Kasumi, one of my friends from… Before." She said with a sudden frown.
The others nodded. They all knew how their lives had been changed by receiving their powers. They had all left friends and certain aspects of their lives behind, sacrificed for the need to keep their powers a secret.
It was Blossom who made the decision. "Maybe…" she said carefully, "Maybe you should connect with her again. As Miyako, I mean. Maybe we could all stand to have more friends."
Buttercup grinned. "Yeah." She said, "Maybe you can introduce us to that sister of hers, Akane. Girl's got some moves."
Bubbles nodded slowly, and the three of them landed back on the rooftop, de-transformed and headed back to class.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Kiima swooped in low, carefully navigating the treacherous air currents over Jusenkyo. It was well known that many an experienced flyer had been cursed because of the swirling and chaotic winds that danced above the pools of sorrow, and while taking on a curse was often necessary for diplomatic and covert missions to the landings' world, she had no desire to take a dip in those cold and unforgiving waters. She was, however, on a mission. She had to find the two who had infiltrated the mountain, and learn how and why they had done so.
Kiima angled toward the home of the Guide, the Keeper of the Lore, expecting that it would be the first place her quarry would have gone. At the very least, the Guide himself could yield some information.
Below her, Kiima idly noted a panda, hurrying through the forest of Bamboo poles, carefully avoiding the pools. Expecting that her prey may have been cursed into that form, she angled toward it, swooping in low to prepare for attack.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of white and for an instant, Kiima's vision was filled with the image of a beautiful white haired girl, dressed in a white skirt with black trim and a grey top, flying over her head at astonishing speed by riding a beam of light. Kiima had never seen anything so intensely beautiful in her entire life. Then the girl was gone, chasing after the panda, leaving the Phoenix soldier in her wake.
As Kiima regained her senses, she was struck by the shockwave produced by the girl's passing. It violently stirred the air, robbing her wings of lift and sending her pitching head over heels, toward one of the pools below. She struggled hard, desperately trying to regain control, flaring her wings in a desperate attempt to right herself and avoid the water.
Mere inches off the water, Kiima managed to fill her wings with air and turn her flight path back toward the sky, but as she did, her wing touched the surface of the pool below. In that instant, she knew.
The pool was not imprinted.
The winged woman let out a terrified shriek as the original curse of Jusenkyo activated, and she was robbed of the sky she so craved, the waters hungrily dragging her into their depths. Desperately she sought to reach for anything to save her from this fate as the air was forced from her lungs by the water and her body sank into the depths below.
For the original curse of Jusenkyo is that all who touch an "uncursed" spring shall fall in and drown, and their form shall imprint on the spring and be given to all who fall in thereafter.
As Kiima's strength waned and her consciousness faded, her last thought was of the horrible white haired girl whose fault it was that she had to die here today.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
A. N. Now, originally, I was just going to use Akane as a means to pull the civilian forms of the Powerpuffs into the range of Ranma and Nabiki, however, the story took on a life of its own and laid the groundwork for Akane becoming a PPGZ member in her own right. I want my readers' opinion. Should she become one? I already have five, which is a good number, but six makes it two teams of three. In any case, as always, I love constructive criticism. Tell me what you think.