Squiggly things are the best kinds of things.
From the space between the trunks of the trees several figures made themselves visible at a leisurely pace. One detached itself from a type of two-headed dragon and made her way over to the rest of the shard-hunters.
The two newest members took no notice of this, however. They were both too busy sizing up the demon who'd drawn his sword and was trading taunts with Inuyasha. He was dressed in pristine white and, though Ranma felt slightly like a hypocrite at the thought, was sort of feminine. Though there would be no mistaking him as a girl, with that cold of an expression.
Ranma's notice was drawn away when Ryoga started next to her and they both turned to look at the kitsune now hanging comfortably onto the boy's shoulder.
"He must not be planning to fight much, if he brought his ward." Shippo commented around the candy in his mouth.
"Who is that though?"
"Sesshomaru, Inuyasha's older half-brother, he's supposed to hate humans." Miroku had apparently finished with his meal and came to be the new informant whilst Shippo ran to play with Kagome and the little girl.
"So, you're picking up new strays now little brother?" Sesshomaru's comment, directed at them, brought attentions back to the battlefield.
"Hey! Who you callin' a stray!" Ryoga and Ranma demanded in unison. The taiyoukai barely glanced in their direction and began to spar with his little brother, leaving the two to fume in silence.
Ranma's anger quickly dissipated as she watched the two demons spar, however. Sesshoumaru's speed was something that gave her an impossible urge to spar and train against him. Inuyasha was putting up a fight well enough to show that he sparred with his brother a lot, making up for lack of speed with brute strength.
I could do that too. Ranma wondered slightly if that was her or the same voice she'd heard earlier.
As fast as it had begun, the battle was over. With Inuyasha left barking, Sesshomaru took his leave the same way he'd come, with lazy insults thrown over a shoulder. Ranma took her chance.
Inuyasha paused in his rant and yelled something after the red-head as she took off after the full-demon, it might've been a warning but Ranma ignored him. She didn't know where this battle-need came from, but she wasn't gonna turn it down.
Perhaps unluckily, the demon lord wasn't hard to catch up with.
"Oi, I wanna fight with you!" Sesshomaru didn't even turn at Ranma's course challenge and there was no sign of the little girl who'd followed him out, the redhead bristled. "You scared or somethin'!"
He did stop walking at this, but didn't turn.
"This Sesshoumaru will give you one chance to walk away with your life, women."
For some odd reason, being called 'women' pissed Ranma off more than any other thing this demon had said.
"I'll take my chances!"
Almost two seconds after jumping into the air toward the dog-demon, Ranma felt an extreme pain across her abdomen before slamming into the ground with enough force to create a small crater and unearth a tree.
Sesshomaru was in the same exact spot he'd been before she jumped and barely spared the crater a glance, before continuing his exit.
"Leaving already…?" The challenging voice sounded forced and was followed by a rough cough and the reappearance of a, now heavily bruised and covered in dirt, Ranma. A new glint had entered her eyes and she held herself as straight as she could.
"Hnnn." Sesshoumaru made a noise, but didn't show any emotion at the red-head's abrupt return to the fight.
Before Ranma could get knocked back or really start fighting, however, there came yells from the area where the rest of the group had been. She watched long enough to see Ryoga come into view before turning to the empty spot where Sesshomaru had been standing before.
'Huh, not worth your time? We'll finish it later then.'
XXXXXX
"What an idiot! Taking on that bastard on her own! She's just a human!" Kagome growled under her breath softly as they listened to Inuyasha rant from the spring they'd hunted down. The miko was re-wrapping Ranma's back since the bandage had been torn along with the red-head's new shirt.
Sango and Shippo were also bathing. The two other girls had tried not to question it when Ranma refused to take a bath with them before also trying to stroll back to the boys waiting in camp, shirtless and clothed only in filthy, ripped kimono bottoms.
They'd compromised with what Kagome would call swimsuits and what Ranma would call undergarments, but it was better than nothing. The red-head still kept her eyes pointed directly into the woods and didn't turn once during the bath, giving answers to their questions over her shoulder.
"Ranma, why did you go after Sesshomaru? You saw him fight with Inuyasha; he isn't one you'd want to pick a fight with."
"Ya, he's scary!" Shippo added to Kagome's advice before Ranma had a chance to answer.
"I wanted to see if he was really as fast as he looked I guess." Ranma said to a random tree. Kagome made a face that the red-head didn't see, like she thought that wasn't a good reason to get yourself hurt.
"What I want to know is how you not only survived, but got right back up after getting hit by a full-grown taiyoukai." Sango still didn't sound quite convinced that this was possible. "You are human right?" She added in a sarcastic after tone.
"Yeah, just had a lot of training is all." Ranma told them absently, another stream of foggy images was distracting her from the rest. There's that boy carrying a boulder… Sparring with a fat man… That girl again… Tendo… what's that, a name?
As suddenly as the memories had come, they ended; leaving Ranma no more clues of her identity and a splitting headache to match.
There was another brief commotion when the red-head, for a second time, tried to return to camp shirtless, but there wasn't much they could do. So Ranma ended up returning to camp in one of Kagome's pajama shirts, their difference in height making it look over-large on the shorter martial artist.
Luckily for him, Inuyasha was done ranting about Ranma's having a go at his brother. Unluckily, apparently Ryoga was just getting started...
It happened after they'd gotten settled and were finishing yet another meal of ramen.
"Ranma," Said red-head was just finishing her food and had the rest of the contents still un-swallowed; she gulped it down and gave Ryoga a quizzical look. His voice was oddly controlled sounding as he asked, "Can I talk to you?" and jerked his head toward the patch of forest behind him.
Ranma shrugged unconcernedly and set down the, now empty, plastic cup before following him out. They walked for awhile until Ranma was sure they'd be out of earshot of anyone, though considering the fact that she'd let Ryoga lead, there was a chance they could be in China.
"So, wha'dya want Ryoga?" She leaned against a tree for support as a huge yawn nearly split her head in half. The walking, fighting, and especially the headache had taken a lot out of Ranma and she certainly wasn't thanking Ryoga for dragging her out here.
"What were you thinking?" Ryoga's eyes seemed to be flashing in the dark, but Ranma still didn't seem to get that anything was off.
"'Bout what?" She yawned again and gave him a questioning look through half-lidded eyes. Ryoga exploded.
"ABOUT GOING OUT TO FIGHT THAT DEMON!" Ranma jumped back in surprise before her eyes narrowed.
"I don't see what's botherin' you. You didn't mind it when I fought that demon and saved your sorry butt a couple of days ago!" Ryoga looked taken aback when Ranma poked him in the chest, but didn't back down.
"Yeah, but that was before… You just shouldn't be fighting with your hurt!" Ranma heard him catch himself and pressed.
"Before what Ryoga! Can't you even say what you want to!" Ryoga's lip curled up, showing a pointed fang, but he just looked away and didn't elaborate. Ranma's curiosity was peeked now.
"Before what, huh pig-boy?" The name that just popped of Ranma seemed to have a greater effect on Ryoga. He glared at her once, hard, before shaking his head and, mumbling an answer, heading off slowly in the vague direction of the camp.
Ranma just stood there for the longest time, mulling over what he'd said, and mulling over the funny feelings it was giving her.
…Before you were a girl.