"Hello everyone! It's time to once again place our best guess as to Ranma Saotome's species!" Shizuka Nekonome said brightly.

"Today we have an officer of the Protection Committee here to weigh in!" The homeroom teacher explained as she gestured to the side.

Keito sat in the interview chair with her legs crossed delicately and a scowl on her face.

"Miss Keito! Sorry to interrupt your pursuit of miscreants and criminals, but what do you think his-"

"He's NOT a spider!" Keito shouted hotly.

Shizuka blinked. "Pardon?"

"People have been getting the wrong idea, just because he has good reflexes and gets along with lesser spiders," Keito growled, her voice thick with contempt, "but I know better! Saotome lacks the dignity and composure of a spider monster, and smells all wrong, too! I'm sick of people comparing him to us!"

Before Shizuka could respond, the Enforcer suddenly stood up and pointed at the reader. "And to those of you that thought I'd fall for that egotistic bastard just because he's nice to tarantulas - you know who you are - get a clue! I wouldn't touch that jerk with a standard issue ten foot pole!"

"Please refrain from talking to the audience," Shizuka said sharply, her voice suddenly firm, "we're pushing the fourth wall breaks in this chapter as it is. Anyway, it's fine that you have a guess for what he's NOT, but do you have any information on what Saotome actually is?"

Keito snorted as she crossed her arms under her breasts. "If I have to make a guess, I'll say he's a wretched, monstrous fly."

Shizuka sighed as she determined that her guest wasn't going to take the question seriously after all. "Do you have any evidence?"

"No, but that's exactly what that idiot is going to feel like the next time I get my webs on him!" Keito seethed. "I'll dissolve his organs to goo and slurp them up like rancid soup!"

"So says the Enforcer that got tossed around by Moka. The NORMAL Moka, yet," Shizuka mumbled.

"What was that?" Keito growled.

"I said thank you very much. We're done here," the nekomata lied. "And now, we present the dramatic conclusion to the story arc! Enjoy!"

Black Dragon Productions proudly presents
a Ranma and Rosario Plus Vampire crossover

This chapter prompted a long and delicately heated debate about the impressions of murder in this story, and how my characters should perceive such things. I learned a lot from the discussion, most of all that most things I worry about aren't important enough for anyone to notice until I ask a bunch of netizens with nothing better to do to carefully scrutinize a single aspect of the story.

Key: Writing/Emphasis, Sounds, 'Thoughts', "Speech", (Comments that you can freely ignore), 'Inner Moka'

Big Human on Campus
Chapter 11
Regime Change

Hokuto steepled his fingers as he leaned back in his chair, an unreadable expression on his face.

On one side of the student council's meeting hall, a rather irate-looking Ranma Saotome waited patiently with his hands in his pockets.

On the other, Volos, the security secretary of the student council, glared at the pigtailed boy while the pumpkin-headed lantern - whose name escaped Hokuto completely - quailed in terror at Saotome's entrance.

Everyone else in the room seemed to be stunned silent at the unprecedented disturbance. Youkai Academy was a place where violence and recklessness thrived, it was true, but having someone bust down the doors to the student council chambers and declare their target was totally unheard of.

As Hokuto continued his silent musing, the vice president of the council - a skinny, withered-looking boy name Matano - finally shook himself free of his shock.

"And just who do you think you are?" Matano demanded, immediately earning Ranma's undivided attention.

"I'm Saotome Ranma, freshman class 1-A," Ranma said immediately. "You Volos?"

"N-No!" The vice president stuttered, taken off-guard a bit by Ranma's simple and calm response. "What do you think you're doing, breaking into this room like that?"

"I'm here for Volos," Ranma answered simply, his hands still in his pockets, "sorry about causin' a mess, but it's really important, so I'll just kick his ass so you can get on with disbanding the Enforcers forever."

This statement reduced Matano back to his previous speechless state, and caused Hokuto to raise an eyebrow.

"Disbanding the Protection Committee? I don't recall a motion like that at all," the student council president mumbled as he leaned forward over the table. "Would you care to go into detail, Mister Saotome?"

Ranma sighed. "Look, that guy's Volos, right?" He asked, pointing to the sleeveless Enforcer. "I mean, it seems obvious enough, but I want to make sure. I'd be really embarrassed if I beat up the wrong guy. Plus the whole plan could fall apart, for all I know."

The Enforcer in question suddenly whirled around, his eyes black as pitch as he snarled. "Yeah, I'm Volos, you uppity rodent! You wanna mess with me? I'll gut you like a trout!"

Ranma seemed slightly surprised, if not particularly intimidated, by the sudden burst of hostility. "Yeah, I do wanna mess with you," he confirmed, shifting slightly to his side and into a fighting stance. "You wanna fight here or outside? I don't care, but some of the furniture in here looks too pretty to have your head lodged in it."

As the other members meeting in the chamber started to slowly inch away from the conflict, Volos suddenly laughed; to Ranma's confusion, it was not a derisive or sarcastic laugh, but an honest, fun-loving belly laugh.

"HA! That was great! You're witty!" Volos complimented the pigtailed boy, a happy grin stretched across his face. "Wanna be friends?"

Now it was Ranma's turn to be struck speechless. "Er... What happened to gutting me?"

"That would be SUCH a hassle," Volos moaned, his shoulders slumping. "I don't want to."

"Hey, is there something wrong with him?" Ranma asked Hokuto, pointing at the Enforcer. "What's with the mood swings?"

"Those are just his other personalities," the redhead explained with a shrug. "It takes a great deal of getting used to."

Ranma blinked. "Oh, he has that multiple personality disorder thing? Like on TV?"

"Not at all," Hokuto said, sitting back in his chair again.

"But you just said-"

"HEY! Punk! You wanna throw down, you talk to ME, not the geek!" Volos shouted suddenly, looking enraged again.

"Okay, fine," Ranma mumbled, "if you could just keep one of the angrier voices in your head in charge, we can get on with this."

"N-No fighting in the s-student council hall!" Matano suddenly shouted. "This is a p-place for debate and consensus, not an arena pit!"

Volos yawned as his apathetic personality asserted itself. "Guy's got a point. Let's just call it off for now, okay?"

"No way! Like I said, this is important!" Ranma declared. "Bring back the angry shouty one!"

"Perhaps you have something you'd like to say first, Mister Saotome?" Hokuto asked suddenly. "Forgive me for being presumptuous, but it doesn't seem like you broke in here to simply cause havoc or settle a personal grudge. What is it you want?"

Ranma hesitated for a moment, and then scrubbed his head with his hand. "Well, okay. It's like this..."

Suddenly he pointed to Volos. "You Protection Committee jerks have been causing all kinds of trouble for everyone! You guys have been bugging me and Tsukune for the dumbest reasons, but you never do anything about the real problems on campus! You punish and extort the weak, but look the other way when it comes to anyone strong! You don't know the first thing about justice, you don't follow the rules, and you don't make this school any safer!"

Ranma took a deep breath as he stopped to think of what else to say. He really wished he could go on a long, indignant rant like Tsukune or even Ryoga, but he was more the snappy comeback type.

Several of the others in the chamber started whispering to each other. The charges were true, of course, and everyone knew it, but none of them could fathom what Ranma imagined he could change with his current course of action.

"Those are some very serious accusations," Hokuto said calmly. "Volos, do you have a response in the Protection Committee's defense?"

"Yeah: go jump in a well and die," Volos said, a fierce grin crossing his features, "we don't have to answer to this punk. The Protection Committee does what it does to protect the school! If you don't like it, tough!"

"That's not a very compelling statement," Hokuto deadpanned.

"Sorry. I get nervous sometimes when I'm on the spot," Volos said bashfully as he rubbed the back of his head.

The student council president turned back toward Ranma. "And Saotome, what of you? How do you intend to fix the problem?"

Ranma crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, the first step is to kick HIS ass. After that... I'm not really sure. I'd have to ask Tsukune."

Hokuto filed the name away for later as he continued. "While I admire your desire to reform our school's... flawed security council, has it occurred to you that it might not be best to answer their violence with more violence?"

"No, that didn't occur to me at all!" Ranma said firmly. "And really, even if you say that, I don't really know what else I'd do..."

After thinking for a few seconds, Ranma glanced toward Hokuto. "I don't suppose student council posts are given to those who win some sort of obscure, over-the-top martial arts contest, are they?"

"No, they're not," Hokuto deadpanned again.

"Well, I tried," Ranma said, shrugging, "violence it is."

"Aw, man... seriously, this is such a pain," Volos grumbled, his shoulders slumping.

As Ranma started to advance, Hokuto suddenly threw a hand up. "Saotome, hold. I cannot allow this."

Ranma blinked in surprise as he halted. "What? What do you mean?"

"I understand your stance on the Protection Committee, and I'd even go so far as to say that I agree with your intentions. However, I still cannot allow this."

The student council president stood up, and then gestured to the table. "Like Matano said, this is a place for debate and consensus, not bloodshed and domination. Even if your intentions are pure, do you think I could condone such actions?"

Ranma flushed slightly, suddenly feeling self-conscious as everyone in the room stared at him disapprovingly. "Well, I thought this was how you monsters usually did things, so-"

"Yes, unfortunately it is," Hokuto lamented as he pushed up his glasses. "And that is precisely what we at Youkai Academy are attempting to PREVENT. How could I show my face to the students who elected me to this position if I allowed such conduct? Meeting violence with greater violence... Forcing change with martial power... Is that not what we are trying to leave behind? Must we take a step back in order to push forward?"

Ranma stood in place, completely stunned. He didn't know what to say to any of that. He was pretty sure that there was nothing specifically wrong with beating up Volos, and Tsukune's plan was entirely noble, but... Hokuto had a point too, and Ranma had no counter-argument.

"So that is why I cannot condone your course of action," Hokuto finished, "and should you continue your assault against our student council co-hort, I can guarantee that I will not listen to whatever appeal you have in regards to the Protection Committee."

As Ranma started to sweat silently, Volos laughed.

"Ha ha ha! That'll show ya, idiot! Don't think you can screw with me! Though you should thank your useless gods that you won't be fighting me after all!" Ranma grit his teeth at the taunting, but still said nothing, searching fruitlessly for some rebuttal to Hokuto's speech.

The student council president shrugged. "Actually, it seems he'll get his chance. Volos, you may attack."

Ranma's head snapped up at the same time Volos' chuckling trailed off.

"W-Wait, what? Why?" asked the Enforcer, his voice quaking slightly.

Hokuto raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'why'? A miscreant has just broken into our meeting chamber forcibly with the express intent to harm a member of the council," he explained, gesturing to Ranma, "naturally, as the security secretary, it falls to you to dispose of such disruptive people."

"Oh, come on! We can all get along, can't we?" Volos asked nervously as his cheerful personality asserted itself.

Hokuto pushed up his glasses again. "Of course, given his clearly violent intent, you'll need to use force. Possibly a great deal of force, seeing as I'll expect he'll defend himself." Then he shrugged. "If you're rendered unconscious or dead through the course of fulfilling your duties, we may have to make decisions in the future without the input of the Protection Committee. Regrettable, but I'm sure you won't lose, so it's fine."

"HEY! What the hell is this?" Volos howled, backing up as he clenched his teeth. "How is this any different than just letting him attack me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hokuto assured the Enforcer with a shrug. "Those members of the student council and others who are not involved, it's advised you evacuate the hall immediately. Good luck, Volos!"

"Well, I have NO clue what's going on, but I guess the short of it is that I'm gonna beat you anyway," Ranma said, scratching the back of his head as he glanced at Hokuto irritably.

"Aw man, this is such a drag," Volos whined as he jumped up onto the table. Class reps and council members were already scattering away from the table and in most cases scrambling for the door. "Why do I have to fight in the middle of a meeting? I hate this!"

A vein popped up on Ranma's head as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Hey, could you try and keep the angry one in charge while we're fighting? It really helps get the mood right."

Instead of responding with words, Volos wound up a punch and then threw a haymaker in Ranma's direction. Despite being halfway across the room.

Of course, Ranma was expecting some sort of trick or power to come from Volos, and as such was hardly surprised at all as the Enforcer's arm lengthened considerably as it rocketed toward him.

He was slightly more surprised when the knuckles suddenly split open and bit him.

"Hey! Ow!" Ranma complained as he tried to dodge out of the way, only for a set of needle-like teeth to follow him and sink into his forearm.

Ranma promptly smashed the mysterious appendage with his free hand, and was rewarded with an angry hiss as the jaws released him and pulled back.

The (former) hand didn't snap back to Volos like rubber, but rather remained extended as it rose up and continued to deform and swell. Fingers melted together and flesh hardened into reptilian scales, and within moments an eye appeared on each side of what had obviously become some sort of serpent's head. The forearm and bicep lost their definition as they expanded and became a long, serpentine neck about as thick as a lamp post, and Volos' skin darkened even further to become a grainy, charcoal black.

"Don't make light of me, worthless troublemaker!" Snapped the head that had attacked him, a forked tongue sliding out between its lips.

"Do we really have to do this? This is such a bother," groaned Volos' head as it started to shift to become like his transformed arm.

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun! Just think of it as an opportunity to help out the council!" Another voice insisted as the other hand split into a mouth and started changing as well. "Ooh! Maybe we'll get a promotion!"

Ranma frowned as he watched the Enforcer's torso bulge outward as it started to grow beyond the confines of its uniform. A second later, a thick, dark tail erupted from Volos' backside, and as the tatters of his uniform littered the floor all three heads rose to stare down at their opponent.

"Oh! Right! The fire chick did say you were a hydra, didn't she?" Ranma said suddenly.

"Hello! How is everyone today?" Shizuka Nekonome asked as she waved brightly while standing in front of the blackboard. "We're almost wrapping up this story arc, so now we're covering the last of the heavy-weights! This lesson is about hydras!"

Shizuka gestured to the blackboard, which featured a chalk sketch of a three-headed serpent attacking an ancient longboat.

"Hydras originate from Greece, where they featured in ancient folklore as a result of their occasional attacks on trading and fishing vessels! Hydras are aggressive aquatic serpents that make their nests in coastal caves. They are very rare on account of being trounced by the numerous human heroes of that region, and also because various evil overlords and beastmasters are always capturing their young to be used as guardians for some dungeon or something. The forces of Evil rarely have decent breeding programs for their hapless slave-beasts."

Shizuka turned to the other end of the blackboard, where there was a chalk drawing of a hydra with a different thought bubble extending from each of its five heads. One had a chicken leg, another a heart, another one featured a game controller, yet another had a series of Z's, and the last head had a complex drawing that seemed to represent a plot involving the murder of all the other heads.

"In modern times, the hydra has had trouble adjusting due to its unique biological quirk of having several completely functional brains exercising equal control over its body. In the past, it was easy for the brains to unify their thought processes, because the typical hydra only had one: kill every living thing and eat it. In today's society where information is widespread and constantly catering to one's animal urges is unnecessary, this has led to an unfortunate phenomenon in which different heads will develop distinctly different personalities, with wants and needs different from, if not directly opposed to, those of the other heads! This can lead to the appearance of having multiple personalities when trying to pass as a human, and can even lead to personal infighting in severe cases."

Shizuka tapped her pointer against the various heads. "Given that the more heads a modern hydra has, the harder it is to focus and accomplish anything, young hydras have it easiest; a baby hydra has only one head. They grow additional heads as they grow older, although this phenomenon takes longer to occur after each growth. It's typical for hydras to effectively stop growing new heads after the seventh one, though only very, very old ones get that many, and it's rumored that ones with nine and even ten heads exist! Imagine how hard it would be to decide on a movie to rent!"

Shizuka put away her pointer as she continued to the last part of the lesson. "In combat, hydras mostly rely on their bulk and numerous vectors of attack, as they find agile movements all but impossible and can't easily compose a plan of attack unless it has time to stop and debate a strategy with all of its other brains. Due to their body structure they're quite clumsy, and despite being an aquatic serpent, they're not much more agile in the water. They do have the ability to spit water with rock-pulverizing force though, and they can regenerate wounds fairly quickly! A hydra can easily exhaust cautious opponents with its considerable stamina and random attack patterns, while more aggressive enemies will find that it's hard to keep a hydra down when you have several equally important targets that keep shrugging off your blows. Once again, the solution to regeneration is fire, so keep your spellcasters or elemental creatures handy!"

Shizuka smiled brightly for several seconds before her expression turned serious. "Why is it that the hellhound kid is never around in the fights that would be really easy for him?"

"HRAAARGH!" A tremendous roar rocked the hall as two heads charged forward, snapping their jaws viciously.

Ranma leapt over them, landing nimbly along one of its necks and dashing for the central head.

"So this is a hydra, eh? I was wondering what that was," Ranma said casually as he spun a kick into the middle head's jaw, sending it reeling backward.

He flipped over the beast as the other two heads doubled back around to bite at him, landing at the tip of the hydra's tail.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" The middle head complained. "I wasn't doing anything!"

"Well, then hurry up and start fighting, Number Two! I don't want to lose my council seat to this pest!" growled the right-hand head.

"One is right, Two!" crowed the left-most head, swaying back and forth as it licked its lips. "C'mon! Fighting is fun!"

"Leave me outta this!" Number Two whined. "That kick really hurt! And I'm tired!"

Ranma groaned. "Hey, are you seriously gonna argue like this the whole time?"

"Yeah you guys!" Chirped the left head, presumably Head Number Three, "let's unite and defeat him with the power of friendship!"

"We're not friends, dumbass! We're the same person!" growled Number One.

"I don't even see why we need to do this. Let's just give up. Being in the student council is too hard anyway," moaned Head Number Two.

Ranma glanced incredulously at Hokuto, who was still seated in his chair at the far side of the hall. He shrugged in response.

"Would you get it together?" snapped One. "We're going to lose!"

"Don't worry! Things will work out!" piped up Three.

"I'm leaning toward Three's non-plan," Two admitted, "it gives me room to sit this out."

"You can't sit this out, fool! We're in a fight!" One growled in frustration.

Before the middle head could come up with another whiny protest, a chair suddenly smashed into the side of its head, sending it reeling.

"Ow! Hey! What are you doing?" Two demanded. "I said I didn't wanna fight!"

"Too bad!" Ranma shouted as he hefted another chair, "I'm not leaving here until ONE of us is a pile of broken bones on the floor, so get it together and take this seriously!"

"B-But-"

Ranma interrupted immediately. "No 'buts'! Hurry up and fight me, or you're the first head I'm cracking!"

"Okay! Okay! Fine! I'll do it!" Head Two replied in a panic.

Head One stared at the scene, completely confused. "Wait, what just happened?"

"Yay! We are united once more! Let's go guys!" Cheered Three.

Before the angriest head could respond, the hydra suddenly lurched forward toward Ranma, smashing into the massive committee table with a clawed foot and breaking that part to splinters.

Ranma jumped backward as heads Two and Three took turns snapping at him, and the martial artist rewarded each attempt with a quick jab to the nose that caused them to flinch back.

"That's more like it!" Ranma crowed as he hopped up onto the robed statue in the back of the hall, getting a better vantage point. "All that whining was really getting on my nerves. But from here out it's for real!"

Head One hissed noisily as it suddenly surged up, its pitch-black eyes glowering at the pigtailed boy. "Then get ready to meet your maker, miscreant! DIE!"

Keito would have grit her teeth had they not morphed into a pair of jointed, spike-like fangs. "So you've decided to let your prey escape after all, hm? You're a poor hunter."

Ranma smirked as he strolled down the hall toward where Moka was still stuck to the floor with webbing. "Eh, whatever. I can beat down your little puppet any time."

Tsukune blinked in surprise at seeing his roommate appear. "Ranma? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be finding Volos!" Thankfully, Jin was as perturbed as anyone to see the martial artist, and the yheti had stopped fighting Kurumu immediately.

"Don't worry! Yukari's taking care of that!" Ranma said brightly as he reached Moka and swiped a hand at a fold of webbing. The threads were severed instantly, and Moka promptly tugged her arm free.

"Uh... Yukari, you say?" Kurumu mumbled uncertainly. "Do you think she can... you know... win?"

"Don't underestimate her!" Ranma declared as he swiped his hand again at the webbing, freeing Moka's other leg, "she's a genius, even if she isn't QUITE as magnificent as I, the great and powerful Ranma Saotome! Ha ha ha ha!" Ranma crossed his arms over his chest as he laughed, and those assembled could now plainly see that the hand that had been cutting Moka free was holding some sort of large tarot card.

Kurumu promptly crept over to Tsukune. "That's not Ranma, is it?" She whispered into his ear.

"No. No, it's not," Tsukune whispered back, furiously trying to think of a plan to make use of this ruse that wouldn't end with "Ranma" - who he was guessing was Yukari - in enemy hands.

Keito snorted. "Well, you're plenty confident, but you're no genius yourself if you wasted your chance for an ambush to set the weakest member of your little team free!" Pushing her injured body to its limit, the spider woman leapt onto the wall on the side of the hall, grabbing onto the surface with her legs while she worked more webbing into her mouth.

"Hey! She is NOT the weakest!" "Ranma" replied before Moka could offer any defense of her own. "Tsukune is way weaker than her!"

Keito ignored him. "Jin! Tell me you have a plan for this situation!"

The yheti snorted. "Naturally."

"Then let's see it! It's time to pull out all the stops!" Keito cried.

Jin's thick lips curled into a smile. "Right away. I'll show you REAL genius," he said haughtily as he stomped past Tsukune and Kurumu toward "Ranma".

Tsukune was mildly surprised that Jin's plan didn't involve taking him hostage, which was the first thing he thought of, but didn't waste any time in turning to Kurumu.

"Listen," he whispered harshly, "the moment he attacks, charge into his back! That should give Yukari an opening if she has another trick up her sleeve, or at least let her escape. After that you and Moka should take off down the hall, and take this 'Ranma' with you. I'll run in the opposite direction and loop back around to the student council room."

Kurumu nodded, silently spreading her wings in preparation to attack.

"Ranma" waited patiently as Jin stomped up to him, his expression supremely confident even as the massive, hairy snow beast reached easy striking distance. It didn't waver one bit as the yheti reached over its own shoulder to draw the huge baton on his back, and it didn't crack even when Jin laid the baton at Ranma's feet and then suddenly collapsed onto his knees and bowed his head.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me," Jin said bluntly, his nose almost touching the floor.

Tsukune winced as Kurumu, who had already begun her charge, facefaulted mid-sprint, causing her to crash and roll painfully across the floor.

"Ranma" merely laughed. "Ho ho ho ho! I don't know about 'genius', but you're definitely smarter than my other opponents! Except Yukari and the lovely Moka, of course!"

"Er, Ranma, please don't classify me as an enemy," Moka said while a sweatdrop rolled down her head.

'I like this one much better than the real one. Think we can get a trade-in?' Inner Moka interjected.

Thwip! "Ranma's" head jerked back as a ball of webbing flew at, then through, his head, and he staggered in surprise.

"Now! Attack him now!" Keito demanded. "I'll try to immo... What?"

The source of her confusion was less that her projectile had seemed to pass through Ranma face (she'd heard he was absurdly fast) and more that Jin had bolted to his feet only to walk past Ranma and pick something up off the floor.

Jin clicked his tongue as he held up the wide-rimmed black witch's hat, and immediately started tearing off the webbing that had wrapped around it. "Now look what you did, Keito! You got his hat all dirty!"

"Who cares about his hat!" Keito snapped angrily before her many eyes blinked. "Wait... Since when did he have a hat?"

Jin too suddenly looked uncertain as he stared at the accessory.

"H-Hat? What do you mean, hat? I don't wear a hat!" "Ranma" said, his voice cracking slightly. "That obviously belongs to someone else! And it might be very important to that someone else, so I'd better take it right away!"

Jin stared at "Ranma", and then glanced down at the hat in his hand.

Then the yheti placed the hat on "Ranma's" head, only to see it sink into the pigtailed boy's body and fade away.

"I suppose it would be pushing it if I said that the hat was the illusion and I'm totally real, huh?" "Ranma" asked.

Jin's response was to raise a massive fist in the air.

Whump! Yukari's illusion broke completely as Kurumu suddenly tackled her from the side, pushing the young witch out of the way before she vaulted into the air just above another shot of webbing.

"Moka, move it!" Kurumu shouted as she flapped her wings to try and stabilize herself in the extremely narrow airspace. "We need to get out of here!"

The vampiress didn't argue, and took off after the succubus at a sprint.

Jin growled and was starting to give chase when Keito shouted in surprise. "The human! Where did he go?"

"Hah? What now?" the yheti grumbled, halting to recover his baton.

"Aono left while you were carrying out your so-called 'plan,' idiot!" Keito seethed. "Hurry! We have to catch him!"

Jin hesitated. "Do you know where he went?"

"Probably back around to the student council offices!"

"Where Saotome is?" Jin hypothesized.

"That would be a good bet, yes," Keito said as she crawled back onto the floor.

Jin immediately turned to pursue the girls that had escaped. "I'll take the small fries. YOU deal with Saotome."

Keito's many eyes narrowed. "Why are you so terrified of him, anyway? Your cowardice is usually more... tempered."

Jin spun the massive baton within one of his huge, hairy hands as he walked after Kurumu, Yukari, and Moka. "I make it a rule not to fight people who have beaten people who have already beaten me. And the last time Chopper Rikishi thought wrestling a yheti might be fun, Miss Madaraki had to get the janitor's help in order to find all my teeth." He rubbed his arm uncomfortably. "Besides, I got stung in the arm earlier and it's still a bit numb. I doubt I could even lose with dignity."

"So if you can't keep your dignity either way, then you might as well keep your jaw in one piece, eh?" Keito asked, snorting.

"That was the plan, yes," Jin admitted, "my new plan involves turning all of the less dangerous miscreants into wallpaper. I'll let you know how it turns out."

Keito snarled wordlessly as she limped off in the opposite direction.

Her own plan had already been shot to hell and back, thanks to Aono's friends, and she had serious doubts as to whether even Volos could overcome Ranma Saotome on his own. If Volos was brought down, she had no idea what the student council would do, and that alone was cause for considerable concern.

'If the Protection Committee really does end up losing its mandate, Jin's plan might look rather sensible,' she thought bitterly. 'As it is, the only one who could dig us out of our present hole is...'

Keito was jolted from her thoughts as she felt the the vibrations from two people down the hall, approaching at an entirely unhurried pace.

She considered changing back to human form or hiding, but relented. She didn't want to deal with the strain of a transformation right now, and whoever it was would have no authority to reprimand her.

As the figures walked into view, however, that assumption was savagely crushed.

"L-Lord Kuyo!" Keito squawked awkwardly. "I, uh, I'm surprised to see you here!"

"Yes, I imagine you are," Kuyo mused as he stopped and looked over his subordinate. "Working diligently even on the weekend, I see? Did Saotome do that to you?"

Keito scowled as she lowered her head. "No, Lord Kuyo. It was Aono's other friends..." Then she snapped her head up again. "But that's not important! Aono escaped this way, and I believe that Saotome is already facing off against Volos in the student council hall!"

Kuyo raised an eyebrow. "Well, we can't have that, now can we?" He gestured to the silent Enforcer standing behind him. "Come with us, Keito. It's time we put an end to this misguided rebellion, once and for all."

With a smirk on his face, he held his hand palm-up before his chest, and a small ember spontaneously appeared at his fingertips.

"The human and his lackey shall become ashes before me. For this too is justice."

Snap! Crash!

Ranma bolted to the side as head three snapped at him, and then leapt over the hydra's tail as its body swung around to bring the other heads to bear.

Ranma hopped backward to avoid head one, which swung at him like a flail, and then leapt up onto the wall out of Volos' range.

"Ha! Is this all you've got? Fighting the orochi was way harder than this!" Ranma taunted as he looked around the room for any improvised weapons he could use.

Head Three blinked in surprise. "You know Uncle Orochi? How is he nowadays?"

"Not too good since I kicked his scaly ass," Ranma responded. Of course he hadn't really DEFEATED the Orochi as such, since they had just been there to get that stupid moss from it, but Volos didn't need to know that.

"You're kidding! You beat Uncle?" Head Two whined. "Guys, there's no way we can beat him! Let's just give up!"

"No! No giving up!" Snapped Head One. "Keep fighting!"

Head Three darted forward as the entire body approached, and Ranma bounced off its nose and into the air.

The moment he was airborne the other two heads whipped around to intercept him, and Ranma rebounded off of head two's chin before Head One tried to snap him up from below.

"Ha!" Ranma's hands caught the top of Head One's jaw as his feet caught the bottom, holding the hydra's mouth open.

'Whoops! Gotta leave before the other heads-' WHOOMPH!

Ranma was caught completely off-guard as a blast of water shot from the back of the hydra's throat and slammed into him like a speeding car, throwing him across the room and into the wall with enough force to leave a deep bed of cracks behind.

"YEAH! That's how you do it!" Head One cheered before he suddenly started coughing harshly.

"Hey, are you all right?" Head Three asked. "You need to be careful! Since we don't have a ready source of water available, we can't use our water spray at full power! And probably not more than once!"

"Don't TELL him that, idiot!" Head One snapped, its voice straining against its suddenly parched throat.

"Tell her that," Head Two corrected.

"Huh?"

"Tell her that," Head Two repeated as it stared across the room. "I guess Saotome's a girl now."

Ranma, for her part, tenderly pulled herself out of the indentation she had left in the wall as she revised her opponent's threat level up a notch.

"Okay... Yeah... That hurt... Good job..." The redhead mumbled as she checked her ribs.

Whomp! She grunted as Volos' tail smashed her aside, sending the martial artist spinning through the air toward one of the massive, stained-glass windows that decorated the hall.

Before she could hit it, however, Ranma lashed out a hand toward her opponent.

"Gwah! Mhph!" Head Two cried out through clenched teeth as its jaws were suddenly wrapped in a whip of steel-like threads, and it pitched forward as Ranma pulled herself back toward the hydra and away from the window with rapidly increasing velocity.

WHAM! Ranma smirked as she drove a savage kick into Head Three, sending tremors throughout the hydra's body as Head Three's jaw buckled and cracked from the force.

She tugged on the cord of webbing that she had borrowed earlier from Keito's "leftovers", and pulled herself back from the collapsing third head, swinging underneath Head Two's chin.

"Ah ha! So you're a spider creature!" Head One snarled as it curled its neck around and tried to bite at the pigtailed girl.

Ranma yanked herself up sharply, avoiding the bite and grabbing on to the webbing wrapped around Head Two's mouth.

"I'm not!" Ranma protested as she quickly hauled herself up on top of the hydra's second head. "I just borrowed the webbing from your guys' spider creature!"

"Oh, whatever!" Head One growled as it glared up at the redhead. Then it redirected its glare at Head Two. "And you! Don't let her just crawl all over you! Do something!"

"Mmrgh fn whhmn?" Head Two asked, looking helpless as Ranma stood on the top of its skull.

As Head One's patience broke, it suddenly clamped its teeth around Head Two's throat, and then swung it around toward the wall.

"Whoa! Hey!" Ranma barely managed to leap off her perch before Head Two was slammed into the wall, and even had to abandon her webbing lash as she jumped into the air.

Grabbing on to one of the massive, antique chandeliers that hung over the meeting hall, Ranma hoisted herself up onto the body of the furnishing before glancing down.

Head Two swayed painfully as Head One released it contemptuously, though its jaw was still bound so it thankfully couldn't complain anymore.

Clank! The sound of a chain suddenly breaking failed to grab Head Two's attention as it worked against the webbing holding its jaw closed.

CRACK! Across the room, Hokuto couldn't help but wince as Head Two took the full brunt of the falling chandalier, its neck snapping down as nearly two hundred pounds of brass with another hundred pounds of Ranma drove its skull into the floor.

Head One made a low growl in the back of his throat as Ranma hopped out of the ring of splinters and debris.

"Finally. Just you and me," Ranma said as she tugged on her shirt and started to wring it out. It was still wet from the water blast earlier, and she hadn't had time to dry it out at all in-between taking down two-thirds of Volos.

"You're going to regret leaving me for last," Head One snarled, stepping forward as it rose high above the cursed martial artist. The other heads rose slightly as well, just enough that their heads were bowed just a few feet above the floor, rather than lying completely limp and being dragged along underfoot.

Ranma snorted, planting her hands on her hips. "I doubt it. Those two were annoying."

"Hmph, you got that right," Head One agreed as the hydra stomped forward, looking as if it intended to trample Ranma outright.

However, Volos hesitated after a moment, and Head One raised an eyebrow. "Wait, does that mean... You don't think I'm annoying?"

Ranma shrugged. "Not really. I mean, you have just about the right attitude for someone barging into your territory and trying to beat you to a pulp in order to put you out of a job. You've got some rage issues, sure, but I've seen worse." She scuffed her hair briefly as she slipped into a fighting stance. "But the important thing is that you're ready to do your job and fight me! I respect that, ya know?"

Ranma was somewhat nonplussed when, instead of charging forward as head one had done before, the hydra seemed to be stunned in place for some reason.

"I... I can't believe..." Volos mumbled as he took a few steps back, "you respect... someone like me?"

"Huh? Well, sure, I guess," Ranma mumbled.

"Nobody's ever said they RESPECTED me before... Unless it was out of fear..."

Ranma's eyebrow twitched. "Hey, wait-"

"This reminds me of when I first arrived at Youkai Academy..."

"Stop that! Don't-"

Volos took a deep breath of the musty, dank air as he stepped off the bus, a warm smile creeping over his features.

"I'm so EXCITED!" The hydra gushed as he clutched his bag to his chest. "A new school, full of new experiences and people! I hope I make lots of friends!"

Suddenly his shoulders slumped. "Oh, whatever. I just hope the classes aren't too hard. Being in human form all the time is such-"

"No, no, NO! Cut it out! We're not doing this!" Ranma shouted.

Volos blinked as he came out of his flashback. "What?"

"No! No way!" Ranma said firmly, looking annoyed. "We are NOT going to sit here while you flash back and relate your whole damn life story to try and make yourself seem sympathetic and important two minutes before I beat you into the ground! I have other things to do today! It's not happening!"

Volos looked taken aback. "Well... Can I at least cover my recruitment into the Protection Committee? It's not that long."

Ranma crossed her arms under her breasts. "Could it be summed up to something like: 'Lord Kuyo told me he needed my strength, and I was really happy someone even cared THAT much'?"

A vein popped up on Head One as his eyes narrowed. "Fine, jerk! You want your damn fight that badly?"

At that, the two insensate heads slowly rose up, each snout silently turning to face Ranma. At first she thought that the other heads had regained consciousness, but then she noticed that their eyes were a milky gray, while head one's eyes were orbs of gleaming pitch that glared daggers at the redhead.

"It's on, jackass!" Head One snarled as the two other heads bolted forward, jaws snapping.

"Hey! Is he still behind us?" Kurumu yelled as she followed Moka outside, bursting from the rear door of the main school building and promptly spreading her wings to take flight.

Yukari, who was still being held in Kurumu's arms, held her hat down tightly as the ground seemed to plummet below her.

"I think so! He should be too big to fit through those utility closet doors we escaped through, though!" Yukari yelled back.

It had surprised all of them that Jin had been so stubborn hounding them, but the yheti had proven far too ponderous and slow to have a real chance of catching the trio. Whatever else one could say about Moka's physical abilities, she was a perfectly capable sprinter, and Kurumu had managed to keep up a good flight speed even while carrying Yukari the whole time.

Moka glanced upward. "Kurumu, are you okay? Do you need to put Yukari down?"

"Are you kidding?" The succubus asked as she turned in the air, hovering in place, "I've had makeup kits that weigh more than this! I'm fine!"

"Was that a compliment?" Yukari asked uncertainly, twisting her head around to look Kurumu in the eyes.

"Not really, but here's one for you," the bluette said with a grin, "good job on the illusion! I swear, if you weren't such an abysmal actor I would have thought Ranma had really come back!"

"Yeah! You were great, Yukari!" Moka cheered from below, offering a thumbs-up.

Boom!

Yukari smirked. "Well, it's only natural! I am a genius after all!"

Boom!

Kurumu frowned. "Hey, can you try putting your genius toward figuring out what's making those noises? I think it's getting closer."

BOOM!

"Oh, that's just the yheti," Yukari said, still smirking, "naturally, if he was having trouble getting through the tight spaces, he'd resort to simply plowing through the walls rather than going the long way to get outside."

BOOM!

"He's still chasing us?" Moka gasped.

"Why didn't you tell us that before?" Kurumu shouted, causing the young witch to wince.

"Well, I was going to, but I didn't want to interrupt all the praise I've had coming for so long," Yukari reasoned.

BOOM! "Oh, YEAH!" Jin burst from the outer wall of the school building, emerging from the structure covered in dust and plaster and with dozens of splinters tangled in his hair. "Special Compliance Squad pursuit technique: Kool-Aid blitz!" The yheti shouted as he shook himself to get rid of some of the debris.

As Kurumu and Moka went white, Yukari scoffed. "Don't worry! If we're outside then it's to our advantage! If he can't catch us in the hallways, he has no chance out here!"

"I have a plan for that, actually," Jin said conversationally. "Behold, the technique passed down through generations of yheti for catching prey in the snow-capped peaks!"

With that, Jin started sucking in air, and Moka cried out in surprise as she held her skirt down from being caught in the vacuum.

"What's he trying to do? Suck her up?" Kurumu asked, confused. "Should we help her?"

Yukari frowned. "I'm... not sure. It doesn't look like he can take in enough air to actually draw a person closer..."

Sure enough, Jin soon closed his mouth without Moka having budged an inch, although his chest was now bulging from his ballooning lungs.

"HOOPWAH!" Jin opened his mouth skyward, and a trembling orb of bright blue shot up into the air, accompanied by a howling wind that swirled about and forced Kurumu to flap her wings much harder to stay stable.

"Maybe we should start pushing our 'strategic advantage' now!" Yukari said, pointing to the forest of dry, dead trees, "I don't like the looks of that!"

Kurumu and Moka nodded and started to flee once again. As they made for the trees, however, Jin's voice followed them.

"It's too late. You can't get away now."

Kurumu didn't know what the Enforcer was talking about until she caught a falling speck of white out of the corner of her eye and immediately stopped short.

Moka too started to slow down as she saw snowflakes falling ahead of her. "Snow? Now? But autumn barely started!"

The vampiress gasped as a freezing wind suddenly ripped through the area, forcing her to shield her face from the cold.

When it had passed, Moka took another look and started gaping; the entire forest ahead of her was now in the midst of a full-blown snowstorm, with wild whips of icy wind cutting through the trees and causing many to sway and snap.

"Whoa! What's with the crazy weather?" Kurumu shouted as she tried to keep her position while being buffeted by the raging winds.

"Dang! He summoned a blizzard! That's a pretty impressive breath weapon!" Yukari admitted as she held her hat down once again.

"Ack! I have to land! Hold on!" Kurumu said as she tried to follow one of the blisteringly cold gusts to the ground without giving up too much of her lift.

Moka rushed up to the other girls as Kurumu touched down unsteadily, idly rubbing her own shoulders to shake off the snow that kept trying to gather there. "Are you two okay?"

"I'm fine, but there's no way I can fly through THAT," Kurumu grumbled as she thrust a hand toward the forest quickly being blasted with snow and ice. As if to underline her point, one of the skinnier trees suddenly snapped in two, with the top part being carried off in the fierce wind.

Yukari glanced back behind them, and her eyes narrowed. "I see. This IS a technique to catch prey."

The older girls grimaced as they too looked back, noting that Jin hadn't followed them any further. No doubt it was at least partially because he was short of breath after spitting out a full-force blizzard, but it was also because they had little choice but to return to him; centered around the yheti, and stretching about two hundred feet from the school building into the forest, the sky was calm and still, with nothing but a gentle, sparse snowfall hinting at the unnatural weather surrounding it.

"This is crazy," Kurumu hissed as she squinted against a burst of wind that blew a flurry of snow into her face. "It hasn't been a minute and there's already an inch of snow on the ground! And these winds! We won't make it if we keep going! Not dressed like this!"

"But is there any way to get past HIM?" Moka asked as she backed away from the storm, glancing over at the gasping yheti.

Yukari snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Let's bring out Evil Moka!"

As Moka blinked, Kurumu flinched. "Whoa! Hey! Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

"We're caught between a deadly blizzard and a rampaging yheti; this situation is already more than 'a bit dangerous'," the young witch reasoned. "Besides, Evil Moka's never attacked or shown any real antipathy toward us! As long as Senpai isn't around it'll be fine!"

Moka looked nervous about this course of action, but couldn't think of anything to refute Yukari's reasoning. "So what do we do?"

"HYAH!" Yukari wasted no more time, grabbing hold of the Rosario and tugging with all her might.

Clonk! "Ah!" Ow!"

Kurumu's face darkened as she watched Yukari pull Moka down by her neck collar, smashing their foreheads together painfully.

After the two staggered briefly, Yukari regained her senses first and gave the Rosario another sharp - though less forceful - tug. "Hey! It's not coming off? Why not? Isn't it supposed to come off?"

"Ow! I don't know!" Moka admitted, tugging at her collar. "Not so hard! It hurts!"

"But didn't Tsukune pull it off by accident last time? Why was he able to do it?" Kurumu asked, scratching her head.

Moka shivered as another cold gust blew by. "I have no idea! It doesn't usually come off!"

Biting back a complaint about how the vampiress was rebuilding her useless streak, Kurumu turned around and started stalking away from the freezing winds, her claws extending from her fingers.

"Kurumu?" Moka asked nervously. Yukari spared a glance at the succubus, but was still examining the Rosario closely to look for any sort of clue as to how it might come off.

"Well, our options are freeze to death or go down fighting, right?" the bluette asked as she walked toward Jin, feeling the air temperature rise considerably as she got closer to the yheti.

Jin had finished catching his breath as he watched the girls discuss their options, and he gripped his oversized baton tightly as Kurumu approached. "Ah, I love it when a plan comes together," the snow beast mused aloud, "it combines the pure satisfaction of a task completed with the additional pleasure of seeing your opponents' hubris shattered by your own brilliance."

"And what do you plan to do when you Enforcers lose all authority and Ranma comes back looking for his friends?" Kurumu asked as she halted about ten feet away from the muscle-bound monster.

Jin shrugged. "I plan to tell him Professor Richard did it," he said simply, "it's not like you'll be alive to tell him the truth. And I seriously doubt the Professor keeps careful track of all his victims."

Kurumu's expression darkened. "Oh. That's... That's actually kind of plausible. You really are smarter than the others."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Jin said, smirking as he raised his baton.

CRACK! The yheti smashed his weapon straight down into the ground, and Kurumu saw that the ground immediately started icing over in a line heading straight toward her.

"Nice try!" she shouted as she lifted up into the air, rising high above the attack.

Shwnk! The succubus couldn't help but flinch as a tree-sized icicle erupted from the ground where she had been standing, even if she was high enough that the attack didn't so much as splash snow on her.

"Yukari, you're the genius, right? Think of something while I hold him off!" Kurumu commanded as she started circling around the yheti.

Yukari saluted as she grabbed Moka's hand, finally giving up on the Rosario. "Roger!"

Kurumu watched carefully for an opening as Jin watched her in turn, resting his giant baton on his shoulder.

The succubus had the advantage of flight, but really didn't know if she could cause enough damage to Jin to have any chance of victory, even assuming he was clumsy enough that he didn't pummel her the moment she came within reach.

'Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained,' Kurumu thought bitterly as she started to dive. "This is for Tsukune and the future of Youkai Academy, you cold-blooded ogre!"

Jin snorted and brought his baton in front of him, holding each end in his massive fists. Kurumu swept back and forth on her approach, trying to keep the elemental beast from guessing where and when she would be in range.

The yheti's eyes narrowed, and suddenly Jin brought up his baton as it glowed a mystical blue. "THERE!"

Shwk! Kurumu's nails scythed into Jin's side as he smashed the massive weapon into the ground, and Kurumu briefly touched down behind the yheti before vaulting up into the air again.

"Ha! You missed... me?" Kurumu trailed off as she heard Yukari and Moka cry out, and whirled around in the air.

"Yukari, look out!" Moka shouted as she tackled the young witch onto the ground.

Shwnk! Shwnk! A pair of huge icicles stabbed out of the ground, missing the two girls by mere inches as bits of ice sprayed into the air.

Jin chuckled as he scratched at his right forearm, seeming to ignore the thin gashes on his side. "Thought you could sneak by me, eh?"

Kurumu was about to make another attack while the Enforcer seemed to be ignoring her, but then realized how close Yukari and Moka were to the building.

"Hey! Wait a minute! We're you making a break for the school on your own? What about me?" the succubus demanded.

"We were going to come back for you! Yukari said so!" Moka insisted as she got to her feet shakily, helping Yukari up as well. "Right? That is what you said!"

"Well, of course we would come back," Yukari confirmed, "but do you seriously think she'd still be in one piece by then?"

A vein popped up on Kurumu's head. "You little rat! You WERE going to leave me!"

"Don't worry!" Yukari said, saluting again, "we'll make sure you're avenged!"

Jin snorted as he started twirling the baton in one hand. "Don't get ahead of yourselves, ladies," he said as he stomped toward Moka and Yukari, "I don't plan on letting ANY of you get away from me..."

Jin raised up his baton once again, clasping it with both hands while pointing the head toward the ground.

"This field will be your grave, and your frozen corpses a persisting reminder of the fate that awaits everyone who defies the Protection Committee," Jin said calmly, a light gust blowing his long hair behind him. "Or, at least, that's what you'll remind ME of. Everyone else will just chalk you up as another nameless casualty on account of this school hiring violent psychotics as teachers." And then he drove the baton down.

WHOOM! Immediately after the impact, ice started to seep backward from Jin's position, crawling over the ground in a shimmering wave until it reached the school building.

Shnk! Shnk! Crack! Dozens of icicle spikes burst from the ground adjacent to the wall, blocking the doors, first-floor windows, and even the massive hole that Jin had put in the wall.

"I don't remember anything like this mentioned in the Monster Encyclopedia segment," grumbled Yukari as she and Moka backed away from the school building.

Jin leaned on his baton as he grinned at the two girls. "No escape, no survival. Just as planned."

"Bet you didn't plan on ME!" Kurumu suddenly shouted as she suddenly dove into the yheti's back, plunging her elongated nails straight into his cold, muscular flesh.

Jin grumbled incoherently as he staggered forward, and then reached a hand back to try and grab the succubus.

Kurumu withdrew immediately, leaving Jin's thick, hairy fingers grasping air as she took to the sky above. "Jeez, didn't that hurt? Cut me some slack, here!"

Jin shrugged as he turned to regard the bat-winged girl. "It stung enough that I want to kill you first. That's something, right?"

"The sound came from over here!" Came an unfamiliar voice.

"Where the HELL did this blizzard come from?"

Jin's expression soured as they all heard someone shouting from within the snow-whipped forest, and the girls felt their hopes rise as three figures staggered, shivering, into the relatively calm battlefield while a fourth followed them out normally.

The first three students - two girls and a boy - the girls didn't recognize, but the fourth was unmistakably Kouma Gamaroshi. Unlike the others, who were trembling and trying to brush snow off themselves, he seemed only mildly annoyed at the blizzard.

The reason for his irritation became clear as soon as he was out of the icy wind. "Yeesh, can't even light up, it's so bad," Kouma grumbled as he cupped his hands around a cigarette dangling from his mouth. A second later he put his hands down, the cigarette burning.

"Kouma! It's you! Thank goodness!" Moka shouted in surprise and relief, surprising the four newcomers.

The other boy in particular seemed very interested as he looked over the girls arrayed against the shaggy monster in the middle of the calm, snowy field.

"So, wait, you know these girls?" he asked.

Kouma shrugged. "Eh, they're just some of Saotome's groupies."

"Hey! Who are you calling a groupie?" Kurumu snapped, "Yukari's the only Ranma groupie here!"

"Speaking of groupies," Yukari began, not bothering to deny the charge leveled against her, "who are these people? I've never seen them before."

Kouma glared at her before blowing out a cloud of smoke. "I DO have a life outside of following Ranma around and letting him humiliate me," he said irritably.

"You DO?" Yukari asked incredulously, annoying the hellhound further.

"Would somebody like to explain this weather?" one of the girls asked, "I know the reports aren't always accurate, but 'suspiciously localized snowstorms' is a bit beyond the pale, don't you think?"

"Yes, well, I would explain that," Jin said, finally speaking up as he drove his baton into the ground again, "but there's no point since you'll all be dead soon."

"Huh? Why would we-" the other girl began nervously before Moka shouted a warning.

"Run! Now! The attack comes from the ground!"

Skrak! A twelve-foot tall spike of ice jutted from the Earth at the group's feet, causing them to almost trip over themselves as they scattered.

"Hey, what's the big idea? We didn't do anything!" One of the girls complained as the yheti stomped forward.

Whack! That girl's eyes widened as Jin suddenly darted forward, smashing the head of his baton into her stomach. Rather than merely crushing her bones and organs and knocking her aside, as everyone expected, the girl was frozen over on the spot, her skin, clothes, and every single hair suddenly wrapped in ice.

"You've done nothing in particular to deserve this," Jin admitted as he turned toward the others, "but the current plans calls for the elimination of all witnesses. Increasing the body count also helps it resemble one of Professor Richard's massacres." He reached to the side, taking hold of the frozen girl's head.

Crack! Twisting sharply, Jin snapped the head off of the ice statue before tossing it negligently to the side.

"Sorry about this," he said as he stepped forward once more.

"Huh," Yukari's eyes followed the frozen, decapitated head as it bounced along the ground, eventually settling in a small pile of snow with its eyes staring up at the overcast sky in permanent shock. "So that's what that big stick does. Yeah, we're gonna want to avoid that."

"Y-You're horrible!" Moka gasped at Jin, almost in shock after seeing such a casual, negligent murder. "How could you do that to some innocent bystander?"

Jin snorted as he started moving purposefully toward the remaining interlopers. "Don't take this the wrong way; I don't particularly want to kill you," he said as he swiped horizontally at the unidentified boy, who darted away with considerable agility and avoided the blow completely, "but it's all part of the plan. It won't work otherwise. Probably."

"Hey! Whoa! We don't even know what's going on!" Cried the remaining girl as she scrambled away from the menacing yheti. "Kouma! Ginnei! Do something!"

As Jin charged again, she and the other boy, apparently named Ginnei, moved away to get as much room as possible. Kouma, on the other hand, stayed where he was and puffed his cigarette as the yheti stomped toward him.

"One hit from my Ice Breaker will freeze you so deeply, even your blood will turn to ice!" Jin said as he spun his baton around in one hand. "It's practically painless, so just stay still and it'll be over before you know it!"

Jin suddenly leapt into the air, stabbing his baton in an underarm swing as he covered the remaining distance between him and Kouma.

"Hello ignorant humans, and welcome to another mildly diverting informational segment to designed to fill out the chapter's word count without having to come up with more jokes," said Jadeite, looking irritated as he stood in front of the blackboard usually used by Shizuka Nekonome.

"I am Jadeite, and I'll be covering the magic weapons and mythic artifacts aspect of this serial, in part because I haven't gotten much screen time lately, and in part because Miss Nekonome is only slightly more well-versed in magic than she is in theoretical particle physics. With that said, let's begin."

He turned to the blackboard, which had several chalk drawings of blunt weapons, ranging from a giant club to a hammer to Jin's oversized police baton.

"The Ice Breaker is not actually a unique item at all, but rather a series of weapons unique to certain yheti families. This probably comes as a surprise to most, as yhetis are not craftsmen of any note, but there is one resource they uniquely have access to that no other creature does: the remains of their ancestors."

Jadeite moved to the next section, which showed a skull surrounded by ice cubes. "Yhetis' bones maintain a much colder temperature than the rest of their bodies, and if buried intact, they retain their curious properties for centuries, eventually fossilizing and turning into a deathly cold crystalline material. By gathering this material and packing it into some sort of weapon - almost invariably a club of some sort - the weapon gains specific and rather impressive magical qualities."

Jadeite rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The ability of an Ice Breaker to absorb almost unlimited amounts of heat is used as a basis for numerous techniques and spells, but one of its most basic abilities is to absorb heat energy on impact rather than simply imparting kinetic energy, as any club is obviously meant to do. It's similar to Newton's Law 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction,' except that it's MAGIC, so only an idiot would try to explain it with physics."

Jadeite returned to the first set of drawings, pointing at the picture of Jin's baton. "Mister Kaishuu's Ice Breaker in particular is one hundred and fifty centimeters long, and the main shaft has a diameter of twenty centimeters. The body is mainly composed of carbon steel with a coat of super-conductive black paint, ensuring that as little energy as possible is lost to insulation when freezing a target. Not only does this mean that Jin's baton didn't meet international safety standards for peacekeeping equipment even BEFORE considering its deadly magical core, but it also means that it wasn't the result of yheti smithing, as its manufacture exceeds the capabilities of even their most advanced forging techniques, which invariably involve smashing a rock with an even bigger rock. Obviously Jin got someone else to make his weapon, while he supplied the all-important ancient materials." Jadeite snorted. "You really can find anything on the Internet nowadays."

The Dark General nodded his head. "That concludes this lecture. Hopefully the tension of the prevailing conflict has mostly dissipated by now and lowered your expectations."

Whomp! Kouma winced as the Ice Breaker smashed into his chest, and his cigarette almost fell from his mouth as a paralyzing chill ran up and down his body.

"That's two down," Jin said as he reared a fist back to smash his newly frozen victim.

Of course, that plan of action depended on his foe actually BEING frozen, so when the student he had assaulted suddenly raised his arm to take his cigarette out of his mouth, Jin hesitated at exactly the wrong moment.

"Fwoof!" Kouma suddenly blew a cloud of black, ash-filled smoke right into the yheti's face, causing Jin to stagger backward as he coughed violently. Then, with a ferocious snarl and a burst of sparks, he drove a fist forward into Jin's chest.

BWOOM! Jin howled in pain as he was hurled backward through the air, a large fireball scorching his hair and flesh even as his ribs protested against the explosive force of the punch. The yheti hit the ground on his side, but quickly rolled up onto his feet, eying the hellhound warily.

"Kouma! You're okay!" Ginnei said happily, glad that he would not have to try to play hero just yet.

"Huh? He didn't even get frosted," Kurumu noted in surprise.

"Well, naturally, freezing a hellhound solid is pretty unlikely," Yukari pointed out, "a typical creature's body temperature ranges from thirty to forty degrees Celsius. A hellhound's core body temp is, what, four times that hot? Five? There's a reason why he can just stroll through a blizzard like it's nothing."

Jin slowly stood up, his eyes narrowing. "A fire beast. I see."

"Looks like you're out of luck, Frosty," Kouma growled as he took another puff off of his cigarette, "I would have kicked your ass just for being an Enforcer before, but you just killed an acquaintance of mine." His voice started to rumble as flames started flaring in a ring around his feet, vaporizing the snow beneath him. "Did you think I'd let you get away with that?"

Jin planted his baton on one end as he stood tall. "It's fine. I have a plan for this as well."

FWOOSH! Kouma smashed his knuckles together as he stalked toward the yheti, his eyes glowing red like hot coals. "I hope your plan involves an ambulance," he said, his voice rumbling like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

"It does not!" Jin said firmly. "Rather than that..."

The yheti suddenly fell onto his knees, and then bowed deeply enough to touch his forehead into the snow. "I'm sorry. Please forgive-"

BWOOM! A blazing haymaker drove Jin's face further into the ground, and then Kouma pulled the yheti up out by his head before smashing a knee into the Enforcer's face, knocking him over onto his back.

"Woohoo! You get him, boy!" Called the girl that still hadn't been identified.

Kouma whirled around, apparently furious about the moral support. "Shut up, fox! I'm not doing this for your sake!"

The so-called "fox" stuck her tongue out playfully, which only seemed to infuriate the hellhound further.

"Hey, Eyebrows!" Yukari shouted as Jin started getting to his feet, "this isn't over yet!"

Kouma promptly turned around. "What, are you STILL-"

WHAM! A meaty backhand took the hellhound completely by surprise, and Kouma was sent spinning through the air toward the trees.

"HWWAAAAAAAAARGH!" Jin bellowed incoherently as the blizzard surrounding the field started to build up, and then the yheti slammed his fists repeatedly into the ground furiously. Whoom! Whoom! WHOOM!

Moka almost staggered from the resulting tremors. "I think we just made him mad!"

"Ya think?" Kurumu grumbled as she tried to shield herself from the stronger winds. "Should we make a break for the school building? I might be able to cut through the icicles in the way!"

"I'M not getting anywhere near that thing," Yukari mumbled as Jin yelled and charged across the field.

"Guh! Thanks, Gin. Bastard caught me by surprise," Kouma mumbled as Ginnei helped him up.

They both halted as they saw the yheti charge toward them, and Kouma quickly pushed his friend aside.

"Stay out of my blast radius! I'll deal with this!" the hellhound snarled as he jumped forward.

Ducking slightly as he moved into a boxer's stance, Kouma dodged a wild swipe from Jin before jabbing the larger monster in the side.

It was doubtful the yheti even felt the light punch, but Kouma twisted into an uppercut that trailed flames behind his fist as it ascended toward Jin's face.

Clang! Jin blocked with the Ice Breaker as he let loose another howl, and most of those gathered were silently surprised and impressed that the yheti could manage a decent defense in his current enraged state.

Not Kouma, though. He was more surprised that there had been no explosion from the attack.

"Whoa!" The hellhound ducked away from one of Jin's wild swings, and then he smirked when he saw the Enforcer rearing back the Ice Breaker to attack. "Hey, hey, what're you doing? That weapon won't work on-"

CRACK! Kouma promptly crumpled onto the ground as Jin smashed him over the head with the massive steel club, and then the yheti growled angrily as he kicked the hellhound across the ground and into a snow bank. Kouma's cigarette tumbled from his lips as he went, hissing as it fell into a bit of snow and was extinguished.

"Well, of course he can always just use it as a plain blunt weapon," Yukari mumbled, "speaking of which, we should really leave while the yheti's being drawn away from the school building. I'm pretty sure Eyebrows is the only one he can't instantly kill with that baton of his."

FWOOM! A brilliant flare of heat instantly vaporized a great deal of the snow around Kouma as he surged to his feet, his teeth bared and black smoke seeping from the corner of his lips.

"Why should we leave?" Kurumu asked as Kouma charged the Enforcer in a berserker's rush, fireballs bursting behind him from every footstep. "Doesn't Gamaroshi have the upper hand? He's a fire monster and Jin is an ice monster. He should have this wrapped up faster than you can say 'super effective'."

Kouma started to rain punches down on Jin, who defended closely with the Ice Breaker as Yukari shook her head.

"In an even fight, probably. But Jin has that weapon."

"You mean that weapon that barely fazed him the first time around?" Asked the unnamed girl, who was now approaching the other three.

Yukari sighed as she pointed toward the unfolding battle. "Just watch for a moment."

Bwang! Clang! Clunk! Kouma snarled incoherently as his fists slammed into the shaft of the massive baton, each strike causing only a sharp hissing sound and a dull ache in his knuckles.

"BROOOOAUGH!" Jin roared as he tried to ram forward, only for Kouma to dart to the side and evade him completely.

"Die, you filthy ice ape!" Kouma growled as he slammed his palms together and then thrust them forward, releasing a gyrating sphere of flame toward his enemy.

Jin almost casually swiped his weapon through the projectile, causing it to collapse instantly in the air. The yheti promptly began another charge, leaping into the air while hammering the Ice Breaker down below him.

Ginnei's voice shook slightly as he pointed out what was now obvious to everyone. "That weapon's absorbing his flames! That means..."

"That means that both of their special abilities are all but useless in this fight. Which in turn means that the winner will be whoever has the advantage in a raw, brutal melee," the young witch explained. "Honestly, the pup's chances aren't terrible even then, but I sure don't wanna be around long enough to see how this ends up."

"We have to help him!" said Moka firmly.

"The really hot pink-haired chick is right," said Ginnei, nodding seriously, "we can't just leave him on his own."

"I would like to disagree and offer my help in making sure Kou-chan's noble sacrifice isn't in vain," said the girl that had accompanied Ginnei.

Kurumu sweatdropped. "You know, if you want to leave that badly and you can get past the ice barrier, there's nothing really stopping you..."

She brightened. "You're right!" Then she whirled around and bolted for the school building, leaving the others in a light cloud of kicked-up snow.

"Okay then," Moka said, a sweatdrop on her head as she tried to keep a serious composure, "we have to get that baton away from him so that Kouma can finish him off."

"I'm with you, babe," Ginnei said as he stepped forward, smiling brightly. "By the way, my name is Ginnei Morioka, but you can call me Gin! You have a name, or can I just call you gorgeous?"

"Oi, this isn't the time or place for that!" Kurumu snapped. "If we're gonna do this, we have to do this now!"

Moka nodded sharply as Yukari sighed. "Right! Let's go!"

BWAM! Ranma leapt away as a head swung at her like a flail, smashing into one of the statues and reducing it to rubble.

The other two heads darted for the redhead, who managed to twist in the air so the the first one missed before she kicked off of its neck to evade the second.

"What the hell is this?" Ranma complained as she hopped backward, slightly winded. "I already knocked two of those heads out! It's like you're even faster than before!"

"Yeah, thanks for that, by the way," Head One said as the other two bent down and started biting chunks out of the table, "without those two idiots awake, I have full control of our body! You're finished!" With that, the insensate heads hurled the pieces of table at their foe.

Ranma jumped over the first bit of debris and then twisted into an aerial kick to smash the second to splinters. "Are you serious? You get STRONGER as I knock more of you out?"

"I told you you'd regret saving me for last!" mocked the remaining head of Volos before the other two again tried to snap up their foe.

Ranma took the dazed-looking second head on directly, hopping up over its snapping jaws and landing knees-first on its skull. "If that's the case, why didn't you just knock these two out to begin with?" she asked as she dove away from Head Three and landed on the floor at Volos' feet.

Volos immediately tried to stomp on her, but the redhead easily evaded the clumsy attack and started circling around the hydra.

"Oh, believe me, I would," Head One explained as he kept the other heads snapping at Ranma's heels, "but the WHINING afterward... Even winning isn't worth it."

Ranma kicked away one of the heads and then jumped onto the sill of one of the stained-glass windows. "Man, you've got lots of problems, don't you?"

"I don't want pity from someone who's about to get himself eaten!" Volos growled as all three heads rose up in preparation to resume the assault.

Ranma ignored the taunt, focusing on what she had gathered so far about Volos' attack patterns. 'He prefers to attack with the other heads, probably because he doesn't want to put his last conscious mind in danger... or maybe because he doesn't feel the other heads' pain. Either way, I have an idea.'

"It was a bad idea to turn me into a girl!" Ranma crowed suddenly, a grin spreading over her face. "I'll have you know that I'm weaker like this, but much faster!"

"I noticed," Head One grumbled. "Whatever. You'll tire out eventually. One wrong move, and you're lunch meat!"

Ranma snorted, and then her body vanished in a blur of motion.

"Wh-What?" Volos flinched backward as a red streak cut through the air in front of him, and Head Three belatedly bowed down as it tried to snap at the enemy.

Ranma landed briefly on top of Head Three's neck, and then she leapt up as Head two snapped at her, landing on its neck. This prompted Head Three to try again, curling up and over the overreaching throat of Head Two.

Head One growled in frustration as he watched his fellow heads dart this way and that to try and catch their prey, only to get hopelessly tangled and twisted together.

"Hey! What're you doing, you idiots! You're going to tie yourselves in a knot!" The conscious head groused as the insensate ones stopped attacking.

Ranma used the moment of inattention to land on the floor and dash behind the multi-headed creature, waiting for the time to complete the final move of her plan.

Volos swore under his breath as heads Two and Three slowly started to untangle, and a hole between the two twisted-up necks started to open.

Thwack! Head One yelped as it took a heavy kick to the back of its head, shoving it forward into the hole and forcing it through between the scaly, intertwined flesh.

"Hey! What're you-" Ranma bounced up off of the complaining head and leapt up to the other two that were still in the process of trying to pull apart.

"This should do it," the redhead murmured as she took hold of some of the webbing that was still stuck on Head Two's jaw. With a few sharp motions, the two insensate heads were wrapped up and struggling mutely against each other, unable to gain the leverage necessary to break free.

"Hrk! Guh!" Volos stumbled this way and that as Head One tried to pull free from the entangled necks, but to no avail. "Little gender-flipping bastard! I'll eat your spleen!"

Ranma hopped down onto the floor before glancing up at the hydra. "Doubt that. Hold still for a moment, won't you?"

"You son of a-" Volos snarled before coughing violently, finding his air supply constricted by his current predicament. "Huh? Wait, why are you glowing like that?"

Ranma spread her arms in front of her as a coruscating orb of power grew between her hands, and then thrust her arms forward. "Mouko takabisha!"

Volos simply gaped as the sphere of light suddenly expanded out toward him, unable to do anything but wobble back and forth before the energy blast hammered into him.

Whoom! The floor shook slightly as the massive beast fell over, its insensate heads still tangled up and its tail twitching every few seconds.

"All right! Good job, Ranma!"

The pigtailed girl whirled around at hearing a new voice, and she brightened as she saw Tsukune stepping into the chamber.

"Hey Tsukune! I took care of that hydra like you wanted!" Ranma said, walking up to Volos and kicking him in the leg. "He gave me a little trouble, but it's all clear now."

Hokuto, who was still watching from his seat at the now-devastated debate table, glanced to the side as he watched the pumpkin-headed Enforcer slink away silently, and then stood up.

"It would seem we have another unfamiliar face," Hokuto said amiably, walking around the pile of debris and smiling at Tsukune. "I must apologize about the mess; we're in the middle of resolving a proposition regarding the future of disciplinary action in this school. I am Kaneshiro Hokuto, president of the student council. Who might you be?"

Tsukune stood stunned for a moment, staring at the red-haired boy. "Uh... Oh! Right! I'm Aono Tsukune," he said quickly, thrown off by how cordial and normal Hokuto seemed at a glance, "I wanted to talk to you, actually. It's about the Protection Committee's writ here on campus."

Hokuto adjusted his glasses as Tsukune approached. "Yes, it would seem that there's some... discontent with the way they do things," he admitted, gesturing to the unconscious hydra in the middle of the room. "As it seems their abuses of power have stirred up a miniature rebellion among our students, perhaps it's time we discussed some serious reform of their mandate and powers."

Tsukune almost shed a tear right there as he saw the pieces of his plan sliding together perfectly. He did it! Finally, the corrupt would be punished and the innocent could go about their business without fear! It was-

"Sorry we're late to this VERY important meeting about our future role at this school," Keito's voice hissed from behind Tsukune, "it seems we weren't invited."

Tsukune muttered a few ungentlemanly things under his breath and hung his head before he slowly turned around.

Walking into the student council chambers was Keito in her monster form and two young men that he had never met.

He still recognized the one in front from a picture, though; a young man with platinum blond hair and a high forehead, marked with a pair of black spots above his eyes. It was Kuyo, the current head of the Protection Committee.

"Ah, I see Kuyo has arrived," Hokuto said calmly. "Then all the players in this game have assembled, it would seem."

"And we'll get right to your... 'Negotiations'," Kuyo said with a sneer before glancing to the side at Ranma, "but first..."

Kuyo's form seemed to suddenly explode with white fire as Keito and the other Enforcer stepped back, "I will rid us of the unnecessary interference."

With a contemptuous sweep of his hand, Kuyo summoned a whirlwind of flame high above those gathered in the hall, and then ,with a slight smirk, he pointed at the redhead.

Ranma stared upward as the fire suddenly descended toward her, only marginally aware of Tsukune shouting an entirely unnecessary warning and Keito laughing gleefully at her imminent demise.

"Really? A flame spiral?" Ranma deadpanned before she shrugged and reared back a fist. "Well, whatever. Hiryu shoten ha."

"HrrrrrRRRRRRRAUGH!" The enraged scream of two elemental beasts merged into one tremendous roar in the early evening sky, overwhelming the howling local winds as fists pounded against steel in a furious rhythm.

Clang! Clang! Whang! Wham! Kouma's knuckles slammed repeatedly into cold steel as Jin guarded himself, and then he followed with an uppercut that sent the yheti staggering back as it tried to keep the Ice Breaker between them.

Jin kicked at his foe as he tried to bring himself back in balance, not doing any real damage but keeping Kouma back for a precious second before swiping his baton at the hellhound.

Crack! Kouma spun to the side as the blunt weapon smashed into his cheek, and let out a painful grunt as the yheti suddenly grabbed him up with his free hand.

"Die, you damned dog!" Jin growled as he slammed Kouma into the ground, following up by grabbing the Ice Breaker with both hands in preparation to drive it down into the stunned boxer.

Before he could, however, a brown blur zipped past, and Jin suddenly found himseld off-balance as he felt something trying to tug the Ice Breaker from his grasp.

"Hey! Quit interfering, pests!" Growled the yheti, yanking his baton free.

Turning toward the source of the resistance, Jin growled as he saw yet another canine foe come to annoy him. "Another dog to put down, is it?" The yheti snarled.

"Gin? Wh-What are you doing?" Kouma gasped out as he recognized Ginnei's monster form. He had grown more than a foot taller, and sprouted a thick, wild coat of brown fur all over his body, which, while still bipedal and mostly humanoid, now sported hind legs and a head like a wolf's.

"I'm saving your tail!" Growled out the werewolf as he started circling Jin in short, quick hops.

"We don't have a full moon out right now, idiot! You can't beat him!" Kouma insisted as he struggled to his feet. "One hit from that stupid ice club-"

"And you're DONE FOR!" Jin finished as he reared back his weapon for a wide, lethal sweep.

Once again, however, he felt something grab onto it just before he attacked, and glanced back to see that this time Moka had grabbed hold.

"GRAAAAUGH!" The yheti almost flung the vampiress into the air as he pulled the Ice Breaker free, but Moka let go and then quickly scrambled out of reach.

"You little pests, I'll-" Jin didn't even get to finish this time before he felt a tug on his baton from the side, and he promptly snapped it up as Ginnei darted away from him.

"Thieving scum!" The Enforcer roared as he held up the Ice Breaker over his head with one hand as he swiped blindly around himself with the other, trying to keep his precious weapon out of the reach of his opponents.

If it weren't for the fact that he had chosen his stung, partially paralyzed arm to hold the Ice Breaker out of reach, his grip probably wouldn't have failed. But as it was, the yheti's growling stopped abruptly as he felt the cold steel grip slip upward out of his grasp.

"I've got it!" Kurumu cheered as she started beating her wings as hard as she could, trying to get as much altitude as possible to get away from the snow beast. "Geez, it's cold just touching it!"

Jin didn't waste any breath roaring in anger this time, and promptly blasted a cloud of freezing air skyward before Kurumu could put more than a few meters between them.

"Gwah! H-Hey!" Kurumu's wings went numb in seconds as frost coated her body, and the Ice Breaker slipped from her arms as she began a dead fall toward the snow-covered ground.

As Jin quickly maneuvered to catch his weapon, however, his efforts were spoiled once again as a giant pink hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the baton before it was within reach.

"Ha! I've got it! I've got it!" Yukari cheered from several meters away as she waved her wand in the air. "When wizards and witches need a hand they always choose Bigsby!"

Whump! Kurumu was not so lucky, of course, and the succubus landed painfully in the snow where she shivered pathetically.

"You ignorant worms..." Jin snarled as he took a step toward Yukari, instantly dousing her glee. "I'm going to rip-"

Boom! Jin's threat was cut short by a haymaker into his back that sent flames blossoming over his shaggy gray hair.

"Hyaaargh! Y-You!" Jin whirled around just in time to catch a straight punch to the jaw that staggered him, and as the yheti tried to get his bearings Kouma drew his arms in, concentrating silently.

"You... You won't get away with this," Jin mumbled as his jaw smoldered, "I'll be back... With a plan!"

"I've got a plan for you, snow ape," Kouma growled quietly as embers sparked around his knuckles, "it's called VULCAN DRIVER!"

A corona of red fire bursting all around him, Kouma bolted forward into another haymaker, slamming Jin hard in the solar plexus (or yheti equivalent) before raining a staccato of punches into the yheti's gut, each one followed by a burst of flame that had the Enforcer reeling in pain.

After the initial barrage, Kouma ducked back briefly, pulling back his right fist. "Go to hell!"

BWOOM! A heavy uppercut prompted an explosion of fire and magma from the ground underneath the dueling monsters, and Jin's massive, smoking body went sailing through the air as the ground trembled and cracked furiously beneath him.

WHUMP! Jin hit the ground like a sack of bricks, his gaze empty as smoke poured from his open mouth.

"Yeah! We did it!" Yukari cheered, canceling her spell and letting the Ice Breaker fall.

"Yes! YES! Did you see that?" Kouma shouted, thrusting a fist into the air as he stepped on the other elemental beast in victory. "That was awesome! Let's see Saotome pull that off!"

As Ginnei rolled his eyes, Yukari snorted. "Whoa, whoa, slow down there, pup. You only defeated him with our help; it's a little too early to start bragging about being better than Senpai."

"Aw, c'mon!" Kouma said with a grin, so pleased with himself that he completely forgot to be mad at being called "pup," "I just hit a guy with a miniature volcano. What can Saotome do?"

FWWOOOOOOOOM!

Moka, who had been helping Kurumu up out of the snow, flinched back from a sudden roaring noise coming from the school building. A few seconds later a part of the structure - though luckily not the portion adjacent to them - was suddenly torn asunder and carried into the sky atop a huge tornado that snaked its way upward into the air.

Yukari raised an eyebrow and deliberately stared at Kouma in askance.

"What? You don't know if that was Saotome or not!" the hellhound protested.

"Help! He can't be stopped!" came a voice shouting from within the school building. "Saotome's throwing tornadoes at people! Flee while you can!" A few seconds later a familiar monster with a jack o'lantern for a head came stumbling out of the school, emerging from a hole someone had melted in Jin's ice barrier. "There's no hope! The Enforcers are finished!" he screamed as he ran through the snowy battlefield, sprinting into the forest and the rapidly weakening blizzard.

Yukari kept staring.

"Oh, leave me alone," Kouma grumbled.

"Well. That was... intense," Hokuto offered blandly from where he was taking cover behind his chair. "Does Saotome do that often?"

"No, this is pretty new," Tsukune admitted, crouching behind Volos' vast and unconscious bulk for protection, "I mean, it's pretty hard for Ranma to surprise me nowadays, but a cyclone? Kind of a different scale, you know?"

The redhead in question slowly lowered her arm as the winds died down, raining chunks of masonry and splintered furniture down in infrequent clusters.

The two remaining Enforcers were pressed against the walls adjacent the hall entrance, utterly petrified by the sudden display of destructive force as its source calmly stepped forward.

"All right, Kuyo," Ranma said grimly as she pointed toward the unnamed Enforcer, "now we-"

"I'm not Kuyo!" He shouted desperately, his legs trembling.

Ranma blinked. "You're not?" She glanced toward Keito, but was pretty sure the spider monster wasn't head of the Protection Committee. "Wait, then where..."

Keito pointed a quivering hand toward the hole in the ceiling.

"Aw, shoot, THAT was Kuyo?" Ranma asked, slapping herself in the forehead. "Damn. I thought he was just some guard. If I'd known he was the head honcho I wouldn't have taken him down in one hit like that."

Then the redhead frowned and pointed at the remaining male Enforcer. "Don't you guys know how this works? The minions are supposed to come at me first, and THEN the boss attacks! Do you have any idea how anticlimactic this is?"

"I'm sorry!" The male student wailed as he suddenly bolted for the hall exit. "Don't hurt me!"

"Wait, it's over already?"

Ranma developed a nervous tic in her eye as she noticed Shizuka Nekonome at the rear of the student council hall, looking crestfallen as she stood in front of a half-finished sketch of a fox drawn on a portable chalk board.

"Sorry. Maybe next time," Hokuto offered as the nekomata sadly started packing up to leave.

Tsukune sighed as he stood up and once again addressed Hokuto. "Well, I think we should get back to what we were discussing," he said amiably, waving away some dust that was settling on him from above. "Of course, if the Protection Committee has anything to say for itself, it may speak up."

Keito was suddenly aware of the other three occupants of the room (not counting Shizuka, who had just leapt out the window) casting contemptuous glances in her direction before dismissing her entirely. She did not like the feeling. It reminded her of the way that people looked at normal, non-monstrous spiders before they crushed them under a shoe or bit of newspaper.

"Indeed Aono, let's speak," Hokuto said, hauling his chair upright before sitting in it. "It seems to me that the Protection Committee's leadership will have to resign. After that, the student council will began a wholesale reform of their duties and privileges to better reflect our goals for a safe, less criminally engaging campus environment."

"Uhm, do ALL the officers have to resign?" Keito asked somewhat timidly, having unconsciously slunk into a corner by herself.

"I believe that's for the best," Tsukune said firmly. "Any elements of the old Enforcers will try to hold on to as much power as possible if they're still in charge."

"But what about the campus?" Keito asked, beads of sweat crawling down her carapace. "If we're dismissed all at once, we won't be able to keep the peace on campus!"

After everyone else in the room was finished laughing, Tsukune held out his hand for Hokuto to shake. "Thank you, President! I know that if we can overcome this, Youkai Academy will be the better for it!"

"Oh, I do hope so," Hokuto said, smiling broadly as he shook Tsukune's hand, "but you do have a lot of work ahead of you."

"Yes, I..." Tsukune trailed off as he realized that, as far as he knew, he did not actually have much work ahead. "Wait, what do you mean?"

Hokuto's grip on the young human's hand seemed curiously tight as he cleared his throat. "Aono Tsukune, you have impressed our student council with your determination, dedication to justice, and general proximity to someone who can throw tornadoes at people you oppose. I can think of no better candidate to replace Kuyo as Captain of the Protection Committee, and as such I am henceforth appointing you to the position."

For the first time since finding out that he had ended up in a school of monsters, Tsukune experienced the sensation of gloomy awkwardness that came with having one's life forcibly and unexpectedly diverted onto entirely the wrong track. It kind of felt like a trap-door suddenly opened underneath your feet, except without the grim comfort of knowing that you would quickly reach bottom.

"The current Protection Committee objects!" Keito shouted. "Or what's left of it, anyway! I cannot accept handing over control of the committee to a hu-"

Before the spider woman could utter a single syllable more, a red blur zipped by and jabbed her in the larynx, silencing her instantly.

"Oi, don't go saying stupid stuff, all right?" Ranma said as Keito started coughing violently. "Anybody can be appointed no matter what species you are, right?"

"Of course!" Hokuto said brightly. "So long as you're not anything REALLY unpleasant, like a monstrel. Or an elf. You're not an elf, are you? They're not really monsters, so it's unlikely, but..."

"Nope! Then you're good!" Ranma said brightly, giving Tsukune a thumbs-up. "Your plan worked!"

'No! This is all wrong!' Tsukune thought in a panic. "There has to be someone more suitable than me..."

"Well, the only other person who comes to mind is Saotome here," Hokuto said, gesturing to the pigtailed girl, "and he and/or she seems to lack the... zeal for peace and order that you have."

Then the student council president tilted his head to the side. "Also, it might set a bad precedent to hand the position to the person who barged in through the front door and simply beat the current committee comatose. We wouldn't want to give the impression that student government positions can be obtained via duels and bloody massacres."

"S... S... Seconded," Keito managed to spit out as she desperately tried to get her voice back. This situation was already a dozen kinds of bad, but at present she could at least agree that it would be best not to put Ranma in a position of such authority.

"Then Aono it is!" Hokuto said brightly, finally letting go of said student's hand. "Congratulations! I look forward to working with you toward making our campus the best it can be!"

Tsukune didn't respond, but rather stood perfectly still as he stared into space, a small wisp of white smoke leaking from the corner of his mouth.

"Look at that! He's so excited that he's speechless!" Hokuto said.

Looking skeptically at her roommate and noting his obvious unease, Ranma walked over and poked Tsukune in the side.

Thud! The younger human promptly fell over onto the ground, apparently comatose.

"Look at that! He's so excited that he's unconscious!" Hokuto said.

Ranma shrugged and turned toward the student council president. "Can I be vice captain?"

"Sure!"

End Chapter 11

Big Human on Campus: Extra!

"So much snow..." Mizore mumbled happily to herself as she walked through the knee-high snow drifts, marveling at the long stalactites that decorated the otherwise barren trees.

The snow woman very nearly had a spring in her step as she navigated the remains of the sudden blizzard that had apparently engulfed about half a square mile of forest on the edge of Youkai Academy's administrator buildings.

She didn't know the cause of the sudden snowstorm, although it was very obviously magical in nature. Snow that was created by magic simply seemed... different from that which rained down naturally from the sky. It was harder, and the flake structures more chaotic and unnaturally similar to each other, like some semi-omnipotent force was trying to construct a perfect snowflake but just couldn't get it right.

Well, those were her observations, anyway. Mizore doubted that most people spent so much time looking at or thinking about snow.

The forest was calm now, with no more snowfall at all, but the usually gloomy, overcast weather that surrounded Youkai Academy wasn't in any hurry to melt down the storm's leftovers. Mizore figured that there would be at least several inches of snow on the ground for at least two days.

Pushing through another snow drift, Mizore suddenly stubbed her foot on something, and she promptly fell forward onto the ground.

She stayed like that for several seconds, sighing in pleasure at the freezing cold that cradled her body and wrapped around her like a blanket.

Eventually she managed to push herself up, and calmly looked behind her to see what she had tripped on.

Mizore cocked her head to the side. It was a man. A man in an Enforcer's jacket. A man in an Enforcer's jacket with long, platinum blond hair and pristine white gloves. She couldn't see his face because he was currently face-down in the snow, and it looked like he had been lying there for some time.

Mizore frowned as she rolled the sucker in her mouth from one cheek to the other. A lot of people had problems with sleeping in the snow, because apparently their bodies stopped working or something if they lost too much heat. She'd never really thought too hard about it; the whole concept seemed weird and alien to her, like contemplating what it's like to breathe underwater like a fish.

Of course, she had no reason to assume that this man was one of those beings with such a weakness, but the fact that his jacket was torn and tattered and his hair full of dust and crumbs of masonry led her to think that he might not have lost consciousness just because it was comfortable.

The fact that there was a statue of a man in a hooded cloak sticking out of the snow upside-down just a few feet away also indicated that something was definitely amiss.

Deciding on a course of action, Mizore pulled on one of the man's arms and gently turned him so that he was resting face up, and then packed the snow under his head more firmly to act as a pillow.

Her good deed done, Mizore happily trekked back into the snow drifts.

After a few more minutes, she came within sight of even more unusual ice formations, finding several massive ice stalagmites jutting out of the ground near the school building.

There was a much thinner layer of snow here, and even more oddly, there were long tracks of bare, scorched dirt that ran in zig-zags through the snow layer, including a really big patch of cracked earth in the middle.

Things became somewhat more clear once she recognized a burnt lump of flesh and hair on the edge of the battlefield as an unconscious yheti. Mizore promptly turned away from the beast and moved along, pretending she had seen nothing; yhetis were unpleasant and troublesome brutes, and she wanted nothing to do with one of them if she could help it.

On her way out however, she noticed something else interesting: an ice statue of a school girl that happened to be missing a head.

Upon a moment's inspection, she realized that it was no mere statue; this was literally a female student that had been frozen solid and then decapitated. Mizore cast a disapproving frown over toward the yheti.

Deciding that the current state of affairs once again demanded action, the snow woman gathered up the snow at her feet, and then started packing it tightly together.

After she got a good mass formed into a near-perfect sphere, she gathered a few small rocks and inserted them carefully and strategically into the sphere.

Once that was completed, she iced over the exterior, freezing moisture from the air and also on the surface of the slowly melting snow to seal it solid and ensure it would last much longer that the surrounding snowfall.

Thwump! Then she stuck the sphere onto the neck of the ice statue, replacing the girl's head with a snow man head. Complete with stone eyes and a smile composed of pebbles that stretched across its face.

Mizore only wished she had a carrot to use for a nose.

Her second good deed done, Mizore happily trekked back into the snow drifts.