Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and all associated licensers. The King of Fighters and it associated series are the property of SNK-Playmore and all associated licensers. This is not a work for profit. I claim no rights to the characters. This is a work of fiction.

Continuity for Ranma is mostly derived from the manga, with some of the anime sprinkled in for good measure. Continuity for the King of Fighters is a modified form of the current story, how that is should be explained in story, but I am willing to explain for those with further questions.

Enjoy!

Chapter 9

It had been a week and a half since Ryo's visit to the Tendo house, and things had finally settled down. Ranma had redoubled his efforts as both a martial artist and a scholar, and was beginning to take the stress and weirdness that surrounded his everyday routine in better stride. For once, life seemed to be getting easier for Ranma. Of course he knew it was too good to last, but he would enjoy it while he could.

"Hey Ranma!" Akane called out to him. It was the end of the school day, and he was expecting her to walk home with him.

"Looking for an escort home?" he replied.

"Sorry, you're out of luck there today, you goof. As class president, I have to supervise the cleaning of our homeroom." Akane said. She was smiling, despite the fact that room cleaning was one of her least favorite responsibilities. Still, it made Ranma glad to see her in such good spirits.

This whole class president thing had worked out pretty well. Akane was so engaged in her work that she had less time to obsess over what Ranma was doing and getting into fights with him. This in turn gave him more time to train and study, at least when he was not dodging his other fiancées or some rival bent on revenge.

"Alright then, I'll tell Kasumi to save some dinner for you. See you later tonight."

"Have a safe trip home Ranma… and try not to get splashed with cold water for once."

"Yeah, and maybe Happosai will grow wings and turn into an angel. Thanks for the kind thought though." Ranma gave one last wave and then took off.

As he navigated the streets leading back to the Tendo home, Ranma took time to appreciate the sights around him. Nerima really was not all that bad a place to live: safe, happy, clean, and orderly. He had hated all of that when he first arrived. It seemed so artificial, so cold, an embodiment of the "softness" of modern life that his father had raised him to scorn. Now though, it seemed like the perfect place to live out the next few years of his life. Maybe he could get into college after graduating in Furinkan. He had heard that many of the universities in Tokyo had Physical Education programs available for study. Maybe they could help him learn how to run a dojo? Or not, he really had not looked into them all that hard yet. The point was there were opportunities all around him. How could he have not seen them earlier?

So involved in his thoughts had he become, Ranma barely had time to react to the old lady's daily ritual of throwing out her cold water into the street. That old hag, how much longer was she going to be able to lug that bucket to her front door anyway? This time however, Ranma's reflexes triumphed over the woman's magical aim, and he jumped out of the way before he could be drenched.

"Ha! Too bad granny! Thought you'd get me again did ya?" Ranma taunted her.

"Who are you again? I'm sure I've never met you before, but what a rude young man! This country is going to pot." The old lady moaned as she walked back inside her home.

"Yeah, I love you too, same time tomorrow then?" Ranma could hardly believe it, that woman had no idea of what she had been doing. And he had been so certain that it was all some malicious prank on her part this whole time! He laughed.

Yeah, Nerima really was not all that bad a place after all.

The rest of the trip home was without incident, which oddly enough put Ranma on edge. No one attacked him? How could that be? There was no way his luck could be that good, something always happened to spoiled it.

"The house…" Ranma blurted out. That had to be it! There must be something horrible waiting for him at the Tendo home! Maybe Happosai was there, plotting some devious mischief. Or that cunning old Cologne had set Shampoo up to poison Kasumi's cooking for the family. It could even be that something set off Ryoga's hair trigger temper and he was just spoiling for a fight! Whatever it was, Ranma had to put a stop to it, now! He took off as fast as his legs would take him… which was quite fast (this is Ranma we're talking about here).

Within no time, the Tendo home came into Ranma's view. It seemed normal enough from the outside. No ominous smoke emitting from its windows, no dark clouds hanging over its roof. An encouraging sign to be sure, but still no guarantee that everything was okay. He approached the building carefully, wary of anything (or anyone) that might pop out to ambush him, but nothing did. It simply defied logic; Ranma was having a perfectly normal day!

"Hello, Kasumi? Pops? Mr. Tendo?" Ranma called out.

"Hello Ranma! Back from school so soon?" It was Kasumi's voice that replied to him, the best of all possible options.

"Yeah, I'm back." Ranma now walked through the door, comfortable that everything really was okay.

"I see Akane is not with you. Let me guess, directing afterschool activities again?"

"Cleaning the homeroom to be precise."

"I see, well I guess I'll have to prepare dinner later than usual."

"No problem. I'll start my homework." Ranma was prepared to walk past Kasumi to go up to his room, when a strange thought overtook him. "Kasumi? Nothing odd happened today while I was at school, did it?"

"Define odd."

"Just anything out of the ordinary I guess."

Kasumi put her finger to her chin in thought. "Let me see… Oh yes, there was one thing."

"What?" Ranma's face tightened in concern.

"A letter came for you in the mail."

After picking himself off of the floor, Ranma continued his conversation with Kasumi.

"A letter for me? Well yes, I guess that is odd." While Ranma did occasionally get mail delivered to him, it was rare. Most of what he received was junk, and the rest tended to be bad news of some variety or another.

Kasumi pulled the letter from a pocket in her apron and handed it over to Ranma. While he rarely paid attention to such details, he immediately noticed that this was no ordinary letter. The quality of the envelope alone was remarkable. The paper was sturdy and crisp, lined with what looked like gold paint, and to top it all off, a fancy seal of what appeared to be red wax with matching ribbon was used on the back. On the front side Ranma's name was carefully written in kanji. Whoever put this together had a lot of time and patience on their hands, and a flair for the finer things in life to boot. Ranma again became worried. There were only a few people he knew with that kind of taste, and the most prominent of them were the Kuno siblings. Taking a look at the front of the envelope again, he could see there was no return address printed. What to do then?

"Hey Kasumi, can I go into the kitchen for a minute? I need to take some things from there."

"You may Ranma, but please return them when you are done."

A short time later, Ranma was up in his room, fully equipped for his dangerous task. He had his fireproof (and hopefully chemical resistant) oven mitts, and some long tongs to pull the seal off and remove the letter with. A steel pot on his head served as an ersatz helmet to protect his head from any explosions. Yeah, he was ready for this.

"Here I go." Ranma said as he used the tongs to grip the seal and pull it off. Nothing happened. Okay, but what about the letter itself? Ever so carefully his jostled the contents out from the envelope. Again nothing happened. Now, for the final step, he took the largest piece of paper and slowly unfolded it and set it flat on his desk. There were several other items he had removed, but he chose to focus on this first. He examined the text carefully, and it contents were odd, to put it mildly.

On the top of the letter was a note written in English. For Ranma, it might as well have been written in Swahili, since what knowledge of that language he had was confined to the spoken word. Below it though, was another mass of text, this one written in extremely formal Japanese. That seemed to lend credence to the idea that Kuno had written it, since he loved to write as if he were some samurai poet from the Edo period, but Ranma decided to continue reading regardless.

The text read as followed:

To Ranma Saotome:

Rejoice young warrior, for the stories of your deeds have reached far outside the boundaries of Nerima ward. It is with great honor that I invite you, Ranma Saotome, and two teammates of your choice to participate in a special event. The King of Fighters tournament, where only the mightiest may compete, is being held on August 1st. All additional information has been included with the other materials I have sent you, as well as three plane tickets and three passes for you and your teammates.

I do hope that you take me up on this offer. The prize for winning this tournament is wealth beyond your imagination, as well as the respect of your peers in the martial arts community the world over. An opportunity such as this is but once in a lifetime, so please be sure to arrive on time and ready to compete. I wish you the best of luck in this endeavor.

Sincerely,

Rose Bernstein

Rose Bernstein? Who the heck was that supposed to be? But more importantly, had Ranma just been invited to the King of Fighters tournament? That King of Fighters tournament Ryo had mentioned? The one where the winner was declared undisputed World Champion? There was only one reaction Ranma could think of to that.

"I'm so ready for this."

It was closing time at the Nekohanten. Shampoo stood near the door wishing the customers farewell as they exited the restaurant. Mousse on the other hand was left to clean the floors. Cologne was perched carefully on her walking stick, watching the young man's every move, ready to violently correct him if he left even the slightest speck of dirt on the floor.

"Clumsy boy, go over this spot once again!" she shouted as she hopped over to an area near the back tables. Mousse grunted and returned there, beginning his efforts anew.

Why the hell am I doing this? It was a question that Mousse found himself asking more and more often these past few months. Not that he had ever enjoyed menial work to begin with, but it was becoming ever more disagreeable to him.

It was not like he was going to become any stronger doing this. No, it was a waste of time and energy, time that could be used for more valuable pursuits, like winning over Shampoo or training to defeat Ranma Saotome (not necessarily in that order).

This was a joke, a bad one at that. He was Mùsī, a proud warrior of the Nǚjiézú. He was from a respected and honored family of good breeding, and he was one of the strongest martial artists of his generation. Why was he acting like a lowly janitor for that old hag Cologne? Well okay, she was the village chieftain, and stronger than him (for now), but that should not mean he had to sacrifice his dignity to show his loyalty. Back home in the village, Cologne would never have dared to treat any member of the tribe this shoddily, the other elders would never have tolerated it. At least that was Mousse's belief, since he could not remember suffering such indignities while living there.

So what were his options then? Go back home? No, short of an emergency he would not return to the village until he claimed Shampoo as his bride. Some would claim that to be an extreme position to take, but Mousse firmly believed in tradition. Let others mock him for it, but his heart had never lied to him when it came to love, and he had no intention of being dishonest to it in return.

There were other factors too. Mousse had grown to like Japan. It was a nice enough country, freer than China at any rate. China was changing though, who could really say if it would be the same in twenty years? What would Cologne's deal with the local authorities mean then? Abroad, Mousse would learn new ideas that would strengthen the Nǚjiézú for generations to come and secure its survival. He might even become the head male warrior one day, a powerful advisor to the chieftain and a fine capstone to a long and distinguished career…

Or he could do those things if he was not sweeping the floors of this damn restaurant! Mousse cursed as he went over one particularly stubborn stain with his mop over and over.

"No swearing!" Cologne said as she bopped him over the head with her stick. "I expect better from you, Mousse."

"No, you expect very little out of me elder. Otherwise you would have me attending to more important tasks than this."

"This is important! Keeping this restaurant clean is critical, for this restaurant is our means of support in Japan until we can bring Shampoo's husband back to the village to take his rightful place among our people. You will do whatever it takes to support us in that mission!"

"As if my goals were the same as yours!" Mousse snarled. "You know full well why I am here in this country, and what I wish to do!"

From across the room, Shampoo could be heard making an angry humph in response to Mousse's remarks. For once however, Cologne chose to respond to the boy's tirade instead of knocking him out.

"You can never have what you desire Mousse, for your heart and eyes are poisoned by pride and bitterness. Many a young warrior before you has been undone by those twin monsters. If you are wise as you claim, you will learn to release them and realize your full potential."

"Your idea of what I should become is very different from mine, elder Cologne. I will no longer lower myself like this." Mousse threw the mop to the floor and began to storm out of the restaurant.

Shampoo, who had been watching the escalating confrontation with great concern, tried to block Mousse from leaving.

"Mousse!" she cried out in Mandarin, "You stupid duck boy! Apologize to my great-grandmother and stop this now. What are you thinking of turning your back on the village elder? Do you want to make your position even worse than it already is?"

"Shampoo, let him leave." Cologne commanded in dangerously cold tone. "Let this fool have some time on the streets to think about what he has done."

She then turned her gaze to Mousse once more. "If I were you young man, I would spend the next few days thinking very carefully about how you will apologize for your actions. Be thankful I am giving you such an opportunity at all."

Mousse's only response was to huff and walk out as fast as he could. Shampoo and Cologne both watched him as he slammed the door behind him with a loud bang.

"What are we going to do Great-grandmother?" Shampoo asked, visibly upset. Yes, Mousse was an idiot, and yes she had no interest in marrying him, but he was still a friend.

"Leave him be for now. Young men have an annoying habit of cutting off their noses to spite themselves. He will return when he realizes that it is he who is in the wrong." Cologne sighed and bounced on her stick to the back of the restaurant.

The old amazon leader had to concede that things were not going very well at all. Not only were her attempts to bring Shampoo and Ranma together constantly thwarted, but now Mousse had become even more restless. He had so much promise as a warrior too, though she would never admit that to his face. He was clever and tenacious and had an understanding of armed combat few in the village could match. But that jealous streak! And his temper! Like gunpowder, he would go up in a flash if things did not go his way. He was likely to end up dead sooner rather than later with an attitude like that.

Cologne had such big plans for him as well. When Ranma would finally be united with Shampoo in marriage, he would need a fellow male amazon to advise him and help him understand the ways of the village. Mousse, having a pre-established bond with the Saotome boy could prove to be that valuable guide, and if the gods were willing, and Ranma became even half the martial artist Cologne predicted he would, Mousse would be his aide when Ranma became head warrior for the Nǚjiézú. But as things stood now those dreams were fast crumbling.

"Come Shampoo, let us go to bed. We have much work to attend to tomorrow, and we must wake early."

"Yes Great-grandmother, as you wish." Shampoo turned away from the door and began to follow the old woman to their living quarters. Before she left the dining hall however, she whispered one last thing to Mousse, though of course he was not around to hear it.

"Mousse, you really are a fool, but I do hope you sleep well tonight."

Dinner time was uneventful at the Tendo house. Not willing to make the same mistake twice, Ranma kept his plans about the tournament carefully concealed from everyone. He acted as if nothing had happened at all. When Kasumi offhandedly asked him about the letter, he simply said that it was a fancy advertisement for a junky cram school on the other side of the ward. Neither she nor anyone else bothered to investigate it further.

Besides wanting to keep schemers like Nabiki out of his hair, Ranma had another good reason not to talk about the tournament. The letter and the small packet of rules that accompanied it explained that in order to compete, Ranma needed to form a team of three martial artists.

A team? Ranma wondered if it had always been that way in the King of Fighters tournament. Ryo never mentioned it, but then again it was not like he had a whole lot of time to sit down and explain that stuff to Ranma during their last encounter.

There were a lot of options for sure. First, there was his dad, who despite being an idiot was a great martial artist in his own right who also represented the Musabetsu Kakutou School. However, could Ranma really trust him? History showed that even in critical situations, Genma often let those around him down. Then again, a victory in the tournament would greatly boost his reputation among other martial artists, and win him a lot of money in the process; that might very well be all the motivation Genma needed to compete seriously. Ranma filed the idea at the back of his mind. If nothing else it could serve as an emergency backup plan.

Next there was Ryoga. Well that was an obvious choice. The Lost Boy had his flaws for sure, but there was no man alive that Ranma trusted more to cover his back in a fight. Would he agree though? Ryoga's temper and pride were delicate things, and Ranma was not quite sure what kind of emotional state his friend was currently in. Ranma had acted extremely cross with him the last time they met, and there was a very good chance that Ryoga still carried a grudge over it. No scratch that, Ranma was absolutely certain that Ryoga was still mad at him. Okay, so he would have to bury the hatchet first, but once that was out of the way, Ranma was sure Ryoga would come around and join his team.

That left only one spot open. Akane? Was she ready for a challenge of this magnitude? Probably not, and that was unfortunate because she was the only other user of Musabetsu Kakutou that Ranma fully trusted. Ucchan? She was a great friend and a skilled martial artist, and therefore a strong choice. Sadly, Ranma would have to pass on her. If he recruited Ucchan, then Akane would be furious, as would Shampoo and Kodachi. In fact, Ranma decided that recruiting any woman on the team would be a bad idea, simply for the amount of friction it would cause in his life.

So who was left after that? Happosai? Ranma would sooner recruit Satan than put the old lecher on his team. Satan would likely be a more reliable ally too. Kuno? Yeah, fat chance. That guy was a weakling by Ranma's standards anyway. No way could he survive the high level of competition that was going to show up at the King of Fighters. He was running out of options though.

Mousse? Huh, now there was an idea. Mousse was arguably Ranma's most competitive rival after Ryoga. He was strong and he took fighting seriously. For an added bonus he and Ranma had teamed up before to fight common enemies… with Ryoga! Yeah, it all made sense now. Ranma needed to form a team with Ryoga and Mousse, that was by and far the best option. Could he get Mousse to join him though? That could prove to be very difficult. Mousse was an annoying prick at times, and he might hold out just to spite Ranma. Plus, the tournament would take him away from Shampoo, whom he was utterly obsessed with. Still, Ranma was resolved to get the male amazon to join him by any means necessary. If Ranma had to hit him over the head and drag him on the plane, then so be it.

The choices were clear, now all Ranma had to do was win them over.

"Ryoga, you don't have to leave Nerima, at least not on these terms." Ukyo pleaded.

Ryoga Hibiki was standing in full travel gear outside of Ucchan's, ready to head home. "Home" in this case being Akari's pig farm. The decision did not come to him easily, but he had reached the conclusion he had no more business being in Nerima.

As far as he could tell, things were going just fine without him. Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo were busy with school, and Akane in particular seemed to be doing very well as class president. It seemed like the days when she needed Ryoga to defend her honor were at an end, and he was happy for her. Ranma was busy too, throwing himself into academics. Ryoga really did not fully understand what was going on there, but it seemed linked to a visit by that foreign martial artist who had defeated Ranma a few weeks earlier. It really was not his business to know anyway, Ryoga concluded. This part of his life was coming to an end.

He would miss it. For the first time he could remember, Ryoga had felt he had a stable group of friends who accepted him for who he was, relatively speaking. He had a lot of fun memories and some really scary ones as well. How many times had he put his life on the line to help out his friends? How many times had he almost been roasted over a spit while trapped in his pig form? How many times had he nestled in Akane's inviting…?

Okay, time to end that line of thought, there would be more happy days to come, right? Ryoga Hibiki was just starting his life, and there would be plenty of good times in his future… on a pig farm. Why did that not sound as exciting as Ryoga hoped it would? No, Akari loved him, and that was enough. A good woman and a peaceful existence in the countryside… on a pig farm; certainly that's all he could ever need.

"Damn it all!" Ryoga shouted out to no one in particular. Ukyo was rather unnerved by the outburst.

"What's wrong sugar?" She tentatively asked.

"You're right Ukyo, I can't go home yet. There's still one more thing I need to do."

"And what's that?"

"I need to fight Ranma, just one last time. It's not about revenge anymore; I just want to prove to myself once and for all that I can match him. If I don't do it, I'll spend the rest of my life wondering if I could."

"Well, when I said you should stay around, that not really what I meant sugar." Ukyo was cool towards the idea. She loved Ranma, she saw Ryoga as a close friend. The idea of those two coming to blows once more upset her greatly.

"Ukyo, you have to take me to Ranma, I'm asking this as a favor."

"Ryoga, I… I can't do that. I don't want my last memory of you here being locked in some brawl with Ranchan. Can't you just let it go?"

Ryoga eyed Ukyo with some regret. "Sorry Ukyo, this is something I'm dead set on. If you won't help me, I understand. Good luck winning Ranma over, I mean it." With that he adjusted the straps on his backpack and started walking off.

"Should we warn Mr. Ranma?" a voice behind Ukyo asked. It was Konatsu, he had been watching the whole time, using his ninja arts to conceal his presence.

"Konatsu, you really have to stop spying on people," Ukyo said as she walked past him, "and to answer your question, no I'm not. You heard Ryoga; this is something he needs to do for himself. I won't help him, but I won't stop him either. I'm a martial artist too after all, I know where he's coming from. Ranchan wouldn't want me to interfere either."

As Konatsu watched his mistress reenter the shop, he could not help but feel a tremendous sense of dread of what was to come. He quickly shook off the feeling however, as it seemed absurd. How bad could it really be if Ranma and Ryoga had one more fight? They used to do that practically every other day, and then some. Yes, Ukyo was right. Just allow things to follow their natural course. Really, what was the worst that could happen?

Deep within the heart of Europe, in a remote valley that had scarcely seen human visitation for millennia, a very odd sight could be found. A massive complex, of modern and imposing design, scarred the once pristine landscape. On one of the mighty hilltops that surrounded the valley, two shadowy figures could be seen looking down at the structure.

"Magnificent, is it not?" The first figure exclaimed. His voice was filled with a deep and real appreciation for the center of his ambitious plan.

"Truly, a monument to our impending glory my master." The second figure agreed. It filled his heart with joy to see that the man whom he had devoted his life to was so pleased with the effort. It had not been easy to pull off, having required over a year's worth of careful planning and labor, all while performing his other duties.

"Of course it has yet to fulfill its true purpose, but that will come soon enough." The Master punctuated his statement with low, soft, menacing laughter.

"Yes, only another six weeks, and then our plan will begin in earnest." The second figure agreed.

"Mukai, I expect you to continue to perform as brilliantly as you have in the past. There can be no failure where this is concerned, understand?"

"It will not happen, my master. Unlike Magaki, I am no arrogant fool who misjudges the humans simply because they are different than us. Our accursed enemies they may be, but I know well what they are capable of with the right training and focus."

"Very good Mukai, your understanding of our foes does credit to you."

"Besides that master, with your power behind me, there is no chance that I can fail." Mukai's tone was one of quiet confidence. It was no mere flattery on his part. He knew full well what his master was capable of.

"Yes Mukai, my power, a power beyond any found in this world, the power of the Orochi!" The Master laughed in triumph as he spoke. It had been quite some time now since he had received that power. While it was currently incomplete due to certain unfortunate circumstances, that would soon be corrected. The Orochi, a being that acted as the judge over all life on Earth, was now itself a prisoner of his will! The irony was delicious.

Six more weeks, that was all it would take. Six more weeks, and the grand carnival of violence would return again. The next King of Fighters tournament, it promised to be the greatest one yet… and the last.

End Chapter

A shorter chapter than many of the others, but it got right to the point. I know many of you are wondering just how this team system is going to work out. I have a plan, but it is way too early to reveal in the story. Let's just say that this KoF tournament will clearly resemble the ones depicted within the games, but it will have a few new rules added to it as well. Why? Because it's about the only way I can think of making a KoF tournament work in print form. Fighting games sadly don't owe themselves to large blocks of prose without some significant adaptation first.

So now, on to the next item of business. New chapter next week, but after that there will be a slightly longer than average break. Chapter 12 is coming along smoothly, but it's much longer than any of the others I've previously worked on, so I need time to move on ahead after I finish it. You have been forewarned, thank for your patience.

Until next time, take care!