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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters here that belong to Ranma 1/2. The Ranma 1/2 cast belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Nor do I own Suikoden 3 or any other characters that I put into this story except for my own OCs. Neither do I own any of the character in any of the crossovers I do. I'm just using them in this fanfiction and I have no money so don't bother suing me. You'll just lose money instead of gaining any. And remember to leave a review!
(Author's note: I turned off the no anonymous reviewer's option so now everyone can leave a review. PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! Ideas and constructive criticism would be nice too. )
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Chapter 12: After Dark
The city of Shibuya is abuzz with the news of the slaying of some top Yakuza members and the death of the resident crime lord Hanze. The warehouse where the murders took place is a veritable blood bath. Currently large numbers of policemen are holding back the crowd of news reporters trying to get inside the warehouse where the crime took place.
A police car approaches the scene and the police clear the path for it. A young rookie that looks to be a little green approaches the car as a man comes out of it.
"Captain, we secured the whole area and are now searching the warehouse. There's no one alive in there and all the corpses are known Yakuza members with illegal weapons and a few top notch hired assassins. Hanze's among the corpses too."
Captain Kotobuki of the downtown Shibuya Police Force sighed. "Great, so that loon did manage to sneak some firepower into Shibuya. Real question is who took them out." At this point body bags are being brought out and the reporters are having a field day taking pictures while the officers do their best to keep them back. Sure, stuff like this has happened before, but nothing this bad in this city. This looks more like a massacre than anything else. "Got any suspects?"
"We have no idea who could have done this sir. Whoever did it managed to do it without any casualties on their side or if there were any managed to clean up so that it looks like there were none. We did found some gatling-gun shells scattered around the inside, numerous 9 mm casings, presumably from the Yakuza members, and what looks like some bomb fragments. Also it looks like most of them were killed with blade weapons. Looks like some where even killed using drills or crushed to death." The young cop showed him a large hole in the warehouse floor. Bodies of the Yakuza members looked as if someone put their whole hand over them and just crushed them like an orange. "Some of the corpses have also been burned up. We called up some guys from the burn-ward department of Shibuya hospital and they say a flamethrower killed them."
"Anything else I should know?"
The young cop seemed to become hesitant for some reason. "Well, yes sir. This is where things get weird."
Kotobuki raises an eyebrow at him. "And gatling guns, flame throwers, bombs, bodies being crushed and blade weapons aren't?"
The young rookie laughed nervously. "Actually, sir, that would be considered normal in this case. That's because some of the bodies look like they were killed by...fingernails...that have been dipped in poison."
"You mean someone scratched them up?" Kotobuki asks scratching his head.
The rookie shook his head. "No sir, I mean whole fingernails have been imbedded into their bodies. Looks like the nails were...launched at them like bullets from a gun."
Kotobuki has never heard of that before. Scratching up a person so that they die from poison or bleed to death maybe, but fingernails used as a projectile weapon? He put the information away for later. "So where's Hanze?"
The rookie led him over to two bodies that haven't been bagged yet. "He's here. From what we can tell the body next to him is his right hand man."
Kotobuki walked up to the late crime boss and knelt next to the body. "Hanze, so this is how it ends. We could never get anything on him as he always covered up his tracks way too good. I can't say that I'm going to miss him though."
The young cop knelt at his side. "Sir, the strange thing is that it looks like someone just went and punched right through his back and out of his chest." Sure enough there's a fist-sized hole in the middle of his chest. He then pointed over to the right hand man. "He on the other hand got hit with what looks like an ax blow to his head."
Kotobuki stood up and looked over his men. During the explanation everyone had stopped what they were doing to listen in. "Well, looks like there's a new crime boss in town and got rid of the old one. Got any leads?"
Another cop speaks up from where he is writing down a report. "No sir. We didn't find any clues and the fingerprints that we found on the weapons that were used and left by whoever killed them don't even look human. They probably got smudged during the fight."
Kotobuki massaged his temples as he felt a headache coming. "Just great more mysteries." He walked out of the warehouse to the mostly empty back of it to get some air as his men returned to their work.
"Hey Kotobuki, How it's been?" a voice called out to him one that he hadn't heard for years.
Said captain jumped at the unexpected voice. Turning he saw someone he hasn't seen for years. "Ryo old buddy! You're here!" He walked over and shook the City Hunter's hand vigorously. With him is a tomboyish looking woman. Kotobuki bowed to her and she returned it.
Ryo smiled at him. "Yup, Sakeo sent me and Kaori over here to give you guys a hand with this new crime lord that showed up over here."
The captain of the Shibuya Police Force looked a bit surprised at this. "So news travels fast. Did Sakeo have any leads that she told you?"
Ryo shook his head. "Nope, not really. But there could be a connection to this new crime lord and the new rich guy that showed up here in Shibuya two weeks ago. In fact, the new crime lord showed up around the same time as this Ranma Wild fellow."
Kaori spoke up at this point. "It sounds like he's the new crime lord to me."
Kotobuki turned to her. "Yes, we thought of that ourselves. But without any real solid poof that he's the one that's behind this we can't do anything. Plus, if we did and it turns out he has nothing to do with the new crime lord then it'll look real bad for us."
Kaori nodded at this. He and Ryo had a similar conversation on the way here. "Since he's half American our ties with them would plummet. We would be accusing a foreigner who's just here to visit his mother's homeland just because he happened to arrive at the wrong time."
Ryo turns his gaze back to the police captain. "So, what do you have on this guy?"
Kotobuki called for one of his men to bring him the folder on the new rich guy in town and the ones with him. He began showing them pictures that the field work team took. "Well, we found out that he has two female bodyguards that go with him every time he goes out, which isn't very often. Well, we think that they're his bodyguards anyways. We're not too sure if they are or not. But they do keep the reporters away from him that have been trying to get an interview with him ever since he showed up and bought an old temple that had a pretty big price-tag on it. He wasn't too happy when an article on him came up on the paper."
He showed them two colored snapshots of two young women. One's dressed as a European guardswoman right out of a movie. Dressed in a fine green coat and black pants she's a sight to see. What's strange is that she has silver hair and she carried around a European style sword. The other one is a green haired girl that kept her hair in a long braid. She wore a blue color skin-tight bodysuit and over it was a matching pair of golden-yellow vest and shorts. She also had on a violet colored top hat.
"The first one's name is Chris Lightfellow and the other one is Tina Fight. My daughter Ran and her friends ran into them yesterday. They knew they were being followed by Ran and her friends. When they were cornered Fight went and THREW the other woman to the top of a three story building and then did triangle jumps between two buildings to reach the top." He saw them looking at him with disbelief. "That's what Ran told me anyway. She doesn't usually lie about things like this so I believe her."
Ryo looked intently at the two photos. Normally he would be leering at the two gorgeous women, but when he has a gun in his hand or is on a case he's totally serious. "So they're always close by to this Ranma right?"
Kotobuki nodded and handed him another photo. "Yes, this is the only good photo we have on him." Kaori's eyes widened as she looked at the handsome young man in the photo. Garbed in a red silk sleeveless shirt and black pants the clothes were JUST tight enough to show off his physique. His long black hair is kept in a pigtail and the wind is blowing it so that it seemed to float. In the image he is currently playing with a little girl who's almost the spitting image of him and there's a dazzling smile on both their faces. They seemed to radiate warmth and joy, but Kaori is only staring at the older sibling.
She snatched the photo out of Ryo's hand and gave a very uncharacteristic wolf whistle. "WOWWY! Now there's a good looking man!"
Both of the men and anyone who is male who heard her sweatdropped while the females gave off knowing grins. "...Yes, that's what every young woman in our police station said when they saw that picture." He leaned over towards Ryo so that only the City Hunter could hear him. "Actually, they were worse. One even started moaning out his name right in the middle of the whole station! Most made copies of the picture and took the day off to...do some 'business.'" Ryo's sweatdrop got even bigger.
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In the Suikoden world-
"Umm...don't you think that reaction's kind of extreme?"
The cat looked over to the blind woman sitting next to him and gave her a toothy grin. "Nah, this is a little bit but this is pretty much how most women tend to react to the other Ranmas. You think that's bad, wait till you hear what girl's reactions are to the Ranma that fell in the Spring of Drowned Playboy." (A)
Leknatt 'looked' at the god. "You...are joking right?"
Chaos shook his head. "Nope, the spring didn't change his body much except making it more defined, angular, and got rid of all the baby fat. The real change is in his attitude and also his views towards women. Think of a Ranma that is very mature, has tack, knows what to say and when to say it, has the utmost respect for women, and really, REALLY knows how to flirt and you get a cursed Ranma-playboy. Only difference with a regular playboy and the Ranma of that universe is that his code of honor and naivety is mixed in with his cursed form while his insulting nature is destroyed. He flirts with a lot of women, but since the base doesn't know a thing about sex (thanks to Genma of course) and therefore not after it he's really just complimenting them to make them feel good about themselves. Almost all the Ranmas try to be nice to people and such because of extreme loneliness and the need for friends, but with only Genma as his role model they don't know how to do it except with insults. The curse comes with that knowledge even though it's mostly subconscious. Usually the curse would make the individual's goal to be to bed a whole lot of women or men if the cursed individual is a woman, but since this is Ranma we're talking about that goal got destroyed by his sense of honor and lack of information on anything sexual. He acted more like he fell in the Spring of Drowned Gentleman than playboy actually. You should have seen how the Kasumi of that dimension reacted to him."
"Kasumi? That's the housewife you told me about right? The one that only seems to only like Doctor Tofu?"
The cat's grin got larger. "Yup. She falls head over heels in love with the boy. Almost all the Kasumi's of the multiverse falls for Tofu because of his reaction to her, not JUST because he's mature and has the same caring nature as she does. They feel it is very flattering to have someone react so extremely to them. The Kasumi's feels that since she took up being the mother of the household that no one would want an unmarried housewife like her. Tofu is usually the only one to show an interest in her even though there are others, but all they really want is sex. The two usually marry after he gets over his love-induced insanity. When Ranma comes in he starts showering her with attention and compliments and plus he doesn't go crazy when he's around her. He also listens to her, talks to her, helps her with her studies with medicine (he has a lot of knowledge on the human body and herbs since Genma and him couldn't afford going to doctors and had to make do), helps out around the house and keeps her company. Those are things her family doesn't do. When the two met he was in his cursed form and he of course said what a wonderful and beautiful woman she is and praised her on her mature beauty and soul. She overrode Nabiki's claim and took him on as her fiancé. She told herself it's to save Ranma from being used by Nabiki for her schemes, but you know the real reason why she wanted him. With Ranma's code of honor mixed into his cursed form he only flirts with his fiancés when he finds out about the engagements. Eventually he married his wives Kasumi, Ukyo, Kaori, Shampoo and even Kodachi. A lot more wanted to join in, but were 'convinced' to go away, especially Nabiki since she wanted to use his charms to get money.
Leknatt's expression turns to confusion as one of the names of Ranma's wives clicks in to her. "Um, isn't Kodachi the fiancé that's insane?"
Chaos nodded. "Yup she is. You see loosing her mother to a fatal disease and her father and brother to insanity also drove her nuts. However, Ranma cured her of that. Turns out all she really needed was a massive influx of love and attention to snap out of it. She still acted insane when she was after him because he wouldn't pay her any attention since she wasn't a fiancée, but after paying off Genma to engage her to Ranma he treated her with kindness and respect. It snapped her out of whatever it is she had and now she's one of the most happiest women in that world, only rivaled by her fellow wives. The multiple marriage was allowed because Cologne and Nodoka used their influence to make the government make an special exception from that law. They also threw out Genma and Soun before they can screw up anything. The girl's dreams came true when Herb locked Ranma in his cursed form and Cologne 'conveniently' said there's no way to reverse the lock. I believe that is also the world where the house they live in is soundproofed, with three layers since one isn't enough, and they live a bit far from the city since there seemed to be mini-earthquakes at night." The cat nudged and winked at Leknatt and she gave him a nod knowing what he is implying. "His wives love him almost to the point of obsession and he in turn loves them dearly. Also having multiple wives provides him with the support and love he needs and even fulfills the goal of the spring of drowned playboy even though its goal to bed women isn't active. On second thought, bedding his wives does count for the cruse goal if you know what I mean!"
A long silence occurs as Leknatt absorbs all the information. "...Oookay. What's the point of telling me that story?"
"Point is that the Ranmas of the multiverse has the body to be a 'first class hunk' as girls say due to the training trip and girls see that, including the ones in this universe and yours. This explains Fight and Chris wanting to be his wife and girl's reactions to him just by how he affects their hormone levels. It's his attitude and how he treats women is what determines just how he will interact with them and the depth they fall for him and he in turn. Hence, when they see his body they behave like Ryo's partner and the women of the police force. Since he got regular meals and no one is out to kill him in your world his body had a chance to heal and grow PROPERLY. His muscles are much more defined, there's virtually no fat on him and the curves of his face are replaced with angles. Kasumi started him out on the road to recovery even before he left his world by giving him regular meals and patching him up after the fights. He just kept on developing with Mamie's meals and having 'friendly' sparring matches with the inhabitants of Lake Castle and repairing the place. Being away from Genma and the others allows him to learn how to interact socially as well and those books given to him by Hinako, Tofu and Kasumi are vastly improving his knowledge of the world. Now that he's away from Genma and his degrading views of women he's able to make his own opinions of the opposite gender. Having known Shampoo, Ukyo, Ms. Hinako, Fight, Chris and the various other female fighters he learns that they are not weak at all. Getting to know the different women of Lake Castle he's starting to get attracted to them. Before he couldn't risk it since Akane would just bash him for even LOOKING at a woman! Now he's starting to let out severely repressed hormones and he's seeing that he likes it, especially with Fight and Chris showing off their bodies to him so much. Also after I've told you what kind of person Ranma is didn't you notice he's practically nothing like I've told you when he came to your world?"
She thought back to when she detected Ranma coming to their world and watching him. She notices that unlike how Chaos described him he didn't insult anybody, patronize them and didn't even say one thing about women being weak or that his girl side is better looking than some of the girls he has met. He didn't even have that big ego that he is well known for in his world. "Yes, that is strange. Why hasn't he been acting like the Ranma that you have described to me?"
Chaos smiled. "When he left his world he took everything that Genma has ever taught him and trashed it. Since he was going to start a new life he figured that the one of the first thing he had to do is stop acting like Ranma Saotome and start acting like 'just Ranma'. He still has his old reflexes and instincts on certain things, but he uses his willpower to keep it down to a minimum, and Ranma is a very willful person. About now he's gotten rid of them and ingraining new ones and one of them is to be nice to people, especially girls. He's gaining his true potential and girls can see that. The Ranma-playboy is just an example of what Ranma's potential unleashed is."
Leknatt contemplated the information given to her on the new and improved wild horse. "Ahhh! That is why Fight, Chris, Belle, Kathy and the other girls of the castle fight so hard to win his heart! You see living on his own now away from his father and 'friends' is forcing him to grow up. Now that he is maturing he turns from prime husband material to 'I would kill to have him be mine!'
Chaos raises an eyebrow at the last comment but brushes it off. "Basically that's right."
Leknatt then seemed to look a little miffed at him. "I though you said you didn't know why women are so attracted to him!"
The cat took on a sheepish look. "Well, after you asked I started thinking on it and came up with a few conclusions of my own. I also had some of the minor deities who said they 'wanted to help me out with my work' or in other words wanted to spy on the other Ranmas compiled this for me." A HUGE folder materialized in the air and dropped on the floor with a loud 'thump'. "That folder contains information on the Ranmas that have left Genma at one point or another. You will notice that he comes out of it for the better and he becomes a real girl magnet because of it, or guy magnet if he decides to use his cursed form." He pointed a paw at the Ranma they are currently watching. "This Ranma is just another example of how Genma's stupidity has only made him worse and by leaving him his true potential comes out."
Leknatt uses her magic to 'read' the contents of the folder. "Oh my!"
Chaos grinned seeing her impressed expression. "See what I mean?"
The blind woman's temperature rises as she 'reads' some of the information in the folder. There are pictures of the different Ranmas as well and her magic allows her to 'see' them. She has resigned herself to being an old maid because her standards are very, VERY high and no one even came close to it. Her expectations of the kind of man she wants to spend the rest of her long life with (remember, she too has a true rune) can only usually be found in mangas and fairy tales. "Ara Ara! If I can still see I would imagine that..." She gives out a shuddering breath. "He's very mature physically, emotionally and spiritually in this one isn't he. Ooohhh! I'm rather fond of... Wow! Now this Ranma I like! This one is blind too and still manages to...is it getting hot in here?" Looks like quite a few of the Ranmas meet those standards. 'Perhaps I should look into traveling into other dimensions for a while. I might even get myself married to one of these Ranmas! No more lonely nights for me!'
The cat chuckled. "I've seen that reaction before."
Leknatt closes the folder with an extreme act of willpower and turns to the cat. "How can he turn out so good with a father like Genma?"
The cat grinned again. "He gets most of his traits, especially his looks, from his mother. In the words of one of the Ranmas Genma is 'Just the guy that knocked up my mom.' Ranma turns out like that because all of the Nodoka's in the multiverse's genes or her family side are the dominant ones. I shudder to think what would happen if Genma's were." Both of them felt like vomiting at the thought.
After the disgust passes Leknatt turns a pleading expression to the cat and holds up the folder. "Can I keep this?"
Chaos' expression turns amused. "Tell you what. Later I'll bring you personally to some of these Ranmas." If Leknatt didn't have to keep up a dignified composure she would have been jumping up and down like a schoolgirl. She managed to restrain herself to one jump and pump up her fist when the cat was looking away.
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Back in Ranma's world-
Kotobuki shook his head at Kaori's reaction and got back to the main topic, Ranma Wild. "We have no real solid information on him. Only ones that we do have on him are gossip so we have no idea what he's really like."
Ryo stopped staring at the leering Kaori at his friend's statement. "So are there, any other people we should know about?" He decided to leave his partner alone seeing that Kaori wasn't going to give up the photo of Ranma anytime soon. He was subtlety started edging away from her when she licked her lips and started saying over and over 'my precious' and drooling. She was acting a little like that 'Gollum' character in the gaijin movie 'Lord of the Rings' that he had taken one of his former clients to see and it's really creeping him out. He knew she hasn't had a boyfriend in a long time, but this was getting ridiculous!
Kotobuki was also started edging away from the drooling woman. "Well, he does have a twin sister as well as a younger sister that's friends with my youngest daughter Sayo." He took out two more photos that he handed to the city hunter. "The redhead is named Ranko and is his twin sister while the younger one is Yun. Also Ranko is a very fast runner according to Ran and her friends and the younger one is practically a genius."
"A fast runner and a genius got it. What else can you tell me about his sisters?" Ryo ask wanting to know everything he can on his targets.
Kotobuki scratches his head in mild embarrassment. "Well, we know even less about Ranko than her brother, but she does go out a lot more than he does. Of what we know about Yun is that she's a quiet, shy girl that opened up to Sayo and her friend Masato. Sayo told me that Yun moved in with her older siblings ever since their parents died and all three came to Japan to learn more about their mother's country."
Ryo tried to snatch Ranma's photo away from Kaori, but all he got for his trouble was a mallet to the head. Kotobuki shook his head and ordered one of his men to fetch another one. By the time he received the photo (the cop had to dodge a whole bunch of female officers who didn't have a copy) Ryo had recovered from the mallet. He handed the photo over to his captain and Kotobuki handed the photo to Ryo. Ryo looked at the photo and committed Ranma's face to memory before handing it over to one of the women who were looking at him imploringly to give it to them.
"So anybody else I should know about?" Ryo asks. In the background all the women had crowded around the woman lucky enough to receive the photo and the others were offering her all sorts of things to trade for it.
Kotobuki took out even more photos out of his folder and handed it to the City Hunter. "Yes, these four." On the photos are images of Piccolo, Edge, Fred and Rico. "The old man is an old friend of the family and is some kind of shaman of some kind. The kid's name is Edge and he walks around with a strange looking sword. Some of our guys have tried to stop him from carrying around a weapon, but he had all the proper permits (B). There are some reports that the sword talks to him and he talks back to it, but the guys who gave those reports have been known to put in a lot of hours so we don't really believe it. The last two seems to have a master and servant relationship is the best that we can guess. The one called Fred has been going to one sword fencing school after another and fighting them for their signs and hasn't lost yet. Rico seems to be his servant who from the reports is very strong for her body sizes."
Ryo nodded as he grabbed onto Kaori's arm. "Thanks, these will come in handy and tell your kids to try to learn more about them." Kaori's in another world so he had to pull her back to the car.
"Oh yes, there's one more thing. There are three more members of his group, but we haven't managed to get anything on them so you better be careful."
"Thanks Kotobuki. We'll keep that in mind." In his haste to drag Kaori back to the car he accidentally grabbed onto Ranma's photo and rip it in half. Marjory violent things happened to Ryo until Kotobuki handed Kaori another copy.
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Meanwhile in a certain Shibuya High School -
"We're getting a new teacher?" The classroom of Ran Kotobuki had just been told that someone's being transferred in.
Their teacher nodded. "Yes. I'll be teaching the class of room C-6 since Mrs. Bee is going on maternity leave."
Aya nodded in understanding. Mrs. Bee has been having trouble moving around lately and at five months pregnant it's about time she went on leave. "Oh, so who's going to teach this class then?"
"I am kids."
Turning to the door the class saw a VERY shapely twenty-year-old woman. The yellow dress she wore was skintight and just barely cleared her fanny. Her ample chest almost seemed to burst out from her front. Her long brown hair hanged loosely down her back and she has a flawless face. All the girls were gaping at her while the guys were drooling or had fainted from blood loss.
The new teacher went up to the board and wrote her name. She then turned around and spoke in a voice so sultry that all the guys and a few closet lesbians got all hot and bothered. "I'm Hinako Ninomiya and I'll be teaching this class till the end of the year." All the guys in the class and the male teachers and students in the hallway who had seen her and followed her cheered loudly while the girls, especially those with boyfriends who are among those cheering, growled. Hinako paid little attention to this since it has happened a lot before. It also kind of reminded her of the reactions a certain pigtailed martial artist had on people, only the gender roles are reversed.
When Miyu heard the new teacher's name she knew she had heard it from somewhere. It took her a few moments to remember where she heard the name from. "I've heard about you! Miyu heard from her cousin that you're that energy sucking vampire teacher from Furinkan High School, home of the Nerima Wreaking Crew!"
Ran remembered the legend of a teacher that can drain the energy out of you and had a specialty of disciplining delinquents. "You're the energy draining vampire teacher of that school of freaks?"
The stories of the infamous Furinkan High School had also reached Aya. "And the place where there's somebody fighting someone in a duel at least once a day?"
Hinako nodded. "Yes. I quit teaching there since the only student that has ever gotten the better of me left. Then I heard of an opening here and a new challenge to face." Hinako made a big show of pointing at Ran. "Isn't that right, Ran Kotobuki!"
Ran crossed her arms giving the new teacher a smirk. "What? You think you can tame me? Yeah right! Those stories about Nerima are just stories. I'm not that gullible."
Hinako got a devious smirk on her face and took out a coin. "Oh really? HAPPO-FIVE-YEN SATSU!" The attack drained all the energy from Ran leaving her lying limply on her desk.
Nana's right eye twitched as she looked at her drained friend. "Okay, so the stories from Nerima are true then."
Ninomiya nodded. "Yes, and unlike the slacker teachers here I won't let delinquents get away with anything around here got it. Anyone else want their energy drained?" All the student's sweatdropped and nodded while the teachers who heard her statement glared at her. "Good. Now let's start the class okay."
"Great, juuuusssst great," Ran said still weak from her draining. 'This is going to be one HELL of a year!'
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Meanwhile at downtown Shibuya-
At a clothing store in downtown area of Shibuya, Fight and Chris are out shopping for something new to wear. Ever since Ranma had taken them shopping for new clothes so that they can fit into this new world they have become addicted with clothes shopping. With Ranma being a very rich man thanks to him selling some of the gold coins from their world they virtually buy whole stores. They called the temple to ask the other girls if they wanted to come with them, but Rico was out with Fred to challenge another fencing school and Ayame said she had better things to do then to look pretty (aka Ranma's not there so there's no show to see). The two were shopping with just each other as Edge, Piccolo and Watari didn't want to come with them for some odd reason. The three didn't want to carry the stuff that the girls bought or wait around while they try on stuff. That's true for any guy who went shopping with a girl who loves shopping. They didn't even get to see the show the two put on for Ranma as he is the only male that they allow even close to the dressing rooms when they try on outfits. Plus, they have heard from Ranma how Nabiki and Akane had used him as a pack horse when he went shopping with them long ago and did not want the same fate put on them. They would much rather have that fate put on Ranma again. Their 'his girls' anyway as they see it.
Chris had found a pair of outfits similar to the one she was wearing; one is red with a gold trim, and the other is greenish with a silver trim. Both looked great on her. She also picked up an evening gown and, without Fight's knowledge, a few 'secret' undergarments only that she and, luck permitting, one other person would see and perhaps ask her out on a date! Right now she's helping Tina choose something that wasn't a skin-tight outfit or a vest and shorts (she says it's because Fight needs more variety, in truth she's worried Ranma would be more attracted to her since Tina's figure is all too easy to see in her skintight bodysuit and the fact that she was better built then she was really didn't help the matter).
"What about this?" Fight asked, holding up yet another T-shirt. This one was pink and had a small archaic-looking bomb design on the front. It was short sleeved and barely longed enough to cover her midriff. Chris sighed and pretended to consider it, a finger below her chin. She shook her head.
"No, I don't think so." Looking around she spotted a gorgeous evening dress, violet, low cut in the front and slit high up the leg. She smiled, pulled it out, and showed it to Fight with a devilish smirk. "How about this?" She had to pick at least one outfit or two that are good to keep up the act.
Fight's eyebrows shot up. "T-t-that? What would I wear that for?" It's not that it's ugly, it's just that it's very different from what she usually wears.
"Special occasions, important dinners, and to impress the man of your dreams. . ." She trailed off and they both dropped into their own individual fantasies about a certain pigtail-haired youth. Lately he's been wanting to say something to them, but usually loses his nerve and then leaves. Could it be he's trying to ask them out for a date? Chris shook herself free after a few seconds with a large amount of willpower. "Anyway, you're the one who's going to be wearing it. Why don't you try it on?"
Fight took the dress hesitantly and walked into the changing booth. After a few moments of rustling her vest and shorts swung over the top of the door as did her fighting gloves and the skin-tight blue outfit she always wore. Yet another few moments of rustling and Fight spoke from behind the door. "Well, I know one thing is for sure. This thing will have to be fitted for me."
Tina opened the door and stepped out hesitantly. Chris' breath got caught in her throat. Standing there awkwardly in a pair of high heels (where she got that she doesn't know), wearing a dress that fit her like a glove even if she still wearing her top hat, but it did go with the dress, was a totally different Tina. She always wore the same outfit never caring about what people thought of her. She just wears clothes that let's her fight well without slowing her down and is comfortable to wear. Now, however, with that outfit Ranma would have to be eunuch not to notice how beautiful Tina looks. With her hands clasped in front of her Tina is quickly reddening as she waited for Chris' opinion. "Well? What do you think?"
Before Chris could think she blurted out a sentence that she immediately regretted saying. "Fight...you have GOT to buy that dress!"
"You think so?" Fight asked again looking at herself in a mirror. She turned from side to side to see how she looks from different angles. "It is pretty good, almost as good as one of my older sister's outfits. But it doesn't have enough room in the chest area for my breast though." Indeed the top of the dress looks like it's about to burst open at any moment.
As soon as she told Tina to buy the dress Chris wanted to bash her head into a wall. 'Great, just FREAKING GREAT! Why don't I just gift wrap Ranma for her while I'm at it! If he sees her in that dress they'll be dating in less than a week! Probably married by the end of the month! DAMMIT! Stupid, stupid mouth! I've got to think before I speak!'
The saleswoman could see a sale possibly souring before her and moved fast. "We permit alterations of any kind here. Our customers are of all kinds so we just have to adjust the dress for someone of your size."
Fight turned some more considering herself. She thought of Ranma and how he's going to be slack-jawed when he sees her in this dress. She smirked and turned to the saleswoman and said she would take it if some alterations are made. Meanwhile Chris went to an empty dressing room, put both hands over her mouth, and then... screamed real loud out of frustration. She hasn't even gone out on that date that she's been wanting to go out on with Ranma for ages! Now she just handed her rival a vital weapon in their quest to win the pigtailed warrior's heart! 'And her dress is even better than mine! AARRGGGHHHH!'
Outside Tina and the saleswoman wondered what she's screaming about.
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After school-
"Great, this is just great! Now I have to deal with an energy draining vampire!"
Ran is currently complaining rather loudly about the new teacher as she walked with Aya and Miyu out of the school. She's regained most of her energy by lunchtime, but got drained again when she got caught trying to pass a note to Aya. Now she's trudging along next to her friends who each had one of her arms around their necks as they helped support her weaken body.
"I wonder if the other stories from Nerima are true then?" Aya said to no one in particular.
Miyu nodded at her question. "Yeah, like that guy that has four girls after him to marry him and he also turns into a girl when splash with cold water."
"At least there's only one of them here. Please, Please, PLEASE don't let the old pervert be here too!" The girls shivered at that thought. They have heard of women having their panties and bras stolen by an old man in Nerima and how it has gotten even worse in the past year.
"Hi girls!"
Turning towards the voice they saw Shiori, the Kendo Champion of their school and the Shibuya area, walking towards them.
"Hi Shiori, what's up?"
"Well, I was wondering if you girls would like to see me fight off a challenger for the sign of my dojo."
Aya raises an eyebrow at that. "Someone is challenging YOU? The champ of the Shibuya area?"
Miyu also raises an eyebrow. "Who's the one with the death wish?"
Shiori shrugged. "Some guy named Fred Maximillian. He's one of the people that came here with Ranma Wild."
Ran nodded and led the group over to Shiori's dojo. "Let's go and see what this guy is made of."
Unknown to them Ranko had been listening in on them.
'So she's here. I should say hi.'
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Inside of an empty classroom a teacher is staying late to finish up some work. Ms. Hinako was reading over some papers when she heard the classroom door open. When she turned towards the door she gasped at seeing someone that she thought she would never see again.
"Ranma! You're here!"
He gave her a gentle smile as he approached her desk. "It's been a long time hasn't it?"
Hinako stood up and gave him a hug that would have made a normal person die from the pressure alone. Ranma just gave her a warm hug her back. The two of them parted after a few seconds and Ranma sat on one of the desks while Hinako sat back on her chair.
"Yes it has. What happened to you? Where did you go?"
Ranma sighed. "A lot has happened since that day."
Hinako nodded sadly at the forlorn expression on her favorite student's face. "Kasumi told me what happened at the Tendos before she left with Tofu to study medicine in the states. I last heard from them from a postcard they sent over. They're married now thanks to you curing Tofu of his insanity when Kasumi's around."
Ranma gave her a small smile at that. "So they're together now, that's nice. I overheard from Ran and her friends that there was an 'energy draining vampire' for a teacher here." He grinned when he saw Hinako blushed. "I knew it had to be you." His expression turned unreadable as she gets her blush under control. He turned towards the window and seemed to stare at nothing in particular. "You know, I still have the scar I gave myself that day. It's one of the few that hasn't faded out."
Hinako stood up and walked over to him. She gently took his hand and traced a finger along the scar. "I'm sorry about what happened to you Ranma, I really am." She then gave him a smile and took his hand into her own. "However, all I can say is thank you. You are the reason why I can stay in my adult form indefinitely." She gave his hand a squeeze and then sat next to him on the desk with their hands still connected. Before Ranma left the two of them would sometimes just talk and Hinako would hold his hand as this helped him calm down from all the chaos in his life. It helped to reassure him that there was SOMEONE who cared and had the added benefit of keeping him from killing everyone in a mad rage since she would. She had seen Ranma about to go into a berserker mode quite a couple of times and if it were not for the intervention of her, Tofu or Kasumi none of the Nerima Wreaking Crew would be alive today. No one knew of how close the two are of course or Akane the other fiancés would have REALLY killed him and he wouldn't be here now. While they put up a hostile teacher-student relationship to the public when they are alone the two of them are actually good friends and comfortable each other. At first the hostility was real, but as she made him stay after school and the two started talking he opened up to her and vice versa. Both knew how it feels for people to jump to conclusions because you are different. For Ranma people label him a freak and a pervert because of his curse. For Hinako people always treated her like a freak because she can transform from a child to an adult and vice versa. From this similarity the two are able to make a friendship. A little before Ranma disappeared he was able to see the flaws in her ki flows and correct them, therefore putting Hinako in her proper form permanently. Plus, though neither would admit it, it felt nice. Already the unreadable expression is leaving his face as Hinako just sat there and held his hand and he gave her a genuine smile.
She saw the improvement in his mood and decided to ask about where he's been for the last year. "So what has happened to you? I can tell that you've changed a lot since that day. I don't remember you being THIS good looking! You've really grown up." She gave him a wink and a nudge.
Ranma blushed at her compliment. "Well, you see it started right after I left the Tendo's..." Ranma began his long tale as the two old friends got comfortable.
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Meanwhile-
In a dojo for kendo four young girls are facing the one who came for the sign of the dojo.
Ran looked him up and down and sneered. "So you're the one that wants Shiori's dojo sign. Well you better give up now! She's the best in the Shibuya area!" He may be good looking, but she's seen a lot of good-looking men that have little skills and she assumed that he's the same.
Before them are two gaijins. One is a fine looking dark haired youth. He's wearing a black coat and pants and has an air of confidence and superiority around him. All in all he looked like a nobleman. The other is a young girl with a thick built. She has rosy dimples and brown locks of hair. She's dressed in a violet colored shirt and tan shorts and a floppy looking violet hat. She's carrying a bag that must contain the equipment that the guy is going to use for the fight.
"So a girl is the only one in this dojo that has enough skill to face me." Already he can see his opponent shaking with fury. It does not matter. He is a knight and therefore the sure winner of this match. He has the noble blood of a line of knights flowing in his veins. "Well then, let me introduce myself. My name is Fred Maximillian and this is Rico. I am the best swordsman in the country, nay the world, nay the universe! I challenged this school for its sign!"
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In another district a certain insane kendoist sneezed.
"Who dares to make the mighty Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, sneeze?"
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Back to the fight at hand-
Shiori's temper is already boiling before the match has even started. "I'm Shiori and I will fight to defend this dojo!" She put on her gear and pointed her bokken at Fred in a ready stance.
"Rico! My equipment if you please." She handed him his shield and a shinai.
"A shield?"
"That's not fair!"
"Yeah! All she has is a sword!"
Fred shook his head and got into a ready stance. "Sorry, but my sword style uses a shield. As the defender of this dojo you must take on all challengers no matter what."
Shiori swiped her bokken menacingly at him. "It doesn't matter, I will defeat you with or without a shield!"
Rico stepped up and set the rules. "Okay, the first one to fall, submit or gets knocked out loses the fight!" She got between the two fighters. "Ready. Begin!"
Shiori charged at Fred with a sword thrust intending for a quick knockout. Fred blocked it with his shield and pushed her back. She goes in with a vertical slice and again Fred uses his shinai to block the attack and push her back. This goes on for a minute with Shiori charging and Fred deflecting her attacks with either his shield or his sword and pushing her back. She gets madder and madder as Fred just stood there with a serious expression blocking her attacks and pushing her back with seemingly no effort at all. She gives out a yell as she goes for a power blow. Fred sees that he has her mad enough now that she's making mistakes and takes to the offensive. Shiori was forced back as she blocked Fred's sword and shield as he swiped at her with a skill rivaling, maybe even surpassing, her own. Jumping for an overhead attack Shiori hoped to take him by surprise. He sidestepped to the right and almost hit her but she ducked under his swing. At this point Shiori is starting to breathe heavily while he hasn't even broken a sweat yet.
'Damn! He's good! He got me to attack him until I exhausted myself!' Shiori thought to herself her mind racing for a way to beat him.
"Come on Shiori! You can beat him!" Ran had to admit the cheating punk has a lot of skill. Shiori ducked under a horizontal swing, but almost got hit by his shield.
Aya has been watching the fight and analyzing the newcomer's fighting style. "Shiori! He uses his shield defensively and offensively! His weakness is that he can't move as fast as you can thanks to the weight of the shield! You can also use more force since you're using both hands! Use that to your advantage!"
Rico looked over at Aya with a scowl on her face. "Hey! No helping out either of the duelist!"
Aya had the decency to look shamefaced.
Ran turned to Aya. "So she can win right?" She turned back to Shiori as she heard her friend yell out as Fred knocked her down on her back with one powerful blow to the back of her shins. She was too tired from constantly trying to defend herself while trying to get pass his defenses to dodge.
"I...I lost." Shiori's comment is the only thing that is heard in the silence that followed her defeat.
Fred put his weapons to his sides and bowed to the downed girl. "So I win yet again. Rico, get the sign for this school." He walked over to the bag and put his equipment away.
Rico took down the dojo's sign and followed Fred out of the dojo.
As they walked outside Fred turned backed to the girl he defeated. Her three friends are by her side helping her up. "If you want your sign back train to have a better defense. You also rely too much on power blows and overwhelming your opponents. When you do get better with your sword style face me again. " He then turned back to the road and left with Rico and the dojo sign.
Shiori stood up and waved a fist threateningly in front of her in the classic pose of an angry woman. "I will get my family's sign back! I swear it!"
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Elsewhere in the city-
Walking down a back lot of a mall Ryo and Kaori are talking about the best way of looking into Ranma and his family and friends. Kaori has calmed down from her Ranma oogling, but would not give up the photo for anything. The lot is mostly empty as the mall wasn't open to the public yet.
Kaori turned to her partner. "Well, we can't just walk into their house and demand they tell us everything."
The City Hunter nodded. "Yup we can't. That usually works with low level goons, but we don't know anything about these guys. We just have to keep an eye on them as they leave the temple."
She glared at Ryo knowing how big of a pervert he is. "Yeah, you would just LOVE to keep an eye on those two female bodyguards of his right!"
Ryo smirked at her. "And what about you? Don't YOU want to follow Ranma around?" Kaori blushed, but her eyes seemed to sparkle as she went into a private fantasy.
Ryo was about to tease her some more when both of them heard a humming sound that sounded like some kind of machine. Turning to the source of the sound both couldn't believe their eyes even after everything they had seen with each job they have done.
A young girl came walking up to them. She looked to be around ten or so with short purple hair. She wore a pair of violet color spectacles and an odd conical shaped top hat of pale colored leather and bits of metal that appeared to be electronic devices of some kind. That was where the humming sound they heard was coming from. One of the gadgets is a glass eyepiece that could swivel down over her right eye. She wore orange overalls over a gray shirt and an open white lab coat that almost reached the ground. She also had a large backpack that was about the same sizes of her but she held it up with no problem. The glass eyepiece gave out a small beep as numbers and words appeared as a read out of Ryo and Kaori. The look she's giving them gave them chills down their spines.
"Hello, I call myself Mind Hat." The girl's voice is a combination of the innocence of youth and the dementia of a mad scientist. "Have you seen this person?" She showed them a photo of her sister Fight Hat.
Kaori would not look her in the eye and so looked down at the photo. "Yes. She's a bodyguard of Ranma Wild. The two of them moved to an old temple in that direction." She pointed towards where Ranma and Tina's home is.
Mind Hat gave them an insane smile that almost made the two wet their pants. "Thank you! Bye then!" Mind Hat waved at them as she took off running towards the temple.
Ryo is still shivering from the smile she gave them. "Who or what was THAT!"
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Elsewhere in downtown Shibuya-
Two kids are looking into the bat-creature that's been stealing from the stores of Shibuya. They were on the trail of the creature as it had stolen some mangas from the back of a bookstore.
"Agent Masato has got you covered!"
"Yup! We're hot on the trail of the bat-creature that's been stealing from the shops here! Agent Sayo is reporting for duty!" The two kids ducked from one trash can to the next as they moved down an alleyway. Unknown to them someone is watching them from above.
Landis laughed as he looked down at the would-be detectives. "So some kids think they can catch me. This is just like that American imported cartoon show with that talking dog." He chuckled as he formed a plan to have some fun with these two kids.
"So Agent Sayo, what do we do to catch him?" agent Masato asks his partner.
Sayo got a glint in her eyes as she looked over at him. "Don't worry about it. I have a plan to catch him!"
After finding all of the right items to build the trap they were ready. The trap is a large basket being held up by a stick with a string attached to it and for bait is an issue of Trigun. All in all it's basically a giant ancient rabbit trap with a manga as bait.
"This will hold that creature!" Sayo slapped on a spirit ward that looked homemade on the basket. "This spirit ward will trap the creature inside of the basket!"
"We will end the creature's crime wave once and for all!" The two kids hid behind some boxes as they waited for the bat-winged creature to arrive.
Landis shook his head as a small sweatdrop appeared behind his head. "They have GOT to be kidding me. Oh well, I have to give them credit for thinking of something stupid like that. I can't just let all their hard work be for nothing. Here we go!" He flew down towards the basket.
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Meanwhile-
"I lost my family's sign," moaned Shiori as she moped about. They were in Yamato's police box and she hasn't stopped saying that sentence since she swore she would get back the dojo sign.
Ran stroked her hair as she tried to console her friend. "Don't worry about it. I know you can win it back."
Miyu nodded. "Yeah, you just have to train harder."
Aya put a comforting hand on Shiori's shoulder. "Yes, if you can get by Fred's shield then you can win."
Machida put a hand on her other shoulder. "Yeah! You can do it!"
Yuya also nodded. "You can win back your sign." He and Machida had run into Ran and her friends on the way to the police box. They have been told of the situation and have been trying to console Shiori since then.
Yamato looked disapprovingly at them. "Girls, I can understand you want to comfort Shiori here. BUT DOES IT HAVE TO BE IN MY POLICE BOX!" He did a demon head that would have made Soun proud.
Ran just gave him a flat look then punched the demon head. "Oh knock it off big bro! Shiori just lost her family's dojo sign so what better place to talk than here." Yamato was about to say something when they heard someone running to them. Masato came running in very excited about something.
"We caught the bat-creature! Come quick!" He took off in the direction he came from.
Ran jumped up and ran after him. "Come on guys!" The others followed close behind.
When they got to the alleyway they found Sayo sitting on top of a large basket with a homemade spirit ward on it. "Hi guys! We did it! We caught the bat-creature!" Her grin lit up the place.
Yamato walked up to inspect the basket. "You mean the bat-creature is under this basket?"
Masato nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! He can't get out with this spirit ward on it!" He pointed out the homemade spirit ward that is supposed to hold the creature.
They all looked at the two kids saying "Yeah right!"
"Come on! You really think you can catch and hold a bat-creature with a basket and a homemade spirit ward? Yeah right!" Ran walked up to the basket and ripped the ward off.
"NNNNOOOO!" both Sayo and Masato shouted as they drove behind some boxes to hide.
The basket flew up into the air as Landis jumped up from underneath the basket and gave off the classic evil guy laugh. Ran and the others were all gaping like fishes at the winger.
"Free! Free from that accursed ward! Thank you for the help. Now I shall take your souls!" He spread out his wings to look more menacing.
"Oh no you don't!" Yamato jumped in front of Ran and pulled out his police club.
Landis took one look at it and chuckled menacingly. He smiled a not so nice smile then pulled out his scythe from his sub-space pocket as Ranma showed them and sliced Yamato's club in two.
Looking at the huge scythe the creature was now holding Ran's group did what anyone else would have done. They ran for it. They grabbed Sayo and Masato as they ran out of the alley screaming.
Landis laughed as the group of kids shot off like a rocket out of the alleyway. "Well that was fun. Better get out of here now." He flew up into the air with the 'Trigun' manga in hand. He hadn't read that issue yet anyhow.
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Meanwhile on the roof of Shibuya High School -
Hinako leaned back against the railing as she looked at her former student with a smile. "So that's what happened to you when you disappeared a year ago. You went to a whole new world and became a hero there."
Ranma laughed a little in embarrassment and scratched the base of his pigtail. "Well, I don't know anything about being a hero, but yeah, I did end up in a new world. And I brought some people here with me from that world too. Oh yeah! Thanks for the books you gave me! They helped me out a lot in the world I just came from."
Hinako smiled even wider as she remembered giving him probably a small library's worth of books that Ranma stored using Mousse's Hidden Weapons Technique. "I knew they would come in handy."
Ranma smiled back and leaned against the railing as he looked over the courtyard. "You, Doc Tofu and Kasumi were the only ones that cared for me. I don't know how but I'll repay you someday." He suddenly got an idea and turned back to her. "How about you come back to my place for dinner and meet my new friends? I can even introduce you to Yun! I know you'll just love her!"
Hinako gave a smirk worthy of Nabiki. She spoke in a sultry voice that would have made gay men turn straight. "Why Ranma, I didn't know you were into older women. If you're nice I just might consider staying the night, in your bed of course." She trailed a finger up one of his biceps that made Ranma shiver.
He wind milled his arms just like he used to in his old life when he gets flustered. "Oi! Nothing like that! Just dinner and meeting my new friends and sister, that's all!" He stopped when Hinako chuckled. He got miffed when she laughed at his confused expression. It took her a full minute to get herself under control while he glared at her.
"Oh Ranma, Ranma. I was just kidding with you. Yes I would love to come over for dinner." Just then they heard a low humming sound coming towards them.
A young girl came riding up to them on a silver hover-disk...thing. This is the same girl that talked to the City Hunter and Kaori with a few differences. A large cannon was now strapped onto her large backpack along with a small metal disk underneath the backpack. She also has a large shoulder bag hanging on her left side that looks like it held a labtop. The glass eyepiece gave out a small beep as numbers and words appeared as a read out of them. She turned towards Ranma and gave him a sinister look that would have been Landis green with envy.
She floated in closer until she's face to face with him. "Hello brother-in- law. I am Mind Hat, the second youngest of the Hats!" She cackled sending shivers up the teacher and former student's spines.
He backed up a little to gain some space away from the maniacally laughing little girl. "How did you get here?" He remembered that only Tina and the others were in the blast zone when they were sent back to his world.
Mind Hat stopped laughing and took on the look of a teacher lecturing her students. "Oh, you see when you and the others were going to the unsealing site I went and teleported myself to see it first hand. Big bro said that none of us would get in your way until you saved your sister, but he didn't say anything about watching. I was caught in the blast of magic with the rest of you and have been looking for you ever since."
Ranma blinked as Hinako wondered what is going on. "So...you came to test me then?"
Mind smiled her evil smile again making Ranma and Hinako take another step back. "Yup, I've been looking around this world taking the useful gadgets and upgrading my own, making me even more powerful than ever before! Ohohohohoho!"
Ranma winced as her laugh sounded a little too close to Kodachi's laugh. "Err...so what kind of test will it be then?"
Mind stopped laughing and looked seriously at him for the first time since their meeting. This made Ranma more worried than when she was doing the evil scientist bid. "Simple, we fight and these will help us." She handed over what looks like a blaster from Mega Man. "We shoot each other with these blasters I made. I set them on low power so they just sting us a bit. You can keep score." She gave Hinako a laptop from her shoulder bag that showed two health bars with Mind Hat and Ranma's faces on them.
Hinako just shook her head and decided to go with the flow. "So whoever looses all their health first loses the fight right?"
"Yup, so are you ready Ranma?"
Ranma looked back and forth between Mind Hat and the blaster and decided to go along with it. Besides, he's grown to like Tina a lot and he's not going to give her up without a fight. "Ready."
Mind jumped down from her hover disk and took off her backpack and shoulder bag putting them aside. Then four metal spider legs shot out from the small metal disk on her back raising her to about Ranma's height. She then pulled the canon off her back and pointed it to him.
Ranma and Hinako's left eyes both started twitching. "You've got to be kidding me!"
Mind Hat put on an evil smirk this time. "Sorry, but I'm a little kid after all." She fired her weapon, which made a basketball sized energy ball, straight at him without warning.
Ranma jumped out of the way as he affixed the blaster to his left arm like he had seen Mega Man had his on and fired by pressing the yellow button located on the top. The shots he fired never hit her as she used her spider legs to move at a speed that Ranma had before getting the Gale and Chaos Runes moved at. He jumped from side to side avoiding the blast from Mind's canon as they raced around the roof.
Mind shook her head as she fired another volley at the dodging pigtailed warrior turned video game character wannabe. "You have GOT to do better than that to beat me!"
"I will!" He fired a few more shots at her from behind the vent he jumped behind.
"Ranma! She has better aim than you! You have to try something else!"
"I know Ms. Hinako! You think I wouldn't notice!" He still hasn't gotten used to using the arm blaster yet.
Suddenly he was covered by a shadow. Looking up he saw it was Mind Hat...with her cannon pointed right at him.
"Byeeee!" The shot sent him flying back to the edge of the roof.
"Ranma! Your life points have just dropped by 79 percent!"
Mind Hat looked smug as she started firing again when he quickly got back on his feet. "Yeah. As with real guns the closer you are the more damage you can dish out!"
Because the space on the roof wasn't that big Ranma couldn't run at his full speed. Mind's metal spider legs made it easier for her to keep up with him as she chased him wherever he went.
Ranma saw an opening and shot three shots at her. All of them hit her sending her several feet back from the onslaught.
"Mind's life points have just fallen by 40 percent!"
Ranma smirked. "I'm getting the hang of this blaster."
"I'm still ahead!" Mind fired off more shots that Ranma had trouble dodging. "I just have to hit you one more time and I win!"
"That's what you think!" He jumped into the air over her next volley. He remembered that she said that the blasters acted just like real guns, which means that if he hit her at a vital spot then he can take her down with one hit.
He spun around in the air to avoid the shots fired from Mind as she tried to get him in her sights. Taking careful aim as he spun in the air Ranma imagined that he is firing off a moko takabisha and fired one blast straight at Mind's forehead. She wasn't expecting this and promptly got hit and fell on her back.
"You did it Ranma! Her life points just dropped to zero!" She put the laptop on the ground and gave him a victory hug while Ranma scratched behind his head using the blaster.
Mind Hat's backpack pulled the spider legs back into itself as she stood up. "You did a great job brother-in-law, you beat me." She walked up to him and for the first time gave him a warm smile.
Both of them stood a few feet from each other and gave a respectful bow. "So what about the blaster you gave me?" The blaster covered most of his left arm and looked just like the one Mega Man has except his is red.
Mind Hat just waved her arm in a dismissing fashion. "Just keep it. Brute gave you that magic resisting armor and Magic gave you the magic cloud so I'll give you that blaster." She grabbed onto his right arm and started dragging him away. "Let's get back to your place now. I want to see my big sister!"
Hinako started walking towards the stairs as well. "I'll give you guys a ride. My car is in the parking lot."
Mind Hat looked excited for some reason. "Cool! I get to ride in one of those 'automobile' things!" She made her flying disk become the size of a compact and put it in one of her pockets of her lab coat. She also picked up the laptop off the ground and put it in her backpack. She then grabbed onto Ranma's arm again as Hinako led the way to her car.
Ranma eyed the blaster affixed to his arm. "So you're the inventor of the family right?" He put it away in a sub-space pocket before it started to attract attention.
"Yup! And I would just LOOOVVVEEE to see how you can change into a girl Ranma!" Mind Hat had a glint in her eyes as she eyed the Chimera Rune affixed on his hand.
Ranma gulped at seeing that glint. 'Aiyah! I wonder if any other guys have to go through this?' He winced when he realized he used Shampoo's line.
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A huge number of guys in the multiverse sneezed as their resident geniuses were preparing to experiment on them yet again.
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Back to the story-
Sayo is running to where she had last seen the bat-creature. The sun was already setting over the horizon. Ran and the others were waiting at their brother's police box for their parents to come with help.
"I can't believe that Ran would do that! I had him where I wanted him and he got away all because of her!" She sneaked away from the others as they wouldn't leave the safety of the police box. The scythe the creature had scared them badly and they called for backup.
She stopped as she reached the place where she originally caught the bat- creature. "What's the use, how can I hope to catch him again." Then she felt something warm in her pocket. Pulling out the odd gem she found yesterday she saw it's starting to glow. "I know you have something to do with the creature! I just know it!"
Then in a building next to her Sayo heard the sounds of a fight happening. Going through an open door she found herself in the back of one of the restaurants around the area. Going in further she found herself in a middle of a fight.
Six punks are currently fighting against a heavyset man as another well- dressed man looked on hiding in a corner. Dressed in rags stained with filth the heavyset man resembles any other homeless person that hid in the alleyways that most people pretended weren't there. If the heavyset man wasn't wearing a mask that's carved like a jack-o-lantern that she had seen from Halloween movies from the U.S she would have thought this is just another common street fight. But the mask was too real looking, as if it's really his head. A smell of rotten meat came off of the man in thick, noxious waves. His hands looked like they were made out of some kind of twisted wood that held a large crude looking yet deadly homemade axe wielding it with savage intensity.
He sliced through one of the punk's head with his ax then grabbed the head of another with his free hand. He used him as a shield when one of the punks threw a knife at him. He threw the body trapping the one who threw the knife under his fallen friend. The short sword he carried flew through the air and landed right next to Sayo's hiding place. The pumpkin headed guy then looked at the three remaining punks and took a deep breath. Then he spat out a greenish gas. The gas hit the punks and started to melt them as if the gas is made of acid. The punks screamed as they began to melt together into a pool of goop. The masked man then turned to the well- dressed man still hiding in the corner.
"You really should have taken the offer when you had the chance Mr. Yuu. You could have been working for my boss by now," the pumpkin headed man said as he walked to the cowering Mr. Yuu. He walked over the man who was trapped under the body he threw and crushed his head underfoot like an overripe melon.
"Please Mr. Pumpkin! I can still help your boss out!" 'Mr. Pumpkin' lifted him by the throat.
He shook his head. "Sorry, but you had your chance. And by the way, the name's Jack-O." Jack-O lifted up his ax and split his head like a coconut as Mr. Yuu screamed in mortal terror.
Sayo grabbed onto the blade that was by her as she made her way out. In her rush to get out she backed into a table making the glass on it fall down onto the floor. Hearing the breaking glass Jack-O turned his attention onto her has she darted out to the alley way. Jack-O gave chase and Sayo let out a scream as a monster right out of a nightmare ran after her.
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Earlier at the police box -
"WHAT? SAYO'S HAS GONE AFTER THAT THING!" Mrs. Kotobuki screamed at her two older children. Even if she didn't think that it was a real bat- creature she still feared for her youngest child. Mr. Kotobuki had arrived with Ryo and Kaori who he met on the way over.
"She must have gotten away while they were getting us."
"We have to spread out and find her!" Mrs. Kotobuki screamed as she ran to the door. Then they all heard a loud scream of a child coming from a couple of blocks away. They all raced out and hoped they weren't too late.
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In the back alleyways-
Tears of fear were flowing out of Sayo's eyes as she turned to see Jack-O following her. With each long stride he was gaining on her. This isn't anything like the cop shows she loved to watch. Every show she had ever watched the hero of the show would have help at the last minute. But it wasn't anything like real life, she's going to die at the hands of a real live monster!
With each hollow, thumping step it took brought the monster closer and closer to her. She kept on running dodging dumpsters, trash can, and heaps of flattened boxes, chased by the echoing footsteps of the monster. Lungs aching for air, Sayo imagined that she could smell the rotten-meat stench of the monster that it gave off and she somehow found the capacity to run faster.
Then she saw the end of the alleyway. Hope renewed inside of her as she ran even faster than before. She ran out of the alley into the busy streets of downtown Shibuya. So would get help there.
As she ran outside she ran into a passerby sending both of them to the ground. The guy she ran into shoved her out of the way saying something about rotten kids when he stopped when Jack-O chopped his head off in one powerful swing of his ax.
The people around her all ran screaming as something out of a gaijin horror movie just killed a man. Sayo couldn't believe that no one was going to help her as Jack-O stepped over her. Then she remembered that she is holding something in both of her hands. One is the lighting sword gem and in her other hand she's holding onto the blade she got off of the dead punk. She knew it wouldn't be enough to kill this monster in front of her, but she wouldn't let it kill her without a fight.
"HIYA!" She stabbed forward with the blade in an effort to remain alive. Then something happened. In her right hand the gem glowed brightly as it was absorbed into her hand. Then suddenly she knew how to use it as if the manual for it was inputted into her mind. The short sword she held in her left hand lit up as lighting seemed to cover the whole blade. Jack-O learned first hand how powerful the blade was as it was plunge into his side shocking him from the inside and making him step back from her in surprise.
Sayo got to her feet facing this living nightmare as Jack-O also stood up straight. "So you are a magic user. I didn't think there was someone like you in this world. I better take you back to my boss." Jack-O reached out a hand as if to grab her by the throat.
"Hey you pumpkin face! Over here!" Looking up towards where the voice came from Jack-O saw a bolt of lighting coming at him. The force of the blast threw him onto the middle of the street. Looking to her savior Sayo saw it's the bat-creature she caught from before.
The bat-creature landed next to her and gave her a smirk. "Hi kid, so I see that you found my Lighting Sword Rune that I lost. By the way, the name's Landis."
Jack-O got back onto his feet and scowled at the winger. "How dare you!"
"Better get back kid, I'll handle this guy." Landis flapped his wings and flew at Jack- O, his scythe raised for a killing blow.
Jack-O blocked the blow with his ax as Landis flew by him. Taking a deep breath he let out a blast of his acid gas. Landis seeing that the gas is melting everything it hit flew up where it couldn't reach him. He let out another lighting blast at Jack-O who just shrugged it off as if it was nothing.
"Nice. Now try one of these!" Jack-O released a volley of acid breath shots at Landis as he flew around in the air avoiding the shots.
Landis made another flyby swept at Jack-O. The pumpkin head blocked it again but as Landis flew by he grabbed onto his leg. He swung the winger around in an airplane spin then slammed him into one of the parked cars. Landis rolled off as Jack-O brought his ax where his head was a second ago. Landis and Jack-O began attacking each other with savage fury. Metal met metal as they blocked and parried each other's blows as they attack each other. Jack-O let out another blast of acid breath as Landis jumped aside. The gas melted a parked car down into a melted pool of metal.
'Damn it! He's too strong to fight face up and he's just shrugging off all of my lighting spells!' He needed a plan. Then he caught something out of the corner of his eye. It was the people from before along with some new ones racing to them.
"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Ryo shouted pulling out his gun and aiming it at the two creatures.
Sayo shouted out her instructions as she hit the ground. "HIT THE PUMPKIN HEADED ONE! HE'S THE MONSTER!"
Taking careful aim Ryo fired all six shots of his Magnum at Jack-O. Each shot caused the creature to step back and his body jerking around as the powerful rounds hit him. The last round struck him between his eyes making him fall to the ground with a sickly thump.
Landis jumped up and hovered above the ground. "Looks like its time to leave. Hey kid! Take care of my rune for me will you! I'll come back for it later!" He then took off through the nighttime sky.
"Sayo!" Mrs. Kotobuki screamed as she ran to her youngest child.
"Mom!" Sayo let go of the blade as her mom took her into her arms. She grabbed her by the waist and buried her head in her chest and bursts into tears.
Ryo looked up towards where Landis flew off then turned to Mr. Kotobuki. "So there's really was a bat-creature flying around."
Mr. Kotobuki nodded grimly. "Yes, but I have a feeling that this is just the beginning."
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In another city of Japan-
"So you're sure of this? If you're wrong and it isn't him then all of us will be in deep shit," a young girl in a pageboy haircut said over the phone.
She had heard and read about the half America who moved to Shibuya two weeks ago with lots of gold coins. He even had the same name as the one who left her family almost a year ago. She thought nothing of it when she learned that he had two sisters with him. She thought it was Ranma using his girl side to be his twin sister, but an article in a paper said that a fire alarm was set off during a showcase of the his gold coins. However, there was nothing about him turning into a girl when he was hit by cold water. Plus the younger sister looks too much like the older siblings to be a fake. The pictures of the older siblings look kind of like Ranma and his girl form, but their faces and eyes were not anything like the Ranma she knew. This Ranma is also too defined to be the one she knew. However, her contact insisted that it's him.
"Fine, I'll send you your payment, but this has better be him got that!" The girl slammed the phone down. "Well Ranma Wild, let's see if you're the Ranma I knew before. No one gets away from me, especially my moneymaker!" Nabiki Tendo got up to get herself something to eat. Ever since Kasumi left she had been eating out more and more as there was no one to cook for them anymore. 'All because of him!' She said the word as if it were a curse.
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Next time - Ranma introduces Ms. Hinako to his new friends. Chris and Fight aren't happy to see her. He also tells his friends why he left his old life. And who is that dirty pervert following Ranko? The Nerima Wreaking Crew are going to Shibuya and they find a new Ranma waiting for them. Is Jack-O really out for good? So why is his hands moving then? Next Time in: The Calm before the Storm!
Prereader's Notes
(A) I don't know if there is a fic that has Ranma falling into a Spring of Drowned Playboy. I'm just using my own ideas here. I added this in because I felt it helps to explain why the girls all go nuts over him. I know it makes Ranma seem like a god, but so what? There's got to be SOME sort of explanation for how they react! Right?
(B) Along with their covers Ranma paid people off to provide permits for Chris, Edge, Fred, Rico and himself to be able to bring their weapons around. Watari, Ayame and Landis are never seen by the public and don't need permits.
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