Emiya Clan – Nerima 15

"You want to what?" Uzume scrubbed her ear with a finger to make sure she wasn't hearing things.

"I want to see how good this kid really is," Homura repeated. "You've been watching him too, sparring with our kids. Sure he can beat them in a physical fight, but if they were allowed to use their powers I don't see him faring very well."

"He can shoot energy blasts," the Veiled Sekirei reminded her. "So can the Hibiki boy."

Homura frowned, "So we've got two copies of Benitsubasa, that's still manageable."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Karasuba smirked. "I would wager that those two and Crimson-chan are on two completely different levels."

"You're right," Homura stared out the window with narrowed eyes. "Shirou really is a special case, there's just no way there are more humans who can take us if we're serious."

Karasuba didn't reply, but her smile grew fractionally wider.

"Well, does anybody want to join me? We should at least keep the numbers even," said the fire user.

"Yeah, we certainly wouldn't want them to think we're looking down on them," Uzume snarked.

Homura ignored the comment and turned towards towards the far corner of the room. "Would you like to come, Akitsu?"

The ice user shook her head, "I trust my daughter's Ashikabi."

Homura hmphed and looked to her other side, "What about you, Tsukiumi?"

The blonde inspected her fingernails for a few moments. "I suppose I could join you, if you really insist on it." She looked up, "I admit to being curious if these two are worthy of my children as well."

Homura threw one last glance out the window before she turned and swept out of the room. "We should go now then – before they get too far into today's session. We don't want them to complain they lost because they were worn out..."

A few moments after the two left the room, Karasuba let a low chuckle fill the silence. "So," she began. "Would anybody be interested in a little wager?"

ooo

"A challenge?" Ranma repeated. Behind him, Ryouga had paused in his own lessons and was making his way over.

"That's right," Homura said. "We won't deny you have skills in martial arts, but we'd also like to see how useful it is against magical opponents."

"It depends on the magic," Ranma shrugged. "Why?"

"Because if it doesn't help very much," Tsukiumi spoke up, "then it is a waste of our children's time. Time that would be better spent training in their normal specialties, rather than this barbaric method of fighting."

"I want in!" Musubi cried out excitedly.

"No!" the other four said simultaneously. The adult Sekirei said it in an off-hand, almost bored tone. Ranma and Ryouga nearly screamed out their answer. Musubi pouted and went to gather up the children.

Ryouga crossed his arms, "So that's your terms? You win we leave?"

Homura paused for a moment, then nodded. "If the children still want to train with you, they can do it on their own free time. But we wont be sponsoring you or letting you use our property for it."

"And if we win?"

Tsukiumi frowned, "You don't get kicked out. What more would you want?"

Ranma frowned and scratched his head. He looked over at Ryouga. "I dunno, what do we want, P-chan?"

Ryouga grinned, "If we win, I have you hold him down while I get to pummel him senseless."

"Hey!"

Homura sighed, "We'll leave it open for now. Let's just say you get one request from us. Nothing fancy or extreme, but if you want to burn your request on something like that, we'll gladly do it."

Ranma glared at Ryouga but gave the flame Sekirei a stiff nod.

"One last thing," Homura said. "We've seen you working with our children so we know what you can do. It's only fair we even it up slightly." She held up a hand and summoned a small fireball, "I am the Sekirei of Fire. Please take care not to get too badly injured."

Fire, Ranma thought. I hope she's not as bad as Saffron or this could get somewhat nasty. "Thanks," he said. He turned expectantly towards the blonde.

Tsukiumi frowned and placed a hand on her hip. "I don't need to show off to you, but I am the Sekirei of Water."

Ranma and Ryouga both paled. Desperate to distract himself, he latched on to the new word. "Um, uh, 'Sekirei'... that's the name of the Clan Koyuki's from?"

The two elementalists traded glances. "Er, yes... that's right." Homura said. She reached up to her jacket's collar and undid the first few buttons. She grabbed at the hem of the turtle-necked shirt she was wearing and pulled it up, stretching it until it covered her mouth and nose. "You can think of it as, um, a title of sorts."

Ryouga cracked his knuckles eagerly, taking a few steps back to give himself some maneuvering room. Ranma took a quick look around as Musubi finished herding the spectators to the side of the field, then did the same himself.

He felt the air crackle with power, and watched as small globes of water collected in the air around the blonde. "I am Sekirei Zero-Nine, Tsukiumi," she said formally.

Ranma grinned, "Ranma Saotome, Number One martial artist of the world."

Ryouga growled, "Big-headed fool." He nodded a salute to their opponents, "Ryouga Hibiki"

Homura narrowed her eyes. "Number Zero-Six, Homura."

Both martial artists snapped into ready stances, preparing to spring at their opponent as the air crackled with power.

And then Homura set herself on fire.

ooo

Holy crap! Ranma frantically aborted his charge, digging into the ground and vectoring off at a new angle. As he did, a short burst of fireballs impacted the ground under him, creating a series of explosions which had him breaking into evasive maneuvers as he tried to give himself some more room.

Ryouga did much the same, avoiding a sudden barrage of fast-moving water pellets with equal speed as he disengaged. The two met up roughly halfway across the field, catching their bearings as their opponents stared at them confidently.

"That's just like what Koyuki did," Ranma said to Ryouga. "Except a helluva lot faster and with more boom. Do you have your umbrella?"

"No, but I can get it fast," replied the Lost Boy. "You want me to take care of her?"

"Nah, try to get it if you can, but if you don't have it, one slip up will take you out completely." Ranma nodded towards the small crowd hovering on the patio. "Akane's watching too, mind you."

Ryouga's eyes widened. "This is all your fault, Ranma. I swear if we get through this, I'll kill you myself."

"That's the spirit!" Ranma grinned. "Try not to become barbecue, P-chan."

With a growl, the two boys separated once more, each heading for their respective targets.

As Ryouga closed on Homura, she transferred her aura into one arm, extending the flames into a caricature of a dragon. "Enryuu!"

The attack snaked through the air, a facsimile of a mouth gaping open as if to swallow the boy whole, but he dropped an arm in mid stride and stabbed at the ground. "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

A directed explosion of earth impacted the fire dragon and smothered it as Ryouga dodged around it. Seeing the attack fail, Homura launched another volley of fireballs before extending her arm and shooting out another wave of solid fire.

Ryouga reached up to his head and snapped out a hail of bandannas, immolating them against the ranged attack, then crossed his arms and simply barreled through the Fire Wall Homura had set up. Upon seeing him close into melee range, Homura leapt into the air, coming back down with a blade of fire covering her arm. Ryouga ducked the attack and came up with a low uppercut. The fire user bent back to avoid the attack, then jumped back into a handspring to avoid a snap kick. As she dropped back to her feet, Homura launched herself forward, Hounou no Tsurugi a spearpoint for her attack as fireballs formed around her and launched themselves forward in a vanguard.

Ryouga snapped his belt off of his waist, a brief application of ki reinforcing it and hardening it into something with the consistency of iron. He swatted the fireballs out of the air, then parried Homura's charge, much to the fire user's surprise. Hm, it looks like the adults know a little about combat themselves...

ooo

From the sidelines, Uzume could only stand there and gape. "How did he do that? He took his belt and turned it into a freaking sword!"

The other mothers that had come down to watch with her could only join her in confusion.

Rin tapped her chin thoughtfully, "How many bandannas is he wearing...?"

From the group of kids sitting on the grass, Haru chuckled.

ooo

"Mizu no Ya!" A hail of water arrows shot from Tsukiumi's outstretched hand, forcing Ranma to check his forward momentum and concentrate on side-to-side dodging.

As he weathered the attack, he was concentrating his ki. Thrusting both arms forward, he launched out an energy blast empowered by his confidence, "Mouko Takabisha!" Given that he was facing a user of water, that hated substance, his confidence was not quite what it could have been. It was still enough for Tsukiumi to stall her next attack and dash out of the way. Her momentary distraction allowed him to put on a burst of speed and he flickered to her side in an instant.

Using the momentum from his approach, he thrust out an arm for a lariat, but was caught off guard as she ducked under his arm and spun out of his path. He felt more than saw her arm swinging around towards his unprotected back, and he tucked into a roll just as a Water Dragon shot past overhead and splashed headfirst into the ground in front of him. Coming up on his feet once again, he took off at a right angle from his previous course, causing the water user's next attack to overshoot its mark.

Tsukiumi spun around, water spiraling around her arm in her own Water Blade and stabbed at him. He checked his momentum just in time, but stared in disbelief as the blade of water carved a deep furrow through the packed dirt. As he backpedaled from that attack, she grinned and threw her free hand towards the sky. "Mizu Iwai!"

It was if fireworks had just gone off nearby. One moment there was empty space, the next minute the area around him exploded with a flood of water, battering him from all sides and knocking her to the ground.

Ranma-chan shook her head to clear it, noticing Ryouga pausing his fight to stare at her in shock. Yeah... I don't think an umbrella is gonna help against that...

Tsukiumi had also frozen in shock, staring at the gender-swapped girl. "What in the world?"

Ranma-chan took the distraction to launch herself forward and slam a fist into Tsukiumi's unguarded abdomen. The water sekirei stumbled, but maintained her footing. As she brought a hand down in preparation to blast the redhead away, Ranma-chan's hand blurred into motion, throwing out punches at her full speed, then finishing with a palm strike from her other hand.

Tsukiumi stumbled backwards once again and dropped to her knees, but it was still far less than what Ranma-chan had been expecting. The blonde's head snapped up and glared at her with an odd light, and Ranma-chan suddenly recalled she wasn't limited to simply projecting water away from her. She quickled dove to the side just as Tsukiumi launched her next attack from behind the redhead. "Hydra Blast!"

An even larger version of the water dragon roared overhead, at an angle sufficient to avoid hitting Tsukiumi herself. As she got up back to her feet, the water use swept her arm around as the hydra passed, causing the attack to curl around her and move into a fast moving spiral which promised much pain if Ranma-chan tried to close in for another melee attack.

There was a brief lull while Ranma-chan considered her attack options. Tsukiumi, likewise, paused as she took stock of her injuries, pressing a hand against her bruised torso."You're actually smaller and... you're female? That's not an illusion is it," she asked.

Ranma-chan shook her head and hefted her ample bosom, "Nope, these are one-hundred percent real."

Tsukiumi's eyebrow twitched. "I would have suggested we swap so Homura could see this, but now I really feel like hurting you."

"Eh, it was worth a shot."

"Water Celebration!"

Ranma-chan dove to the side once again, somehow managing to avoid the attack's area of effect. As she landed, she immediately bounced back towards Tsukiumi, the two opponents charging each other in another clash.

ooo

"Jaen!" A writhing snake of fire arced through the air as Homura snapped her arm around.

Ryouga backpedalled, then hopped, then somersaulted around the attacks as Homura lashed out with her whip again and again. Dropping to the ground, he set off another Breaking Point to cover his movement, throwing up huge chunks of earth as he dashed around the fire user.

"You're faster than you look," Homura grunted. She focused and sent a spread of fireballs ahead of Ryouga's path, watching as they were swallowed up by another explosion of dirt. She continued turning in a slow circle to track the Lost Boy's progress, when she suddenly caught a flicker of motion. The ground suddenly erupted into a chain of Breaking Points, a long line of directed explosions headed right for her. She quickly dashed out of the way and was intercepted by a yellow blur using the explosions as cover to hide his movement.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Ryouga said as he threw out a haymaker into Homura's stomach. The fire user was bent over with the force of the blow and thrown back several meters. She rose shakily to her feet and Ryouga launched himself forward to keep her from regaining her momentum.

FWOOSH.

Then Homura set herself on fire again. And the ground around them.

And Ryouga too.

Ryouga screamed as the heat him him fully. He nearly dropped to roll on the ground, but he still had the presence of mind not to do so while the ground itself was burning. He managed to leap away from the inferno and hit the ground outside of the burning area, but to his dismay he found he was setting the nearby grass on fire as well. Despite the pain, he somehow heard Ranma shouting and looked up just in time to watch a stream of water arcing through the air directly at him. He did the first thing that came to his mind and stabbed at the ground.

"Bakusai Tenketsu!"

ooo

Akane gasped as the explosion of earth erupted just before the water attack from Tsukiumi struck the Lost Boy. As the dust settled, she couldn't see anything but a large crater in the ground, but from her position she wasn't able to see to the bottom of it. She slumped back in relief. "Thank goodness, Ryouga-kun was able to escape underground..."

Several of the children stared at her. Haru and Karin had been very free with their information on their teachers, so everybody had knowledge of the pair's curses. They had also known Akane wasn't quite privy to the information... but really, after he'd changed out in the open like that? That stretched their suspension of disbelief.

"So!" Keiko said very loudly. "Kaien, have I ever told you that your mom is like... the coolest person ever?"

Behind her, Aoshi frowned and punched her in the shoulder. "I thought you said my mom was the coolest."

"Well, get her out here and have her blow something up. Then I'll reconsider."

ooo

Ranma-chan stood warily as the two Sekirei circled him with their elements spiraling through the air slowly. "I suppose I should be thanking you," he told Tsukiumi.

"It's not like we're out to kill anyone," she pointed out. "Although it certainly seems like Homura took a go at it anyhow."

The fire user grimaced, "Never mind that, why does Ranma-kun look like a girl? And why is there a pig where Ryouga-kun used to be?"

Ranma-chan made a face of her own. "I thought everybody knew by now. Ask that girl with the glasses when we're all done here." She blurred into motion and the two Sekirei snapped out their arms, sending out fireballs and water arrows to knife through the air.

The two were still separated, figuring Tsukiumi was already wise to his tricks, Ranma-chan angled for Homura instead. The fire user backed up slightly, launching fireballs at the dodging martial artist. As the redhead closed in implacably, Homura lit herself back on fire and met her charge with a fire blade in each hand. Ranma-chan ducked both attacks, springing around to the fire user's side and darted in with rapid fire fisticuffs.

She only pressed the attack for a split second before disengaging, shaking her hands to take out the sting. Homura, not expecting her to charge through her fire like that, was caught completely unprepared and suffered a few dozen hits that bruised her ribs. "What was that?" she demanded.

"Oh, was that supposed to hurt me?" Ranma-chan taunted as she leaned forward coyly, hiding her slightly burnt hands behind her back. "I thought I felt something warm, but I guess it was just you spouting a lot of hot air." Inwardly, she was hopping and screaming. Homura's fire was even hotter than Rouge's Asura form, though not quite to the level of Saffron's. Unlike the fight against the Phoenix, however, Ranma had no Gekkaja to even the playing field. Even though she had the phoenix pill's fire resistance, if the fire user didn't go down fast she'd be in for a whole world of hurt.

She almost cheered when Homura grudgingly dropped her shroud of flames, but that mood quickly soured as Tsukiumi came up beside her to present a united front. In unison, the two raised their arms and water and fire filled the area in front of them, two elemental dragons leering at their target. "Jouki Bakuryuu!" they chanted together. The two dragons charged forward, intertwining and combining to form a single giant, hissing dragon of scalding steam. The attack was large enough that Ranma-chan could not evade it completely, even as it clipped her in the side it exploded, tossing the martial artist to the ground with burn marks all over his body.

Male again, but in pain, Ranma looked around at the fog of steam that shrouded the area. Before he could get his bearings again, giant snake of water came out of nowhere and slammed into the ground in front of him, dousing him once again even as she dashed to the side. Angling towards where the attack had originated from, Ranma-chan saw a glow of Homura's fire and circled around to try to get behind the two, then she froze.

You've got to be kidding me... Tsukiumi stood behind the fire user, shrouded by a giant water construction of seven snake heads. Even as he watched, the snake that had attacked him previously regrew itself from the writhing mass, leaving him to face the full eight heads of a Yamata no Orochi. Homura had surrounded them with a Flame Wall that covered every approach, leaving the Orochi free to pound at him from above.

She grinned and cracked her knuckles. Well if they want to stay in one spot... I can oblige them... She dropped into her mindset for the Soul of Ice, keeping her ki tightly contained, and charged into the inferno at an oblique angle. Since she wasn't aimed directly at them, they had no immediate need to dodge, but they did spin to keep track of her as she stepped into the first stages for a spiral.

Homura obliged her by launching fireballs which impacted the ground just behind her, just in front of her, but never quite hitting her as she varied her speed. Even as their attacks kept her at bay, she grinned at how easy they were making it for her. After several rotations of this, she sharpened her angle, bringing herself even closer as their attacks became more frantic. Finally she made the final rotation, putting on a burst of speed and dropping herself in between the two of them. Launching herself into an uppercut with an arm shrouded with cold ki, she shouted triumphantly, "Hiryuu Shoten—"

Then Homura closed a fist, snuffing out all the fires instantly while Tsukiumi dumped all eight snake heads directly on top of her. Caught completely off guard, the redhead took the attacks head on and was flattened into the ground. With a groan she rolled onto her back and looked up at the two Sekirei leaning over her. Tsukiumi collected all the water from her clothes and pulled them into another spiraling disk around her, while steam began to rise from Homura as she dried herself off.

"Seen that," Homura explained. "You shouldn't have used that on Musubi so much."

Being reminded of Musubi taking his greatest attacks head on without a scratch caused her face into a grimace, but then a metaphorical lightbulb lit up in her head. It's dangerous... she thought, but if they can take the Flying Dragon... then maybe...

Homura raised an flame-covered arm back in a strike, "Sorry about this, will you yield?"

Ranma-chan grinned, "Don'tcha know? Ranma Saotome never gives up, and never loses."

And then she flickered and vanished.

ooo

At the base of a crater not too far from the action, an tiny black piglet finally shook himself awake. Pain filled his every movement, but at least he wasn't on fire. That was always a plus. Carefully, P-chan inched his way up the crater's slope, poking his eyes out just far enough to see what was going on.

He saw the two Sekirei jumping around at random as Ranma-chan seemingly teleported around them – flickering into and out of view like she had a cloaking device on the fritz. The two were throwing attacks almost at random as they tried to track the martial artist in vain, both had their own personal defenses setup as well to try to catch her in the middle of her own attacks. She mostly kept appearing around the water user, drawing most of the attacks from her and disappearing soon after, only to reappear from another vector.

P-chan suddenly squealed as Ranma-chan blurred into position right in front of him, dropping her pose from the Umisen-ken opening stance. She smiled brightly, but tiredly.

"Heya, P-chan. I found your bag, and look what else I found!" She held up a kettle already filled with water, then turned and waved to the two opponents just now noticing her across the field. "Hey! Fire-lady! I'm making some tea, want some?"

Homura threw a fireball at her in answer.

Ranma-chan quickly stepped out of the way of the attack, but swung the kettle back in line with it. The pot ticked and sputtered as the water inside instantly boiled. Before it could evaporate completely, Ranma-chan dumped the whole contents onto the piglet, prompting a pained squeal-turned-shriek. She tossed the kettle off to the side and pulled Ryouga's combat umbrella from her back. "Get dressed, it's round two now."

ooo

Homura looked on in surprise as the Lost Boy climbed up out of the crater, looking bruised and battered, but also very, very mad. "I'm not going to even ask. But I really want to."

Tsukiumi frowned. "What do you think of what Saotome-kun was doing earlier? His speed didn't seem much different, but for some reason I couldn't keep track of him."

"I'm not sure... there must be some trick to it, though, I didn't sense anything special." Homura narrowed her eyes, "Heads up, here they come."

The two martial artists had finished whatever planning they had, and suddenly the ground erupted into a cover of dirt again. Ryouga charged through, flinging out bandannas by the dozens to help cover his own approach while Ranma...

Ranma had disappeared again.

Tsukiumi retaliated with a storm of Water Arrows to knock the bandannas from the sky as Homura set up a wall behind the two to keep the martial artists focused on penetrating from the front. As the Lost Boy dashed to the side to avoid the remainder of her initial attack, Tsukiumi set up her Eight-headed Serpents while launching another barrage of Water Arrows in the opposite direction, anticipating that wherever Ranma was, he.. or she would be using Ryouga to draw their attention.

Homura sent her own fireballs towards Ryouga, then launched a twisting Fire Dragon as a followup, controlling the flames to track the boy as he avoided the first attack. She was unprepared to see the boy suddenly whip out a bamboo umbrella from behind his back and snap it open, allowing the dragon to immolate itself harmlessly against it. As she hesitated in shock, the umbrella dropped to the ground, revealing Ryouga holding out his hands with a glowing ball of energy held between them.

"Shishi Houkoudan!"

Homura's first instinct was to simply get out of the way, but with her back to back against Tsukiumi there was no way she could do so without her getting blindsided. The water user was busy peppering the field with Water Arrows and random strikes with her Orochi trying to flush out Ranma. Grimacing, she sent out a sustained barrage of fireballs, which met the attack and detonated in a bright flash. Following that was another hail of bandannas which she countered with sweeps from her Fire Sword. Suddenly she noticed movement in the corner of her eyes and turned to watch the umbrella flying at them in a wide arc, the steel caps at the tips reflecting light as the umbrella spun like some strange buzz-saw. "Down!" she yelled for Tsukiumi's sake, putting words into action as she threw herself forward to avoid the odd attack.

Tsukiumi spun at the warning, only noticing the umbrella at the last second. She threw herself backwards, avoiding any damage to her body, but the front of her dress was sliced open, leaving her bare to the world. She shrieked in anger and brought an arm up to cover herself, even as Ryouga's own charging attack faltered as he suddenly tripped in place, a fountain of blood spraying from his nose.

"How dare you!" she shrieked. "Only my husband is allowed to see me like this!"

"Why aren't you wearing a bra?" shouted the martial artist.

Homura's eyes widened as a shadow shimmered into view behind the water user. "Tsukiumi!" she shouted in warning.

Ranma-chan raised her hands into dagger-like points and shot them forward in a blur of motion. "Haku Dato Shin Shou!" A rain of burning strikes pierced into Tsukiumi's back, the attack traveling down from her shoulders, to her back, and to her thighs as Ranma-chan dropped to the ground. Her hands moved back into a curious, limp-looking pose and she vanished once again as Tsukiumi dropped to her knees. The back of her dress was peppered with scorch marks from the raw ki attack and she stumbled slightly as she tried to rise back into a standing position.

ooo

Ranma-chan reappeared next to Ryouga, though she didn't offer the boy a hand up. "Geez, I thought that woulda been enough to take her out. At least you limited her to just one arm, P-chan." There was a growing buzzing sound and Ranma-chan absently caught his umbrella on its return trip, closing it and holding it out for the Lost Boy.

"Shut up," Ryouga grumbled as he rose to his feet, hand pinching his nose closed. He pulled off yet another bandanna from his forehead and shredded it, taking a wad of it and using it as tissue to plug up the leak. "All that means is she's more vulnerable close-range. She's still got all of her water attacks." He took the umbrella and strapped it to his back again.

"Let's test that theory," Ranma-chan grinned as she dropped into the Umisen-ken's opening stance once again and vanished from view.

ooo

"Tsukiumi," Homura warned her. "Douse yourself and get back."

Not needing any further explanation, the water user did as she was told, hitting herself with a loose blast of water and retreating to put Homura between herself and the two martial artists. Before she'd even gotten out of range, Homura's aura flared, creating a huge inferno nearly twenty-five meters across. Tsukiumi's clothes and skin hissed as steam began to rise, but she generated more water to keep herself unharmed as she finally escaped. Ryouga barreled out of the attack, on fire again, but managed to put himself out relatively quickly.

There was a surprised shout not five meters away from Homura, and she turned to see Ranma-chan suddenly burst into view again, evidently caught while trying to sneak up on her and repeat her previous attack. The redhead's battle aura flared, trying to give herself some modicum of protection against the flames, but she was clearly in pain from simply standing there. Her eyes were locked onto Homura's, completely unyielding as she braced herself and took a slow step forward.

With her sole focus on the impossible sight in front of her, Homura was completely taken by surprise as a Shishi Houkoudan tore its way through the flames and exploded against her back. She stumbled, the strength of the flames around her weakening as she lost concentration. Ranma-chan took the opportunity to launch herself forward into a spear tackle. As they hit the ground and bounced, Ranma-chan pulled her feet up to her chest and kicked them straight down, slamming Homura back against the ground and launching herself away from the burning ground.

She landed in a heap next to Ryouga, batting at a persistent flame on her sleeve. The other boy took one look at her and chuckled. "You look like crap."

"I've seen Hell because of you," the redhead quipped. "All because you couldn't deal with her by yourself... it's all your fault."

The Lost Boy took a second, closer look over at Ranma-chan, "Are you okay?"

"Ryouga, prepare to die~" she wheezed.

"Right... you're not okay." Ryouga took a step forward and cracked his knuckles again. "Time to show you how a real man handles this."

"You da man, P-chan."

"Oh shut up," he growled, charging forward.

Homura was rising to her feet when the martial artist burst through the flames to knock her back down. Before he could disengage, however, the fire user reached out with her hand and snagged his leg, ensnaring the limb with a rope of solid fire and yanking him back. Ryouga went down, wincing in pain as the flames around them slowly grew in strength once again. He threw a punch at Homura, who grabbed at it with her other hand and set that on fire as well. She smirked beneath her mask as Ryouga's face twisted into a grimace.

Then Ryouga headbutted her.

Homura gasped in surprise, her grip loosening enough for the Lost Boy to tear himself free and stab at the ground immediately below the both of them. The ground exploded with the Breaking Point, the rocks were small enough for Ryouga to shrug off, but the fire user took the hits at point blank, the rocks shredding into her exposed skin. She scrambled backwards in an attempt to gain some distance, but Ryouga stepped back in, whipping out a bandanna and ensnaring her wrist. He pulled her back to run up against his extended knee, then as she reeled from the impact, he crouched down to set off another point-blank Breaking Point.

The rocks shredded the bandanna holding the two together and Homura went flying. She hit the ground and bounced, the fires surrounding the area immediately snuffing out as the fire user slide across the ground.

Ryouga grinned, but he stumbled as the leg Homura had grabbed earlier twitched from suffering first-degree burns. The arm he'd wrapped the bandanna around was similarly useless, the fire user having transmitted her powers through the cloth and sending enough energy through it that his nerves throbbed uncontrollably. As his body went into shock, he dropped to his knees and keeled over.

ooo

The long distance Water Dragon Tsukiumi hit Ranma-chan with was enough to wake her up from her dazed stupor. Groaning, she rolled to her stomach and pulled her legs up underneath herself. Looking up, he saw the water user stand on the far side of Homura's mega bonfire. One arm was still held protectively across her chest, but her other arm was also gingerly holding on to her stomach. Her hair was disheveled and partially singed at the tips, dirt and other scuff marks crisscrossed across her exposed skin.

All in all, she looked about how Ranma-chan felt. The cursed martial artist tried to pull herself up, but collapsed to the side as one of her arms refused to carry her weight. She bit back a scream as her body landed on top of the wounded limb, but rolled around to pick herself up using her good arm. She stumbled on her feet, flexing her arm slightly, then compressing it into a fist. One fist is all I need...

As she stood, the inferno to the side suddenly exploded, ejecting Homura into a shallow arc where she landed with a painful looking bump and skid. As she did so the flames died down to reveal Ryouga standing their triumphantly, only to fall over himself seconds later. As if that had been a signal, the two remaining combatants launched their attacks. Ranma-chan sped forward with her good arm held protectively behind her body, dodging sequential strikes from Tsukiumi's Yamato no Orochi. As she made it past the eighth head, the water user whipped her arm to the side, shrouding it in water and swung it forward.

Even though she was still dozens of meters away from her, she caught the premonition of danger and leapt over the attack, staring in disbelief as it gouged a line across the field where she'd been standing. Swinging her arm as fast as she was, this far out her Water Blade was criss-crossing the field at impossible speeds. She was too wounded to concentrate on maintaining the Umisen-ken, so she had to dodge the old-fashioned way. There were a few jarring impacts as she accidentally rolled over her wounded arm, but she didn't let it slow her down.

Tsukiumi kept swinging, a lightning fast combination that checked Ranma-chan's forward progress as she diverted himself to running circles around water user, gradually getting closer one short meter at a time. Water Arrows filled the air and shot out by the hundreds. There was no way for her to avoid them all in his state, and by the time she'd closed within five meters her shirt and pants were just scraps barely hanging on to her body. At two meters Tsukiumi threw her own modesty out the window and summoned a second Water Blade, bringing both arms forward to scissor them across Ranma-chan's body.

Ranma-chan put on an extra burst of speed, leaving nothing but an afterimage to get sliced up and slammed her good arm into Tsukiumi's unprotected stomach with the full speed of her Chestnut Fist training. Over a hundred punches impacted in the space of a second, bending the water user in half over the force of the blows. Tsukiumi collapsed on to her knees, her Water Blades dispelling as her hands fell onto Ranma-chan's shoulders to keep herself upright.

"That... really hurts," she gasped.

Ranma-chan's eyes widened as she stared at the clearly conscious Sekirei. There was a whisper of movement and suddenly she felt heat as a hand enshrouded with flames appeared at her neck. "You have got to be kidding me..." she complained.

"Yield," Homura's voice – at complete odds with the fire surrounding her – was chilling in tone. As if in warning, the flames around her hand grew in strength, barely brushing Ranma-chan's skin, but almost blistering it with the heat they produced.

The redheaded martial artist sighed, leaned back onto her heels, and raised her good hand. "You people are something else, you know that?"

Homura withdrew her own arm and pulled her mask down, tucking it back against her neck. "We're Emiyas."

ooo

.

.

.

.

.

Omake

The peanut gallery went alive with exclamations and comments as the individual children and parents compared their analysis of the fight. Comparisons between Ranma's clear ability matched against the durability of Sekirei bodies, cries that Ranma had been holding back, responses that Homura and Tsukiumi had been as well. Above it all many of the family members were dreaming of having that sort of physical ability matched with their inherant powers; more than a few of them were planning to continue their training regardless of whether the martial artist was allowed to do it here or not.

As Chiho and Chiyo rushed out to the field to take care of their injuries, Karasuba grinned and held out her hand expectantly. Uzume glared at her, then reached into her pocket to pull out a wad of bills, slapping them into the Black Sekirei's hand with ill grace. Karasuba turned, soliciting more stacks of money from Rin, Musubi, and Akitsu. Tidying up the stack, she counted out the money then split into three piles, handing two of them to Matsu and Eiko.

Karin glared at her mother, "You bet against them?"

Matsu looked down at her daughter unapologetically. "It had good odds. Also once Homura-tan found out about how the Flying Dragon Ascension Wave worked, Ranma-tan's chances went down the tubes."

"You told them."

"No~ope, if anybody should be blamed, that'd be Musubi."

"Forget about that!" Uzume said. She stabbed a finger out towards Eiko, who looked up from her conversation with Karasuba. "What I want to know is why she was allowed in on this. She shouldn't be allowed to make bets! That's cheating!"

Karasuba ruffled her quasi-daughter's head. "You're just jealous," she smirked.

(a/n) – geeeez that was long. i think my longest chapter to date. there was quite a bit of banter in the forums if Ranma should have been able to win or not. it boiled down to him being willing to fight to the death or if he would follow his own moral code first. there was his fight with Saffron, but ultimately it was decided that was an exception to his rule.

on the other hand, we have Shirou having knocked his sekirei over the head about that very same issue, and if we assume they were of any help to him at all against the Mage's Association, they've clearly worked through that. it boiled down to:

sparring match – ranma wins or draws
actual fight – up in the air, but either way he gets hurt bad.

let's say Ranma had the mindset of kill or not-kill, that unlocks not only the Umisen-ken a lot sooner than he would have otherwise, but he'd also make use of the Yamasen-ken, which adds a lot of destructive power to his skill set IMO. if he'd gotten into this mindset during or immediately after the Phoenix Tribe arc, he might have taken the Kinjakan and Gekkaja back with him, which also gives him some high-powered trinkets to fight with.

edit: i was browsing through the manga/anime while writing this out. aside from finding examples of how their attacks worked, the most useful clip i found was Tsukiumi vs Benitsubasa in the MBI Escape arc. we see Tsukiumi going against a melee fighter with some ranged capabilities, and we also see she is pretty damn fast herself.

keep in mind The Clan has children in their high teens, by Nerima some of the older ones would be 20+. this means at least 20 years minimum improvement; of being around Shirou and the rest of his harem, which also includes some powerhouses themselves. i can't imagine the flock not getting any better.

also keep in mind ranma's most destructive attacks are all variants of the H.S.H., which take an opponent's strength and amplify them as a counter-attack. deny him that, and you also deny him all the variants which he used to kill gods, take out perverts, blow up mountains, and... launch his fiancée at an enemy (if you go by oav!canon)

ooo

tl;dr – Ranma's not a killer yet, he can't quite defeat monsters. which the mature Sekirei are, more or less...