Permanent part 4: An angry attack.

	Ranma sat uncomfortably in the back of the group of girls. They 
were sitting in the back of an ice cream store gossiping among
themselves. "What's wrong Ranma?" asked one of Akane's friends noticing
how reclusive she was acting.
	"I'm not comfortable around other girls my age." said Ranma
flatly.
	The group looked at her with suprize. "Why?" asked the one on
Ranma's right.
	"Sayuri!" said Akane glaring at her.
	"Sorry, you don't have to tell us." said the other girl.
	Akane gave Ranma an apologetic look and sighed. "Its OK Akane."
said Ranma. She looked at the girls and frowned. "The last girl I knew
spent seven months trying to kill me, she hunted me like an animal, until
I finally defeated her." Ranma looked out the window with a far away
gaze. 
	Sayuri gulped hard. "Defeated?" she said quietly.
	"I think we should change the subject. Sayuri, Yuka?" said Akane
calmly. The two girls looked at her with frightened eyes and nodded.

	Akane walked behind Ranma a few feet on the way home with Yuka
and Sayuri walking even further back. They walked silently through the
light rain. Ranma finally broke it after about ten minutes. "I'm suprized
you got them to come along after what they saw the other day, you don't
have to try to cheer me up ya know."
	Akane smiled a little. "I like you Ranma, despite all you've been
through your still a good person, even if you can't see it." she said
looking up at the clouds as they walked. 
	Ranma smirked a little. "You don't know me that well Akane."
	The girls edged closer to Akane. "Why do you try to push others
away Ranma?" thought Akane in frustration.
	A whirling noise came softly at first and grew ever louder. Ranma
stopped and looked around. Akane and her friends walked up to her.
"Ranma? Whats Wrong?" asked Akane with a confused expression. Ranma
shushed her and crouched low. "Whats wro-" started Akane but she never
finished. 
	
	Ranma screamed and her arm exploded in pain. She turned to see a
horrified Akane staring at her arm, her face covered in blood. In the
wall next to them something that looked like a yo-yo with spikes
protruded from the wall with specks of blood all over it, a thin metal
wire protruded from it to some bushes nearby. Ranma reached up to clutch
her arm and stopped as she her fingers touched bone, her nerves exploded
again almost caused her to black out. Ranma screamed in anguish. "Ranma
Saotome. For what you did to Shampoo you die!" cried a distinctly male
voice from all around them. Ranma frowned and grabbed the wire. She felt
it cut deep into her hand as it was pulled tight, forcing her to release
it she cried out again.. A robed figure lept into the air from the bush
and spun in mid air. Ranma's eyes went wide as she lept into the
frightened girls shoving them to the ground and covering them with her
own body. She yelled as seven metal spikes embedded themselves in her
legs, back and arms. Ranma stood shakily and faced her opponent.
	"Who are you?" she demanded standing in front of the girls. 
	"I am Mousse. I am the man who was to be Shampoo's groom. Until
you came." said the boy with his back turned to them. He had long flowing
robes and long brown hair, he also wore a small traveling pack on his
back. He turned his head slightly letting Ranma see his face. His glasses
shone with even the minimal light coming through the rain clouds. 
	"Shampoo." growled Ranma bending low to the ground in an attempt
to right herself despite her injuries. "So this is how it ends, looks
like you win after all you Chinese bitch." she thought bitterly. "I'll
not go out alone though." thought Ranma as she readied her attack.
	Mousse smiled and swept his arm up releasing a large spinning
blade at Ranma. Her eyes went side as she registered the size of the
weapon; it had to be three feet long. Then a small black blur appeared
from over a wall and slammed into the blade from above it. Ranma wasted
no time, she shot her own arm forward and pointed her hand at Mousse. The
boy cried out in rage and pain as he clutched his face, blood poured from
between his fingers. He pulled the small metal knife from his shattered
glasses and out from what was left of his left eye. He staggered into the
shadows and disappeared.
	Ranma looked at the blade Mousse had thrown and saw an apparently
unharmed Mr.P sitting up near by. She hobbled over and retrieved her
knife from the ground and flipped it over in her hands. "Shampoo." she
said again and returned it to her sleeve. With that she collapsed.

	Ranma woke a few moments later being carried into a building. She
looked around and saw she was being carried by Akane and her friends.
Yuka was beating on the door of a small clinic. "Dr.Tofu open up please!"
she cried with desperation in her voice, she was leaving hand prints on
the door from the blood Ranma had lost. Ranma smiled at this. A tall
kindly looking man opened the door with a concerned face. "Akane-san what
happened?" he said looking at Ranma in shock. The three girls were
covered in blood and crying in the light evening rain.

	Tofu lay Ranma on the examining table and sighed. "Akane we have
to get this girl to a hospital, these wounds are very serious. Sayuri
could you turn on the lights please?" he said after a quick glance at the
various wounds. Ranma smiled again.
	She gently but forcefully pushed Dr. Tofu away. Her right hand
began to glow bright pink. Sayuri stopped and stared at her in wonder.
She placed her hand firmly over the wound on her arm, she felt the bone
and screamed in pain as the burning started. The light erupted from her
eyes, mouth, nose, stomach and every other hole in her body including her
wounds. She screamed an almost inhuman cry and writhed in pain. A moment
later she stopped and passed out on the examining table with a tired and
painful expression on her face. 
	Dr. Tofu stared at her in disbelief. "Sayuri, lights please." he
said softly. Sayuri complied and walked up to the doctor. 
	"Dr. Tofu...what was that?" she asked.
	"I have no Idea." said the Dr. with an unreadable expression.
	Ranma awoke once again, "Magic." she said with a smile. The four
people looked at her oddly. 
	Akane gasped "You really are a witch?" she whispered looking at
the girl on the table. 
	"Not exactly, it's kind of hard to explain. I've helped allot of
people over the past year, but I can't help myself." she said with a
small laugh.
	Dr. Tofu looked carefully at her wounds. "Completely healed." he
said quietly. Accept for a small red mark where Ranma had placed  her
hands there was no evidence she had ever been hurt.
	Small scratching noises came from the doorway. "Somebody go let
Mr.P in." said Ranma as she drifted off again.

	"Healed or not she lost allot of blood. She needs her rest. Lets
get you girls all cleaned up." said Dr. Tofu to Yuka and Sayuri. Akane
walked into the room with Mr.P in her arms. She placed him on the bed and
giggled as he lay across Ranma's stomach. 
	"She sleeps like a boy." said Yuka noting Ranma's position.
	Akane and Sayuri glared at her. "I have brothers, remember?" said
Yuka returning the glare. Akane and Sayuri blushed and turned back to
watching Ranma.
	"I'll walk you two girls home and Akane can stay with Ranma until
I get back." said Dr. Tofu as he took the two girls by the shoulder and
lead them away.

	 Ranma woke the next day groggily. She sat up and turned to see
Akane sleeping peacefully beside her in a chair. She smiled and then
frowned at this. 
	An hour later Ranma sat with Dr. Tofu and Akane at a small table
eating breakfast. "Well I guess I had better explain things." sighed
Ranma. "It's a long story and it doesn't have a happy ending, well I
don't consider it to be one anyway, It will help you understand who that
guy was even though he is not directly involved with it." said Ranma as
she poked at her half eaten breakfast.
	"He's not in it?" asked Akane sounding a little suprized. "You
two seemed to know each other."
	Ranma smiled humorlessly. "Actually I don't remember ever meeting
him, Remember what he said when we saw him?"
	Akane looked puzzled. 
	"I am the man who was to be Shampoo's groom." quoted Ranma.
	Akane looked at Ranma again this time with a look of recognition.
	"Well this is the story about her....." said Ranma and she began
her tale....
TbC...........
	

I know this seems like a terrible place to cut off but the next part will
be pretty big. It will take place entirely in China and won't be told as
Ranma's telling of the story. In other words the story Ranma tells will
be highly edited, she'll skip allot of things particularly anything
involved with Jusenkyo or the truth about her condition and her families.
Just thought I'd clear this up now so I don't get mail later that asks
why Akane doesn't know about the curses after Ranma tells this story. At
any rate it should be interesting to say the least. Although I have an
ending planned this one has "I'm going to write myself" written all over
it. I'm already running all kinds of variant Ideas through my head.

Please feel free to C&C on my fic's as I love to read what people think
about my stuff. Send to Catbert25@aol.com

	Hello I am not ignoring fic request! Please read on.
Also It should be noted that I had some numbering problems [in other
words I @*%$ -up.] with my other fic's Spirit within and Separation
anxiety. I am going to [try to anyway, it may take a day or too more.]
repost them next week all cleaned up and pretty with all new numbering,
[a few days later I'll do permanent as I get request for that -allot-!].
Sorry for any inconvenience. [The numbering problems occurred when I had
the different parts spread out all over several disk. I am going to fix
this as well. Just a friendly warning to any aspiring authors ; try to
keep all the chapters of your stories on the same disk, if it gets big it
can really confuse you. Spirit within wasn't supposed to be near as long
as it got."
	until next time 
Ja-ne Catbert25

	"I'll write some more, but not today. I'm off to watch more
Anime" - hey that Rhymes! 

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