Here's the latest of the new chapters, also posted on the 
website. C&C is most welcome.

Chapter 18 will arrive next Sunday (May 8th). 

- Grayson Towler
http://www.talesfromthevault.com/relentless

               =========================
                      RELENTLESS
                A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction

                   By Grayson Towler
               =========================


-----------------------------------------------------------
                     CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
                         Cataclysm
-----------------------------------------------------------


Akane slumped against the rickety wooden slats that made up 
the wall of the boxcar. Dawn was still a few hours off - she 
and Shampoo had traveled at a somewhat reckless speed through 
the night to reach the train tracks. As fortunate as the 
disappearance of the Reikoku had been, Akane wasn't ready to 
put her faith in the notion that it was really gone 
completely. 

Ranma had slept through the whole journey. She wouldn't have 
minded letting him sleep a few hours more while she got some 
rest, but Shampoo said it was important to get some 
nourishment into him. So, in spite of the protests from her 
cold and tired limbs, Akane arranged the inert Ranma into a 
sitting position while Shampoo warmed up a cup of soup on 
their little portable burner.

"Hey," Akane whispered, shaking her fiancee gently. "Wake up. 
Wake up, Ranma."

For a moment it seemed like she'd have to do something more 
jarring to rouse him, but then Ranma's eyelids twitched, 
blinked, and opened. He gave her an unfocused, bleary look. 
"A... Akane?" he rasped.

She pressed the lip of the warm little bowl to his lips. 
"Here, drink this."

"Did you ma..." he paused, then licked his lips. "Did you... 
manage to get my backpack?"

She smiled, knowing what it was that he was going to ask. It 
was rather comforting to see him suppress his reflex to pick 
on her cooking, for once. Maybe he was just afraid she'd pound 
him... but still, it was nice. "Shampoo made it," she said, 
answering his unspoken question. "And yes, we got your stuff."

He sipped at the soup at first, then began to gulp it down 
more enthusiastically. That was good - if he had his appetite, 
he was probably going to be all right. "Got any more?" he 
asked.

"Shampoo go make more food," the Amazon said. She shuffled 
away to the other side of the boxcar, fidgeting with their 
provisions to put together some kind of meal. 

Akane was grateful for the privacy. "How do you feel?"

"Not... so bad," he said, his voice creaky as he spoke. She 
handed him her canteen, and he took a long swallow. "I've had 
worse."

"Hmm," she said. "I'm not so sure about that." She chuckled, 
remembering a very similar conversation she'd had with Dr. 
Tofu.

"What's funny?"

"Never mind." Akane waved a hand. "We bandaged up the cuts 
already. Shampoo thinks you're mostly just exhausted."

"Yeah." He closed his eyes, falling into memory. "Hey... the 
Reikoku. Did it get up again from bein' in the fire?"

"It did." She considered for a moment what she'd say next. "We 
got you out of there in time.  But Ranma..."

He thumped his head against the slats in frustration. "Damn 
it! I shoulda been more careful. I saw what happened when 
Pantyhose tried to torch the thing. Hey..." The pig-tailed boy 
fidgeted, then gave her a look that was almost shy. "I 
guess... I guess that's twice I owe you my life now."

She felt the color rising to her cheeks. That wasn't the sort 
of admission you usually heard out of Ranma. "A... about 
that," she stammered. "Something weird happened back in that 
valley."

"What do you mean?" He worked himself into a more comfortable 
sitting position.

"Well, the Reikoku. It was coming towards us and then... it 
just disappeared."

Ranma's wore a puzzled, blank expression. "It did what?"

"It disappeared," she repeated, shrugging helplessly. "Just 
vanished into thin air. I know... it's really weird."

Her fiancee simply looked boggled.

"Shampoo told me," Akane continued, "that Ryouga and Ukyou 
were going after Happosai when they left he Amazon village. 
Cologne gave them some sort of clue about how to find him. We 
thought maybe they did find him, and found out some way to 
make it go away."

The young Saotome scratched his head. "If he could make it 
disappear, he would've done it from the first."

"Maybe it's chasing him instead?"

Ranma frowned. "I'd think it'd just turn and start walkin' 
towards him. I don't know... I don't know everything about the 
damned thing, that's for sure." He rubbed his eyes, grimacing. 
"I just... I don't know what happened, but I don't want to 
just assume this is all over."

"That's what I thought too," Akane agreed. "When we get to a 
place where we can phone home, maybe we can find out more."

"I guess."

She patted him on the arm. "Hey, cheer up! With any luck, 
they've figured out some solution, and we'll be able to go 
home. Maybe the Reikoku's gone for good!"

"Yeah," Ranma said, looking her in the eye. "But what if it 
isn't?"

An uncomfortable silence hung between them. 

Akane forced a smile and tried to sound casual. "Oh, let's not 
worry about that now. You just get some rest..."

He gave a sharp shake of the head. "Promise me," he whispered. 
"Promise me that you won't attack it."

The cheer she'd affected vanished in a heartbeat. Her throat 
tightened - partly with dread, partly with anger. "How can you 
say that to me?" she asked, the tightness in her jaw clipping 
her words as she spoke them. "After all I've been through to 
get here... after all I've had to endure. After I've saved you 
twice. After..." She thought about the feel of his arms around 
her, the taste of his kisses. "After everything. How can you 
ask me to do that?"

"Because I love you, Akane," he answered.

Suddenly, she felt like she couldn't breathe. She leaned 
forward, pressing her head against his chest. "Ranma..."

"I shoulda said it ages ago," he told her, stroking her hair 
as she clutched his shirt. "I've been such a moron. I've been 
such a jerk to you."

"I've been... just as bad," she sobbed. "I want to make up for 
it! I don't... I don't want you to die..."

"Don't you get it?" he said. "That's the thing. That's why I 
want you to promise me not to fight the Reikoku. Even if I 
die, I want to know that you're gonna be okay."

"I WON'T be okay!" she cried. "Not without you..."

She felt his embrace tighten. "Akane... you know what I mean. 
Think about if it was the other way around. If you were the 
one bein' chased instead of me. Would you want me to fight it? 
Even to save your life?"

He was right. She knew it at once. "I wouldn't... but would 
that stop you? Would you really hold back if you thought you 
could save me?"

"I don't know," he rasped, his voice strained. "I don't know 
if I could! But you see why I have to ask you to promise? You 
understand?"

"Yes..."

Ranma took her gently by the shoulders and pushed her back so 
she could look into his eyes. "So promise me," he whispered. 
"Even if I'm lyin' there and that thing is movin' in for the 
kill. Promise me that you won't step in the way. Promise me 
that you'll go on and live. Promise me that you won't let it 
kill you too."

It wasn't fair. She wanted to protest, to argue with him. He'd 
pretty much admitted that he wouldn't be able to hold back if 
their roles were reversed - why should he expect it out of 
her? Couldn't he understand that she'd give her life to save 
him? How could he ask this cruel, cruel thing of her?

<But he has to trust me,> she thought. <He has to.>

Elder Cologne had given her a plan when she'd been in the 
Amazon village - a risky plan, to be sure, but there was a 
chance that it could make the difference between life or death 
if Ranma fought the Reikoku for a final time. But for it to 
work, he HAD to trust her. That was the most critical part.

"I... I promise," she choked out the words. "I promise, Ranma. 
But only if you promise not to run away from me again."

He swallowed hard. "Uh..."

"You CAN'T!" she insisted, shaking him. "I... I can help you, 
Ranma. Not by fighting it. I'll keep my promise. But... I 
learned something from Elder Cologne that can give you the 
edge. Something to do before you fight it for the last time."

"Yeah?" The look of excitement in his eyes was as familiar to 
Akane as her own reflection. He always looked that way when 
there was a chance to learn some new technique or skill in 
martial arts.

"Yes," she assured him. "So you can't run off. Okay?"

"Okay," he agreed. "I promise I won't try to leave you again." 
He drew her to him again, holding her tight. "I'm sorry. I'm 
sorry for takin' off before... for making you promise... aw 
hell. Thanks, Akane."

"It's okay," she lied. It wasn't okay - it felt like her heart 
had been ripped in two. "It's okay. Besides... we may not even 
have to worry about it, right?"

"Yeah," he agreed, the optimism in his voice only partially 
forced. "Maybe the guys came through for us."

"Ukyou and Ryouga," Akane said. "Maybe they're just waiting 
for us to call in, so they can tell us the good news about how 
they made the Reikoku disappear."

Ranma chuckled. "Man, if Ryouga really did pull MY bacon out 
of the fire, I'm never gonna hear the end of it. He's probably 
just laughin' it up now, waitin' for me to show my face so he 
can rub my nose in it. Heh... I bet he can't wait."

- - - - -

Tears streamed down Ryouga-chan's cheeks as she took her place 
in the center of the arena, and she didn't care, didn't care, 
just didn't care.  Despair like she had never known flowed 
through her whole body.  She felt like her heart had been 
turned to cold lead, like her blood was black with sadness.  
Each breath was a ragged torment.  <It will end soon,> she 
thought. <I'm going to die here.>

The women in the audience watched her, their faces tense and 
unsettled.  Natsume had told Ryouga-chan that the crowd hadn't 
been prepared for the power they'd seen in the Reikoku when it 
had fought Ukyou.  While all veterans of the Temple of Three 
were familiar with the creature's presence, almost none of 
them had seen it in its second stage, when its power was 
doubled and the aura of fear it exuded was far stronger.

If they thought that was bad, they were really going to hate 
this fight.

High Priestess Aoki Nariko addressed her.  "Who is this girl 
that stands before us, seeking to become Guardian of the 
Temple of Three?"

<Guardian?> Ryouga-chan thought bitterly. <What a sick joke.  
Who am I worthy to guard?>  She remembered that she had 
protected Akane - that was how she ended up in this mess to 
begin with. It didn't exactly cheer her up, but the thought 
gave her enough strength to find her voice.

"I am Hibiki Ryouga," she said.  The words she had been 
taught came back to her, and she spoke them with a raw voice.  
"I stand before you, and await the trail."

There was more to it - words about her family, the Three 
Goddesses, the past, present, and future - but Ryouga-chan 
barely registered it as she mumbled her way through the 
ritual.  <Guardian,> she thought.  <As if I'll live that 
long.>

Then the words were finished, and the time had come to summon 
Ryouga-chan's adversary.  The women of the temple fidgeted 
nervously, clearly reluctant to begin the ceremony, but the 
elite priestesses beckoned them on.  The crowd of onlookers 
joined their will as one, and power began to flow into the 
voice of Aoki Nariko.

"Let she who would guard us face the wrath of the storm..."

Ryouga-chan raised her tear-blurred eyes and glared at the 
crowd.  "You thought it was bad before?" she challenged, as 
the High Priestess continued her chant.

"Let the darkness coalesce..."

"Well, here it comes!" Ryouga-chan rasped.  "This is the third 
stage!"

"... let Death take a form."

The bandana-clad girl swept an arm at the crowd.  "THIS is the 
thing you send out into the world!  THIS is the monster you 
summoned. THIS is the result of your carelessness!"

"By the power of the Three, I call upon thee ..."

"Well, take a good look!" Ryouga-chan screamed.  

"... the target is Hibiki Ryouga!"

"Because this is going to be one short fight," she told them.  
"And soon..." her voice trailed off, dropping down to a 
whisper.

"Come forth now... REIKOKU!"

"...soon, we'll be together again, Ukyou."  Her voice was as 
faint as a breeze, and the sobs that followed echoed across 
the arena.

"REIKOKU!"

Pure terror exploded through the arena.  The women in the 
Temple of Three had many duties, and only a few were trained 
fighters - they had never encountered such raw psychic force.  
Shrieks and screams rippled across the crowd as the hideous 
aura of fear roared in invisible waves across the arena.  Even 
the battle-hardened veterans of the Guardians could barely 
hold their ground against the onslaught to the soul brought by 
the Reikoku's presence.

For her part, Ryouga-chan barely felt the fear.  So deep was 
she in the caverns of her own despair that the terror aura 
washed over her, somewhere above her in the catacombs of her 
own psyche.  She unslung the great battle spatula from its 
place on her back, the weapon that Ukyou had given to her in 
trust... but she didn't think she would be using it.  She 
didn't think it would come to that.

The blast of cold water hit her like cannonball.  

As expected, the Reikoku had adapted the water attack it had 
used before to activate the Jusenkyou curse that had once made 
Hibiki Ryouga turn into a helpless piglet.  This time, the 
ice-cold water came with such velocity that even the hottest 
battle aura Ryouga-chan could have mustered wouldn't deflect 
it.

Ryouga-chan had been cured of the pig, but the water blast 
still served to blow her off her feet.  She lost her grip on 
the battle-spatula, and the great weapon scraped sparks off 
the stony floor as it spun away from her.  Suddenly desperate 
to retrieve the weapon, this last gift that Ukyou had given to 
her, Ryouga-chan rolled to her feet and scrambled towards the 
spatula.  <I can't lose it!> she thought desperately.  
<Ukyou...>

The Reikoku didn't give her the chance to reach it.  It 
withdrew the tube of an arm that had launched the water attack 
and extended another appendage - a rubbery mass that split 
into a host of writhing tentacles.  The whip-like protrusions 
extended toward Ryouga-chan in a storm of thrashing fury, too 
fast for her to dodge.  They coiled around her throat, her 
wrists, her ankles, her waist - digging into her flesh with 
thorn-like barbs where they touched.  

Ryouga-chan struggled, but the tentacles lifted her off the 
ground.  She had no purchase, no surface off which to push.  
Her great strength was useless against the flexible prison in 
which she was held.  And the barbs gouging themselves into her 
skin dashed all hope of being able to wriggle free.

<This is it,> she thought as the thing hefted her aloft.  The 
Reikoku drew her closer, extending a pair of scythe-like arms, 
like the forelimbs of some giant mantis.  There was no 
mistaking the purpose of those arms - the monster intended to 
dangle her in the air and cut her to bits.  

The energy of utter misery built within the heart of Hikbiki 
Ryouga.

<It won't work,> she told herself bleakly.  She had used the 
lesser Shi-Shi Hokoudan on the Reikoku before.  While she had 
speculated that the full version, the Perfect Shi-Shi 
Hokoudan, might be different enough to overwhelm whatever 
defense the creature had evolved, she didn't believe that 
would really matter.  The thing was too powerful, even for 
this.

The certainty of her failure fueled her depression.  <And what 
if you succeed?> she asked herself.  <What if this works, and 
you can defeat that demon?>

Then she would live on, while Ukyou was dead.  Her heart 
recoiled at such a thought.  To keep living with this kind of 
pain... how could she hope to bear it?  Better to die here.  
Better to fail.  

The Reikoku brought her closer.  Curved claws, covered with 
chitinous armor and sharper than the edges of broken glass, 
reared back to strike.  Heavy ki-energy pulsed from Ryouga-
chan's body as she prepared to unleash the attack that she was 
certain would fail.

Then, she heard Ukyou's voice.

"RYOUGA!"

She screamed from the stands, and Ryouga-chan could see 
her.  She was bruised and bandaged, her arm was in a sling, 
and some of the other women were trying to hold her back, but 
she was there.  Kuonji Ukyou was there, crying her name in 
desperation, her good arm reaching out as if to touch her.

A single moment seems like nothing - they rush by like a river 
every day, these seconds and split-seconds that make up our 
lives.  Yet there are times, important times, when time slows 
down for us and releases us from its relentless grasp, and we 
find ourselves suspended in a perfect space of revelation.

A single moment is all it takes to change everything.

Ryouga-chan saw the despair in her heart with new eyes, seeing 
it for what it truly was for the first time.  The misery and 
depression that she had lugged through her days and lonely 
nights was only a shadow, a shadow cast by the light of 
something greater.  The only reason her despair could be so 
deep was that her capacity for love was so very, very great.  
It was that love that she found now in herself, a burning sun 
inside her that she had only glimpsed before, but which now 
dazzled her with its infinite radiance.  

<This is what's in me?> she thought in wonder.  She reached 
for that sun, that endless, brilliant fountain of love, and 
drew from its power.

In her soul, in the energy of ki that was the source of her 
life, pure despair and pure love occupied the same space at 
the same time, each complementing one another, feeding off one 
another, creating a whirling dynamo of power.  It was no 
longer the Shi-Shi Hokoudan - she didn't know WHAT it was - 
but when the surge of power built to release, there was only 
one word she would use to call it forth.

"UKYOU!" 

- - - - -

Ukyou heard Ryouga-chan cry out her name, and suddenly there 
was light, so intense that she could barely see what was going 
on.  Fiery golden radiance roared forth from Ryouga-chan's 
outstretched hands, searing away the sinewy tentacles that 
held her pinned.  The column of blinding energy slammed into 
the Reikoku, lancing through the thing's robes and blasting it 
away from Ryouga-chan with the force of a runaway freight 
train.  The creature's body seemed to disappear in the surging 
pillar of light.  The attack ripped stone and shattered 
support columns, blowing a huge furrow along the length of the 
arena, collapsing a huge section of wall in an avalanche of 
pulverized rock.

She felt herself laughing.  Her ribs hurt like crazy, but that 
pain seemed a thousand miles away.  "Ryouga!" she cried out, 
weeping and laughing.  

The bandana-clad girl came to her, swept her up in a fierce 
embrace that she could barely endure, but that she wanted all 
the same.  She threw her good arm around Ryouga-chan's 
shoulders and pulled her close, hugging her back with all her 
strength.  Blood from the wounds on Ryouga-chan's wrists and 
neck smeared Ukyou's blouse as the two pressed themselves 
together.

"I'm sorry!" she wept, her fingers digging into Ryouga-chan's 
dark hair.  "I told them to tell you... I thought it would 
help you in the fight, to get depressed.  But then I 
realized... I realized how much it meant to me to know you 
were there, that you were with me when I was fighting.  I 
realized I was wrong!  I should never have..."

"Ukyou..." Ryouga-chan choked, unable to say more.

"I love you," she gasped.  "Do you hear me?  I love you!"

"I..." Ryouga-chan began, but Ukyou went on, unable to stop 
the flood of words pouring from her lips.

"When I realized that, I knew I had to tell you.  And I was 
able to pull off my Soul Spatula!  But it was still hard... 
that thing still thrashed at me with what was left of its 
damned tentacle, see... and my arm was broken.  I passed out 
from the pain after I won, otherwise I would have come 
straight to you and... and..."

She realized that Ryouga-chan's embrace had loosened, and the 
Lost Girl was turning away.  Ukyou understood, and cold dread 
gripped her heart.  

"It's not finished," she whispered.  She could still feel the 
Reikoku's aura, seeping forth from the mound of debris where 
it had fallen.

"No," Ryouga-chan agreed.  "It's not."

The rubble where it had been buried shifted.  A huge chunk of 
boulder tumbled aside, and three points of crimson light 
burned forth from the darkness.  The Reikoku came forth once 
again, ready to fight, ready to hunt, ready to kill.  

Ryouga-chan turned back to her and looked her in the eye.  "I 
won't lose," she declared, her voice feverish and impassioned 
as she grasped Ukyou's hand in a grip that could crush steel.  
"Not after this!  I WILL NOT LOSE!"

"Don't you DARE lose!" Ukyou shouted back, squeezing in return 
with all her might.  "Go out there and KILL that DAMNED 
THING!"

Ryouga-chan released her, and the battle was joined once more.

Ukyou could see a smoldering hole in the Reikoku's robes where 
Ryouga-chan's ki-blast had found its mark.  One of the scythe 
arms of the thing had also been burned away, leaving a 
twitching stump that jutted at an awkward angle from the 
thing's misshapen body.  But it still had many of the barbed 
tentacle-whips left, and one of the deadly mantis-like arms as 
well.  <And who knows what other tricks it has under those 
robes...>

"Ryouga!" she called.  "Remember what happened to Pantyhose!"

Several of the temple women looked at her with bewilderment, 
but Ryouga-chan understood immediately.  The only other time 
they'd seen the Reikoku at its third stage was when it had 
killed Pantyhose Tarou at Jusenkyou.  When Tarou had punched 
the creature, it had sucked his arm into the folds of its robe 
and chewed it up, like he'd shoved his fist down a giant 
blender.  Attacking it bare-handed at this point was too 
dangerous to risk.

Ryouga-chan gathered up Ukyou's battle spatula from the 
ground, and held it ready.  

When the Reikoku had captured the Lost Girl in the lash-like 
tentacles the first time, she had not been able to avoid them.  
But then, she had been lost to despair, convinced of her own 
inevitable defeat.  This time, her eyes were clear, her heart 
was pounding, and she had no intention of losing.  The spatula 
that she had sharpened to a razor-keen edge on the road 
flashed and whirled, severing the writhing whips as they 
snaked towards her.  Soon, the remaining tentacles fell to the 
ground, disappearing in black smoke where they lay.

"Come on!" Ryouga-chan shouted, advancing with the spatula 
ready to strike.

The Reikoku came.  It met the spatula mid-swing with its 
scythe claw, following up the parry with a murderous cut 
towards its prey's neck.  Ryouga-chan jerked away in time, 
taking a glancing slice across her shoulder.  Her counter 
slashed a chunk from the creature's robes.  

Ukyou's fingers dug into her palm as she watched this deadly 
dance unfold, back and forth between the monster and the one 
she loved.  Ryouga-chan trusted her endurance to see her 
through a fight like this, but would she be able to outlast 
something like the Reikoku?  <Surely after that ki-blast... 
I've never seen anything like that.  How much can that monster 
have left?>

It had plenty left, unfortunately.  It drove its sickle-arm 
towards Ryouga-chan in a downward cut that would have pinned 
the young fighter to the floor like a bug, had it hit cleanly.  
She brought the spatula up to take the blow, blocking with the 
wide, flat steel.  The Reikoku's arm punched through the 
metal, stopping an inch away from Ryouga-chan's chest.

The creature slashed, carving a furrow through the tempered 
steel until its mantis-claw came free.  It sliced again, 
catching the spatula in the grip and shearing clean through 
the shaft.  The mangled head of the weapon tumbled off, 
leaving Ryouga-chan only with a short length of steel.

"NO!" Ukyou screamed.

The Reikoku reared back for another attack.  Ryouga-chan, who 
had always lived by the principle that the best defense is a 
good offense, threw aside the useless fragment of metal and 
charged into the creature's assault.  Ukyou's breath caught in 
her throat as she saw Ryouga-chan draw back her fists to 
punch, terrified that she would see a repeat of the awful 
scene in Jusenkyou when Tarou had lost his arm within the 
creatures's black robes.

"KACHUU TENSHIN DONGURI-KEN!"

<Acorns roasting over an open fire,> Ukyou thought as she 
watched, and she let out a giddy laugh in spite of her terror.  
She understood now - while Ryouga had never quite managed to 
pull off the Amaguriken technique in male form, he had been 
very close.  Like Ranma, Ryouga-chan lost some strength as a 
girl but picked up an edge in speed.  That edge was enough to 
execute the attack.

Powerful fists struck with lightning speed, churning too fast 
for whatever trap lay inside the robes of the Reikoku to 
catch.  Instead, a crackling storm of impacts echoed through 
the arena as Ryouga-chan's fists slammed into the monster over 
and over.  

It took only a split-second for what happened next to unfold.  
Ryouga-chan saw it as well as she did - the rubbery, tube-like 
appendage that the Reikoku used to launch its cold water blast 
emerged from under the robe, while it hooked its scythe arm 
around behind Ryouga-chan's back.  It planned to blast her 
into the grip of the mantis-like claw, then shear her in half 
once it had her. Sensing this, Ryouga-chan dropped low, 
beneath the outstretched scythe, and unloaded a spinning kick 
with all her strength behind it.

The water blast and the punch connected as one.  Ryouga-chan 
and the Reikoku separated, both hurtling apart from the 
impact.  The Lost Girl slid along the stony floor of the arena 
in a sluice of freezing water, while the black-robed demon 
bounced and tumbled off the stone floor.

Ryouga-chan recovered her footing and wiped a slick smear of 
blood away from her cheek.  The edge of the sickle-arm had 
caught during the impact and given her a shallow cut along her 
scalp, slicing away her yellow-and-black bandana wrap.  Her 
drenched hair fell in black tendrils around her shoulders, and 
her eyes blazed with battle fury.

"This is it," she declared.  "All or nothing!"

<What's he gonna do?> Ukyou wondered, leaning forward.  

The Lost Girl's battle aura flared to life, fiery and red, yet 
tinged with the same golden radiance that had Ukyou had seen 
before.  Ryouga-chan squared herself to face the Reikoku, then 
drew back her right arm, extending a single finger.  "Final 
Combination Attack... BAKUSAI TEN-KETSU HAKYOKU!"

<The Breaking Point Cataclysm?> Ukyou thought.  <What's that?>

Ryouga-chan charged, running at a full sprint, leaning forward 
so far that if she tried to slow down she would surely fall.  
As she ran, her hand moved in a blur, pistoning into the 
ground at Amaguriken speeds.  With each strike, she triggered 
a Breaking Point, rocking the arena at the Temple of Three 
with a chain of immense explosions.  

Ukyou understood what she was seeing.  With the extreme angle 
at which Ryouga-chan was leaning, most of the shrapnel blast 
from the Breaking Point explosions hurtled forward, toward the 
Reikoku.  With her battle aura charged, the debris missiles 
burned with fiery energy, becoming what Ranma had dubbed a 
"meteor swarm."  

Ryouga-chan had used a single ki-charged Breaking Point 
against the Reikoku before, and true to its nature, the 
monster had developed a defense.  It extended a flap of 
membrane, not unlike a single bat wing, and shielded itself 
against the debris. Against one of these meteor swarms, or 
even a few of them, the shield of leathery flesh would have 
protected the demon.

But this wasn't a single blast - this was a maelstrom.  
Ryouga-chan's finger jabbed the ground, igniting explosion 
after deafening explosion at a jackhammer pace.  The tsunami 
of burning stone enveloped the Reikoku, shredding its shield-
wing in the fiery storm of shrapnel, then punishing its black-
robed body with an unbelievable torrent of fury.  The ground 
quaked and ripped away as Ryouga-chan charged, yet somehow she 
kept her footing as she hurtled herself towards her enemy, a 
volcanic eruption of searing missiles preceding her as she 
ran.  

Black robes ignited and gave way to the hail of fire.  Insect-
like armor crunched and buckled, and sharp shards of stone 
lanced through the body of the Reikoku.  The thing was lifted 
from the ground and carried backward by the unspeakable force 
of the Breaking Point Cataclysm.  

When Ryouga-chan finally reached her foe, the Reikoku was 
backed up against the outer wall of the arena.  With an 
inarticulate scream of rage, she launched herself at the 
battered creature, her gold-tinged battle aura roaring around 
her like an inferno.  The soaring uppercut she delivered 
blasted both of them clear through the stone outer wall of the 
Temple of Three, sending them hurtling into the forest beyond.  
Ukyou heard the splintering of tree trunks as the combatants 
plowed through the woodlands.

Ukyou ran forward, following the trail of devastation left in 
the path of Ryouga-chan's Breaking Point Cataclysm.  Behind 
her, the women of the temple coughed and spluttered in the 
clouds of smoke dust which had been kicked up in the wake of 
the attack, utterly stunned by the display of sheer power they 
had just witnessed.  Even veterans like Natsume and the High 
Priestess looked at the wreckage in the arena with open awe.  

Ukyou didn't care about them.  <He's won!> she thought, dizzy 
with triumph and indescribable relief.  The fear aura of the 
Reikoku had finally abated, changing from a furious black 
storm of terror to the low psychic hum of unease that the 
thing still exuded when it was dormant.  She made her way 
through the gap in the wall, following the trench through the 
forest that marked the trajectory of Ryouga-chan and the 
monster, and finally found the Lost Girl.

Ryouga-chan was a true fright to behold - covered head to toe 
in scrapes and lacerations, coated practically black with a 
paste made of dust, sweat, and smeared blood.  The Reikoku had 
opened dozens of wounds in the fight, and the Breaking Point 
Cataclysm had inflicted its own share of injuries as well with 
those stray bits of stone that had not flown towards the 
monster.  But when she saw Ukyou, the Lost Girl managed to 
wobble to her feet, leaning on a listing tree trunk for 
support.

"You WON!" Ukyou cried, hefting Ryouga-chan in her good arm.

The fanged girl hugged back, lacking the strength she had put 
into their previous embrace.  "Didn't know... if that... would 
work..." she wheezed.

"You tried an untested technique out in a fight like that?" 
the young chef chided, then laughed in glee.  "You moron!  You 
stubborn, crazy, reckless..."

"Thought... you said you... loved me..."

"I do," Ukyou agreed, tears streaming down her face.  "I do 
love you."

Ryouga-chan had barely enough strength to breathe right now, 
but she managed to whisper back:  "...love you, Ukyou."

"Ahem.  Excuse me..."

The two martial artists broke off their embrace to see who had 
spoken.  Standing before them on the shredded forest floor was 
the High Priestess of the Temple of Three, flanked by Tendou 
Natsume and several of the other Guardians.  "Shall we 
finish this up now?" asked Aoki Nariko.

Ryouga-chan leaned on Ukyou for support.   The two faced the 
High Priestess and waited.  

"You have proven yourself in combat," Nariko said, "and shown 
your worth to the Three who are One.  Do you swear now to 
fight the battles that must be fought, to stand against those 
who would cause us harm, and to live your lives in the service 
of the Goddesses of the Temple of Three?"

"I swear," Ukyou said, and Ryouga-chan whispered her oath as 
well.

The High Priestess nodded.  "Then let it be so.  By the grace 
of my ancestors, by the will of the heavens, in the honor of 
past and present and future... I welcome you, Guardians.  We 
welcome you, sisters."

"Welcome, sisters," the other Guardians echoed.

A hissing sound rose from the forest floor.  Ukyou and Ryouga-
chan turned with the others to watch as the prone form of the 
Reikoku, now nothing more than a tattered heap of black rags, 
began to dissolve into vapor.  Streamers of inky smoke curled 
into the air, then spread and vanished, until there was no 
trace left of the creature.  

"What... happened to it?" Ryouga-chan asked, then coughed.

"It no longer hunts you, sisters," Nariko explained.  "Now, it 
returns to the place where it was before, to resume its other 
hunt."

"Ranma..." Ryouga-chan wheezed.  "You have to... to tell 
him..."

Ukyou nodded vigorously.  "We have to get in touch with Ranma 
right now!"  She turned to Natsume.  "Can you reach him 
through the Tendous?"

Her fellow Guardian nodded.  "I'll head out at once.  The 
Temple of Three is protected by certain enchantments that 
create a field of interference, so I will need to travel some 
distance before I get to a point where a phone can work.  But 
we'll reach him and tell him what needs to be done.  Don't 
worry, Ukyou-san."  The tall girl favored her with a smile 
that was almost shy.  "Sister."

- - - - -

Ranma listened stoically to Nabiki's voice coming over the 
phone as she gave him the bad news. It really didn't come as a 
surprise. Somewhere, deep down, he knew that deliverance would 
not come so easily. An even deeper part of him didn't WANT to 
be saved by someone else. Though he would never say it out 
loud, especially to Akane, there was a part of him that wanted 
to fight the Reikoku to the finish, just to see if he could do 
what everyone seemed to believe could not be done.

Now, it looked like that fight would happen, no matter what.

"So wait," he said to Nabiki. "Let me make sure I got this 
straight. Ryouga and Ucchan are okay? It's stopped chasin' 
them?"

"Right," the middle Tendou said. "They have to be part of this 
secret temple now, and have some kinds of responsibilities to 
fulfill. Natsume was a bit vague on that, but the long and 
short of it is that they were freed from the Reikoku after 
defeating it for their initiation."

"But that won't work for me," Ranma said. "'Cuz I already beat 
it three times. Even if I went to this temple, I'd have to 
fight it a fourth time to get in."

"I'm afraid so." The normally cool Nabiki sounded genuinely 
miserable. "There'd be no point."

"I get it," the young Saotome said. He looked up at the sky, 
partially obscured by the overhang at the train station. "I'm 
glad."

"You're WHAT?"

"Glad that Ryouga and Ucchan got free," he said softly, 
thinking of his friends as he stared off into the distance. 
"Way to go, guys. You really came through."

He heard Nabiki clear her throat. "Yes, very wonderful for 
them. However, I think we ought to concentrate on your 
situation here. According to Natsume's information, the 
Reikoku rematerialized at the spot where you last fought it 
after those two finished their initiation rites. That happened 
about two days ago."

"Can you figure out how long before it gets to where we are 
now?" he asked.

She gave a little sniff. "Now that you've got a guide who can 
pinpoint where you are? No problem. Plotting that thing's 
course is easy - it moves at the same speed in a straight line 
for its target. According to my calculations, you have about 
three days lead on it. Fortunately, you're already at a train 
station, which makes it easy to plan your next move. There's a 
freight express that's supposed to run..."

"I'm not takin' a train," Ranma cut her off. "I'm not runnin' 
from that monster anymore."

Silence greeted this proclamation. He heard the little sounds 
of shuffling papers for a few moments. Then: "I'm sorry, I 
didn't quite catch that."

"Yes you did," Ranma remarked. "A few miles west there's some 
open forest. We're gonna head that way, find a good spot, and 
wait for that thing to come to us."

He could hear the seething tension in Nabiki's voice as she 
struggled to keep her voice even. "Ranma. Perhaps you've taken 
a blow to the head which has impaired your judgment. Might I 
remind you that you just fought the Reikoku?"

"I remember."

"Ah, I was beginning to wonder." Something clicked - probably 
Nabiki tapping her pen. "Then let me further remind you that 
you have not had time for any sort of training. And if my 
sister's report is accurate, you collapsed in a bloody heap 
after that conflict."

"I know I did."

"So it's too soon to fight it again!" Nabiki's composure began 
to crack. "You're going to need to get even stronger. You 
realize that, don't you?"

"I was holdin' back that last fight," Ranma assured her. "This 
time, I'm goin' all out."

"Oh, how comforting." Her tone was acid. "The kid gloves are 
off this time, then? Well, I shouldn't have worried."

"I know you don't believe me," he said, "but I have some aces 
to play. I don't intend to lose this fight."

"Nobody INTENDS to lose, Saotome!" she snapped. "Look... fine. 
You have some techniques you held in reserve. That's terrific. 
It still couldn't hurt to travel some more, and to get more 
training under your belt, right? Why are you in such a 
hurry..."

"What's the weather report say, Nabiki?"

A few seconds of quiet static greeted this question. "I don't 
see what that has to do..."

"Shampoo showed me a local paper," he interrupted. "Got a 
storm front coming out of Siberia that's gonna hit in a few 
days. It's likely to drop four or five feet of snow on us."

"It's just as likely to turn north and head out to sea."

"Maybe," Ranma agreed. "But I can't risk that. Even if this 
one doesn't get us, the next one will. Winter's gonna catch up 
with us one way or another. If we get caught in the mountains 
during a blizzard or somethin', the Reikoku may not have to 
kill us. I sure as heck won't be able to fight it worth a damn 
if it does catch up to us at a time like that..."

"Then go south," she suggested sharply. "Make like a goose, 
Ranma. Head for warmer regions."

"The farther south we go, the less good Shampoo can do us as a 
guide," he explained. "She ain't as familiar with the 
territory down there. But that ain't the real problem. If we 
strike south from here, we start to hit towns and cities. 
We're out of the backcountry and into populated territory."

Nabiki clicked her tongue. "So? That thing marched straight 
through Tokyo to get to you..."

"Causin' panic and accidents all the way," Ranma cut in. "It's 
a walkin' disaster, Nabiki, and if I lead it right through a 
city or somethin', it's on MY head if someone dies. I won't 
have anybody else die because of this creature. Not a 
stranger, not an enemy... most of all, not Akane."

"Akane," Nabiki repeated. "Yes. Think about her, Saotome."

"I am."

"No you're not! If you throw your life away by fighting that 
thing too soon, she's the one that suffers most." Her voice 
dropped to an accusing simmer. "I don't think you have any 
idea what she's gone through for you, Ranma."

Saotome Ranma turned his head to look towards Akane, who stood 
at a distance with Shampoo. He watched her as the sunlight 
danced across her face... watched how she shaded her eyes and 
brushed a strand of hair back into place. 

He thought about his friends. About Ukyou, with her white 
ribbon holding back her cascade of dark hair. He remembered 
how he had tried to teach her - how she had withered under his 
bullying approach at first, then blossomed into a true warrior 
when he had changed to building her confidence up instead of 
tearing her down. It was Ryouga who had shown him a 
different way of teaching martial arts, one that was better
than the unforgiving approach he'd learned by imitating 
his father. 

Ryouga the Lost Boy - Ranma could picture the fanged smile and 
the bandana with perfect clarity. Somehow, Ryouga had bounced 
back from the injuries he took in Jusenkyou to beat the 
Reikoku in its third incarnation. Ranma remembered how he had 
always teased his rival about being a chicken about women, 
about being less of a man than Ranma himself, because of 
Ryouga's shyness around girls. Now, he realized that he was 
the one who had been cowardly. Ryouga got tongue-tied 
expressing his feelings, but at least he wasn't afraid to FEEL 
them. He didn't hide from his own heart, like Ranma had for so 
long... hiding like a coward from his own love for Akane.

<Akane.> Just thinking her name made his heart beat faster 
now. Ranma could only imagine how hard she had worked to get 
so far in her martial arts. He wondered what it would be like 
to apply the lesson he learned from training Ukyou to living 
with Akane. How would she be if he stood behind her, instead 
of always getting in her way? What kind of person would she 
become if he gave her his support, his encouragement, his 
love... how would she flourish? How would she grow? For that 
matter, what kind of person would HE become?

He desperately wanted to find out. He could think of nothing 
he wanted more than to spend his life finding out.

"I know more than you think," Ranma told Nabiki.

Something in his voice gave her pause. "R... Ranma. Are you 
sure about this?"

"I'm sure," he said. "I'm takin' on this monster for the last 
time, Nabiki. And then I'm comin' home. I'm comin' home with 
Akane."

- - - - -

Ukyou had never felt less like moving, and it looked like 
Ryouga-chan was feeling about the same.  Tendou Kurumi moved 
enough for the both of them.  The pint-sized martial artist 
practically bounced off the walls as she orbited the infirmary 
chamber, chattering all the way.

"... see, if anybody had told us that the monster following 
you guys was the Reikoku," she bubbled, "then we maybe could 
have GUESSED it came from here! Nobody wanted to talk about 
it back home, though, and we didn't want to pressure anyone to 
talk because daddy and the others were all so anxious about 
it.  Anyway, me and sis hadn't been back here for, like, over 
a year or so.  If somebody had told us about the whole Master 
of Anything-Goes business, maybe we could've put two and two 
together..."

"How often do you have to come here?" Ukyou asked.  She was 
curious about what their new duties as Guardians entailed.  

The girl paused, then reversed direction and started pacing 
the other way.  "Oh, about every year or so.  Our old master, 
the one who taught us Elements of the Soul, she used to be a 
Guardian here, and we came back to see her more often when she 
was around.  It's good to check in to see if you have 
assignments, but so long as the priestesses can find you when 
they need you, it's okay..."

Ryouga-chan gave a little snort.  Ukyou smiled.  

"Hmm?" Kurumi asked.

"Nothing," Ukyou said, though she knew what Ryouga-chan had 
meant.  As the consummate wanderer, Hibiki Ryouga was not the 
easiest person to track down at a moment's notice.  Nor should 
these priestesses expect punctual check-ins from a person who 
could barely find her way out of a broom closet.  They 
might've picked up an exceptional fighter with Ryouga-chan as 
a Guardian, but the priestesses of the Temple of Three 
shouldn't hope for her to be around whenever they wanted.

<And yet...> she thought, <seems like he's always there when 
he's really needed.>  Ryouga had a tendency to appear at 
opportune times.  He'd been there for almost all of Ranma's 
most dangerous adventures, showed up when Ranma needed him 
after being weakened by Happosai's moxibustion, even managed 
to make it on time to a date with Akane... 

Ukyou frowned at the thought of Akane.  The heat of battle had 
died, the fires of passion had cooled, and now in the 
aftermath full of aches and mending bones, she was beginning 
to think about some of the things that had happened.  She 
still could barely believe that the Reikoku was really gone.  
The monster had been the driving force in her life for what 
seemed like an eternity.  Hard to accept that she didn't have 
to listen for the sound of frightened animals in the night 
anymore, ready to run for her life at a moment's notice from 
that merciless hunting thing.

Now, she was starting to think about more personal matters.

<I love Ryouga,> she affirmed to herself.  That was true - her 
heart told her no lies on that subject. 

But what of Ranma?  There, her thoughts were more ambiguous.  
Certainly, she still loved him - at least like a friend, 
perhaps a brother.  But part of her still wanted him as well, 
wanted her fiancee.  The boy who had taken her feminine 
identity away without knowing it, then given it back to her 
with a single word.  The rude, cocky, brash, smiling Ranma, 
the bottomless pit Ranma, the tender-hearted idiot Ranma... 

Being on the run, with her life on the line, had changed 
Kuonji Ukyou.  She could feel that in herself.  Living on the 
edge of death had a way of stripping away artifice, baring 
your heart in the heat of the moment.  Once certain truths are 
seen, it's hard to go back to being blind.

Truths like the ones Pantyhose Tarou had thrown in her face 
before leaving the group.  Ranma saw her as a friend, but 
never once on this long journey looked at her as anything 
more.

Truths like seeing his face when they found a phone and called 
back to Japan.  Seeing him light up when he heard Akane's 
voice coming across the line, seeing him try to hide it and 
fail.

Truths like knowing that respect, camaraderie, and trust were 
rare and precious things.  They were not the same as romantic 
love, but they were gifts to be cherished all the same.  You 
could lose those things by playing games with the heart too 
long, even with those who have faced death by your side.

The fact was, Ukyou realized, she just didn't like to lose.  
No good fighter did.  Once she'd decided to engage in the
Saotome Ranma challenge as one of his fiancees, her 
warrior's heart kept her going every bit as much as the 
feelings she bore for Ranma.  

She stole a look at Ryouga-chan, and caught the Lost Girl 
staring at her.  Ryouga-chan turned away, blushing, but leaned 
her shoulder into Ukyou a little more.

<I haven't lost,> she thought, grinning as she felt Ryouga-
chan's warmth through the bandages on her arms.  <Not at all.>

But she hadn't precisely won yet, either, she realized.  There 
was still this girl, Akari.  How did Ryouga feel about her?  
Surely after all the two of them had been through together, he 
couldn't still be pining for that pig farmer.  There was a lot 
they were going to need to sort out, after Ranma was saved 
from the Reikoku, after they had some time to be alone and let 
themselves think.  At least she didn't think there was a 
threat from Akane anymore regarding Ryouga...

<Boy, that chick had better get her damned act together,> 
Ukyou thought sourly.  As far as she knew, Akane was still 
loitering around Nerima, going to school and waiting for Ranma 
to overcome death and return to her.  Ukyou had learned enough 
about herself and Ranma to accept that he probably wanted 
Akane, and that she could live with that herself... but that 
didn't make her happy with the girl.  <If she's going to be 
the one for Ranchan, she'd better get off her ass and make 
something out of her life.  This crap of sitting on the 
sidelines while he fights has got to stop.  I'll beat some 
sense into her if I have to.>

She considered Ryouga-chan again, wondering if the Lost Girl's 
thoughts were tumultuous as her own.  Ryouga-chan seemed to 
feel her gaze, and cracked her eyes open to look back at 
Ukyou.

"I'd kill for a hot bath right now," the fanged martial artist 
whispered.

Ukyou sighed and patted her on the shoulder.  "You and me 
both, sugar," she assured her.  Given that Ryouga-chan had to 
stay female while she was in the Temple of Three, a hot bath 
was out of the question.  Cool water and warm compresses only 
went so far.  Ukyou had felt so bad for Ryouga-chan that she 
couldn't bring herself to go for a soak while her companion 
stayed high and dry.

"There are hot baths here," Kurumi began, then remembered.  
"Heh... yeah, that curse thing.  Stupid me.  I guess it could 
be worse, right?  You could turn into an animal, like Mr. 
Saotome.  He seems to like it as a panda, though.  He goes to 
work as a panda, you know."

"He's got a job?" Ukyou was mildly shocked. The fabulously 
lazy Saotome Genma, actually working... it seemed so 
incongruous. 

"Is he working for Dr. Tofu again?" Ryouga-chan asked. Ukyou 
was surprised to hear that Genma had worked before. She 
suspected he'd been fired for stealing something.

"No," Kurumi said. "For Nabiki."

Ukyou started in surprise.  "Wait... Nabiki has that fat old 
loser working in MY restaurant?"

Kurumi nodded.  "As a panda."

"He'll eat my stock!" she protested angrily.  "What's she 
paying him?"

Kurumi shrugged.  "I think he's doing it as a favor.  Anyway, 
Miss Sanae is supposed to keep an eye on him to make sure he 
doesn't steal any food."

"The chimp? Has Nabiki gone INSANE?" The young chef clutched 
her head.  "It's supposed to be a restaurant, not a zoo!"

"Miss Sanae's very responsible," Kurumi insisted.  "And Mr. 
Saotome just does the cleaning up.  It's so Nabiki and Konatsu 
can have some time away from work together."

"Time away... together?"  It felt like someone kept pulling 
the rug out from under Ukyou's world.  "You mean like... 
dates?"

The fiery girl gave her a huge grin and a thumb's-up.

"Man," Ukyou muttered, reeling.  "You get chased around for a 
demon for a few months and the whole world turns upside-down."  
Something occurred to her.  "Hey... you were in Nerima.  Do 
you know why Shampoo shaved her head?"

"Oh, that!" Kurumi chirped.  "Yeah, well what happened is..."

Just then, a figure appeared at the door to the infirmary.  
Ukyou and Ryouga-chan turned to see Tendou Natsume entering, 
still dusty from the road in her traveling gear.  A harrowed 
look haunted the tall girl's eyes, and Ukyou felt her stomach 
tighten.  

"What?" the okonomiyaki chef asked.  "Did... did you reach 
Ranma?"

Natsume rubbed her forehead.  "He's... he's already defeated 
the Reikoku in its third incarnation," she told them.  

Ukyou and Ryouga-chan looked at each other in surprise, then 
dawning realization.  "Wait," the Lost Girl said, "if he's 
done that... then even if he comes here to become a member 
Guardian..."

"... then there's no point," Ukyou finished.  "He'll still 
have to fight it in its last form for the initiation!"  

"I fear it's so," Natsume said.

"That's... that's not RIGHT!" Ryouga-chan shouted.  "Can't 
you... can't you count the fights he already won or 
something?"

The adopted Tendou shook her head.  "I'm sorry.  If we could 
do that, we would have done it for you. This is enchantment 
we're dealing with here, sisters.  The rules must be observed, 
or it will not work."

"DAMN the stupid rules!" Ukyou cried, feeling tears stinging 
her eyes.  Pain shot through her arm as she rose to her feet 
too suddenly, but she didn't care.  "There has to be something 
we can do!"

Ryouga-chan stood beside her, still weak from exhaustion but 
burning with determination.  "We're going."

"What?"

The fanged girl stepped forward.  "Me and Ukyou are going to 
Ranma in China.  I don't know what we can do, but we're not 
going to leave him like that."

Natsume looked at each of them and saw the same resolve on 
their faces.  She gave the barest of nods.  "All right," she 
said.  "Let me speak to the priestesses.  The temple has 
resources, and this matter still rests on our shoulders.  
We'll help.  We'll find some way to help Saotome Ranma."

- - - - - -


                    end of part seventeen...

-----------------------------------------------------------
                      AUTHOR'S NOTES
-----------------------------------------------------------


COMING SOON:  The last showdown...

COPYRIGHT STUFF:  All the Ranma characters belong to Takahashi 
Rumiko, and are licensed in America by Viz Communications.    

GRT - April 2005
Thunderstruck_comic@comcast.net

All existing chapters of this story may be found at:
http://www.talesfromthevault.com/relentless





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