-------------------
CHAPTER THREE
	
Furinkan High. 12:00 midnight. Something crashed into the school’s roof. 
A cry of pain. 
Stillness.
Ryouga clutched at his head; feeling the large red lump that had formed. He
never realized how hard the roof was.
	"Who the hell went to the trouble of having a steel reinforced roof?!"
wondered Ryouga.
	His mind gave him an idea.
	It had been a year since he had left for the Tendo bathroom. For the usual
reason, he ended  up swimming this large body of water and being abducted by
mermaids and nearly married to one. Then he wandered into this large forest
somewhere where the inhabitants were women as fierce as Shampoo could ever
be on a bad day.
	Then he got lost in somewhere called the Arctic. Lucky for him an old man
took him in  and showed him the proper way out of that place-- after he had
sufficiently regained his strength to travel. Dying there was not an idea he
wanted to entertain. After his near brush with death, he had managed to find
some work at a traveling circus in Greenwick or something like that. 
	He was home now, at least. Not the way he had expected to arrive but it was
most preferable than doing it his usual way. He shook his head; trying to
reorient himself. He cursed the elephant that did this to him. He wondered
just  how many other people kept pets like that. Of course, he could name
quite a few -- most notably, Kodachi with her pet, Midorigame. Coming to
Nerima certainly was certainly far from being boring.
	Now, only if he could find some way of getting out of this building before
somebody finds him.
	
	Some hours later...
	"Argh!" cursed Ryouga. "How the hell am I supposed to get out of this place!"
	Eeeiiiyahhhh!!!
	"Huh?"
	The wall to his left exploded. The force of the blast threw him straight
through another wall.
	"Argh!" yelled Ryouga angrily.
	He extracted himself out of the rubble  and stared at the gaping hole
before him. A small figure rushed out of that hole and crashed straight into
him.
	"Yahhh!!"
	"Oomph!!"
	Ryouga opened his opened his mouth to address the child but his instincts
suddenly took over his body. Ryouga grabbed the child and leapt away.
	Kablammm!!!
	Nothing remained of where he had stood a moment ago. The very floor had
been turned into a pool of burning concrete.
	"What the hell---"
	He leapt away once more and again as something tried to finish him off.
Still, due to his uncanny battle instincts and speed, he managed to save
himself and the girl from being hurt. Whoever it was very powerful and he
wasn't really up to tangling with it right now.
	A shadowy figure walked out of the fire raging in the room. Ryouga sucked
in his breath at the monstrosity that loomed before him. The thing was over
eight feet high and had shoulders wide enough for two bulls and a body that
was heavily muscled.
	Ryouga gulped; wondering how the heck he was going to fight the thing.
	It raised its right arm and points a taloned finger at him. "Release the
child now and leave, kid. You are not my concern. Leave or perish."
	"No." he told the thing. "What! What the hell was he doing!" he asked
himself. The guy was giving him a chance to flee but he refused it?
Still........
	He looked at the small girl cradled in his arms.  The innocence in the
child's face. No! He could not abandon this girl to this guy! That would be
criminal!
	He made up his mind.
	Without warning, Ryouga launched himself and the girl straight for a
concrete wall.
	"Blast Point Technique!"
	The wall suddenly exploded outward in a hail of twisted metal and rubble.
	Ryouga landed neatly on the ground, three floors down and lay the girl
gently down on a nearby tree. He looked up to see the thing punch out of the
building and landing before him. Blood-red eyes stared at him with hate.
	"Fool! I gave you the chance yet you do not take it! You really are as
stupid as you look!"
	Anger filled him. Ryouga leapt towards the monster and unleashed a barge of
punches at the monster. It evaded his clumsy attacks with little effort and
drove his large fist into Ryouga's undefended middle.
	The air in his lungs was suddenly forced out by the blow he had received.
He clutched at his stomach and found himself open for the things other fist.
Ryouga tried unsuccessfully to block  it but its strength was too much even
for him to absorb. He was flung high up into the air and landed heavily onto
the unrelenting pavement.
	"Ugh!" He coughed up a generous amount of blood. "Damn!" swore Ryouga "It's
a lot stronger than I had suspected. But it'll take a lot more than punches
to stop me." he said quietly.	
	He stood up with little difficulty. He winced a little from the blow to his
middle and face but aside from that, he was okay. 
	"Hey! We're not through yet, creep!" he yelled.
	He charged forward. The monster smiled savagely. He struck with a vicious
uppercut  and connected with nothingness. Ryouga cursed himself for his
stupidity. Not only was this monster strong; he was also very agile.
	"Heh! Two can play that came." He told his enemy. 
	His instincts warned him of danger from behind. Ryouga evaded with inhuman
quickness. He suddenly comes up behind his opponent and struck a hundred
blows all across the monsters spine. He then follows up with a triple kick
across the man’s knees, lower back and neck regions. 
	The thing cried out in agony. However, this only served to fuel the
monster's hatred and anger. The thing slammed its arms against his ribs,
grabbed his neck, and proceeded to land heavy blows to his chest. Having
lost interest in making ‘special Ryouga’ okonomiyaki out of the boy, he
flung him towards a convenient stone wall.
	Ryouga winced at the blows but it did little damage due to his rather
intensive training sessions with the old man he had met during his trip to
the Arctic. Thanks to the old man, his strength and endurance had increased
by ten folds. But it didn't mean he was invulnerable to its blows. He
uttered a croak as he extricated himself out of the dent he made on the wall. 
	He charged.
	Ryouga spinkicked the monster but its massive arm blocked it. Another hand
grabbed hold of his feet and flung him onto another wall. Another large
depression forms where he had made contact with the wall. Ryouga leapt out
of the way as a bright object hurtled straight at him. It instantly turned
the wall into dust. 
He cursed out loud. It was far stronger than he had first imagined it to be.
He smiled inwardly. It was time to see just how strong he was.
	Ryouga charged the monster, brought his new umbrella out for the first
time. It looked contemptuously at his choice of weapons. Ryouga opened it
and flung it at an angle towards his opponent. It evaded it easily. Ryouga;
meanwhile had just released a few of his bandannas at it. It evaded them all
with relative ease.
	It laughed inwardly. The fool really was so stupid to think ordinary wea...
	"Arrrghhhh!!" it screamed, feeling his back was on fire.
	The umbrella Ryouga had thrown earlier had completed its turn and struck at
the monster's unprotected black. But that wasn't what made it cry out so. A
faint aura, barely visible, surrounded it. Other objects struck him
repeatedly as well. It roared its pain. Its body was bruised and bleeding
all over. Each stung him like burning ice.
	Red eyes sought him out. It leapt straight for him. Unable to dodge very
quickly, Ryouga found himself pinned down. Arms clamped on his throat as the
monster proceeded to choke him to death.
	"Die you little bastard." it spoke to him. "I'll enjoy taking your soul
away  from your body. You've caused me so much pain in so short a time. You
will be sorry you've decided to cross me."
	The monster's laugh was horrible.
	Ryouga used all his might but failed to disengage the arms on his throat.
Black specks began to appear in his field of vision. Realizing the terrible
situation he was in, he had no choice but to make use of the technique he
had  mastered. It was a last ditch effort in his part but he had to do
something to stop the creature from choking the life out of him.
	"Damn! I'd rather eat Akane's cooking for life than handle this damn
creature!" Ryouga prayed to the spirits for ever making that undue comment
on Akane’s cooking.
	
* * * * *  


	Akane was merrily peeling --  was merrily trying to peel potatoes – when
she suddenly sneezed. 
	"Bless you, Akane." Kasumi said unthinkingly.
	Akane wondered just who was talking about her. She was sure Ranma was still
unconscious after she hit him with the mallet just a few moments ago.

* * * * * 
	

Ryouga pooled all of his negative emotions into his hands. The monster had
little time to ponder what the boy was doing when a wave of pure ‘chi’
blasted the monster squarely on its chest. 
Ryouga saw it rise slowly a few yards away. "Damn! That thing’s tougher than
an old boot!" he said to himself. Ryouga felt it was time to use another of
his technique against it.
	‘Chi' enveloped Ryouga in  a yellow field. He thrust his hands up into the
air and cupped them above his head. A bright sphere began to form in his
cupped hands as the yellow aura around him started bleeding into the sphere
he had created. Sweat beaded  his forehead at the level of concentration
that it took him to even contain the sphere in his hands.
	Unlike his previous Shishi hokoudan attacks, this was not fueled by anger.
It was fueled more by his mind and spirit. It was different from any martial
arts attacks but it  worked. One good thing at least come out from his
travels. Still, it took time charging up.
	The monster's eyes went wide by what he was seeing. *Impossible! This human
was capable of tapping his very 'wal.'* he gasped. 
Such a thing was extremely dangerous. And even if this human was only a
beginner, it was obvious he had raw power. Time to let this upstart feel the
full fury of his own power.
	Ryouga steeled himself as a torrent of energy crashed into him with
tremendous force. He used all his knowledge and whatever power he had left
to block it.
	"Arrgh!!!!!" he cried out as it seared his body. The pain was intense. He
felt ready to collapse-- or in this case, die. A vision of Akane formed in
his mind. It was the same image he saw before when he was fighting against
one of the Dragon Prince's men. Ryouga snarled. He would never allow it! Never!
	Even with his body wracked  by the pain of the attack, Ryouga’s battered
form stood up. He glowed a partial red-yellow before it flared into a
red-gold color.
	He raised his arms once more. 
	Suddenly, the sphere flared to life once more. It glowed brightly as a sun.
He smiled grimly. Ryouga tossed his attack like a baseball player. The
glowing sphere accelerated towards its target.
	"Take this! Full Shishi hokoudan Spherical Blast!"
	The sphere raced to its intended victim. The monster’s eyes went wide with
astonishment as the small sphere raced towards him. It tried vainly to
shield itself but the power of Ryouga's attack simply broke down the hastily
raised shields.
	"Nooooooo......"
	Ryouga shielded his eyes from the blast. He waited for a minute before
risking  opening his eyes once more. What he saw  made him gasp out loud.
Nothing had remained of  the monster. He stared dumbly at the cratered
surface of the school yard.
	He felt like laughing, only problem was he was too weak to even manage a
smile. This confrontation allowed him to glean some useful knowledge. This
particular form of the Lion Roar Bullet was also susceptible to his anger.
No other explanation was possible for the amount of power he had unleashed.
Not even the old Full Shishi Hokoudan did such damage.
	He had to be careful, for the new attack was also capable of killing its
target. He sighed. Too bad. He had intended to use it first on Ranma.
	*Oh well. Life has always been full of these little disappointments.* he
muttered under his breath.
	He suddenly collapsed on the ground as the last of his strength left his
body. The last thing before unconsciousness came over him was the sound of
sirens approaching the school.

* * * * * 
	
	
	Ranma jumped down from the fence as Akane tried to slow down but
inadvertently crashed onto Ranma's back. Ranma was about to yell at her for
her clumsiness but was suddenly interrupted by their classmates who swarmed
all over them.
	"Hey! What's going on?" questioned Ranma to them as he saw an ambulance
leave the gates.
	Various students swarmed around the two to answer.
	"Somebody trashed our school last night!"
	"Cool huh?"
	"Does that mean classes are suspended?"
	"The place looked like something from that Independence Day flick the
Americans cooked up."
	"ID4!" someone gasped. 
	"Say, did you guys find out the cause of it." another student thought to
ask before their discussion wandered too far off.
	"Nope."
	"Jerky security guy...."
	"....kept shoving us..."
	".....out..." finished Hiroshi.
	"Anyone seen anything then?" Ranma asked this time.
	"Yeah! I  managed to take a peek before I was seen. Saw the place like it
was hit by bombs or something! Lotsa holes and broken stuff all around the
whole place."
	"....top it all of, Ryouga was seen lying unconscious out in the field."
	"Still, strangest thing would be the fire that broke out at the infirmary."
	A students nodded in agreement.
	"No cause to explain it!" Spoke a student.
	"What about Ryouga?" Ranma asked, concerned.
	"Well, the who---huh?... Ryouga... Well, they're bringing him to the
hospital to treat his wounds."
	"Wounds?" gasped Akane.
	The student nodded his head. "Yep. Poor ol' Ryouga had a lot of burn marks
on him. From the looks of it, Ryouga tangled with something out in the field."
	"Any sign of who did it?" Ranma wanted to know but felt it a useless
gesture since the culprit would have found little reason to stay.
	"Is it that bad?" Akane asked in a worried tone which, to Ranma, sounded
VERY concerned.
	The student who had answered her shook his head. "Not really. From what I
overheard before they took him away was that his wounds appear more serious
than it looked."
	"Meaning?" Ranma was intrigued by this. Ryouga was a hard man to put down.
And whoever did this was extremely good.
	"I don’t know. If you want to know anything more about what happened to
him, best talk to the clinic doctor. He was the first to check on Ryouga
before any paramedics arrived."  
	"Too bad." a female student sighed. "He’s so handsome!"
	"What about the kid?" Ranma asked.
	"What kid?" asked a student.
	Ranma stared at the guy in shock. Once he managed to collect his wits about
him, he ran into the school. Upon entering it, he was forcefully grabbed by
a powerful arm. He turned to face a police officer. His eyes widened at the
size of the guy. It almost made Taro look diminutive in comparison.
	"Whad'ya think yer going, shrimp?" it asked in a loud voice. One that made
Ranma almost deaf.
	It took Ranma a bit to clear his ears of its ringing. 
*Cripes! The man's got a foghorn for a damn voice.* Ranma winced at the
ringing in his ears.  "I came to ask about what's happened to the girl that
was supposed to be in there." He asked politely as he pointed to the general
direction of the small two-story building housing the new clinic. 'course,
it wasn't much of a clinic now with those holes and burns on its second floor.
	"There ain't no kid there, shrimp. Only a nurse who won't even talk to me."
he told Ranma rather gruffly.
	*Probably because she was scared of you, buster.* Ranma thought. "You got
to be wrong." Ranma said out loud. "I brought a kid there yesterday. We were
supposed to pick her up today, you jerk." shouted Ranma, losing his temper.
	The man looked ready to teach him some important points in mannerism when a
voice behind the man interrupted it. "Put the boy down, Frankie."
	The guard complied with the request -- though a tad bit hesitant. The man
behind the hulking brute was a doctor whom he recognized.
	"Ranma, my boy. In trouble again as usual." the doctor said wryly. "Don't
you have enough having to deal with  Akane?" He laughed. "Well, never mind."
	"Uh.. the girl, Dr. Itaizu?"
	"That, my boy, I cannot answer. She isn't in any of the rooms nor is she
under all the rubble upstairs. I have not a single clue as to her current
whereabouts." The doctor stared sadly at the charred remains of the clinic.
"Poor girl."
	"Well, I'm going to find her. I have a feeling she may be in trouble."
decides Ranma.
	He leapt gracefully into the air, using the big brute's head  as a
springboard to launch himself even higher. He landed on the outer wall of
the school and proceeds to hop rooftop to rooftop in search of the
mysterious little girl.
	"RANMA! WAIT!" Akane called out in alarm. "Ranma."

* * * * * 


	A shadowed figure watched the school from a nearby rooftop. For so long has
this person sought out the girl. The only thing that remained now was to
find where she had  run off too.
	The person waited a minute more before leaping away in search of the girl
as well.

* * * * * 


	The young girl walked the streets of Nerima with a small hand-drawn map in
her hands. She stared at it and checked her location. She smiled. A few more
blocks to go before she reached her destination. The Tendo Dojo.
	Now, if she could only figure out what the name of the street she needed to
take from under all that catsup stain on the map.....

===================
This is the end of this part

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