Ryoga ½
by George Masologites
guilds@mail.serve.com [Hunter Kid]
© 07/16/1997  All Rights Reserved
6
The Price of Wishing

    "You want to train your physical side?  What for?"
    "Spirit magic is all well and good," Ryoga growled to the slender
Ryako, "but if it comes down to it, I cannot lose my edge with my weapons
and attacks."
    Ryako rolled her eyes, shaking her head.  "Ryoga, what in the world
could happen so that physical strength could ever triumph over magical
strength?"
    He fixed her with his dark eyed gaze.  "Are you willing to help me
practice with my fighting skills, or not?"
    The girl laughed.  "I will, but I still think it's a waste of time."
    "Yeah?"  Ryoga snarled, enraged, fighting to keep his calm and not lose
his hold on spirit.  "Tell you what.  We fight it out until knockout or one
of us yields.  Agreed?"
    Ryako looked him over thoughtfully, but he had kept enough of his calm
that his spirit barrier that barred her from reading his thoughts was still
fixed firmly in place, and the girl sighed in defeat.  "If you want," she
gave in, shrugging.  "Why, though?  You know there's no way you can defeat
me."
    "Since you seem so confident, I'll let you attack first," Ryoga stated,
forcing himself to a complete calm state, smiling grimly as he felt the
cold flows of spirit in him, swirling through his blood.  He bowed
gracefully, not a formal bow before a match, but an extravagant bow, as
gentlemen did before ladies sometimes, then relaxed and stood there, the
spirit energies flowing like a torrent of icy water through him.
    She figured he was up to something, but as he had shielded his mind,
she had no idea what.  Now I wish I hadn't agreed to train him, no matter
how good he's turning out to be, she thought with a slight grunt.  Why
couldn't he have been skilled with fire, as I had originally thought?  That
would have given him his precious fighting skills, and she would still have
been able to read his mind.
    Now that she was barred from it, she realized just how useful that
talent was.
    He's using spirit, I can sense that much, she noted.  He's going to go
all out, after all.  But he didn't know the brain pressure points for pain,
and he probably wasn't foolish enough to try for an attack like that,
anyway, after she had warned him.  So if he's using spirit...
    ...the best offense is stone.  She concentrated and forced a link
between her and the rocky ground beneath Ryoga's feet, and flicked her
finger, commanding the earth to split.  The ground did as it was commanded,
ripping apart into large chasm under Ryoga, which he leaped to one side of,
barely avoiding falling into the newly created crack in the ground.  Now
for the fire.  She felt the powerful current of the fire element within
her, burning, making her feel twice as alive.  Don't kill him, she warned
herself, just hurt him enough so he won't try any fool stunt like this again.
    She focused on air in front of her, creating an image of the wall of
flame; the same one she had used last time.  She opened her eyes and
released the fire...or tried to.  
    "What the...?"  Her eyes flared with surprise and outrage.  The fiery
torrent still rushed through her veins, strong as before, but she couldn't
channel it towards Ryoga.  She stared at him uncomprehendingly, as he stood
about ten feet away from her, wrapped in the dead calm necessary to draw
spirit.  "I must have made a mistake," she grunted, not managing to
convince herself as she tried vainly to force the wall of flame to form.
    "Surprised?"  Ryoga growled, pulling his umbrella off from it's holder
on his back, bounding towards her with a speed she suddenly found stunning,
not having her magic to defend herself.  What was going on?
    She barely managed to rip her jen free from her belt before Ryoga's
umbrella would have crushed her skull.  The sword smashed against the thick
metal-reinforced umbrella with a resounding clang.  Ryoga shouted
triumphantly as he twirled and delivered a powerful side kick to her
unguarded left side, knocking her backwards, slightly dazed.  Ryoga had
been right, she realized.  Magic had made her physical skills rusty.
    He jumped at her again, swinging his heavy bamboo umbrella towards her
head.  She stumbled backwards, bringing her sharp-edged jen at the last
moment, knocking his overhead chopping attack only partly aside, as the
umbrella smacked solidly against her left shoulder.  She grasped her
sword's hilt with a desperate grip, barely managing to regain her balance
as Ryoga lashed out with his weapon once again.  She parried it, the flat
of her sword kicking the umbrella off to one side, and she gave Ryoga a
quick roundhouse aimed for his ribs.
    The attack never hit.  Ryoga swung his powerful arm downward, smashing
the umbrella into her leg, knocking her into a haze of pain, her instincts
parrying Ryoga's forceful umbrella strikes until one of them hit its mark,
landing a bone-crushing blow onto her ribs, and as she fell into welcomed
oblivion, she thought she heard a rib snap.   
    
    Ryako suddenly sat up.  "W-was I dreaming that?"  She wondered, feeling
a sharp pain flash through her side, which had a series of carefully placed
white bandages wrapped carefully around it.  "I guess not," she grunted
sourly.  
    Night had fallen, she realized, looking around, feeling the cool
evening breeze and the crackle of a fire nearby.  She glanced over, and
Ryoga smiled slightly up at her, then went back to doing...something.  It
looked like he was fiddling with a small block of oak wood with a steel
dagger.
    "Y-you put this on here...Ryoga?"  She asked him hesitantly, touching
her bandaged side gingerly.
    "I owed you from before," he stated simply, not looking up from his
carving.
    She paused.  "Thank-you," she said, the words coming awkwardly to her
lips as she lay back down on her makeshift bed that Ryoga had taken from
her tent; it was really just a thin strip of cloth with a bulge at one end
that served as a pillow.  
    "Ryoga?"
    "Yes?"
    "How did you do that?"  She asked him slowly, in a voice not accustomed
to asking questions, but knowing the answers.  "You blocked my power..."
The girl gazed over at his sitting form expectantly.
    "It was quite simple, really," Ryoga said in an emotionless tone.
"Since you had never fought someone else that used magic before, I knew you
wouldn't have thought of it.  It's like a spirit barrier, except it bars
exit, not entry."
    So that's what had happened.  She shook her head disbelievingly,
staring up at the clear night sky.  It was so simple, just like Ryoga said,
and she had never even suspected it.  She was really starting to wish he
had turned out to be skilled at fire.
    She turned her had slightly to look at Ryoga.  His attention was
occupied with his carving, and he took no notice of her.  He was wearing
his usual garb - a worn sleeveless yellow-white jerkin tucked into dark
green trousers bound at the calves with dark cord.  Sitting in a relaxed
position, with his legs crossed, his eyes were hidden, encased in shadow by
his thick eyebrows in the dim firelight.  Whatever it was he was making,
his fingers flew over the block of wood skillfully, slowly shaping it.
    Ryako's eyes unfocused, her mind lost in thought.  This boy - this
novice to the magical arts - how could he have defeated her?  She had a
near-perfect mastery of all of the elements, he had not even a week's worth
of training in one element.  Was he really that skilled in spirit?  Or had
he just gotten lucky?
    She had the feeling it was a mixture of the two.  Even if he was more
skilled than she was in a specific element, he didn't have the knowledge to
use it like she did.  He had exploited what he knew to be her weakness; as
he had assumed she had never fought a magical opponent before.  That wasn't
quite true - in fact, she had been attacked by marauders several months
after she had gained the magic, and their leader had some puny, rough
control over the fire element, which he wasn't even skilled enough in to
throw a fireball with.  Rather, he had used it to make his sword blaze with
flame.  
    Ryako still remembered that fight in vivid detail.  The leader of the
marauders didn't want to take her alive; he wanted to chop her up and take
her belongings.  He had apparently taken a liking to her well-crafted jen.
He drew a miniscule amount of fire and linked it with his sword, making it
flare up and burn with a yellowish flame.  She had laughed and drawn her
own sword, channeling fire into it as he did with his.  She had swung the
white-hot sword, and a bolt of pure fire flew off from the jen's blade,
engulfing the marauder and searing him terribly.  After that, she had
contemptously wrapped a gust of wind around him and caused it to swirl,
ripping open his flesh, and leaving him a bloody mess on the ground, still
breathing.  She had then left; she had no idea whether he had survived.
    But he had been a nothing but a fool who thought he could use fire
against her.  She had certainly never fought someone skilled with spirit
before.  From the memories and lore she had gained from the Blessed Spring,
she also knew that even in ancient times, rare as skilled mages were born,
ones skilled in spirit had been few and far between; generally only one or
two in a whole generation of thousands of people.  Such as it was, those
one or two people were treasured in the magic society and highly praised
for their abilities, even more so than their counterparts.
    Ryako had never particulary liked spirit.  As sort of a carry-over from
her previous life without the magics, she liked being able to do physical
things with her power.  As a result, fire was her preferred element.
Another advantage to fire being that it could be used - generally used
better - when angry, which made it the best 'battle element,' stone coming
close behind.  Stone, while also was used with more power while angry or
frustrated, was an element that was basically unsuited for battle.  Chasms,
like she had used against Ryoga, were of little use, as the opponent could
easily see the earth starting to rip apart and jump backwards.
    She looked over at Ryoga again, who held his spirit barrier in place,
blocking her mind from his, perhaps unconsiously, now.  The oak wood in his
hands had become a detailed carving of what appeared to be a lark resting
on a tree branch, and still his dagger moved, carefully, intricately
cutting the wood, molding it.
    A gentle night breeze whispered through the camp, stirring her shoulder
length reddish hair slightly.  The slender girl leaned back against the
makeshift pillow with a sigh, wishing she knew what Ryoga was thinking.

    Ranma strode on top of the fence, his expression thoughtful, still
wondering in the back of his mind if he would ever meet the other Spring of
the Drowned Girl, the Nyaniichuan, victim.  He was on his way to Ukyou's,
for lunch.  There was no school today; it was some ridiculous excuse for a
holiday that the Principal had called, but it was the worst kept secret in
Nerima that every so often the Principal would use their school's entire
budget to go to Hawaii.  The students didn't particularly mind, and neither
did the teachers, since when the Principal got back, they all bullied him
into paying their salaries.
    He had experienced one of the strangest dreams last night.  He had been
fighting Ryoga, and had cruelly annihilated him and left him for dead, then
Ryoga had vanished and he had been...blacked out.  His mind as suddenly
shut down, and he had drempt of unconsciousness.  When he had awoken, he
found himself at the bottom of a familar path - the mountain trail leading
into Jusenkyo valley.  He had tried to flee the horrible place, but the
trail had vanished, locking him into the valley.  When he had stepped
forward to look around, he had suddenly tripped and had fallen into a
spring that hadn't been there a moment previous.  When Ranma had surfaced,
he was in his girl form, as he had expected, and suddenly, beside him, a
hot spring had appeared.  He had stepped into it, expecting to feel the
sensation of his transformation back into a male...and nothing had happened.
    The terror that had gripped him was unbelievable.  He had been stuck as
a girl!  Did falling in the same spring twice do that to you?  He wondered,
making a mental note to ask Jeikar about it.  And then, in the same dream,
he had an awful feeling of falling into a faint.  And then he had sat up in
his bed, covered in sweat.
    He shuddered thinking about it.  "I'm never going back to Jusenkyo," he
told himself firmly.  "That could never happen."  He cleared his mind of
the unwelcome thoughts as he walked into the entrance of Ukyou's
resturaunt, Ucchan's.
    For a holiday at lunch time, it was strangely empty.  There was only
one or two people sitting in the main room of the resturaunt, and the room
itself seemed strangely darkened.  Ranma looked around and saw blinds on
most of the windows, and wondered what was going on.
    He peered through the oddly opressing shade and saw a familiar face;
Jeikar, who sat at a table with the only other two people in the room,
talking quietly.  Upon spotting Ranma, Jeikar grinned and waved him over.
Ranma shrugged.  Maybe Jeikar could fill him in on what had happened here.
    "This's Ranma Saotome," Jeikar introduced him to the two other people
sitting at the table with him.  The first one, a thin dark-haired young
man, Ranma recognized as Daisuke, his classmate.  The other was a whiplike
Chinese fellow with deeply slanted eyes and somewhat spiky black hair whom
Ranma didn't think he'd seen before, but looked oddly familiar.
    "Hiya, Ranma," Daisuke greeted him, grinning.  He jerked his thumb
towards the guy with the spiky hair.  "That's Kai Ch'entao."  Ranma didn't
recognize his name, and decided that he probably didn't know him after all.
    The whiplike young man, Kai, nodded to Ranma in a friendly fashion.
"I'm visiting from China; staying with my friend Jeikar," he stated,
speaking almost perfect Japanese with a slight accent, barely noticible.
    "Er...nice to meet you," Ranma said hesitantly, concerned - he didn't
see Ukyou anywhere.
    "Likewise," Kai responded, and went back to eating a small bowl of
ramen with a pair of chopsticks.
    Jeikar sighed.  "I see you're wondering where my boss Ukyou is," he
noted.  "She had a fever this morning when she woke up, so I told her that
I'd take care of the place, but she told me to keep it closed, but gave me
permission to take a couple friends in."
    Ranma frowned.  "Is the fever bad?  Maybe I should take a look at her..."
    His friend shook his head.  "She'll be fine.  She just needs a bit of
rest, that's all."
    Ranma had the uncomfortable feeling that Jeikar was holding something
back, but decided not to say anything.  "Well, that's good," he said
blandly, taking a seat in the wide bench next to Jeikar.  "You don't mind
if I sit down?"  
    "Of course not," Jeikar grinned slightly at him.  "Actually, we were
just talking about you when you walked in.  Speak of the devil, eh,
Daisuke?"  He smirked.
    Daisuke chuckled, and Jeikar went on.  "Soon as I mentioned your name
in passing, Daisuke said he knew you."  He glanced at Daisuke, who nodded,
grinning conspiratorily.  Ranma didn't like that grin at all.  "He said he
knew something about you too, but he tried to hide it.  Of course, I
already knew."  Jeikar snickered.
    Ranma looked questioningly at Daisuke, who only grinned back at him.
"You think I didn't know?"  He asked in a good-humored voice.  "Me and
Hiroshi have both been around you enough; he's only guessed at it, but I
saw you change once, when I saw you walking home as it started to rain."
Seeing Ranma's look of concern, he added quickly, "We haven't told anyone,
though.  We're pretty sure that you want it kept a secret."
    "So why'd you let him know about it?"  Ranma demanded, pointing to Kai,
who calmly ate his ramen and ignored everyone.  
    Jeikar laughed.  "Oh, don't worry about him.  He was my traveling
partner back in China for awhile, after me and Ryoga got split up by those
damned bandits.  He's from the same village as me, and he's seen plenty of
people with Jusenkyo curses.  So have I."  He waited for Ranma reaction
with a grin.
    Ranma hesitated slightly.  "You mean there's more people with the
Nyaniichuan curse?"  
    "Of course," Kai stated, again in that same, emotionless voice.  "And
that particular spring, in many cases, isn't considered a curse, but rather
a blessing.  Or even a punishment.  It depends on who falls in it."
    Ranma's jaw went slack.  "A blessing?"  He demanded, amazed.  "What
kind of an idiot would think turning into a girl is a blessing?"
    "People that are perhaps not completely satisfied with their own form,"
Kai said, not looking up from his meal.  "And they desire new ones.  What
better answer than the Nyaniichuan?"
    He could think of several.  "Well..." he paused.  "How about the
Blessed Spring?  They could just wish for a new form, couldn't they?"
    Kai glanced up at last, peering at Ranma, his expression curious.
"Blessed Spring?"
    "Yeah, you know, the-"
    Jeikar cut him off.  "It's a Japanese legend," he stated.  Ranma
glanced over at him, an unspoken question in his eyes.  "I've never heard
of it being popular in this area, but Ranma's not from around here, are
you, Ranma?"  He looked at Ranma, and his eyes flashed.
    Ranma, for his part, was confused and wasn't exactly sure what Jeikar
wanted him to say, so he simply agreed with his friend.  "Er...well, no,
I'm not."  He directed another quick glance towards his Chinese friend,
reminding himself to bring this up when they were alone.
    Kai nodded.  Jeikar was a good liar, Ranma realized, to whatever
purpose he was lying for.  The whiplike young man shrugged nonchalantly and
went back to eating.
    Daisuke was watching the whole scene curiously.  "I've never heard of a
Blessed Spring before," he said at last.
    Ranma just responded with about the same remark Jeikar had made.
"Yeah, well, people in this area aren't usually very familiar with it, I
guess."
    Jeikar directed a sideways look at Ranma, then stood up.  "Well, I
better go see how Ukyou's doing.  You two won't get lonely without us, will
you?"  He smirked at his two friends, motioning for Ranma to join him.
"Ranma knows how to use healing herbs," he explained.
    Ranma, his curiousity piqued, followed Jeikar into the back hallway
that led to Ukyou's room.

    Once they went into the hallway and shut the door behind them, they
quickly went into a side room; not Ukyou's, but it did have a futon on the
ground.  Ukyou occasionly had visitors, Ranma supposed.
    "What was all that about back there?"  The pigtailed boy demanded.
"Were you lying about the Blessed Spring?"
    "No," Jeikar assured him, "Sungchuan is very real.  So real that I
don't want someone accidentally finding out about it and rushing off to try
to find it.  If a person makes a power-hungry wish, and the Guardian Spirit
there grants it, do you know what could happen?"
    Ranma shook his head.
    "There are limitations," the Chinese boy continued.  "The wishes can't
affect anyone but the person who enters the spring, for instance, so
wishing, for example, to wipe out the human race wouldn't work.  But
other...equally disastrous things could take place."
    "Like what?"  Ranma's eyebrows narrowed.
    "The worst scenario I can imagine would be the revival of sorcery,"
Jeikar said between gritted teeth with a shudder.  "If you wished it, you
could once again wield the magical arts.  Sorcerers were killed off for a
reason, Ranma, do you know why?"  Ranma responded that he didn't.  "Because
of their power.  They could take on entire armies with their magical
forces.  They were eventually all defeated by the Emperor of China's mighty
bastion of warriors and several skilled assassins, but if someone wishes
for the lost arts, the Guardian Spirit, I am sure, would see fit to give it
to them."
    "Aw, c'mon, man, how likely is that to happen?"
    "Anyone who knows enough to find Sungchuan knows enough Chinese lore to
know that magic once existed," Jeikar growled.  "And I am not sure that
they are all wise enough not to wish for the magic to return."
    The pigtailed martial artist rubbed a hand through his hair
thoughtfully.  "But how bad could one person be?"
    "One person is not a disaster, but mark my words, they'll teach others.
 And those others will teach others.  And magic will be around again, and
that -will- be a disaster."
    Ranma shrugged.  "Okay, if you say so, man.  I still don't think
something like that happening is very likely, but I won't mention the
spring to anyone else."  
    "And now," Jeikar stated, regaining his usual carefree cheerfulness,
starting out the door, "let's go check on Ukyou."

    Daisuke Koruto sat quietly, lost in thought.  He didn't particularly
want to make conversation with Kai; ever since his friend Jeikar, a
cheerful, happy-go-lucky sort of guy, had introduced the two, Daisuke had
barely even seen a flicker of emotion across Kai's face.  His curiousity
towards this 'Blessed Spring' that Ranma had mentioned was probably the
first semi-strong emotion that Daisuke had seen him show, and even that had
been minor.
    He leaned back, his thoughts switching to Ranma.  Hiroshi Samata,
Daisuke's best friend whom had known since he was a baby, and himself had
been Ranma's only two friends at the school up until now.  They had
actually felt sort of sorry for Ranma, at first, but then had grown to like
and even envy him for his wondrous fighting skills, not to mention the fact
that he had four women lusting after him, three of which he was engaged to.
    Him and Hiroshi had eaten here yesterday - he wished in the back of his
mind that Hiroshi was here now to lift the gloomy silence - and had been
discussing Ranma then, too.  Daisuke had introduced Jeikar to his other
friend, and they got along well.  There was also common grounds for
discussion between them - Ranma.
    Hiroshi, for his part, pretty much summarized his whole opinion of
Ranma's peculiar curse with one word:  "Funny."  Jeikar's opinion was much
the same, except when they talked of Ranma's curse, he looked sort of
disgusted, as if he couldn't believe that the pigtailed martial artist had
gotten cursed like that.
    Daisuke had other thoughts entirely about the curse.  He wasn't a
pervert or anything, but he thought it would be sort of fun to be able to
do what Ranma did.  His life, in fact, was relatively boring, and had been
from pretty much day one.  His family was ordinary - his father was a
middle aged man with flecks of gray in his hair who had an office job, his
mother was a cheerful housewife, and he had never had any siblings to cheer
things up.  He and Hiroshi and a couple of their other friends occasionally
got into trouble - he remembered an incident where four of them had
arranged a scene so that the Principal had gotten an exploding paint-filled
pineapple all over him - but their lives just seemed so...dull compared to
Ranma's.  
    When he compared their lives together, he almost wished that his
existence was more like Ranma's...unusual; exciting; full of adventure as
Ranma's seemed to be.  As for the cursed part...well, it wouldn't be
horrible to have something like that happen.  It would just add some spice
to life in general.
    Shaking his head, knowing nothing out of the ordinary was ever going to
happen to him, Daisuke stood up and walked towards the hall and the
opposite end of the resturaunt, absently wondering what was taking Ranma
and Jeikar so long.  He opened the door, and looked back to the table,
where Kai sat, unperturbed, obviously comtemplating events.  Daisuke
entered the doorway and shut it behind him.

    Ukyou smiled up at Ranma reassuringly.  "Really, Ran-chan, I'll be just
fine.  I just have a tiny fever, nothing to worry about."
    Ranma didn't look convinced.  "You sure, Ucchan?"  He rubbed the herbs
that Jeikar had given him, wishing that he really did know how to
administer them.  
    She nodded.  "Besides, what good will it do to have you here with me?
You might catch it, too."  
    "Yes, we might as well leave now, Ranma," Jeikar stated.  "The others
might be missing our companionship, and we wouldn't want that, now would
we?"  He smiled wryly.
    Ranma chuckled.  "Oh no, of course not," he said with a grin.  "Well
then, hope you get better soon, Ucchan."  But she had already fallen back
asleep, shifting restfully under her thin blankets.  Ranma softly opened
the wooden door that led into the room, and he and Jeikar strode out...
    ...and came face-to-face with Daisuke.  
    "Hiya, Daisuke," Jeikar said to the dark haired boy with a grin.  "Miss
us?"
    Daisuke coughed.  "Ah...just wondering where you went.  So how's Ukyou?"
    "Just a small fever, and it's wearing away.  She'll be fine by
tomorrow," Jeikar assured the both of them, walking back into the main room
to join his friend Kai.
    Ranma noticed Daisuke looking at him with an odd expression on his
face; Ranma could have sworn it was envy.  He sincerely hoped his
classmate's old passions for Akane weren't coming back to the surface.
Ranma didn't move, but instead returned Daisuke's gaze curiously.
    His dark haired classmate looked embarassed and looked away.  Ranma's
eyebrows knotted.  "What is it, Daisuke?  Something bothering you?"
    Daisuke gave an abrupt laugh.  "You know, I almost wish there was," he
stated blandly, sighing.  "C'mon, let's go, Saotome."  He walked through
the doorway, and Ranma followed him, wondering what was going on.

    Ryoga nodded.  "I think that's it."  He experimentally tried to throw a
tiny flow of spirit out towards the slender red-haired girl and found it
effectively blocked.  "Now lift it."
    Ryako's eyes opened and something seemed lifted from Ryoga, and he
tried to cast a bit of spirit at Ryako again, this time it worked, but it
was too weak a flow to do anything.  
    "That's a very useful trick there, Hibiki," the short girl remarked.
"And I think I've come up with an effective counter for it, as well."  She
paused.  "Okay, now try to cast the spirit shield at me again."
    That was the name they had given Ryoga's recent discovery, the spirit
shield.  At first, the bandanna-wearing traveler had kept referring to it
as a 'spirit barrier,' and there had been a bit of a misunderstanding
because the barrier was the opposite of the shield, blocking entry rather
than exit.  
    Ryoga nodded to her, drew deeply on the spirit power, feeling it rush
into his veins with a calming coldness.  He opened a conduit to her,
throwing out a large flow of spirit that raced towards the slender girl and
would render her magical abilities useless.
    Ryako moved her arms slightly and a burst of powerful chi energy
smashed into Ryoga's spirit flow, shattering it and giving the traveler a
jolt that ruined his concentration as he stumbled slightly, dazed.  
    "It worked," Ryako noted cheerfully.
    He looked at her curiously.  "That was just an energy bolt.  Chi.  How
could that stop spirit?"
    "Took a great deal of force," she admitted.  "But to each of the
elements, there's an opposite.  Like a circle.  Air over water, water over
fire, fire over stone, stone over air.  Energy and spirit are also
opposites, one being a physical representation of force, shown by chi bolts
and such.  Spirit is an ethereal representation of that same force, used
with mind manipulation and magical barriers and such."
    Ryoga frowned.  "I thought you said that stone was the best counter for
spirit."
    "It is.  You see, although energy and spirit are opposites, they aren't
balanced opposites.  It's like a weighted scale, but spirit has more
weight.  A great deal more weight.  In other words, if two people were
participating in a magical duel, one with only spirit and one with only
energy, the one with the spirit power would easily crush his opponent with
ease."  She hesitated.  "Perhaps spirit's weakness to the highly physical
stone element is nature's way of balancing itself."
    "But if spirit has more power than energy, how did your chi blast
shatter my spirit flow?"
    Ryako grinned.  "Because you're relatively untrained with spirit, so
your attack was low-powered.  And my chi bolt was fairly high-powered."
    He shrugged.  "Okay, now you try it on me."
    The girl effortlessly hurled a huge blast of spirit at Ryoga, who
bellowed, "Shishi houkoudan!" and opened his arms to release the chi blast.
 Nothing happened.  He gasped slightly as the spirit shield slammed into
him, utterly puzzled.
    "I-it didn't work..."
    She knotted her thin eyebrows.  "I wonder what went wrong.  I didn't
even feel that you had any chi built up in you during that whole time."
She looked curiously at him.  "I don't guess there's anything special about
that attack?  Is it based on having some physical structure nearby?"
    Ryoga slapped his forehead.  "Of course," he muttered, feeling like a
fool.  "The shishi houkoudan is fueled by anger and depression, so if I'm
calm enough to use spirit, I definitely won't be able to use that attack."
    She nodded thoughtfully.  "Ryoga, my friend, we're going to have to
come up with a new chi technique for you..."

    "Tendo-sensei, I'd like to introduce my friend Kai Ch'entao, who's
interested in studying under you.  We trained together in China for a short
while."
    Earlier that day, when Kai had heard that Jeikar was studying at the
Tendo Dojo, he had inquired whether he might also study under Master Tendo.
 Ranma encouraged him slightly, and Jeikar was now asking whether Soun
Tendo would accept new students.  Ranma knew he would, of course, since he
didn't have any current students, save Jeikar, and he needed the money badly.
    The whiplike fellow with spiky hair, Kai, bowed respectfully to Soun.
"Jeikar has told me that you're a very good martial artist, Tendo-san, and
I'm interested in learning this style of fighting, 'Anything-Goes.'  I've
never heard of it before, but if what Jeikar tells me about your student
Ranma here is true, it must be quite incredible."
    Ranma grinned slightly.  Actually, Soun hadn't taught him anything.
His father, Genma Saotome, had taught him everything he knew, along with an
old woman named Cologne.  But then, he -had- thrashed Jeikar pretty badly,
and it was a good thing, he supposed, that the Chinese boy had the guts to
admit it.  He wondered absently just how good Kai was.
    The spiky-haired Chinese boy seemed well-disciplined, at least.  Much
more so than his friend Jeikar, who had a carefree outlook towards
everything.  Ranma thought back to what Jeikar had told him in the back
room of Ucchan's, and revised that opinion.  Jeikar was -generally- pretty
carefree towards everything.  
    Kai, on the other hand, had a stern face that almost never showed any
emotion whatsoever.  Cold as a stone, Ranma thought.  He was slender boned
and leanly muscled, and he looked as though he could move extremely fast.
He wore a Chinese kung fu suit, such as Ranma and Jeikar commonly wore.
Kai's, unlike the vibrant colors that Ranma and Jeikar both preferred, was
a somber black, with the sleeves rolled up slightly, showing white on the
inside, and was wearing a thick black bandanna that was bound tighly around
his head.  Ranma wondered idily if he had an infinite supply of them like
Ryoga.
    Where was Ryoga, anyway?
    "Well, now," Soun said, considering.  "I guess I can accept you as my
student, Ch'entao.  I suppose you'll be coming at the same times as your
friend Tsiang?"
    The whiplike boy nodded.  "That would be fine, sensei.  I'm free in the
afternoons."
    "You can pay, I assume."
    "Hai."
    Soun stood up.  "Well, actually, it's time for Jeikar to begin his
practice session for today.  You'll start today?"
    "Hai," Kai responded, rising from his kneeling position to follow
Jeikar and his new master into the dojo to begin their practice.  Ranma
followed, interested, trying to place a guess on just how well Kai could
fight.
        
    Ranma hadn't been to watch Jeikar and Akane train except for that first
day, and was considerably startled to see Nabiki on the practice floor with
the three other students.  He looked closely at her, but she didn't pay any
attention to her.
    She was garbed in a sleeveless red gi that was bound tightly by a black
band belt encircling her slender waist.  She was wearing a headband of a
similar red coloration and her forearms were covered by somewhat baggy
wrist bands that were loose so as to have leather reinforcement under them.
    No surprise, Ranma reflected.  Looking at her arms, he could tell she
could block anything without the aid of the leather wristbands.  His
curiousity as to skill levels now applied to her as well as Kai.
    After a quick stretching session, Soun spoke up.  "Before we begin, I
need to have a rough idea of your skill level, Ch'entao.  Would you spar
with one of my other students?"
    Kai nodded assent and stood up.  "Barehanded or otherwise?"
    "Barehanded.  Or are you used to practicing with a weapon?"
    The stern-faced Chinese boy shrugged.  "I trained in China with a
quarterstaff, but it makes no difference.  I'll train however your school
requires."
    Soun chuckled.  "Well, it's Anything-Goes, after all.  Barehanded or
armed, it makes no difference.  However, for the first few days, I would
prefer to stick with barehanded combat."  Jeikar grumbled slightly at this,
but didn't say anything.  "Take your pick; I'm familiar with all three of
their skill levels."
    Kai looked over the three kneeling students thoughtfully, and nodded
towards Jeikar.  "Him," the spiky-haired boy stated, motioning to his
friend.  "It's not that I doubt your ability, but I don't like to fight
with women."  He looked apologetically at Akane and Nabiki.  He showed some
emotion, Ranma noted sourly.
    Jeikar, wearing his fanciful silk shirt with the green dragon, Ranma
noticed, grinned and stood up, facing his friend.  "Let's see how much
better you've gotten, Kai."  
    Master Tendo coughed slightly.  "This is a light-contact match, not a
brawl," he reminded them.  "First one to score three points wins."  He
signaled them to begin.
    The whiplike Chinese fellow fell into a relaxed defensive stance, his
feet planted lightly on the wooden floor, while Jeikar took up his more
showy stance, one leg raised.  Soun had tried to get him to change it, with
no success.  Jeikar had used this stance all his life and couldn't change it.
    They circled each other for a moment, eyeing each other warily, when
suddenly Jeikar launched an attack.  It was a hard kick aimed for Kai's
midsection, which the spiky-haired young man smashed aside with a sweep of
his arm, spinning Jeikar around.  Jeikar flew with the spin, delivering a
powerful spinkick that smashed into a surprised Kai's left side, leaving
him slightly startled, but didn't budge him an inch.  Kai counterattacked
quickly, shaking off his momentary stun as he dished out a quick
sidekick-spinkick-roundhouse combination that Jeikar dodged, leaning aside
from each blow nonchalantly.
    "One for Tsiang," Soun stated with a nod.
    Jeikar jumped at his friend, feinting to the right with his leg and
then sweeping low.  The sweep was delivered with bad timing, though, and
Kai stepped to one side, leaving Jeikar on one leg, badly off balance.  The
stony faced Chinese boy launched a quick roundhouse that smacked
surprisingly hard against Jeikar's ribs for such a quick blow.  Jeikar
stumbled back, rubbing his side, grimacing.  
    "One for Ch'entao."
    "I don't know if you've gotten better," he muttered darkly, "but you
sure as hell haven't lost your strength."  He spun around, catching Kai in
the abdomen with a powerful back roundhouse, who looked only slightly hurt,
and didn't flinch.  Kai emotionlessly counterattacked, giving Jeikar a
forceful punch to his stomach that doubled him over, gasping.
    "Two for each of you."
    Jeikar glared at him.  "This...is...light...contact... you idiot..." he
sputtered out, grimacing painfully.  Kai looked amused as Jeikar's
expression darkened and he bounded at Kai, faking low and swinging around,
kicking him hard on the right side, finally getting a reaction as the
startled Kai stumbled backwards, dazed.
    "Three for Tsiang.  Congratul..."  his voice trailed off as an angry
Kai snatched up a bo staff from a corner of the dojo and charged at Jeikar,
who rolled to another corner, hefting a similar weapon.  "Hey," Soun
stated.  "This match is over."
    The two Chinese boys ignored him, facing each other, focusing.  Kai
attacked first this time, swinging his staff in a wide arc that Jeikar
easily parried with his own, knocking it to one side and belting his
spiky-haired friend in the stomach with his foot.  Kai growled, fuming as
he attacked again, this time a powerful thrust that Jeikar only partly
parried.  It smacked against Jeikar's left shoulder as he stumbled
backwards, seemingly in a great deal of pain.
    "Yup, you've gotten stronger," he snarled between gritted teeth,
gripping his quarterstaff with white knuckles as he feinted to the right,
spinning around and thrusting the staff hard into Kai's ribs, forcing him
backwards, furious.  Kai lashed out with a blur of thrusts and quick
slashes with his staff, which Jeikar parried, sweating pouring down both
their faces from the effort.
    It's like a slow version of the kachuu tenshin amiguriken, Ranma
realized with interest, just with a staff instead of a fist.  
    Kai suddenly broke off the attack, spinning around and delivering a
powerful spinning back roundhouse which Jeikar thrusted his bo staff in
front of with a wiry arm, knocking the kick to the side as Kai grimaced,
looking down at his leg in concern.  The concern vanished, though, as he
attacked again, the same blur of quick jabs and sideways swings as before,
only this time he was also moving, dancing around Jeikar, the blows coming
in from every angle.
    Hey, he's not too bad, Ranma admitted to himself, before noticing that
Jeikar wasn't having any difficulty parrying every single blow with a
similar technique, knocking all the attacks aside.  When Kai broke off his
attack and leapt backwards, panting, Jeikar wasn't even scratched.  He
wasn't even breathing hard, Ranma realized, puzzled, remembering that a
second ago he had seemed very tired.
    Kai seemed similarly puzzled, but didn't hesitate before continuing his
attack, sweeping low with his foot then spinning around and swinging his
staff in, then his arm became a blur as he went through a series of feints
and attacks that Jeikar parried with ease, just as before.
    "Just like when we were in China, huh, Kai?"  Jeikar said with a broad
grin, parrying a couple off-target swings nonchalantly.  "You forget - we
learned that technique together.  I'm as good at it as you are.  Now let's
see if you're as good as me."
    He jumped forward at Kai, lashing out a furious hail of blows that Kai
smashed aside with only a little difficulty, still breathing hard.  Jeikar
abruptly stopped the attack and swept his whiplike friend's legs out from
under him.  Kai rolled with the fall, though, and bounced off his hands
back to his feet, the veins all over his arms and face showing with his
exertion.
    "Getting tired so soon?"  Jeikar laughed.  "You're losing your touch,
Kai," he added in a friendly jesting tone.  "You used to be better than me."  
    "H-how...?"  Kai sputtered, looking at Jeikar with amazement.  "You're
not even breathing hard!"  He exclaimed, his jaw slack.  "Your endurance
was good, but never better than mine."  He growled angrily, lunging at
Jeikar with his staff aimed for his chest.  Jeikar easily stepped out of
the way and smacked Kai's back with a quick downward motion of his bo
staff.  Kai hit the floor with a dull thud.
    "This's unbelievable," Kai snarled, pulling himself laborously to his
feet.  "How..."  He paused to catch his breath, sweat flowing down his face
in rivulets.  He panted.  "How are you not even the least bit tired?"  He
demanded, frustrated.  "Have you trained night and day to improve your
stamina since I last saw you?"
    Jeikar looked smug.  "I guess this means I won, hm?"
    Kai glowered at him darkly, then turned his slit-eyed gaze to Ranma.
"He said you beat him in a matter of seconds, pony-tailed boy.  What kind
of skills do you have?"
    Ranma shrugged, not really wanting to make his friend Jeikar look bad.
"He didn't have his staff when we fought before," he said nonchalantly.
    Jeikar's eyes lit up.  "Hey, you're right!"  He grinned maliciously at
Ranma, who looked back at him suspiciously.  "How about a rematch, Saotome?"
    Master Tendo looked on the verge of saying something, but instead sat
back and watched events with interest.  
    Ranma could have laughed.  "A rematch?"  He asked, wondering if Jeikar
was sane.  "But I...well, if you want," he agreed, not as reluctant as he
appeared.  Jeikar's ego was starting to irritate him.
    Kai peered at Jeikar in amazement.  "A rematch?"  He demanded,
boggle-eyed.  "You've got the energy to fight another match?  Are you human?"
    Jeikar ignored him, twirling his quarterstaff and bowing to Ranma, who
bowed back and fell into a fighting stance.
    The Chinese boy made the first move.  He moved with practiced grace as
he swung his quarterstaff in a well-aimed shot towards Ranma's head, which
Ranma leaned to one side, letting it fall through the air harmlessly.
Ranma smiled slightly as he began his attack.
    He was there before Jeikar could even blink, let alone counterattack.
He went into a quick combination, punching Jeikar hard in the chest,
following up with a spinning roundhouse that smashed into his left
cheekbone with a cracking noise as the bone split and shattered, and
finished the combination off with a powerful side kick that smacked into
the surprised Jeikar's side, breaking a rib and sending him reeling, dazed
with pain, into the wall, falling into a heap with a grunt.
    Hah.  So much for his fancy tricks, Ranma thought with a smirk.  He
looked over at Jeikar's slumped form, stunned from the pain, grasping his
shattered left cheekbone numbly.  Ranma suddenly felt worried, but it was a
passing feeling.  He had done far worse to the Chinese boy last time, and
he hadn't even gotten a scuffing when they saw him later.
    Kai, however, was watching wide-eyed in bewilderment.  "T-that
was...quick," he managed at last.  "I hope he's not hurt too badly."
    Akane, Nabiki, and Soun Tendo were all staring in amazement at Jeikar,
than Ranma.
    "Ranma," Soun choked, his eyes as wide as Kai's.  "You might've killed
him."
    "Nah," Ranma stated confidentally, grinning over at the dazed Jeikar,
who just sat there, in too much pain to move.
    Kai peered curiously at Jeikar.  "Look there."  He pointed to Jeikar's
cheekbone, which no longer appeared shattered beyond repair, but simply had
a minor fracture in it.  And a second later, it was gone altogether.  "What
in the world is going on here?"  He demanded.  "Is this some kind of trick?"
    As everyone stared at him, amazed, Jeikar stood up and stretched.
"Good fight," he acknowledged, grinning at Ranma.  "I'll wear headgear next
time, though."  He paused, looking around.  "What're you all staring at?"
    "Y-your cheek," Akane stated.  "It's...better."
    Jeikar suddenly acquired the look of a trapped animal.
"Yes...well...er..."
    Kai was glowering at him.  "Jeikar," he said flatly, "you have a -lot-
of explaining to do."

    The rain pattered softly onto the rocky soil, the sparse mountain grass
soaking up the water gratefully.  Tall fir and pine trees swayed with the
strong gusts of wind that would suddenly come up and disappear again just
as quickly.  A ways within the mountains, deep into the thick forests that
grew on the mountainsides, two small tents were set up, both made of a
nondescrepit yet sturdy material that shielded those inside against the rain.
    One of the tents was empty; the other had a bit of dark smoke coming
out its entrance, and there was a girl inside, who was tending to a small
blaze, a petting a reddish-brown wolf that seemed oddly tame, curled up
next to her peacefully, almost asleep.  The girl was short and slender,
with a nice figure and red-tinted hair much the same color as the wolf's
fur.  She was wearing a beat up yellowish jerkin that seemed meant for one
of larger stature than she, and her legs were clothed in deep forest green
trousers, bound up tightly at the calves with strong yellow cord.
    The wolf turned restfully, putting its head on the girl's lap, who
smiled slightly and petted it.  To anyone watching, they would have gotten
the strangest sensation that the wolf actually smiled back.  A closer look
at the reddish furred wolf revealed something strange; the fur on its neck
was longer than the rest of its body, and was tied back with a bit coarse
leather into a sort of ponytail.
    The rain storm had come on them unaware, and they had been drenched
thoroughly before they could make it back to their tents to seek shelter.
The red-haired girl removed her shirt and sighed, wringing it out, drips of
cold water falling to the ground, and she looked at it irritably, setting
it down next to the fire to dry.  The wolf lay there and watched, looking
at the girl's bare chest in amusement, who grumbled something to herself
and removed a yellow long-sleeved tunic from a large traveling pack on the
ground, pulling it over her head, closing it over her left breast.  It,
too, seemed to large for her and hung off her body in baggy folds.  After
only a moment's hesitation, she also removed her greenish trousers from her
legs and set them to dry before the fire, too, belting the big tunic at the
waist; it hung halfway down to her knees.
    She sighed to herself.  "I wish we had some hot water, don't you?"  She
patted the wolf's head, who nodded in assent.  "Guess I'll have to heat
some up," she stated, taking a small leather waterskin out from her pack
and holding it over the fire with a stick.  
    The wolf eyed her carefully, and she nodded to it in return.  "We can
do you first, I suppose," she acknowledged with a bit of grudging in her
tone.  "After all, you can't even talk like that."  She grinned slightly at
the wolf, who's eyes seemed to glint back with a bit of mirth, and it
settled back, closing its eyes.
    "It's better than being a pig, for either of us," she remarked, talking
to herself.  "I wasn't cured, but I guess this isn't so bad.  I don't see
why Ranma objects to his curse so much, really..."  her voice trailed off
thoughtfully as she lay down before the fire, leaning her head on her right
hand as her left held the waterskin perfectly still over the fire with the
long oak stick.
    One of the wolf's eyes popped open, and it seemed to smirk at the
red-haired girl, who looked back at it curiously.  "Well, the water should
be ready," she noted, lifting the waterskin off from the fire and dipping
her finger in it, nodding in satisfaction.  "Now put your head down, so I
can pour it over you evenly.  There isn't that much in here."
    The wolf did what she said and stretched itself out flat on the ground
as the girl poured the steaming water all over its furry body.
    Instantly, the wolf's form blurred and sitting in its place was a
pretty young girl, completely naked, that appeared to be the other girl's
twin sister.  She stretched, grinning happily, as the first girl handed her
some semi-neatly folded clothes, which the wolf-girl slipped on, looking
down at herself.
    "Thanks, Ryoga," she said with a grin.  "By myself, sometimes it takes
me forever to get hot water."  
    The first girl, with the boy's name, Ryoga, nodded.  "Yeah, I
experienced my share of that.  At least a wolf's got paws.  A pig's
got...well, hooves."  She made a face.
    "Like I was saying before, Ryako," Ryoga stated, looking slightly
embarrased.  "This curse isn't really so bad.  As long as you don't think
about it, you can hardly notice the change."
    The wolf girl, Ryako, nodded to her, then looked at her curiously.
"You said that you didn't see why Ranma objected to his curse.  My idiot
brother has a curse, too?"
    "Same as mine."
    Ryako gave an abrupt laugh.  "If that's true, then I guess I have a
twin sister instead of a twin brother," she remarked, and then smiled slyly
at Ryoga.  "Make that two twin sisters."
    Ryoga grumbled something under her breath about not having enough hot
water to go around, and the other girl just chuckled, and Ryoga glared at her.
    "Sorry, Ryoga; I didn't mean to offend you," she apologized with a bit
of reluctance.
    "It's okay," Ryoga forgave her with a sigh.  "I guess I do look just
like you, though, don't I?  We even have the same teeth."  She opened her
mouth in a grin, showing a pair of fangs.
    The wolf girl shrugged.  "It's a carry-over from my curse, actually.  I
didn't previously have fangs."  Her face suddenly grew thoughtful.  "I
wonder if being a girl changes the elements that you can use?"  She ran a
hand through her red-brown hair thoughtfully, and turned her gaze to Ryoga,
focusing hard on her.
    Ryoga didn't say anything, but it was obvious that the other girl
'reading' her wasn't making her happy.  "Well?"  She demanded at last.
    Ryako broke her gaze off and shrugged.  "I can't sense much.  Just a
small spark of skill with water; most girls can learn to draw water and
sometimes air with a lot of practice.  Nothing like your boy-form's power
with spirit, though."
    Ryoga fiddled with her bandanna, pondering.  "Can my other form draw
water?"
    "No," Ryako stated bluntly.  "Males can almost never use water or air,
but are stronger in stone and fire.  Spirit is always used by females, and
energy is equally devided between the two."
    The bandanna-wearing girl frowned.  "Females three-and-a-half, males
two-and-a-half.  Something seems unbalanced there."
    Ryako laughed.  "Well, I sure didn't decide how nature works," she
said, grinning.  "But I think it's fair, and you'll agree, if you think
about it.  Males on the whole have stronger physical abilities, so it's
only natural that us females are better with magic."
    Ryoga gave her an icy glare.  "What do you mean 'us' females?"  She
demanded.
    "Well, I'd feel strange calling you a boy just now," Ryako remarked,
smiling innocently.  "And anyway, what are you complaining about?  You've
got the best of both worlds."
    Ryoga blinked.  "Say...you're right!"  She exclaimed.  "Ryako..." she
hesitated slightly.  "Could you teach this form to draw air and water?"
    The wolf girl shrugged her thin shoulders.  "To be honest, I don't
know.  Probably not; whoever drowned in that Nyaniichuan spring apparently
didn't have much magical potential."
    Ryoga shook her head impatiently.  "But I didn't fall in the
Nyaniichuan.  I wished it, remember?  This's just a female version of
myself, not a whole different person."
    Ryako bit her lip thoughtfully.  She stayed silent for some time.  
    "Well?"  Ryoga inquired, fidgeting.
    "I think," Ryako said, at last, "that perhaps in turning into this
female version of yourself, three things have happened.  First of all, you
lost your natural abilities with stone and fire, because girls just don't
use those two elements except in very rare cases."  She smiled sweetly,
Ryoga noting sourly that she was a 'rare case.'  "Secondly," she went on,
"because you're not really a girl, you don't have the inborn ability with
water you'd have if you were."
    Ryoga's thin brows knotted.  "You mean -all- girls can draw water?"
    "No," the wolf girl stated, "what I mean is that if you had been born a
female, you would be able to use air and water just as you have the ability
to use fire and stone now."
    "But I don't use fire and stone.  I use spirit - isn't that supposed to
be a female's element?"
    Ryako nodded.  "I was getting to that.  The spirit element is strictly
used by women.  Males, even if they seemingly have the potential to draw on
it, cannot.  I don't know why, so don't ask," she added, glaring at the
other girl, who's mouth had been open, ready to ask that question.  "You
have an extremely potent ability to draw and channel the spirit element,
but as you were a male, it was physically impossible for you to do so.  But
with this new 'curse' on you, it's apparently altered something within you
enough so that your boy-form can use spirit..."  her voice trailed off,
waiting for the other girl's reaction.
    Ryoga looked slightly befuddled.  "You mean," she stated, surprised,
"that this idiotic curse actually worked out to my advantage?  And why
can't I use spirit now, when I'm a girl?"
    "Because this body, even if it is you in female form, doesn't have the
potential to use spirit.  You may not think so, but the Guardian Spirit had
to create a whole new body to conform to your wish - this one.  My guess is
that the Guardian, not wanting you to be overly powerful, didn't give this
body beyond minimal magical power."
    "How would the Guardian Spirit know that I was good with spirit?"
    Ryako laughed.  "When you enter his cave, the Guardian knows everything
about you.  Everything.  Even things you don't know yet."
    Ryoga couldn't help but shiver.

    As soon as Daisuke had told his friends Hiroshi and Jun, he knew he had
made an error.  He had stated, in a guarded sort of way, that he wished his
life was more like Ranma's, and Hiroshi had burst out laughing.
    "You're kidding, right?"  Hiroshi asked, grinning broadly.
    They were at Hiroshi's house - his parents were out of town - and
having a small sleep-over party, which wasn't really a party at all in
either of the three's minds.  Hiroshi had planned to bring his girlfriend
home that night, but she had to go somewhere with her parents at the last
minute.  Jun, a tall guy who's skin was deeply tanned from sitting around
at the beach too much year-round, had promised to try to sneak a little
beer into the house, which didn't work, because his parents rarely drank
and were currently out of beer.  Daisuke said he would bring over all sorts
of eats, namely about ten bags of potato chips and several two-liters of
soda, but as he was leaving, his mother was watching him with hawk eyes,
making sure he didn't try anything funny.
    And so they just kind of sat around and watched television and read old
manga, and talked about the things they usually talked about.  Which, of
course, included Ranma, who always made for an interesting conversation.
Especially when one of the three friends blundered and said something like
Daisuke had said a moment ago.
    "No," Daisuke grumbled.  "But it's not what you're thinking, and I know
what you're thinking."  He muttered something uncouth under his breath.  "I
don't want to change into a girl or anything crazy like that, I just wish
my life was a little more exciting, that's all."
    Jun smirked.  "Of course that's what you meant."  
    Hiroshi grinned at both of them.  "Ranma's girl body is pretty hot,
though, you got to admit."  Jun looked as if he didn't have to admit, and
Daisuke just rolled his eyes.  
    "That's sick," Jun declared loudly.
    Daisuke chortled at the dark-skinned Jun.  "Yeah, of course it is, Jun.
 It must've been really sick, especially that time we caught you with those
photos of girl Ranma that Nabiki had sold you."
    "Er..."  Jun stammered.  "Well...I was..."
    "...taking them home to do who-knows-what with them," Hiroshi finished
for him, laughing.  "You -did- throw those out after we caught you with
them, didn't you?"  Light-haired Hiroshi whistled innocently.
    Jun sputtered for a second.  "Well...uh...yes, of course!"  He retorted
loudly, looking offended.  "I mean, what would I do with a bunch of photos
of a crazy transsexual guy, anyways?"
    Daisuke laughed.  "Do you really want us to answer that?"
    Their dark-skinned friend grumbled darkly to himself but didn't say
anything, while Daisuke and Hiroshi were doubled up, laughing.
    Jun hurrumphed.  "Well, you were the one who wanted to be like him," he
shot at Daisuke, who groped about for a retort.
    "Ah...yeah," Daisuke stuttered, sounding unconvincing, "but just to
have an exciting life and all that.  Not the transforming stuff."
    Hiroshi snickered.  "You want to be a girl, man?"  He laughed and
rapped Daisuke's head with his knuckles.  "Maybe I'll just throw you in the
cold rain outside, and that'll solve all your problems."
    "But don't you think that'd be neat?"  Daisuke pursued.  "I mean,
camping out every night, catching your own dinner, traveling around under
the open sky, free as a bird?  Throwing off the shackles of society?"
    "If he starts singing, we make tracks," Jun whispered loudly to
Hiroshi, who grinned.
    "Hmph."  Daisuke folded his arms across his chest.  "Well, I think that
would be an exciting life."
    Hiroshi shook his head, chuckling.  "Man, next thing you know, you'll
be rushing off to the mountains to 'train in the martial arts.'  Nah," he
amended.  "Too close.  You'd probably pull a Saotome and run off to China."
 He grinned broadly, and Jun snickered.
    Daisuke glowered.  "You're making fun of the martial arts?"
    Hiroshi shrugged.  "Not really.  I'm making fun of you."  He poked
Daisuke in the stomach, smirking, as Daisuke's anger roiled furiously.
    "This's stupid," he stated, fuming.  "All I said that was it'd be fun
to travel around.  You disagree, fine, but don't make an issue out of it."
    "Who's making an issue?"  Hiroshi asked innocently.  "We're just having
a little fun for those snacks you didn't bring."  
    "Yeah, well, I may not have brought what I agreed to, but you didn't
even say you'd bring anything in the first place, cheapskate."
    "Hey, you're using my house, aren't you?"
    Jun laughed.  "And if this night had turned out like it should have,
Hiroshi'd be getting some from his girl, and we'd be down here, drunk off
beer and stuffing our faces with chips.  Instead, Hiroshi's girlfriend
dumped him, and neither of us brought anything."
    "Hey," Hiroshi protested angrily, "she didn't dump me!  She just had to
go somewhere with her parents, that's all!"
    Jun laughed at him.  "But, Hiroshi, her parents are out of town.  Or
had you forgotten?"
    Hiroshi looked ready to retort, and suddenly he looked like a ton of
bricks had been dropped on him.  "You're right," he muttered darkly.  "They
-are- out of town."  He sat down, disspirited.  "Ah, who needs her.  I was
going to break up with her tomorrow, anyway."  He didn't sound very
convincing, and Daisuke and Jun both pointed at him and simultaneously
burst out laughing.
    All Hiroshi could do was sit there and glower darkly.

    Jeikar's story proved to be quite interesting.  
    He had lived in China his entire life, and had, when he was roughly
seven years old, decided to hunt down the legendary Gifts of Healing.
Ranma looked a little skeptical at this, but Kai, who was from Jeikar's
remote mountain village, confirmed that Jeikar, the rest of his family dead
from a strange sickness, had in fact disappeared from the village at about
that time.  
    "I had always figured he was dead," Kai had admitted, a little
shamefacedly.
    After leaving the village, the young Jeikar had wandered the mountains
for several years - at which Kai interuppted again, confirming that Jeikar
did indeed have a knack for hunting, even at that young of an age - but had
found nothing but false clues and charlatans who claimed to posess the
Gifts.  At length, when he was about thirteen years of age, he had gone to
a village of Chinese Amazon women, and asked to be presented to their Elder
Matriarch and request an answer, for she surely knew the Gifts, or where
they could be learned...

[Roughly four years previous, Joketsuzoku, China.  Jeikar's story.]

    The home of the Elder Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku Amazonian tribe was
an oddly small, humble one for one of such grand status.  A plain, solid
oaken home, it was built for strength and not looks.  The Elder herself sat
in a room alone, pondering thoughtfully, when she heard a tread of booted
footsteps from down the hall.  
    A young boy in plain traveling clothing, perhaps thirteen or fourteen
years old, looked slightly nervous but confident as he walked into her
room, kneeling before the withered Elder in respect.
    "You craved an audience with me," the Elder remarked, her voice brittle
but firm, "so let's have it, boy.  What are you doing here in our village
and what do you want?"
    The boy hesitated slightly, as if not sure how to address her.  "Elder,
I mean no disrespect or harm to your village, certainly," he said, his head
still bowed low.  "I have come seeking knowledge."
    The Elder looked at him sharply.  "Knowledge?  What kind of knowledge?
And why is a young boy like you roving the mountains?"
    The boy gulped under the Elder's searching eye.  "I am a wanderer," he
stated, trying to make his voice sound firm.  "My parents died of a
sickness several years ago and I have been traveling ever since, searching
for this knowledge."
    "And, for the last time, what knowledge is that?"
    He hesitated only slightly, before responding, "The Three Gifts of
Healing."  He looked up at her.  "I guessed that perhaps the lore of the
the Amazons could guide me to a place where I might be taught."
    The Elder Matriarch stared off into space, her eyes unfocused.  "The
Gifts of Healing," she repeated in her dry, brittle voice.  "You are
ambitious enough, boy."  She turned her steely gaze back to him.  "When I
was younger, I sought them myself, to no avail.  The Three Gifts are gone
from the world, I am afraid, and there is no one left to teach them to you."
    He sighed sadly in defeat.  "I was afraid that might be the answer."
He paused.  "But you don't have even the slightest clue that the Gifts
might still be known, perhaps by an old sage?"
    The Elder chuckled dryly at this.  "Boy, I am the oldest in this
village, and the Gifts were long gone when I was a mere girl.  You have no
hope of ever acquiring the Three Gifts, nor, I think, would you wish to."
    The boy looked puzzled, and she continued.  "The Gifts of Healing give
you three abilities, boy, which I am sure you are familiar with.  The first
is the Gift of Regeneration, making it near impossible for you to die.  The
second is the Gift of Life, which is, simply put, an extremely powerful
life-force, which would help you, I suppose, if you were trying to survive
a sickness or some such.  The third is the Gift of Healing, and it has been
known as a curse, oftentimes, rather than a blessing."
    "How so, Elder?"
    "It can cure even the most serious wounds with a mere touch," she went
on, "but it has drawbacks, some of them very serious.  First of these is
that the wound doesn't vanish; it simply gets transferred onto your own
body.  The second is that in healing another, you give them the Gift of
Regeneration for a moment so they don't die from the shock of having their
wounds disappear, leaving you without the First Gift for a short time.  It
also drains your life force to use the healing, draining it to a point
where you're almost a ghost, and if the wound was anything but minor, you
would surely die.  Perhaps," she reflected, "that is what happened to the
Healers."
    "Then I just won't use the last Gift," the boy stated stubbornly.  
    "You aren't listening.  The Gifts are gone, boy, disappeared from the
world.  There is no way to regain them."  She paused, thinking deeply.
"There is one way," she amended.  "If you were to find the Blessed Spring,
you could wish to acquire the Three Gifts.  I do not recommend this,
however, as many have spent a lifetime trying to find it and never succeeded."
    The boy started to say something, but she dismissed him, and he stood
and trudged out of the room, shoulders hanging dejectedly.

[Present day, Nerima, Japan, the Tendo Dojo.]

    After a few years of searching, in which he had become aquainted with
Ryoga, who Jeikar didn't remember his name at the time, and had met up with
Kai in the mountains, only to be separated from each of them by odd
circumstances, Jeikar had happened upon Sungchuan, the Blessed Spring,
almost entirely by accident.  He had discovered the existence of a mystical
cursed training ground known as Jusenkyo, and had gone to observe it, when
he had found the entrance to the cavern.
    As soon as he had entered it, he had known that he had found it at
last.  He described his encounter with the Guardian Spirit in vivid detail,
remembering the exact words he had used for his wishes, and the feeling of
unbelieveable success he had felt upon exiting the cavern.
    "I really did feel more alive," Jeikar stated with a grin.  "And I feel
the same now.  It's like my life pulse has become twice as strong."
    After that, silence.  No one spoke, all lost in their own thoughts.
    Finally, Kai broke the silence with a slightly outraged shout.  "You
mean," he growled, fuming, "that if I had remained with you, I would have
had the oppurtunity to get anything I wanted?"
    Jeiker grinned embarrasedly.  "Er...you could say that."  He looked
closely at his friend.  "What would you have wished for, anyway?"
    Kai waved his hand dismissively.  "It makes no difference.  I'm never
going to find the damn thing, anyway.  After all, we're not even on the
mainland anymore."  He grunted sourly.
    "That's...that's incredible," Nabiki noted, her eyes wide.  "You can
wish for anything there?  Anything at all?"  She shook her head in
amazement.  "Now I really want to see this place."
    "That's why I've never told anyone about this before," Jeikar growled.
"Because they're all seized with the damn desire to 'see it for themselves.'"
    Nabiki cocked an eyebrow at him.  "Well, you went there, didn't you?"
    "I searched for ten years," Jeikar stated, sighing.  "And then it was
by only the blindest chance that I found it."
    Master Tendo looked thoughtful.  "Perhaps you only were unlucky,
Tsiang," he mused, stroking his mustache.  "After all, what else do we have
to go by?"
    "Unlucky?"  Jeikar looked amazed.  "I was extremely fortunate to find
it in such a short time.  Many have searched their whole -lives- to find
Sungchuan and never succeeded."  He looked closely at all of them.  "Let me
guess.  You all want to go to the Blessed Spring, now, right?"  He snorted,
folding his arms across his chest.  "If any one of you has even a thought
of power or glory in your heads, it will make your task twice as difficult."
    "Well, we aren't going to run off to China to find this place, at any
rate," Soun stated.  "I have a dojo to run, after all."  
    Ranma put his hand on Jeikar's shoulder.  "I just want my curse cured,"
he grunted.  "Is that too much to ask?  Surely this 'Guardian' won't find
that too vain or nothing like that."
    "Maybe not," Jeikar replied testily, "but Sungchuan and Jusenkyo are
connected in some obscure way.  If your wish affects the magic of Jusenkyo,
who knows what you'll get.  A different curse, most likely."
    The pigtailed martial artist looked like he was ready to scream.
"Dammit!"  He snarled.  "Isn't there any cure for this curse?"  He lifted
Jeikar up by the scruff of his green silk shirt.  
    "Not man enough to take it?"  Jeikar grinned at him.  "Can't handle it?
 Hmm?"  He poked the furious Ranma in the stomach, smirking.
    Before Ranma could smash Jeikar into the floor, Kai stepped in.  He
picked up his friend and threw him against the wall.  Ranma glanced up at
the whiplike Chinese boy and saw that his face was once more impassive and
emotionless.  
    "That's enough, Jeikar," Kai stated bluntly, the slightest irritation
showing on his stern face as he saw Jeikar jump back to his feet, lean
against the wall, and yawn.  Kai gazed at the bored Jeikar with a cold
stare.  "Do you have no heart?"  He asked, the irritation gone from his
voice, replaced by a complete calm.  He gestured to Ranma, who was
watching, surprised.  "This boy here only wants to be normal again; don't
you see that?"
    Ranma blinked.  He hadn't expected understanding from Kai, of all
people.  Jeikar, since he had met him, had pretty much laughed at his curse
and poked fun at Ranma for letting himself get this way.  Hiroshi, Daisuke,
their other couple friends who knew treated it like it was a big joke.
Akane thought it made him a pervert of some kind, and the rest of the Tendo
family just found it amusing, or a business oppurtunity.  Even his father
thought that it made him less of a man, and always seemed ashamed to see
Ranma in girl form.
    Jeikar sighed and dusted himself off.  "Yeah, I know," he admitted.
"Sorry about that, Ranma," he apologized, sounding pretty much sincere.
"Guess that was pretty insensitive of me, eh?"  
    Ranma shrugged.  "It's nothing."  Well, it -was- something, something
that annoyed him very much whenever people made light of his curse, but
since Jeikar had apologized...he wondered idily if Kai had some sort of
hold over the Chinese boy.
    "And now," Kai said tonelessly, turning his unnerving slit-eyed gaze to
Ranma, who shifted a little uncomfortably, "I would ask a favor of you,
Ranma Saotome."
    The ponytailed boy looked at him blankly.  What could he possibly want?
 "Sure..."  Ranma said slowly.  "What do you need?"
    Kai just stared at him impassively.  "You remind me of someone I met
once in my travels," he said, finally.  "A young girl.  She dressed
similarly to you, and she even had the exact same hairstyle you do, except
it was a fiery red coloring."  He paused slightly, then went on.  "I met
her at an old, run-down inn that I was staying in; in the plains near the
Bayankala Range.  I can't help but wonder - was that girl your female form?"
    Before Ranma could answer, Kai had picked him up easily with his limber
arms and thrown him out the entrance, into the softly falling rain outside.
    When she stood back up, Kai nodded, his hard face softening as he
smiled.  "It -is- you, after all..."

    Jun peered at Hiroshi in a quizical manner.  "Go out?  Now?  Are you
feeling okay?" 
    Hiroshi shrugged.  "Well," he said defensively, "you want to just sit
around here and watch T.V. when we could be having fun?"
    "Having fun?"  Daisuke echoed, shaking his head in bewilderment.  "It's
pouring rain out there, Hiroshi.  We'd be drenched to the bone in seconds."
    "Hah."  Hiroshi folded his arms across his chest, smirking.  "Can't
stand up to a little rain?  You both are weaklings."  
    "Weakling?"  Jun demanded, going right for the bait.  "I'll show you
who's weak.  You'd buckle under the slightest drizzle."  He glowered at his
light-haired friend, who grinned back toothily.
    Daisuke grunted.  "Well, then, Hiroshi, what do you want to do out
there, anyway?"
    "Anything," fair complexioned Hiroshi grumbled.  "Just so long as it's
more fun than what we're doing now."  He thought for a moment.  "We could
try to find the Ryezaki brothers, right?"  He said, grinning.  "Remember
what we did last time?"
    "Yeah," Daisuke acknowledged him sourly.  "We went to that stupid party
where those damn wannabe sumo wrestlers tore up the place."
    Hiroshi snickered.  "Now -that- was fun."  Seeing Daisuke's glare, he
grinned broadly at his friend.  "Aw, you just can't handle the fact that
the you smacked with a chair and knocked out cold."
    Dark-haired Daisuke clenched his fist.  "I'm only mad because you swung
the damn chair, and you swung it while that idiot wrestler guy was sitting
on me."
    "I thought you were someone else," Hiroshi said, holding up his hands
with an embarrased grin.
    Jun sighed.  "Look, I'm all for going somewhere, but it's raining
pretty damn hard out there, and we've got no where good to go, anyway."
    Hiroshi snapped his fingers.  "Now I got it!"  He exclaimed brightly.
"I got an invitation a few days back from Kira Shintori; remember him?  The
guy who lives in the apartment?"
    Jun nodded.  "What was the invitation for?"  He asked curiously.  
    "He just said it was something that was going to give a real rush,"
Hiroshi attempted to explain.  "It's not drugs or anything like that, I
don't think, not from the way he said it.  I turned him down because I had
planned on getting with my gir-ahem, my ex-girlfriend tonight, but since
it's such a drag around here, maybe we can go over there after all."
    Daisuke grinned.  "Whatever he's planning, any rush is better than what
we're planning here.  Let's go."

    As the three boys trudged into the front door of the apartment complex
where Kira Shintori lived, lightning flashed brilliantly outside, followed
by a distant crackle of thunder.  Daisuke looked sourly outside, wringing
out his soaked clothes; a white shirt and blue jeans.
    "Well, we're here," Jun stated blandly.  "Which room did you say it was?"
    "Keep your voice down," Hiroshi hissed at him.  "You'll wake someone
up."  He pulled a small notecard out of the right pocket of his jeans.
"Room number 203," he said, pointing upwards.  "That would be floor two."
    Trying to be silent, the three boys strode up the stairs until they
made their way to a room with the numbers '203' on the front in gold
metallic lettering.  Hiroshi stared at the door for a second before
knocking quietly on it with his knuckles.
    A young man, presumably Kira, the same age as the three of them, opened
the door and grinned broadly at them.  He had a shaggy looking head of dark
brown hair which was in a fairly uncombed state, and was dressed in a grey
pair of sweatpants.
    "Hiya, guys," he greeted them cheerfully.  "You decided to come after
all, hm, Hiroshi?  Well, we need all the help we can get.  Come in, come
in.  Trust me, you'll have the time of your lives tonight."
    The four of them entered the doorway, which Kira closed silently behind
them.  It was completely dark, and then suddenly Kira flicked the switch
and bright flourescent light light filled the room, and about ten boys who
were seated on the bed or the floor, enthusiastically greeted them.  
    "It's almost midnight," Daisuke noted, narrowing his brows.  "Aren't
you afraid of waking someone up?"
    "Not to worry," Kira assured him.  "The walls are soundproof.  You
couldn't hear someone shouting to you in the bathroom if you had the door
closed.  Have a seat, by all means, and help yourselves to the food...never
mind."  He glanced around at the people in the room, a few of which grinned
at him.  "These bunch of slobs seem to have finished off the food," he
observed dryly.  "Anyway, sit down.  I guess this's everyone who's going to
arrive.  We weren't even really expecting one of you, but all three...?
This's great."
    "So," Jun asked, lounging comfortably against a cushion, "what's this
you got planned that's going to give a 'rush?'"
    One of the boys who were sitting on the bed, a tall, lean guy with
disorderly brown hair, answered him.  "We," he stated grandly, standing up.
 "Are going to break into the Kunou mansion."
    Daisuke blinked at him.  "Come again?"
    Kira gave a wide grin.  "Yup, you got it, Daisuke."
    "Break into the Kunou mansion?"  Jun asked, a thoughtful look on his
face.  Then he laughed.  "You guys are insane.  What are you, catburglers?
That place is probably filled to the brim with alarms."
    The tall guy, who Daisuke remembered being named Rayne Shikama, nodded.
 "Yeah, man, that's the challenge.  And if we pull this off, we're living
like kings."
    "I'm living just fine," Jun stated.
    "Yeah, so are most of the rest of us," Kira responded.  "But living in
this old apartment's getting to annoy me.  I could use a new CD player, and
some speakers, a new color TV, and some other stuff.  I'm sure you're not
completely satisfied."
    "True," Jun said, his lip curled in thought.  "I could use most of that
stuff you mentioned.  Okay, count us in," he said, grinning.  "How is this
going to work?"
    "I scoped out the place yesterday," a boy with his hair slicked back
who was leaning against the wall stated in a slightly slurred voice.  "See,
they don't keep their money in a bank - they keep it in the damn house."
He barked a laugh.  "The money's in the basement, in a vault.  I found the
combination for the lock - 46, 32, 104, 91, 21 - stashed in Kunou's locker
few days back, when he left it open.  I memorized it."
    "That's where this whole idea is coming from," Kira added in.  "Now
that we know that, all that we got to do is get down to the safe, and we
can load ourselves up with as much cash as we need, no problem."
    Daisuke didn't particularly like the idea of breaking in - the thought
of getting caught in a robbery made him sweat like a stuck pig - but he had
to admit, he was short on cash, and there were a few things he needed.  "I
like it," he told the big group.  "But how are we going to get down there?"
    "I was getting to that," the slick-haired boy slurred.  "See, I've
spied on that place more than once, and I know that there's an easy
entrance route that isn't wired:  the attic window.  Kunou's got this crazy
ninja guy who enters and exits through there occasionally, and he never
trips any wires.  I figure we probably won't either."  He cleared his
throat, then went on.  "Anyway, we go in through the attic and slip
downstairs.  I doubt he's got alarms inside; you got to piss sometimes in
the middle of the night, eh?"  He chortled.  "It's easy going, all the way.
 We go down the stairs, and, with any luck, we get to the basement and open
the vault.  Treasure's ours -" he pointed to fifteen large backpacks stowed
in a corner "-and we get out the way we went in, make our way back here,
and split."
    Hiroshi looked skeptical.  "That seems too simple.  We're bound to run
into problems."
    "Hai," Kira agreed, grinning.  "That's why we're wearing disguises.
Black ninja outfits, actually.  There was supposed to be fifteen of us, so
there's fifteen suits.  But there's only thirteen of us here; oh well.
It'll have to suffice."  He pulled open a large drawer in an old, scuffed
mahogany desk and began removing black neatly folded bundles of clothing
from them, tossing one to each of the boys in the room.  "There's only one
size," he apologized in advance, "but none of us are abnormally huge, so
they should fit okay.  I got them in the largest size they had."
    The tall boy, Rayne, looked curiously at the midnight black clothing he
was holding in his hands, then at Kira.  "What sort of place did you get
this stuff from?"
    "There's a shop near Furinkan," Kira responded, removing his jeans and
replacing them with the soft black trousers, binding them at the calves
with the tough black cord.  "Sells all sorts of martial arts junk.  Told
the guy I was shopping for my friends and we were starting to train at a
dojo across town, and he bought the story.  Stuff around here's sorta
wierd, anyway - can't say I blame the guy."  He chuckled, putting on the
tabi boots, making sure they were a tight fit.
    Daisuke wasn't sure if he wanted to do this, but he knew he couldn't
back down now.  Who knew what the others might do, now that he knew their
plans.  So he only hesitated slightly as he pulled off his white tee shirt
and put the long-sleeved black shirt on, complete with a net on the inside,
he noted, pulling on the soft gloves, tying them at the wrists with a
coarse black cord.
    Jun got dressed quickly, and was ready in about a minute.  He looks
surprisingly natural in that outfit, Daisuke realized, smiling wryly to
himself.  Jun's dark skin blended well with the black cloth, making him
little more than a shadow in the well-lighted room.  
    Rayne looked down at himself.  "I don't suppose you got us katanas?"
He asked, a bit sarcastic.
    Kira shook his head.  "Of course not," he said blandly.  "What would we
need katanas for?"  He patted his long belt knife.  "These, though, are
necessary for the disguises.  You see, if we're spotted in the halls of the
mansion, they'll just think it's their own ninja prowling around.  I've
seen them guarding the place."
    Hiroshi frowned.  "Won't we have to get by them, too?"
    "It won't be a problem," Kira assured him, tugging at the mask that
covered his face up to his nose slightly, as if it itched.  "They'll just
think we're one of them.  Which is why we're going in in groups of two.
He's probably got thirty or so ninja guarding his place, they'll never
notice an occasional extra."
    Daisuke pulled his hood over his head, and secured his soft black mask.
 "Well, let's go," he said, steeling himself for what he was sure was going
to be one of the most tense nights of his life.

    The rather large group of young men disguised as ninjas arrived at the
roof parellel to the Kunou mansion's roof without happenstance.  Kira and
the slick-haired boy had apparently planned this thing out perfectly,
having inconspicious-looking ropes and ladders where they needed them to
slink through the alleys, unseen.  The roof next to the mansion's was a
plain one, and it was on the top of an old, empty house, which the
slick-haired boy had said was perfect for their plan.
    Daisuke felt some uncomfortable moral pangs at what he was about to do,
but he grimly faced it.  Not that he had a choice.  
    "Form groups of two," Kira instructed quietly, striding softly over to
the slick-haired young man, who Daisuke had not placed a name to yet.  
    Daisuke glanced around, looking for someone to pair up with.  Jun and
Hiroshi were standing by each other, Hiroshi's eyes glancing apologetically
in Daisuke's direction, and he shrugged, walking over to Rayne, who nodded,
folded his arms across his chest, and seemed to fade into the starry night.  
    Rayne, he realized with a slight start, had a sheathed katana strapped
to his back, and he wore it in a fashion that indicated that he knew how to
use it.  Daisuke didn't know much about martial arts or swordfighting, but
he knew enough to assume that his new partner was probably at least
slightly dangerous.
    "Are you stealthy?"  Rayne asked him, looking at him with steely brown
eyes.  "If you're not, you better learn, quick."
    "Sort of," Daisuke said hesitantly.  He supposed he was sort of quiet
when he moved, but not utterly silent.
    "Just remember," Rayne told him shortly, "flow your weight from one end
of the foot to the other.  That should keep the noise down to an acceptable
level."
    Kira motioned to his slick-haired partner, and they both nimbly leaped
down onto the roof of the mansion, with a minimum of noise.  Kira's landing
was almost completely silent, while the other boy's was a slight bump.
They disappeared almost instantly, vanishing into a small attic window.
Daisuke gulped, waiting tensely for the alarm to go off, but all was
silent.  It had worked.
    Jun and Hiroshi were next, Jun had a confident gleam in his dark eyes
as he bounded down to the mansion's roof, landing with a slight thudding
sound, almost unnoticible in the night.  Hiroshi, looking nervous, followed
his dark-skinned friend's example, jumping downwards, and landing
surprisingly smoothly.  In a moment, after a second of hesitation, they too
disappeared into the attic window.
    "We're next," Rayne said to him, and soundlessly disappeared into the
night, or so it seemed, landing with absolute silence on the rooftop below.
 Daisuke gulped and followed, landing with only a little thumping sound,
and Rayne nodded with approval.  
    If this guy thinks it was okay, it was okay, Daisuke told himself.
    The tall Rayne pointed a black-gloved finger towards the window,
vanishing into it.  Daisuke followed him, this time, without a moment's
hesitation.
    Daisuke blinked and looked around the attic.  Nondescrepit, with a few
dusty boxes and crates here and there, but no trace that their companions
had entered, as the floor itself didn't seem dusty at all.  Rayne silently
made his way over to the stairs leading down from the attic, and descended,
Daisuke following him close behind.
    "Now what?"  Daisuke whispered nervously to his taller partner.
    "Look natural," Rayne hissed back, starting to walk down the hall that
they were now in.  "And we'll try to make our way into the basement."
    Daisuke tried to look as ninja-like as he could, knowing that he
probably looked more or less ridiculous.  A part of his mind wondered what
in the world he was doing here, and he quickly shut that part up.  Thinking
those thoughts now would probably send him into a dead faint, he thought
grimly, imitating Rayne's stride, but not even attempting at duplicating
his partner's easy, dangerous grace.  He knew he'd just look like a fool
for trying.
    Rayne elbowed him lightly in the side and nodded to a set of stairs,
which they both descended.  And at the bottom of the stairs, was a sleepy
Tatewaki Kunou, who glared at them both.
    "What were you doing upstairs?"  Kunou demanded, glowering arrogantly.
    Rayne bowed humbly and kneeled before the sleepy Kunou, and Daisuke
copied his position, praying that his upperclassman wouldn't recognize him
from school.  
    "I apologize humbly, Master Kunou," Rayne rumbled in his deep voice,
sounding sincere.  "But I heard a noise from up these stairs and we went to
see what it was.  I didn't mean to disturb your slumber, Master."
    Kunou grumbled something.  "You are forgiven, loyal ninja," he said
tiredly.  "I was just getting a drink of water.  Be at ease; you have not
woken me at this odd hour."
    "For which we are thankful," Rayne intoned, still in the humble,
servatile voice.
    "Rise, good ninja," Kunou said with a sigh, starting up the stairs, as
Daisuke silently prayed that none of the companions following them had
decided to explore the same way they did.
    As soon as Kunou was out of earshot, Rayne stood back up, his eyes
flashing from having to act so humble.  Daisuke felt much the same, but was
greatly thankful he was not recognized.  Rayne pointed, and they started
down another long hallway, both hoping that their companions had found
another way down.
    They stealthily strode down the hallway, looking for any sign of a
staircase that led to the basement, finding none.
    "I don't see anything," Daisuke hissed to his taller partner.
    "Neither do I," Rayne whispered between gritted teeth.  "Only Kira has
a rough idea of where it is; he dated Kodachi Kunou once, in Junior High,
and he wasn't sure of it, so he didn't give specific directions.  Come,
let's keep searching."
    At length, it was Daisuke who discovered the stairs.  They were behind
a slightly opened wooden door, which Rayne hurriedly opened and shut again
to look exactly as it had been, as the two partners crept down the stairs,
both their senses fine tuned for any sound or movements.
    It was at that moment that they both heard a loud blaring of an alarm,
and police sirens from outside the mansion, and Daisuke heard a muffled
curse from Rayne about silent alarms in the attic.  A megaphone's voice
shouted, "Come out with your hands up!"
    Daisuke fell into a mad panic, but was stilled with a cold glance from
Rayne.  "What?"  He said desperately.  "What do we do?  I'm not a criminal."
    "You are now," Rayne responded grimly.  "We'd better get out of here."
He grabbed Daisuke's shirt and hissed into his ear.  "Come on, fool!
You'll be thrown in prison if they catch you!  Snap to it!"  He continued
down the stairs, this time for speed and not stealth.  Daisuke, shaking off
his numbness, raced after him, taking the stone stairs two at a time.
    They quickly reached the bottom of the staircase.  "What do we do now?"
 Daisuke asked, still half in a panic.
    "Stay calm, for one," Rayne grunted, but it was obvious he, too, was at
a loss.
    Then the voice came from the top of the stairs.  "We see you down
there!"  A male's voice shouted.  Daisuke looked up and saw a figure clad
in a policeman's uniform, and there was a quick bright flash of light.
"Come up here and throw down your weapons!"
    "Great," Rayne hissed.  "He's got our pictures now."  He ran into a
shadowed corner of the basement, his eyes flashing as he looked for
something he knew was there.
    Daisuke ran to his side as Rayne unsheathed his sharp-edged katana and
slashed at the lock on the trapdoor, and kicked it in, racing down into it.
 Daisuke followed without hesitating an instant, as the policeman at the
top of the stairs was running down them, gun raised, yelling at them to hold.
    Once they were in the cramped tunnel under the trapdoor, they began
crawling forwards as fast as they could, the policeman wondering where in
the world they went.  Then he spied the trap door and looked down it
skeptically before following the two boys.
    Then Rayne seemingly vanished in Daisuke's eyes, and a second later, he
felt himself falling...falling...falling...and hit the ground with a loud
thud.  He heard hissing from around him, and looked around nervously, his
eye catching a glimpse of Rayne in the near sheer blackness.  Then he
realized it.
    Snakes.
    They were in a snake pit, and the police officer realized it, though he
couldn't see down into it, as he heard the loud hissing and an ominous
rattle from below, followed by a human's death shriek.  
    The policeman sighed, and began to crawl back towards the entrance,
knowing that they would both shortly be dead anyway and that he wasn't
following them into the pit.  And, anyway, if they survived somehow, he had
their photos.  The Chief would be pleased.

    Rayne let out a horrible cry, and Daisuke shuddered.  He knew Rayne was
faking it, as he still stood there, impassively watching the incoming
snakes, until he heard noises from above and realized that the officer had
left.
    "What kind of an idiot would put a snake pit here?"  Daisuke growled in
frustration.  "Can you get us out?"
    Rayne nodded quickly.  "Probably," he said, looking about.  "If this
mansion is anything like other houses built during the same time period,
and, judging by my correct assumption of the existence of the pit and the
door, it is, then there should be an opening right..."  He jumped seemingly
into the wall.  "...here."  He motioned for Daisuke to follow, and he did,
pursued by the angry hisses of the snakes, knowing they couldn't follow.
    After a brief moment of suffocating blackness, they were suddenly back
into the cool night air, looking backwards into a dark shadow which Daisuke
realized was the tunnel into the snake pit.  He looked around, and saw they
were in the Kunous' back yard.  Rayne deftly pulled a rope from his belt
and flung it up, catching a tree branch and pulling himself up, Daisuke
following him quickly.  Rayne undid the rope, flinging it into another
tree's branches across the wall and swinging across the wall, tossing the
rope back to Daisuke, who followed likewise.
    "We're out," Daisuke said, panting, "but where are we?"
    "The woods behind the mansion," Rayne said quickly, running in the mass
of wooded land.  "Now follow me.  We must leave this area quickly, or we'll
be found."
    As Daisuke raced soundlessly through the night, he recalled his wish:
he wanted his life to be more exciting.  He pumped his legs, grimly staring
ahead, knowing that he had gotten his wish...
----------------------------------
Ack...that chapter was long. :P  A bit of a plot twist, huh?  Bet you never
woulda guessed that Daisuke would be on the run from the law.  If you're
wondering what happened to Hiroshi, Jun, and Kira (I went to the trouble of
naming the jerks, so I might as well give em parts ;), the next chapter
should clear it up.  What do you think of my characters Rayne and Kai?  To
stoic, perhaps?  Oh, well, can't win em all. :P

As for what happens to Daisuke and Rayne, don't worry, I think you'll find
it very amusing.  Zai jian!