Permanent part 4: An angry attack.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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