Draxon's Review Corner Presents
   An In-House Production
         Ranma 1/2
     A Demon's Delight

Chapter 3: Wrecked Minds and Broken Bodies

        Scream from my soul
        Fate, mystified
        Hell, forever more
          -- Metallica, Trapped Under Ice

    Ranma stopped in exhaustion and leaned on the front door of the Tendo
Dojo for a few seconds to get his breath back.  Just when he thought he'd
dealt with at least a weeks worth of trouble something just *had* to pop up.
Well, maybe something had to blow up, but that was a small difference.  He
coughed from running in the cold when he was already in bad shape, and
winced in pain when his ribs protested against such movement.
    Damn, he was sick of this.  He'd been running on a leg that would have
rather limped and it was *not* happy with the workload placed on it.  Any
two-bit martial artist could tell you that to recover from an injury you
work the injured part of your body just enough to ease it back to health,
but that was a luxury he simply didn't have right now.  He opened the front
door and walked in, hoping that he could somehow calm Akane down.
     Akane sat in the living room, her face buried in her hands.  Her
shaking had died down, but the fear and regret that had initially caused it
remained at full strength.  Her mind raced to remind her exactly why Apsu
was the last person on Earth that deserved a Sugoiken, and she allowed
herself to think about him as a form of self-punishment.
    Apsu had grown up in the Nerima area, and went to the same elementary
and middle schools that Akane had.  The two never really got to know each
other until Kuno and half of Fuurinkan started chasing after Akane, at which
point Apsu had managed to become one of Akane's friends by *not* chasing
her.  It was obvious that Apsu had a crush on Akane at the time, but she
liked him all the better for it because instead of chasing her Apsu simply
tried to be her friend.  She wasn't exactly devastated when Apsu left, but
Kuno's cut-throat, backstabbing method of removing who he thought of as a
rival served to reinforce her already growing dislike of him and nearly
every other male on Earth.
    And then when Apsu finally decided to come back she just had to greet
him with a Final Attack.  What a way to show your friends that you care!
Reach out and punch someone, Akane - you're finally getting really good at
it.
    "Akane," Akane looked up and saw Ranma looking at her with a look of
concern on his face.  Another person that she'd hurt in the last few hours.
    "Ranma, please...  I need to be alone," she wiped the moisture from her
face and closed her eyes to suppress a wave of tears, but failed.  Ranma sat
down next to her and watched her for a few seconds as he tried to figure out
exactly what he wanted to say.
    "Akane, the last thing you need to be is alone.  Listen, what happened
out there wasn't as bad as you're making it out to be.  You tried to show me
a new attack you learned and that guy got in the way at the wrong time.
It's not your fault."
    "Ranma," Akane stifled the flow of tears and continued, "When was the
last time you hit someone with a Hiryuu Shoten Ha by accident?  You don't
*accidentally* hit someone with a Final Attack!  Apsu's probably dead by
now, and you expect me to feel better because I wasn't trying to hit him?"
    Finally, ammunition! "I got a good look at that guy before he was too
far away, and he is very much alive.  I think he might have wanted to be
dead, but he's alive, and if that first blast didn't kill him he should be
able to handle the landing just fine.  Everything's going to be just fine, I
promise."
    Akane looked at Ranma, searching for any sign that he might be making
everything up, and when she didn't find it she closed her eyes and wiped the
tears from around them, "I still can't believe I did that."
    "You didn't do anything wrong, the only thing I can think of that you
might want to change is your method of showing people new techniques.  You
don't have to go all-out with an attack to give people an idea of what it
does.  You could have used this Sugoiken of yours at a tenth of its full
power and I would have gotten the idea."
    "But Ranma," Akane said, looking at her fiance with a look of confusion
painted on her face, "It *wasn't* all out.  It is supposed to be powered by
anger and I wasn't even close to being mad enough to do that...  I guess
it's more powerful than I thought."
    "Akane, think back and make absolutely sure that you weren't that mad
when you used it.  You have to have *absolute* control over a technique that
powerful, and if it does that much damage with almost no power put into it
we need to do something about it before we even bother with anything else."
    Akane paused for a second as she tried to find the meaning in Ranma's
words, "I'm pretty sure.  I was frustrated because you had me punching thin
air like an idiot, but nothing special.  What's wrong with it being powerful
though?  I thought that was the point of a Final Attack."
    "To an extent, Final Attacks are meant to put an end to a fight that you
can't win otherwise.  They are also meant to be used as a last resort to end
a fight before you have to use killing attacks.  In that sense they are
almost a form of mercy, as most Ultimate Techniques will leave your opponent
injured for life if they don't kill them on the spot," he looked at Akane
with a growing look of concern etched in his face.  To some extent the
concern he felt was for himself, but more-so for Akane, because if she
tac-nuked someone again when it wasn't absolutely nessecary she would bear
the emotional burden, "But Akane, unless you absolutely have to you
shouldn't even be able to put that kind of power into an attack triggered by
emotional energy.  Take Ryouga; for his Shishi Hokodan to reach full power
he has to be almost suicidally depressed."  He stood and walked to the wall
on the opposite end of the room, which he leaned on as he contemplated the
damage Akane would be capable of delivering if she were actually mad.
    "How is that a problem?  All I have to do is not use the Sugoiken unless
I need it."
    "You talk about that technique like it's a mallet; something you can
pick up, use, and put down again.  Akane, the Sugoiken is not a tool in that
sense.  It's like a mallet that stays with you once you pick it up," he
pushed off the wall and walked toward Akane, "Listen,  I know that you think
the problem is that you hit Apsu; but if you had better control over your
technique that shot wouldn't have been that bad.  If I had known you
couldn't weaken the Sugoiken I would have never volunteered as a guinea pig
in the first place."
    "Well, how am I supposed to make the Sugoiken weaker?  It was made to be
strong."
    "Well Akane, you'll either have to learn not to be mad or you'll have to
learn to avoid using that anger as fuel.  I don't think you'll ever stop
getting mad about stuff so we'll have to work on how you use that energy."
    "Okay, so what exactly do we do?"
    "I'm gonna come up with a way to build your control, but first we both
need to rest and get something to eat," Ranma's stomach growled in hungry
agreement as he thought about mounds and mounds of okinomiyaki... Man he was
too hungry.
    "Just what is there to eat, anyway?  Unless someone went shopping since
this morning there's nothing here."
    "I'm going to Ukyou's to see if she can help us out-" Akane started to
protest but Ranma talked through her "-and your not going to say anything
about it because she'll probably end up feeding us for the next week and I'm
going to be spending so much time with you after I get back you'll *want* me
to go hang out with her," Akane's lips budged into the tiniest of smiles,
and Ranma knew he was getting through to her.  "Now, I'm going to limp my
way over to Ukyou's to see if she can help us out.  I want you to try and
relax while I'm gone, because a little while after I get back we're going to
be training full time."

[...] Ukyou's Okinomiyaki Restaurant

    "Ranma!"  Ukyou flew across the counter and beamed with joy; then she
got a closer look at her love, "You look... terrible."
    "Thanks Ucchan, you always see the best in me," Ranma motioned to a
table and moved his sore, aching body to sit down.
    "I'm sorry, you just surprised me.  I didn't mean to come across like
that,"  Ukyou sat down in front of Ranma, who was the only person other than
her in the restaurant; the lunch crowd had left for school and Konatsu was
unusually late.
    "It's okay.  I probably smell bad too, I've had a bad day," he sniffed
around for a sign of food and picked up on a faint scent of Okinomiyaki,
"Are you still donating food to the hungry?"
    "You mean the hungry, battered, worn out, and tired?" Ukyou stood and
went to retrieve Ranma's lunch before it got too cold, "So what happened?"
She couldn't believe that Ranma would *limp* into the restaurant on what was
an otherwise normal day.
    "Oh, nothing much.  I had to fight that pancake again and it didn't go
down easy.  I'd say about half of the dojo is wrecked, along with my last
non-training outfit."
    Ukyou returned, food and drink in hand, and set Ranma's meal on the
table, "I guess that explains why your late.  So, why are you showing up
now, of all times?  I would be back in class but something is holding
Konatsu and I can't leave the restaurant unattended."
    "You know how Akane was getting close to using a chi blast yesterday?
Well, she finally managed to learn a real technique.  Oh man did she ever...
She was trying to show it to me at lunch earlier when some guy named Apsu
got in the way.  Turns out that her new technique ranks at least with my
final attacks and she knew this guy that she hit.  Apsu's taking a trip with
Air Akane, and Akane was freaking out until just a few minutes ago.  I got
her to calm down but I've gotta get her to learn control or the next person
that takes flight will probably be me."
    No way, this Akane stuff was getting out of hand... "So the first real
technique she ever learned was a final attack?  Without any of the
discipline she should have from learning the easier stuff?"
    Ranma took a bite of okinomiyaki, "Exactly.  I've been considering some
form of Amaguriken training for her but she has simply been too mad at me
lately for me to bother trying to teach her anything.  I thought that if
things calmed down I could work with her and that if she learned one of my
special attacks she wouldn't be so hostile all the time.  Now she's got a
totally devastating attack and I think the only reason she isn't as angry as
she's been for the past few weeks is that she's been busy taking that anger
and throwing it all into this attack of hers."
    "So you really think you can get *Akane* to learn self control?  She's
always been the most violent girl around."
    "Actually, that may not be as hard as it seems, Ukyou.  Akane can be
very violent, but most of that anger came from frustration.  I'm thinking
that if she feels more in control of things she wont be so mad all the time.
Trust me, the biggest problem I have right now probably involves this Apsu
guy.  I can already smell some kind of trouble brewing around him, but until
he comes back I wont be able to pin it down."
    "So... are you going to be okay?  You seem to be in worse shape every
time I see you."
    Ranma enveloped some okinomiyaki and swallowed, "That was just the
pancake, which is scattered ash now.  Give me a few days and I'll be fine -
Oh yeah, that reminds me.  When the pancake attacked again today the battle
ended up wrecking a good deal of the dojo, including the kitchen.  I was
wondering if you-
    "Of course," Ukyou looked at her fiance warmly, "I'll stop by today at
about 5:45.  The restaurant probably cant handle the extra overhead cost,
but I've got some money put back to handle little details like that."
    "Ukyou, you are an absolute lifesaver," The restaurant door opened, and
a sweaty, panting Konatsu rushed in.
    "My humblest apologies for my tardiness, I was caught up in a rather
violent thunderstorm while en route to the restaurant.  It would seem that
Kuno is out for the blood of a person named Apsu, and he was causing quite a
mess in his search."
    "Oh great," Ranma said as he stood, "Where's Kuno?  I knew that I hadn't
had my share of chaos this week."
    "I took care of Kuno after he tried to decapitate me, and he should be
in the hospital for at least a few days."
    Ranma stretched his aching body, "Thanks, that means less trouble for
me.  Well Ukyou, I've got some training methods I want to try on Akane and
your chef is back so I'll see you later today."

[...] Tendo Dojo, 4:30

    "Man, this is pathetic!  I've never seen a place less fit to train
someone in my life!"  Ranma walked to one of the 'walls' of the training
room and shook his head.  After the pancake battle Soun had draped sheets of
plastic from the ceiling to take the place of the damaged walls, which had
the dual affects of keeping the elements at bay and making the place look
like a refugee camp.
    "I guess we don't have to worry about messing the place up then,"  Akane
glanced into the kitchen, where Kasumi was moving debris in a vain attempt
to clean the room.
    "With the training method I came up with we could do most of this in a
museum without causing any damage," Ranma stepped away from the
semi-transparent imitation of a wall and moved to the center of the room.
    "A Saotome training method that doesn't damage anything?  This should be
interesting."
    "Actually, you'll probably think it's pretty boring, if anything.  It
goes like this:  You're going to spar me continuosly, and for a few hours
each day this room is going to become a battlefield.  We'll start off with
normal matches, and your goal will be to have absolute control over
everything you do.  I'm going to make you mad, I'm going to frustrate you,
and I'm going to make you want so badly to use the Sugoiken - don't.
Basically, this will ensure that you never go ballistic and use your new
attack when you don't need it.  After we've worked on that a while I'm going
to use a different approach, one that will help you control the power of the
technique when you really need it, but not at full power."
    Akane, clad in her yellow training gi, approached Ranma and stopped when
she was about three feet in front of him, "So, when do we start?"  She
wasn't really looking forward to this,  since Ranma never failed to make her
look like an idiot in the training room, but she had to do *something*.
.
    "Go ahead and get warmed up, I've got one last thing to take care of
before we start, and it should only take a minute or so."

    Nabiki stood like the leaning of Piza as she gazed at her bed.  Tempted
beyond the realms of self-control, she gracefully turned her back and fell
smoothly on the bed in a single motion.  Her head authoratively reminded her
that it hurt like hell, and she rubbed her temples to soothe the raging
beast within.  After a few moments of silent aching she ceremoniously placed
head on pillow and decided to hell with the waking world.
    *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG* The horrendous noise of someone knocking on
her door slammed into Nabiki's head with the force of a sledgehammer.  She
opened her eyes and began to sit up when her vision started to blur, giving
her a sick feeling through her body.
    "Damn migrain," She layed herself back into a survivable position and
sighed, "Come in."
    The door creaked open, sending wave after wave of agony through Nabiki's
overworked and overstressed body, and a blurry image of Ranma approached
from the outside world.
    "Hey Nabiki," he said, "I was wondering if-- You look terrible."  Well,
that's not quite what he was wondering, but Nabiki's indignant position
caught him as odd.
    "If you're about to ask for another extension on that last loan, now is
not the time.  I've had a hell of a day cleaning up after you and Akane, and
I don't feel good at all."  She squinted her eyes betweem words as the sonic
shockwave that happened to be her voice assailed her with peircing pain.
    "No, it's not that,"  Ranma approached the bed and softened his voice so
that Nabs' could endure him for just a moment longer, "I'm sure you know
about lunch today"-duh, who in Nerima *didn't* know about that-"Well anyway,
I was wondering if you could find out everything you can about this Apsu guy
for me.  Well, when you feel better, that is."
    "What's this?  Ranma caring about someone else?"  She grudgingly sat up
and let her forehead rest in her palms, "Open the drawer next to you and
hand me some migraine pills."  Ranma complied, and after swallowing two
pills Nabiki continued, "You owe me double for this, but here's all you need
to know; Apsu is the heir of the Tetsumi family of 'Various Martial Arts', a
fighting style founded on the same basic principles of the Anything-Goes
style, but influenced by the Korean styles.  After Akane's little 'incident'
at lunch I pulled a few favors to see if the police are going to come
knocking on the door later, and it turns out that the Tetsumi family has
seen to it that no legal action takes place.  Taken one way, that means they
are *very* forgiving, but it can also mean that they are going to take care
of it themselves."
    "Another fight I can handle - what about this Apsu guy?  Has anyone seen
him?"
    Nabiki opened her eyes and looked at Ranma, "No.  I don't think anyone
will either, at least for a while.  I met up with some people in the Algebra
club after school and had them work out a model to figure out just how far
away Akane knocked the guy."
    "And?  Where'd he end up?"
    "He isn't due to land for at least another ten minutes, but when he does
it will be somewhere in China."
    "China eh?  Bah, I've taken worse than that before. Hulk Hogan
downstairs musta' been slacking off on Apsu."
    "Well, maybe you're used to it, but I doubt your average martial artist
would consider that shot 'slacking off'.  Well anyway, I'm going to sleep -
so unless you have a few yen to fork over I suggest you leave me in peace."
    "Thanks.  Ukyou's gonna stop by in about an hour with dinner, so if you
feel better by then head on down. I'm heading back to work with Akane.
Later."  Ranma stretched his legs (part of his personal 'rehabilitation'
program) and moved toward the door when Nabiki interrupted;
    "Oh yeah, one last thing: The chem club had a little accident when I was
on my way back home.  A good deal of the top floor was damaged or destroyed,
so don't count on school being in for a few days."

[...]

    "... but anyway, let's get started."  Ranma gave Akane a few seconds to
get situated, then stepped forward, side-slipped to the left, and gave Akane
a well-controlled sidekick as an introductory attack...
    ...Which was knocked well away from its target by a quick block.  Akane,
riding on a sudden confidence burst, drove forward and planted her right
foot on Ranma's back, who spun with the force of the attack and kindly
planted Akane on the floor via a well-placed legsweep.
    Akane flipped back to her feet and waited for Ranma to launch his next
attack; neither  Ranma or herself were really in a condition for hard core
training, she reasoned, so if she could conserve her energy long enough to
wear Ranma down she might actually put on a good show...

[...]  Three Days Later

    "You want me to *what*?"
    "It's a pretty straightforward concept, Akane.  Just do the same thing
we've been doing for the past few days, except this time we're going to tap
instead of punch - and no pressure point stuff."
    "Whatever, let's just get this over with tonight.  I do have a LIFE to
get on with, ya know."  And so Ranma's grand training method-the poking war,
began. The battle lasted for hours, with Ranma dominating at nearly every
turn.  Akane's control increased by the minute until Ranma had to keep his
guard at maximum to avoid being tagged by one of Akane's fingertips.
Finally, the tide of the battle stood high, but even between the two martial
artists and Ranma decided it was time to end the match.
    "Hey Akane, take this!" He bolted forward and launched an Amaguriken
style poking attack which easily penetrated his fiancee's defenses.  After
delivering a few hundred shots (some of them sneak pressure point attacks)
he gracefully leaped back and prepared the verbal addition to his training
arsenal.
    "Oh man, that's bad for the complexion. It's gonna take you weeks to
recover from that one.  That's just terrible..." Well, he was almost right;
Akane's face, after absorbing over 100 well-crafted pokes, looked somewhat
like the surface of the volcanic moon IO on a bad day.  Akane felt the rigid
bumps on her face (which, by the way, would be gone in 5 minutes) and began
to feel fire.
    "Akane, as of now all techniques are in, have at it," Ranma cupped his
palms and generated a blazing aura of red energy within them and stepped
forward.  Akane clenched her right fist and empowered it with a similarly
impressive blue aura as the rest of the family hastily left the building.
    Akane moved toward Ranma with devastating intentions, but wisely broke
off her attack when Ranma's battle aura flashed with an increase in energy.
Ranma stretched his palms forward and released the fiery power of the Mouka
Takabisha.  Akane leapt over the beam (which wasn't intended to hit, mind
you) and ran up the far wall as it discintigrated below her.  She leapt off
of the wall as the beam ceased and landed squarely in front of Ranma; mince
meat.  Akane's loving fiance brought his guard up just in time for her to
tear it down with two fade shots, and during the half second span it would
have taken Ranma to rebuild his guard Akane drew back, charged her fist with
the power of the Sugoiken, and landed that power squarely on Ranma's
stomach.
    "Well Akane," Ranma said as a blue wave of energy wafted through him,
"If your standard throw has more distance than this, you've passed,"  Ranma
felt a jolt that rocked his entire body, then a blast of force that knocked
him back with extreme power.  He slammed into the only undamaged section of
wall in the room, and after being pasted to it like glue for several
seconds, slumped to the ground.
    "Congratulations Akane," Ranma breathed as he brought himself back to
his feet, "Now you've mastered a real attack."  He smiled, then summarily
fell over in pain

    Kasumi peeked into the training room from the safe confines of the
living room, and after deciding it was safe to enter she walked in with a
small envelope in hand.
    "Akane, while you and Ranma were training a girl stopped by and asked me
to deliver this letter to you," she handed the envelope to Akane, who opened
it and read it aloud.

Akane Tendo

    I won't tire you with a long explanation, nor will I bore you to death
with the pain and suffering you have caused me, but I will tell you this:
In your appearent clumsiness three days ago you not only destroyed my life,
you also killed the heir to the Tetsumi fighting style of Various Martial
Arts, and in doing so you also etched in stone that the family line will
never continue.  I have tried my best to find some means of forgiveness, I
even waited with the blind hope that things could somehow turn out okay, but
they haven't.  Someone has to pay, and unfortuanately that person is you.
Meet me at 9:00, just to the south of Fuurinkan high school.  That should
give you enough time to have one last dinner with your family.

Regretfully,
Michelle Chang
Apsu's former fiancee

    "ONE LAST DINNER WITH YOUR FAMILY?  Give me a break!"  Akane tossed the
letter in the air and turned to face Ranma, who was almost back on his feet.
"Why is everyone convinced that Apsu's dead?  Happousai said that the
Sugoiken absolutely did not kill, no questions asked.  Besides, you've done
worse to Kuno!  Do these people just not get out often?"
    "Akane," Ranma started as he brought his rather broken body back to its
feet, "The guy's been gone for three days and not everybody has Nabiki for
intelligence gathering.  Listen, you're not due to respond to that challenge
for another few hours, so take it easy and relax until then.  When we meet
up with this Michelle girl try to calm her down, this is definately not the
kind of thing that needs to be fought over.  If she doesn't listen to reason
I think you're more than capable of defending yourself."
    "Well, if I'm going to take that approach then I don't need to show up
in a training gi.  Kasumi, are we doing laundry tonight?"
    "Actually, yes," Kasumi responded, "With Ukyou handling dinner I'm
almost running out of things to keep me busy.  Just leave it in the clothes
hamper, I'll take care of it."
    "Thanks, hey Ranma - think you'll actually get some food out of dinner
tonight?"
    "Hey, just because the neighborhood panda ate my last 5, 10... geez, 12
meals doesn't mean a thing!  Eventually he'll just get so fat it'll slow him
down.  Besides, Ukyou came close to smashing him with her battle spatula
yesterday, so he might wisen up and leave me alone."  Ranma's stomach
growled accordingly as he fantasized about actually eating his next meal.
    "Well," Akane said as she wiped some sweat away from her eyes, "I guess
I'd better make myself presentable, I'll see you in a little while."

[...]  7:00 The Tendo dining room

    Ranma, in girl form and clad in blue jean shorts and a 'HI' t-shirt, sat
with determination at the Tendo dinner table and waited for her meal.
Genma, who had become nothing less than Ranma's mortal enemy as of late, sat
across from her.  Ukyou was running late with dinner, and only Nabiki had
joined the Saotomes at the table.  Ranma noted that Genma was warding off
the extra pounds nicely, and cursed the high metabolism that ran in the
Saotome family line.
    In any case, Genma's undefeated streak was over as of tonight.  Akane
was due to face off against Michelle in roughly two hours and Ranma wanted
to be as close to top shape as possible just in case something went wrong.
    Nabiki noticed Ranma's expression, which looked like a fighter in deep
concetration, touched somewhat by the look of a wild boar on a killing
spree.
    "Geez Ranma, aren't you just full of cheer and joy tonight."
    "Oh Nabiki," Ranma said with just the slightest hint of sarcasm, "Your
attention to detail astounds me.  Look at me, I'm wearing a t-shirt that
says hi in big, bold, capital letters; I'm starving to death because of my
idiot father, who is sitting across from me pondering how to starve me
further; and I feel like hell because I haven't had a moment's rest over the
past five days.  So there's why I don't feel so great, did I leave anything
out?"
    "Actually, yes.  You're forgetting that you owe me a great deal of money
for the information on Apsu I so graciously gathered."
    "Oh give me a break Nabiki, I can't believe you want to charge me for
that.  Don't you have anyone with more money to scam?"
    "Business is slower than usual, and thanks to you our expenses are
skyrocketing around here.  Do you think those walls you destroyed are just
going to reappear out of thin air?  If you don't want to pay up, that's
fine - but I've got something I want to show you after dinner that should
convince you to start forking over yen."
    "Oh.  Great.  Have you ever thought of working for a collection agency?"
    "Not even once, it's much more profitable to collect debts owed to me.
Besides, I was never the type to make money for a third party.  Anyway,
where's Ukyou?"
    "Right here," Ukyou announced from the adjoining hallway, "Dinner's
ready, and this time I brought enough for *everybody*," Ukyou emerged from
the hallway as the last word rolled off of her tounge, pulling a rack
covered in okinomiyaki behind her.
    "Ucchan, how's it goin?"  Ranma stood and greeted his childhood friend,
then examined the rack of food that she'd brought.  Several of Ukyou's
finest recipes adorned the cart, but she was far short of her 'enough for
everybody' comment.
    "I know what you're thinking Ranma; It's okay, I have a rented delivery
truck full of this stuff-" Ranma unconsciously perked up at the announcement
"-and I doubt that even *this* household could eat that much.  Feel like
helping me unload the rest?"
    "Sure," Ranma followed Ukyou back out to the front gate, where they
unloaded another cart of exquisitely prepared okinomiyaki.  After the cart
was safely unloaded and on the ground Ukyou rummaged through the truck and
produced two packages wrapped in gift paper.
    "Ranchan, take these, but don't open them until after dinner, k?"  She
handed the packages to Ranma, who accepted them with a puzzled smile.
    "Hey Ucchan, what's the occasion?"
    "No occasion Ranma, I just couldn't help but notice your lack of
clothing as of late.  Besides, I can't stand to sit back and imagine you
wearing Akane's clothes while your one outfit is in the wash; her taste in
clothing isn't exactly the best."
    "I'll take your word for it; and thanks, I do feel kinda stupid wearing
a shirt that just says 'HI', even if I am a girl right now.  Well, shall we
take food to the hungry?  I'm starved and now isn't the best time for that."
    "Why so?"
    "Well, Apsu's fiancee issued a challenge to Akane for tonight at nine
and I can't be on an empty stomach if something goes wrong.  I feel kinda
weird, normally all of the challenges around here are thrown at me, but I
guess Akane can handle it.  This other girl must be about suicidal if she
wants to fight Akane now that she has a one-shot assured victory shot.
Either that, or she has something up her sleeve, in which case I might have
to get involved; I wont let this thing go too far when nobody even knows
where Apsu is. I seriously doubt that the guy is dead, even if he did take a
little trip to China.  But anywayz, enough of that.  I'm famished."
    By the time Ranma and Ukyou returned to the dining room the rest of the
family had assembled for a quick session of devouring, and the eating began.
After roughly 15 minutes Genma had managed to gorge himself on what would
have otherwise been Ranma's food, and Ukyou brought in her final reserves of
exquisite edibles.  Ranma hoarded a good deal of food and annihilated it in
good time, then sprawled out on the couch in satisfied ecstacy to give her
stomach time to get to work.
    "Ranma," Ranma opened her eyes when she heard Ucchan calling from above,
and saw her childhood friend standing in front of the couch.  Genma was
being a good loser and watching TV, and the rest of the family had dispersed
to their respective rooms to return to their normal activities, save for
Kasumi, who was gathering laundry for washing.
    "Oh hey Ucchan," Ranma replied softly, "Guess I dozed off for a minute
or two, sorry about that."
    "Hey, it's no problem.  I was about to leave and I thought I'd make sure
you had these with you," she handed Ranma the two gift boxes, "You never
know what can happen around here when you don't keep up with your stuff."
    Ranma sat up and warded off some lingering drowsiness with a quick shake
of the head, "Yeah.  Hey, thanks again.  I mean, for everything.  I know
this food arrangement has to be costing you an arm and a leg every day, but
it's been a real lifesaver.  I would have expected Mr. Tendo to have lost it
by now, but I haven't heard anything from him about the damage to the dojo
at all.  Maybe sometime I'll be able to repay you."
    "Don't worry about it.  After all, food is my specialty.  Well, I'm
absolutely beat, so I'm going to go home and crash early.  Oh yeah, one last
thing: Nabiki asked me to remind you to see her before you run off with
Akane to respond to challenges."
    "Oh great, the beast wants me to go to her lair.  Well, thanks.  I'll
see you tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have an interesting story to tell by then."
Ranma stood, gave Ukyou a quick hug, and walked her to the rental truck
before once again entering the confines of the dojo to complete two tasks at
hand.  She decided to open Ukyou's gifts before she went to see Nabiki, and
went to the guest room to do so.  After getting settled and relaxed she set
about the task of opening the packages.
    Package number one consisted of a nice, thick, heavy cotton bathrobe.
Ranma silently thanked Ukyou as she took a few solid seconds to admire it's
mixed hues of red and black.  Hey, it beat a 'HI' t-shirt anyday.  Ranma
filed it away behind her pillow and attacked the second box.  She pulled the
top off, and saw a note on top of the rather silky gift, which admittedly
was not what she'd expected.  She took the note before examining her gift,
and read it.

Ranma-honey,

    You're probably just a little confused about one of the gifts I gave to
you, so let me take a few minutes to explain.  Remember when Akane was first
starting to harness her chi, and you came into the restaurant for dinner?  I
was a little worried about you by the time you left, even though you seemed
to be feeling better.  I thought about you for a while, and the thought
occured to me that maybe what you were dealing with was a natural, maybe
even nessecary part of your Jusenkyou curse.  I mean, your father eats
bamboo and I've seen him playing with tires in his panda form on more than
one occasion, so what if you're actually supposed to take on traits of your
cursed side?  Well, I'm not really sure, but I know that you'll feel a lot
better once you've figured this whole thing out.  I'm not sure what drove me
to buy you a dress (especially since I rarely wear them) but I left the tags
and the reciept just in case you wanted to return it.  Either way, enjoy!

Love,
Ukyou

P.S. Just don't start dieting, I'd hate to lose my favorite customer to
weight consciousness! :)

    Ranma folded the letter and pulled the silky dress from the box.  After
standing and extending the dress to full-length she held her arm out and
looked at it -- just looked at it.  Somewhere, deep within her, she knew
that she would get some kind of emotional response from the image of
feminimity, be it the odd attraction that she'd felt a week ago or the sick
revulsion that she more commonly expressed, but she felt... she felt...
nothing.  She ran her left hand along the upper half of the dress, taking in
the cool softness of the fabric and the quiet rippling motion that extended
throughout its length, and finally she felt a small pang of emotion deep
within her.  The feeling increased in intensity until she could clearly
identify it, and it scared her.  Desire.  But... desire for what?  To run
around as a girl wearing some fancy dress?  No, nothing quite that extreme,
but somehow she managed to want something without knowing exactly what it
was, and that bothered her.
    "I swear, this is too messed up," she muttered to herself, "I definately
need a vacation."
    "Confusing, isn't it?"  Ranma turned toward the entrance at warp speed
and blindly thrust the dress in front of her as if she'd been caught naked.
What, or rather, who she saw signified that she was far, far worse than
naked.  Nabiki was leaning comfortably against the wall near the entrance,
staring directly at Ranma.  She held a small photo album in her left hand,
which she thumbed through methodically as she watched.
    "Nabiki, I can explain!  You see-
    "No need to explain.  I just wanted to know if a hunch of mine was
correct.  I'd intended to investigate in a more structured manner, but I
guess you just confirmed my suspicions."
    "Really, this was a mix-up!  Stop jumping to conclusions-
    "Oh please Ranma, or should I say Ranma-chan?  Ranko?  You've definately
stooped below your normal masculine self this time.  Besides, I never jump
to conclusions.  Take a look at this."  She tossed the photo album to Ranma,
who snatched it with her left hand.
    Ranma sat the dress sloppily over her pillow and looked through the
photo album, which consisted of several pictures of her en femme, at the
movies, last friday.  Shit.  She slowly lowered herself and sat down on her
blanket as she thumbed through the booklet of pictures.  Nabiki waited
quietly for Ranma to gain her speech back, and pulled a chair from the
corner of the room to sit on.
    "You know," Ranma said as she flipped past the last picture, "If you
actually do anything with these you could end up getting me killed."
    "I know that," Nabiki replied calmly, "which is why I'm not going to
even think about it this time around.  You're safe.  If I could have
advertised pictures of you with amnesia or something I might have come in
here demanding payment, but you've been active and about: everyone knows
that you're fully aware of what you're doing, and on top of that you had no
'legit' reason for going anywhere like that.  And now I come in here and see
you staring at a dress like it is the forbidden lust, which almost puts me
at a loss for words.  So... what's wrong?  Having doubts about your manhood
or is depression setting in?"
    "Why should I talk to you of all people?"
    "Because," Nabiki noted, "I'm probably just about the only person with
common sense around here that doesn't have a vested interest in your deviant
behavior.  I can tell you've been talking to Ukyou, otherwise she wouldn't
have started encouraging you.  Did you ever consider that Ukyou wasn't the
person to go to for balanced advice?  I'm sure she told you that everything
was alright, that you are who you are, and that you needed to figure out
what's going on in your life, but appearently she failed to mention a virtue
of the weird: patience.  You need to slow down and be more careful or you're
gonna get burned."
    "Nabiki... Why are you taking an interest in this if not for money?
What's in it for you?"
    "I hate to admit it, but you're good for Akane.  What you've done over
the past few days with her is incredible.  If you pay close attention when
you watch her you'll notice that she moves a bit slower, with a touch of
confidence that she didn't display so openly before.  If you look at her
face, you'd be hard pressed to find a hint of anger when it wasn't
warranted, and she's getting calmer - all because you've been paying
attention to her and helping her work through her problems instead of
complaining about them.  I'd hate to see that ruined by any deviant or
indecent exposure on your part.  If the past is to be trusted, you're always
one mistake away from ruining everything, so be careful."
    Ranma folded the dress Ukyou'd given her and put it away to get it out
of sight, then she looked at Nabiki to see if she could see any underlying
plot, or even a hint of malicious intentions, but she didn't find it.  Could
it... could it be that the Ice Queen, of all people, was giving legitimate
free advice? (Although it could arguably be called a lecture...)
    "Well, I'll take everything under advisement.  I've got to meet up with
Akane in just a few minutes but before I go, but first - Do you think I'm
some kind of freak now?"
    "Ranma, I knew something was wrong with you the day you showed up as a
girl.  Some prospective fiance.  But seriously, it takes more than this to
be a freak in Nerima, Ranma.  I'll let you know when you've caught up with
the Kunos."

[...] Five minutes later

    Akane, sporting a Happousai-edition trench coat over a sleeveless black
t-shirt with a matching set of khaki shorts, made her way down the stairs to
the first floor of the dojo, where Ranma sat on the sofa waiting.
    "Hey Akane, while you were finishing up in your room I was checking out
the news.  We've got some storms coming in pretty soon, so we'd better get
going.  Michelle's supposed to try to kill you in about fifteen minutes, and
as a martial artist ya gotta be on time for stuff like that."
    "Well, aren't you just exploding with martial rightousness," Akane said
as she approached the front door, "Shall we?"
    "But of course.  It should be interesting to see how you handle this
after training for the past few days; I've never really had the chance to
see how my teaching effects someone's approach to a fight.  Of course, since
I've been teaching you for the past few days you'll cream this girl if she
is adamant about a fight."
    "Oh please Ranma," Akane said as she stepped outside of the dojo, "Lose
the ego and let's get going.  I'm not exactly looking forward to this."
 Ranma decided to cut the conversation short, and walked with Akane past the
front gate of the Tendo household.  The air was crisp and cool, with a light
breeze that put just enough chill in the air to make it uncomfortable to her
lightly clothed body.  She started toward Fuurinkan high school, and cast
her attention to the sky.
    "Man, this is freaky..."  She muttered as she took in the view.  Not a
single star was to be seen, as several layers of misty clouds dominated the
heavens.  They moved quickly along their path, driven by increasingly strong
winds that reached down and led trees in a chorus of frenzied swaying.  The
air was surprisingly calm on the ground level, however, and gave Ranma a
weird feeling of seperation from the chaotic forces that dominated above.
She continued to walk when a volley of lightning crashed down in the
distance, and sent a low rumble that echoed for several seconds before it
dissipated into the distance.
    The sky continued to dance with arcing lightning and swirling wind
patterns as Ranma and Akane neared their destination.  As they neared
Fuurinkan, Ranma and Akane both saw the school for the first time since the
Sugoiken incident, and it looked terrible.  The left corner of the fourth
floor, formerly the home of the Fuurinkan chem-club, was devastated more
than Ranma ever imagined.  A large section of concrete wall was missing from
the structure, as well as a chunk of ceiling that was covered with only a
loose sheet of plastic.
    The sky exploded with the fury of lightning, and bolts of streaming
electric energy began bombarding Tokyo mercilessly.  A constant rumble
engraved itself in the ground, and the flashing of lightning from various
directions cast an ominous glow into the sky.  After a few seconds a final
bolt slammed into the ground, and the rumbling slowly died off.  The clouds
proceeded to war amongst themselves as darkness invaded Nerima; A powerful
gust of wind nearly picked Ranma and Akane off of their feet, and as they
secured their positions on the ground the lamp posts flickered off, followed
immediatly by the lights in every house for a block around.
    The pair advanced toward Fuurinkan, hopped over the school gates, and
waited in the schoolyards just south of the high school.  Their wait was a
short one, however: Less than a minute after their arrival Ranma spotted a
figure inhabiting the chem-club's devastated home.  It waited calmly where
concrete wall once stood, and stared in Ranma and Akane's general direction
for almost a minute before jumping to the ground.  A flash of lightning
illuminated the area long enough for Ranma to get a good look at Akane's
approaching adversary.
    The girl, who Ranma presumed was Michelle, was roughly five feet and
seven or so inches tall, had medium length black hair, and she was in shape.
Damn, was she ever.  She wore a blue tank-top that clung to her body as the
wind tore by, and a pair of thin grey cotton shorts that would have been
used as sleepwear by a more conservative type.  As she aproached, Ranma
noticed her eyes, which flickered with a soft greenish tint.  Man, this was
messed up.
    "Akane, I presume?"  Michelle said when she was roughly five feet away,
"Who's this?  No - let me guess.  This is a little friend of yours who is
supposed to drag you out of this fight once it becomes obvious that you're
going to lose bad," she cast her gaze on Ranma, "If you even *think* about
interefering with this fight I will kill you without a whim.  Hell, you
don't even look like you're physically up to a fight anyway.  Well, enough
chatter.  Are you ready, Akane?  I'd hate to ruin your day by attacking
before you were ready."
    "Watch who you threaten, Michelle, I'm here to make sure nobody gets
hurt when we should be focusing our attention on finding your departed
fiance'.  I might make an exception in your case if you keep this attitude
up.  Some grieving fiancee'."  The wind settled down a little as Ranma
finished, and Akane picked up right where her she left off,
    "That girl next to me who supposedly isn't fit for a fight is Ranma
Saotome.  If you've done any research on me at all you should know-
    "Know that your little girlfriend is really a transexual freak of nature
that hangs out as a girl and likes it, but who also studies a martial art
style called 'Anything-Goes'?  Oh, I am just so impressed Akane.  I guess
it's fitting; from what I've heard you won't get within ten feet of a normal
man.  But ya know what?  THIS MEANS NOTHING TO ME!"  She marched forward and
placed herself close enough to Akane that their breath collided in a vortex
of swirling moisture.
    "You've destroyed me.  Everything that I hold dear to me is collapsing
around me, but before I give up on everything I will make sure that you're
not around to see my life collapse."
    "What happened to Apsu was an accident, you short sighted violent little
imitation.  I cried over what happened, and I have spent every waking moment
regretting what happened here four days ago.  Well I've got news for you,
miss venegence; you're digging yourself deeper with every threat you throw
at me, so save yourself a little trouble and just get this over wi--
    "Wait," Ranma said as she put a calming hand on Akane's right shoulder,
"Michelle.  I can understand why you feel the way you do.  I've nearly lost
people close to me before; I've had friends and family snatched right out
from under me by kidnappers, so don't think for a moment that I don't have
at least some understanding of your situation."
    Michelle took one step away from Akane and turned to face Ranma, "You
have my attention."
    "This fight does not have to happen, and if you will calm down for a
while you'll see that your life is not quite collapsed yet, because the
Sugoiken - the technique that Akane accidentally hit Apsu with, *can not
kill*.  You say that this is all about his supposed death, but that very
death is an impossibility.  Think about it for a moment; do you want to do
this before you even know what is really going on?"
    "Your call to reason is noted, Ranma.  But appearantly you don't quite
know what is going  on yourself.  I was born and raised in China, and unlike
a lot of the idiots that live there I didn't like the way our government
treated some of its subjects.  To give you the digest version:  I made a
grave mistake for a Chinese person:  I spoke against the government.  Six
months ago they came to arrest me, but a boy I had never met and his father
came at the request of my parents and annihilated the officers that had
intended to take me into custody even as their handcuffs were being locked
onto my wrists.  The boy, Apsu, and his father, Haratsu, were to take me out
of China where I would be safe.  They succeeded, all right, but not without
having to kill at least two police officers.  We barely made it out of that
country, and we all knew that China was now a forbidden land for us, because
all three of us would be wanted dead by the government.  Forcing one of us
into China with anything less than total stealth is the same as murder,
Ranma, so don't bother to fill me with your false hopes.  Akane, I stand
ready."
    Akane slipped off her trench coat, knowing that this was indeed the way
it had to be, and handed it to Ranma, who promptly put it on.  Michelle slid
out of her shoes and kicked them away, then ceremoniously moved her right
foot back, raised her left arm to a blocking position in front of her chest,
and docked her right arm in front of her stomach in a position for open-palm
blocks.
    Ranma took a few steps back to give the two combatants a respectful
amount of space with which to fight in, and kept her eyes locked on Michelle
as the emotional girl assumed her combat stance.  Some Chinese dissident;
her style was already screaming Korean, with her modified Tae Kwon Do
stance.  Everything about this fight seemed wrong; A Chinese girl using a
Korean fighting stance on the very spot that her fiance' was supposedly sent
to his death; thunder and lightning in the middle of January that was
powerful enough to knock out the power in a *very* disaster-resistant
land......
    Akane assumed a sidestance with her right arm in a blocking position and
waited for a fight that shouldn't be to start.  Michelle stepped forward and
snapped her left foot into a crash course with Akane's ribcage, who knocked
the shot back into the dirt with her right fist.  Michelle spun on her left
foot and delivered a nasty hook kick to the same target area, and this time
Akane's block wasn't quite strong enough to deflect the kick.  Michelle
tapped her foot against the ground as Akane leaned forward in pain, and
rebounded her heel right back into Akane's forehead in an upward-angled
sidekick.  She held her foot at its full height for a second to fully focus
her concentration, and brought it back down with the intention of ending
this little fight with the third shot.
    Akane shook off her initial confusion and focused her vision just in
time to see Michelle's foot begin its descent.  She started to back out of
the way, but decided that she couldn't win this fight if she stayed on the
defensive.  She charged forward and slammed into her opponent's left upper
thigh, but even as Michelle began to stumble her charged axe kick slammed
into Akane's back with strength that rivaled even the mutated pancake from a
few days ago.  Akane slammed into the ground at Michelle's feet with a loud
thud that knocked the breath out of her lungs, and layed there, a bare
target open to a final shot.
    Ranma considered throwing in the towel on Akane, even if that meant
fighting Michelle herself, but she'd been sparring with Akane for the past
four days on a regular basis and she *knew* that it would take more than
three kicks to stop the blue-haired one...
    "I came here for a fight, Akane.  Not to play target practice with your
he--
    Akane exploded from the ground and threw herself forward onto a
handstand, then pushed off of the ground on a course to land smoothly behind
Michelle.  The black haired girl turned and raised her right leg for an
immediate axe kick but a planned collision between Akane's left fist and
Michelle's made-in-China nose brought swift death to the Chinese girl's
made-in-Korea offensive.  She grabbed Michelle's right leg by the ankle and
pulled hard as she went into her own little sidekick spree.  As Michelle was
drawn to point blank range Akane went full force into the sidekick aimed for
her opponent's crotch area.  The shot connected hard and sent the normally
aggressive Michelle into a fit of pained spasms, then Akane hopped in for
another shot that connected with the side of Michelle's left knee.
    Michelle collapsed onto her left knee, her body screaming that Akane was
beating the hell out of her.  She felt Akane release her right leg, and she
immediatly rolled to the side in an attempt to recover her initial
advantage.  But that would be hard; with the debilitating pain from Akane's
well placed sidekick and the damage her knee had taken afterward her kicks
wouldn't quite have the force and speed behind them that she needed, and she
couldn't visibly use chi for healing or attacking, not yet at least...
    Akane kept within attack range as Michelle rolled back to her feet, and
gave the girl a viscious kick to the chest that sent her right back onto her
rear end with a crash.  This time Michelle immediately flipped back to her
feet, and both fighters took a few seconds to examine their battle plans.
    Michelle stepped forward to begin her next attack, but hesitated when
her left knee nearly collapsed from under her.  She tried her best to tune
out the more severe pain coming from around the area of her ovaries.  Damn,
Akane had picked her shots well.
    "Michelle, please.  Stop now.  I - that is, I don't want to see anyone
get hurt any worse than we already are," Michelle gave her a look that said
she wasn't buying it, "Please," she breathed, "I dont want..."
    "To hurt me?  Oh please, your concern touches me deeply but it is just
too damned late." *Concentrate*  Michelle loosened her stance and began to
dance ever so slightly to a song she pulled from memory.  Seeing as Akane
wasnt being very aggressive, she took the time to test both of her legs and
found them holding her up nicely.  That sick feeling that she'd tried not to
think about was even slowly going away, and now she had her focus back...
    Ranma watched as Michelle launched her next offensive.  The chinese girl
definately had tenacity on her side, if that was even a good thing.  Akane
had to get points for trying to stop the fight once it was pretty much
underway though, but she acted like she was scared of something.  Michelle?
Nah, that couldnt be it... Akane was doing great*ohshit*!  Just as the
thought went full swing in Ranma's mind Michelle connected with a sort of
palm-strikish slap to Akane's jaw, sending her into a quick fit of pained
yelps and dropping her guard for a split second.  Michelle followed through
with a quick palm strike to her opponent's stomach, then backhanded her in
the face.  Hard.
    "Perfect," Michelle muttered as her follow-up elbow slammed through
Akane's block.  She didn't hear any ribs crack when it connected, but it did
send Akane falling back, again.
    Akane managed to stumble back a few feet before she began to fall, and
it seemed like she was in descent for a few spans of eternity before she
impacted with the ground.  She managed to coerce her body to the side, then
fumbled until she was back to her feet.  *Damn,* She rubbed her eyes hard to
de-water them, then tried to focus her vision.  She started feeling nervous.
Really nervous, damn, she didnt want to be here.
    "I'm... I'm sorry," she choked.  When she filled her lungs with air
something popped hard, and she slammed her right hand onto her chest, over
one of her lungs.  The pain brought her forward just a bit, then she hacked
and coughed like a seasoned bronchitis survivor.
    "I know you are," she heard Apsu say, in front of her-Apsu?! Kamisama!
Her senses brought themselves back to order and she looked up just in time
to see Michelle's glowing fist slam into her face.
    "OKAY, IT'S OVER!"  Ranma's heart skipped a beat and she ran to put
herself between Akane and Michelle just as Michelle's fist 'exploded' all
over Akane's face.  I've letterdie I've letterdie ohshitohshitohshit!  She
slipped between the two, intercepted a full blown fury combo intended to
finish Akane off, grabbed Michelle by the neck with a grip to kill, and
pulled her face to face.
    "I said this fight is *over*," she growled at Michelle, "Now go home and
brag about your big win or something!  I hope you enjoyed it."  She twirled
the girl harmlessly to the side, and almost wanted to laugh when she
stumbled around a bit in confused shock.
    "I guess you're next then," was *NOT* the response Ranma expected to
hear.  She repositioned herself between Akane and Michelle, and gave
Michelle a cold stare that came straight from the heart.
    "You don't want to fight me."  Ranma breathed slowly.
    "Oh, and why not?"
    "Because you'll lose."
    Michelle smiled, and nodded agreeingly.  Hmm, why didn't she just wear a
sign saying 'I'm up to something'?
    "So, what'cha smiling about?  Must be pretty good."
    Michelle blew Ranma a mock-kiss, "I don't lose."
    Akane slid her arms across Ranma's shoulders and around her neck and
leaned forward enough to rest her sweaty forehead at the base of Saotome's
neck, Ranma, don't," she breathed, "It can't happen this way, don't fight
her."
     It was all Michelle needed to land first blood.

[...] Seconds Later

    "Damn!"  Ranma barely evaded a well executed kicking flurry, jumped
back, took a quick look at Akane (who was sitting some distance away getting
her senses back) and managed to jump over a flying sidekick that could have
taken her head off, but other than that her progress was zilch.  Michelle
was gaining speed, strength, control, and intensity every second and Ranma
didn't like it one damn bit.  The bitch was playing to win, and when didnt
have to worry about incoming attacks she was good at it.  Michelle ran in
for a sliding knee kick, which Ranma jumped over only to get nailed during
her descent.
    Akane pulled herself back to her feet in time to see Michelle pounch on
top of Ranma.  The black haired girl dazed Ranma's senses with a quick
headbutt, then delivered one of her 'exploding fist' attacks to the downed
girl's chest.
    "Ranma, GET UP!" Oh please, get up... She cried.  She'd seen Ranma on
the losing end of a fight before, but this time it was so different, so...
so real, so *wrong*  And fight, start fighting, there is no other way...
    ...I'm sorry Akane, there is no other way.  Ranma's right foot nailed
Michelle in the back of her head, sending the girl forward in dazed pain,
"Let's FIGHT!" she thundered, as she stretched her legs around Michelle's
neck.
    She almost smiled when Michelle's head slammed into the ground.  Hard.
She flipped back to her feet and prepared to continue the slaughter when
Akane's voice stopped her.
    "She's mine,"  Akane's glowing fist told Ranma that she meant it.  Bad.
Michelle took the cue and went back to work on Akane.  She'd be sooooo easy
to finish compared to Ranma, and her power...  God she wanted it.  She felt
the radiant waves of anger-powered heat wash across her face, and she
smiled.  She ran back into combat feeling pure anticipation, and launched a
quick jab at Akane's face as an opener.  Akane knocked the blow to the side
with her charged hand, and hop-stepped backwards as a nasty, blue aura of
energy froze Michelle in her tracks.
    "Sugoiken," she announced, and wished Michelle a good trip.  She closed
her eyes when the ground began to shake, and stood that way until a hand
slipped onto her shoulder.
    "Akane, let's get out of here.  C'mon."
    Akane lowered herself back to the ground, where she proceeded to cry
violently.  Ranma eased herself down beside Akane and spoke softly through
Akane's sobs;
    "Shh, c'mon, let's get outta here... I... I'm sorry, but I guess there
wasnt much either of us could have done.  I," she relocated a hand to cover
her stomach, "I think we need to stop by Doctor Tofu's on the way home."
    Akane's sobbing subsided into a quiet stream of tears, then she
remembered the shot that Ranma had taken to the stomach.  She eased Ranma's
hand away from her stomach and saw a fist-sized impression of blackness that
had burned through her dogi.  It hurt to look at it.
    "Ranma... is this how it always ends up?"  She wiped her face and stood,
giving Ranma a helping hand in the process.
    "Whaddaya mean Akane?"
    "I mean, the fights.  They never seem to get to you, but, but..."  Akane
choked for words, and Ranma instinctively pulled her closer.
    "But you don't think you can handle stuff like this.  Akane, you're
holding up better than most people would.  You'll be fine."
    "Ranma, I..." she tried to articulate her feelings into words, but
couldn't seem to find the right thing to say.  Ranma winced and clutched her
stomach tightly for a few seconds, prompting Akane to postpone the
conversation.  The pair started walking toward the front gate of Fuurinkan
when a bright blue aura illuminated the school grounds.  Ranma turned toward
Fuurinkan and spotted the source of the light, and it had a name.  Apsu
Tetsumi.  The blue-eyed boy was standing back in the damaged area of
Fuurinkan's chem club, wearing a fresh white uniform bearing the words
Various Martial Arts.
    "That dishonorable, sneaky, stuck up little bastard!" Ranma sneered,
Apsu held in his left hand a steaming thermos, and the clothes that
"Michelle" had worn were fluttering on their way to the ground.
    Akane's heart fell to ground level, "Oh Kami, it was Apsu..."
    "Akane," Ranma said with authority, "If this guy starts stuff again I
want you to stay out of it.  He'll answer to me for going after you..."
Apsu hopped from the third floor, thermos in hand, and approached the pair.
    "Well, I guess we've all had our fun tonight," he said at roughly ten
feet away.
    "Ya, it's been a party," Ranma replied, with just a pinch of sarcasm.
    "I guess you've figured the whole Jusenkyou deal out, otherwise you
wouldnt be standing there looking like Godzilla on a bad day."
    "You could say that..."
    "Anyway, let's finish what we started.  Here," he tossed Ranma his
thermos, "for the sake of fairness."
    Ranma gave herself a fair dose of hot water, initiating the reversal of
her Jusenkyou curse, and a few seconds later was standing in his full
masculine glory.
    "Apsu," he said, tossing the empty thermos to the side, "You have this
chance, and only this chance to stop while you still can.  If I'd known you
were a guy when you pulled that little attack-as-a-girl stunt a few minutes
ago I wouldn't have taken it easy on you, but - and make sure you hear
this - if you try to hurt Akane again I wont stop until either you are no
longer a threat or until you're dead, whichever comes first."
    "Yadda yadda yadda, bla bla bla.  No thanks."
    "Have it your way: SEIREI TATEI KYAKU!"  Ranma launched himself forward
and charged his left foot with enough power to level a building, and it was
all headed for Apsu...
    Oh please, "NOVA!"  Apsu focused a sphere of energy in front of him,
which exploded when Ranma's kick neared its target.  Ranma slammed into the
ground rather hard next to Apsu, who directed a nasty beam of destructive
chi at his opponent.
    Ranma rolled to the side after taking a nasty bite of Apsu's chi blast
and flipped back to his feet.  Apsu took a second to let his body refresh
and went hand to hand.
    Ranma took a nasty kick to the stomach, then returned the favor to
Apsu's face.
    "AMAGURIKEN DELUXE!" Ranma's fist went off like a strobe light on Apsu's
stomach and chest, knocking his breath out and dazing him hard.
    "Now you pay," Ranma breathed as he drew both of his fists back, "TOBAKU
YADO KEN!" He drove his fists forward, connecting them both with Apsu's
chest.  The resulting explosion knocked him back roughly six feet, and he
could only imagine what it did to Apsu... Ouch.  He flipped back to his feet
and moved barely in time to avoid another beam attack courtesy of Apsu, Inc.
    "Tetsumi Final Atta---"  Apsu's words drowned in the roaring hellstorm
of power that erupted around him.  The swirling, twisting energy shot into
the sky, where it exploded into eight streams of radiance.
    "Oh, fun!" Ranma dove forward as one of the beams slammed into the
ground behind him.  He rolled back onto his feet and sprinted as three more
missed their mark, then another shot came in from an angle and nailed him in
the legs.  He fell into the ground, and only the roar of Apsu's attack
muffled his pained cries as the final three beams slammed into him.
    "So Ranma, who was taking it easy on who again?  I can do this all day:
Can you?"
    Ranma muttered foul things as he brought himself back to his feet, "I
guess we'll find out, won't we?  C'mon, I'm ready!"  He ran forward,
side-slipped a chi blast, and gave Apsu a healthy dose of the chestnut fist.
The Tetsumi heir stumbled back, and with an angered yell collected a massive
amount of energy and prepared to release it.
    Ranma stood his ground as Apsu continued to generate a frightening
amount of power.  His mind raced with possible combat strategies in the few
seconds that he had to think.  With the kind of power Apsu was using he was
bound to wear himself out, but could he count on being able to withstand
Apsu's firepower until he burned out?
    The Tetsumi heir faced the sky and released a howl not unlike that of a
dying wolf, showing that he was indeed approaching the limit of his power.
His aura of shimmering, flowing power expanded with a violent shockwave and
brightened enough to bring daylight to the tortured schoolgrounds.
    "RaNMa," Apsu emoted, his voice twisted and distorted into a bass filled
howl that lowered to an icy growl, "i WouLd loVE To conTInuE THIs little
MATCH," his dim, chi-enveloped body spasmed, choking his speech, "But I..."
he stumbled forward as the amount of power he harnassed exceeded his
channeling ability.  Only the raw power around him made Ranma think twice
about attacking.
    "BuT I..!" he continued, "Dont HAVE VERY mUcH TIme!" His accumulated
power compacted around his palms and brightened, Ranma closed his eyes and
purged himself of as much anger and negative energy as possible; Apsu's chi
was hot, *very* hot, and if he acted fast it would amount to nothing....
    "TeTSUmi SacRed aRT,
    "Hiryuu Shoten Ha!"
    "BLACK LI---"  Apsu was swept into the sky rather violently by the
roaring, turbulent winds of the ascending dragon attack.  Ranma stood and
watched as a collection of black, deathly looking chi exploded near the top
of the spiral, followed by the blue, swirling power of the Dragon that made
its way up the spiral.  He inwardly smiled, another battle won.  He lowered
himself to the ground and worked on soothing the pounding of his head as an
eerie silence descended upon Fuurinkan.  He heard small, cautious footsteps
and looked to see Akane slowly approaching him.  He gave her a thumbs-up and
decided it was about time to leave, so he groggily brought himself back to
his feet.  A distant crackle of thunder and a flash of blue light
illuminated the area enough to cast a small, light shadow of Ranma on the
ground.
    He looked at the ground, specifically at the shadow - which wasn't going
away, and at the blue light which brightened bit by bit.
    "Blue light... Aw, damn."  He dove forward, but not before the sky
lashed out with a blast of crushing blue energy.  The beam caught him and
drove him into the ground mercilessly, and a second later Apsu landed on top
of him with an explosive blast that cast the rumbling of thunder for miles
around.  Apsu heaved with exhaustion and pain, but remained on his feet with
sheer determination after expending nearly his last ounce of power.
    Then Ranma began to stand.  Apsu nearly sank into the ground when his
opponent began clawing his way to an upright position.  He closed his eyes
and swallowed hard:  If Ranma was well-off enough to stand he could still
win the fight, and that meant death.  Death... he could not allow to occur.
He began channeling power for one last attack, and he felt his essence begin
to weaken with the exertion...
    "Soul Driver."  A small, transparent layer of chi formed around his body
and shot outward in all directions, further cratering the ground and sending
Ranma back into the dirt *hard*.  He exhaled almost pure moisture, and fell
to the ground in exhaustion.

    "Ranma?"  Akane advanced on the downed fighters and called out to her
fiancee, who didn't so much as flinch, "Ranma!"  She saw the slightest of
movement and sprinted toward the pair, then almost fell forward when Apsu's
head rose from the ground.
    Apsu's head swarmed with images from his fight with Ranma...  A
throbbing pain erupted throughout his entire body, and his stomach heaved
with anxiety.  He looked back at Ranma, who was unconscious, and scrambled
away from him on his hands and knees.  He pulled energy from some unknown
place and used it to half-stand, half-wobble, and looked at Akane.
Everything in his being told him that Akane had been a childhood crush...
Everything that was surging through his head from the past few days made her
out to be something more along the lines of a mortal enemy.
    "Akane, what's wrong?"  He still couldnt accept his recent memory as
true, and he prayed that somehow everything around him was some kind of
dream...
    Akane retreated one more step in fear, then stopped and stood relatively
still, her focus on Ranma, who was still lying rock solid on the ground.
Dual tears escaped her swelling eyes and she brought her left arm up into a
shaky blocking stance.  Apsu looked about as strong as wet paper, but if she
ran or underestimated him, or fought him and failed Ranma would... Her body
shuddered with wrenching sobs.
    "Akane, dont... I, uhh, aw shit-" Akane approached him and kicked at his
head while in mid-sob, and missed badly.  Unphased, she followed through
with a spinning hook, which succeeded in connecting with Apsu's chest
although it failed to even modify his breathing pattern.  She fell forward
in despair and surrendered to whatever was in store for her.  Apsu drew
closer to her and spoke softly from a short distance.
    "Akane... it's okay.  Whatever the hell is going on... Somehow it's
alright."  He placed his left hand on the backside of Akane's right shoulder
the way he used to (get away with) when he knew her from school, but rather
than relaxing she tensed beyond human ability and bolted to her feet.
    Akane's right fist slammed hard into the side of Apsu's nose, and she
stepped forward to maintain her distance while she summarily slammed her
left fist directly on the center of his face.  She saw Ranma twitch about
and wriggle, and her half-unconscious attack halted with a series of sobbing
that left her breathlessly standing, and open.
    Apsu felt under his nose and produced a sample of bright, red blood
which he examined for a tenth of a second.  Akane's 'bi-polar attack' hit a
depressive stage and Apsu moved in while she was open.
    Ranma pulled himself up to his knees and planted his right foot on the
ground as Akane screamed in the background.  He pushed up and rubbed his
hands across his face and forehead to clear his senses, smearing a nice
coating of blood all over himself in the process. He focused his vision on
Akane, who was being held and subdued by Apsu.  Whether Apsu was trying to
squeeze Akane to death or planning some elaborite kidnapping scheme, he was
going to fail.
    Ranma Saotome would never fail Akane.  He would never leave her at the
mercy of a murderous psychopath.
    Not so long as life ran through his veins.
    "Aks," he paused and corrected himself, "Ap..su."  His voice was nearly
inaudible, so he gave it a boost.
    "*APSU*"  He stepped forward, feeling like each step hit the ground like
a brick.  Apsu released Akane, and knowing what an observer would think he
was doing to Akane, backed away to put some distance between him and the
blue haired girl.
    "Mouka..."  Ranma heaved as he collected a weak, but adequate amount of
chi in his palms.
    "Uhh, No! Don't do it, Damnit I -- aw, damn."  The blast slammed into
Apsu and knocked him a respectable distance into the concrete wall
surrounding Fuurinkan, where he proceeded to slump to the ground.
    Ranma began to drift forward, but before he fell Akane caught him and
eased him back to the ground.  He stopped struggling and allowed his body to
relax as much as possible, but as his focus on total discipline and
concentration waned fierce spikes of pain stabbed him from within, prompting
him to kick at the ground in a struggling attempt to stand.
    "Ranma, Kami..."  Akane resisted the urge to cry and instead caressed
Ranma's wet, blood-smeared face to bring him back to her.
    "Akane...  Tofu.  Now."  Ranma clutched her arm from his face and held
onto it for dear life, and although he didn't know exactly what death was
supposed to feel like he had a nagging suspicion that detachment from his
senses, loss of control over most of his body, and an intense cold feeling
were symptoms.  Kami, he couldnt let himself die... Akane needed him.
    Akane picked Ranma up, spotted the front gate, and marched toward it in
the darkness.  She covered ground quickly for fear of losing Ranma, but as
she closed the distance to the gate she spotted movement.  Specificially,
Apsu's movement.
    And he was headed toward her.
    "Ranma," she said quietly, "Apsu is coming toward us..."
    "Damn... Set me down... And get out of here."
    Akane complied with the first instruction, and placed Ranma down to a
wobbly standing position, but "Ranma, there is no way I'm leaving you here
like this."
    Apsu limped until he was within speaking range of Akane and Ranma...
Damn... They looked dead and set to kill at the same time.  Ranma settled
into a loose combat stance with his legs slightly further apart than normal
and concentrated on soothing his bodies cries long enough to do what had to
be done.
    "I don't know how many times I need to say this, but I'm not attacking!
Damn, I swear you two are thick headed."
    "You're not attacking?  Just what do you think we've been doing for the
past five minutes?  We damn-sure weren't having a friendly chat!"
    "I don't know!  I, I've been in kind of a daze for the past few days,
like I was in a dream or something!  I swear, when I, or it, or whatever the
hell it was that attacked you was fighting it was like a dream for me."
    "I'm not going for that one, and you should be beaten just for trying."
Ranma stepped forward, nearly falling in the process, and assumed a heavily
entrenched deep stance to compensate for the further weakening of his legs.
    "None of that stuff was real, to me, at least!  Hell, I would never use
chi attacks until I burned out!  My best technique is a regenerative healing
aura so I would always keep some power in reserve for that! Unless,
unless..."  His voice faded into uncertainty, and he cast his eyes down to
his bloody right hand, then back to Ranma.
    "Unless what?"  Akane interjected; She wanted to believe Apsu...
Anything, any story, any excuse he could muster was better than the reality
she had been through.
    Apsu looked at Akane, his normally vibrant blue eyes dim and depressed,
"Unless I was trying to kill myself,"  He ran his fingers through his hair,
partially re-parting it down the middle, "But it was like it wasn't even me
or something, so, so it... Something."  He flopped to the ground and
continued to mess with his hair in nervousness.  Ranma's legs began to give
out on him, and Akane eased him down to the ground.
    "Apsu, I'll give you credit," Ranma spasmed weakly and gasped in pain,
"I almost believe you.  If I didn't think I was gonna die or something I'd
be interested in more," he laughed in an attempt to pass it off as a joke,
but Akane's expression told him it didn't work.
    "Apsu," Akane said hurridly, "Sit there and do whatever, I've got to get
Ranma to Doctor Tofu's and I need to do it now.  He was in a really bad
fight the day that I, that I 'hit' you and he never had a chance to slow
down and heal," by the time she had finished her explanation she had Ranma
back in her arms and was on her feet.
    "Akane, wait," Apsu said as he stood, "If I had the energy I could heal
Ranma no problem... Maybe as proof or something that I'm not out to kill you
all."  He took a few seconds to think, then continued, "When I started on my
way back to Japan from Jusenkyou," he shuddered, "I managed to get my hands
on enough food to last the trip.  I kept it in a bag that *should* be up in
the room that 'I' was waiting in before you got here.  If you ever held an
ounce of trust in your heart somewhere for me, trust me now.  Let me fix
things.  You seem to be in better shape than anyone else, so I need you to
go grab that food and bring it back to me."
    Akane looked into Ranma's eyes for an answer, which Ranma gave vocally,
"Akane, you know this guy a lot better than I do.  Your call,"  He prayed
that Akane had made the right choice when she eased him to the ground and
ran toward the school.
    "Apsu, I'm not stupid.  If you get energy off of food as quick as I
imagine, you've got me and Akane in a handy little mess.  But before you try
anything:  If you double cross us and hurt her I'll follow you from my grave
or whatever it takes to make sure you pay."
    Apsu nodded, "I know.  And I'd be absolutely stupid to incur the eternal
wrath of someone like you. I've seen resiliant fighters before, but you're
absolutely amazing.  I couldn't kill you for fear of you becoming a lich or
a demon or something."
    Ranma smiled, and his pain eased up just a bit, "You're damn right,"
    "Ya know," Apsu said after a moment of silence, "My grandfather
supposedly did something like what I did earlier... He went nuts and
attacked my dad, Master Haratsu.  I've asked and asked about it but all my
father will ever tell me is that he had to kill his father in self defense,"
he shook, "Kami, I hope that isnt something that runs in the family."
    Heh, "Sounds like you've got a little family demon to deal with," Ranma
said as jokingly as he could.
    "Yeah... Seems that way," Apsu replied quietly.  Akane caught his
attention as she approached, bag in hand.  "Okay, Akane, hand me the bag and
we'll check on Ranma's condition."
    Akane complied, and Apsu dug through his reserves of food.  He devoured
a rice ball, absorbed various other foods before they were visible long
enough to be identified, and opened a bottle of lukewarm, sugary tea and
emptied it into his mouth.  A few seconds later a warm, soothing blue aura
of regenerative energy formed around Apsu and he reveled in near-ecstacy as
his body patched itself together.  He opened his left palm as the aura
dimmed, and focused his remaining power as he placed his fingertips on
Ranma's chest.
    "And now, graced by the warm hand of Apsu - Yea are healed!"  Ranma was
unavailable to catch the humor; he felt like he was in some kind of
supercharged hot tub as his body was repaired from the inside out, and when
Apsu expended the last of his healing energy Ranma lay renewed.  He was
still in a pretty bad condition, but compared to his state a moment ago he
was in perfect shape.
    Ranma stood and gave himself and once-over look.  Somewhere along the
line he forgot to keep his jaw totally closed, and Apsu couldn't help but
crack the tiniest of smiles.
    "Now ya see?  It took ten times more power to fire that verticle chi
attack than it did to heal you, and that 'Black Light' attack was off the
scale.  Wouldn't it make a lot more sense for me to wear you down bit by bit
and just heal myself whenever you got a good shot in than to go tac-nuke?
    Ranma pointed at Apsu, "You... are weird.  Anyway, stop it with the
defensive argument stuff.  Somewhere along the line we're gonna find out
exactly what happened, but for now... A ton of weird stuff has been
happening around here lately and I'll add you to the list of things to
figure out.  But for now we need to get something to eat -- especially if
you can heal us up more once you've eaten.  Ukyou has to be about sick of
feeding everyone for free by now but I guess I can call in one last favor
from her.  But anyway, just in case this is some kind of magic glitch with y
our Jusenkyou curse I want you to avoid cold water like the plague.  Wait a
minute... How on Earth did you manage to fall into a Jusenkyou spring?"
    "It's kinda where I landed after I took that... Whatever that was Akane
hit me with.  But anyway, it's a long story, I'm stressed and hungry, and I
seriously want to get out of here. I keep having funny flashbacks and my
poor brain is running out of fuel."  The wind whipped the nearby trees into
a frenzied swaying, and from the distance a wave of rain approached for an
attack run.  The freezing cold water splashed down on the trio, and Ranma
felt the familiar tingle as his body shifted into the fairer sex.  She
watched Apsu stumble about after the change was complete, and motioned for
Akane to step back as she did the same.
    Apsu stopped her backward stumble and brought herself to a steady
standing position, where her eyes began to water excessively and she
clutched her head.  The blood that had dried up began to flow down her neck
with the rain.  Her face tensed excessively, and finally whatever was
hurting her reached its peak; Her eyes shot open, and with a wild, crazed
expression she spoke;
    "It's Michelle... She's gone, She's--" she screamed into the night sky
for nearly 15 seconds, sending a cold shiver down Ranma and Akane's spines,
then she fell limp to the ground.
    "Apsu?"  Akane asked as she approached the female mirror image of her
childhood friend.  Apsu was laying tense on the ground, her face twitching
this way and that every few seconds.
    "Ranma," she asked, "Do you think all of this is from what happened at
school last week?"
    "I dunno," Ranma replied as she scooped Apsu over her shoulders, "But I
guess it is possible.  I'm not sure though, somewhere along the line
something happened that wasnt supposed to, like something we don't know
about.  Maybe he really fell into the spring of Stressed and Often Fainting
Girl or something.  Anyway, let's get to Ukyou's and see what we can figure
out.  I'm rather interested in what our friend here is going to do when she
wakes up."

Draxon's Review Corner Presents
   An In-House Production
         Ranma 1/2
     A Demon's Delight

Chapter 4: Family Demons... the Jihad.      (Tentative title that I just
came up with)

        Lyrics not yet selected
          -- Band not yet chosen

    Prose not yet crafted.

Notes:  I'm sorry it took so long to get this out, and in a rushed state at
that.  If you've been around since January, when I began the rewrite of ADD
my sincere thanks for reading after the huge delay between chapters 2 and 3.
In any event, I have chapter four pretty well mapped out, and it should be
very neat and clean.  I'll probably start working on it sometime in the
middle of next week, and I give it a three week development time assuming
only moderate interruptions.  My big problem with chapter three was that I
was writing for a single scene and that is a nasty situation as far as
writer's block is concerned.  NEwayz, thanks for reading, and I'll be
looking forward to comments, public or private!

Until next time,
Draxonx@bellsouth.net

P.S.  Man, my one-day scheduling is absolutely perfect.  Four hours ago I
predicted that I would send this off at midnight.... and here I am hitting
the send button at 12:00 AM  :)