Up to late and posting yeah, yeah. C&C Please.

Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only swinging on
the monkey bars.  Remember to leave the grounds cleaner than you found 
them and please don't feed the Troll.

Jei-san, on the other hand (look that's his name, okay?) is the 
exclusive property of Stan Sakai, who is welcome to him. I am merely
borrowing his likeness, and will return it as soon as I am done with it.
And not before time too, I don't want it sticking around in my head.

(Oh, what the Hell. It's 3 chapters and some in, you know what the 
signs are by now, right?)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ranma & Akane: A Love Story. 
Chapter 3: The Third Day
Part B: Storming the Wall: A Game of Wolf and Dragon

   Koriko Nagao was having what he could unqualifiedly describe as the 
worst day of his life. He had been humiliated, dishonored, disgraced,
he thought grayly. It had been bad enough before, when that horrible 
barbarian had terrified all the males of Furinkan on the first day. It
had been unendurable when he had been seduced by his own rage into 
joining the attempted attack that had ended so humiliatingly on the
second. 

  Or he had thought it had been unendurable anyway. Now he knew better
what 'unendurable' meant. Then they had only laughed at him to his face.
Only snickered at him behind his back. Only looked with disgust at a
stalwart of the Kendo Club. Only tittered at the distress of a champion
of the school. Only sniggered at the nakedness and humiliation of a 
descendant of samurai. Only that, then. And so he had called together 
the other stalwarts. The only remaining bastions of Furinkan tradition. 
Even their leader had deserted them, the noble Kuno Tatewaki injured in 
spirit and plunged into depression by the beating administered by That 
Horrible Girl. They were alone now but they would uphold tradition and 
honor as they saw it.

   And so they had analyzed. Dissected available data. Consulted the
authorities. And realized, to their horror and shame, that they, _they_
_themselves_ had largely been to blame. Error had crept in to the 
ways of Furinkan. They had turned from the path of honor, and they had
rightly suffered for it. Engaging in mass attacks on a single warrior
in a matter of honor. Attempting an ambush. Hiding like cowards. 
Following a mongrel dog to avenge themselves on one who had merely 
acted in defense of another. Finally they had turned to look at them-
selves and seen what they had become. Worse, they realized, they had 
led others into error, as well. All of they male students of Furinkan 
had eventually joined in the Fight For Akane's Heart. All were now 
tarred with the same brush, with the same stain, as they.

   They must atone, they realized. They must immediately place their
straying feet back on the path of honor. But how to do so? There was
only one choice, he had argued. They had begun as warriors, as samurai 
in a sense, albeit, he now realized, badly misguided ones. They must 
mend their honor the same way. Yet simple seppuku would not do. The old 
ways were no longer honored as once they had been. They would not be 
seen, many said, as cleansing themselves from stain. But rather as over-
emotional children, even as misguided fools. And what else were they, 
some wag had remarked, bitterly. Some, another said, would even believe 
that they were running, unwilling to face up to their shame. No, he had 
argued persuasively, they must seek a confrontation instead. They must 
challenge Ranma-san directly, one by one. In the broad light of day, 
and not hiding behind walls. 

   And only after they recovered from the destruction she would surely 
and deservedly work upon them would their honor be capable of being 
restored. 'And,' he thought, 'in such a combat, with weapon in hand, it 
would surely not be difficult to require Ranma-san to use lethal force 
in her own defense.' Thus ending the life he now felt too dishonored to 
endure, without drawing down censure on anyone.

   So he had thought, but he had been wrong. They had challenged, or
attempted to challenge, at least, but she had not responded with blows
but rather with words. With a story. 'A morality tale,' he winced
mentally. And with that story she had not merely defeated them; she had
destroyed them. He had returned to his classroom dreading the looks of
anger and disgust he knew he would see on the inhabitants thereof. But
instead he had seen something worse. Much worse. He had looked sideways
at their dutiful faces as the Sensei called the roll, and there he had
surprised an emotion more terrible than anything he had ever seen, even
in his darkest nightmare: the emotion of pity. Pity and condescension,
as though his humiliation was only to be expected. Worse even than this,
_un_concern, as though his shame was not even worthy of consideration. 
As though _he_ was not worthy of consideration. As though he were 
nothing.

   He had answered the roll without conscious thought. Hearing without
observing the information that one of his female classmembers was 
unexpectedly absent. He had not even dared to look at Ranma, where she 
sat midway back in the class, he did not wish to see what expression
she wore. He had excused himself immediately, pleading a call of nature,
they would surely snicker, but he could not bring himself to care. He 
had almost fled the building, and now huddled in dread by the outer 
wall, just by the gates. 

   Huddled there in dread, for he knew he could not evade classes, and 
those dreadful, pitying, unconcerned faces forever. And observed the
approach to the schools gate of what seemed, to his inlooking eyes, to
be one of Furinkan's schoolgirls. Perhaps it was Asano-san he mused,
dully. He must pull himself together in front of his classmate. She
had not heard of his humiliation yet: he must put off that hearing, for
a moment at least. 

   Almost restoring his features to normalcy he turned to face her and
welcome her to school. And heard her ask him a question, a question
which he did not register. That voice! That pain-wracked, twisted, 
voice never belonged to Asano-san! What? And he observed a fog clear
from his sight. And he saw the towering, black-robed, demonic figure
which replaced his classmate as if by magic, still clutching her brief-
case in one twisted claw, but bearing a great, cruel bladed Yari in the
other. And he saw the bestial wolf-like figure snarl at him. And
raise its spear as he seemed to freeze, mired in some clinging substance
that weighed down his limbs. And then the twilight fell, and Koriko
Nagao saw through dimming vision the spear-shaft extending from his
chest retract, its broad heads' bright sheen dimmed by scarlet 
lifeblood. And realized that he had been granted the escape from shame
that he had sought, before the night claimed him utterly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Ranma and Akane had been slightly concerned for Sayuri when it was
discovered that she was not in school that day. Yuka, however, had
volunteered the information that she had gotten home from her date 
somewhat late last night, and furthermore that she had found a puppy.
So it was decided that she must simply have overslept, or possibly
caught some type of bug, and would be teased about it when she finally
drug in.

   Then the studious peace of Furinkan was broken by a scream. A pierc-
ing, terrible scream. It came from one of the classrooms on the first 
floor front side, and was followed by a muffled shout that brought
Ranma out of her startlement with a shocked oath that split plaster
at 30 feet, and out the door in a dead run. Akane followed after her,
dreading whatever had disturbed her sensei, and reached the bottom of 
the stairs in time to see Ranma wave her hand in a complex pattern --
outer fingers veed and inners curling -- at the wall of one classroom,
which promptly exploded into dust. 

   Akane gasped and choked on the swirling dust, straining to see into
the opened room. Ranma, however, suffered no such difficulty, snap 
drawing Tenchuu in a classic Iado cut at the dark-robed bulk that 
suddenly lunged at her, trailing a scarlet stream of blood drops from
its outstretched spearblade.

   Ranma pivoted like a matador, sending the lunging demon-wolf past
her with a tortured, wordless howl. Tenchuu blurred as it passed,
striking deep more than a hundred times with a sound like a deep-tolling
bell, and Ranma snarled a name: "Jei!". Akane gasped in shock as the 
hurtling spearblade bore down on her, and saved herself from impalement 
only by a desperate sideways twist propelled by the impetus of a side 
snap-kick. The kick slammed into the injured side, spraying blood and 
fur from the cuts Ranma's attack had left. Akane saw with a strange,
singing clarity as she shoulder-rolled of the floor; everything seemed
to be outlined, thrown into sharp relief so that her racing mind could
clearly distinguish between what was important, and what was not.

   Important, for example, were the injuries to the wolf-demons side,
healing as she watched, the flesh flowing and squirming back into 
proper shape. Also important was the howling ki aura building up around
Ranma and flowing down her sword, and Akane abandoned reflection and
achieved the state of avoidance.

   Ranma held on to the howling, snarling ki-force with a leash of sheer
willpower, quickly enjoining it to build in a circling tubular onion-
like structure, each thin inner layer of force spinning in counter-
rotation to the next, burning lightning and destructive wind vortices
building rapidly to an uncontainable level from the internal dissonance
and friction of the whole structure. The task, for her, was strenuous 
but not especially challenging; she was much stronger then the last 
time she had called the Dragon Wind in earnest, and farther advanced
down the paths of breath and spirit as well. Now, calling on her full
power, Ranma held what she knew was the most powerful attack she had
ever performed until Jei had stabilized himself enough to be rooted.
Until he had placed himself fully in the path of destruction, yet
removed his ability to dodge it. Then she released its bonds, and called
it to battle by name. "Ryuukaze!"

   A storm-wind of ultra-cyclonic force erupted from Ranma's hands where
they clenched around Tenchuu's hilt, flamed down Tenchuu's blade and
sped irresistibly across the twenty foot space to Jei's back. A flaming,
crackling tide of lightning sped with it, lining it's passage with
St. Elmo's fire, and a vortex of wind powerful enough to shred steel
led it, filled with the heart of the lightning, and drawing the tornado
behind it like a dragon's head draws its neck and claws following after.
As it passed it drew up debris and shredded floor-tiles into itself, 
their component particles joining its destructive force, and on Ranma's
chest, underneath her shirt and wrap, the dragon threw back her head -- 
and roared. 

   And Ranma watched with fleeting satisfaction as an unstoppable tide
of pure destruction hit Jei squarely in the back -- and accomplished
precisely nothing. 'Oh, _shit_! He learned to shield!' She hurled 
herself across the separating space between them, shifting her sight to
the mode she used to analyze a structure of magic, and slipped fully
into zanshin mind-no-mind.

   Jei spun towards his attacker, keeping his attention focused on her
ki-force, and beginning a triumphant snarl. Ranma sliced past him in a 
rush, Tenchuu burning through his stomach and out his back, severing 
his spine. Ranma, spun around Jei, hand, feet and sword flickering,
testing his defenses and ki in a whirlwind too fast for even Jei's
boosted senses to track; but also too fast to do any lasting damage,
the minor wounds healing even as they were made. At last, having dis-
covered as much as she could, Ranma flashed to a position straddling
Jei's neck, one foot bracing against his back as the other leg curled
around his throat. A convulsive twist of Ranma's body broke even Jei's
inhumanly strong neck, and sent her off his shoulders to bounce off
the wall behind him, curling her legs against her chest and storing 
power in them. Then she exploded away from the wall, into his back;
her sword flashed around to sever his head entirely as she built a
tornado-strength shield of wind behind and around her body and uncurled
into Jei's back. The force of her ki-charged shove shattered every
bone in his spine and propelled him violently across forty yards of 
open air, through and out of the classroom he had been destroying
originally, and into Furinkan yard. 

   A lash of green energy erupted from his severed neck as he passed, 
joining neck-stump to head, and drawing the latter after it with a 
shriek of rage and pain that would have shattered all the windows on 
Furinkan's front side, had there been any undestroyed to that point. 
Which there weren't. Impacting the ground violently and being propelled 
into a tumbling roll, Jei progressed down the yard with a series of 
cracking and ripping noises, landing on his feet and healing all his 
wounds with a sustained wet crackle that ended as his head slammed home 
atop his neck and knit together again with a squelch that would probably
have been exceedingly disgusting had anyone been paying attention to it.

   Ranma leaped through the destroyed classroom, absently noting the
carnage within, and landed just outside what had been Furinkan's outer
wall. "Jei-san. I see you have gained in prowess since the last time
I killed you."

   The storm-loud cackle of mad laughter that erupted from Jei seemed
to provide any answer that might be necessary, but he continued anyway.
"Fool, I cannot be killed! I am the champion of the Gods, and they have
given me new power for the holy task of destroying you and all your 
works, utterly!" A green ball of fire suddenly filled his hand. "Now,
prepare to die!" he screamed as he threw it at Ranma. She batted it
aside without expression, unmoving as it spattered twenty feet of Furin-
kan's front wall with a clinging emerald flame that corroded stone, 
glass and wood alike.

   Ranma again drew in her power and answered Jei's challenge with a
bolt of lightning. "Gekirin no Ryuu!" The thunderclap that followed
the lightning's ineffectual explosion off Jei's shield fixed his attent-
ion firmly on Ranma herself, and allowed Akane to shoo several panicking
students up the stairs to (presumed) safety, while she herself ran to
the destroyed classroom, to see what help she might give. 

   Upon jumping the low sill left by the destroyed wall, she landed in
a warm, sticky pool and went to one knee, looking around in disbelieving
horror to find that the answer was: none. At least a dozen bodies 
littered the floor and desks of the violated room. Most were in pieces
no larger than half a torso, but all were clearly dead, and the still,
brooding air hung heavy with the iron tang of fresh blood, and the 
sewer stench of released bowels, overlain by the visceral, sour-sweet 
smell of human death. The combination went straight to her hindbrain
and forced her, gagging, to her hands and knees. Her eyes widened in 
shock, and she scrambled to her feet, frantically wiping her hands on 
her pants as she realized what she had landed _in_. She gasped and then
determinedly looked away from the carnage around her, out across the 
field to, and then past, the looming figure of the seven-foot tall wolf
demon, to where several panicked students, nearly mindless with fear,
huddled against the outside wall of the schoolyard.

   Akane lunged out of the destroyed wall section, snatching at the
central pillar of an overturned desk in passing, and ran across the 
field, yelling desperately for the students to run behind her, and away
from the demonic spearwolf. As she passed directly in line with Jei,
she hurled the desk across the separating distance, smashing him dead
on and hurling him into the wall. Unfortunately for him, however, one
of the students, who had heard her call, and started to run across to 
her, was on the wrong side. Thus, when Jei smashed into the wall, said
student was less than 3 feet from the impact and, startled and unable
to stop, ran directly into the towering figure as he clawed his way
from the rubble of the wall. Jei's hand lashed out and closed on the 
hapless student's neck even as Ranma and Akane both lunged towards the
tableaux, and the terrible, bloodied spear flashed back for a death-
stroke. Akane, however, was close enough to arrive in time and simply
shoulder-smashed into Jei, breaking his hold on the student, and driving
them both apart, and into the wall. 

   Jei rebounded with a snarl, driving his spear at Akane's unprotected
back as she turned and sent the boy she had protected to her off side.
Then Ranma flashed into range, sending Tenchuu smashing into the shaft
of the spear. But the shaft rebounded the swordstrike, to her distant 
shock, and Jei's instant counter flung Ranma back a dozen yards, rotat-
ing in midair and looking for a landing place. Akane sent her charge 
toward safety with a massive shove and began to turn at bay. Too late: 
the spearhead would pierce her before she could evade, she saw dis-
tantly. Which was why the black, metallic ribbon that flashed out of 
nowhere and tugged the spearshaft far enough aside to miss and plow 
into the wall, instead of Akane, came as a complete shock to everyone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Kuno Kodachi had hidden in the shadows beside the wall of Furinkan
and observed the events of the morning. She was especially concerned
with finding out who had so injured her brother, but since he had told
her none of the details, she kept a look-out for anything unusual. The
shortish redhead with the aura of power almost visible to the naked eye
was certainly unusual, she felt. Furthermore, her brother had not 
mentioned her even in passing, as he surely would have under normal
circumstances, and she was in the company of another girl, whom Kodachi
recognized as the "Beauteous Tiger" of her brother's fevered rantings,
Tendo Akane, albeit much altered from the frumpy girl she had remembered
from the last time she had seen her.

   This was, she thought, suggestive, and she had been engaged in 
attempting to locate the girl within the building when the screams and 
explosions had informed her that matters were becoming very odd and 
dangerous indeed. She had left the building by a convenient window and 
jumped into the trees, through which she had moved to a position just 
over the confrontation by the wall, observing the battle in awe. Seeing 
Akane's peril, she saw also an opportunity to intervene, and prove her 
own battle-worth in a theater of the utmost truth, and had intercepted 
the demon's spear with her ribbon.

   Jei's counter pull of the shaft had ripped her from the tree and
several yards further into the schoolyard, but she had anticipated this,
and landed with all the grace of her gymnastic art, then turned and
began to unleash a peroration that would surely stop the monster in its
tracks and lead directly to its defeat. "Hold, monster! For now ..."

   Ranma rebounded in mid-air and turned to the attack as Jei took the
opportunity to dispose of at least one opponent and struck directly
for Akane's heart.

   "... you face the wrath ..."

   Akane declined to be spitted and counterattacked before Jei could
drive home his spear, catching the spear-shaft just behind the head
with the odd speed she suddenly seemed to have acquired, and putting
a circle kick from the hip into Jei's midsection.

   "... of the Black Rose ..."

   Jei was driven back by the kick, and Ranma altered her trajectory to
track him as he stumbled into range of Kodachi, and felt that one
foe was as good as another.

   " ...Ugghkk." Kodachi gasped, as her speech was rudely interrupted
by the but of Jei's spear driving past her defense to slam into her 
midriff, tearing her leotard and breaking several ribs. The but was
followed by the spearhead, rotating like a fan blade as Jei drove it in 
an arc that would have torn through her heart, while gathering balefire
to his off hand. Would have, except for Ranma's fall from the heavens,
to cut through Jei's arm, severing it briefly and reducing the wound
to a 3 inch deep cut across and through several ribs and deeply into
the muscle of her left arm. The fireball that followed as Jei fell away
from Ranma's strike spattered across Kodachi regardless of Ranma's
swatting, ki-charged hand, and she fell backwards, crippled, bleeding
and aflame. 

   Some distance away, a young man who had been engaged in the occupa-
tion of shepherding students away from the fight looked up, and ran
to her side with a shriek of rage and pain, "Sister, no!" 

   Jei regained his feet with a snarl, but Ranma had seen enough. She
had the measure of his defense now, and it only remained to accomplish
the attack that would destroy him. She kept him on the defensive with
a barrage of mini-lightning bolts as she closed, followed by a blister-
ing exchange of fists, feet, spearstrokes and swordblows that maneuvered
Jei into the position she wanted.

   Tatewaki reached his sister's side just as Ranma put Jei in the posi-
tion she wanted him in. "_NOW_ Akane," she roared. And Akane, seeing
her chance, snatched up the central pillar, now detached, of the desk
she had previously used, and charged into Jei's back, using the pillar
as an improvised club. An attack that was fully successful in all ways
except one: she got the angle to hit him at slightly wrong.

    Jei did not fly in the direction Ranma had wanted, nor did he go as
far; and Ranma altered direction again, on the ground this time, as
Tatewaki reacted to the presence of the beast that had wounded his 
sister with the beginnings of the best attack he could muster: his
bokken blurring in the air. "Strikestrikestrikestrike...".

   Jei, of course, ignored the attack, bringing the shaft of his spear
over his head and down onto Tatewaki, sending the bokken from his hand
and dropping him, stunned, across his sister's body. And Akane followed 
up her original attack before he could reverse and use the blade, 
shoving him forcefully a couple of feet away, and following up to grab
the fallen bokken as she sprawled across the pile of Kunos. She turned
over desperately, bringing the bokken around to block the descending 
spearpoint away so that it thudded into the dirt beside her, and then
continuing with the only attack she could muster from her position flat
on her back on the ground. An attack that she knew was inadequate, 
possessing as she did only the mediocre skill gained by her desultory
studies previously and one day of Ranma's instruction. An attack that
was, nonetheless, the only thing she had. A kick straight up, with all
the force that was in her, past Jei's defense and into his groin. It 
lifted him up 6 inches, to a roar of shock and hate, forced his hands
up, locked around the spearshaft for the downward, unstoppable strike
that would skewer her, Tatewaki and Kodachi all three, and gave Ranma
one single, unobserved, unoccupied second.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   It was enough. A roaring wind blew Jei away from the sprawled pile,
as Ranma smashed into him. A hail of swordblows from all angles taxed
his regenerative capabilities and eroded the defense of his ki-shield.
A simultaneous flurry of ki-charged one-finger strikes pelted him,
whirling him around and around and setting his ki to boiling heat. And
Ranma followed him in the circle, countering his spin and dropping her
ki to freezing before she called the wind again. "Hiryuu Shouten Haaa!"

   The Rising Dragon Ascension Strike flamed inward from a circle
ten yards across and lifted Jei in a roaring cyclone into the sky. 
Ranma followed after, riding the wind that was Jei's enemy, returning
Tenchuu to her jacket with a snap and drawing a phurba of meteoric iron.
This she threw straight upward, through Jei's abdomen, and sent the 
lightning of the storm after it, upward from the ground to the dagger's
place at the apex of the cyclone, damaging Jei past the momentary 
limits of his regeneration and removing half of his remaining shield.

   Ranma herself rode the lightning upward, catching the dagger at apex
above Jei's form, momentarily held in equilibrium between wind and
gravity. And then Ranma called the wind up into a vortex just above
the previous apex of the storm and let Jei fall. She followed his 
descent with another throw of the phurba, again striking through Jei's
body, to thud into the ground far below, again followed by the fury
of the storm, shredding the rest of Jei's shield and wounding him
deeply.

   Jei snarled hatred and snapped his spear around to guard. Ranma could
not now put another missile past his guard, and to injure him again she
must go down, and into his range. And then Ranma played her trump card,
pulling from Jacket-space a weapon that Jei could only vaguely place.
Some kind of one-hand arquebus, he thought, but surely too small to ....

   The Desert Eagle roared, and attempted to buck in Ranma's solid grip.
Eight times it spoke and eight bullets flew. Each jacketed, solid core
hollow point missile carrying, locked to the iron spike at the core of
its leaden mass, as much of Ranma's ki as she could shove into it while
pulling the trigger. A packet of ki dedicated to only one goal -- to
expand explosively just before it entered Jei's body and then to hold
the lead and iron in a specific shape during its passage, irregardless
of the impedance of flesh or bone. A goal each packet achieved exactly,
punching eight holes in the spearwolf's body, each in the shape of an
ideograph in a scholar's shorthand of ancient China. Eight ideographs
relating a saying about men, and butterflies, and the difficulty of
telling the difference. Eight ideographs arranged on Jei's torso in a
pattern tracing out another ideograph in that same ancient hand. The
ideograph called 'Final Emptiness'.

   Ranma allowed Jei to fall almost to the ground before using the iron
dagger half-buried in the ground below him to anchor the remaining 
energy of her storm in one titanic bolt of fury, earthing itself 
through Jei's fatally wounded body and knocking the spear sprawling 
from his hand at last. She landed, herself, about ten feet away from, 
and behind, Jei -- now standing in a wide crater and frantically reaching 
for enough power to regenerate his broken body -- and snapped Tenchuu 
from its resting place again, sending power through it and waking it to 
furious, burning life.

   Then Ranma jumped backwards, past Jei again, Tenchuu flashing. She
carved another ideogram through his entire body with her sword: two
inward curving lines, each continuing from its bottom up into a 
crossing loop, forming a symbol not unlike a "W" with a loop extending
above the middle point. Then continuing in a single motion over the
top of the outer points, closing the curve and leaving only the central
loop above it.

   Ranma landed in front of Jei at a distance of no more than three 
feet, and Jei could only watch Ranma's cool emotionless face, incapable
of movement and with all his defenses down, as she drew back her sword.
And then struck straight through the center of the ideogram she had cut
into his flesh. And also straight through his heart.

   Jei exploded into a towering pillar of flame, and Ranma withdrew
her sword and resheathed it, waiting. The flame burned itself out in
moments, revealing the various limbs and pieces of his torso falling to
earth, smeared with an odd, green, burnt looking ichor; and a wide-
winged butterfly of an evil green hue, hanging where the ideogram had 
been, sending up a high pitched, wailing keen, and burning. Ranma 
swatted it from the air with a ki-sheathed hand, and ground it 
underfoot.

   Then Ranma returned from zanshin, and called a slow, pulsing fire
to her hand. "Come back from _that_, you pustule on the backside of
divinity", she snarled bitterly, using pulses of the flame to burn
the corpse of the butterfly to ash, and set the remaining pieces of
Jei's corpse afire.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Akane was just struggling to her feet again as Ranma turned from
the evilly smoking fires. She was aching, burnt, scratched in several 
places, and bore more bruises, scrapes and minor cuts than she wanted 
to think about, and the only thing she wanted was for Ranma to tell her
that it was over. Ranma pulled her into a brief, hard hug and whispered
"You did great, Akane-chan!"

   Ranma thumped her briefly on the shoulder and let her go, grinning
at her widely for a moment. Then Ranma turned to the gate of Furinkan,
striding over to check on the body there, and Akane bent down again
to help Kodachi and Tatewaki.

   Ranma strode over to Nagao's body, and knelt down. She could easily
see that he was dead, but she used ki-sight anyway, to make sure. Then
she gently closed his staring eyes, and stood up looking over at the
gate to see what she had noticed from the corner of her eye. It was a 
briefcase, which she picked up, examined, and then quickly brought over 
to Akane, standing next to the Kunos and talking to Nabiki, who had
summoned medical and police units to the school.

   "What's wrong, Ranma?" Akane noted her friend's grim expression. 
Ranma held up the case, so Akane could see what was written there:
Asano, S., and her address. Akane's eyes went wide in horror.

   "Do you know where this is, Akane-chan?" And at her nod, "Then I 
think, Nabiki, that you should call aid to that address, too. And I
think that Akane and I should go there now, as well. And I think that 
we should run."

   Akane nodded jerkily and ran toward the gate, waving her hand toward
Sayuri's distant house. "She's over that way, Ranma. But the fastest 
way there is...."

   She was interrupted by the feeling of arms around her waist, and
jerked into the sky. Landing on the roof in the appropriate direction
Ranma flowed into a smooth run, leaping gaps in the roof line with
focused unconcern. Akane followed, gulping in trepidation at the gaps
she would have to jump, but making no protest.

   Across Nerima they traveled in leaps and bounds, Akane following 
roof lines as straightly as they could, and bypassing the traffic. 
Shortly, they heard the rising wail of sirens, and Ranma suddenly
snarled an oath. "I can feel it now unblocked, Akane-chan, I've gotta
hurry," she snapped out before blurring into a red and black streak.

   Akane followed as quickly as she could and reached the roof line over 
Sayuri's house to find Ranma picking herself up from the ground, smoking
slightly, and a dozen paramedics charging the door. "Wait," Ranma roared
uselessly, "the bloody thing's ...." The paramedics hit the door and
were thrown back with casualties, and a burst of green fire. "... 
warded. Damn!"

   Ranma snapped back to her feet as Akane jumped down and stalked 
forward. "Get _back_ you fools, there's magic here." She jogged up to 
the door and raised her hand, ki coalescing around it in an in-drawing
vortex. She thrust her hand forward in the same gesture she had used 
earlier, outer fingers veed and inners curling, and burned a circle
of green fire into the air before the doorway. The door collapsed into 
dust as the circle of fire exploded around the house, blowing everyone
in a block's radius except those behind Ranma flat to the ground.

   The door vanished, and Ranma strode forward, hand at her side, ki
still gathered. Akane followed after, and those paramedics and police
still on their feet. The darkness within shifted like a living thing,
snarling and drawing down, choking. Ranma pulsed ki to her hand, drawing
the dark close about it, and then shifted polarity, and expressed the
ki of the vortex she had generated as sunlight. 

   A brilliant flash of light destroyed the darkness, burning down its
resistance and banishing it with a fading wail. Ranma glided into the
house, glancing at the older woman lying in the doorway with a broad
spear mark through her outer chest she left the body to others and
strode to the small body lieing nearly hidden in another room. Kneeling 
down, she checked Sayuri's ki with a sinking heart, but snapped her 
head upward to Akane with burning but worried eyes. "She's still alive! 
But she's not breathing, and she's fading fast! Get help, and I'll try 
to call her back."

   Akane spun and went rapidly back to the other part of the house, to
fetch a medic, and Ranma gathered all the ki she could at short notice,
then struck one hand downward toward Sayuri's chest, flaming into new
life as it went, ki curling about it ready to call the body beneath her
back to life ....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Nyahhahahahahaha!!!! Another cliffhanger! Evil, I'm so evil!

Some people commented that last episode seemed a little slow, and
didn't have much action. That's because I was saving the action for
this one. Was, ahh, that more what you had in mind? <innocent look>

Next: Well, did she live or didn't she? The aftermath at Furinkan.
Counting up the cost. Ranma and Akane take a bath! More training!
And at dinner, Ranma tells a story. Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Questions answered, and background explicated, next time on:
Ranma and Akane: A Love Story
Chapter 3: The Third Day
Part C: Exploiting the Breach: Telling Stories

--
"I have always held to the line that the wisest thing a
writer can do is be himself and trust to God that the
people he offends are those he doesn't like." -- Ben Hecht.
 -Eric Hallstrom, the even later
Eric Hallstrom  hallcon@mindspring.com