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RELENTLESS
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
By Grayson Towler
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CHAPTER SIX:
Hard Lessons
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Saotome Ranma shuffled through the dark forest back towards
the campfire, where Ukyou and Ryouga awaited. The bulky sack
he carried across his shoulder shifted and rustled as he
adjusted it to a more comfortable position. The young martial
artist was deep in thought - the departure of Pantyhose Tarou
had put him and his friends in a dangerous position. Even if
the weather stayed mild, they couldn't make very good time in
this harsh and mountainous terrain. The Reikoku was going to
catch up to them, sooner or later. And that meant that somebody
had to fight it.
All three had beaten the monster once, and none of them were
adequately prepared to defeat it a second time. If they were
going to stand a chance against it, they needed to train.
Ranma was least certain about how to handle his own training.
He was quite confident that neither of his companions had much
to teach him in the way of martial arts. Ukyou's okonomiyaki-style
technique was far too specialized and limited for his interests,
and Ryouga's style of fighting drew upon physical strengths which
were completely different from Ranma's own. Ranma and Ryouga
had pushed each others' limits in the past, honing their skills
with their battles, but Ranma doubted he'd be able to learn much
by training with the lost boy. There was no way in hell he was
going to try to emulate Ryouga's bakusai ten-ketsu training -
only a total fool would put himself through that.
He was going to have to innovate. He'd have to come up with
something new and powerful, something he could throw at the
Reikoku that could shift the balance of the fight in his
favor. Right now, he had no idea where he'd begin... except
for a vague notion based on something crazy his father had
told him not too long ago. He could scarcely credit the idea
as having any merit, yet he couldn't banish it from his mind
either. Maybe, just maybe...
Ranma shook his head slightly, shelving the idea for the
moment so he could concentrate on the task ahead. Maybe Ukyou
and Ryouga couldn't teach him much of anything about martial
arts, but he had plenty he could show them. He'd prefer to
handle the Reikoku himself - after all, he was the Master of
Anything-Goes Martial Arts, it was his problem - but he
couldn't let them risk facing the creature unprepared again.
Besides, training them was a good way to brush up on his own
skills, and might give him some ideas about how he could
train himself.
At least they were sufficiently advanced that he wouldn't
have to sweat the basics. They were ready for the high-level
techniques. He had considered starting with his father's
Umisen-ken and Yamasen-ken styles (the "noisy thief" and
"quiet thief" martial arts styles) - his father had said
they were too dangerous to use, but since Ranma was the
Master he could make his own judgments. But those styles
were designed to take advantages of the weaknesses of the
human body. He didn't think they'd do much good against
the monstrous Reikoku.
No, they needed something more versatile, something that
would help them increase their overall martial arts skill
and power. He had just the technique in mind.
Ranma entered the clearing. Ryouga and Ukyou turned silently
to face him as he approached the campfire and sat down, his
visage serious and determined. Ranma set the bulky sack and
its rustling contents down in front of him, then gave them
both a grave look. He opened the bag.
"The Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken," he announced. "The Imperial
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire technique."
Ryouga eyed the contents of the bag. "Those are acorns,"
he observed.
Ranma glared at him. "I know that, stupid. Just pretend
they're chestnuts, okay?"
"I'm not eating acorns," Ryouga grumbled.
Ranma smacked him on the head irritably. "We ain't here to
eat! We're here to train, you dolt!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ryouga snapped back.
"Quit hitting me!"
"Hey," Ukyou piped up, "isn't that what you shout whenever you
do that thing with all the punches?"
Ranma sighed. "Yeah, that's right."
"So you're gonna teach us that?" Ukyou asked.
"Yes and no," Ranma explained, trying to be patient. "The
Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken ain't really a fast-punch trick.
It's a training technique which improves your overall speed
and coordination. That's what I'm gonna to teach you. The
fast-punch attack is just one application of the training."
"It's a training technique?" Ukyou looked confused. "Then
how come you're always shouting about chestnuts in the middle
of a fight? I always thought that was kind of weird."
Ranma was thrown off stride. "Uh... I don't know. It just
kinda made sense to me, okay?"
"So when I learn this," Ukyou continued, "I can say whatever
I want in battle? I don't have to yell about chestnuts?"
"Or acorns," Ryouga provided.
"Shut up! Look," Ranma growled, "that stuff ain't important.
Do you wanna learn this technique or not?"
Ukyou threw up her hands. "Okay, okay! Don't get all bent
outta shape, Ranchan. Show us the training, sugar."
Ranma grumbled irritably to himself a bit, then composed
himself. "It's better to show you than explain," he stated.
"Watch closely."
As Ranma grabbed two handfuls of acorns and hurled them into
the campfire, he felt a pang of unexpected nervousness. It
occurred to him for the first time that he had never actually
done this. Cologne had shown him the technique this way, but
she'd also sabotaged his efforts to use the training by making
him super-sensitive to heat. He'd been forced to create
alternative training methods of his own. In all that, he
never DID actually get around to doing the trick with the
fire.
<Can't be that tough,> he assured himself. <I got this
technique down cold. Okay, here goes...>
Ranma's hands disappeared into a blur of speed, streaking into
the campfire with mind-boggling quickness and accuracy. Each
time he lashed out, he snatched an acorn from the searing
blaze, moving too fast for the flames to catch him. A few
heartbeats later, he held two handfuls of acorns aloft, still
steaming from their brief exposure to the open flame.
<There!> he thought, with a certain degree of relief. <Nothin'
to it.>
Ukyou and Ryouga looked suitably impressed. Ranma favored
them with a smug smile, and let the acorns clatter back into
the pile.
"The trick," he explained, "is to move so fast that you ain't
burned, and to get all the chestnuts before they get too..."
"Acorns," Ryouga corrected.
"Shut up," Ranma snapped.
"How long did it take you to learn this?" Ukyou asked.
"One night," Ranma answered, radiating self-satisfaction.
At some level, he knew perfectly well that wasn't true - he
realized that Cologne had been preparing him for the training
in her own roundabout fashion while he had been working as a
waitress in her cafe - but technically it had only required a
very short period of actual training to master the technique
once he figured out a proper substitute for the campfire method.
The young Saotome was certainly not above putting a favorable
spin on his own past.
"Bah," Ryouga grumbled.
"Really?" Ukyou's eyes were wide with admiration. Ranma tried
to look humble, and failed miserably.
"Now it might take you guys a little longer," he said. "After
all, I'm..."
"I'll learn it in one night!" Ryouga shouted. "Watch this!"
The lost boy scooped up two handfuls of acorns and hurled
them into the campfire. With a snarl of anger, he began
thrusting his hands into the blaze. He managed to snatch two
acorns before he reared back with a howl of pain, clutching
his hand. A glowing ember tumbled forth from his palm and
onto the ground.
"Way too slow," Ranma chided. "And you gotta aim for the
acorns, stupid. Grabbin' hot coals ain't gonna do you no
good..."
"I know that!" Ryouga growled back. "It's just hard to see
them!"
Ranma shook his head sadly, then plucked the remaining acorns
that Ryouga had left behind back out of the flames. The lost
boy glowered silently at the display, nursing his singed hand.
"Man, I expected better. Okay, Ucchan, give it a shot."
"Uh..." Ukyou regarded the campfire uncertainly. It was quite
a healthy blaze, she observed nervously - much hotter than
she would have used for cooking, for instance. The flames
were over a meter high, she couldn't help but notice. "Could
we use a smaller fire, maybe?"
Ranma scowled. "You don't get to be a powerful martial artist
by bein' a sissy. C'mon, Ucchan! I thought you were tough!"
The okonomiyaki chef swallowed nervously, then scooped up some
acorns. She settled herself in front of the fire, already
sweating from the heat. The flames were so bright she could
barely look directly at them. She understood how Ryouga had
lost track of the acorns in all that.
"Here goes nothing," she muttered, and tossed the acorns in.
Ranma sighed and rolled his eyes the moment he saw how Ukyou
was going after the acorns. She was fast enough to pull them
out of the heat one at a time, but she took a moment to orient
on each one and make sure of her aim before she reached in.
The pauses between each grab gave her hands a moment longer
to cool off, but Ranma knew what the result of this approach
was going to be. With a screech, she dropped the last acorn
she'd pulled from the flames and fell backwards. Steam rose
"All wrong, all wrong," Ranma admonished. "You don't peck
'em out like a bird, one at a time. That gives 'em time to
get hot! Here, let me show you again."
Ranma snatched the remaining acorns from the fire. They'd
already heated up to the point that he couldn't hold onto
them for more than a split second, so he stacked them
neatly into a pile as he pulled them free. "See?" he said.
"You gotta keep up the pace until you got 'em all."
"I... I don't know if..." Ukyou stammered.
"What's the matter, can't stand the heat?" Ranma taunted.
Students needed a kick in the butt when they weren't trying
their hardest. "You guys are s'posed to be martial artists,
last time I checked. Can't you even..."
"SHUT UP!" Ryouga bellowed, his face practically glowing red
with his anger. Nothing irritated him more than Ranma's
smugness. "I'll show you who's a martial artist!"
The bandanna-clad youth hurled another bunch of acorns into
the campfire and faced the blaze with fierce determination.
His wrath had been stoked high by Ranma's egotistic superiority,
and his battle aura flared to life around him. With a
thunderous war cry, he thrust his hands into the flames and
began to snatch the acorns out of the fire one by one. He
sometimes scooped up some embers and coals along with his
grabs, but he paid them no mind. <I must be going too fast
to feel them!> he thought. He would show Ranma!
"There!" he shouted triumphantly, holding aloft two handfuls
of acorns, mixed in with some glowing cinders. "How'd you
like..."
Much to Ryouga's astonishment, Ranma responded by throwing
a blanket over his body and stomping on him. The harsh
metallic clangs told him that Ukyou was contributing a few
whacks from her battle spatula as well. He spluttered
angrily and fought free of the woolen prison, flailing madly
under the rain of blows until he finally emerged from
beneath the blanket.
"What the hell was THAT for?" he howled indignantly as he
struggled to his feet.
"Look, you dope!" Ranma said, pointing to the ground around
him.
Ryouga looked. There was a charred, blackened patch of earth
radiating out from where he had been sitting. Several branches
and twigs which had been lying around him were smoldering and
singed.
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "That ain't exactly the point of the
training, numbskull."
"What happened?" he asked with confusion.
"You weren't goin' anywhere close to fast enough to get the
acorns, dimwit. You just got your battle aura so hot that
you could withstand the flames. You were gonna start a forest
fire at that rate, buddy."
"You didn't have to beat on me!" he snarled, rubbing his head
irritably.
"Would you rather we'd doused you with cold water, P-Chan?"
Ranma teased.
Ryouga spluttered incoherently, still fuming with anger but
unable to conceive a proper response. He finally settled on
the reflexive one: "Just shut up, Ranma!"
Ranma sniffed disapprovingly. "I don't know if you're cut out
for this technique, Ryouga. Anything more subtle than wreckin'
rocks is outta your league. Maybe you ought to leave the
fightin' to me from now on."
"Ranma..." Ryouga growled menacingly, clenching his fists.
Ranma ignored him. When you were a teacher, you didn't get
anywhere by coddling your students. You had to push them
harder than they'd ever push themselves. "And you, Ucchan.
You gonna give it another shot?"
"I..." Ukyou shot a worried glance at the bonfire. The burns
on her hands still stung painfully. "I don't know, Ranchan...
maybe I..."
Ranma rolled his eyes and made a disparaging noise. "Never
mind. This was probably a waste of time."
Ukyou looked stricken. Some part of Ranma regretted stepping
on her feelings that way, but he reminded himself that he had
to be hard if he wanted to be their teacher. He steeled his
resolve and his expression, leaving no room for sympathy in
his visage and voice.
"Maybe I overestimated you guys," he announced. "I'm gonna
have to think about how to train down to your level."
Without waiting for a response, he rose to his feet and made
his way over to his bedroll. He paused a moment, considering...
then picked his gear up and began to carry it off.
"Where are you going?" Ukyou said from behind him. Her voice
was tight and strained. He didn't look back at her as he
responded.
"I'm gonna sleep a little bit apart from you guys," he said.
He didn't explain why. He didn't know if his self-training
idea had any chance of succeeding at all, but he figured it
couldn't hurt to take a few precautions if it did. "Get some
rest. We've got another hard day tomorrow."
Saotome Ranma left his companions by the campfire, and shuffled
off to make his preparations for sleep.
- - - - - -
Over an hour later, Ryouga was still staring into the flickering
remains of the campfire. He spared an occasional rueful glance
towards the pile of acorns off to the side, but mostly he just
stared and thought. It was hard to cool down from being so mad
at Ranma. Did that guy practice at being obnoxious, or was it
in the blood? Even if he and Ranma hadn't shared all sorts of
painful history, he was pretty sure he'd find the pig-tailed
boy just as infuriating.
Still, it wasn't an entirely wasted evening. Ryouga picked
up one of the blackened twigs from the ground beside him and
regarded it thoughtfully. The gears in his mind turned over
slowly but inexorably.
He was distracted by a rustling sound from beyond the dim sphere
of illumination. He looked up to see Ukyou approaching him,
her blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl.
"You couldn't sleep either, sugar?" she muttered.
Ryouga grunted. She seemed to take that as a "yes," and sat
down beside him in front of the campfire. A long moment of
silence passed between them as they listened to the crackle
of the remaining flames.
"Well," Ukyou said, "that didn't go too well, did it?"
"Ranma's a jerk," Ryouga grumbled. "And he's a liar. He
didn't learn that technique in one night."
"How do you know?"
He shrugged. "I just do."
"It only took him three days to master that 'Heavenly Dragon
Ascension' thing. I was there," she reminded him. "Didya
ever consider that he might be telling the truth?"
"Feh," Ryouga huffed. He refused to believe it. Ranma was
one of the most incorrigible liars he'd ever met. Still,
no point in arguing about it with Ukyou - she thought Saotome
walked on water. It boggled the mind.
"Anyway," she said, "I was thinking. Maybe it'll just take
longer for you and me, hmm? Maybe Ranma just had a knack for
this, and we have to work harder."
Ryouga shrugged. "Maybe. You think we should try again?"
Ukyou sighed heavily, massaging the burns on her hands. "Yeah,
I do. I... just have to... to give it my all. That's all
there is to it."
Ryouga scowled. He wasn't the most perceptive of people, but
even he could tell what was behind this. She didn't want to
look bad in her 'Ranchan's' eyes. She'd go so far as to burn
her hands to a crisp to try to impress him. What she saw in
that guy was a complete mystery to him, but women never made
much sense to Ryouga anyway.
Still, he couldn't just sit back and let her hurt herself over
that jerk. "All right, look," he told her, "we'll give it
another shot. But we'll do it on this fire, okay?" he gestured
at the mild flames.
"But Ranchan said..."
"Forget that!" Ryouga snapped, then moderated his tone. "You
said yourself that he probably had a knack for this, right?
Well, you and me obviously don't have that kind of innate gift,
so we're going to have to work our way up to the real thing.
You have to walk before you can run."
A relieved smile lit up Ukyou's face. Ryouga blushed a little
bit at the grateful look in her eyes - he hoped it was too
dark for her to tell. "That sounds good to me, Ryouga! Let's
do it!"
"Tie your hair back," he advised her. "And let's get a bucket
of water to dunk our hands in if we burn ourselves."
"Do we need to warm it up for you? You know, so you don't...
uh...you know."
He shrugged. "I won't change if I just get my hands a little
wet."
She nodded. "I'll be right back, sugar."
Ukyou hurried off, and Ryouga stared thoughtfully at the fire.
He checked the kindling to make sure they had enough to keep
the fire burning at this level for a while, then gathered the
acorns in front of himself. He decided that they should
probably start with fewer acorns at a time as well, just so
they could get used to the motion. Ranma was right about
Ukyou's "hunt and peck" style - he'd have to figure out how
to teach her to get over that instinct. Maybe if she took a
moment to visualize pulling the acorns out of the flames first,
so she knew where they all were and in what order she'd grab
them, she could get them all without having to pick her targets
first. And he'd have to work on not grabbing big handfuls when
he went for an acorn...
"I got the water," Ukyou announced.
"Good," he said. She settled herself down beside him on her
knees, facing the fire. He gave her an encouraging nod - not
a smile, but with eyes full of determination. She returned
the nod and mustered her concentration.
"Okay," he began, picking up a small handful of acorns. "Here's
what I want you to try first..."
- - - - - -
Dr. Tofu looked on with concern as Akane strained to adjust the
boulder in its harness. She was clearly struggling with the
bulk of the great stone and the awkwardness of the dangling rope
contraption which supported it. "Are you sure you don't want
a hand, Akane-chan?" he called.
"I'm fine!" she grunted back. "I just >whuff< need a few more
minutes!"
He sighed. It was probably for the best - she needed to do
everything she could to build up her strength. Still, he was
pretty certain this effort was pointless. She had decided
today that it might be easier to find the breaking point if
the boulder were at a different angle, so she was struggling
with the tedious task of adjusting its position.
Dr. Tofu didn't have a complete understanding of the technique,
but he was mostly sure that the position of the rock didn't
make any difference. Still, he didn't know if he should tell
Akane that or not. The Amazons had refined this training
technique for centuries, from what he understood. He wasn't
confident enough of his own knowledge that he wanted to
interfere with their method. Cologne had said: "Look for
the breaking point with your mind's eye." If shifting the
boulder around in its harness helped Akane focus her mind's
eye, then perhaps it would help her towards mastering the
technique. He didn't know, so he kept his silence.
"Okay!" Akane shouted as she worked her way into her own
harness. "I'm ready!"
"Very good, Akane-chan!"
"I have a good feeling about this!" she exclaimed cheerfully.
"I really think I'm gonna do it this time!"
"Do your best, Akane-chan!" Tofu called back, forcing a smile.
"Growf!" added the panda beside him, as he held up a sign -
[Try not to let yourself get smashed to a pulp!]
Dr. Tofu sighed. He was glad that Akane was too far away to
read that.
The youngest Tendou girl turned her attention to the boulder
before her, focusing her concentration. Tofu could see her
battle aura flaring to life around her - a bright, scintillating
blue. She was really concentrating this time. Could it be
possible that she was on the verge of a breakthrough? Tofu
realized he was holding his breath.
Akane jerked the release cord, setting herself and the boulder
on a collision course. She let fly with a battle cry which
echoed through the trees as she hurtled towards the speeding
mass of stone, her finger extended before her like a lance,
her battle aura leaving an ephemeral blue trail in her wake.
With a sickening thud, she slammed into the rock. Her battle
aura failed instantly as she went unconscious. The rock
continued along its trajectory, its momentum hardly altered
at all by the insignificant impact of the young martial artist.
Tofu cringed at the sight. It was always painful to watch.
"Okay, Saotome-san," he instructed. "Let's get her down and
back to the clinic."
Dr. Tofu desperately wished he'd been able to see the bakusai
ten-ketsu technique in action, at least once. It might have
helped him confirm some of his theories about how it worked,
and how he might help Akane with her training. All he really
knew was what Cologne had done to teach it to Ryouga.
That was fine, but Ryouga had been phenomenally strong even
before he was exposed to the training. Tofu was certain that
the bakusai ten-ketsu demanded a certain degree of physical
strength and stamina before you could expect to execute it,
but he didn't know how far away Akane was from reaching that
level. Certainly, she had a long way to go.
Was there some other way to teach this? He didn't know. The
Amazons might have had all sorts of different training methods
for those who needed to work up to learning the breaking point,
but all Akane had to work with was this brutal and punishing
regimen. The only problem was that it took so much out of her
that she ignored all her other training. She simply didn't
have the energy to keep up with her normal routines and
exercises. Tofu was worried that she wasn't going to make
much headway at this pace, and afraid that she would really
damage herself one of these times.
At least she was wearing the pads. At least she was facing
the rock with authority without panicking. Perhaps it wasn't
a totally hopeless cause.
Dr. Tofu gently inspected the inert Akane for any wounds which
would require immediate attention. Once again, she had managed
to survive the impact without serious injury. Maybe that was
a sign for optimism, after all.
"And maybe she's just lucky, eh, Saotome-san?" he muttered
aloud.
"Mrrf," the panda commented unhelpfully.
- - - - - -
Ranma was starting to get worried about how slow they were
going. Every delay they faced brought the Reikoku that much
closer to them, but he didn't know what else they could do.
The days were shorter this late in the year, the weather was
always a threat. Even exceptional athletes and martial artists
had to respect the elements and the terrain.
It was taking too long to get out of the mountains.
"One more!"
"You sure about that, sugar?"
"Let's do it!"
Ranma glanced back over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. Ukyou
and Ryouga didn't seem to be as worried about their pace.
Maybe they were just too thick to understand the danger, he
thought sourly. At least they'd found a way to distract
themselves, as pointless as it was.
They called it training, though Ranma certainly wouldn't dignify
it as such. It was more like little games that they thought
up on the fly. Today, for instance, they were juggling Ukyou's
throwing spatulas. They'd started out doing it individually,
but now they'd moved on to tossing the little weapons between
them in the air. Ranma had tried to pick up the pace to throw
them off (even though he knew they wouldn't go any farther
than the base of the next cliff face today, no matter how fast
they traveled), but that just seemed to encourage them.
Juggling on the run was more of a challenge. Now they followed
Ranma at a walking pace, orbiting one another in a sort of
brisk dance as they kept the gleaming spatulas flying in the
air.
"Ouch!"
clatter<
"You okay, Ryouga?"
"Yeah... just nicked myself. "
"You gotta catch 'em by the handle, sugar."
"It's trickier than juggling rocks. Let's keep going."
Ranma didn't break stride as the two paused to retrieve the
dropped weapons from the ground. They'd just have to catch
up to him if they wanted to keep fooling around while they
traveled.
They'd been doing this sort of thing the past few days, and
it was really starting to get on Ranma's nerves. They called
it agility training, claiming that they were trying to work
up to the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken technique. Every night,
they would pluck a few acorns out of a dinky little campfire
and congratulate themselves on their progress.
What a waste of time! This was an elite technique they were
talking about, not some sort stupid circus trick. You didn't
master stuff like the Amaguriken unless you pushed yourself.
The training had to be dangerous and demanding, and you had
to expect to feel some pain along the way... certainly more
pain than a little cut on the hand from a spatula. He was
especially disgusted with Ryouga - this was a guy who'd gone
through that insane bakusai ten-ketsu training. He, of all
people, should know better.
Ranma ran his fingers through his bangs and grumbled irritably
to himself. He wasn't sleeping very well these days. His
own training hadn't been going as he'd hoped - all he was
doing was giving himself nightmares. He'd always considered
"dream visualization" training sort of hokey and useless, but
maybe if he found some way to focus the subject of the
nightmares...
He sniffed and glanced back over his shoulder again. They
were at it again.
A distant buzzing noise caught Ranma's attention. He turned
and spied something in the trees. He smiled to himself as he
realized what it was. He'd show these clowns a real training
technique...
"Heads up, guys!"
Ryouga and Ukyou turned towards Ranma's voice, catching the
spatulas they'd been juggling before they fell. Ranma was
cloaked in his sleeping blanket, holding a long branch with
a rounded object dangling on the end.
"If ya can stun all the bees before they sting you," Ranma
announced, swinging the beehive on the end of the branch,
"then you've got some speed!"
Ukyou screamed in terror as Ranma hurled the beehive towards
them. Ryouga was startled by the extremity of her reaction,
but didn't have much time to think about it before the angry
swarm was upon them. Ukyou immediately took to her heels and
ran like the hounds of hell were after her. Ryouga tried a
few swipes at the buzzing mass before he realized the futility
of the exercise. He drew out his umbrella and tried to hide
underneath it.
Ukyou continued to scream and run around like she was on fire,
a part of the swarm chasing her. Ranma shook his head sadly -
she wasn't even trying to hit the bees. Girls were such wimps
about bugs and stuff. She blew by him at a full sprint,
shrieking uncontrollably, and he decided that was enough.
"Watch this, Ucchan!" he announced. Ranma set into the living
cloud like a whirlwind, striking out with astonishing speed
and precision at the angry bees, ducking and dodging as they
swarmed around him. The insects fell from the air like
raindrops as he continued his high-speed assault.
Seconds later, Ranma pulled back and regarded his handiwork
proudly. His pop was a moron most of the time, but he did
come up with some great training exercises. "Now," he said,
turning back towards Ukyou, "that's the sorta thing you
gotta..."
CLANG!< >CLANG!< >CLANG!<
"Ranchan you IDIOT!" Ukyou howled. She drew back, trembling
and panting, flushed with anger and adrenaline. "How could
you DO that to me?"
Ranma peeled himself off the ground and rubbed his head.
"What the heck was that for?"
"I'm allergic to bee stings, you jackass!" Ukyou still
remembered the time she was eight years old and she'd been
stung. She'd stopped breathing twice - if there hadn't been
a doctor close by, she'd surely have died. Her arm had
been swollen up like a watermelon for almost a week. The
thought of being in the middle of a swarm like that filled
her with cold terror.
Ranma looked at her like she'd gone nuts. Allergic to bee
stings? Who ever heard of something like that? What, did
that means she got a runny nose when she got stung? "Ucchan,
if you ain't willin' to put yourself on the line for your
trainin', you're never gonna be a real martial artist."
Ukyou simply gaped in disbelief. She simply couldn't believe
he was suggesting that she should... that she should...
"RANMA!!"
The young Saotome dodged an instant before Ryouga's umbrella
hit. The lost boy staggered towards the two of them. His
face and arms were swollen with angry red welts where the
bees had found their mark. He wobbled unsteadily on his
feet.
"Ryouga..." Ukyou gasped. She rushed towards the bandanna-clad
boy and offered her shoulder for support. "Oh boy, you're
a mess!"
"I'm going to count these stings, Saotome Ranma," Ryouga
snarled. "And I'll pay you back tenfold for each one!"
"Yeah, yeah," Ranma scoffed. That was the sort of thing
Ryouga always said. "If you'd been fast enough, you wouldn't
have been stung so much."
"Shut up! Even you couldn't have avoided so many!"
Ranma just smiled and gestured towards the inert bees which
littered the ground around him. Most of them had been
squashed flat by Ukyou's spatula assault.
Ryouga glared unsteadily at the carnage of insects. "You're
such a bastard," he snarled.
"Come on, P-Chan," Ranma teased. "Don't think I'm gonna
slow down just for you. We've still got a lot of ground to
cover today." He turned and jogged off into the woods.
"You gonna make it?" Ukyou asked gently. She had to look
away - the sight of so many bee stings set her shuddering
uncontrollably.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ryouga growled. He was stiff and sore,
but the pain wasn't unbearable. He'd had worse in his time.
He wasn't going to give Ranma the satisfaction of seeing him
struggle. "Let's get moving."
- - - - - -
(continued in second half)
All existing chapters of this story may be found at:
http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless