Gee, I wonder how much longer I'll be able to keep this up before I burn myself
out ^_^


<From prior part>


  "That's them!!!" They're the ones that destroyed my inn!!!" the man, forgotten
until now, told several townsmen. It was clear that these people were authority
figures since they were dressed in uniform. They looked at Ranma and then Lina,
a bit surprised at seeing two half-naked people. 
  However, they pulled out their swords as one of them said, "All right, you two
are gonna have to come with us,"
  "Um, what do we do now?" Ranma asked, turning toward Lina. He had no idea what
he was supposed to do in a situation like this. He probably would had gone with
them, but he didn't want to be executed because he knew nothing about the laws
of this world.
  "What else, we run!"

  Ranma and Lina ran for what seemed like several miles. Actually, it wa Ranma
that did the running while Lina simply used her levitation spell and hovered
those miles. When they finally stopped, Ranma didn't look like he was at all
tired despite having run for such a long time. They endd up in some forest. It
just so happens it was the same forest where Ranma had first arrived
unexpectedly.
  Hovering down to the ground, Lina gave Ranma a glance, "My my, I'm impessed
that you're not tired,"
  Ranma smirked, "Well, I guess I can't say the same about you,"
  "And just what is that supposed to mean?" she glared at him.
  "I betcha you're outta shape from lettin' your magic do all the work," he
commented, "But then again, I guess you're not that outt shape considering you
ain't fat,"
  Lina found herself almost blushing until she realize what Ranma had really
said. "And just what makes ya think I'm out of shape? I betcha I'm in much
better shape than you. Hey, what the hell are ya looking at?!?" She realized
Ranma wasn't paying much attention to her. It was until then did she realize
that both she and Ranma were still clad in their undergarments.
  He gave a weak laugh and said, "Sorry," After a moment, he turned around and
headed off in a random direction.
  "Hey, where do you think you're going?" Lina called out, following behind him.
Since Ranma had a large stride, Lina had to take two steps to Ranma's one. 
  "Consider ourselves even," he said, stopping. Lina ended up bumping her nose
into Ranma's muscular back. She rubbed her nose as she looked up at him. She
felt almost intimidated at Ranma's size. He stood not only a full head taller,
but he was much more muscular than she had originally thought. It seems that the
weird clothes that he wore hid his physique.
  "Hey, quit having perverted thoughts about me," Ranma teased, smirking, when
he noticed Lina staring at him.
  "I was not!!!" she shouted, blushing red. Unable to deal with the
embarrassment, she did the first thing that popped into her mind. 
  She threw a fireball at him to get her point across. Unfortunately, Ranma had
picked up on her early execution of her fireball and simply sidestepped it, the
fireball arcing up into the air where it disappeared somewhere beyond the
heavens.
  "Don't bother," he said with a wave of a hand, "Unless you catch me off guard,
you're never going to hit me with those lil fireballs of yours,"
  Lina smirked, "You think a fireball is the only thing I can cast? Well, you're
dead wrong,"
  Ranma got into a defensive stance, "All right, fine. Gimme your best,"
  Ranma was barraged by every one of Lina's spells. 
  He didn't stand a chance.

  Ranma was mutering to himself as he proceeded to wander aimlessly through the
woods. It didn't help any that he was still clad in his boxers and had bruises
all over his body. He had to admit that he had underestimated that young girl.
He had really taught him a lesson in humility.
  "Stupid chick," he muttered, "She's so damn lucky she's a girl. Otherwise I
wouldn't've let her get away with the crap she has. I haven't taken so much crap
from anyone in the longest time,"
  He smirked as he recalled the incident a short while ago. Lina had nailed him
with projectile after projectile, alternatng between ice spells and fire spells.
He managed to dodge most of the porjectiles, but those that had hit him really
stung. Eventually, he realized the futility in continuing on and had simply
said, 'Fine, you win. I'm leaving.'
  When he had simply turned around and proceeded to walk away, that young girl
smiled and watched as he left. Luckily, she never bothered to follow after him.
He had to admit that she was a very powerful opponent, probably one of the most
powerful opponents he had faced in the longest time, but he had swallowed his
pride and walked away. There was no use in proving himself. He did not hit
girls.
  Ranma's eyes widened as he came to a clearing. In the middle of that clearing
was a hot spring. His jaw dropped when he recognized that that hot spring. It
was the same hot spring where that young girl had been taking a bath in when he
had appeared.
  "Goddamnit!!! I'm back where I started!!!" he shouted, shooting a massive
ki-blast up into the air.
  From well over a mile away, Lina had bee muttering to herself about how she
had been to soft on that man, to have let him live. She had to admit that she
was rather amazed that he not only dodged most of her attacks, but also managed
to brush off the attacks that would had otherwise knocked any mortal unconsious.
  She looked down at her undergarments and gave a slight laugh. She still
couldn't understand how he had managed to do that to her. She hadn't even seen
him do that. She wonered just how much that man was holding back. However, she
smiled to herself because she had won that match. She had put that man in his
place.
  When she saw a massive sphere of energy shoot up into the air, she had the
funny suspicion it was that guy who had did that. Her heart skipped a beat as
she wondered what would had happened to her if something like that had hit her.
She'd probably be dead.
  She continued to watch as the ki-last rose high into the air and stop about a
mile up. It seemed to hover there for a second before gravity seemed  take
course and bring the ki-blast back down toward the terra firma.
  "Jeez, what kinda projectile is that?" she asked herself, regarding the
ki-blast.
 Her eyes widened when she saw the ki-blast come slamming back down on the part
of the forest where it had emerged, exploding upon impact with the ground.
  Lina was forced to shield her eyes from the brilliance of the blast, hiding
behind a nearby tress to protect herself from the shockwave. When everyhing
subsided, she gingerly looked back around the tree and nearby fell over from the
shock when she saw the destruction the blast had caused. A huge crater about
fifty feet in diameter could be seen, as if a huge chunk of the forest had been
uprooted.
  "Whoa," Lina smirked, her heart racing. She suddenly realized that that blast
was close to as strong as her Dragon Slave. To think that someone else could
possess such power made her very curious. She had to find out more about him. "I
know it's going to gnaw away at me at just who that guy was so I might as well
go back and find out,"
  Slowly, she made her way toward the huge crater.
  "This sucks," Ranma muttered to himself as he sat on his backside in the
middle of the crater. He had accidentally destroyed a good portion of the
forest, and for what, to let out his anger. He couldn't believe he had done
that. Somehow, it turns out that he had accidentally executed a Perfect Shi Shi
Hokodan since he had been depressed from realizing he was right back where he
started. When the ki-bast hit him, it had left him unscathed but the shockwaves
had caused massive destruction as it rippled away from him.
  "Damn, how the hell am I gonna fix this fuck up?" he asked himself. He knew
tha hundreds upon hundreds of animals were now without homes, or worse, dead.
  He sighed. There was nothing he could do. What was done was done. All he could
do was go on.
  After a few minutes, he got up to is feet and proceeded to climb on up out of
the crater.
  When he finally reached the top, he was a bit surprised to see the young girl
looking down at him, still clad in her bra and panties.
  "What the heck do you want?" he asked. He wanted to kick himself for snapping
at her. But then again, she had been quite a nusance to him since his arrival.
  Lina continued to look at Ranma. For some reason, she felt this urge to extend
her hand and help Ranma up to his feet, but she chose against it. She took a
step back as he climbed out of the crater and got to his feet, facing her. 
  Standing in front of her, Ranma regarded her for several long moments, making
Lina very aware of herself.
  "What?" she snapped at him, not liking his critical gaze.
  "What do ya want?" he repeated.
  Lina stopped for a moment to firgure out what she was going to say. After a
moment, she said, "I was merely curious as to where you learned that technique,
that's all,"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "What makes ya think I learned it? I did that by
accident,"
  "A-accident? You're lying,"
  He turned around and proceeded to walk off in a random direction. It was going
to get dark and most likely cold. He needed some clothes and shelter.
  "Hey, where do you think you're going? Don't walk away when I'm speaking to
you," she said coldly, authoritively. It really got her peeved that this man
showed no fright toward her, even after learning the hard way that she was
someone not to be crossed.
  Ranma turned to face Lina, an annoyed look on his face, "What?! What the hell
do ya want?! Can't you see I'm in no mood to talk to the likes of you?!"
  Lina smirked, "So? You think that bothers me?" This was more to her liking,
when her opponents let their emotions take control of them. 
  Taking a deep breath, Ranma sighed. Figuring it wasn't worth it, he turned
around again and proceeded to walk away from her. When Lina realized what he had
done, she quickly followed after him. When she asked him where he had been
intent on going, he simply ignored her. After asking several times, she realized
he was purposely ignoring her.
  "All right, ignore me if you want. I'll just continue talking," she said.
  Ranma turned toward Lina, "Quit following me. You're nothing but trouble,"
  "You bet," she retorted, "And I could be a whole lot more trouble if you
continue to ignore me. I want to know where you learned that technique," It was
a technique no mere sorcerer was supposed to know. Who did this guy work for?
She wanted to know. It was not common for her to cross paths with someone of his
calibur.
  Gritting his teeth, Ranma shouted, "Get the hell away from me! I ain't gonna
say it again!"
  Lina wasn't at all intimidated, "You don't scare me,"
  Ranma smirked, "What, you wanna fight?"
  Momentarily caught off guard, Lina said, "What, y-you wanna fight?"
  Smiling, Ranma said, "All right,"
  He got into a battle stance. When he did, Lina seemed to be speechless because
she had never seen such thing as a battle stance before. The only battle stance
she had really ever seen was that of a swordsman, his sword held up front. This
was very different, however. The man had no weapon.
  However, Lina was well aware that this man was capable of doing some amazing
things with his hands, like shred her clothes without her knowing or feeling it.

  "Fine, let's fight," she said, readying herself for a fireball. She would end
this fight fast.
  "C'mon," he taunted her.
  Lina took the initiative and threw a fireball at Ranma, only to have it
skillfully deflected back at her. Luckily, she managed to doge right out of the
way, rolling to her feet several meters away from the now evident hole in the
ground that that fireball had caused.
  Goddamnit, she thought, breathing heavily. This guy is using my own
projectiles against me.
  Just to make sure, she shot another fireball, only to have that one also
deflected toward her, missing her by inches once again.
  "Hey, that's not fair!" Lina said.
  Ranma smirked and even chuckled a bit as he said, "Hey, quit your complaining.
I'm already going easy on you,"
  For some reason, Lina had a funny suspicion that he was. He wasn't breathing
heavily. He just stood there, calm, waiting for her to attack, anticipating her
next move. All she knew was that in order to defeat him, she had to do something
he had never seen her do before. 
  "Whatever you throw at me, I'm gonna simply throw it right back at ya," he
said, "You probably used ever spell you knew on me back there. But don't think I
got all these bruises in vain. Now I know what move you're gonna be doing next
as soon as you try,"
  "Why you arrogant-" she spat, fuming.
  She shot a massive fireball at Ranma, channelling all her anger into it and
sent it rocketing toward Ranma. Once again, it was deflected right back at her.
Although she knew he would had done that, it had been too late for her to
realize that that deflected fireball had been too large for her to dodge in time
as it struck her in and sent her flying bodily through the air, sliding to a
halt. Luckily for her, she had managed to extend her hands forward just in the
nick of time and summon a barrier to absorb most of the blast. Unfortunately,
she had still be caught in the blast.
  Ranma's eyes widened as he saw Lina lying unconsious on the ground a short
distance away from him. "Oh shit," he muttered to himself as he ran toward her
and knelt down next to her. He pressed a hand against her throat and felt a
pulse and then sighed in relief. He couldn't believe what he had done. He had
just injured this poor girl because he had assumed she would had dodged that
fireball he deflected toward her. It was all his fault. All he had wanted to do
was give her a scare and make her realize it was useless to fight him.
  "Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!" he muttered, "What the hell were you thinking,
Ranma. You're an idiot, deflecting fireballs right back at the girl like that.
Why the hell didja assume that she could dodge 'em in time. You should've left
well enough alone and let her be and continued on walking,"
  Now knowing that he had an obligation to get help the injured girl, he gently
picked her up in his arms, noticing how warm her body felt against his. But then
again, it was skin against skin. Holding her in his arms, he headed off in a
random direction.
  "I hope there's a town in this direction,"

  Lina felt this incredibly warm sensation flooding through her body, as if she
had been lying down in a bath full of warm water. It felt very soothing and
comforting, a sensation she could get used to. It was just too bad that she knew
this was all a dream and that she would eventually had to awake. 
  Slowly, Lina reluctantly opened her eyes. Not even a split second passed
before she realized she was being carried in some sort of a way. A second later,
she noticed that somebody had their arms wrapped around her body and that she
was being held gently against their body as her head rested against the crook of
the person's neck and sholder.
  Her heart skipped a beat as she wondered how on earth she could had gotten
into this situation. She noticed the rythmic steps the person was taking. She
didn't tilt her head but rather shifted her gaze upward and caught sight of the
pig-tail that the person had his hair tied into. She realized that she knew only
one person wore his hairstyle like that.
  Not really knowing what to do, she said nothing and didn't move. Thoughts were
racing through her mind as she wondered what she should do. She didn't know how
she got there, why she was there, or where he was taking her. It also didn't
help that her body was very aware of his body pressed against her.
  She gazed at a nearby tree and noticed it was rustling quite violently. That
meant the winds must had picked up. One thing did seem very odd though. If the
trees were being blown rather violently from the winds, how come she couldn't
feel the wind herself. She answered her own question when she realized that some
aura seemed to surround both her and the man to keep them warm since they were
still clad in their uderclothes.
  If I'm not the one projecting the aura, then it must be this man, Lina
thought. This man must be more skilled in magic than he lets on. It felt nice
for a change to let someone else do the concentration of projecting an aura to
keep them warm. Usually, she had to do it for herself. It was nice that some
else was doing it this time around.
  Not really knowing what to do, Lina kept quiet and to herself. Only time would
tell where he was taking her or why he was carrying her. All she could was wait.
Since she had to wait, she might as well close her eyes for a moment and get
some rest. Throwing all those fireballs back there had taken quite a bit out of
her, especially that last fireball she had thrown. It wasn't until then did she
realize she had been struck by her own fireball and knocked unconsious. It
seemed to make sense. That was probably why this man was carrying her, because
he wanted to help her out because she had been too slow to dodge her own
projectile.
  She smiled slightly as she closed her eyes.
  What an absolutely idiot gesture he was doing.
  But then again, it was also a kind one.



-OneShot
Jeffrey Keith Wong
Author of Ranma's girls, 
The least one can do, and
the 'just won't die' series.
http://www.li.net/~jeffwong/index.htm