Yup, a new chapter. Read and enjoy.

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for me. 

--------------------------------
THE CLAN

Chapter 17 - Opening Strategy
--------------------------------

	*thump*

	"Shampoo! Wake up!"

	The aforementioned amazon warrior snored and rolled out
of bed onto the floor. Having slept in a home where it wasn't
considered bad form to attack one's siblings in their sleep,
the impact of a staff in the middle of her gut didn't faze her.

	*crack*

	"Owww!" Shampoo groaned groggily. Through stars and eye-
gunk she could blearily see Cologne's staff receding from her
forehead.

	"Why Hibaa-chan wake Shampoo up?" she complained, a hand
going to the sore spot on her scalp. "It only six o' clock.
Restaurant not open until ten!"

	"You've got school this morning, Shampoo," Cologne
explained coldly.

	Shampoo groaned and cradled her face in her hands.

	"None of that!" Cologne snapped. "Both Akane and Ukyou
spend all day with Muko-dono at school. You've only been seeing
him at lunch, and then only when you can get into the building.
This gives you an advantage over the other girls now." It also
put the Shampoo in a better position to observe what mysterious
events were so suddenly surrounding the Tendou sisters.

	"Nnnn..." Shampoo sighed, desperately longing to crawl
back into her bed.

	"Or," Cologne offered. "you *could* wait until the
immigration officer stops by this afternoon and asks why you're
*working* in Japan with a *student* visa. I'm certain that this
whole affair could be done with by the end of the week if you
didn't mind being deported. Of course, I doubt you could
persuade Ranma to just pack up and leave on that kind of
notice."

	"Shampoo get ready for school," the warrior grumbled. 

	"Shampoo," Cologne warned. "You had better do your best.
Ranma won't respect you if your grades are worse than his."

	"Shampoo do good," the purple haired girl snapped back.
"Shampoo learn read Japanese last year, you know."

	"Doing well means being able to read from the blackboard
in Japanese schools, Shampoo."

	"But... Hibaa-chan!"

	"No 'buts', Shampoo. You know what you have to do." 
	Shampoo sighed and beat one fist angrily on the floor.
It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair at all."


* * *

	Trembling from lack of sleep, Ukyou wearily pulled her
jacket on over the white shirt of her school uniform.

	Ukyou was, in a word, wasted. She had spent the entire
night up. Some of that time she spent crying and some of it she
spent lying in her bed, paranoidly feigning sleep. Most of the
time, she wished that Ranma was with her. She even suspected
that a strange scrabbling at her window early in the evening
might have been the pigtailed martial artist trying to gain
entry.

	She was far, far too worried that it might have been
another one of the monsters trying to get in to even think
about opening the window, however.

	As the night progressed, Ukyou entered that dark state
in which wakefulness is as much dreaming as rational thought.
In her mind, she was wounded an infinite number of times by the
rampaging monsters. She saw Konatsu beaten down in front of her
twice that many times. Worse, each repetition was more horrible
that the last. In her more lucid moments, Ukyou was almost
surprised to find her body intact and mostly unhurt. Only the
aches and a gauze bandage across the scrape on her forehead
served any reminder of what she had seen earlier that day.

	It all seemed so unreal the next morning. A quick call
to the hospital confirmed that Konatsu was conscious and doing
fairly well. In fact, the cross-dressing kunoichi was far more
concerned about her than the concussion or broken bones he had
received the previous day.

	Doing her best to forget about the unreal situation,
Ukyou got ready and went to school.

* * *

	The feel of something sharp poking her in the side woke
Akane. After a few minutes of coming around, she blearily
reached underneath her and produced the ice-skater figurine. It
had somehow gotten underneath her in the night.

	Akane sighed, trying to remember everything that had
happened. Ranma's kiss...

	Did it mean that he loved her, or was he saying goodbye?
Akane couldn't be sure, but she knew that she would do what
ever she could to make him see that she didn't want to be a
monster.

	She hoped that he could eventually forgive her. She
hoped beyond hope that they could be together again. She prayed
that she could redeem herself in his eyes.

	With a determined expression, Akane kissed the statue,
sealing her private oath.

	The door opened, and Kasumi walked in with a bathrobe
folded over one of her arms.

	"Ohayo, Akane-chan," she greeted cheerfully.

	Akane nodded somberly, glancing back at the figurine. 

	Her nose twitched once. Her first impression from the
scent that wafted into the room with her elder sister was that
there was something wrong with Kasumi. The almost visible
intensity of scent she had  somehow perceived the previous
night were gone with the coming of the morning light.

	"Are you going to stay home from school today, Akane-
chan? I thought you might need another day to recover."

	Forgetting the odd scent, Akane nodded. There was a good
chance that Ranma would be at the school. She wanted to talk to
him, even if she wasn't sure how to verify what he meant by his
kiss the night before.

	"What time is it?" she asked. "School hasn't started
yet? I don't want to be late."

	Nabiki poked her head into the room. "I don't see how
you intend on going if you don't do something about those," she
commented, gesturing to a spot over Akane's head.

	Akane looked up. A flash of bluish black slid just out
of sight. Akane remembered the unfamiliar weight on her back.
She sighed mournfully.

 	Flexing muscles in her chest and sides and bringing the
apparitions around in front of her, Akane got her first real
look at her new wings. They were so much harder to ignore in
the soft morning light than they were in the darkness of
midnight shadows. She groaned in trepidation and despair.

	They were covered in soft bluish-black fibers the same
color but a little bit thicker than her hair. The tips, which
were the only parts of them she could properly see without a
mirror, ended in half-inch long claws.

	She gingerly reached out to touch one. She wasn't
expecting to be able to *feel* being touched through the new
addition to her body. The sensation sent shivers through her.
It was horrible, she thought, but almost exhilarating at the
same time.

	Akane despaired. Her choice had marked her. *Ranma must
think that I'm a hideous demon.* 

	Kasumi frowned ever so slightly. "You really should be
careful about how you extend your wings, Akane," she instructed
as if they were really no big deal. "With your new reach, you
might accidentally knock something over. It will probably take
you a little bit to get used to them."

	"Hai, onee-chan," Akane replied in a depressed tone.

	Nabiki fully entered the room, clad in her school
uniform. Akane looked up as a second odd scent wafted in her
direction, distracting her from her despair. Was this something
new? It might just have been something her vampire senses were
only now picking up on.

	Akane grimaced, returning to the more pressing concern.
"How am I ever going to show myself in public again?!" she
complained. 

	"Why don't you just turn them off?" Nabiki asked.

	"I can't just 'turn them off', Nabiki!" Akane snapped as
much in anger at herself as irritation at her sister. 

	"I don't see why not," Nabiki countered. "They
disappeared entirely for a few seconds the night you got them."

	Could it be that easy? Akane began to wonder about the
situation. Maybe they were somehow merely an illusion.
Perhaps... Perhaps they were nothing more than a ghostly
apparition created the same way Nabiki created her illusions.
If she really tried, perhaps she could banish them. She
clenched her eyes shut and concentrated for a second, imagining
that they were gone from her back entirely.

	She opened her eyes... and they were still there.

	"You're just not trying hard enough," Nabiki noted.

	"Nabiki!"

* * *

	It wasn't fair, Shampoo thought to herself as she sat in
the empty classroom.

	The test had been quick and brutal. She was to be
enrolled in Ranma's class in mathematics, science, and physical
education. For the rest of the day, however, she was assigned
to 'remedial' classes. 'Japanese as a second language' and
'Japanese history for non-residents' rated in the top ten list
of statements that had insulted Shampoo the most during her
visit to the tiny island nation.

	The most humiliating blow to her pride, however, was the
eye test.

 	She saw perfectly well enough to fight or kill. So she
couldn't make out the third line on the eye chart from twenty
paces. So what?

	Warriors, you see, didn't wear glasses. Warriors also
never admit a mild astigmatism, especially when they live
across the hall from Mousse.

	"You do have a prescription, don't you?" the impersonal
school guidance counsellor demanded. 

	Reluctantly, Shampoo produced a small pair of wire-
rimmed spectacles.

	"Would you care to put them on?" the guidance counsellor
asked in irritation after several seconds.

	Huffing, Shampoo pulled the glasses over the bridge of
her nose, and began to recite the characters before her.

	*Damn these Japanese,* she thought darkly.

	Thankfully, the eye exam was the last part of the
entrance tests. Shampoo was hustled off to the school store to
buy a uniform, and then led by the assistant principal to a
classroom.

	Ranma's classroom, she knew. In her new aqua-blue school
uniform, Shampoo took a deep breath and pocketed her glasses.
She made a few last-minute adjustments to her uniform and
stepped inside.

	Several members of the class began drooling. Several
more groaned in dread. Ukyou, at her desk near the center of
the room, crossed her arms over her bound chest and stared
Shampoo directly in the face.

	"Class, let's welcome Shampoo. She's an exchange student
from China, so let's all do our best to make her feel wel--"

	"Where Ranma?" Shampoo demanded out loud, interrupting
the teacher.

	"Miss Shampoo! You musn't speak out of turn in class!"
The old history teacher admonished.

	"This Ranma class. Where Ranma?" Shampoo demanded again.

	"He's gone, Sugar," Ukyou called out coldly. Shampoo
could see that the girl looked as irritated as Shampoo felt.
"Him and Akane both are out of class today. You figure it out."

	Shampoo grimaced darkly, anger fairly radiating off her.
Why the hell was she in class if Ranma wasn't going to be
there?!

	"Attention all students and faculty," a tinny voice cut
them off from the dated public address system. Shampoo
recognized it as the sugary-sweet voice of the age-changing
teacher that sometimes tried to keep her from visiting her
airen at lunchtime.

	"Attention all students and faculty. Please report to
the auditorium for a mandatory assembly. If you're late, you're
a delinquent and all delinquents will be disciplined! Tee-hee!"

	* * *

	"So, you know what this assembly's all about?" Daisuke
asked.

	Nabiki carefully cocked her head to one side. "I might."

	She didn't, but that wouldn't keep her from exploiting
the situation as much as possible.

	"So... how much?" Hiroshi propositioned.

	Nabiki put a finger to her chin as if in thought. "For
what the assembly is about or who knows? You know that you
could just as easily--HEY!!!!" she shouted, as a hand came down
on her shoulder. She jerked around, preparing to smack the
person who had touched her.

	"Nabiki." It was Ranma. 

	It wasn't the Ranma that Nabiki knew, however.

	All the warmth had gone out of this Ranma. His
expression was dark and angry and his eyes were a little red.
They seemed to burn with a cold inner fire. Nabiki was a little
stunned. She had been so busy with the other two boys that she
never noticed the serious-looking martial artist coming up
behind her.

	"Oh God, Ranma! Don't do that!"

	Ranma cocked his head curiously. "Or?" he asked. It was
as if he was inviting her to challenge him.

	Nabiki clamped down on her surprise and anger at Ranma's
rudeness. It wouldn't do to let him get the better of her.

	"What do you want, Ranma?" she asked, doing her best to
go back to her 'business' mode.

	"Come with me," Ranma commanded. 
	
	"Why?" Nabiki demanded, feeling her ire rise again at
Ranma's brusque attitude. With Ryouga in her bed, she really
hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. Ranma was
getting to her. 
	
	Nabiki shook her head. "Never mind. Let's go, Ranma."

	Ranma led her down the hallway, and through the stage
door to the auditorium. In the dark wings of the stage, She
turned and faced the martial artist.

	"So what do you want that's so earthshaking, Saotome?"
Nabiki angrily demanded again once they were in private.

	"I'm about to say some things. Follow my lead, and we'll
be okay."

	"What?"

	"C'mon," Ranma instructed. He firmly, yet very gently,
gripped her arm, just above the elbow.

	"What are you doing?!?!" she hissed.

	"I'm tired o' playing games, Nabiki," Ranma warned.
"Let's just do this and you can yell at me later."

	Suddenly, they were out on a lit stage. Nabiki realized
that the auditorium was approaching full. All eyes were on her.

	She gulped and shut her open mouth.

	"Ranma!" She whispered-hissed, just loudly enough for
Ranma hear over the subdued din of the crowd.

	In response, Ranma merely gestured to the overhead
projector setup near the front of the stage.

	"There aren't any slides!" Nabiki accused.

	"Right." Ranma stared her directly in the eye. His eyes
flashed and the corners of his mouth turned up in a smirk that
held no real mirth. "That's why I need you to do it."

	Realizing what Ranma was asking, Nabiki stared in quiet
shock at the martial artist.

	Ranma stood at the front of the stage and stared cooly
out over the crowd.

	Almost immediately, they began to quiet down. Those who
were lingering at the doorways nervously shuffled in and found
seats.

	About halfway back, Ranma caught the eyes of Shampoo and
Ukyou, sitting together. 

	"Airen! Wo da Airen!" Shampoo called out, waving her
hand in the air. She was in a Furinkan uniform, but Ranma
didn't spend any time wondering why. His eyes were looking for
one person.

	"She's still at home," Nabiki answered his unspoken
question. Ranma nodded, and gestured to the diminutive Hinako.

	For all of Ranma's seriousness, Hinako had an equal
amount of exuberance.

	"Hai, hai, everybody!" she shouted into a microphone.
"Mister Saotome has something very important to share with
everybody, so you better all be good boys and girls and be
quiet and listen!"

	Ranma waited for the teacher to bound off stage and
glanced out over the crowd one more time. Whispers began to
erupt from various places in the crowd. Ranma and Nabiki could
hear one word clearly over and over again at the front of the
room.

	"Slasher..."

	Eschewing Hinako's microphone, Ranma raised his voice to
carry through the auditorium.

	"A lot o' people been talkin' about the 'Tokyo Slahser'
lately," Ranma announced. "And a lot o' people saw my mom and
Kodachi Kunou on the news yesterday."

	There was a rumble of agreement.

	"Ranma killed the slasher!" a voice called out from the
audience.

	Ranma shook his head.

	"I knocked him down and I hurt him, but I didn't kill
him. He killed himself."

	"Yeah, right!" another voice called out. 

	"How do we know that you didn't kill him, Mister
Saotome?!" Hinako demanded from the floor in front of the
stage.

	"Because they *all* kill themselves. I've seen three so
far and each one was nastier than the one before. Here's what
the news and police have been messing up. There ain't just one
of 'em; Theres a whole gang of 'Tokyo Slashers'. The first was
about a week and a half ago. Nabiki?"

	Nabiki blinked in surprise, and then put up an illusory
picture over the glowing white square on the screen behind
them.

	Ranma looked back and nodded. The picture was of Midori
and Hisawa's apartment just after the police removed the body
of the first ravener Ranma had seen. The carpet was covered in
black splotches of ravener goo and a taped-in outline of the
ravener's fallen body as well as mark showing where Nodoka's
kitchen knife had fallen.

	A low murmur spread through the crowd.

	"This is a police photo I got of the first one," Ranma
ad-libbed. "I attacked the guy, and he beat the shit out of
me," the martial artist admitted. "Me and my mom and Akane
finally cornered him. They're all on different kinds o' drugs,
so he killed himself when he couldn't fight anymore.

	"There was another one at the post office a couple
nights ago. Me an' Happosai fought it until it was worn out,
and it killed itself with a piece of metal.

	"This last one, yesterday, killed a girl at St.
Hebereke's. You can all ask Ukyou and Shampoo if you don't
believe me. Nabiki was there, too," Ranma finished, completely
ignoring Nabiki's hissed warnings.

	"Now here's the really bad part. There ain't just three
or four of these guys. I dunno how many there are, but there
might be hundreds. They all look just like this." 

	Ranma nodded at Nabiki again, who reluctantly changed
the display on the screen to a frontal portrait of one of the
raveners.

	A murmur of disgust and dread went up around the crowd.
Someone screamed something unintelligible, sparking off the
whole audience. Within seconds, Ranma was staring out into a
sea of chaos. He gave it several minutes to die down.

	"If you think that's bad," he continued when the
audience's attention was focused solely on him again, "you
should actually have to be near one. They smell worse than they
look. Now here's the guy who leads the gang."

	Nabiki nodded, putting Akuji's picture up on the screen.
"He calls himself Akuji Oto," she supplied.

	"This guy has been raping and murdering girls all over
Tokyo."

	Nabiki grimaced, remembering her own run-in with the
Ravener king.

	"My mom is kinda an expert on these guys. Apparently,
it's some nasty religious cult thing," he extemporized. "They
rape and they kill. I don't know why yet," he lied glibly.
"There are a lot more o' these guys out there, and that's what
they're gonna keep doing. Ain't nobody safe."

	He paused for several seconds to let his statement soak
into the crowd.

	"What can we do?" a girl, one of the senior class
presidents called out from the third row back.

	"Go around town in groups if you have to go out." Ranma
detailed. "Don't be afraid to call for help if you think
someone's stalking you. And for God's sake, run for your life
if you see this guy," he thumbed back and Nabiki's illusory
overhead projection.

	There were several more seconds of silence. 

	Finally, a voice called out. Ranma recognized the face
as one of the chemistry club members.

	"Does it kill just women, or does it attack men, too?"

	"I dunno," Ranma admitted, a little bit less sure of
himself.. "So far, it's only killed people who are virgins. If
you're a virgin guy, you better watch your back, I guess. Same
thing, Just go around in groups. Try to stay in public places.
Get everyone you know to watch out for these guys."

	"Ranma," another voice called out. Ranma looked over. It
was Gosunkugi, and he was holding up an expensive-looking
portable stereo. The headphones were hanging around his neck.

	"What?"

	"The police just found another body in the warehouse
district. It's a junior-high-school girl, but they haven't
released her name yet."

	"Damnit!" Ranma cursed out loud. He gritted his teeth
and ground them in frustration.

	"Language, Mister Saotome!!" Hinako scolded. She turned
back to the crowd. "So everybody remember to be extra-safe!"
she shouted cheerfully. "Don't talk to strangers, boys and
girls!"

	Ranma groaned out loud. Nabiki buried her face in her
hands.

* * *

	Those silly boys and girls, Hinako thought as she
prepared for lunch. It didn't take that much effort to be safe
when outside the school! If you avoided delinquents and avoided
*being* a delinquent then you would be okay.

	Carrying her 'Hello Kitty' purse, Hinako made her way
from the school grounds under the watchful eye of the
principal, who was hiding in the statue again. She hailed a
cab, intending to try a new bistro she had heard of. She hoped
they had ice-cream. Hinako really loved to have ice-cream for
dessert.

	Paying the driver, she bounced out of the cab on the
street corner, near the restaurant. 

	She never really noticed the dark opening of the
alleyway between her and the restaurant. Because it happened so
suddenly, nobody else noticed the little girl disappearing into
the darkness. Nor did they notice the flash of light and the
weak cry of 'Happo Go-en Satsu'.

	"Why, you certainly smell different, my dear," Akuji
noted as his fingers curled around the trembling girl's mouth.
"You look young, but you're not really, are you?"

	Hinako tried to scream and struggle, but the man was
simply too strong for her. Worse, her chi-draining attack had
absolutely no affect on the man, allowing him to cut her arm
badly before he wrestled her into submission. 
	
	"You're untainted though, and that's all that really
matters." He chuckled darkly and let his claws dig into her
arm, drawing even more blood. He marveled at the way it bled
through the fabric of her yellow cotton dress. "Do you want to
play a game, little girl?"

	"MMMMPH!!!!" Hinako screamed into the foul tasting palm.

	"It's a very exciting game, little girl. I think you'll
like it. I know I always do!"

- - -

To be continued...


* * *

The Ranma 1/2 Gallery: 
http://cyberwheel.simplenet.com/ranma

"...And though my incredible talent for violence frightens
even me, I know now that this is MY ONE TRUE DESTINY!!!"

- Jeffery (from Slayers: Jeffery's Knighthood)