The characters of the Ranma 1/2 universe are
the creation and possession of the brilliant
Rumiko Takahashi. They belong to Rumiko
Takahashi and her licensees (Shogakukan Inc.,
Kitty-Fuji TV, Viz Communications Inc.) No
copyright infringement is intended.
I would like to thank my pre-reader Angel, without
whom this would be a much poorer story, if it existed
at all.
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Yellow Dragon, Black Tiger
Chapter 4
part 1 of 2
Heads snapped around toward the unknown
voice. A tall powerfully built man stood beside
Kasumi. His face was battered and bruised and one
arm, obviously broken, was strapped across his chest.
That didn't appear to affect his other arm which held
a pistol, muzzle pressed firmly into her side.
Armed men, their faces covered and their
eyes concealed behind dark glasses poured through
the gate behind him and more swarmed over the
walls.
"Oda-sama, are you well?" The injured man
asked anxiously. "Oda-sama!?"
Oda shook himself and, slowly, regained his
feet. "Juzo?"
"Yes, Oda-sama. Juzo is here."
"Juzo, I am well enough."
"Thank god." Juzo replied fervently. "I was
afraid there was some treachery when I saw you go
down."
K'e Lwun pursed her lips in thought.
Obviously Oda had arranged some method for his
men to observe the compound and given orders for
intervention in case of need. Equally obvious her
original plans were no longer relevant. Idly she
wondered what had happened to the people she had
set to keep watch. That was a concern for another
day. Her immediate problem was breaking free of
Oda's trap. Fortunately Oda was still three hundred
years too early for her. She took another look at the
dozen or so armed men - - - -well, perhaps only two
hundred and fifty years too early.
"Treachery, Juzo?"
"Yes master. I knew as soon as I saw you fall,
that girl," Juzo took a moment to spit in Akane's
direction. "had cheated somehow."
Oda carefully dusted himself off and, still
immaculate, made his way to his retainers side. "And
it never occurred to you that she might have simply
beaten me? That she might have been the better
fighter?"
"NO!" Juzo sounded horrified at the thought.
"Never master."
"Dear, dear Juzo." Oda gently stroked the
taller man's hair. He turned toward Akane and the
others. "Loyalty such as this is more valuable than
gold." He looked Akane in the eyes. "There is
nothing in the world more precious." He fell silent,
quietly stroking Juzo's hair. "Juzo?"
"Yes Oda-sama?"
"Please kill them all for me."
Before Oda had finished speaking Juzo had
pressed the trigger on his Skorpion machine pistol,
emptying the magazine into Kasumi. He swung
around toward Akane, dropping the empty magazine
from the weapon. He was just inserting a fresh
magazine when the heavy war-arrow pierced the
front of his skull with a sound like a nail driven
through a rotten melon.
With an undulating scream Shan P'u launched
herself at the closest group of armed men. As
intended the piercing war cry froze them for an
instant. Only an instant, but more than enough time
for an Amazon warrior. Twin short swords moving in
a blur Shan P'u moved through Oda's men like a
threshing machine through winter wheat.
Ukyou was frozen in shocked immobility at
the suddenness of it all. Shan P'u's war cry jolted her
into action. Flinging her throwing spatulas at Oda she
charged close behind them, her battle spatula held
low and to the right; intending to split him in two
from hip to shoulder.
Soun started toward Kasumi when Genma
pulled him back.
"You have two other daughters." He said
simply. Before Soun could react Genma charged
forward, swinging his great iron club as two of Oda's
men raised their guns toward them. The first went
down with a meaty thunk; his skull caved in with a
wet crunching sound beneath the studded iron bar.
The time it took to dispatch this attacker gave the
second gunman time to aim and fire. He managed a
one second burst that stitched a line of red across
Genma's right side, before the iron club smashed into
his chest, pulping his heart and lungs. With a bass
roar Genma charged another line of men, scattering
them with his wildly swinging club. He took a few
dozen lumbering steps, then stumbled over a body
and fell to the ground like a gut-shot steer.
"Saotome, Saotome my old friend!" Soun
rushed to his fallen comrade. Nodoka was scarcely
less swift in gaining her husbands side. Gently they
turned him over and stared in horror at the massive
red stain spreading across his chest.
"Ahhh, No, No." Nodaka sobbed in denial as
she gently cradled her husbands head in her lap.
"Genma," Soun choked brokenly. "Genma my
friend. Is there anything I can do?"
"Too late, too late." Genma whimpered.
"Never! It's never too late." Soun clutched at
his friends shoulder.
"No," Genma clawed open the front of his
armor disclosing two shattered bottles of port. "No,
it's all gone." Sighing sadly at the waste he felt two
pairs of eyes boring into him. "What?"
Individually Oda's men were good fighters
and deadly in single combat or groups of two or
three. However Oda had never encouraged
cooperation between his followers. In his line of
work it was not healthy to foster potential
competition. Coupled with a truly miserable level of
marksmanship, the machine pistols were proving to
be at least as dangerous to Oda's own followers as
they were to the Tendou clan and friends. In fact
Oda's men would have been more effective fighters
had they been more traditionally armed with sword
and dagger or at most with single barrel shotguns.
Oda's sense of his own importance required his men
to be armed with the latest in military weapons,
regardless of their ability to actually use them. This
fortunate conceit allowed Ranma and K'e Lwun to
survive the few seconds it took them to get within
reach of their opponents. And once K'e Lwun and
Ranma closed, Oda's men began melting away like
snowflakes in an iron furnace.
Shan P'u slashed the gunman's arm to the
bone, severing muscles and tendons. The gun fell
from his crippled hand as his arm twisted up against
his chest with the destruction of the extensor
tendons. Satisfied that she had eliminated this man as
a threat she twisted around, seeking a new target for
her steel. Behind her the crippled gunman scrabbled
the fallen weapon up in his good hand and took
clumsy aim at her unprotected back.
"Noooooo!!!"
Spinning back around Shan P'u was just in
time to see Mu Sz throw himself onto the muzzle of
the gun that had been aimed at her spine. Mu Sz's
robes puffed up in rhythm with the brief ugly chatter
of the machine pistol. The gun fell suddenly silent as
the tangled figures collapsed with a wet crunching
sound.
"Mu Sz!" Shan P'u sprinted to the fallen men.
"Mu Sz, are you OK?" Grabbing the gunman by the
hair she snapped him like a whip, breaking his back,
before throwing him against the wall. "Mu Sz, speak
to me!" Rolling the blind magician onto his back she
paused for a moment, steeling herself before exposing
his mortal wounds. Clenching her teeth she pulled
open his robes-----
"Aaaaaa, let go of me you pervert!" Shan P'u
screamed in Chinese as the not-as-mortally-wounded-
as-she'd-believed master of hidden weapons came
suddenly back to life and clutched her to his chest.
"Oh my beloved, you _do_ care!"
His head rocked back as Shan P'u smacked
him with her clenched fist. "I thought you were
_dead_!" She accused, glaring at the steel plate that
covered his chest. Smacking him again, with enough
force to rattle his fillings, she stood up, dragging him
with her. "You are a stupid, careless, worthless male
of the Amazons. But you _are_ of the Amazons. If
anyone is going to end your miserable, useless
existence it's going to be _ME_!" She slapped him
again. "Now, get back to work slaughtering the
barbarians." She paused a moment. "And don't try to
kill my husband during the confusion. If anything
happens to him or Akane-chan I'll castrate you with a
dull spoon , pour honey in the wound and stake you
to an ant hill while I think of an appropriate
punishment."
"Yes beloved!" Mu Sz was in bliss. Shan P'u
didn't want him dead by any hand but _hers_! This
was the happiest day of his life he thought, cheerfully
battering in the face of one of Oda's henchman with a
training potty.
Oda casually batted aside the small swarm of
throwing spatulas. Catching Ukyou's battle spatula in
one hand he ripped it from her grasp and knocked her
tumbling across the yard with a backhanded slap.
Frowning he watched his men fall, to little effect.
He'd thought that bastard Tendou was going to get
what he deserved but the bald fat man had gotten in
the way. It was a mixed blessing. It would have been
nice to kill the old man in front of his daughters; on
the other hand it would have ended his suffering too
soon. A quick glance showed that his people were
not doing well. Time to leave, but first----pulling
Juzo's gun free of the corpse he took aim at the
archer who was sniping at his men from cover. He
glanced at the youngest Tendou; but she was moving
around too unpredictably, as she gently subdued his
men, for a clean shot. The middle daughter on the
other hand . . .carefully he sighted on the spot where
he'd last seen her head pop out. Twice before he'd
seen her shoot, and always from that same place. He
smiled slightly, thinking of what a sweet going away
present he was going to leave Tendou Soun; two
dead daughters and the knowledge that the third was
living on borrowed time. The bow came out from
behind the side of the house. The shooter was
careful, but not careful enough. Part of her head was
exposed to view. Oda pressed the trigger----
"Don't you turn your back on me you son-of-
a-bitch." The enraged okonomiyaki chef smashed into
Oda with a shoulder block that would have gotten
her thrown off any well run rugby team for
unnecessary roughness. Oda's burst stuttered across
the stonework, spraying Nabiki with stone chips and
startling her back under cover.
"That wasn't very nice." Oda remarked
mildly.
Ukyou shivered at the look in Oda's eye, but
stood her ground. "Listen pretty boy, I've eaten rice
balls tougher than you." She pulled a brace of
throwing spatulas into each hand. "Let's see what
you're made of." Quickly she sent all four spatulas
slashing toward Oda. Even as she grabbed for
another set from her bandoleer Oda snatched all four
out of the air with an expression of extreme
boredom.
"You need more practice." Ukyou screamed
as Oda sent one of her own spatulas spinning back to
stab deep into her shoulder. "Throw with the entire
body." She went down as a second and third spatula
sliced into her legs just below the knees. "And always
infuse your weapon with your ch'i." Ukyou fumbled
for another spatula with blood slick hands as Oda
sent the last spatula stabbing directly toward her
heart.
A shadow blocked the sun and for a moment
Ukyou thought the angel of death had come for her.
Only the angel of death wouldn't have slammed into
her with a hot heavy weight. Ukyou scrambled
backwards from under the weight to see----
"Akane!"
"Hi," Akane's smile turned into a grimace of
pain. Ukyou craned her neck to see the forth and last
spatula, still quivering, sticking out of Akane's back.
"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner but I was a little
busy."
"You are beginning to annoy me girl."
Ukyou looked up in horror to see Oda
standing over them, gun pointed directly between
Akane's eyes.
"Then again, one daughter is about the same
as another, once they're dead."
The spinning metal spatula, smeared with
Ukyou's blood, caught Oda on the wrist just as he
pressed the trigger. The muzzle of the pistol
blossomed with fire and an ugly third eye appeared in
the center of Akane's forehead.
Ukyou scream of horror as Akane's head
snapped back in a spray of blood was drowned out by
a primal roar when Ranma's Mouko Takabisha blasted
the remnants of Oda's men into a charred mass of
burnt flesh and vitrified stone. An instant latter
Ukyou found herself thrust roughly aside as Ranma
gathered Akane's limp body into his arms; Shan P'u
dropped to her knees beside him almost before the
crashing thunder of Ranma's ch'i blast had died out.
"You're lucky. I don't think it hit the artery."
"Wha . . .?" Ukyou looked around groggily as
gentle hands cut away her shirt sleeve. "Mu Sz?"
"It's going to leave a scar," Mu Sz warned
sliding the spatula from the wound. "but I don't think
you'll lose any mobility."
"Ranchan----" Shakily she rolled to her hands
and knees. Mu Sz stopped her from crawling over to
him. "He won't see you."
"What do you mean." Ukyou bit back a gasp
of pain and nausea as she jolted her shoulder. "He
needs me."
Mu Sz propped her up and began wiping
Akane's blood off her face. "What he needs, no one
can give him. Besides," he wrapped a rough bandage
around her shoulder. "if you bleed to death you
won't be much use to anyone."
Ukyou wanted to protest but the world went
grey and she slumped tiredly against Mu Sz.
**Ranchan!** She was running down the road, heart
pounding in her chest. Ranchan was sitting on top of
the yatai, waving at her. **Ranchan! Ranchan, wait
for me. Ranchan no baka!** Wearily she opened her
eyes to see Ranma cradling Akane in his arms,
rocking back and forth as tears streamed down his
face. **Ukyou . . .no . . .baka . . .**
*********************************************8
End Chapter 4 part 1 of 2
This is a much expanded and revised version of a
story originally posted to FFML and submitted to
AnimeFEST as Chapter One, Yellow Dragon, Black
Tiger. The original Chapter One is _now_ Chapter
Two and contains an additional 1500 words.
Chapters One, Three, prologue and epilogue are
entirely new and never before seen on FFML.
The original, {award winning ^_^}, version of
Chapter Two YD, BT may be found on:
http://www.iguild.com/homes/kazama/
We soon hope to have _all_ of the winning stories
from AnimeFEST posted on this site. Currently we
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