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RELENTLESS
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
By Grayson Towler
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RELENTLESS PREVIEW - CHAPTER 11
Well, normally I wouldn't consider doing this, but I did tell
several people who wrote me that I was going to make every effort
to get the story done by the time I went on Christmas vacation,
which is tomorrow. The good news is Chapter 11 is, in fact,
finished. The bad news, however, is that it is still largely on
paper. So I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more patient.
Normally I write on the computer, but I was advised by a friend that
one of the ways to steer around a writer's block is to switch back
to good old pen-and-ink. Seems she was right, at least on this
occasion. And there's an additional advantage - I get to take the
story with me and work on it over vacation. So maybe I'll make some
real progress on getting ahead of schedule, for once.
Meanwhile, here's an excerpt from Chapter 11 - two and a half
scenes worth. I hope you enjoy it while I get the rest
transcribed.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN:
EXCERPT - PARTIALLY COMPLETED
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The first rays of dawn struck like tender arrows against the walls
of the Tendou Dojo, beaming their golden radiance through the crisp
autumn air. Nabiki welcomed the sparse warmth that the early
morning sun afforded. She didn't have to be up at this chilly
hour - this was one of the days she hadn't scheduled herself to
go to the restaurant in the morning - but she seemed to have lost
the ability to sleep in. <Another side-effect of running a
business, I guess,> she thought. <Oh well.>
Nabiki hunched in her sweatshirt against the dawn's chill and
angled towards the open front door, hoping to catch a stronger
dose of the sunrise. Savory aromas drifted in from the kitchen
where Kasumi was preparing breakfast. Natsume was already working
out in the yard, unfazed by the cold in her tank top and loose
pants. No doubt her sister was still dead to the world - now that
was a girl who knew how to sleep.
It was a little strange to see Saotome Genma up so early. The
bulky, bespectacled man sat on the edge of the porch, scribbling
sporadically in a small notebook and occasionally muttering to
himself. Nabiki drew a little closer to try to catch what he was
saying.
"Golden morn... the golden orb... hmm."
Nabiki looked over curiously at the Genma. "What are you doing?"
"Oh!" he seemed startled by her presence. "Ha, um... good morning,
Nabiki. I was just writing a little poetry."
Nabiki raised a cynical eyebrow. "Do tell."
"Poetry is it, Saotome?" Tendou Soun said from the hall as he
shuffled towards them. He was brushing his teeth as he walked -
Nabiki never had understood her father's peculiar fixation with
dental hygiene.
"Well, just a little bit, Tendou," Genma replied with a laugh.
"How long has it been since you wrote poetry, my old friend?"
Nabiki's father asked. "Why, I haven't heard any of your poems
since we were training."
"Yes, that was the last time," Genma said with a nod. "I used to
write a great deal, but old Happosai hated all my poetry. Do you
remember?"
"Mmm, yes." Tendou Soun took a seat beside his friend and cocked
his head, recalling old memories. "Yes, now I recall. You had a
big journal full of poems, and he was going to burn it. I seem to
remember we gave him a substitute book at the last minute, didn't
we?"
Genma shrugged. "It didn't matter, Tendou. He threatened to make
leather shoes out of my hide if he ever heard another one of my
poems. But now, since he's no longer our Master... well, I
decided..."
"Ah!" Soun exclaimed. "You're free to write again! That's
splendid. So, let's hear what you've written, then."
Genma scratched the back of his neck and looked self-conscious.
"Well, I'm a bit out of practice, you know. But here goes:
"Oh how I love to watch the morn,
The golden sun that shines,
Up above to nicely warm
These frosty toes of mine.
The wind doth taste of bittersweet,
Like jaspar wine, and sugar,
I bet it's blown through others' feet,
Like those of... eh?"
Strange gurgling noises issued from the front lawn, distracting
Saotome Genma from his reading. Nabiki looked up and was surprised
to see Natsume thrashing spasmodically on the ground. The young
martial artist, normally so controlled in her every motion, clutched
onto the trunk of a tree with both arms, one leg twitching and
flailing while the other stuck out like a wooden beam from her
hip, its every muscle cramped tighter than stone. Natsume squeezed
her eyes shut and stammered inarticulately: "B...bbb... bba...
b..."
"Natsume?" Tendou Soun called worriedly.
"What on earth...?" Nabiki began, heading tentatively towards the
flailing young woman.
"Morning, everyone," came a voice from behind them. Kurumi shuffled
down the hall in her nightshirt, her hair still tangled chaotically
from sleep. "What's up?"
"I think something's wrong with your sister," Nabiki observed,
pointing to the lawn.
"Nats... NATSUME!" Kurumi shouted, jolting awake. She sprinted
past the three of them in a pink blur towards her sister. The small
fighter cradled Natsume in her arms, covering the elder girl's ears
with her hands. "Was somebody reading bad poetry?" she asked.
"Uh..." Genma adjusted his spectacles nervously and sweated. "Well,
er... I didn't think it was..."
"Yeah," Nabiki answered, jerking a thumb towards the recalcitrant
culprit. "He was. Is THAT what caused this?"
Natsume's fit seemed to be passing, fortunately. She relaxed her
grip on the tree trunk, letting her fingers slide out of the grooves
she'd dug into the bark as her body slowly came back under her
control. "B...bad..." she whispered, panting.
"Come on, get up," Kurumi told her gently, squirming under her
sister's arm and hauling her to her feet. "You're okay."
"What was that all about?" Nabiki asked.
Kurumi helped her limping sister over to the edge of the porch and
sat her down. "When we were just kids," she told them, "our mother
had a box of things that we thought belonged to our real father.
When she died, we went through everything there trying to find a
clue about who he was."
"I thought that was where we got the scroll of Anything-Goes
techniques," Natsume whispered, still trembling slightly. "But
I guess I'm remembering wrong, if Happosai was the one who gave
it to us."
"We were very young," Kurumi said with a sigh. "Anyway, one thing
that I'm certain that was in the box was a book of... well, poetry,
for lack of a better term. I was too young to read it, but Natsume
was determined to go through the whole thing to get to know our
father better."
"That couldn't have been our father's work," Natsume said darkly.
"The book must have been put there by some cruel spirit or
something."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. Natsume wasn't the sort of girl who
normally resorted to supernatural explanations. "What do you
mean?"
"No human mind could conceive something so awful," the dark-haired
martial artist stated grimly.
Kurumi sighed. "The poetry was really bad," she explained. "I
never read it, so I don't know for sure..."
"I'd never expose you to something so horrible," Natsume said.
"But anyway, it had to be pretty terrible. Big sister was up all
day and all through the night, forcing herself to read every word.
When I came to check on her in the morning, I found her on the
floor, like that," she said, indicating the lawn where Natsume had
been so recently writhing. "Ever since then, she's been vulnerable
to bad poetry."
Genma coughed violently and mopped the sweat from his brow. Tendou
Soun looked rather thoughtful. "Well," he said. "Every great
martial artist has a secret weakness, I suppose."
Nabiki smirked. "So all it takes is a little bad verse, and you're
history," she observed. "Hmm...
Pointy birds, pointy, pointy,
Anoint my head, anointy-nointy..."
Natsume's legs kicked out from under her, one snapping straight
while the other flailed like a loose garden hose. She grabbed onto
the support beam and clenched her jaw tight.
"Nabiki!" Kurumi shouted accusingly.
Nabiki held up her hands in a gesture of innocence. "Just testing!
Sorry!"
"T...take my word for it," Natsume hissed through her gritted
teeth. "It works."
<Now that's leverage,> Nabiki thought as she watched her adopted
sister's spasms die down. There was nothing in particular that she
wanted out of Natsume at the moment, but it was so nice to have an
ace like that in your hand, just in case. "Doesn't work with bad
song lyrics, does it?" she asked.
"Nope. Not bad prose either," Kurumi explained. "Just poetry."
"Well, that's not so awful, then," Tendou Soun reassured Natsume.
"Still, you'd better hold off on reading your work out loud, eh
Saotome?"
Genma laughed nervously and fumbled with his journal. "Heh heh,
well, I guess you're right, Tendou," he stammered. "Well, I guess
I'd better be going!"
Nabiki watched the stocky martial artist scamper away, then
regarded Natsume and Kurumi thoughtfully. <Interesting,> she
thought.
- - - - - -
The Amazon girl stared at her emotionlessly as Ukyou accepted the
chopsticks and the bowl of rice. "Thanks," the young chef hazarded
with a smile.
The teenager showed all the expression of a stone slab. If she
hadn't been visibly breathing, Ukyou could've sworn she was no more
than a remarkable wax replica of a Chinese martial artist. The
Amazon watched her for a few moments more, just long enough to make
her fidget, then turned and trotted briskly away, ponytails swishing
behind her.
<Hospitable place,> Ukyou thought sourly. It was likely that the
kid didn't speak Japanese, but it probably made no difference. The
reactions she'd endured in the past two days from the Amazon
villagers had been varied, but on the whole the attitudes of the
women conveyed a single message, loud and clear: she was not wanted
here. The men, it seemed, weren't allowed anywhere near her; she
hadn't seen an Amazon male come within twenty meters. It figured
that a tribe with such extreme laws about outsiders would cultivate
a rather phobic nature towards anybody not native to this little
valley. Perhaps they were kinder to other Chinese.
<I don't care,> she thought. <Ban Dai Du has been nice enough, and
if she takes care of Ryouga, that's all that matters.> She set her
empty bowl down and made ready to rise. She wanted to check up on
the lost boy, just in case...
"Miss Kuonji," came the familiar voice of the Amazon healer from
behind her. Ukyou turned to face Ban Dai Du.
"Oh good," she began. "I was just going to come ask you..."
The young chef's voice trailed off as she saw the stern look of
intense displeasure on Ban Dai Du's face. The healer had not come
alone - a half dozen Amazon women and girls trailed her, all wearing
masks of controlled anger and contempt. Ukyou swallowed hard.
"Um... how is Ryouga?" she asked weakly.
"Your friend is just fine," Ban Dai Du said tersely. "In fact, your
friend is recovering quite admirably. It really is amazing, just
how quickly your friend's recovery is progressing."
The news was good, but the healer's voice was laced with flat
anger. Ukyou didn't understand. "I... that's great," she said.
"Then you think we can..."
"In fact," the elder woman interrupted sharply, "I've only seen a
very few people recover with the same kind of miraculous alacrity
which your friend is displaying."
Several other members of the village were coming to see what was
going on. One of the girls whispered to the crowd in Chinese,
translating for the benefit of those who couldn't understand what
was being said. Ukyou spared a wary glance towards the growing
assembly of observers, then returned her attention to the healer.
"Look," she tried again. "I don't know what you're..."
Ban Dai Du cut her off with a curt wave of the hand. "I think you
need to explain something to us, Kuonji Ukyou. I think you need to
tell us how the hell your friend came to learn the bakusai
ten-ketsu!"
Mutters rippled through the audience, and the faces of the Amazons
grew darker. Ukyou simply gaped.
"What?" she stammered. "Now look... the old woman taught Ryouga
that technique! Cologne!" she clarified quickly. "She's one of
you, right?"
More surprise and angry whispering followed Ukyou's statement. Ban
Dai Du narrowed her eyes. "I doubt that very much, girl," she
snapped.
"But it's TRUE!" Ukyou cried.
"Then tell me this," the healer shot back, her voice rising. "Why
would our own matriarch teach one of our most secret and powerful
techniques to one who is not only an outsider... but a MAN!?"
<Uh oh,> Ukyou thought. Enraged voices rose from the gathered
Amazons as they digested this revelation. The okonomiyaki chef
stepped back nervously, her heartbeat accelerating.
"Oh yes," Ban Dai Du continued, pressing closer. "It's fairly
routine to bathe a patient, to sanitize their wounds and cleanse
their bodies. Imagine my surprise when I set a spongeful of warm
water on your friend's skin. You've been to Jusenkyou, girl.
HAVEN'T you?" She all but shouted the last question.
"Y... yes," Ukyou croaked.
"You LIED to us, outsider!" Ban Dai Du snapped. "What else have
you been lying about?"
Ukyou's fear was strong now, but her own anger could not be kept
in check. "Look, damn it," she shot back, "all I wanted was some
help for Ryouga. I didn't think you'd care if he was a boy or a
girl. You're a doctor, right?"
"Stupid girl," the healer hissed. "Men have their own healers in
our village. You have no idea what you've done."
"Are the men doctors as good as you?" Ukyou countered. "Didn't
you say you were the best healer for a hundred kilometers? Could
the others have saved his life?"
Ban Dai Du pursed her lips angrily, but she didn't answer the
question. Instead, she flung one of her own at Ukyou. "No
avalanche could have inflicted such damage to one who has mastered
the bakusai ten-ketsu, girl. How did that man REALLY get hurt?"
Ukyou fished for a suitable answer for a few seconds, then gave up.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she finally said. "You
don't even believe Cologne taught him your precious technique."
"The very idea that she would..."
"FINE!" Ukyou spat. "So WHAT? Are you going to kill us? Throw us
in jail? Feed us to the goats? Or do you just want to stand here
foaming at the mouth all day? Let's get to the bottom line here,
sweetheart!"
Ban Dai Du took a measured step back and composed her expression.
"No, we aren't going to do any of that," she informed Ukyou
clinically. "The men shall see to your friend's recovery, but
I suspect he shall be conscious by tomorrow, perhaps even tonight.
When he wakes, I want you both gone. I don't want to see your
lying face in this village ever again."
"Suits me fine," Ukyou said bitterly. "The sooner I'm out of here,
the better."
"I couldn't agree more," the healer grumbled as she turned to leave.
- - - - - -
It became clear as the day wore on that it was not going to be so
easy to get away from the Amazon village unscathed. Where she has
been regarded with suspicion and indifference before, Ukyou was now
met with glares of open hostility. The women of the valley looked
up from their work as she passed, raking her over with eyes loaded
full of contempt. Ukyou kept her gaze pointed straight at the
ground in front of her as she walked.
<Just don't look at them,> she instructed herself. <Don't start
anything.>
The hours dragged by, and Ukyou spent the time trying to stay out
of the way. Even that proved increasingly difficult - each time
she thought she'd found some place to simply tuck herself away and
stay out of sight of the villagers, a group of Amazon girls
inevitably found some reason to be in that very place as well.
Each time Ukyou picked herself up and moved on once she saw them
coming... each time with greater reluctance.
She knew they were trying to pick a fight. Part of her - a part
that grew ever more insistent as the day crawled on - wanted nothing
more than to oblige them. Maybe it was suicidal to get into a
scrape in the middle of the Amazon village, but that part of her
didn't care. Better than scurrying away like a frightened mouse
every time an Amazon girl came too close.
<Just find another place to hole up,> she told herself sternly as
she walked down the dirt path leading to the western edge of the
village. <Play it cool and you can get the hell out of here by
tomorrow. Think of Ryouga.>
So she pressed on, eyes on the brown grit of the road. When she
saw a cluster of dark-eyed teenagers gathering on the footbridge
across the stream in her path, she turned and went the other way.
When a trio of girls pulled their cart into the road and waited
with crossed arms, she detoured through the underbrush and thistles
to avoid them. When a big, muscular girl with a face like a bowl
of squashed cranberries shoulder-checked her on the street so hard
that she almost ended up sprawled flat in a mud puddle, she simply
bowed deeply and went on her way.
But when the splash of ice-cold water sloshed over her like a
blanket of needles, that was all she could stand.
"WHAT the HELL..." she spluttered, whirling in the direction from
which the watery outrage had originated. She had a moment to
register a short, smirking teenager with an empty bucket in her
hand before a heavy splash of scalding hot water slammed into her
back. Ukyou screamed in shock, arching her back and clenching her
fists against the blistering agony.
The girl with the bucket hopped off the railing upon which she'd
been perched and sauntered into the road in front of Ukyou. She
was joined a moment later by another girl of similar height, holding
an empty kettle. Both wore tunics adorned with large pink hearts
on the front and insufferable expressions of smugness.
"Why you little..." Ukyou seethed. A crowd was gathering, simmering
with mocking giggles. Water dripped from Ukyou's drenched clothes
and hair.
To her surprise, the little girls spoke Japanese. "Oh, so sorry,"
one said in an innocent voice. "We just make sure you not turn
into mans, too. Right, Lung Lung?"
"Right, Ling Ling," the other agreed.
<BACK AWAY!> a voice inside howled plaintively. <Just let it go!>
But she couldn't. Not after everything else. Her face was numb
from the cold, her back was boiling with scalding pain. It was too
much to forgive. She raised her trembling fists and took up a
fighting stance. "I'm gonna mop the floor with you twerps,"
she snarled.
The one called Ling Ling pretended to be shocked, but the
triumphant gleam in her eyes was plain to see. "Lying Girl
pick fight with us?"
"What's it look like, stupid?" she growled, advancing on her
foes.
"Amazon womans never back down from fight," Lung Lung asserted
with a savage grin. The women in the crowd called out their
encouragement. Each of the two small warriors extended a beckoning
hand, and another young woman in the audience responded by throwing
them each a weapon. Ling Ling caught her staff and twirled it above
her head, while Lung Lung leveled the points of her trident towards
Ukyou.
The Japanese fighter became acutely aware that she was unarmed...
and facing a two-on-one battle. "This is what you Amazons call a
fair fight," she asked, taking a step back. The crowd jeered and
closed a circle around her, cutting off escape routes.
"We two is sister twins," Ling Ling said as she danced to Ukyou's
left.
"Two of body, one of mind," Lung Lung cartwheeled nimbly towards
Ukyou's right flank.
"So you admit you each have half a brain?" Ukyou taunted. Her
nerves were stretched taut, but she refused to let them intimidate
her. After all, she'd been training hard to fight without her
weapon, improving all her martial arts skills under two of the
best. She couldn't let this pair of cherubic ruffians get the
edge on her just because they were armed. She had to have faith
in Ranma, in Ryouga, on all the hard days and nights of training
on the road.
Still, it would have been awfully nice to feel the reassuring heft
of tempered steel in her hands right now.
<Don't think about that!> she admonished herself. <They're trying
to set it up so they attack in unison from both sides, so you can't
defend. Do something about it!>
Ukyou stopped retreating and lunged abruptly towards the girl with
the staff. Ling Ling spun her weapon in a defensive shield to ward
off Ukyou's blows, hoping to set the okonomiyaki chef up for an
attack from behind by her sister. But to her distinct surprise -
and to Ukyou's - the Japanese girl was fast enough to slip a punch
in through the propeller-spin defense without so much as brushing
the weapon. It wasn't an accurate enough blow to hit a vital point,
but Ling Ling still staggered back as Ukyou's fist connected with
her abdomen.
Lung Lung leaped forward, trident poised to strike her foe's back,
but Ukyou sensed her coming without having to look. She scooted
backwards, ducking under the arc of the small girl's leap, so Lung
Lung would land with her back exposed to Ukyou's own attack. Her
foe tried to twist in mid-air to defend herself against the assault
from behind, but she was too slow. Ukyou's foot lashed out and
caught her just above the rump, sending her tumbling to her sister's
feet.
The crowd grew considerably quieter.
Ukyou's confidence surged. She was faster than these two
pipsqueaks - a LOT faster. Maybe this wouldn't be such a hard fight
after all...
<Yeah, and what happens if you do beat 'em?> she found herself
wondering. <You're an outsider, remember? You know the laws.>
"Great," she muttered to herself. Maybe she could still back out
of this. These girls had to know she was no pushover - maybe
they'd lose their stomach for this charade now.
"Okay, girls," she said. "You had your fun, and now I figure
we're even. Just back off and leave me alone, okay?"
"A fight with Amazon womans..." Ling Ling began.
"...is fight to finish!" her sister concluded.
"I figured as much," Ukyou grumbled.
"Outsider Lying Girl may be fast..." the small warrior with the
staff acceded.
"...but she not see true power of Amazon techniques!" the other
continued. She then leaped upon her sister's shoulders. "Amazon
Sister Twins Special Attack..."
"... Punish Stupid Lying Girl Attack!" Ling Ling finished. With
that, they began to spin.
Ukyou backed away from the flailing whirlwind of amazon fury as
the weapons of the two girls lashed out in a series of dizzying arcs
towards her. She wasn't keen on trying to block them bare-handed,
and she didn't know if she'd be fast enough to slip in an attack
through that mess without paying for it.
<So think of another tactic,> she told herself. <Think like
Ranchan. Use your surroundings. There's got to be some weakness
you can... ah-HA!>
The young chef retreated from the twirling duo with a backflip,
luring them into an aggressive charge. She tried to look afraid
to keep their attention focused on her, but she was pretty sure
that they couldn't see very well when they were whizzing around
like that, and that they wouldn't notice...
The spinning sisters crossed the spot where they'd hit Ukyou with
their water ambush, where the dirt of the road had been transformed
into thick, greasy mud. With a surprised screech, Ling Ling lost
her footing, and their spiral came unwound. Both young fighters
tumbled to the ground, splattering mud in every direction.
To Ukyou's surprise, some of the girls in the crowd began to laugh.
Maybe Amazon solidarity wasn't all it was cracked up to be... or
perhaps there were some other girls out there who had been
victimized by these two pint-sized thugs, and had good reason to
revel in their humiliation. Ukyou crossed her arms and smirked
as the two spluttered in the muck. "Had enough?" she asked
casually.
"Had enough playing around!" Ling Ling exclaimed.
"Time to finish with Ultimate Technique!" Lung Lung spat.
<Uh oh,> Ukyou thought.
The pair rose from the mud and executed a series of acrobatic
tumbles to get some distance, until they finally came to a halt
in front of a thick swatch of bushes. They struck mirrored poses,
each standing on one leg like a crane, and glared at Ukyou with
feverish malice. The crowd backed away rapidly, eager to distance
themselves from whatever was going to happen next.
"Now witness final technique learned from 3000 years of Amazon
fighting history!" Ling Ling cried.
"Behold power handed down from gods themselves to punish the
insolent!" Lung Lung trumpeted.
And then, in unison: "Dance of the Great Fire Dragon!"
With that, each threw down a small smoke bomb, kicking up a cloud
that obscured them from vision. With a thunderous roar, a great
reptilian head arose from the stew of black vapor, fire trickling
upwards from its gaping maw. Ukyou gaped in astonishment. It
was... it was...
It was probably the most pitiful fake dragon dummy she'd ever
seen.
Ling Ling and Lung Lung pranced out of the smoke, holding their
metal contraption up above their heads on a pair of poles. It was
all Ukyou could do to keep from busting up with laughter... until
she heard the music.
Some sort of tinny little melody issued forth from the body of the
mechanical beastie, sufficiently innocuous and silly to be perfectly
appropriate for the overall absurdity of the "great dragon." But
once the bubbly, empty-headed tune burrowed its way into Ukyou's
ears, she found her body began to move on its own accord. She was
dancing, and she was powerless to stop.
Ukyou barely kept enough command of her own actions to dodge the
fire blast which spurted from the dragon's hinged jaws. The thing
may have been an aesthetic wash-out, but it packed a pretty
serviceable flamethrower. Ukyou took to her heels as fast as the
dance would allow, with Ling Ling and Lung Lung in hot pursuit.
<This... is... RIDICULOUS!> she thought venomously. <I REFUSE to
lose to a cheap trick like this, damn it all!>
But whatever magic or force powered that cheery little tune was no
joke. Ukyou found she could cover her ears for a short while, but
that wasn't enough to wholly block out the music. She couldn't keep
it up for long enough to mount a kicking attack that would get past
the flames spewing from the contraption's jaws. The harder she
fought against the impulse to dance, the more energy she burned in
her struggle. Eventually, she was going to run out of steam, and
then she'd be toast... literally.
Through the clanking din of the music rattling in her head, she
heard Ranma's voice come to her. <The yin and the yang, Ucchan.
It ain't just a cool-lookin' symbol, y'know? It's the hard and
the soft of martial arts. Sometimes the hard ain't the best way
to go - sometimes it don't work at all. That's when you gotta go
WITH the flow of your enemy's attack, instead of tryin' to go
against it. You see? Go with the flow...>
It was worth a shot.
Instead of resisting the dance, Ukyou allowed herself to be drawn
into the act of motion, the rhythm and the pulse of the sound in
time with the movements of her body. Perhaps she couldn't stop
dancing, but that didn't mean she couldn't exert some control over
the way she danced. In fact, a dance wasn't too far off from being
a martial arts kata, when movement and form became one, when the
body learned the reflexive postures and motions that would come
naturally when battle was joined.
She found herself drawn back to the training she'd done all those
evenings with Ranma and Ryouga. Ukyou plunged willingly into those
memories, those hours of sweat and exertion and focus. That had
been a dance too, with Ranma setting the rhythm as he tossed the
pinecones in the air and Ryouga beating out a counterpoint with
every spatula he threw her way. It had been a hard dance, much
harder than this, its tempo increasing mercilessly each night as
they stepped up the pace of the exercise, but she had kept up, no
matter how fast they went. Yes, she had, adding her own line of
melody to the song with each weapon she sent whistling towards its
target. Even when they'd blindfolded her, she'd kept pace with the
dance, learning that all she had to do was feel for the target, to
aim for the sound...
<Aim for the sound!>
The young warrior swept her arm in an arc too blindingly fast for
the eyes of the assembled Amazons to follow. A burst of bright
light, a shriek of green power, and the spatula-shaped ki-blast
struck the mechanical dragon square in the body, shearing through
its metal hull and out the other side. The music abruptly became
a gargled squeak, then ground to a halt altogether.
Ling Ling and Lung Lung craned their necks to look at the damage
inflicted on their dragon, stupefied looks on their round faces.
Ukyou had no intention of giving them time to start their
fire-spitting toy again - she knew she had to take it out quickly.
She leaped towards her enemy, heart thundering in her chest,
prepared to rain down a storm of blows upon the green mechanical
abomination.
A battle cry surged in her throat as she descended. At some level,
where her rational mind still held sway, she knew she'd better not
shout the name of the technique, as Ranma did - the Amazons had
enough reason to hate her without knowing that she, too, had
mastered one of their secret techniques. So instead, she simply
blurted out the first alternate which popped into her head as her
fists began to fly in a screeching blur:
"HUNKA-HUNKA BUNCHA-PUNCHES!"
<Boy, THAT needs some work,> the rational fragment of her
consciousness observed with chagrin, but it was a dim and quiet
voice against the storm in her mind. She didn't really care what
she'd said, not now, with the sweet fires of battle turning her
every nerve into a filament of white-hot glory. Her fists streaked
towards the hull of the mechanical dragon, buckling and twisting
the thin armor with each strike. The thing let out a twisted
screech, jets of smoke writhing forth from the multitude of cracks
where its shell had been breached.
Ling Ling and Lung Lung yelped in terror and scuttled away. Ukyou
took the hint, reversing her momentum the moment her feet touched
the ground and vaulting back away from the wounded dragon with the
grace of a tigress.
Moments later, the ugly metal thing exploded in a tremendous
fireball.
Ukyou shielded herself against the chaotic mess of debris from
the detonation of the tin-plated monster. She was rather surprised
to see amongst the shrapnel a charred and smoking stereo tape player
tumbling across the turf, a thin slit roughly the width of a
throwing spatula burned through the center of it. She let out
a bark of derisive laughter.
Ling Ling and Lung Lung struggled to their feet, faces and clothes
smudged with mud and black ash. They raised their weapons and faced
their foe.
Ukyou pulled slowly out of the defensive crouch she'd assumed to
protect herself from the explosion, standing straight and proud.
She turned her gaze towards the two Chinese girls, her battle aura
hitting them like a cannon blast. The Amazons flinched back,
uncertainty in their eyes, and make weak threatening gestures with
their weapons.
Kuonji Ukyou had never felt so strong in her life, so sharp and so
very alive. All her training, her hard work and sweat and
frustration and pain, all of it snapped together in a perfect
fit now, creating an immaculate whole that shone like a star in
this place, this moment. She was cloaked in an armor of confidence
and bright, controlled rage. Every muscle was taught as a piano
wire, every sense as keen as a splinter of glass. She was flying
at a totally new altitude, soaring in a zone of awareness she'd
never imagined existed.
<My God,> she thought with wonder. <Is this what they feel? Ranma
and Ryouga? Is this what it's like for them when they go into
battle? It must be... it must be...>
But not every time she fought, she realized. This was a state of
battle fury reserved only for the most serious of struggles. She'd
tasted it before, when she'd fought the Reikoku in the forest, but
now she commanded it rather than being caught in its grasp. Still,
this amazing state of mind was strictly overkill for this situation.
For a pair of mediocre fighters like these two shrimpy bullies,
she wouldn't need it. She could defeat them with ease.
They knew it, too. Victory was an attitude, a frame of mind.
Ling Ling and Lung Lung looked upon their adversary and knew they
were defeated. The beating that would follow was nothing more than
a formality.
Nothing is ever so easy, though, where Amazons are concerned.
"Lying Girl may think she won..." Ling Ling said.
"...but she be sorry for this later!" her sister promised.
Ukyou gnashed her teeth in frustration. "Oh yeah, that's right.
Your stupid Kiss of Death."
The two girls were a bit taken aback that Ukyou knew about their
tradition. Murmurs rose from the assembled crowd.
"Oh sure, I know all about it," Ukyou informed them, letting her
gaze wander towards the women in the audience. "And believe me,
I'm glad I'm not a man, that's for sure!"
Ling Ling knit her eyebrows in anger. "We hunt Lying Girl to ends
of earth for revenge!"
Lung Lung nodded. "Amazon womans never fail to kill obstacles like
Lying..."
Ukyou whirled back to her foes, her voice cracking like a rawhide
whip. "So maybe I should just kill you two right NOW!"
Ling Ling and Lung Lung flinched back, eyes widening in fear.
"But then I'm sure it'd fall to one of your sisters to avenge you,"
Ukyou snarled, jabbing her finger towards the crowd. "Am I right?
You Amazons just won't play the game unless you can stack the
deck!"
The okonomiyaki warrior regarded the sea of grim faces around her
with growing exasperation and rage. "You think I'm scared of YOU?
You think you're going to hunt ME to the ends of the earth? Well
I have a news flash for you... you're gonna have to take a goddamned
number! I'm already being hunted by the REIKOKU, you hear me?"
Watching the impact of her words upon the crowd was rather like
watching the ripples spread from a handful of pebbles cast into a
still pond. Only a few of the older women in the audience knew
the creature she had named, but the extremity of their reactions
had an immediate impact on the girls around them. Shock,
disbelief, and horror seeped through the assembled onlookers in
slow waves.
"That's right," Ukyou addressed them, nodding. "That's right.
Now you understand. Now you see why I'm not afraid of a couple
snotty little brats like you," she said as she turned her attention
back to Ling Ling and Lung Lung. "So come on, you twerps. Let's
finish this." She tightened her fists. "I promise you, you'll be
giving your kisses with bloody lips!"
- - - - - -
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
to be embellished...
-----------------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTES
-----------------------------------------------------------
Actually, that's not the end of that last scene, but I figured it
would be a good place to stop in order to maintain some suspense.
More to come, of course, when the rest of the story makes its way
off paper and onto the screen. Anyway, I'm sure there are a few
of you out there who know what the last line of Genma's poem is...
If you care to send replies to this piece, please be sure to send
a copy directly to me, since I'll be putting myself on vacation
status for the FFML here very shortly.
I'm going to try to give descriptions of the more obscure Ranma 1/2
characters who appear in this story. So...
LING LING and LUNG LUNG: These two pipsqueaks made their first
appearance in one of the second season Ranma anime shows, coming
from the Amazon village to check up on Shampoo's progress in the
whole killing-Ranma project (and getting into a fight with Ranma,
of course). I understand that they have made return appearances
in the anime, though I haven't seen any of those programs. I'm
assuming that they are still governed by the same basic character
traits - they're annoying, somewhat belligerent, and their fighting
techniques are basically stupid.
The manga versions of these characters were Pink and Link, and Ranma
purists might wonder why I didn't use them (and their biochemical
arsenal). I plead ignorance - I confess that I haven't actually
seen those issues first hand, and as nice as the translations on the
web are, I didn't feel comfortable enough with the characters to
write them. Truth be told, I had a hell of a time settling on
someone to make trouble with Ukyou in this chapter (do I use Pink
and Link, their anime counterparts, or do I make someone up with a
silly name... decisions, decisions!), which is one of the reasons
this chapter has taken a bit of time.
COMING SOON: The rest of Chapter Eleven... and then Chapter Twelve
after that. And if anybody is still alive, Chapter Thirteen...
COPYRIGHT STUFF: All the Ranma characters belong to Takahashi
Rumiko,and are licensed in America by Viz Communications.
GRT - December 1999
grayson@rigroup.net
All existing chapters of this story may be found at:
http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless