Well, it's been awhile, but I finally devoted some time to finishing this
chapter. Sorry it took so long, but free time and access to a computer are
hard to come by for me recently. I also had some problems both with the
formatting and getting it to my proof readers. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
==========================================
Lord who controls all darkness of four worlds
I beseech thy fragments
By all of the power thou possesseth
Grant the heavens' wrath to my hand
Unleash the sword of dark freezing nothingness
By our power, our combined might
Let us walk as one along the path of destruction...
LAGUNA BLADE!
==========================================
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: gok7.txt
Goku 1/2
Chapter 7
Disclaimer: None of the characters in this fic are mine. However, that
hasn't
stopped anyone else, and I'll be damned if it will stop me. Especially
since
I'm already at Chapter 7. ^_^
A yellow car sped down the road narrowly missing several pedestrians. The
panicked driver accelerated even more, seeking to escape the danger he was
fleeing from. He skidded around a corner and then floored the gas pedal,
almost
fishtailing the car into a building.
"I'm dead if those guys ever catch me!" Oolong exclaimed as he continued
his
flight.
Oolong was being pursued by some of the most dangerous, ruthless, and cruel
people on this planet. They were the repomen. After discovering that
Oolong
could not pay for all the merchandise that the pig had bought to appease the
demon child Nabiki, the repomen came after him to get the stuff back plus
some
interest. Not having enough money to pay for either, Oolong was forced
(cough)
to run as the repomen gladly accepted organ donations in the place of money.
The pig glanced over his shoulder. "Thank God. I think I gave them the
slip."
He said, while breathing a sigh of relief.
Returning his gaze to where he was going, Oolong was shocked to see that he
was
heading straight for a pedestrian, who was crossing the road looking
completely
lost. The pig slammed on the brakes, but he was going way too fast to stop
in
time. The car crashed into the man, and its front crumpled. Oolong's face
smashed into the steering wheel as the vehicle came to an even more abrupt
halt
than he was expected. The man stood there unmoving; the car lay in a
wrecked
heap in front of him.
Ryouga stared curiously at the vehicle, then his rage took over. "What the
hell
do you think you're doing? Hitting me? How dare you?" He shouted.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Oolong screamed as he climbed out the window and scurried off
down the street.
"Huh?" Ryouga said, surprised. His anger drained away upon recognized the
fleeing form of his friend. "Hey! Oolong! Stop! It's me, Ryouga!"
"What?" Oolong stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Hey, it is you!
Ryouga. Ya gotta help me. There's these guys at my house and they're
taking
all my stuff."
"Hmmmm." Ryouga paused, considering his friend's predicament. "Alright,
fine.
But after that, you'll take me to this address. I just can't seem to find
it."
He held up a slip of paper.
"Ok. Ok. Anything you say, buddy. Now, let's go." Oolong patted Ryouga
on
the back.
A black car screeched to a halt in front of them. Men wearing black suits
poured out of the doors and surrounded them. One stepped forward and
grinned.
"Well, well, Mr. Oolong. It looks like the end of the road for you. Give
up
like a good little pig and come home." He said, while advancing.
"Aaahh! It's them! Ryouga, help me!" Oolong whimpered, as he dived behind
the
lost boy's back.
"Nobody picks on my friend." Ryouga snarled at the leading man. He took
his
umbrella out and waved it threateningly. "You don't want to mess with me
right
now. I'm in a bad mood."
"Oh. So you got a friend, Mr. Oolong. Doesn't matter though. We got 8
guys
here against you two. You might as well give up." The leader said.
"Enough talk. Time to fight." Ryouga shouted while charging forward. An
umbrella strike caught the leader in the stomach, knocking him backwards
into
the van. The impact crumpled the side panel, and a loud crunching sound
came
from the leader's ribs.
One of the repomen threw a punch at Ryouga, who easily sidestepped it and
sent
his umbrella crashing down on the guy's head. The lost boy straightened and
twirled his weapon above his head, taking down three men advancing from
behind
and the sides.
A man reached into his blazer and pulled out a gun, but before he could even
aim
the thing, Ryouga had snatched it away. The lost boy grinned evilly at the
man
before crushing the gun in his grip.
"Holy @$#%!" The man screamed. He started to backpedal furiously, knocking
down another one of the repomen. "Let's get outta here!" He turned and
bolted
down the street. The two conscious men decided to follow his sage advice
and
ran after them.
"Yeah! Take that ya bullies!" Oolong shouted after them.
Ryouga threw down the remains of the gun and turned towards the pig. "Take
me
here now." He demanded, while passing him the piece of paper.
Oolong gulped, then nodded.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Try it again."
Akane nodded and stood up. She got into a battle stance and concentrated.
A
blue glow formed around her, and she grunted with the exertion of focusing
her
energy. Akane brought her hands to her side and cupped her palms.
"KAMEHAMEHA!" She shouted while thrusting her hands up towards the sky.
Nothing happened.
Akane dropped to her knees once more, panting heavily. "I'm sorry, Ranma.
I
can't do it." She said with despair in her voice.
Ranma knelt beside her and put his arm around her. "Don't worry, Akane. It
isn't an easy move by any means. It took Goku and me a long time to master
it,
and Master Roshi can still do it a lot better than we can. So don't be
discouraged. You'll get it eventually. It's just a matter of time. Now,
get
some rest. You look exhausted."
Akane smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Ranma." He helped her to her feet and
into
the house, before returning to the yard. Akane went upstairs, fell on her
bed,
and was instantly asleep.
"So, what do you think?" Ranma asked Goku, who was perched on the balcony.
"It's going to be awhile before she'll be able to do the Kamehameha wave."
Goku
said, while hopping to the ground. "Akane just doesn't have the Ki level to
do
it."
"Just give her time. She's still nowhere near as good as we were when we
first
did the Kamehameha though. Maybe we should start training her harder."
"I'm not sure she'll be able to take it. We've been pretty rough with her
already to get her up to the level that she is."
"Yeah, but she has been getting pretty amazing results, doncha think?"
"Yeah. I wonder why? I'm never seen anyway get so good so quickly."
"No idea. I'm not complaining though. It's just that..."
"Ranma, prepare yourself! It's time to die!" A voice growled, interrupting
Ranma.
"Wha?" Ranma muttered while looking around. He caught sight of Ryouga
standing
on top of the statue in the koi pond.
"You'll pay for what you've done to me!" Ryouga shouted.
GLOMP! GLOMP!
"Ah! Let go of me!" An exasperated Ryouga screamed when he found himself
embraced by the two Saotome brothers.
"Ryouga! You're alive! I'm so happy!" They exclaimed in unison.
"Get offa me!" Ryouga continued to bellow. He pulled out his umbrella and
shoved it in between Goku and himself and managed to pry the young Saiyan
off.
Then he shook Ranma off and jumped away, landing in a ready stance. "Fight
me,
Ranma."
"Fight you?" Ranma asked, confused. "I already did, and you almost got
killed.
I don't want to hurt you, Ryouga."
"Like you could ever hurt me. It was his fault!" Ryouga snarled and thrust
a
finger at Goku. "If you'd had fought me fair and square, that wouldn't have
happened."
"I'm sorry." Goku said while bowing. "I really didn't mean to blast you
and
all, but I'm very protective about my tail."
"Good. Now stay away! This is Ranma's and my fight." Ryouga shouted and
then
charged.
Ranma dodged several umbrella strikes before leaping on top of the Tendo's
roof.
"Ryouga, I don't want to hurt you."
"Then just come here and die!" Ryouga hopped to the roof and renewed his
assault.
Ranma backflipped to avoid the blows, but one caught him in the side,
flinging
him off the roof and onto the ground. He rose to his knees, clutching the
injured spot. "That hurt." He spat. "Alright, Ryouga. Have it your way.
Hyyaaaa!"
Ranma leapt up at Ryouga just as the lost boy jumped off the roof. They
collided in midair, with Ranma delivering a vicious kick to Ryouga's head.
Ryouga smashed into the ground, but got up unfazed.
Ranma charged and the two martial artists exchanged a flurry of punches and
kicks. Very few made it through their defenses and struck home, but
eventually
Ryouga landed a solid punch that sent Ranma through the fence and into a
neighbour's yard.
Ryouga grinned as he pursued his foe. "What's the matter, Ranma? You're
not
doing as well as you did last time."
Ranma wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth. 'Man, what's wrong? Ryouga
was
never this fast. Looks like I'm going to have to get serious.' He rose to
his
knees and delivered a sweep kick to Ryouga's legs. The lost boy jumped over
the
attack and struck downwards with the umbrella, but Ranma flipped away from
the
blow, which exploded the ground on impact into a shower of dirt and rocks.
As soon as he landed from the flip, Ranma sprung at Ryouga, catching him off
guard as his arm was still extended from the attack. Ranma launched a
volley of
kicks to Ryouga's head, each one landing, and then followed with a
devastating
uppercut that threw the lost boy into the air.
Ryouga recovered in midair and landed on his feet, with several bandannas in
hand. He tossed them at Ranma, who easily dodged them while charging
forward.
The pigtailed martial artist swung at Ryouga, but the lost boy sidestepped
and
drove his knee into Ranma's stomach. Ranma doubled over in pain, leaving
himself completely open. Ryouga took full advantage of the opportunity by
delivering a double-handed blow to Ranma's back. Ranma's knees gave out
from
underneath him, and he collapsed to the ground. Ryouga kicked him in the
ribs,
sending Ranma rolling away.
Ranma continued the roll and used his momentum to swing up onto his feet and
into a battle stance. "Okay, Ryouga. Now it's my turn." Ranma growled and
raised his power level.
He launched himself forward and underneath a clumsy swing by Ryouga.
Straightening slightly, Ranma drove his fists repeatedly into the lost boy's
exposed stomach, before finishing the combination off with a kick to his
chest.
This propelled Ryouga backwards, but he managed to avoid falling over.
"Ah. Nicely done, Ranma. You've given me a good fight, but it's time to
end
this. Nothing you can do will be able to stop this attack. Hah!" Ryouga
widened his stance and began to concentrate. Energy started to build around
him, and the air crackled with power.
Ranma's eyes widened even further than Ryouga's stance had. 'Is he going to
launch a Ki blast?' He grinned. "Don't think I can stop it, eh? We'll see
about that, Ryouga."
Ranma summoned power for his own attack. The combatants stood there, facing
each other as they gathered their energy. Ryouga's dark energy flowed
easily
from his hatred and despair. Ranma's energy came with ease due to the
practice
he had at preparing the Kamehameha wave. A blue glow surrounded him and
clashed
with the green glow being emitted by Ryouga.
"Wow!" Goku said to no one in particular.
A faint humming sound had become nearly deafening now as the two attacks
neared
full power. The air crackled and spat as the excess of energy poured off
the
two opponents. Ranma cupped his hands and brought them to his side, while
Ryouga brought his hands together in front of him.
Meanwhile in the front yard of the Tendo's, Oolong finally got his mouth
working. "T-th-this i-is w-w-where S-S-SHE lives!" He whimpered. Then he
realized that Ryouga wasn't with him anymore. "Ryouga!" He shouted. "I'm
outta here!" And with that, Oolong fled down the street.
"SHISHIHOKODAN!"
"KAMEHAMEHA!"
The green and blue blasts launched from their respective owners and smashed
into
each other in the middle of the two. Energy spilled off the sides of the
impact, obliterating everything within a 3 metre sphere. The blasts
themselves
had stopped cold when they encountered each other. Neither moved an inch as
the
attacks were equally matched.
Their owners continued to pour all their energy into them, trying to force
it
through the other's blast and to its target, but they failed. Ryouga's
anger
drained away, and Ranma's energy reserves were spent. The blasts ceased at
the
same time; the energy storm in the middle subsided as its fuel was
exhausted.
Ranma and Ryouga fell to their knees, completely out of energy and breath.
They
gasped heavily and gazed at each other with new respect in their eyes.
"That was pretty good, Ryouga. Where did you learn to do a Ki blast?"
Ranma
said, while grinning.
"I picked it up in my travels. You weren't so bad yourself. I didn't
expect
you to be able to counter that." Ryouga said, as he rose to his feet. "I
guess
we'll have to settle this the old fashioned way."
"Works for me." Ranma said, as he got up.
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!" A new voice shouted.
"Huh?" Ranma and Ryouga exclaimed, looking around for its source.
"It's time for you to pay for what I've gone through, Ranma. You'll regret
you
ever heard of the name Yamcha, the desert bandit." A figure on a roof said.
He
jumped off it and landed facing Ranma and Ryouga. The figure was dressed in
brown pants and a green shirt with white markings on it. He had long black
hair
and a mean expression on his face.
"Yamcha?" Ranma asked in puzzlement. He frowned as he tried to recall
where
he'd met this man before. "Um...ah...and you are?"
A sweatdrop formed on the back of Yamcha's head. He shook his head and
glanced
at Ryouga. "Well, well, Ryouga Hibiki. You're here too. Talk about
killing
two birds with one stone. Quite literally in fact." Yamcha said as he
adopted
a battle stance.
"Huh?" Ryouga sputtered. "Me? What did I do?"
"Wait. Hold on, Yamcha, or whoever you are. Can you please explain what's
going on?" Ranma insisted.
"I'm hurt that you don't remember me, Ranma. Then again, it was a long time
ago, so I'm not too surprised you've forgotten about me. Same with you,
Ryouga." Yamcha said, while smirking. "It was well before I became a
desert
bandit, back when I still lived with my family. My dad owned a restaurant
here
in Tokyo. I always visited him at work and helped out by working in the
kitchen
or waiting tables. Every Sunday, we had an all you can eat dinner special.
It
was our busiest time, and we always made money off it. Until, that is, the
Saotomes showed up."
Yamcha took a deep breath before continuing. "They descended on our
restaurant
like a swarm of locusts, devouring everything in sight. Not a single morsel
of
food was saved from their voracious appetites. Our entire stock was eaten,
preventing other customers from eating that night. The combination of the
loss
of customers and the emptying of our stock of food was enough to drive the
restaurant out of business. On that day, I swore vengeance on the young
Saotome
boy."
Yamcha pointed a finger squarely at Ranma. "That boy was you, Ranma. Even
though I was a few years older than you, you had ruined my family, and I
wasn't
going to let you get away with it. When I challenged you, you said you were
already going to fight another boy named Ryouga Hibiki and that I would have
to
wait my turn. I gladly accepted. A few days made no difference as I still
would be able to claim my vengeance. Then, Ryouga didn't show up for the
fight,
and you insisted on waiting until after your battle with Ryouga before you
fought me. Something about him challenging you first and your honour.
Anyway,
after Ryouga didn't show on the third day, you took off with your father on
a
training trip to China. This robbed me of my chance to fight you. Then,
Ryouga
showed up on the fourth day looking for you. He was outraged that you had
left,
and I was outraged at him for being late for his fight. I swore vengeance
on
him as well and pursued him as he chased after you, Ranma. Following him
was
more difficult than I thought, as before long I was completely lost. I
found
myself in a hostile wasteland, where few men feared to tread. There, I met
a
hermit who trained me in the art of the wolf and the use of a variety of
weapons. I became a desert bandit and terrorized anyone foolish enough to
cross
into my territory. Then, I discovered that Ranma had come back to Nerima.
So
at long last I can have my revenge on both you, Ranma Saotome, and you,
Ryouga
Hibiki."
Yamcha grinned evilly. "Now which one shall I pick first? How about you,
Ryouga? You have no idea the horrors I went through while following you.
I'm
sure you deliberately got me lost so that you could have Ranma all to
yourself.
Now you DIE!"
Yamcha charged towards the lost boy and launched several attacks. Ryouga,
already weakened from his fight with Ranma, only managed to dodge or block a
few
blows, and the rest struck him. He was far from injured, though, and
quickly
executed a counterstrike, which crashed into the overconfident and
unprepared
Yamcha like a tidal wave. The desert bandit was thrown backwards as Ryouga
brought his tremendous strength into play. Yamcha landed on his feet and
then
dodged out of the way as Ryouga continued his assault. Ryouga lunged
forward to
strike him, but Yamcha leapt over him and kicked the lost boy's head,
sending
him sprawling to the ground. Yamcha landed behind him and turned around.
"Well, you're not bad, Ryouga. You're a lot better than I would have
thought.
But you're still no match for me. POWER OF THE WOLF!"
Yamcha bared his teeth and widened his stance. He raised his arms and
curved
his fingers in an imitation of claws. The wind howled as he stood still and
posed.
"HHYYAAAAAHHHH!" Yamcha shouted while running forward and moving his arms
in a
hypnotic pattern. Ryouga was paralyzed, as the image of a charging wolf
filled
his mind. When he was close, Yamcha lashed out with a kick that sent Ryouga
flying. The lost boy was knocked directly into a nearby house, bringing a
section of it down on top of him and raising a large cloud of dust.
When the dust settled, Yamcha stood triumphantly facing Ranma.
"One down, one to go." He said while smirking. "It's your turn to die now,
Ranma."
"Alright, I've had enough!" Goku said as he hopped down from where he was
watching. "Ranma, it's my turn to fight now. You already got to fight
Ryouga,
so I should fight this guy."
"Hey!" Ranma protested. "That's not fair, Goku. Yamcha wants to fight me
specifically, not you. Besides, I didn't even get to finish my fight with
Ryouga because Yamcha interfered."
"But Ranma..." Goku whined.
"So, Saotome, you have an ally. It doesn't matter, I'll take you both on.
But
first I should find out whom would dare to side with my enemy. Who are you,
little boy?" Yamcha asked.
"Me? I'm Goku, Ranma's younger brother." Goku replied.
Yamcha's eyes grew wide with shock. "T-there's TWO Saotome boys now?! Oh
my
God! This could mean the end of the world. I can't let the pestilence that
the
Saotomes represent spread any further. I must stop them! Prepare
yourselves!
Hah!"
Yamcha leapt at the two brothers, kicking at Ranma and punching at Goku.
Ranma
dodged the kick, while Goku blocked the punch and floored Yamcha with a
counterattack.
"Hey! This is my fight, Goku!" Ranma protested again.
"Is not! He said he wanted to fight us both! So it's my fight too."
"There's only one way to settle this, Goku." Ranma placed his fist behind
his
back.
Goku nodded and copied his brother's movement. "Right."
"Ready?"
"Yep."
"On three. 1...2...3!" Ranma thrust his hand forward with his palm flat.
Goku
brought his hand in front of him with it balled into a fist.
Ranma grinned. "Looks like I win." 'Poor Goku. Always picks rock.'
"Damn." Goku pouted. 'Rock let me down again. Could he be reading my
moves?'
"YYAAAHHH!" Ryouga shouted as he broke through the wreckage of the house
and
advanced towards the trio. His body was bruised and beaten, but he didn't
seem
to be affected by his injuries. "I'm not out of the fight yet."
"What? You survived my attack?" Yamcha exclaimed in disbelief as he stood
up
and rubbed the spot on his cheek where Goku had hit him.
"Feh. It'll take more than that to defeat me." Ryouga said while brushing
some
dust and debris off his shoulder.
"Looks like we have a three way battle royal here." Ranma said. He cracked
his
knuckles and his eyes darted between his two opponents.
Goku fumed. The Saiyan boy had already said he wouldn't fight Ryouga, and
he'd
just lost the privilege of fighting Yamcha. Now, Ranma got to fight both of
them while he had to sit there and watch. He was not a happy alien.
The three martial artists leapt forward at each other, and a fierce melee
began.
Blows were exchanged between the warriors, but no one held an advantage over
his
opponents. If one concentrated on a foe and tried to press their advantage,
the
third would attack his unprotected flank.
Ranma's endurance was wearing down fast. He had already been weakened from
his
fight with Ryouga and couldn't last too much longer in this intense battle
against Ryouga's superior endurance and Yamcha's freshness. He jumped away
from
the two in order to buy himself some time to rest, but Ryouga wouldn't have
his
opponent retreat. The lost boy flung himself at Ranma, and they collided in
midair while punching and kicking at each other. The two fell to the
ground,
right into the koi pond.
A loud boom sound and a cloud of smoke quickly followed the splash that
resulted. Ranma was momentarily disoriented as one bulge disappeared and
two
more were created, and Ryouga had to pause to shapeshift from pig to human.
The
pigtailed martial artist was further disoriented as she swore that Ryouga
had
just turned into a pig before getting blinded by the smoke. This allowed
Ryouga
to recover first, and he took full advantage of his situation by slamming
his
fist into Ranma's face.
Ranma was sent flying, and she landed right in front of Yamcha.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Yamcha screamed and froze in place. His face turned beet
red,
and he tipped over backwards, landing on the ground still rigidly locked in
the
same position. After a moment, he recovered enough to start scrambling
backwards.
"Master, what's wrong?" Puar said as she leapt from her vantage spot on the
Tendo's roof and landed beside Ranma's prone body.
"A-A-A G-GIRL!" Yamcha continued to scream while backpedaling away from the
girl in question.
Puar glanced down at Ranma, who just happened to open her eyes at the same
time.
The pigtailed girl found herself staring into the eyes of one of the most
dreaded and feared creatures on this planet. A cat. Even worse, a floating
cat
with a really big mouth.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Ranma screamed and bolted away from Puar. She continued
yelling
as she plowed through anything that got in her way, which included Ryouga.
"CAT! CAT! CAT! CCCAAAAAAAAAATTT!"
The lost boy was sent flying into the same house that Yamcha knocked him
into
before, bringing the rest of it down on him. Ranma smashed into a telephone
pole, which stopped his flight. The pole cracked and came crashing to the
ground.
Yamcha was able to come to his senses now that the cause of his mental
freeze
had taken a trip out of the area. Ryouga burst out of the wreckage in a leap
that carried him high in the air. Seeing that Ranma wasn't around anymore,
the
lost boy targeted Yamcha and delivered a kick as he landed. Yamcha brushed
off
the blow and counterattacked with several kicks of his own. Ryouga
alternatively dodged or blocked before going on the offensive. They traded
turns attacking and defending until Yamcha's fist, which connected with
Ryouga's
chest, was enveloped in a cloud of smoke as the lost boy's transformation
time
expired.
The desert bandit spun around furiously looking for his opponent before
noticing
the small black piglet on the ground in front of him. He grinned. "A
shapeshifter, huh? You could've picked a better form though, Ryouga. Hah!"
Yamcha said, as he punted the piglet into LEO.
"Puar, did you see where Ranma went to?" Yamcha asked as he walked up to
the
koi pond. "He disappeared when he and Ryouga fell into the pond. Someone
transformed there as well. It could be that Ranma knows how to shapeshift
too."
"Maybe, Master. Those two did seem to know each other, and if Ryouga could
transform, Ranma might be able to as well. Maybe he turned into that girl?"
"Could be. Saotome seems to have no honour at all. He'll do anything to
win.
Changing into a girl certainly would stop me from attacking." Yamcha balled
his
hand into a fist. "But how did he figure out my weakness? I can't fight
him as
long as he's a girl. Puar, I want you to distract him until he changes
back.
Then I'll finish him."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Oolong was hit in the back of the head by a black piglet,
knocking
him off his feet. "OW! What's the big idea?" He snarled while trying to
figure out who had thrown the animal at him. Then he took a closer look at
the
stunned piglet. "Hey, Ryouga? That you? Man, what happened?" Oolong, not
getting a response, picked up Ryouga and headed home.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goku bonked Ranma on the head, jarring the older Saotome brother into
consciousness. "What are you doing, Ranma? If you're not going to fight,
you
should at least let me."
"It's not my fault!" Ranma protested. "Yamcha has a c-c-cat with him.
You
know I can't stand cats."
"For Pete's sake. Just let me fight him."
"No! I won the rock, paper, scissors contest. It's my fight! Just get the
cat
out of there and I'll be fine." Ranma ordered.
Goku sighed and gave in. "Alright, fine. I'll get the cat."
"Get him, Puar!" Yamcha shouted, as the blue cat flew towards the two
Saotomes.
Ranma was just about to freak out again, but Goku intercepted the cat with a
flying kick. Puar was knocked back from the force of the blow and was
slammed
into a wall. The impact forced her to lose consciousness.
"PUAR!" Yamcha shouted. "You'll pay for that!" He yelled while striking
at
Goku, but the Saiyan dodged. "Nobody hurts my friend!"
While Goku was avoiding Yamcha's blows, Ranma got to his feet and joined the
battle. The sudden reappearance of a girl was enough to send Yamcha heading
for
the hills again.
"Huh?" Ranma said, stunned and still in mid-punch. "Why'd he go? Hey!
Come
back here!" She chased after the fleeing desert bandit. Not wanting to be
left
out, Goku followed.
'Ah! She's following me! What do I do?' Yamcha thought as he sprinted out
of
someone's yard and onto the street. He ran for a nearby market, hoping to
lose
her in the crowd. 'Is that actually Ranma? He couldn't stay shapeshifted
for
this long. It's been way over five minutes. Curse you, Saotome. Where did
you
go?'
Yamcha continued to run, until he found himself heading straight for a very
'healthy', purple haired girl wearing Chinese clothing and carrying two
large
maces. He froze in mid-stride and came tumbling to a halt in front of the
girl.
She looked at the strange man lying at her feet before noticing his
pursuers.
"Ranma, you I kill!" The girl shouted as soon as she recognized the
pigtailed
martial artist. "Shampoo find you at last! KILL!" Shampoo waved her
bonbori
at Ranma threateningly and advanced.
"Oh no." Ranma muttered. "What a day. Goku, let's go."
"What?" Goku asked, puzzled.
"RUN!" Ranma yelled as he grabbed his brother's arm and took off with
Shampoo
in hot pursuit. Buildings and people fly by as they sped down the street.
"Damnit! I don't have time for this. I'm supposed to be fighting Yamcha."
"He didn't seem to eager to fight you." Goku commented.
"Shut up and run." Ranma shouted and released Goku. The Saiyan landed on
his
feet and kept pace with his older brother.
"So what's your plan? Why don't you just fight her?" Goku asked.
"I can't! She's trying to kill me! And who knows what her weird laws will
say
if I beat her again? Maybe she'll have to kill my entire family or
sumpthin. I
know you can take care of yourself, but dad and the Tendo's can't protect
themselves. So we gotta run and keep away from the dojo. NIMBUS!"
The yellow cloud shot out of nowhere and picked up the two boys before
heading
back into the sky. Shampoo stopped running as she realized there was no way
she
could keep up with the strange cloud they were riding. She showed her
displeasure in this by smashing a nearby store to pieces. Standing admist
the
broken display, she remembered the man that Ranma had been chasing and
followed
her trail back to his body.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back at the Tendo's, Akane and Kasumi slowly slide open the door leading
into
the backyard. They were confronted with a scene from a disaster movie.
Several
fences were missing, a telephone pole had been knocked down, there were many
holes in the ground the shape of fists, feet and faces, and one neighbour's
house had even been completely destroyed.
"Good thing you came and woke me, Kasumi." Akane said to her older sister.
"It
looks like a major fight happened out here. I'm surprised it didn't wake me
up.
I must've really been tired."
Kasumi nodded. "Yes, Akane. You've been training so hard with Ranma and
Goku.
You deserved your rest. Sorry to interrupt you."
"Don't worry about it, Kasumi. This is more important than rest. I just
want
to know who came and attacked, and what happened to Ranma and Goku. They
wouldn't do all this damage if they were sparring, would they? I mean
they've
been pretty good at keeping their matches from destroying anything nearby."
"Oh look. How cute." Kasumi said and pointed at a cat that was lying on
the
ground in front of a wall. Above it was a cat-sized crater complete with
tail
and ear holes.
Akane facefaulted. "Cute? What's cute about all this destruction?" Akane
almost-but-not-quite-yelled-since-no-one-ever-yells-at-Kasumi-with-the-possible-
exception-of-when-she-is-transformed-into-her-violent-counterpart. Then she
saw
the cat. She ran forward and cradled the animal in her arms. "Oh my God.
Who
could do this to a poor little cat? It'd better not be Ranma and Goku.
I'll
make them or whoever did this pay. Hey, I don't think this cat belongs to
any
of our neighbours. I'm sure I would have noticed before, especially with
such
an unusual colour." Akane commented while staring at the injured animal's
curious blue coat and light gray underbelly.
"Let's get it inside." Kasumi said as she went about using her expert
medicinal
knowledge to care for the cat. "Oh dear." She gasped suddenly.
"What?" Akane asked, very concerned.
"I just remembered that I used up the last of the bandages two days ago when
Ranma had the accident with the bath, the toaster, the leftover chow mein,
and
the west wall. We're all out of them right now. I'll have to go to Dr.
Tofu's
to get some more."
Akane winced at the memory of Ranma's accident. 'That had to hurt.' "I can
go
instead of you, Kasumi. I don't know what to do with the cat. You can
probably
do something even if you don't have bandages."
"That's a very nice offer, Akane, but there isn't anything I can really do
without bandages. All that's happened to the cat is that she got banged up.
Nothing besides bandages will help her. And don't forget, Akane, that
you're
still tired from your workout with Ranma and Goku. I'll get there and back
a
lot faster than you can right now."
Akane was about to protest when she realized that her sister was right. She
had
trained to her limit, and probably past it, and so was in no condition get
to
Tofu's and back with any amount of speed. "Okay, Kasumi, but please hurry."
"I will, Akane. Bye." Kasumi said as she left.
Akane examined the cat's injuries and tried to do whatever she could to make
it
more comfortable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yamcha was still frozen in spot. The concept of one cute girl on each side
of
him was more than his fragile heart could take, and it overloaded, shutting
him
down. He lay in the middle of the road; his battle with Ranma and Ryouga
forgotten. Yamcha just decided to enjoy the feeling of sunshine against his
face and be glad that there wasn't any danger right now. Then, a shadow
obstructed his sunlight. The desert bandit looked up to see what was
blocking
it and was faced with the same girl as before.
"Shampoo want ask you question." The girl said with a thick Chinese accent.
"Not again." Yamcha moaned as his heart went into overdrive again.
"AAAAAHHHHHH! A GIRL!!!" He seemed to find more than enough energy to move
as
he leapt to his feet and took off. Shampoo, not understanding anything
except
that the person she wanted to talk to was getting away, broke into hot
pursuit.
Yamcha hadn't made it too far before Shampoo planted her feet firmly on the
top
of his head, sending him face first into the ground. The impact knocked him
out
like a light. Shampoo hopped off the desert bandit's head and picked him up
by
his collar.
"Now you tell Shampoo where..." She trailed off as she realized that he was
unconscious. The amazon sighed and dragged him to where she was staying.
She
could question him when he woke up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hi Penny!" Goku said as the young girl opened the door.
"Goku!" She exclaimed happily and threw herself into his arms. "You came
to
visit! "Oh, and your brother's here too. Hi Ranma!"
"Hi Penny." Ranma said with a smile plastered on her face.
"Uh, Penny?" Goku gasped.
"Yes, Goku?" Penny inquired.
"Y-you're choking me." The Saiyan muttered as his face turned blue.
"Oh! Sorry." Penny released her death grip on him. Goku collapsed to his
knees, gasping for breath.
'Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea.' Ranma thought. 'Goku still
hasn't
told Penny that he doesn't want to marry her.'
"Goku!" A booming voice exclaimed.
"Fred!" Ranma and Goku returned the greeting.
"Huh? Who's this girl? I don't remember meeting her before." Fred said
while
peering down at the female Ranma.
"Yes, you have, Fred. This is my brother Ranma." Goku supplied helpfully.
"Brother?" Question marks begin popping into existence above Fred's head.
"Goku, you idiot!" Ranma shouted. "He hasn't seen me in girl form before!"
Fred leaned down so his mouth was level with Goku's ear. "Is your brother a
crossdresser?" He whispered.
"Only some of the time." Goku whispered back.
"I heard that!" Ranma yelled, while twitching in a very unhealthy way.
Goku quickly clued in. "Actually it's a curse."
"A curse?" Fred asked. "I wasn't aware that Ranma was cursed."
"Yeah. Ranma changes into a girl whenever hit by cold water. I change into
a
Namek, and Pops changes into a panda. Hot water will change us back though.
It's not really that big of a deal."
"Speak for yourself." Ranma spat. Goku just couldn't understand why Ranma
hated his curse so much, especially when compared to himself and their
father.
"So...what brings you two here?" Fred asked.
"No reason." The Saotome brothers replied simultaneously.
"We just came to visit." Ranma continued. 'There's no way I'm telling him
that
there's a psychotic amazon out for my blood.'
"Oh, come to see your fiancee, eh boy?" Fred said while giving Goku a
friendly
elbow to the ribs. This was quite a feat considering the height difference
between the two.
Goku and Ranma began twitching. "Uh...you see." Goku began but was cut
when
Ranma smacked him on the back of the head.
"Don't say it, Goku." Ranma whispered.
"What? Why not?" Goku retorted while keeping his voice down.
"Do you like Penny?"
"Well, yeah. I guess, but..."
"But nothing! You saw what happened with me and Akane. We hated each other
because we didn't want to get engaged. Don't make the same mistake with
Penny
as I did with Akane."
"But..."
"Shut up! You're way too young to get married, so don't worry about it.
But if
you say you don't want to get married, Penny will hate you, so keep quiet
and go
along with it, okay?"
"Okay." Goku whispered. Then he raised his voice to its normal level and
spoke
to Fred. "Yep. That's right."
"Uh...can we go inside?" Ranma urged, remembering the reason why they were
here
in the first place. He was pretty sure that Shampoo couldn't have tracked
exactly where the Nimbus had gone, but she could easily see the direction
they
headed. Although she wouldn't be able to pinpoint their location, she could
search the area, which made staying outside dangerous.
"Of course. Of course." Fred said and ushered them inside.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Nihao!"
The door to Dr. Tofu's clinic was thrown open and Shampoo walked in, still
dragging the unconscious desert bandit behind her. Dr. Tofu looked up from
the
notes he was studying and greeted her.
"Hello, Shampoo. I see you've got a patient for me." He said warmly when
he
noticed Yamcha. "Bring him over here." He patted the examination table.
Shampoo stopped in her tracks. She hadn't intended for Tofu to get
involved.
"No doctor. Is not patient. Is...yes, is patient. Shampoo find on street.
Man hurt badly. Need doctor help." 'If doctor heal man, then man tell
Shampoo
where Ranma is. Then Shampoo kill Ranma.' The amazon lifted up Yamcha and
placed him on the table, and Dr. Tofu began his examination.
"Hmmm. Looks like this boy was in a pretty serious fight. He's got many
bruises and scrapes from blows. Cause of unconsciousness appears to be from
having his face slammed into the pavement. Do you know who he is?"
Shampoo shook her head.
"Oh well. Let's get to work then." Dr. Tofu began to work his wondrous
healing
abilities when someone else entered the room.
"Hello, Dr. Tofu."
"Kasumi?"
KRACK!
A sharp pain jolted Yamcha into consciousness. He looked at the source of
his
pain and saw a strange man holding his arm, which was twisted the wrong way.
He
screamed loudly.
"Aiyaaa. He awake." Shampoo grabbed a nearby metal tray and brought it
down
hard on Yamcha's head, knocking him out again. Then she stared at the
curious
display Dr. Tofu was putting on. He had pretty much frozen in place, and
his
glasses had fogged over. His lips seemed to move as if he was saying the
word
"Kasumi" over and over again. Shampoo turned to the girl who had walked
into
the room. There was nothing particularly special about her. All Shampoo
could
see was that she was a cute girl a few years older than she was and with
long
black hair.
"Doctor? What wrong?" Shampoo asked, curiously.
"W-what c-can I d-do for y-yo-you, K-Kasumi?" Dr. Tofu gibbered.
"I seem to have run out of bandages at home and came to get some from you.
There's a poor cat that got hurt in our yard. We think it's a stray as it's
such an odd colour that I'm sure we would remember one of our neighbours
owning
it. So could I please borrow some bandages?"
"N-no p-problem, K-Kasumi. Nurse Shampoo, will you please fetch some
bandages
for Kasumi?"
"Yes, doctor." Shampoo said and walked to the cupboard.
"Acthoo!" Kasumi sneezed. Her black hair shifted colour to blond and her
demeanour changed just as drastically. "Oh doctor..." She purred
seductively
and ran a finger along her front. "I think there might be something wrong
with
my body. Maybe you should examine it, just to be sure." Kasumi breathed
while
pushing Dr. Tofu against the table and drawing close to him.
Shampoo blinked. Quite loudly in fact. "Who new girl?"
"Ah..." Was all Tofu could say as his face turned bright red and a small
dribble of blood came out of his nose. As Kasumi drew even closer, the
small
dribble became a large flood, and he passed out.
Kasumi turned towards Shampoo sharply. Her expression had gone from one of
seduction to one of hatred. "Do you mind? Get out of here so we can be
alone!"
She snarled.
Shampoo got angry. She didn't take kindly to being ordered around by some
blond
bimbo. "You no tell Shampoo what to do. Shampoo have important thing to
find
from him." She growled and thrust a finger at Yamcha. "Need doctor to wake
him."
"Tell someone who cares. Now LEAVE!"
Shampoo leaned forward and grabbed Kasumi's chin. She twisted it sideways
and
kissed her on the cheek.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" Kasumi screamed.
"Shampoo challenge bimbo-girl. Bimbo-girl insult Shampoo so we fight, yes?"
Shampoo said while brandishing her bonbori.
Kasumi grinned evilly and adopted a battle stance. She still had her
martial
arts training from childhood, and she also kept in practice when she wasn't
busy
robbing banks. "Bring it on."
Shampoo charged and swung with her mace at Kasumi, who ducked underneath the
strike and planted her fist into Shampoo's stomach. The amazon gasped and
staggered backwards. She grew frustrated at being trapped in this small
room,
which was poorly suited to fighting. This made her unable to use any jump
attacks and limited the use of her speed and maneuverability. Deciding to
take
the battle elsewhere, Shampoo opened up the nonexistent door in the wall
behind
her.
"You follow. We fight outside, yes?"
"Doesn't matter to me."
Shampoo ran out into the street and faced her opponent. Seeing an
opportunity,
she attacked while Kasumi was still climbing through the hole in the wall.
The
unprepared Tendo sister was caught off guard, and the blow knocked her to
the
side sending her into a mailbox.
Kasumi got to her feet and shook her fist. "You'll pay for that."
Shampoo smiled. "I no think so. Hiyaa!" She dashed forward and renewed
her
assault. Kasumi was unable to match the skill, speed or power of the blows
and
was forced to jump away from the amazon.
"Take this!" She screamed while something out and tossing it at Shampoo.
The
amazon was surprised to see a projectile being used, but she wasn't caught
off
guard and swatted the item out of the air with ease.
Big mistake.
The grenade exploded as Shampoo's bonbori hit it, destroying the weapon.
The
blast flung Shampoo back and into a parked truck. Her hair and clothes were
singed, and the explosion and the impact had hurt her, but not seriously
enough
to keep her from continuing the fight.
Kasumi laughed. "Dumb Chinese bitch! Now you die!" She pulled out an Uzi
and
unloaded it at Shampoo. The amazon jumped away just in time, and the spray
of
bullets hit the truck. The gas tank was hit, and the resulting explosion
destroyed what was left of the truck and propelled Shampoo further into the
air.
The amazon came down on top of Kasumi and delivered a devastating blow with
her
remaining bonbori. The weapon slammed into her skull and put her out cold.
Shampoo stood over the Tendo girl's body and smiled triumphantly.
"Shampoo win. Bimbo-girl not good fighter. Use cheap attacks against
Shampoo,
but you can no beat Chinese Amazon like that." Shampoo said before turning
and
heading back to the clinic. There she found one very confused Dr. Tofu and
a
still unconscious Yamcha.
"Nurse Shampoo? What happened? I remember Kasumi..." Dr. Tofu trailed
off
and his glasses began to fog over. "What happened to her?" He said
nervously,
looking around the room frantically.
"She got bandages and left." Shampoo lied. She didn't what exactly
bimbo-girl
was to doctor, but she didn't want to risk making him upset. He still had
to
fix unconscious man so she could find and kill Ranma.
"Oh. That's good." Dr. tofu said, obviously relieved. "Uh. What happened
to
the wall?"
Shampoo sweatdropped. "Uh...she left through wall?" She suggested,
truthfully
this time.
"Oh. That's not like Kasumi. But then again, she was acting differently
this
time. Anyway, back to work. Now, where's this young man you brought in?"
"You sitting on him." Shampoo pointed out.
Dr. Tofu looked down and discovered that he was indeed sitting on the desert
bandit. "Oh. Where did this bump come from?" He said upon seeing the
large
lump on the back on Yamcha's head.
Shampoo simply shrugged her shoulders while innocently kicking the dented
metal
tray underneath the table.
"It doesn't really matter. Let's fix him up."
Dr. Tofu went to work on Yamcha, and not before long, he was good as new.
Which
included being conscious. Which included being conscious in the same room
as a
girl. Which included screaming like a lunatic. Which included trying to
run
like his life depended on it.
This time Shampoo was prepared. She didn't why this man was so emotional,
but
she had to find out how he related to Ranma. The amazon threw a rope around
him
as he tried to run, and before he could get himself oriented enough so he
could
decide which direction the door was in, she had him tied to a post.
Dr. Tofu adjusted his glasses. "What an odd man." Just then the door
chimed as
someone entered the clinic. "I'll be right back, Shampoo. See if you can
calm
him down."
"Yes, doctor." Shampoo nodded happily as he left the room. Then she turned
viscous, slapping Yamcha hard. "Quiet. Shampoo need know things from you."
The slap jarred Yamcha out of his girl panic, and he stopped screaming. He
found that he was trapped and couldn't break free of the ropes. There was
no
escape for him, and so he was forced to deal with being near a girl. Yamcha
tried to do anything to get away, but the ropes held. He tired to close his
eyes and avert his gaze, but Shampoo grabbed his head and forced him to look
at
her.
"Where Ranma?" She demanded.
"Ranma?" The name was enough to drive the remaining panic out of him as it
was
replaced with rage. "I don't know where Ranma is. He ran off and hide from
me,
but he can't run forever."
"Aiyaa! You fight Ranma too?"
"Hmmm? Yes, I fight Ranma. I want to kill him for what he did to me!"
Yamcha
shouted and struggled against the ropes. "Now let me go, so I can find him
and
kill him!"
"No. Shampoo must kill Ranma." Shampoo stated flatly.
"Whose shampoo?"
"I called Shampoo." The amazon declared proudly.
Yamcha paused for a second before he burst out laughing. "Yeah right, lady.
And who's your boyfriend? Mousse?"
"HE NO MY BOYFRIEND!" Shampoo screamed, using a megaphone for added
emphasis.
"Oww! Keep it down. You're going make me go deaf." Yamcha said while
trying
to cover his ears. Then he realized something when she was done her little
temper tantrum. "So you want to kill Ranma too?"
"Yes. Ranma tarnish Shampoo's honour. Shampoo must kill to avenge
herself."
Visions danced through Yamcha's head of how the Ranma must have tarnished
this
girl's honour. The visions were not pleasant, and they didn't raise
Yamcha's
opinion of Ranma any. In fact, they did just the opposite. "The BASTARD!"
Yamcha snarled. The ropes holding him snapped as his battle aura flared.
"How
dare he? How dare he? How dare he do something so foul when I can't even
ask a
girl out?! It's not fair. He'll pay for that too."
"You take Shampoo to Ranma, yes?" Shampoo asked, not sure of what the man
was
talking about. She could swear that he was saying that Ranma was a guy, not
a
girl, but she dismissed as either an insult or due to her unfamiliarity with
the
Japanese language.
Yamcha smiled. "Yes. Of course. I'll make him grovel at your feet before
I
finish him off."
"No! Shampoo must kill."
"Very well. I'll let you have that honour. Ranma Saotome shall fall!"
"We go now?"
"Yes." Yamcha and Shampoo left through the wall and started to walk down
the
street. "Uh. Where are we?"
"We at Dr. Tofu's clinic."
"Dr. Tofu's clinic, eh? Now let's see...that's...uh..AAHH!" Yamcha banged
his
head against a wall. "I don't know where we are!"
Shampoo sighed. 'This guy is idiot' She thought before remembering that
she
had left bimbo-girl lying on the street. 'Doctor seem to like bimbo-girl.
Best
not leave her here. Doctor find her, then Shampoo be in trouble.'
"Idiot-boy." She called to Yamcha and showed him Kasumi's unconscious body.
"Fetch bimbo-girl and we bring her to home."
"W-What?" Yamcha exclaimed, his face turning red again. "W-We c-can't!"
He
couldn't bear the thought of being near a girl, let alone touching one.
Being
forced to be near Shampoo had gotten rid of his fear of her specifically, as
he
had to learn to cope, but other girls still scared him to death.
"We can. If doctor find bimbo-girl here and he think that Shampoo beat
girl, he
be made at Shampoo. Shampoo no want doctor made at her, so we bring
bimbo-girl
home."
"Uh...okay, but you have to carry her."
"Is deal, idiot boy."
"What did you just call me?"
"Idiot-boy. You no know where you are in own city and act crazy around
Shampoo.
So you idiot."
"My name's Yamcha, the desert bandit."
"You still idiot."
"Why you..." Yamcha started to get angry, but then he realized it was
useless.
He was barely able to stand in front of Shampoo and talk with her. Getting
close enough to her to land an attack would be more than he could bear. He
also
didn't believe that men should strike women unless they were defending
themselves, and so wasn't going to start a fight just because some dumb
Chinese
girl who couldn't even speak Japanese properly insulted him. The desert
bandit
sighed and shook his head. "Fine. Call me whatever you like. We're only
working together until Ranma Saotome is dead anyway. Now, could you please
get
her purse so I can find out her address?"
Shampoo scooped up the desired object and threw it to Yamcha. She then
picked
up Kasumi and slung her over her shoulders. "We go now?"
"Just a second." Yamcha said as he rummaged through the purse. "Aha!
Here's
her address. Hmmm..."
"What wrong?"
"I could swear this is the same address as Ranma's. I found his through the
phonebook, although it was a pain to do. You see, his address in Nerima is
different from where he is staying. The Saotomes are listed at an address
where
only one women lives. When I went and asked if Ranma was there, she said
that
Ranma had gone off to China on a training trip. However, I had proof of his
return. I have a Nerimian newspaper that has a picture of him and a girl on
the
front cover. The girl's name is Akane Tendo, and I checked her address.
There,
I found Ranma and fought him, but he fled. This girl's name is Kasumi
Tendo,
and she lives at the same address as Ranma. How...interesting. We get to
kill
two birds with one stone."
"Aiyaa! Is great news. We return girl and kill Ranma at same time."
"Yeah, I just have to get my bearings and we'll get there in no time. We
shouldn't be too far away from the Tendo Dojo."
The amazon and the desert bandit set off down the street, trying to find a
familiar landmark or street. It wasn't too long after that before they were
heading straight for the Tendo's.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How long do you think we should stay here for?" Ranma, now in male form,
leaned forward and whispered in Goku's ear as Penny went to fetch some
snacks.
Fred was attending his garden, so the brothers were alone for the moment.
"How should I know?" Goku whispered back.
"Well, give me a guess."
"I'm not sure. Shampoo's been pretty persistent at tracking you down. She
even
followed us all the way to Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't
give up
until after dark."
Ranma sighed. "I don't have time for this. Hey! I just got a brainstorm.
Goku, take Penny for a ride on the Flying Nimbus. That way, Shampoo will
follow
you two, and I can get back to the dojo."
"Yeah, but what do you want me to do if she catches us. I don't want Penny
to
get hurt, but I also don't want to have Shampoo trying to kill me."
"Don't worry. Shampoo hasn't seen you or Penny before. If she catches you,
she
won't do anything because she doesn't have a reason to attack either of you.
And how do you think she'll be able to catch you? You'll be flying."
"Oh. Right." Goku said.
"Here she comes. Go and ask her."
"Uh...Penny?"
"Yes, Goku?" Penny asked happily.
"Uh...I was wondering if you wanted to go for a ride on the Flying Nimbus?"
Goku fumbled. He didn't know why he had trouble talking all of a sudden.
Penny just stood there with a blank expression on her face. "The Flying
what?"
"Oh." Goku said. "I thought you'd seen Nimbus before. Hold on." Goku
went to
the nearest window and opened it. "NIMBUS!"
Not before long, the yellow cloud shot out of the sky and screeched to a
halt in
front of the window.
"See?" Goku said. "This is Nimbus. It's a magic cloud that lets you ride
on
it if you have a pure heart."
"Oh! Cool!" Penny exclaimed. "Is it safe?"
"Yep." Goku said, and to prove his point, the Saiyan leapt onto the cloud.
"Go
ahead. Try it."
"Okay." She said, a bit of caution in her voice. The young girl climbed up
on
the windowsill, and then jumped onto Nimbus. "Wow! It works! And it's so
soft!"
"Have fun, you two!" Ranma called from the room. "Don't worry about me,
Penny.
I'll just let myself out. See ya later."
"Bye!" Penny and Goku both waved as the yellow cloud began to climb into
the
air. Then it speed up and flew off into the sky.
"Wow!" Penny exclaimed again. "This is so neat! Everything looks so tiny
from
up here."
"Yeah. It's great, isn't it?"
"Uh-huh."
The Nimbus sailed away seeking to distract Shampoo, who wasn't even paying
attention to the skies as she got closer to the dojo.
"Time to go." Ranma said to no one in particular. He burst out of the
house at
top speed and headed straight for the Tendo's. Jumping from rooftop to
rooftop,
he put all his energy into getting home before Shampoo could possibly spot
him,
or so he hoped.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Akane sat at home, cradling Puar in her arms. "What's taking so long?
Kasumi
should be back by now. I shouldn't have let her go." She said, slightly
angry.
Akane had been able to do very little for the cat, only inspect the large
lump
on the backs of its head and the nasty bruise on its stomach. She had made
it
more comfortable, but couldn't do anything else. "We probably should have
brought the cat to Dr. Tofu's. He'd have been able to heal it in no time."
The door to the house opened and slammed shut. The sound of someone
breathing
very heavily filled the house.
"Kasumi?" Akane called. "Is that you?"
"Huff...No...huff...it's...huff...huff...Ranma." A desperately out of
breath
Ranma replied.
"Oh." Akane said, deeply disappointed. "You haven't seen Kasumi have you?"
"Not...huff...since..huff...this...huff...morning...huff."
"Oh. By the way, what happened to you? Why are you so out of breath."
"It's a...huff...long story."
"I've got time. I especially what to hear what the hell happened in the
backyard. And where's Goku." Akane began to shout and anger crept into her
voice. "And what did you two do to C-chan?"
"C-chan?"
"Yes, C for cat and chan for little."
Ranma realized what she was saying just a little too late. He had already
rounded the corner in order to talk to Akane face to face when she said the
dreaded word, cat. Upon seeing the creature, Ranma's eyes bugged out and
his
mind drove into a panic. He leapt back from the animal, taking him straight
into a wall. That didn't stop him as the wall crumbled as he hit it, making
a
nice Ranma shaped hole. The pigtailed martial artist stopped running as
soon as
he got a good distance between the cat and himself.
"Kitty, go away!" He shouted at the cat, while whimpering. It was not one
of
Ranma Saotome's better moments.
Akane sweatdropped. "Ranma? Uh...what is your problem? It's only a cat."
"Only a cat? ONLY A CAT?" Ranma screamed back. "Don't you know how
viscous
those things are? Have you seen their claws? Or those fangs? They could
bite
you in half with one chomp. They're dangerous animals, Akane. So, please,
get
rid of it before it goes berserk and kills us all!"
"..." Akane didn't know what to say. She'd never seen Ranma act like this
before, and it didn't suit him at all. Nevertheless, she put the cat down
out
of Ranma's sight. "Alright Ranma, joke's over. Now quit fooling around
and go
find Kasumi. She went out to get bandages for the cat because we used up
all of
ours on you two days ago."
Ranma shuddered. "Don't remind me." 'What was I thinking when I did that?'
"Okay, I'll go find Kasumi. See ya later."
Ranma climbed through the hole he had made and walked to the door. He
pulled it
open and was about to go outside, but he was left facing two people carrying
a
third. He recognized all three immediately, even though he never expected
to
see them together.
"Ranma!" Yamcha snarled.
"Ranma?" Shampoo asked, slightly confused.
"..." Kasumi said, as she was still unconscious.
"S-Shampoo? Yamcha?" Ranma said.
"Now, fight me like a man, Ranma. No more running for you! I'm going to
make
you pay for what you did to me and Shampoo!" Yamcha said and charged
forward.
His attack was interrupted by Shampoo tripping him, sending him face first
into
the ground. "What was that for?" He shouted at his partner.
"What going on here? You call Ranma man." She peered closer at the
pigtailed
boy in front of her. She slowly reached forward and patted a very nervous
Ranma's chest. "Is man. Is no Ranma." She grew angry. "You say Ranma
live
here, but this no Ranma."
"It is!" Yamcha shouted as he got up. "He's a guy. What did you expect?"
"Ranma female." Shampoo stated.
"No, he's not." Yamcha countered. "If he was, then how could he have
violated
your honour in the horrible way you said."
"Ranma beat Shampoo in combat. That tarnish amazon honour. Must kill to
avenge
self."
"B-beat you in combat?" Yamcha stuttered, completely taken off guard.
"Then
what were you saying earlier?"
"Idiot-boy really idiot. I no say anything like what you say. Ranma I must
kill is female. Have red hair, not black like this one."
"Fine." Yamcha grumbled. "But this is the Ranma I want to kill, so we
finish
him first. Then I'll help you find and kill your Ranma. Okay?"
Shampoo considered that. "I no need your help in beating Ranma, but Ranma
is
difficult to find and you know city so okay." The amazon turned to Ranma.
"We
fight now."
Ranma didn't like the direction this conversation had headed. Yamcha and
Shampoo were both out to get him in his different forms on their own. Now,
they
had teamed up to kill him in either form. Things were not looking good.
This
should've made him more cautious and careful of what he said or did, but
this
was not the case. Ranma had his own reason to get upset. Very upset, in
fact.
"What did you do to Kasumi?" He stated flatly and without emotion.
"Who?" Yamcha and Shampoo chorused.
Ranma pointed his finger at the blonde haired women lying behind the two
warriors. "Her. What did you do to her?" His voice was straining to
control
his rage.
"Bimbo-girl lose. Not good fighter. She use very cheap fighting tricks.
We
bring her here."
"What did you call her?" Ranma snarled. A red aura formed around him as
his
anger built up.
"Bimbo-girl." Shampoo replied.
Ranma had had enough. Calling Kasumi a bimbo made him angry. Attacking
Kasumi
deserved a very severe beating if Ranma had any say in it. Seeing her
knocked
unconscious tipped his anger over the edge, and he lost control of himself.
"DIE!" He shouted and slammed his fist into Shampoo's stomach with all his
strength. The amazon's body shuddered with the force of the impact. She
doubled over and dropped to her knees. Gasping for breath and crying from
the
pain, she curled up into a ball.
Ranma wasn't through yet. His foot shot out and smashed into Yamcha's face,
sending the desert bandit flying backwards. Yamcha was dazed by the blow
and
didn't recover in time to land with any amount of grace. Instead, he
plunged
face first into the ground.
Him being out of commission for the moment, Ranma turned his attention
towards
Shampoo once more. Tears were rolling down the amazon's cheeks as she
clutched
her belly, trying in any way possible to make the hurting stop. The sight
of
her was so pitiful that Ranma's anger began to drain away. He forgot all
about
the fact that she was trying to kill his girl half and probably now his guy
half. Ranma knelt down in front of her and placed his hands on her
shoulders.
"I'm sorry, Shampoo." He said softly. "I didn't want to do that, but you
gave
me no choice. No one is allowed to hurt Kasumi. No one. Even though she's
tried to kill me in the past, she's still the sweetest girl I ever met. I
know
her blond form can be dangerous, but that doesn't mean you can hurt her! I
can't forgive you for what you did but...ah!" He was interrupted by
Shampoo's
sudden action.
"Wo ai ni." She exclaimed happily as she embraced him and kissed him full
on
the lips.
Akane couldn't have picked a worse time walk out the front door.
"RANMA!" She screamed while whipping out her mallet and cracking it over
his
skull. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
"Akane!" Ranma fumbled, searching desperately for an explanation. He was
caught off guard both by Shampoo actions and Akane's appearance. "It's not
how
you think. I wasn't doing anything, but Shampoo..."
"Shampoo? What kind of a dumb bimbo name is that? And she was doing what?
Doing everything? You're just blaming the whole thing on her. You men are
all
the same. You PIG!" She ran back into the house, slamming the door behind
her.
"Akane, wait!" Ranma yelled. He tried to go after her, but was anchored
down
by Shampoo once more. "Get offa me."
"Wo ai ni." Shampoo repeated and hugged a bewildered Ranma even tighter.
The
pigtailed martial artist had no idea what to do, so he just sat there
stunned.
While Ranma and Akane were arguing, Yamcha had pulled his head out of the
dirt,
and looked around. No one had ever hit him that hard before, and he still
hadn't recovered fully from the blow. He was also distracted by the
presence of
something loose in his mouth. Curious, he spat it out onto the ground. It
was
a tooth. Panicking slightly, Yamcha probed his mouth with his tongue and
found
a gap on the right side of his mouth, presumably where the tooth had come
from.
"AAAAHHHH! Now I'll never get a date!" He cried out in despair. "Ranma,
you'll pay for this!"
Yamcha turned to find his adversary, his anger flaring. He made out the two
forms of Ranma and Shampoo in front of the door to the Tendo's. Shampoo
appeared to have Ranma in some sort of a bear hug.
'Good.' Yamcha thought while grinning. 'She's pinning him down so I can
hit
him. Nice work, Shampoo.'
The desert bandit stood up and sprinted towards the two. He jumped into the
air
and prepared to delivered a flying kick to Ranma. However, his head still
rung
from the blow he received, making his aim less than perfect. Yamcha sailed
over
the heads of Ranma and Shampoo and crashed through the door and into the
house.
He landed sprawled on the ground with a chunk of door covering his face.
Akane stared at the strange figure lying at her feet. After slamming the
door
and storming off, she picked up C-chan and was going to go up to her room
and
cry. Just as she was passing by the door, Yamcha came smashing through it.
She
looked up to see Shampoo still hugging Ranma, and turned her head away
sharply.
Her gaze rested on the desert bandit. She knelt down and lifted the piece
of
door covering his face.
"Are you okay?" Akane asked.
Yamcha's world went from being dark to light as the object blocking light
from
reaching his face was removed. This resulted in him staring directly into
Akane's eyes as she was right in front of him. A combination of the blow to
his
head and the sudden flood of light made Akane seem like a vision of perfect
beauty.
"Am I dead?" He asked dreamily.
"I don't think so." Akane replied, unsure of who this man was or why he
just
came crashing through her door.
"Oh." Yamcha muttered, while still admiring the vision before him. Then
the
wheels in his mind began to turn. He realized that one if he wasn't dead,
then
this person was not an angel, despite how beautiful she may seem. Two, if
she
wasn't an angel, then she was a girl. Three, if she's a girl, then he was
two
feet away from a girl.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Yamcha screamed once more and scrambled away on his hands
and
feet from the youngest Tendo daughter. He backed up until he bumped against
the
wall. Then he just sat there staring. He recognized from the picture he
had
that led him to Nerima. Yamcha notice that she was pretty in the picture,
but
she was much more attractive in person than he could have possibly imagined.
Akane was also staring, but for a different reason. "I'm sorry if I scared
you." She said. "But what exactly are you doing in my house?" Ordinarily
Akane would be quite upset at this point, especially since she wasn't a very
happy person when Yamcha first came flying through the door, but there was
something about this guy's actions that made her wonder. Most guys always
tried
to attack and beat her so they could get a date. Others tried to get a date
by
non-physical confrontation. Then, there was the one who had been engaged to
her
through their parents meddling and who was now snuggling with some strange
purple haired girl in the front yard. No one had ever run screaming from
her
before, even when she was mighty angry and the person soon wished that they
had
turned tail and ran.
"I...uh...ah..." Yamcha fumbled for words. He searched wildly for an
explanation of why he had come sailing through the door other than he was
trying
to kill a guy who had ran out on a fight years ago and had caused his dad's
restaurant to go bankrupt. He quickly found words when he noticed what
Akane
was holding. "Puar!"
"Huh? What's a Puar? Some kinda fruit?"
Yamcha pointed to the cat Akane was cradling and repeated himself. "Puar!"
"Oh. Do you mean C-chan?" Akane said while holding up the cat. "Does Puar
mean cat? Do you speak a different language?"
Yamcha finally got over his shock at seeing his old friend again and at
being in
the presence of a woman. "No, Puar's her name. You found her. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you." Yamcha said graciously as he went to grab Puar from
Akane. However, the Tendo daughter kept the animal just out of reach. She
wanted to find out the whole story first.
"So, C-chan is your cat?" She asked cautiously, not wanting to lose her new
pet.
Yamcha nodded eagerly, then grew serious. "I got separated from Puar when I
was
fighting a man named Ranma Saotome earlier today. He hid from me for some
reason, and then had his younger brother attacked Puar. She was no match
for
him, and in the ensuing fight between myself and his brother, I lost track
of
her. Ranma has an ally, I think. A redheaded girl who chased me away. I
couldn't fight because I'm scared of g-girls." Yamcha realized as he
finished
his sentence just how close he had gotten to Akane when he was trying to
reclaim
Puar. He quickly jumped back against the wall.
"Scared of girls." Akane repeated. 'How weird. Then again, Ranma seemed
to be
deathly afraid of cats.' "So how did you end up back here?"
"That's a long story. I need to kill Ranma for what he's done to me and to
Puar."
"Kill him?" Akane asked, shocked. Yes there were times when Ranma made her
so
angry, like right now, but they got along really well most of the time. She
had
never even considered killing him when they first got to know each other,
even
though they had hated each other.
"Yes. He's done horrible things to me and...It's really not your concern.
Don't worry about my problems, but thank you for caring anyway."
Akane sweatdropped. "What?"
"I said thank you for caring. No one has ever cared for me before except
Puar
and my parents before Ranma got through with them."
Akane wasn't sure what to do. On the one hand, this guy was starting to
seem
more and more like the hordes of boys who were after her. On the other, she
really wanted to know what Ranma had done to his family to deserve all the
hatred this man seemed to show for him.
"Excuse me a second." She said after a moment. Akane walked up to where
Ranma
was still sitting and trying to figure out what to do and stepped down hard
on
his head, driving it into the ground. "Alright Ranma, playtime's over.
Just
what do you think you're doing with this girl and what exactly did you do to
that poor man to make him hate you so much?"
"Mmmph." Ranma said, as talking through dirt doesn't work very well.
"Who you and what you do with my airen?" Shampoo demanded. She wasn't too
happy about her groom to be being smashed into the ground, particularly if
she
had been holding him at the time.
Akane turned to face the amazon. "I'm Akane Tendo, and I'm beating the
stuffing
out of him until he tells me what I want to know. I'm also engaged to him,
but
I really don't think he care about that anymore given the way he was acting
with
you."
"Aiya. You engaged to another girl?" Shampoo asked Ranma, who was feeling
mighty uncomfortable at this point.
"What do you mean another girl? Ranma, you can't mean that..." Akane
trailed
off, not able to finish her sentence.
"Akane!" Ranma said as he tried to defend himself verbally. "I don't know
what
she's talking about. She's actually trying to kill me!"
"How? By suffocation?" Akane spat.
"Shampoo no kill Ranma. Shampoo marry him." She said as she glomped him.
"M-M-Marry?" Akane and Ranma said together.
"Yes. If male outsider beat amazon in fight, amazon must marry outsider.
If
female outsider beat amazon, then amazon must kill outsider. So Ranma marry
Shampoo, yes?"
"What?" Ranma said, still not having recovered from the shock of finding
out
that he was engaged to TWO girls.
"What kind of a stupid law is that?" Akane demanded.
"Is no stupid law. Is way of amazon to marry strong men into tribe."
"Really?" Akane said while twitching. Then she relaxed and grinned broadly.
"Then what, pray tell, are you going to do about this?"
As Akane finished her sentence, she brought a bucket of water from the
pocket
dimension and dumped it over Ranma's head. The transformation took place,
turning Ranma into his buxom, redhaired female form.
Shampoo's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as she saw what and, more
importantly, who she was now hugging. Yamcha's eyes also grew wide and he
backed up a couple steps but fought off the urge to turn and run.
'So Ranma was the girl from before.' He thought. 'But how can he change
without the explosion? Something to do with water?'
"RANMA!" Shampoo screamed. "You female?"
"I'M A GUY!" Ranma shouted.
"You should take a look in the mirror then." Akane said. "Shampoo, just
look
at him. He's a girl."
Shampoo nodded her head. "KILL!" She lashed out at him but stopped
centimetres
away from his face. She recalled a legend of the fabled springs of Jusenkyo
that her great-grandmother had told her about. One where things that fell
into
them turned into whatever had drowned there last and how water could affect
the
curse. She remembered the clump of black hair she had held which changed
into
red hair when a raindrop had hit it. Everything fell into place. "Ranma,
you
boy or girl?"
"He's a girl." Akane said.
"I'm a boy!" Ranma countered.
Shampoo stood there, her fist still right in front of Ranma's face. After a
good 10 seconds of complete silence, she lowered her arm. "Shampoo
confused.
Shampoo no know what to think. Shampoo not sure if Ranma boy or girl and
noone
give Shampoo straight answer. I go now." She turned around and ran off
down
the street.
Yamcha was the first of the remaining three to move. "Hey, wait! Shampoo!
We
had a deal!" He sprinted after her, but she didn't stop. Ranma and Akane
watched them disappear from sight before doing anything.
"Oh no!" Akane exclaimed.
"What? What's wrong?" Ranma asked worriedly.
"The guy forgot his cat." She said while holding up C-chan.
The hairs on the back of Ranma's neck stood straight up. He bolted directly
away from the cat, which took him right into a telephone pole. Like the one
before it, the pole cracked and fell over.
"Oh. That explains the telephone pole in the back. Serves you right, you
insensitive jerk." Ranma and Akane had been giving each other mock insults
when
their parents were within earshot for awhile now. This was the first time
since
the fight with Ryouga where Akane really meant it. Her anger was quickly
dissipated and replaced with worry and concern when she saw her sister lying
unconscious on the ground.
"Kasumi!" Akane cried. "What happened to you? If this is your fault
Ranma,
I'm gonna...I'm gonna...I'm gonna have to think very hard for your
punishment.
Or just ask Nabiki."
Ranma groaned from his position lying prone on the ground.
Akane picked up her sister and carried her inside. She laid her down on a
bed
and began examining her injuries. Akane was relieved to find that Kasumi
had
only suffered a minor blow to the head that knocked her unconscious. It
hadn't
been a hard enough hit to do any serious or permanent damage. All Kasumi
needed
was rest.
Which meant that Akane got to cook dinner.
End of Chapter
Notes: Well, this chapter got a bit out of hand. I didn't even plan half
the
stuff that did happen, but I think it turned out nicely.
This is anime, folks. Grenades and explosions don't have shrapnel, so
Shampoo
wouldn't have been shredded by Kasumi's grenade. (How many people thought
they'd never hear that sentence?)
Thanks goes to my proofreaders:
Farzad Mansouri: mansouri@wam.umd.edu
Francis: fxavier@arachinc.com
Kent_Hyam: rodney.hyam@sk.sympatico.ca
E-mail me at laguna_blade@hotmail.com for C&C. Previous chapters available
at
members.xoom.com/Battlekrome/