Permanent
Part 23
Potions and Devils.
Ranma Saotome walked calmly into the gates of Furinkan with Kuno
following closely behind him. The pair remained relatively silent after
leaving the Caf� and walking to the school Ranma had briefly considered
skipping for the day to continue her research, but quickly dismissed it.
She didn't want to worry Akane and Ryoga unnecessarily. She sighed as she
walked into the building, a few moments later she was standing out in the
hallway with a bucket in her arms. She could see Kuno lazily reading a
book while holding a pair of them in one arm down the hallway.
"Since when did he become such a book worm?" she wondered idly, she
really had no room to talk, when she wasn't with Ryoga or Akane she also
had a similar hobby, at least she had a real reason for it though.
Despite the distance between them she could still make out the title,
'Birds of Japan.' She snorted in mild amusement and looked out the window
across from her. "It figures."
Class was relatively silent for the rest of the day and lunch came
quickly. Ranma found herself standing next to Ryoga again. "Go eat with
your fianc�e."
The boy merely looked at her and frowned. "No."
"You can't ignore this forever, I know you've been avoiding her. It
won't last long, just accept it," said the girl with an evil, yet amused
smirk appearing on her face for a moment.
"Watch me," replied the boy stubbornly as he sat down next to her. "I've
got other business Ranma. We need to talk about Akane."
"I'm not breaking the engagement," replied the red head lazily.
"I don't care, something's up with her, she's a lot stronger than she
should be," replied the boy with a shrug. It was easy to hear the slight
anger in his voice.
"So? She's been busy since I arrived in Nerima," replied the girl with a
shrug.
"I don't think so, she's improved too much," Ryoga dropped off the
conversation as Akane approached them cheerfully.
"Hi guys!" Ranma frowned when she noticed Akane wasn't looking at Ryoga
at all.
"So, that's how it is eh? Oh well, it's not my problem, let Tendo deal
with them," she returned to eating once again and peacefully exchanged
pleasantries with both of her friends.
That evening Ranma sat in her room with a small pouch with Chinese
writing on it. She smiled and poured the concoction onto a small piece of
cloth and rubbed it in while wearing a thick pair of rubber gloves.
"Ranma, how are you doing? Will you be working tonight?" asked Cologne
as she poked her head through the door.
"Sorry, not tonight, I've got other work to do," replied the girl simply
as she focused on the task she was performing.
"What are you doing?" said the old woman as she hobbled into the room
and looked down over Ranma's shoulder.
"It's something I picked up in China, the old man has a serious
weakness. He's extremely perverted, and he gets most of his power from
that," replied Ranma with a shrug.
"Did those spirit's tell you that last night?" asked Cologne.
"Most of them weren't very helpful, they thought he was a good student.
I had to deal with a few guardian demons too. A few of them were pretty
miffed and a little vengeful," said the girl without paying much
attention.
"Guardian Demon?" the term seemed contradictory to her.
Ranma smiled. "Special demons, they keep tortured souls from escaping
hell. Not really all that evil actually. They are a bit imposing though,
and if you summon a spirit up from hell one of them comes with it, to
make sure it doesn't get away," explained Ranma. "Most of your crack pot
sorceresses and mediums either don't see them or ignore them. That's
where I found most of the people I talked with last night."
"I see, tell me what are your plans for this evil pervert?" asked
Cologne warily.
Ranma handed her the packet and smirked. Cologne couldn't help herself
as she snickered and gave it back. "I like the way you think child."
"Yea, well I think I can whip up something to make sure it doesn't just
wash off of him or wear off too."
"Are you certain you can't kill him?" asked the elder hopefully.
"Pretty sure, he isn't a demon, and he isn't a threat to humanity, or
anyone else for that matter, he's just annoying. With a record like his I
don't think anyone will mind if I torment him to death though," replied
Ranma with a shrug.
Happosai jumped from the rooftops of Nerima and glanced around in search
of more of his ill-gotten prizes. A large sack of panties and bras was
thrown over his shoulder and he cackled to himself as he spotted another
clothes line nearby.
He easily hopped along the tops of cars and signs to reach the line and
hummed merrily to himself as he plucked the undergarments off of the
rack. He stopped cold and looked at one of the pieces in his hand. Caught
between two bras was a pair of silk boxers. "Gah!" he tossed it do the
ground in revulsion. "How dare someone make a pair of those out of silk!
A waste of good material!"
He froze in place while balancing on the line as he felt a presence
behind him. He slowly turned around to see a cloaked figure with glowing
yellow eyes standing on the line behind him.
"Happosai," said a warped and inhuman voice as the creature stared him
down. The old man wasn't sure what it was exactly, but he didn't really
want to find out.
"Bye now," chimed the pervert as he jumped from the line and landed
neatly on the street. He looked up only to find the mysterious figure was
gone. He spun around, quickly jumping away barely in time to avoid a well
placed punch that shattered the pavement.
"Who the heck are you?" snapped the old man angrily.
The thing merely laughed and stalked forward. Happosai saw the cloak
flutter in a slight breeze for a moment and gasped as the gentle peek of
cleavage was visible for a moment.
"Sweeto!" Happy found himself sailing away as soon a he jumped towards
the prize, easily swatted away by the creature.
"Hey!" A new voice entered the fight and the cloaked woman stopped for a
moment turning slowly around.
"You leave that sweet little old man alone!" cried a young blonde as she
stepped forward pulling what looked like a broad sword from her side. The
creature's eyes dimmed for a moment as she glared at the newcomer.
The girl was dressed in a green Chinese style dress and had her hair put
up in a ponytail. She also had a strange design on the chest of the
dress, a circle with a twin dragon embroidered into it. The girl took up
a fencing stance and smirked at her. "Youma Slayer Keiko is here to be
your opponent now!"
The girl looked down suddenly as Happosai rested between her breasts.
"Thank you for saving this defenseless old man from this evil monster!"
She planted her elbow in his head and he fell away for a moment. "Hands
off pervert!"
The creature wasted no time, it quickly charged forward slamming it's
fists into her face before jumping up over her head and onto the top of a
neon sign waiting to see what she would do.
Keiko reeled from the blow momentarily and staggered back, she turned
and looked at it for a moment growling under her breath as she jumped
upwards after it swinging her sword with amazing skill and slicing the
sign into small sparkling pieces.
The thing reached around her strikes and twisted both of them into the
air using her body to cushion the landing. Keiko seemed out for the count
and it turned towards Happosai again. Happy jumped away and onto a
rooftop laughing madly as he vanished into Nerima. A low curse was
muttered under the thing's breath as she walked towards a patch of
shadows leaving Keiko alone on the ground.
The girl woke up slowly and stood just as she vanished into the shadows.
"No you don't! I'm gonna kick your ass for that!" she screamed as she
reached into the front part of her dress and tossed several throwing
stars into the shadow where it had vanished. Jumping to her feet she
raised a spell ward over her head and gasped as the light from the paper
revealed nothing.
A crackling sound erupted in her ear and she winced. "Keiko, did you get
it? Are you all right?" called a high pitched voice from the small
earpiece that rested in her ear canal.
"No, sorry Auska-chan, the Youma got away. I met this really weird old
guy, I think he's the one that's been in the papers lately," said the
blonde with a heavy sigh.
"Did you get him?" said the voice with a small hint of hope in her
voice.
"No, he got away, besides it's not my job to catch him," retorted the
girl lazily as she replaced her sword and turned away.
"If you see him again, cream him! My favorite pair got stolen last
night!" retorted the angry girl on the other end.
"I'll remember that Auska," said the girl with a sigh.
Happosai sat on a rooftop looking thoughtful. "Hmm, why would I have a
monster after me? I haven't done anything to them in a long time." He
tried his best to think, after a moment he slapped his palm. "Maybe it's
that power orb I stole...nah...could be that time I got my hands on the
queen of hell?...nope, she's the only one who actually enjoyed it. Hmm,"
Happosai would have sat longer trying to remember, but the call of the
lingerie was too much for him to resist. "Oh well, maybe I'll remember
later!" He forgot about it completely within five minutes.
Ranma stood in the Tendo home and handed the patch to Akane. "Why me?"
said the girl with a heavy sigh.
"Because he won't trust me enough to do it, he knows what I am," replied
the red head angrily.
Ryoga sat nearby at the Shogi table ignoring the events around him. Soun
looked up from the game they had going and frowned. "It isn't wise to
anger the master Ranma."
"What's he gonna do to me? I'm a sorceress," replied the girl with a
shrug.
"Remember Akane, put it on him real good, once it takes hold there isn't
anything he can do to get rid of it so get clear." The Tendo girl nodded
reluctantly and looked at the patch. "Don't hold it too long either, I
don't want any of this stuff to get on you."
Meanwhile, Hikaru Gosunkugi stared at a book in frustration. "Damn it!"
He fumbled through the pages, he had found a spell that boasted it grew
arms. His shoulders where killing him and he felt like his back was about
to break. The seven arms, and one stub flailed about wildly. He cold only
control two of them at a time and the others grabbed, smacked, and
basically destroyed anything they touched. Including him. "Ow! Quit it!"
he snapped as one of the hands repeatedly slapped him in the face. It
stopped and went off looking for more interesting things to do as he
desperately searched for the counter spell. The arms did everything they
could to stop him, flipping pages randomly and basically making a pain of
themselves.
Tatewaki Kuno stood admiring the fine morning, it was a weekend and
school was out for the day. He sighed contentedly and looked out over the
porch of his newly constructed home. It was a small house for the
grounds, only slightly larger than the Tendo home, he didn't need such a
grand home as he once had any longer; he lived alone now. The thought was
very unpleasant, but much more bearable than it had been before. At one
time he had actually been afraid to think about his tragic family,
especially on the grounds. Now he was strangely contemplative.
After a few moments he had a whim, he opened his wings and jumped
upwards catching an air current and sailing out over the rooftops of
Nerima. He dove and rose flying where the winds took him and not really
caring. After about an hour he slowly descended and landed quietly on the
opposite side of Nerima ward.
"Hello," said an aged voice.
Kuno turned slowly and saw the creature staring him down with a smirk on
his face. "You were late for your training today."
"Pardon?" asked the boy in confusion.
Happosai merely smiled at him and sat down smoking his pipe. "Oh well,
it can't be helped, we'll start now."
Ranma stared down at the broken and beaten form on the ground and
sighed. She lifted him off the ground and frowned as his wings hung
limply behind him as she dragged Tatewaki Kuno away from the mob of angry
women. "What the hell is wrong with you Kuno?"
"It isn't my fault!" snapped the boy in anger as he struggled to sit
down on the bench she had led him too.
"What the hell were you thinking running around with that old fool?"
snapped the girl as she sat with him and looked towards a fountain in the
center of the park they had stopped in.
"That thing had apparently decided that I am to be his heir," snorted
the boy in disgust. "Whether I want to be or not."
"I see, hopefully that will be taken care of tonight. I don't know if it
will help you or not, but if we're lucky he'll leave Nerima altogether."
Akane smiled at her work and looked on nervously. Somehow she had
managed to screw up the beautiful patch Ranma had made for her to put on
his back.
"Oh, Akane! Thank you! I'll never take it off!" cried the old man with
tears of joy on his face as he planted himself firmly between her
breasts.
Moments later he was sailing into the air above Nerima. Akane huffed for
a moment and turned away. "I hope she knows what she's doing."
A few minutes later Happosai looked on in confusion as he struggled to
walk. Everywhere he went women ran screaming away. That in itself was not
unusual, what was unusual was the fact that he hadn't done anything to
them yet. " The aged pervert turned slowly around when he heard an
unfamiliar laughter.
Ranma stood over the scene laughing hysterically as she watched the
pervert dance around in confusion. Happy turned slowly towards her and
simply stared. "How do you like my woman repellant old man? It's a very
special mixture I put into that patch," she smiled even wider as a slow
dawning crossed his face.
Happosai snorted, "I'll just take it off then!" he took off his shirt
and pulled at the patch ripping it off easily.
"You old fool, you don't really think I'd let you off that easily do
you?" called Ranma playfully. "There is a spell around you that will hold
that sent for years."
Happosai froze and stared at her in disbelief. He shook with rage and
anger, there was nothing more horrible that she could have done. He
burned angrily letting his aura show before resorting to his final
attack. He sat down on the ground and cried.
"Boo hoo! How could you do such a thing to a poor little old man!? What
have I ever done to you?"
Ranma turned away from him never once losing the smile on her face.
"Your perverted and pathetic existence is enough Happosai, you can thank
Kojiro Hadoshi for that patch by the way. He asked that I use the symbol
of the school you abandoned." With that said Ranma jumped away vanishing
into the streets of Nerima.
Happosai's eyes went wide with shock. "Kojiro? He's been dead for
years!" The old man slowly began to realize that this young sorceress
might be a bit more trouble than he had originally planned. He had to do
something fast, but there wasn't much he could do without a recharge.
Weakly he staggered off in search of a young girl, even an old one would
do. "Damn you Ranma."
Inside the Cat Caf�, Cologne sat in front of the crystal howling with
laughter as she watched the events play out in front of her. Ko li
watched the scene uncomfortably nearby and turned away.
"She always act that way when borrow Ranma's ball?" asked Talcum.
"You would know as well as I do," replied the other girl with a shrug.
Talcum blinked and continued her work.
Soun Tendo walked along the street with his arms full or groceries. He
stopped cold when he saw a strange sight, in front of him was Happosai.
The old man looked almost dead, he was crawling on his hands and knees
reaching towards a young girl who staggered back as if she had been hit
with tear gas.
"Master, are you all right?" he said as he dropped the bag and rushed to
the man's side.
"P-p-pretty g-g-girly!" managed the old man.
Soun looked around and saw a box nearby, thinking quickly he rushed over
and grabbed it. When he returned Mr. Panda was standing with Happosai in
his claws. He blinked and stopped for a moment as the panda made an
attempt to smile at him. "T-thank you," he said dumbly as the animal put
the old man in the box and produced a book of stamps, a marker, and some
tape.
"What are you doing?" said a weak voice from inside the box.
"Why, we're express mailing you to the North Pole Master!" replied Soun
cheerfully.
Ranma stood on a rooftop and frowned as she watched the scene play out
below her. She felt a twinge of anger as she watched Genma and Soun
package the old man away and attempt to stuff him into a mailbox.
"You stupid old man! Stop acting like that, he might figure it out
dope," she snorted and mentally noted that she'd have to have a talk with
him later about this. Fortunately Soun didn't seem to notice.
Ryoga sat at the table and sighed as Ranma, sat with Soun toasting the
end of the evil master together. He glanced at Akane and sighed,
something wasn't right with her and he couldn't figure out what it was.
After a moment he tore his gaze away from her as she passed him a warning
glare and said nothing.
"Man she can be frigid when she want's to be," he thought privately as
he went back to watching Ranma celebrate her victory. She wasn't drunk,
but Soun insisted that she have a glass with him after what she did for
him. She had been very polite and accepted, the glass still sat half full
in front of her as Soun steadily became more and more loose.
Ryoga seemed to notice that she seemed more reserved than usual tonight.
A thoughtful look stayed on her face as she sat with the older man. She
turned to gaze at him for a moment and he turned away in disgust shutting
off his mind to her. He didn't particularly want to hear what she had to
say right now.
Something did slip through though and he froze. "It's not over yet," he
whispered quietly repeating what the girl had told him.
For the first time that night Akane looked at him without trying to hide
it. She remained silent and sipped at the cup of tea in front of her. Her
thoughts that evening had been preoccupied with trying to get out of this
mess Ranma had seen fit to place her into. The evil was gone for now and
she had other concerns to deal with. She liked Ryoga well enough, and he
was a good friend, distancing herself from him had been difficult.
Fortunately he seemed to have the same plan. She wanted to spend more
time with Ranma and try to talk her way out of it; unfortunately, the
girl wasn't very receptive and seemed to be hard to get a hold of. Akane
suspected she knew what was going on between her and Ryoga and was trying
to keep to herself more. She had a lot of feelings to sort out and all
this excitement wasn't helping that process any at all.
Ranma looked back at her as she watched her and her father. She could
see a small amount of pain in the girl's eyes, but something else was
there too. It almost looked like hope, and desire. She shook
uncomfortably at that, but the feeling quickly faded and she realized
that it was never there to begin with.
"What the hell am I thinking?" she thought as she shook her head and
turned away from the girl once again.
TBC...
Next time: Wheee! I get to play with some new characters! You may be
wondering what the hell is going on right now, but don't worry it will
get cleared up soon. Ranma has a new problem to deal with and Happosai is
nowhere near dead. You'll just have to read and find out for yourself!
Ja ne!
URL: Http://geocities.com/tokyo/fountain/3203
C&C to: Carrotglace@juno.com