Akane and Ranma were interrupted in mid-argument by
a desperate looking Ukyou. The okonomiyaki chef was
panting heavily, her clothes were battered and torn.
All that remained of her mega-spatula was a splintered
handle that she gripped in her right hand. Her left
arm hung loose out of joint, and her right eye was
obviously starting to swell shut.
"Akane! Ranma!" she shouted. "You have to hide
me!!!"
"Ucchan?" Ranma asked in surprise.
"What happened to you!?" Akane added.
"Isn't it obvious?" Ukyou demanded. Suddenly the
door behind her opened up and a well-battered Kuno had
thrown a flurry of attacks at her before anybody could
react. "Hey!!" Akane shouted, about the same time
Ranma yelled "Ukyou!!" Ukyou finally was thrown back
from him into a wall where she slid to the floor.
"Ah ha, I see that the vile Hibiki has used the
Ukyou-copy to lure me into a trap. It is obvious that
he fears my blade and hopes that his master in the
black arts can dispose of me for him. Well! He should
know that I, Tatewaki Kuno, have had dealings with the
vile Saotome before, and he has yet to vanquish me.
Come warlock let us fight this battle for the souls of
all three my loves!"
They all started to move just as the ceiling
collapsed on top of the deluded samurai. Ranma and
Akane had heard the characteristic sound of
"Baksai-Tenketsu" and had taken cover. Fortunately the
samurai wannabe took the full force of both explosion
and Ryoga landing on top of him.
Ryouga shouted something in what they thought might
be Gaelic. It was apparent the he had not yet
recognized them. He scanned around and saw Ukyou lying
battered across the room. Instantly he rushed to her
side, cradling the exhausted and bruised chef in his
arms. "Ukyou!?! What are you doing in Ireland? And who
did this to you?"
Ukyou responded to the insistent but gentle
ministrations by waking up enough to hear most of the
questions.
"Baka....Not Ireland...." She said before falling
unconscious again.
"Ukyou!?!" he checked to make sure she was still
alive before setting her back down again gently.
"WherE IS THE BASTARD!!!!"
"Who dares topple the Great Tatewaki Kuno!?! The
varlet shall pay dearly for this undignified insult."
"Kuno...." Ryouga growled.
"Want help Ryouga?" Ranma asked, cracking his
knuckles.
"We're right behind you," Akane agreed readily.
"He's mine." Ryouga's voice was grim. "Get her to
Tofu's."
"So it is you, the vile sorcerer's apprentice,"
Kuno said in dismissive manner, then noted the
battered Ukyou. "I have defeated the foul creature
that you gave miss Kuonji's form. Now I, the Blue
Thunder of Furinkan High, shall smi-*" His spiel was
interrupted by a volley of fury driven fists and
kicks.
"You damn arrogant prick!" Ryouga shouted. "Think
you can go around beating on girls do you? I'll show
you!!" Kuno recovered himself quickly, of them all he
had always seemed to have the highest capability to
heal.
"Foolish worker of dark magics!" Kuno shouted as
her swung his bokken into Ryouga. The lost-boy winced
a little at the impact, but nothing more. Ranma was
concerned upon seeing that, he knew just how much
damage was needed to make Ryouga actually feel pain
while enraged.
The fight was quickly carried outside as Kuno
succeeded in ramming the lost boy through one of the
dojo walls. From there Ranma and Akane heard the sound
of a quick series of Baksai-Tenketsu blasts.
"Ryouga has Kuno under control I think," Ranma told
them. They could all hear the sound of
Baksai-Tenketsu's being performed in rapid succession.
"How's Ukyou?"
"Do you think we can get her to Dr. Tofu's?" Akane
asked Ranma, desparately.
"I think I have an idea," Ranma said before running
into the guest room.
"What's going on?" Nabiki asked curiously as Ranma
passed by.
"We have to get Ukyou to Dr. Tofu's," Ranma
informed her.
"What?!" Nabiki shouted after him. "Why?!?"
"Kuno beat her up! Ryouga's after him now, I need a
stretcher or something."
"He beat her up!" Nabiki repeated in disbelief.
"H-he's never done anything even remotely like this
before!!" She quickly rushed to where Ranma had come
from and quickly found Ukyou. Akane had called Kasumi
and their older sister had brought out an icepack and
small collection of bandages. Ranma reappeared soon
after Nabiki.
"I think we can use this to get her to the clinic,"
he suggested. He appeared to be carrying some form of
hammock or something similar.
"Why did he do this?" Nabiki demanded. "What
happened?"
"Not right now Nabiki," Akane commanded as Ranma
laid the make-shift stretcher on the floor. "Help us
move her."
Nabiki quickly moved to do so, and the four of them
easily moved Ukyou to the stretcher. If the
circumstances had been otherwise, Ranma and Akane
would have wondered why Nabiki was being so
enthusiastic about helping them. As it was they had
more important things to consider.
"Kasumi and Nabiki," Ranma said as he and Akane
hefted either side of the stretcher. "Stay here and
wait for Ryouga, in case he can find his way back."
"That's fine," Nabiki said angrily. "I have some
calls to make."
"Your vile sorcerer's tricks can't fool me Hibiki,"
Kuno declared. "And to think I once thought you a man
of honor!" Ryouga didn't say anything intelligible as
he tossed bandana after bandana at the samurai.
Ryouga could see how Kuno had beaten Ukyou so badly
now. It wasn't the man's skill that was the problem,
it was keeping him down once you beat him. He had
thought the samurai had been getting progressively
harder to defeat, but hadn't really paid attention to
it until now. There had to be a way to at least
semi-permanently keep the man down, but it was proving
difficult to find.
"I have beaten the vile succubus that you summoned
to fool me into believing that it was my fair Ukyou,"
the samurai declared. This angered Ryouga even
further. Unfortunately there was no self-pity involved
in this rage so he couldn't reach the depths of
depression needed for the Shi Shi Houkoudan.
Fortunately he also had an endurance level that fairly
equally compensated for Kuno's fast healing time.
Umbrella clashed against bokken as the pair
continued their battle, leaving a wake of explosions
behind them. The anger of both opponents flared
brightly as their auras lit the streets that should
have been growing darker.
It was quickly becoming apparent to Ryouga that the
fight would last until one of them dropped from
exhaustion. Neither Ranma and Akane had much trouble
keeping the samurai down, but then they both had the
tendency to orbit kick him away rather than allow him
to stand and fight.
It was too late in the fight for an orbit kick,
Kuno would be too on guard for it. On the other hand
there was another trick that he had been working on. A
variation of one of Ranma's actually.
"Come on, asshole," Ryouga growled. "Let's go." He
started driving forward viciously letting his umbrella
lead the way.
"You honorless dog!" Kuno shouted. "How dare you
push me back! I am the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High,
a warrior of unmatched might and fury."
"Shut and fight," Ryouga demanded. The battle
suddenly acquired two more spectators along with the
others who had gathered at the edge of destruction.
"That looks like a spiral pattern," Hiroshi noted.
"Can't be," Daisuke responded. "Ranma's not down
there."
The two flaming red battle auras met near the
center of a massive spiral as Ryouga shouted out.
"JIGOKU HI HONO'O!!!!" As the spectators watched it
seemed as if all Ryouga's angry chi was piled into
Kuno's. The abrupt doubling and redoubling of Kuno's
fury proved too much for the samurai too handle. The
heat reached out and suddenly the witnesses to fight
were treated to the site of a massive pillar of flame
engulfing the would-be samurai and most of the entire
spiral. The fire spun outward, blowing things away
rather than sucking them in like the Hiryu Shouten Ha.
Ryouga wasn't unscathed in this confrontation
either. He had managed to avoid the "Hell Fire Blaze"
mostly, but the blast had still thrown him into
backwards through a building. The difference was that
Ryouga could still stand afterwards, and Kuno was, at
the very least, not going to be moving for quite
awhile.
"Errr, think somebody should call an ambulance?"
"For a Kuno?" Hiroshi looked at his friend and
comrade in gambling. "Well maybe this once."
Ryouga stumbled to the center of the crater where a
charred Kuno lay in a twitching pile. He wouldn't be
getting up anytime soon from those injuries. A further
point of fact towards rendering him defenseless was
the fact that his bokken was no where to be seen.
Ryouga assumed that had been reduced to ashes and
carried away in blast.
"Gotcha, you bastard," he spat on the unconcscious
samurai and started walking back to the Tendo dojo,
falling the trail of destruction. He wanted to make
sure he didn't get lost, so he restrained himself from
running. At least the trail was somewhat easy to
follow. As he started to walk away a half burned
picture of Ukyou drifted down in front of him.
"Where'd this-?" he started to ask as he pocketed
it. Then he realized who it had to be. "Nabiki." Then
he looked back in the direction he was walking.
"Hey!" Ryouga said. "Where on Earth am I now!?!?"
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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