The Amazon and the Moneylender: Episode 1, Part 2:
Hell-Fire Blast, Ryouga and Ukyou
-----------------------------------------------------
"KUNO! What are you doing to Ukyou?!?" Ryouga
demanded, trying to pull the newspaper out of his
face.
"Qu'est que vous avez besoin?" the person in front
of him asked nervously, with a forced nasal sound due
to the umbrella under his nose.
"Oh, Vous n'etes pas Kuno," Ryouga noted before
pulling back his umbrella and scratching his head in
embarrassment. "Er....Ou est Japon?" Ryouga made a
mental note not to comment on Mousse's vision next
time he saw the Chinese martial artist.
"C'est japon," the man said.
"Pourquoi est-ce que vous parlez en francais?"
Ryouga asked.
"Je suis une tourist," the man insisted. "Je ne
parle pas en japonais."
"Oh, je regrette," Ryouga said. "Au revoir." Ryouga
went back to running and looking for Ucchan's. "Damn
it, I know it's around here somewhere."
"You..."
"WHY...."
*CLANG*
"...must..."
"....DON'T....."
*CLANG*
"...not..."
"....YOU...."
"...be..."
*CLANG*
"...my fair..."
".....STAY...."
*CLANG*
"...Ukyou..."
"....DOWN?!?!?!?"
*CLANG*
"Merely...." *CLANG* "...a false demon..." *CLANG*
"...sent to torment me." *CLANG* "Very well...."
*CLANG* "Then I shall fight as well!"
"AAAAGH!!! STAY DOWN!"
"Well?" Nabiki asked as she answered the phone.
"Spatula-girl walked out on pig-boy," Shampoo said
on the other end.
"Good," Nabiki laughed. "That's what I was planning
on happening."
"Strange way to make match," Shampoo commented.
"You?"
"Ryouga is off chasing Kuno who is off chasing
Ukyou."
"Me no pay you rest until spatula-girl give up on
Airen."
"Don't worry, Kitty" Nabiki assured her. "I have
everything under control."
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!?!?"
"You heard me," Nabiki said, voice filled with ice.
"Tatewaki Kuno, call in all his debts.""
"B-b-but Miss Tendo," the man on the other end of
phone started. "You said it yourself, he's worth more
as a source of income than merely taking in all his
property."
"This isn't business," Nabiki informed him. "This
is personal."
"Personal?" suddenly the man was terrified. It was
best not to get in Nabiki's way on anything even
remotely resembling a personal vendetta. "I'm right on
it Miss Tendo."
"Good," she answered. Outside the blast of Ryouga's
Jigoku Hi Hono'o flared against the night sky before
fading away to nothing. "Excuse me I have to go now."
"H-Hai," her minion on the other end hung up
nervously.
"Oh my," Kasumi said quietly. Soun and Genma chose
this moment to return home from another "training
session" at the local sushi bar's all you can eat
special lunch.
"What was that?" Genma shouted.
"It appears to be have been a spiral of flame,"
Soun noted technically. "It bares a remarkable
similarity to Ranma's Hiryu Shouten Ha."
"You're right Tendo," Genma agreed. "It's
spiralling outward, and the fire bares a marked
resemblance to battle aura."
"I guess that means Ryouga finished Kuno," Nabiki
said. "Good."
"Nabiki, Kasumi, what is going on here?" Soun
asked.
"Well we don't have all the details," Kasumi said.
"But it seems that Kuno attacked Ukyou and chased her
here. Ryouga then chased him out the dojo while Ranma
and Akane took Ukyou to Dr. Tofu's clinic."
"I see," Genma said. "The samurai finally snapped
then?"
"Excuse me." Nabiki was shaken, this was directly
her fault. Unfortunately for her she couldn't tell
anybody, or else it might do more damage. Also, there
was the possibility of a threat to her own health as
well. She'd tell them about the picture later, but
play it up as a mistake, an accident.
Then she realized, there was one person that she
could talk to about this. Not that Shampoo would be
any help, but at least she already knew the truth of
the situation. She also wasn't likely to turn around
and spread the story all over town. She picked up the
phone and dialed the Shampoo's number.
"Xie Xie," she heard Shampoo's voice on the other
end.
"Shampoo could I...talk to you?"
"Money-girl?" Shampoo asked. "Talk fine, what
about?"
"Not over the phone," Nabiki said. She thought for
a moment. "How about that vacant lot, it always seems
to work for Ranma and Akane."
"Okay, see you there, bye." Nabiki hung up the
phone and started walking for the door.
"I'm going somewhere for a little while," Nabiki
told her family and Ranma's dad. "Be back soon."
"What happened to this girl," Dr. Tofu asked as he
applied bandages and medicines.
"Kuno," Ranma told him, saying the name with a
great deal of venom and anger.
"I was afraid something like this might happen
someday," Dr. Tofu nodded grimly.
"Is she going to be okay?" Akane asked nervously.
"The injuries are extensive," Dr. Tofu admitted.
"But she should effect a complete recovery."
"Oh good," Akane breathed a sigh of relief. Then
Ukyou snapped awake, she tried to sit up, but found
that excessively uncomfortable and let herself lay
back against the bed.
"Where is he?" Ukyou asked, a little nervously.
"Kuno's gone," Akane assured her.
"No, not Kuno," Ukyou corrected them. "Where's
Ryouga."
At that point the night sky outside the clinic was
lit by a huge pillar of flame that must have been
about three miles away.
"He went after Kuno," Ranma answered unnecessarily
as the light through the windows faded. "Why'd Kuno
attack you? He usually just bugs girls."
"It was the next logical step in his delusions,"
Dr. Tofu said. "Considering his belief that Ranma is a
black sorcerer it was only a matter of time before he
came up with the idea of dopplegangers copying his
'loves'. There are also other...events...in his
history that I've been unable to do anything legal
about." He turned to Ukyou and admonished her. "Don't
try to sit up again."
"Don't worry, I won't," Ukyou answered dryly. She
relaxed against the clinic bed, trying to ignore the
mine of breathing past a pair of broken ribs. Ukyou
noticed Ranma and Akane watching her very cautiously.
Ukyou hoped she didn't sound as shaken and terrified
as she felt. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep
for a little while."
"Perhaps you should let her sleep," Dr. Tofu
suggested.
"What money-girl want to talk about?" Shampoo
asked, curiously. The amazon was somewhat worried
about Nabiki, she wasn't acting normal at all. The
usually arrogant and cynical girl seemed almost
contrite even.
"You were right about Kuno," Nabiki said, sitting
on an old lawn chair someone had thrown out.
"What that mean?" Shampoo asked. "What Shampoo say
about sword boy?"
"He..." Nabiki faltered as she considered repeating
the events of the day. Shampoo leaped from her tree
perch and performed a cursory examination of Nabiki.
"What are you doing?"
"You okay?" Shampoo asked as she ascertained that
there were no visible bruises or marks. "He not do
anything to you?"
"No, not me," Nabiki said indignantly. "Ukyou! He
hit Ukyou!"
"Oh," Shampoo said, neutrally. "What your problem?"
Nabiki half growled, she should have known that
Shampoo wouldn't understand things.
"It's my fault!" Nabiki shouted. "I set him up to
'fall in love' with Ukyou."
"So spatula-girl in fight with sword-boy," Shampoo
shrugged. "She martial artist, she handle bruise or
two. Not like he fight you or nice-girl."
"How about a broken leg?" Nabiki asked. "Or a
dislocated shoulder? Or broken ribs?"
"What?!?!!!?" Shampoo responded in disbelief, then
she started walking away. "Excuse me, must go kill
sword-boy now."
"Don't bother," Nabiki said. "Ryouga already got
him."
"Oh, problem solved." Nabiki blinked as the amazon
returned suddenly to her normal cheerful demeanor.
"I wish I could do that," Nabiki said, smirking a
little.
"What you mean?" Shampoo asked, confused. Nabiki
laughed, an actual full laugh, not her usual snide
giggle. "What so funny?"
"Never mind," Nabiki said. "Thanks Shampoo, I
needed to talk to some one."
"No problem, but go back to work now. Bye bye!"
Shampoo leaped away in standard martial artist
fashion.
It was three days later when Ryouga finally reached
the Tendo dojo. By this time Kuno had been
hospitalized, bankrupt and under police guard. He
looked like he normally did after returning from being
lost. That meant that he was tired, bruised, covered
in a variety of twigs and leaves, and leaning heavily
on his umbrella.
"Oh, Ryouga," Kasumi said as she answered the door.
"We were wondering what happened to you."
"Kasumi?" he asked nervously. "I'm there?..er...I
mean, I'm here? Where's Ukyou? Is she all right?"
"Ukyou? I believe that she is still at Dr. Tofu's
clinic," Kasumi answered him.
"Right!" Ryouga started to turn around and leave,
but then thought better of it. He turned back around.
"Are Ranma or Akane around?"
"Don't worry, lost-boy," someone said from inside
the dojo. "I can take you there." Ryouga narrowed his
eyes as Nabiki appeared.
"I want to talk to you anyway," he noted darkly.
Nabiki paused in her stride and looked at him
curiously. Ryouga thought he noted a crack in the
girl's normally glass smooth demeanor.
"Really?" she asked dryly. "What about?"
"A photograph."
"I see, let's walk and talk," Nabiki said as she
passed the obviously angry martial artist. Ryouga
followed behind.
"Have a good walk you two!" Kasumi called out to
them before returning to the chores that seemed to
fill her life.
"Kuno had a picture of Ukyou," Ryouga told her a
little bit later after they were. "How did he get it?"
Nabiki stopped and sighed.
"From me, of course," Nabiki answered. "Something
Tsubasa wanted, Kuno saw it by accident and went nuts
over it." She started walking again.
"So all this is your fault!" Nabiki winced at the
accusation.
"I know my responsibility," she assured him. "Kuno
is quite finished here." Ryouga glared at her, but the
tone of Nabiki's speech made him cautious about
further insulting her.
"I'm keeping an eye on you," he told her.
"I would be insulted if you didn't," Nabiki said.
"Here we are." Ryouga turned to look at Dr. Tofu's
clinic.
"Thank you, Nabiki," he said, grudgingly. They
walked into the small building, watching each other
cautiously. It didn't take them long, with Nabiki
navigating, to find the single patient room that the
small clinic possessed. Ryouga peaked into the room
nervously and saw a bandaged Ukyou chatting with
Akane, who was sitting in a chair to the side of the
bed. Oddly enough he didn't even notice Akane at
first.
"Ukyou?" he asked as he stepped into the room. The
okonomiyaki chef turned to face him. Her eye was still
bandaged, her left arm was in a sling, and she had a
cast on her left leg as well. Most of the bruises had
visibly improved, however, and she certainly seemed to
be her normal self when she was talking with Akane a
moment ago.
"Ryouga?" she responded back. He walked forward to
within a couple feet of Ukyou and bowed low in
apparent shame. "What is it?"
"Gomen nasai," he said. "I was...too slow."
"Ryouga, please," Ukyou said frantically. "It
wasn't your fault. How could any one know what he was
going to do." Nobody, not even Ryouga, noticed Nabiki
flinch. Ukyou reached out with her good arm and forced
him to look into her face. "This all Kuno's fault,
nobody else's." She hugged him with her one good arm,
and he gingerly returned the embrace, fearful of
hurting her.
"I'm sorry about yelling at you," Ukyou suddenly
admitted, tears rolling down onto Ryouga's shoulders.
"I know you weren't after Shampoo."
"Who cares about Shampoo?" Nabiki's eyes narrowed
at that.
"Umm do you guys want to be alone?" Akane asked.
"Huh?" Ryouga blinked. "Akane?"
"Did you say something?" Ukyou asked.
"I'll take that as a yes," Akane said, quietly
leaving the room and dragging Nabiki with her.
"How dare he dismiss Shampoo like that!" Nabiki
grumbled as soon as they reached the lobby. "She's
twice the martial artist Ukyou is, and much more
honest at that!"
"Uh, Nabiki."
"What is it Akane?" she demanded irately.
"Why are you defending Shampoo?"
"Uh...I don't know," Nabiki admitted, suddenly
confused.
=====
"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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