$Whew, about time I got to this.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Legs aching, muscles crying out in pain, lungs gasping for air: an
inventory
of suffering that held no hint of relief, growing longer by the second.
Fighting through the barrier of pain, Shampoo continued to run yet
another
lap around the outside of the huge fitness center where Jaddo was having
her
work out. Each circuit around the building was nearly a kilometer, and
she
had already completed nineteen laps around the structure. On the
surface,
that did not sound so bad; her great-grandmother had made her run twice
that
at times. But there was more to it than that. Shampoo had gone through
an
extensive work-out that involved lifting weights and hitting the various
types of workout bags with a wide array of punches and kicks, sharpening
her
techniques to a razor fine edge. That had gone on for two hours before
he
had ordered her run. Again, as much as it had drained her energy, the
run
would still have not been a problem save for one other detail: the
tension
suit.

It was a particularly nasty device. Shampoo was convinced it had been
developed by some medieval torturer that had enjoyed his work.

	$Yes, but don't they all?


	<snip>

Gasping even harder than before, Shampoo rushed over the line and
stumbled
past, slowing down with each step, allowing her body to come down from
its
strenuous test of endurance before stopping altogether ten yards past.
Slowly, she walked back to her mentor, who watched her with arms
crossed.
She was eager to hear the praises he would give for her completion of
the
difficult run.

"Congratulations. Your time didn't suck," he stated blandly

	$Shampoo: It didn't suck?  It didn't suck?!  It didn't suck!  Yay!
That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me!

 as he continued
looking at the stopwatch.

A disgusted grunt escaped her lips. Some praise. She mentally debated
giving
him an acidic comment when he clapped his hands gleefully. That put her
on
edge. For a moment, she considered running before realizing she was too
tired to do so. No doubt that had been his plan from the beginning.
Under
Jaddo's tutelage, she was just starting to learn what true shiftiness
was.
She also learned a whole lot of new swear words too, which she tended to
use
with much vigor as the training sessions wore on.

	$'I think I can, I think I can!' just doesn't pack the same punch as
'I'm gonna kill that sunovabitch, I'm gonna kill that sunovabitch!'

The aborigine rubbed his hands together, and Shampoo almost threw
caution to
the wind and ran off anyway. "Time to do push-ups. I'll go easy on you.
Only
six reps of fifty. Then you get to do sit-ups. Only five sets of fifty
there."

Shampoo let out a low moan. "Come on, Jaddo. My arms are sore from all
of
the punching and weight lifting, my legs are tired from the running, and
this damn suit was specifically engineered to wear me down every step of
the
way. I also have an incredible headache."

"Wah, I bet your pussy hurts too. Now quit whining and start doing those
push-ups."

	$Heheh.  He'd make a great football coach.

Realizing she wasn't going to win, Shampoo started to take the harness
off.

	$Why don't she just finish her workout by trying to kill him?  Seems
that going to the root of the problem would be a good idea.

"Leave it on."

Shampoo sighed. She dropped to the ground and started to do her
push-ups. At
least the harness didn't seem to hinder her to the degree it had during
the
run, though she figured that might not be the case with the sit-ups when
she
had to shift her spine so much.

After only eight push-ups, Jaddo gave a sympathetic, "Wait, you do look
tired." After a moment's consideration, he said, "Aw, what the hell."

	$The way this is written makes it sound like he was considering letting
her stop, which I'm sure you intended, but then reconsidered and was
going to make her do them anyway, which I don't think you meant.  I
think that replacing the 'Wait' with a 'Hrmm' would help.

Shampoo allowed her stomach to fall to the concrete below her. So he
wasn't
a total slave driver. It was nice to know he understood that as young
and
strong as she was, she still had limits tha-

"Oof!" A good portion of Shampoo's air was knocked out of her lungs as
she
felt a heavy weight dropped onto her back.

"There we go! An additional twenty pounds riding your back ought to
really
beef you up. Now get back to those push-ups, starting at one again."

Shampoo did as she was ordered, huffing out. "When... I'm done with
this...
I'm going to give you... a matching limp... on your other leg."

	$Which one?  She's already demonstrated a penchant for castration
jokes.

"Ah, an threat. My regimen must be working."


	<snip>

offered them the room free of charge. The only upside to the whole thing
was
that for the first time in over six months she had a proper room to call
her
own. It was not very big, but she had not cared. It had been far too
long

	$Suggest hadn't instead of had not.

since she had possessed any measure of privacy. And the bed felt divine
compared to the lumpy straw things she had to put up with in the
majority of
the fighter's dorms she had stayed in, especially early on in the dog
pit
circuit.

The only negative thing that had happened during her hotel stay was when
she
had experimented with the 'room service' the hotel offered. She was
astounded to discover that all she had to do was dial a number on the
phone
and people would deliver food to her room. She had ordered two full
meals,
and was about to start on the first one when Jaddo came in and accused
her
of abusing his friend's hospitality by running up a room charge. As
punishment, he had made her do thirty laps in the hotel's swimming pool.
When she had returned, she discovered Jaddo laying on her bed and the
remnants of two meals on the serving trays. He had explained to her that
there was no sense in letting the food go to waste. She had politely
agreed
by breaking a night stand over his head. However, she had made certain
to
use the one from Jaddo's room since she did not want to destroy her own
and
'abuse his friend's hospitality'.

	$Well gee, that was nice of her.

After that incident they had settled into a comfortable habit of
training a
large portion of each day to improve herself physically or sharpen her
techniques. The local fitness center was as much a home as her hotel
room
was. By the end of the first week, Shampoo was firmly convinced she had
improved every part of herself. At her current power and skill level,
she
was firmly convinced she could even defeat the Northman in a rematch
taking
only half the time and fewer injuries.

And now the time had come to prepare for her debut. The trip by cab
through
the city proved to be uneventful. The peace was appreciated, as it gave
Shampoo a chance to reflect on her new, if temporary, home. The city was
incredible, being a bastion of all the technological wonders the Empire
had
to offer. Machines Shampoo had never imagined existed were present, from
a
wide array of vehicles to small super-computers that served as
information
networks as well as forms of communication and entertainment. Services
of
every kind, from being schooled in the higher arts, to restaurants that
served food from everywhere in the world, to brothels,

	$Jaddo: Yeah, I've been there, and there, and there...

 were offered in
colorful and often flamboyant fashion.

	$Although she did think that the three-frame stop motion animation of a
woman grinding her rear against a man's crotch, done in neon lights, was
a bit tasteless.

And nearly all of it was within easy
walking distance no matter where one lived in the city. The visions of
the
city were matched only by its population, which proved equally as
interesting and diverse as the machines that inhabited it.

Despite the close proximity to China, only about half the population of
Hong
Kong was Chinese. The city served as something of a gateway for nearly
everyone that wanted to travel in this area of the world. Those from the
East that wanted to head west almost inevitably went through Hong Kong.
Those from the West that wanted to head east did the same. Likewise
north
and south were the same way. And as with any other gateway city, some of
the
travelers ended up staying instead, whether it be from an enchantment
with
the city, to running out of funds, or that the opportunities they sought
in
far off lands were closer at hand than they realized. But for whatever
reason, they stayed, and added to the already huge and diverse
population.

	$stayed and added

The various shades of skin and types of faces astounded Shampoo. She had
no
idea there were so many different kinds of people in the world, other
than
in some abstract concept, and that they could gather together in such a
small area. Japanese, Europeans, Koreans, Africans, Australians, and a
variety of mixes of those races were evident in significant numbers.
Jaddo
termed the city "the most homogenized place on the planet." The claim
was
easy for Shampoo to believe.

	$And a random New Yorker shoots them both.

Hong Kong itself was by far the most important Imperial city outside of
Japan. It was a megalopolis of prestige, influence, and opportunity.
Every
major zaibatsu had a presence in the city, though those whose holdings
were
primarily in the West tended to wield the most power. Nowhere was that
more
evident than in the corporate sector. Shampoo had only seen it once, but
that was enough for the sight to be etched in her memory for the rest of
her
life. Towering buildings that served as both headquarters and residences
for
the elite stretched impossibly high towards the sky, the tallest and
largest
belonging to the most powerful of the megacorporations. It was sort of a
contest among them to show off who the richest and most powerful were.
It
was like a game children would play with building blocks, save that
these
children used real buildings to display their skills at accumulating
riches.

	$And it made a much bigger mess when the loser kicked the winner's
tower over.

	<snip>

That air of confidence, as well as the prosperity of the city itself,
was
why Hong Kong had been dubbed 'the Jewel of the West' by so many. It was
a
comparison Shampoo thought appropriate, given her first view of the city
when she traveled to it by boat. The sun had fallen long before they
arrived, but when they approached and the island came into view, it
shone
like a shimmering beacon in the darkness, entrancing Shampoo with the
promises of adventure it held. Yes, she understood why so many could
sacrifice so much to stay in this place, even after she had drawn closer
and
saw that it was still only a city that lay beneath the shiny veneer that
shone on the surface at a distance.

Her ruminations lasted the entire cab ride, which took less than an
hour,
despite the heavy traffic. But to Shampoo the journey seemed to take an
eternity. It was not until the building came into view that time faded
all
at once. She gave a sharp intake of air at the sight now that she was up
close. Earlier in the week she had seen the arena in the distance, but
it
was only now, at close range, that she could truly appreciate the size
of
the massive structure. It was a gigantic, circular, dome-covered
building
that was many stories high. It was brown, and appeared to be made of
stone,
enough that it probably could have taken an entire open pit mine from
Hellmount to account for the amount of rock needed to construct it.

	$Bah, it's concrete like the rest.

There was a series of slender, four meter long projections that stuck
straight out right where the arena's dome began its slope inward. They
circled around the entirety of the structure like a crown of thorns,
reminding Shampoo of an inverted version of the spikes lining the walls
of
the pit she had confronted the Northman in. The only other oddity that
caught Shampoo's eye was a series of one story tall columns that
surrounded
the base of the Arena just like the projections did. The columns were
obviously decorative, giving the illusion of supporting the arena
itself,
and Shampoo did find them pleasing to the eye. The architecture looked
exotic, and she wondered if it came from some other land.

	$Presumably based off the Coliseum, but it used a different dome
structure.


	<snip>

There was a man standing alone in the area, looking at the fight that
was
currently occurring out on the floor. He was an older man, though
younger
than Jaddo by about a decade. He was Japanese from what Shampoo could
tell,
and his finely tailored suit fitted him tight enough that it was obvious

	$suit fit him tight

that he was in very good physical shape despite his age. A bit on the
handsome side as well, though he was not a man to go wild over. He bore
one
small but noticeable scar that traveled across his right cheek. Despite
holding himself casually, there was a hint of caution in the air, as
though
he was primed for a fight at a moment's notice. This close there was a
noticeable aura of power to him. A man to be reckoned with, if she was
any
judge. And after the number of fights she had been in, she considered
herself a damn fine judge.

Jaddo gave one of his toothy grins. "And here he is now. A genuine
riches to
rags story. Allow me to introduce to you the only man in the history of
arena fighting whose victory total was the same as his estimated worth
in
tens of millions. He was also the winner of the big tournament seventeen
years ago: Tetsuo Arisukoji."

Tetsuo gave Jaddo a tired glare, not an easy look to give. "I would
appreciate it if you didn't remind me of my past before the Arena, you
old
fool. It sort of defeats the purpose of me disowning everything, even my
citizenship, in order to remake myself."

"Ha! If you didn't want people to know who you were, you would never
have
become the overlord of this here arena. You'd have gone out in the
boonies
in one of the territories where people think 'Sanzenin,' is some exotic
form
of venereal disease."

	$It's not?  Try telling that to Ranma or Akane.

The name caught Shampoo's attention. "Sanzenin? The same ones that owned
the
mines in Hellmount?"

"Yes indeed," Jaddo answered. "Tetsuo here was going to be the primary
heir
of the Sanzenin fortune."

Tetsuo noted the look of confusion Shampoo directed toward him and
realized
there was no getting out of telling the tale. "Unlike the majority of my
family, I had problems with how the Sanzenins' did business. I have some
grasp of morals, which is disapproved of in general by my family.
Apparently
it gets in the way of what they consider to be 'good business.'
Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything about it. If I had tried cleaning
up
our act or liquidating our holdings once I took control, it would have
been
a contest to see which member of my family could have had me killed
first.
So instead, I abandoned everything, even my name and citizenship, to
disown
myself from them. Then I fought my way through the ranks of warriors
until I
won the tournament and re-earned my citizenship, as well as gaining the
right to give myself a name once again."

"Even to this day it's one of the Empire's greatest tales of what a
driven
man can do, and made the Sanzenin's look bad, which they've never
forgiven
Tetsuo for," Jaddo told Shampoo, obviously amused. He turned his
attention
to the 'self-made' man. "Tell me, are there ever days you wake up and
kick
yourself over giving up all of that money?"

Tetsuo shrugged. "I don't know. Are there ever days you wake up and feel
bad
about being able to look yourself in the mirror?"

"Nice counter," Jaddo admitted.

	$Indeed.


	<sniP>

Tetsuo nodded his head in agreement. "Not the best crop this time
around.
Very few standouts. Although I suppose you should be grateful you
weren't
here a few months ago. Hot commodity then was a young punk named Tarou.
He
was bad news. Really good fighter, but the boy had the meanness in him.
Your
girl makes it through, she's probably going to have to deal with him in
the
big show. Hate to admit it, but he's one of the best I've seen in a
while."

	$Ah, lemme guess.  He's got to win the tournament to change his name?
Oh, and I've been meaning to ask, what's Ryoga doing in this universe?
I kinda lost track of QD after only a few chapters.

	<snip>

Tetsuo thought about it. "Early on, one of the better girls beat Pink in
a
close fight. That probably would have been the end of it, but the winner
decided to do some stuff to publicly humiliate Pink after she had won.
Next
time out the girl had a match against Link. Had her spine broken by the
end
of it, and it was pretty obvious Link was sending a message. So watch
your
step around them."

	$Heheh.  Suuure.


	<snip>

The crowd seemed to agree with his brash statement as they shouted even
louder in approval of the man with the cockeyed grin. Shampoo noted that
he
certainly knew how to play the crowd, certainly far better than she had
seen
any other fighter do. It was in the way he moved his body and paid
attention
to the masses. Given the ease with which he had vanquished his opponent,
he
was easily the best warrior she had seen yet, his speed unquestionably a
better equalizer than the Northman's strength and durability had been.
It
appeared Jaddo had been correct in his constant string of reminders that
the
fighting in Hong Kong was far better than anything she had seen so far.
If
it was not for the fact Tetsuo was telling her Snakebite was one of the
best
he had to offer, she might have grown worried, but she felt she could
take
the brash American. It would be close, but instinctively she knew she
had
the edge. Still, perhaps Jaddo could step up her workouts a bit. There
was
no sense in taking chances.

	$Nothing like seeing the competition to add some vigor back into the
workout.

While Shampoo had been lost in thought, Snakebite had made his way
towards
the small group, which was standing in the middle of the exit ramp for
the
fighters. He stopped before the trio, only giving Tetsuo and Jaddo
cursory
glances before settling his gaze fully upon the lavendar-haired girl
before
him.

He gave a deep bow, then looked her over a second time. "Well there, you
surely do look like the sort of girl my momma used to warn me about. Of
course, I never was one to take her advice. I've found it makes life far
more interesting that way."

Now this was amusing. The man couldn't be more blatant in coming on to
her
if he had grabbed her bottom. Examining him on the basis of his
appearance
rather than his fighting ability, she found that his features were not
displeasing to her eye. Still, it would take more than a nice, if
somewhat
lascivious, smile to win her over. It was best to let him know that
immediately. She crossed her arms under her breasts and sniffed
disdainfully
at him.

	$Then gagged and held her nose.


	Well, that was interesting.  Nice bit with Pink and Link, too.  And now
I'm off to the next part.

-Ragun

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