[FFML] [Ranma]Hengeyokai 9

"Wait," Nabiki said as the wind blew a new scent
into the room. "Do you all smell that."
Kasumi just blinked, uncertain what Nabiki was
talking about, but Akane growled angrily as she
smelled a certain person in her house. It didn't
bother Akane that the only time she had previously
smelled that person was before she had become a dog,
what mattered to her was that she recognized the
scent.
"THAT PERVERTED LITTLE FOX!!!" Sayuri shouted
angrily upstairs, provoking the three sisters to
action. Akane was up the stairs toward her shouting
friend while Nabiki headed for the door of the house.

Soun met his middle daughter outside and looked
around for any sign of Ranma.
"Was that honorless Saotome here?" Soun demanded
angrily.
"I don't know how he got in without us knowing,"
Nabiki said. "But he was here."
"Well, he shan't do you any more harm as long as I
draw breath," Soun declared. "You hear that Ranma!
Stay away from this home."
Nabiki, being much more capable of seeing in the
dark than her father, caught sight of a faint flash of
red over the wall and then she was off, scrabbling
over the wall as a tanuki.
"Nabiki, wait," Soun called out. "Don't fight
him!"
Nabiki had no intention of fighting Ranma, but she
wasn't about to let him get away this time. Besides,
she had support if she was right. Most sparrows
didn't fly in at night as far as she knew.

************

The sight of Akane bursting into the room in full
hybrid form was, to say the least, disturbing for
Sayuri. She back pedalled quickly from the fierce
looking dog person and had to check the impulse to
scream at the top of her lungs again. This time in
terror.
"Akane don't DO that?!" Sayuri gasped.
"Where is he?" Akane demanded, looking and sniffing
about the room. "I can smell him in here."
"He jumped out the window," Sayuri said irritably.
"He WAS the cat! The little pervert was sitting there
listening to us the whole time. And to think I
thought that Chinese cat gave him those wounds..."
Sayuri paused a moment as she considered that.
"But, he's a fox," Akane said. "How can he be the
cat too?" Sayuri didn't seem to be listening, and
then Akane looked out the window and saw her middle
sister take off after a red fox. ~She'll get herself
killed!~
Sayuri snapped out of her awareness as Akane jumped
out of the house and landed as large brown dog, easily
one hundred pounds, that easily leaped the wall. She
saw the Tendo patriarch about to follow and called
out.
"Tendo-san, please don't go," Sayuri called out.
"Wh..what if something comes here!"
"But..." Soun pointed helplessly towards the
direction his daughters had run.
"They can take care of themselves," Sayuri said.
"Are you really going to leave a helpless little girl
all alone and defenseless in your house?"
Soun sputtered.

************

Ranma looked back and tested the air. All three of
the girls were after him. He winced at the thought
and then sighed. He could lose them probably...
Or he could give them a little training.

************

Akane had long ago passed up Nabiki in the chase
and could see Ranma ahead of her. She was so close
she could almost feel the heat of his blood on the
night air.
~If only people would just get out of my way,~
Akane thought irritably.
She continued to bark loud and angrily as she
pelted down the street crowded by people heading home
after a long day of work.
Then the fox took a leap almost straight up about
twenty feet. Akane blinked in surprise and followed
the fox's trajectory for a long moment before Ranma
flipped in the air lunged toward a store front and
virtually rocketed off the building onto the roof of
car, off that car over the other lanes of traffic and
across the street.
Akane watched this with a slack jaw, a curious
expression on a dog, until she realized that she was
still running in the same direction. Which was about
the time she smashed into the fruit vendor. She stood
up and shook herself out, paying the frightened vendor
no mind as Nabiki flew past her.
"Are you going to get into the chase, Akane?"
Nabiki twittered, though Akane could somehow
understand her despite the strange accent. Akane
growled irritably and took off after Nabiki across the
street.
"Leave off the jokes, Nabs!" Akane shouted back
angrily. ~Lucky that Ranma choose to cross the street
just in time for us to use the crosswalk.~

************

"Here you go," the store vendor said, smiling as he
passed the shishkabobs to his customer. "Please
come...AHH!!" Something small and furry ran past him
and he virtually jumped. The flash of red leaped up
away from the man onto his cart.
"What the hell was that?" the customer asked
looking down the side walk to the flash of red that
was busily dodging people.
"A...a...fox?" the shopkeeper said.
"In the city?" the customer asked. "Hey!! It stole
my food!!" They both looked angrily down the street
where cries of surprise marked the fox's passage. The
screams of dismay, crashes, and loud barking coming
from behind them refocused that attention.
As they turned around they both barely had time to
duck as a dog seemed to virtually blow through the
food cart without stopping. People jumped to the side
as the beast charged away in the direction of the fox.
At this point a tanuki dropped a pile of money in
front of where the shopkeeper cowered on the ground,
and a wallet in front of the customer.
"A...tanuki?" the shopkeeper said. "Hey!! There's
five thousand yen missing!!"
"And I'm missing two thousand!" the customer whined
as he looked through his wallet. Both men found a
note in their funds and looked at it curiously.
"Finder's fee?"
A sparrow alighted in front of the two men and gave
a very good imitation of a formal and apologetic bow
to each before flying down the street as well.
"Err..." the two men said.

************

Ranma paused a moment to catch his breath and check
his injuries. He glanced back and saw that one or two
of his wounds had reopened, and that shouldn't have
been a particularly difficult run either. He was
already badly winded and from what he could tell Akane
was practically fresh.
Sayuri had mentioned something about Kasumi saying
he should take it easy. She was right, not that he
really had time, but this night's activity had been
rather useless. All he had done really was blow off
some steam and probably send a flare up for the enemy.
He assumed he had a few seconds before the caught
up to him after his last trick.
Akane had managed not to run into the last few
carts, but Nabiki was already starting to drop off.
He wasn't certain about Kasumi.
"I should be taking it easy," Ranma muttered to
himself, still in fox form.
"Okay," he said. "A few more minutes and then lose
them. This attracts to much attention anyway." ~But
it certainly is fun, and maybe I need more of that.~
Then the sound of Akane barking could be heard, and
the chase was on again.
Ranma ducked as a black shape swooped down on him.
~Scratch that!!~ Ranma decided quickly as he got a
better look at who had just swooped on him. A bat had
joined the chase. When he found himself dodging
knives the idea of ending the fight seemed to be even
more appealing.
"Get back here Ranma!!" Akane growled out.
Ranma winced, and then smiled as much as a fox
could smile. He could see Mousse coming around for
another pass, and as Akane bounded towards him, he
sprinted towards a streetlight and became a bat in
time to swoop through the light.
"Changing into something else won't help you get
away from me!" Akane shouted, already looking for
something to jump off of. She changed her mind when a
small black shape skeetered past her, muttering about
having to change directions.
Mousse suddenly found himself with other problems
than trying to outfly Ranma as Akane pursued him,
angrily ignoring the fact her nose was telling her
that this wasn't Ranma.
"AHHH!! Stupid fox, you can't fool me this time!"
something shouted as it dropped down on Akane's back.
"Wait, Shampoo!" the bat yelled. "That's not!!"
The dog angrily rolled as the cat clawed into its back
and Shampoo slammed into a wall, surprised at the
sudden reaction. Certainly it had no grace or
finesse, but the raw power was tremendous.
"Sushi...." Shampoo muttered happily as she voiced
her commentary on Akane's defensive reaction as well
as she was capable of at the moment.
"How dare you hurt my Shampoo!" the bat demanded,
landing and shifting into his hybrid form. Akane
gulped as she grew into her hybrid form as well and
stared across at Mousse in the lot.
"Ummm, okay, I think I have the wrong people here,"
Akane said.
"Die you beast!!" Mousse shouted.

************

Kasumi blinked and stared as a bat flitted
unsteadily past her going the other direction.
"'scuse me," the bat muttered.
"Oh, it's all right," Kasumi responded as she
continued to scan the streets for Akane.
It was a moment before she realized that the only
animals other than sparrows she understood were her
sisters. Then she stopped in confusion of whether to
look for the bat that had just passed her, or continue
looking for her sisters.
She quickly decided to go back to looking for her
sisters, and immediately found Akane in a battle with
a bat-man.
Akane was not having an easy time of it, despite
the fact that she obviously had a great deal more
physical strength than the bat.
Kasumi swallowed nervously a moment as she swooped
down and landed, taking her own hybrid form.
"Stop! Stop!" she shouted. "We're not trying to
hurt you!"
"Kasumi, stay back!" Akane shouted, moving in front
of her sister. "This guy's good."
"That bitch hurt my Shampoo," the bat growled,
pointing to where a purple cat was shaking her head
and standing up into a hybrid form.
"She landed on me and clawed into my back!" Akane
shouted back.
"I think you fox in disguise, stupid dog!" Shampoo
shouted angrily. "And then you stupid slam Shampoo
into wall!!"
"We're all after Ranma here!" Kasumi reminded them.
"Not each other."
"Then why you fighting us?" Shampoo demanded.
"I SAW Ranma turn into a bat!" Akane said, glaring
at the bat.
"So that's why you chased me," Mousse said.
"Would all of you just shut up?" a voice said above
them. "All that whining and wailing, you're giving me
a headache."
Everybody looked up to see a tall man with long
hair crouching on a gargoyle overlooking the lot.
"Who is you?" Shampoo asked.

************

Nabiki walked into a side alley and shifted into
hybrid form unconsciously. She leaned against a wall
and worked to catch her breath.
She frowned as she considered the folly of trying
to keep up with a pair of martial artists that had
spent their lives practicing. Still, she imagined
that there weren't many people who could go through
that sort of activity.
To calm herself down she started counting the money
she had picked up in her sister's wake and pocketing
it. Idly she wondered where her clothes went while
she was a tanuki, but was too tired to follow the line
of questioning further.
"Excuse me," a voice said. "Would you like to come
in and rest there?"
Nabiki looked up to see that she had come to a stop
in front of an old shrine. Looking toward the voice
she found someone in their late twenties, maybe
earlier thirties, with long dark hair and a concerned
look. Nothing that really set her apart unless you
included her aura.
Nabiki gasped as she took it in. That woman was
beyond merely powerful if she read the aura correctly.
"I'll be fine," Nabiki said.
"Really," the woman said. "You should come into
the shrine before someone sees you."
"What are you talking about?" Nabiki asked until
she looked down and noticed the fur. "Oh...hey, wait,
why aren't you up in arms about this?"
"I've gotten used to things like this," she said.
"Come in, please, I have another guest to attend to as
well."
"Uh, sure," Nabiki said. "I could just change to
human form though."
"The shrine is safer regardless," the woman
insisted. Nabiki hesitated. The woman did not feel
dangerous, at least not dangerous to her. But if she
was wrong she had practically no way to fight her.
"I could use some tea, I guess," Nabiki said.
She walked into the shrine with the woman. Indeed
the instant she crossed the gate, she felt safer. As
she walked, her attention was drawn to an old well to
the right of the property.
"I was going to pay you a visit anyway," the woman
said out of the blue. "After my husband got back to
town."
"Excuse me?" Nabiki said.
"I assume you've noted the flows of power toward
your dojo, Tendo-san," the woman said. "After all,
you've been brought into the front lines of this war."
"How do you know who I am?" Nabiki demanded,
stopping on the pathway.
"Long ago," the woman said. "A terrible ritual was
performed on your family's land. A sorcerer cracked a
hole in the universe to summon an alien demon that
would give him power."
Nabiki flinched in surprise and shock.
"Your dojo is built on the focus point of that
gate," the woman continued. "My husband and I were
planning to pay you a visit and help you defend it.
Though I see now somebody else has."
"My home," Nabiki said. "Is the site of a gate
between our world and the hells?"
"No, not the hells," the woman said. "Nor the kami
plane, but something outside all of us. Nabiki Tendo,
you live on ground on one of the few places were
demons and gods and mortals fought and died on the
same side."
"How would you know this?" Nabiki demanded.
"I was there," the woman said simply. Nabiki
boggled.
"HOW?!!" Nabiki did not like being so in the dark.
"I'll go into more detail in a moment," the woman
said. "When everybody else is here."
"Everybody else?"
"Yes, everybody else," the woman said. "And don't
worry about your home, I sent an old friend to help
protect it while we talk."

************

Soun answered the knock on the door cautiously,
ready to pounce if the person on the other side turned
out to be an evil demon out to destroy them.
"Hey," the teenaged boy on the other side of the
door said. Though Soun only saw the fox-features.
"RANMA!!!!!!" Soun roared angrily.
"AHHHHHHH!!!!" the fox-boy screamed as Soun's demon
head was launched. "WHO'S RANMA?!?!! I'm from a
shrine!!!" He shakily held out a card, which Soun
took after deflating to normal.
"What's this?" Soun said.
"A shrine with business cards?" Sayuri asked. "So
what's your...name?" Sayuri looked at the fainted
fox-boy.
"Perhaps I over did it," Soun said.

************

"Oh, yes," the woman said as they walked into the
building proper. "I'll have you treat this as
neutral ground while you're all here."
"And just why would I need to do that?" Nabiki
asked suspiciously as she considered the fact that
there was another guest. Then they walked into the
tea room and there was Ranma lying passed out on the
floor.
"He fell into my yard," the woman said. "His
wounds would have killed him, if I hadn't invited him
onto my land when I did." She shook her head.
"Wasted all that energy on that chase tonight."
"Who are you?" Nabiki demanded.
"Higurashi Kagome," the woman said. Nabiki blinked
for a moment and remembered the the woman's comment
about being there long ago.
"But if your THAT Higurashi Kagome...that would
make you three hundred years old!" Nabiki gasped.
"That gets complicated," the woman said, smiling.

[OOC: short, by my time on line grows short as
well..as well as my money for time online.]

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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