DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ranma and Co. They belong to
Rumiko Takahashi, who I firmly believe is working on
Ranma Part 2. Yes, I believe it. Yes, it must be so.

**************************************** 
Ch 9- A Plague of Ninjas


I started laughing, feeling some of the tension flow
out of me with the action. Akane stared at me
wide-eyed, questioning my behaviour. I shook my head
and moved away from her, leaving her shivering on the
cold gray floor.

"Enough with the melodrama, Akane," I said. "Cursed?
That diamond ain't cursed any more'n you are. If
you're talkin' curses, I've got a greater claim to
fame than any ol' itsy-bitsy diamond!"

Akane scowled at me. Good. I scowled back, happy that
we were back to the hating. I was so much more
comfortable here.

"In fact, if you were itching to jump into my arms
again, you didn't have to fake sleepwalking," I
grinned and held out my arms in a mock embrace,
twitching the ends of my fingers in a come-hither
motion.

Akane's fists clenched and I could see her jaw grind
slowly. Oh yeah, when it came to hating, I was in the
zone.

Surprisingly, Akane didn't let fly with her fist. She
had switched her gaze to the ground and was now
glaring at the harmless concrete.

"Fine, Ranma," she ground out at last. "Make all the
fun you want. I KNOW where that diamond is. Or at
least, I know which way to go to find it. You can stay
or you can come. I really don't care." With that, she
stood upright and brushed off her shorts. I had to
hand it to her; the girl had come a long way in anger
management. Had she taken a class or something?

It was deep night now. All around Shanghai city,
people were getting into the full swing of the
weekend. Most partygoers would be good and drunk by
now. Bakers were no doubt up and about; getting their
ovens warmed up for the morning sales. It was the time
the city guard was at their most watchful as well.

Akane found an old iron door that spiraled downwards.
I allowed her to lead the way, running over what had
happened in my head. I didn't really believe that the
diamond had a curse on it. Stranger things had
happened; sure, anyone who knew my life history could
tell you that. Things were already weird enough, to my
way of thinking. If the diamond really was cursed,
things were just gonna get a whole lot stranger.

***************************************
AKANE

Test. Step. Test. Step.

I hadn't been on the stairs long before I realized how
flimsy they were. We must be in one of the old
apartment buildings, I realized. The whole place
smelled like dog pee. I brought my sneakered foot
down, tested the step and brought the whole weight of
my foot down on it. Then I did it again with the next.

Test. Step.

Behind me, Ranma didn't seem to care how moldy the
wooden steps might be. He stepped on every step with
remarkable assurance. Then again, with me taking
point, I supposed he was pretty safe.

Something dripped on the lobe of my right ear. I put
up a hand and it came away sticky. I turned my head in
seeming slow motion to the right. My gaze followed the
sparkling tip of a stiletto along its shiny length up
to where it was clasped by a dark-gloved hand, and
further on where Ranma's hand had caught the wrist in
a grip of steel, stopping the hidden ninja from
slicing off my ear.

Suddenly, everything speeded up to a blur. I caught
the ninja's arm and used it to push off the stair I
was standing on, arcing past him and Ranma, ending up
crouched on the step behind them, already swiveling
with one leg out to meet the oncoming rush of the next
ninja. At the same time, Ranma punched the first ninja
in the face and forced the dark hand inwards, making
the bright steel blade disappear into black folds of
clothing. Ranma kicked the next ninja in the face,
breaking the nose behind the cloth mask, sacrificing a
split second that allowed a ninja to slam a palm into
him, sending him stumbling. 

That let him regain his second, as he spun backward
and slammed the heel of his foot into the small of the
ninja's back. I winced in my own battle as I heard an
audible crack.

Getting tired of my opponent, not to mention simply
getting tired, I caught his arm and slammed him into
the ground, driving a kick to his head that knocked
him out good. Yup. That old 'hammer girl' strength was
still there.

Breathing a little hard, Ranma and I stared at each
other.

"Did you know they were there?" I asked, remembering
the car incident on the way from the airport. Ranma
shook his head. Well, ninjas hid their aura better
than anybody, I knew.

"The first one forgot to dull his blade, else you'd be
missing an ear now, Akane," he said. "We'd better get
out of here. There;s bound to be more coming and I
don't wanna spend all night fendin' off these guys.
Let's go." I nodded in heartfelt agreement. We didn't
even stop to question them.

Outside, we barely paused to inhale the cool night
air. The night had eyes, and they were all trained on
us. Not to mention we had absolutely no luggage. I
needed some replacement cartridges for my gun. I was
really getting angry.

"Dammit, Ranma, I'm getting tired of being chased
around from place to place all night," I hissed. "It's
been one thing after the other ever since we got
here!"

Ranma nodded. "We need a place to stop for a while."

"I know somebody," I said. "The same guy we were going
to see before."

Ranma bowed and motioned me onwards like an Indian
maharajah. "Lead on, oh tour guide."

A soft drizzle began as we made our way past the older
apartments and moved up the city toward the docks. We
pulled up the hoods of our parkas. Ranma looked around
with interest as I led him through areas that were
getting shabbier with every step. Though I was careful
making sure we had no one following us, I couldn't
help pondering the evening's events.

"Who WAS that masked man?" I wondered out loud.

"In fact, who were ALL those masked guys?" Ranma
added. "You don't even know who wants the diamond, do
you?"

I realized with chagrin that that was true. I hadn't a
clue whose goons I'd been fighting. That made me more
than a little ticked off. Thinking about Ranma and
keeping myself alive had been keeping me busy. Time to
focus, I told myself.

Finally, when we stopped in front of a shop with a
tattered sign over the door, Ranma laughed softly.

"What's so funny?" I demanded. Ranma simply shook his
head, and before I could demand and answer, a slim
Chinese youth had opened the door.

"Hello, Yoshi. Is Mr. Yoro in?" I asked, pulling back
my hood so he could see my face. "We're seeking
shelter." Yup, my Chinese could get a little archaic.

Yoshi nodded at me and let us in, smiling. He left to
inform Yoro, I guessed, because a few minutes later,
my old acquaintance had shuffled out of the back of
the store and was greeting me warmly.

"Miss Akane, how pleasant to see you after so long.
Welcome, welcome to......." At this point he caught
sight of Ranma and let out a screech of high velocity.
He dropped my hand like it was a hotcake and began
walking backwards.

"You!" He cried, his spindly index finger pointing at
Ranma, who had pulled his hood back and was now
regarding him with smiling eyes.

"Hello, Mr. Yoro," he drawled. "How do you do?"

"You're dead!" Mr. Yoro shrieked. "I saw you die!" He
scuttled even further backwards and sent me a wild
glance. "Miss Akane, how could you bring this monster
into my house......ack!"

Ranma had seized the old man by the throat and held
him high enough that Mr. Yoro's old slippers barely
made contact with the ground.

"Ranma!" I yelled, marching forward and trying to
shake his grip off the old man. "What in the world are
you doing? What's going on?"

"It was all a mistake," the old man croaked.

"He tried to sell...Ranko...to a brothel," Ranma
growled. "He drugged her and she woke up in a cheap
room being mauled by some ugly drunk."

I gasped. Ranko....that was, Ranma...had been sold
into sexual slavery? By Mr. Yoro? Impossible. The old
man had been my contact for a few years now. I
couldn't believe him capable of something like that.

"Was......my......son, Toshi," Mr. Yoro choked out. I
pulled on Ranma's arm with all my strength.

"Ranma! I swear it wasn't him," I yelled in his ear.
"Ranma, I've known him for YEARS! Please, let go.
You're killing him!"

Finally, Ranma's grip loosened and Mr. Yoro fell
gasping to the ground.

"Yes, I remember your son, old man," Ranma said.
"Where is he?"

"In jail," the old man cried. "I'm sorry......for your
friend's death.......but my son is......now in
jail.......won't trouble you."

"Good," Ranma said viciously. "Hope he rots there."

I helped Mr. Yoro up. "Mr. Yoro. I'm really sorry
about that. But we need your help." I moved him to a
chair and called for Yoshi to bring some tea. Ranma
paced farther away like some angry cat, sending angry
glances our way every so often.

A hot cup of tea later, Mr. Yoro smiled shakily at me
and said, "Please accept my apologies, Miss Akane. I
would never have condoned my son's activities if I'd
known of them. I know it is little enough for your
friend's loss, but I shall help you both the best I
can."

"It's all right, Mr. Yoro. He's a very old friend. I
wouldn't have brought him here if I had known it would
set him off like that."

"Toshi hurt many people." Mr. Yoro hung his head.
"Many among them were women."

I patted his shoulder with awkward comfort. Ours had
always been a business relationship. I hadn't even
known he had a son. Eventually, Mr. Yoro went off with
a list that Ranma and I had jotted down together.

Ranma refused to bed down there so we left, promising
to come back the next morning to retrieve the things
on our list.

"What in the world happened to you here in Shanghai,
Ranma?" I asked. He flinched.

"Long story," he said. "What now, Akane?"

"Now, we wait."

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