Ranma 1/2 was created by Rumiko Takahashi and its characters belong to
her, and her alone. I'm just kinda borrowing them. The story below is
for entertainment purposes only, and not to be used commercially.
...Obviously.


"Learning Curve"
        Part XI    (v1.3)

by:   J. Wagner



Nabiki Tendo yawned, and fighting the automatic impulse to simply go
back to sleep, looked to her side and checked the time. Predictably,
it was morning - another tedious and otherwise uneventful day. Slowly
working up the mental discipline to get out of her soft, comfortable,
warm bed, she imagined how things would go. Ranma would be training,
of course, like he had been doing for weeks. Lately, he'd taken to
doing strange things around the house, like sneaking around under the
floors, and taking odd things while people were reading or watching
them.

Kasumi would be making breakfast, and enjoying it. What she saw in
cooking, Nabiki never fully grasped. Of course, with Kasumi around,
she'd never had the chance to, but that was aside from the point.
Akane would, naturally, either be sleeping or getting ready for
school. Her little sister was immensely dull in that respect. She was
intelligent, if a bit dim when it came to common sense, but she had
little real ambition or drive. Her constant search for shortcuts to
doing everything was annoying at times, irresponsible at others, and,
coupled with her neediness, was one of the main reasons Nabiki
generally kept a reasonable distance from a closer relationship with
her. Akane was the youngest sibling, and she acted like it.

As for her father, and Saotome-san... her father would be up, he
usually was, reading the morning paper, or taking a long walk. The
Panda would be sleeping, seeing as he and Ranma didn't train together
anymore. There'd been some sort of fall out between the two, a rather
large argument in the training hall, and since then Mr. Saotome had
slept until noon, or later, according to Kasumi, after which he
generally stalked around, aimlessly. There was something unusual going
on between father and son there, but they'd both been strangely tight
lipped about things.

Inching out from under the covers, Nabiki went to brush her teeth, her
mind still on imminent events. Ukyou was more of a morning person,
taking care of the breakfast crowd, (the freaks) and then heading out
for school. Occasionally, Mousse walked with her to the gates, and
they talked about things only they'd really care about - revenge and
martial arts, from what she'd picked up from time to time. They were
an odd pair, born of necessity, definitely, and perhaps something
else.

They were both Ryouga's friends, and Nabiki wondered if he knew what
was going on. She momentarily toyed with the notion that Ryouga more
than knew: he'd planned it out beforehand. After all, he had to have
known that Ukyou had something for him, and at the same time, had no
one of her own. More so, he had introduced them to each other, and he
had known about Mousse from Shampoo long before Mousse knew of him.

"Nah." Nabiki washed out her toothbrush and dismissed the thought. It
made sense, in a way, but Ryouga just wasn't devious or manipulative
enough to do something like that. Not that he couldn't - he just
wouldn't. The very thought wouldn't cross his mind. Sighing, she went
back to her room to change.

Where was the lost boy?

Nabiki caught herself, and amended that thought. She only cared
because he was messing with her timetable by being lost, and causing
her grief. Scheduling the event was difficult enough without half the
prizefight getting lost for days or weeks at a time. It was a
significant loss of control over the situation. It was an irritant and
an annoyance, and Tendo Nabiki hated annoyances.

Like the stubble on his chin.

Looking at her fingertips, she remembered the feel of it - rough and
unshaved, he'd obviously been on the road for who knew how long. It
had felt so different from anything else she could remember. He'd
flinched a bit, shyly, and blushed, his eyes wide and surprised,
tinged by a little fear. Odd, that of all the people and things to be
afraid of, he'd pick her. He was cute, in a shy clueless martial
artist kind of way.

"What am I thinking, me and Ryouga?" She spared a quick laugh. "He's
probably thinking about Akane, or Ukyou, or Shampoo, or any number of
other girls right now."

Opening her drawer, Nabiki gasped.

It was...

A surge of anger and panic came, and then just as easily went, as she
realized what had happened. Examining one of the vegetables that had
replaced her undergarments, she pursed her lips and checked her
drawers. Inside was the family fine china.

"Ranma," she growled. Luckily for the next time she saw him, Nabiki
didn't have the anger of her sister. No, Nabiki Tendo had a patient
form of the Tendo Rage - she'd wait, and scheme, and come up with
something both suitably punishing and entertaining to do to Saotome.
She made a quick mental note of it before going downstairs and
checking the kitchen.

"Kasumi, have you..." Nabiki skipped down the stairs as a brisk pace.
Kasumi was at the bottom, a rather large armful of clothes on hand.
"Ah. There they are,"

"Why were these in the kitchen?" Kasumi's voice was just the tiniest
bit impatient. The kitchen was her castle, and she disliked intruders
who came without notice. It wasn't enough to make her angry, or even
really unhappy, but it made her ...less content when people messed
with her domain.

A sudden crash from the floor above seemed to answer the question.

"RANMA NO HENTAI!!!"

"Well, Akane's up early at least." Nabiki quickly took the clothes and
headed upstairs before the two lovebirds took their fighting
downstairs.

***

Ranma felt the pressure of Ryouga's open palm strike graze past his
ear, opening a cut in his flesh, and felt a trickle of blood flow.
Dismissing it for a moment, he drew on the power of the Happo Dai
Karin, and let it coalesce and form in his cupped hands. "Happo Dai
Karin ...Revised!!"

Ryouga saw it too, and his eyes widened in realization, as Ranma's
cupped hands slammed into his midriff. He looked up at Ranma in
surprise just as the bomb went off, blowing the lost boy back and off
the ground. Ranma's hands were singed, and felt like he'd held on too
long to a box of dynamite (not inaccurate, actually). He was hurting,
but the pigtailed one consoled himself with the fact that Ryouga had
to be hurting a hell of a lot more than he was.

"Huh. What the hell is going on over there?" Ichiro Nishimura wasn't a
martial artist, and he wasn't a resident of Nerima. He was a truck
driver. He was happy being a truck driver. It wasn't the most exalted
job in the world, but it had to be done, and it allowed him to get out
and see a lot of Japan on his way from place to place. It should be
noted, here, that Ichiro Nishimura had never been through Nerima
before, and so, when he tuned out the radio warning of a 'Disturbance'
near Furinkan High School, he ignored it and kept going. He figured it
was probably a traffic accident or something.

Ryouga's trajectory took him over the nearby street, through a wall,
and into the side of a truck that had been moving down the road. The
impact was sudden and brutal, and knocked the vehicle off the pavement
and into the metal guard railing on the street. The crunch of metal,
and the popping of abused tires sounded as Ryouga's momentum finally
came to a stop, and so did the truck that had stopped him. Touching
his feet to the ground, Ryouga elbowed back, deforming the metal
behind him. Snarling, his battle aura still a personal inferno, Hibiki
Ryouga pulled his right arm forward, and then back, letting his
forearm carelessly pulverize what he was currently imbedded in.

The truck groaned, tipped back and over and Ryouga fell to the
pavement, free. He was about to run in the direction he came, when,
almost on a lark, he looked over his shoulder, and saw a man, with a
rough moustache and beard, trying to unlock the driver's side door
that was currently smashed beyond recovery, courtesy of a certain
martial artist (himself). For a moment, he was worried that in his
haste, he'd injured the man, but he seemed fine, though panicked -
enough innocent people had gotten caught between Ranma and himself to
almost make him want to find a better locale to fight in, but it was a
little too late to be choosey now.

Ryouga shrugged, and was about to leave, when he smelt leaking
gasoline, and saw where his impact had broken one of the fuel lines.
Almost without thinking, Ryouga jumped up, and tore the door off. The
man started to babble something, but the lost boy just reached down,
grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and jumped away from the
burning wreck. The older man stared at him, mouth still moving but not
making any noise. Ryouga pointed in an arbitrary direction.

"Go," The martial artist said, simply.

The man nodded, comprehension making its way through stunned surprise,
and he ran. A few seconds later, the fire reached the gas, and the
truck exploded. Ryouga ignored it, and focused instead on the blue and
yellow streak of fire that was heading his way. So: Ranma had waited
for him to help the man before attacking? How kind.

Bringing both arms up, he braced himself for the impact. Looking
behind him, Ichiro winced, as the... man that had saved him was damn
near run over by something that looked like a blue comet. The titanic
crash sent Ichiro to the ground, and the man with the bandanna seemed
to struggle, for the blink of an eye, against the blue energy, just
long enough for the black image of another man to become visible in
its epicenter. And then, just like that, the man's footing gave out,
and the two were exchanging blows, faster than Ichiro could follow,
the one sheathed in blue driving back the one, the man, who now had a
red and black aura around him. They crashed through a fence into a
construction yard, and then they were gone.

Go!

Ichiro remembered, and ran like his life depended on it.

Ranma's fist quivered, and he felt like his knuckles had cracked, he'd
hit Ryouga so many times, and so hard. The lost boy was stunned, and
Ranma pressed the attack, burying his fist into Ryouga's abdomen. He
was about to flow into a roundhouse, to the base of the neck, aiming
for the nerve clusters, when Ryouga's hand shot up into a vicious
uppercut. Ranma felt his head smash through something, probably a
couple layers of plywood, and then another, before the ceiling stopped
him. Falling to his knees, Ranma looked around, and finally realized
where he was. It was a construction site of some kind. And he was in
an uncompleted floor, still plain wood paneling and exposed metal
supports, and some windowpanes lying around. There was a packed lunch
on the floor, and sets of tools. Obviously, the Nerima construction
crew had evacuated when they found out about the fight nearby.

Smart.

Righting himself, Ranma looked down the hole he'd made in the floor,
courtesy of Ryouga's uppercut. His head was still ringing, and his Ki
was starting to waver at its current level. His endurance had improved
dramatically over the last few weeks, but he knew Ryouga's was
certainly still superior. Throwing all those thousands of punches, and
surviving blasts and impacts that would turn the normal human body to
jellied mush wasn't exactly very healthy either. Ranma shook his head,
and it quickly cleared out the cobwebs. Ryouga was around, somewhere.

Unless he got lost.

No. That seemed unlikely. Ryouga would almost certainly destroy the
whole building before...

"Oh shit!" Ranma's eyes widened, and he yelled out and down the hole.
"RYOUGA! Hey, P-chan! Here, P-chan, here piggy, piggy! Ssuu-eee!"

The floor began to rumble, and a deep voice yelled up from below.
"RAMNA! YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!!!"

"Oh... goodie!" Ranma took a few steps back, a moment before Ryouga
jumped up, widening the hole, and landed in front of him, steam
literally coming out of his ears. Ranma steeled his nerves, set into a
fighting stance, and charged, taking the initiative. Ryouga blocked
his exploratory blow, and retaliated with his own combination of jabs.
Ranma dodged them, and groaned inwardly - Ryouga had altered his style
of fighting, again, for about the twentieth time. Every time they
broke with each other, Ranma adjusted his tactics and his fighting
style slightly, and so, apparently, did Ryouga.

Bare handed blows, predominantly chops, aiming to cripple or break
bone, rained down on the pigtailed martial artist like snow falls in a
blizzard. Ranma fielded or avoided most of them, and braced his body
for the few that connected. They moved, together, back and forth, for
what seemed like an eternity on that floor. Sometimes, walls would get
in their way, but they were like nothing now - the two men splintered
wood and crashed through doors and dented metal supports almost as a
sideshow to the main event that was their fight.

Their war.

Ranma heard a drywall behind him shatter, more than felt it. Ryouga's
blows were like bullet trains, hitting him at hundreds of miles per
hour. To his credit, Ranma had hit the lost boy so many times, he'd
lost count, but he was still going. Ryouga was like a runaway bull,
driven wild with anger and pain, oblivious to damage or danger or the
mundane concerns of the flesh. Ranma got a good look at his foe, as
Ryouga recoiled from a hard hundred-blow snap kick to the shoulder.
They were both beaten and bleeding, with patches of skin torn off
altogether, and burns and scrapes over most of their body. But the
lost boy was still sheathed in his battle aura, and showed no signs of
slowing down, or weakening, or giving up.

Then, Ryouga simply stopped. Taking a step back, he wiped some dry
blood from his broken and cracked lips and chin. "Well, Ranma... it
seems we've come to an impasse."

"What are you babbling about?" Ranma kept his fists raised and ready.

"I mean... it's time to end this." Ryouga brought his hands up as
well, and slowly circled Ranma. "I can't afford to have you in my life
anymore, Saotome."

"What...?"

"You don't understand, do you?"

Ranma almost laughed. "I should be asking you that."

Ryouga frowned. "You're the bane of my existence, Ranma. But... at the
same time... you are my goal. My motivation."

"Should I be complimented by that?"

"Maybe." Ryouga sighed. "This fight only proves it. No matter which
one of us lives, so long as both of us breathe, this won't end."

"You're delirious, P-chan. Did I hit you one or two hundred too many
times?"

Ryouga chuckled, softly. "Listen, Ranma. If I won, here, what would
you do?"

"You're not going to win, P-chan. Don't worry about it."

"What IF?"

"If, by some miracle, you ...walk out of this better than I do, I'll
just beat ya later anyway!"

"Exactly. And if you win?"

"If I win." Ranma paused. "If I win... you'll just come back again,
won't you?"

"Yeah." Ryouga nodded, slowly. "That's about it. There is no way out."

They stood in silence.

"That's why," Ryouga spoke up, voice cold. "That's why you won't walk
out of this fight at all, Ranma."

"You..."

"I would." Ryouga smiled, canines visible. "I will."

"You think Nabiki'll like you after that? You think anyone will?"

"Nabiki," Ryouga said the word slowly, almost softly, before his voice
hardened. "Nabiki will get over it. And if she hates me... so what?
I'm a loner, Ranma! I've got nothing to lose... except my worst enemy.
And the way I see it, I'll be doing Ukyou, Shampoo and Mousse a
favor."

"You really hate me, don't you?" Ranma bit his lip. "Why? Why do
you... why do so many people hate me?"

"Maybe you should be asking yourself that, Saotome."

"I never wanted anyone to hate me!" Something in Ranma just...
cracked, and he yelled, now, without caring who would hear. "I never
wanted THIS! I... we could have been friends!"

Ryouga seemed aback by Ranma's sudden outburst. "R... Ranma..."

"Look at us, damnit! Look at what we are! What this... what you're
hatred made us! FOR WHAT!?"

"HATRED IS ALL I HAVE!" Ryouga snarled, his fists clenched nearly to
the point of drawing blood. "It's all I have! My hatred kept me
going... it kept me alive... and damn me to Hell, but I was willing to
forgive you! Damn me, but I WANTED to be friends! One kind word! One
apology! One moment, and I would have forgiven you! But I got nothing!
You mocked me... you humiliated me... you ruined my LIFE! I'll NEVER
forgive you! NEVER!!"

Ranma watched, stunned, as Ryouga's Ki went wild, tearing at the walls
and the floor, its fury belying that of its master.

"I'm... I'm sorry, man," Ranma said, though his voice was only a
whisper. Ryouga's eyes opened, and they burned with an inner fire that
no amount of kind words could put out. Ranma wiped blood from his
split lower lip, and readied to use his final attack. "I really am."

***

"Damn you Ranma. Damn you to hell. Damn you to the darkest, deepest,
shit shoveling pits of... hello, what's this?" Ryouga pushed through a
thicket of bushes and into an open clearing in the woods where a small
wooden house, run down, but serviceable in an emergency, stood in
stark contrast to the wilderness around it. Examining it for any
external signs of occupation - looking into the boarded windows, and
searching the ground around it for trash, Ryouga came to the quick
conclusion that it was either totally abandoned, or recently whoever
had lived there last (squatters) had just left.

Still, it was the first sign of human habitation since Ranma had
gotten him lost, and he'd left Nerima. Knocking first, and careful to
reign in his strength and not break down the door, he waited a few
seconds, and gently pushed it open a crack. Looking in, he narrowed
his eyes and searched the darkness. There was no movement in the open
area, and the Lost Boy opened the door wide.

"Hey! Anyone home?" He called out. Smiling a bit, seeing that no one
was around to contest his squatter's rights, Ryouga carefully put down
his backpack and umbrella. There was no basement, so far as he could
tell, but throwing down his stuff hastily could still damage the
floor, and cause leaks and other problems. On the far side of the
cabin, Ryouga found a dusty cabinet and some empty drawers. The place
had obviously been cleaned out long ago of anything really useful.

Reaching for his pack, Ryouga took out a small sports watch, and
checked the time. It was late, and about to turn dark. Finding the
cabin, in the middle of nowhere, with his terrible direction, had been
a godsend. He'd take the opportunity to get some work done, some
reading, too, and maybe to write down his thoughts. He'd been toying
with the idea of a diary... journal... for years, but had never really
gotten around to it. Though, like all Hibiki's, he tended to roll
around thoughts in his head until his ears bled, he only felt the need
to write anything down sporadically, never consistently.

Arbitrarily, Ryouga took out one of the newer books his parents had
left behind for him - a German book on Western Religious Philosophy.
It sounded dull, but the lost one made some headway into it before
disgust and boredom set in. Putting the text aside, and closing it
after dog-earing the page he finished at, Ryouga took out his trusty
hot plate and started heating up a cup of instant noodles. He kept a
healthy supply with him, and given that he could easily go two days
without food before he really started to feel it, supplemented by the
occasional hunting foray and dried and smoked foodstuffs kept him
fairly well stocked. As it was, Ryouga could afford to eat at least
something every day and still last a month by himself in the woods.

While the water boiled, Ryouga took out some paper, and started to
write on the hard cover of the German book. Ever since Saotome had
gotten him lost, and he'd wandered out of Tokyo, he'd been largely
occupying his mind with assorted shades of vengeance. Whether he'd
twist Ranma in half clockwise or counter clockwise was one he was just
now getting around to. There were benefits to both ways, really, from
both a physiological and artistic point of view.

"Damn you, Ranma," Ryouga repeated, and leaned back, sighing deeply.
Dismissing thoughts of revenge, at least for the moment, he turned
instead to another old standby - Tendo Akane, and his curse. Or at
least he tried to focus on Akane.

Nabiki.

"Nabiki... Tendo Nabiki," he spoke the name, and closed his eyes. In
his mind's eye, he could see her clearly. She was sitting at a desk,
in her school clothes, laughing at something he'd said, but not in a
mocking way. She understood. She understood him better than anyone,
even Ukyou, maybe. Her brown eyes were like pools, and her hair swayed
slightly as she smiled at him.

Tendo Nabiki.

She hadn't kissed him. She hadn't even hugged him. She'd hardly showed
any real affection, as far as he could remember. They'd talked, and
held hands, though that was more because she hadn't wanted him to
wander off and get lost. But they'd talked, and enjoyed each other's
company. Of course, the same could be said of him and Shampoo, and
Ukyou. What made her different? What made her drive all other thoughts
from his mind? Was he just easily infatuated?

Slowly, Ryouga began to sketch. He started with the outline of her
face, the contours of her high cheekbones, and hints of her hairline.
Her eyes, her nose, and her delicate eyebrows... they came from his
memory onto the paper unbidden. She was smiling at him, only at him,
and in right hand, she had a fresh pencil, just resting on her chin,
as if she had been caught in mid-thought. Captured forever. Inspired,
Ryouga began to write beneath the picture. He wrote about his travels,
about how much he'd enjoyed talking to her, walking with her. It began
to pour out, and Ryouga was hard pressed to write as fast as the
thoughts translated to words.

Then, slowly, someone started to open the door.

A heartbeat later, Ryouga's eyes were focused entirely on the
intrusion. In quick, swift movements, he put the book and paper down,
and the pencil, while reaching for his umbrella. His senses expanded,
and he reached out with his Ki, trying to predict what or who it was
that was making its way inside. He took in a deep breath of air
through his nose, and something small and fast darted out of the door
and into the cabin. His eyes followed it as it lunged, and he moved to
intercept.

...A little girl.

"Hey!" Ryouga stood up, holding his barely-warm instant noodles just
out of reach of the young carrot-top. "What do you think you're
doing?"

"Food!!"

Ryouga looked from the girl to the noodles. "Yes... food."

"Can... can I have it?"

"Er..." Ryouga groaned. He hated giving starving people food. This
girl would almost certainly be like every other starving hermit or old
man or bum he'd ever run across, and end up eating his entire supply
of rations. Predictably, the little girl got all teary eyed, and the
lost boy's resolve dissolved. Handing her the mostly lukewarm cup of
instant noodles, Ryouga blinked, and missed her eat the whole thing in
one gulp.

"What are you, a land shark?" Ryouga whispered in awe. Even Ranma and
himself didn't eat that fast!

"Mmmm!! Got anymore?"

"Excuse me." Ryouga took a step back. "But who are you, anyway?"

"Oh, sorry!" She gave him a quick but polite bow. "I'm Kurumi. Tendo
Kurumi."

"T... T..."

"Ten - do. Kurumi."

"Woah." Ryouga shook his head, willing the unreal thoughts out, to be
hopefully replaced by something more believable. "Small world. You
wouldn't happen to have any sisters, would you?"

"Just one."

"Ah... good." Ryouga nodded slowly, understanding. Tendo wasn't that
uncommon a name. It was a simple and almost comical coincidence.

"Kurumi," A voice, female, and older, came from just beyond the door.
Ryouga's eyes focused on it, simply on instinct. This girl's first
thought had apparently been to go for the food, who knew what this
older version would try?

"In here!" Kurumi called out.

A woman walked in, wearing a ragtag jacket, and holding a large rug
beater like some form of staff weapon. She had long brown hair, that
vaguely reminded Ryouga of Ukyou's, done in a samurai weave. Unlike
his first impressions of Ukyou, however, she was defiantly female -
her jacket did little to hide her gender. Ryouga reached up quickly
and wiped a bit of blood from his upper lip.

"Kurumi, what...?" The woman stopped in mid-sentence, and saw him.
"Um... hello."

"Hi." Ryouga felt a bit nervous, suddenly. Luckily, he seized on a bit
of depression and defensiveness - after all, he had found this cabin
unoccupied and unclaimed, and he wasn't about to get thrown out so
easily - and rallied himself against his natural impulse to freeze up
around blatant exposure to the female form. "You must be... Karumi's
sister."

"Kurumi," Kurumi corrected.

"Yes. Tendo Natsume," The girl's voice was cold, and had a small
undercurrent of hostility. "And you are?"

"Hibiki Ryouga."

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing. There was no one here when I wandered
in." The lost one crossed his arms defiantly. The two started each
other down, and sized each other up for a few tense moments. Such was
the way of things on the road. Ryouga, of course, would have to yield
to her if she wanted the cabin, as a matter of honor, and Natsume
could feel that he wasn't a normal person. His Ki was too strong.

"Martial artist?" Natsume spoke first.

"Something like that." Ryouga closed his eyes, confidently. "You are
too, I'd think."

"Both of us are!" Kurumi piped up. "And he's got FOOD!"

"Well... this is a spacious cabin." Natsume gave Ryouga another look
over, and deciding he was mostly harmless, propped her rug beater
against the wall. "There should be enough room for all of us, Hibiki-
san."

"I suppose." Ryouga slowly lowered himself to the ground, cross-
legged.

"Natsume..." Kurumi motioned towards the empty Styrofoam cup o'
noodles.

"I wonder, Hibiki-san, if you could perhaps share some..."

"Food?" Ryouga shrugged, knowing he'd lost this fight minutes earlier.
"Ah, why not?"

Actually, he thought to himself, he could think of more than a few
reasons 'why not' but they'd never stand up against that little girl's
puppy-eyes anyway, so he dismissed them. He pulled over his pack, and
fished out two extra cups of noodles. He also dipped into his supply
of fresh, clean water, and started heating it. If Nabiki were here, he
suspected, she'd probably call him an idiot for not bargaining the
food for favors or pocket change. Anything but for free.

"So..." He turned to the two, who were seated on the other side of the
cabin. An uncomfortable silence followed. The kind that made most
people either want to pass out, or look at some fairly interesting
inanimate object. Desperately, Ryouga's eyes darted around, looking
for something to distract his mind.

"Is it done yet?"

"Be patient, Kurumi."

Ryouga finally came to the sad realization that there was absolutely
nothing interesting at all in the cabin. Lacking options, he turned
back to attempting conversation. "So... what're you two doing out here
in the middle of Hokkaido?"

"Hokkaido?" Natsume raised a noble eyebrow. "This isn't Hokkaido."

"Of course it isn't." Ryouga sighed. Mentally, he chided himself for
not saying 'middle of nowhere.'

"We're searching for someone."

"It wouldn't be Saotome Ranma, would it?"

"No..."

"Oh. Never mind, then. Who?"

"Our father. ...Tendo Soun."

A large sweat drop inched down the side of Ryouga's forehead.
"Figures."

***

"Come on! This way!" Akane yelled over her shoulder, as she stopped at
the burning wreckage of a medium sized truck. Behind her, Nabiki,
Kuno, Mousse, Shampoo and Ukyou all ran, ahead of a small group of
other students who were hesitant, now, to be anywhere near the fight
they'd all wanted to see just moments before. Akane felt the metal
trunk of the overturned vehicle. It was still hot. A nearby fire
hydrant was broken and streaming water out and onto the side of the
road.

"Talk about property damage! This is SO cool!" A brown haired student
said approvingly. Traffic had been cut off, and police were starting
to arrive, but even they knew to keep their distance. Already, the
streets and roads were clear - no one was getting near the area, and
those that were already there were generally wise enough to get the
hell out of Dodge while they still could.

"Where are they?" Mousse looked around and grabbed his friend's
slender shoulders. "Ukyou! I can't see them anywhere!"

"Idiot!" Ukyou smacked him on the back of the head. "That's a
telephone pole."

"Oh." Mousse scratched his head, nervously. "Sorry."

Ukyou just sighed and shook her head. "They should be around here
somewhere. I can't tell where, though..."

"There!" Nabiki pointed up, and on cue, the half complete building
trembled slightly, and one of the supports seemed to just give out,
collapsing part of the third floor, and a greater deal of the fourth
and some of the second. Before anyone could say anything else, an
explosion rocked the same area.

"Yeah... that's them alright!" Akane was about to head in that
direction, when something small and fast cut her off.

"I don't think so, Miss Tendo." Cologne stood on her staff, her voice
level and calm. "No one is getting near them. It's too dangerous for
any of you."

"That's my... those are my friends in there!" Akane tensed to try and
push past the old woman.

"Just try it, little girl." Cologne's voice left little doubt that she
was going to follow through with her unspoken threat.

"Vile troll! Thou wouldst dare threaten the beautiful Akane Tendo?"
Kuno stepped forward dramatically, bokken raised, his hair catching
the breeze. In the background, lightning flashed. "You would dare
incur the wrath of the BLUE THUNDER?"

Cologne blinked.

"Well, fiend? Spawn of Ogres? Evil midget? Old... mountain woman?"

"Are ...you for real?"

Kuno laughed. "Yes, I am the great Blue Thunder, and you would be wise
to supplicate yourself and entreat my forgiveness, troll woman, lest
you taste the bitter sting of my mighty blade!"

"Stupid stick-boy." Shampoo tapped him on the shoulder. Kuno turned,
and came face to face with a set of knuckles, the pride of the Amazon
village.

"Truly... thou doest have... a strong punch.... Maiden," The scion of
House Kuno mumbled, as he slowly wilted and fell to the ground.

"Oww!" Shampoo rubbed her right hand. "Stick boy have too hard head."

"No kidding." Nabiki turned away, towards the building. "Ryouga-kun...
Don't..."

"Stand still and DIE!" Ryouga kicked, and his shin smashed into, and
through, a metal bracer around an already destroyed door. Ranma took
particular care to avoid those blows. Ryouga had, previously, kicked a
metal support column, and deformed it enough that the floor above them
had given in and come down all around them. Ryouga had somehow, taken
it in strike, and kept going, almost like it hadn't happened.

Ranma could feel that he was starting to tire. He suspected Ryouga was
more than a little winded, too, but not nearly as badly as he was. The
slightly smaller boy's lungs hurt, legs hurt... virtually every muscle
hurt, and protested every move, and howled in pain with every blow
that made it through his defenses. Even hitting Ryouga was beginning
to hurt, and Ranma could see that his knuckles were bloody and raw,
from hitting the lost boy. How long had they been fighting? It felt
like hours... maybe more than a day...

"Damn you, stand still! You blasted COWARD!" Ryouga's fist plowed into
a wall, and Ranma ducked out and away from the enraged Hibiki.

"Come on, you swine," Ranma taunted, hoping the bold words would make
up for lacking actions.

Ryouga didn't buy it.

"YOU...!" Ryouga reached to his side, and pulled out a large brick.
"Bakusai Tenketsu Tokudan!"

"Special?" Ranma gasped, and watched as Ryouga threw the brick. It was
a good throw, but Ranma easily dodged it.

Ryouga reached for another, from a pile of them. "Bakusai Tenketsu
Tokudan!"

Ranma dodged it again, and it fell somewhere behind him, missing him
by several inches. "What are you doing, P-chan? Wasting time?"

"Baka!" Ryouga's hands moved quickly, throwing one brick after
another. Ranma easily dodged them all.

"Che!" Ranma laughed, his cockiness returning full force. There were
hastily thrown bricks lying all around him. "Some Special attack! More
like the 'Short Bus' Express!"

"Yeah?" Ryouga took a step forward, and draw his belt.

"Yeah!"

"Yeah?" Ryouga smiled, and the belt became a belt sword.

Ranma clenched his teeth, and took a step back... onto one of the
bricks. He saw Ryouga step back, an instant before the brick exploded
under Ranma's foot. The pigtailed boy fell back, onto three more
bricks. In seconds, the entire floor was consumed in a blast of hot
air, bits of metal and wood and mortar raining down everywhere. Ranma
blinked, having blacked out for a few seconds, and found his whole
body numb and unresponsive. He looked up, and saw, behind the stars
and pretty dots of light, a massive hole in the ceiling, bits of
sparking wires and plaster hanging lazily from its edges.

He also felt... wet.

"Oh no." He groaned, his voice high-pitched and no longer his own.
Ranma got to his feet, quickly, remembering that Ryouga was probably
only one or two floors up. He looked down, at his chest, and saw them.
Jugs. He was female - at the worst possible time. Ranma groaned, and
then looked back forward just in time to see a familiar form crash
through the ceiling, and land on both feet, still wielding a Ki-blade-
sharp belt sword.

"Finally showing your true colors, Saotome?" He smirked, and advanced.
"Don't think flashing your goodies will help you either... it's
nothing I haven't seen before."

"Shut up!" Ranma looked behind him, quickly, and saw that the puddle
of water he'd fallen into, caused by an icebox he'd fell onto, and
smashed to bits. It wasn't nearly enough to be of any real use against
Ryouga.

"Don't even think about it." Ryouga spat a bit of blood to his left.
"No fountain of water is going to save you this time."

"I said shut up!"

"Oh no. This is my party, and I'll talk if I want to." Ryouga took
another step forward. "I think I'll stop you with my Yubisaki Ishimi
Miketsukan, then either pound you into a fine paste, or..."

His belt sword sliced cleanly through a concrete pillar. "Or... you
know."

Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Stupid pig. You still don't get it, do you?"

"What?"

"You think Akane cares about you? You think she's your friend? She
only talked to you because I told her to!" Ranma saw Ryouga visibly
flinch. "I know about Uuchan, too! Guess what, P-chan? My idea! I told
her to be nice to you, but frankly, she's getting kind of tired of
playing pretend."

"Y... You.... No!" Ryouga shook his head, and his voice was suddenly
very small, and very unsure, and finally... finally, very afraid.
"No!"

"You get it now?" Ranma-chan clapped her hands. "Well, good for you,
piglet, I can call you piglet, can't I?"

"I..."

Ranma smirked, driving the nail in the coffin, though he wasn't
entirely sure whether the coffin was his, or Ryouga's. "As for Nabi-
chan... let's just say that she placed her bets where they've always
been."

Snap.

"That seemed to do it," Ranma thought, taking a few steps back. There
hadn't been room for this technique on the upper floors, but down
here, there was just barely enough. "Now... all I need to do is
survive for a few seconds..."

"I'm... going... to tear... you apart." Ryouga threw his belt sword
aside. "WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!!!!!"

Outside, Shampoo blinked a few times. "Great grandmother?"

Cologne stood watch over the group, her back to the building.
Something was prickling the back of her neck and setting off her own
well honed danger sense. "Yes, child?"

"Is lower floor supposed to be glowing like that?"

Cologne turned, and saw it a moment before the heat hit her. It was
like a tidal wave of raw, red, angry Ki. Overhead, the sky darkened.
Cologne grimaced. This was worse than she had imagined.

"What's going on?" Nabiki started to run forward, but Cologne cut her
off and kept her back. "What's happening in there? I can feel the
heat...!"

"Um..." Mousse started to say something.

"We..." Ukyou blinked away tears, shielding her face with her arms.
"We have to do something!"

"There is nothing any of us can do." Cologne could feel it, now; the
Ki was coming off in steady waves. "Except stay away."

A spiral was forming.

Ranma moved like he'd never moved before. Ryouga was attacking him in
an almost insane fury, with little vestiges of technique or style
left. They'd both been long drowned out by the pure hatred and rage
boiling out of the lost boy's aura, and crashing into everything
nearby. Papers nearby had either burned away, or been blown to ash.
Ranma himself, could feel the heat, even protected as he was by his
Soul of Ice. Just a few more steps... just a few more.

Behind him, Ranma heard a wall fall apart from the air pressure of
Ryouga's blows alone. The lost boy was attacking without true
technique, yes, but his speed and power were both at incredibly high
levels. A single blow from him, to Ranma's weaker female body, and
she'd barely have enough time to scream before he set on her and tore
her to bits with his bare hands. Looking at Ryouga, Ranma could barely
see any hint of the occasionally friendly, always depressed or shy
lost boy that he'd thought, once, that he could have been friends
with. There was nothing left of the little boy, who cried tears of
bitterness over his 'theft of the curry bread.' Those things seemed
like a lifetime ago.

Maybe they were.

It was too late now.

Ranma felt himself near the center of the spiral. He'd trained with
Cologne, and he'd seen it in action, but Ranma had never actually
executed the Hiryu Shoten Ha. He'd come close to thinking about using
it, just to make sure he could actually do it, before he found out
Ukyou's secret. Ukyou... he could have, would have, eventually used it
on her, before he found out. His thoughts on her, and the past, he
hesitated in the present for a fraction of a second. In that instant
of indecision, Ranma saw the specter of death, cloaked in the garb of
anger-given-form. He hesitated, and saw a fist, Ryouga's, crackling
with power, descending on him like the vengeance of an angry god. A
sudden chill came, past muscle... past bone... deeper somehow, and
touched Saotome Ranma. A dull resignation came and went. Saotome Ranma
doesn't lose!

Saotome Ranma doesn't LOSE!

And Saotome Ranma sure as Hell WON'T DIE!!

Strength rose up from where there had been none, and a fist ascended,
in defiance of death. And the Spiral... Roared.

Electricity danced from the bottom floor of the building under
construction, arching along metal supports, before climbing high to
meet the lightning from the sky in a terrible clash that blew out
wiring and lights on the entire structure, overloading electronics
completely and exploding nearby streetlights. But even the crack of
thunder was drowned out by the noise from below. It started low, like
a distant rumbling one only felt deep in the pit of one's being. Then,
steadily, it rose in power and pitch, from a low base, to a towering
howl, like a hundred thousand wolves, crying to the night sky for
companionship... or release.

"Nani?" Nabiki held onto the nearest person, in this case Ukyou, for
support. The ground was shaking, "Another explosion!"

"Worse!" Ukyou squinted, and pointed at the building. "Look!"

Like the death of a flower, bit-by-bit, the building expanded, and
started to simply break apart from the inside. It was almost like
nothing was happening at all, when, suddenly and without any prior
warning, the uppermost floor erupted like a volcano, spraying wood and
panes of broken glass, and metal and even I-beams into the sky. There
was total stunned silence, save for the gathering howl of the wind,
and the cracking, creaking death throes of the building caught in its
epicenter.

"No." Akane seemed ready to run to the building, but Mousse held her
shoulder, and she stopped.

"Please, Tendo Akane ..." He said, his voice shaky.

"But." She gulped, fighting back tears. "Ranma... Ryouga..."

Mousse was about to respond, to say something, anything, when the
building finally reached its limits, and exploded outward, in a
strangely beautiful way, before being drawn inward into the still
growing tornado that, by now, stretched from the bottom floor up past
the clouds. Clouds that were, even as he watched, fleeing the area
like scared sheep. Massive arcs of lightning had free reign, moving
from one airborne piece of metal to another, on its way down to the
ground. Floor by floor, the building was sucked up, funneled into the
tornado effortlessly, and drawn up and away, into apparent oblivion.

"Tendo Akane!" Mousse quickly snaked an arm around the younger girl as
she started to rise off the ground. Feeling himself being drawn off
his feet as well, the male Amazon threw a chain that wrapped around a
nearby telephone pole.

"Hold on!" He gritted his teeth, and looked around. He saw Ukyou,
holding onto Nabiki, and Shampoo trying to drag the still unconscious
Kuno away. Cologne was nowhere in sight, and before Mousse could try
and look for her, his glasses slipped off his face, and he was
effectively blind.

"Shampoo!" Ukyou felt herself get lighter. "Shampoo! Get Kuno out of
here, damn it!"

"I trying! Stick boy heavy!" Shampoo 'eeped' as she left her feet,
still holding Kuno. She screamed, as the gale force winds began to
suck her in to the spiral. Already, the Chinese girl could see broken
glass, wood, and even massive steel columns spinning around in a dance
that promised death to any caught in its embrace.

"SHAMPOO!!!" Mousse roared. "Shampoo! Where...?"

"There!" Mousse heard Akane yell. Firm hands grabbed his chin, and
pointed his face in another direction. "There! Hurry!"

"Right!" Mousse drew back his spare hand, and said a silent prayer. He
could barely hear Shampoo through the wind. His hand snapped forward,
with a heavy weighted yoyo at the end of a firm length of string. He
lost sight of it, and for a moment, feared the worst, then, a strong
weight tugged at the line.

"Do I have her? Do I?!" Mousse needed to know. Was it her, or...

"You've got them. Both of them!" Akane's voice was joyful, and
relieved. Shampoo and Kuno were hardly her best friends, but that
hardly mattered right now. Mousse could barely smile, it just didn't
seem like enough. Quickly, he and Akane concentrated on taking turns
reeling the other two martial artists in.

"Nabiki!" Ukyou felt her grip on the other girl lessen. "Nabiki, hold
on, damn it! Don't let go!"

"You... think I want to?" Nabiki held onto Ukyou's hand like a
lifeline, which it effectively was. Ukyou's other arm was wrapped
around a sturdy concrete telephone pole, which was the only thing
keeping her from being swept up into the all-consuming winds.

"Nabiki! Just... just... Nabiki!!! NO!!" Ukyou felt the older girl's
hand slip through hers, and saw her form disappear into the blinding
wind. "NABIKI!!!"

Nabiki balled her fists and screwed her eyes shut as she fell out of
Ukyou's grasp and into the merciless fury of the Hiryu Shoten Ha
Tornado. The winds had been raging for some time now, and she knew
there was no way it would die down before she was drawn into the
funnel and consumed. A sense of total weightlessness came over her,
and coupled with a mental distancing from what was happening made the
entire experience feel almost ethreal. Tiny bits of... something flew
into her, and bit into her flesh, given more than enough kinetic
energy by the gusting winds that were, even before she could come to
terms with the situation, tearing away at her.

Maybe it was defiance that caused her to open her eyes.

Or simply a lack of caring. If she was to die, she might as well see
it coming. Long lashes protected her, somewhat, from being blinded by
bits of everything, or even just the wind, caught in the storm.
Unexpectedly, her ears popped. Looking below, there was nothing but
haze, but up above, she could make out objects, some small, some huge,
and some of intermediate size. Her mind realized it for what it was: a
killing zone. The height of the tornado had collected a great many
things, and it was currently smashing them against each other, like a
brutal gladiatorial game at ten... or maybe fifteen thousand feet. She
was cold, too.

Awfully cold.

It wouldn't matter in a few seconds. She'd be smashed to paste in the
killing zone, anyway. A little cold was only an inconvenience before
death. But, then again, Tendo Nabiki had always disliked inconvenience
a bit more than one normally did. What a fate! Caught up in some
stupid battle between two equally stupid macho idiots. They couldn't
have just had a pissing contest or something that wouldn't destroy
swaths of the city, could they? No... martial artists who just
happened to be boys. Boys who just happened to be capable of razing
buildings, and, just by chance, they had to hate each other.

She'd have to remember to haunt them.

Both of them: But especially Ryouga.

At least he could carry a conversation. Besides, he looked a lot
goofier when people surprised him. Deciding to make at least a little
noise before the Big Crunch, Nabiki inhaled deeply.

Ryouga Hibiki had had better days. He'd had better years. And there,
indeed, had been a time when he didn't look like he'd been dragged
through hell and beaten within an inch of his life. Another impact
came, without warning, and Ryouga felt his clothes buckle and give
out. He'd been slammed and beaten around by assorted heavy objects for
what seemed like hours. He'd quickly used his own Yubisaki Ishimi
Miketsukan on his shirt, and tucked in his legs, after the first few
had him seeing stars. He was barely holding onto his aura, the only
thing keeping him in one piece - the tornado seemed to feed off of it,
but finally, at least, it was dying down.

Ryouga had dissolved his shirt, finally, when it was nothing but torn
fiber and patches of hardened cloth. The lost boy snarled, as a chunk
of steel girder met his back at well over a hundred miles per hour,
before slipping to the side and disappearing back into the melee that
was the uppermost portion of the Hiryu Shoten Ha. He cursed it
mentally, and covered his face only a second before a small hailstorm
of glass shards, almost invisible, cut into his arms and legs with a
vengeance. Just a little longer... ride it out... survive...

Ryouga's eyes widened and his ears burned.

That was the loudest profanity he'd ever heard.

And... it hadn't come from him...

Ryouga looked down, pin pointing the general area of the voice, and
recognizing it after only a second or so yelled out in reply.
"Nabiki!! NABIKI!!"

He strained his ears, listening, but didn't get an answer. Taking a
deep breath, Ryouga streamlined his body, and plunged steadily
downwards in what he hoped was an intercept course. The winds were
cutting, now, and not kind to those that struggled against them so
actively. A cut slowly formed on a weakened patch of skin on Ryouga's
face, spraying a trail of blood over his ear, and onto his bandanna
before it was sucked upwards into the maelstrom.

"Ryouga!' Nabiki saw him, just barely, his flickering red and black
aura like a beacon in the night. Her voice was hoarse from yelling
that one titanic obscenity, but she tried, regardless. "Ryouga!
Ryouga!!!"

He seemed to be looking around.

"Ryouga! You better not get lost on me now, damn it!"

The aura shifted slightly, paused, and blazed brighter, like a comet,
as he raced down, against the wind. She could see his face now... why
was he blushing? Nabiki looked down, and saw that her collar had been
shredded, and that she was displaying a fairly generous amount of
cleavage. If he passed out now, they'd both be as good as dead.
Covering herself with her hands, Nabiki sighed inwardly. The whole
situation might have been really funny if not for that imminent and
continuing threat of intense bodily harm.

"Nabiki. What are you doing here?" He closed in until they were face
to face, his blood flow now back under control. A strong hand reached
out, took her by the shoulders, and brought her close to him. Without
another word, he seemed to surround her like a glove, or a shield,
against the biting wind and shards of debris. His arms encircled her,
and pressed her to his chest. For the first time in what seemed like
forever, she felt safe.

"Nabiki." He said again. "Are you alright?"

Nabiki bit back a retort about nearly dying, and instead simply shook
her head. No longer constantly battered by the elements, she could
feel her wounds, and cuts and scrapes and a hundred other things,
vying for attention in her mind with increasing levels of pain. Nabiki
wasn't used to it, not at all, and she surprised herself when tears
never came. She'd never hurt so badly before, and for some reason, she
couldn't cry if her life depended on it.

"Just hold on. I'll get you out of here." He moved, and changed his
position so that he was standing straight, and she was on top of him.
He angled himself so that the wind hit his back, and still shielded
her, as he skimmed down the edge of the tornado. Nabiki saw his arms
fold gently over her abdomen, holding her firmly in place. He was up
to something, and her ears popped again, as they descended rapidly.
The sudden realization of what he planned on doing hit, and she
reached down, her hands on his. The air was whizzing by now, and
everything was a blur.

    Nabiki closed her eyes, and felt his aura around her get stronger
until it literally enveloped her completely. It felt like pinpricks on
her skin. It felt almost alien, and she resisted it. It was starting
to burn, and she had to fight not to shudder. The emotions were coming
strong, now, and with will alone, she let the Ki into her all at once.
He was giving this to her, giving himself to her, and she could taste
the anger, the rage, the depression, every emotion from every fold of
Ryouga's mind entered hers. She saw memories, hidden memories, of a
boy, barely old enough to tie his shoes, alone in the forest. His
first tears... tears of loneliness and abandonment - his only tears
for such a thing, and then never again. Never again, because it became
all he knew of life.

Hidden memories.

She saw him, only a little older now, with a large man, his face
marked with stubble. Ryouga attacked, and the man parried the blows
easily. Words of encouragement from his father, especially... so rare
as to be more precious and treasured than the most expensive jewels.
Hidden memories. Memories of being lost, of searching for days to get
to school, only to face quiet mockery at the hands of cowards. The
humiliation. The hate... was palpable, directed not so much at his
tormentors, as it was at himself. Darkness. She saw a dark sea, with
no end, no island, and no hope of rescue.

And Tendo Nabiki cried.

Ryouga found solstice from the agony of the descent in his mind. He
concentrated on directing his Ki into Nabiki, letting it seep into her
body and her bones and her soul, fortifying her. When the impact came,
the final impact, she would need it to survive, even as it left him
feeling drained, and suddenly, very weak. His mental barriers and
controls began to slip, and as they did, he felt the feedback from his
charge. He found himself in another body, wracked by the shadow of
ever-present demons.

He could see, now.

Brief flashes, like a slide show: a woman and her three girls. He saw
himself... herself... watching, from behind the screen of the dojo, as
another girl, young, with bluish black hair, sparred with an older man
in a white gi. The sadness, the loneliness, the fear of rejection and
...nothingness was like a wave. Failure. It washed into Ryouga, and
through him, like an unstoppable tide. Hidden Memories. He saw Kasumi,
young, probably only thirteen, on the tips of her toes, cooking next
to a tall woman. Both had their backs to him. Kasumi looked over her
shoulder, and he seemed to lock eyes with her for only a fleeting
moment, before she turned back to helping her mother, and her mentor.

Hidden Memories.

Then, Ryouga felt something strange, uncomfortable, and yet familiar.
He saw a boy, with wavy black hair and a perfect smile. Somehow, this
boy was charming and suave, despite his youth. A single red rose in
his hand rose to eye level, and things got light. It was, he noted,
the sort of lightness at the apogee of a climb, before the
inevitability of gravity, and life, brought things crashing back down.
The black haired boy turned, tied a white bandanna around his head,
and suddenly, the rose became a wooden sword - a bokken. He spun, his
back to her, and went towards someone else... a young woman, her hair
long. It took a moment for Ryouga to recognize her like that.

Tendo Akane.

Hidden Memories.

Ryouga opened his eyes, a tiny sparkle of wetness appearing, and then
disappearing into the wind, as if it was never really there.

And then, there was Silence.



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