MAGICAL GUARDIAN RANMA!

PREREADING AND EDITING ASSISTANCE BY:

Howard Melton,
Philip Jacobs,
Jeff Denniston
Lord Talon,
And some guy named Steve.

DISCLAIMER: 'Ranma �' and all characters therein belong
to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. This
fanfic has been produced for my own enjoyment and to pass
on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfic
 may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other
fanficts, RPGs, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even GASP
American comic books!).

CHAPTER FOUR:

Fire raged in the family room of the Tendo home, a blazing column of
flame that consumed the clothes from Akane's floating form in an
instant. Along with the table, part of the floor and ceiling, and most
of Kasumi's kimono.

The fact that Kasumi was apparently uninjured was noted by Nabiki,
although she wasn't sure whether that was because Akane's fire
couldn't hurt her sisters, or because Kasumi was out in the yard,
having been carried their by a now eight foot long (not counting the
tufted tail), giant sabertooth kangaroo rat with blue fur.

Nabiki's own sensation was that of boiling. Not being boiled, or
broiled, or even burned but literally boiling. From what she could
see of herself, her body was now boiling water, somehow maintaining
a human shape, with a sapphire suspended on the back of her right
hand. Not uncomfortable, really, so much as kind of warm and ticklish.

"AKANE! STOP!" Nabiki yelled at her younger sister, who was
barely visible through the pillar of flames. Abruptly, most of the
flames vanished, leaving Akane to drop suddenly through the hole
in the floor!

"Eep!" Akane landed awkwardly but unharmed on the somewhat
charred ground below the Tendo house. Sitting up, she noted that
she now had her own Magical Girl costume. It was very similar to
Nabiki's, being what appeared to be biker shorts and a sleaveless
halter that may as well have been painted on, with complimenting
boots and gloves. Only in shades of orange with red, brass and
copper trim.

"Cool!" Akane chirped happily,  noting that there was even an
unoccupied fitting in the brass plate on the back of her right hand.

"NO, Akane, Hot," Nabiki remarked sarcastically as she put out the
remaining fires in the family room. "so hot that you  practically burned
down the house!"

Akane looked around, noting to her chargin the amount of damage
her transformation had caused. Then she noticed Kasumi in the back
yard, mostly naked and hanging tightly to the very large, very shaggy,
and very dangerous looking blue furred sabertoothed kangaroo rat
that was carrying her close to its chest....

O O O

Ranma, for his part, was starting to feel somewhat embarassed. Mostly
due to the state of Kasumi's attire (or rather, her current lack of same),
but partly for not considering the possible side effects of the various
elemental transformations. Granted, he had no way of knowing what
Akane's elemental affiliation would have been ahead of time, nor had
he actually seen Nabiki's transformation, or even Shampoo's for that
matter. On one level, he was dead certain that none of the
transformations were supposed to be that dangerous and out of
control, but on another level he couldn't say why he was so sure
that this was not normally the case.

Taking care not to look directly at the eldest Tendo sister's mostly
bare body, Ranma tried to set Kasumi down carefully.

Except that Kasumi was having none of that! She continued to cling
tightly to this large, furry (and not in the least bit on fire) guardian
that had rescued her from being burned alive by her youngest sister.
She had felt the heat of Akane's fire, painfully hot as her own kimono
was rendered into ashes nearly instantaneously. A fate that Kasumi
was sure to be her own until this wonderful beast grabbed her, taking
the pain away and removing her from danger.

Kasumi began sobbing into Ranma's shaggy azure fur out of a feeling
of shock and intense relief.

O O O

"What are you doing to my sister!?" Akane yelled at Ranma, amber
eyes glowing with anger  and long red hair swaying violently side to
side as she aproached the monster in her back yard. She'd take care
of this youma and then...

Being grabbed by her shoulder from behind, spun arround, and
slapped by Nabiki was not part of Akane's planned sequence of
events.

"Akane! Calm down right now! This very instant!" Nabiki commanded
angrily.

"But..."

"I mean it! Ranma is not harming Kasumi at all! In fact, he got her the
hell OUT of danger! Danger YOU put her in!" Nabiki pointed out, her
voice practically dripping with venom.

"But, Nabiki... I only..." Akane tried to explain tearfully.

"But nothing, Akane! You nearly burn down the house, incinerate
your own sisters, and now..."

"Enough!" Ranma interupted Nabiki's angery tirade. "It was an
accident. None of the transformations are supposed to cause this
much incidental damage. Not even fire, not that I had any idea what
her elemental affinity was going to be. This was just a stupid, scary
accident, and nobody was actually hurt, so enough already!"

Nabiki shook her head, forcing herself to calm down and regain her
own composure. Ranma was right, and she could see that she had
been overreacting in much the same way that Akane had, although
at a different target. "I'm sorry, Akane."

"Yeah..." Akane responded sheepishly. "Me too." Getting a better
look at the scant remains of Kasumi's attire, she exclaimed, "Oh!
Kasumi! I'm so sorry! I ruined your best kimono! I'm sorry! I'm so
sorry!"

Kasumi began to calm down, not that she was letting go of the
giant plush toy that had saved her, and sniffled a couple of times
before responding to her sister's attention. "I'll... I'll be all right,
Akane. I just had a bad scare. I'll be fine."

"Um..." Ranma started in halting embarrassment. "Can I put you
down now?"

"..." Kasumi burried her face in the azure fur covering Ranma's chest.

"Well?" Ranma asked again, plantively. Or as plantively as an
eightfoot tall sabertoothed kangaroo rat with blue fur and sapphire
eyes could.

"No."

Ranma would have joined Akane and Nabiki in their collective
facefault had it not meant possibly injuring Kasumi in the process.

O O O

Elsewhere in Nerima, five boys wearing animal masks had once
again roughed up one of their favorite victems not too long ago.
Hikaru Gosenkugi was angry, depressed, and, well... mostly
depressed really. It wasn't like anger ever did him much good. When
it came to classic fight or flight responce, his adrenal system was
every bit as pathetic as the rest of him, failing him when he needed
it the most.

What he needed was a protector, someone strong, who was able to
strike fear in others, and could back it up. And yet at the same time
be caring and gentile. This was part of the reason he had fixated on
Akane, who was normally such a sweet person, and yet was able to
bull her way through thirty or forty boys at the start of every school
day for the past month. Not that he thought about it in such an
analytical fashion. He just felt a longing, nearly instinctive, need for
Akane.

Now if only he could get up the courage to actually talk to her!
Without thinking, Gosenkugi lashed out and punched a wall out of
sheer frustration.

"Ow!" The frail boy examined his bloody knuckles and winced. His
mother wasn't going to be too happy about this, and he wasn't too
sure how his father would take it either. Or if he would even care
about what happened to his son for that matter. What if it got infected?

Gosenkugi decided to rush the rest of the way home so he could
get some antiseptic.

Which was fortunate for him because he missed the arrival of a
gang of street toughs who would have been angry about how his
bloody knuckles had ruined their stylized occult tag.

Unfortunately, for the wannabe gangbangers, they had gotten to
their territory just in time to witness an arival of another sort.

R'hul casually examined the pack of feral humans that had attempted
to attack it, apparently out of some territorial urge. Not that the fight
had lasted long, as they had proved to be young, undisciplined,
and lacking in both will and power. At the moment it had them all
paralysed with fear.

Pathetic, really, because it wasn't even capable of projecting
emotional attacks.

Still, its cursory inspection was giving it some clues as to why they
might have retreated into the dark, gibbering recesses of their souls.

R'hul had two arms, two legs, a head with two eyes, all roughly
where they should be for a human and certainly close enough to
pass for human in a dark alley in the middle of the night.

However, as it was still early evening, there was still far too much
light to effectively hide its less human features, like the sharp talons
on its hands, and tentacles on its face. Many tentacles. Way too
many tentacles, where the nose and mouth should be.

Tentacles that R'hul now extented from its 'beard' toward the
unfortunate gang of boys.

R'hul had need of them...

END CHAPTER FOUR

O O O

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: I love R'hul! R'hul loves me!

Gosenkugi decided to rush the rest of the way home so he could
get some antiseptic.

Which was fortunate for him because he missed the arrival of a
gang of street toughs who would have been angry about how his
bloody knuckles had ruined their stylized occult tag.

Unfortunately, for the wannabe gangbangers, they had gotten to
their territory just in time to witness an arival of another sort.

R'hul casually examined the pack of feral humans that had attempted
to attack it, apparently out of some territorial urge. Not that the fight
had lasted long, as they had proved to be young, undisciplined, and
lacking in both will and power. At the moment it had them all
paralysed with fear.

Pathetic, really, because it wasn't even capable of projecting
emotional attacks.

Still, its cursory inspection was giving it some clues as to why they
might have retreated into the dark, gibbering recesses of their souls.

R'hul had two arms, two legs, a head with two eyes, all roughly where
they should be for a human and certainly close enough to pass for
human in a dark alley in the middle of the night.

However, as it was still early evening, there was still far too much
light to effectively hide its less human features, like the plush,
mitten-like hands, plump body that looked like it was coated in
purple and green fabric, long spongy tail, and large head that looked
about as much like that of a T-Rex as a teddy bear resembled a grizzly.

"AAAAAHHHHHH! A Barney Otoku! Run away! Run away!"

R'hul pondered over whether it should have tried a different form first...

O O O

SPECIAL TREAT - FFML EDITION:
Akane Tendo as a magical girl - Two pics
http://www.forsaken-innocence.com/images/mgart/Magical_Girl_Akane_0.jpg
http://www.forsaken-innocence.com/images/mgart/Magical_Girl_Akane_Bust.jpg 



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