"Today we're going to meet one of the more mysterious of our staff here at Youkai Academy: Miss Fran Madaraki!"
Standing next to the nekomata was the aforementioned school nurse, a slightly vacant expression on her face.
"So! Miss Madaraki! I hear you're actually the daughter of a famous scientist!" Shizuka said, moving closer to the blonde.
Fran nodded fondly. "Yes, I am, more or less. Doctor Naomitsu Madaraki is a genius, called the Devil of Biology. I was created to replicate his work as best as possible."
She lowered her head in a show of modesty. "Although my talents are less than inadequate in comparison to Doctor Madaraki, I still hope to use my limited expertise to help those in need."
Shizuka patted the blonde on the back roughly. "Don't be like that! I hear that the students are very happy with your work!"
Fran nodded. "That is true. The students here don't seem as..." she trailed off as she searched for the right word. "... picky... as my previous patients. I've logged far fewer complaints since I begin working here."
"And why did you come here in the first place?" Shizuka asked curiously. "You're not really a monster, even if you're not quite human, right? You were living fine amongst the humans, so why the switch?"
"Monster anatomy is a field which is grievously under-explored the world over," Fran explained dutifully, smiling. "This is in part because the human population mostly doesn't know that monsters exist, and in part because monsters couldn't pass a biology exam to save their lives."
Fran was silent for a moment. "Literally. I heard that Professor Richard administers those exams."
As Shizuka sweatdropped, the school nurse continued. "It is my hope that while I am helping those in need here, I come across secrets of monster biology that can be used to further medical science in the human world, such as an organ that is universally transplantable, or a regenerative agent that can be safely applied to human tissue."
Shizuka nodded. "I see. Very admirable! Have you had much success?"
Fran considered the question. "The work here keeps me rather busy, so I have only limited time for proper research. However, I have managed to collect numerous samples for eventual study."
"Samples?" Shizuka asked, blinking in confusion.
Fran shrugged. "Not as many as I would like. Professor Richard can be quite thorough when he wants to be."
Shizuka's face slowly paled. "Okay, we are definitely NOT having that psycho on this segment," she mumbled.
"It's just as well; I doubt that a nekomata would have any organs of particular interest," Fran mumbled as the homeroom teacher twitched.
"Y-Yeah... until next time..."
Black Dragon Productions proudly presents
a Ranma and Rosario Plus Vampire crossover
Well, the responses from the last chapter were encouraging. I actually have more complaints about Tsukune acting too assertively than I do that Moka nearly got her ass handed to her.
Key: Writing/Emphasis, Sounds, 'Thoughts', "Speech", (Comments that you can freely ignore), 'Inner Moka'
Big Human on Campus
Chapter 8
Turnabout is Literally a Bitch
The nurse's office was busy again.
It was a common enough occurrence at Youkai Academy that it didn't even bother Tsukune anymore, even though he was usually sensitive to such things; after almost any event of note, be it a major classroom brawl or a school-sponsored rally, injured students poured into Youkai's medical facilities by the dozens with a wide variety of maladies ranging from smoke inhalation or frostbite to dismemberment or hyper-accelerated aging... sometimes all in the same patient.
Tsukune personally thought it was terribly unfair to Fran Madaraki, no matter how many of the golem-like assistants she had on call (which was another uncomfortable mystery: did the strange, hulking nurses have a dormitory, or were they put into storage like common appliances?).
If Fran herself agreed, however, she sure didn't show it. The sprightly blonde seemed unusually animated by all the activity, rushing back and forth across the office while listing orders for her assistants. He supposed it was the only time she really seemed animated; most times she seemed rather placid and lethargic, but at times of emergency something seemed to spring to life within her, lending her energy to match the monstrous requirements of her job.
It might also have lent her two extra pairs of arms. Tsukune wasn't sure whether the new appendages were some manifestation of her monster form or what, and he consciously determined not to think about it as he waited impatiently by Kurumu's bedside.
"All right, Miss Kurono, I think that should just about do it," Fran mumbled as her lower sets of arms poked and massaged Kurumu's back while her upper-most set wrote furiously on a clip board and occupied most of the blonde's attention. "Let me know if you feel any sharp pain."
Kurumu grunted at the attentions, but said nothing as Fran worked some numbing agents into her back. She had been stripped down to bra to let the nurse do her work, and was both surprised and annoyed that Tsukune had barely noticed; on the one hand, sure, she wanted Tsukune to see her topless as often as she could get away with, but on the other it was clear that her beloved's mind was elsewhere at the moment.
Also, the nurse probably should have had something to say about it, too.
"Good, it seems like the treatment is working," Fran said before checking off something on the clipboard. "It's been quite some time since I've had so many cases of blunt trauma at once."
Then the stitch-covered blonde turned toward Tsukune. "By the way, is Saotome here as well? I had heard he suffered considerable damage during the incident."
Tsukune shook his head. "Ranma left to rest, I think." After a moment, he added, "I guess he likes to deal with it on his own when he can get away with it."
Fran frowned. "That's not good. Accumulating injuries without having them properly treated and corrected can lead to long-term complications. Please make sure he comes to get checked out at his earliest convenience."
"R-Right. I'll mention that to him," Tsukune said pensively. "How is Moka doing?"
Fran's upper arm that was holding the clip board quickly thumbed a few pages back. "Ah, Miss Akashiya. The contusions were severe, and she had a torn ligament, as well as numerous fractures..." then the nurse smiled. "However, given that Miss Akashiya is a vampire, I simply gave her a blood pack and let her rest. She'll be good as new very soon."
Kurumu raised an eyebrow. "You gave Moka a blood transfusion?"
"No, I said I gave her a blood pack," Fran corrected.
The succubus sweatdropped. "Ah. I see."
Tsukune looked surprised. "Wait, so she just needs to drink some blood?"
"Vampires benefit from a much better rate of biological respiration than most creatures," Fran explained as she continued perusing the notes. "A well-fed vampire can suffer nominally critical injuries and recover in hours. The only matter of concern is that their unique metabolism requires a great deal of blood plasma to compensate for the intense energy drain of enhanced regeneration."
Kurumu and Tsukune shared a confused glance, being unable to make any sense of that explanation.
"So, what you're saying is that Moka will get better if she drinks more blood, right?" Tsukune asked. "If that's the case, then I can don-"
"No," Fran said firmly, suddenly turning away from her notes to give Tsukune a stare that stopped him dead. "I am well aware of Miss Akashiya's consumption habits, and it is extremely unhealthy. Anemia is nothing to be taken lightly, Mister Aono. Although I have no right to impede your personal decisions outside of this office, as the school nurse I have a responsibility to discourage explicitly unhealthy behavior. As long as I am responsible for Miss Akashiya I will not allow her to feed upon other students."
Tsukune winced. "W-Well, I mean, if it was an emergency..."
"Lunch can't ALWAYS be an emergency," Kurumu said evenly as she put on her shirt.
"So when do you think she'll be released?" Tsukune said, trying to ignore Kurumu's jibes.
"I'd like to keep her for at least the rest of the day, so she'll miss her classes and club activities," Fran mumbled. "But if possible I want to see Miss Akashiya on her feet and out of bed by this afternoon. The beds are already full from the battle, and I expect more patients as the day goes on."
"Why is that?" Tsukune asked, scratching his head.
"Conflict breeds conflict," Fran said dispassionately. "After seeing a major combat, many of the students feel energized and restless, and often find it harder to restrain themselves. In addition, because the participants of the initial conflict are rarely chastised or punished for their breach of school rules, it reinforces the assumption that violent conduct is a legitimate form of conflict resolution."
Tsukune frowned. "Speaking of which, weren't those four monsters in the black jackets Enforcers? How can the school let the protection committee abuse their power and totally neglect their duties?"
Fran shrugged. "I know very little about it myself, save what I've heard injured students complaining about. From what I can tell, they tend to enforce mundane rules and victimless crimes, but shy away from stopping fights or punishing violent crimes. The general consensus seems to be that the Enforcers want to avoid open challenges to their authority. I can't guess why the headmaster tolerates their activities."
The nurse glanced at her clipboard, filled out a few lines, and then bowed to Kurumu. "If there will be nothing else, I have other patients to attend to."
Before Tsukune could say anything, Kurumu quickly asked, "Is Moka in good enough shape to see us right now?"
Fran nodded and pointed with her lower right hand toward a room near the back of the office, next to a woman who was wrapped up from head to toe in gauze like a mummy (strangely enough, Tsukune got the distinct impression that the woman was part of the nurse staff, not a patient). "She's right there. If you'll excuse me..."
Moka flinched as the curtain in front of her room slid to the side, and she slowly turned her head to the side as Tsukune and Kurumu walked in silently.
Although the crushing agony of her earlier injuries had receded to a weak, dull ache, she still tried to avoid sharp movements as Fran had recommended.
"Oh! Kurumu, Tsukune! Hi!" She said cheerfully, smiling.
"Hi Moka!" Kurumu said cheerfully back before Tsukune could say anything to defuse the tension in the room. "I'm glad to see you're all right! Now you can tell us what the HELL happened to you this morning!"
Moka flinched again, and her smile dimmed considerably. "Ah. Well... that's... complicated."
"Well, we've all been excused from classes, so please, educate us," the succubus said sharply, crossing her arms under her breasts.
"Kurumu, please, calm down," Tsukune asked, wincing. "Whatever happened back there-"
"What HAPPENED back there was that a good friend of ours got sucker-punched, humiliated in front of half the school, and then was nearly beaten to a bloody pulp!" Kurumu said heatedly, all traces of good humor evaporating. "And for what? Because he annoys you? Ranma's never laid a hand on you! What did he do to deserve that?"
Moka briefly considered bringing up her first meeting with the pigtailed boy, where he had seemed ready to punch a stake through her in Tsukune's defense, but relented. If it was for Tsukune's sake, Kurumu probably would have done worse in his place, anyway.
"I know, you're right," Moka said wearily, dropping her eyes to her lap. "There's not too much I can say about it, actually. The... 'other Moka' you saw is my... well, I guess you could say she's my true self. Or perhaps my... first self."
The vampiress clutched her Rosario tightly in her hands. "My true personality and power was sealed with the Rosario Without it, I become... well..."
"Egotistical, violent, and psychotic?" Kurumu deadpanned.
'Better than being useless and timid.' Came a snide response from within Moka's head. 'Perhaps Saotome isn't the only insect I should squish next time I emerge.'
Moka winced badly, and Tsukune immediately moved in front of Kurumu.
"Are you really okay? We can talk about this later if-"
"NO, Tsukune!" Kurumu interrupted, grabbing the human boy and yanking him back. "We're not going to slide this under the rug! Don't you feel bad at all for Ranma getting beaten black and blue for no reason?"
Tsukune glanced at Moka, laying quietly in the medical cot while wrapped in bandages and looking ashamed and subdued. Then he thought back to the end of Ranma's fight with Evil Moka, and the way the pigtailed girl had brushed off the encounter by declaring she would have won before leaving to take a nap.
"Well... sure. I feel... bad for Ranma," Tsukune hedged, "but I don't want to take it out on the real Moka."
Moka felt a twinge in her heart at hearing Tsukune describe her as being "real".
'Was that idiot not listening at all? I'm the real Moka!'
Kurumu turned back to the vampiress. "So why was your power sealed, why does it turn you into a completely different person, and WHY didn't you tell any of us this before? Did you really think the Rosario would never happen to come off?"
Moka shook her head. "It doesn't come off. Or at least, it's not supposed to. Something... happened when Tsukune touched it." She chewed her lip pensively. "As for why I didn't tell you guys, I..."
She frowned as she considered the question carefully. "I don't know. I don't really try to hide it, normally. But..."
Moka suddenly looked up. "Ranma."
Tsukune glanced behind him, and looked confused when he saw that the other human wasn't present. "Eh? What about him?"
"Ranma... puts me on edge, a bit," Moka mumbled.
"Ranma IS good at pissing people off, it's true," Kurumu admitted, "though that doesn't justify attacking him out of nowhere."
"That's not what I'm saying," Moka groused as she turned her gaze away. "But Ranma... I didn't want him to know about me," she admitted. "I've never really thought hard about it before, but Ranma... scares me. If he thought I was dangerous, I wouldn't be able to defend myself against him."
Clang! The sound of a fist striking metal caused the vampiress to jerk her head around, the words already forming on her lips to defend herself from Kurumu's accusations.
Those words died when she realized that it was Tsukune, not Kurumu, who had slammed a fist into the metal table beside her cot.
"Is that really how you look at Ranma?" Tsukune demanded, his fist clenched tight despite the fact that it probably hurt quite a bit from the impact. "Even after this, you still won't trust him?"
Moka recoiled, honestly shocked. She had never seen Tsukune so furious before, and a quick glance at Kurumu revealed that she wasn't the only one surprised. "After this? You mean after he-"
"After he rushed to our rescue - AGAIN, mind you - nearly got himself killed standing up to Evil Moka for your sake, and then brushed it all off the moment you came back to your senses?" Tsukune said, stepping forward as Moka shrunk back. "Evil Moka could have killed him for no other reason than because she didn't like his attitude!"
"He could have ended the fight much sooner if he wasn't so stubborn!" Moka shot back, her own expression heating up.
"So what?" Tsukune asked, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "Why should he have to give up and be humiliated? He thought you were in trouble! He didn't know that you and Evil Moka are pretty much the same person because YOU refused to trust him that far! Do you really think so little of him that you think he'd attack someone just because they could pose a threat? Do you really think he's the kind of person who could hurt an innocent person on some stupid excuse?"
Moka looked away again. "I don't trust violent people." She was quiet for a few seconds while Tsukune bristled before she added in a whisper, "Including myself..."
Tsukune felt his irritation soften at her words, and once again found his instinctive affection for Moka fighting against his will to defend his friend. "That's... Let's leave it at that for now," he grumbled, rubbing his head wearily as he backed away from the vampiress. "We've all just been through a lot, and I think we all need some time to think things over. I'll see you later, Moka."
Tsukune turned and walked stiffly out of the room without another word.
Kurumu, who had remained silent all throughout Tsukune's outburst, gave Moka a long, searching stare, her eyes locked on the Rosario
Then she turned and followed Tsukune out into the office.
"I just don't understand how she could treat him like that," Tsukune mumbled to himself as he made his way through the veritable maze of injured students lying on metal slabs and cots. "Well, actually, if she was upset about all her injuries I could understand, although that's not really his fault either, but I can't believe she's actually afraid Ranma will hurt her."
Kurumu snorted. "That's not what Moka is afraid of."
Tsukune froze to a halt as he reached for the door leading to the hallway, and then his head jerked back toward the succubus. "What? What do you mean?"
Kurumu smirked as she moved ahead of her beloved, pushing the door open for her and then leading him into the hall. "I mean, even Moka, as timid as she is, doesn't seriously think Ranma is going to beat her up or kill her. In a way, it's really naive of her, but I'm pretty sure she thinks Ranma is every inch as honorable as you do."
Tsukune looked quite confused. "But... why else would she be scared of him? And why would she lie about it?"
Kurumu hummed thoughtfully to herself as she strolled down the hallway, hands clasped behind her back. "Wellll... I never said that she was lying, really. But what if it wasn't our Moka who was scared?"
Tsukune blinked. "Evil Moka?"
"Right. They share the same body, right? They can't be completely separate from each other. What if the emotions of one bled over into the other to some degree?"
Tsukune nodded slowly, completely hooked by Kurumu's theory. "That would make sense... Evil Moka wouldn't have really been so bothered by Ranma otherwise... and she didn't hurt me even when I stood up to her."
"Exactly!" Kurumu chirped as she whirled around. "Of course, that begs the question: why would Evil Moka be scared of Ranma? Because he might bully her?"
Tsukune shook his head. "If our Moka doesn't think of him that way, there's no reason Evil Moka would. Besides, she's way too strong for anyone to beat up on casually."
Kurumu grinned. "Then what could she be scared of? What could unnerve a vampire, known as one of the strongest monsters in the world? Why would Evil Moka's first independent act be to rush headlong into battle with someone who more or less considers her a friend?"
Tsukune's brow creased as his expression darkened. "She's not afraid of him beating her, necessarily. She's afraid that she can't beat him."
Kurumu said nothing, her eyes twinkling.
"That's it, isn't it? Evil Moka told him to 'know his place'. She wants to make sure he knows she's stronger than he is, and she's nervous that she might not be." Tsukune sighed. "It's funny... even after knowing Moka since school started, and even letting her feed on me... I still don't know much about vampires."
Kurumu's smug expression melted away. "Well, in all fairness, the Moka we know isn't much like the vampires from stories. Actually, if it weren't for her biting you all the time, I couldn't have guessed what she was." Then she frowned. "Evil Moka is way more in line with what I've heard: powerful, contemptuous of lesser beings, and above all, prideful. Ranma could rub someone like that wrong in all sorts of ways."
Tsukune nodded, his face an expression of determination. "We have to tell him."
The succubus blinked, and then looked uncertain as she scratched her head. "Well... there's no reason not to, I guess, but..."
"But what?" Tsukune prompted, wondering why Kurumu might hesitate to tell Ranma about the persisting threat brooding within one of their closest friends. The fact that Evil Moka was not simply a spell of madness or the fruition of an enemy's plot meant that every threat to the Rosario around Moka's neck was also a threat to Ranma's safety!
"But, well..." Kurumu shrugged. "Do you think he'd care?"
Tsukune sweatdropped. "Ah. Point taken."
Ranma groaned as she stretched her body, trying to get the kinks out of her back as she left her dorm room and kicked the door shut behind her.
"Ah... good nap. And classes are almost over, too."
The redhead scrubbed her hair with her hand as she thought over the events of earlier in the day. "Hmm... I think my ribs aren't one hundred percent yet, but I still want to attend the Fight Club meeting. Besides, I doubt Wildman will let me duck out of a meeting just because of a few broken bones." Riza seemed more hard-core than most of her trainers in the past, if far more serious about it. She hadn't yet gotten to spar directly with the assistant gym instructor, but she was sure it would be a tough battle.
'Wildman's the only fighting monster I've seen so far that doesn't telegraph her power. Well, unless you count Moka, I guess,' Ranma thought. She supposed that hiding an incredibly powerful other-self for so long even from one's closest friends also counted as subtlety.
That thought made Ranma frown, and she suddenly turned sharply before walking down the hall to the door immediately next to hers.
She knocked, and then waited patiently as a muffled stomping noise came from the other side of the door, as if something massive was walking toward the entrance.
After a few seconds, Chopper Rikishi opened up his front door, staring down at the vaguely familiar redhead in confusion. "Yeah? Who're you?"
Ranma blinked in surprise at seeing who was at the door. "Chopper? You live next door? I didn't know that," she mused, ignoring his mounting confusion as to who she was. "Anyway, can I talk to Mizore for a minute?"
Chopper stared, and then silently backed away before craning his neck to look inward.
Sitting on the floor next to the wall Chopper shared with Ranma and Tsukune was Mizore. She was hunched over to minimize her profile, and had a doctor's stethoscope on with the dish planted against the wall.
She also had a massive sweatdrop hanging from the back of her head as she remained where she was, pretending that she hadn't been discovered.
"Do you know who she is? The last few days she's just been popping up in here and messing with the wall. Whenever I try to question her she just flicks ice cubes at me until I give up and head out to the gym," Chopper grumbled. He wasn't particularly inclined to use force on random girls unless there was a fight involved, but he rather hoped there was some sort of explanation for the constant intrusions. The girl took up valuable floor space which was vital for doing push-ups, and whenever she was around the air conditioning seemed to crank itself up automatically.
"She's just a friend of mine, that's all," Ranma said, brushing off the troll. "Hey, Mizore, do you have any good pictures from that fight with Evil Moka this morning? I was too busy dodging all the kicks to get a good view of them, and I wanted to see if I could get a look from another angle."
Mizore remained absolutely still for several seconds, as if there were some chance that she might go unnoticed. Then, finally, she nodded blankly, still facing the wall.
"Cool! I'll look 'em over later. I have to get to my club right now."
Without further comment the pigtailed girl turned away, but was halted when Mizore suddenly spoke.
"Wait. Ranma..."
Ranma turned her head back, ignoring Chopper's perplexed gaze as the troll stared intently at her breasts, searching for some sign of deceit in her body.
Mizore had finally turned away from her endeavor, and her face looked slightly tense as she took off the stethoscope and looked at Ranma. "Are you..."
"I'm a guy," Ranma said, guessing her stalker's question as Mizore trailed off. "It's a magic curse. I turn into a girl with cold water, and back into a man with hot water. It came from China. Cross-dressing isn't a hobby of mine. I do know my measurements for disguise purposes, but I don't like to give them out, and no, I don't play with myself when I'm like this. Anything else?" She asked, running through the list of answers to the most common questions she got when someone new discovered her curse.
Mizore hesitated for a moment before she shook her head. "I should have known, actually... you only have boy's underwear."
Ranma shrugged as she turned away, once more heading out into the hall. "Yeah, I really hate wearing pan..." she trailed off awkwardly, thankfully avoiding her humiliating revelation as she suddenly considered Mizore's humiliating revelation. "Wait, how do you know what kind of underwear I have?"
Ranma spun around, but was too late as Mizore hopped out of Chopper's window, making her escape.
"So... you're Ranma SAOTOME?" Chopper finally asked, flicking one of Ranma's breasts with a finger and watching it bounce. "So you're some kinda shape-changer?"
Ranma spared the wrestler an irritated glance. "I JUST explained this. I'm not a shape-changer, I'm human! It's just a curse!"
"Yeah, and I'm captain of the chess club," he chuckled, grabbing one of the redhead's mammaries with his enormous hand and squeezing to further confirm their substance.
"If you don't get your hand off me, chess will be the most active thing you'll be able to do," Ranma growled, her eyes narrowing to icy blue razors. "I've never dislocated a spine before, but I'm a QUICK learner."
Chopper jerked his hand back as if it was on fire. "All right, all right! Yeesh!" After seeing the pigtailed girl's dangerous expression fade, he continued. "So, are you done here? I finally have my whole room back, and I have, like, two thousand push-ups to do. If I don't start training again right away I'll NEVER catch up."
Ranma felt all of her annoyance at the wrestler melt away at the thought of such dedication to his training, and she nearly shed a tear as she bowed to the massive student. "Right! Catch ya later!"
Five minutes later Ranma burst into the front door of the room that the fight club used, her hand shooting into the air.
"Ranma Saotome, reporting for fight club!" she shouted, standing at attention like a soldier as all activity in the room ground to a halt.
There was absolute silence for several seconds as the various club members stared blankly at her.
And then, all at once, the small crowd erupted.
"All right! He's back! Erm, SHE'S back!"
"Awesome match, Saotome! You walloped that vampire!"
"Can you believe that runt cut you out right at the end? You freakin' had that bloodsucker on the ropes!"
"Oi, do you actually know that chick? 'Cause depending on whether you're actually a girl or not, I have these tickets for a movie on Friday..."
Shooting a quick glare at the last speaker, Ranma held her composure as Riza Wildman started pushing her way through the excited ring of fighters, letting the praise wash over her like water. Ranma's ego normally ate up sideline gossip, but in this case there was someone she genuinely wanted to impress.
Riza shoved aside a pair of her club members roughly, and then stared down at the shorter redhead through narrowed eyes.
She couldn't hold the expression for long though, and she sweatdropped as she looked Ranma over. "Is that really you, Saotome? What the hell happened to you?"
"Magic curse," Ranma said, shrugging. "I'm actually a guy."
Riza frowned as she poked one of Ranma's breasts, seemingly annoyed at the shorter girl's assets. "Hmph. That's a pretty convenient curse, I'd say."
"Convenient my ass," Ranma grumbled, scratching the back of her head. "If I'd had my normal form during the entire fight against Evil Moka, I would have taken her down before Tsukune could have stopped me."
Riza smirked slightly. "I heard a thing or two about that. Good work, Human." Then her smirk turned into a sadistic grin as she cracked her knuckles. "Those vampires are a real pain in the ass. We need to teach them who's boss right away, before they start causing trouble."
"Ah... right," Ranma mumbled, a bit unnerved by the gleeful rage in the woman's eyes. "I honestly don't even know what that fight was about. I only fought Evil Moka because she attacked me."
"You don't need to understand vampires. In fact, it's better if you don't," Riza said snidely. "Worthless bloodsuckers..."
Ranma was about to excuse herself to her training when Riza continued.
"And speaking of worthless... OI! Eyebrows! Get your sorry tail over here!" Riza growled.
Ranma was fairly surprised at the irritation in the werewolf's voice as Kouma started pushing himself forward from the back of the crowd, having kept his silence while everyone else erupted into praise for Ranma's battle. He seemed rather confused at the sudden summons, and slightly pensive as well.
His tension turned to fear as Riza suddenly grabbed him by the head and dragged his face almost nose-to-nose with her own. "Wh-What? What's wrong?" he mumbled, a blush spreading across his face as Riza's hard yellow eyes bored into his dark crimson ones.
"You're the Human's partner, aren't you?" Riza snapped angrily. "You were at the fight, weren't you?"
Kouma gulped and tried to nod, but it was hard to do with Riza's shockingly powerful grip on his skull.
"Then why the hell were you standing on the sidelines while your partner was going toe-to-toe with the enemy?" Riza snarled. "The fight club lives or dies as a pack, Eyebrows! When you let the shape-shifter down, you let us all down!"
There was a great deal of surprise at Riza's sudden fury all around, but Ranma was by far the most stunned. She wasn't sure how to feel; slighted that Riza thought she needed help in a fight or impressed at her insistence to forge camaraderie into her members. There was even part of her that was analyzing Riza's argument and feeling a little miffed as it considered that the taller redhead was right.
Although her most prominent emotion was by far the hope that Riza wouldn't start referring to her as "shape-shifter" from now on.
Kouma recoiled, his legendary temper faltering completely in the face of the sudden dressing-down. "B-But, he was-"
"He was fighting for his life against the enemy! Is there a REASON you let him take on a vampire all on his own?" she demanded.
Kouma froze up. There was a reason, but it was the worse kind: he wanted to see Ranma lose. Ranma was an annoyance, an arrogant and overbearing peer who had proven himself a superior fighter, and that jealousy constantly fueled his resentment for the pigtailed boy, easily overwhelming the grudging respect he felt for the other fighter and the mandate of the fight club. If Ranma lost, that would have taken him down a peg. If he had been injured, then perhaps it would handicap him enough that Kouma could replace him as the best fighter in the club. There were several reasons for him to turn his back on his unwanted partner, but not a one of them would erase the contempt in Riza's glare. Having his actions shoved in his face like this, and being exposed before all of his peers for the petty creature he was, Kouma felt his pride wither within his chest.
"Oi, Wildman, hold up. It wasn't like that," Ranma said suddenly, grabbing the taller redhead's attention.
Riza raised an eyebrow. "Really? From what I heard-"
"Look, I don't know what the peanut gallery told you," Ranma mumbled wearily as she scrubbed her hair with her hand, "but that wasn't a life-or-death struggle at all. It was a personal fight. I guess Moka has some kind of split personality, and one of them hates me slightly more than the other one, but she's not an enemy. Well, I don't think so; I was kind of out of it when Evil Moka was talking about her being the 'true self' or whatever."
The pigtailed girl shrugged. "The point is, you can think of it as an honor duel. I wasn't gonna kill her, and she probably wasn't going to kill me. I wouldn't have let Kouma jump in if he tried."
Riza quickly let go of the stunned hellhound's forehead. "Oh, s-so that's how it was. I see." She gathered herself up and nodded to Kouma. "Never mind then, Eyebrows. I got ahead of myself, there. You're NEVER to interrupt an honor duel between warriors!"
The head of the fight club quickly turned away from the chastened monster. "All right, that's enough gawking! Get back to your training! By our next meeting, Saotome better not be the only one with a decent fight on his record!"
The other club members let out a cheer as they quickly broke up into their usual pairs, rushing into their sparring groups with renewed vigor.
Kouma, for his part, slunk away silently the moment Riza's attention was off him, and Ranma watched the hellhound leave the room before she slipped out after him.
'Yeesh. Either Eyebrows isn't very aware of his surroundings or he's really worked up,' Ranma thought to herself as she walked down the halls after the hellhound. She wasn't being particularly stealthy, but Kouma walked stiffly down the halls toward the exit, his head down and seemingly unaware of anything around him.
'What's with him, anyway? You'd think he'd be happy to get out of that mess.'
Kouma pushed the door open and stepped outside, pulling himself to the side the building before fishing around in his pocket.
After a moment, he pulled out a cigarette and then stuck it in his mouth before gently touching his index finger to the tip.
"Hey, I didn't know you smoked."
Kouma made an extremely undignified yelping sound as he jumped, and the hot-tempered monster whirled around to face the intruder.
Ranma was leaning out the window next to him, her elbow planted on the sill. "You all right? You left in a hurry back there, and we haven't done any training yet."
Kouma forced himself to calm down, and once more touched his finger to the end of the cigarette. "I... needed some time to think, that's all," he mumbled as the tip of the cigarette lit up with a bright orange glow.
Ranma made a face as Kouma inhaled deeply. "You know, those things are really bad for you. They probably cut your lung capacity in half."
Kouma gave Ranma an odd stare as he took a deep drag off the cigarette. "Saotome, do you remember what kind of monster I am?"
"Doggy," Ranma said without hesitation. Then she yanked her head back as a thin stream of embers shot past her face, searing the wall outside the window. "What? Did I guess wrong?"
"I'm a HELLHOUND, idiot," Kouma snarled, smoke pouring from the side of his mouth.
"So what?" Ranma asked, sticking her head out again.
"SO, where do you think hellhounds are from?"
Ranma considered this carefully before she replied. "Well, I know you can get them at the pound, but I think most people prefer pet stores."
This time she had to pull herself entirely within the building as a jet of fire roared past.
Once Ranma peeked out again, an extremely irritated Kouma continued his explanation. "Hellhounds come from the underworld, moron! As in HELL. Do you know what the air is like in Hell?" He took a deep drag from the cigarette, his expression becoming momentarily serene. "It's full of ash and hot as an oven. In places, it's full of toxic chemicals that could knock out a troll with a single sniff."
Ranma watched in fascination as Kouma spoke with a distinctly fond expression. "Sounds awful."
"Of course it would sound that way to someone used to... THIS," Kouma grumbled, waving a hand around haphazardly to indicate the atmosphere. "But a hellhound's lungs separate the toxins and flammable gases from the air and uses them. If I breathe too much clean air, my body temperature starts to drop, and I find it harder and harder to breathe fire."
"So you smoke?" Ranma asked curiously, actually quite interested in this new revelation.
Kouma shrugged as he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and stared at it. "It's a surprisingly good approximation of Hell. These 'Marlboro' guys are probably mostly devils."
With that, the hellhound suddenly opened his mouth and flicked the cigarette inside, swallowing the butt with a slow, savoring gulp.
Ranma looked slightly sick at the sight, but Kouma paid it no mind as he gazed out at the bleak landscape surrounding Youkai Academy. "Hey, Saotome? Why did you come to Youkai Academy?"
"I got kicked out of my old school," Ranma mumbled, just a slight edge of bitterness in her voice.
"For what? Fighting?" Kouma pressed.
"I had to rescue my fiancee from a race of stupid bird-people in China," Ranma groused. "As a result, I missed too many days to make up and the principal expelled me. So basically it's all that jerk Saffron's fault."
The pigtailed girl suddenly turned around and glared at Saffron, who had been approaching from behind her in the halls. "That's right, I said it! Why the hell should anyone have to die for an oversized space heater like you?"
Saffron's expression darkened as he stopped dead in the halls, having come along at a particularly bad time in the conversation. "I... actually wanted to thank-"
"Nobody cares, bird-brain. Scram," Kouma said, glaring through the window as the Phoenix King turned around and walked off, sulking.
Ranma leaned out of the window further. "How about you? Do you have a real reason for being here?"
Kouma grimaced as he turned back to the bleak landscape, leaning against the outer wall of the school building. "I was sent here by my mother. She..."
The hellhound suddenly tensed up, as if feeling physically ill from making this statement to the pigtailed girl. 'No, don't hesitate, damn it! If I can't even tell him a little thing like this about me, I'll never learn to actually trust this guy! And if I don't trust him, we won't be able to fight together! And if we can't fight together, Miss Wildman will just think I'm slowing him down! She'll hate me!'
The last thought send an electric jolt of fear down his back, and he quickly went on. "My mother wants me... to be a lawyer."
There was dead silence for several seconds as Ranma stared at the back of Kouma's head.
"PFFT!" Suddenly, the martial artist snorted loudly as she tried to hold in laughter. "Are you-kkk!-serious? A lawyer! Ha! That's priceless!"
A vein popped up on Kouma's head as he wallowed in regret. 'I... can't trust this guy at all, can I?'
"Aren't you more the type who causes lawsuits?" Ranma asked between giggles.
"Yeah, well, that's why I'm here," Kouma growled out, forcing himself to continue. "Because of my temper, I hurt a lot of humans back where I lived. So my mother sent me here to try and learn to hold back better."
Ranma's chuckling died off at the thought of Kouma getting angry and hurting possibly innocent people, though she decided there was little point in chastising the hellhound for it. "Wait, I thought you lived in Hell."
Kouma winced, surprised that Ranma would pick up a detail like that. "I used to... a long time ago. It's a long story."
Ranma snorted as she rolled backward out the window and landed in a squat at Kouma's feet. "Well, I've got all day since it looks like we're not sparring, so go ahead and tell me."
The hellhound looked away uncomfortably. "It's not that interesting a story, really..."
"Well, it's sure to be more interesting than whatever excuse Moka has for turning into a nasty psycho, and that's the only other back story I have waiting for me if I go meet up with Tsukune, so get to it," Ranma ordered.
Kouma felt a small spark of defiance well up within him, but smothered it immediately. "All right, fine. Where to begin..."
After several long seconds of staring down into the dirt, Kouma spoke again. "I hate my dad."
"You're preaching to the choir, Eyebrows," Ranma murmured, unimpressed by the sudden admission.
Kouma ignored the commentary. "Ever since I was a newborn puppy, my dad raised me to be a warrior. A guardian. We were the chosen ones, the foremost protectors of the realm of the dead. Day in and day out... and during the night-time too, I guess - it's not like there's night in Hell - I trained with my father, becoming stronger and stronger to guard the gates of the Underworld on my own some day."
Ranma nodded slowly as images formed in his mind of a tiny black puppy playing with a gigantic burning hound the size of a tour bus.
"I was supposed to be the best of the best. Our family line was such that each generation of hellhound always rose to greater heights than the last, always surpassing the power of its ancestors. Selective breeding, harsh training, grueling encounters... Hell is a difficult place to live under any conditions, but what a warrior guardian has to go through to attain his post is the equal of any torment heaped upon the damned," Kouma grumbled, scrubbing his hair with his hand.
"Okay, so what went wrong? Why do you hate your dad?" Ranma asked. "And most importantly, why are you in school to become a lawyer when you already have a gig lined up for you?"
Kouma grit his teeth, and hot smoke thick with ash seeped out of his mouth as he spoke. "All those questions have the same answer. I was barely ten years old at the time-"
"In dog years?" Ranma asked, blinking.
She grabbed the haymaker before it could impact her face, and grimaced as the halo of flame around Kouma's fist seared her hand. "All right, all right, sorry! Go on."
Kouma yanked his hand back and his expression turned grim once again. "You might be wondering what, exactly, a guardian of the gates of Hell guards against. As you may have guessed, the job mostly involves keeping things from getting out; there aren't many souls eager to get in."
Ranma's image of father and son hellhound training together shifted, and he imagined the pair of fire-breathing canines pouncing on ghosts among a backdrop of lava flows and smoldering rock.
"Every once in a while, though, we do get visitors," Kouma said in a low growl as his rage slowly built from the flickering candle constantly burning within his heart. "Five years ago was the last time it happened. It was the dark elves. They can harvest souls and use them, I guess, and souls in Hell are especially valuable because of the suffering they've been through or some nonsense like that. I don't really get why, but as the story goes a party of the pointy-eared sickos charged the gates of Hell on a raid. Naturally, it's as much the hellhound's job to repel intruders as it is to keep the denizens contained."
Ranma noted curiously that despite the detached and detailed manner in which he explained the story, the hellhound's body was slowly growing hotter and his eyes glowed with a furious blood-red light. Getting an idea, she started rummaging through her things as Kouma continued.
"The dark elves came, and... he betrayed us. ALL of us!" Kouma exploded, his hands clenching into fists as his eyes seemed to bore down into the ground as if staring at the very scene of the crime. "My father, guardian of the gates of Hell, most powerful of the hellhounds and the pinnacle of our family line, turned traitor! The elves ran rampant through the fire plains, took all the souls they wanted, and then left. TAKING MY DAD WITH THEM! That bastard not only neglected his duty and dishonored our name, but then he just LEFT me and my entire family!"
Ranma frowned as she slowly filled a tea kettle with water from a nearby hose. "Is there more to it than that? It seems to me like there's something else about it that's bothering you."
Kouma tensed up as Ranma's appraisal struck home, the slowly expanding anger within him, once a mere candle flame, building into a raging inferno.
"That... That worthless... despicable... WEAKLING... he..."
Kouma's eyes snapped up to meet Ranma's, and the pigtailed girl was honestly taken aback by the glowing spheres of hatred that burned furiously where the hellhound's eyes had been. Staring into those twin suns, she felt like she was being swallowed by fire, as if the demonic hound's gaze was searing her very soul.
"He became their PET!" Kouma finally snarled, a corona of fire erupting around him.
Ranma's expression fell as the earlier effect of staring into Kouma's eyes was abruptly cut short. "Huh? He did what?"
"Their PET!" Kouma repeated, baring his fangs as he clenched his teeth. "They came to the gates with a well-seasoned steak and a meat bone, and then they all took turns petting him as he ate it up! They were playing frisbee with him on the fire plains as the soul-catchers did their job, and the last I saw of him, he was wagging his tail like an idiot on board the dark elf ship as the raider captain gave him a belly rub!"
Kouma was panting furiously as he dug up his most hated memories, puffs of black smoke laced with flame blasting from his mouth. "Even now, I bet he's holed up in some decadent dark elf palace, chowing down on fine meat and milk bones! I'm sure he plays around with the elves all day and goes on long hunts with them to take down incredible creatures! He probably even has his own harem, the filthy coward! All for shirking his thankless, life-long, honor-bound duty to guard the most wretched place in the universe!"
Ranma sweatdropped. 'I don't blame him. Not one bit.'
Kouma seemed to calm down slightly after the initial venting, although an aura of fire still flickered around him. "After that, our family line was dishonored, and the lords of the underworld decided we were no longer trustworthy guardians. They installed a security system and manned the gates with a few of the airport security guards that enjoyed the strip-searches a bit too much for Heaven's tastes, and then booted my family out of Hell. We are exiles in this world, never to return to our ancestral home."
Ranma stared as the hellhound deflated, clearly ashamed by the ordeal he had just related.
"So... lemme get this straight: your pop betrayed your family, and as... a punishment... your family got to leave the land of eternal damnation?"
"Don't make it sound like he was doing us a favor!" Kouma snapped angrily, "We had a fine and glorious duty! He betrayed everything our line and my life stood for! The shame that he-"
Fweeeeeeet! Kouma's rant was interrupted by a rapidly building whistling noise, and the hellhound blinked in confusion as he realized that the sound was coming from directly above him.
He also realized, as Ranma stood up and took her steaming kettle from his back, that the weight he had been feeling on his shoulders was NOT the crushing burden of his dishonor, as he had assumed.
"Thanks for the hot water. It's how I turn back into a guy," Ranma explained as she poured a thin stream of the stuff over her head. Wincing at the temperature, Ranma's form rapidly expanded as his chest shrunk, and before Kouma's curious gaze he was soon in his birth gender.
"So no wonder you get all worked up whenever anyone makes a dog joke," Ranma deadpanned as the tea kettle vanished behind his back. "But I don't really understand where all this goes from here on out. I mean, are you going to do anything about what happened, or just move on with your life?" Personally, Ranma suspected that Kouma's plan mostly involved furious rages as his guilt and anger ate away at him from the inside, but he didn't want to present that as a real option to the boy.
"I want to do both," Kouma said firmly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "My mother wants me to learn to live among humans and make the most out of my new life here. Fine. If I have to put up with this stupid school for that to happen, I will."
Then the hellhound gripping a shaking fist in the air in front of him. "But I'm going to get my father back for what he did, too! I won't give up my training, and I'll become even stronger than him! And then I'll hunt him down like the miserable deserter he is, and give him a deserter's judgment!"
Ranma thought that was a little bit too intense considering the elder hellhound's "crimes", but kept his opinions to himself for once as Kouma stood up to stand eye-to-eye with him.
"But to do that, I'll need help," Kouma admitted seriously, his red eyes grim. "As I am now... I'm too weak, too unstable. I need Miss Wildman's teaching and I need the conflict that I see all around this school in order to get stronger. And I... I need..."
The hellhound took a deep breath before he finally forced out the words he had been holding back. "And I need you, as the better fighter of us two, to help me move forward and overcome my weaknesses," he finally blurted out.
Ranma froze, caught completely off-guard by the sudden admission, and feeling a sympathetic pang in his heart that had been becoming more and more common lately.
Sure, people came to him with their problems all the time in the past, whether they were (ostensibly) his friends or his worst enemies. But they had always been tangible, immediate problems that were more often than not the fault of whoever was pleading for assistance. They only came to him because Ranma's reluctance to back down before a challenge and his peerless abilities made him the best tool available, especially as the pigtailed boy usually neglected to ask for anything in return.
Kouma wasn't asking him to beat his father for him or teach him a useful technique, but rather making a place for himself at Ranma's side, admitting his inadequacy and asking Ranma to help him overcome it. Not as a bothersome neighbor leeching off his more successful peers, but as a partner and friend.
Kouma raised an eyebrow. "Are... Are you crying?" he asked, perplexed.
Ranma quickly swiped a hand over his face. "N-No! Of course I'm not crying! All that ash you're always blowing around just got in my eyes, that's all!" the pigtailed boy snapped.
Kouma recoiled slightly. "Okay, whatever..." the hellhound trailed off, uncertain as to whether he had touched a nerve or not.
Ranma took a moment to compose himself and then started walking past Kouma, indicating that the other student should follow. "Anyway, that's a pretty interesting story. I guess I can see why you'd be mad at your old man." He shrugged. "Actually, my pop was a real idiot too. This stupid curse is his fault."
"Really? What'd he do?" Kouma asked, curious about Ranma's story now that he had told his own.
"Well, when I was younger, my pop decided to take a trip to China..."
Tsukune steepled his fingers as he sat down across from Kurumu and Yukari, his expression grim and serious.
"I know that the mess this morning caused a lot of confusion surrounding Moka and Ranma, but there's another angle we haven't been looking at, and I think it's important."
"What would that be?" Kurumu asked as she slid her chair closer to Tsukune. She loved it when Tsukune was forced into taking on the role of leader; without Ranma's presence and power smothering everyone around him or Moka to distract him, the usually timid boy fell into the role quite easily.
"The Enforcers," Tsukune grumbled, leaning back as he scratched his chin. "This is the third time that I've seen the Enforcers go after Ranma, and now they've even started attacking us just for being close to him."
"What did Senpai do to them in the first place?" Yukari asked as she idly thumbed through a book. Unlike Kurumu, she didn't seem nearly so enthusiastic to be deferring to Tsukune.
Kurumu snorted. "From what we heard from Miss Madaraki, it could be anything. They only enforce the school rules when they want to attack someone or get bribes. Do you really think it'd be hard for them to come up with a violation from Ranma?"
"That's not so much what concerns me," Tsukune mumbled, seizing the girls' attention once more. "If people want to attack Ranma, THEY'RE the ones risking their lives, after all. I'd like to help put a stop to it entirely if I can, but I'm more worried that in this last case they attacked us, and didn't even have a flimsy pretext for it."
Tsukune stared down at the table for a long moment, and then finally looked up at Yukari. "Yukari, do you know who the leader of the Enforcers is?"
"His name is Kuyo," Yukari said as she flipped through a student roster. "I'm not sure off-hand what kind of monster he is, but he definitely uses fire." She turned the book around to show Tsukune a Kurumu a picture of the man. "A senior who hasn't graduated, presumably because he has an 'ongoing responsibility to the school and maintaining order'." The picture boasted a man with long white hair and a long, pale face. He had a wide, exposed forehead which sported a pair of strange black spots that seemed to be some sort of tattoos.
"He's just a tyrant who doesn't want to give up his position," Kurumu spat.
"Probably true, but it seems he's pretty good at it," Yukari offered, shrugging.
Tsukune nodded thoughtfully. "And who does the Protection Committee answer to?"
"Ostensibly they're controlled by both the Headmaster and the Student Council, actually," Yukari mentioned, her voice slightly puzzled. "I can understand how the Headmaster wouldn't care as long as the school hasn't turned into a charnel house, but I can't account for how they get away with their actions so easily under the watch of the Council. Those are elected positions after all, and the Enforcers are tremendously unpopular."
Kurumu sighed. "I can guess why. Whether or not the structure of the school apes a human school's, they're all still monsters, after all. When the Protection Committee threatens, bribes, and assaults the members of the Student Council, they don't use their authority to punish them, they fall into line."
Tsukune nodded darkly. "I suppose the threat of expulsion would seem kind of hollow coming from someone with a claw at their throat," he admitted. "So the Student Council has authority over the Committee, but can't actually stop them because the Committee can harm them. I suppose that leaves the Headmaster as the only force that can stand up to the Enforcers," the human concluded.
"Not necessarily," said a new voice that instantly caused the three students to flinch in fear.
Jadeite walked into the empty classroom with a thoughtful expression on his face and his hands clasped behind his back as he considered the members of his club. "Forgive me for the interruption. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation, but since you're all quite LATE for your MANDATORY club activities, I thought that, as the sponsor of our group, it was my responsibility to hunt... I mean, gather you all."
Tsukune watched as Yukari and Kurumu grimaced. "Uh, but Professor Jadeite, I made sure to leave you a note explaining-"
"You explained that your friend had been injured badly, and then sought to use that as an excuse to shirk your duties to me," Jadeite said, a frown crossing his face as Tsukune flinched back. "Do not think that I let my minions get away with such laxity. We will go to collect the pink-haired one from the infirmary, and then the four of you shall immediately descend into the Dungeon of Gratuitous Traps. If there's time afterward, we may yet be able to get to Overkill Cavern as well."
Tsukune pushed away the dread at Jadeite's words and instead focused on the teacher's entering comment. "Wait, when you entered, you said that the Headmaster wasn't necessarily the only force that could stand up to the Enforcers, right?"
Jadeite blinked at the change of topic. "That's correct. Just as the top-heavy one noted that the Protection Committee uses the nature of monsters to usurp authority, there are some students that reject the Committee's authority on the sole basis that they're too strong to restrain."
As Kurumu bristled at the "top-heavy" comment, Yukari blinked in surprise.
"Of course! We've seen Senpai stand up the Enforcers again and again! There have to be other students willing to do the same thing!"
"The caveat, of course, is that the Protection Committee consists of approximately three dozen battle-hardened and utterly loyal monsters that operate with a unified purpose, if not any particular notion of competence," Jadeite continued, unconsciously falling into his lecturer mode. "So it follows that any single student that resists them will eventually be overwhelmed and taken down. However, there are forces that band together to array themselves against the Committee as well."
The Negaverse General stopped to think. "I believe the fight club was prominent in this role last semester, when Wildman joined the faculty and set it up. Besides them, the monstrels get rid of anyone who attacks one of their number, so even a Committee member that takes action against them will eventually be isolated and killed."
"Monstrels? What are they?" Tsukune asked.
"Hybrid monsters," Yukari explained distastefully. "Usually when two monsters of different species breed, it produces a twisted mutant rather than a genetically stable monster. They're freaks of nature, and usually quite bitter about it."
Tsukune sweatdropped. "Oi, Yukari, isn't that a little harsh? People say cruel things like that about witches, too."
Yukari snorted. "Don't compare us witches to those abominations! Witches have a long and distinguished history!"
"Yes, you do," Jadeite agreed. "Mostly as kindling for groups of angry humans."
As Yukari's face darkened, Jadeite cleared his throat. "Well, as interesting as this topic is, it isn't getting me any closer to ultimate power. We'll depart imme-"
The military leader-turned educator was interrupted by a sudden, howling laughter that roared through the halls.
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! Oh Lucifer! You... Gasp! You can't be-HA HA!-serious! That's hilarious!" Tsukune immediately recognized the voice as Kouma's, although he was surprised to hear actual mirth from the hellhound.
The next voice everyone recognized. "Hey, it's not funny! It was the single most awful event in my life!" Ranma complained, his voice clearly moving closer to the class room.
"Of course it's funny!" Kouma insisted as he fought to hold in laughter long enough to speak. "A pit of cats? That's the sort of thing they do to sadists in the pits, man! And you went through that as TRAINING?" He let out another howl of laughter.
The pair of fighters were passing by the open doorway - Ranma sulking angrily while Kouma was brushing tears from his eyes - when Kouma noticed Tsukune and the others inside.
Immediately he pushed his way into the room, fighting his chuckling as he pointed behind himself at Ranma. "You guys! Get this! The reason Saotome hates ca-"
Whomp! The hellhound's jaw snapped shut as Ranma's foot fell onto the back of his head.
"HEY! Don't go telling that story to anyone else! That's a secret!" Ranma snapped, his face a bright red.
Naturally, Tsukune, Kurumu, and Yukari were instantly interested, and began staring at Ranma in askance.
Kouma, surprisingly, simply shoved Ranma's foot away calmly rather than getting upset. "Aw, c'mon! They're all your friends, right? They can know about it!"
Ranma immediately pointed at Jadeite, who was looking increasingly irritated with the interruption. "What about him? He's not my friend! So shut up!"
Jadeite nodded sharply as he cleared his throat. "Yes, as a matter of fact, me and the members of my club were about-"
Crack! The Negaverse General's jaw suddenly snapped shut in mid-sentence as Kouma's knuckles smashed into it, and the blond man was sent reeling in shock as pain flooded through his face.
His shock was compounded by a sense of dread as he noted several small embers flickering into being within his field of vision.
THWOOM! Everyone else in the room flinched back as Jadeite's face seemed to explode, nearly knocking Tsukune and Yukari over from the buffeting wave of hot air.
The hellhound grinned as Jadeite hit the ground like a sack of rocks, his face a smoking mess. "There. He's down now, so that makes it okay, right?"
Ranma stared as his and Yukari's teacher twitched weakly on the floor. "Whoa! I didn't know you could do that!" he exclaimed. "Also, no."
"Why not?" Kurumu said, grabbing onto Ranma's shoulder eagerly. "Tell us!"
Yukari promptly latched onto his opposite arm, her eyes gleaming. "Come on Senpai! We won't laugh!"
"You'd better not laugh! It's not funny!" Ranma protested, his face flushed.
"So that means I can tell them, right?" Kouma asked. Ranma noted with great annoyance that a curved, black-furred tail had popped out of the back of his pants and was wagging up and down rapidly.
"No, you can't! Shut up about it!" Ranma snapped.
Kouma frowned in disappointment. "Well, can I at least tell them about you being engaged to three chicks at once?"
Ranma could practically FEEL Kurumu and Yukari's eyes bulging. "Knock it off! I don't go around trying to spill your stories the moment you tell me!"
"But your embarrassing secrets are so much better than mine!" the hellhound protested.
"Three women at once? Are they all the same species?" Kurumu wondered, immediately digging for details. "Do you, like, use a schedule to handle them all, or what?"
Yukari snorted, having recovered from the initial surprise of the revelation. "Hardly surprising. You're perfect alpha male material, after all. And there are lots of monsters that have a hunting pack social model."
"It's not like that!" Ranma protested angrily. "And I told you, I'm human!"
Tsukune had been mostly silent throughout all of this, his interest in Ranma's secrets abating as soon as he noticed that Ranma really didn't want to share them. His gaze had settled on Jadeite, who was still insensate on the floor after Kouma's sucker-punch.
'One of the groups to regularly take on the Enforcers is the fight club... and Ranma and Kouma are both part of the fight club...' he rubbed his chin. 'In that case...'
"Hey, Ranma? Kouma?" he said suddenly, stepping forward in the middle of the fiasco and instantly causing Kurumu and Ranma to fall silent. Kouma and Yukari weren't so quick to listen to the younger human, but they quickly sensed the mood and reluctantly gave him their attention as well.
"Are you two free right now?" Tsukune asked cautiously. "If you are, I have a proposition that might interest you..."
"Damn. Is this really all you have?" asked a tall boy with a grim expression on his face as he gripped six hundred-yen coins in his fist. He was wearing the black long jacket and arm band that denoted his association with the enforcers, and was backed up by a fierce-looking woman in the same outfit as he glared down at a pair of much shorter students.
"W-Well, considering that there is no... uh... official fee for merely going about our c-club activities, shouldn't it suffice?" mumbled one of the besieged boys as he trembled in fear. Him and his friend were clearly part of the science club, wearing white lab coats with thick coke-bottle glasses and pocket protectors to complete the ensemble.
The male Enforcer growled as his fist tightened around the coins. "Watch your mouth, scum!" Then he tapped the armband around his bicep. "What is this? Hm?"
The pair of science club members looked confused for a moment, which only served to feed the taller student's exaggerated fury.
"Speak, worms! You're supposed to be intelligent, aren't you?" he snapped as the girl's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"It's your Protection Committee armband," one of the hapless students ventured, clearly confused as to why the intimidating Enforcer would ask.
"Exactly! I'm an OFFICIAL, granted authority by the leaders of this campus!" the Enforcer said proudly, his back stiffening. "Thus, any fee I demand is OFFICIAL by default! Is that understood?"
The small, bespectacled boy sighed in resignation. "Of... Of course. I can't really argue with that logic, can I?"
"Damn right you can't," snarled the male Enforcer. "Next time, make sure you-" he glanced back toward his partner as the fierce-looking girl tapped him on the shoulder. "Eh? What's wrong?"
When the girl did speak, her voice was like the sound of hissing steam. "We have company," she said as a boy unfamiliar to either of them approached purposefully.
One of the science club students adjusted his glasses as he peered down the hall. "Huh. That's Tsukune Aono, I believe, from freshman class C. I wonder what he wants." The boy wasn't known to be any kind of fighter, so he seriously doubted that a rescue was in order. In fact, the only reason that he knew of Tsukune at all was because the cutest girl in the freshman class, Moka Akashiya, and the second cutest (depending on which body parts one favored, perhaps), Kurumu Kurono, had both latched onto him like mussels and none of the other students could fathom why.
The Enforcers watched mutely as the harmless-looking boy approached, sharing a quick glance when the intruder cleared his throat.
"Excuse me, but you two are with the Protection Committee, right?" Tsukune asked rhetorically, pointing to the boy's armband. "I wanted to report some misbehavior by several of your fellow committee members. Should I talk to you or is there someone more senior I should see?"
The two Enforcers shared another glance, this one predatory.
"Well now, isn't that interesting. Misbehavior on the part of the Enforcers, you say?" the boy mused, approaching Tsukune with a smile. "Tell me, are you familiar with the human law 'slander'?"
Tsukune blinked. "Yes... that's when somebody lies to ruin the reputation of another, right?" Inwardly, the fairly helpless human was steeling himself in order to look the monsters in the eye without flinching. Although he was in very little real danger right now, he was still not so jaded to violence that he could calmly deal with these kinds of situations.
"Ooh, you catch on quick!" the boy said happily as he loomed over Tsukune. "Then let's see if you can finish this sentence: in order for me to forgive you for slandering my peers, who would never shame the good name of the Enforcers through so-called 'misbehavior', I'm going to need you to give me..."
He trailed off as the girl moved to flank Tsukune, a cruel smirk on her face.
Tsukune took a deep breath, forcing the words out without a stutter. "You need me to give you... warning that I think a few members of the fight club are sneaking up on you."
The reaction was instantaneous: expressions of pure shock lit the faces of the two Enforcers, and then they whirled around in a panic.
Ranma saluted lazily as he leaned against the wall next to the members of the science club, who were looking at the new arrivals with awe. Kouma was standing next to him, his arms crossed over his chest as he bared his long, dagger-like fangs.
"Yo! You guys should be more careful!" Ranma said cheerfully. "You won't be able to protect the school from rowdy guys like us if you're so easy to sneak up on!"
The male Enforcer took a step back, his gaze fearful. "No way... I thought Kuyo disbanded the fight and newspaper clubs!"
The girl hissed. "No, he merely had them attacked, not disbanded. Lord Kuyo prefers violence to paperwork. I can't believe the fight club was able to recover, though; I'd heard that every last member was killed."
"What, you don't think a little thing like a massacre of her precious students would stop Miss Wildman, did you?" Kouma snarled as he cracked his knuckles, apparently genuinely upset at the suggestion. "Whatever. The blood you spilled will be repaid tenfold!"
Ranma pushed himself to his feet and started to stretch. "If you want to give up now, you can. We have some questions to ask you and that's a lot easier if you don't have a concussion."
The two Enforcers glanced at each other, and then as one they whirled around to flee.
"Wh-What? How?" the male stuttered as he saw a large, barren wall where before had been empty hallway. "Impossible!"
Tsukune gave Yukari a silent thumbs-up as the young witch shut the book of illusion spells, having summoned a false wall to make their targets believe they were trapped. The effect was apparently such that it would vanish from the perspective of anyone who knew it was an illusion, so Tsukune and Kurumu were treated to an unobscured view of the battle to come as the Enforcers whirled back around in a panic.
"Damn it! How did this happen?" the girl snarled, her voice becoming even more high-pitched.
"Tch. So this is it. We stand and fight," the male Enforcer mumbled grimly as his body slowly started to bulge outward. "Whether you're fight club or monstrel or even part of the student council, since you've forced our hand we'll make you regret it," he growled, his voice becoming deeper and more hollow as his skin started to flatten into hard planes and darken substantially. After a few seconds his Enforcer jacket burst apart, revealing a huge body as big as Chopper's troll form, except made entirely of hard-chiseled stone.
The girl's form seemed to boil away as it expanded, her skin sloughing off into molten waste. Her true body was even darker than her partners, an ashen charcoal black, although where his was cut into hard, flat surfaces, her body was rough and irregular. After her body finished expanding, tearing through the burning shreds of her uniform, there was a loud cracking noise, and all at once great red seams of sizzling magma shot through her dark igneous carapace.
"It was nice of you to offer us a chance to surrender peacefully," the magma elemental gasped, her voice being a rush of hot gases seeping through the small cracks that made up her mouth, "unfortunately, we won't be offering you the same courtesy."
The earth elemental next to her stomped forward as spears of milky white crystal emerged from his oversized knuckles. "I guess now is as good a time as any for the fight club to die again. Come on, scum!"
Shizuka Nekonome's ear-like hair fringes twitched happily as she gestured to the chalkboard behind her.
"Hello again, everyone! Today's topic is... that's right! Elementals!"
On the chalkboard were several drawings of small objects, each one corresponding to an elemental affinity: there was a small fire, a rock, a tornado, a lightning bolt, an ice cube, and a puddle.
"Elementals are monsters whose bodily makeup are consistent with the qualities of basic non-living aspects of the natural world. In this way, elementals represent elements in the sense that ancient druids and Greeks thought of them. Elementals have nothing to do with the periodic table, so those of you who failed chemistry can breathe easy!"
Shizuka moved on to a drawing of a cryptic-looking circle surrounded by nonsensical runic symbols. "Elementals are creatures of magic, usually summoned into this world to serve others. They have very little in the way of their own will, despite being sentient creatures, so they're very susceptible to picking up the behaviors of others and tend to be very loyal, since they usually don't like to think for themselves. The elementals that survive in this world long enough to need an education on how to blend in with humans are probably guards or experiments that somehow outlived their summoners. Not much is known about the realm they come from, mostly because I got my degree in liberal arts and I hate reading those big anthropological journals."
She pointed back to the pictures of individual elements, and then started drawing chalk lines between them. "Although there are many 'pure' elementals consisting of one element, like the hardy earth elemental, there are even more elementals that mix one element with another, like storm elementals that combine wind and lightning, or magma elementals that combine the resilience of stone with the searing power of fire!"
Shizuka grinned as she turned away from the chalkboard. "Although they make excellent pawns in some wizard's master battle strategy, on their own an elemental rarely makes full use of their potential. Easily overwhelmed and confused, most elementals resort to a berserk rage when they think they're going to lose, making them more dangerous but no more effective before falling."
"Well, that's all for now! Enjoy the fight!" the nekomata chirped.
Crunch! Ranma ducked as a fist half the size of his entire body smashed into the wall, puncturing the walls in a spray of wood and crystal splinters.
"Yo, Eyebrows! Can you handle the lava freak? I'd rather not try punching that," he explained as he somersaulted over a right hook.
Kouma snorted as he pounded his knuckles together, causing a halo of flame to burst out of the impact point. "Don't ask stupid questions! Just make sure you have the blockhead laid out by the time I finish with her, or I'll lose all my respect for you!"
"Finish with who, now?" the magma elemental hissed as molten rock oozed from her misshapen hands, burning and sizzling on the tile floor. "Play with fire and you get burned, fool!"
She burst forward with her hand extended, her fingers turning to reasonably sharp obsidian claws as fire raced down her palms.
Kouma snarled as he caught the elemental's arm, the magma spattering across his hand and arm with absolutely no discernible effect. "Actually, no, I don't."
Ranma turned away from the hellhound's fight as Kouma started hammering his opponent with his free hand.
"Looks like he'll be fine. Now what to do about you?" he asked conversationally as the earth elemental towered over him, its glowing green eyes staring down at the martial artist with cold hatred.
A blocky stone foot swept toward him, and Ranma hopped over it only to have a giant fist swipe at him in the air.
Much to the elemental's chagrin, Ranma grabbed onto the hand and rode out the swing on top of it rather than getting impaled and bludgeoned into a bloody mess.
Two sharp kicks formed deep cracks within the earth elemental's bicep, but Ranma was unsatisfied as he leapt off of his foe's body to avoid a set of grasping crystal talons.
'Not enough raw power... and I'm pretty sure this thing doesn't have vital points,' he thought to himself as he landed behind the elemental.
"Kachuu tenshin amaguriken!" Ranma called out as hundreds of punches rained down on the earth elemental's back in an assault that would have smashed a more biologically sensible creature's spine to gravel.
Ranma clicked his tongue at the spider-web pattern of cracks that adorned the broad stone face he had just assaulted, and idly winced at his sore knuckles before he darted back to avoid a circling backhand.
'Now would be a really good time to be able to do those super-powered vampire kicks,' Ranma mused as his opponent slowly turned to face him. 'Moka was able to put a ridiculous amount of ki into them, but I was so busy keeping her from turning me into a blood stain I didn't get a good reading on her technique...'
"Suffer, worm!" the earth elemental growled as he curled his arms under his chest, like a weightlifter flexing his biceps.
Crack! Crack! Choonk! All over the elemental's body, jagged spears of quartz emerged from the hardened stone skin, covering the Enforcer in crystalline spikes.
'There's gotta be a weakness to this guy. Face, I guess? Or maybe the joints?' Ranma wondered as the massive creature charged again. Not that he was in any kind of real danger from the monster's clumsy swipes, but he'd rather not have to scrape his knuckles raw trying to put down his opponent before Kouma finished with his.
Whomp! Kouma staggered back as the magma elemental kicked him in the stomach, knocking him away but causing no real damage. The hellhound immediately assumed a boxer's stance, his arms up and ready to block.
His opportunity came as the female Enforcer sent her claws raking forward, and Kouma launched into a cross-counter that smashed a small crater into the yelping elemental's chest and had her staggering backward to gain space.
The magma elemental puffed thick smoke painfully as her wound slowly filled with molten rock and began to seal.
As her carapace was threaded with magma and made of relatively fragile igneous rocks, she lacked the resilience of her partner, and she felt every one of Kouma's blows acutely even while the earth elemental shrugged off Ranma's.
Luckily, however, she did have other abilities to compensate for her more fragile body.
Kouma eventually got bored of waiting for the Enforcer, and darted forward with a straight punch that slammed into her left shoulder with agonizing force.
Fighting through the pain, the elemental's right hand seized onto Kouma's wrist tightly, the claws digging easily through the fabric of his uniform and into the flesh beneath.
The hellhound snarled angrily, pulling back his free hand to pummel his foe like before.
This time, however, the Enforcer suddenly spat a small glob of magma that struck Kouma right on the bridge of his nose, immediately sticking over his eyes.
"GAH! Ow! Not the eyes!" Kouma growled as he writhed in pain, trying to wipe away the molten rock. Even at this heat, the lava wouldn't do any real damage, but it was more than enough to hurt when applied to a sensitive area.
Seizing on her chance, the magma elemental pulled back her head and then slammed it into Kouma's face, the impact eliciting a small explosion not unlike the popping of a cherry bomb.
Kouma rocked his head back, pain overwhelming his senses as he started beating at the obsidian claws that held him immobile in an effort to get free.
Yukari frowned as she watched the battle, though she made sure to keep a constant flow of energy to the illusory wall with her wand. "I think it's about time to call in the reserves. Kurono! Go!"
The succubus blanched immediately. "What? No! Since when do you get to order me around like that?" she demanded angrily.
"You have a valid point," the young witch admitted. "Aono! Order Kurono to attack! Go!"
Tsukune shook his head. "No, I think they'll be fine. Besides, it's important that we make this the fight club's battle, not ours," he reasoned.
Kurumu breathed a sigh of relief. She was in no hurry to fight someone that Ranma had trouble taking down, and what little she had seen from Kouma impressed her as well, even if he had hit a tough spot in his battle.
"If we fight them, then we make ourselves targets," Tsukune said as he watched the earth elemental roll into a spiked ball and start trying to roll over Ranma. "The fight club presents a united front to defy them, so they should be safe from retribution." He was worried about the comment from the magma elemental about the Enforcers killing off the fight club, but that only strengthened his resolve to see his plan through.
Yukari snorted. "Spineless cretins. The Protection Committee punishes harmless violations and extorts money from weaklings, but flee the moment an actual threat to school safety appears."
"It's actually kind of human of them," Tsukune admitted blithely.
Kouma snarled as the magma elemental belched thick black smoke in his face, trying to keep his senses off-kilter while she grappled with him. The Enforcer knew she was ultimately the weaker of the two, and so kept pressing her surprise advantage as much as she could, trying to prevent the hellhound from properly using his fighting skills again.
The smoke, however, didn't even have the mild effect that the magma did, and the elemental hissed fearfully as Kouma inhaled deeply, his body actually relaxing somewhat at breathing in the soot-ridden cloud.
Then his cheeks puffed up, and the hellhound spat out a howling fireball at point-blank range.
BWOOM! Elemental and hound were flung away from the force of the blast, the former rolling painfully along the floor, while the latter hit the ground on his feet and leaned forward as he skidded backward across the scorched tile floor.
The magma elemental scrambled to get to her feet, idly noting that for some reason there were floating fire extinguishers putting out the fires left by the explosion.
Kouma took a deep breath as he wiped the last of the molten rock from his eyes, feeling invigorated by the hot, ashen cloud that had been vomited into his face. "Heh... doesn't seem like our powers work on each other, does it?" he asked casually as he stuffed his hands into his pockets, a grin on his face as he watched the floating fire extinguishers that Yukari was making put out the residual flames from his attack.
The magma elemental gulped as she got up, injured from the earlier assaults but clearly unharmed from the fireball.
Ranma, meanwhile, was grimacing as his own opponent rolled across the length of the hall, curving and zig-zagging in his crystal-covered boulder form. Long lines of holes had been punched into the floor to mark the elemental's path, and the few points in which the Enforcer had ventured close to the wall were marked by long, ragged tears in the wood.
'Not making much progress here,' Ranma thought ruefully as the elemental started to pick up speed toward him, his path marked by the constant Pock!-Pock!-Pock! of its crystal spikes puncturing the flooring.
The pigtailed boy noticed that the path behind him led directly into the illusory wall being held up by Yukari, and he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Knock it off, freak!" Ranma shouted as he launched himself forward, putting as much energy and momentum as possible into a single kick into the side of his foe, "I'm here for a fight, not pinball!"
CRACK! The kick sent the elemental reeling sharply to one side, and an incredulous cry came from the spike-covered sphere before he slammed hard into the wall, pinning himself there.
Ranma winced as he pulled his leg down, noting a shallow gash where one of the spikes had managed to nick him. The kick itself had hurt, too; he had no illusions that he'd recovered fully from the fight with Moka that morning.
"D-Damn... you won't... get away with... that..." grumbled the earth elemental as he started the sensitive process of trying to uncurl himself while at the same time extracting his numerous crystal spines from where they had become embedded in the walls.
"Of course I will," Ranma said, grinning as he suddenly leapt across the hallway... straight toward the magma elemental.
Said elemental was still staring down Kouma when Ranma landed on her head, eliciting a yelp from the female Enforcer before he used her obsidian skull as a springboard to launch himself toward Kouma.
Clap! Ranma slapped his palm against Kouma's as he darted past, and then an explosion of flames consumed the hellhound as he suddenly sprouted thick black fur and doubled in mass and volume.
The magma elemental yelped as Kouma rushed forward, thick ropes of lava-like saliva running from between teeth like ivory daggers.
She managed to throw herself to the side in time to avoid the hound's lunging attack, which was successful in large part because Kouma made no such attack and bolted straight past her.
As she turned to stare at the retreating canine, comprehension dawned.
"Wait! I'm fighting the other one now? The one who isn't a fire base?" she hissed in confusion that gave way to excitement. "Finally! That means I can use my..."
As she turned around, the magma elemental's excitement waned quickly as she stared into a veritable storm of blue energy surrounding the pigtailed boy, the aura suffusing the very air around him as he sculpted it into its customary projectile.
"W-Wait! Maybe we can work something out after all! It doesn't have to be like this!" the elemental said in a panic, her sense of subtle malevolence broken as dusty smoke puffed out her mouth and ear holes. "There's n-no need to go th-this far!"
"Save the hot air for someone who gives a damn!" Ranma shouted as he let fly with a ki bolt almost as tall as he was. "Mouko takabisha!"
The magma elemental tried to escape, but she was already on the floor and couldn't get her footing before the searing beam of blue power washed over her.
The earth elemental growled incoherently as he tore his arms free of the wall, shearing great strips of wood and wallpaper from the hallway as he unraveled his body.
He winced as he noticed several shards of crystal still embedded in the wall, and noted the prickling pain along his body where the spikes had snapped off.
"Probably shouldn't use that move in confined spaces," the lumbering Enforcer mumbled as he turned around to face his aggravatingly quick opponent once more.
He was extremely nonplussed to instead find a giant black hound growling at him, its jaws puffing clouds of black smoke wreathed with flame.
"This... is going to hurt, isn't it?" the earth elemental mumbled, releasing a hollow, rumbling sigh as a halo of fire swirled around the hellhound.
"BURN, cretin!" Kouma howled as a jet of fire blasted from his jaws and instantly engulfed the elemental.
PFFFFFFT! Yukari frowned as she watched the last of the fire extinguishers she had rounded up start to run empty as it spat carbon dust over the still-glowing form of the earth elemental.
"Yeesh. Your powers may be useful in a fight, but they sure are a pain to clean up after," the young witch complained to the giant black dog standing behind her.
Kouma dismissed the complaint, his tail lashing back and forth happily as he surveyed the scorched, unconscious body of his foe. "It feels good to let loose in your birth form after wearing that little body for so long!" He cheered, his voice a low rumble.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Ranma admitted as he finished wrapping up the cut on his leg.
When he finished tying it off and stood up, he noticed that everyone but Tsukune was looking at him with an intensely interested expression.
"I was talking about my cursed form!" He shouted quickly. "It's a pain fighting as a girl!"
"Sure it is," Kurumu said knowingly as she winked at him. "Anyway, those science geeks took off in a hurry, so now what?"
"Now we have two prisoners to squeeze information from," Tsukune said as he collected the empty extinguishers under his arm. "We need to find out who's in charge of intimidating the student council, and where we can find them."
Kouma raised a furry eyebrow as he sat on his haunches. "And why do we care about that? The student council is a bunch of useless nerds."
"But they're useless nerds with authority, right?" Tsukune asked uncertainly. "Maybe if we can get them to make a stand against the Enforcers, we can get they shut down."
"And why do we need to shut down the Enforcers?" Ranma asked, scratching his head. "I mean, let's be honest. That Haruo guy isn't exactly a threat." He could generally see why it would be a good idea, but it wasn't really in Ranma's nature to go out of his way to actually resolve a problem rather than simply fending it off whenever it posed an immediate threat.
Tsukune looked a bit flustered as he turned toward his roommate. "Ranma, they've been attacking you relentlessly, and they even came after me and the girls! You can't protect us all twenty-four hours a day!" Then he straightened. "Besides that, it's in the best interest of the school to have the Protection Committee's current leadership removed! You've seen what it's like: fights break out over the smallest things, villains run free without fear, and the weak are preyed upon relentlessly!"
Kouma sighed wistfully. "It's just like home..."
Yukari gagged as she stepped away from the hellhound, coughing up smoke. "Would you turn back into your human form, already? We're going to asphyxiate just from your breath!"
Kouma snorted disdainfully at the complaint, but did as he was asked, his body returning to that of a human in a curl of flame. Curiously enough, once the change was complete he was wearing his normal uniform again, which had mysteriously vanished in his true form. Tsukune filed the tidbit away for later.
"I'm still a bit confused," Ranma admitted. "Let's say we take out this OTHER Enforcer person that's bullying the council. You think they're suddenly going to turn on the Protection Committee?"
Tsukune nodded. "Hopefully they should do exactly that... but not just from having their personal thug put in the nurse's office. I want the fight club to guarantee their safety."
Kouma's brow creased. "Whoa... what? What's this, now? Why are we doing that?"
"The Enforcers are strong, organized, and have an official mandate to carry out their crimes," Tsukune explained to his increasingly confused friends, trying to draw their interest, "if you just beat them up, they'll still remain in power, and they'll either try to take revenge or simply avoid you in the future. If you try to have them ousted, they'll simply force the student council to rescind any order."
He shook his head. "We need to hit them from both fronts, attacking both their authority and their combat strength. And to do that, we need to give the student council a chance to stand up to them."
"Tsukune, that's brilliant! You're a genius!" Kurumu gushed, promptly hugging him from behind.
Kouma looked extremely uncertain, and he glanced at Ranma. "Wait, is this really happening? We're going to overthrow the Enforcers?"
Ranma shrugged. "I could think of worse ways to kill a week."
Just then, a dull hissing noise, like the last bit of steam being pushed through a kettle's spout, came from behind Ranma as the magma elemental groaned.
The female Enforcer's coal-like eyes fluttered open, and the magma elemental grimaced as she realized that her limbs were as stiff as the rock they were made out of.
"Well, look who's awake," Ranma said as he stepped up behind the Enforcer, standing over her head. "Good! I have a few questions I'd like to ask you, oh mighty protector of peace and order."
The elemental's response was to spit a gob of lava at Ranma's face in a show of defiance.
Ranma, being quite aware that the bubbling, molten rock could melt his face right off, backed his head away as the glowing gobbet shot up past him, and then plummeted back down.
Spack! "Gah!"
Kouma snorted and tried to hold in laughter as the magma splattered onto the elemental's obsidian face, doing no actual damage to the creature's body, but decimating her desperately weakened pride.
"So! First question!" Ranma said without missing a beat as the Enforcer wiped lava out of her face. "Who's in charge of dealing with the student council in your little band of jerks?"
"Like I'd tell you that!" the magma elemental snapped. "You'll never get anything out of me!"
Ranma stared blankly into the cracked, vicious face of the Enforcer, and then frowned as he scratched the back of his head. "Well... I'm out of ideas."
The others sweatdropped at the pigtailed boy's helpless expression.
Tsukune in particular looked abashed. "Actually... I hadn't considered how we'd get them to talk," he mumbled quietly enough that the elementals couldn't hear.
"You people are pathetic," Kouma suddenly said, stepping toward Tsukune and yanking one of the fire extinguishers out from under his arm.
As Tsukune stuttered and started to protest, the hellhound walked calmly over to immobilized magma elemental, and then gave her a hard kick into her side.
“Gwah!” The elemental gasped in pain from the sudden gratuitous assault, and was suddenly silence in her pained grumblings as she found the mouth of an extinguisher shoved in-between her thick, arrow-shaped teeth.
“All right, let’s try this again. Only this time, if you don’t say something we like, I’m going to fill whatever seething hot organ passes for lungs in your freaky magic body with extinguisher foam and put out your core,” Kouma’s smile was all pointed teeth as the elemental’s glimmering red eyes widened. “Feel like talking now?”
Kurumu looked fairly surprised by the turn of events, and glanced at Yukari before she leaned over and whispered into the witch’s ear. “Hey, can he actually do that?”
“Probably not. Not with extinguisher foam, anyway,” Yukari whispered back, scratching her head under her hat.
Kurumu frowned and then whispered to Tsukune, “Aren’t those extinguishers empty, anyway?”
Tsukune nodded. “Pretty sure.”
“Whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute! We don’t need to kill anyone, here!” Ranma said suddenly, grabbing Kouma by the shoulder.
The hellhound shook off his partner roughly, giving the pigtailed boy a warning glare. “Back off, Saotome! I’m sick of playing games with these losers! Either they talk, or we off them and find some OTHER losers who will!”
“Are y-you crazy?” hissed the magma elemental around the nozzle stuck in her mouth, “if you kill us, nothing will save you from the wrath of the Enforcers!”
“Well, then I guess it’s in everybody’s best interests for you to start giving us answers, isn’t it?” Kouma snarled while Ranma watched pensively.
The elemental sputtered for several seconds as tiny droplets of glowing lava sprouted from cracks in her skull and slowly crawled down the jagged planes of her face in imitation of a cold sweat.
“All right! Fine! I’ll tell you what you want to know!” the Enforcer wailed, trying to spit out the extinguisher nozzle. “Just get this crazy mutt away from me!”
"What did you call me?" Kouma demanded, his eyes flaring a bright red as he shoved the extinguisher back into the elemental's face.
"That's enough! Knock it off! She said she'd spill!" Ranma protested, kicking the extinguisher away before pushing Kouma back roughly.
The elemental panted weakly before she hesitantly spoke to Ranma. "The Enforcer in charge of dealing with the student council is a senior named Volos."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "What kind of a name is that?"
"I don't know; he's not Japanese," the elemental hissed. "He's a hydra. Huge, resilient, and deadly. You won't get off so easily if you tangle with him."
"And he deals with the council?" Ranma asked, unfazed by the revelation.
"He's actually PART of the student council. He's the official Enforcer 'representative' on the student council, a special unelected seat," the magma elemental said. "He brings up our concerns to the council and answers to the council's concerns about the Enforcers."
"In theory," Kouma snorted. "In reality he brushes off the complaints and tells the student council how much money the Enforcers want from them, right?"
The magma elemental turned her head away. "Like I know. That sort of thing is over my head."
Ranma crouched down next to her, balancing on the balls of his feet. "Okay then. I have something else I want to talk about: what's the deal with that Haruo guy?"
The elemental's face made a strange shift that vaguely reminded Ranma of an eyebrow rising. "The gargoyle? What about him?"
"He keeps trying to get at me," Ranma explained, rubbing his head, "and the last time he targeted my friends. I'd prefer he stop before someone gets seriously hurt. Or rather, before HE gets seriously hurt."
The female Enforcer snorted. "The friends of criminals are no better than criminals themselves. As for you, it would seem we should have taken Haruo's concerns more seriously. You won't escape our wrath forever!"
"Sure I won't," Ranma mumbled, walking around the other end of the magma elemental and then grabbing onto one leg. "Kouma, can you take care of that other one? I'll see you tomorrow."
Kouma shrugged as he fished a cigarette out of his pocket. "Fine with me." With a snap of his fingers, the end of the cigarette lit aflame, and he gave the earth elemental a swift kick before he started dragging it in the opposite direction from his partner.
Tsukune had been quietly consulting with Yukari about the elemental's information, though he took a moment to watch Kouma leave.
"He knew that the extinguisher was useless when he threatened her, didn't he?" Tsukune asked, shaking his head. "You know, I'm kind of surprised. He's really turned himself around. I thought he was just another short-tempered thug, but I guess he isn't so bad after all."
Yukari shrugged. "He's still a far cry from a proper familiar, but I suppose he has his uses."
"You could try thinking of him as a person rather than just a tool," Tsukune deadpanned.
"A dog is still a dog, even if it breathes fire," Yukari said haughtily as she tore a picture out of the school yearbook. "He has to earn respect with work and loyalty, like the rest of them. Besides, how can I take him seriously when he still contests that he isn't Senpai's pet? Right, Senpai?"
Yukari turned toward where Ranma had been interrogating the magma elemental, and was surprised to see that he and the prisoner had left while they were talking. It was evident that the Enforcer had been dragged away through the halls, as there were long burn scars on the tile floor along with small dollops of rapidly cooling rock.
"Where did Senpai go? We haven't even worked out our next strategy for this half-baked plan of yours," Yukari said, turning toward Tsukune.
Tsukune, who had long since grown jaded to the barrage of casual insults, shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. I guess he left to take the magma elemental somewhere." He frowned. "I hope he's careful with her. If he leaves her somewhere where she'll start a fire, I'm not sure there are enough extinguishers left in the building to put it out."
"So... do you want to tell me where you're taking me?" the magma elemental hissed, having been unusually quiet for a creature being dragged around against its will.
"Somewhere where you'll do some good," Ranma said as he pulled the surprisingly light monster along behind him. "At first I thought of dumping you in the pool, but after what Kouma said about your core or whatever, that might kill you. I'm not real fond of you Enforcer jerks, but none of you have done anything bad enough for me to kill you."
The magma elemental was silent for several seconds, wondering at the uncommon show of mercy. The Enforcers were not only aligned against the fight club, but they had targeted Ranma personally, and yet he didn't think that deserved a lethal response?
She thought back to how he had stopped the hellhound from using the fire extinguisher. 'Either he's far more soft than I imagined... or...' her glowing red eyes slowly widened. 'Or perhaps... he's a creature of such fearsome power that he doesn't even see our assaults as a mortal threat?'
"Well, we're here!" Ranma said cheerfully.
The Enforcer craned her head, and then raised an obsidian eyebrow as she stared at the interior of a large concrete room full of massive steel containers. They were each full of trash, and sorted appropriately.
"I figured you might as well save someone a trip to the incinerator while I get rid of you!" Ranma said as he suddenly swung the elemental into the air, sending the monster flailing through the air before she smacked against the lip of the container containing the burnable trash and tumbled inside with a cry of pain.
After a few seconds, a lick of flame appeared atop the garbage pile, and after a few more - amidst the elemental's muffled, enraged shouts - the entire top of the dumpster was ablaze, pouring thick black smoke into the room.
Ranma stepped out quickly after the inferno built up, wary of the sudden build-up of smoke.
"Well, now that that's taken care of... I think it's time for another nap," the martial artist decided as he turned toward the dorms once again. "Man, either the fights are getting harder or I'm getting lazier. Feels like I spend more time sleeping off bruises than I do going to class."
"It's a habit you should work to correct, to be sure," said a familiar voice from behind him.
Unlike the members of the exploration club, Ranma showed no fear as he turned and waved absently to Jadeite, who was standing behind him with bandage wrappings over his face.
"Hey Professor. What's up? Classes were canceled today, right?" Ranma asked.
Jadeite was clearly annoyed by the way his sudden appearance hadn't ruffled his student one bit, but brushed it off. "Actually... I need to ask you a question."
The Dark General coughed lightly into his fist as Ranma waited patiently. "The... individual who took me by surprise earlier. The one with the fire attack. Who was he?"
Ranma was silent for a short while before he asked. "Are you asking because you want to congratulate him for earning your respect and maybe take him on as an apprentice or something?"
Jadeite's eyebrow twitched. "NO. That is not why I wanted to know his name."
"In that case, his name is Saffron," Ranma said immediately.
"Noted. My thanks, Saotome," the Dark General said just as quickly, turning on his heel and marching away.
As he watched the emotionally unstable instructor walk away and the reality of what he had just done had settled over him, Ranma felt a small pang of something deep within, agitating his mind with thoughts of possibilities as of yet unexplored, mistakes made, and opportunities missed. Almost at once, he grasped onto the feeling, and his course of action became clear.
"I think I'll go eat lunch before I fall asleep, actually," he said, making a turn away from the exit and heading back into the school building.
End Chapter 8
"I have had enough of this," snarled Saffron as he slammed shut the door to his room, moving past his bed and opening his dresser. "I will not tolerate such disrespect any further! This school of mongrels can sink into the abyss for all I care!"
Muttering furiously, the Phoenix King rummaged through his dresser for several seconds before pulling out a glass sphere slightly larger than a human head, and then set it gently upon his bedspread.
Calling two small embers to the palms of his hands, he slowly drew a very deliberate circle of burning red power in the air around it, feeding his diminished energy into the sphere.
"Kiima! Answer me at once!" Saffron shouted, hopping up onto his bed as motes of light flashed into existence within the globe.
After several seconds, a hazy image started to coalesce within the sphere, and Saffron could just barely make out the image of Kiima's face within the magical ball.
"My Lord Saffron! Hello!" Kiima said, her voice garbled by the unstable connection established by the magical device. "How nice of you to call! I, uh... I wasn't expecting you to contact me again so quickly!" she said, sounding slightly panicked, for some reason.
Saffron scowled. "Kiima, this place is even more wretched than I imagined. You have no idea what it's like; having to live in this filthy hovel... sharing living space with abominations and freaks... and being constantly..."
He trailed off before he said "bullied", quickly realizing that it would be unseemly and undignified for the king of the Phoenix people to be abused by lower creatures such as his classmates.
"Let's just say that the students here are very... rude," he finally settled on, spitting out the word like a ball of poison.
"That's SO interesting!" Kiima said while she did something with her arms off to the side. It was hard to tell with the image being as unfocused as it was. "Oh! You said that Saotome was there too, right? Tell me all about that!"
The Phoenix king's scowl turned to a regretful grimace. "Saotome has... not been helpful. I tire of this place, Kiima. I am placing the order to have me retrieved."
"R-Retrieved? But my lord! You've barely been there a week!" Kiima protested before she quickly turned her head and whispered something over her shoulder.
"Nonetheless, I won't be able to stand another at this rate," the child-like king muttered. "Is there someone behind you?"
"NO! Uh, I mean, it's just a servant! You know how they get in the way sometimes!" Kiima said.
Saffron frowned. The longer she kept talking the better the resolution in the sphere became, and he could now hear the nervousness in his servant's voice. "Hold on, Kiima."
Placing his hand atop the globe, he caused the image within the artifact to expand, revealing several men in utility jumpsuits behind Kiima all working around a piece of enormous machinery.
Staring at the large device, and in particular the huge metal grill on the front, Saffron felt his heart sink into his stomach. "Is that... a heater?"
Kiima froze as she realized that she had been found out. "Uh... My Lord Saffron! I can explain! It's just a temporary countermeasure! Until you can return to your adult form, we'll make do with this poor and shabby - though surprisingly inexpensive! - substitute!"
"You... REPLACED me?" Saffron said, his eye twitching badly.
Kiima's image started to sweat. "Well, it's really more like-"
FZZRT! Saffron jolted back as a black sphere of power suddenly smashed into the crystal ball, annihilating it completely and leaving a wide scorch mark on his bed sheets.
Whirling around, Saffron was quite surprised to see a man he'd never seen before stepping into his room from a black portal.
Jadeite frowned. "You don't look like the person I remember... although admittedly that was before the concussion. Nonetheless, etiquette requires I make sure: are you the fire-user that follows Saotome around sometimes?"
Saffron blinked. "I... suppose you could say that. Who arrrrRRAUGHYLAUGH!!"
Jadeite watched contemptuously as his victim melted while still alive, the Phoenix king's innate fire resistance doing nothing against the otherworldly powers commanded by the Dark General.
And then Jadeite turned on his heel and stepped back into the portal, just missing a bright flash behind him that heralded the rebirth of the Phoenix.
Absolute silence dominated the room as Saffron's egg rested in the center of the floor, sitting within a circle of ash and crackling black lightning.
"Maybe I'll just stay in here," Saffron mumbled wearily.