Nexus II
by Black Dragon
https://www.angelfire.com/anime5/fanficlair

Disclaimer... um... well, the dragon I stole from Slayers, I think. Maybe Rune Warrior. I forget. But anyway, if any lawyers ask, then K is actually a rare species of bat.

As usual, words in " " are in Japanese or are presented phonetically, {" "} are languages other than Japanese, ' ' are thoughts, * * are sounds, and [ ] are writing.

Chapter 2
Journeys
**********************************************************************************

"And exactly how many of these villages are petitioning for free trade?" a dark, heavy voice cut through the stale, dank air of the gilded hall. It was a thoughtful voice; merciless, but not sadistic in nature.
It's owner was a tall creature of obviously demonic origin. He was over 8 feet tall, and had the bulk to make his height seem natural. Every inch of bulging muscle that composed his frame was covered in rock-like plates of gray scales, which was in turn protected by a shining suit of polished half-plate with an unusually large, glowing ruby in the middle of the chest. The demon's head had several horns sticking out from the sides of the chin and the forehead, with several more sticking out of the back of his head, partially hidden beneath a large mane of black hair. The only other things that removed the demon from being humanoid was a rather long tail, and the fact that his two arms were very different from each other. The right hand, which currently clutched a paper note, was perfectly normal in nature, except that it was covered in the same scales as the rest of the creature's body. The left arm, however, was much longer and bigger, and ended in a terribly disproportionate-looking, double-bladed claw.
Facing the demon was an ordinary-looking man, who stood at attention with his arms clasped behind his back.
"Four of them, Lord Dashtall. Well, actually, three wish for free trade, while one wishes for a renegotiation of the regular taxes as well as the tariffs. It would appear that they believe they have a hard year ahead, and they want to pay their taxes through means other than providing livestock to feed your dragons."
Dashtall snorted, blowing red dust from his nostrils and creating a thin cloud that seemed to suck the moisture from the air. "Unacceptable." The paper crumbled on its own as it was swallowed by the red cloud, and lit on fire within moments.
The demon lord turned away, and began pacing parallel to the long table that decorated his hall. "You humans are such fickle creatures. If I give you too much freedom, you run amok doing as you please. If I ensure that those who defy me are destroyed and oppress you, you organize and revolt, and force me to destroy you. And if I give you some petty freedoms and keep you under my thumb, you keep struggling for more."
The man shrugged. "Such is human nature, I suppose. We're difficult to enslave, and even more difficult to please."
Dashtall snorted again, but a smile crossed his vaguely reptilian lips. "I don't know why I put up with you."
"Well, SOMEBODY has to bring in food and money. That's what we specialize in."
The demon lord cocked his head to one side slightly. "I suppose so. Very well, what would you suggest?"
The advisor smiled. "Well now, I'd say immediately refuse to revoke the tariffs, and then quickly allocate more of your forces toward enforcing them. This will send the message that you won't punish orderly petition, but that your will IS, in the end, law. If the discontent escalates, I advise a small punishment, such as a double tax. I also suggest that you send someone to listen to the proposed renegotiations before you refuse it, so that they think you'll at least listen to them. The better response will also encourage the villagers to make their demands smaller in the future."
Dashtall turned toward his advisor and wagged a finger at him. "You are GOOD, you know that?" He grinned.
"Lord, you flatter me."
"I do. After I'm done, make the arrangements immediately. What else requires my attention?"
His advisor cleared his throat, and then took out a list from his pocket. Looking at the next item, he frowned.
"I'm afraid I have a bit of bad news, my lord. A supply convoy of yours passing through China to the South Gateway was attacked."
Dashtall jerked to attention, and immediately placed his clawed arm on the table as it twitched violently. "What?! The one with the wyvern guard?"
The man nodded. "Yes my lord. Quite an unusual turn of events, actually. The convoy wagon itself was burned, but apparently the reaper that was towing it dragged it through enough debris to put the fire out. Many of the items inside suffered damage, but fortunately, its contents were recovered swiftly and are even now being moved to the vault for your inspection. However, I'm afraid the guard itself is quite a loss. All the vicoid soldiers, the wyvern, the evon mage Heshai'tan, and most of the lizardmen are dead, and your three favorite slaves apparently escaped or were captured."
Dashtall's grip on the table tightened, and his advisor winced as the wood cracked and splintered as the claw sunk deeper into the table's surface. "Tell me... were all the contents recovered?"
The advisor blinked. He had expected Dashtall to be rather upset about the loss of his slaves, especially the werewolf; the demon lord had had a lot of fun with that one. "I... I don't know, my lord. Your records for the convoy label its contents rather vaguely as 'jewels and precious items'. Other than the slaves you had sent south for your son to make use of, there is nothing else of any specific value that I know of."
The demon lord sighed and let his claw fall from where it had gripped the table. "Yes, yes, I know. That was done to try and keep something like this from happening!" Damn it, he had made every effort to make that convoy both well-guarded and inconspicuous! Then again, that wyvern had probably attracted quite a lot of attention... blast it all! "I'll be blunt: when the wagon was recovered, did you find a small dragon with skin of metal, or a black gauntlet?" Neither item would have been destroyed in a mere fire, so if they hadn't been found...
The advisor blinked. "No, my lord. Not to my knowledge, anyway. I know they would have noticed a dragon, but a gauntlet doesn't attract any particular attention, unless-"
"I am told it has two large gems set in it," Dashtall interrupted.
"Well, then no. I'm certain they would've noticed that, and the area was searched extensively for any items that had been strewn about."
"DAMN IT!!!" *SLAM!!!* Dashtall slammed his heavy claw down on the table, and a blue flash of energy burst upward from the impact as the table buckled easily from the blow.
The advisor sweatdropped as splinters began to fall around him. "Hmmm... am I to assume that the gauntlet you speak of has particular significance?" If there was in fact a dragon being transported, obviously Dashtall would be upset over its loss, but a mere gauntlet?
The demon lord let a low hiss escape his throat as he slowly raised his claw, which was surrounded by a blue flame. "Tell me who did this..."
The man calmly went back to his notes. "The lizardman that returned from the convoy reported that it was a single male humanoid fighter. A little less than 6 feet in height, black hair with a pigtail, hardened but unscarred features, lithe and a bit muscular, so on and so forth. He carried an extendible staff, a japanese sword, and a handgun, and apparently possesses considerable speed and strength."
Dashtall narrowed his eyes. It took more than "considerable speed and strength" to kill a wyvern. "'Humanoid'? They're not sure what he is?"
The man shook his head. "I'm sorry my lord, but no. He didn't have any unusual features, but he could have easily been hiding evon birthmarks, or pointed ears, and angels have been known to travel with their wings sealed. Or he may have been a demon in human guise. Of course, there's also a remote possibility that he was simply a human of unusual skill, and he was hiding nothing of his appearance. Whatever the case, he must not be taken lightly, as he dispatched the entire group of fighters without using any powers that would betray his species."
"And what of the evon and wyvern?"
"Apparently the wyvern was distracted by an explosion and was not present for the battle, though it was found dead at the site later. The lizardman claims that the attacker actually managed to free your werewolf from a distance, and that the lycanthrope killed Heshai'tan." He cleared his throat. "My lord, what shall I do with the guard that returned? He did abandon his post by retreating from the battle."
Dashtall shrugged. "And in doing so, has given me hope of recovering what I have lost. Any creature that could dispatch so many fighters is well beyond a mere lizardman's hope of defeating. Send him to assist in enforcing the tariffs, if you will."
"Yes, my lord. And what of the raider?"
The demon lord raised his normal hand to his face, and slowly stroked one of the horns that stuck out of his chin. "Put out a notice to all my agents and all groups of bounty hunters within my influence. Offer a substantial reward for the recovery of the gauntlet, and the head of whatever man possessed it. Put out a similar offer for the recovery of a small dragon with metal skin. It's unlikely that a raider would bother to take a creature with him, but it's a possibility, and a dragon would attract notable attention."
The advisor raised an eyebrow, but wrote down his instructions. "I see... you want the man's head? Are you sure you wouldn't like him taken alive, to be tortured, or perhaps dropped in the dragon pits?"
Dashtall shook his head seriously. "As much as I would like that, I can't risk anyone trying anything less than lethal force to recover these items for me."
The human nodded. "Head it is, then. Now, all I need is a description of the gauntlet..."
__________________________________________________________________________________

"This thing's actually pretty cool. I mean, it's light, comfortable, and looks all right, if a little gaudy. I just wish they had sent the other one too." Ranma spoke his thoughts aloud as he observed the gem set in the gauntlet's wrist.
K stopped munching on his apple and swallowed before responding. "You know, it's probably got some kind of magic properties. You said it changed size on its own to match your hand, right?"
Ranma frowned. "Yeah... so how do I tell what it does? If it does do anything, I mean."
K looked up thoughtfully. "Well... do you have any magic powers?"
Ranma shook his head. "Nah. I know a little more about it than most people, I guess, but I could never use that stuff. Takes lots of studying and junk, I've heard, and I don't have time for that."
K nodded his tiny head. "Fair enough. I guess we should find someone who does know a lot about magic, though. And soon."
Ranma shrugged and leaned back to rest his head on his pack. "I dunno. There's no rush."
"Well, you know, some magical items have curses, or discharge powerful explosions and such depending on certain triggers, and some even have a mind of their own."
Ranma blinked, and then slowly brought his right hand up so that it hovered just above his face. "A mind of its own? Seriously?"
K nodded. "Yup. If that were the case, then it might contact you through telepathy and just tell you what it does. Or, it may decide you're unworthy of its power, and kill you right off the bat."
Ranma blinked again. Then the fingers hovering immediately above his face twitched spontaneously. "Uh-oh..."
K's eyes widened as the glove suddenly latched onto Ranma's face seemingly of its own accord, digging its fingers in around his cheeks and attempting to smother the young man.
"MMMF!! MMMMMPH!!!" Ranma's other hand latched onto the rogue gauntlet, and managed to pry its thumb off of his jaw. "Help me!! Don't just sit there!! Help!! It's trying to-GMMMPH!!!"
K immediately rushed into action, meaning that he started flapping his wings about in panic as he looked around wildly. "Somebody help! Somebody help! Somebody help! Somebody..." the metadragon began to trail off as he realized that Ranma's muffled screams had converted to uninhibited laughter, and he turned around suspiciously to see Ranma rolling on the ground while laughing and pointing at him.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Oh geez, I can't believe you FELL for that! Sucker!" Ranma trailed off chuckling.
Had K any blood vessels in his skin, he would've been red from embarrassment. "You're an ass."
Both of them calmed themselves quickly, and enjoyed a moment of silence in the open field.

After moving through Beijing, Ranma had heard about some settlements in the distant mountain ranges that had managed to survive better than China's major cities. Seeing as he had nowhere in particular to head to next, he had decided to check the area. A treasure convoy as small as the one he had attacked couldn't have meant to go very far, so whoever had sent the convoy may very well have other assets in the area worth destroying.
Ranma had chosen a small field hidden deep in the forest to stop and eat, and was simply waiting for K to finish his second apple before they started moving again.
The tiny metadragon grumbled to himself as he began eating once more, but noticed Ranma's eyes narrow suddenly. "Hey man, what's wrong?"
Ranma's expression didn't change, but he kept his gaze perfectly still and his voice low. "Somebody's watching us from the woods. Don't look around for them or anything, but be ready to fly away, got it?"
K blinked, and lowered his head toward his food nervously, as if preparing to take another bite. "So are they bad guys, or what?"
Ranma shrugged, still not shifting his eyes. "Who knows? Could be demons, or it could be a few little kids playing in the woods. Anyway, unless they attack us or something, just ignore it."

{"Look! Look at him! Is he the one?"} The Amazon pointed excitedly at the figure beyond the rows of trees, looking back toward her companions.
One by one, the other Amazons in her party raced to join their companion, and each peered down into the clearing.
{"I don't know. Does he fit the description?"}
{"Well, the elder said he was a 'tall man with black hair wearing a long coat and carrying a broadsword'. I guess it could be."}
{"He doesn't look that tall. And he doesn't have a long coat. And that is NOT a broadsword."}
{"I don't know, he's kind of tall. And he could've swapped clothes or swords any time."}
{"Whatever, he's close enough, right?"}
{"What do you mean, 'close enough'? If he's not the one we're looking for, then we'll just end up bothering some wanderer for no reason."}
{"I meant that the description is vague enough that we can't just leave him here. *Sigh* It would really help if they had sent someone with us who actually knew what he LOOKED like."}
{"Hey, is that a lizard?"}
All the Amazon blinked at this, and then once again looked into the field.
{"You're right! It is a lizard!"}
{"I don't know about that. How many lizards do you know that have wings?"}
{"Is it actually made of metal? At first I just thought it was a piece or armor or something!"}
{"Hey, he's leaving!"}

Ranma stretched as he stood up, then picked up his pack as he prepared to leave the area. As he suspected, this prompted the group that was watching him to emerge from the trees to face him. Whatever he expected, though, it wasn't four exotic-looking Chinese women carrying spears and scimitars, and he scratched his head in confusion.
{"You! Stop right there! Are you the demon hunter?"} One of them shouted, jabbing her spear at him as if to indicate who she was speaking to.
"Demon Hunter? What's she talking about?" K asked, giving his wings a few short flaps to lift himself up to land on Ranma's shoulder.
{"Did that metal lizard just talk?!"} Another asked, clearly surprised.
"Yeah, I can talk," K replied evenly, "and I'm NOT a lizard!"
Ranma turned his head slightly to speak to his companion. "You speak Chinese?"
"Don't you?"
"Not really. I can say a few phrases, but I haven't been in China very long, so I can't understand a bloody word they're saying," Ranma admitted.
K smirked. "Most species of dragon have a type of limited telepathy. We can understand any type of regular spoken language, as long as the speaker is actually trying to communicate normally."
Ranma tried to think of why somebody would need to speak when they didn't want to communicate, and failed. "Well, whatever. They can understand you too, right? Ask them what they want."
K turned toward the Amazons obligingly. "Did you lovely young ladies want something?" He asked smoothly, his beak curved into a pleasant smile.
The Amazons blinked, shared a mutual glance, then shrugged it off and turned back toward their new translator.
{"This man must come with us."}
K turned toward Ranma and whispered in his ear. "Way to go, man! These girls want you to go with them!"
Ranma blinked. "Why is that a good thing?"
K blinked, then shrugged. "Well, they're pretty cute."
"They have weapons, K." Indeed, they did, and by the way they were positioning said weapons, as well as the way they were surrounding him, they were prepared to use them as well.
The metadragon sweatdropped. "You know, that's an excellent point..." he once again spoke to the Amazons. "Why exactly do you want him?"
The lead Amazon frowned. {"We're looking for a man who was reported to be wandering these woods. We think your master might be that man."}
K bristled a bit. "Master" indeed! "A man wandering the woods is a pretty vague description, don't you think? I mean, all it rules out is women, and maybe men wandering around the valley."
The Amazons all fixed the metadragon with annoyed looks. {"If you must know, we're searching for a tall man with black hair, a long coat, and a broadsword."}
K turned toward Ranma, a considering look on his face. Ranma stared back without a clue as to what was going on. He could understand K's speech perfectly, but his responses alone did little but confuse him.
"Close enough. What are you planning on doing with him?"
The lead Amazon twisted her wrist so that the spear head pointed up in the air, and then brought the butt of the spear down heavily into the ground. {"We will take him to our elder to confirm whether or not he is the one we were sent to find."}
K cocked his head to side. "And if he is?"
{"Then he will be married to our fellow warrior Comb!"}
K blinked. Twice. That wasn't quite what he was expecting.
He turned back toward Ranma and lowered his voice. "Go for it dude! Go with them!"
Ranma looked at him curiously. "What'd she say? What do they want?"
K shrugged. "They want to introduce you to their village elder and then hook you up with some girl."
"What? Hook me up with... what's going on here?"
"Don't worry about it man! They're going to take you to the village. That's where you want to go, right?"
Ranma looked at the Amazon warriors uneasily, and they stared back stonily. "I'm not so sure any more..."
K rolled his eyes and looked back toward the heavily armed women. "We'll go peacefully, but don't be pushy about it."
Three of the four Amazon gave K annoyed looks again, but the leader smiled pleasantly. {"Good. It would be unfortunate if we had to hurt you."}
"I don't know what she said," Ranma muttered as he began to follow the women into the woods, "but I don't like the way she said it."
"Just take it easy, would you?" K chided, then stood up straighter on Ranma's shoulder, as if he was about to say something wise. "'The only thing better than a battle won is a battle avoided'."
Ranma raised an eyebrow and stared at him. "Who told you THAT load of bunk?"
"I dunno. Some old guy."
__________________________________________________________________________________

Cologne sighed wearily as she looked through her records, idly twirling a brush around in a dish of ink with her hand. Her other hand rested on a sheet of paper that contained the latest two deaths in the village.
'If this keeps up, we may have to stop allowing our warriors outside the village. We certainly can't afford to start taking warriors away from the village guard,' she mused to herself. 'I just hope that the hunters I sent to find that swordsman return soon, even if they don't find him.' Cologne knew it was a mistake to send Amazons out into the forest during the current crisis the village was suffering, but Comb's family had a substantial amount of influence in the village, and simply wouldn't allow Comb's new husband to get away so easily.
{"But their stubbornness could cost LIVES,"} Cologne muttered to herself, setting the brush down.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* {"Elder Cologne? One of the search parties has returned with a prisoner!"}
Cologne blinked, then whirled toward her closed door. {"Well, what are you waiting for? Bring them in, Child!"}

Cologne's hopeful expression swiftly turned to disappointment as Ranma stepped through the doorway, K atop his shoulder and the group of armed Amazons following behind.
"Hey, who are you calling prisoners?" K snapped at the lead Amazon, who ignored him.
Casting a quick, curious glance at the metadragon, Cologne then spoke to the warriors. {"No, this is the wrong man. The swordsman was taller, had no pigtail, and wore a long coat and a BROADsword, not a katana."}
The Amazons all immediately began muttering irritably.
{"I TOLD you."}
{"Oh, be quiet."}
{"Maybe we can keep him anyway? He looks strong, and I don't have a husband!"}
Cologne rolled her eyes. {"Maybe later, child. Though this isn't the right man, I suppose he was close enough to the description that your actions were understandable. Now go to the baths and freshen up. I want you all ready for guard duty tonight."}

Ranma frowned as he watched the Amazons bow to what appeared to be a shriveled-up gremlin in a long robe, and then leave. He turned to K.
"What's going on? What do they want with me?"
"Nothing, looks like," K muttered, "you're not the one they were looking for."
"Oh, okay." Ranma could hardly feel very disappointed to hear that. "So why do they have a sick little gremlin doing their bookkeeping? I thought those things were dumb as rocks."
"Show more respect for your elders, boy," Cologne snapped, startling both of them, "and be more careful about what you say."
Ranma blinked in surprise. "You speak Japanese?"
"Fluently," Cologne stated simply, smirking at having caught the young man off-guard. "When you get to be as old as I am, child, you pick up a thing or two."
"Wow, are you a human?" K exclaimed, "How old ARE you?"
Cologne looked up at the metadragon and smiled. "I hardly think that my age would be anything worth noting to a dragon. My lifespan, as stretched as it is, would be but a blink of an eye to that of an immortal."
K cocked his head to one side. "But I'm only twenty."
Cologne sweatdropped.
Ranma looked confused. "You're twenty? Years?"
K nodded, "Well, as years are measured in Earth Realm, anyway."
"Seriously? So are you a midget dragon, or what?"
Cologne sweatdropped again.
"Hey! I'm no midget! I'll have you know I'm pretty big for my age!"
"As compared to what? A real lizard?"
*Ahem!*
Ranma and K stopped arguing as Cologne cleared her throat loudly.
"Thank you. Now, I'm sorry we've troubled you like this, child, but now that it's over and done with, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Joketsuzoku is going through a rather severe crisis right now, and I have little time to spare for strangers at the moment."
Ranma blinked. "Crisis? What's up?"
"Yeah," K added, "Why were you looking for this guy anyway?"
Cologne looked up at them, annoyed, then sighed. "I suppose the least I could do for having troubled you is provide you with an explanation... very well. Recently, there have been a long string of murders in the area surrounding our village. A man claiming to be a demon hunter wandered to our village just yesterday, heard about the murders, and offered to destroy whatever was killing my people."
Ranma nodded slowly, rubbing his chin. "So he went off to kill the murderer, and was never heard from again?"
"No," Cologne said simply. "That's rather the turn of events I was expecting, but the young man seemed to have a knack for getting into fights, and inadvertently engaged himself to one of our more promising trainees, Comb. Upon learning what had happened, he fled."
Ranma sweatdropped. "Okay... well, whatever. Do you know his name?"
Cologne shrugged. "Comb does, and I'm sure she told me at some point, but I forgot. The whole thing is a waste of time for me; unless he still seeks to find the murderer, I really don't care whether they find him or not."
Ranma nodded thoughtfully to himself. "So, what's up with this murderer?"
Cologne looked up at him, an eyebrow raised. "Don't concern yourself with that, boy. You're still young. There's no reason for you to throw your life away."
Ranma twitched as Cologne turned away. "Hey! Just try me!"
Cologne turned back toward him, and saw that he now had his arms crossed, and an extremely determined expression. "*Sigh* All right, fine. What right do I have to protect some foolish wanderer from making a fatal mistake?" Ignoring Ranma's irritation, she turned away and clasped her hands behind her back. "68 Amazons have fallen to the attacker in less than a month. It is unknown whether the attacker is a human or a demon or whatnot, but we're certain that its attack patterns are fairly indiscriminatory; anybody, man, woman, or child, warrior, merchant, or farmer, is at equal risk when they leave the village. Luckily, whatever it is avoids the village itself, as there hasn't been a single attack at or within the outer walls."
Cologne hopped up onto the table with her records, and turned so that she wouldn't have to crane her neck to look him in the eyes. "The few Amazons that escaped an encounter with the attacker all say that it was invisible, with only faint sound and a slight distortion in the air to indicate that anything was there at all."
Ranma smirked. "A distortion? Like hot air coming from a stove, right? Well, then it's not completely invisible."
Cologne smirked back. "That's what some of our warriors thought. However, whatever spell makes it transparent is more complex than that. Our wounded warriors say that the distortions were moving everywhere in strange and impossible movements, and they were struck from unexpected angles and directions. And Bath, who can sense a fighter's aura, said that strange energy was flowing about her so wildly that it was impossible to pinpoint the enemy. I assume it's a manner of advanced illusion spell, and I doubt that any of my warriors could see through it." 'Perhaps not even myself,' she added mentally.
Ranma considered it for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I'll give it a shot. Sounds like a fair challenge."
Cologne gave a cackling laugh, which caused Ranma and K to wince badly. "You're confident boy! I like that!" Her smiled then disappeared. "But there's a thin line between confidence and arrogance, sonny. This foe is beyond you."
Ranma looked reasonably miffed at the accusation. "Oh? But I suppose it's not beyond this other guy that you found?"
Cologne smirked. "That 'other guy' had a battle aura like a hellstorm, boy. He may not have even been human. I really don't think you could compete with someone like that, sonny, and I'd hate to have to order my warriors to go find another corpse to drag out of the forest. Give up and go home."
Ranma's left eye twitched dangerously, and K looked uneasy as the pigtailed boy glared down at the shrunken village elder.
"And... say I manage to destroy whatever's been killing your people. Do I get any reward?" Ranma did his best to smile congenially, but it just ended up making him look angrier.
Cologne smirked again. "How about this: if you manage to kill it, you can bed any girl in the village that you choose."
"You're on!" Ranma shouted, then turned away and stalked out of the hut, slamming the wooden door behind him.

He continued stalking until he passed the two guards at the hut's entrance, and then suddenly froze. "Wait... what'd she say I'd get? A bed?"
K sweatdropped. "Something like that, yeah..."
"Well, whatever!" Ranma shouted, "I'll show that old bat!"
"If this thing killed 60-something Amazons," K wondered aloud, "how are you going to kill it?"
"I don't know," Ranma muttered irritably. "I'll think of something."
"You'll think of something? After you're already fighting it?"
Ranma stopped and frowned. "Well, sure. That's how I win most of my battles, really."
K sweadropped. "Uh huh. Maybe you'd better quit while you're ahead."
"Now don't YOU start too."
__________________________________________________________________________________

{"There, there, now. Let me see the wound... ah, yes, it's healing very nicely. That's a nasty scar you have there, but you'll fare better than most who've faced this phantom killer."} The healer smiled warmly at her patient, a buxom young woman with long purple hair. {"You've got an admirable constitution, Shampoo. Elder Cologne will be pleased to hear you've recovered so quickly."}
Shampoo nodded somberly as she faced away from the other woman. Her blouse lay next to her on the bed, and her bare back revealed three parallel scars that ran down across her spine from her left shoulder.
The healer began to dab some fluid onto the scars, and Shampoo's body trembled in response.
{"Easy now... this stings a bit, but it will help keep the wounds from opening up again before they're completely healed."}
Shampoo nodded again, and looked back toward the older woman. {"Will I be able to fight again soon?"}
The healer raised an eyebrow. {"Well, I wouldn't recommend it, but yes."} the woman sobered, and then began to look uncomfortable. {"Um... I should tell you that they've made arrangements for Brush's funeral. You'll be more than well enough to attend, so-"}
{"I will attend it,"} Shampoo said sharply, putting her blouse back on. {"And I'm hoping to be part of the hunting party afterward."}
The healer looked distressed. {"Shampoo, you barely got out of the first hunting party alive. Brush and two others didn't, and Perfume isn't recovering nearly as well as you. Don't take this the wrong way, but I want to see as little of you as possible."}
Shampoo sighed. {"This can't go on. Somebody must destroy whatever it is that's killing our sisters! If I don't do it, who will?"}
The healer frowned. {"Well, there was that outsider swordsman, but Comb scared him away. I wonder what became of that..."}
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
The healer turned toward the entrance, frowning. {"Oh no... coming! Coming!"}

As the older woman left for the door, Shampoo fell backward to lay on her bed, and went back to brooding. A week in the healer's tent had given her plenty of time to run over the "battle" (slaughter was a more appropriate word), and she had come up with a few ideas, but none of them seemed particularly practical. Who was going to follow her into the forest carrying a barrel of colored dye or flour? She thought of simply training some more, but couldn't really see how that could help. When an attack could come from any direction, at any time, and with any manner of speed or power, how would regular training help?
No, this enemy called for something unique. The Amazons had survived where the entire Chinese army had fallen because of the relative difficulty of even finding them, and the strength of their special techniques. However, nothing in the Amazon repertoire seemed suited to fighting invisible assassins.
{"Shampoo?"}
Shampoo looked up at the healer, startled. {"Yes?"}
The healer looked confused. Confused, and a little weirded out. {"There's a man here to-"}
{"I don't want to talk to Mousse,"} Shampoo spat, {"Send him away!"} Mousse had been badgering everybody of influence to try and get into the healer's tent while she was in there, and Shampoo had called in several favors to make sure he stayed out. The last thing she needed to deal with was that clueless moron drooling over her.
{"Actually, it's not Mousse. I know you don't want to see him. There's another man here to see you."}
Shampoo looked at the healer curiously.
{"Well, not you in particular, but he said he's looking for someone who had fought the attacker. Well, HE didn't actually say that. He keeps speaking Japanese. And he has a talking metal lizard with wings on his shoulder that translates for him."}
"For the LAST time! I am NOT a lizard!!"
"Geez, chill out, would you? And don't yell in my ear!"
The healer and Shampoo sweatdropped.
{"Great. This is all I need,"} Shampoo muttered. {"I suppose I can talk to him."} The healer bowed, and once again made her way toward the entrance.

The young man that came in was hardly what she expected (not that she had very much to base an expectation on), and did indeed have a small dragon on his shoulder that appeared to have metal scales. He was obviously a warrior of some type, as he was wearing light armor and a katana, both of which had obviously seen heavy use. There were also some other items on him that were harder to identify, but Shampoo pushed her curiosity to the back of her mind.
The man smiled pleasantly at her. "K, could you introduce us?"
"Is okay. Shampoo speak Japanese." Shampoo answered, startling the boy. "My name Shampoo. Who you?"
Ranma blinked. "My name's Ranma. Ranma Saotome. I was just passing through, and I heard that your village was having trouble with a killer or something in the woods."
Shampoo nodded, frowning. "Is true. So what you want?"
He shrugged. "Well, I heard that it's invisible and all that stuff, but then I remembered that nobody told me where it usually attacks. So I was hoping you'd know where I could find it so that I don't spend days wandering the forest."
Shampoo looked alarmed. "You want kill assassin?"
Ranma nodded. "Well, that's the idea, yeah."
"What you talking? You can no kill enemy alone. Is too, too dangerous!"
Ranma chuckled. "Ah, it's all right. I do this sort of thing a lot. I'll take care of it."
He stopped chuckling as Shampoo stood up, looking somewhat angry.
"You listen me! Enemy is very strong! Kill Shampoo best friend! You go alone, you die too!"
Ranma blinked, then sighed. "I'm... uh, sorry about your friend. But I'm not going to just leave or stand around with creeps like that loose! It's not right!"
Shampoo turned away, and idly scratched her shoulder where her wounds were still healing. "You not help anybody if you dead. If Ranma wait, then Shampoo and others go too to help."
"I'm with her, dude," K interjected, "I don't think you win by yourself."
Ranma crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "That's what the wyvern thought."
K blinked. "Point taken."
Shampoo frowned as she stared at the young man across the room. Did he say "wyvern"? It must have been some odd Japanese term she didn't know. The only wyverns she knew of were huge, winged pseudo-dragons that could rip scores of enemies apart before being killed itself.
Ranma gave Shampoo his best smile. "So come on, just tell me where this thing shows up, and I'll be out of your way in-"
"SHAMPOO!!!" *Crash!!*
Ranma was up in a split second as the door flung open, his hand resting on the hilt of his katana. In the split second immediately after that, Ranma reflected that he had absolutely no idea what was going on, and that cutting open whatever was barging into the room would probably be premature.
Ranma spent the next split second regretting his hesitation as he was enveloped in a tight and unnecessarily intimate hug by a tall young man wearing a white robe and with a pair of glasses atop his head.
{"Oh Shampoo! I was so worried about you! Nobody would let me see you when you were hurt! It was horrible! Just the thought of possibly losing you has..."} Shampoo covered her face with her hands in mortification as Mousse continued rambling on loudly into Ranma's ear.
K, who had been thrown from Ranma's shoulder from the sudden movement, flapped his wings rapidly as he hovered in the air above the surprisingly calm pigtailed boy. "Hey! What's going on here? Who is this weirdo?"
Just a moment later, the healer rushed into the room from the entrance, looking as if she had taken a bad tumble in the dirt. {"Shampoo! I'm so sorry! But when he heard that you had a visitor, he forced his way in, and... uh... oh. I see your new friend is taking care of it."}
{"Shampoo, did you gain weight? You seem a little bigger, somehow."}
Ranma finally collected his wits, and spit out some of the man's long black hair that had gotten in his face. "I heard the name 'Shampoo' a lot. Is this a friend of yours?"
{"What's that, my love? Why are you speaking Japanese? And why is your voice so low?"}
Shampoo shook her head. "He not really friend of Shampoo's."
"Then, would you mind if I hurt him?" Ranma asked seriously.
Shampoo blinked, then smiled. "Shampoo appreciate that very much!"
Mousse suddenly put three and three together and let go of Ranma before pulling his glasses down and staring closely at the pigtailed boy. "Hey! You're not Shampoo at all!"
Ranma smiled. "Congratulations, Sherlock!" *POW!!!* His fist glowed blue briefly as he slugged Mousse right in the middle of the chest, and the entire room shook from a sudden explosion of force before the myopic fighter was blasted across the small room and into the opposite wall.
Mousse shuddered mightily, then emitted a pathetic whimper before he fell to the floor, leaving a splintered indentation of his body in the wall.
The healer raised an eyebrow. {"Impressive. This one might be a catch, Shampoo."}
Shampoo blinked, and then scratched her chin in consideration.
"So what's up? Who is this dweeb?" Ranma asked irritably, glaring at Mousse's twitching form.
"That just Mousse. He have very bad eyesight, so he mistake people for Shampoo all time." 'And various animals and objects,' she added mentally.
Mousse immediately shot to his feet. "Shampoo! What are you doing here with this outsider?! Look at how dangerous he is!"
"Dangerous?" Ranma pondered aloud, "Yeah, I guess I can be dangerous when guys come out of nowhere and grab me intimately."
"Don't you mock me!" Mousse shouted, turning to point a finger at the healer. "You keep your filthy hands off my Shampoo!"
"Hmmm... either I hit him too hard... or not hard enough," Ranma mused.
"Either way, you should probably hit him again," K suggested.
"What you want Mousse?" Shampoo asked tiredly, "Shampoo have no time waste on you."
Mousse adopted a determined expression as he stepped up to a potted plant in the far corner of the hut. "Shampoo, I have made a decision! I cannot stand to sit in my home comfortably knowing that some bastard has harmed your heavenly body! I will hunt down the murderer that terrorizes our village, and put an end to him!"
Shampoo rolled her eyes. "You go to forest and get killed. And then Shampoo have to attend other funeral, because you go get killed for Shampoo. Even if you used to fighting enemy no can see, you no can beat this enemy."
"No Shampoo!" Mousse insisted, "I will NOT lose! With love in heart and passion in my fists, I will slay the phantom assassin, and bring his head back to you as a trophy! And then at last, everyone will know the depths of my love for you, and we can be married!"
"Is this guy for real?" K whispered into Ranma's ear.
"I feel like I'm in some kind of sick Friday night sitcom," Ranma mumbled back.
Shampoo sighed wearily. "Mousse, even if you kill assassin, Shampoo still not marry you." She paused, frowning at him. "But if you insist fight, then you go to large flower grove next to river south of village. That where assassin attack most."
"Really?! Do you mean it?!" Mousse asked, excited beyond words. "Then I'm off, my love! I will avenge you, I swear it!" Without another word, he turned around and ran.
*Wham!!*
"Door's about three meters to your left, man," Ranma provided.
"Ow... thank you..." Mousse rubbed his nose painfully, then backed up and made the necessary adjustments. "I'm off, my love! I will avenge you!"
*Wham!!*
Ranma sweatdropped. "You'll have to open the door, too."
"I knew that..." Mousse mumbled, staggering. Remarkably, it only took the dazed and mostly blind warrior two more tries to successfully exit the hut from that point, likely because of the healer's assistance.

As he was gone, Ranma turned to Shampoo. "So what's the deal? You wouldn't tell ME where to go! Do you think that guy has a better chance than I do?"
Shampoo shook her head. "Mousse have no chance, but would go no matter what Shampoo say. Shampoo not really care, anyway. He not Shampoo's problem."
Ranma blinked, then looked toward the exit worriedly. "So... you're not going to go after him?"
Shampoo shrugged. "Shampoo go later. Somebody have to pick up stupid Mousse body. You want come then?"
Ranma frowned at her apparent apathy, and looked back toward the exit. Then he took one last look at Shampoo before turning and heading for the exit himself.
"Where you going?" Shampoo asked in concern. He wasn't really going after Mousse, was he?
"Well, I know where to find the killer, so I have no reason to wait, do I?" Ranma shrugged. "Besides, even if the guy's a moron and a jerk, I'll save him if I can."
"Wait! You no go yet!"
Despite her protests, Ranma walked straight out of the hut, and then immediately turned south, his companion metadragon matching his pace while flying behind his head.

Shampoo sighed and fell back onto her bed.
{"I don't understand Japanese well at all, but I can guess that we're not likely to hear from him again."} The healer spoke, approaching Shampoo with a bowl of soup.
{"It's a shame. He looked rather formidable. A horrible waste for him to die trying to help Mousse."} Shampoo took the soup and began to slurp it down.
{"Then again, Mousse is likely going to die trying to help you."}
Shampoo swallowed and put the bowl down. {"'Avenge', not 'help'. And I'm not even hurt permanently."}
{"Point. Still, it's a noble thing for him to do."}
Shampoo just shrugged and went back to her soup, ignoring the older woman's slightly hopeful expression.
{"...... It really is a shame about that other boy, at least. He was quite the handsome one."}
{"He won't be for much longer,"} Shampoo muttered irritably.
The healer stared at Shampoo for a moment, then sighed and took the empty bowl. As she turned away, however, she noticed that Shampoo had fixed her gaze on the door.
Smirking slightly to herself, she took a wet rag from her shelf and began scrubbing the bowl clean. Then she replaced the rag and dropped the bowl in a bucket of hot water before turning back to the bed.
{"Shampoo, I'm going to..."} She stopped talking, and chuckled softly to herself. The cot was empty, and the door was open.
{"She's a good girl. I have a feeling this is going to turn out well."}
__________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma jogged quickly through the trees, weaving under and around the closely interlocking branches and brush with such dexterity that the thick foliage didn't serve to slow his pace much at all.
"You're lost, aren't you?"
Ranma twitched as K dipped down from above the tree-line momentarily to speak to him. Ironically, despite the metadragon being able to fly, he wasn't nearly as agile as the young martial artist, and would've been left behind otherwise.
"No, I'm not lost! Well, not really. I'm trying to find a place I've never been to before, so it's expected that I'd get a little sidetracked, right?" Ranma jumped up into a particularly tall tree, and then began making his way by jumping from branch to branch and rebounding off tree trunks. While certainly slower than his previous method of travel, it allowed him a better view of his surroundings, which he needed if he was to find the river.
"Well, we could have followed one of the paths. If there's a river around here, they have to have a path to it." K reasoned.
Ranma frowned as he reached a particularly tall tree, and then leaped up to the highest branch that would support his weight. "Well, I was thinking bird's flight, you know?"
"You just weren't thinking, were you?" K offered, smirking.
Ranma gave him an annoyed look. "Be quiet before I swat you. If you have nothing better to do than make fun of me, make yourself useful and look for a river."
K nodded sharply and then shot upward with a powerful flap of his wings, rising well above the treeline.
"I see it!" he shouted, "A little to your right, and then just head straight!"
"Stupid lizard coulda told me that earlier... he was up there the whole time..." Ranma mumbled softly enough so that the metadragon couldn't possibly hear, and then launched himself back down to continue running through the forest at top speed.
After a few more moments, Ranma left the thick foliage behind and beheld the small river that had carved its path through the mountains. It wasn't very wide, and looked like it would only come up to his waist at the deepest part. On both sides of the river were narrow strips of grassy land that were bereft of larger plant life, likely because of people continuously traveling this way.

"Okay... so now what?" Ranma muttered, scratching his head. "Let's see... she said the grove was south of the river... or was it the south river, and the grove is... uh..." Ranma sighed.
"Aiyah! Ranma!"
Ranma blinked in surprise as a high-pitched voice called out to him, and then turned around to see the purple-haired girl from before rushing up to him, holding a pair of brightly colored maces in one hand while waving with the other.
"Uh... Shampoo, right? What are you doing here? I thought you were injured."
Shampoo frowned at him. "They not let Shampoo go because wound not full heal yet. Shampoo can still fight. Shampoo no want to go, but you ignore Shampoo and follow stupid Mousse."
Ranma sighed. "Look, if you don't want to help, then you can go home, you know. Nobody's making you come, and nobody's going to blame you if I get killed or whatever."
"Ranma no be rude. Shampoo only come from goodness of heart," she replied, turning her head away pointedly.
While the two fighters were arguing below, K hovered overhead, smirking at the sight. It was SO obvious the girl had a crush on him.
The metadragon's thoughts were momentarily distracted from a distant flash of light, comparable to sunlight reflecting off of metal. And once he had turned around and gotten a more focused look at the area, he realized that that's just what it was.
"Well, if you might get in trouble for being here and you don't WANT to be here, why are you here?" Ranma asked in frustration, rubbing his head.
"Stupid! Who else show you way? Shampoo only try help!" she snapped back a bit irritably.
"Yo! Can we save the lover's quarrel for later?" K shouted.
"What?" Ranma asked, totally confused. Shampoo merely gave the metadragon a flat stare to show she wasn't amused by the comment.
"There's a fight goin' on thataway!" K shouted, momentarily pointing a wing downstream while flapping the other one more quickly to try and stay aloft. "I think we've found our murderer!"
Shampoo blinked and looked in the direction of the grove she had spoken of, which was, of course, the direction K was pointing. The path was marked quite conspicuously with a dust trail, which also noted Ranma's swift progress toward the battle.
"Ranma! You wait!" Shampoo shouted uselessly, before herself taking off at a sprint toward the fight. She sincerely hoped that this outsider was truly as skilled or ingenious as he was confidant; following a near-total stranger to her death while she was supposed to be recovering from battle would be a rather moronic way to be remembered.

To an extent, Ranma did slow down, but only enough so that Shampoo would be able to immediately follow up any attack he made upon reaching the battle. If he did in fact end up way over his head, he wanted to assure that she'd still have time to get away.
Within moments, Ranma burst into a particularly large clearing the cut into the wall of forest, his hand on the hilt of his katana.
Ranma blinked, then dropped his guard and stared. The grove had seen better days. The large mound that seemed to decorated with various species of attractive flowers was now littered with blades. In fact, the entire area seemed to have been struck by a metal whirlwind of sorts. Chains littered the ground, throwing knives and axes were embedded in every tree, spears were stuck in the ground at sharp angles, and Ranma noted that three of the weapons that were thrown around the field had blood on their edges. Suprisingly, standing in the middle of this whole mess was Mousse, breathing heavily, and holding a machete in one hand and a sickle in the other. He sported many thin, but bloody gashes around his arms, torso, and shoulders, and Ranma had to guess that a number of the strikes had been aimed at areas of the neck and face, but missed by various measures. The man's glasses lie on the ground next to him, the lenses shattered, and the fellow seemed to have trouble with his leg as he stood. Ranma then noticed the considerably large cuts on his leg, which were partially hidden due to the robes the young man wore.
Most incredible of all, however, was that, lying before the nearly blind fighter, in a pool of its own blood, was a short, malevolent-looking humanoid creature with metal claws attached to its wrists. It was covered from head to toe in dirty-looking bandage wrappings, with a featureless metal mask covering its face, which in turn had three uniform-looking holes over the mouth and both eyes. The cause of its expiration was quite obvious, and could be fully attributed to the scimitar that had impaled its neck.
"Lucky shot?" Ranma murmured. K gently flew over him and settled on his shoulder, looking distracted and thoughtful.
Mousse slowly turned toward Ranma, his breathing labored. "Sha... Shampoo?"
Ranma quickly jabbed a thumb behind him, where Shampoo stared at the scene mutely. "Back there, buddy. I wouldn't want to have to hit you again. It could kill you at this point."
"SHAMPOO!!!" Mousse cried, and then dropped his weapons and stepped toward the beautiful Amazon. The moment he put pressure on his injured leg, it buckled and he collapsed on his face, hurt but still conscious. "Shampoo! I've done it! I've really done it! I killed the bastard demon! Look!"
"Is wonderful," Shampoo muttered, a little impressed despite herself. She had really expected Mousse to die. "So what you do? You just throw enough weapon around random until kill demon?"
Mousse grinned and tried to struggle to his feet, to no avail. "And it WORKED!!"
"Actually," K interrupted, snapping out of his thoughtful state suddenly, "I just remembered; that's not actually a demon at all. It's called a jakku, which means 'ghost butcher' in some old language. It's actually a type of undead." Ranma nodded thoughtfully at that, and began looking more closely at the blood pooling around the immobile corpse.
"Well, whatever," Mousse snapped, annoyed at the interruption, "now it's REAL dead! And now we can be married, Shampoo!"
Shampoo rolled her eyes and stepped past Mousse, much to the young man's confusion and despair. "What Shampoo tell you, stupid? Shampoo no marry you! Shampoo glad you kill assassin, but no that glad."
"But Shampoo!" Mousse cried, still trying to get to his feet, "This proves I'm the most able and courageous warrior in the whole village! I've taken on the phantom killer, and WON!!"
"That's great," Ranma interjected, turning toward the master of hidden weapons. "Now what are you planning on doing about the rest of them?"
Mousse blinked. "What?"
"Oh, it's really quite simple," Ranma explained, crossing his arms over his chest. "I suspected it since I heard what that old mummy from the village said about energy everywhere and distortions in the air surrounding the fighters. It seemed to me that there was probably just more than one, rather than one with a really effective invisibility spell. This proves it." Ranma pointed to the field, and Shampoo, Mousse, and K all followed his gaze. "Check it out. Just looking around, I see three weapons with blood on them, and from each of these, there's a thin red trail leading away from it. None of the trails head towards this dead guy over here, and other than being impaled through the neck, he doesn't have a scratch on him." Ranma then pointed a single finger in the air, looking smug. "As none of the trails intersect, there's probably at LEAST three more of those out here."
As Mousse and Shampoo stared in growing unease at the scene (not that Mousse could see if Ranma was telling the truth, but he believed him anyway), Ranma nodded to himself in satisfaction. Shampoo readied her bonbori and started scanning the ground, looking for the blood trails that Ranma had spoken of. Finding one that started from the edge of a throwing knife, she quickly followed it around the circumference of the grove, eventually tracking it to a small spot of red hovering in the air... directly behind Ranma.
By the time she had opened her mouth to shout a warning, however, Ranma already had his hand on his katana.
*SHING!* The sharp noise of steel being drawn was followed by a silver flash, and Ranma turned full circle back toward the Amazon almost lazily as a wash of blood sprayed to the side.
*Thump* Two halves of a body slowly faded into visibility as they fell to the ground, resembling the first one perfectly to the extent that the one Mousse had killed had merely been impaled, rather than sliced in two.
"That's two down," Ranma said happily, "Now search for those weird hazes in the air! They'll probably try to surround us and come from behind!" Ranma suited actions to words, and quickly located one such, distortion, sporting a nick from a shuriken, trying to lunge at him. Ranma hopped back while slashing with his katana in a wide arc, and was rewarded with a light gash on the attacking jakku's chest. While the wound didn't appear to fell the zombie assassin, or even slow the creature very much, it DID appear, which made the following strike that lopped off the jakku's head that much easier to aim.
Shampoo simply made as wide a block as possible with her twin bonbori, trying desperately to predict the movements of the seeming cloud of heated air before her. The scraping of cloth against dirt alerted her to sudden movement, and she thrust one mace forward in a blind counterattack.
*Thack!* *Srak!* As metal claws raked against the mace that was still guarding, her other weapon struck something in the air, and during the impact Shampoo glimpsed what she thought could very well be the creature's shoulder.
With that orientation in mind, Shampoo kicked into what would then be it's abdomen, and was rewarded as a body of medium weight went flying from the blow, impacting heavily with a tree. Seizing a convenient sword that was laying about her feet, she flipped it up with her feet into her waiting hand, and then threw it at the stunned jakku. She was rewarded again as the sword pierced flesh and then dug into the tree, blood oozing around the blade from a wound invisible to the human eye.
The jakku, like its dead companions, began to fade into existence as its revived body ceased functioning, and Shampoo resisted the urge to cheer as the metal mask eventually slumped forward in true death.
"DUCK!!!"
Shampoo hit the ground immediately at Ranma's shout, and the pigtailed boy's katana flashed above her.
The fourth jakku's arm twirled through the air, leaking spirals of blood as it flew to eventually rest right next to Mousse, who was still struggling on the ground.
*Shlick* Ranma pierced the jakku's chest (using the bloody dismemberment wound to judge where the rest of the creature was), pushing his katana into the invisible fiend up to the hilt. Then he thrusted his blade upward, freeing the sword while leaving a quite fatal gash up through the jakku's shoulder. The zombie assassin wobbled back and forth as it slowly fell to the ground, its lifeblood raining onto the grass.
Ranma shook his katana a few times to shake the blood off of it as Shampoo got up unsteadily.
"Well, that takes care of the ones we KNOW are here. Now for the others." Ranma grimaced.
Shampoo hoped he was joking, or just being pessimistic, but a slight sound far to her right informed her of a presence unknown to her eyes.
With resolve in her eyes, Shampoo took a defensive stance toward where she thought she heard the noise; any other indication that she could locate the enemy was pretense, as she couldn't even make out any distortion in the air that she couldn't easily attribute to tense nerves.
"Ranma?" She began, and the pigtailed fighter straightened, wondering what she wanted to say at a time like this. "Shampoo just want you know... you is great warrior. If Shampoo die, Shampoo glad go by you side."
Ranma blinked in surprise, and turned toward her in curiosity.
"Geez, how depressing," K muttered, hovering in the middle of the grove, hopefully out of reach of the jakku.
"Shampoo? What about me?!" Mousse cried.
"If Shampoo die, she ashamed to die standing over you useless carcass!"
"But Shampoo!"
"Focus, people, focus! Life-or-death situation here!" Ranma reminded them, turning again toward the wall of trees.
Thinking back to what he had heard the elder say, he remembered that one of the fighters had supposedly detected some kind of energy that allowed her to detect them. Ranma himself could detect auras easily enough, but for him it was a danger sense, alerting him to anything powerful enough to be a threat in the area. Beyond actually detecting that something WAS there, he had never developed the skill beyond that level of simplicity, always having been able to simply see his foes.
Now, however, seemed a good time to put the idea to use. Ranma took a deep breath, then slowly closed his eyes as he reached out with his mind. His own aura started to grow slightly, and Ranma fought back a bit a vertigo as his mind was bombarded with hazy images and feelings that he was used to only during fleeting moments. At once the haze of energies that he was detecting began to sharpen, but Ranma soon found that he had to sort it out himself.
To that end, he felt a sudden disturbance in the flow of energies, and his eyes snapped open.
"Whoa!" Ranma flipped backward onto his hands, and then flipped back again to land on his feet. He was quick enough so that he not only avoided being eviscerated, but he also saw three glowing streaks of green cut through the air where his neck had been. The energy quickly dissipated, but not before Ranma could make an accurate guess as to where his opponent was.

Shampoo turned as Ranma shouted out, and then saw a series of green streaks slice through the air, similar to the ones that she had barely glimpsed when they had cut into her back nearly a week prior.
Ranma, however, flipped away from the attack, and then launched himself headfirst into a tackle that slammed firmly into the remaining jakku. Not only that, but while still in the air, Ranma had withdrawn a dagger from somewhere, and stabbed it into the undead killer before kicking it hard into the ground and then landing neatly on his feet maybe a meter away.
Then, with a smirk that simply added insult to injury, Ranma drew his blade to cut down the final attacker as it made a desperate bid to escape. Unfortunately for the jakku, its invisibility was severely betrayed by the prominent knife hilt sticking out of its chest, and the undead beast fell quickly before Ranma's swift blade.
Ranma sheathed his katana, looking rather proud of himself, when he was suddenly grabbed in an excited and totally unexpected hug.
"Ranma! You kill assassin! Is amazing!" Shampoo smiled at him almost reverently, and the pigtailed boy began to blush and stammer.
"Well, uh, yeah. I mean, it was nothin', really. Ha! Piece of cake! Um, you can, you know, let go now, if you want." He swallowed deeply as Shampoo tightened her hug, and began to wonder if she had any plans of letting go.
"Aw, how about that," K teased, fluttering over to the couple and then landing on Ranma's head. "The big, bad demon slayer is shy!"
"He's also quite short-tempered," Ranma reminded him irritably.
"So... this is how it is... I see it all now!"
Ranma, K, and Shampoo all shared a blink, then looked over to Mousse, who had been mostly forgotten during the greater part of the fight. The boy was slowly rising to his feet, and his eyes held such fury that K fell back behind Ranma's head to peek over Ranma shoulder.
"You see it all? See what? You can't see anything!" Ranma reminded, both confused and not a little annoyed. This was his moment, after all, and even if Shampoo was making it a little uncomfortable (if not at the same time pleasurable), this guy was just plain ruining it.
"Ha!" Mousse shouted, standing up straight finally, "My vision isn't the best, outsider scum, but what makes you think I can't see what's right in front of my face?!" He challenged, pointing a finger across the grove.
"Well, for one thing, you're talking to the jakku impaled against the tree," Ranma pointed out helpfully.
Mousse's finger twitched, and then he turned toward the voice. "Don't you mock me! I can see it plain as day! You're trying to steal my Shampoo from me!"
"'Trying'?" K questioned.
Ranma ignored the matadragon and put up his hands peaceably. "Whoa, whoa, you've got it all wrong, man!" Then he sweatdropped and looked down at Shampoo, who was snuggling against his chest. "Doesn't he?"
The buxom Amazon girl frowned at this, and then adjusted her position so that she was hugging Ranma's arm rather than his torso. While this had the regretful effect of keeping her from rubbing her body against her savior's, it allowed her to more effectively berate her myopic tormentor.
"Mousse be quiet! Shampoo never belong to you!" She shouted angrily.
"But don't you see?" Mousse protested, "he's blinded you with... with his... uh..."
Ranma looked thoughtful. "My superior ability to kill things that piss me off?" He guessed.
"Yeah!" Mousse shouted, "Can't you see? The swine admits it! He's trying to trick you into falling in love with him!"
Once again, the two humans and dragon across the clearing sweatropped. "I don't quite follow the logic here," Ranma ventured uneasily.
"Mousse finally lose mind," Shampoo supplied, sighing and holding herself to Ranma's arm even more tightly. Then she smiled up at Ranma. "But Ranma no mind be with Shampoo! Yes?" When he didn't answer, she took a better look, and realized that his expression had changed drastically, going from confused and irritated to completely serious and determined.
Mousse tried to step forward, but nearly collapsed the moment he tried to move his injured leg. "D-Damn you! I... I can't fight you right now, but as soon as I can, you'll fall before..." Mousse then noticed Ranma's mostly perplexed expression turn suddenly serious. "... uh, fall before... um, well, what I meant to say was, uh..."
Suddenly, Ranma wrenched his arm free of Shampoo's grip, and then launched himself toward Mousse, who promptly panicked. "Hey, wait! You can't fight me now! I'm injured! Oof!" To Mousse's surprise, rather than being cut with a katana or hammer-fisted, Ranma grabbed him around the waist and then sprung to the side.
*Thrak!!* A huge metal claw cut deep into the ground where Mousse had been standing before, throwing up dirt and rock in a heavy spray.
Ranma landed lightly, and deposited Mousse safely (if not softly) a good distance away from where he had been before.
"Well, it looks like we've got one more of these freaks to take care of!" Ranma cracked his knuckles and grinned.
K, who had been thrown off of Ranma from his sudden movement, decided to land on Shampoo instead this time. "What the? That's not a jakku! There's no way one of those things could carry something that heavy!"
They all stared at the metal talons as they remained embedded in the dirt, connected to a chain as it was that seemed to disappear as it led up into the air.
Ever so slowly, the chain began to go taut, and the claw was roughly dragged from the rut it had made in the ground.
Ranma gently drew his sword, and let his senses stretch out toward the area before him. He had a feeling K was right; though this new attacker "felt" the same way the others did, it was just... more. Like a mountain lion compared to its kittens.
"Shampoo, I want you and Mousse to get back to the village. You'll be safe there." Ranma said absently, strafing slowly as he kept his invisible foe pinpointed.
Shampoo gasped. "Ranma! Shampoo no-"
"Just do it, will ya?!" He shouted back, annoyed. "I don't have time to argue with you!" At that moment, a loud snap broke the relative calm of the grove, and multiple heavy crossbow bolts phased out of nowhere, streaking toward the martial artists.
"Run! Now!" Ranma slapped one of the bolts out of the air with his left hand, and then dashed forward. A slight motion of its aura seemed to indicate that it had moved in response to this, so rather than a straight forward slash, Ranma jumped up right before making contact and somersaulted in the air, cutting in a sawblade motion that scored an admirable nick on some part of the creature's body, presumably its shoulder.
Shampoo had hit the ground as the bolts streaked overhead, and had watched as one hit a fairly thick tree, turning the stricken section of trunk to splinters as it continued on to embed itself thickly into the next one. That had left her sufficiently wary of being collateral damage that she accepted Ranma's command. Stopping only long enough to grab Mousse by the back of his robe, Shampoo quickly shouted, "Shampoo wish you victory, Ranma!" and then took off toward the village proper as quickly as she could while dragging Mousse on the ground behind her.

Ranma took a one-legged stance as he waited for his enemy to turn toward him. Or maybe it wasn't turning toward him. Or perhaps it already had?
"Screw it. These invisible creeps aren't worth the trouble." Ranma blasted forward with all the speed he could muster, and then spin-kicked his opponent before following up with a horizontal slash. As blood gushed from the eerie-looking wound, Ranma moved to follow up with another kick, only to get struck hard in the chest. As he was flung back toward the river, Ranma reflected upon how his crude mastery of detecting auras hadn't allowed him to tell anything more than his opponent's location, general power level, and a few other miscellaneous things that he really hadn't sorted out in his mind yet. Really, if he wanted to fight this thing on a level that didn't involve him being smacked around every once in a while, he would either have to render it visible somehow... or simply fling massive quantities of energy at it.
Ranma barely touched the ground with his hand while still airborne, and within moments had landed lightly on his feet. "Well, looks like it's time to play hardball," Ranma muttered, and his aura began to build around him.
Very soon Ranma found that channeling his own power disrupted his senses to the point that he could no longer concentrate on detecting his enemy's aura. An inconvenience, but hardly a danger at this point.
"All right, freak," Ranma said, holding his arms back behind him. His battle aura, normally blue, suddenly changed color to red, and a wash of energy began to swirl about Ranma's feet and stir up the dirt. "Flash fire!" Ranma swept both his hands forward, and his aura coalesced into a blaze of red that blasted across the ground and blasted violently into a large form just a few meters away.
A freakish howl echoed through the mountain forest, and as the red ki cut fiery gouges into the Earth below, Ranma got his first good look at his new opponent. It was at least eight feet tall, and, like the jakku, wore bandage wrappings and a metal mask. Unlike the jakku, this creature's bandages were sparse, wrapping fully around the feet and ankles, chest, arm, and a few other small bits here and there. Covering certain areas such as the breast and groin were metal armor plates, each one rusted and scarred with wear. What wasn't covered revealed deathly pale, grossly muscular flesh thick with veins, and, more recently, burns. The only other notable difference between this monstrosity and the undead assassins before it was that its left hand had been replaced by the same metal talons that had nearly nailed Mousse in the back before. Mounted on its other hand was a powerful-looking crossbow.
Of course, this was all lost on Ranma, who was more focused on clearly noting where his enemy was. The pigtailed boy grinned.
"If you can see it, you can hit it..." his right hand lit aflame with the light of his aura, the black plates of Ranma's new gauntlet shining with the otherworldly light.
"If you can hit it..." Ranma clenched the fist tightly, and the energy was suddenly sucked into the glove, giving it a light blue glow, despite its previous hue of crimson. The gems set in the back of the hand and wrist flashed like light bulbs.
"You can KILL IT!!" Ranma launched himself forward, twisting while in motion to avoid a three-bolt volley of crossbow bolts. Within a split second, he was within reach of the foul zombie, and had cocked his fist back. "Drago-Whoa!" Ranma stopped suddenly and threw open his gauntleted hand before staring at it oddly. "That's weird. This thing's affecting the ki flow somehow. Uh..." He looked up at his opponent, who was barely two feet from him. "Sorry, can I start over?"
*Whoosh!* Ranma ducked under the talons that sought to cut him to bloody ribbons, and then jumped straight up and backflipped over the following backhand before landing on exactly the same spot he had been standing before.
"Thanks!" Ranma said, and then cocked back his left fist, which was already glowing. "Dragon fist!!"
*KAA-SHRAAAK!!!* A massive fireball in the shape of a dragon's maw instantly formed and tore into the undead beast, and Ranma's knuckles impacted with a force that blew the ground out from under them and sent the monster flying back in an ashen heap.
Ranma had propped one foot behind him to handle the recoil, and he shook his smoking hand as the red energy surrounding the blast site dissipated, a satisfied smirk on his face.
He was stood in the origin of a great fan of burn marks that had streaked across the Earth below him, and great ruts of dirt had been torn up and thrown about from the actual impact of his fist and the creature's chest. Looking at the creature, not much was left of the afflicted area, and the mass around the gaping hole in the zombie's torso was quickly burning up.

Ranma nodded happily. "A job well done."
"All right! That was awesome!" K shouted, flying up to land on Ranma's head. "How come you didn't tell me you could do that? I didn't know you could do that!"
Ranma smirked up at the little dragon, and began to walk back toward the village. "I can do a lot of stuff you don't know about."
"Well, tell me!" K insisted, "I want to know all the cool moves you can do!"
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"So I can shout advice from the sidelines, of course."
"That's more like what I DON'T want," Ranma said dryly, "I'm not some kind of Poke`mon."
K blinked. "What's a Poke`mon?"
"It's like you, but they fight, and conveniently fit into little metal spheres when you want them to stop bothering you."
"Are you calling me a bother?" K challenged.
"No, no, no," Ranma denied, "you're not important enough to be a bother. I was thinking more like 'annoyance'."
The bickering continued until long after they had entered the forest.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Reaching the village had been something of a surprise to Ranma. It was kind of late, so he had expected the village to be mostly boarded up and asleep, with a heavy guard that he may well have had to talk or sneak his way past. He had been planning to simply walk to the elder's hut, make the old wench eat her words about him not being good enough, and then get on his way out. Maybe, if anybody was still up, he would purchase some supplies first.

What he didn't expect was for every torch or piece of wood that could be fashioned into a torch to be lit up around the village area, and for Amazon men and women to be dancing on the palisade walls and such. A look further down the path into the village proper revealed people parading through the huts with huge plates of food and jugs of wine.
"What is it, Christmas?" Ranma wondered aloud, scratching his head. He didn't think it was December. It was more towards August, right?
Ranma was treated to a light smack in the head from a metal wing. Not that K had bothered to make it light, but honestly, the tiny dragon wasn't very strong. "No dope, this is your hero's welcome!"
Ranma blinked. "Hero's welcome? You're kidding me. Naw, this has gotta be some kind of holiday or something." In his experience back in Israel, a hero's welcome consisted of perhaps a medal or ribbon, followed by one of the other soldiers (typically the one whose ass he had saved) buying him dinner or treating him to some other gift. Beyond his service in the Israeli armed forces, most battles he won either earned him money, his life, or fear. Most of the trouble similar to what the Amazons had experienced were solved with bounties and bounty hunters out in the wastes, and thus he was given no more than he expected to receive (and, on a few spectacularly unpleasant occasions, significantly less). Of course, he often performed deeds of good will that had no offered reward attached, but these were usually isolated events that garnered some small gratitude or favor with someone of no influence or significance. Not that he minded, but it had left him totally unused to feasts being held in his honor.
The whole reason for celebration was confirmed when the very same group of young women that had first escorted him to the village suddenly poured out from behind the palisade wall and began to drag him into the village while chattering excitedly in Chinese. Ranma allowed himself to be dragged, and looked quizzically at K. The metadragon just shrugged, and didn't even attempt to interpret the buckets of praise being dumped on the boy in a language he didn't understand. Ranma's ego was big enough as it was, really.
After being led into the village square, Ranma found himself shoved into a large seat at a table with a plate settled in his lap. Well, that, and he found that some of the girls had taken to grabbing him in rather intimate places. Blushing slightly, Ranma settled down and began to eat from the plate in his lap.
The music around him began to build, and Ranma saw Shampoo make her way toward him through the crowd.
He waved to her. "Hey Shampoo! Over here!" Ranma grinned as the beautiful warrior began rushing towards him. "Can you believe it? Everybody's throwing me a party!" Ranma laughed a bit, embarrassed at the whole scene.
Shampoo, for her part, simply smiled and seated herself on the armrest of the chair before she busied herself stroking Ranma's arm gently. Ranma was clearly a bit confused as to why she was doing this, but found it pleasant enough that he wasn't about to complain.
"So, uh... Shampoo, how's Mousse doi-mmmph..." his question was involuntarily muted as Shampoo suddenly kissed him deeply, wrapping her arms around his head and sliding slowly down into his lap (the plate of food that had previously occupied the space was knocked away, and quickly forgotten).
K grinned from where he had settled to eat some roast at the main dinner table. "Damn Saotome! You work fast, don't you?"
Ranma doubtless would have produced a witty and scathing comeback, but his mouth was already quite occupied with Shampoo's tongue, and at that, unable to form a proper response. Not that it would have been in his best interest, anyway.
"Enjoying yourself, sonny?"
Ranma was startled out of his surprise, and broke the kiss to face Cologne, who had snuck up behind his chair. "THERE you are! You owe me an apology, old ghoul!"
The Amazon elder smirked at the young man who was even now holding her great-granddaughter in his lap. "Oh, do I?"
Ranma smirked back. "Yeah! Sayin' I wouldn't stand a chance against those invisible freaks... well I took down three of 'em, plus a really big one that showed up later!" Shampoo giggled as he stared down at the old woman arrogantly, and brushed and hand through his hair adoringly.
Cologne chuckled. "Yes, well, you sure showed this old bat a thing or two, didn't you?" She hopped up onto a bench, and then took a drumstick from a convenient plate of meat. "When you're a pessimist, it's always a delight be proven wrong."
"So is all this really for me?" Ranma asked, trying to ignore Shampoo as she began snuggling against him. He had no idea what had gotten into the girl, but couldn't find it in his heart to complain.
Cologne took a bite of her drumstick, then swallowed and turned towards the boy. "Tonight was supposed to be a funeral for Shampoo's friend Brush and four others that were stricken down by these 'jakku' that Shampoo described to me. Instead we got the opportunity to push that grim date back so that we may celebrate the deaths of their killers." She waved the drumstick in his face. "It's been many months since we've had anything to celebrate, Ranma. Once it was deemed safe to leave the village freely, many of the farmers that have fields a fair walk from the village were more than happy to bring back enough for a celebratory feast."
Ranma nodded. "Okay, I just have one question though..." he pointed across the village square, "do you guys normally let lizardmen into your village?"
Cologne and Shampoo blinked, not having expected that at all. Both turned to where he was pointing, and saw an unusually tall figure in a brown cloak off to the side of the square, clearly separate from the festivities taking place.
Cologne turned back toward Ranma. "Yes, actually. We've adapted to the... changes the world has undergone in the past several years better than many other locales. Creatures of all types sometimes pass through our village to purchase supplies or food, and we see no reason to stop them. Of course, they're always watched carefully, and we have enough swords on hand to make any troublemakers regret their coming here." She paused. "Why?"
Ranma shrugged. "No reason, really. It's just that that one keeps glancing over at me. No big deal."
Cologne shrugged as well. "If that's over with, then..." She suddenly grinned. "I suppose you'll be wanting your reward, eh? And from the looks of things, you already have someone in mind, eh?" Shampoo snuggled up tighter against her savior, sighing in delight.
"Oh, uh, about that..." Ranma started, pushing himself up straight in his chair so he could see over Shampoo's head. "Look, I know I won and everything, but to be honest, I was just trying to prove something. You can keep the bed."
Shampoo and Cologne blinked.
"I mean, really, I wouldn't even know what to do with a new bed anyway. I travel everywhere, and it's not like I can just bring a new bed with me, and... uh... what?" Ranma trailed off and scratched the back of his head as Shampoo and Cologne stared at him oddly.
Over at the dinner table, K snickered.
Cologne hummed to herself as she observed the pigtailed boy's confusion, and then suddenly snapped her fingers. "I'll tell you what, child. Simply enter the home I share with my family over there... yes, that one, and then I'll have Shampoo prepare a little treat for you, okay?"
Ranma blinked, then grinned and stood up. "Sounds good!" With a spring in his step, the pigtailed fighter jogged down the length of the village, dodging dancing villagers and drunken warriors along the way. K watched the pigtailed boy go, then swallowed up the last of some potatoes before quickly taking off after him.

Cologne watched him go, and then turned to her great-granddaughter. {"I see you already have your eye on him, child. You would mind escalating that relationship, would you?"}
Shampoo shook her head happily. {"Ranma is very strong and kind! He'll make a perfect husband!"}
The elder nodded slowly. {"Certainly, Shampoo. We'll work on that tomorrow. For now, would you mind settling for 'lover'?"}
Shampoo grinned and shook her head again.
{"Excellent!"} Cologne cheered, grabbing up another drumstick. {"You know what to do, child. Go to it!"}
Shampoo nodded happily and skipped off to her family's hut.
{"Elder! Elder! Elder Cologne!"}
Frowning at the voice, Cologne turned to see the healer, the same one who was originally assigned to watch over Shampoo, push her way through the crowds toward her.
{"Child, calm yourself. What's wrong?"}
The healer looked embarrassed, and lowered her head. {"S-Sorry elder. But... um... I thought you might want to know... er..."}
{"What is it child? Spit it out, now."}
The healer sighed. {"You know how you told me to keep Mousse restrained in bed for the evening?"}
{"...... Oh, no......"}
__________________________________________________________________________________

K chuckled as he crawled along the wooden floors of the elder's house. "Man, you are SO gonna get laid!" Looking up at the boy, the metadragon noticed that he wasn't even listening, instead looking at some scrolls he had found in a bookcase. "Hey, should you be touching that sort of thing?"
Ranma ignored him, and continued scanning down the Japanese translations alongside the complex Chinese text. He had no idea why someone had thought to include a Japanese translation, but he was glad they had. This stuff was pretty interesting.
"Hmmm... tie a boulder up with a rope... hang the student on the other side..." he muttered softly to himself as he memorized the training technique. Apparently the technique it taught allowed the user to destroy rock formations with a single touch of the finger. Of course, that made its use against living targets practically nil, but there was plenty use for a technique like this regardless.
Finishing with that scroll, Ranma quickly rolled it up, then selected another from the ornate bookcase and carefully unrolled it.
Muttering a bit himself, K looked around the house as he stood at Ranma's feet. It was sparsely decorated, but those few baubles that were displayed were certainly more than he had seen around the village in other areas.
"Shoving your hands in a fire? Yeesh. Why do all these Amazon techniques involve mutilating yourself?" Ranma once again replaced the scroll, and then picked up another. Truth be told, the methods, though painful, didn't seem very strenuous. Certainly he had been through worse in mastering the Hyoken School of the Dragon's Flame.
He was just reading through the next scroll, and learning about how cold air inside a spiral of hot air could create a vortex, when he felt a tugging on his leg. "Not now, K."
"Ranma... code red!" the metadragon whispered harshly.
Ranma looked down to stare at him oddly. "'Code red'? What the hell does that-SHAMPOO! Hi!" With such movement that he was a blur, Ranma had put the scroll back and whirled around, a nervous twitch in his eye and a sweatdrop on his head. "Hey! I didn't see you there! I was, you know, just looking around! And certainly not stealing your tribe's secret techniques! Ha ha!" He said all this so loudly that even HE could tell it was a lie.
Shampoo just giggled and walked up closely to him so that she could wrap her arms around him. And she quickly did so, before kissing the surprised boy softly on the lips.
Ranma initially just put his surprise aside and allowed himself to enjoy the moment, but quickly came to his senses and gently took Shampoo by the shoulders before pushing her away. "Whoa, whoa... uh... look, Shampoo, not that I don't like you and everything, but I think this is moving kinda fast, don't you think?"
The buxom Amazon simply stared at him oddly, wondering if she had done something to ruin the mood.
"Uh, well, I mean, we hardly know each other! And I'm gonna be leaving soon, so..." Ranma trailed off as Shampoo took his hand in hers and smiled up at him.
"Shampoo show you something, okay?" Not waiting for a response, she started pushing him back into a room, and Ranma saw no reason to resist.
K started to waddle after them, but Shampoo quite deliberately entered the doorway quickly and shut the door before the tiny dragon could get inside.
The metadragon blinked rapidly, then shrugged and curled up outside the door.
Hoping that the couple on the other side of the door wouldn't make too much noise, K was about to fall asleep when a shadow fell over him, cast against the dim lights of the oil lamp hanging from the hall ceiling.
K looked up at what formed the shadow and gulped. "Uh... hi."
__________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma looked about nervously at what was clearly the interior of a bedroom. "Uh... Shampoo, like I was saying, you're a really nice girl and all..." He trailed off as she turned away from him and moved her hand to the tie on the back of her dress.
Ranma wasn't exactly chaste or anything, but always felt exceedingly guilty when a girl pressed her affections for him, only for him to leave her the next day. Of course, the only ways to circumvent this was to either reject their affections (which didn't always work), or simply settle down with the girl (which might happen once he was cold and dead). Ranma really hoped that Shampoo wasn't taking this very seriously.
The Amazon undid the tie, and then slowly slid off one shoulder.
Ranma blinked, and then leaned forward as he saw the three prominent marks that made their way across her back from her shoulder. "Whoa... that's a heckuva scar."
Shampoo nodded slowly, not facing him. "Jakku make scar when attack and kill Shampoo friend and fellow warriors. Wound bleed more than normal, and Shampoo almost die." She smiled slowly, though Ranma couldn't see it. "Then Ranma come and kill jakku, and save Shampoo."
"And Mousse," Ranma added, hoping that maybe mentioning the boy would help to defuse the situation. The fellow really seemed to turn her off, after all.
When Shampoo shoved off the other shoulder, and her dress fell to the floor, he was forced to confess to himself that it didn't work.
"Wh-Whoa! Hey! Slow down, girl!" Ranma laughed nervously, and nearly choked himself as he swallowed involuntarily.
Shampoo giggled and slinked toward him seductively. "Why Ranma so shy all of sudden?"
"That's not true," Ranma protested, pointing a finger in the air as if lecturing. "Really, I'm always shy. But it doesn't really come out much until some girl strips naked and starts advancing on me."
Shampoo giggled again and prepared to pounce on her prey.
Unfortunately, the sensual union between the two teenage fighters was simply not to be, and fate decided to cut in with the help of a mentally unbalanced man and a 20-pound battleaxe.
*Smash!!* The door was reduced to splinters as the heavy metal head crashed through it, and Shampoo whirled around to see Mousse hunched over the mighty weapon, seething in anger.
Ranma sighed. "Now THIS I should have seen coming. Still..." he looked away, ignoring the stare of murderous rage Mousse was giving him. "... there's something missing..."
__________________________________________________________________________________

Comb sighed as she took a sip of wine from her gourd, and shifted to make herself more comfortable leaning against her spear.
She didn't really mind being given guard duty on the night of a feast, so long as she still got to eat and drink at least a little bit. The reasons for her depression were of a more complex nature.
{"So they never found your husband, eh?"} Her companion guard murmered lightly, trying to start up a conversation.
Comb shook her head. {"No. But at least all the search parties came back alive."}
The other guard grinned. {"Plus they brought back that other outsider, if the rumors are to be believed."}
Comb snorted. {"This feast could have been in Rayden's honor, but instead Shampoo gets to hang off that other fellow's arm as..."} she trailed off and looked around cautiously. {"Do you feel that?"}
Her companion blinked. {"Feel what?"} Then she felt it too. A faint, constant vibration in the ground. {"What's that? Do you think it's an earthquake?"}
Comb frowned. {"I don't know. The vibrations are building, though. It feels like-"} she stopped speaking suddenly as a small mound of Earth emerged from the forest and quickly made its way toward the village, leaving a trail of disturbed dirt in its wake.
Comb stared at the trail as the dirt hit the palisade walls, and seemed to stop there. Then she went through the village gate to look at the other side. Sure enough, the trail continued along toward the village square at the same speed.
Her companion followed her gaze, then turned toward her. {"I didn't see anything if you didn't."}
{"Deal."}
__________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma hopped to his feet and smiled warmly at the homicidal teenage across from him. "So, who wants to talk this out like civilized human beings?"
Ranma leaned to one side as the battleaxe whizzed by his head. *Chung!*
"Okay then. Diplomacy: failed. Guess it's time for a little armed conflict." Ranma began cracking his knuckles.
Shampoo glared hatefully at Mousse, holding a sheet over her with one hand. "Mousse, you go now! Shampoo never forgive for this!!"
"No, Shampoo, I. WILL. NOT. GO." His voice was deadly serious, and caused Shampoo to pause in surprise, even if Ranma just rolled his eyes. "Shampoo, I care about you too much to let this DESPICABLE WORM desecrate your body!! I'll protect you forever, even from yourself if need be!!"
Shampoo began to tremble in barely controlled anger.
Ranma shrugged. "That's actually kinda noble of you... sort of... but I'm still gonna have to kick your ass. No hard feelings, right?"
*K-shing!* Mousse flexed his hand, and a fan of blades appeared in it. "I don't hold grudges against the DEAD!!" The Chinese fighter launched himself forward, cutting wildly with the steel fan in a series of arcs that sliced into the target with surprising efficiency, if not unremarkable lethality.
"But you do hold grudges against clay pottery?" Ranma questioned, eyebrow raised. Apparently being angry enough to kill hadn't improved the boy's ability to identify his enemies.
Shampoo covered her face with her free hand, mortified.
Mousse became even angrier than before, if possible, and slowly turned toward the blur in his vision that had spoken.
"Hey! Who do you think you are, stepping on me like that?!" Mousse was suddenly and unexpectedly accosted by a flying metal dragon, who made his irritation known by beating his steel-like wings in Mousse's face.
"Ow! Hey! Cut that out! Ouch!! That stings! Those things are sharp! Oof!!" The last noise was made not because K was slashing his face, but because Ranma had walked up to him and kicked him in the stomach.
The pigtailed boy crossed his arms over his chest, and K landed on his shoulder, the both of them glaring down at the visually impaired fighter.
"Normally I would give some kinda heavy-handed moral statement about respecting women and not bothering them and stuff," Ranma started, "but really, I'm not feeling that self-righteous right now, and I'm kinda tired." He shrugged, and then turned to leave.
*Rrrrrrrumble...*
Everyone present blinked as the house began to shake from the sudden vibrations.
"Well, that's rarely a good sign," K remarked.
He was right.

*KA-KRROOOM!!!* *CRASH!!!* Much of the wall, and a good portion of the ceiling was ripped apart as a massive armored head emerged from the ground below, tearing apart everything above as it made its way heedlessly through the surface.
"SHRRYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" A tremendous roar echoed through the mountain valley, momentarily hiding the sudden shouting and panicking that was coming from the village proper.
The beast that was causing all this fuss was a massive serpentine creature, with a snake-like body covered in dark, horny, segmented armor plates. Its head alone was nearly half again as tall as Ranma was, and twice that in length. It was supported quite sturdily by a muscular body, that was hardly much smaller than the head.
"Well, that's just great... a wyrm," Ranma mumbled, dusting himself off. The creature's emergence had caused quite a lot of dust and debris to fall around him.
"It's a black wyrm!" K shouted, gaping.
"It looks more like a dark gray to me."
"THIS IS NO TIME TO BE ARGUING ABOUT THE COLOR OF ITS HIDE!!"
Ranma nodded in determination, even as the massive beast overhead slowly tensed its muscles to strike.
He turned to Shampoo, who was lying on the shattered floor, paralyzed with shock, and holding up a towel to her breasts as her only meager protection. "Shampoo, I'm going to need you to get out of here until its safe, okay? I'm not completely sure, but I think this guy's after me."
*SMASH!!!* The wyrm's head shot forward towards Ranma, and it tore easily through what was left of the bedroom wall as more of the elder's home fell to pieces around it.
Ranma landed lightly on one side of the pseudo-dragon. "Yup, it's after me. C'mon K, we'd better get outta here." He jumped out of the convenient new hole in the ceiling and ran into the crowd of confused and shaken warriors that had surrounded the house. He still needed to get his pack, which he had left at the healer's hut.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"By Athena!" Cologne shouted, staring as the huge wyrm ripped its head up through the roof of her house, sending the tile roofing raining down upon the village proper. "A wyrm?! I haven't seen one these since the Death March!" Cologne grimaced mightily. "What could one of these be doing here? It doesn't make sense to send one alone..." Wyrms were commonly (and the word is used loosely, for even psuedo-dragons were hardly common) used to assist armies in sieges. Not that they weren't practically an army by themselves, but without a force behind it to take the village or finish razing it, there seemed no reason for the beast to be attacking.
That's when Cologne noticed that the wyrm seemed to be scanning the wreckage of her house, as if searching for something. But of course, sending a wyrm to retrieve a certain object, or kill a single person, seemed even more preposterous than one simply passing through and attacking. Whoever had sent it obviously had a lot in the way of power, and nothing in the way of subtlety.
She was about to start shouting orders to the warriors that surrounded her home, when a shrill whistle attracted everyone's attention; including the wyrm's.

Ranma stood atop the outer palisade, waving at the black serpent. "YO!! YOU LOOKIN' FOR ME?!?! OVER HERE, YOU OVERGROWN EEL!!!" Grinning, the boy leapt over the other side of the wall and took off for the forest, going at a fair jog.
The wyrm's eyes narrowed, and it gracefully threw its head back as it slid back into the Earth. Immediately a mound of displaced dirt began to move through the village, causing Amazons to scramble out of the wyrm's path.
"What the hell is that boy doing?!" Cologne shouted to herself, scowling. It took one skilled man to kill a few assassins, but it took a small army to down a pseudo-dragon of any type!
She tapped two Amazons on the shoulder with her staff, and each of them turned, and bowed when they realized who it was.
{"Child, I want you to go to the armory and retrieve the mithril arrows that soap forged. Go, child!"} The Amazon quickly ran off, not even slowing to confirm her compliance.
{"And as for you,"} Cologne began, addressing the other woman, {"I want you to go to the village cellar, and bring me back as much as possible of the most potent wine we have."}
The warrior blinked. {"Elder?"}
{"Just do it girl!"} Cologne snapped. *Sigh* {"I'm getting far too old for this..."}
__________________________________________________________________________________

"Okay, so what's the plan?" K asked as he sped along above his companion martial artist, flying between webs of branches and leaves.
Ranma himself as jogging lightly through the foliage and clearly taking his time in avoiding any particularly dense cluster of foliage. "Well, I was thinking that I'd keep going for a little while, and then stop if I get to an open field or something."
K blinked. "Okay... then what?"
"Well, then I kill it," Ranma said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
K's eyes widened. "WHAT?? We're going to FIGHT it?!"
"Of course not," Ranma scoffed, "You're useless in a battle. I'm going to fight it."
The metadragon gaped for a moment, then sped up to perch firmly on Ranma's head.
"So... are you going to use that C-4 again, like you did with the wyvern?"
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "That's actually a good idea, but I'm all out, so I can't."
K sweatdropped. "You know, if we survive this, we're going to have to kill that ego of yours, before we're the one's who're killed."
Ranma rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever... WHOA!!!"
Ranma stopped running immediately and killed his momentum, causing K to lose his tentative grip and go flying forward.
Of course, the metadragon was perfectly capable of flying, so K experienced no major discomfort besides being tossed. And a quick look down revealed why Ranma had stopped so suddenly.
Less than two inches from the wall of trees that formed the beginning of the forest, the ground dropped into a nearly vertical cliff that outlined a rather deep valley.
The valley was so deep, in fact, that K had to squint a little bit to make out the small springs that dotted the valley bottom.
"Not good... not good... not good..." The metadragon continued the mantra out loud as Ranma tossed his pack to the side and turned away from the cliff.
K turned as well, once he heard Ranma cracking his knuckles. "You're crazy! You can't fight it here! You'll be knocked off the edge! ...... If you're lucky..."
Ranma's face was a mask of utter seriousness. "I've gone too far to die here, K. I'll make it. Just keep yourself safe, all right?"
"B-But... But Ranma..." K began, unsure of what to say.
*Rrrrrrumble...*
"Here it comes!" Ranma shouted, sighting the moving trail of dirt that marked the wyrm's movements. His hand moved to his katana's hilt as the beast approached underground... drew the sword slightly as it passed underneath him... and then sheathed it again in confusion as it passed by him.
*Ka-kroom!* "RRYAAAAAaaaaaarrrrgh......"
Ranma and K sweatdropped as the snake-like body of the worm burst out of the face of the cliff, and was immediately subjected to the harsh, merciless grasp of gravity.
*Goosh* The tremendous splash that the mighty creature no doubt made in one or more of the pools below had faded to a bare whisper by the time it echoed up to Ranma's ear, and the pigtailed boy scratched his head in contemplation.
"Huh... the stupid animal must've tried to overtake me, and just busted through the vally wall instead. Ha!" Grinning, Ranma walked aside to pick up his pack.
K peered into the valley below, squinting. "Is it just me, or did the wyrm's body disappear? I can't see it."
"Who cares?" Ranma said, slinging his pack over his shoulder. "We should get moving. We need to head north."
"North?" K asked, "why? Aren't we going back to the Amazon village?"
Ranma snorted. "Naw. After getting rid of the wyrm, they might try to crown me king or something. I'd rather just move on."
K shrugged and perched on Ranma's shoulder as the fighter began to make his way back into the forest. "It's too bad... that girl Shampoo had it BAD for you."
"Quiet you. For something so small, you sure have a dirty mind."
"Aw, you're just a prude."
"Stupid lizard."
"Moron!"
"Iron-headed dinosaur!"
"Arrogant jerk!"
Ah, friendship.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"Sir is very lucky that I see come out of spring. Not many people here; sir would have hard time find out about curse." The guide looked across his small fire to the wet little rabbit that sat there, its ear twitching slightly.
It was rather odd; he had found the rabbit outside the Spring of Drowned Rabbit, looking so confused and frightened that he had thought it obvious that somebody had somehow gotten into Jusenkyou without his knowledge and fallen into the spring. Then again, when he had picked up the rabbit it had tried to bite him, and the little creature didn't seem to fully comprehend human speech. It had seemed to jerk in recognition of a few Japanese words, however, so he had settled on that language. The poor fellow (or lass) sure was acting strangely though; he had explained the curse in its entirety, but it still looked worried and scared, while not giving any particular attention to the pot of water he had set on the fire.
Speaking of which...
"Here you are, sir. You go back normal now!" Smiling reassuringly, the guide picked up the kettle and splashed the rabbit with it.
".................. Aiyah... sir... you very bigger than I thought..." The guide simply couldn't think of any other words to express his thoughts as he stared into the giant eyes of the massive, 60-ton warbeast before him.
"Reeeeeeaaaaaaarrrr..." The wyrm let out a deadly-sounding hiss as it reared its head up. It wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but it was hurt and confused and it was going to take out its stress on this pitiful little creature!
*Splash* The guide looked down at the little bunny rabbit as he replaced his cup in his waist pouch. "Sir, I recommend you go like that. Not scare villagers so easily, yes?" Smiling amiably, the guide turned away from the rabbit, ignoring as best he could its violent and confused thrashing.
It was for the best, really.

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

End Chapter 2

Author's Notes:
I would like to take this time to apologize to the Poke`mon fans out there for the glaringly obvious continuity error present in the previous reference to Poke`mon. As far as I am aware, the Poke`mon craze didn't pick up significant momentum for one such as Ranma (who would obviously have no particular interest in it, because he's not a geek like you guys) to know what it is until the late 20th or early 21st century.
Obviously, this places the peak of Japan's popular kid's show right in the middle of the war that devastated all of the eastern world. Needless to say, I hardly think it reasonable for you to suspend disbelief to the point that you imagine shiploads of anime leaving Japan, and coming back loaded down with troops and armor for the defense of Tokyo against demonic invaders. Nintendo stuff, sure, but not Poke`mon merchandise.
Realistically, Poke`mon wouldn't even have become popular in Japan, as a conflict of such importance and scale surely would have disrupted normal commercial entertainment. However, at the same time, it's simply too good a joke for me to erase, so I'm going to leave it in there. Doubtlessly I have offended you with this callous mistake, but I'd simply like you to know that I'm thinking of you. If you're still thinking about sending that flame, I'd also like you to know that I have friends that can hack your home address from your e-mail address, and that when people complain to me, their houses have a tendency to accidentally catch fire.