Rule #5: Girls are very social creatures. This means that they're very personal and affectionate and get attached to others easily. It also means that they're usually invasive and very judgmental. While it may seem silly to have a "contingency plan" in case you get sucked into a discussion you don't want to be in or are suddenly exposed to criticism and ridicule, it's undeniably a good idea.

"If I'd known you were so short on cash that you couldn't afford proper transportation OR an actual restaurant, I would have suggested a cheaper way to go out. Or just paid myself," Min grumbled bitterly as she poked at Nodoka's sukiyaki, surrounded by her date's relatives.
"Why? Mom's a great cook!" Ranma insisted between gulps of food.
"That's not the point," Min growled, a vein popping up on her head. "A date should take place in a restaurant, not at someone's house with their family!"
"Why should I pay money for food that isn't as good as what I can get at home? Just so we can have people sitting right behind us instead of right next to us?" Ranma asked, feeling a slight chill as he realized that he had been drawn into an unwinnable conflict.
Yurumi sweatdropped at seeing the oncoming argument. Nodoka and Iori, for their part, completely ignored the exchange, eating quietly as if nothing was happening.
"Are you really so cheap that you won't pay to take your girlfriend OUT on a date?" Min seethed, causing the pigtailed boy to start sweating nervously.
"But... uh..." 'Uh-oh. This is getting ugly. Think fast, Ranma!'
"Or is this about me?" Min asked, becoming more enraged and forgetting that she was a guest. "Am I not GOOD ENOUGH to spend a couple thousand yen on for dinner? Can I expect to pay for everything in this relationship? Do you even CARE?"
Thud! Ranma's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell over backward, sprawled out over the dining room floor.
Min stared for a long while at Ranma's unmoving form, then slowly turned toward the rest of the Yagami family.
"Uhm... did he just faint, or..."
"He's playing dead," Iori said suddenly, before taking a sip of tea. Putting down the cup he continued, never once making eye contact with the Ninja girl. "He won't move again until you leave, let your guard down enough for him to escape, or until he's almost died from dehydration."
Min accepted the strange explanation silently, then glanced at her date's unmoving form. "Dehydration? Does it come to that often?"
"No, that's only stopped him once," Nodoka answered calmly, as if making perfectly normal conversation. "And he STILL didn't get out of that math test."

Rule #6: Don't ever criticize a girl unless you're completely prepared for a bitter, drawn-out, no-holds-barred verbal war. EVER. No matter how insignificant the flaw, no matter how gently delivered the criticism, and no matter how rational, well-supported, or self-evident your comment is, it will provoke a lethal barrage of defensive insults that can only lead to a fight. It may be worth it (for example, if one can get a critical point across and possibly make up passionately later), but men should be warned to never offer criticisms without being prepared for the inevitable conflict.

"Okay, fine, you're right," Ranma said carefully as he led the way down the street back to Min's house. "I should've at least told you that we'd be eating at my place ahead of time."
Min nodded sharply, her arms crossed under her breasts.
Steeling himself, the pigtailed boy continued. "But let's be fair about this. You know I have no actual income. You know I've lived on the road for most of my life. And I told you that I hardly dated at all before now. Don't you think you were being just a little unreasonable, throwing a fit in front of my family like that just because the date wasn't what you expected?"
Immediately he covered his head with his arms and squeezed his eyes shut, expecting a vicious retaliation.
Min frowned, then reluctantly nodded. "I guess you're right. I was expecting a bit much. I'm just used to guys throwing money at me, I guess. And I certainly could have..." she trailed off as she passed by her date, and blinked when she noticed he looked as if he was expecting an artillery barrage. "Hey, are you okay?"
"For the moment," Ranma answered, not moving his arms.
"Oh. Uh..." Min raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
"Preparing for you to get mad for no reason, overreact, and then yell and hit me in an irrational rage, like all women are supposed to do," Ranma said, being far too honest for his own good, as usual. "Hmmm... maybe I should rephrase that..."
"No, no!" Min said in a high-pitched voice as she cracked her knuckles, "I wouldn't want to disappoint you!" POW!

Rule #7: It is a well-respected and absolute rule that no matter how nice and tolerant you are on the date, and no matter how much you spend on the girl, she is under no obligation to give you any action, including minor gestures of affection like a peck on the lips or a slightly naughty hug.
It is also a well-known and more flexible understanding that if a girl is going to go out with a guy, that guy should get what he pays for (capitalist society, people!). After all, if a girl won't let a guy touch her no matter how nice he is or much money he spends, what's she going out with him for? Here's a general table so that you know what to expect when you spend a certain amount of money on her (usually applies to third date and after):
Nothing - Go home cold and alone. Be thankful she didn't slap you for wasting her evening.
1,000 yen (about $10) - A "thank you" would be nice. You'll be lucky if you get one.
2,000 yen (about $20) - Hope for a peck on the lips and a nice smile.
4,500 yen (about $40) - Get some tongue on your way back, you deserve it!
7,000 yen (about $60) - Warning: you may end up spending even more tonight (on condoms).
11,000 yen (about $95) - Somebody's getting lucky, and it's not not you!
Remember, no matter how much you spend, a girl doesn't actually owe you anything, and it's never okay to pressure her or demand physical affection in return for your time and money. So if you're not getting any bang for your buck, just dump the little money-grubbing nymph. She can find some other walking bank to leech off of.

Ranma nodded decisively as he opened the gate to Min's house, and stepped aside as the Ninja girl walked into her front yard, an unreadable expression on her face.
"Well, I know it wasn't a perfect evening, but I had fun. I'll give ya a call this weekend, all right?" Ranma said, turning away and preparing to leave.
"Wait," Min said suddenly, grabbing his sleeve. "Say... you wanna come in? Maybe come up to my room and fool around a bit?"
Ranma's eyes widened in disbelief, and he stared at Min, slack-jawed. "Wha... but... why? Why would you... I mean... you didn't even enjoy yourself!" He asserted, stunned. 'What gives? The only money I spent today was for the game I played while I was waiting for her!'
Min stared back with a perfectly serious expression. "You're right, I didn't. Which means that indulging raging teenage hormones is my last chance to have any fun tonight. So? How about it?"
Ranma stood shock-still for a moment, then he frowned deeply and turned toward the house.
"HEY!! TOMAS!! YOU THERE?" Ranma shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth, and causing Min to wince and flinch away.
After a few moment, one of the upstairs windows opened, and the blond American boy poked his head out. "What? What's wrong?"
Thwack! Ranma beaned the alarmed teenager with a rock, causing him to shout in surprise.
"You moron! Your 'rules for dating' is total bull! You don't know anything about girls!" Ranma accused.
"Ow! Sonuva..." Tomas held his bleeding head tenderly, and then glared at the pigtailed boy. "Well, if YOU know so bloody much, don't go asking me for advice, jerk!"
"I DIDN'T ask for your advice! You dragged me from school and seated me in your living room!"
"Don't give me that! You could have left at any time!"
Min twitched as the shouting escalated, and slumped forward wearily. "Suddenly I have a headache..."

Now on the with the show!

Yagami 1/2
A Ranma 0.5/King of Fighters Crossover
by Black Dragon
black_dragon74@hotmail.com
https://www.angelfire.com/anime5/fanficlair/index.html

Disclaimer: Tomas' "Rules for Dating" omake series is a hit! However, I don't have enough dating experience (nor have a seen enough episodes of Friends) to manage a third installment. I think next time I'll go back to beer commercials.
On another note, I've heard many discussions recently about the way most people portray Nodoka, and the way I portray Nodoka, which has become a stereotype wildly separate from the reality of canon. In my defense, I COULD portray her as a normal if traditionalistic Japanese mother who just wants to make sure her son likes women... but where's the fun in that?

Notes: Sounds, Emphasis or techniques, [Written words], 'Thoughts', "Dialogue", {"Dialogue in a different language"}

Chapter 15
Fire and Ice
**********************************************************************************

"Mom? Yurumi said you wanted to talk to me," Ranma said as he descended the stairs, noticing his mother seated at the dining room table.
Nodoka nodded slightly, looking serene as she kneeled on the floor in her kimono, her hands folded together in her lap. "Yes. Have a seat, Ranma."
The pigtailed boy frowned suspiciously, stopping to look around the dining room. 'Hmmm... I don't sense anyone... but why do I have this creeping feeling up my spine? Am I in trouble?'
Relenting, Ranma sat down across from Nodoka, though he still looked slightly tense.
Nodoka nodded slightly. "First, how are you feeling? Are you all right?"
Ranma blinked. "Uh... yes. I'm fine. Why?"
Nodoka nodded again. "I see. It's nothing. I just wanted to talk to you, is all." Then she turned her head toward the kitchen. "Why don't we have some tea while we're talking? Smithers! Tea, please!"
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Uh... Mom? We don't have a butl-" he nearly bit his tongue when an unshaven man in a servant's tunic entered the room from the kitchen, carrying a tray with two empty cups and a steaming kettle.
Frowning at Ranma, who was staring at him incredulously, the man walked up to the table and placed the platter down before carefully lifting the kettle and pouring the tea, making sure to keep his head down humbly the entire time in imitation of traditional Eastern house servants.
"M-Mom?" Ranma asked hesitantly. "Who's he?" He was pretty certain he would have been told if there was going to be a manservant around the house. In addition to that, the relatively unkempt appearance and rough musculature of the man definitely indicated that petty indoor work was not his primary trade.
"You don't recognize him?" Nodoka asked, looking slightly surprised as she picked up her cup in both hands. "He's the man you brought here last week. It was after that big party you went to, remember?"
Ranma's eyes widened. "He hasn't left yet?"
"You haven't let me GO yet," the man said, trying with much difficulty to keep his voice from a growl.
"What?"
Seeing her son's confusion, Nodoka explained. "Well, he IS a hostage, and the construction yard won't negotiate since your father sold the steam shovel you brought home to have the yard rebuilt. And since we've been feeding him all this time, I decided that he should start to earn his keep."
The man's eyebrow twitched, and a vein popped up on his head as Ranma stared at him in bewilderment.
After a long moment of watching their new servant grind his teeth, Ranma turned back toward Nodoka. "His name is Smithers?"
Thud!
Nodoka shrugged as she took a long sip of tea, though she frowned at the former construction worker. Facefaulting was very unprofessional when there was breakable objects nearby. 'I'll have to chastise him later.'
"I have no idea what his name is," she explained, "I just call him that. Anyway, enough about that. Smithers, you may leave now."
"Yes, Mistress," Smithers almost growled, bowing and then walking back into the kitchen.

"So, you went out last night. I take it things didn't go very well?" Nodoka asked, looking concerned.
"Grk!" Ranma nearly spilled his own tea at Nodoka's question. 'What? How did she... wait... is she talking about Happousai or Min? How would she even KNOW about Happousai's attack?'
Deciding that Nodoka's query could have resulted from too many possible sources, Ranma decided to play it safe.
"Wh-What makes you say that?"
"Why, the fact that you came home by yourself!" Nodoka said, still looking slightly distressed, "What happened? Did you forget to bring protection?"
"What? But... wait, 'protection'?" Ranma mumbled in confusion. 'Does she mean a weapon? She knows I can protect myself. But why would I come home with somebody else?'
Nodoka shook her head and put her tea down. "Ranma, if you're going to go out with a girl, there's no reason why you shouldn't spend the night with her."
Ranma twitched badly as the final puzzle piece clicked into place.
"Oh. Uh... it just... didn't happen like that," Ranma explained, flushing badly.
"I see..." Nodoka mumbled, frowning deeply. ''Just didn't happen' means that she wouldn't make or accept any advances. What's wrong with this girl?' "Tell me, who did you go out with?" She asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as she raised her cup to her lips.
"Her name is Min Bogard," Ranma explained, "she's Tomas' cousin. She was over the morning after... uh... the morning after we got Smithers."
"Ah, I remember her." Nodoka said, still looking strangely grim. "She's a beautiful girl."
"Yeah. She really is," Ranma agreed cautiously, wondering where his mother was going with this.
"You should be careful," Nodoka said sagaciously, holding her tea close over her chest. "Girls who benefit that much from puberty during high school can become jaded; they start to use their looks to manipulate men. Rather than humbly appreciating their beauty and pursuing love, they wallow in the attention and use their looks as a tool to get kindnesses they have no intention of reciprocating. They're despicable seductresses who will promise the world and take it instead."
Ranma tried his best to follow Nodoka's lesson without sweatdropping or rolling his eyes. "Oh. Okay."
Stopping to take a sip of tea, Nodoka once again locked eyes with her son. "Tell me about Min. I only remember seeing her briefly."
"Sure... she's... well, she's very athletic, and a good fighter," Ranma began, starting with the traits that he liked best. "She's fun to be around, she's pretty smart, and she has a good sense of humor... her tastes are a little weird though, and she's really volatile. Prone to mood swings," he finished.
"Hm... and what do you think of her overall?"
Ranma shifted slightly, becoming more and more uncomfortable with the interrogation/lesson. "Hmmm... I like being with her... though a lot of the time I'm afraid she's going to attack me out of nowhere. Ninja do that sometimes, and, well, she's a bit loopy."
"I see..." Nodoka mumbled before taking a long sip of tea. Then she put down her empty cup. "You do seem a bit attached to her. Are there any reasons why you wouldn't take her to bed?"
Again, Ranma felt his face heating up as he was thrown haphazardly into unfamiliar territory. "Urgh... well... it seemed a bit, ya know, EARLY to try something like that on our first date..."
"Bah. Nonsense," Nodoka dismissed immediately. "Kids today mature sexually much faster than my generation, and they're always rushing headlong into intimate relationships. There's no reason why an energetic, handsome young man like yourself shouldn't do exactly the same. There's nothing wrong with it."
"Uh... I, um..." Ranma found himself flat-footed as he tried to defend his abstinence. "Well, her dad doesn't agree with that, that's for sure." 'Whew! Crisis averted!' he thought foolishly.
"Ah! Now the truth comes out!" Nodoka said, smirking as she fingered her lower lip. "A protective father, eh?"
"A protective father who holds a title as one of the best martial artists on the planet, and threatened me with dismemberment if I touched Min in naughty places," Ranma explained, feeling much more relaxed now that the focus was off him.
"Mm, I see," Nodoka nodded in understanding, and smiled. "Leave it to my son to aim for a challenge. Maybe I could talk with her..."
"Actually, I'd rather she didn't know that I can't touch her because I'm afraid her dad will murder me," Ranma said seriously, leaning back to rest on his elbows. 'Especially since it isn't true.'
"I understand," Nodoka said dismissively as she poured herself a new cup of tea. "I suppose you're committed to doing it the hard way; a long, gentle relationship to gain the father's trust, followed by a glorious, hard-earned conquest."
"Sure. Totally committed," Ranma mumbled, not having the will to try and dispel his mother's bizarre illusions.
"Even so, it would probably be best if you started dating someone else, too," Nodoka took a sip of tea as Ranma's elbows slipped forward, dropping the back of his head painfully on the floor.
Bouncing back up into a sitting position, Ranma stared hard at his mother to try and detect some faint signs of jest in her expression. He found none.
"Are you serious? Date someone else? Why?"
Nodoka blinked, and then put down her tea. "Well, your relationship with Min probably won't yield results for another week or so, and your friend Shampoo is on vacation, so she can't take care of your needs in bed-"
"She's on a training trip, not on vacation," Ranma corrected, consciously choosing to focus on the error so that he could ignore what had followed it.
"Whatever. Anyway, you should find a different girl to keep you busy until you can take Min. Maybe you could pick up with that Nabiki girl again?" Nodoka asked, nodding to herself as if the matter had been decided.
"I'd rather not," Ranma said sharply, his mood darkening at the mention of Nabiki. When Nodoka gave him a questioning look, he winced. 'I didn't think I'd ever have to explain monogamy to someone. Especially my own mother.' "What I mean is, I really think Min would get angry if I dated someone else. She's a little dangerous when she's angry."
"You think she would mind? Why? You're not going steady, are you?" Nodoka asked, looking genuinely confused by the possibility. "You can't possibly tie yourself down with one girl when you're so young and virile, Ranma!"
"Yeah... not really the point..." Ranma murmured, idly wondering what "going steady" meant. "Remember what I said about Min? She's moody, aggressive, and violent. I'm pretty sure she'd kill me if I dated someone else while we were going out."
Nodoka sighed deeply, putting down her tea as she finally stood up. "I see. Well, if you ask me, this girl is far more trouble than she's worth, but it's not my place to get involved like that."
'Not your place to get involved? You just spent ten minutes getting involved!' Ranma thought, sweatdropping.
"I'm glad we had this little talk, Ranma," Nodoka said, picking up the tea pot. "Just remember that girls who won't put out aren't worth your time; you have needs, too."
"I'll keep that in mind," Ranma mumbled weakly. 'My mother is a loon.'
Nodoka nodded absently as she turned away and headed toward the kitchen. "Smithers, why don't you go ahead an begin lunch? I'll be going out with my husband this evening..."

Ranma took a bit longer to recover from the conversation, and rubbed his forehead as he thought hard about what Nodoka had said, and all the things wrong with it.
After a moment, Iori descended the stairs, and took a moment to glance around the room. "Is your mother finished talking to you?"
Ranma jerked to attention, startled by the sudden presence. 'Damn it, why can't I ever sense him behind me?' "Yeah, she's done."
Iori nodded and then approached the kitchen table, the daily newspaper under one arm. Then he sat down across from Ranma and opened up the paper, clearly not intending to get involved in what had just happened.
Still, Ranma had to try. "So... did you hear that?" The pigtailed boy asked. "Mom was saying I should cheat on Min since I didn't sleep with her right away! Is she nuts?"
Iori's eyes shifted slightly to stare over the newspaper at his son. The redheaded patriarch had intended to express that this sort of nonsense was commonplace, and that he didn't want to get involved. Unfortunately, his face changed in expression as much as it usually did: that is to say, slightly less than the average pickle jar.
Seeing how Ranma was still staring at him in expectation of an answer, Iori gave a short grunt and let the newspaper fall flat onto the table.
"When your mother was pregnant with you, she tried to convince me to take a mistress because eventually she would be in no shape to have sex. I refused. She got angry and made me sleep on the couch for two weeks."
Ranma's eyes went wide, and then slowly shrank back to normal size as he processed that information. "...... You know, a 'yes' would have done just fine."
Iori grunted noncommitally and picked up his newspaper again.
"So, what would you do, Pop?" Ranma asked.
The elder Yagami growled slightly, but lowered his paper again, rationalizing that giving advice about stupid, irrelevant things like his son's love life was just another annoying responsibility that came with fatherhood. "Well, do you want to sleep with this chick?"
Ranma shrugged. "Eh. I'm not really concerned about it."
"Then I'd ignore Nodoka and get on with my life. Just do whatever you want," the redhead said before once again turning back toward his newspaper.
'That's my pop,' Ranma thought ruefully, 'a bastion of parental guidance and wisdom.'
Sighing, the pigtailed boy got up and stretched. "Well, I think it's for the best I take off for today. Maybe I'll see what Hashiru's doing."
"Take Yurumi with you," Iori said off-handedly. "Your mother wants to go out this afternoon, and none of the babysitters around here will watch her."
Ranma frowned. "Uh... Hashiru's territory isn't a real... 'kid-friendly' place, if you know what I mean."
"Then you'll just have to keep a close eye on her," Iori insisted in his leaden monotone.
"Okay... but why won't any of the local babysitters work for us? Yurumi's pretty mild-mannered," Ranma scratched his head in confusion. "Does she give strangers a hard time or something?"
"I don't know," Iori admitted, still not making eye contact as he read the paper, "but I'd have to guess they're afraid of being cremated."
There was an awkward silence as the younger Yagami sweatdropped. "Ah. Okay. I'll go get her..."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So you and Ranma didn't do anything intimate?" Mai asked as she sat on the foot of Min's bed, staring at her daughter critically.
Min sighed as she massaged her head, sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bedspread. "Well, we teamed up in a masterful plan to defeat a far superior opponent, utilizing perfectly synchronized timing and attack patterns and eventually a two-person fighting technique. Does that count as 'intimate'?"
"No, it doesn't," the older Ninja said, dismissing the mention of a fight to get back to more carnal concerns. "I think you know exactly what I mean, young lady."
Min rolled her eyes. "No mother, I didn't sleep with Ranma."
Mai's eyes narrowed. "Are you SURE?"
"Of course I'm sure!" Min said, sweatdropping. "I'd have to be pretty out of it not to be aware of something like that! Like I said, I lost my shirt when we were attacked!"
Mai continued frowning at her daughter, attempting to detect some trace of dishonesty.
Finally, she relented, convinced at last that nothing inappropriate had happened during Min's date. "Sigh. Oh well. We should probably talk anyway..."
"You look disappointed," Min said, twitching.
"Well, I WAS hoping for a good story," Mai admitted. "And besides, now there's going to be even more friction between Ranma and your father. I would just feel a little better if Ranma at least got what he's going to end up paying for."
Min's expression darkened further. "Yeah. About that. What's up with Dad? He's seemed really tense lately, and when I mentioned Ranma this morning, he looked like he was about to go berserk." She turned toward her mother, looking worried. "Dad's never been this concerned with my love life before. What's his problem with Ranma?"
Mai sighed and scooted over closer to the younger Ninja, placing an arm around her back. "Well, that's simple. You see, while you've dated before, and while I suspect you've even mounted a few stallions already..."
Min jerked back at the almost casual accusation, her face flushed red. Mai just smirked at her.
"... Simply put, the situation was different then. Your father, or for that matter anyone else, could take a quick glance at you and whatever guy you deemed worthy to buy you nice things and tell immediately that you were in complete control of the relationship. You're smart, self-confident, absolutely gorgeous, and you can snap a third dan black belt in half like a dry twig. Men bowed and scraped at your feet, and you freely took whatever you wanted in exchange for a nice smile. Any time a boy got anywhere with you, it was only because you wanted HIM to please YOU. Men were your puppets, so to speak."
Min's face darkened substantially. "Dear God! Was I really acting like that?" She asked in distress, more than a little ashamed. While she knew she flaunted her charms far more often than a girl of her sexual conservativism should have, she'd thought of it as harmless teasing. She'd always openly despised manipulative people, and hearing evidence of her hypocrisy was a severe blow to her self-image.
"Yes, you were, and until recently I was on the verge of having a long talk with you about that, but it's a moot point now," Mai pulled her daughter a bit closer as she leaned in. "You see, Andy cares about you, not the sap of the week you use to get a free meal. As long as he was sure that you could take complete advantage of your date rather than vice versa, he had no reason to worry."
Min gulped as Mai pulled her in even closer, so that their cheeks were almost touching.
"But now the tables have turned, and your father doesn't like that. Ranma's stronger than you, not easily pushed around, and apparently has complete control of his libido. He isn't willing to go to great lengths to please you without some kind of reciprocation." Slowly, she moved her head so that she could whisper directly into Min's ear. "But most importantly, YOU'RE the one who wants to get in HIS pants..."
"MOM!!" Min suddenly shouted, scrambling out of Mai's grasp while her face burned a bright red.
Mai just smirked, and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm right, aren't I? For the first time, the man holds the power in the relationship. For the first time, you're more interested in him than he is in you. Not easy working on the other side, is it?"
The younger Ninja grimaced, her face still flushed. "So that's why Dad's making such a fuss? Because I don't have Ranma wrapped around my finger?"
"It's more than that," Mai elaborated. "Essentially, it comes down to this: if Ranma said that he wanted you to sleep with him, what would you do?"
"I'd tell him I wasn't ready, and that he shouldn't be such a lech," Min said decisively, turning her blushing face away while crossing her arms under her breasts.
"Like hell you would," Mai deadpanned. "Tell the truth, Min. It's just us girls here."
Min twitched, and lowered her head. "I'd tear his pants off and ask him where he wanted me..."
"There you go. See?" Mai patted her daughter on the back. "Fortunately, Ranma seems to be very good-natured and apathetic about that sort of thing, so I can't imagine he'd make such a demand."
"Hmph. 'Apathetic' is a good word for it, all right," the younger Ninja grumbled out loud. "For all his good points, he sure doesn't know how to make a girl feel appreciated."
Mai chuckled and gently took one of Min's hands. "Well, that's something we'll have to work on, then. And until we get there, make sure to pack a few rubbers, hmm?" Seeing her daughter's blush return anew, Mai fingered her chin. "Oh! And if you expect to get in more fights dating him, you should probably pack your weapons, too."
"Thanks, I've figured that much out," Min mumbled, finally getting up off her bed. "Well, I guess I'll drop by his house and give him back his jacket. He might not be coming back on his own for a while." Picking up the carefully folded garment that laid on her nightstand, she reached the door and began to step out into the hall.
Hesitating, she glanced back at her mother, and then turned. "Mom? Uh... thanks for the support. I appreciate how you don't... you know, get all preachy and stuff."
Mai snorted as she smirked at Min. "Please. I was young once, too. All things considered, if the father is causing more trouble than the teenager, then we're doing pretty darn well, parenting-wise. Just be careful not to get pregnant, okay?"
Min nodded, no longer quite as embarrassed to discuss such a thing with her mother. "Right, right. Gotta go!"

Upon exiting her room, Min descended the stairs while tucking Ranma's jacket under her arm, only to find Tomas waiting for her at the bottom, leaning casually against the wall.
"Hey Tomas. Something wrong?" The Ninja girl asked, noting that her cousin looked especially serious.
"Wrong? No, no. Nothing's wrong," Tomas answered, turning toward her and standing up straight. "Taking Yagami his jacket? I should probably go with you," the street fighter said, trying to sound casual.
And failing miserably, at that. Min raised an eyebrow at Tomas' deliberate tone of voice and careful pronunciation. While the American sometimes had trouble with more complicated sentences in Japanese and often spoke carefully whenever he had to describe something in detail, he had been in Japan long enough to spit out such a casual sentence without hesitation.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Tomas, did Dad put you up to this?"
"Huh? Of course not," he said as droplets of sweat beaded underneath his cap. "It's just a nice day for a walk, and I'd like to stop by Ranma's place again. You know, see if he's come up with a counter for the aurora fang or something."
Min sweatdropped as the blond boy made frantic hand gestures indicating that he was mere moments away from death and pleading for her cooperation.
"Sigh. Okay, fine. Come on," Min grumbled, massaging her forehead as she led Tomas past the kitchen toward the front door.
Stopping in the living room, she took a moment out of her trip to glare at Andy, who was seated on the couch reading the newspaper inconspicuously.
"Dad? I'm going out now," she said in hard-edged voice, "and when I get back, you and I have to have a long talk."
Andy blinked innocently, turning toward his daughter. "A talk? About what?"
"When I get back," Min mumbled dismissively, turning away toward the front door. "C'mon Tomas."
Tomas hesitated to follow for a moment, as he was not so fully informed as to the current situation in the Bogard household, and thus didn't know why Andy was acting as if from ignorance.
His lingering view of the long-haired man caught the elder martial artist's parting expression, which was a cold, hard stare right into the blond boy's eyes.
'Aw, crap. How'd I get caught up in this?' Tomas thought as he quickly followed Min out the door. While he really didn't think Andy would seriously hurt him for failing to preserve his cousin's chastity, he certainly didn't want to gain any enmity from the owner of the household. But neither did he want to interfere in Min's affairs, or for that matter, keep Ranma from enjoying the ultimate benefits of a teenage romance. Ranma was actually a decent guy, and treated Min with nothing but respect, so what was Andy's problem with him, anyway?
'I think it all started with 'Hey Dad, do you think we could visit Uncle Andy this year?' Should've set a date to return.'

Once the two got outside, Min quickly grabbed Tomas' arm and dragged him past the fence surrounding her home so that they were completely out of sight from any of the house windows.
"All right Tomas, I know Dad has been intimidating people behind my back, so spit it out. What's your deal?" She asked irritably, glaring at the blond boy.
"Well, originally Andy told me to follow you around and take out Ranma if he touched you," Tomas said immediately, perfectly happy to rat out his older relative. "But after last night, I'm supposed to keep you away from Ranma entirely, if at all possible. Which I'm guessing it's not."
"No, it's not," Min said, scowling. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't interfere with my love life."
"Hey, hey! Don't get all upset with me!" Tomas said, raising his hands up to ward her off. "I didn't want to get involved in the first place! I mean, I'm Ranma's friend too! What do I care if you two made out on your first date? I don't!"
Min twitched. "'Made out,' huh? Did Dad tell you that?"
"No, Uncle Andy said you came home wearing Ranma's jacket because you lost your top and your bra," Tomas said, being careful to keep a straight face.
"And you automatically assume that because I lost half my outfit, that me and Ranma had sex?" Min said, sounding scandalized.
Tomas stared at her, wondering if he should be upset or embarrassed. "I swear, if you tell me this is another stupid Japanese thing..." The American grabbed the bill of his cap and shifted it slightly as he muttered to himself.
"Well... okay, fine," Min admitted, losing much of her steam as she turned away and started walking. "I admit it must've looked pretty damning on the outside... but still, it didn't occur to anybody that maybe I was caught in a battle with an evil, lecherous little freak who destroyed my blouse?"
"That was my second guess. Really." Tomas deadpanned. "Anyway, I'm taking off. If Andy asks, you ditched me," the American mumbled, putting his hands in his pockets and turning away.
Min likewise turned away, holding the jacket firmly under her arm. 'Definitely going to have to talk to Dad.'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So this is the place... hmmm..."
Walking along the streets of the Tokyo suburb, the young redheaded woman gazed stoically at the street sign noting the border of the Nerima district for a long moment before she shouldered her pack and continued on, not giving any apparent notice to the pedestrians or street vendors that gave her lingering stares.
She started to continue onward when a police officer noticed her and stepped forward from where he had been leaning on his patrol car.
"Hi there! You look like you're new in town!" The man said amiably.
The redhead stopped and stared at the man expressionlessly.
"A traveler, right? We actually get a lot of those," the officer continued, gesturing to her backpack. "Anyway, you should... uhm..." he trailed off as the young woman turned away and continued on her path, completely ignoring the officer.
The man twitched in irritation, unused to being treated so rudely. "Hmph! Well, I hope the brat gets mauled by street punks, then," he turned around, shaking his head.
After a cursory glance at the peaceful surroundings to ensure that there were no other matters that required his attention, he backed up and reached for the door of his car. He had just opened it when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.
"Hm?" He turned around, and then jumped slightly as he noticed the same young woman from before staring at him stonily. She had short, spiky hair that was a bright, blood red in color, and had an unusually muscular build with a nearly flat bust and very rugged features. She was wearing a white tanktop and blue nylon cargo pants, as well as hiking boots, all of which had been stained by dirt and severely worn by the elements.
"You mentioned street punks?" She said in a monotone, staring up at him.
The officer twitched. 'Crap, she heard me... uh...' Taking a quick glance over her body, he was relieved to see that the girl didn't have an ankh emblem anywhere, although his eyes did linger on her right arm, where a solid black tattoo of ivy vines wound around her bicep, and at the battered amulet hanging around her neck, which was shaped like a crescent moon rather than the ancient Egyptian mark. "Er... yes, actually. I was going to warn you about them. And then you left while I was talking to you." Praying internally that she wasn't a martial artist of any great caliber, he crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the redhead sternly.
"I'm listening now. So warn me," she said in the same monotone, giving the officer a half-lidded stare.
The man twitched, but did as she requested. "This district is well-known for its high martial artist population, is all. While some of them are respectable, decent people, a great number of them are destructive lunatics that spend all day fighting for idiotic reasons. Most of the time there's a great deal of collateral damage, so we try to warn people to minimize civilian injuries."
"Is that all?" The girl asked, looking slightly disappointed.
"Well... actually, there's a martial artist gang around here that you might want to look out for, too," the officer said, rubbing his chin.
The redhead raised an eyebrow.
"We don't usually bother telling newcomers about them, because they're actually very careful about civilian casualties and tend to cause less trouble than the independent martial artists... but they have been unusually active lately, so you might want to avoid their territory."
"Where is their territory?" the girl asked immediately.
Blinking, the police officer tapped his chin in thought, then pointed down the street to his right. "It starts about three blocks that way, encompassing part of the warehouse district and Akumaru Private School. They're called Clan Ra, and they're supposed to be really strong fighters, but they very rarely attack people who don't cause trouble first, so you shouldn't have to worry."
"Hmm... I see." Without offering any thanks, the redheaded girl turned in the direction he had pointed. "We'll see about that."
The police officer frowned again at the girl's rudeness. 'Hmm... she has the bearings of a trouble-maker...' "Pardon me, but would you mind telling me your name, Miss?"
The girl stopped and turned her head slightly so that a single eye glared out dangerously from underneath her unkempt bangs. "Setsuna." She said it with a fair amount of ice, and the officer couldn't help but shudder slightly.
"And your surname, Ms. Setsuna?"
She held her position for a moment more. "Hanabo. For now."
The officer twitched as she suddenly started forward again. "Hey, wait! What do you mean, 'for now'? Is that some kind of alias?"
This time, however, Setsuna didn't stop, and the police officer shook his head in disgust as the redhead openly ignored him. "Hmph. Kids these days..."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Relax, Shampoo. Being excited makes this harder, not easier," Shower mumbled as she kept her eyes shut, a vein popping up on her head.
Shampoo, who was currently sitting cross-legged on a large rock, shuddered terribly as visible wisps of breath puffed from her mouth with every heavy breath. She was bound to the rock in her current position by massive tendrils of ice that wrapped around her arms and legs and kept her from moving a muscle, which wouldn't have been quite so bad if she wasn't completely naked as well.
"Sh-Shamp-poo s-s-sorry, Mas-ster Sh-Shower," the Amazon girl chattered, "is hard t-to k-keep calm when s-s-so c-cold..."
"Yes, well, this exercise is USUALLY done with a pool of ice water, not actual ice," Shower said irritably as she continued to power the ice tendrils with one hand while holding the other one to Shampoo's forehead, "but apparently you have ISSUES with cold water that you didn't tell me about!" Next to the elderly widow laid several bottles of herbal shampoo labeled by various numbers.
Shampoo winced. "S-S-Sorry..." then she frowned. "Is s-sure technique not w-work when c-c-cat?"
"I have no idea," Shower admitted, still looking annoyed. "But I'd feel damn ridiculous trying to hypnotize a cat, so I'm not going to do it."
A vein popped up on the younger Amazon's head.
'No! No angry thoughts! Calm, cool thoughts! Do not think about throttling your martial arts master! Bad!'
"You're going to pass out soon," Shower said, calming herself as she prepared her student for the trial ahead, "however, your consciousness will remain active. The best way I can describe what will happen is a very vivid dream. During that time, I'll be providing the subliminal programming that will overtake your core personality. Given that you'll be in a dream while this is happening, the effects will likely be significant and frightening. It's important that you don't resist."
Shampoo swallowed nervously, and Shower caught the younger warrior glancing at her.
Shower smirked. "This is it, Shampoo. Last chance to back down. With enough pressure, you can break free of your bonds, wash your hands of this training, and return home with your mind untouched. Or, you can let a bitter old widow mess with your head for an hour, and then commit to weeks of emotional traumatizing psycho-conditioning. I have to say, you'll probably regret either decision."
Shampoo twitched, but didn't move as her eyelids slowly fluttered weakly. 'Oh no. What have I gotten myself into?'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At once, the haze around Shampoo's eyes began to clear as she got up off the ground, holding her head in a vain attempt to stave off the sudden aching.
"Aiyah... what happen? Shampoo no remember migraine..." she mumbled as she staggered to her feet, squeezing her eyes tight.
To her surprise, she felt a sudden chill, and the headache vanished.
Blinking, she finally started to take in her surroundings, and the purple-haired girl stared in wonder. She was in the middle of an icy forest, with beautiful, frozen evergreen trees surrounding her in all directions. The ground was hidden beneath soft, fresh powder, and a light, pleasant snow slowly fell from above.
'What did she say the dream would be like? Frightening?' She thought, frowning. Looking down at herself, she noted that instead of being nude like her actual body, she was wearing a complete Winter outfit. However, she was surprised to see that instead of the plain, drab Winter clothes of her homeland, she was wearing a thick, stylish coat made of artificial fibers and machine-stitched wool that she had seen in the shopping centers of Japan, along with nylon pants and rubber-lined snow boots.
'Hmmm... this is very odd.' Shampoo's frown deepened. While her current surroundings appeared to be quite calm and pleasant as opposed to her master's expectations, Shampoo knew better. Shower alone knew the ins and outs of the technique she was performing, and it was far too early in the procedure to hope that the older woman didn't know what she was talking about.
Setting out in a random direction, Shampoo started to take in more of the forest, marveling at the numerous pines coated with thick layers of sparkling ice.
'Okay... considering this hypnosis thing is supposed to ingraine the 'Soul of Ice' technique, it's no surprise there's a Winter theme here...' she continued looking about carefully, searching for any signs of life.
She more or less found what she was looking for when a small ice statue stomped into view ahead of her, pushing a large ball of snow.
Shampoo's eyes bugged out. Walking before her, and apparently trying to roll up a snowman body, was a moving figure that appeared to be delicately carved from solid ice, yet moved with the fluidity and natural articulation of a regular human. Once she got over the initial surprise of seeing a moving ice doll, Shampoo's jaw went slack as she realized that the statue was the exact image of Ranma's little sister Yurumi.
"Yurumi? Why you here?" Shampoo mumbled weakly, scratching her head.
The statue turned its head, gazing at Shampoo with glassy, expressionless eyes. And then it smiled and waved before quickly returning to its former task.
"Okay... that strange, but not scary," Shampoo muttered to herself, watching the ice Yurumi stop and pat down the snowman body. Then it leaned over and picked up an armful of snow, shaping it into the next segment.
So engrossed was Shampoo in watching the strange statue that she didn't notice the strange figure behind her until it had already passed her and entered her field of vision.
She jerked back, startled, as she watched the gray, man-shaped thing lumber past her, apparently unconcerned with the Amazon at all. It was shaped like a relatively muscular man, but had shadowy flat stretches of skin over the face and crotch, making it look more like a gigantic clay doll than a living person.
It also carried a large wood axe.
Shampoo's heart skipped a beat as she watched the gray man shamble over toward the happily oblivious ice statue, and her eyes widened as the figure suddenly reared up and grasped the axe with both hands above its head once it came within range of the statue.
Her eyes narrowing immediately, Shampoo dashed forward and grabbed the haft of the axe while wrapping an arm around the gray thing's neck. "You move, Shampoo break neck," she hissed, wrenching the gray man's weapon from its grasp.
Instead of any kind of verbal response, or perhaps a counter to Shampoo's hold, the being merely writhed uncomfortably within Shampoo's grasp, apparently oblivious to her threat.
Snorting, the Amazon teenager threw the gray man down into the snow, still holding its weapon. She cast an idle glance at the Yurumi-statue, and then frowned; the statue-person was still building its snowman, completely unaware of how close it had come to being chopped up.
She returned her gaze to the gray man, and swallowed nervously as the being slowly raised its head to face her. Although the creature bore no facial features with which to make an expression, Shampoo felt as if the gray man was wondering at her interference.
This theory was reinforced when the gray man pointed wordlessly to the axe in Shampoo's hands (questionable as it was whether the being could speak at all).
She snorted and waved the gray thing away with her hand. It jabbed its finger forward at the axe.
"Shampoo not give axe, so go away!" The Amazon snapped, causing the gray man to jerk back.
Still, the thing wouldn't give up, and it stumbled to its feet before lurching forward, its arm grasping eagerly for the handle of its weapon.
Scowling, Shampoo stepped back and prepared to fend off the clumsy attack, when suddenly a booming voice seemed to burst out of the frozen depths of the forest.
"DO NOT RESIST."
Shampoo froze stiff at the sudden command, and her body started to tremble as she recalled the parting instructions of her master.
Either sensing the moment of opportunity, or simply ignoring the danger that Shampoo represented to its person, the gray man grasped its confiscated axe with both hands, and then mightily wrenched it free of Shampoo's grip, causing the purple-haired girl to nearly stumble into the snow.
Shampoo watched numbly as the gray man lumbered toward its target once more, its recovered weapon dragging along the ground. Then, as it came within arm's reach of the ice statue, it stepped forward once more while rearing back its weapon for a swift, brutal overhead chop.
CRACK! The ice Yurumi spasmed horribly as the heavy blade ripped through her from top to bottom, sending chunks of ice in all directions wildly in an imitation of spilled blood and shattered bone.
The teenage Amazon winced, but she steeled herself and turned away from the sight.

'I must not resist... hmm... I think I understand,' Shampoo thought to herself as she continued her trek through the forest, keeping her head down as the occasional wet cracking noise echoed through the frozen woods.
She stopped as a clearing suddenly opened up before her, and she swallowed deeply as a shudder ran down her spine.
All around the clearing, images of her fellow tribe members and family were carved in moving statues of ice, and all around, those statues were fleeing in a slow, mute panic as gray, faceless butchers hacked them apart with axes and clubs.
Her hand slowly gripped into a fist as she watched a frozen representation of her elder relative Cologne slowly shuffle through the snow, showing none of the spry, impossible dexterity of the real thing as a gray man wandered up from behind with a sledgehammer in its clumsy grip.
CRUNCH!
Shampoo bit her lip as she watched two ice golems shaped to resemble her father and departed mother, the both of them holding each other in a desperate hug as another of the featureless marauders charged with its axe swinging.
Smash! Thock! Crash!
Squeezing her eyes shut, Shampoo turned away, well aware that the rest of the figures being chopped up were relatively minor acquaintances from the village anyway, rather than close members of her family. The real damage had already been done, and the Amazon could feel part of her earlier headache resurface as she stomped away from the massacre.
'So this is what I have to go through, huh? Images of people I love being smashed?' It all made sense, in a sick, psychological sort of way. She was supposed to abandon her passionate and loving feelings; her "warm" emotions, to prepare for the onset of the Soul of Ice. So having images of people who elicited those emotions destroyed as she was to stand still and watch seemed rather appropriate, and in all honesty, wasn't nearly as harsh as what Shampoo had expected of this trial.
Before she knew what she was doing, she found herself in another clearing, and immediately winced at the ice statues that were being chopped apart by the gray butchers.
'There's Ti Shu, my old rival when I was twelve... it was because of her that I trained so hard and finished the trainee's tournament in second place... and now her head is gone.'
As the headless ice sculpture collapsed onto the ground, Shampoo's gaze wandered to the gray man's next target.
'Ah, the healer's apprentice Gao Zu. She always told me how amazing my progress as a warrior was whenever she helped heal my wounds.'
Crack! As the ice statue crumbled, Shampoo moved on once again, getting an unsettling feeling that she was starting to get used to the current trial's images.
That feeling strained significantly when she set eyes on Nodoka Yagami.
"Urk!" Shampoo felt her heart leap into her throat at the sight of the calm, serene kimono-clad woman, in full, animated relief, peacefully staring at the surrounding trees, unaware or unconcerned with the three gray men bearing down on her.
The purple-haired girl winced badly as they fell upon her with axes and hammers, wanting sorely to call out to the hapless statue.

As she turned away, it struck her that she hadn't felt quite as upset at seeing her own mother and father smashed apart as she did when the same thing happened to Ranma's mother. Granted, her mother had died in battle, and Shampoo had already come to terms with that, so seeing an image of her crushed wasn't nearly so heartbreaking afterward. As for her father, the man had been far less of a parent than Cologne had been, as the man had gladly surrendered his daughter to the harsh tutelage and constant training regime of his distant relative.
Shampoo sighed. Really, Nodoka represented more than just a warm, cheerful and extremely invasive and imaginative relative of her primary love interest; she was representative of Shampoo's hope for the future, the anchor of her role in the Yagami household. On top of that, Nodoka had treated her like family as she settled in Japan; moreso, truth be told, than her actual family had after her mother had died. Not that she resented the harsh treatment she received in the village, but her feelings were clear.
'Damn it all. Would it kill that wrinkled old witch to include an ice Mousse that I can watch get smashed?' Shampoo thought irritably as she pushed forward, wondering if hate and anger counted toward her memories that had to be metaphorically purged.
She almost stumbled as her foot caught on something heavy, and Shampoo shook her head to clear it as she realized she hadn't even been watching where she was going.
Looking down at the object, she blinked as she saw one of the gray men lying in the snow, face-down. All around the man were patches of red, and the man-thing had a large gouge in its back that was obviously fatal.
Shampoo raised an eyebrow, finding herself far more comfortable with real killing than the symbolic kind. "Hmmm... that strange... is memory fighting back?" She couldn't recall any of the statues making any effort to resist their attackers, despite the fact that many of the people they represented were capable of holding their own against, or altogether beating, Shampoo herself. The best some managed was a muddled, confused retreat, and most of the statues didn't even attempt that much.
Finally looking up past the gray corpse, Shampoo frowned as she saw several more gray bodies lying in the snow, each one surrounded by a patch of blood red.
"What do this?" She wondered aloud, raising her awareness as she cautiously followed the trail of dead through the snow.
Considering that she had boosted her senses to high alert, the Amazon teenager was both quite embarrassed and badly startled when a voice emerged seemingly from nowhere.
"Probably the feelings that you don't want repressed."
Jumping in fright, Shampoo tried to dash away to get some cover, but caught her foot on one of the mutilated gray men, dumping her body in the snow and humiliating the Amazon further.
Once she scrambled to her feet, the purple-haired girl twitched. Sitting right next to her was an ice statue of Ranma's father Iori, staring at the girl with the same leaden expression he always had. In front of the man burned one of the large violet wood fires unique to the Yagamis' camps, but as could be expected in the bizarre dream world, the blaze had no effect on the statue or the surrounding snow.
'How did he get that close without me noticing? And with a fire, no less! I hate dreamscapes...' Dusting the snow off her clothes, she was about to move on, when she stopped short in surprise. "Wait... you talk to Shampoo?"
"Yeah, I talk to Shampoo," Ice Iori said in his everyday monotone as he turned his head and stared at his fire, and Shampoo frowned at having her speech mocked. He was being particularly rude, for some reason.
"You do this?" She asked, gesturing to the bodies.
"No." Ice Iori answered simply, still staring at his campfire, and Shampoo sweatdropped when it became apparent that the ice statue wasn't intending to divulge any details.
'Just because he can notice and talk with me doesn't mean he has to, I suppose.'
A muffled groan came from behind, and Shampoo whirled around.
Three gray men shambled toward her and Ice Iori from the treeline, the rusted, frost-encrusted axe heads dragging through the snow.
Shampoo sighed and stepped back, knowing full well what was about to occur, unless whatever phenomenon that had killed the other marauders saw fit to show itself.
Ice Iori, for all his increased awareness of Shampoo, didn't pay the gray creatures any more attention than the rest of the statues had, and continued to stare at his fire lazily as the three monsters approached...
He kept on staring as the gray men shambled on by, making no attempt to stop or distract the creatures as they likewise ignored him.
Shampoo blinked rapidly, then shook her head. "What? What happen?"
"Nothing happened," Ice Iori deadpanned.
A vein popped up on Shampoo's head. While the real Iori may have intimidated her just like he intimidated any creature with more than four brain cells, there was no way she was going to put up with this kind of attitude from some bizarre ice puppet inside her own mind. "Stop that! Why they no smash you in little pieces?"
Ice Iori actually turned to look at her this time, giving her a condescending, half-lidded stare. "They destroy memories that inspire warmth. When have you EVER had any warmth toward me?"
Shampoo's vein vanished, and her face darkened. Naturally, Iori hadn't inspired anything but nervousness and dread in the young Amazon, and although she was to understand that many women found him very attractive, she much preferred the determination and cheerful attitude of his son.
"If you wanna find out what's resisting the mind warp thing, you should follow 'em," Ice Iori said, turning back toward his fire. "Or you can just sit here and wait for them to finish. That'd probably be best. You might not like what you see if you go to watch."
Shampoo set her jaw, and then stomped off in the direction that the gray men had headed, intent on defying the annoying memory and sating her curiosity.
Ice Iori waited for several moments, then closed his eyes and shook his head. "Stupid kids, they never know what the hell they're getting into."
Thwap! A snowball smacked into the side of the ice statue's head, spattering white spots all over the shining, crystalline face.
"Shampoo heard that!"

As Shampoo moved deeper in the forest, the devastation quickly became more widespread, and she began to get worried. The bodies of more gray men lay scattered throughout the forest, accompanied now by large blast craters and trees that appeared to have been smashed apart. Some of the bodies were mauled much more brutally than before, their corpses dismembered and, in a great number of cases, burnt to a crisp.
'What could have caused this?' Shampoo thought, frowning deeply at one of the bodies, of which only the charred remains of the lower torso were left. 'Whatever it is, it has to be a part of my memory, right?' Her brow creasing, she crossed her arms under her breasts, trying to recall any type of beast she knew of that could knock down a tree.
'Maybe Mousse's cursed form?' She considered for a moment. 'But what Iori said... about not wanting the feelings repressed? Why would I resist repressing how I feel about that moron?'
Bwa-koom! The ground shook suddenly as a bright light flared in the distance, and Shampoo's footing slipped out from under her as she tumbled into the snow.
"What on Earth..." she began to mumble to herself as she pushed herself up, and she froze suddenly as she saw a blossom of flame rise up in the middle of the clearing beyond. Purple flame.
"Aiyah... Ranma!" she shouted as she jumped to her feet, feeling rather foolish for not realizing it before. 'But... Ranma shouldn't be capable of this kind of violence,' she thought, noticing one of the gray marauders impaled on a tree branch.
"SSSSHRRREEEEEEEEAAAAAH!!"
She stopped dead as the ear-rending screech pierced the air, feeling a dread chill run down her spine that had nothing to do with the biting cold.
'Oh no... so that's why...' Swallowing deeply, she willed herself to move on, pushing aside the ice-laden branches to penetrate the barrier of trees. 'There's nothing to be afraid of... right? The Ranma I know would never hurt me, even in his Orochi state... and besides, this is a dream... sort of...'
"RAAUGH!! GYAH!"
Finally edging into the clearing, Shampoo winced. The entire clearing was littered with blast craters and strewn liberally with the shredded remains of the mysterious gray men.
"HRRRAAAGWAAAH!!" An ice statue of Ranma, deep in the throes of his berserk Orochi state, screamed savagely as he straddled a gray man and beat it again and again, blood flying over his frozen knuckles.
After several useless punches into the shattered corpse, Ice Ranma finally got up, his gait wavering as he slowly scanned his surroundings for fresh victims.
Shampoo flinched as his gaze settled on her, though no growling lunge followed it. Instead the blood-spattered ice man shuffled toward her calmly, his head swinging back and forth drunkenly as he searched for more enemies.
The Amazon girl watched curiously as Ice Ranma reached her and then started circling her through the snow, his eyes constantly searching the tress for opponents. She likened it to a wolf circling its mate or family to protect it, though having Orochi Ranma do it actually made her feel less safe, not more so.
A much lighter groaning alerted her and her defending ice golem, and the latter swung his head around as he crouched low, snarling like a beast.
Another of the hapless gray men shambled through the trees, dragging a large two-handed battle axe along with him.
Shampoo shook her head as the ice statue of Ranma began to glow purple, predicting what was sure to be a short and brutal "fight".
The gray man lifted his axe clumsily, and Ice Ranma dashed forward, driving a single hand forward toward the attacker's chest.
Shampoo squeezed her eyes shut and turned away as Ice Ranma's hand pierced the gray man's chest, driving through the ribcage and bursting out the other side, accompanied by the necessary and appropriate spray of blood.
Glancing back at the scene, she grimaced as Ice Ranma lifted the impaled marauder up in the air, digging his other arm into the chest wound and slowly ripping the creature in two.
For some reason beyond her immediate understanding, her eyes were drawn to the battle axe, which fell heavily into the snow as its owner was torn apart.
"PICK IT UP."
Her eyes widened at the sudden booming command, and whirled around to try and find the source.
In the meantime, Ice Ranma tossed the pieces of his latest victim aside, warm blood running smoothly down the slick, cold surface of his arms. Gazing around himself, the ice statue blatantly ignored Shampoo as he searched for further threats, stepping past the heavy axe lying on the icy ground.
"PICK IT UP, AND FINISH THE JOB," the mysterious voice boomed in Shampoo's head, and she grit her teeth and clamped her hands over her ears to resist.
"Why? Who talking?" She hissed, still searching around her for an apparent source of the voice.
"WHO DO YOU THINK IT IS, YOU MORON?" The voice boomed, causing Shampoo to wince from the volume. "WHO ELSE IS MESSING AROUND IN YOUR HEAD OTHER THAN YOU? NOW PICK UP THE AXE SO WE CAN WRAP THIS UP."
Swallowing deeply, she looked down at the hefty iron weapon pensively. "But... why Shampoo do it?" She complained.
"BECAUSE IT'S YOUR BLOODY SUBCONSCIOUS DEFENDING THE MEMORY IN THE FIRST PLACE! LOOK, I CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH FROM HERE, YOU KNOW!"
Shampoo frowned, but took a step toward the axe in the snow. Pursing her lips, she bent over and gripped the handle, testing the weapon's weight gingerly.
"Sssshrrrraaa..."
The Amazon flinched badly when she heard Ice Ranma hiss, and she glanced over at the frozen golem.
It seemed that the statue hadn't taken any notice of her, in fact, and remained facing away, toward the woods.
He bristled, as if sensing danger, and slumped over further, such that his hands were a bare inch from scraping the snow. "Hsshaah... hsshaah..." Deep, harrowing breaths emerged from his icy throat as clouds of yellow mist, and as Shampoo continued to stare, the breaths became shallower and faster, as if the berserker was sensing its own impending fate. Still, he did not turn toward Shampoo.
Clunk! The axe fell over into the snow as Shampoo let go of it, and she balled her hands into fists as she gazed up at the blurry white sky.
"Shampoo not do this! Will not destroy own mind if what price of strength!" She shouted upward, setting her jaw tightly. "Maybe Master Shower right. Maybe price too high. Maybe Shampoo not ready. Master say that Shampoo headstrong and stubborn, but Shampoo not destroy what Shampoo love for strength! Shampoo-"
"OKAY, OKAY, JUST SHUT UP, ALREADY," the voice said wearily, managing to sound dreary despite its booming volume. "YOU KNOW WHAT? FINE. DON'T DO IT. I DON'T EVEN CARE. IT WASN'T IMPORTANT ANYWAY."
The facefault that the poor Amazon teenager suffered at that point would have been very loud and painful indeed were it not for the heavy layers of snow covering the cold, hard ground of her dreamscape. A few meters away, Ice Ranma turned and stared at her curiously, wondering what had provoked such an odd response.
'When she finishes teaching me her stupid tricks, I am going to hurt that woman,' Shampoo decided as she pushed herself up out of the snow.
"WELL, THE HARD PART'S OVER, THEN. IT'LL BE A WHILE BEFORE YOU WAKE UP. G'NIGHT."
As if on command, the world around Shampoo began to fade away as a shroud of shadows engulfed the frosty forest, and the Amazon felt her own senses start to dull.
Slowly falling to her knees, she let out a sigh, glad that this first ordeal was over with.
"Hhhssss..." shambling up behind her, Ice Ranma fell to his knees in the snow next to her, teetering slightly as blood continued to drip down his arms.
Shampoo turned her head, gazing at the gasping statue out of the corner of her eyes. 'Ah, what the hell...' Grinning, she turned around and enveloped the berserk statue in a soft hug, shivering slightly as she pressed her body against Ice Ranma's hard, frozen skin.
Given that it was supposed to represent Ranma's Orochi state, she was fully prepared to have her dream-self suddenly eviscerated on the spot. Really, all she could hope for was for the ice statue to freeze in place (no pun intended) at the sudden contact as she faded fully into normal unconsciousness.
The last thing she expected was to see the feral beast smile warmly, and then hug her back.
Hearing it whisper "Thank you," in her ear left the Amazon girl rather flat-footed as well, though she didn't have much time to be surprised before the forest finally faded away around her, and she was fully consumed by the encroaching darkness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the hell is going on here?" Hashiru yelled as he ran down the back alley, Raven and Hana hot on his heels. All around them were walls painted from top to bottom to mark the gloomy corridor as part of Ra's territory, displaying everything from grand, inspiring murals to crude, simple graffiti.
"I'm not precisely sure, Lord Hashiru," Raven shouted as he measured his pace to allow Hana to keep up. "By the time I arrived in the area, everyone was unconscious. Many of them were injured seriously. I heard fighting inside, but I thought I should contact you-"
"Yeah, fine, you did good," Hashiru mumbled, the gears in his head already turning. 'Someone's attacking us? Couldn't be the cops, could it? No, we would have made a much better showing against police, or just fled. Maybe it's a new rival gang.' No matter what he told himself, however, the gang boss couldn't help but feel a dreadful sinking feeling in his gut.
Bam! A door ahead suddenly burst open, and a staff fighter dashed out of it, nearly slamming into the wall due to his panic.
"Taio! What's going on?" Hashiru shouted as he slowed, noting that the younger fighter was sporting a large cut on his forehead, but was otherwise unharmed.
"B-Boss! Thank God you're here!" Taio gasped, pointing back into the abandoned factory building that had been converted into a basketball court. "You gotta stop her! She's some kinda monster!"
"What? Who?" Hana asked between gasps of breath.
"I d-don't know! Some redheaded chick! Nobody knows her, but she's tearing us apart!" the staff fighter shouted, visibly shaking.
Naturally, Hashiru's first thoughts when he considered redheaded chicks who fought like monsters drifted toward a certain gender-changing friend of his, but he quickly put aside the idea until he had seen the intruder for himself; Ranma never attacked anybody without reason (and sometimes he even had a good one, which was always nice), nor had he fought any member of Clan Ra without being challenged first.
Entering building, Hashiru slipped his left hand in his pocket, and steeled himself for the worst.

"Damn you! What's you're problem, anyway? What'd we ever do to you?"
Hashiru frowned deeply. 'Well, it isn't Ranma, that's for sure. Chest doesn't even begin to measure up...'
The redheaded girl reminded him of Ranma, if only due to the color of her hair and the fact that she seemed to be crushing his fighters easily, but there wasn't much resemblance to Ranma's female form beyond that.
The young woman stared dispassionately at the dark-skinned youth that she was holding up in the air by the throat. "You're... decent. Not good, but enough of you may just be a challenge."
'She's noticed me already, I'm sure of it,' Hashiru thought, frowning as Hana and Raven entered behind him. 'She's waiting for an introduction or declaration, probably.'
Instead of announcing himself, Hashiru turned his head and scanned the court. All around the interior, beaten and bloody boys and girls lay on the floor, twitching in agony if not completely unconscious.
The gang leader's jaw clenched. He recognized most of the individuals, and knew very well that several of them were not fighters of any degree. Were they hurt because they were attacked regardless of their ability to defend themselves, or because they had tried to bum-rush the girl along with the fighters?
"Are you going to stand around staring, or do you have some business getting in my way?" Setsuna said suddenly, not turning toward Hashiru as the boy in her grasp struggled helplessly. "I'm getting tired of waiting for an introduction."
Hashiru was about to step forward, when an underclassman suddenly jumped to her feet, charging for the redhead's back while the aggressor was still talking.
"LET GO OF TAISHI, YOU SADISTIC BITCH!!" She screamed hatefully only moments after she launched three Ninja kunai at the redhead, not wanting to ruin any advantage of surprise she may have had. Even after throwing the potentially lethal weapons she kept running full-out toward her opponent, intent on making her sudden assault count.
In the end, it appeared not to have mattered. Without dropping her victim, Setsuna turned ninety degrees and lashed out with her free hand, snatching up all the knives in one swipe.
The girl's eyes widened as she saw her attack fail, and her heart sank into her belly as she saw the redhead reposition her hand holding the kunai in order to intercept her charge.
"Raven," Hashiru mumbled, his face darkening as he saw the events before him play out.
"Way ahead of you!" the Ninja shouted, grabbing the underclassman in mid-charge and dashing across the court, halting the disastrous attack before their aggressor could.
Setsuna watched the incident calmly, showing no apparent surprise at the Ninja's speed until she spoke. "Fast. Very fast. You'll make an interesting opponent," she mumbled as she continued staring in the direction of the girl's charge, rather than turning to face anybody conscious at present. "Well then, I take it you didn't come here to watch your friends suffer..." finally turning her head toward Hashiru, she threw the young man in her hand away behind her in the same manner one would discard of a ruined jacket.
Crkch! Then she crushed the throwing knives in her hand before letting the useless, twisted wads of metal fall onto the floor.
"Why?" Hashiru asked, his face as solid and unchanging as the girl's.
"I'm really getting sick of being asked that question," Setsuna muttered as she started walking toward Hashiru. "It doesn't matter why. I'm attacking. Defend yourself."
Hashiru didn't relent, and raised his right hand to point at two scrawny-looking young men who were lying on top of each other in a heap. "Answer me. Why did you attack them?"
Noticing the emphasis in his words, Setsuna turned to look at the focus of his attention curiously. "Hm? Why? Who are they?"
"They're nobody," Hashiru said bitterly, retracting his right arm and balling that hand into a fist. "Nobody at all. Just a couple chemistry majors who followed their friend to the court. They don't know martial arts. Probably never been in a fight in their lives before now. What possible reason could you have to hurt them?"
Setsuna blinked, then turned back toward the gang boss. "They were in my way."
SHWACK! A flesh-colored streak was all the warning the redhead got before her head was smashed to the side, struck by Hashiru's fist from halfway across the basketball court.
"I don't like that answer," Hashiru growled, "you have one chance to leave in one piece before I take you apart, Red."
Setsuna, who's body hadn't moved as her head snapped to the side, lazily turned her head face-forward again, raising a hand to massage her neck. "Very interesting. You and the Ninja. Now." Her face changing ever-so-slightly from uninterested to determined, Setsuna turned to the side and gripped both her hands into fists, stretching the metal-studded black-leather gloves she was wearing.
"Raven, Hana. Start taking care of these people. Get the ones that can still walk on their feet, and take the rest somewhere you can hold out for some paramedics," Hashiru said, his free arm hanging loosely at his side as his two companions rushed to follow out his orders.
Setsuna's eyes hardened. "You can't beat me by yourself. Don't waste my time."
"If wasting your time is what I've gotta do to make sure these people end up okay, then it's what I've gotta do, whether I can beat you or not," he idly scratched his nose, which seemed to annoy the redhead further.
"Hmph. Fine. If it means that much to you..." she murmured, and then she turned away, walking toward the back of the improvised court. "We'll take this outside."
Hashiru frowned as she kept moving toward the wall, and noticed that two barely-conscious men were in her path, lying on the floor clutching their bloodied bodies. He was about to call out to them, but it proved to be unnecessary as Raven dashed in front of the redhead and grabbed both of them by the backs of their shirts, dragging them out of the way.
Setsuna gave the incident no notice, as if she had expected the minor obstacles to be removed from her path... one way or another.
Reaching the wall, she lowered her right hand, gripping it into a fist while still walking forward. Then, as everyone expected but nobody really believed, she punched the wall.
KRAAK-OOOM!! As her relatively small fist punched easily through the wood and plaster, a huge, circular area centered around her fist cracked and immediately blasted outward, as if the wall had been hit by a semi-truck rather than a haymaker.
Setsuna hadn't stopped walking forward to deliver the punch, and kept walking right through the hole she had made despite the bits of dust and debris that fell on her hair and shoulders.

Raven and Hana gulped at the sight, having frozen in their own work. "Y-You're going to fight HER all by yourself?"
Hashiru glared at his cousin and manservant, though as usual they couldn't see through his bangs to notice. "You just concentrate on your job. And get an ambulance on stand-by for one more person." Then he turned his head toward the hole and started toward it. "Though honestly, I'm not sure who's going to be using it."
"As you wish." "O-Okay Hashi! Be c-careful!"

Hashiru sighed as he exited Setsuna's makeshift door, and combed the dust out of his hair with his free hand as he gazed at the young woman out in the middle of the lot, her back turned toward him.
"You know, you've got a lot of power, you've got some style, and that's hot, but what you're lacking is grace."
The gang leader smirked as Setsuna slowly turned toward him.
"Grace makes a woman special. Makes her lovely. Turns sweaty, violent movements into a dance. You get grace, babe, then you got it all."
Setsuna gave him a half-lidded stare. "I suppose that you're making small talk before I annihilate you to annoy me?"
"Nothin' but the truth, Red. All you gotta do is clean up a bit, and you'd have a guy in no time!" His smirk turned into a grin, and his hand clenched and unclenched in anticipation.
"You have no idea how little that means to me," Setsuna deadpanned. "And my name is not 'Red'. You may call me Setsuna. Or my surname Hanabo. I don't really care." She gripped both hands into fists, feeling the leather of her fingerless gloves tighten between her fingers and the steel of the rivets press against her knuckles.
"Well, looks like you're ready. Here goes everything." He leaned over as his arm hung limp. "By the way, just for the record? Name's Hashiru Yamazaki. I'd prefer you call me Hashiru, and I DO really care."
"It doesn't matter to me who you are," Setsuna shouted, dashing forward suddenly, "you're just another notch in my belt!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Aw man, what now?" Ranma asked rhetorically, rubbing his head irritably.
Yurumi chewed her lip nervously as she saw the people milling about the line of ambulances. "This is bad! What do you think happened?"
Ranma frowned, watching as several of the boxy white trucks left the line and zipped onto the road, while a few more arrived and pulled over in the now-vacant spots. Most of the people in the quickly dwindling crowd looked injured themselves, if not so seriously that they needed to be carted to the hospital themselves. "It could be anything, really. A party that got out of hand, a fighting tournament, a general brawl, even a gang war." Then he stopped and rubbed his chin. "Or maybe a single powerful martial artist strolled onto their property and started beating people at random just for kicks or to get information... but I'm pretty sure that's not it."
"Why? Isn't that what Min did?" Yurumi asked, scratching her head.
"Well, yeah. That's kinda the point, really. How often can that sort of thing possibly happen? You'd think they'd learn to deal with it after the first occasion, right? Gotta be something else," Ranma insisted.
"Ranma! Ranma, thank God you're here!" Hana said as she burst from the edge of the crowd, clearly panicking.
"Hana? What's going on around here? You get in a gang war or something?" The pigtailed boy asked, causing the girl to wince. While technically Hana wasn't a member of Clan Ra and continually claimed her independence from it as simply being a relative of a couple of members, she usually found that what with her constantly advising her cousin and participating in the Clan's events, there were very few people besides her who appreciated the distinction.
"No, no gang war. What gang would be stupid enough to attack Clan Ra, anyway?" Hana mumbled, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "A girl whom none of us has ever seen before simply appeared and goaded several fighters into a battle. She wiped the floor with them, and then went on a total rampage, attacking everyone in sight. Including many members who aren't fighters, and even a few innocent bystanders."
Ranma was silent for several moments, and then rolled his eyes when he caught Yurumi staring at him with one eyebrow raised. "Okay, fine. I gotta ask: does this happen to you a lot? You know, this thing where you all just hang out and then this one powerhouse barrels through wiping you all out?"
Hana twitched. "Uh... well... as you know, I'm not really PART of Ra or anything, and it's not like I'm always hanging out over here or keeping track or... well... you see, it's... urm... I can't always catch... uhm...... yeah, pretty much," she finally admitted, deflating significantly. "But that's not important! Hashiru is fighting her right now in the lot at the end of the main alley! He ordered all of us to help the wounded, so we have our hands full, and we probably couldn't help him anyway, but you've got to go to him! That girl might kill him!"
Ranma considered this for a moment even as he nodded his agreement. 'A girl tough enough to KILL Hashiru? She'd have to be as strong as Min and Shampoo put together! This definitely bears checking out!' "All right, I'll get on my way in just a sec..."
"Ranma? You're going?" Yurumi asked dubiously. "Can I-"
"No way," Ranma said firmly, "this is different from the battle you saw here before, and even from me and Pop fighting that perverted old gnome. I promised to baby-sit, and first priority is keeping you safe."
With that in mind, Ranma turned toward the milling crowd, scanning the chaotic throng of people. "Hey! Ninja guy! Uh... scarecrow! You there?"
Woosh! Yurumi and Hana sweatdropped as an annoyed-looking Raven suddenly appeared in front of Ranma in a kneeling position.
Quickly he stood up. "Call me RAVEN. What is it?"
"Yeah, Raven, great. Look, I need you to watch and protect my little sister for me while I go save your boss."
Raven blinked, then stared down at Yurumi. The tiny redheaded girl smiled nervously and shrugged.
"I cannot. I am under orders by Lord Hashiru to lend my full capabilities toward assisting the wounded and keeping everyone away from the battle," the Ninja said irritably, crossing his arms over his chest, "and while I can easily make an exception for you, you have no authority to issue me orders, and certainly no right to ask me to lend my considerable abilities to a task so ridiculous and mundane as-"
Whump! Raven stopped talking as Ranma's knee dug into his stomach, forcing out the precious air needed for the Ninja to complete his explanation.
Ranma crossed his own arms over his chest as he watched the manservant crumple to the ground. "Let's try this again Raven: Look, I need you to watch and protect my little sister for me while I go save your boss."
"Understood, Lord Yagami," Raven gasped, shakily climbing to his feet. "I'll protect her with my life, if need be..."
"Swell. See ya in a bit!" The pigtailed boy said absently as he leapt high above the crowd, quickly clearing the throng of people and then charging down the alleyway.
"Uh... s-sorry about that," Yurumi said somewhat bashfully, her face flushing. "But thank you for helping my brother."
"Ugh... that miscreant..." Raven grimaced, holding his stomach in pain. "Is violence all he knows?"
"Yeah..." Hana said, her face turning pink as she sighed dreamily. "What a man!"
Raven and Yurumi sweatdropped heavily.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thwock!
Setsuna grit her teeth as her whole body froze, paralyzed the moment her boot smashed into Hashiru's chest.
"Kuroi shikaeshi!" Thrack! Pulling his left hand out of his pocket, Hashiru drilled the redheaded girl in the stomach, waves of bright blue ki wrapping around his fist as she was smashed into the air.
"Tsk!" The redhead twisted around and landed on her feet, skidding backwards across the concrete from the force of the blow.
Setsuna already sported several severe bruises, and was clearly beginning to look worn out by the encounter. Hashiru actually looked to be in better shape than the redheaded girl, though his left arm had several bloody gashes from an earlier assault that had failed miserably.
"A defensive grappler, I see. Good. Very good," Setsuna mumbled as she dashed forward, holding her arms close to test his response.
Hashiru lashed out with his free arm, and then grimaced as the redhead grabbed his fist and twisted it to the side, preventing him from regaining his leverage.
KROOM! Setsuna's free hand smashed into Hashiru's chest with the force of a cruise missile, causing a booming noise on impact totally out of line with the actual image of a simple punch. The area of ground behind Hashiru suddenly split like a fault line, and Hashiru's teeth rattled in his head as pain blossomed over his upper body.
"Grgh! Hack!" Hashiru coughed up a spray of blood for a moment as Setsuna reeled back her fist again. 'Gah! How can anyone that size be that strong?' Retracting his arm as best he could, Hashiru drove his head forward, surprising the girl, who had already committed to the second strike.
Whock! Setsuna let go of the larger man, stunned as his forehead smashed into hers.
Hashiru tried to follow up on the attack, but Setsuna ducked and turned into a roundhouse, forcing the grappler away.
'Damn! She's just... so... damn GOOD! No tricks or patterns or anything! Meaning as soon as she gets acclimated to my defenses, I'm finished!' Hashiru thought, breathing heavily as he tried to ignore the burning agony that had been his ribcage just a few moments ago. 'This is impossible. She takes hits better than I do. Only got one trick left...'
'Incredible. That blow would have killed a normal man five times over. It's like I'm hitting a piece of granite.' Setsuna thought to herself, taking a moment to catch her breath. "Still kicking. Excellent," Setsuna said in a dead monotone, making it hard to imagine she was pleased. "It seems this wasn't a waste at all."
Hashiru frowned at the redhead, looking worried. "Uh-oh... I'm not turning you on, am I?"
A vein immediately popped up on Setsuna's head, though there wasn't any other visible sign of irritation.
"I'm just sayin', it's cool if you're into that, but I'm currently attached, and-"
Clearly becoming more annoyed with that line of conversation, Setsuna pulled back her arms, and then drove both fists forward through the air in Hashiru's direction.
BWOOM! The concrete underfoot suddenly shattered as a wave of force blasted forward from her hands, leaving a trail of bursting debris as it zipped toward its target.
'Dang, I can barely see the energy wave! Just a distortion in the air... gonna be hard to time this...' Despite his doubts, Hashiru's pocketed hand whipped out and scooped up the airburst attack, trailing blue ki in a wide arc behind his arm.
Apparently Setsuna wasn't expecting him to be surprised by the projectile, and when Hashiru had finished absorbing the attack in his hand, he found the redhead dashing toward him low to the ground, having recovered from her attack and crossed half the distance between them already.
'Only gonna get one shot at this...' Hashiru thought grimly, trying to move his free arm in position to block.
Bwack! Setsuna's right hook connected solidly, and Hashiru grunted in agony as his severely weakened ribcage was subjected to the metal rivets protecting the redhead's knuckles.
Then he smiled as his right hand grabbed onto Setsuna's extended arm. "Endgame, Red."
CRACK! The concrete underfoot buckled further as Hashiru brought his left fist down into the side of Setsuna's neck, releasing the burning energies of Setsuna's ranged attack at the last moment and amplifying the strike twofold.
Setsuna's body shook for a moment, and her head slumped slightly as her knees buckled, dropping the young woman onto the shattered ground.
Hashiru gasped painfully, feeling a seething burn over his hand that barely approached the burning in his chest. "All right Red, now we-BGAWK!!"
The last exclamation was shouted as Setsuna clasped her hand painfully over his face, and then took advantage of the moment of surprise to put her other hand over his throat, digging her thumb into his esophagus as she squeezed his neck.
"My name is NOT 'Red'," Setsuna deadpanned as she stood up fully, squeezing a bit more as Hashiru's arms twitched. "Ah, ah, ah. You're a very experienced fighter. You must know how close you are to losing a very important part of your respiratory system."
'H-How? It's not possible! An attack on that spot with that kind of force... I was afraid that I might have paralyzed her for life! She shrugged it off like a slap on the wrist!' Hashiru thought, ceasing his struggles.
"You've been... useful. This was a good battle, and I learned a few things," Setsuna said almost conversationally as Hashiru glared at the palm clamped over his face. "Now how to finish this... it'll be too much trouble to simply hit you until you finally pass out, and it would cause me even more trouble to kill you, since you seem important around here. Hmmmm..."
Hashiru's glare softened. Slightly. 'She's not willing to kill me. Well, that's good... though she has to know as soon as she moves the hand on my neck, she's in trouble.'
"I didn't have to go this far with the others. You should feel ...special."
Fwoosh!
Hashiru's eyes widened as he felt hot, searing agony engulf his neck. 'What? Fire ki? No, wait-!'
"Ranran na hakubo."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ding dong! Min stepped back after pressing the doorbell, hugging Ranma's jacket to her chest as she fretted silently.
'What am I supposed to say to Ranma when I see him again?' Min thought nervously, idly running a hand through her ponytail. 'Should I try and fix things between him and Dad? I mean, does he want me to interfere? Is he actually afraid to come on to me because of Dad, or is he genuinely apathetic?'
Before she could dig further into the pile of questions for which she had no answers, the door opened, revealing Nodoka Yagami.
Min blinked. The woman was wearing a purple evening gown, a good layer of makeup, and large, elaborate earrings. Obviously she was going out somewhere.
"Oh! You're Min, aren't you?" Nodoka said, pleasantly surprised.
"Yes. Nice to see you again, Mrs. Yagami," Min said politely, bowing. "Is Ranma home?"
Nodoka immediately frowned sadly. "Oh dear. I'm afraid not... are you here to return his jacket? I noticed he wasn't wearing it when he left earlier."
"Uh huh. Do you know where he went?" Min asked, once again folding it under her arm and preparing to leave again.
"Oh, don't worry about that! Come in, come in!" Nodoka said happily, stepping back and to the side.
Min blinked. "Uhm... are you sure? You look like you're heading out..."
"Of course I'm sure! No sense in tracking Ranma down; he could be anywhere. Just leave the coat here."
Nodding hesitantly, Min entered the front door and then hung the jacket on one of the coat hooks to the right of the doorway. 'Weird... what's with this overwhelming feeling of dread? Almost like I've just wandered into some kind of trap...'
"Well, then I guess I'll take off..." Min turned around to leave, but found that, for some reason, Nodoka was standing between her and the front door.
"So soon? No, no, no! Have a seat! Relax! Stay and chat!" Nodoka said, taking the girl's arm and dragging her into the dining room before she could protest.
"What? But... aren't you going out right now?" She asked as she squatted at the dining room table.
"Not this minute, no," Nodoka said, squatting across from her. "We have some time, and I've been dying to speak with you!"
As if on cue, Iori emerged from the kitchen, wearing his usual jacket and black slacks, but with the belt between the legs removed and his shirt tucked in. "What are you doing? I thought we were leaving." He looked down at Min, who appeared very confused by now. "Who's this?"
Nodoka twitched, but held her serene smile. "This is Ranma's girlfriend, of course. And there's no rush to get to the restaurant, is there?"
Iori raised an eyebrow. "What? But the reservations..." He saw his wife raise an eyebrow herself, then looked down at the teenage girl below him. Then he looked back at his wife.
"God damn it..." Iori mumbled quietly as he massaged his head in irritation. "How long?"
"Twenty minutes, tops," Nodoka said pleasantly, noting that Min looked more confused than ever.
"Fine. I'll be in the kitchen," Iori said somewhat sourly.

"What was that all about? Am I imposing?" Min asked somewhat nervously, though she couldn't see how being dragged inside to chat could be considered an imposition.
"Don't be ridiculous. I just feel it's important that I be on good terms with my son's lovers!" Nodoka said cheerily.
"Grk!" Min turned bright red at the comment, although it was actually the third time that day she'd faced that accusation. "Whoa, hey! We're not lovers! We went on one date!"
Nodoka blinked innocently. "Well, maybe you're not lovers yet, but advancing to that point IS the objective at the moment, is it not?"
Completely missing the hint of suspicion, Min laughed nervously. "Well, yeah, though I never really thought of it that way... Anyway, it's a little early to be thinking about that. We're not even going steady, yet." Her blush faded slightly as she began to think back on her first date with Ranma.
"You think it's too early?" Nodoka asked, looking up at the ceiling in contemplation. "Hmmm... maybe." Then she looked back down at the teenager, smiled warmly, and took Min's hand in her own. "I haven't seen Ranma in a long time, you know, so I don't know nearly as much about him as a mother should. I want to know all about your relationship with him." Then she winked. "And I should tell you a thing or two about him, too. Could you stand to stay and talk for a while?"
Min felt herself relax at the older woman's touch, and smiled herself. "Yeah... that sounds nice..."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Setsuna jogged down the length of the alleyway, idly rubbing her neck to massage her injury.
"He was powerful. Very powerful. But he lacked skill. Not quite the test of my abilities I was looking for," she mumbled to herself as she began looking around for a way out of the maze of back alleys.
The sound of running caught her attention, and she turned just in time to catch a glimpse of someone running past the alley entrance. He was a relatively tall teenage boy, with black hair in a pigtail, and was wearing a white button-down shirt and black pants.
'Is he heading toward the battlefield? Perhaps this gang has reinforcements.'
She considered chasing after him and crushing him too, but quickly lost interest. He seemed to be running very quickly, and she was in no mood to have to run someone down.
Letting out a sigh, she wiped her forehead with her hand, and blinked when it seemed slick with more sweat than it should have been.
A glance at her hand confirmed her suspicion that it wasn't sweat, and she snorted as she looked at the streaks of blood on her arm. 'I'm too badly injured to continue this. I should find a camp well away from here...'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ranma's taking an awfully long time..." Yurumi said nervously as she stared down the main alleyway, Raven standing at attention behind her.
The situation in the ambulance line-up had recovered significantly since Ranma had left, to the point that only a single vehicle remained to carry a patient away, waiting patiently to hear of the outcome of the grand battle taking place in the alleys beyond. Paramedics still littered the area, treating those who had helped the severely injured, but the majority of the abused throng had left under their own power or under someone else's care.
Hana looked even more nervous than Yurumi, pacing back and forth while wringing her hands. "This was a mistake... a big mistake... I mean, if this girl could take out Hashi, isn't she just a hop and a skip away from being able to crush Ranma, too? What if he arrived after she finished with Hashi? If we send people out to meet her one at a time, we'll never stop her!" Finally, for the sixth time in the last ten minutes, she turned angrily toward Raven. "You should've gone with him! If Ranma loses, then that's it! We have nothing left!"
Raven answered her, for the sixth time in the last ten minutes, with the type of patience and calm that only a master of assassination could muster. "The man told me to watch his sister. And kicked me when I refused. One way or another, I would have been severely hurt if I'd followed him."
"Rhrg!" Hana growled and went back to pacing, idly pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Who else do we know who's a powerhouse? Oh! That cute American guy! Where's he?"
Yurumi blinked. "You mean Tomas? Uh... I dunno. He lives with Min, right?"
Hana immediately frowned upon remembering the top-heavy Ninja. "Oh, right. Her. Well, she'd probably be a help too, where do they live?"
"Across town. Unless our young aggressor is willing to wait quite some time, I don't believe I'd be able to bring them back here in time for them to be of any help," Raven explained, leaving unsaid that doing to would force him to leave Yurumi, and risk Ranma's wrath.
"Dang! Well... what about that stupid Chinese girl?"
"Shampoo?" Yurumi said, frowning at hearing her friend being called "stupid". "She left somewhere. I think it was for a training trip or something."
"Well, that's just great!" Hana shouted in frustration, grabbing her head in despair. "Who's left? Akane Tendo? Yeah, right! Maybe KUNO would be willing to come down here and be eviscerated! Ooh, I know! Let's drag my brother away from his classical music and gross French food and send him to his certain doom! THIS SUCKS!!"

Yurumi flinched back as the bespectacled girl became more and more hysterical, and Raven patted her on the head to comfort her.
"Don't worry about her. She cares too much, is all," the Ninja explained. "Sometimes Miss Hana feels helpless because she herself is incapable of the violent feats she's frequently condemning."
Yurumi nodded, being able to appreciate feeling helpless when push came to shove.
"Speaking of which, there's a matter I'd like to ask you, if that's all right..." Raven began hesitantly, peering over the scarf of bundled hair sitting over his collar.
The little redhead looked surprised, but nodded her consent.
"The purple flames... I've heard that your father possesses it, as well as Lord Yagami?"
Yurumi sweatdropped a bit at hearing her brother referred to as "Lord Yagami". Apparently that kick had really hurt. "Yeah, he does."
"It's genetic, then? I mean, everyone on your father's side of the family possesses the flames, as well as his children?" The Ninja pressed curiously.
Yurumi's forehead scrunched up in thought. "Well... Daddy doesn't have any relatives. At least, he didn't tell us about any. So I guess it's just him, me, and Ranma."
Raven's eyebrows rose. "Ah, so you too possess the hellfire?"
"Uh huh! Though I'm not very good at explosions like Ranma, I can do this!" Grinning brightly, she held out her hand.
Fwoom! A small flame, not unlike that of a common bunsen burner, appeared above her palm, displaying a clear, bright purple tint.
Raven nodded, smiling a bit under his face mask. "Hana, do you-" turning toward the high school girl, his attentions went on high alert when he saw that Hana's eyes were fixated on something behind him, and she had paled significantly.
Whirling around, Raven's face lost a fair bit of color as well. Standing in a side alleyway, separate from the main route that Ranma had taken was Setsuna, her body bruised and her head slightly bloody.
"Damnation! She defeated both Hashiru and Yagami? Impossible!" Raven said, quickly dashing in front of Yurumi. 'At the very least, she should be near the verge of death! And how the hell does one return from a fight with Yagami without any burns?'
Setsuna's gaze shifted as soon as the Ninja took up position between the two redheads, which led Raven to a second chilling conclusion: she had been staring intently at Yurumi.
"That flame... purple flame..." Setsuna mumbled, as if in a daze. Then her expression hardened. "Ninja. Move. Now."
"I will not," Raven said simply, turning slightly as he adopted his fighting stance. "Why on Earth would you have business with a girl half your age? Leave her be."
"I have business with ANYONE who wields a purple flame," Setsuna said venomously. "You have no idea how long I've searched for someone who wields that fire! Unless you can point me to another such individual, MOVE ASIDE. I believe you recall what happens to those individuals who get in my way."
'What? So she didn't run into Ranma after all?' Raven, Hana, and Yurumi all thought at once, behind them, the paramedics watched in confusion as their patients suddenly fled the scene despite their injuries, obviously convinced that the redhead was here to add to them.
'Well, I suppose I could point her toward Lord Yagami, but I doubt she'd believe me...' "Miss Yurumi, run for the ambulance! Get them to take you someplace safe!" Raven shouted, mentally praying that his master had inflicted enough damage already to give him a fighting chance as he charged forward.

"Tsk! Idiot!" Setsuna said as she held her arms loose, not willing to expose herself in a lunge for the girl.
As Raven approached, he quickly tossed a small smoke bomb in front of him, hoping to buy extra time by complicating the battle. Pwoof!
Setsuna simply growled as she reared her fist back. "Moron! Do you think your stupid tricks will stop me?" BWOOM!
As she punched forward into the gray cloud, the smoke was suddenly blasted away by a sudden wall of force, leaving a stunned Raven exposed as the contents of his bomb blew over his body.
Snarling, Setsuna smashed a fist into the Ninja's stomach, causing the assassin to hunch over in agony. Then she lifted him up with that same arm before throwing him away to the side, not willing to take the time to inflict any lasting damage.

A few tears leaked from Yurumi's eyes as she dashed for the ambulance, not daring to look behind her as she saw the terrified expressions of the paramedics in front of her.
'That girl is so scary! But... why does she want someone with purple flame? Wait! Dr. Tofu said there were people with some sort of fued with Daddy, didn't he? Is she one of those people?'
Even more terrified at the thought that the girl might be one of the flame-wielding clans, Yurumi pushed for a final sprint as she approached the final meter between her and the ambulance door.
"Gotcha!" Setsuna growled as she snatched the younger redhead up by the back of her shirt, lifting Yurumi off of her feet.
"No! Please! Don't hurt her!" Hana pleaded as she ran up to the dazed Raven, helping him up. Setsuna ignored her.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" One of the braver paramedics asked, approaching angrily as he watched Setsuna manhandle the obviously terrified youth. "You let her g-"
Bwack! Without even offering a warning this time, the redheaded vagrant smashed the man aside with a backhand, sending him flying onto the ground.
"YOU!!" Setsuna snarled at the blubbering girl in her hands. "Do you know any others who wield purple flames? ANSWER ME!!"
"Uh... I... uh... huh..." Tears streamed from Yurumi's eyes as she started gasping for breath, her heart pounding like a jackhammer.
"What's wrong with you?" Setsuna asked angrily, shaking the younger girl as she broke down into full-blown bawling. "Answer me, now!"
Putting down the little girl, Setsuna grabbed the amulet around her neck with one hand and Yurumi's chin with the other, and then pulled both of them close to force Yurumi to look at the crescent moon symbol. "You know the man who owns this amulet, don't you? You must know something!"
"WAAAAAH!! R-RAANMAAA! Sob! HELP!" Yurumi cried, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to squirm away.
Setsuna quickly began to lose her temper, showing none of the calm she displayed in battle. "Is Ranma his name? Stop crying and talk to me, you little brat! Who was your father?"
"HELP!! RANMAAAA!! WAAAAAAAAA-glk!" Yurumi's sobs were cut short as she felt a strong pressure on her throat, and her eyes popped open to see Setsuna staring down at her in disgust.
"DON'T make me hurt you. Now answer me. Do you know the man that bears this symbol? Tell me!"
Yurumi hiccupped as the older girl's deadly gaze burned into her. "I... Cough! d-don't..." Then she squeezed her eyes shut again as she suddenly grabbed onto Setsuna's arms. "NO!!"
Setsuna only had time to blink in surprise at seeing her captive glow brightly before the world seemed to explode around her.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KRAAAAAAAKOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Once he departed the main alleyway, Ranma grimaced at the harrowing, if totally expected, sight that greeted him.
Three buildings, hopefully empty, lay in ruins with scattered purple fires still burning amongst the debris. Those buildings laid at the end of a long, shallow, blackened trench that had been burned into the ground and stretched back to a large blast crater. In the middle of the crater was Yurumi, crying her heart out as she sat on the blackened ground. Hana and Raven were clutching each other in terror just a few feet from the trench, and look to have been lightly scorched. Several paramedics were clutching each other on the opposite side of the crater from the trench, and they looked unharmed, if not similarly spooked.
Quickly jogging up to the medical professionals, Ranma gently put Hashiru down on the ground in front of them. "Here ya go. I'm sure you know what to do with this."
Then he immediately dashed to his sister. "Yurumi! Are you all right?"
The little redheaded girl whirled around at the sound of her brother's voice, and then scrambled to her feet. "RANMA!! I was so scared!" She ran up the shallow slope she had created in the concrete and latched onto Ranma fiercely, still sniffling.
"Hey, hey, it's all right. It's over now," Ranma said reassuringly, hugging the girl gently as he looked over the area she had devastated. 'Doesn't look like there are many casualties... except for whatever set her off in the first place, of course.' "What happened here?"
"Th-The mean girl Sniffle! She came an', an' she picked me up and shook me a lot, an' Sniffle! She hit the Ninja and the doctor, a-and then she yelled at me!" She buried her face into Ranma's shirt as she continued sniffling, and he rubbed her head to console her.
"'Mean girl,' huh?" He looked over toward Hana and Raven, who had recovered from their shock well enough to disengage from each other. "Hey, the redheaded chick stop by here? I didn't find anyone else when I found Hashiru!" He yelled to the pair.
"Er... yes. Yes, she did," Raven said, shaking his head to regain his wits after being nearly vaporized. "She began threatening Miss Yurumi, and... uh... well..."
"Yeah, I think I can piece together the rest of it," Ranma deadpanned. "It's not a very good idea to scare my sister."
Raven twitched. "Then WHY did you ask me to watch over her?"
"So that it wouldn't come to that, hopefully," Ranma said, shrugging. "Besides, you said you were gonna protect her with your life, so I wasn't gonna worry about it."
As Raven twitched again, Hana looked pensively at the destroyed buildings. "Uhm... hey, do you think... that girl is..."
"She's toast," Ranma said, continuing to pat his sister on the head reassuringly. "I mean... it's possible she's still alive, but pretty unlikely. And if she isn't dead, she won't be getting up for quite a while. Maybe that'll teach her to pick on little girls." Smirking, Ranma lifted up Yurumi in his arms, who was still sniffling quietly. "Well, we've done enough damage for today. Let's hit the road."
Yurumi nodded mutely, rubbing her eyes to dry them. Then she grabbed onto to Ranma's shoulders as he boosted her up, and wrapped her leg around to sit on his shoulders.

As he watched the Yagami children depart with the sister riding piggy-back, Raven slumped to the ground and sighed deeply, idly massaging the area where Setsuna had struck him. "The bond of love and trust between brother and sister... unbreakable, even in the face of sudden and fiery annihilation of the former by the latter."
"Yeah..." Hana said softly, for once fully appreciating Raven's philosophical afterthoughts. "He is SO hot right now."
The Ninja sweatdropped. "Uh... sure. Let's tend to Lord Hashiru."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, that was hardly a perfect trip, was it? I gotta be more careful about who I take with me if I keep running into these superpowered freaks all the time," Ranma murmured, opening the fence gate and heading toward the front door of his home.
"No, I'm okay," Yurumi said quickly, having recovered significantly and not wanting Ranma to think he couldn't be around her. "I just got scared, that's all. When I really think about it, I don't think she really wanted to hurt me anyway." Then she winced. "I'm... I'm sorry about... uh, you know... the buildings..."
Ranma snorted, grinning as he stopped on the path. "Bah, don't worry about it. You didn't hurt anybody who didn't deserve it. As long as you're okay, that's all that matters!"
"You should be careful, though!" Yurumi said suddenly, leaning over forward so that she could look down over Ranma's head. "She said she was looking for a man who uses purple flames with the crescent moon symbol that you have on your jacket. I think she might be from one of those other families that Dr. Tofu told me about that want to hunt down the Yagami family! She might attack you!"
"If she's still alive," Ranma mentioned as he once again started down the path. Yurumi flinched, and immediately her face darkened. "Flame-wielding family, huh? That would explain some things." He had found Hashiru lying in the middle of a huge scorch mark on the ground that reminded him distinctly of his own fire blasts, and sported a few nasty burns over his upper body, while the rest of him was merely singed. "All in all though, she's probably looking for Pop, not me. And Pop can defend himself."
"Hmmm..." Yurumi frowned and laid her head down on top of her brother's.
Reaching the door, Ranma stuck his hand out to grasp the knob when it suddenly swung open of its own accord.
"Oh! Ranma, you're back!" Nodoka said in surprise.
Ranma blinked. "Uh... yeah. Weren't you going out earlier?" Taking another look at Nodoka's dress, he revised his question. "Oh, so you're eating dinner late?"
"We just got a little hung up, that's all," Nodoka said pleasantly, stepping out past her son.
"'We'?" Iori asked irritably as he stepped out himself, his hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Anyway, we'll be back in a couple of hours. Smithers can heat up dinner for you when you want," Nodoka explained.
Yurumi blinked. "Smithers?"
"It's complicated," Ranma mumbled.
"Oh, and make sure to keep your guest properly entertained, okay?" The Yagami matriarch said pleasantly, finally taking her leave of her house for the evening.

Ranma frowned as he stepped inside, helping Yurumi off of his shoulders. "Guest? We have a guest? Mom coulda at least told me who it was..." he rubbed his chin as he wondered what, exactly, he was supposed to do to entertain company. Then he noticed that his jacket was hanging on the hook. "Ah! Min must've stopped by!"
"Ranma! You're home!" Upon hearing her name, Min appeared from the dining room.
'Oh, so that's who it was. That's not so bad then.' "Yeah, I am. Just had some trouble to deal with over in Hashiru's territory. Big mess over there." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Thanks for bringing my jacket by. I would've stopped by to pick it up myself, but... uhm..." He frowned as he tried to think of a way to explain the situation without sounding like he was afraid of being attacked.
"It's okay, I understand," Min said happily as she quickly walked over to the pigtailed boy.
Ranma chuckled a bit nervously. "Yeah, well, in that case-"
"I understand EVERYTHING," the Ninja girl said throatily, suddenly falling forward on top of the hapless teenage boy and draping her arms around his neck.
Ranma froze stiff. "Buh? Gluh? Whugh?"
Yurumi blinked repeatedly as she watched the scene unfold, having a suspicion that the incident was swiftly moving into the "adults only" scope, but too curious to leave so soon.
Min slowly pressed her body against Ranma's as she moved one hand up to hold the back of Ranma's head, allowing her to push it toward her so that their noses were almost touching. "First off, I wanted to apologize about last night..." she said softly, and Ranma shuddered as he felt her breath over his lips.
"Yo-You m-mean about going nuts on me in the r-restaurant and th-throwing that fit in front of ev-everyone?" He stuttered out, still not daring to move a muscle.
"What? No!" Min said, pulling her head back in annoyance and granting Ranma considerable relief as some of the tension evaporated. "You deserved that! I meant about leaving you alone last night!"
"Huh? Leaving me alone?" Ranma asked in confusion, having no idea what she was talking about.
Yurumi frowned and planted one hand on her hip while she tapped her chin with the other, trying her best to follow and interpret the conversation.
"Yes! I was selfish and short-sighted," Min said compassionately, pulling their heads close again. "You have needs too! And after you tried so hard to show me a good time, and fought for me as hard as you did, I ignored that! I'm so sorry!"
"N-Needs?" Ranma asked, his left eye twitching as realization dawned. "Dear God... YOU TALKED TO MY MOM!!"
Min blinked. "Yeah. Why? Is that a bad thing?"
Ranma suddenly ripped himself free of Min's grasp, then grabbed her shoulders. "Min, you've got to fight it! Don't give in to this madness! You're stronger than this!"
"Fight it? Fight what?" The Ninja girl asked, feeling the tables turn as she became more confused.
"My Mom's crazy! She doesn't know what she's talking about! You don't have to do anything you don't want to! We've only been on one date! It's too soon!" Ranma insisted, staring at her intently. "I'm fine! Don't worry about me! It's okay, really!"
Min returned his stare for a long moment, then sighed regretfully as she raised a hand up to stroke his cheek. "Oh my... you DO need it bad, don't you?"
Just as Ranma was about to give up on the poor girl and flee, Yurumi spoke up, startling both of the teenagers as they were reminded of her presence. "So, are you going to go make out now, or what?"
Ranma jerked back in surprise. "Hey! You're too young to know about that sort of thing!" He said, crossing his arms over his chest as his face burned brightly.
Min's response was less defensive, though her blush was just as fierce. "Oh... sorry. I guess we should be more careful around kids..."
"Oh, please," the little girl muttered, smirking at the couple. "I watch TV, you know. It's okay."
Min immediately turned toward Ranma. "She's got a point. C'mon, let's go nookie."
Ranma let out a strangled cry as the Ninja attempted to drag him along behind her by his arm, and pressed his heels in against the floor to halt her progress. "As long as we're making apologies, I'd like to say I'm sorry!"
Min blinked, and stopped in her attempt to drag him along. "For ditching me outside the restaurant?"
"No. For this." Bwock! Taking the Ninja girl completely by surprise, Ranma pulled one arm to the side and then struck her hard on the back of the head, knocking her out cold in a single strike.

Yurumi stared at the scene in shock as Ranma gently placed the unconscious girl on the floor. "You hit her!"
"I had no choice," Ranma insisted as he stood back up and scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"You know, on TV, the guys usually deal with their girlfriends much better than this," the little girl mentioned.
"Hush. This situation calls for desperate measures. The corruption must be purged before the damage is beyond repair," nodding decisively, Ranma turned toward the coat closet and opened it up, immediately digging into his old traveling backpack that he had returned from China with. "I'm doing this for her sake as well as mine, before she does something we'll both end up regretting."
"Okay... what are you going to do now?" Yurumi asked dubiously as she watched her brother remove a plastic bottle.
Ranma held up the bottle, smirking. "I'm going to wash her hair!"
"............" Yurumi remained silent for a long moment, then sighed and headed toward the kitchen. "Okay, fine. I'm going to find this 'Smithers' person and eat. Please don't beat up your girlfriend anymore."
"'Kay. Enjoy your meal," Ranma said absently as he popped open the bottle and dug in his backpack for a comb. 'Now how did that go? Left center, left of that, then below, and left again... man, I hate pressure-point techniques...'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Setsuna gasped as she fell over into the frigid stream, feeling the cold water combine with the evening chill as it washed over her wounds.
'I... I was careless...' She thought to herself as she sat down, submerging herself up to her neck. She shuddered as her multiple cuts and abrasions began to numb, bringing much-needed relief to her wounds.
'But still, who could have imagined that a little girl could have commanded that level of power? Who could have imagined ANYONE wielding that much power?'
The redhead began to strip off what remained of her clothes after the explosion, giving each wad of wet, torn, and scorched rags a disgusted grunt as she threw them onto to the shore haphazardly. Although it was getting dark, she was still in a fairly well-traveled part of the park, but she paid nudity no mind as she removed the rest of her outfit and let her injuries soak.
'If I could harness that level of pure destruction...' Her brow creased for a moment, but she shook her head. 'I don't think so. It didn't seem like she had any control. Control is essential. I'll just have to be more careful.'
Then she scowled. 'But even so, I have to find her again! I just know she can lead me to the man who bears the crescent moon! She's likely even a relative! I can't give up now!'
She gripped the amulet that hung around her neck, the only article she wasn't willing to toss away for later. It was slightly more bent than before, and was now badly scorched, but was undamaged enough to wear without breaking it.
'For too long I've been denied! I will find him, and I'll crush anybody in my way! I swear it!'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey! Min! Is that you?" Tomas asked, waving his arms as he approached the Ninja girl down the street.
Min turned around at hearing her name called, and blinked as the American ran up next to her. "Oh, hi. Yeah, it's me."
"Man, you're out kind of late. Did something happen at Ranma's place?" Tomas asked, looking worried.
Min stared blankly at him for a moment, then massaged her forehead. "Ranma's place... you know... I'm not sure."
Tomas blinked. "Huh? Not sure? What do you mean? Did you return his jacket or not?"
"Uhm..." Min frowned, looking slightly dazed. "Well, I must have. I remember going there, and I don't have the jacket now, so I must have given it back, at least." She scratched her head. "For some reason... I can't remember anything I did there. But I must have done something, it's almost nighttime! Hmmmm..." While scratching her head, she ran her fingers through her hair, and idly combed her fingers through her ponytail. "Maybe I took a shower... I feel really refreshed, for some reason."
Tomas raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh... well, I'll walk you back to your house. Andy must be worried about you."
Min raised an eyebrow of her own, then smiled and held her hands up. "Ah, no thanks. This Ranma guy we're talking about? We're kind of dating, you know?"
"Er... Yes, I do know," Tomas said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What does that have to do with anything?"
The teenage Ninja looked surprised at that. "Oh! So you just make it a habit to walk girls you don't know safely to their homes? Americans must be nicer than I'd heard!"
Tomas stared at his cousin for a long, long moment, his left eyebrow twitching. "'Girls I don't know'?"
Smiling brightly, Min extended her right hand for a Western handshake. "My name is Min Bogard! What's your name?"
Tomas slapped his forehead. "God damn it. What now?"

**********************************************************************************
End Chapter 15

Ranran na hakubo - Blazing twilight: Generates a localized firestorm without any significant kinetic force, making it far more flexible than other fireburst attacks that have to be carefully directed.