Ryoga dashed across the surface of a river, managing to run across the surface tension about half-way before crashing into the water.
Show a lot of things happening at once!
Remind everyone what’s going on – WHAT’S GOING ON?
Ranma flushed as Min gave him a peck on the cheek and winked at him, and then he quickly shuffled off to class.
And with every shot you show a little improvement!
To show it all would take too long!
Ryoga shouted in triumph as he ran across the entire river, landing safely and dryly on the opposite bank.
That’s called a montage – MONTAGE!
Oh, we want a montage – MONTAGE!

Ryoga swept his arms together, and a vacuum blade sliced a tree clean through.
And anything that we want to go,
From just a beginner to a pro!
Charging his ki, Ryoga released a titanic vacuum blade, knocking trees down by the dozen as they were knocked over.
You need a montage – MONTAGE!
Even Rocky had a montage – MONTAGE!

Ryoga dashed through the trees once more, throwing bandannas and vacuum blades in sequence, and annihilating a line of targets.
And anything that we want to go,
From just a beginner to a pro!
Howling in triumph, Ryoga dashed upstream across the surface of the water, bouncing off of the rocks poking up above the surface every time he felt his momentum waning.
You need a montage – MONTAGE!
Oh, it takes a montage – MONTAGE!

Wiping sweat from his forehead, Ryoga walked down the road as night fell, failing to notice the sign in the road that clearly indicated that Tokyo was in the opposite direction.
Always fade out in a montage...
If you fade it seems like more time has passed in a montage...
Montage...

Yagami 1/2
A Ranma 0.5/King of Fighters Crossover
by Black Dragon

Disclaimer: Who else loves cake?!

Notes: Sounds, Emphasis or techniques, +Written words+, 'Thoughts', "Dialogue"

Chapter 17
Heating Up
*****************************************************************************

“All I’m saying is that you could take your training a little more seriously,” Ranma said as he strolled down the park walk, hands in his pockets. “It’s not like you have maniacs comin’ out of nowhere tryin’ to take your head off, but if you’re not careful, you’re going to end up in a fight with no way out.”
Min rolled her eyes as she walked next to Ranma, taking the occasional bite out of an ice cream cone. “Hey, watch it. I used to be one of those maniacs, you know.” She smirked and poked him in the side.
“I’m still not completely convinced you’ve given that up, actually,” Ranma murmured.
Min poked him harder and stuck out her tongue at him.
“How often do you train, anyway?”
Min sighed, getting annoyed with the topic at hand. “Whenever I feel like it. But I make sure to get in some serious practice at least twice a week.”
“You don’t do regular sparring?” Ranma asked, obviously disappointed.
“Hey, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t play the ‘Ninja’ thing all the way to the hilt,” the buxom girl began, “but I have a life outside of being a martial artist. Unlike YOU.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” the pigtailed boy deadpanned.
Min took another bite of ice cream, then sidled closer to her date, hooking her arm through his. “Maybe... but there are things more fun than fighting, you know...”
“Eh.” He looked extremely unenthusiastic even as Min brushed her breasts up against his arm. “I just think that if you’re gonna practice at all, you should put your all into it. Twice a week isn’t going to put you up at Tomas’ level, much less Hashiru’s.”
The Ninja girl groaned. “Look, can we talk about something ELSE? You’re going to have all weekend to nag me about training. This is supposed to be a romantic outing.”
Now it was Ranma’s turn to groan. “Meh. Like what?”
Min grinned broadly and brushed up even closer to him as they walked. “Well... how about coming up with sleeping arrangements for the trip?”
The pigtailed boy blinked. “Whoa... did you just feel that?”
Min blinked as well. “You mean the sudden flare-up of ki about five meters behind us?”
“Yeah, that, plus I just felt like a hundred daggers just stuck me in the back,” Ranma shrunk back uncomfortably.
Min’s eye twitched as she turned around, immediately eyeing a single tall man in an unseasonably long coat wearing a large hat and holding up a newspaper as he stood nearby.
As if that wasn’t suspicious enough, there was also a visible aura of energy wafting all about him. The Ninja’s eyes narrowed.
“Wait here, okay hun?” Min asked pleasantly.
“Please don’t call me that,” Ranma mumbled, freezing absolutely still while waiting for the expected attack.

“Daddy, please put down the newspaper,” Min demanded, walking up to the man with her hands planted on her hips.
The figure was silent for a moment, and then shifted slightly so that the crease in the paper was facing Min.
“Oh, I’m sorry, you were talking to me?” Said a gruff, overly-masculine voice. “I didn’t know, because you called me ‘Daddy’ for some reason.”
Shnk! Min slipped out one of her combat fans. “Daddy, knock it off. Who else would be tailing me through the park in the afternoon wearing a heavy coat this time of year, and then start putting out battle aura when Ranma almost gets to second base?”
The figure was silent again, though his battle aura shrank noticeably. “... How do you know I’m not some random boy taken with jealousy?”
“Hmmm...” she pretended to think about it. “That’s a good point. Do you know what I DO to those types?” She growled suddenly, holding up the bladed fan.
“All right! All right!” Andy threw up the newspaper, holding his hands in the air. “Calm down, already! It’s me!”
“Calm down? You were spying on me!” She shouted angrily. “Why should I calm down?”
Andy winced. “Because I’m doing it out of love?”
Min glared at him.
“Hm. Because I’m your father and I know best?”
Min glared harder.
Andy started sweating. “Uhm... because I’m sorry and I really do trust you, but I still worry about you all the time?”
Min flinched, and her glare cracked. ‘Damn. He’s way too good at this.’ “Dad, I’m going to make this REAL simple. You can set curfews. You can make rules. You can call and check up on me a dozen times in an hour. But do NOT follow me around when I’m on a date.”
The blond man looked reluctant. “But I-“
“NO. No buts,” Min snapped. “I do NOT know what problem you have with Ranma, but this has to stop. Ranma is nice, he is respectful, and IF AND WHEN something intimate happens between us, it will be the result of mutual and consensual feelings. Now. Do you have a PROBLEM with any of that?”
Andy spent a moment gaping, and then grit his teeth. “... Yes, actually. When were you going to tell me about this little trip you two are taking?”
Min frowned at him. “I did tell you about it. And it’s not us two; there’ll be four of us.”
“You said you were taking a training trip with a bunch of friends!”
“I AM. You never asked whether the friends were girls or boys,” the Ninja girl said sharply. “Besides, Tomas will be with us the whole time, so you can even declare him chaperone and whatnot.”
Andy’s gaze remained hard. “I heard you discuss ‘sleeping arrangements’.”
“Oh, for the love of-“ Min rubbed her forehead in agitation. “Dad, LOOK. Ranma is no playboy; in fact, he’s actually really shy when it comes to intimacy. So I like to tease him with stuff like that, all right? It’s not serious. He’s really not ready for that sort of thing.”
Andy jumped right into THAT sentence. “Oh? But you are?”
Min raised an eyebrow, and was silent for a long moment. “Daddy... are you worried that he’s going to come on to me, or that I’m going to come on to HIM?”
The blond man winced badly, and chewed his lip as he stalled for time. “Welllll... seeing how Ranma’s already escaped, I think I’ll follow his example.”
Min blinked. “What?” Then she turned around, and gaped when she realized her date was long-gone. “Hey! Dad, now look what-“ She trailed off as she turned around again, only to see a quickly dispersing cloud of dust where her father used to be. “But... it... wait...”
Hanging her head, she glanced at her ice cream cone, which had melted during her argument with Andy. “Why do I have so much trouble with men? Ugh.” Grinding her teeth for a moment, she accelerated rapidly in a straight line toward her home, jumping up into the trees to jump across the branches.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ranma sighed as he realized that no one was pursuing him, and idly wiped his forehead.
While the idea of fighting Andy for real was not entirely unpleasant, he had no desire to have that fight because the man thought he was taking advantage of Min. Beating him under such conditions just seemed... wrong. Like he was actually doing something immoral, and had to beat up Min’s guardian to get away with it.
He was also generally opposed to having to fight to date the Ninja girl, as she was the one who had drawn him into their relationship in the first place; it was sort of like winning a car, and then being handed the bill for it. Bad enough he had to pay for everything and waste time on this “dating” rubbish that every other guy swore was so great, but why should he have to fight off world-class martial artists too?
Worse, this sort of thing was becoming more common. He already had to fight Mousse for Shampoo; in fact, he still wasn’t completely sure what that had been all about. Certainly Mousse hated him and would have taken any opportunity to crush him, but Mousse had involved Shampoo for some reason, and Ranma still wasn’t entirely sure why. Was it just because he and Shampoo were friends? Was it because she and Mousse were from the same tribe? Ranma didn’t know, and Shampoo didn’t say before she disappeared.

The young Yagami fighter was not so lost in thought that his senses weren’t alert; after fleeing from an enraged martial artist, he wouldn’t drop his guard so quickly. So it was that after he heard a distant splashing noise, he frowned.
“Hm. Speak of the devil...” He slipped his hands into his pockets, and stared up at the branches as the sounds of scraping branches and heavy footsteps reached his ears.
“Gotta give him credit for tryin’. Well, not really.” Ranma stretched his shoulder for a moment as he stood still, and then smiled and waved to a group of children who were passing by on the other side of the main path through the park. “Five... four... three... two...”
CRASH! Shwish! Claws like steel scythes slashed underneath Ranma as the pigtailed boy jumped into the air, barely avoiding the tree that narrowly missed hitting him as it was knocked over.
Ranma grabbed hold of a branch of a different tree and swung himself up, flipping to his feet and landing in a crouch. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t tall, dark, and hairy come to claim his fair Shampoo, defeat the one responsible for his exile, etcetera etcetera. Or have you come up with some new material?”
Mousse twitched, and acrid smoke blew out of his nostrils as he snorted in irritation. Across the park, people stared wide-eyed at the creature that had just emerged from the trees, and quickly began to flee in a panic.
“COCKY AS EVER, SCUM. TELL ME WHERE SHAMPOO IS. NOW.” The behemoth flexed its talons menacingly as it glared up at Ranma.
“Hmmmm...” Ranma stood up straight and scratched his chin, as if considering it. “Welllllll... nah.”
FWOOOOSH! Ranma jumped away again as a jet of fire blasted over the tree he was standing in, blasting it to charcoal in short order.
“Whoa, hey! Watch what you’re doing, jerk!” the pigtailed boy shouted. “You’re going to start a serious fire if you’re not careful!”
“PAH. IF YOU DON’T WANT YOUR FILTHY LITTLE CITY BURNT TO ASHES, THEN COOPERATE AND TELL ME WHERE SHAMPOO IS!” The behemoth took up a fighting position, squaring its shoulders and letting its arms hang down, creating a veritable wall of thick fur and rock-hard muscle.
“Oh, shut up you brat,” Ranma sighed. “I know how this goes. You appear and start threatening me, and then I get ahold of some hot water and splash you. As soon as you’re small and squishy, I crush you like a beetle, leave you bleeding in a heap somewhere until you wake up, wash, rinse, repeat.” He scratched the back of his head, frowning at the demonic being. “Why don’t you just save me a lot of trouble, the city a lot of repair work, and yourself a lot of pain and just buzz off? I’m not gonna tell you where Shampoo is even if you beat me, so you might as well go look on your own.”
Mousse seemed unusually calm through the lecture, not interrupting the flame-user and not reacting to his jibes. It had very well occurred to him that Ranma would probably win another engagement so soon, as his behemoth form had a very obvious weakness, and the gap between his human form’s power and Ranma’s was too vast. He had come up with a countermeasure for being splashed with water, but... well, he didn’t really want to fight Ranma again with only one new trick up his sleeve. The Yagami fighter was annoyingly clever when things became desperate, and Ranma’s resilience was nothing short of unnerving, even to someone who turned into a nearly indestructible monster with supernatural regeneration.
“YOU THINK I’M ASKING YOU BECAUSE IT’S CONVENIENT? I’VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR HER RELENTLESSLY WITH NO SUCCESS. SHE ISN’T AROUND YOU ANYMORE. AT LEAST, NOT OUT IN THE OPEN. WHAT’S HAPPENED TO HER? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”
“I ‘aint done nothing,” Ranma mumbled. “If you want to know why Shampoo isn’t parading around out in the open, maybe I could go find you a hand mirror.”
Mousse sighed, and a thin aura of red started to appear around him. “YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE THIS DIFFICULT, AREN’T YOU?”
Ranma just smirked. “Of course not. I’m gonna make this EASY.”
Fwsh! Ranma dashed back away from claws that could rip through steel with ease, and then backflipped away.
“I’ve been doin’ a lot of thinking since our last fight, freak! I have some new tricks I want to try out!”
Mousse snarled as he approached slowly, quite wary of his opponent’s claim; Ranma wasn’t the sort of fighter who would allow an enemy to hold such a clear advantage over him. Still, as long as he could avoid hot water...
“Yami barai!” Ranma slammed a fist into the ground, and a purple fireball sizzled across the dirt, streaking toward Mousse. Almost immediately, Ranma’s form flickered as he vanished from sight.
Mousse stepped back, frowning as he tried to cover his back from any attacks. ‘The fireball was just a distraction. He has to know by now that fire can’t hurt-‘ Thwud!
A short yelp was all that Mousse managed as Ranma came down right onto his head, driving his face down right into the firebolt.
Bwoom! Ranma smirked as the fireball detonated, and then winced at the searing pain that assaulted his body just from touching the behemoth. He quickly leapt off, bouncing off his hands back into a standing position. ‘Huh. That was weird. That aura he's got isn’t just for show. He’s almost too hot to touch!’
Mousse got back to his feet, his eyes clenched shut and loud, rumbling curses spilling from his mouth; the explosion had blasted an awful lot of dirt and shrapnel right into his eyes, and he couldn’t possibly use the gigantic talons that were his hands to try and wipe them clean. In the meantime, his regeneration was useless in the face of severe irritation instead of actual damage; exactly as Ranma had planned.
“Man, I hope you’re embarrassed,” Ranma said as he took out a metal canister of water and quickly heated it up with his flames. “You didn’t even get a hit in this time.”
As the creature snarled, Ranma thrust the canister at it, smirking.
His smirk died painfully when the water fizzled into vapor almost immediately before touching the cursed demon, its aura literally boiling the liquid away into steam before enough of it touched him to take effect.
“Ah. I see... well-played,” the pigtailed boy mumbled as he dodged backwards against Mousse’s blind lunge.
The behemoth stopped swiping around at random, and then blinked his eyes repeatedly, growling when it failed to stop the stinging pain from the bits of rock stuck in his eyelids. “I’LL GRIND YOU TO DUST!”
“Right. You can’t hit me even when you can see me, how do ya expect to fight me like that?” The Yagami fighter taunted, crossing his arms over his chest haughtily.
Mousse let out another growl, and then sucked in a great breath of air, his chest expanding substantially as his cheeks puffed up.
“...... Oh, crud.”
FWOOOOM! A massive jet of flames poured from the behemoth’s jaw, and Ranma nervously leapt out of the way as he watched the stream blast a flaming ditch across more than ten meters of ground, reaching all the way to the main path through the park and crossing it.
“You jerk! If you wanna fight me, fine! But stop burning up the whole damn area while you do it!” Ranma yelled.
Mousse homed in on the noise and stomped forward, his taloned arms sweeping about before him wildly, seeking his target.
Ranma obviously wasn’t about to make it that easy, and danced backward out of his reach. “No way you can keep that aura up for long! All I have to do is outlast you!”
Focusing on the sound of Ranma’s voice, Mousse thundered toward him, his heavy footfalls shaking the ground below. “HA! YOU, OUTLAST ME? RESILIENCE IS ONE THING THIS BODY POSSESSES IN SPADES, YAGAMI!”
“Well, sure, but I’m sure someone dumb as you can push even that to its limit. Whoa!” He shouted out as he leapt back, landing heavily out of reach.
The behemoth turned toward the sound, snarling. ‘That’s right, you moron. Just keep talking...’ he could feel the stinging sensation in his eyes fading as his eyes watered, slowly cleaning his vision of irritants. “DIE!!”
Ranma grinned and flipped backward. “Make me, loser.”
“THAT’S THE IDEA, SCUM!” Mousse snarled, homing in on him once more. He tried blinking his eyes again, and hissed as he clenched them shut again. ‘Just a little more...’
“A lotta talk and not much else. Hell, without Shampoo around to save, I don’t even have to fight you. I could just run away. It’s not like you could do much about it when you can’t even see.”
The transformed Amazon suddenly grinned. “HOW UNFORTUNATE FOR YOU, THEN, THAT YOU WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO HOP AROUND AND TAUNT ME INSTEAD OF RUNNING.” Mousse opened his eyes, wincing only slightly at the pain as his vision crystallized...
Then Mousse stared out the park’s artificial lake, confused. Where was he? And more importantly, where was Ranma?
“How unfortunate for you that you were stupid enough to follow me,” Ranma said from behind him.
THWUMP! With the force of a battering ram, Ranma slammed into Mousse’s back, gritting his teeth against the pain as the behemoth’s fire aura seared his skin like a hot stovetop.
It was enough though, and Mousse’s eyes widened as he staggered forward into the lake, the water hissing and steaming the moment he broke the surface. Sploosh!
Ranma quickly rushed forward and plunged his hand in after the rapidly shrinking form, grabbing Mousse’s leg and yanking the Chinese boy back out of the lake before the heat could disperse across the lake and leave the water cool enough to change him back.
Tossing Mousse almost haphazardly onto the grass, Ranma momentarily shook his hands dry before boiling away the last droplets of moisture with a burst of flames.
Then he turned around, ready to taunt his opponent with the ease of his victory.
“... Hey. You awake?” Ranma stared down at Mousse, who lay on the ground, unmoving.
He walked up cautiously, and then poked the Chinese boy with his foot. “... Huh. Out cold. The moron must have been using so much energy that as soon as he changed back to normal, he passed out from the strain.” Ranma shook his head. Mousse’s new technique was painfully crude in its application, and quite obviously flawed.
Although simply throwing as much energy as possible against a problem rather suited the behemoth form, such clumsy tactics were easily exploited, and Mousse’s foresight was almost as bad as his normal sight.
“This idiot couldn’t beat me if I was already bleeding to death and blindfolded,” the pigtailed boy grumbled, scratching his head wearily. “Still, he’s damn dangerous ‘cause of that curse. What should I do with him?”
Scratching his head, Ranma eventually shrugged and picked the Chinese boy up before slinging him over his shoulder and walking off, whistling the whole time.

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Setsuna sighed as she unwrapped the plastic around the nearly inedible-looking egg sandwich.
Such fare was not ideal, but it worked. She needed protein above all other nutrients, and it was cheap.
Setsuna was not a traveler that enjoyed much in the way of amenities. She lived like a hobo, sleeping under trees and bridges with nothing but a dirty blanket. She bathed in public ponds and rivers, and wore the same clothes until the holes got so big that the articles exposed more than they covered.
While she had easily dominated the underground fighting tournaments that were sometimes held in the darker corners of the city, she stumbled across such gatherings by chance and never stood around long enough to make any serious money off of it. Those small cash windfalls tended to disappear incredibly quick, as she had a habit of splurging on meat whenever she could afford it... and occasionally when she could not.
Setsuna stepped out of convenience store, ignoring the irritated complaint of a teenage boy as she shouldered past him and wolfed down the sandwich as fast as possible (the better to avoid actually tasting the wretched thing).
“Hey! Did you hear me?” The teenager, who was annoyed that the girl practically walked right through him without so much as a glance, strode up behind Setsuna and made to grab her shoulder.
A single glare over the redhead’s shoulder caused him to freeze in place just a bare few millimeters from touching her, as if his body itself had just suddenly shut down.
Very slowly, the suddenly pale boy drew back and turned around, feeling as if he had just come very close to brushing against Death itself.

Setsuna continued down the sidewalk, stuffing the crust of the sandwich into her mouth and chewing fervently. Her throat ached for something to wash it down with, and she promptly began scanning for some place with a public restroom where she could drink from the tap there.
Spotting a small cafe, the redhead stepped over to a garbage dumpster in an alley, slapping the lid up sharply before tossing the plastic wrapping in.
Thwump! “Ow!”
Setsuna blinked as she heard someone shout out after the lid fell closed again, and turned back toward the dumpster.
“......” Cautiously, she stepped up to it and raised the lid again, peering down into the trash container.
“Ugh... wh-who?” Mousse slowly looked up at the face peering down at him, squinting uselessly.
Setsuna stared down, unsure of what to do. It really didn’t occur to her to help him right away, because benevolent acts for the sake of benevolence itself just weren’t in her nature, but it was the sort of situation where it just didn’t feel right to simply walk away.
After a good twenty seconds of deliberation, she decided that the man’s groaning was getting on her nerves, so she wouldn’t dirty her hands to pull him out. But feeling that she had to do SOMETHING just for having found him there, she helpfully pushed the lid up so that it was propped up against the wall of the alley, and not trapping him inside.

She started walking away again, heedless of the sound of the man climbing out of the dumpster.
Clang! Once again, she stopped short as her ears picked up the sound of something metal falling against concrete, and she turned around.
Setsuna watched with rapidly growing interest as the Chinese-looking boy bent over to collect the large scimitar that had fallen out of his sleeve, mumbling irritably the whole time in his native language.
She debated the worth of approaching him again in her mind. He couldn’t be THAT great a fighter, as she had found him in a dumpster, and judging by how fast he crawled out, he hadn’t been in there by choice. But he still had a weapon on him... and had just slipped that weapon back into his sleeve in such a way that should have been impossible given the dimensions of the weapon.
Conclusion?
‘Hm. Sure, I’ll give him a shot.’
“That’s an interesting trick you just pulled,” the redhead said stonily, walking up behind Mousse with her arms at her sides. “I’d like to see it again.”
Mousse blinked and turned around. “Bwuh? Who’re you?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Setsuna said. “Show me that weapon that you just dropped. Or I’ll beat you until it falls back out of your robe.”
The Chinese boy stared blankly, and then snapped his wrist forward sharply.
To Setsuna’s disappointment, it was not a weapon he withdrew, but rather a pair of coke-bottle glasses that he promptly put on before staring at her intently.
Mousse clicked his tongue upon realizing that the person in front of him wasn’t Ranma’s girl form. He suspected as much after hearing her voice; Ranma’s manner of speaking in either form was either very casual, or burning with rage, like a volcano on the verge of eruption. This girl’s voice was like cold, hard steel, and while it set him on edge, it didn’t generate any desire to fight.
“Hmmm... are you the one that opened the lid of that dumpster for me?” Mousse asked, not deigning to answer the obvious challenge he was being offered.
“I did,” Setsuna answered. Then she frowned. “Of course, if you were too weak to even get out of there by yourself, there’s little point in fighting you.”
The Amazon bristled. “You... You’re right. There’s little point in us fighting,” he agreed grudgingly, though for completely different reasons.
Mousse didn’t fight others for fun, for improvement, to test his strength, or even for the sake of his pride or status. For him martial arts were simply a means to an end: ideally, the unconsciousness, if not death, of the person he was fighting. To use the full range of those skills on a random person on the street who had nothing to offer him was a complete waste of time.
The Chinese boy turned away, already planning in his head his next recon sweep of the Saotome residence to try and find Shampoo.
Thwump! “Gah!” Mousse staggered forward, little knives bouncing down out of his robe as he was struck in the back. “Hey! What the hell was that for?”
Setsuna clicked her tongue. “You’ve got more than just a sword up your sleeves... I want to fight you.”
“Yeah, well I don’t want to fight you!” Mousse complained, quickly picking up his knives. “I was just beaten and dumped in a damn garbage can! I’m tired and filthy and I don’t even know who you are! Find someone else to attack out of nowhere!”
“Ah, but you’re already here... and I have a feeling there’s more to you than a four-eyed imbecile with some blades up his sleeves.” Setsuna’s face was perfectly cold as she lifted a fist toward him. “I’m going to beat you to a pulp. Feel free to defend yourself.”
“What the hell are yo-“ was as far as Mousse got before the first punch connected with his stomach.
Caught totally unprepared, he doubled over just in time for the girl’s knee to impact his jaw, shattering the bones therein with an ease that would have left him stunned were it not for the agonizing pain.
Thwump! “Agh! Ugh...” Mousse slid across the ground, rolling for a ways as his vision swam.
Setsuna snorted. “Ridiculous. You must be capable of more than this. At least use one of your weapons.”
“... Ahl sho yuh shum a’ mah wheposh...” Mousse mumbled, crawling forward, and sliding a short sword out of his sleeve.
“Hm?” Setsuna raised an eyebrow as she watched the boy crawl further away. Did he think range was going to make much of a difference at this point? He couldn’t possibly throw accurately after taking such a blow.
And now the fool was hauling himself up on a fire hydrant. Shing! Okay, so he was actually slicing open a fire hydrant.
Setsuna blinked as water gushed out onto the streets, parting before the gigantic, hairy beast that had grown from the scrawny, broken Chinese boy. “Huh. Unusual.”
Mousse whirled around, and his eyes narrowed at the redhead as his jaw knitted rapidly. “MAYBE THIS WILL TEACH YOU NOT TO RUN AROUND PICKING FIGHTS WITH EVERYONE ON THE STREETS!” The irony of him making such a statement when he had been hurt doing the same thing recently was, naturally, lost on him.
Setsuna cocked her head to the side, then nodded sharply and slid backward slightly, her hands balling into fists. “All right, then. Attack.”
Mousse blinked. This girl still wanted to fight him? Was she crazy? “YOU LITTLE RAT...” his mouth glowed yellow as he sucked in some air. “I’LL GROUND YOU INTO PASTE...” FWOOOOM!
Setsuna clicked her tongue and leapt up over the jet of fire, summoning power into her hand.
THWAM!! CRACK! Mousse yelped as something smashed into his head like a train... a falling train. Pulling his muzzle out of the sundered concrete, he shook his head and turned around, swiping viciously with his claws.
Thap! He was most nonplussed when the girl BLOCKED his claw against her arm, and then batted the limb away like a common punch.
Setsuna dove in fast, and brought her energy into her fist once more, slamming it full-on into Mousse’s torso.
BWOOM! The breath left the behemoth’s impressive lungs as Mousse felt his ribcage strain against the force pounding into it, and he decided that it was time to stop acting cocky and start acting desperate. Chomp!
Setsuna growled as the demon actually lowered his head and BIT her, his dagger-like teeth sinking a full inch into her shoulder before she grabbed a hold of his jaws and start to force them open.
Mousse was momentarily stunned as the redhead slowly started overcoming his strength, and felt his jaw muscles burn to try and close his teeth. ‘This is unbelievable! Who the hell is this girl? How can anybody be this strong?’
Setsuna's position did, however, leave her quite open, and Mousse grabbed the redhead between his claws, pulling his head away before throwing her through the air, and then through the wall of a nearby storefront.
‘I can’t believe it... she’s actually going to try and beat me by just hammering me until I’m knocked out? Is she crazy, or just stupid?’ Honestly, Mousse was getting a bit scared of how close the girl was coming. Even if his regeneration was rapidly repairing all the wounds taken so far, the amount of damage she caused with punches and kicks was beyond belief, though he doubted that her blows represented her natural strength. There was definitely something besides muscle behind those punches.
“Huh. You’re tougher than I thought,” Setsuna mumbled as she stepped out of the hole in the store, ignoring the patrons and owner huddling behind the counter inside.
“THE FEELING’S MUTUAL,” Mousse snarled, crouching forward. “THERE’S NO REASON FOR US TO FIGHT. JUST TURN-“
“Stop your yammering,” Setsuna commanded suddenly, straightening. “This fight isn’t finished until one of us is laid bleeding on the ground.”
An aura of power started swirling around her, and Mousse backed away cautiously as waves of heat washed up over her body.
“Hm... get ready. Now I’m serious.” THWOOSH!

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Ranma was dead silent as he sat calmly at the dinner table, his hands a blur as he cleared his plate and then scooped more food onto his plate with absolute minimal wasted movement, returning his motions to the repetitive, yet precise motions of eating smoothly.
One would be hard-pressed to call it graceful, but really, there wasn’t a much better way to describe it. Ranma had perfected this manner of eating long ago, although it was anybody’s guess why; it wasn’t as if anybody ever tried to steal his food or anything.
For Ranma, eating food like he performed a kata was simply relaxing. It let him empty his mind and rest his overburdened senses.
It also let him ignore people who were all but beating him over the head to get his attention.
“Ran-MAAAA!! Stop eating and listen to me!” Yurumi whined, shaking her arms about.
Ranma continued eating, not paying any attention to his little sister. Across the table, Nodoka and Iori ate in silence, as usual not willing to intervene in any of the affairs of their children.
“Come ON! Take me with you on your trip! I wanna go too!” Yurumi said, pouting as she started tugging on his sleeve.
That didn’t stop Ranma’s arms one bit, and she was nearly lifted off the floor as Ranma continued eating at the same speed.
“Stop ignoring me! Ranma!”
Ranma continued to do so, and Yurumi continued pouting.
Huffing angrily, the redhead got up off the floor and stalked off to the kitchen, leaving her brother locked in his endless circuit of consumption at the table.
Until she came back with a glass of cold water. Splash!
Ranma twitched as she finally came out of her “kata,” the chopsticks in her hand, snapping within her grip as her concentration broke. “What’d you do that for?” She deadpanned.
“You weren’t listening to me!” Yurumi huffed.
Ranma’s eye twitched. “Fine. You want me to come out and say it? NO. You’re not coming with us.”
“But why NOOOOOOOT?” Yurumi whined, bunching her fists up under her chin and looking up at Ranma with wet, dewy eyes.
The pigtailed girl felt something in her stomach lurch as she barely resisted the puppy-dog eyes, at a heavy price to her conscience. “BECAUSE. You’re not a fighter. You’re a little girl who doesn’t know martial arts and can get hurt. We’re going there for combat training, not vacation. That means lots of breaking rocks, smashing logs, and wild energy blasts. It’s not safe.”
“But I’ll be careful!”
“I’m sure you would. But you’re not trained, so being careful probably won’t be enough,” Ranma said simply.
“But... but...” Yurumi started to get angry as she realized that her cute bit wasn’t working. “But Min gets to go!”
Ranma raised an eyebrow. “Yes. And Min has ten years of harsh Ninjitsu under her belt. She can project flames better than you can, and without any special powers. Even if she doesn’t know much about camping, she can survive any training accidents without a problem, or defend herself if we get lost or something. You’re not gettin’ away with comparing yourself to her just ‘cause you’re both girls.”
Yurumi pouted, having intended to do just that. “But I don’t want to spend the weekend here by myself!”
Ranma felt another pang of conscience as her sister tried to guilt her further, and looked toward her parents to see if they’d bother to remind Yurumi that they’d be there with her if she were to stay.
“The local baseball team lost again,” Iori said, still buried in his newspaper.
“Mmm. I’ve heard they’ve had a terrible season,” Nodoka said simply before sipping more tea.
‘Our parents really suck,’ Ranma thought irritably. “The answer is still no. Find something to do here.”
“But I’ll miss you,” Yurumi whined. “You were gone for so long... I feel like I don’t even know my own brother sometimes...”
The pigtailed girl flinched badly as her resolve started to crumble. ‘No! Sensible... position... must... hold!’
Yurumi sniffled.
‘God damn it.’ Ranma let out a brief, painful-sounding gurgling noise before the last of her will broke, and she wearily opened her mouth to surrender.
“Yurumi,” Nodoka said suddenly, “why don’t we go shopping this weekend?”
“Huh?” The younger redhead did not look enthusiastic at the prospect. “But I wanna go with Ranma...”
Nodoka smiled and shifted over slightly to pat Yurumi on the head. “I know, dear. But there are places that a young man’s little sister simply shouldn’t follow.”
“... Uh... What?” Ranma felt a slight chill in her back as her mother said that, getting the feeling that once again Nodoka was going to take the situation in a completely unexplored and unintended direction. “This has nothing to do with ‘young men,’ this is about martial artists who can smash boulders apart and need lots of space where they can let loose without hurting anyone.”
Nodoka nodded solemnly. “Of course. And it has nothing to do with you and your girlfriend getting ‘lots of space’ where you can ‘let loose’.” She winked as Ranma’s face darkened.
Yurumi blinked, and then her face flushed. “Oh... uh... is THAT what... you were going to be doing?”
Ranma’s eye twitched. “No. It’s not. We’re going to be fighting.”
“I’m sure you’ll be getting into all sorts of strenuous activities,” the Yagami matriarch said pleasantly. “Yurumi, you have to realize that while your brother loves you very much, he needs some occasional time on his own to love other girls. In a very different way.”
Wham! Wham! Wham! Ranma started slamming her head on the table. Hopefully, her mother would get the point that something was wrong and actually stop to listen to her detailed and accurate correction as to what would be going on during the training trip... and if not, she would probably knock herself out and at least save herself from having to listen to the bizarre fantasy world Nodoka had erected around her.
Without even taking her eyes off of her younger daughter, Nodoka reached for a pillow and stuck it under Ranma’s head, foiling her utterly. “So you’ll have to let Min have Ranma for the weekend, I’m afraid. Boys his age have... needs that must be tended to.”
Yurumi nodded rapidly, her face still flushed. She still felt sad that she wouldn’t be able to go, but at least she understood now why Ranma wouldn’t want her around.
"Why are you doing this?" Ranma mumbled into the pillow.
"Hm? I thought you didn't want to take Yurumi," Nodoka explained in a voice that sounded perfectly innocent.
"Mom..." Ranma took a deep, calming breath. "... I'm not going on this trip to be with Min. Honestly, I'd rather she didn't come with us because it makes things a little awkward. This is a TRAINING mission. Just like the ones I've taken with Pop, but without as much travel. It's not a romantic getaway, and it's not some kind of party. Okay?"
"You should take your father's old tent, I think. It's big enough for two. Oh, and make sure to set it up opposite your friends' tent around the fire, and close to some bushes. They absorb sound fairly well, so you won't keep the others awake late at night."
Ranma was silent for several moments. "You're doing this on purpose. I KNOW you are. Cut it out."
Nodoka turned toward her husband, her expression wistful. "Remember the camping trips we used to take when we were young? Though we rarely bothered with more than a blanket. Body warmth is an excellent substitute for a sleeping bag." She tittered as she held a hand up to her mouth, and Iori nodded mutely, still reading the paper.
Ranma scooted over so that she could start banging her head on the table again. Nodoka's arm lashed out with surprising speed, and moved the pillow under her head once more.
Yurumi had several sweatdrops rolling down her head, and her blush had faded away as she began to look quite uncomfortable. "Uh, can I be excused, please?"
"Of course. Take your brother with you; he seems quite out of sorts all of a sudden."
Ranma twitched. 'My mother is insanely creepy...'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fwump! Mousse fell to one knee as his long, razor-edged teeth clenched shut, his entire body trembling as his bones swiftly knit within his arm and shoulder. Blood oozed from rapidly-sealing gashes in his bicep and seeped into the network of cracks and gouges that decorated the concrete below.
After a few moments of panting through his teeth, the cursed behemoth stood back up, glaring at the figure across a relatively shallow, but wide-spanning crater.
Setsuna was panting much harder, and holding her arm close to keep it from bleeding too much. She sported a trio of gashes over her shoulder and just under her neck, a reminder that she was not to attempt using any of her flame attacks again; that one mistake had nearly cost her life.
'He shrugged off the internal damage just as easily as the external... the organ shredder technique wasn't as effective against this... monster as it against humans.' She had expected as much before she tried the attack, but at this point she was running out of ideas on how to win this.
Mousse was likewise at the end of his rope, and just hanging on by virtue of his demonic form's outstanding resilience and regenerative abilities. The difference was that he had been in such a state for the vast majority of the battle.
As time went on, however, and the redhead exhausted her library of skills, his natural power seemed to be holding the advantage in the battle... then again, that's what he had thought when he'd fought Ranma for the first time.
Mousse glanced about at the surroundings. Shattered concrete and blacktop lay in great piles around blackened craters. It was unsettling how few of those craters he was responsible for.

Setsuna's form blurred slightly as she dashed toward the wall, red droplets marking the path behind her.
Mousse moved sluggishly in response, and turned to stab one arm deeply into the same wall right as the redhead jumped off of it and spun in mid-air while extending her leg.
CRACK! Setsuna's heel struck the demon's collarbone, and Mousse grunted as he felt his much-abused skeleton shudder under yet another fracture before driving his free hand down to where his opponent had tumbled onto the ground.
Setsuna barely rolled out of the way before the behemoth's massive claws tore through the asphalt, and then shoved off the ground while twisting around one foot, building momentum before striking the arm embedded in the street with her open palm.
Sprak! Blood burst from the back of Mousse's arm in a thin spray, and the bones in his forearm threatened to buckle from the perfectly aligned force stabbing into them.
With a tiresome grunt, Mousse yanked his talons free and swung at the redhead almost lazily.
Setsuna ducked the attack, and then plowed her fist forward into the behemoth, creating two more long furrows in the street as Mousse skidded backward from the force.
'He's getting slower... either he thinks he's already won, or he's gotten used to the idea of losing.' Setsuna backed off as the cursed demon teetered slightly, looking as if it might fall over.
Then the behemoth started sucking in air once more, and the redhead forced her aching legs to move once again as she tried to stumble out of range.
Mousse felt his chest burn with exertion as he summoned his fire breath, and suppressed a cough from the effort. It shouldn't have been that hard to spit out another gout of flame, not with his power, but after the extremely draining battle against Ranma (he called it a battle, at least; to Ranma it was more like a brief chore) and the extended battle against this mysterious, malevolent girl, he was finding limits to his strength he had been previously unaware of.
Thwoosh!
Setsuna blinked as a thin tongue of flames spat out toward her, only to have the stream dissipate into a plume of smoke far before it reached her.
She stood up straighter, and glared across at the monstrosity she was fighting. "Pathetic. Even like that, this is as far as you can go?"
Mousse glared back, his chest heaving from having expelled that last bit of flame. "I SAID I DIDN'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU, YOU IDIOT. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"
Setsuna snorted and crouched down, summoning her strength for yet another attack upon the demon.
Swsh! Swsh! Vwish!
Both combatants heard the incoming projectiles, but so focused were they on their opponent, that neither realized that the threat wasn't coming from their foe until it was too late.
Skrak! Setsuna turned sharply as a bladed fan grazed her shoulder, just managing to avoid a serious injury that would have impeded her use of that arm significantly.
Shrak! Slwsh! Mousse was not so agile in his cursed form, and was nearing exhaustion, and as such didn't even react in time to attempt a dodge before two bladed fans sliced through his hamstring and across his eyes. With a pained snarl, he fell to his knees, dark blood splattering across the ground all around him.

Setsuna quickly scanned the surroundings for the new threat, and quickly found it; not only was the unfamiliar woman really the only person around - as everyone else had fled - but the newcomer's outfit was an especially flamboyant and revealing costume that Setsuna identified as being a kunoichi uniform of one of the more eccentric Ninja clans.
She had no idea why some Ninjitsu schools asked their female trainees to dress like exotic dancers, and personally found the practice demeaning and disgraceful, but now didn't seem like the time to be judging the interloper's choice of dress.

Mai glared down at the two combatants, paying extra attention to the monstrous creature panting on the ground. "What the HELL is going on here?! It's eight o'clock at night, for goodness sake! You might be some sort of demon, but show a little common courtesy, would you?"
Mousse snarled unintelligibly as he waited for his eyes to heal, not bothering to start arguing with the woman about how this wasn't his fault.
Setsuna's eyes narrowed. "This is my fight. It does not concern you. Leave."
Mai fumed and snapped open another warfan. At first when she had approached the battle she was going to attack the demon exclusively, as was normally the right thing to do when one finds a teenage girl and a monster fighting in the streets, but she had overheard that last snippet of conversation between the two combatants, and had reconsidered her defense of the redhead.
"It DOES concern me. This is one of my favorite late-night shops when I'm out on a job, and you've completely wrecked the front door and windows," she said irritably. Even now, this brat was further delaying acquisition of her precious chocolate candies...
"Idiocy," Setsuna mumbled, turning back toward Mousse. "Don't whine to me about that nonsense."
A vein popped up on Mai's head. 'Slight change of plans. No savage beating. This will require maiming.' With a casual flick of her wrist, a warfan went flying toward the arrogant redhead in a wide curve.
Setsuna snorted and turned at the last moment, smacking the fan out of the air and down to the ground.
Maybe it was because she was near exhaustion from her battle against Mousse. Perhaps it was because she was being extra cocky to try and get the Ninja bimbo to back off. Or it could have simply been that Mai just outclassed Setsuna by that much.
But whatever the reason, Setsuna didn't notice the second fan heading straight for her until it carved into her shoulder, unleashing a thin spray of blood up in the air over her.
Hissing at the sudden pain, Setsuna jumped back, instantly more wary of her new opponent.
Mousse grunted and started to limp away, under some bizarre impression that he might be ignored in favor of the surly redhead if he didn't make a fuss.
Shrak! The behemoth drew back sharply as a warfan sliced across his snout, and glared angrily at the Ninja. 'Where is she keeping all those stupid fans, anyway?' Even as a master of hidden weapons, Mousse was a bit impressed by her holding so many spare projectiles while wearing so little.
"Where do you think you're going, ugly?" Mai snapped, leaping down the street and promptly snapping open two more warfans. "I'm putting both of you down right now!"
As Mousse started looking for possible sources of hot water amongst the nearby storefronts, Setsuna darted forward to the attack, unwilling to give an inch even when nearly exhausted.
Mai flowed like water around the redhead's first open-palm strike, barely frowning as she felt the air pressure graze her arm. Then she twisted around the following punch to slam her elbow into Setsuna's nose, stunning her.
Before the redhead could recover enough to gain some distance, the veteran Kunoichi grabbed her by the front of her shirt and dashed forward, slamming her hard into the brick wall that separated the sidewalk from the canal.
"What now, brat?" The Kunoichi said, leaning in closer to speak as Setsuna hissed through her teeth from the pain. "You're tired and outmatched. You're bleeding in a dozen places and I KNOW I felt a bone crack just now. I'm not sure what that thing is that you were fighting, but I can finish what it started. Why don't you make this easy and give up?"
Setsuna took a few ragged breaths, and then grabbed for Mai's arm, trying to use the last of her strength to break the bone and disable the limb.
Mai expertly reversed the attempted strike and pulled Setsuna back, striking the redhead in the chin with a closed warfan before kicking her solidly into the wall again.
Setsuna made a gurgling noise in the back of her throat as she felt blood well up in her mouth. 'No... I... I can't... so...... close......'
A final strike to the girl's solar plexus finished her off, and Mai growled as the redhead slumped to the ground, glaring at her in annoyance. Something about the redhead besides her attitude really rubbed the Kunoichi the wrong way, and at the same time, the teenage girl was giving out "danger" vibes that she hadn't felt in quite some time.
With a start, Mai suddenly remembered that there were two combatants she had come to subdue, and was amazed and quite discouraged when she turned and found that the massive furred demon was nowhere in sight. It was testament to how seriously she took the redhead that she hadn't been keeping her attention on the giant monster. In retrospect, it seemed more than a bit foolish.
Quickly hopping onto a rooftop, Mai glanced about quickly, sparing only a moment to observe a foreign boy limping away from the area with hot steam pouring from his body. "I don't see it... I can't sense it at all... how does something that big with an aura so blatant HIDE? Ugh..."

On the ground, Mousse winced as he overheard the Ninja woman's statement, and tried to compensate for his limp better so that he wouldn't be as suspicious.
'What kind of madhouse is this? I should be able to take Elder Cologne in my demon form, and some foreign brat fights me to a standstill? And then a random woman in a skimpy outfit drops in while on a shopping trip and takes her down?! This is insane! There are Amazon veterans of thirty years that wouldn't last thirty seconds against either of those women!'
Gasping painfully, he slumped onto a bench on the sidewalk a block away from the battle. He knew he couldn't stay there for long, as the redheaded girl probably boasted an incredible rate of recovery to round out her considerable abilities.
'Damn it all! I wasn't even trying to get in a fight, and I ended up getting in two of them and barely avoiding a third!' Mousse grit his teeth and forced his body up. 'Oh, Shampoo... where could you be?'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shrak!
Shampoo nodded sharply as bits of frozen wood went flying from the impact point, the top of the tree tumbling to the ground in a mess of cracking branches and freezing mist.
"Good. It looks like you have the first technique down. It's about time," Shower grumbled, stepping up behind the teenager. "Then again, you only got to skip half the training, I guess I shouldn't be expecting much, here."
Several veins popped up on Shampoo's head, but there was no other visible sign of her irritation with the woman.
"Master Shower," the teenage Amazon said evenly. "Is not deadly technique, this? Break tree easy, could break weaker human too, yes?"
Shower shrugged. "No more easily than you could already cave a person's innards in with your bare fist. Ki attacks don't affect people the way they do plants or rocks. Any time you use such a technique on another person or animal, their own ki instinctively fights against it, off-setting your energy as best it can. This is why the bakusai tenketsu doesn't work on people or animals when it will split rocks, plastics, and even dead wood. Even the minute amount of life energy possessed by plants is enough to disrupt the precise chain reaction necessary for the technique to work."
Shampoo frowned. "Thought it was about finding breaking point in rock, not ki..."
"Peh. Use your head, girl. There are no pressure points on a rock, just thousands upon thousands of crystal formations, every one practically identical. You can shatter them all with a poke, but it takes more than finding 'the right spot'." She cleared her throat. "As I was saying, the setsuben chuu will rarely freeze a person's body completely to the point that it will shatter due to their aura. If you put a lot of power into it and use it against an untrained person, it can have that effect, but like I said, you hardly need such sophisticated techniques for such things. Against opponents of even mild skill, the attack merely forms a layer of ice over their skin, locking them within a frozen shell. A reasonably powerful opponent won't be trapped by it for more than a moment, but it will slow them down but good, even after they get free."
Shampoo nodded, and gripped her hands into fists in front of her as she stared at them.
Frost started collecting over her skin as it paled, and freezing mist started wafting out of her palms, in the same manner that she sometimes saw smoke emerge from Ranma's clenched fists when he was summoning power.
It was an interesting dynamic that she hadn't really thought of until now, in the cold, calculating recesses of her cleansed mind. Fire and ice... his passion, put up against her cold, unshakable will. What was stronger?
Of course, she had no illusions of actually beating Ranma. Not more than once, at least, if she managed to surprise and totally overwhelm him. Ranma was simply too much tougher and more adaptable than she was, and had far more experience manipulating his flames. He had told her once that Iori had even schooled him extensively in thermodynamics so that he would know his power inside and out, and from what she could tell, it helped him tremendously.
"Well then. It's getting late. I'm turning in," Shower said as she started walking back toward the house, noting that Shampoo seemed to be thinking about something rather intently. "If you're going to spend all night practicing or some rubbish like that, don't make too much noise."
Shampoo clenched her teeth briefly, but the irritation seemed to flow right out of her, like water spilling into a sink briefly before running out the drain. Holding onto anger was more than a little difficult in this state of mind.
She took up another stance, and summoned her power once again, at home in the freezing cold of the soul of ice. She had a lot of work to do...

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Hashiru patted Hana on the head as Raven hauled his bags onto the train platform, smiling condescendingly at the bespectacled girl.
"Now, now, don't worry about me. It's just a little training trip out in the middle of nowhere."
The short brunette did not look appeased at all, and had her arms crossed under her breasts as she stared hard at her cousin. "Hashi, you've never camped before in your life, and you still haven't recovered completely from having your ribcage smashed into splinters. Why SHOULDN'T I be worried about you?"
The gang boss looked annoyed. "Well, for one thing, your crush is going to be there with me."
Hana didn't allow his referring to Ranma as "her crush" faze her in the least. "Yes, I know. On TOP of not knowing where you are or how to take care of yourself, Ranma's going to be kicking your over-muscled butt all weekend. Does he know to take it easy on you?"
Hashiru's annoyance bumped up another notch. "If I had to ask the pyro to take it easy on me, I'd never live it down! Get a clue!"
Hana's stern expression got harder as she swatted Hashiru's hand off of her head. "Then I'LL do it! Your pride isn't more important than your health!"
"Easy for you to say! I've got a reputation to keep together!"
"Same goes for your skull," the girl snapped back, "and I think it takes priority."
The pair had a glaring contest for a few moments, with Hashiru's considerable height advantage (Hana hated having to crane her neck up to scold him) barely compensating for his considerable handicap of his hair completely obscuring his eyes.
Hana, however, had the insurmountable advantage of being female.
"All right! Fine! I'll be careful!" Hashiru said immediately as he broke eye contact. "Geez, whaddya want from me?"
She actually had to stop and think about that; she had just been nagging him out of habit, not expecting that he'd ever actually relent. "Well... how about you take Raven with you?"
"What is he, my babysitter?" The brawler groused.
Raven bowed deeply from where he was standing next to his master's luggage. "You need but ask, Master Hashiru. I shall chaperone you with my life!"
"Shut up," Hashiru deadpanned before turning back to his cousin. "What makes you think he's got any more experience than me in camping?"
Hana raised an eyebrow. "Uh... because he's an elite Ninja who spent years undergoing hellish training deep in the wilderness?"
Hashiru and Raven shared a look.
"What? Where'd you get that idea?" The gang boss asked, rubbing his head.
Raven winced and looked away.
"What do you mean?" Hana asked, confused. "If he didn't undergo special training, how did he learn all the Ninja stuff he does?"
"Duh. He took martial arts classes when he was a kid. Just like Joshin. The closest thing he's ever done to camping is scouting someone's backyard overnight."
Hana looked quite surprised by this. "But he told me that he grew up in a secret Ninja village, spending years perfecting the art of the assassin under the harshest of conditions!"
"That may have been a SLIGHT exaggeration," the Ninja mumbled, sweatdropping.
"Yeah, slight," Hashiru said wryly. "After all, Ninjitsu classes met, what, THREE times a week? And they didn't even feed you for the whole four hours!"
"Well... they didn't always feed us, anyway."
Hana groaned and rubbed her head. "Okay, fine. So Raven doesn't know anything. I'd still feel better if you took him along, just so that there's someone on standby to drag your unconscious body away from the sparring sessions and give first aid."
The gang boss winced. "You're MEAN."

"Yo! Hashiru!" Ranma waved happily at the taller boy from across the station, Min and Tomas behind him.
Hana nodded and turned to Raven. "Okay, I'm leaving now. Don't let Hashi do anything stupid, like fight Ranma 'all-out', okay?"
"Just hurry up and GO, will ya shrimp?"
Hana smirked and walked off as Ranma, Tomas, and Min approached across the platform.
Raven raised an eyebrow once she walked out of earshot. "Not a single mention of the Ninja girl or her proximity to Yagami... it would seem that she's over him. At least to the point that she doesn't feel the need to criticize whatever woman he's with to anyone who will listen."
"Yeah, I'd guessed as much. It's better this way. Yagami's too popular for his own good. Or anyone else's good." He waved pleasantly as the fighter in question approached. "How ya doing, kid? I guess we're really going through with this thing, aren't we?"
Ranma tsked as he approached. "You make it sound like we're planning a bank robbery. This is a just a training trip. Don't worry about it."
"Hmmm..."
It took Ranma several moments to realize that Hashiru wasn't mulling over what he said, but rather staring at the girl behind him. Rolling his eyes, he stepped aside so as not to impede the man's ogling.
Min blinked as Hashiru appraised her openly, and shook her head. She was wearing cut-off jeans that left her legs entirely bare and a black T-shirt that was tied tight under her breasts. Altogether not much more or less revealing than her Ninja costume, really, but the last time Hashiru had seen THAT, he had been too busy fighting to do much ogling.
"Grow up, will you?" The Kunoichi sighed. "We're here to train, not hook up."
Hashiru grinned. "Maybe YOU are."
Min's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "If you want to do that, then just stay here. It's not like we need you around."
"I'm hurt!" The gang boss said in mock emotional pain. "I really am! I put myself out to escort you out into the wilderness - even offering to spring for the train, food, and Ninja servants - and yet you treat me so coldly!"
Min stared. "... You're bringing along your Ninja?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Huh. Well, whatever." Min stalked up to the gang boss, a firm expression on her face. "Now listen up, horndog. I can accept that you're going to be staring at me a lot. Fine. You're a guy, and unlike SOME men around here, you're not mature enough to keep your mind out of the gutter, or at least be inconspicuous about it. So we're going to set down some ground rules, got it?"
"Okay!"
"First of all, I know how fast your hands can move. Keep them to yourself. If we're sparring and something happens to 'slip,' I will hurt you. Then I'll see about getting Ranma and Tomas to hurt you."
Hashiru nodded. "Hm, that sounds fair."
"Second, stay OUT of my tent and away from the river or whatever when I'm bathing. No leniency on this one. If I catch you peeping, you die."
The brawler nodded again. "Absolutely."
Min frowned slightly. "And finally, TRY to keep eye contact when I'm speaking to you, all right? It's annoying to have men talking to your cleavage."
"You can count on me."
Min was silent for several moments as she stared at the curtain of hair that fell over Hashiru's eyes. "You're staring at my breasts, aren't you?"
"If you can't tell, then there's no problem, right?"
Thwack!

Raven sweatdropped as he stepped up next to Ranma, watching the exchange. "Pardon... perhaps it's not my place to ask, but... shouldn't you do something? Master Hashiru is-"
"Just kiddin' around," Ranma interrupted. "He's messing with her. He'll be messing with her the whole weekend. He's not serious, so there's no point in me getting upset." Of course, Ranma didn't really know what he would have done if Hashiru WAS serious, but left that point unsaid.
“Besides, does it LOOK like Min needs someone to defend her?” Tomas deadpanned.
Raven had to admit that the American boy had a point as he watched the Kunoichi "playfully" kick his master into a utility pole. "Ah. Not the jealous type then, are you Yagami?"
"I'd like to think not," Ranma responded. "So you're really coming? This isn't usually the sort of thing that people bring along manservants for."
Raven looked annoyed. "I'm not a 'manservant'. I'm a professional assassin, saboteur, and spy. There is a CONSIDERABLE difference."
"Oh, so you're going to be stabbing and spying on people out in the wilderness? Instead of carrying bags, setting up tents, applying first aid, stuff like that?"
"........." The Ninja's eyes narrowed. "Do you practice annoying people?"
"Nope, it's a natural talent." Smirking, Ranma picked up his bag and tossed it toward Raven. "The train's almost here, so get this loaded up, would you? I think Min's about to boot Hashiru onto the railroad tracks."
Tomas groaned. “Min, would you calm down? We haven’t even left yet!”
The Ninja twitched irritably, glancing at the pile of baggage gathered on the edge of the platform. "It's going to be a long trip..."

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Huff! Huff! Huff!
Ryoga grit his teeth as his fingers fought for purchase on the iron-hard rock that made up the face of the cliff, pitting the full measure of his strength and legendary stubbornness against the challenging topography of the area.
With a savage grunt, he grabbed the edge of the cliff top, and pulled his body, backpack, and combat umbrella up to the safety of hard, flat, horizontal rock.
Gasp! "I... I did it..." Ryoga clambered to his feet and took a few more steps before stopping and gazing out at the scenery far below.
"I did it! Ha ha! FINALLY!! I found my way back to Tokyo!"
The lost boy grinned as he clenched his hands into fists, his pronounced canines making the expression look particularly vicious.
"So close... I'm so close to my revenge that I can almost TASTE-"
Someone cleared his throat behind Ryoga, and the lost boy stopped speaking and turned around. "Eh? Whaddya you want?"
An old man stared at the martial artist oddly, a backpack full of branches mounted on his shoulders. "I was just wonderin' whatcher doin' here, son. We don't get many visitors in these parts."
"Oh. That." Ryoga shrugged. "Don't mind me, I won't be here long." He grinned again as he returned his gaze to the city below. "My goal lies in Tokyo."
The elderly man blinked. "Well, then what're you doing HERE? Tokyo's that way," he explained, pointing in the opposite direction Ryoga was facing.
The lost boy turned and frowned. "You're crazy. There's nothing that way except the forest. The city is THAT way," Ryoga insisted, pointing toward the buildings in the distance.
"Well, of course you can only see forest. You're a long way from Tokyo, son. That there is Kagasaki. Have you noticed that there isn't a single skyscraper down there?"
"What? But... No... really? I mean..." He groped for something to say, and then grit his teeth. "So... how far away is Tokyo?"
"Don't know, exactly. 300, 400 kilometers maybe?"
Ryoga took a deep breath.

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"DAMN YOU, RANMA!! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!"

Ranma jerked to a stop as birds erupted from the forest canopy in a wave of feathers, panicked from the noise. Min, Tomas, and Raven, for all their supposed skill, promptly walked into him from behind, each likewise distracted by the shout.
Hashiru - who had been keeping a better distance in the back so that he could better observe Min - whistled. "What a greeting! I can't wait until we get to the actual site!"
Min quickly backed off of Raven, and frowned up at the trees. "Where the heck did that come from?" She glanced at Ranma. "Is there something you want to tell us?"
Ranma sweatdropped as he continued forward. "No, not really. They probably weren't even shouting about me. There could be lots of guys named Ranma around here."
Raven looked doubtful. "It's a rather uncommon name..."

"RANMA YAGAMI, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'LL CRUSH YOU INTO PASTE!!"

Sweat started rolling down Ranma's forehead as he continued on. "What? There could be other families with the name Yagami."
"With the same first AND last name?" Tomas deadpanned.

"I'LL TEAR OFF THAT STUPID PIGTAIL OF YOURS AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT!!"

"Don't start," Ranma groused, picking up the pace. "Pigtails aren't that weird a style. 'Specially out here in the boonies."

"ALSO, YOU TURN INTO A GIRL!!"

"Hey, come on, now!" Ranma shouted up into the air as his companions groaned.
"So do you have enemies in all corners of the globe, or just here in Japan?" Min asked leadenly.
Ranma was about to answer with something sharp and sarcastic, when images of the Chinese Amazon village flashed through his head. "No comment."
Then he put down his backpack, and glanced around at his surroundings. "Here. This will do."
Min and Hashiru both blinked. "Here?" The former asked, "But the trees are so close together, and the ground is rocky!"
"Not to mention it's way too far from the river," Hashiru complained, "we'd have to walk like five or six kilometers just to get water!"
Tomas sighed, but remained silent.
They were interrupted from their complaints by the sound of a dark, deep chuckling.
Ranma grinned and looked over his fellow campers. "Tsk! So short-sighted. My friends... after a day of training with a Yagami, a long hike for water followed by sleeping on a bed of rocks will be like PARADISE.”
Min gulped.
Hashiru looked skeptical. “Paradise. Really.”
Ranma stopped to think about it. “No, not really. It’ll still suck, but you don’t have a choice, here.”
“We appreciate your honesty,” Tomas deadpanned.
“Heh... ladies and gentlemen, you have arrived in Hell. Make yourselves at home...”

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End Chapter 17

Setsuben chuu - Snowflake kiss