Disclaimer: It's been a while since I worked on this story so bear with me.

< >: Thoughts

[" "]: Telepathic communication

Chapter 6

When Dragons Meet

Ranma waved to his mother and sister goodbye as he began heading toward 
school. On his way, he saw a huge dust cloud being kicked up in the distance 
and smiled as he realized what or rather, who might be causing it. He 
shrugged and decided to investigate.

"Turbo speed!" Ranma said, as the dragon warrior began running at more than 
90mph. In less than one minute, he had caught up with a certain, 
superhumanly strong redheaded girl who was towing a smaller blonde girl.

"A-Ko! Slow down!" C-Ko shouted as her friend dragged her. She was very 
surprised to see their new friend Ranma running alongside of them and not 
even breathing hard.

"A-Ko! C-Ko! How's it going?"

A-Ko looked beside her and her eyes widened as she saw Ranma keeping pace 
with her, but then remembered what Ranma had told her about his heritage.

"Oh! Hi Ranma! Can't talk now! Gotta hurry or we'll be late for school!"

"No problem! Let me handle it!" Ranma quickly swept A-Ko in one arm and C-Ko 
in the other, and then began focusing his ki. In a quiet whisper, he began 
invoking a speed spell that Surek had taught him.

In less than an instant, the air resistance around them lessened to zero as 
an aerodynamic pocket of energy formed around them. Ranma then poured on the 
speed while getting a boost from a gust of wind behind him that he had 
summoned up.  The citizens of the Juuban district were startled out of their 
usual morning routines as something flashed by them and then left a sonic 
boom in its wake.

C-Ko had been keeping her eyes closed when Ranma had picked her and A-Ko up. 
She then felt a rush of air and a sudden displacement of noise as they broke 
the sound barrier. Fortunately, the pocket of energy they were in negated 
the force of air friction and allowed them to breathe. Then, as suddenly as 
it had happened, it stopped and she found herself being set back onto her 
feet beside A-Ko.

"You can open your eyes now, C-Ko, we're here." Ranma said.

Sure enough, she looked up and saw that they were no more than twenty meters 
away from the front gates of their high school. She looked at the big clock 
face at the tower and saw that they had more than five minutes to spare 
before the bell would ring.

"Wow! You're even faster than A-Ko!" The bubbly little girl had not 
witnessed Ranma using a spell and assumed that they had been running REALLY 
fast.

A-Ko was also impressed. "That was some trick! For the first time I've 
actually made it to school on time! Think you can teach me how to do that?"

"Maybe later." Ranma shrugged as he and the girls began to walk toward the 
school at a normal pace. It was at that time that they heard the loud, yet 
familiar rumble of metallic feet. The other students began to take cover as 
gigantic mecha began to appear at the front schoolyard. Perched on the 
shoulder of the leading robots was B-Ko. She gave off a gentle laugh as she 
looked down at Ranma and his friends.

"Well good morning my beloved. And how are you and darling C-Ko doing today, 
hmm?" She then gave A-Ko a look of disdain. "Oh, and I suppose a good 
morning to you, A-Ko."

"Beloved? What the heck are you talking about?" Ranma asked as he and A-Ko 
tensed for the imminent battle.

B-Ko tossed a lock of hair over her shoulder as she grasped the front of her 
school uniform and tore it off, revealing her Akagayami 23 Battle Suit, 
without the helmet. She then leapt down to land in front of Ranma and gave 
him a warm smile.

"What are you up to?" A-Ko demanded. She didn't like the looks that B-Ko was 
giving to her friend and potential love interest. It was the same one that 
she had given to K.

"I don't know whatever you are talking about." B-Ko replied with mock 
innocence. "I just decided to greet my fiance, that's all."

"What?! Fiance? What are you talking about?!" Ranma began to get a sneaky 
suspicion about this. This started to sound like...

"Why I had one of my associates contact your father and after a little 
discussion, he agreed to engage the two of us for a very tidy sum. Here's 
the contract." She handed Ranma a sheet of paper. The dragon-warrior's 
temper began to fume as he recognized Genma's signature.

* That.... that... BAKA! HE DID IT AGAIN! *

"OYAJI NO BAKA!"

The citizens of Tokyo were startled as a large column of fire suddenly 
appeared in the distance, followed by several loud explosions.

At home, Genma suddenly had one heck of a sneezing fit as his wife and 
daughter were practicing in the backyard.

Back at the high school, a few minutes later...

A-Ko and C-Ko had large sweatdrops as they stared at Ranma standing in a 
large crater of scorched pavement in the midst of huge piles of scrap metal 
and junk that was only fit for recycling. In his hand, Crimson Fang glinted 
in the sunlight. B-Ko was also standing speechless with a sweatdrop after 
seeing her mass-destruction machines reduced to pieces when Ranma suddenly 
exploded into a fit of rage. Though he had moved too fast for the normal eye 
to see, she had put on her helmet when Ranma cried out and her sensors had 
recorded the outrage. In less than two seconds, he had taken out his blade 
and slashed the mecha to ribbons, then exploded in column of intense heat. 
He was now panting and beginning to calm down as he put away his sword and 
made it somehow vanish from view. Since the other students had taken cover 
before the incident, only A-Ko, C-Ko and B-Ko had witnessed Ranma's temper 
tantrum.

<I'm going to drop that baka into a live volcano! No! I'm going to boil him 
alive... real slow! >

Ranma was still fuming over how he was going to broil his pitiful excuse for 
a parent when the situation became even worse. That was when two other girls 
arrived on the scene.

"Ranma!"

"Ranchan!"

That was when the dragon fighter got that sinking feeling as Ukyo and Kaori 
arrived at the scene. Also in the distance, two other girls made their way 
to the front school yard.

"I can't believe that Dad had us transferred to another school!" Akane 
gritted as she and Nabiki casually made their way to Ranma's school.

"Well, at least you don't have to worry about Kuno or those other boys any 
more." Nabiki said, though she had been against the move. Kuno had been a 
very provocative income generator. She had been charging him 1000 yen per 
photo of her sister. It was going to take some time before she could set up 
her mercenary business at this location.

When the Tendo girls reached the front gate, they were more than surprised 
to see a huge, smoking crater and several piles of scrap metal strewn about 
the school yard. They noticed someone at the center of the destroyed 
landscape and recognized him as the boy they had met before.

"Hey! Isn't that Ranma Saotome? You know, the one that Dad wanted us to get 
to know better? I didn't know that he went to this school. And I wonder what 
happened here?" Nabiki said.

"Hmpf! Who cares? He's just a stupid boy, just like the ones at Furinkan!"

The two Tendo girls approached the area where Ranma had blown his top.

----------

The Dragon Realm...

["Well, that was..."] Radarne tried to find the words to describe what he 
and Sojan had witnessed. ["... rather extreme."]

["Well, can you blame him?] The smaller dragon asked the Dragon King of the 
North.

["Not really. Oh, and by the way, Sojan. The Council had decided that Ranma 
may need some extra support, so we are sending two representatives to keep 
an eye on him."]

["Anyone I know?"] Ranma's mentor already suspected who had been chosen.

["Karisu and Rike. Besides yourself and the other Dragon Kings, they've 
known Ranma the longest and we feel that he'd be most comfortable with them. 
They've been studying up on how to act in the mortal world, they've already 
mastered transforming into human forms. They shouldn't have any problems."]

["Or so they hope."] Sojan said absently as he and the water dragon turned 
their attention back to the scenes in the viewer.

----------

On the coastline...

Just as Herb and his party got off the boat, the Musk Dynasty prince felt an 
enormous surge of dragon power emanating in the direction of Tokyo.

<Hmmm, it is close... I can FEEL it! Soon, it shall be mine, for it is mine 
by right!>

----------

On another part of the coastline...

Cologne felt the huge surge of raw ki as she and her party traveled down the 
docks. To feel such power, even at a distance, meant that the Amazons were 
on the trail of something, or in this case, someone that could raise their 
tribe to unimaginable glory.

Her thoughts went back to the time when she last met with Ranma and how 
close the warrior women had to come to claiming him. If only they hadn't 
been squabbling, they could have gotten him into the tribe. However, all was 
not lost and Cologne knew that he was here in Japan. It was just a matter of 
time before they would find him!

----------

The figure was exhausted. After flying without rest from China to Japan, she 
was almost there. While gliding high above the clouds, the individual began 
thinking back as she continued the search for.... him.

The strange being was a curious sight. Outwardly, she had a humanoid form 
with pale white skin and long, flowing red hair that went down to her slim 
waist. She was naked, had lively green eyes and a lithe form that made her 
resemble a nymph of legend. However, that was where the similarities to 
humans had stopped. Her ears were large and pointed like an elf's, and on 
her back were two, bat-like wings. She had a long, flowing tail protruding 
from the base of her spine.

The being was not certain why she was heading in this particular direction, 
but only that she must find the one with dragon power. It was not the Prince 
of the Musk Dynasty that she was seeking, but rather the dragon warrior who 
had recently come to Jusenkyo and inadvertently destroyed one of the cursed 
springs, specifically the Spring of Drowned Dragon.

Unknown to Ranma, his Dragon Fire technique had not just freed the spirit of 
the dragon that had perished there, but it had also given her life again. 
When the spring had been destroyed, her spiritual energies had been freed to 
journey into eternity. But the spring's destruction had caused the waters of 
a nearby pool to seep into the empty depression. That pool had been where a 
girl had drowned fifteen hundred years ago. The eldritch energies of that 
spring, combined with the dragon's soul and Ranma's energies, had given that 
dragon life once more. However, the experience had been a traumatic one and 
the newly returned dragon was now trapped in a form that was neither pure 
dragon nor human, but a combination of both. Since that time, the Draconian 
was searching for the one who was responsible for her resurrection, for deep 
down, she was certain that he could answer the many questions that she had. 
The many images of her past were a jumbled mess and she was now acting 
purely on instinct. She was driven by one single goal... find the one who 
was responsible for her return to the physical plane, Ranma Saotome.

----------

Meanwhile...

A dimensional portal shimmered briefly in a mountainous area near Lake Biwa 
as two people passed through from the Dragon Realm. As the gateway closed, a 
transformed Golden Mane Dragon and a Gray Thunder Dragon looked around at 
their surroundings. Both were carrying packs over their shoulders.

Rike appeared to all as a husky young teen, with a wild mass of bluish hair. 
His skin was a dark tan and he had gentle hazel eyes. He was wearing a 
simple green tunic, loose-fitting dark pants and a pair of walking shoes. 
Ordinarily, he wouldn't stand out in a crowd, though females would certainly 
take notice of his rugged good looks and his finely muscled form. It was his 
companion that he made him a bit nervous.

"Are you sure you want to wear THAT?" Rike asked of his cousin.

Karisu was a stunner as a human. Her skin was milky-white and she had a long 
mane of golden hair that was just a shade below ash blonde. Its length went 
down to her very slim waist. The rest of her body was just as pleasing. Her 
face was oval and sported a pair of large, green eyes. Her cheekbones were 
finely sculpted and each had a triangular mark that pointed inward. On her 
forehead was a triangular, red gem that sparkled in the daylight. Moving 
south, one could see that she was certainly not deficient in the breast 
department, and her ample bosom was just barely held in check by the top of 
the simple green dress she wore. It was made of the finest silk, but was 
barely enough to cover a tea tray! The garment was snug, had a plunging 
neckline, and the hem just barely cleared her fanny and shapely hips, giving 
any interested spectator a good view of her long, slender legs. On her hips 
was a thin leather belt. The top of her dress had no sleeves, showing off 
her slim shoulders. She wore a pair of lightly tanned leather boots that 
molded to her calves.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Karisu asked innocently.

"Remember what Sojan told us?" Rike said with a bit of irritation. "We're 
not supposed to draw attention to ourselves! If you go into Tokyo with just 
that..."

"Oh, very well!" Karisu pouted as she cast a spell to alter her clothes a 
bit. The hem of her dress became longer and stopped an inch above her knees. 
The neckline was raised and sleeves appeared to cover her shoulders and 
midway down her arms. "Is that better?" She asked when the spell was 
finished.

"That'll do. And I think you'd better hide those too." Rike indicated to the 
bow that was slung over her left shoulder and a bejeweled dagger that was 
hanging in a sheath on her belt.

Like Rike, Karisu had trained with Ranma for combat in human form. Though 
Ranma preferred the katana and Rike practiced with the quarterstaff, the 
dragon girl had taken to the dagger and archery. Her bow had been crafted by 
the Melaran Wood Elves of the Iron Wood Forests, while her dagger had been 
forged by the Ikarian Trolls of the Crystal Caverns. As such, both weapons 
were invulnerable to damage by human standards and had certain magical 
qualities.

Karisu shrugged as she cast another spell to conceal her weapons. When they 
disappeared from sight, the two then went off in search of Ranma.

----------

Meanwhile, at Furinken High, Ranma was getting very uncomfortable. He had 
two attractive girls trying to feed him lunch, while A-Ko and C-Ko watched.

"So... you say that you're BOTH Ranma's fiancees?" A-Ko asked with a bit of 
a hard edge to her voice.

"Ah... well, it's kind of complicated, A-Ko." Ranma began as he gently 
pushed away the offerings of food that Ukyo and Kaori were trying to get him 
to eat. He had already gotten B-Ko off his case, by stating that any promise 
that his father made to her, wasn't worth the paper he had signed on, since 
he was no longer the head of the household. The rich girl's bubble was 
broken when she called on a cell phone to her sources to confirm this. She 
had shouted, 'You're fired' to her flunky for that little oversight, then 
went off somewhere to probably sulk.

However, the okonomiyaki chef and the heir to Martial Arts Takeout were 
another story. During his ten-year absence, his mother had kept in touch 
with their families after they had come to the Saotome residence some five 
years ago. Nodoka had become extremely fond of the two girls as she had 
helped them with their difficulties. She had become the mother that they 
never had. In turn, they had become surrogate daughters in addition to 
Kisara. When Ranma had reappeared, she had already been hinting to her son 
with a few matchmaking plans, saying that she knew a couple of nice girls 
who would make excellent wives to some lucky man, (namely her son).

Ranma had no doubt that Nodoka would skin Genma alive and void the 
engagement to B-Ko, but she had not officially voided the other engagements 
as of yet, including the Tendo engagement. Technically speaking, she had the 
right as head of the household, but instead had decided to give all the 
girls a chance, provided that her son would give each girl a chance.

Ranma sighed and wished that he was back in the Dragon Realm.

"Ranchan? Aren't you hungry?"

"Ranma is going to eat my food!" Kaori said.

"No way! He's going to eat my okonomiyaki!"

The two girls glared at each other as Ranma became even more nervous. Before 
the two started to exchange more than glares and insults, the dragon warrior 
decided to put a stop to it.

"Girls! Girls! Hold it! Please!"

Both females stopped and looked at their mutual betrothed.

Ranma let off a tired sigh as he said, "I'll eat them all."

----------

Later...

Ranma was extremely uncomfortable in class as Ukyo and Kaori were both 
giving him affectionate gazes while still glaring at each other. Behind him, 
A-Ko and C-Ko watched with interest.

The dragon warrior was unsure as to how to handle this situation. Dragons he 
could handle. Gnomes he could handle. Even over-affectionate mermaids and 
elves could be dealt with. Human girls... now that was a different story. 
Having no real human contact for ten years, (transforming dragons did not 
count), Ranma found himself at a bit of a loss.

Sitting nearby, Akane snorted with disgust at how those two girls were 
mooning over Ranma.

<What do those girls see in him? He's just a boy and boys are nothing but 
perverts anyway.>

Ranma sighed as he focused his attention to the lesson being taught. He 
would have to take things one step at a time.

----------

The Dragon Realm...

["Your pupil is going to have his claws, er... hands full."] Radarne 
remarked.

Sojan nodded, then noticed a source of dragon power nearing the outskirts of 
Tokyo. ["Hello, what do we have here?"]

["He seems... familiar..."] The Dragon King of the North said slowly.

Sojan took a closer look through the mystic viewer, then nodded in 
realization. ["Aha! I thought so!"]

["What?"]

Sojan gestured with a paw at the scene, which depicted Herb. ["Doesn't that 
fellow remind you of someone?"]

The water dragon studied the being, then nodded. ["Yes. I think so. I think 
he may be descended from one of the minor ki dragons. Anyone we know?"]

["You mean knew. As you may recall, the few ki dragons that remained on 
Earth, after the great migration to the Dragon Realm, are all gone now. They 
had to take human form to remain among the mortals."]

["So this person is one of their descendants?"]

["I believe so. Judging by his ki and magic output, I'd say that he's only 
got one-thousandths of Dragon Blood."]

["So what is he doing here?"]

Sojan conjured a simple scrying spell to determine the nature of Herb's 
visit to Japan. He then shook his head as the answer came to him.

["It seems that this person's dragon heritage has gone to his head. He's 
searching for the source of the dragon power that he sensed in China, which 
was probably when Ranma arrived. Now he believes that power belongs to him 
alone."]

Radarne could see where this was going. ["Looks like this Herb fellow needs 
a serious lesson in humility and I think your pupil will be the perfect 
teacher."]

----------

Later...

Ranma went through the sword kata with practiced ease as his mother and 
sister watched. He was using his katana Crimson Fang, rather than the usual 
wooden training sword. The blade glinted in the afternoon sun as the dragon 
warrior moved it about in patterns that would have taken a human swordmaster 
a lifetime to perfect. As he continued to swing his weapon, he conversed 
with his mother.

"So the engagement is off?"

Nodoka nodded as she held her daughter close. "Technically speaking, yes. 
Since I am the head of the household, Genma's deal with B-ko's family was 
not valid. They had demanded the return of the money that they had given to 
your father in exchange for the engagement, but he had already foolishly 
spent a large part of it. Therefore, Genma will have to work off that debt 
as well as the ones that he had incurred previously."

"It looks like Pops is going to be working for the rest of his life."

"No less than he deserved." Nodoka agreed. She then noticed that her son 
suddenly stopped in his katas and sheathed his sword. "Are you finished 
already?"

Ranma shook his head. "Actually, that was just the warm-up. I need to 
practice some of the more powerful sword techniques, and I can't do them 
here. I need to get out of town. I'll be back for dinner."

----------

A few miles outside of Tokyo...

Ranma focused his dragon power through the blade as he stood in a neutral 
pose in a wide clearing. With a series of perfect thrusts and swings, Ranma 
caused Crimson Fang let loose with ki flashes that resembled flames. The 
surrounding areas were lit up and several parts became scorched.

For the first time since returning to the world of his birth, he was able to 
cut loose without having to worry about innocent bystanders getting hurt. 
Lightning and wind gusts swirled about him as Sojan's pupil put his weapon 
through its paces. Primarily, the Dragon Gift's main element dealt with 
flame, since it had been forged by his sensei and Karrida, the Fire Dragon 
King of the South.

However, the sword also possessed several other enchantments, which had been 
imbued by the other Dragon Kings, plus many minor spells from Ranma's 
nonhuman friends. It had the ability to manipulate to a lesser degree, the 
elements of water, wind, earth, and lightning. In addition to these powers, 
the blade was capable of other spells, which included divination, healing 
and magic neutralization.

With so much magic and ki contained within the katana, it was no wonder that 
the Dragon Prince of the Musk and the Elder of the Amazons were drawn to it 
and Ranma. He had been practicing for more than an hour and by that time, 
both the Musk and Amazon parties had determined his location. Sojan's pupil 
was so engrossed in his practice session that he did not realize that he had 
an audience until he finished.

"Most impressive."

Ranma suddenly snapped into a ready stance, mentally chiding himself for 
being caught off guard. He saw that a group of warriors were standing to his 
left, a dozen yards away. He did not recognize Herb or any of his party, 
though he could feel a measure of dragon power emanating from the Musk 
ruler.

"Who are you?"

The leader of the Musk Dynasty gave him a harsh glare before replying. "You 
should not address me with such a lack of courtesy. Still, I shall introduce 
myself. I am Herb, Dragon Prince of the mighty Musk Dynasty." He eyed the 
sword in Ranma's hand. Soon it would rightfully belong to him. However, due 
to the sword's proximity to its owner, and the fact that Ranma was holding 
back his own energy, Herb was unable to discern that Ranma had the greater 
dragon power, and mistakenly assumed that the energy was coming solely from 
the blade.

"Dragon Prince, eh?" Ranma said with a bit of a smirk as he gauged Herb's 
power. <Not bad. He doesn't even come close to ONE-TENTH of Sojan's power, 
but he has more power than I did, before I got the Blood Bond. >

----------

The Chinese Amazons arrived at the scene, but when Cologne glimpsed the Musk 
Price, she immediately signaled her party into hiding and to not emit any 
ki. As the female warriors concealed themselves, the Elder listened in on 
Herb's conversation with Ranma.

----------

At this time, two more figures appeared nearby via transportation spell. 
Rike and Karisu caught sight of their childhood friend, but then sensed the 
dragon power being emitted from Herb.

"Who's' that?" The blonde asked.

"I don't know." The husky teen answered. "Let's watch."

The two dragons then cast concealment spells to render themselves invisible 
to human senses and even Herb's mystical ones, as they observed the events 
that were unfolding.

----------

With his senses on full alert, Ranma had already detected the presence of 
the Amazons, and two familiar ki signatures, but maintained his attention on 
the Musk Prince. Herb however, was unaware that two more individuals with 
dragon power had arrived. His mystic senses were not as finely developed as 
Ranma's. He was totally fooled by Rike and Karisu's concealment spell, which 
allowed them to blend in with the surrounding areas. As for Cologne, despite 
her honed ability to detect ki, she too, could not detect the presence of 
the transformed Gray Thunder Dragon or his Golden Mane relative.

"You will give me that sword." Herb said firmly, expecting Ranma to comply.

"Why?" Ranma said with a shrug. He didn't like Herb's high-and-mighty 
attitude. Apparently, being descended from dragons had gone to the prince's 
head. Herb wouldn't have lasted a heartbeat against the lesser members of 
the Dragon Council, much less against one of the Dragon Kings.

"It is mine by right." The Dragon Prince said simply. He was totally 
unconcerned with any protest Ranma may have. "Such power belongs only to 
those of dragon blood and I am the only such being here. It should not be 
sullied by the touch of a common peasant!"

"Oh really?" Ranma said with a condescending smirk. He had been holding back 
much of his own dragon power, and correctly guessed that this arrogant 
prince was sensing the energies from his sword only. Well he was in for a 
shock.

"Indeed. Now you will hand over that sword to me, or..." Herb let his threat 
go unfinished, letting Ranma fill in the blanks.

"Or what?" Sojan's pupil already knew the answer.

"Or I shall take it from you by force!"

Ranma's smirk became even wider as he causally sheathed his blade and took a 
stance. "You're welcome... to try!" He had been itching for a chance to cut 
loose and this so-called mighty Dragon Prince gave him the excuse.

----------

Herb snorted. The sheer audacity of this commoner! Well, he will soon learn 
his folly, and lose his life in the process! No one says 'no' to him! It 
would be sheer pleasure to personally show him the true power of the Dragon 
Prince! Motioning for his warriors to stay out of the imminent battle, Herb 
stepped forward and took his own ready stance.

----------

"Shouldn't we help him?" Karisu asked.

"Nah... I think Ranma wants to kick this guy's tail himself." Rike replied.

----------

The Dragon Realm...

["This should prove to be most interesting."] Sojan remarked.

To be continued...

Author's Notes

Whew! I thought I'd never get this part done! In any case, the fight between 
Ranma and Herb will begin and the odds are that the Dragon Prince is going 
to find out that Ranma is a lot more than he bargained for. Afterwards, 
we'll soon be seeing Ranma's return to the Dragon Realm, with some others 
coming along for the ride! Stay tuned!
