Send C&C to: oddball22@hotmail.com Find my stories at: www.geocities.com/kaiphantom2000 Ranma 1/2: New Challenges Minor Disturbances Chapter 9 Nabiki slowly gained consciousness and yawned. "What a crazy nightmare..." she muttered to herself. Then she opened her eyes and groaned. Her room was a mess, with yen notes and clothes scattered around. "It wasn't a dream." For a few seconds, Nabiki was at a loss of what to do or think. She shivered, still feeling the cold wind brushing her skin. Then it clicked. "That's it, ninja boy's gonna die," she growled, standing up. She grabbed her toiletries and headed to the bathroom. She had a lot to do today and she wanted to get an early start. Her mind was fully awake now, and began to feed her several ideas. A hungry grin appeared on her face. "And he's going to die in the worst possible way." "LinLin! Sister! Come quick!" The young Amazon female answered and bounded up the stairs to her sister's call. Throwing open the door to Shampoo's room, she beheld RanRan applying a cold wash rag to Shampoo's forehead. "What happen to sister, Shampoo?" LinLin asked, worridly The purple-haired girl was lying on her futon with a flushed face. Her eyes were closed and she was moaning and turning her head from side to side. "Not know," RanRan answered. "Just find her like this, this morning. Shampoo was out all last night again." The twin girls stopped as Shampoo emitted a high-pitched yowl. "Don't understand, Shampoo not cat now," said RanRan. "Curse do something we not know about?" her sister asked. Before RanRan could reply, Mousse burst through the doorway, fear and worry etched on his face. "Shampoo! What's wrong with her!?" LinLin took the opportunity to bash him on the head with her polearm. "Keep quiet! This not for you. We take care of Shampoo. You take care of kitchen." "But..." "Sister right," RanRan agreed. "We-" She was cut off as Shampoo bolted awake and hissed. She leapt out of bed and warily regarded the three. Her expression was a mix of fright, curiosity, and something else that her three observers couldn't identify. "Shampoo?" Mousse ventured. She hissed at him and hers eyes turned fierce. LinLin bonked Mousse again as RanRan slowly approached the strangely acting Amazon. "Sister, what wrong?" asked. The response she got was not what she expected. Shampoo swiped her hand at RanRan to back her up, then glanced rapidly around the room. After seemingly coming to a decision, she dashed out of her room, right through the closed window. "SHAMPOO!" Mousse cried, running to the broken window along with the twins. "What's happening to her!?" "Her eyes," RanRan said, her voice containing not a little amount of quavering. "They not look human." LinLin nodded. "Know what you mean, sister. Almost seem... feral. Is Shampoo's body, but not Shampoo's mind." Mousse produced a small container from his robes. "That's it! I'm going after her." "No!" came the twins command. "We go after her," LinLin continued. "You stay here!" Mousse's final restraint snapped. "Dammit! Forget your stupid Amazon pride for once! You can't do this alone. If you'd asked for help in the first place, we could have helped her before it came to this!" With that, he unscrewd the lid and dumped the water over his head. His robed promptly fell to the ground, leaving a duck in their place. After giving the twins a contemptuous quack, he took to the air, chasing after his beloved. The two young Amazon girls watched him go. "Maybe he right?" LinLin admitted after a moment. "Maybe," her sister answered. The two girls looked to each other, nodded, and dashed outside. After closing the restaurant, of course. Ranma walked home from school in silence, a bit depressed. Not that he'd admit it, but he was worried about Ryoga and Akari. Both had disappeared after Akari's match. Inwardly he hoped those two would get together and stay together. They seemed to be good for each other. She knew and accepted his curse, and loved him anyway. There was one other issue that had him on edge. Akane had asked him to help stop Hinako from working her charms on her father. His mother had interrupted his first attempt, and had told him in no uncertain terms to NOT interfere. And then she wanted him to be a daughter as well as a son! He sighed. he asked himself. He sighed again, a little louder this time. He was more than on edge. He needed a release. There's an old saying: Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. In this case, Ranma got it. "Saotome Ranma, I challenge you!" "And I'll take that one, and maybe that one as well," Nabiki said, pointing at two new dresses. "Very good," the sales lady replied. "I'll wrap them up for you. Anything else?" "No, that should be it." Nabiki grinned and added, "For now." The sales lady began to ring up the purchases. "And how will you be paying for this?' Nabiki's grin grew wider and handed the lady a piece of paper. "Charge everything to this account..." Ranma eyed the youth standing several yards away. "Who're you?" The man grinned. "Call me Sukebe. I've heard you're one of the best martial artists around here. Though, after my past few fights, I wonder if that means anything." He exaggerated a yawn. "The others were hardly a challenge." A notion popped into Ranma's seldom used brain and he pointed accusingly. "You're the one who beat up on Hiroshi, Daisuke, and Kuno!?" Sukebe laughed. "Ah yes, the martial artist wanna-bees and bokken boy. They almost put up a fight. Though I'll have to admit that bandanna boy gave me a good run, he fell as easy as the rest." Ranma blinked. "You can't tell me you're the one who beat Ryoga?" Sukebe merely nodded and examined the nails on his hand. "Hell with that!" The past few days events had found their release and Ranma assumed an attack stance. "I don't know what you did to Ryoga, but you beat up those that couldn't defend themselves. If you wanna see what a real martial artist can do, then I accept your challenge!" Sukebe mirrored him. "Excellent!" For a few seconds, the two martial artists studied each other, then Ranma lost patience and attacked, leading off with a jump kick that Sukebe artfully dodged and countered with elbow to Ranma's back side. Ranma recovered quickly and flipped away. "Lucky shot, " he commented. "I was a bit sloppy, so don't expect to get another." Sukebe motioned with his finger. "Come try me." Ranma led off again and the two martial artists collided in a flurry of attacks. Mousse-duck continued to fly through the sky as he followed his beloved. It wasn't easy, since Shampoo was moving with a speed and agility that he hadn't known she possessed. In fact, the only reasons he could keep up with her, was the fact that she was somewhat impeded by obstacles, such as buildings, while his flight was through the empty sky. He watched as she jumped from rooftop to treetop, not letting either really slow her down. What caused him the most distress, was the fact that she sometimes ran on two legs, sometimes on four. Eventually, he followed her into Nerima park, as she pushed or avoided the various pedestrians that happened to be in her path. She disappeared into the forested section, and Mousse lost sight of her in the trees. He circled a bit, while waiting to see which side of the forest she would exit, but she never did. Quacking questionably to himself, Mousse descended into the trees. The two martial artists parted from their latest melee brawl, and Ranma grinned. He had only taken a single hit that time, and he had just about all of this guy's moves figured out. While Sukebe wasn't as strong as Ranma, he did possess an unnatural agility in close range combat. His skills were highly trained, but Ranma knew he had the edge. "It ain't gonna be long now!" Ranma taunted. "What makes you think that?" Sukebe huffed. "'Cause I got ya all figured out," he replied easily. Sukebe frowned. "Let's see." He flew foreword again, bringing his right fist up from waist level to strike at Ranma's face, only his target leaned out of the way. He then felt an impact in his stomach. Gritting his teeth, Sukebe lanced out with his other fist, only to have it similiarly dodged. Whipping up his left foot, Sukebe aimed for the face once again. Ranma simply caught it his hand, made a "uh-uh' gesture with his finger, then fell back. Before Sukebe knew what Ranma was doing, a pair of feet impacted his jaw and sent him flying. He landed on his back with a *whump*, the wind temporarily knocked out of him. "It's over, and you lost," Ranma said evenly. "Just give up." Akane sighed as she walked home from school. She wished Ranma had waited for her so they could've walked home together. A lazy smile appeared on her face at that thought. Lately it seemed, she desired to spend as much time with him as she could. She was a woman in love and it felt wonderful. she thought at last. A noise interrupted her thoughts, something that sounded incredibly familiar. She picked up her pace, running down the street and turning a corner as she headed in the direction the sounds were coming from. That's where she found him. "Ranma!" she called. He was standing over another boy, and it was apparent they had been fighting. Ranma turned to her. "Akane! It's all right. This is the guy that beat up on Kuno and the others." He chuckled. "He really ain't that tough." Akane relaxed, then tensed when she noticed the guy on the ground start to move. "Ranma, look out!" "Huh?" Sukebe swept his foot out and tripped Ranma up, sending the overconfident martial artist to the ground. Ranma landed on his hands, however, and flipped away while Sukebe kippup'ed to his feet. "So you still wanna go for it, eh?" Ranma asked, grinning. His opponent didn't bother to responding. Instead, the couple watched as Sukebe dropped to all fours. "Please do not interfer, miss." Akane turned to find... "Sasuke?" "My name is Denoki!" the little man yelled while jumping up and down. "It's Denoki! Denoki! I am not Sasuke!" Akane blinked. "I'm sorry." She turned back to the confrontation where Ranma was warily observing his opponent, who was now walking on hands and legs. "What is he doing?" "He is finally using his best technique," Denoki replied. "He came up with it all by himself, due to an unfortunate accident in a supposedly legendary training ground." Akane blinked again. "Don't tell me... Jusenkyo?" "How did you know?" Denoki asked, confused. "Anyway, it's a dreaded technique he calls the Nezumiken. Akane found herself blinking yet again. "Nezumiken? The rat fist?" Sure enough, Sukebe was rapidly moving around the empty lot on all fours and... squeaking? Ranma, growing frustrated at his opponent's unusual behavior, jumped forward to attack. Sukebe dodged the kick easily. "What the...!?" he exclaimed, surprised by the quick maneuver. He tried to rebound off the ground and attack again when a pair of feet struck him in the back and sent him face foreward into the dirt. Regaining his feet, Ranma warily regard his advesary. "He calls it the Nezumiken, Ranma!" Akane called from the sidelines. "And he's been to Jusenkyo!" Ranma thought to himself. He flipped over to a nearby garden hose and turned it on, aiming the cold water spray toward his opponent, but Sukebe dodged and jumped out of range. "You fool!" he yelled, standing back on two feet. "I am no longer cursed, so that will not work!" Ranma dropped the hose. "You cured? How'd you do it?!" Sukebe smiled evilly. "If you really want to know, I met a man awhile back who purged the curse from my body. But I don't know where he is now." He brought his hands up and crouched. "Now, back to business, shall we?" Sukebe sprung and kicked Ranma in the stomach. Then he continued to move rapidly around the lot, ramming Ranma's backside whenever he got the chance. On one particular knockdown, Sukebe sped over to a light pole. After the quick pass, the light pole fell over and beaned Ranma. Akane wondered. "Ranma!" "At last I have him!" Sukebe said, straightening. "Not... yet!" Ranma returned, pushing the pole off his head and standing up. "How can you stand up after that!?" Sukebe demanded. Ranma chuckled. "After bein' pounded on by Akane, that was nothin'." Sukebe growled, then dropped back onto his hands and feet. Mousse landed on a tree branch and looked around for any signs of Shampoo, but detected none. Mousse thought. He jumped down to ground level and walked along. A faint sense of movement was his only warning, but it wasn't enough. Something hit and sent him tumbling along the ground, his glasses falling away from his face. Before he could recover, two clawed hands seized and lifted him up. While the world presented itself as a blur to his eyes, the rest of his senses were active. He could definitely feel short claws on the hands that held him, hands with fur. There was also rumbling sound, almost like a low growling. What he sensed next was the hot breath on his face, and for some reason felt like he was going to be dinner. Then his eyes focused in on a pair of eyes looking back at him. Blue eyes. Eyes that he had memorized since he had first met her. Shampoo. But there was a slightly different look to these eyes that scared him, for they didn't seem to recognize him. Then they changed, and he was thrown to the floor. By the time he pulled another pair of glasses out of his wings and put them on, all he saw was something with purple hair disappear into the brush. Ranma barely managed to dodge another attack by the speedy Sukebe. Then he had to jump to avoid the collapse of another light pole. He landed near a brick pile and proceeded to pick them up and toss them at his approaching advesary, but Sukebe merely chewed them to pieces. The rat-like boy then rammed Ranma against another wall. The pig-tailed martial artist huffed. He grimaced and inwardly shivered at the thought, but decided he had no choice; Sukebe was too fast. As he slid off the wall and onto his feet, he glanced around the area, but didn't see what he was looking for. Barely dodging another pass by his opponent, he decided to try another tactic. He took a deep breath, then removed the controls on his fear. Akane was watching the fight with her own fear growing inside her. Ever since Sukebe had resorted to using this `Nezumiken', it seemed Ranma was outmatched. Then she blinked her eyes in puzzlement as her fiance's movements changed. No longer were they the moves of a martial artist, but like someone running and hiding from a scary attacker. Ranma seemed to be trying to avoid Sukebe's attacks by running from them, and his face showed more fear than should be there. Her brow furrowed. Then it hit her. <'Fear-based reaction', he told me.> She looked around the lot and frowned. She gasped as Ranma blocked an attack and struck back with a speed only his best technique could produce. He then promptly lost it and Sukebe sent him into a pair of trashcans with another ram/kick. When Ranma didn't get up, Sukebe laughed in triumph. "Take that! I am the greatest martial artist! I-" His premature vicotry speech was cut short by a high-pitched yowling. All eyes turned toward the trashcan pile where movement could be detected. Ranma slowly stood up, then dropped to all fours. Akane's breath caught. On his back, was a black and white cat, who was apparently digging it's claws into Ranma's back. He snarled and batted the cat away. she wondered. "Master!" the little man called to her right. Akane glanced over to where the other martial artist was crouched in fear, seemingly still in his Nezumiken state. With a howl, Ranma launched himself at the other boy, invisible ki claws shredding the ground where Sukebe once was. She watched as the new battle unfolded, but it seemed to be more of a chase than a fight. Nekoken pursued Nezumiken with a vengeance, while the latter was desperately trying to escape the former. Various objects were chewed through and shredded, leaving the lot looking like a tornado had blown in. Without warning, Sukebe darted from the enclosed arena and bolted into the street, squeaking in terror. Ranma was hot on his trail and the chase sped down the road. Akane and Denoki called after their charges, even as they took off running after them. Ranma finally caught up to his prey in an alley and knocked him into a wall, shredding the rat-like boy's clothing in the process. Sukebe squeaked/squealed/screamed in fear as Ranma raised another paw and prepared to finish him. "Ranma!" Akane called. "Don't do it! Here kitty, kitty!" Ranma stopped snarling and looked up, then bounded over to her her, rubbing against her legs. Akane, remembering what happened the last time Ranma went into the Nekoken on their date, froze and hoped he wouldn't repeat the embarrassing actions. To her relief, he didn't. Sukebe stirred and stood up on all fours, squeaking questionably. Ranma looked up and yowled menacingly, preparing to strike again. Sukebe lost it again and took off running down the street. Akane grabbed ahold of Ranma's shirt collar. "No Ranma! Let him go. You've won." Ranma looked up and mewed at her in confusion, but her hand now petting his hair convinced him to stay. "Master! Come baaaaaaaaack!" The two teens looked up to see Denoki disappear into the distance, chasing after his terror-filled sensei. "How was your day, Kenji-kun?" Ukyo asked. It was his official day off, and he had spent it jogging around the town to see all the sites. It was something that he had neglected to do ever since he began to live here, and he had found himself wanting to know a little about the town. "Enlightening," he answered after a few moments. "This is actually a pretty nice town. Most of the people I met were friendly, and with the exception of the minor disturbance in the park, it was pretty quiet." Ukyo continued to make okonomiyaki, but raised an eyebrow. "Quiet?" She supposed it was for the most part. "What happened in the park?" Kenji took a seat by the grill. "I don't know. Some people were saying something about a girl and a monster, but when I checked, there was nothing there." "I wouldn't worry about it too much," she replied while flipping him his dinner. He caught the japanese pizza/pancake on a plate and set it down, then continued to stare at it. Ukyo looked up, expecting him to be digging in, but instead doing nothing at all. "Alright, what happened?" she asked, stopping her cooking. When he didn't respond, Ukyo went around the grill to sit beside him. "I can tell something's bothering you. If you don't tell me, I'll beat it out of ya." Kenji almost smiled at that. "I went to withdraw some money at an ATM before coming over here. According to that, my account is down by 200,000 yen." "What have you been buyin'!?" Ukyo asked, shocked. "It wasn't me!" Kenji protested loudly. "Somebody bought a bunch of stuff with my account!" Ukyo flinched back. "Ouch! Do you know who?" Kenji nodded. "Only one person I can think of. She got me good this time." The chef sighed. "Nabiki. And knowing her, there's probably no real evidence that points to her?" He nodded weakly. "I swear Kenji-kun, you've gotta give this up. You aren't going to win." He look up and stared at her. "So you don't think I can beat her!?" "That's exactly what I'm sayin'." "Fine then! I'll show you! I'll show everyone! I'll prove no mere girl can stand up to Soyokaze Kenji! HAHAHAHA-" *CLANG* "Ouch! Hey!" "Sorry," Ukyo said while removing her battle spatula from his head. "Now shut up and eat." Kenji rubbed the goose egg sized lump on his head and glared at the back of the chef as she went back to the grill. Though he did `shut up and eat.' He also thought about how to get Nabiki back. Someway to make her as unhappy as he was now. Then he recalled a conversation he had awhile ago and smiled. Akane sighed as she petted her nekofied fiance's hair. She looked up. She pushed her iinzauke off her lap when her legs began to protest. Ranma meowed his discontentment. "Oh, be quiet you. I can't stay like that for long before my legs fall asleep. Come on, let's get you home." Ranma meowed at her, then trotted by her side as they left for the dojo. It soon became obvious that, with all the chasing and running around, they had ended up actually very close to the Tendo dojo. It was only a few minutes walk, and then they were home. Akane had to laugh as Ranma bounded into the house, then turned to meow after her, almost as if he was telling her to hurry up. "I'm coming, I'm coming," Akane replied. Ranma disappeared into the house, and Akane found him curled up on some cushions in the living room. He was practically asleep already, as he lifted his head lazily to gaze at her upon her entrance into the room. Then he layed his head back down and went to sleep. "Well, I was gonna splash some water on you to snap you out of it," she said softly. "But it looks like you really wore yourself out today. I think I'll just let you sleep it off." She plopped down next to him and turned the TV on, keeping the volume low. That's when it happened. Without warning, something burst through the wall, sending wood fragments everywhere. Akane rolled away from it and Ranma stood up, hissing. A spilt second later, he went flying and hit his head against a wall. Then, the thing burst through another wall and was gone. Akane stood up. "What in the world was that!?" She wasn't even able to get a good glimpse of it, since it moved so fast. It did seem vaguely human, but other than that she just didn't know. Then she saw her fiance. "Ranma!" She ran over to his prone form and rolled him onto his back, but was relived to see him still breathing. He was just out cold from hitting his head. The next thing she knew, something white flew into the dojo and impacted her side. She `oofed', then grabbed the duck by the neck. "Mousse!?" she exclaimed. "What in the world is going on?" The duck quacked wildly at her, and tried to get away. "You're not getting away until you tell me what's going on!" He stopped and looked up her, quacking once. "Oh right, hot water." As she stood up, Mousse produced a robe and kettle from his feathers and turned himself back to normal. "Okay Mousse, explain. What was that?" Akane was shocked at the fearful and worried expression he wore, and he tried several times to speak. At last, with tears forming in his eyes, he said three words. "It was Shampoo."