Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only swinging on
the monkey bars. Remember to leave the grounds cleaner than you found
them and please don't feed the Trolls.

Jei-san (look that's his name, okay?) is the exclusive property of Stan 
Sakai, who is welcome to him. I am merely borrowing his likeness, and 
will return it as soon as I am done with it. And not before time too, 
I don't want it sticking around in my head. 

This story is archived at http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/

Release 1.3 (Dec. 04, 2000)

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Ranma & Akane: A Love Story. 
Chapter 3: The Third Day
Part B: Storming the Wall: A Game of Wolf and Dragon

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Koriko Nagao was having what he could unqualifiedly describe as the
worst day of his life. He had been humiliated and dishonored and
disgraced, he thought greyly. 

It had been bad enough before, when that horrible barbarian had
terrified all the males of Furinkan on the first day. It had been
unendurable when he had been seduced by his own rage into joining the
attempted attack that had ended so humiliatingly on the second. Or he
had thought it had been unendurable anyway. Now he knew better what
'unendurable' meant. 

Then they had only laughed at him to his face. Only snickered at him
behind his back. Only looked with disgust at a stalwart of the Kendo
Club. Only tittered at the distress of a champion of the school. Only
sniggered at the nakedness and humiliation of a descendant of samurai.
Only that, then. 

And so he had called together the other stalwarts, the only remaining
bastions of Furinkan tradition. Even their leader had deserted them,
the noble Kuno Tatewaki injured in spirit and plunged into depression
by the beating administered by That Horrible Girl. They were alone now,
but they would uphold tradition and honor as they saw it.

And so they had analyzed. Dissected available data. Consulted the
authorities. And realized, to their horror and shame, that they, _they_
_themselves_ had largely been to blame. 

Error had crept in to the ways of Furinkan. They had turned from the
path of honor, and they had rightly suffered for it. Engaging in mass
attacks on a single warrior in a matter of honor. Attempting an ambush.
Hiding like cowards. Following a mongrel dog to avenge themselves on
one who had merely acted in defense of another. 

Finally they had turned to look at themselves and seen what they had
become. Worse, they realized, they had led others into error, as well.
All of the male students of Furinkan had eventually joined in the Fight
For Akane's Heart. All were now tarred with the same brush, with the
same stain, as they.

They must atone, they realized. They must immediately place their
straying feet back on the path of honor. But how to do so? 

There was only one choice, he had argued. They had begun as warriors,
as samurai in a sense, albeit, he now realized, badly misguided ones.
They must mend their honor the same way. 

Yet simple seppuku would not do, for the old ways were no longer
honored as once they had been. They would not be seen, many said, as
cleansing themselves from stain; but rather as overly-emotional
children, even as misguided fools. 

And what else were they, some wag had remarked, bitterly. Some, another
said, would even believe that they were running, unwilling to face up
to their shame. 

No, he had argued persuasively, they must seek a confrontation instead.
They must challenge Ranma-san directly, one by one; in the broad light
of day, and not hiding behind walls; and only after they recovered from
the destruction she would surely and deservedly work upon them would
their honor be capable of being restored. 

'And,' he thought, 'in such a combat, with weapon in hand, it would
surely not be difficult to require Ranma-san to use lethal force in her
own defense.' Thus ending the life he now felt too dishonored to
endure, without drawing down censure on anyone.

So he had thought, but he had been wrong. They had challenged, or
attempted to challenge, at least, but she had not responded with blows
but rather with words. With a story; 'A morality tale,' he winced
mentally, and with that story she had not merely defeated them; she had
destroyed them. 

He had returned to his classroom dreading the looks of anger and
disgust he knew he would see on the inhabitants thereof. But instead he
had seen something worse. Much worse. He had looked sideways at their
dutiful faces as the Sensei called the roll, and there he had surprised
an emotion more terrible than anything he had ever seen, even in his
darkest nightmare: the emotion of pity. 

Pity and condescension, as though his humiliation was only to be
expected. Worse even than this, _un_concern, as though his shame was
not even worthy of consideration. As though _he_ was not worthy of
consideration. As though he were nothing.

He had answered the roll without conscious thought, hearing without
observing the information that one of his female class-members was
unexpectedly absent. He had not even dared to look at Ranma, where she
sat midway back in the class; he did not wish to see what expression
she wore. He had excused himself immediately, pleading a call of
nature; they would surely snicker, but he could not bring himself to
care. He had almost fled the building, and now huddled in dread by the
outer wall, just by the gates. 

Huddled there in dread, for he knew he could not evade classes, and
those dreadful, pitying, unconcerned faces forever. And observed the
approach to the school gates of what seemed, to his in-looking eyes, to
be one of Furinkan's schoolgirls. Perhaps it was Asano-san he mused,
dully. He must pull himself together in front of his classmate. She had
not heard of his humiliation yet; he must put off that hearing, for a
moment at least. 

Almost restoring his features to normalcy he turned to face her and
welcome her to school. And heard her ask him a question, a question
which he did not register. 

That voice! That pain-wracked, twisted, voice never belonged to
Asano-san! What? 

And he observed a fog clear from his sight. And he saw the towering,
black-robed, demonic figure replace his classmate as if by magic, still
clutching her briefcase in one twisted claw, but bearing a great, cruel
bladed Yari in the other. And he saw the bestial wolf-like figure snarl
at him. And raise its spear as he seemed to freeze, mired in some
clinging substance that weighed down his limbs. 

And then the twilight fell, and Koriko Nagao saw through dimming vision
the spear-shaft extending from his chest retract, its broad head's
bright sheen dimmed by scarlet lifeblood. And realized that he had been
granted the escape from shame that he had sought, before the night
claimed him utterly.

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

Ranma and Akane had been slightly concerned for Sayuri when it was
discovered that she was not in school that day. Yuka, however, had
volunteered the information that she had gotten home from her date
somewhat late last night, and furthermore that she had found a puppy.
So it was decided that she must simply have overslept, or possibly
caught some type of bug, and would be gently teased about it when she
finally dragged in.

Then the studious peace of Furinkan was broken by a scream. A piercing,
terrible scream. It came from one of the classrooms on the front side
of the first floor , and was followed by a muffled shout that brought
Ranma out of her startlement, with a shocked oath that split plaster at
30 feet, and out the door in a dead run. 

Akane followed after her, dreading whatever had disturbed her sensei,
and reached the bottom of the stairs in time to see Ranma wave her hand
in a complex pattern -- outer fingers vee-ed and inners curling -- at
the wall of one classroom, which promptly exploded into dust. 

Akane gasped and choked on the swirling dust, straining to see into the
opened room. Ranma, however, suffered no such difficulty, snap- drawing
Tenchuu in a classic Iado cut at the dark-robed bulk that suddenly
lunged at her, trailing a scarlet stream of blood drops from its
outstretched spear-blade.

Ranma pivoted like a matador, sending the lunging demon-wolf past her
with a tortured, wordless howl. Tenchuu blurred as it passed, striking
deep more than a hundred times with a sound like a deep-tolling bell,
and Ranma snarled a name: "Jei!" 

Akane gasped in shock as the hurtling spear-blade bore down on her, and
saved herself from impalement only by a desperate sideways twist
propelled by the impetus of a side snap-kick, which slammed into the
injured side, spraying blood and fur from the cuts Ranma's attack had
left. Akane saw with a strange, singing clarity as she shoulder-rolled
off the floor; everything seemed to be outlined, thrown into sharp
relief so that her racing mind could clearly distinguish between what
was important, and what was not. 

Important, for example, were the injuries to the wolf- demon's side,
healing as she watched, the flesh flowing and squirming back into
proper shape. Also important was the howling ki aura building up around
Ranma and flowing down her sword, and Akane abandoned reflection and
achieved the state of avoidance.

Ranma held on to the howling, snarling ki-force with a leash of sheer
willpower, quickly enjoining it to build in a circling tubular
onion-like structure, each thin inner layer of force spinning in
counter- rotation to the next, burning lightning and destructive wind
vortices building rapidly to an uncontainable level from the internal
dissonance and friction of the whole structure. 

The task, for her, was strenuous but not especially challenging; she
was much stronger then the last time she had called the Dragon Wind in
earnest, and farther advanced down the paths of breath and spirit as
well. Now, calling on her full power, Ranma held what she knew was the
most powerful attack she had ever performed until Jei had stabilized
himself enough to be rooted. Until he had placed himself fully in the
path of destruction, yet removed his ability to dodge it. Then she
released its bonds, and called it to battle by name. "Ryuukaze!"

A corona of blue-white lightning struck inward toward Ranma's aura,
crackling towards her body and hands like a berserk, inverted Van de
Graaff generator. St. Elmo's fire of red and neon blue played all about
her, illuminated the swirling storm wind that gathered about her hands
where they clenched around Tenchuu's hilt, swept down Tenchuu's blade
and launched itself as a horizontal tornado that sped irresistibly
across the twenty foot space to Jei's back. 

A flaming, thundering tide of lightning rode the wind, outlining its
passage with crackling, neon light. At its tip a vortex of the storm,
wind powerful enough to crumble diamond or shred titanium alloy like
wet cardboard, formed a dragon's head; filled with the heart of the
lightning and drawing the tornado behind it as the head draws the body,
wings and claws following after. As it passed it drew up debris and
shredded floor-tiles into itself, their component particles joining its
destructive force; and on Ranma's chest, underneath her shirt and wrap,
the dragon threw back her head -- and roared. 

Ranma watched with fleeting satisfaction as an unstoppable tide of pure
destruction hit Jei squarely in the back -- and accomplished precisely
nothing. 'Oh, _shit_! He learned to shield!' She hurled herself across
the separating space between them, shifting her sight to the mode she
used to analyze a structure of magic, and slipped fully munen muso,
into zanshin mind-no-mind.

Jei spun towards his attacker, keeping his attention focused on her
ki-force, and beginning a triumphant snarl. 

Ranma sliced past him in a rush, Tenchuu burning through his stomach
and out his back, severing his spine. Ranma spun around Jei, hand, feet
and sword flickering, testing his defenses and ki in a whirlwind too
fast for even Jei's boosted senses to track, but also too fast to do
any lasting damage, the minor wounds healing even as they were made. 

At last, having discovered as much as she could, Ranma flashed to a
position straddling Jei's neck, one foot bracing against his back as
the other leg curled around his throat. A convulsive twist of Ranma's
body broke even Jei's inhumanly strong neck; and sent her off his
shoulders to bounce off the wall behind him, curling her legs against
her chest and storing power in them. 

Then she exploded away from the wall, into his back; her sword flashed
around to sever his head entirely as she built a tornado-strength
shield of wind behind and around her body and uncurled into Jei's back.
The force of her ki-charged shove shattered every bone in his spine and
propelled him violently across forty yards of open air, through and out
of the classroom he had been destroying originally, and into Furinkan's
yard. 

A lash of green energy erupted from his severed neck as he passed,
joining the severed stump of his neck to his bouncing, discarded head;
drawing the latter after it with a shriek of rage and pain that would
have shattered all the windows on Furinkan's front side, had there been
any undestroyed to that point. Which there weren't. 

Impacting the ground violently and being propelled into a tumbling
roll, Jei progressed down the yard with a series of cracking and
ripping noises, landing on his feet and healing all his wounds with a
sustained wet crackle that ended as his head slammed home atop his neck
and knit together again with a squelch that would probably have been
exceedingly disgusting had anyone been paying attention to it. 

Ranma leaped through the destroyed classroom, absently noting the
carnage within, and landed just outside what had been Furinkan's outer
wall. "Jei-san. I see you have gained in prowess since the last time I
killed you."

The storm-loud cackle of mad laughter that erupted from Jei seemed to
provide any answer that might be necessary, but he continued anyway.
"Fool, I cannot be killed! I am the champion of the Gods, and they have
given me new power for the holy task of destroying you and all your
works, utterly!" 

A green ball of fire suddenly filled his hand. "Now, prepare to die!"
he screamed as he threw it at Ranma. She batted it aside without
expression, unmoving as it spattered twenty feet of Furinkan's front
wall with a clinging emerald flame that corroded stone, glass and wood
alike.

Ranma again drew in her power and answered Jei's challenge with a bolt
of lightning. "Gekirin no Ryuu!" The thunderclap that followed the
lightning's ineffectual explosion off Jei's shield fixed his attention
firmly on Ranma herself, and allowed Akane to shoo several panicking
students up the stairs to (presumed) safety, while she herself ran to
the destroyed classroom to see what help she might give. 

Upon jumping the low sill left by the destroyed wall, she landed in a
warm, sticky pool and went to one knee; looking around in disbelieving
horror she found that the answer was: none. At least a dozen bodies
littered the floor and desks of the violated room. Most were in pieces
no larger than half a torso, but all were clearly dead, and the still,
brooding air hung heavy with the iron tang of fresh blood, and the
sewer stench of released bowels, overlain by the visceral, sour-sweet
smell of human death. 

The combination went straight to her hindbrain and forced her, gagging,
to her hands and knees. Her eyes widened in shock, and she scrambled to
her feet, frantically wiping her hands on her pants as she realized
what she had landed _in_. She gasped and then determinedly looked away
from the carnage around her, out across the field to, and then past,
the looming figure of the seven-foot tall wolf-demon, to where several
panicked students, nearly mindless with fear, huddled against the
outside wall of the schoolyard.

Akane lunged out of the destroyed wall section, snatching at the
central pillar of an overturned desk in passing, and ran across the
field, yelling desperately for the students to run behind her, and away
from the demonic spear-wolf. As she passed directly in line with Jei,
she hurled the desk across the separating distance, smashing him dead
on and hurling him into the wall. 

Unfortunately, however, one of the students, who had heard her call and
started to run across to her, was on the wrong side. Thus, when Jei
smashed into the wall, said student was less than three feet from the
impact and, startled and unable to stop, ran directly into the towering
figure as he clawed his way from the rubble of the wall. 

Jei's hand lashed out and closed on the hapless student's neck even as
Ranma and Akane both lunged towards the tableaux, and the terrible,
bloodied spear flashed back for a death-stroke. Akane, was close enough
to arrive in time and simply shoulder-tackled Jei, breaking his hold on
the student, and driving them both apart and into the wall. 

Jei rebounded with a snarl, driving his spear at Akane's unprotected
back as she turned to sent the boy she had protected to safety on her
off side. Then Ranma flashed into range, sending Tenchuu smashing into
the shaft of the spear. But the shaft rebounded the sword-strike, to
her distant shock, and Jei's instant counter flung Ranma back a dozen
yards, rotating in mid-air and looking for a landing place. 

Akane sent her charge toward safety with a massive shove and began to
turn at bay. Too late: the spearhead would pierce her before she could
evade, she saw distantly. Which was why the black, metallic ribbon that
flashed out of nowhere and tugged the spear-shaft far enough aside to
miss and plow into the wall, instead of Akane, came as a complete shock
to everyone. 

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

Kuno Kodachi had hidden in the shadows beside the wall of Furinkan and
observed the events of the morning. She was especially concerned with
finding out who had so injured her brother, but since he had told her
none of the details, she kept a look-out for anything unusual. 

The shortish redhead with the aura of power almost visible to the naked
eye was certainly unusual, she felt.

Furthermore, her brother had not mentioned her even in passing, as he
surely would have under normal circumstances, and she was in the
company of another girl, whom Kodachi recognized as the "Beauteous
Tiger" of her brother's fevered ranting, Tendo Akane, albeit much
altered from the frumpy girl she had remembered from the last time she
had seen her.

This was, she thought, suggestive, and she had been engaged in
attempting to locate the girl within the building when the screams and
explosions had informed her that matters were becoming very odd and
dangerous indeed. She had left the building by a convenient window and
jumped into the trees, through which she had moved to a position just
over the confrontation by the wall, observing the battle in awe. Seeing
Akane's peril, she saw also an opportunity to intervene -- and prove
her own battle-worth in a theater of the utmost truth -- and had
intercepted the demon's spear with her ribbon.

Jei's counter pull of the shaft had ripped her from the tree and
several yards further into the schoolyard, but she had anticipated
this, and landed with all the grace of her gymnastic art, then turned
and began to unleash a peroration that would surely stop the monster in
its tracks and lead directly to its defeat. "Hold, monster! For now
..." 

Ranma rebounded in mid-air and turned to the attack as Jei took the
opportunity to dispose of at least one opponent and struck directly for
Akane's heart.

"... you face the wrath ..."

Akane declined to be spitted and counterattacked before Jei could drive
home his spear, catching the spear-shaft just behind the head with the
odd speed she suddenly seemed to have acquired, and putting a circle
kick from the hip into Jei's mid-section.

"... of the Black Rose ..."

Jei was driven back by the kick, and Ranma altered her trajectory to
track him as he stumbled into range of Kodachi, and felt that one foe
was as good as another.

" ...Ugghkk." Kodachi gasped, as her speech was rudely interrupted by
the butt of Jei's spear driving past her defense to slam into her
midriff, tearing her leotard and breaking several ribs. 

The but was followed by the spearhead, rotating like a fan blade as Jei
drove it in an arc that would have torn through her heart, while
gathering a sickly luminescent fox-fire to his off hand. Would have,
except for Ranma's fall from the heavens, to cut through Jei's arm,
severing it briefly and reducing the wound to a three inch deep cut
across and through several ribs and deeply into the muscle of her left
arm. The fireball that followed as Jei fell away from Ranma's strike
spattered across Kodachi regardless of Ranma's swatting, ki-charged
hand, and she fell backwards, crippled, bleeding and aflame. 

Some distance away, a young man who had been engaged in the occupation
of shepherding students away from the fight looked up, and ran to her
side with a shriek of rage and pain, "Sister! No!" 

Jei regained his feet with a snarl, but Ranma had seen enough. She had
the measure of his defense now, and it only remained to accomplish the
attack that would destroy him. She kept him on the defensive with a
barrage of mini- lightning bolts as she closed, followed by a
blistering exchange of fists, feet, spear strokes and sword blows that
maneuvered Jei into the position she wanted.

Tatewaki reached his sister's side just as Ranma put Jei in the
position she wanted him in. "_NOW_ Akane," she roared. 

And Akane, seeing her chance, snatched up the central pillar, now
detached, of the desk she had previously used, and charged into Jei's
back, using the pillar as an improvised club. An attack that was fully
successful in all ways except one: she got the angle to hit him at
slightly wrong. 

Jei did not fly in the direction Ranma had wanted, nor did he go as
far, and Ranma altered direction again, on the ground this time, as
Tatewaki reacted to the presence of the beast that had wounded his
sister with the beginnings of the best attack he could muster, his
bokken blurring in the air. "Dadadadadadadadadada" 

Jei, of course, ignored the attack, bringing the shaft of his spear
over his head and down onto Tatewaki, sending the bokken from his hand
and dropping him, stunned, across his sister's body. Akane followed up
her original attack before he could reverse and use the blade, shoving
him forcefully a couple of feet away, and following up to grab the
fallen bokken as she sprawled across the pile of Kunos. 

She turned over desperately, bringing the bokken around to block the
descending spear-point away so that it thudded into the dirt beside
her, and then continuing with the only attack she could muster from her
position flat on her back on the ground. An attack that she knew was
inadequate, possessing as she did only the mediocre skill gained by her
desultory studies previously and one day of Ranma's instruction. An
attack that was, nonetheless, the only thing she had. 

A kick straight up, with all the force that was in her, past Jei's
defense and into his groin. It lifted him up six inches, to a roar of
shock and hate; forced his hands up, locked around the spear-shaft for
the downward, unstoppable strike that would skewer her, Tatewaki and
Kodachi all three; and gave Ranma one single, unobserved, unoccupied
second.

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

It was enough. 

A roaring wind blew Jei away from the sprawled pile, as Ranma smashed
into him. A hail of sword blows from all angles taxed his regenerative
capabilities and eroded the defense of his ki-shield. A simultaneous
flurry of ki-charged one-finger strikes pelted him, whirling him around
and around and setting his ki to boiling heat, as Ranma sent herself
into a countering circle, matching his spin and dropping her ki to
freezing before she called the wind again. 

"Hiryuu. Shouten. Haaa!" 

The Rising Dragon Ascension Strike flamed inward from a circle ten
yards across and lifted Jei in a roaring cyclone into the sky. Ranma
followed after, riding the wind that was Jei's enemy, returning Tenchuu
to her jacket with a snap and drawing a phurba of meteoric iron. This
she threw straight upward, through Jei's abdomen, and sent the
lightning of the storm after it, upward from the ground to the dagger's
place at the apex of the cyclone, damaging Jei past the momentary
limits of his regeneration and removing half of his remaining shield. 

Ranma herself rode the lightning-charged storm-wind upward, speeding
past Jei to the top of the funnel-cloud; catching the dagger as it
peaked above Jei's form, momentarily held in equilibrium between wind
and gravity. And then Ranma called the wind up into a vortex just above
the previous apex of the storm and let Jei fall. 

She followed his descent with another throw of the phurba, again
striking through Jei's body, to thud into the ground far below, again
followed by the fury of the storm, shredding the rest of Jei's shield
and wounding him deeply.

Jei snarled hatred and snapped his spear around to guard. Ranma could
not now put another missile past his guard, and to injure him again she
must go down, and thus into his range. And then Ranma played her trump
card, pulling from Jacket-space a weapon that Jei could only vaguely
place. Some kind of one-hand arquebus, he thought, but surely too small
to .... 

The IMI Desert Eagle .50AE automatic pistol has been called many things
in the world of things that go boom. 

Too small has rarely been among them. 

A *CHK-Klack* announced that Ranma's invisibly fast hands had racked
the slide. And then the enormous pistol roared, and the recoil hammered
at Ranma's solid grip. 

And once again the World's Biggest Handgun proved itself adequate to
the task. Just.

Eight times it spoke and eight bullets flew; each jacketed, solid core
hollow point missile carrying, locked to the iron spike at the core of
its leaden mass, as much of Ranma's ki as she could shove into it while
pulling the trigger. 

Each packet of ki was dedicated to the goal of expanding its bullet
explosively just before it entered Jei's body and then holding the lead
and iron in a specific shape during its passage, regardless of the
impedance of flesh or bone. Each packet achieved its goal exactly,
punching eight holes in the spear-wolf's body; each in the shape of an
ideograph in a scholar's shorthand of ancient China. 

Eight ideographs relating a saying about men, and butterflies, and the
difficulty of telling the difference. Eight ideographs arranged on
Jei's torso in a pattern tracing out another ideograph in that same
ancient hand; the ideograph called 'Final Emptiness'. The whole
assemblage of ideographs forming a spell of dispersal, scattering Jei's
energy, dispersing his shield, and damaging his soul.

Ranma allowed Jei to fall almost to the ground before using the iron
dagger half-buried in the ground below him to receive the remaining
energy of her storm in one titanic bolt of fury, earthing itself
through Jei's fatally wounded body and knocking the spear sprawling
from his hand at last. 

She herself landed about ten feet away from, and behind, Jei -- now
standing in a wide crater and frantically reaching for enough power to
regenerate his broken body -- and snapped Tenchuu from its resting
place again, sending power through it and waking it to furious, burning
life.

Then Ranma jumped backwards, past Jei again, Tenchuu flashing. She
carved another ideogram through his entire body with her sword: two
inward curving lines, each continuing from its bottom up into a
crossing loop, forming a symbol not unlike a "W" with a loop extending
above the middle point. Then continuing in a single motion over the top
of the outer points, closing the curve and leaving only the central
loop above it.

Ranma landed in front of Jei at a distance of no more than three feet.
Jei, incapable of movement and with all his defenses down, could only
watch Ranma's cool emotionless face as she drew back her sword. And
then she struck - straight through the center of the ideogram she had
cut into his flesh - and also straight through his heart.

Jei exploded into a towering pillar of flame, and Ranma withdrew her
sword and re-sheathed it, waiting. The flame burned itself out in
moments, revealing the various limbs and pieces of his torso falling to
earth, smeared with an odd, green, burnt looking ichor; and a wide-
winged butterfly of an evil green hue, hanging where the ideogram had
been, sending up a high pitched, wailing keen, and burning. Ranma
swatted it from the air with a ki-sheathed hand, and ground it
underfoot.

Then Ranma returned from zanshin, and called a slow, pulsing fire to
her hand. "Come back from _that_, you pustule on the backside of
divinity," she snarled bitterly, using pulses of the flame to burn the
corpse of the butterfly to ash, and set the remaining pieces of Jei's
corpse afire.

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

Akane was just struggling to her feet again as Ranma turned from the
evilly smoking fires. She was aching, burnt, scratched in several
places, bore more bruises, scrapes and minor cuts than she could bear
to think about, and the only thing she wanted was for Ranma to tell her
that it was over. Ranma pulled her into a brief, hard hug and
whispered, "You did great, Akane-chan!"

Ranma thumped her briefly on the shoulder and let her go, grinning at
her widely for a moment. Then Ranma turned to the gate of Furinkan,
walking over to check on the body there, and Akane bent down again to
help Kodachi and Tatewaki.

Ranma came to Nagao's body, and knelt down. She could easily see that
he was dead, but she used ki-sight anyway, to make sure. Then she
gently closed his staring eyes, and stood up looking over at the gate
to see what she had noticed from the corner of her eye. It was a
briefcase, which she picked up, examined, and then quickly brought over
to Akane, who was standing next to the Kunos and talking to Nabiki, who
had summoned medical and police units to the school.

"What's wrong, Ranma?" Akane noted her friend's grim expression. Ranma
held up the case, so Akane could see what was written there: Asano, S.,
and an address. Akane's eyes went wide in horror.
 
"Do you know where this is, Akane-chan?" And at her nod, "Then I think,
Nabiki, that you should call aid to that address, too. And I think that
Akane and I should go there now, as well. And I think that we should
run."

Akane nodded jerkily and ran toward the gate, waving her hand toward
Sayuri's distant house. "She's over that way, Ranma. But the fastest
way there is...."

She was interrupted by the feeling of arms around her waist, and jerked
into the sky. Landing on the roof in the appropriate direction Ranma
flowed into a smooth run, leaping gaps in the roof line with focused
unconcern. Akane followed, gulping in trepidation at the gaps she would
have to jump, but making no protest.

Across Nerima they traveled in leaps and bounds, Akane leading Ranma
across the roof-tops in as straight a line as she could, bypassing the
traffic on the crowded streets below. Shortly, they heard the rising
wail of sirens, and Ranma suddenly snarled an oath. "I can feel it now
unblocked, Akane-chan, I've gotta hurry," she snapped out, before
blurring into a red and black streak.

Akane followed as quickly as she could and reached the roof line over
Sayuri's house to find Ranma picking herself up from the ground,
smoking slightly, and a dozen paramedics charging the door. "Wait,"
Ranma roared uselessly, "the bloody thing's ...." The paramedics hit
the door and were thrown back, injured, by a burst of green fire. "...
warded. Damn!"

Akane jumped down, as Ranma snapped back to her feet and stalked
forward, snarling, "Get _back_ you fools, there's magic here!" 

Ranma jogged up to the door and raised her hand, ki coalescing around
it in an in-drawing vortex. She thrust her hand forward in the same
gesture she had used earlier, outer fingers vee-ed and inners curling,
and burned a circle of green fire into the air before the doorway. 

The door collapsed into dust as the circle of fire exploded around the
house, blowing everyone in a block's radius except those behind Ranma
flat to the ground. 

The door vanished, and Ranma strode forward, hand at her side, ki still
gathered. Akane followed after, as did those paramedics and police
still on their feet. The darkness within shifted like a living thing,
snarling and drawing down, choking. Ranma pulsed ki to her hand,
drawing the dark close about it, and then shifted an internal polarity,
and expressed the ki of the vortex she had generated as sunlight. 

A brilliant flash of light destroyed the darkness, burning down its
resistance and banishing it with a fading wail. Ranma glided into the
house; glancing at the older woman laying in the doorway with a broad
spear mark through her outer chest she left the body to others and went
directly to the small body laying nearly hidden in another room. 

Kneeling down, she checked Sayuri's ki with a sinking heart, but then
snapped her head upward to Akane with burning but worried eyes. "She's
still alive! But she's not breathing, and she's fading fast! Get help,
and I'll try to call her back."

Akane spun and ran to the other part of the house, to fetch a medic,
and Ranma gathered all the ki she could at short notice, then struck
one hand downward toward Sayuri's chest; her aura flaming into new life
as it went, ki curling about it ready to call the body beneath her back
to life ....

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Next:
Ranma and Akane: A Love Story
Chapter 3: The Third Day
Part C: Pursuit to Destruction; East Wind, Rain.

'Til Next,
Eric Hallstrom 01/16/2001