Chapter 9

 

As Shan-Pu, Ukyo, Mu-Tsu and Ryoga walked towards the light in the distance, they wondered if they had the correct camp. Ryoga was the first one to question the direction that they were traveling in. “Are you sure this is going to be the right camp this time?”

“Hey! So I was wrong about the last two camps but it’s a good thing that we lost Kodatchi back there. Who would have thought that this was the best time of year to go camping and for them to pick the same mountain that Ran-chan is on?” Ukyo growled as she glared at Ryoga and continued to walk next to Shan-Pu.

“Well, lets see, so far we’ve been to over twenty camp sites and we still haven’t found them. If you had let me lead in stead of Ryoga just because he said he could see in the dark better than any of us. I would have found it by now,” Mu-Tsu said as he pulled his hands back into his voluminous sleeves.

“Aieya! Stupid duck boy is blind as bat! It even worse in dark! Mu-Tsu just get lost like pig boy,” Shan-Pu muttered aside to Ukyo loud enough so the boys could hear.

“Hey take that back! I’m pretty good in the dark,” Mu-Tsu said as he adjusted his glasses while talking to a near by tree.

“Mu-Tsu is good at using ears, not seeing in dark. You is talking to tree stupid! Shan-Pu is over here!”

“Hehheh, oops,” Mu-Tsu said while blushing. Then he turned in the direction that Shan-Pu’s voice was coming from. “Sorry about that, but seriously though… I did manage to help everyone avoid that canyon.”

“Oh yeah and led us straight off that cliff and into the lake!” Ukyo yelled. “I’m still not dry yet! And that was over two hours ago! You’re lucky I brought those thermos’ or you guys would still be in your cursed forms.”

“Well, I still say we’re going in the wrong direction,” Ryoga muttered as he kicked a small rock into the bushes.

“Shan-Pu thinks this right way!” she said.

“I’m going to agree with you on this one sugar. There’s no way I’m going to end up in another lake or in a different country,” Ukyo said glaring at the boys, as she wrung out her shirt to demonstrate the condition of her attire. Sighing. Ukyo looked up and saw something fly by over the treetops.

"Hey what’s that?" Ukyo said pointing.

"Huh? Hey that looks like Happosai!" Ryoga said confirming the girl's suspicions that they were heading in the right direction. Then they heard it screaming, “Ranmaaaaaaa! I’ll get you for thisssss…..”

"Yep! It’s the pervert all right!" Mu-Tsu said as he watched the shrunken martial arts master disappear.

"All right! Than Ranma-honey should be this way!" Ukyo said as she started to run in the direction the Happosai had come from.

"Ranma take Shan-Pu on date!" Shan-Pu said as she started running after Ukyo.

Ryoga and Mu-Tsu were not that far behind her; they were brought up short as they took in the scene before them when they broke through the underbrush into a brightly-lit campsite. Ranma stood steaming, next to the fire with a teakettle in hand. It was obvious to everyone that he had just used it to change back into his birth form. Akane sat off to the side, wrapped in a blanket and looked to be dozing, but her eyes snapped open when she heard the four new comers enter the camp.

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Ranma breathed deeply trying to calm herself down when she felt a hand grip her shoulder. Turning around, Ranma saw her mother standing a little bit behind her with a steaming teakettle in one hand and a smile on her face. "Here you go son, you handled that very well. I could see that you didn't need my help after all," Noduka said handing her the tea-kettle then reached over towards the hilt of the katana and pulled the sword free from where she had it embedded in the earth.

"Thanks mom," Ranma said as she changed back. Then he leaned down placing it on one of the nearby rock close to the fire all the while watching his mother go about cleaning the katana with a peaceful expression on her face. He was too busy watching his mother and being very nervous about whether or not she was going to use it or put it away, to notice the noise coming from behind him.

Akane heard the rustling from the bushes and saw their friends arrive. She was about to alert Ranma to the new arrivals when his head snapped around like a whip when he heard some familiar voices.

"Ranma honey!"

"Saotome I will defeat you to win my Shan-Pu!"

"RANMA! How dare you go off alone with Akane!"

"Airen!"

Eyes widening, Ranma started backing away when he saw Shan-Pu, Ukyo, Mu-Tsu and Ryoga barreling down upon him, Ranma said, "No way man! I'm outta here!" Turning- he ran off into the forest with the others in hot pursuit.

As Akane watched him disappear into the forest she decided that she had better go after him and get him out of trouble. Sighing. Akane stood up slowly, as she tried to take a few steps to go after the gang, she noticed that her level of strength was not where it usually is. She felt week and a bit dizzy, but she was determined to not loose them. After a few more steps she began to feel much stronger and started walking a bit faster, turning towards Ranma's parents she smiled and said, "I'll be right back with Ranma so don't wait up. Ok?" Seeing them nod their heads in an affirmative gesture Akane forged ahead into the darkness of the forest.

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As the figure ran through the dark forest occasionally glancing over his shoulder to see if he had lost his pursuers he muttered to himself, “Man! I gotta hide! I mean I thought it would be just a family outing I shoulda known better.”

Ranma finally stopped running and looked around the small clearing that had suddenly appeared. Sighing, he slowed his pace down to a walk thinking that he had finally lost them when no more than two minutes went by when he heard someone creeping up behind him. Turning around as fast as he could Ranma saw the shapely form of Shan-Pu hurtling towards him. Dodging as best as he could to avoid the glomp that he knew she was trying to ensnare him in.

Then hearing someone else approaching from the left he glanced over his should to see Ryoga coming at him with his finger extended while yelling, “RANMA! Because of you I’ve seen hell!” Then his finger touched the ground and he yelled, “Buksai Ten Ketsu!” sending chunks of stinging earth in every direction.

“Hey man watch it!” Ranma said while deflecting the projectiles, then he went on the offensive by launching a snap-kick to Ryoga’s stomach.

Ryoga, seeing the move leapt back as Ranma’s foot whipped by missing him by a centimeter. Once Ranma had turned away enough to give Ryoga the few precious seconds he needed to commence his attack, he charged with an upper cut to the chin. Ranma somehow managed to block the punch and turned it into a throw.

As Ryoga flew through the air he could hear Ranma yelling at him, “What do ya think you’re doing man? I thought we cleared this up three months ago!”

Landing in a crouch Ryoga launched himself back towards his opponent. “Oh we did clear it up Ranma, but I still can’t let you toy with Akane’s emotions. It’s not right to be spending all this time with her alone and with no parental supervision at that!” Ryoga screamed as he conveniently forgot about seeing Ranma’s parents sitting by the campfire.

“WHAT!” Ranma yelled as he dodged a chop to the neck, then jumped over a leg sweep. Just as he was about to attack Ryoga in return, he sensed movement on his right side this time. It was Shan-Pu, she had apparently recovered her balance and was trying to catch him while his attention was elsewhere. And Mu-Tsu stood off to the side waiting for his chance to attack.

“Why can’t those guys leave me alone for once?” Ranma yelled at them as he backed away.

“Ranma spend time with Shan-Pu not kitchen destroyer?” She told him as she maneuvered herself closer to her target. Then she jumped at him and managed to wrap her hand around his arm. This caused Ranma to become extremely nervous and he desperately tried to get loose before she could maneuver the rest of her body into her famous Amazon glomp. Ranma knew that if she managed to entangle him in that there would be only a few ways to get out of that. The first one he didn’t even want to try because that would mean touching her breast. If he did that, Shan-Pu would think that he was accepting their laws and she would consider them fully married. He shuddered with revulsion at the thought of the word marriage. The second one wasn’t an option either. If Akane saw him. . .

 

Spinning around, Ranma managed to detach her grip while his thoughts went in desperate circles. He had to get her to stop trying to latch on to him. He saw Ukyo out of the corner of his eye. She was watching the fight with interest. He saw her eyes widening and her mouth open to yell a warning, when several chains crossed his field of view no more than inches from his nose. He back-flipped away from them and landed behind Ryoga. The chains flew through the air and wrapped themselves around the lost boy. When feeling his weapons hit a target he pulled on them to see if he had caught Saotome. When he felt the resistance Mu-Tsu yanked hard trying to wrench his victim off his feet to where he could then fight and defeat him.

“I’ve got you now Saotome!” he yelled at Ryoga as he thought he had caught Ranma. Ryoga started to get mad at the blind martial artist and started yelling at him but Mu-Tsu must have been deaf as well because he chose to ignore him.

“I’m not Ranma you idiot! It’s me Ryoga!” he yelled as he dodged a scimitar and a port-a-potty as they flew by. He almost didn’t notice the kitchen sink that was coming from the ends of one of Mu-Tsu’s chains. But just before it hit, Ryoga’s danger sense kicked in and he dodged to the left.

“That’s it! If you wanted to fight me you could just say so. And even if you didn’t want to, you have no choice now!” Ryoga yelled as he charged Mu-Tsu.

Mu-Tsu seeing his advisory charge him, smiled with anticipation but that smile disappeared when the fuzzy black hared blur got closer. He then noticed that this blurry image didn’t have the characteristic pigtail that Mu-Tsu associated with Ranma. But one thing he did notice was the yellow and black blur on the figure’s forehead. “Shit,” he thought to himself as he dodged an umbrella strike and backpedaled away from a spinning bandanna all the while yelling, “Ryoga! I don’t want to fight you! It’s Saotome that I want to fight!”

“Too bad! You’ve gone and pissed me off now and I’m going to show you some manners. You shouldn’t attack people when your not sure about who they really are!” Ryoga screamed as he launched himself towards the blind martial artist with a jump-kick. Mu-Tsu dropped the swords on the ground and jumped to the left so that he could get clear of the chaos going on behind him with Ranma, Ukyo and Shan-Pu. This caused Ryoga to miss his intended target, but he recovered quickly and chased after Mu-Tsu.
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Seeing that Ranma was finished fighting Ryoga, Shan-Pu started to make her way in his direction while he was distracted. Quietly so as not to alert her intended target, Shan-Pu crept up behind Ranma from the right side. But, as she latched onto him and tried pulling him further into one of her glomps she encountered a lot of resistance. She looked up and saw Ukyo latched onto Ranma’s other arm.

“Let go Ranma,” Shan-Pu demanded as she tugged on the arm she was holding.

“No way sugar! I won’t let you get your hands on him this time!” Ukyo replied as she tugged Ranma back towards herself.

“Oh so spatula girl want Ranma all for self! Shan-Pu no let have. Ranma is Shan-Pu’s,” she said as she detached one hand and knocked Ukyo away to land on her rear.

“Oh so that’s how you want it sugar, well that’s fine by me!” Ukyo said as she got up and charged Shan-Pu with her battle spatula drawn and ready. Shan-Pu saw her coming, let go of Ranma’s arm, pressed a pressure point in his back, causing his legs to give out on him, “Ranma stay here and wait for Shan-Pu,” she said and drew out her bonbori and met Ukyo in the middle of the clearing.

Ranma watched the battle as he cursed his rotten luck. “First Akane gets hurt. Then the guys show up. Then I loose the use of my legs! I’ve gotta get outa here!” he growled as he slowly started to drag himself out of the clearing only to be caught by one of Mu-Tsu’s chains and dragged back into the fight.

“Come’on man! This isn’t fair! I can’t stand up right now,” he yelled at both Ryoga and Mu-Tsu as he rolled to avoid an umbrella strike and a few knives.

“Too bad Ranma! Now you have a handicap too!” Mu-Tsu said as he threw a spear towards Ranma’s head.

Ranma saw it and rolled. In mid roll he decided that if he couldn’t use his legs to walk he might as well use them as a weapon. Ranma did a handstand and pivoted his lower body around. Knocking Mu-Tsu away, he hit a tree with enough force to kill a lesser man but this only knocked him unconscious due to all the times that Shan-Pu hit him on the head with her bonbori. Ryoga on the other hand was a different matter altogether since he was built like a tank.

“Ryoga if ya beat me up while I’m like this Akane’d never forgive you,” Ranma said while balancing on his hands and avoiding the multiple kicks and punches coming his way. Ranma finally saw a way to get out of this mess and started twirling his lower body forcing Ryoga to back away towards the stream. Ryoga of course was too busy deflecting the whirlwind kicks that Ranma was throwing at him to notice the danger that he was in.

“Ranma! I’ll make sure you will behave honorably with Akane!” Ryoga yelled as he ducked another kick, then backed up again. Only to feel instead of hard packed dirt his foot encountered something wet and cold. Before he could say anything more Ryoga became P-Chan.

“Bweeeee! Bukibwee bwwweeeee!” Ryoga-buta said, cursing up a storm causing Ranma to wince every once in a while. After all the years that he had known his friends either quacking at him in duck or bweeing at him in piggish. Ranma had come to understand some of the more colorful curse words known to man and beast.

Ranma’s legs had started to tingle, which meant that he would be able to stand up soon. Glancing over towards Ukyo and Shan-Pu he noticed that Ukyo looked to be in worse shape than the Chinese Amazon did. Deciding to wait a little bit longer for his legs to recover Ranma watched the fight end with what he though was disastrous. Shan-Pu had won by a knock out and she was heading in his direction.

"Kuso!" Ranma muttered as he started to push himself backwards with every step Shan-Pu took. After a minute of this he finally was able to use his legs and jumped up as fast as he could. As he was about to bolt, he felt Shan-Pu latch onto him. "Ranma stay with Shan-Pu," she said as she wrapped her arms around him in a grip that was difficult to break, leaning up she whispered his name again and kissed him full on the lips.

Eyes widening in panic, Ranma tried to detach her from him when he heard a gasp and a voice that was all to familiar growling his name. "RANMAAAAAA!"

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As Akane slowly made her way through the forest she followed the obvious trail left by Ranma and the others. She paused for a minute to catch her breath and look around to see if she could listen for the faint sounds of fighting. There! Over to the left. Smiling, Akane continued to walk towards a clearing up ahead. As she entered the clearing she saw Ranma fighting with Mu-Tsu and Ryoga. Clearing her throat to get their attention Akane stepped further into the clearing and started walking towards them When Ranma finished fighting Mu-Tsu Akane turned her attention towards Shan-Pu and Ukyo who were going at it like a dog with a bone, So she missed Ryoga step into the stream and change into P-Chan. Sighing. Akane tried one more time to get their attention this time by yelling at them.

"Hey you guys! You have to stop this!" she yelled, but they just ignored her. Akane could feel her temper rising with each time they ignored her. Her cheek started to twitch with each step she took. Then she saw Shan-Pu defeat Ukyo and run towards Ranma and latch onto him. What she saw next made her gasp. Ranma was kissing Shan-Pu! Akane was mad. So mad here eyesight dimmed to a red hue and she could feel her breathing accelerate as if she had been running a marathon. Sweat rolled down her forehead as she started to feel something strange take hold of her.

Akane's thoughts ran in circles as she tried to calm herself down but something was wrong. "I have to try to get control of myself, Ranma isn't really kissing her! She's kissing him!" Akane thought to herself as her aurora flared around her. But, this time it wasn't the normal red color. It was a sickly purplish hue with pulsing flashes of green running through it. Akane had the urge to rip something to shreds. She could feel her hands curling into claws and she started to growl.

"Raannnnmaaaa!" Akane rumbled as she looked at the two people in front of her. She felt her control slipping on her tightly leashed yet mercurial temper. When she heard herself growling, she thought it sounded different, more like a cats than a human. Then all of a sudden the pain hit her like a Tsunami doubling her over onto her knees. That’s when she began to hear the voice whispering in her head.

"You are mine now! You will obey me and do as I wish!" the voice rumbled in thoughts making Akane shiver in fear. Marshaling her thoughts she mentally shouted at the voice "NO I will never obey you! Who are you?"

The voice replied, "I am now your master and you my slave!"

As Akane tried to stand again she was hit with another wave of pain sending her to her hands and knees. This wave was totally different from the one before. This pain centered in her bones. She could feel a strange sensation of her bones stretching and then there were a few popping noises as her bones shifted into a shape not her own. Akane held her scream back for as long as she could feel it trying to escape. She couldn't let anyone see her like this she thought as she started to crawl out of the clearing and made it into the bushes just as she let go.

"AhhhhhhhrrRrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaannwwwwwllllllllllllllll!!!!" Akane screamed in agony and gathered her thoughts one more time before she lost all concuss thought. "What are you doing to me!? What's happening?"

"I'm getting my revenge for what you did to me! But you were not the only one. When your transformation is complete you will loose everything that was ever precious to you. You will be lost to your friends and your family. The greatest revenge is what you will do for me! You will kill your fiancé! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the voice laughed demonically in her head.

"NOooooooowwwwwllllll!!!" Akane screamed again, her last conscious thought was, “Ranma I l…love….” Then every thing went dark as she lost conciseness.

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Ranma heard a growling noise in the background but couldn’t get Shan-Pu to let go. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Akane fall to her knees then stand and fall again. Taking a closer look at her, Ranma saw her aurora pulsing a strange color. He saw her crawling slowly towards the bushes as if to escape the pain that she was obviously in. Then he heard her scream. It sent chills up and down his spine. Without conscious thought to the damage that he would do to Shan-Pu, Ranma swept her feet out from under her and hit her in the chest with an open palm strike, breaking her hold and ran in the direction that Akane had disappeared. As he got to the edge of the forest he hear one last scream that sounded like Akane but not. The scream took on a life of its own and began to sound like a cat howling.

Ranma shuddered in fear but forced himself to continue, "For Akane," he said as he walked into the forest. Turning his head to search for Akane or the cat thing, Ranma preyed that he found Akane first before that thing did. Suddenly, he saw a flash of yellow out of the corner of his eye. Dashing over to the yellow object, Ranma reached down and lifted it up in his hands. "It's Akane's gi or what 's left of it. Hmm there's no blood. That's strange but its also good now I gotta find Akane," he said as he raised his head to search the shadows.

Nothing.

"Maybe if I go a little deeper, I might find her," he muttered as his heart gave a funny lurch and his stomach twisted in worry. "I know she'll be ok, she's strong as a gorilla," he whispered.

Standing, he continued on his way deeper into the forest. Five more minutes passed and he still hadn't found her. Ranma swallowed hard to rid himself of the lump in his throat and yelled her name in desperation, "AKANEEEEeeeeee!

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