[Episode 126001] [Episode 126001]In short order, the family stood before the Amazon restaurant.
"I really do not want to do this." Ranma said.
"You have to, father." Kenshiro said evenly. "Or else you will never be able to sleep at night without looking over your shoulder."
"I see our son isn't too battered to dispense sage advice." Nabiki said.
"Kuno was a bit better than I expected." Ken murmured, rubbing his bruising chest. "I'll be fine before long, as long as we don't court danger here."
"I'll play it real cool little brother." Rikku promised. "In fact, I'll be staying close to you, since you're in no real shape to fight."
"I'm more than capable of taking care of myself, sister." Kenshiro said with mild annoyance.
"Sure you can." She said, laying a hand gently on his warm skin. "But that fight with Kuno was no cake walk. I've watched your back this long. Why would I stop now?" She closed her eyes and lay her head against his shoulder.
"All right lovebirds." Nabiki said. "We've got other stops and it's getting late. Lets go."
"Right." Ranma said, opening the door as his family took up a familiar formation, Ranma in the lead, the children in the middle, and Nabiki bringing up the rear.
"Welcome to Neko- Airen!" A purple haired blur shot from her place at the door, to tackle air.
"Not now Xian Pu." Ranma said, crossing to the counter. {"Elder Ku Lohn, I come to you as an Amazon Elder to resolve the matter of the Kiss of Marriage given to me by the warrior Xian Pu of the Amazons."} Ranma spoke in perfect if accented Mandarin as he addressed the aged matriarch.
"Aiya! Airen finally marry Shampoo! Shampoo so happy!"
"No! I will never accept this!" Mousse shouted, leaping out of the kitchen and blindly launching a barrage of chains into the evening crowd.
"Are you trying to hurt somebody, down for brains?" Ken growled, extending his hand as the various chains and weapons dipped sharply to imbed themselves into the floor.
"Changing your hair color won't save you, Ranma!" Mousse growled hurling a series of short harpoons at the family. Ken's hands move swiftly and efficiently as an unseen force deflected the harpoons away from himself and the nearby customers.
Alas, the young Saotome was only human and in a moment of distraction, a single projectile pierced his chest, slipping neatly between his ribs to exit through his back.
Ken stared wide eyed as the blood flowed from his chest. "I'd... forgotten.." He gasped dropping to his knees.
"Ha ha! At last I am victorious over- You're not Ranma." Mousse said settling his glasses back onto his face.
That single statement triggered a hurricane of activity among the family. Rikku reached behind her head and drew a sword from its sheath and sliced through the chain like it was sewing thread as Nabiki charged Mousse with her baton in her hand a moment before she extended it to full length and batted the Amazon male out the front window like a baseball, then went vaulting out the shattered glass after him. Ranma hastily pulled the length of chain out from the back as Ken inhaled sharply.
"Rikku." Ranma called, stopping the other Saotome in her tracks. "That idiot was using chains with razor edges. Ken's heart has been badly lacerated. I need you to stem the bleeding while I get a spell set up."
Rikku grimaced at the mention of spells, but knelt with Ken in her lap, pressing her jacket over the entry wound. "Stay with me, little brother." She whispered.
"Kinda hard." He gasped pressing her hand down. "Sorry..."
"About what?" She asked shifting to apply more pressure to the entry and exit wounds.
"White clothes..."
Rikku looked down at her formerly white jeans and rapidly reddening jacket. "I can buy a new outfit. I can clone a new sibling. But I cannot replace my only Kenshiro, so damn it all you better not die on me!"
"Sorry... nee... chan...." Ken gasped as he fell limp in her arms as Ranma finished drawing a large circle in green chalk.
Rikku lay her brother's inert bleeding body in the middle of the circle. "Don't fail me." She said, looking at her father with haunted eyes that had seen too much.
Ranma merely nodded and addressed the remaining customers. "Excuse me folks. I'm really sorry to disturb your meal, but I need everyone seated within the chalk line to kindly move outside it."
Fortunately this was still Nerima and no matter how settled down it had become in his absence, the residents still knew that when someone said to move, there was a damn good reason. The circle was quickly cleared and a few feet voluntary given in as many directions as possible. Ranma nodded his thanks and began chanting in an ancient language as the crowd looked on.
***
Xian Pu was a proud Amazon warrior. She had faced strong and cunning opponents, and had come out victorious. She had come to this strange land with a purpose and not only survive, but thrived.
Unfortunately there were times when her emotions clouded her judgment beyond rational reasoning, even by Nerima standards. Now the earlier instance when she had decided that Ranma was going to marry her was not such an instance, as he had come seeking to resolve the Kiss of Marriage and as any Amazon would tell you, there is only one possible resolution.
So that having been said it's time to watch Xian Pu's train of logical thought derail.
Hmm... Ranma's finally back and he wants to marry me! It's about time... Though I can't help but wonder why he brought these others here. Well, the mercenary girl is probably in it for a yen or a laugh. I can't place the boy but he'd have made a strong warrior when he grew a little. The girl... she worries me though... She gives my husband a look and suddenly he's ordering the customers around and chanting... Xian Pu's eyes widened in realization. Oh no! Ranma's been enslaved by his evil girl side and even now she is compelling him to use the blood sacrifice of the other to create a horrible army of the undead! I have to save him!
With this delusion idea firmly in her mind, Xian Pu charged
Rikku swiftly and silently. The shift of a table directly behind her was all the
warning the eldest Saotome had before she took a bonbori to the jaw with a
sickening crunch of bone.
Xian Pu danced giddily for a moment as her foe slumped to the floor unconscious, then raced the remaining few feet towards Ranma.
"Airen! Shampoo beat evil girlside! Now we-OOF!" Shampoo obviously didn't understand that slamming into a glowing mystical barrier could knock the wind out of you. Within the spell area Ranma grit his teeth as the spell continued in his head and the customers were treated to the most peculiar sight of blood flowing back into a wounded body.
***
Great... I'm dead. AGAIN. Ken mumbled in the void.
Chaos sama, water path or not, I'm gonna fry that stupid duck! Oh wait... I
think I feel. Yeah, blood flowing backward. That must be dad. I can feel my back
and chest closing. Hell, I can feel again period! Oh hell, there goes my cardiac
damage being reversed. That's gonna itch for days! Oh... I think I can breathe
again... and there goes my heart restarting... Ah hell... this is gonna...
"ARRRRRGH!" Ken screamed in agony as the spell- and his umpteenth
resurrection- finished, leaving his body wracked in agony.
Unnoticed at a back table a slender gothic brunette brushed her ebony bangs from her eyes as she toyed with the silver ankh at her neck. "Be careful, Ken. I can't look the other way much longer." She murmured, too quietly to be heard. A moment later, she was gone.
"You okay, 'Shiro?" Ranma asked as Ken pulled himself into a small quivering ball.
"I've got him, dad." Rikku said slowly pulling herself up a chair and then a table. "Get to mom before she kills someone."
"Didn't know you cared." Ranma said helping his daughter steady herself.
"I don't." She said flashing a feral grin. "Murder is my job."
Ranma laughed heartily and trotted out the door as Rikku shakily made her way to the huddled figure gingerly wiggling her jaw. "Can't believe I let that stupid Amazon blindside me like that. Which reminds me." She turned slightly seeing that Xian Pu had gotten over the shock of the resurrection and was charging her. Rikku just glared and slipped one hand into her pants pocket and throwing a small sphere that impacted the Amazon's chest before exploding into a cocoon of webbing, each thread thinner than a human hair. The bound fiancée dropped to the ground like a wriggling fish, as Rikku pulled Ken's still trembling body close to her chest.
"I still say I should kill him and be done with it." Nabiki snarled slamming the door open.
"He's in no condition to fight back. It'd be little more than a massacre." Ranma said evenly.
"He KILLED our son." Nabiki growled.
"Yes, and you have repaid him for that. And our son is back. See?" He pointed to where the siblings sat.
Nabiki growled incoherently, then raised her voice in Mandarin {"Hey, Ku Lohn. Think this is yours."} She snarled and hurled a very battered and bloody Mousse over the counter. {"His legs are still intact. I think."}
"You did this?" Ku Lohn gaped. "This is... impressive. And has your other child done to Xian Pu?"
Ranma blinked and looked around. "Rikku, was the biothermal constricting monofilaments really necessary?"
"Yes. I didn't feel like being attacked again. Now the more she struggles the tighter it gets. I've yet to see someone die from this. They usually stop when they pass out from lack of oxygen. Maybe today will be the first."
"You've changed, Ranma." Ku Lohn said. "So why are you here?"
"I have a wife and children now. Obviously what we had six months ago won't work now. You have options. I want them." Ranma smiled, slightly. "Please."
Ku Lohn nodded. "Well, there seems to be a simple solution that satisfies all of us."
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(Posted Sun, 05 Dec 2004 18:13)
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