Xian Pu charged forward, feinting toward Ryoga’s head with one chúi, then swinging the other hard at his side, only to have the feint effortlessly dodged and the other chúi knocked aside by the massive umbrella still he still held. She kept her face closed and stern as she maneuvered around the boy that had been dueling with her son-in-law, away from the hand holding the umbrella. But it was hard, a bubble of pure joy threatening to burst out into a broad smile.
Yes! This “Strong Boy” isn’t as skilled as the Panda — Husband — or even Ranma, but he’s tough, like nobody I’ve ever faced. I’m faster, I think, or would be at my best. But I’m not at my best, the lack of real practice and decent food is probably slowing me down. So Lost Boy actually has a chance to beat me! He has to be better than the Panda. He can’t be worse.
Still, no fudging — when the Elders ask if I did my best to win, I have to be able to say ‘yes’. And that means getting this over fast, he’d be able to outlast me even if I was at my best. So, charge in and see if I get the opening I need.
Continuing to maneuver as she ignored the shouts from her invisible son-in-law, Xian Pu glanced around quickly, then nodded as she focused again on her opponent. Slipping to the side and smiling inwardly as Ryoga followed her, she waited until the broken water fountain, still spraying high into the air, came between the two then charged, leaping through the fountaining water.
“Hey, this is my fight, you stay out of it!” Ranma shouted from where the busty redhead floated, invisible to almost everyone around and suddenly ignored by most of the crowd as students cleared a wide circle around Ryoga and his surprise opponent.
The nature spirit was starting to float forward toward the now circling pair, when she felt her armed grabbed. “Ranko, leave them to it!” Nabiki hissed.
“What?! Why?” Ranma asked, looking over at her pageboy-haired fiancée, her younger sister beside her.
“Remember what I told you about how she’s attached to Ranma’s father?” the middle Tendo whispered. “Well, if his not-so-friend, here, is as good as he looks, he just might be able to solve her problem — and get her out of our hair at the same time. Things are complicated enough without martial artist Amazons from a Chinese backwater with weird laws adding themselves to the mix.”
“So then she’ll be chasin’ Ryoga ...” Ranma started, then a broad grin spread across her face. “Ya know, I think I can live with that. Maybe I should help her out.”
“Ranko, martial artists aren’t supposed to interfere in each other’s fights!” Akane asserted, glaring at the spot she thought Ranma occupied.
“Yeah, well, she already butted inta mine!” Ranma retorted, though her attempt to pull her arm out of her fiancée’s grasp was halfhearted.
Nabiki frowned thoughtfully as the three watched Ryoga and Xian Pu circle, then shook her head. “No, stay out of it,” she murmured. “We don’t know enough about how the Amazons’ laws work — you could make things even worse.”
Ranma thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess —” she started, then broke off as Xian Pu suddenly leaped forward.
Ryoga stared intently at his surprise opponent, fighting the panic he felt rising as he took in the strange girl’s appearance, hair-style, facial features — in spite of the fact that he’d never seen her before in his life, she looked disturbingly familiar.
All at once he lost sight of the purple-haired girl as the water fountain Ranma had broken, his school uniform still lying scattered around in the spreading puddle, came between the two. He was stepping to the side to bring her back into view, when suddenly she came vaulting through the spraying water, chúi flashing even faster than the first time she’d closed. Ryoga spun to the side, taking him out of reach of one of the heavy weapons, but the girl had planned her attack well and he’d instinctively broken to the wrong side, his umbrella in the wrong hand, and he grunted as the chúi he hadn’t cleared grazed his side.
Taking advantage of the impact half-spinning him, his umbrella flashed around, and her attempt to duck and roll to avoid the half-sensed strike from behind wasn’t enough—the blow across her back sent her rolling across the grass to smash into a nearby tree. For a moment Ryoga stood frozen in place as the shocked crowd fell silent. Then he was racing forward, dropping to his knees beside the girl, carefully turning her onto her back. Please, kami, not again! he prayed silently as he checked for a pulse, carefully probed for broken ribs.
Suddenly, her eyes fluttered, then opened to gaze up at him, blinking groggily, and she smiled. “You I love,” she whispered as one hand caught his shoulder and pulled herself up to press her lips against his for a brief moment before she again went limp, collapsing back to the ground underneath him.
Ryoga stared in stunned amazement. Again?! What is it with these weird girls? Is everyone outside of Japan insane?! He again checked for a pulse, breathed a sigh of relief as he found one, watched her breath for a moment, then slowly rose to his feet. “Ranma, this is all your fault!” he shouted, glaring around, eyes passing over the invisible nature spirit. “If you hadn’t gone running off to China, she wouldn’t be lying here right now ... I wouldn’t have —” The Lost Boy broke off his shouting, took a deep breath, then added, “Your cowardice is responsible for this girl getting hurt, you take care of her. And when I come back, we’ll finish this fight and if you haven’t helped her I’ll kill you!”
And with that, he spun on his heels, walked through the crowd, scattering students like a flock of geese, and was gone.
Ranma watched from where she floated beside Nabiki and Akane as the Ryoga finished his rant then stalked away. “Well, that was ... odd,” her fiancée murmured, and she sighed.
“Yeah, I wonder what he thinks I did ta him?” the nature spirit mused, then sighed. “C’mon, let’s check on ... what did ya say her name is, Shampoo?”
Nabiki nodded and the three started forward, when Ranma slammed to a stop as three massive life-glows sprang into existence off to the side. She whirled, barely aware of Nabiki whirling around beside her with a gasp, and the two stared at three ... were they human? They felt human, but they were so small and wrinkled, like someone had shrunk whole bodies instead of just the heads like in that documentary he saw once, then animated the corpses. The redhead was so intensely focused on the three blazing powerhouses of life-glow that she barely noticed the six much younger women accompanying the three ... crones.
Akane stopped and turned after a few steps when she realized her sister wasn’t beside her. Turning around, she glanced at Nabiki, then followed her gaze to the group of three old ... women? ... and seven much younger ones approaching. She glanced briefly at the three in front, then examined the other seven closely, eyes narrowing. those seven moved like fighters — well, six of them did. The youngest one had some training, moved fairly well, but seemed to lack confidence. “Who’re they?” she asked, puzzled.
“I don’t know,” Nabiki replied. “But whatever you do, be polite to the three ancient ones — be very polite.”
“Ya got that right!” came Ranko’s soprano voice from empty air beside her, and Akane suppressed a reflexive flinch, then gazed more intently at the three shrunken crones in the front, trying to see what Nabiki and, apparently, Ranko saw in them. There was nothing she could see, outside of the sense of balance required to pogo along on staves like that. Must be something magical, the youngest Tendo thought with a shiver.
As the group approached, the closest of the three crones glanced over toward them, then stared for a moment at the empty air where Ranko’s voice had come from before focusing again on the purple-haired girl lying against the tree she’d smashed into.
“Ranko, wait!” Nabiki suddenly hissed, just as the ten strangers came to an abrupt halt.
“Who are ya, and what do ya want with Shampoo?” came Ranko’s voice from a spot between the unconscious girl and the group, startling the seven younger women.
“I am Elder Ku Lon, and we are of the Joketsuzoku, as is Xian Pu,” replied the crone that had first noticed Ranko. “And what is it to a nature spirit what we wish with my great-granddaughter?”
“It’s a martial artist’s duty to protect the weak and helpless,” Ranko responded instantly. “Wait, you can see me?!”
“Yes, child, I can, as can my fellow Elders,” Ku Lon replied with a chuckle.
“Uh ... did ya say yer great-granddaughter?”
“Yes, I did,” Ku Lon said. “We mean her no harm. Will you allow Pa Fum to examine her?”
“Uh, sure, but I’m gonna be watchin’ her.”
The youngest of the women, glancing nervously where Ranko’s voice was coming from, circled around the spot to kneel beside Xian Pu. She quickly checked the girl’s pulse, peeled back her eyelids, and carefully ran her hands along Xian Pu’s sides. For a moment, Akane almost thought she felt something ... odd, and shivered.
“Xian Pu has a concussion, and cracked ribs,” Pa Fum reported, her light-blue hair rippling as she wryly shook her head. “I’m surprised, really — if that had been me, I’d have a broken back if I was lucky. I’ll bind her ribs, then we need to get her back to camp for a healing ritual.” She motioned one of the warriors over while slipping a backpack off her shoulders and pulling out a roll of cloth, and the woman slowly moved around where Ranko’s voice had come from, then when no reaction came from Ranko knelt and carefully lifted Xian Pu to a sitting position and held her up while Pa Fum tore open Xian Pu’s top and wrapped her ribs securely.
“So, nature spirit, will you allow us to take my great-granddaughter back to our camp to tend to her wounds?” Ku Lon asked.
“Uh, yeah, I guess ...” came Ranko’s voice from next to the warrior holding Xian Pu.
The warrior jerked, then wilted slightly at Pa Fum’s glare. “Carefully!” the healer ordered. “Pick her up carefully! Let’s get her back to camp — slowly.”
Blushing, the young woman carefully scooped Xian Pu up in her arms, and the ten women slowly walked through the crowd of students the way they’d come and away.
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(Posted Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:16)
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