Ranma landed on the shoe shelf beneath the window in the locker room.
His heart was pounding madly. His worry for his cousin was so overwhelming, it felt like an avalanche bearing down on him, threatening to drown him. Yet worry was warring for dominance with anger, which burned as hot as the lava bubbling in a volcano seconds before its eruption. All he wanted to do was burst into the room like an avenging angel, his battle aura blazing around him like a bonfire of retribution, and rip the head off Hakufu's attacker to take home as a trophy.
But Ranma managed to hold himself back. He assessed the situation with a glance, immediately spotting his cousin standing against the opposite wall.
Her vest and shirt had been ripped to shreds, leaving her dressed in a white cotton bra straining to preserve her modesty. The part of him that had been Kokin felt a brief surge of embarrassment, but Ranma squashed that feeling like an annoying bug. He was here to protect his cousin and kick the ass of anybody who would dare hurt her. He had no use for embarrassment.
But Hakufu was okay. A bit beat up and probably annoyed that her new clothes had been destroyed on her first day, but she was all right. Ranma suddenly felt faint as a surge of relief swept through him. The room began spinning, his legs buckled, and Ranma grabbed onto the window frame to keep his balance.
He scowled. This was getting ridiculous! First he had been in such a berserker rage it made any one of Ryoga's moods look like a mild temper tantrum, ready to rip Hakufu's attacker limb from limb, now he could barely stay upright from relief. He had to get off this emotional roller-coaster. The sooner the better.
They weren't even his own emotions! They belonged to the guy Ranma had replaced and had been shoved into his head in a rather painful manner reminiscent of a monkey hammering a square peg into a round hole. He hadn't liked having another person's memories and feelings competing with his own from the very moment he had arrived in this world, but right now this Kokin guy's impulses bothered Ranma much more than usual.
He knew that the whole thing was a set-up, carefully planned by an insider. They had wanted to keep him occupied so they could get Hakufu alone. He had no idea what they wanted to achieve with this, but he knew that losing his head and rushing in with his vision clouded by anger in some half-arsed rescue attempt was the worst thing he could do in this situation.
For now, Ranma decided, the best course of action would be to get himself under control, try to get Hakufu out and not make the situation any worse.
As luck would have it, neither of the people in the room had noticed him arrive, giving Ranma time reign in his tumultuous emotions.
Kannei giggled madly, slowly hauling himself out of the hole in the wall. His broken nose was gushing blood, and drool was dripping from his mouth. He took a few lurching steps towards Ryomou, then lunged at her with an inarticulate battle cry, his tonfa raised to strike.
Ryomou easily dodged his clumsy charge, displaying impressive speed as she ducked under Kannei and tripped him up. He landed hard, his breath exploding out of his mouth, and Ryomou straddled him before he could regain his bearings, picking up one of the tonfa he had dropped. Grabbing him by the hair, she slammed his head into the ground and smirked at him like a dragon about to devour a cow.
“You are not a fighter anymore,” she said, her voice filled with malicious glee as she raised the tonfa to strike. “And you are now... finished!” She brought down the weapon with enough force to splatter the wall with Kannei's blood, knocking him out.
“Now, it's impossible for Kannei to follow through with the execution,” Ryomou went on calmly. “Therefore, as of this moment, I, Shimei Ryomou, will take over!” She turned her head to look at Hakufu. “I will be your executioner.”
Ranma decided now was a good time to make his presence known. He hopped off the shoe shelf and assumed a casual non-threatening stance. “Wow. You're pretty good.”
“Ranma!” Hakufu whirled around, her eyes wide. “Argh!” she cried out, her face transforming into a pained grimace as she wrapped her left arm around her midsection protectively.
Ranma clenched his jaw as anger roiled through him like a tsunami, threatening to sweep him up in its tempestuous demand for immediate and brutal retribution. Balling his hands into fists, he took several deep breaths to reign in his wildly fluctuating emotions.
“What? How did you get here?” Ryomou demanded.
Ranma forced himself to relax, releasing his tension with a sigh. “Through the window. Didn't you see me?” he said with a smirk.
Hakufu snorted, then winced again, tightening the arm around her stomach. “Owww,” she whined. “Don't joke around, Ranma. It hurts to laugh.”
Ryomou just stared at him dispassionately. “If you're here to interfere with my orders I won't show you any mercy.”
“See, that's where we have a slight problem,” Ranma said. “Normally, I wouldn't dream of interfering with another person's fight. But, you see, Hakufu is my cousin. She's pretty weak and also an idiot and she can be a real pain in the ass sometimes-”
“Hey! Who are you calling an idiot?!” Hakufu demanded.
“But I promised to take care of her,” Ranma went on, ignoring Hakufu. “If you want to fight her, you can come to my place and spar with Hakufu once she's healed up. Somehow, though, I doubt that you just want a friendly sparring match, what with you talking about murdering her and everything.”
“And how do you plan to stop me?” Ryomou smirked. “Are you going to fight me, Shuyu Ranma?”
Ranma scoffed. “Of course not.” Ryomou's smirk widened. “Unlike you, I'm not a bully.”
“...” Ryomou's visible eye narrowed as she glared at Ranma. “What. Did. You. Call. Me?”
“You heard me.” Ranma smirked back. “Here you are, about to beat up a girl who is so much weaker than you, you might as well be fighting a kid, and yet you see nothing wrong with that. If I fought you it would be the same.” He shrugged. “But I'm not into beating up kids, so I'm not going to fight you. I will, however, step in if you persist with this execution business.”
They stared at each other, Ranma meeting Ryomou's glaring eye without flinching. From Koukin's memories he knew that Ryomou wasn't a bully and that she did have a sense of right and wrong. He was hoping she might come to realise that this attack on Hakufu was uncalled for and excessive.
Ryomou was the first look away. “I'm just following orders,” she muttered. Ranma thought she sounded a bit ashamed.
“Hey, I know that.” Ranma spread his hands. “I'm just suggesting that you don't go along blindly with every order you're given. I mean, do you even know why Toutaku wants Hakufu out of the way?”
“Enjyutsu...” Ryomou mumbled.
“What?”
“I said Enjyutsu was the one who gave the order,” Ryomou repeated, turning her head to look Ranma in the eyes again. “And no, I don't know why he wants her out of the way.”
Ranma frowned. So the order had come from Enjyutsu? That didn't make any sense. Why would he want a student of his own school eliminated? He shook his head. Now was not the time to think about that.
“And you never stopped to think about it?” he asked Ryomou. She didn't answer. “Look at her,” he went on, gesturing at Hakufu. “She's weak. One punch from Gakushuu put her down. She's no threat to Enjyutsu. And she's done nothing to warrant this attack.”
“Will you stop calling me weak already, you jerk!” Hakufu cried.
They ignored her, staring at each other again. “Well?” Ranma demanded after several moments. “What's it going to be? Are you going to let us go?”
“Fine,” Ryomou spat out. “You've made some valid points. But if you ever do something to earn yourself a punishment, I WILL be the one to deliver it.”
Ranma smirked. “Hah. Anytime, anywhere.” Nodding at Ryomou, he made his way over to Hakufu. “Come on,” he said, holding out his hand. “Let's go.” Hakufu took it, and Ranma slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Hey! Put me down, you jerk!” Hakufu protested as Ranma carried her to the window.
Before he jumped out, he turned back to smirk at Ryomou again. “And if you ever do feel like having a friendly sparring match, just come to my place. Oh, and wear your Maid outfit. You look really cute in it.”
Then he jumped out, and the wind rushing in his ears stopped him from hearing what Ryomou might have said in reply to that.
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(Posted Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:08)
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