From where she lay propped up against a hilltop tree, Nabiki subtly glanced over the top of her textbook at Ranma-sensei and his student below her. Ranma, his back turned to his fiancée, was cheerfully taunting his student as he slowly backed up the hill toward her, Akane struggling to catch up as she fought for footing on the rain-damp grass from the earlier drizzle. Nabiki shook her head with a sigh — in his pleasure at the happy outcome of their little revelation to Akane that afternoon, he had slipped back into old training habits. The middle Tendo briefly considered calling him on it right then and there, and was in the middle of reluctantly rejecting the idea to avoid undercutting his authority as sensei in front of his student when the question was taken out of her hand.
“C’mon, Tomboy, my ancient aunt can move faster than that,” Ranma called with a grin at his huffing student. “You’ve been speed-practicin’ for weeks, now, ya can do better — whoops!” As he took a step back, his foot came down on a piece of slick mud and for just a moment his arms pinwheeled for balance before his training reasserted itself and he started to let himself drop. For just that split second his attention was off his student, and Akane lunged forward up the hill, striking forward even as her own feet slipped out from underneath her — which meant that when her fist slammed into his descending groin, half her momentum was gone and Ranma only curled around the blow as he rolled down the hill instead of being lifted off his feet.
“Ranma!” Nabiki shrieked even as Akane sprawled full-length and slid down the hill after her teacher. Tossing her book to the side, the pageboy-haired girl started to run down the hill only to find herself slipping and rolling head over heels after the other two, fetching up a few yards away from them.
“Ranma-sensei, are you okay?” Akane asked, lifting herself up from where she lay against the pony-tailed boy.
“Good ... good hit,” Ranma managed to gasp out as he forced himself to uncurl. Sucking in a deep breath, he slowly got to his feet. Nabiki and Akane each took an arm, and the three slowly moved up the hill to the tree Nabiki had been sitting against.
Ranma sighed with relief as he settled down against the tree trunk and the two girls sat on each side of him. “Like I said, Akane, good hit. That would win ya a fight for real against almost all guys. Now, what did ya do wrong?”
“Wrong?” Akane asked. “What do you mean, wrong? It worked, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, it worked,” Ranma agreed, “but what if it hadn’t? What if I’d managed ta twist just enough ta take it on the leg, instead a’ the balls? You would a’ been sliding down the hill on yer stomach, and I would a’ been waiting fer ya when ya got ta the bottom. An’ if you’d been fightin’ more than just me, ya would’ve been helpless even if ya tagged me. Never commit everything ya got ta an attack unless ya have no other choice. Ya didn’t do that when ya were fightin’ the Horde, did ya?”
“Nobody in the Horde were as good as you,” Akane riposted, but with a thoughtful look on her face. “But that just means I have to be even more careful with you, doesn’t it?”
“Ya got it,” Ranma agreed, then glanced up as the sound of the renewed drizzle pattering gently on the tree’s leaves drifted down to them. “Cool! Now we get ta try somethin’ else I’ve been thinkin’ about,” he said even as Nabiki made a face and scrabbled to get her textbooks safely in her bookbag. Standing and hobbling out into the soft rain, he forced himself up straight and within a minute vanished from Akane’s sight, his empty clothes dropping to the grass.
“Ranma?” Akane asked, glancing around, then gasped and whirled at a warm, soft touch against her side through her gi.
“Ranko-sensei, Akane, don’t forget,” came Ranma’s voice from the other side, and the youngest Tendo jerked away from another soft touch tickling her ribs on the other side. “I want ya ta try and stop me from taggin’ ya.”
“But how am I supposed to stop you if I can’t see you?” Akane demanded, then shrieked and spun away from tickling fingers running up her spine even as her backfist flashed through the space Ranma should have occupied.
“Give it yer best shot,” Ranma replied even as her fingers ran along Akane’s stomach, then grunted as Akane felt her side kick graze along her mentor’s smooth skin. “Good, like that, try ta figure out where I am by how I’m touchin’ ya.”
From a row of bushes at the foot of the hill, Gorash watched as the redheaded succubus danced on air, circling around her student and darting in every minute or so to tickle a rib or brush an arm, Akane spinning in place, kicking and striking out in an attempt to tag her tormentor. Turning to Geresh it said to its fellow imp, “It looks like he’s going to be staying this way for awhile, let your so-called master know.” Geresh nodded without a word and flew off, keeping low to the ground with the bushes between it and the Awakened and her part-time succubus fiancé on the hilltop.
Turning back to watch the dance, it muttered to one of the two imps still beside it, “Jalok, be ready to seek out Mara at a moment’s notice. That idiot Gosunkugi might actually be able to pull it off, this time.”
Gosunkugi Hikaru looked up from the equation he was puzzling over as the door to the former high school tool shed was pushed open slightly, the sickly-looking boy’s eyes widening as the imp he’d summoned a week earlier slipped inside. (At least, he assumed it was the imp he’d summoned — he’d never bothered to learn how to tell them apart, but what other imp would even be able to see his little hideaway?) Since it wasn’t the appointed time for its report and the budding Initiate hadn’t summoned it, that meant ...
“Master, Ranma is currently in his succubus form and outside of Nabiki’s wards,” the imp reported as it bowed and scraped.
With a triumphant shout Gosunkugi shot up from the desk where he’d been studying. “Begone!” he shouted, not noticing the imp roll its eyes as it vanished while Gosunkugi whirled to grab the matches from the place on the shelf beside the candles. “At last, I have her!” he exulted as he circled around the summoning circle he had already drawn on the smooth concrete floor, carefully lighting the candles already at their places at the cardinal points. The last candle sporting its spike of flame, he lit the incense in the burner to the side, waited impatiently for the scent to permeate the tiny room, then closed his eyes, fought his mind clear, and began to chant.
Ranma grinned happily as she dodged Akane’s swinging backhand fist, then the follow-up kick — neither any longer wild strikes at empty air. She knew it! Akane had been sensing things, the succubus had been picking up hints of spiking discomfort — even fear — from her student for days, but she hadn’t realized why. Then he’d had his suspicions, but didn’t see any way to confirm them, considering how antsy his student had been when he was a she. But now ...
... Now, she’d better call off the sparring before the rising frustration boiling off her student tipped over into explosive rage. “Break!” the redhead called out, then, “Whoa!” as she twisted to the side and dropped, Akane’s fist flashing through the spot her head had occupied a split second earlier. “Break, break, enough!” she yelled as she quickly flew back and up out of the youngest Tendo’s reach.
Akane stared at the empty air Ranma’s voice was coming from, chest heaving, and her fists slowly unclenched as the fury slowly faded from her eyes. “Good job!” Ranma caroled as she cautiously approached the raven-haired girl. Outside of almost losin’ yer temper in a sparrin’ session, we’re gonna hafta work on that. But first ...
“Good job? But I didn’t hit you!” Akane protested as she stretched muscles gone tense with anger.
“No, ya didn’t, but only ‘cause I was dodging ya. That’s just it, I had ta dodge ya, you knew where I was!” As Akane’s eyes widened, Ranma turned toward her fiancée. “Nabiki, get over here!”
Nabiki rose from where she had been watching the one-sided sparring and walked forward until she was at the edge of the protection from the light drizzle provided by the tree’s canopy, eyes bright with interest.
“Nabs, I think ya said earlier that ya can sense Awakened, right? D’ya feel anything from Akane?”
Nabiki shook her head. “Yes, I did, and no, I don’t. But you’re right, Akane was definitely aiming for you toward the end.”
“But ya don’t sense anything from Kasumi, either, so maybe Akane’s like her,” Ranma replied.
Akane stiffened. “Like Kasumi?!”
Unseen by his student, Ranma blushed as Nabiki rolled her eyes. “Good going,” she muttered, then turned to Akane. “Yes, Kasumi can see nature spirits, apparently she always could. And Ranko’s right, I don’t sense anything unusual from her, either.”
“So let’s test it out,” Ranma said eagerly. “I’m gonna shut up an’ circle you, movin’ up an’ down, an’ when Nabiki says ‘mark’ I’ll stop an’ you try ta point ta me.”
Akane nodded, her expression an odd mix of uncertainty and eagerness, and Ranma started to slowly fly around her, moving up and down like a wave. “Mark!” Nabiki called out, and Ranma froze directly behind her student. Akane closed her eyes and slowly turned, passed up her invisible sensei, paused, reversed the turn, then pointed directly at the floating redhead. “There!” she announced firmly.
“Ya got it!” Ranma enthused, and Akane opened her eyes with a broad grin.
Nabiki smiled at the happiness radiating from the two younger girls, then frowned speculatively. “This does sound something like what big sis has,” she mused. “I’m going to have to ask her if she went through a period where she could sense spirits before she could see them — though she might not remember, considering how long she says it’s been.”
“Sounds good,” Ranma agreed. “If she did, that’ll mean that Akane should be able ta see me soon, and I could use a sparring —” She broke off, frowning, as she felt an odd tugging sensation, one that felt familiar.... Then she felt the tug again, stronger than before — as if there was a rope attached to her guts, pulling — and her eyes widened as she remembered when she had felt it before, the night when she had first merged with Nabiki, during the attack on her fiancée’s wards. Nabiki hadn’t been the target, she had! The succubus frantically looked over at Nabiki, but from the ever-strengthening pull she was too far away. That left ...
Ranma whirled back to Akane and dove toward her student, only to feel the tug turn into a yank. Just before she could reach her, the raven-haired girl vanished from her sight as the world went white.
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(Posted Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:13)
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