Ryoga stumbled slightly with weariness as he walked through the gate, his heavy backpack unbalancing him, then stretched and yawned as he looked around. It had been a long day’s hike — at least, he assumed it had been a day, the sun had done its usual random dance across the sky as he walked, sometimes bouncing right out of it entirely to be replaced by starry night — and it was time to find a place to set up camp.
Then again maybe he wouldn’t have to, seeing how he was staring across a lawn at the side of the Tendo home. And yes, that was the dojo on his left (at least, he thought it was his left) — and from the sounds coming out of it, someone was training. Ryoga listened for a few minutes, a grin growing across his face. From the pattern and locations of the sounds, it had to be Ranma — Akane didn’t bounce off the walls and roof like a ping-pong ball when she practiced. So, a chance to spar with Ranma, get cleaned up in the furo and a few hours sleep, and maybe someone would have the time to lead him to Akari’s farm — it was definitely turning out to be one of his better days.
Creeping along the side of the building to the corner, trailing a hand along the wall as he went, Ryoga found the door to the dojo. Slipping off his backpack, he unstrapped his umbrella, quietly pushed the door to the side, and charged through, umbrella at the ready in front of him. “Saotome Ranma, prepare — !”
Ryoga broke off his opening shout as he focused on the figure even now spinning to face him, his eyes widening at the brief glimpse of red fur running down her spine, the red spade-tipped tail whipping around her legs, the tiny horns on her forehead — the fact that she didn’t have a stitch of clothing on, and her defensive posture facing him was giving the Lost Boy a full frontal view of an incredibly attractive, full-breasted female body.
Ryoga’s charge ignobly ended as he collapsed unconscious face-forward onto the floor, blood running from his nose to pool about his face.
Ranma winced internally as her landing from her latest bounce was slightly off-center, her feet slightly out of position, her knees flexing a bit more than they should have needed to as they absorbed the shock — she had definitely lost a bit of her edge.
Part of it was the way she couldn’t get thoughts of the Tomboy out of her head. Her lover had been more relaxed and happy since having sex with her friends, but there was an edge to it that Ranma didn’t understand. And the newborn succubus’s soul sight was still cutting in and out, and she’d noticed that some of the grays, even a few spots of black, were ... were brighter somehow, and she had no idea what it meant. The answer was probably somewhere in the pile of scrolls Ku Lon had left behind, but Xian Pu and Nabiki were still translating them, and Nabiki had suggested — strongly — that Ranma wait to read their efforts until they were finished, so that she’d have the entire picture available instead of bits and pieces subject to misunderstandings.
Another part was work. Tonight was her ‘final exam’. She’d pass easily, of course, just as she did learning any Art, and Miura-sama had told her that online advance reservations had filled up her nights for the next few weeks. That would mean she’d finally have all the energy she needed to explore her new capabilities — but school started next week for Akane and she had no idea how they were going to coordinate training, schoolwork and fun time with Akane’s mornings and early afternoons taken up by school and Ranma’s late afternoons to early nights taken up by work.
And the fathers were due back any day and her mo — Nodoka hadn’t called or visited yet....
But as much as the redhead would have liked to, she couldn’t blame her clumsiness purely on relationship worries. Not having anyone close to her level to spar with over the past almost four weeks since the fathers had been hauled off by Happosai wasn’t helping. She’d had a few spars with Xian Pu, but Akane didn’t take them very well, and by now Ranma knew the Amazon’s style too well — during her time at the Cat Café Xian Pu may have been practicing her Art, but she hadn’t really been studying it, adjusting it to counter the fighters she’d met (Ranma reflected that she was going to have to do something about that, now that they were battler sisters). And besides, Xian Pu wasn’t really in Ryoga’s league —
“Saotome Ranma, prepare — !” Ranma spun at the familiar shout, grinning. Ryoga, great! She really needed to see what her new body was capable of, and nobody fit the bill better than Pork Breath.
Facing her years-long rival, she opened her mouth for her opening taunt — and froze as the fanged boy charging through the doorway into the dojo dove face first into the floor. What the hell?! the succubus thought, shocked at the sight. Ryoga was the toughest guy she knew, what could have — ? Then she noticed the blood pooling about his face, and glanced down at her naked form — or at least, the tops of her bare breasts. Oh. Right.
Sighing, the once again proven devastatingly cute — if inhuman — redhaired (and -furred) demon headed for the house. At the least, she was going to need a robe.
The Lost Boy stirred as consciousness slowly returned. What had happened? Let’s see, he’d found himself in the Tendo compound, he’d heard Ranma practicing in the dojo, he’d charged in to take his rival by surprise, and then — hastily, the Lost Boy pushed the image of ‘and then’ out of his mind.
Raising his head out of the small pool of blood, he glanced quickly around, slightly out of focus eyes passing across the red-haired whatever-it-was leaning nonchalantly against the dojo wall ... thankfully, now apparently dressed. He tacked back and focused his eyes on the gi-clad form, and stiffened. The female figure was definitely inhuman ... not many people with horn buds and a spade-tipped tail extending down to flick back and forth ... but it was also unmistakably Ranma.
“Okay, Ranma, what did you do this time?” Ryoga growled as he pushed himself to his feet.
Ranma rolled her eyes. “Yeah, of course it’s something I did, who else?” Straightening, she shrugged. “I’d tell ya, but we just finished fixin’ up the dojo from the last time ya dropped by, and money’s tight right now. So instead, you’re gonna follow me inta the house and Kasumi an’ Akane’s gonna tell ya. Come on.”
Akane finished her tale of the four weeks since the wedding fiasco (leaving out a few details, like her lover’s new dietary needs), and Ryoga sat in stunned silence, ignoring his rival, former prospective girlfriend, and the matronly Tendo, as he had since Akane’s admission of her true gender preferences. He really wanted to blame this on Ranma, he really did, but he just couldn’t see how this time. Blame Akane’s preferences on some kind of mind control? It would have to predate Ranma even meeting her — nice trick, if Ryoga could just figure out a way to make it work. Ranma using his girl form to convince Akane to pick him? Yeah, right, not even the Lost Boy could wrap his head around that one, as macho as Ranma was, not with the kind of relationship Akane would want. And then the whole ‘use an Amazon ceremony to get Shampoo off his back and turn into a demon’ thing — Ryoga just couldn’t figure out how that could fit into some deep, dark plan from Ranma’s twisty mind.
Finally, he shook his head and growled, “I’m sure this has to be your fault somehow, Ranma!” But even he could hear the uncertainty in his voice, and Ranma just grinned.
“Yeah, ya just keep tellin’ yerself that. When ya figure out how, ya let me know. In the meantime, P-chan, how ‘bout a spar while Kasumi makes somethin’ fer ya?”
“Like that?” Ryoga asked, looking Ranma up and down before his eyes were caught by the motion of Ranma’s suddenly lashing tail.
“Yeah, like this, it’s the body I got,” Ranma replied, grinning. “And it’s not like I didn’t kick yer ass when I was like this an’ human.”
“Well, at least you actually got something on this time instead of cheating, but it isn’t likely to stay on.”
“Hey, ya use what ya got, not that it worked too well on you. What’s wrong, not interested in girls?”
As Ryoga sputtered at the aspersion of his manhood, Ranma’s grin turned evil. “But now that ya mention it, I might as well save time, so ...” Quickly undoing the belt and the gi’s ties, she shrugged to let the top slip off her shoulders and down along her arms to drop to the floor. Accompanied by a soft “Oh, my!” from Kasumi, she slipped out of the pants and strode naked toward the door, tail swishing back and forth. “Come on, Ryoga, let’s do it, if you’re man enough!” she called over her shoulder.
As a blushing but grimly determined Ryoga hitched up his backpack, picked up his umbrella, and followed his rival toward the dojo (firmly keeping his eyes on the red ‘V’ of fur centered on Ranma’s spine and off her tight backside), Akane glanced at Kasumi and rolled her eyes. “You know, I’d really like to be able to blame that on Ranma’s new nature, but I can’t,” she murmured.
A beet-red Kasumi sighed as she bent to pick up Ranma’s discarded clothing. “True, Ranma has always been lacking in modesty. Oh, well, it means I won’t have to repair the gi I fixed up for her.”
Grinning, Akane replied, “Not much chance of that, the way Ranma prefers not to dress these days, not that I’m complaining! I just have to wonder what’s going to happen when the fathers get home. Well, I suppose I’d better go and keep an eye on the two chest-thumpers — you’d think Ranma’s new body would have less testosterone.”
Ranma grinned fiercely as she dropped beneath Ryoga’s swinging umbrella, rolled out of the way of his follow-up kick, and pushed off with her hands to bounce back and away from her opponent. Ryoga charged forward to keep contact, but Ranma bounced back again to the wall, pushed off toward the roof, and then back down behind the large boy.
But Ryoga was already turning, and Ranma was forced to hop back to avoid the umbrella’s thrusting ferule, again, then she slipped around a third thrust and slapped the umbrella to the side as she charged forward. Almost anyone else would have been knocked back and down by the fist that slammed into the rock-hard muscles of Ryoga’s abdomen, but he merely grunted as he dropped his umbrella and one arm twisted around Ranma’s as the other hand grabbed her tail right at its base, and then the succubus was spinning through the air to slam into a wall.
“Good one,” Ranma wheezed as she slid down the wall to the floor. “I forgot that the muscles in yer gut are as tough as the rock ya use for a head.”
But Ryoga merely smirked as he again scooped up his umbrella, finally inured to the constant taunts that were one of the hallmarks of Anything Goes. “You just go right on thinking that,” he growled, and charged.
Ranma rolled to her feet and raced to meet him, leaping on top of the thrusting umbrella. But that was an old tactic long familiar to the Lost Boy, and as he felt Ranma’s weight he threw his arm up, trying to throw Ranma through the ceiling — only to find a new element added as a red tail whipped down to encircle his neck. Ranma yelped in unexpected pain as her tail snapped tight, even as she spun at its end to hammer her fists into Ryoga’s back just to the side of his kidneys — it was a spar, after all, not that Ranma’s delicacy helped Ryoga much as the shock of the blows shook his entire body even as they knocked him off his feet.
Ranma’s tail untwisted from around the neck of the collapsing teenager even as she used the momentum of the blows to spin in the air to land feet-first with her back to her opponent. She leaped away and spun to face Ryoga as soon as her feet hit the floor, arms raised to block any attack, only to freeze at the sight of her rival slowly rolling over with a groan. “Hey, you okay, buddy?” she asked, suddenly worried. She hadn’t hit him that hard, had she?
Ryoga sat up, shaking his head and rubbing at his back. Looking up at the succubus (any reaction to her nude charms long since gone), he groaned, “I thought we weren’t using ki. And since when is your ki black?” He started to push himself to his feet, and Akane moved away from the corner from which she’d been watching to offer him a hand, glaring at Ranma.
“Ki?” Ranma asked. “But I didn’t —”
Akane’s glare softened, turning to worry. “Ranma, your hands.”
Ranma glanced down, eyes widening at the sight of the fluctuating ribbons of dark energy crackling around her still-clenched fists. Closing her eyes and concentrating, she could feel the energy she’d been able to sense ever since the first night after she’d almost killed Moto-san when he’d tried to help her, but it was no longer stored, waiting for use — instead, it was flowing through her body, suffusing her muscles, balled around her hands ... and slowly leaking away. Suddenly frightened, she desperately tried to somehow force it out of her, force it back into the no-space where she had had it bottled up, and slowly the energy drained away, pushed back into storage. But there wasn’t nearly what there had been before.
She opened her eyes and looked at her hands, sighing in relief at finding the ribbons of dark energy gone, then looked up to find Ryoga on his feet with the help of Akane. The two were watching her, Akane’s worry still plain, Ryoga trying to hide his. Ranma waved her hands. “See? All gone!” she said, and the Lost Boy relaxed ... the very handsome Lost Boy....
What are ya thinkin’? It’s Ryoga! Ranma shook her head, breaking her focus on her rival’s face (though now that she thought about it, those little fangs were kinda cute....), to find that she’d taken a couple of steps toward him. Whirling, she bolted out of the dojo.
Ryoga and Akane stared at the open door the naked redhead had vanished through. Finally, Ryoga shook his head. “What’s his problem?” he growled.
Taking a deep breath, Akane managed to force a lighthearted tone. “No problem, she’s just still adjusting to her new body. Come on, let’s get you to the furo. By the time you get cleaned up, Kasumi should have finished your meal. You can tell me all about what you’ve been up to since the wedding while your clothes dry, and then I’ll take you out to Akari’s. Have you seen her lately?”
Ryoga’s eyes unfocused as he smiled blissfully. “Yes, I have, a couple times,” he said. “I seem to be finding my way there more than here, now....”
Akane smiled to herself as she led Ryoga into the house toward the furo and listened to him enthuse about the green-haired pig trainer that had thankfully replaced her in the Lost Boy’s heart — that one question had distracted him from Ranma nicely. Glancing at the ceiling toward her and Ranma’s room, her smile faded. If only all her problems could be solved so easily.... After she had Ryoga safely ensconced in the furo, she’d have to see if her lover had taken refuge there, and find out exactly what her problem was.
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(Posted Thu, 17 Mar 2011 05:35)
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