Moving in before Jato could recover, Ranma left off three rabbit punches to his kidneys before taking a backhand to the face. Rolling with the inertia of the blow, Jato's follow up attack missed, cleaving another crater into the ground.
"Your strong." Jato grimaced. He felt those blows, really really felt them.
Ranma nodded, "I'd say something.. but.. eh.. I can't think of anything." he shrugged.
"Quite alright." Jato chuckled before launching himself at Ranma once again.
***
Pantha rolled her eyes and bit out sarcastically, "When you asked me out on a date, Theo, I wasn't expecting to eat at the Tavern."
Theo chuckled, scratching the back of his neck nervously, "I'm just waiting for Ranma to get back. Don't want him worry about us, right?"
Pantha shrugged, "I guess."
***
Ranma staggered back from a brutal kick to the face, "Ow! That hurt!"
Jato nodded, "Good!"
"Asshole!"
***
"Theo, just leave a message with the Barkeep. I'm sure if Ranma shows up he'll ask him if he's seen us." Pantha grumbled, pulling on Theo's arm, "Come on. You asked me out, I plan to have fun!"
"Heheh.." Theo chuckled, before nodding, "All right."
***
"Hey, show me that move again!" Jato shouted as he flipped back. He had lost his sword a little a while ago. It served his purpose, and was sacrificed to protect the rest of him from the boy's strange 'Amaguriken!' attack. He had never seen such a technique. It was similar to a haste spell, but required to charge up time and it didn't actually require magic to use it. One of the reasons Jato had decided to attack the boy now was because he was wearing those Mythiril gauntlets, which would disrupt the boy's ability to use his magic.
Should have been a walk in the park at the point right? One mage, wearing metal? Easy kill. But not this one!
Ranma grunted, ducking to the side and stepping forward into Jato's defenses, "Sure! Amaguriken!"
A sweet pain did blossom.
***
"So your from Earth?" Pantha said pleasantly while the two waited for their order to arrive. Their trip here had been mostly in silence, so she thought to break the ice a little.
"Yes." Theo nodded, "My dad sent me here for five years to train, back with his old Master Gneiss." he chuckled, "It was.. slow going, at first. Until Ranma showed up that is."
Pantha really wasn't in the mood to talk about Ranma, "Enough of that. Tell me about yourself. Likes, dislikes.. you know." she patted him on the head, earning a rosy red blush. "Your not really a pimp, are you?"
Theo almost fell out of his chair in shock, "NO! I thought we explained that too you!" he looked mortified, checking back and forth as if some nameless demon (dad) had heard that.
Pantha giggled, covering her mouth, "I don't know Theo. You seemed pretty proficient when you were pimping Ranma out."
Theo groaned. He knew that was a bad idea when his buddy first suggested it! Now he has to live with the shame of being "Sweet Tooth Sugah Daddy Theo". God, he wanted to kill Pantha for giving him that name. "Why you asking? Want to join up in my little entourage?" he waggled his eye brows, "I've seen enough to know you'd fit right in."
Pantha slapped him on the arm, "Jerk." she grumbled, "And you never apologized for peeping on me!"
Theo nodded, then steeled himself while a slight blush grew on his cheeks, "I don't plan too, either."
***
Jato Ttef grunted as he climbed to his feet, thankful the boy was at least giving him a chance to stand up instead of attacking him while he was down. This Ranma had proven to be a much harder fight then he had at first suspected. It was time to take things up a notch.
Wiping a gout of blood from his chin, Jato grunted, "I think it's time I go full out."
Ranma nodded. While he wasn't as bad off as this guy, he wasn't unwounded either. He could already feel a string of bruises appearing on his cheek and chest. Not that it mattered; he'd heal it after the fight. "Be nice of you. I'm late meetin my friends as it is."
Jato chuckled, tapping into the Ethereal stream, "Very well.. take this! KIJIN.."
Ranma blinked as he heard the familiar name sounded. His jaw dropped, "No fucking way!"
"DAN!" Jato finished, flinging a dark ball of energy at him.
Ranma let out a sigh of relief. Similar name, different attack. He casually raised his hand and said, "Aura Shield."
He blinked when the shield failed to appear, before looking at his hand. "Oh. Right. Metal. Heh, oops?" He offered to the gods before the ball of dark energy hit.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
***
Pantha twitched, idly rubbing her ear, "You hear something?"
Theo shook his head, and gulped. "No." he said when he took her hand into his own, blushing madly.
Pantha was surprised at first, surprise that slowly turned into a smirk, "Theodore Diggers. Are you holding my hand?" she said in a low amused tone.
"Hehe."
***
Ranma coughed, "Owwie." That had hurt! Luckily his chest took the brunt of the attack. "Thats it, the gloves come off!"
Jato gulped.
Ranma blinked, "Eh, figure of speech." he shrugged. He knew he was handicapped, which was probably why Jato had attacked him in the first place. Probably figured him for some weak little mage. Well... heh.
He grunted, bringing his hand up to his chest in a diamond formation, "Let me show you how a real martial artist does that." motes of blue white light began to appear in the center of his hands, before coalescing into a small ball of radiant energy.
Jato's jaw dropped. The mage was still using energy from the ethereal stream even when wearing metal? Dear god, this couldn't be possible! "Wha! No way!"
Ranma smirked, "Moko Takabisha!" He yelled, flinging the small ball of energy at his enemy.
BOOOOOOOOOOM
***
"I had a good time, Theo." Pantha smiled. The two had returned to the end, and right now they were both standing in front of the room to her door.
"Me too." Theo replied, truly meaning it.
An uncomfortable silence began to spread between the two, threatening to strangle them in its awkwardness. It was broken when Pantha leaned forward and gave Theo a sweet gentle kiss, "I'll see you tomorrow." she blushed opening and closing her door before Theo could recover.
Theo didn't recover for a whole five minutes. He touched his lips tenderly, staring blankly at Pantha's door for a moment, until a smile lit his face and he walked away.
"It's been a good day."
***
Jato grunted, slamming the door behind him. He didn't know how he managed it, but he had escaped that lunatic mage. This job was a helluva lot more complicated then his boss led him to believe. Geesh, the things he did to support his weak little kid.
"Welcome home daddy!" a cherub little boy called, "I got dinner ready!"
Jato snorted. Damn boy was turning into a housewife. "Good, Hanzo."
***
Ranma pouted. The ninja had escaped after he launched his attack! It wasn't fair! He was actually starting to have fun again. "Damn you Jato!" he groaned.
He made a mental note to train harder with his Ki. That fight had proven one thing; he had started to grow far to reliant on magic for his tastes.
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(Posted Sun, 25 Jan 2004 18:14)
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