SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS Destiny "rewrite" By Arun Chapter #02 A Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon crossover with a pinch of Ramayana. Disclaimers: Ranma one-half and Sailor Moon belong to their respective owners. I do not own them. Author's notes: Here's the second chapter. It's significantly larger than the older version and I can honestly say that my pre-readers and I are satisfied with it. I hope that you, the reader, are too. ^_^ Now, on with the story... There is a beauty, innocence, and an aura of serenity around a child that one can never find anywhere else in the world. To gaze into the eyes of one's child is to be afforded a peek into heaven. There is nothing quite like it and there can be nothing that can ever compare to it. It was no wonder then, that Shian's aquamarine eyes seduced Ranma as soon as his eyes met hers. Even though her pupils were yet to focus, Ranma felt like she was gazing into the deepest, darkest corners of his soul, he felt light all over. "She's beautiful," he said, wondrously. If Shian's eyes represented a wilderness and he was lost in it, he would never bother to find a way out. Who would ever want to live the pain-filled existence that is life when one could forever float in the bliss of heaven? Lein heard her husband's voice. It sounded so distant, even though he was so very near her. She looked at him and smiled dreamily. This was the way families were meant to be. Husband, wife and progeny. She bathed in the moment, wanting to savor it for all eternity. Shian, completely unaware of the spell she had cast on her parents, continued feeding, gurgling once in satisfaction. Ranma heard her soft voice but once and blissfully lost himself in the throes of fatherhood. His eyes feasted on the tiny bundle of fluff and love in his wife's hands, and soothing words of love and adoration for his tiny angel came automatically to his lips. He caressed his daughter's cheeks and watched her antics with her mother's breasts. Lein sighed in contentment as Shian played a tug of war with her breasts and Ranma shifted his gaze to his wife's face, a vacuous, contended smile adorning his face. "She looks just like her mother," he whispered. He bent down, and kissed both his wife and his daughter on their foreheads. Annoyed at the disturbance, Shian gurgled again and pushed away the intruder with her tiny rose petal fingers. Then, she turned her attention towards the task at hand. Meal served! "I love you," Ranma cooed to his wife. He tenderly took Shian Huei's feather-soft fingers in his hand and caressed them ever so tenderly against his cheeks. "I love you, too," Lein whispered back. Little Shian Huei gurgled once again and snuggled closer to the warmth provided by her mother's body. And Ranma, seeing her, just shook his head in wonder. 'To think that she's all mine and no one else's,' he thought. At that moment, he felt like his heart could burst and shatter into a million pieces in pride. 'I'm a father...' he thought as another ripple of love hit him. As he basked in the warmth of this feeling, he remembered that it was time for his classes. "I have to go now," he reluctantly said to Lein, straightening himself. Shian grasped his index finger ever so slightly and the heaviness in his heart grew a thousand, no, ten thousand fold. 'I'm a father...' he thought druggedly once again. It was like meeting Lein for the first time all over again, only this time, his affections were a hundred times more powerful. Lein shot her husband a forlorn look. "Must you?" she asked. She was very reluctant to let him go. Ranma nodded. "The classes... They cannot wait... I'm taking the bare minimum already and..." Pause. "Yes, I have to go," he replied unhappily, giving up on explanations. He hated being away from his wife and daughter, but he had a duty to the village too, and he could not abandon one for the other. Lein nodded with great reluctance. "I suppose... Come back soon," she whispered softly. Ranma nodded. He bent down to kiss his wife and daughter one last time before leaving the house. Shian's eyes hypnotized him once again, as he kissed her, and he had to visibly shake himself out of his stupor. He caressed both their cheeks with the back of his hand and without looking back, hurried out of the house. The sooner he got to his students, the sooner he would be back with his family. Exiting the house, he turned left and was about to exit the street when Shi Huu's voice stopped him. "So tell me, Son-in-law, how's my great, great, great grandchild doing?" she asked a wee bit too loudly as she pogoed up to him on her staff. "She's doing just fine," Ranma replied with a pleasant smile, followed by a bow. He then straightened, looking uncertain for a moment, and locked eyes with his 'mother.' He had taken to calling both Shi Huu and Yein Luo by that title soon after his marriage, and neither of them quite objected to being referred to by that title. "Mother, may I... Can you spare me a moment of your time? I wish to speak to you in private." Shi Huu nodded immediately without hesitation. She had noted Ranma's struggle over some decision for about three days ago and had actually expected him to come to her sooner. "Come with me," she said, starting toward her house. Her plans to visit Shian would have to wait just a while longer. "I think that Lein and Shian can wait a little longer," she said over her shoulder, as she pogoed past Ranma. Ranma nodded and followed Shi Huu without a word. The Matriarch led him to her house and once inside, sat him on a wooden chair. "What's bothering you, Son-in-law?" "I... It finally dawned to me that I'm now a father. I don't know whether I'm ready for the role and..." he let his words trail off. It was not the way of his people, both the Musk and the Joketsuzoku, to speak so freely of matters of the heart, even to close friends and relatives. However, he needed advice and was desperate enough to venture into uncharted territories. As 'cocky' as he was, he was wise enough to realize that when it came to raw emotions, he was an absolute idiot. Shi Huu burst into laughter, finally understanding Ranma's difficulty in approaching the subject. She had thought that it was something serious and was very relieved to hear that it was not. And Ranma's plight in the matter was completely understandable. In fact, the whole village knew that Ranma, as skillful as he was in The Art of War and The Art of Peace, was a dumb ass that was as clueless as they came in The Art of Love. There were even a couple of jokes about how one should never go to 'Honorable Ranma' for advice on love and women. "What happened to your vaunted confidence, Son-in-law?" she asked, lightheartedly. "I... It's not easy for me, Mother, to come to you... Or anyone else for that matter, for help..." Pause. "I... I feel so helpless and I have all these doubts... I guess I know a lot from watching father raise Shin and I, but still..." Shi Huu frowned. The situation was much more serious than she thought. Ranma was displaying facets of his character - fear and uncertainty - that he had never before shown and the Ranma she knew did not fear even the mightiest of enemies. He would have marched single- handedly into battle to face the entire Phoenix army without any hesitation. 'This new Ranma, then, must be the socially insecure one; the one who grew up without close friends and companions!' As a member of the royal family, Ranma would have been respected and obeyed, but would have had few true friends. "You'll do fine," she said, positively, after mulling over this latest development for a couple of seconds, "I saw the way you looked at my great, great, great granddaughter, when you first laid eyes on her. You fell in love with her that very same moment... I could see it in your eyes..." Pause. "Trust me, Son-in-law, you'll make a great father," she said, patting Ranma on his shoulder. It was a very un-Matriarchal thing to do, but she felt that the situation demanded it. "Thank you for your words of wisdom and counsel, Mother. I'll intrude into your time no more and will take my leave now," Ranma said politely and respectfully. Shi Huu smiled cheerfully in return. As far as she could tell, the insecure Ranma was gone and the confident one had returned. It felt nice; the feeling she got whenever she helped people. "Won't you stay and have some tea?" she asked. Ranma shook his head, ruefully. It was common knowledge that Shi Huu's housemaids made the best tea in the village, but he was already late for his classes and dared not procrastinate any longer. 'Oh, the sacrifices I have to make in sake of The Art!' "I am afraid that I must humbly decline your offer, Mother. I'm a good half-an-hour late for today's class as it is..." Shi Huu tilted her head in a nod. She understood perfectly. The Art was more important than mere pleasantries, which could be exchanged anytime. Moreover, the sooner Ranma completed his classes, the sooner he could return home to his wife and daughter. Family was very important to the Joketsuzoku and The Council wanted Ranma to have a very, very large one. *********************************************************************** Time passed in the village and Shi Huu's words proved prophetic: Ranma turned out to be a very doting parent, who always fussed over his daughter. Little Shian, for her part, became an overnight celebrity in the village. She was the village sweetheart, and everyone spoiled her with hugs, and kisses, much to Lein's consternation and Ranma's pride. Ranma, as time slowly ground forward, skipped classes just so that he could spend time alone with his wife and daughter. And sometimes, he took them to the mountains and showed them around. In fact, there was nothing else in the world that Shian liked better than soaring over the tree-tops with the wind howling in her face and playing havoc with her hair. Everyday, as soon as Ranma walked into the house, she would pester him for a piggyback tour, courtesy Ranma airlines, of the woods around the village. The days passed happily by, but as in everything in life, the happy times did not last forever. Things began to take a turn for the worse and a sense of doom fell on the village. Phoenix intrusions into Musk and Joketsuzoku lands begun to increase at an alarming rate, and soon, skyrocketed to levels unheard of in the history of the two nations. Everyone seemed to realize that war was just around the corner, and with grim hearts, began to prepare for it and the terror it wrought. *********************************************************************** "Honored One, did you summon me?" Ranma asked, completing his bow. Shi Huu nodded, absently. They were in the village square and she could not risk making public the information she has in her hands. As such, her attention was focused more on the environment than on their discussion, and her eyes scanned the area for interlopers, both accidental and intentional. "Yes, I did. I want to show you 'something,'" she replied, belatedly. The Matriarch's tardy reply surprised Ranma and raised his shackles, as she was usually quite attentive, but he did well to hide his reaction. 'What's so horrible about this 'something' that mother does not wish to speak of it in public?' he thought, apprehensively, dark clouds of doubt forming in the recess of his mind. "You'll understand when you see it," Shi Huu added out loud, answering his unspoken question. Motioning Ranma to follow her, she led him to a secluded hut located on the far end of the village. "Go in and see for yourself," she said slowly in a measured voice. There was something in her voice that Ranma could not quite fathom and he found it very disconcerting. Ranma opened the door and a wave of putrid air crashed on him, assaulting his senses. Automatically, he took a step back. He shot a questioning glance at Shi Huu, but seeing that her attention was focused on whatever horrible thing that was inside the hut and not on him, he took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness. A minute passed and Shi Huu began to lose a modicum of the already stretched reserves of her patience. Another minute passed and still, there was no sign of Ranma. On the verge of losing her self-control, Shi Huu opened her mouth to call Ranma, but before she could make a sound, he stepped outside. His face was pale and his knuckles, white. "Who?" he asked, his voice crackled. It was hoarse with raw emotion. Shi Huu shot a look at him from atop her staff, but did not reply. "Who?" he asked in the same voice again. One of the victims had been pregnant with a child, and infanticide was considered the most heinous of crimes by both the Musk and the Joketsuzoku. "The Phoenix..." "I thought that the border outposts were strengthened..." Shi Huu nodded. She did not break eye contact with him. "They were... Those men and women were on sentry duty near Ox lands." "Are The Ox and The Phoenix in cahoots then?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. The Joketsuzoku and the Musk would be in dire straits if their two traditional enemies were. "We don't know for sure... A patrol found their remains," she pointed to the hut, "the day before yesterday along with this," she said. She produced a Phoenix sword from the confines of her robe and handed it, handle first, to Ranma. "The patrol found no evidence of Ox involvement, but we can't be sure - The incident happened very close to their border, after all. And without proof, The Council can't make a decision, for as you well know, they will insist on seeing some definitive proof before I can call for a vote." "And you want me to get it for you?" Ranma asked. He finished scrutinizing the sword and returned it to Shi Huu, hilt first, as he spoke. Shi Huu nodded. "Yes. I have already sent runners to the Musk to inform the Emperor of this latest development. I plan to call The Council to a war meeting on your return. Based on the evidence you're going to collect, we'll decide whether to declare war on The Phoenix and, or, The Ox." Ranma nodded and bowed. "If you'll excuse me, then, Honorable One," he said, politely on straightening. Shi Huu nodded in reply. Ranma turned and without another word, headed off to his house, walking at a very brisk pace. Scarcely half-an-hour later, he bade his wife and daughter farewell, and took off unobserved towards Phoenix territory. *********************************************************************** A day later on the Phoenix side of the Joketsuzoku-Phoenix border... It was a strange sight: two Phoenix, one six-foot-seven and the other five-foot-nine, standing face to face in the middle of the forest with the smaller one figuratively looking down upon the bigger Neanderthal. "Well?" the smaller, older one asked. "What do you have to say for yourself, Shi Ho?" He had brown eyes and as fair a complexion as one would expect on a soldier, which he definitely was. It was also obvious from the small one's imperious tone that he was the one higher up in the chow chain. And he was dressed for the part, too, looking very much like the high- ranking officer that he was with his rich brown woolen cloak and the royal insignia that held it attached to his shoulder. "It will not happen again, Lord Ka Ka Ree," Shi Ho, for that was the tall one's name, replied with a penitent bow. Shi Ho had hazelnut eyes and wore ordinary clothes, as would befit a man of his standing - a head foot soldier - in the army. His face looked young and rugged, and it bore two faint scars that ran down the right side of his face - remnants of mistakes made in his childhood while under the tutelage of his Ox masters. From his hips dangled a pair of hefty looking maces and his upper body had more muscle than one would ever believe possible. "And if it does..." Ka Ka Ree trailed off. He hated taking Shi Ho to task, especially since the giant was one of the few good soldiers he had under his command, but it could not be helped. Shi Ho had brought it upon himself by sleeping on the watch at a very sensitive time. Moreover, he had been caught red-handed by none other than Lord Hou Ho, the Supreme Commander in Chief of the Phoenix Army. Shi Ho nodded. He did not need to be told what would happen if ever he were to be caught sleeping on his watch again. Death would be a much more pleasant fate than the thousand whip lashings and the public humiliation that he was sure to endure. Ka Ka Ree looked at Shi Ho long and hard. Finally, after a long stretch of thoughtful silence, he nodded. "Very well." Pause. "You have a very good future ahead of you," he said, "don't spoil it by doing something stupid - like sleeping on the watch." Shi Ho nodded, keeping his eyes pointed towards the ground in a show of respect. "Our family has a proud tradition of serving Lord Saa Fuu Lang dutifully, honorably and courageously, Son," Ka Ka Ree continued in a softer tone, "you do want to honor our ancestors, don't you?" Nod. "Good! 'Cause if you do, you will not allow yourself to be caught napping on the job again... I saved you once, but I cannot - will not - save you again. Understand?" "Yes, Father." "Excellent," Ka Ka Ree replied with a nod, "now..." he stopped in mid sentence for a moment, "what was that?" Shi Ho looked around. His senses were on alert. He heard nothing. "What was what?" he asked his father confusedly. Ka Ka Ree did not reply. On the guard, his eyes scanned the edge of the thicket for nearly a minute, before he relaxed. They were far removed from The Phoenix camp as it was - he chose this particular secluded spot because he could give his son the dressing down that he so needed in private - and it was not possible that someone unseen was with them. It had to be his imagination, which had been under a lot of stress that was acting up. He thought he had heard something, but there was, obviously, nothing out there that he could sense with his ki and it was a false alarm. "Nah!" he said aloud to reassure himself, "it was probably nothing. Shi Ho..." There are things that a father should never see - things like his son's death. Those who do see their son, or daughter, die are the unlucky ones. Going by this notion, one must consider Ka Ka Ree to be truly unlucky, for just as he turned his attention back to Shi Ho and began to address him, a pointed stake appeared as if by magic in the center of Shi Ho's chest. A fine mist of blood exploded outwards, splattering Ka Ka Ree's face and dress. Ka Ka Ree's eyes closed reflexively, but the damage had been done. His unconscious mind made the connection between the blood and the stake, and the cognitive part of his mind retreated to the dark recesses of his psyche, to hide behind a veil of shock and disbelief. It took several moments for the shock of the experience to settle into his system and when it did, Ka Ka Ree shot open once again. He could not have opened his eyes at a worse moment, as at that very instant, another stake impaled Shi Ho in his throat. Blood gushed out and splattered everywhere, and Shi Ho fell to the ground, clawing at his neck in a vain effort to gain air into his lungs. He did not scream, however, as the first stake had stolen his power of speech from him. 'He's not going to make it,' the precise, clinical, military half of Ka Ka Ree's consciousness realized detachedly, as he watched his son asphyxiate in front of him. Altogether, the whole scene was all too surreal and dreamlike, and it did not even once occur to Ka Ka Ree that he had to help his son or at least, comfort him in his final moments. Snap! Immediately, Ka Ka Ree swung around towards the direction of the disturbance. It was possible that the disturbance had been caused by an animal, but animals normally kept their distance from Phoenix camps and Phoenix soldiers. It had to be human and with all that had transpired, it had to be an intruder. "Show yourself," Ka Ka Ree said; whispered. He slipped into a stance and a dark corona of power - his ki - began to pool around him like a thick cloud. The air around him rolled off in waves and the surroundings darkened a wee bit, as his ki began to drain the energy from his environment. Snap! Ka Ka Ree spun around. The sound had come from the opposite end of the thicket this time. 'There can't be more than one enemy out there,' he thought, 'no two people can be that skilled.' Snap! Rustle! The disturbances seemed to be coming from everywhere and Ka Ka Ree tried to keep up with each new threat as it came. He spun round and round, until finally, he stumbled over Shi Ho, whose life had slipped away by then. The sight of his son's lifeless body and those lusterless eyes staring back at him broke the ice that had settled over Ka Ka Ree's mind. He collapsed to his knees and with his fingers, tenderly caressed Shi Ho, the blood of his blood. He cried in despair and cradled his son in his lap, blocking out the world and ignoring the enemy that was all around him. "My son," he wailed repeatedly; despondently, unaware of the shadow that crept in on him, "my son! My son!" The shadow, for its part, closed the distance between Ka Ka Ree and itself ever so slowly, until finally, it fell upon and over him. Ka Ka Ree turned and... *********************************************************************** "Honorable One?" Shi Huu paused in her knitting and turned her eyes towards the figure highlighted against the sunlight in the doorway. "Yes, Guu Lin?" she asked the five-foot-six raven-haired woman with green eyes who stood in attention before her. Guu Lin bowed, 'safed' her spear and cleared her throat. Her eyes were black. Her lips were small and sensuous, and she was well endowed. She had a hip long mane of lustrous black hair, and was quite the looker. In addition, she was dressed in warrior's garb with the Emblem of The Elders, a sign of her station as an Elite, stuck between her breasts. "Honorable Ranma has returned from his 'expedition.'" Shi Huu nodded, albeit slowly, digesting the information. As a member of the elite team of warriors that served as the personal guardians of all Elders, Guu Lin was one of the few in the village who knew the true purpose of Ranma's 'expedition.' The rest of the village had been fed a bunch of garbage about bears, man-eating tigers and thieves. "Where is he?" she asked, laying her needles and woolen threads aside, her work unfinished. "He's safely hidden from all prying eyes, Honorable One. I personally escorted him to The Dump, before I came to appraise you of the situation." The Dump Guu Lin spoke of was an old mud building at the far end of the village. It served as both the prison and the village slaughterhouse. "It is well," Shi Huu said with a slight tilt of her head. As usual, Guu Lin had handled things perfectly at her end. "Inform The Council of Ranma's arrival and beckon them to The Dump on my behalf." Guu Lin nodded silently in understanding. She did not need to be told that she had to be discrete. That went without saying in her job. "As you wish, Honorable One," she said, bowed and exited. After Guu Lin departed, Shi Huu waited a couple of minutes, before setting out on her own. Wary of curious eyes, she took the most roundabout route possible. Yet, she managed to reach The Dump in good time. Once at her destination, she stopped and scanned the area with her ki for tails. Finding none, she quietly stepped into the dark building. It was very badly lit, despite the fact that it had three large, iron-barred, circular windows and it was a sunny day outside. There was a stench of death that hung about the room, which could not be removed, ever, and taken together; it gave the room a creepy feel. With a dismissive shrug, Shi Huu shook off the little wells of irrational fear that rose in the pits of her stomach and extended her ki senses. Like before, she detected no one both inside and outside the structure, which was exactly what she expected. "Ranma," she spoke aloud into the darkness, "how did it go?" No sooner had the words escaped her mouth then the lamps on her side of the hall burst into flames, flooding the room with light. The sudden influx of light blinded her temporarily, and Shi Huu had to give her eyes a couple of seconds to adjust before her vision returned to normal. When it did, she conducted a visual survey of the room. Sure enough, she saw Ranma standing at the far end of the room. His form was heavily shadowed and sinister looking. By his side sat a very distraught looking Phoenix officer. "It went well, Honorable One," Ranma replied, inwardly smiling to himself. His sometime student and sometime teacher, the Matriarch, had done very well, indeed. Shi Huu nodded. "Shall I begin?" Ranma asked after a pause, casting a sideways glance at his prisoner, as he did. "No," Shi Huu replied with a shake of her head, "the rest of The Council must arrive before you can begin." Ranma shrugged; nodded and the lamps went out with a fizz, as his cold ki quenched their fires. And once again, the cloak of darkness descended upon the room. The Council took an hour to assemble. Anyone else would have considered the pin drop silence that reigned in the hall during that one hour boring, but to Ranma, it was a godsend. The psychological impact it had on the prisoner was priceless after all. Finally, when the last member was seated and the hushed gossiping silenced, he ignited the last four torches in the hall and beckoned Guu Lin to his side. "Hear and pay heed, O' Phoenix," he spoke, ceremonially, "I am Ranma Saotome Qin. You are currently being held as my prisoner in the Village of The Councilors. Answer my questions truthfully and no harm will come to you." Ka Ka Ree glared into his captor's face, his eyes burning with unfathomable remorse and hatred. They dared to speak to him about honor and truth after killing his son, his only son, in cold blood. The bastards! At that moment, Ka Ka Ree decided to take his life and in the process, take part, if not all of The Council with him. However, when he tried to access his ki, he found to his horror that he could not. Ranma observed the anger, hatred and surprise reflected deeply in Ka Ka Ree's eyes. He smiled, divining the cause of it. "Don't bother. The pressure point I used on you prevents you from accessing your ki," Ranma said, a pleasant smile on his face, "ever." Pause. "What's your name?" he asked. His voice did not sound threatening at all. Ka Ka Ree drew back his head and spit on Ranma's face. Ranma straightened himself. He wiped his face clean with a rag and addressed Guu Lin, never taking his eyes off his prisoner. "Break one of the birdie's wings," he ordered. His voice was softer than the spring breeze and colder than the winter hail, and it made more than one in the room shudder at the heartlessness of it. Guu Lin stepped forward. She bent down and grabbed Ka Ka Ree by his collar, easily lifting him off the chair. He punched her in her face, but she was too close to him and without his ki to boost his strength, he could inflict no damage to her. She snorted at him and threw the Phoenix face first into the stone chair he had sat on before. Then, she grabbed hold of one of his wings with her arms and twisted. A tsunami of unbearable pain assaulted his senses, and Ka Ka Ree screamed as bones snapped like twigs. Ligaments and muscles did not fare any better, and they, too were torn, adding to the pain. Guu Lin did not stop. Ka Ka Ree screamed louder, as she continued to twist. Finally, when there were no more bones to break, Guu Lin released her hold on his wing and, as calmly as she had stepped forward to heed Ranma's commands, withdrew. Ka Ka Ree's screams did not die, however. He continued crying at the top of his lungs for another couple of minutes, until his throat gave out and his voice grew hoarse. Even then, he whimpered. And Ranma, for his part, stepped up to him, waiting patiently, until the last of Ka Ka Ree's whimpers had died down. "Your name?" Ranma asked, again. His voice was still calm and serene. "Bastard!" Ka Ka Ree moaned. His voice had become a hoarse whisper from the incessant screaming. "Yes," Ranma nodded, "that's a fitting title for all Phoenix, but I must insist: What's your name?" As he spoke, he applied a little ki to Ka Ka Ree's voice box, healing it of its ill treatment some. Ka Ka Ree did not answer. "Guu Lin?" Ranma said. Guu Lin stepped forward. Ka Ka Ree's face whitened. The memory of the last session was still too vivid in his mind. He did not want that sadistic psychopath anywhere near him. He quickly ran over his options through the haze of pain that clouded his mind and decided to tell them his name. There was no harm in revealing his name, except for the loss of his honor, and that did not seem very important in the face of the pain. "Ka Ka Ree," he replied with a painful gasp. Ranma smiled. The first step in breaking the prisoner had been taken and from here on, the journey would only get easier. "Station?" Ranma waited patiently for a reply, but received no answer from the prisoner. He looked at Guu Lin and nodded. She stepped in, again. Ka Ka Ree saw her, but as afraid as he was, he did not want to tell them his station. Honor, what little remained with him, as well as The Code, demanded that he speak no more. [1] Guu Lin spit on his face, insulting him and grabbed hold of his other wing. She twisted it in exactly the same way as before. And just like before, she did not stop until all the bones were broken. Ka Ka Ree was able to control himself from screaming, and he tried very hard to outlast the pain, but it kept on increasing, until it became too much to bear. He fainted. Guu Lin stepped back. She spit on his face for the second time and with a disdainful glance tinged with hatred that she shot at the Phoenix, withdrew. Ranma stepped in as soon as Guu Lin stepped back. He held a bowl of ice-cold water in his hands. He used it to drench Ka Ka Ree and bring him back to the land of the conscious. "Station?" Ranma repeated, when Ka Ka Ree gained a semblance of consciousness. If the prisoner cooperated, it would be much easier on him and on them, but prisoners seldom cooperated, until most of the bones in their body were broken and they were very close to death. "Head foot soldier." Feeble cough. Ranma knew that a Phoenix who lost use of his wings was considered an outcast in the tribe. It was assumed that he, or she, had lost his honor when he, or she, lost his, or her, wings, and most of those with broken wings committed ritual suicide, rather than live as outcasts in The Phoenix society. He idly wondered if his prisoner belonged to the former category. If he did, it was possible that he would clam up and refuse to speak further. Ranma knew, however, that his prisoner's beliefs would not make any difference whatsoever. Pain was a very good motivator for anyone, even one intent on ending his or her life. Ranma turned towards The Council and nodded. The Phoenix was obviously lying. Only cowards told the truth this early into the interrogation and he was willing to bet his life on the fact that this Ka Ka Ree, who had lost his son by his interrogator's hands just hours before, had a lot more fight left in him. Still, he decided to humor the Phoenix. It would further break his spirit when he realized that all his efforts had been for naught. "What do you know of the attack on one of our outposts near Ox territory?" Silence. "I told you before, Phoenix-bastard!" Ranma said, narrowing his eyes just a little. His voice sounded threatening for the first time since the start of the interrogation. "Cooperate and I will let you live. Now, will you answer my question, or should I call my lovely assistant?" "I'll speak, I'll speak," Ka Ka Ree answered; wailed, fearfully looking at Guu Lin, who stood just behind Ranma. It was clear that he was not going to survive the torture. Seldom anyone did. He did not regret dying, however, though he did not want to go down without doing his part in avenging Shi Ho's death. The only way he could do that now was feed the Joketsuzoku a bunch of believable lies and make them buy it. If they did, they would be ill prepared for the main Phoenix attack and god willing, the Musk and their hated allies, the Joketsuzoku, would be wiped out from the face of the earth within a fortnight. "Well," Ranma asked, leaning forward and playfully flicking Ka Ka Ree's matted hair, "I'm waiting." "I don't know what you're talking about," Ka Ka Ree moaned, looking up fearfully at Ranma. Ranma narrowed his eyes. He rose up and pointed a finger accusingly at his prisoner. The temperature in the room dropped by a good twenty degrees to near freezing. "You lie!" he accused, "we know that The Phoenix slaughtered all those men and women." Pause. "I ask you again: What do you know of the attack on our outpost?" he asked. "Nothing," Ka Ka Ree lied, again. He pooled what little strength he had in preparation for the beating ahead and clenched his jaws to bear the pain. The only way he could sell them the story was by telling believable lies at irregular intervals, and the only way to do that was by shutting up and getting beaten to within an inch of his life. "Very well," Ranma spoke, thoughtfully, "I can see that contrary to your words, you're not going to cooperate. Don't worry, though. We have other methods of making you speak..." Ranma said and paused, as if in deep thought, "break his leg, Guu Lin," he added, almost as an afterthought. Guu Lin stepped forward. The dim light played a mesmerizing dance on her face, giving her a sinister, evil appearance. The serrated knife she had on her hands did not look welcoming either. She bent down and looked deep into Ka Ka Ree's eyes, searching them; exploring them. Ka Ka Ree stared back at her. Now that his mind was made up and the pain of his last beating only a dull, throbbing remainder, he was able to think past his fear and his loss, and concentrate on the job at hand. He was not going to lose a staring contest to some Joketsuzoku bitch. Guu Lin did not intend to lose, either. She took a piece of rough leather she had around her waist, and ground the knife slowly, deliberately and methodically against it, checking its edge against the light every now and then. Finally, her eyes caught the slight flicker of fear in Ka Ka Ree's eyes and she smiled, letting go of the leather pad. "This will hurt," she said; whispered to him. She pulled one of the Phoenix's legs from under him and caressed his skin with the cold metal blade. Ka Ka Ree did not break eye contact with her. Guu Lin smiled, looking into his eyes. The blade pressed into Ka Ka Ree's skin with just a little more. And the staring match went on. It pressed harder still and drew blood just above the ankle. And the staring match went on. It cut through the thin layer of skin and flesh that protected the Achilles tendon from the outside world. Tendon and blade finally met. Searing hot pulses of pain shot up Ka Ka Ree's spine. He screamed in agony, his rejuvenated throat aiding him in his endeavor. When he inflamed his voice box again, he stopped screaming and broke the staring match. Guu Lin's smile grew larger. She had won the match. She sawed through the tendon and then, her task completed, retreated. She looked at Ranma for approval and he nodded. This way was much better, he felt, as there was no way that the Phoenix would ever walk again. And the bonus was, the prisoner knew it, too. Ranma bent down beside Ka Ka Ree and used a little cold ki on the wound to stop the bleeding. He did not want his prisoner to die in the middle of the interrogation after all. That would be most unfortunate. "Will you answer my questions now?" he asked, looking into Ka Ka Ree's eyes and healing his throat for the second time. From behind the thick veil of pain that clouded his senses and dulled his thought processes, Ka Ka Ree heard Ranma. He nodded. Ranma knelt down. "Good." Pause. "What part did The Phoenix play in the attack on the outpost?" he asked. "The Ox asked for our help in planning the attack. We refused..." Cough. "You lie. I see that your words are meaningless. Guu Lin, break his leg." Guu Lin stepped forward. "No, please!" Ka Ka Ree begged, crawling away from the Joketsuzoku female. "Then answer truthfully." "I told you the truth," Ka Ka Ree screeched hysterically and loudly, or rather, as loudly as his strained voice box would allow. Ranma shook his head. "You lie. Guu Lin?" Guu Lin took another step forward. This time, she bore a rusty, old iron rod in her hands. "Please..." Ka Ka Ree pleaded with Ranma, looking towards Guu Lin fearfully. Guu Lin shot a glance towards Ranma. "Nope," Ranma said, shaking his head for emphasis, "can't help you if you don't cooperate. Carry on, Guu Lin." Guu Lin nodded. She raised the rod over her head, ready to bring it down upon Ka Ka Ree's kneecap at a moments notice. "Please," Ka Ka Ree pleaded again. "Stop," Ranma ordered. Guu Lin stopped and looked at Ranma, confusion plainly written in her face. Did he or did he not want her to break the prisoner's leg? "I can make her stop," Ranma said, kneeling down and looking deep into Ka Ka Ree's eyes. He did not bother clearing Guu Lin's doubts, "but you have to work with me. Tell me the truth and I'll order her to withdraw." "I told you the truth," Ka Ka Ree replied; wailed; pleaded. "Break his leg," Ranma ordered casually, turning to his assistant. The rod fell. There was an audible crunch as bone shattered. Ka Ka Ree fainted and his leg swelled to grotesque proportions. Guu Lin withdrew. "Some more water, please," Ranma asked aloud. Someone handed over another bowl of ice-cold water to Ranma. He thanked the person, and then turned to Ka Ka Ree's unconscious form. "Wake up," he said, drenching the Phoenix once again with water. Ka Ka Ree coughed and woke up. He moaned in agony and tried to get up. Waves of searing hot pain shot through his spine, numbing his senses and his mind with their intensity. His head rolled to the side and he lost consciousness, again. Slap! "I said, wake up!" "Uh!" Slap! "Uh! Uh!" Ka Ka Ree groaned. "Are you awake, now?" Ranma asked. Ka Ka Ree moaned in reply. "Answer me!" "Water..." Ka Ka Ree whispered, "Give me some water." Gasp. Ranma brought forth the bowl, now half filled with water, and held it just out of the Phoenix's reach. "Answer my question and I'll give you all the water you need," he said, softly and reassuringly. Ka Ka Ree nodded, slowly. "What role did The Phoenix army play in the assault on the Joketsuzoku outpost?" "The Ox wanted to confuse you by using a small party of Phoenix foot soldiers in an attack. They thought that they could then attack you while your attention was focused on us and they promised us the land east of the Village of The Councilors in return." Gasp. "Lord Huo Ho accepted their offer and about a hundred Phoenix were sent to The Ox to participate in the attack. I don't know what happened after that. Now, please, give me the water..." "Are you sure you're telling the truth? I mean, you wouldn't be trying to lie to us, now, would you?" Ranma asked. "I swear..." Ka Ka Ree croaked, his head rolling from side to side. "Water..." he gasped. Ranma stared at his prisoner for a long moment, the expression on his face unreadable. Then, he spoke. "You know something," he said, his voice soft, "the more skilled warriors in the Joketsuzoku ranks can sense one's ki clearly enough to tell whether they are lying or telling the truth." Silence. Ka Ka Ree slowly looked up, the implication only now setting down on him. His face grew pale and his eyes began to fill with despair. Ranma caught the look of utter dismay in his prisoner's eyes and smiled in satisfaction. Half his job accomplished. "Yes," he added, "that's right. Everyone in this room, myself included knows that you were lying about everything but your name." He upended the water on the floor out of Ka Ka Ree's reach. "Guess you won't be getting the water, huh?" Ka Ka Ree did not reply. "You're cursing me and everything that I hold dear to me, aren't you?" Ranma asked, playfully caressing the smooth finish of the bowl. He looked at Ka Ka Ree and his gaze hardened. "I don't think too well of Phoenix-scum either. You want to know why?" he asked. It was the tone in which Ranma spoke that sent shivers down Ka Ka Ree's spine. Something was very wrong with it; it did not sound human. "Because you are heartless bastards, the whole lot of you." Pause. "You afraid?" Ranma asked. He kept staring into Ka Ka Ree's eyes and did not even once blink. "Well, you should be, you know..." Silence. Ranma's eyes hardened. "I'm giving you one last chance. Speak the truth and tell us what you know. If you do, I'll make sure you die painlessly." Ka Ka Ree's eyes met Ranma's eyes. There was fear in them, but gone was the look of submission and resignation that he had feigned before. There was now hatred, pure and unadulterated hatred, in them. They remained thus for the longest time, locked in a contest of wills. Finally, Ka Ka Ree's his tortured body began to tire. His eyes hardened. He spat defiantly for the second time on Ranma's face, unwilling to admit defeat. "Go to hell," he moaned, painfully propping himself against the cold mud wall by the door into the skinning room in such a way that his wings did not touch the surface. Ranma passed the bowl to Guu Lin and grabbed Ka Ka Ree by his collar. He stood up, dragging Ka Ka Ree with him. Ka Ka Ree groaned in pain. "I know it's very painful for you, standing on your legs, one broken at the knee and the other broken at the ankle. However, do you know what'd be more painful? Having to stand on your 'crippled,' 'useless' legs without my hand on your collar to take some of the load off them," Ranma said and paused, looking into his prisoner's eyes, "that's why I'm releasing my hold on your collar," he continued, doing exactly what he said. Ka Ka Ree screamed and fell down. Ranma wiped his face clean. "See, I told you it'd hurt," Ranma's voice was calm and collected. There was not a trace of emotion in it. He bent down and picked up Ka Ka Ree by the scruff of his neck. "Now," he continued in a hardened voice, "I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to squeal me some answers. Do you understand?" Ka Ka Ree did not reply, only barely able to keep himself from screaming. He writhed about in agony, but managed a hateful glare at Ranma. Ranma, for his part, brought his face so close to Ka Ka Ree's that their noses touched. His hold on Ka Ka Ree's collar tightened and he snarled as he spoke. "It appears that we're still not communicating properly. Perhaps this will remove some of the bad blood that stands between us," he snarled, clamping his fingers around Ka Ka Ree's neck in a vise-like grip, essentially shutting off the blood supply to the Phoenix's brain. He remained thus for a nearly a quarter of a minute, even as the Phoenix struggled desperately against him. Finally, just before Ka Ka Ree lost consciousness, he let go. "Enjoy the experience?" he asked his prisoner, tauntingly. Ka Ka Ree did not reply. "You want more," Ranma asked, narrowing his eyes at Ka Ka Ree's stubbornness and placing a well-aimed kick on Ka Ka Ree's abdomen. Ka Ka Ree was slammed against the wall by the force of the kick and he slid down, vomiting blood. The kick had been so aimed as to rupture his spleen. "Oh," Ranma said. His face was all smiles. He had long stepped past the boundaries. He was, for all purposes, a demon in human disguise and not an interrogator, interrogating his prisoner. He did not regret the transformation, however, just as he did not regret at all, the pain visited upon the Phoenix. After what the bastards had done at the outpost, every one of them deserved what Ka Ka Ree was going through and a whole lot more. "I see I hurt you bad. Oh, well..." he said, his voice dripping with mock concern. Then, with a shrug meant to signify that he could have cared more about what happened to a rabid dog than to a Phoenix, he said, "bet the area around the kick feels tender now... You know what that means, don't you?" Ranma looked at the Phoenix's face for a sign of comprehension. His smile grew even bigger when he saw it. "Yep," he said, looking down upon the prisoner like a man would a worm, "your spleen is ruptured. I'd say that you have less than a day to live. And I bet it hurts; a lot." Kick. "Get up, Child-killer," Ranma barked. His face still had that cold, sneering look, even though tiny specks of blood marred it, now, "I'm not done with you yet," he said, grabbing Ka Ka Ree by his hair and pulling him up. "What's your name?" Ka Ka Ree moaned something inaudible. Ranma leaned in to hear well. "What?" he asked. "Go to hell," came the reply. Ranma smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. "You first." Kick. "Ah!" Ka Ka Ree screamed. The kick had been aimed right where the first one hit - at the spleen. "You like that, huh?" Ranma asked, in a taunting manner. Except for the last one, he had been using the flat of his foot in his kicks. That had dampened the force of the strikes a little. The last one, however, was delivered with the knife-edge of his toes. It hurt a lot worse and had caused far more internal damage. Ka Ka Ree did not reply. The pain was too great to bear and all he could do was moan. He tried to crawl away, but Ranma would have none of it. "Oh, you can't leave now," Ranma said, blocking the Phoenix's path. "The interrogation's just began, after all." Kick. "Answer me!" Ranma said, menacingly, raising his voice just a little. "What's your name?" Silence. Slap. His prisoner's teeth, Ranma observed, either had very bad roots, or he had used a little too much force in the slap, for a couple of them jettisoned out of the Phoenix's mouth and fell to the ground. Punch. Moreover, his ear was not that well connected to his head, too. The punch just about tore the left one off his face. Twist. And his right arm was not the strongest, or the most flexible in the world. It did not even turn ten degrees backwards before it dislocated. Punch. Kick. More hits. The power behind each blow kept on increasing. Blood splattered everywhere, as Ka Ka Ree coughed, and he screamed every step of the way, but Ranma ignored him. He went about his work in a clean, methodical manner, even going so far as to ask some water from Guu Lin after he let go of the Phoenix. "Pathetic," he said, finishing the bowl of water in one long, slow sip. He spit some of the water on Ka Ka Ree's face to awaken him, as he lay semiconscious on the floor. "Did you hear me?" he barked. "You're pathetic, you miserable-mother-fucking-child-killing-son-of-a- fatherless-whore." Ka Ka Ree groaned in pain and vomited some more blood. The fight was still in his eyes, however, and he shot Ranma a look of loathing and hatred. Ranma smiled unpleasantly at the sight of Ka Ka Ree's show of defiance. "I like you. You're strong and you resist. I can beat you up some more," he said, stepping on Ka Ka Ree's broken knee. Ka Ka Ree's scream went off the audible range and into the ultrasonic scale. Everyone in that room remembered that soul-rending scream until the day they died. "Damn!" Ranma cursed; complained, "The bastard has the constitution of a lamb. He can't even take a little punishment. Oh, well, Guu Lin, get me some more water, will you?" Guu Lin looked into Ranma's face for the longest time, quite unable to believe the brutality she had seen him display just moments before with the man she had known both as teacher and friend for years. Finally, she nodded. She summoned one of her adjuncts. She produced another bowl of water. Ranma took it and splashed the water on Ka Ka Ree's face. "Wakey, wakey up." Ka Ka Ree groaned. Ranma bent down and grabbed Ka Ka Ree by his hair. He pulled his head up so that their eyes met. "Ready to talk?" he asked. Ka Ka Ree nodded, his eyes clouded by pain. The fight was over and he knew it. He had lost, but he did not care. Nothing mattered anymore, not even his honor. At least, if he cooperated, he would escape the pain a little sooner and die. Ranma smiled and nodded. "Guu Lin, bring me another bowl of water, will you?" he said, turning to Guu Lin. The water was produced in short order. Ranma took it and brought it to Ka Ka Ree's lips. He drank it greedily. When he had finished the bowl, Ranma spoke. "What's your name?" "Ka Ka Ree." "Station?" "Adjunct to Lord Huo Ho. I plan military operations." "What do you know of the attack on the Joketsuzoku outpost?" "Lord Huo Ho planned it..." "And..." "It was meant as a diversionary attack. We thought that if we hit you near The Ox border, you'd focus some of your attention on them, leaving you vulnerable to attacks from our side." "And The Ox had no part in it?" Ka Ka Ree tried to shake his head, but the pain was just too much to bear. He groaned. "No, they did not know what we were going to do." "Why did you attack us?" "I told you before: It was a diversionary attack." "Yes, but are you planning on making war with us?" "Yes." Cough. "How long ago was The Phoenix Army mobilized?" "A year." "How strong is it?" "Nine, maybe ten thousand strong." "How many men and women will be committed to the attack?" The question was a reasonable one. The Phoenix had other neighbors, after all, and not all of them were as friendly with them as The Ox. "Seven or eight thousand." Ranma raised an eyebrow. "That big?" he asked. "Saa Fuu Lang certainly wants to do us in this time, doesn't he?" he observed aloud. "How do you plan to attack us?" "I don't understand," Ka Ka Ree said and coughed. "By land or by air?" "Land." "How? Where?" "On the eastern side." "Through The Devil's canyon?" Ranma asked, impressed. The canyon was so obvious a point of attack that the Joketsuzoku had never given much thought about an attack from that side. It was just too obvious and it made for a perfect trap. "Yes." "When?" "Two, maybe three weeks from now." Ranma shook his head. "I need a better answer than that." "The night of the full moon." Again, Ranma found himself impressed by the Phoenix plan. Traditionally, The Phoenix attacks came from the air in the dark of the night and since moonlight gave them away, they never attacked during the full moon. The Joketsuzoku were so accustomed to fighting them on moonless nights that had The Phoenix launched a land based attack through The Devil's canyon during a full moon, there would have been almost no resistance to buy the Joketsuzoku and the Musk the time they needed to gather their forces for a counterattack. "Anything else?" Ranma asked The Council, looking pointedly at Shi Huu. Shi Huu shook her head and Ranma focused his attention on the scribe. "Got all that?" he asked. The scribe nodded and Ranma turned towards Ka Ka Ree. "You want me to take away the pain?" he asked. There was something in his eyes that might have been mistaken for compassion; only it was tinged with the dark. Ka Ka Ree nodded with what little strength he had. Ranma formed a ki blade in his hand. He pressed one hand on Ka Ka Ree's chest to keep the Phoenix from struggling and used the other to drive the blade into his right ribcage, just below Ka Ka Ree's breast. Ka Ka Ree's mouth snapped open and he gasped in pain. Ranma pulled out the blade. "I punctured one of your lungs just now," Ranma said, softly. He cauterized the flesh wound, effectively closing it. "You know what that means, don't you?" Ka Ka Ree nodded, gasping in pain, as small bubbles of air began to escape into his ribcage. "I sensed traces of your ki on one of the victims," Ranma continued, staring into Ka Ka Ree's eyes. Pause. "She was tortured... Her body was covered with little cuts that slowly bled her to death." Pause. "She was pregnant with a child when she died," he added. Ka Ka Ree did not answer. It hurt so much that he had stopped listening. "Die slowly and painfully, you Little Fuck," were the last words he ever heard, before the struggle to breathe became too great and he stopped caring about everything else. *********************************************************************** Based on information Ka Ka Ree had given them, The Council planned an ambush that very night. The combined forces of the Musk and the Joketsuzoku would attack The Phoenix where they least expected it - the previously unguarded Devil's canyon. More runners were sent to inform the Musk of the plans and the next three days were spent preparing for war. "Honorable Ranma?" Ranma turned around. He picked up Shian Huei, who was now three- years old, as he did. "Yes?" he asked. "The Musk Emperor has arrived." Ranma's eyes widened. "This fast?" he asked. It had been less than five days, since the runners were sent to warn the Musk. The armor-clad Joketsuzoku nodded. "Yes, Honorable One. However, it appears that he has brought only a small detachment with him," she said. "Oh!" 'The main force will take another two or three days to arrive, then,' he thought. "Where is he?" "At the Hall of The Councilors. The Honorable Matriarch bade me to inform you of his arrival and to bring you there." "Very well," Ranma said with a nod. "Lein?" he shouted, turning his gaze away from the pale blue haired female warrior before him. "Yes?" came the muffled reply. There was some scuffling from the kitchen and Lein appeared shortly at the head of the stairs. "Did you... Oh! Hello..." "Mother has called for me, Lein," Ranma stated. "Oh!" Lein said slowly, shooting a rather cold glance at the messenger. She was still angry with Shi Huu over Ranma's role in the interrogation. Rumors about Ranma's brutality spread around the village like wildfire and naturally, she had gotten very upset on hearing them. It had been unsettling, the realization that her husband was a cold- blooded killer. Even though she had always known the truth in the pits of her stomach, there had always been a very small part of her that assumed otherwise. The 'interrogation' had proved that part wrong. "Don't worry," Ranma said, smiling at his wife. She was too big an idealist and she could not understand the fact that some people were better off dead than alive. "I'm not going to 'interrogate' anyone." He turned towards the messenger. "Inform the Honorable Matriarch that I'll be with her shortly." Lein relaxed a little, a fact that Ranma did not fail to notice. The messenger nodded, bowed and disappeared. Ranma watched her exit through the front door before turning towards Lein. "My brother, The Emperor of the Musk, has come. He must have asked for me," he explained. Lein nodded and smiled, relaxing her guard a little. She knew her husband missed his brother very much and on some unconscious level, he actually welcomed the war, for it gave him a chance to meet his brother. Moreover, she had wanted to meet the enigmatic Shin Nan for a long time, too. "Here," Ranma said, walking up to Lein and handing over Shian Huei, "I'll be back in an hour or two and I'll bring Shin when I do." "Okay. I'd better prepare a very big meal, then," Lein replied with a smile. Now that she knew that her husband was not off to 'interrogate' someone again, she felt a lot happier. "Yeah, you'd better," he said, smiling, "if his appetite is still as big as I remember, I expect that nothing short of a royal feast will satiate him." Lein nodded, adjusting Shian Huei into a more comfortable position on her hips. "And you, my dear, sweet Princess," Ranma cooed to Shian Huei, "dada's going to meet your uncle and your grandmother, but he will come back soon to you very soon," he said, kissing her forehead and Lein's. "Dada go?" Shian asked in that cute, undecipherable language that little angels from heaven use. Of course, Ranma, being her parent, understood it completely. "Yes. Dada's going out." Shian Huei's eyes began to water. "Ah! Don't cry, angel. Dada will be back soon and he'll take you flying when he comes back." Immediately, Shian Huei's face brightened and her tears disappeared as if by miracle. She just loved flying and pushing dada's buttons into taking her flying was just so easy. Smile. "Ogay!" Ranma smiled and Lein sighed in exasperation. If Ranma pampered Shian some more, she was going to grow into a very spoiled child. "You're spoiling her, you know that?" she observed. "Aw, c'mon, Lein. Who else am I going to spoil but you two?" he asked, planting yet another kiss on both their faces. Shian cooed in reply and Lein smiled gently, caressing Ranma's face with the back of her hand. "Well, I'd better go, then. See you two, later," Ranma said and, giving his wife and daughter one last glance, walked out of the house. *********************************************************************** "Honorable Matriarch, did you summon me?" Shi Huu paused mid-speech and shot a glance in the direction of the door. She nodded her acknowledgment at Ranma, who stood at the entrance of the room, his body silhouetted against the sunlight. "Yes, I did. Please, come in, Son-in-law." "Thank you, Honorable Matriarch," Ranma said. He stepped into the room and bowed to her. "How do you do, Brother?" a very masculine voice asked from the far-off corner of the room, just as Ranma completed his bow. Ranma turned towards it, temporarily forgetting the Matriarch. "I'm as fine as can be, Brother..." Ranma replied, keeping his voice neutral and regarding his brother with a critical eye. Shin stepped out of the shadows. His and Ranma's eyes met. "You haven't changed a whit," he observed, nodding once in Ranma's direction. Repeating the gesture, Ranma shot his brother a warm smile. "And neither have you," he replied. Then, at some unspoken signal, they, as one, turned to face Shi Huu. There would be opportunities plenty for pleasantries later, but now was not the time for such things. There would be only a brief exchange between them now and nothing more. "Shall we begin, Honorable Matriarch?" they asked, simultaneously. Shi Huu motioned them towards their seats around the table. "Perhaps we should wait, until the entire Council is assembled," she suggested. Shin glanced at Ranma. He nodded. "Yes, perhaps we should," Shin admitted. "We wait then," Shi Huu said aloud, taking her traditional seat at the head of the table. The rest of The Council joined them soon after and the meeting began in full earnest. By early evening, all plans were prepared and the strategy for the coming war finalized. Shi Huu adjourned the meeting and the two brothers set out for Ranma's house. *********************************************************************** "I'm home!" Ranma announced loudly, opening the front door with a flourish. Shin, who stood behind him, gave his brother a bemused expression. It appeared that Ranma had not lost his flair for the dramatic in his years away from the palace. "Coming," came Lein's muffled shout from the kitchen. It was followed by the silenced thumping of running feet against the stone floor. Ranma nodded out of habit, even though he was out of Lein's line of sight, and entered the house, followed by Shin. As the Emperor stepped inside, Ranma turned around to face him, and gave his brother a warm, welcoming smile. Just then, the door to the passageway that connected the hall to the kitchen slammed open with a loud thud. Out came Shian Huei, the little hurricane. "Dada!" she squealed excitedly in delight, quickly latching onto Ranma's leg lest he flee. Ranma smile grew bigger, as he first looked at his daughter and then at Shin. "Shin, meet your niece, Shian Huei. Shian, say hello to your uncle, Shin Nan, the Emperor of the Musk." "'Allo," Shian said, shyly exploring the nooks and crannies of her nose with her index finger and looking up at her uncle. "Enferor of the Musk." Shin laughed. "Hello, Little One. I'm Shin Nan and I'm your uncle. You can call me Uncle Shin." Shian nodded, latching even tighter to Ranma's leg. She was a little afraid. Why did dada have to bring strangers into the house? "She doesn't like strangers," Ranma explained to Shin. He bent down and releasing the tight hold Shian had on his legs, picked her up. "Hello?" Lein said, wiping her hands with her apron, as she entered the room. "And this," Ranma said, proudly, "is my wife, Lein. Lein, this is my brother, Shin." "A pleasure to meet you," Shin said, bowing to Lein. "And a pleasure to meet you, too, Brother. Ranma has told me a lot about you. Please, sit down," Lein said, joining her husband. "Thank you," Shin said, politely, with a smile and a nod of greeting. "You're welcome," she replied, politely. The four sat: The three adults on the cushioned bamboo chairs and Shian on her father's lap. "Dada, take me flying," Shian cooed, exploring her nose some more. Shin raised an eyebrow at his brother. "We'll go flying as soon as we finish dinner, Angel," Ranma cooed back and turned to Shin. "I promised her that I'd take her flying today." "Oh! She's certainly a little angel..." Shin replied; observed with a nod of comprehension. "That she is," Lein replied, "and a little devil when she wants to be, too." Shin grinned. "Is she now? Little One, you don't cause too much trouble to your mommy, do you?" Shian shook her head vehemently. The innocent look on her face told a different story, however. "Only last month, she poured wax into her great, great grandmother's ear," Ranma explained. Yein Luo had raised quite a bit of fuss about the incident, but Shian, as usual, had quickly won her over with a couple of smiles. Ranma still had belly laughs whenever he thought about that one. "Well, I'm sure that Shian was absolutely within her rights to do that," Shin said with a knowing smile. Wax hurt a lot, but only for a few moments if you knew how to cool it with your ki. Extracting the solidified mass would be a problem, of course, but everything has its downsides, right? Ranma and Lein laughed. "She was. I believe great grandmother refused to play with her, opting instead to sleep," Lein explained for Shin's benefit. "There," Shin triumphantly pointed out, "she'd dare do that to my niece. Come, Angel," he extended his arms to Shian, "we'll go and beat up great, great grandmother, right now!" "Unhuh!" Shian vocalized agreeably. She even went so far as to try to get off Ranma's lap. The three adults burst out laughing at Shian's antics. "Later, Angel," Ranma cooed, readjusting his precious load so that she was more comfortably seated. "You and your uncle can go beat up my great mother-in-law after supper." Shian pouted, and pinched Ranma's cheeks. She really wanted to beat grandma up. Justice must be served, after all! "Come," Lein said standing up, "we can talk over supper." Shin nodded and rose up. "That we can." They went to the dinning hall, a symbol of stature and a rarity in the village, and sat down. The table was filled with roast duck, boar, noodles, tofu, turkey and soup, and as Shin sat down, he couldn't help but deeply inhale the heavenly smells in. 'Wow!' he thought. 'The chefs at the palace would have been hard pressed to cook so delicious and mouth watering a feast at such a short notice.' Either Ranma was the biggest glutton in the world, which was saying a lot since Shin considered himself the biggest one, or Lein was an absolute genius in the kitchen. And since Shin was a dragon, it had to be the second one that was true. "This is really good," he said, chewing a piece of roasted duck. "Thank you. You're too kind," Lein replied with a smile. "Nonsense, Lein," Ranma cut in. It never hurt to show off one's wife, especially if you were in front of 'The Emperor.' "You're a very good cook and now, even The Almighty Emperor of the Musk knows it." "Oh! Be quiet," Lein said, hitting her husband with the business end of a ladle. "Hey!" Ranma mock complained, rubbing his offended pate. It did not hurt, but reflexes learnt in childhood did not easily go away. After all, one cannot teach an old dog a new trick. The action drew a chuckle from Shin. Ranma had never lost his propensity to be hit, either, it seemed. Still, he had to agree with his brother. "Ranma's quite right, Brother-Wife. Modesty is not a quality we dragons hold in high regard." "That's something I'm very familiar with," Lein said, shooting a glance at her husband. Ranma caught his wife's sidelong glance and blushed a little in embarrassment. "Dada," Shian interrupted from her throne atop the dinning table. "Yes, Angel?" Ranma asked. "You want me to feed you?" Shian nodded, emphatically. Food tastes much better when your mother, or your father, feeds you. Why else would God give parents hands if not to feed their children? "All right," Ranma said, taking a thin slice of meat between his chopsticks. "Now, open your mouth... That's it, good Girl." "You, too?" Shin asked. "Chai Hu, too?" Ranma asked in return. Chai Hu was Shin's son. Shin nodded and shrugged. Had Ranma expected things to be any different in his house? "There are commands and there are commands. I may be Emperor, but to Ma Huang and Chai Hu, I'm nothing more than their husband and father." "True," Ranma said in agreement, "you have spoken very little about your family, since your arrival, Shin. I believe that now is as good a time as any to tell us about them." Shin nodded. He took a deep breath and began. "Well, Ma Huang's not a..." he shot Lein a little glance, "you know..." "She's not a hybrid?" Ranma exclaimed in surprise. "Yes. She's a Long. In fact, her father's the Long Emperor." "You married into royalty?" Ranma asked, feeding Shian another mouthful. "Man, how did that happen?" he was genuinely surprised. No king, or for that matter, no human had ever given his daughter in marriage to a Musk. "The Ox." "Oh!" Ranma said, understanding the implications of Shin's laconic answer. "What?" Lein asked. What did The Ox have to do with The Musk Emperor's marriage to a member of the Long royalty? "The Ox," Ranma elaborated for Lein's benefit, "must have threatened their country and Ma Huang was used as a political bargaining tool to gain the support of the Musk in case of a war against The Ox." "Oh!" Lein said, slowly. That made sense, she supposed. Especially given the manner in which the outside world treated women. Shin nodded. "It was a distasteful affair at first, but I grew to love her and she grew to love me. Now, I can't imagine living another day without her." Ranma flashed a knowing smile. He knew how Shin felt, for he felt much the same way himself. "And Chai Hu?" "Chai Hu was born in the first year of our marriage. He's four, now, and he's every bit the little devil, always playing pranks and wreaking havoc around the palace..." Shin looked regretfully at Ranma, who returned the gaze. They sat silently, looking forlorn for a long time before Ranma spoke. "We missed every single important event in each other's lives, didn't we?" he observed, solemnly. Shin nodded, his face clouding with even more regret. Silence. "Now that you're here, who's in charge there? Your wife?" Ranma finally asked, changing the topic and trying to break the uncomfortable silence. Shin shook his head. "No. She's still learning the intricacies of the Musk court... Father's the acting regent." "Father?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow. "Yes," Shin replied with a nod. "He's still as capable as always..." "Then why the secession?" "He was losing his edge as a Commander in the battlefield, while at the same time we were proving ourselves as very good replacements... He grew old and we were ready for the responsibility, or so he felt, Brother." Ranma nodded, silently, feeding Shian mechanically. As happy as he was living with the Joketsuzoku, he sometimes wondered how life would have been if he had not been banished. "Dada?" "Huh?" Ranma said, waking up from his trance. "Yes, Angel?" "I want no more..." "But, Angel, you have eaten so little and your tummy's not yet full... Just four more bites, okay?" he cooed lovingly, putting on that concerned face every parent puts on when their son, or daughter, does not eat his, or her, full. Shian pouted, but nodded. "That's a good girl," Ranma said with a smile. "Now open your mouth..." he said. Shian did and he quickly fed her the four mouthfuls. He tried sneaking a fifth one in, but she stopped him. "No more," Shian said, shaking her head. "Just this one, Angel. Now, say ah!" "Un-huh!" Shian said and shook her head. 'Bad dada! Trying to cheat her like that! Bad, bad dada!' "Okay, I can see when I'm beaten," Ranma said resignedly and laid down his chopsticks. Immediately, Shian's face lit up and at once she stood up on the table. "Don't think that you're out of the woods just yet, Young Lady," Ranma continued in a wee bit stern voice, his arms encircling her protectively lest she fall. "You still have to drink milk before you go to bed." "Ogay," Shian replied with a bright smile that immediately melted Ranma's heart. He lifted her up, kissed her on her cheeks and handed her to her mother. "Aren't you going to eat?" Shin asked when Ranma wearily rubbed the edges of his eyes. "I will, thank you," Ranma replied, a little tritely. "Behave yourself," Lein said; commanded and hit Ranma lightly with the ladle. Ranma rubbed his pate, lightly. He looked at Lein, a pout on his lips, and in a meek voice said, "yes, Mother." Shin burst out laughing at the sight. Ranma and Lein exchanged glances and joined him themselves. "This is fun," Shin said, when he finally had his laughter under control. "Yes," Lein replied, eyeing her husband with an evil smile, "we should do this more often." Shin burst out laughing once again and Ranma groaned. The reunion was not going the way he had imagined it would turn out. There had been spectacular explosions and lots of punches and kicks in the other one, but instead, here he was, being hit by the ladle, again and again and again. 'Oh, God, not that I'm complaining or anything, but is this humiliation ever going to end...' Finally, Shin calmed down. He fixed his eyes on Ranma, a serious expression on his face. Even though there was still some mirth in his eyes, it was tempered and not all consuming as before. "The Matriarch told me about the interrogation before she sent for you. She is troubled by what you did and so am I," he said. Ranma placed his chopsticks on his plate, clasped his hands together and turning to face Shin, shrugged. "He deserved it, the Child-killing-bastard!" he said. Pause. "You were not the one to see firsthand what they did to the people in that outpost, Shin. If you had, you would have done the exact same thing." "That bad?" Shin asked, noticing out of the corner of his eyes Lein's uncomfortable squirming. Truth be told, he was a little uncomfortable about what Ranma had done. While it was true that interrogations were always brutal, there was a dark line that interrogators were never supposed to cross. Ranma had crossed it. "Remember the time we came upon that wolf pack with the half-eaten Han carcass?" Shin nodded with a wince, remembering that terrible evening. "How could I ever forget?" he asked. The sight of a pack of frenzied wolves fighting over the remains of a child had been one of the worst moments of his life. "This one was much worse than that. At least, those wolves were not capable of thought and remorse..." Shin nodded in understanding. Even though he had not been there, he could accept why Ranma did what he did, now. In his eyes and Ranma's, there were three kinds of people in the world: People who deserved to live, people who deserved to die and people who deserved to die in as painful a way as possible. Apparently, Ranma thought that his prisoner belonged to the third category and if his allusion to that terrible day was correct, then Shin was inclined to agree with him. Such remorseless bastards were better off dead! "Come, let's not talk about such things now," he said and turned to Lein, "Brother-Wife?" "Yes, Brother?" Lein asked, pausing in her meal. She looked as if she was in deep thought. Perhaps Ranma had been right in doing what he did to that Phoenix, after all. "Please, pass me the roast duck... And how do you feel about being married to a dragon?" Shin asked. Lein shot a smile at her brother-in-law. She passed the duck and began. The conversation drifted onto less distressing topics from then on, and the feast continued, as the three reminisced about the past and the brothers spoke about all that they had missed in each other's lives. Shin slept that night at Ranma's house and stayed there until the day he left the village for Musk lands. For Ranma, the days passed quickly, and he spent most of the time with Shin and his family - In his house, or in the Hall of The Councilors, planning, and co-coordinating the Joketsuzoku and the Musk forces with the Matriarch and his brother. Soon, the combined forces of the Musk and the Joketsuzoku were ready for battle. *********************************************************************** The Devil's canyon, two weeks later... The nightscape was brightly illuminated by the full moon. If one concentrated a little, one could see the individual faces of the men and women on the other side of the canyon. Ranma stood atop the canyon walls, towards the exit of the pass. Huge lines of Musk and Joketsuzoku stretched behind him. He was in his hybrid form and was dressed in the ceremonial battle clothes of a Joketsuzoku Military Commander. He carefully diffused his ki into the cold night air, using it as both a ki bank to be drawn from, and a cloak to hide the men and women around him from prying eyes. Simultaneously, with infinite patience and care, he keyed in his attacks into his ki constructs. When he completed his work, he spared a glance at the two thousand strong force of Musk and Joketsuzoku warriors gathered on either side of the canyon. All around him, he sensed the pooling of ki, as the combined armies of the two nations prepared for battle and knew that they were as ready as they were ever going to be for the battle to come. He took a moment to scan the area actively with his ki, verifying the positions of his troops. Then, he turned his attention inward and mentally went over the planned ambush. 'Trap them, bombard them with ki, decimate their ranks and pick off stragglers one by one... Sounds easy enough. I wonder what secret weapon The Phoenix have in store for us, though...' he thought. A trio of ki signatures flashed in the distance just then, breaking Ranma's train of thought. 'This soon? My, my, The Phoenix certainly are an enthusiastic lot,' he thought, signaling his acknowledgment to the others with a scarcely discernible twist of his ki. Even if The Phoenix were skilled enough to detect the minute change in the alignment of the ki flows in the area, which they were not, they would never make the connection. His ki was spread too thin and it would take an extremely skilled person to detect such minute changes in the ki flows at this distance. "Dang Shen?" he whispered. "Yes, My Lord," the wolf-like Musk warrior said, bowing submissively. Even though Ranma had been cast out of the Musk lands, he had not been thrown out of the Musk nation and was still considered a prince of the royal bloodline. "The Phoenix are upon us. Spread the word around quietly to prepare for battle." Dang Shen nodded. He cupped his hands and hooted five times, owl- like. A couple of seconds passed before the replies - hoots - came back. "It is done, My Lord," Dang Shen said. "Very well. Withdraw, and position all men and women within a stone's throw behind me." Dang Shen looked unsure. He did not think that it was the right thing to do. After all, they needed to use every able ki adept they had in their ranks to deal the greatest amount of damage in the least amount of time. Ranma sensed Dang Shen's unwillingness. "You don't want your people fried by my ki attacks, do you?" he asked without batting an eyelid. "No, My Lord." "Then, I suggest you move them. Quick, the enemy draws near." Dang Shen nodded nervously and scrambled off. From what he had seen and heard of the 'spars' between Shin Nan and Ranma in their youth, he knew that both of them were capable of doing what Ranma said and much more. Ranma watched his 'aide' run off and turned to face the opposite walls of the canyon. He twisted his aura back and forth in rapid succession, and waited for a reply. He did not have to wait long. The other dozen or so big auras acknowledged his message with twists of their own before they became static. Once again, silence descended upon the pass and the night. Presently, The Phoenix host, unsuspecting of the enemy that awaited them atop the canyon, entered its confines. Ranma waited, patiently, watching them silently from his position as a predator would its prey, until most of the Phoenix army was in the trap. Only then did he activate the constructs. Hell broke loose. *********************************************************************** Wu Zhu Yu marched proudly at the head of the Phoenix forces. It filled him with no small amount of pride to think that his unit, a small band of eighty, had been selected to lead the all-powerful Phoenix army into Joketsuzoku occupied territory. The fact that they were paving the way for the almighty Lord Saa Fuu Lang himself only brought that much more pride to him and his men. A hundred years before, after centuries of steady encroachment into Phoenix territory by both the Joketsuzoku and the Musk, Lord Saa Fuu Lang declared war on his neighbors. That 'war' turned out to be remarkably short and one-sided, as the better skilled armies of the enemy defeated and humiliated the more numerous armies of his people. It had been a very painful lesson, but His Lordship learned his lessons from that catastrophic failure and ever since then, his people had trained with the great masters of the outside world, including those from The Ox. After a hundred years, the soldiers of The Phoenix army were much better fighters than their predecessors ever were. In fact, they had become so skilled that a small party of two hundred had been able to easily overcome fifty highly skilled and well-entrenched Joketsuzoku in the surprise attack on an outpost near Ox lands. With only a couple of casualties on their side, no less. 'The hour grows near. A thousand years of injustice will be avenged tonight,' Wu Zhu Yu thought somberly, as he led the army towards the entrance of the canyon while simultaneously probing the night landscape with his ki. At the mouth of the canyon, he paused and looked up at its looming, foreboding outline that stretched against the dark of the night sky. He sounded a momentary halt to give the men and women behind him time to reorder their ranks, and looked around. He was not the only commander who was wary of the canyon. The canyon made for a perfect trap and the other field commanders, too, checked out the canyon with no small degree of suspicion. Finally, after several minutes of probing, Wu Zhu Yu was satisfied. He looked around and saw that the other commanders were, too. The order to march was then sounded, and the men and women began to trickle into the canyon. Wu Zhu Yu, for his part, shivered once, as the cold and uncertainty of the night got to him, and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Extending his ki senses, he entered the canyon, only to pause a couple of hundred yards from the canyon entrance. There were at least a dozen separate ki signals at the top of the canyon walls that he could identify and they were all fairly large. He ordered a halt and sent a soldier to consult with the other commanders, feeling that further investigation was necessary. They, in turn, referred to His Lordship, who ordered the march to continue. Unwillingly, Wu Zhu Yu led his men, idly noting that the ki signatures seemed to follow them as they moved. 'Joketsuzoku spies,' he guessed, incorrectly, 'as long as they don't try to warn their compatriots, they can observe all they like,' he thought to himself. Having thus satisfied his inner fears, Wu Zhu Yu led his men with newfound confidence. Soon, most of The Phoenix army was within the canyon. 'Just a few more minutes and we'll be out of this hellhole. Maybe then, we can take care of those annoying Joketsuzoku whores,' he thought, as they neared the end of the pass. Given their own vulnerability while they were inside the canyon, the other Phoenix commanders and he had been hesitant about dealing with the Joketsuzoku scouting party, but that would change as soon as The Phoenix army was outside the canyon walls. However, before he could form an attack plan in his mind, Wu Zhu Yu's ki senses flared. The ki signatures at the top had grown to monstrous proportions triggering off his danger sense, and Wu Zhu Yu realized too late the danger facing his men and himself. The entire Phoenix army had unwittingly walked into an ambush. In the few moments he had, Wu Zhu Yu tried to shout a warning, but when he looked around, he saw that his men were already forming tight groups optimal for defense. The ki signatures were so powerful that even the worst ki adept had sensed them, he realized. Opting not to dwell on that little bit on information and feeling very grateful towards The Ox for the never ending drills that they had put he and his men through, Wu Zhu Yu had just enough time to tilt his head upwards before all hell broke loose. The first ki attack was small, not even big enough to hurt a fly. It landed a dozen yards from the nearest Phoenix. Too bad, it was only the feeler and not the main attack. The second one was much bigger and it was aimed much better. It hit right in the middle of a large group of men and detonated with an ear- shattering crash, sending pieces of men, dirt and debris high into the air. Wu Zhu Yu threw himself on the ground, even as the earth shook and the attack began in earnest. Hundreds and hundreds of ki balls, each the size of a large boulder came crashing down from the sky, saturating the air with ki and the crack of explosions. It lasted only a dozen seconds, but to the shell- shocked Phoenix, it might as well have lasted a million years. When the debris stopped raining down, Wu Zhu Yu raised his head and dared to look around him. Everywhere he looked, he saw a wing, a hand, a leg, or some other piece of flesh that lay around, sans the rest of the body. Some of the Phoenix soldiers staggered around the killing field. They had dazed expressions on their faces. All of them had dilated pupils and looked more like zombies than living beings. That scene, in itself, would have been more than enough to make even the strongest men and women puke, but that was not the end of it. There was more. A skull, a Phoenix skull, with flesh still attached to it, lay facing him just a few feet up front. Its front was partially caved it, partially seared away, leaving a hollow that was identifiably Phoenix. Blood and phlegm dripped from torn blood vessels and the sinus cavity, and Wu Zhu Yu turned his eyes away from it. He dry heaved a couple of times and staggered to his feet. 'We'll be massacred if we remain within the canyon,' his thought processes screamed at him, but he did not pay attention to them. Rather, he looked around slowly in a drugged manner, taking in the carnage around him and when he could look no more, he turned his gaze up towards the night sky. A Phoenix ran in front of him just then, screaming hysterically, as his wings burned behind him. "Charge!" someone shouted in the far-off background. No one responded. All were too shell-shocked to care. Wu Zhu Yu did not stir, either. He collapsed to his knees and remained motionless until someone pulled him up. "We have to attack, Wu," a voice; a familiar voice shouted. "Huh?" Wu Zhu Yu asked, dazedly. "C'mon, snap out of it." Slap! Wu Zhu Yu turned his head around. It was his second in command, Shiu Liu, who had slapped him. "Huh?" "We have to take to the air and attack. We're being slaughtered here!" "Oh!" Wu Zhu Yu said, snapping himself out of his daze. "Spread the word around and gather everyone you can find for a counterattack." "Gather? They'll just pound us with ki blasts and wipe us out," Shiu Liu replied, ominously. "Tell them to gather in small groups. Go," Wu Zhu Yu ordered. He watched Shiu Liu run off and turned towards a foot soldier that lay cowering on the ground. "You," he shouted. An explosion only a few dozen yards away punctuated his shout, signaling the start of the second wave of attacks. The Phoenix did not stir. Wu Zhu Yu crawled as fast as he could towards the cowering Phoenix, drawing his sword as he did. More explosions rocked the background, sending smoke and clods of earth high into the night sky. "You," he shouted again, when he reached the Phoenix, "what's your name?" "Ka Ra Ka," the soldier stuttered and stammered fearfully, after Wu Zhu Yu had given him a couple of fierce slaps. "Get up, Ka Ra Ka. And come with me," Wu Zhu Yu said. He stood up and lifted Ka Ra Ka off the ground. The second wave of attacks had stopped and he guessed that it was safe to stand up. Ka Ra Ka stood up, unwillingly. Wu Zhu Yu grabbed him by his elbow and they ran towards the next nearest surviving Phoenix. Soon, the two of them together had managed to gather fifty-seven foot soldiers broken into nearly twenty groups, all of whom were busy recruiting survivors of their own. By now, a second lull had fallen upon the battlefield. The Joketsuzoku and the Musk seemed to have sensed that something big was about to happen, and they had stopped firing in preparation for the Phoenix counterattack. "Anything?" Wu Zhu Yu asked Shiu Liu, when, finally, he came crawling back to him. "Yes. Lord Saa Fuu Lang is about to order the counter-attack." "How many survivors?" Shiu Liu shrugged. "Probably four thousand... Maybe five..." he said, shrugging again. Wu Zhu Yu nodded in silence. The Joketsuzoku enemy had managed to wipe out nearly a third of The Phoenix army and had most probably lost not even a single warrior in the exchange. Things could not have looked any worse than they were. "Guess we'll have to make do with what we have and pray that the heavy hitters really come through." Shiu Liu nodded in acquiescence, but before he could reply, a huge explosion shook the canyon walls at the far end of the canyon. It was followed in quick succession by nearly half a dozen more. Commander and executive officer looked at one another and nodded as one. "Charge," they shouted, rising to their feet, their swords pointed towards the heaven. There was a huge cry among the surviving Phoenix soldiers and the whole of them took to the air. The counter-attack had begun. Wu Zhu Yu rose into the air, his wings flapping. He was one of the first to clear the canyon walls, but before he could attack the enemy, an arrow struck him in his ribcage. Waves of raw pain centered on his chest cobwebbed all over his body and he gasped. It was too much to bear and it only grew worse, when he tried to flap his wings. Naturally, Wu Zhu Yu's wings failed him and he fell to the ground. As the ground rushed to meet him, he screamed in agony and terror, his arms and legs flailing uselessly, and then, he hit. The last thing he heard was a crunch and he knew no more. *********************************************************************** Ranma watched from afar, as the canyon wall at the other end of the canyon disappeared in a huge fireball. Thankfully, the field commanders had anticipated such an attack and had withdrawn their forces, except for a small group of archers, from the wall edge. Ranma did not have time to think about those men and women, and mourn their loss, however, as at that very instant, the entire Phoenix host shouted their war cry and rose to the air. The counterattack had begun. On Ranma's side of the canyon, hundreds and hundreds of Phoenix rose into the air in a thick cloud. The archers positioned at the edge shot down some of them, but they were easily overwhelmed by the Phoenix through sheer force of numbers in less than a dozen seconds. Ranma ordered a desperate attack to cover the retreat of the archers and led it, charging at full speed straight into the Phoenix ranks. In mere seconds, he was upon them. A Phoenix warrior, catching sight of Ranma, screamed hoarsely and tried to run him through with a spear. Ranma was far faster and far more skilled. Without even slowing down, moved a few centimeters to the side. He blocked; deflected the spear with his right hand and got into the Phoenix's defenses. He leaned to his right, pivoted and swung his foot at supersonic speeds at his enemy's head. The Phoenix soldier stood no chance against such a brutal attack, and his skull caved in and exploded, splattering blood all over. Ranma, for his part, paid no attention to the crunch of bone under his leg and continued the swing of his legs, using his momentum to execute a mid-air roll. He easily avoided a trio of shooting stars aimed at his mid section and as the last of the spinning projectiles passed him by, he shot a hand out. The move slowed his spin at once and he grabbed the shooting star between his thumb and index finger. He retracted his arm, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he tensed, absorbing the energy of impact and storing it in his tendons. Using the same energy and adding a generous amount of his own, he jumped back; somersaulted backwards into the air. In mid flight, he turned around, charging the shooting star with ki as he did, and with a flick of his wrists, threw it at the ground beneath a trio of Phoenix trying to sneak up on him. The shooting star exploded on impact, wounding the middle one grievously and splattering the other two with red-hot metal fragments. Even before the pain registered in their brains, Ranma completed his spin and landed, driving himself a couple of inches into the ground to absorb the momentum. He summoned his aura and standing his ground, barked, unleashing a white-hot pillar of ki at them. The Phoenix did not survive contact. Then, snatching a spear hurled at him out of thin air, he flooded it with ki and spun it around at supersonic speeds, raising an impenetrable cloud of dust. The dozen or so Phoenix who had surrounded him hesitated, opting to wait at the edge of the cloud rather than entering it and risk being sliced, diced and sautéed. They did not have to wait long. The roar of the spear died away scant moments later, only to replaced by a mighty cry, as Ranma fell into their midst from the heavens, clutching the end of the burning spear with both his hands and striking the ground with a fiery bark. The immediate area shuddered as if hit by an earthquake and as the Phoenix jumped away from him, desperately trying to regain their footing and mount some sort of defense, Ranma released his left hand and swung the spear exactly ninety degrees, gutting one of them with the sharp edge. The soldier fell screaming, his wounds cauterized by the hot ki. The flames licking the surface of the spear gutted, as a blast of cold air centered on the dragon exploded outward in all directions. Ranma smirked at his opponents and brought the spear to his side, using the residual ki in it to jumpstart the Hiryu Shoten Ha. Phoenix, dirt and more Phoenix were picked up and flung in all directions, as the winds rose to a crescendo. And Ranma, having taken care of his assailants, simply quenched the tornado with another burst of ki, when the last of the Phoenix disappeared into the night sky. He dropped the now blackened spear and looked around, scouring the battlefield for more enemies to kill. A lone Phoenix warrior sporting a respectable battle aura charged Ranma screaming from his side. Ranma obliged him, catching the punch meant for his nose, a killing blow, with his clawed left hand, centimeters away from its target. Smirking at the shocked expression on his enemy's face, who had obviously not expected his blow to be blocked, he applied pressure on his opponent's fist, crushing it, and twisted, provoking a howl of pain from the Phoenix. The Phoenix stood up on his toes to reduce the damage, thus dropping his guard and leaving himself open for Ranma's follow up attack. Ranma took notice of the obvious hole in his opponent's defense and dutifully extended the claws of his right hand, disemboweling the Phoenix with a clean swipe. He flung the body aside and dropped into a stance, shooting a wicked glance at the next Phoenix duo that dared to face him. *********************************************************************** The sword sang through the air, its intricate movements a blur to even the trained eye. The Phoenix soldier was obviously very skilled. Shi Huu, however, was much better in The Art and even though she was much smaller than the Phoenix facing her, she had the advantage of age and experience, which is always a potent combination, on her side. She dodged most of the blows and used her short dagger to block her opponent's strikes whenever she could not dodge, waiting for the slightest sign of hesitation, or mistake on her opponent's end. She did not have to wait too long. A small stone, no more than the size of a fist, caused him to stumble when he accidentally stepped on it, and Shi Huu, seizing the chance, moved into his guard. A quick slash later, the sword was out of his grasp and his sword-wielding wrist was attached to his hand by a very thin shred of skin. The Phoenix's sword fell and Shi Huu jumped into the air, her battle dress fluttering madly about her. She swiveled and extended her legs out at the last second, kicking his ribcage with enough force to collapse it. The soldier went flying through the air. He crashed to the ground and Shi Huu landed softly on the ground. She remained there for just the briefest moment, just enough time to gather her bearings, before charging to meet her next opponent, a Phoenix female who was plowing through the archer ranks as if they were mere cardboards. Still, as fast as she was, Shi Huu was not fast enough and the Phoenix female decapitated two more archers with her blooded sword before the Matriarch reached her. Rage and hatred filled Shi Huu's heart, and she summoned her aura, screaming in ecstasy, as the power coursed through her veins, invigorating her. The female Phoenix turned, and realizing Shi Huu for the threat she was, summoned her own aura, which burned an angry red black. Then, without further adieu, the Phoenix charged. Shi Huu stood still at the face of her opponent's charge, until the last possible moment, and just as the distance between them decreased to a mere ten feet, kicked up the dirt in the ground and flung it with a flick of her leg at her opponent's eyes. The Phoenix, blinded by the dirt, slowed down, brought her arms to protect her eyes and Shi Huu used the failure on her opponent's part to her own advantage. She burst forward at Amaguriken speed, driving her knife to the hilt into the right side of the woman's abdomen. Her rival's mouth opened wide to scream, but no sound came out, as the force of impact had knocked the air out of her lungs. Her eyes met Shi Huu's and she saw in them the same madness - the berserker rage - that had been on her face mere moments before. The demon and the insanity that clouded the Phoenix's fell then, and even as her blood wet the Matriarch's clothes crimson, Shi Huu tore the knife out of her opponent's body, taking care to do as much damage as possible. *********************************************************************** 'This is the third one that's run away from me! The Joketsuzoku and the Musk are cowards unfit to die at the hands of the Wrath of Heaven,' Ka Ra Kee, Commander of The Phoenix army, thought to himself, as he chased after his third opponent. He was completely unaware of the fact that his enemies ran away not from him, but from his blade. The Wrath of Heaven was one of the most powerful spirit weapons in The Phoenix arsenal, and all Joketsuzoku and Musk foot soldiers were under orders to run away from whoever wielded it to alert the elite warrior nearest to him. That elite warrior turned out to be Shin Nan, Emperor of the Musk, and unlike his two previous compatriots, the third Joketsuzoku foot soldier managed to evade Ka Ra Kee long enough to warn Shin Nan about the weapon. Shin Nan, who had been observing the proceedings of the battlefield from a distance as the commander of the reserve forces, summoned his aura and leapt into battle, swirling The Spirit Bane in an impressive arc, as he stepped up to meet Ka Ra Kee's challenge. Ka Ra Kee, for his part, was startled by the sight of the Musk monster that stepped out of nowhere to meet his challenge. Truth be told, he was more than a little afraid, for Shin Nan, with a towering vortex of burning ki that engulfed him in flame and reached into the heavens above, looked like a demon straight out of hell. His aura crackled with arc and ball lightning, and a whirlwind blew about him, picking up the dust, sized stones and whatnot from his surroundings. "I'm Emperor Shin Nan of the Musk," Shin announced himself. "I'm Commander of The Phoenix, Ka Ra Kee," his opponent replied. Shin nodded, accepting the wordless challenge. He drove his staff a dozen inches into the ground in one smooth flourish of his right hand and calmly waited beside it for his opponent to make the first move. Ka Ra Kee stood where he was, observing his opponent guardedly. He slowly began a kata and danced, holding the Wrath of Heaven in both his hands. He waved it in an arc to his right and then to his left at a slow speed. He repeated the process three times and each time, he did it a little faster than before. When the third arc ended, Ka Ra Kee barked, summoning his ki, which erupted into a nova of blinding white several feet thick around him. He slashed down vertically with the curved blade, bringing it to rest with the blade parallel to the ground. The sword glowed a blinding shade of blue white, easily lighting the surrounding area for hundreds of yards around. "Shall we begin?" he asked. Shin nodded. Immediately, Ka Ra Kee charged in a diagonal, his sword held to his left, pointing down. Shin Nan drew The Spirit Bane from the ground and leapt to meet his opponent's challenge. The clashed midway and the battle was joined. *********************************************************************** The spear is a very potent weapon. The advantage given in the battlefield by its reach alone is incalculable. Combine it with a very skilled pair of hands and one has a nigh invincible weapon in one's hands. Still, the traditional spear has one major disadvantage: Only the tip is made of metal and the rest is made of wood. And against a skilled opponent, that one shortcoming can prove fatal. Enforce the wood with ki, lots of it, however, and one has a very strong and flexible weapon that can powder, or cut granite into slivers, or whichever way one prefers it. This is exactly what Shi Ho wielded: a wooden spear with an edge of obsidian so sharp that it could cut through iron as if it were butter and that, too, without ki reinforcing it. And the wood that made the stock was no laughing matter either. Legend had it that it was cut from the very first Neem tree in the world, blessed by the Gods themselves in the southernmost corner of Hindustan. It was very old and it was very, very powerful. Still, despite the great age of its individual components, the weapon, The Bearer of Light, was scarcely a hundred years old. It was one of the most powerful weapons in The Phoenix arsenal and Shi Ho, adjunct to Ka Ra Kee, Commander of The Phoenix army, had been specially trained to wield it in battle from a very young age. And did he wield it? The few bold men and women who dared fight him fell like cannon fodder, while the intelligent ones ran at the sight of the hellish flame of bright blue ki that burned and consumed the land around him. He was in every sense of the word, invincible and he reigned supreme in the battlefield. And he expected the battle against the ancient woman-troll dressed in the ceremonial battle dress of the Joketsuzoku to fare no better. As his luck would have it, however, the woman was none other than Shi Huu and even though he did not know it, he was in for a very tough battle. The first sign that things may be wrong and that the battle may not be as easy as he thought it would be came when Shi Huu sidestepped his opening move, a lightning fast thrust aimed at her heart, and then, jumped over the counter side-slash that should have sliced her body in two. It missed her body, but not her robe and he noted with a small amount of satisfaction that part of the shredded robe floated; fluttered to rest on the ground. Shi Huu, for her part, did not waste her time worrying about the near miss. She somersaulted twice away from her opponent to put some distance between him and herself, and landed softly on the ground, almost kneeling to absorb the energy of impact. She assumed a stance of her own and waited for her opponent to do the same. "I am Shi Ho of The Phoenix," her opponent announced with a slight bow. "With whom do I have the honor of dueling?" "I am Matriarch Shi Huu of the Joketsuzoku and I am honored to do battle with you," Shi Huu replied in cultured tones with a slight bow of her own. She had brought her rage and hatred against the enemy under control since she ran amok, and was back to her calm, calculating self, which was good, for her senses told her that the warrior before her was a very dangerous and very skilled one; one that her berserk self would surely have fallen against. "I am much honored that the Matriarch would choose to challenge me in combat," Shi Ho replied, following The Old Code to the word. "Shall we begin?" "Yes," Shi Huu replied. Shi Ho leapt in without further adieu and the battle was joined. *********************************************************************** There are 311 bones in the body of an adult Phoenix and Ranma reckoned that he had broken just about every single one of them on his latest opponent. Being thrown against a huge, very sturdy looking rock will do that to one, especially if one were a Phoenix with hollow, light weight bones. Light immediately went out of the Phoenix's eyes and he slid off the smooth rock, his blood lubricating his passage towards the ground. He collapsed on the cold, hard earth and lay still. Ranma's eyes remained on his opponent for a mere fraction of a moment; the time it took him to verify whether the Phoenix was alive or not, before he turned his attention elsewhere. As much as he hated what the Phoenix had done to the people at the outpost and as much as he wished death upon all that was theirs, he was a warrior and did not take pleasure in seeing his victims suffer in pain in the battlefield. A quick, gory death in battle was much easier on his consciousness and it struck fear deep in the hearts of his enemies. [2] The Phoenix male was indeed dead and Ranma turned his eyes away from the dead body, scouring the area for more enemies. Not a great many Phoenix remained standing on the battlefield, though all that stood were skilled and were giving as good as they got. In fact, one of them, the one closest to Ranma, evaded the attacks launched at him by his three opponents with ease, while slowly gaining the upper hand, as he forced them towards the edge of the canyon with his counterattacks. Ranma just shook his head in wonder. The Joketsuzoku warriors were some of the most skilled in the world and if the guy had the skill to not only defend himself against three of them, but also actually win, then he must be very, very skilled. 'Only one way to find just how skilled he really is,' Ranma thought to himself, as he cleared the ground separating them with huge leaps. The Joketsuzoku and the Phoenix must have sensed him for the Joketsuzoku gave way and the Phoenix actually turned his back on his opponents in the middle of the fight to regard Ranma. "I'm Masara of The Phoenix Royal Guards," the Phoenix warrior said without preamble when Ranma landed in a crouch front of him. Ranma looked appraisingly at the twenty-fiveish birdman that stood before him and nodded once at the Joketsuzoku who had been fighting him. Immediately, the three of them withdrew from the battle. "I'm Ranma Saotome Qin of the Musk and the Joketsuzoku," he said, introducing himself. Masara nodded and summoned his aura, which roared to life in an incandescent cloud of blinding white that arced with florescent blue strokes of lightning around his body. Dirt and pebbles rose into the air, and a whirlwind rose around him, reaching out to the night sky. Finally, his aura ready to heed his every beck and call, he slipped into a battle stance and waited for Ranma to summon his battle aura. Ranma raised an eyebrow at the fireworks. The young Phoenix was powerful. However, he did not call forth his ki, as he slipped into a stance of his own. "Shall we begin?" he asked. Masara saw red at the obvious insult. And his ki, in response to his anger, burned bright red, painting his surroundings crimson. Who did this Ranma think he was to face off against one of the most skilled warriors in The Phoenix ranks without the full benefits of his ki? "Today, you die. I will kill you," he announced; growled, controlling his anger and channeling it towards his enemy. He always fought better when he was focused and his opponent had unwittingly signed his death warrant by insulting his honor. "On the contrary," Ranma replied with an ill-disguised condescending smirk. The Phoenix was powerful, but he was nowhere near as strong as he needed to be to pose a serious threat to Ranma. "I think it is you who will die today, Little Boy." *********************************************************************** At the start of the duel, Ka Ra Kee had expected it to last very long, but in the end, he had expected to win it. Now, roughly half an hour into the fast paced battle, he was beginning to have second thoughts. That damned staff his opponent bore in his hands seemed to be none other than The Spirit Bane and it was wielded with just as much skill as Ka Ra Kee wielded the Wrath of Heaven. All the ki blasts Ka Ra Kee shot at his opponent were either deflected, or blocked, either with The Spirit bane, or by Shin Nan himself. And the Wrath of Heaven, which was supposed to be the sharpest blade in all existence able to cut through anything and everything, had not even made a nick on the staff. To further add to Ka Ra Kee's woes, Shin Nan was very, very skilled. He was, quite simply, the most skilled warrior the Phoenix had ever seen in his life. Still, the Commander of The Phoenix was not discouraged, for Shin Nan, for all his skill and prowess, could scarcely match the raw power of The Wrath of Heaven. "Yield and I'll be merciful," Ka Ra Kee said, drawing in deep breaths and eyeing his opponent critically, as he stood two dozen feet afar. They had withdrawn from each other in an unofficial temporary truce in order to catch their breath. Shin Nan laughed, wiping the trickling blood from his lips. It was a painful remainder of the terrible weapon his opponent held in his hands, he thought, remembering the attack that had drawn blood. If he had been even a fraction of a second slower, he would have perished under the enormous ki blast that The Phoenix Commander had managed to produce from nowhere. As it was, he barely managed to block it, because of which, his robe was shredded beyond repair. It clung to him by the tiniest of threads, and his lips as well as most of his upper body bled from lacerations. "Nonsense," he said, waving Ka Ra Kee's offer away, "the Emperor of the Musk does not yield," he announced, proudly and took a stance, "come and make me." Ka Ra Kee, having got his breath back, was only too glad to oblige. The two opponents closed the distance between them in the wink of an eye. The ground tore and a cloud of dust rose in the wake of their passage. They met midway, striking each other with their respective weapon. Like so many times before, neither could break through the other's defenses and they withdrew back shortly only to unleash huge ki blasts at one another. The air sizzled with ki and huge fireballs, each hot enough to melt the flesh off a body, rose into the night sky, punctuating the dark of the night with blinding flashes. When finally they stopped, Shin Nan sneaked a glance at the surrounding area out of vanity and saw that what had once been a lush green land was now reduced to a field of smoke, dust and death. It would be centuries, if ever, before the land recovered. On the other hand, Ka Ra Kee's anger was growing steadily by the minute. "Die, damn you!" he screamed, throwing obscenities at Shin Nan, who watched his opponent's verbal outburst with a detached expression on his face. Finally, The Phoenix Commander could bear it no longer and he launched himself high into the air. He raised his sword above his head at the apex of his flight and came down on Shin Nan, slashing downwards with the Wrath of Heaven. Shin Nan deflected the razor sharp blade with The Spirit Bane, holding it in one hand. He released a small ki blast at the ground with the other and jumped back, just as the ki blast exploded. As he came down, he focused ki into the tip of his staff and struck at the ground, producing a thunderclap of an explosion. The earth shuddered and split, covering the distance between the Emperor and his opponent in a mere fraction of a second. Ka Ra Kee jumped up and to his left, moments before the ever- widening fracture reached him, and even though Shin Nan was some forty feet away, slashed the air horizontally with his blade in retaliation. The air turned incandescent for a miniscule fraction of a second and glowed with the brightness of ten suns. As it quivered and expanded explosively, a large number of vacuum blades, each charged with a generous amount of ki, rocketed out of the blossoming bubble of plasma towards Shin Nan. Shin Nan did not bother to dodge. The blades were just too numerous and trying to dodge them would have been suicidal. Instead, he stood at the head of the fracture line and twirled The Spirit Bane between his fingers, digging deep into his ki reserves as he did. The ki-storm around him became a tornado in the fraction of the second it took the vacuum blades to reach him and he successfully deflected; blocked all of them. The deflected ones tore into the ground behind him and exploded, further devastating the already mortally wounded land, whereas the blocked ones exploded against his ki barrier, scorching the land beneath his feet and vaporizing it. Even before Ka Ra Kee's attack ended, Shin Nan charged forward, using his ki to propel his body to godlike speeds. His opponent did not even have time to flinch before the Emperor was upon him, attacking him with animalistic fury. The ground exploded under Ka Ra Kee's feet, as the force of each strike forced his knees to buckle. He tried to counterattack with a ki blast, but Shin Nan did not even attempt to dodge it. Instead, he took the blast head-on and still came at Ka Ra Kee, looking very much like a demon from the netherworlds. Faced with such a brutal onslaught, Ka Ra Kee began to falter. The tide of battle began to turn in Shin Nan's favor, and within a trio of minutes, it was all over. All except one very important thing, that is... *********************************************************************** Block. Parry. Strike. Counter-strike. Slash. Kick. Jump. Duck. Block. Retreat. Pause. "You cannot win against me, Matriarch. The only reasonable thing to do is yield," Shi Ho said, confidently, "I bear The Bearer of Light in my hands and with it, I'm invincible." Shi Huu did not reply; she was too busy trying to get back her breath. Even though the boy wasn't as skilled as she was, the spear perfectly complemented what skills he had, and he wielded it with such prowess and conviction that he matched her every attacks every step of the way. It did not help her cause any the fact that the spear was also a very good focus for channeling ki. She glanced at his barely sweating form and pulled herself together, getting into a stance. "I do not yield," she said, indignantly. The very thought filled her with revulsion. "Very well," he replied, his voice calm and collected, "then you die." He bee lined for the Matriarch even as he spoke and tried to impale her with a thrust of his spear. She dodged, escaping the tip by a mere fraction of an inch and he countered by swinging the spear in an arc at her. This time, she was not able to evade successfully and wood, reinforced by ki and having the power of a dozen elephants behind it, hit her torso. It knocked the air out of her lungs and were it not for her ki, it would have killed her for sure. Shi Huu staggered and Shi Ho took advantage of her breathlessness by repeatedly thrusting the spear at her. It was all the Matriarch could do to evade. Finally, just as her lungs felt like would burst, Shi Huu, in desperation, launched her dagger at The Phoenix. Shi Ho sensed the blade too late and even though he tried to dodge it, he could not move fast enough and the dagger made a deep cut in his left bicep, effectively putting the arm out of commission. Moreover, it severed an artery and if left untreated long enough, the wound was severe enough to bleed him to death. Biting back a scream of pain, Shi Ho stopped his assault and somersaulted backwards a couple of dozen feet to put some distance between the Matriarch and himself. He then took a moment to observe the bleeding and confirmed his initial prognosis: The wound could prove fatal if left untreated. Ruthlessly, he struck his spear into the ground and summoned a blistering hot ball of ki in his hands, which he used to cauterize the wound. The pain was excruciating and he nearly blacked out, but in the end, the wound was sealed and the bleeding stopped. He would survive. Finally, after taking a couple of seconds to compose himself, he pulled the spear in his hands and slipped into a stance. Crippled and in pain as he was, he was still confident that he could win the duel. "Shall we begin?" he asked. Having taken the slight reprieve to catch her lost breath whilst her opponent tended to his wounds, Shi Huu looked a little better off than before. She nodded, acknowledging the Phoenix's words and slipped into a non-threatening looking stance of her own. Immediately, Shi Ho leapt at her with his spear. He jumped a great height and came down on her with his aura blazing around him like a white-hot pyre. Shi Huu leapt back and the ground she had stood only a second before erupted under the force of Shi Ho's landing, as he landed in a crouch. He barked once and a huge blast of ki, centered on the spear exploded outwards in all directions. The Matriarch stood her ground unflinching at the face of the giant blast and crossed her arms, summoning her ki barrier to ward off the powerful explosion. The two walls of ki met and with a thunderous clap, exploded. The resulting shockwave shook everything for hundreds of yards around. Eventually, the shaking stopped and the dust slowly cleared, revealing Shi Ho with his spear thrust into the Matriarch's leg. He smiled, relishing the taste of success, and began withdrawing the blade, further tearing muscle and blood vessels. Victory was in his grasp now, or so, he thought. His celebrations did not last long, however, as Shi Huu tore herself off the spear, self-inflicting massive amounts of damage on herself. She grabbed The Bearer of Light near the tip, and swung it and its owner around with all her strength, smashing Shi Ho against the hard ground. The attack was too unexpected and Shi Ho, ill-prepared for it, lost hold of his weapon, as he hit the surface. Pain flared anew, as the cauterized arm wound tore again, and copious amounts of blood began to gush out of it. He tried to get up, but failed. His legs were dislocated from impact. "Yield," he heard the old woman's voice say, as he struggled to get off the ground. Shi Ho turned towards his victor, and saw that she, too, was limping very badly and managed to stand only because she was using the spear; his spear, as a cane; her staff, she had lost in the fight. Her eyes bore deep respect for him and it filled his heart with great pride. He may have lost, but he had lost honorably. "Yield," she asked, as she stood over him. "Never," he said, hoarsely. He would die honorably, rather than live with the shame of having surrendered to a foe. Shi Huu looked into his eyes for a long time. Finally, she nodded, accepting his choice. "Very well," she said. Quarter had been offered and refused. There was only one thing left to do. "Blessed is your name." "Blessed is yours," replied Shi Ho. Shi Huu bowed to her youthful opponent and without further adieu, closed the distance between them, limping. She stood over him and with one hard blow to the back of Shi Ho's neck, broke it. Shi Ho gurgled and fell on the ground, dead. *********************************************************************** Fighting against a dragon, Masara discovered was no walk in the park. Especially if the dragon was a walking God of The Art - just like his opponent was. No matter what he tried, or how he tried it, Ranma evaded his attacks by a cat's whisker and as more and more attacks missed, Masara began to lose his focus. His desperation began to reflect in his attacks and he began burning up his ki that much faster. This went on for ten minutes and Masara threw all sorts of ki attacks at the dragon during that time. Ranma, for his part, evaded or blocked them all with apparent ease, but never once did he retaliate. Finally, at the end of his reserves, Masara temporarily halted his attacks, taking the time to get back his breath. Ranma watched his opponent carefully, as he stood panting a couple of dozen feet away. He had taken his own sweet time with his opponent thus far, as the combined armies of the Joketsuzoku and the Musk had won the battle in every sense of the word. However, he knew that he had to end the duel sometime and as he watched his opponent from afar, he decided to end it soon. Accordingly, he slid into a stance for the second time since the start of the duel; this time, it was an aggressive one. "It's time to end this," he stated, his voice neutral. Masara looked up. His eyes met Ranma's and the Phoenix nodded, slipping into a stance of his own. Ranma noted absently the absence of fear in his opponent's eyes, even though Masara knew that he was most probably going to die. The two opponents began to circle each other, watching and waiting for the other to make the smallest mistake to take advantage. They remained thus for a couple of minutes, until quite suddenly Masara attacked. He took a couple of steps forward and jumped, aiming to break Ranma's ribs with a powerful kick. However, unlike the previous instances where Masara had tried this particular attack, Ranma did not dodge. He waited until the last possible second before turning just a whisker, safely letting Masara pass by him. The Phoenix tried to react and improvise a defense, but Ranma was much faster. He grabbed Masara's legs in his hands and swung him around once before letting go. The move simultaneously altered Masara's trajectory and removed the control he had over his flight. Masara could only cringe, as he watched in morbid fascination the ground, which quickly ran up to greet him. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs and dislocated his leg, bouncing him off the ground like a wooden puppet for a couple of times before depositing him in a heap on the dirt-ground. After releasing his hold on his opponent's legs, Ranma withdrew a couple of yards and waited. He had not given Masara the honor of a warrior's duel, but he would give him the honor of a warrior's death. Masara, for his part, grunted in pain and got up on his feet, leaning heavily on one leg. The Phoenix hopped forward, balancing clumsily on his one undamaged leg and swung his right fist at Ranma. Ranma bent back slightly and brought his hands together in a cross like that of a pair of scissors, effectively capturing Masara's fists. He then maneuvered his right hand around and grabbing hold of Masara arm just above his elbow, twisted, dislocating and breaking the arm at the Phoenix's shoulder. The bone snapped and Ranma released his hold on his opponent's arm. Masara fell. Ranma withdrew. Masara blinked. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Masara blinked, again. All the world but Ranma seemed to vanish. Blood from where his bone had broken through his skin dripped down his arm to the dusty ground. The roar of the cold night breeze rose to a crescendo, blanketing what little sound that existed in the world. Masara rose up and tried to connect with a punch with his other arm. Ranma blocked it with his right hand and grabbed hold just below the elbow, effectively preventing Masara's escape. His left hand came down and then up to catch Masara's fist. He applied pressure and a series of pops punctuated the silence, as the bone structure in Masara's fist collapsed under the vise-like grip. Masara blinked again, as wave after wave of excruciating pain flooded his mind. He did not scream, however. More blood dripped on the ground. Ranma released his hold and Masara fell. He looked up into Ranma's eyes. Ranma's right hand rose and grabbed Masara's hair. Masara flinched not as the dragon repositioned himself by his side. The dragon's left hand rose up and stopped. The winds died. Time stopped. "Blessed is your name," Ranma said. His voice, although a whisper, sounded very loud to Masara's ears. "Blessed is yours," Masara replied, staring straight ahead, his head held high with pride. Ranma's eyes, unable to meet Masara's, and yet, unwilling to look away, as that would insult his opponent's honor, met the Phoenix's. His fist came down hard. There was an audible crunch, as Masara's larynx and throat were both crushed. Masara gurgled once, twitched and fell forward, dead. Ranma bowed once to his deceased opponent and rose. The ground exploded behind Ranma and flung him high into the air. As he sailed through the air, a searing hot wall of pressurized air hit him and sent him tumbling towards the earth. The ground came up fast to meet him and Ranma tucked his body into himself, landing hard on his legs. He let his momentum carry him forward, rolling on the ground a good fifteen meters before coming to rest. Immediately, he bounded to his feet and dropped into a stance, ready for battle. He quickly gave himself a cursory examination and found that his body had sustained only minor injuries from the surprise attack. The state of his clothes was another matter, however. His shirt was gone and most of his pants were, too. What remained smoldered and looked ready to burst into flames. Ranma cooled the smoldering rags with a burst of cold ki, while at the same time, scanning the horizon for his attacker with his eyes. He caught sight of his opponent hovering a hundred yards in the air. It was... *********************************************************************** Shin Nan surveyed the bloody mess that stood in front of him. He himself was bleeding from numerous wounds, but his wounds were nowhere near as bad as Ka Ra Kee's, who looked like a walking miracle with a multitude of cuts and lacerations all over his body. "Yield," he said, compassionately, knowing the answer even before he popped the question. Even though there was no loss of honor in losing to a superior opponent, Ka Ra Kee, like the warrior that he was, would not view it as such. As far as he was concerned, he had lost his honor the moment he lost the duel and one did not live after one lost one's honor. It simply was not done. Ka Ra Kee shook his head, slowly. His wounds were fatal, he knew and so did his opponent, but to abandon him to a slow death from loss of blood would be the act of a dishonorable coward. A warrior, such as he, deserved quick and honorable death in combat and not the slow, lingering one off the battlefield. So said The Old Code and so it had been in the field of battle for countless ages. Shin Nan nodded. It had been an honor to fight with someone of such skill and power as Ka Ra Kee, and he was not going to tarnish both their honors by abandoning his opponent to a slow death from his wounds. He had to repay the debt he owed Ka Ra Kee by killing him. "Very well," Shin Nan said and advanced with slow measured steps. The Phoenix Commander stood tall and proud. Not a trace of fear flashed upon his eyes as his nemesis halted before him. "Blessed is your name," the Emperor said, raising his hand over his head for the killing blow. "And blessed is yours." Strike. Darkness. *********************************************************************** "Saa Fuu Lang," Ranma whispered in awestruck reverence, his eyes focused on the hovering God. Ranma's awe was not misplaced, for indeed, Saa Fuu Lang looked majestic dressed in his battle fatigues. His armor was crafted out of thin plates of the finest teak tied together with strands of pure gold. In the center of his chest was an emblem that sported the image of a rising Phoenix. His aura bloomed around him in a flood of azure, blue and green. It was half blinding, half awe-inspiring. Air sizzled and rolled off in super hot waves around him, lifting his hair and buffeting it against the pale, cloudless, moonlit night sky. Most awe-inspiring of all was the very powerful looking incandescent ball of mana that The Phoenix God held in his right hand. His attention was completely focused on Ranma and his wings fluttered lazily against the night sky to keep him aloft, as he stared down upon his opponent. "You killed my son," the God-king said; whispered, "you killed my son, and you and all that is yours will die for it." It did not take a genius to figure out that Masara was Saa Fuu Lang's son and that the God-king was speaking to Ranma. And Ranma, awed by the God's presence as he was, was not the kind to take such threats lightly. "You'll never lay your hands on my family," he replied, bravely, digging deep into his ki reserves. However, behind his imposed veil of bravado, Ranma did not really think that he could defeat the God-king. The only advantage he had was his phenomenal skill, for Saa Fuu Lang outgunned him completely in the power department, and skill alone could not bridge so large a gap in power levels. "I'll never allow you to lay your hands on my family and friends as long as I live." "Then die," Saa Fuu Lang said; whispered. The Phoenix God's voice was completely devoid of emotion. Ranma, as he ran to his left and dived post haste to avoid the searing hot pulse of mana aimed at him, wondered whether the God-king was really alive or not. The ground behind him exploded and as Ranma rolled away, a huge fireball, perhaps a hundred meters in diameter, soared into the sky, briefly illuminating everything for miles around. A massive concussive blast of super hot air hit a moment later, searing everything in its path and Ranma hastily summoned his ki shield to protect himself against it. The shield was sufficient, and withstood the brunt of the blast, plus the smoking clods of red hot earth and rock that rained down just about everywhere. When the cloud of dust that hid Ranma from the Phoenix king's eyes finally cleared, Ranma was shocked to see a crater that was easily thirty meters wide. If Saa Fuu Lang was capable of launching many such powerful blasts at barely a moments notice, then he was done for. "Nice blast," he commented wryly, hiding his shock and goading the God-king on into even greater heights of fury, hoping to send him into a mindless berserker rage, "but your aim's very lousy." Saa Fuu Lang did not deign to reply, opting instead to swoop down from the sky, his corona of power glowing more powerful than ever. Ranma fell into a loose combat stance and awaited his opponent on the ground. He did not have to wait long. Saa Fuu Lang closed the distance between them in the wink of an eye and tried to disembowel Ranma with his talons, but Ranma slid to his left, easily dodging the fatal blow. He retaliated with a supersonic kick to the God-king's torso that sent his opponent ricocheting off into the opposite walls of the canyon, a hefty two hundred meters away. Saa Fuu Lang hit the granite walls with a mighty crack and slid off the face of the canyon to plummet only to plummet headfirst to the pass below. His descent triggered a landslide that followed him with a thunderous roar into the crevice. Any mortal would have died immediately either from the kick, or the impact against the canyon walls. Saa Fuu Lang was no mortal. And Ranma knew even as he executed the follow-through of his kick, which nailed the God-king, that Saa Fuu Lang would most probably survive the devastating attack. Moreover, if his opponent were any other, Ranma would have allowed them time to catch their breath, but allowing Saa Fuu Lang to catch his breath in any fight was tantamount to suicide and Ranma did not feel suicidal. He had a family to mind, after all. Therefore, he ran after the God and jumped into the canyon after him. Ranma allowed himself to freefall through the air with his arms spread out to break his descent and searched for Saa Fuu Lang with his ki senses. Sure enough, there was a single mana source trapped inside the canyon and Ranma fired a large ki powered vacuum blade at it. The blade hit the target and Ranma landed softly on his legs, effectively storing all the kinetic energy he had acquired during his jump in his ki. Thus prepared, he waited for his opponent to emerge from the mound of debris and flames that entombed him. As before, he did not have to wait long. Within moments, Saa Fuu Lang stumbled out of the flaming pyre created by the vacuum blade, his numerous wounds and lacerations healing at an unbelievable rate. He looked up just in time to see Ranma reach the apex of his jump. Ranma extended his legs in a kick and as he began to descent, maneuvered himself so that his foot was aimed straight towards The Phoenix God's face. Hard foot met soft flesh, and Saa Fuu Lang's facial structure collapsed. Simultaneously, the God's neck snapped back and broke with an audible snap. The God-king fell and Ranma landed lightly behind him, his knees bent to absorb the energy of impact. He had used all the stored kinetic energy in his last attack and would be very surprised if enough remained of Saa Fuu Lang's face to identify him. 'I won!' he thought jubilantly. This was one time he would not regret wrongly judging an opponent. There was a groan. Time slowed. Ranma turned. A huge blast of mana rammed into Ranma's ki shield, which the dragon had risen reflexively, and threw him skittering against the hard ground for several hundred feet. Thankfully, the attack was not powerful enough to pierce Ranma's defenses, and he survived, even though his pride did not. "That hurt a lot," Saa Fuu Lang's voice echoed across the canyon, just as Ranma painfully rose to his feet, "and I'll be sure to inflict twice as much pain upon you whilst I'm pummeling you to death." Ranma snarled in reply and dropped to the ground, catlike, on all fours. He was intent on exacting painful retribution and he was intent on exacting it fast. His claws dug into the ground and he pushed back his center of gravity as far as it could go before shooting forward, straight as an arrow, at Saa Fuu Lang. He sprinted faster than he had ever before. Saa Fuu Lang, who had been expecting the dust to settle before the next attack, was caught completely off-guard at the sight of the pouncing dragon, and his shocked metal faculties reacted a wee bit slow. Too late, he tried to jump to the side to put some distance between his opponent and himself, but his efforts were to no avail for Ranma was upon him even before he tensed his legs. Claws sharp enough to reduce granite to fine powder dug deep into the God-king's abdomen and tore him up, disemboweling him. Saa Fuu Lang screamed in agony and fell. Ranma made another pass, snarling; screaming in animalistic fury. He grabbed hold of The Phoenix God's nearest wing with his claws and tore; twisted it until the bone structure collapsed completely. He let go then and withdrew a single step, content at having extracted painful revenge. The wing remained exactly, as Ranma left it without returning to its normal position. Ranma smiled at the sight of the damage he had inflicted and raised his hand for the killing blow, but before his claws could connect with his opponent's heart, Saa Fuu Lang's aura exploded, pushing Ranma off him and sending him tumbling away. Ranma somersaulted to gain his balance and landed lightly on his toes. Saa Fuu Lang, rejuvenated once more, shot forward to engage Ranma with a feigned punch. Ranma, playing along, feigned a block and when The Phoenix God pulled his punch at the last second, brought his right leg up to block Saa Fuu Lang's real attack - a powerful kick aimed at Ranma's groin. Saa Fuu Lang grunted, as his leg ground to a halt against the unexpected obstacle, and Ranma retaliated by plunging his claws, now powered with ki, into Saa Fuu Lang's ribcage. He twisted it, tearing apart his opponent's lungs, to prolong the agony and Saa Fuu Lang collapsed to his knees at Ranma's feet. Ranma withdrew his claws, tearing apart flesh and bone as he did, and summoned a ki blade. He plunged it into the God-king's throat, half-decapitating him with the killing stroke. Still, the Phoenix God refused to die. The wounds healed just as fast as Ranma inflicted them and Saa Fuu Lang slashed with his three- clawed hand, digging deep into Ranma's thigh. Ranma bit back the reflexive scream of agony that came unbidden to his lips, ignoring the pain just as he had been taught. He concentrated beyond it, and retaliated by dropping to his knees and delivering a devastating open palmed strike to Saa Fuu Lang's thorax that completely collapsed his ribcage. Saa Fuu Lang flew through the air a dozen feet and when he hit, cart wheeled thrice before coming to a stop some thirty feet from Ranma. There, he lay wheezing. Ranma, for his part, cauterized his wounds with hot ki, never once taking his eyes off his opponent. The 'treatment' hurt just as much as the wound and the burn wounds would take a lot longer to heal, but now, he could fight without the threat of dying from blood loss and that was all that mattered. Painfully and wearily, Ranma shifted his body into a fighting stance. The lost of blood had sapped his strength some and he felt slightly weak. His eyes warily tracking the movements of The Phoenix God, as he rose to his feet. The God's crushed ribcage had healed in the few moments' respite that he had from the fight and he looked ready and raring to go. However, before Saa Fuu Lang could take the offensive, Ranma unleashed a ki powered vacuum blade at his adversary and jumped high into the air, using the smoke cloud that sprang up to cover his movements. At the apex of his jump, Ranma summoned a ki spear in his hands and dived down, aiming to skewer the God-king with it. Saa Fuu Lang, however, had other ideas. He allowed the vacuum blade to hit him. It exploded, flinging him away from Ranma and the dust cloud, and allowed Saa Fuu Lang to spot Ranma in the air. He tracked his opponent's flight through the air, produced a large ball of mana and let go. Ranma tried to dodge, but the ball had only a small distance to cover and he did not react fast enough. Mana and ki shield met. There was a brilliant flash of violet white. It had the intensity of a thousand suns. Within a fraction of a second from the start of the explosion, the width of the pass, for a radius of several hundred feet, expanded by roughly twenty meters as enormous quantities of granite vaporized. A huge blast of scorching hot air exploded outwards, tearing up the ground and sending an enormous fireball raging into the night sky. The blast met the canyon walls and vaporized more rock before turning sideways, as the canyon walls proved too formidable an adversary to overcome. It continued upwards and to the side, eventually exiting out of the pass's two entrances and leaving nothing standing in a straight line for nearly a mile. When it was all over and the earth finally stopped shaking, the rough landscape that had once greeted travelers to the pass had been replaced. Yet, for all its power, the explosion claimed very few casualties. The canyon walls had prevented the worst of the blast from reaching the two armies and only a few dozen had been lost who were close to the edge of the canyon walls during the time of the explosion. It was a fact that both sides were immensely grateful. Ranma, for his part, barely survived. His body was a mass of burns and lacerations, and his right arm was bent at an unnatural angle just below the elbow. Still, he survived the explosion, thanks to his ki shield and all the ki he could muster, though as he faced the Phoenix God, he knew that the last attack had tipped the fight decidedly in the God-king's favor. He had lost, a little voice told him, but Ranma refused to listen to it. He refused to give up and die. 'There has to be someway of defeating him,' Ranma thought, feverishly. Ki attacks were out of the question, as he had no ki to attack with, and he did not think that Saa Fuu Lang would be stupid enough to get into a hand-to-hand fight with him, when he could just vaporize him with another attack. "Feeling cocky now?" Saa Fuu Lang sneered. "I'm going to enjoy beating you to death." 'Okay, maybe he is that stupid,' Ranma thought, mentally preparing himself to receive the beating of his life. 'At least, this'll buy me some time to think...' Saa Fuu Lang's first punch hit Ranma clean in his jaw. Ranma staggered at the force of the blow, blinking at the stars that seemed to sprout out of nowhere. 'Or maybe not.' The Phoenix God was not physically strong, but he did not need to be. His mana reserves more than made up for his physical shortcomings. "C'mon, Bastard," Saa Fuu Lang screamed. He flexed his aura, and began to absorb mana from the earth and the air to replace what he had lost. For all his bravado, his mana reserves were nearly depleted from all that regenerating and that last attack, too. "Fight me." There was a pattern to the way the God absorbed the mana, Ranma saw. His mind drifted back to a conversation he had years back with the Matriarch and he recalled her words of advice: Your body has learned to not only generate huge amounts of mana, but also to manipulate it subconsciously... 'Yes, that's it!' he thought, excitedly, barely able to keep himself from screaming in delight. With a great deal of effort, he managed to remain silent and keep his face neutral, opening his mouth only to spit in the God-king's face. Saa Fuu Lang's anger rose to a whole new level. He summoned a small, non-lethal ball of mana and fired it at Ranma's chest. Ranma was too busy observing the patterns in the mana lines to pay attention to the blast. That proved costly. The mana ball hit him square in his chest and threw him hard into the glass walls of the canyon. It was not a pleasant experience. "That all you got, Bastard?" he goaded, ignoring his spikes of pain that shot up his spine, as he struggled to his feet, his dislocated arm flailing uselessly by his side. Saa Fuu Lang frothed in his mouth, too angry to reply. "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you even know your mother, or for that matter, do you even have a father?" Ranma continued, leeringly. Saa Fuu Lang's aura darkened considerably at the remark. He was mighty pissed off and the object of his anger, Ranma, was right in front of him to vent upon. Too bad for Ranma. "Oh, oh!" Ranma muttered, visibly cringing. Still, he did not take his eyes of Saa Fuu Lang. Saa Fuu Lang was too far-gone in his berserker rage to notice. If he had, he would not have stopped absorbing mana from the air and the land. However, he did not. He stopped absorbing mana, thereby teaching Ranma how to stop absorbing mana, and he stepped up to the dragon, grabbing hold of his neck and choking him. Ranma struggled against the God's tight grip to no avail. The God was too strong and he had too little ki to make any difference. Finally, when Ranma's lips turned a shade of gray, Saa Fuu Lang let go. Ranma fell to the ground, gasping for much needed air. "Think this is funny now?" Saa Fuu Lang shouted, kicking Ranma hard on his ribs. "Think I'm funny now?" he frothed, his eyes promising a great deal of pain and a slow, agonizing death. Ranma's eyes watered, as he felt his ribs crack, but he did not cry out. Saa Fuu Lang noticed this. He kicked Ranma again. Ranma coughed up blood, but still did not scream. Saa Fuu Lang smirked. He summoned another small ball of mana and fired it at Ranma's feet, flinging the dragon into the air. Ranma flew through the air and came crashing down on some particularly jagged looking pieces of glass. The razor sharp edges of the glass lanced Ranma's body, perforating it further and drawing more blood. Ranma groaned and with a stifled gasp of pain, rolled over from the glass stakes. He slowly staggered to his feet. He looked like he had been put through a cheese grater, but he never took his eyes off Saa Fuu Lang, and the way he absorbed the mana and manipulated it. Saa Fuu Lang smirked at Ranma's apparent plight and closed the distance between them. He spit on Ranma's face and slapped him, to add insult to injury, and when Ranma glared back at him, he grabbed hold of Ranma's neck again and squeezed. "I'm going to skin you alive, Landling. I'm going to skin you alive and then, I'm going to roast you over a nice, hot fire. Moreover, no matter how you plead, I will not allow you the luxury of death... No, I'll make you live forever, and I'll force you to watch me destroy your family and friends. I'll throw your woman into my dungeons and she'll be my army's whore..." Saa Fuu Lang did not get any further. Ranma's battle aura exploded outwards, throwing him with explosive force into the rock surface on the opposite side of the canyon. It was composed entirely of mana. "You shouldn't have said that," Ranma said; whispered from where he stood. His eyes were closed and his head lowered in introspection, as he 'felt' his mana for the first time. All his wounds were healed, too; thanks to the large quantity of mana he siphoned off his surroundings in a tiny fraction of a second. Saa Fuu Lang staggered to his feet. He saw Ranma and the aura he sported, and his mouth swung wide open. It worked feverishly, but no sound came out. Ranma raised his head, his eyes confident and victorious. He eyes met Saa Fuu Lang's and he smiled, thoroughly enjoying the expression on the God's face. The tables had turned once again and this time, he intended to it keep that way. "Let me guess," he said, taking slow, deliberate steps towards the God-king, "you're shocked. Tell you what, I'd be shocked if I were in your position, too." "How?" Saa Fuu Lang stammered, finally. His opponent had been at the very end of his reserves less than a minute ago and now, he was literally overflowing with raw power. Ranma pointed at himself. "Oh, you're asking how I got his huge aura... Of mana, no less. Well, I guess there's no harm in telling you. I'm now a true master of The Art," Ranma smiled broadly at Saa Fuu Lang, relishing his next few words, as they escaped his lips, "and it's all because of you." Saa Fuu Lang did not understand. How could he have helped the bastard become a true master of The Art? Ranma snickered. It was not a pleasant one. "For a God, you sure are an idiot, do you know that? You should have killed me when you had that chance, but, no, you had to get your revenge and you had to have your say first... You forgot the golden rule of war, Saa Fuu Lang: Do not give your enemy any reprieve." Still, Saa Fuu Lang did not understand. "I learned how to manipulate mana by seeing you manipulate it," Ranma smiled, "how's that for irony? You wanted to kill me real slow and inadvertently made me immortal." Pause. Ranma's eyes hardened. "And now, you're going to regret it," Ranma said. Ranma's mana amplified his voice so that his words reverberated across the canyon. "Hear me, Saa Fuu Lang, Lord of The Phoenix, you'll never again step on either Musk or Joketsuzoku soil with intent to conquer. Moreover, you'll take your warriors and go back to your lands, forever ceasing all aggression towards my people from this instant. So say I, Ranma Saotome Qin of the Musk and the Joketsuzoku." Saa Fuu Lang nodded. He had lost and he knew it. "If ever you should break your word, I'll kill you in such a way that you can never be reborn again," Ranma added. Saa Fuu Lang nodded in supplication, again. He was special among the Gods, but like all of them, he, too, was not immortal in the true sense of the word. He was merely long-lived, very, very long lived. Ranma, with his newfound knowledge of mana, had the capacity to kill him and do a whole lot more. "Furthermore," Ranma continued, "for threatening the lives of my family and my people, I sentence you to death in this life. Die." Ranma's aura began to spin in the anti-clockwise direction at an ever-increasing speed. It coruscated in a brilliant shade of blue with arcs of lightning flashing across its surface and a wave of super cold air washed over the glassy walls of the pass, freezing everything in its path. Thick slabs of ice began to grow everywhere, and Saa Fuu Lang's flame, his aura, flickered on and off for a couple of seconds before abruptly going out. The God-king collapsed to his knees. His breath came out as a cloud of mist and thin icicles began to form on his body. Within seconds, he was frozen solid. Ranma's aura grew to monstrous proportions, as the energy he absorbed from the environment rejuvenated him. Then, suddenly, it fizzled out. Ranma raised a hand towards Saa Fuu Lang and the God- king's frozen body exploded, shattering like a very large piece of glass. The crack of the explosion echoed through the pass and then, all was silent. The Phoenix had lost and their enemies, the Joketsuzoku and the Musk, had won. *********************************************************************** Three years passed. Lein became pregnant with another child. Yein Luo detected certain complications during her third trimester and ordered Lein to stay at home, which Lein reluctantly did under Ranma's watchful eye. Still, in spite of all the care she received, Lein went into labor a month too early. Ranma walked back and forth in agitation. It had been three hours since Lein went into labor and the tension had slowly built up, until, finally, he thought that he could not bear it any longer. The decreasing pitch of Lein's voice and the fall in her ki was not helping matters any, either. Something bad was happening to his wife and unborn son, and he was helpless to do anything about it. Finally, the screams stopped and Ranma turned to look expectantly at the building. Nearly a minute passed before Yein Luo walked out of the building. Her hands were crimson and her expression was pale. Ranma did not need to look twice at her face to realize what had happened. Lein and the baby were dead. Still, he dared to hope and walked towards his 'mother.' Yein Luo shook her head. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Ranma choked back an anguished cry. His eyes filled to the brim with tears and he blinked, turned away and took a deep breath. Yein Luo took him in her arms to comfort him. "I'm so sorry, Ranma. I couldn't save them." Ranma withdrew from the hug. He clasped Yein Luo's shoulders in his hands and looked deep into her eyes, searching. "H... How did they die?" he asked, biting his lips to stop himself from bursting into tears. Yein Luo held up her hands and showed it to him. "She lost too much blood. The baby... My grandson suffocated before he was even born." Ranma choked back another cry. "Can I see her?" Yein Luo nodded. Ranma released her and walked inside. Yein Luo's helpers parted silently for him. Inside, the room was dimwit with animal fat lamps, which were scattered just about everywhere. A small cloud of smoke hung about the room and in the center, on a stone block, rested Lein. Her face looked peaceful and serene, though it was a little pale. A silken cloth covered her up to her chin. She looked asleep and Ranma convinced himself that Yein Luo had been lying to him. It was the only possible explanation, his mind told him. She could not have died while he was alive and even if she did, she would have said her goodbyes to him, her husband, first before closing her eyes forever. The healers must be playing some sort of sick joke on him and Lein must be conspiring with them. "Lein?" Ranma asked, hesitantly, stepping up to her. She did not reply. Ranma stepped closer still. He caressed her face with his fingers and adjusted a stray lock of hair. She was always concerned about the way her braid looked and he did not want her to give her any cause for worry when she woke up; when he woke up. It had to be a dream. Everything had to be a dream. That was the only possible explanation. Nothing else made sense. Lein could not have died. "Lein?" he asked, again. "It's I, Ranma." Silence. "C'mon, Lein, you have to wake up. I... I need you. Shian needs you," he began to shake her, a little panic seizing him in its dreadful grip, "c'mon, Lein, this isn't funny anymore." Lein did not answer. Ranma continued to shake her. Still, no matter how hard he shook her, she did not reply. Tears began to flood Ranma's eyes. They cascaded down his cheeks and onto Lein's forehead. And yet, she did not wake up. "Wakeup, Lein! Wakeup!" Ranma was screaming now and Yein Luo rushed into the room. She tried to pry him away from his dead wife, but Ranma did not relent. He just kept screaming and screaming for Lein to come back. "Ranma," she said; tried, unsuccessfully, "she's dead. She can't hear you." Ranma swung around to face her. His face was set in stone and his eyes promised death to anyone who dared say that his wife was dead. Yein Luo was not cowed down, however. She looked right back at him, heartfelt compassion in her eyes. Her hands reached out to him and he swatted them away. "I don't need your pity," he shouted, "she's not dead," he continued, shouting his voice hoarse, "you'll see. She's just sleeping and playing dead. Tell them you're playing, Lein, tell them," he said repeatedly, sobbing, "tell them!" "Please, Ranma," Yein Luo said, laying her hands on his shoulders. Ranma swatted the offending hand away. "Leave me be," he shouted, "leave me be with my wife." Then, without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention back to Lein. "Wakeup, Lein. It's I, Ranma. Wakeup!" Yein Luo shook her head. Ranma was getting hysterical, and had to be subdued for his own safety and for that of other's. She turned towards her assistants and nodded once. The healers surrounded him and before Ranma could react, Yein Luo hit all the sleeping points she knew on his body. With his mastery of ki and mana, he might have been able to ignore four, or five of them at once in his present state, but there was no way he could overcome all sixteen of them, she thought. Her decision was justified immediately. Ranma slumped to the floor, unconscious, and Yein Luo ordered him to be carried away to Shi Huu's house. *********************************************************************** Eleven days passed... "Daddy?" Ranma turned away from the funeral pyre that was consuming Lein. His cheeks were streaked with tears. His eyes were bloodshot from crying for hours on end and from lack of sleep. He picked up Shian, who, too, was sniffling and wiped away the tears in her eyes tenderly with his fingers. "Yes, Angel." "I want momma," Shian said between sniffles. According to Joketsuzoku beliefs, the dear ones of a dead person were not allowed near, or to take part in the building of the funeral mound except to light the fire. As such, Shian had not seen the Joketsuzoku warriors dressed in ceremonial garb cover Lein, his Lein, with wood. Ranma choked back a sob. "Momma's gone, Angel. She won't be coming back." "But I want to see her..." "Me, too, Angel," Ranma paused, choking back more sobs, "momma's gone... Momma's gone to heaven." "Oh," Shian's face brightened a little, "can we go to heaven, too, Daddy?" Momma had told her that heaven was the most wonderful place in the world and if momma had gone there, she wanted to go there, too. Ranma had to look but once into his daughter's eyes before he started crying. The dam burst open and he sobbed, clutching his daughter very close to his heart. "No, Angel, we cannot." "But I want to see momma," Shian said, sniffling. Ranma wiped his tears with his free hand and pulled away from the hug just enough to look Shian in her eyes. "Close your eyes, Angel. Imagine momma holding you. Can you see her?" Shian nodded. "Then there's no reason to cry now, is there?" wiping his and her face, and putting on a fake smile. "You can see momma anytime you want. Momma might have left us, Angel, but she's always there with us, in our hearts. We can visit her anytime we want there." Shian nodded. Her sniffles died down, and she put her arms around her daddy, hugging him and resting her head on his shoulders. Ranma patted Shian's head affectionately for a couple of minutes. Then, seeing the mourning party approach him, he set her down and she ran after one of her friends to play. Most of the mourners had filtered away, not bothering to wait past the lighting of the pyre, but a few, including Shi Huu and Yein Luo, were left. Ranma turned towards them, immensely grateful for their being there when he needed their help most. "Thank you," he said, trying to sound polite. As he spoke, his shoulders drooped and his voice filled with sorrow, "for helping me with everything this last fortnight. I'm immensely grateful for it." "We did what a friend was supposed to do, Ranma," one of the women, Guu Luu, a close friend of Lein's, said. "Still," Ranma replied, "I'm immensely grateful. Thank you all, once again," he said and turned towards the priest who began Lein's last rites. Pretty soon, he, too, finished and everyone trickled back to his or her homes, some slower than the others did. Months passed. Ranma slipped into deep depression. He was animated whenever he was with Shian, but everyone in the village could tell that the spark had gone out of his eyes. He stopped taking classes and teaching Shian and Shi Huu had to take over her training for him. She and Yein Luo tried to get him out of the rut, but Ranma had just stopped caring about the world around him and no matter what they did, they could not make him respond to them, or warm up to the world around him. He was, for all purposes, a broken man who wandered the streets late at night, crying like a little child. Still, the days passed slowly by and Shian grew up to become a beautiful young woman. She grew up into one of the most promising young warriors amongst the Joketsuzoku. The Elders took notice of her talents and recruited her into the Guard, a prerequisite for a seat in The Council. She fell in love with a young man named Muu Su in her twentieth year and married him. Two years later, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. The arrival of his grandson, Huang Qi, into the world seemed for a time to bring Ranma out of his depression, but scarcely six months after his grandson's birth, Ranma announced his intention to leave the village on a pilgrimage of sorts. Shian refused to let him go and so did The Council and the Matriarch, but Ranma could not be swayed from his decision. He prepared for his journey and bid his farewells to his friends and relatives. "Goodbye, Angel," Ranma said, smiling feebly at Shian. Her face was teary, he noticed. He barely could hold back the tears himself. Shian sniffled, cradling her son in her arms, and looked past Ranma at the very thin looking backpack that he had prepared for the journey. Even now, she told herself, there was still a chance that she could convince him to stay. "Must you, Daddy?" she asked, pleadingly. Ranma took a deep breath. "This village... Everything in it, it reminds me of your mother... I see her in you, in my grandson's face, in the house, in the street, in the trees, in my sleep, in my waking hours... I see her every second and I can bear it no longer. It's driving me mad, Angel, the knowledge that she's dead and I'm not... That I'll never be... That I can never be with her again... Never touch her face; never see her smiling face... Never see her smile at me... I... I... I stayed here all these years because of you. Now, you're grown up and you have a family of your own... There's... There's no reason for me to remain here any longer," he stammered, his voice raw with emotion. "Isn't your grandson reason enough?" she asked, holding out her son to him. "I so much want to see him grow up... Believe me, there's nothing in the world that I want more, but... I cannot. If I remain in the village and watch him grow up, I'll see you grow old... I cannot even think what would happen when you grow old..." Ranma trailed off. Tears were streaking down his cheeks now. He did not want to see his daughter die. Seeing his wife die had been torture enough. He did not want to see his daughter die! Shian gently wiped the tears from his cheeks with her fingers. She put her index finger on his lips and silenced him. "It's okay, Daddy. I understand. I won't stop you." Ranma nodded, tenderly hugging his daughter, lest he crush the precious cargo she bore. "Thank you," he whispered. His voice was raw with emotion. He kissed his daughter and his grandson one last time, and turned to face the rest of the crowd that had gathered to see him off. "I'd better going then. Honored Matriarch..." Ranma said, bowing to Shi Huu. The Matriarch returned the gesture as formally as was possible. On straightening, she and Ranma exchanged glances one last time and she nodded at him. Ranma returned it. He turned towards the others, and one by one, bid his farewells to his friends and family. Finally, there was only one person left. Muu Su. Ranma looked at him and nodded. "Take care of them," he said. Muu Su nodded in reply. "Don't worry. I will protect them with my life." Ranma nodded once in reply and hugged his son-in-law. Then, having already bid adieu to everyone else and with no one else to go, he bent down, picked up his backpack and shouldered it. He hugged his daughter and his grandson one last time, then left the village without once looking back. *********************************************************************** Once outside Joketsuzoku lands, Ranma hitchhiked west across the mountains. For the next three years, he wandered from place to place, never staying at a location for more than a week and even then, only to earn some money. Towards the start of the fourth year, he met a group of monks. They were busy building a monastery and Ranma, having grown tired of the pointless wandering, decided to help them in its construction. For fifty years, he stayed with them, helping them in their endeavors and learning from them what he could. Finally, towards the end of his fifty-second year in the monastery, having found his inner peace once again, he set out on his own. He walked across China, a silent spectator of the evils of the era, until finally, he could bear it no longer. He joined the Chinese Emperor's mercenary force, which was entrusted with the task of keeping the law in the backwaters of the country and there, he shone, raking up more kills than anyone else in his battalion. For fifty years, he lived the life of a warrior, wandering from place to place battling would-be usurpers, thieves, murderers and bandits, and during this time, he amassed a fortune in gold and precious gems. Finally, realizing that one man alone can never triumph over evil and that evil is as much a part of life as good, Ranma left the army. He decided to settle down and bought a house in the capital. He spent a century as a student of The Art, learning what he could from masters of both The Healing and The Fighting Arts. Still, his thirst for knowledge, as well as his wanderlust refused to leave him, and towards the time of The Crucifixion, he left the Chinese mainland for Hindustan, that ancient homeland of the Hindus. [3] Through Tibet and up the Himalayas, he walked, until at last, he entered the Gangetic plain and there, he sought out the wisest masters of The Art. He spent centuries traversing the four corners of Hindustan, honing his mastery of pressure points, ki and mana to levels that was considered impossible by even the Wise Ones of the Joketsuzoku. He mastered Art forms so deadly that to know them was to forever court Death and hold her in one's hands. At the end of three centuries of wandering, he settled down in Magadha, the capital of the Gupta Dynasty, at the dawn of the Golden Age of Indian civilization, as a pearl merchant. His wealth increased to yet higher levels, and as he spent the days living the life of a pampered trader, Ranma fell in love with the land and its people. Towards the end of a very prosperous hundred years as a trader, the Huns attacked, overthrowing the Gupta dynasty and laying waste to its capital. Ranma watched the massacre of the innocents from the sidelines, saving those he could. When the sack of the city was complete, he left the ruined legacy of the Gupta's behind and traveled onwards, continuing his eternal search for knowledge, wealth and wisdom. To the north he walked, eventually crossing the Gangetic plains and the Himalayas. He crossed into China and settled along The Silk Route, as a trader. Wealth and power came to him, and even though his fortune increased manifold, there was always a vacuum in his heart that refused to be fulfilled. That vacuum was his wanderlust, and it grew and grew, until finally, Ranma heeded its call. He left the Chinese mainland and traveled across the seas to the land of his birth: Japan. The court of Japan was plagued by intrigues and plots of all sorts, and the emperor was powerless to stop the infighting, as his own power base decreased by the day. Eventually, the land descended into full- blown civil war and Ranma, unwilling to take part in a feud he was not involved in, wandered from one corner of the country to another for the better part of a century. He learnt under the masters of The Art and when the time came to leave the land of his birth behind, he returned to China, whose four corners he wandered about, once again. For the next five centuries, he shied away from human contact, preferring the solitude of the forests to human company. He wandered across age-old paths, his footsteps were never unsure, until he reached his old home along The Silk Route. There, among the ruins, he rested for a month, before heading off towards Europe, where he hoped to find a better world. His hopes were not realized. The grass there was the same as the grass he had trodden on for centuries, and the men and women no better. Hoping to find solace, he joined one of the monasteries, but here, too, he did not find the peace that had eluded him for most of his life. As it was, thousands and thousands of long days doing nothing but praying to the good Lord, and singing his hymns finally broke Ranma's large well of patience and his indomitable resolve. He turned tail, and ran from the monks and their ways, swearing never again to don the robes of a priest. [4] Luckily, before the other monks could catch and exorcise the 'devil' from his soul, Ranma snuck abroad a galleon that was getting ready to put out to sea. The ship was on a voyage to England, he learnt soon afterwards from her captain. Once on dry land, Ranma spent several months learning the native language and customs as a porter, before he became confident enough to set out on his own. He became a merchant, making financial decisions, some wise and some foolish, and his wealth increased yet again. His wanderlust, always persistent and always at the back of his mind, increased during this time, until it became too great to bear. When the day came when he could control it no longer, he packed up his belongings and secured passage on a ship headed to China. He arrived at his destination full of joy and hope for a bright future, only to find the Chinese monarchy in decline and the country under siege by both European nations as well as the Americans. Disillusioned with the state of affairs in the land he now considered his homeland, Ranma turned his eyes east towards Japan. The inner turmoil's that had torn the country apart during his last visit were long past and Ranma, whose business sense had been honed by hundreds of years of bargaining with some of the shrewdest merchants ever, saw the immense potential of the new Japanese economy. Accordingly, he invested a hefty portion of his wealth in burgeoning Japanese businesses. Barely half a decade into his stay in Japan, his eyes drifted to the western world and under the guise of a modern businessman, Ranma returned to Europe. He invested even more of his wealth in businesses there and set out for the first time towards the land of opportunities, the United States of America, where he settled for the next fifty years. His wealth grew, but so did his loathing for the petty feuds and power struggles that so often embroiled the war-plagued western hemisphere. He knew that it was the same everywhere, but the way the west went about it with chemical weapons and the lot struck a chord in him. The loathing grew and grew, until finally, he could bear it no more and he left the shores of America for 'greener pastures.' Like a long lost lover returning to be unified with her soul mate, Ranma returned post haste to India, hoping to find the proud people he fell in love with once. To his dismay, India, too, had fallen prey to the allure of the West's industrial prowess. It had become a nation under bonds and its people were a mere shadow of their former selves, quite unlike their proud ancestors from the days of the Guptas. Disgusted, yet again by the state of affairs, Ranma retreated once more into the forests of India where he found peace and solitude that had been lacking in his life for centuries. Unfortunately, the peace did not last long. The Second World War was just around the corner and even though Ranma tried to ignore the obvious signs of turmoil at his doorsteps, it did not take long before it knocked at his door. Appalled by man's inhumanity towards man, Ranma refused to take sides in the conflict and could only watch in horrified silence, the two war-camp's complete and utter disregard for the lives of innocents. He traveled extensively during the years of the conflict, moving from one neutral country to another, until the war came to an abrupt end with the dropping of the two Atom bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Immediately, Ranma returned to Japan, intent on helping rebuild the economy into the juggernaut it once was. His efforts were aided by the Americans and Ranma, grateful for their help, invested more of his wealth in their country, boosting their already booming economy to even higher levels. Around 1950, Ranma, his business in America concluded, returned to the land of his birth. He bought a nice little house and a small farm in a quiet neighborhood in rural Japan, and settled there under an assumed name. For the next fifty years, he lived the life of an ordinary farmer, leaving the country only infrequently to check up on his investments in Europe and the Americas. Present day... A lone pathway across the Bayankala Mountain ranges in the Qinghai province of China... Ranma walked briskly across the beaten path, whistling a soft tune to himself. It had been over two thousand years since last, he stepped on tribe lands, and he could not wait to see the village again. Of course, he could have visited his Joketsuzoku family sooner, but it had taken him a thousand years just to think of Lein without breaking down and it had taken him a thousand more to will himself to visit the village of her birth, their home. He knew that he would never get over his loss and had long since accepted the pain that came with her death as an integral part of who he was. Still, even though he had long been psychologically strong enough to bear the return to the village, he had procrastinated it out of fear and trepidation. It was irrational, he knew, his fear, but as trained as his mind was, it was not always rational, especially when memories of his days with his wife and daughter were involved, and as such, he put off the intended visits, until finally, he could wait no longer. Even now, committed, as he was to his path, Ranma, as he inched that much closer to the village, could not help but feel the familiar sense of trepidation spurt and grow in his heart. He pushed it down, recognizing it, as an irrational thing - a figment of his imagination. The dye had been cast and he would be damned if he did not play the hand fate had dealt him. Once on familiar grounds, Ranma relaxed and as he approached The Pools, allowed himself a momentary reflection on the familiar traces of magic. 'Two thousand years have gone by and the magic of The Pools are as strong as ever,' he thought, as he walked down the cliff overlooking The Cursed Springs to the Guardian's shelter, a small palm-thatched hut. Slow to begin with, Ranma's steps quickened, as he crossed the distance between the Guardian's hut and himself. Something was amiss, his gut told him, and never having had reason to distrust it before, Ranma did not question his instincts now. If his gut told him something was wrong, it must be. Only when he entered the valley, did Ranma see the reason for his disturbance. The Pools were all dried up and he peered into one, out of curiosity, to see how deep it was, before briskly walking to the Guardian's front door. He knocked on the door and waited patiently for the Guardian to open it. "Umm... Hi, are you the Guardian?" Ranma asked, when after nearly a minute of silence, a fat, short man dressed in People's Army fatigues opened it. The Guardian, or rather, the guide, as he was commonly referred to, examined Ranma from head to toe, searching for some marking that would identify the stranger as either Joketsuzoku or Musk, for only they referred to him by his official title. He found none. "Umm... Yes, Mr. Customer. Do I know you?" he asked. Ranma shook his head, once. "No, I'm afraid you do not," Ranma said politely, "can you tell me about The Pools?" "What about them?" the Guardian asked, a trace of annoyance creeping into his voice. "You aren't planning on taking a swim in them, are you?' he then asked dubiously. "Swim?" Ranma laughed. "No, I do not plan on taking a swim in The Cursed Springs. Not at all, Guardian. I'm interested in the pools for a very different reason." "Oh!" the Guardian said, heaving a breath of relief. Then, his features darkened, "what do you want to know about The Pools, Mr. Customer?" he asked. "Only this: What happened to them? Why are they dried up?" "Tragic story, Mr. Customer..." the Guardian began, only to have Ranma stop him in mid-sentence. "Guardian, I'd be most grateful if you'd tell me the story without embellishments. I'm not a customer per se and I would like it if you'd be polite enough to cut out the sales pitch," Ranma said tritely. It was a little blunt, he knew, his speech, but Ranma had seen enough salesmen to recognize a sales pitch at first glance and the Guardian was undoubtedly trying to sell him the story. The Guardian stopped and stared at Ranma for the longest moment. "Who are you?" he asked finally. Ranma smiled enigmatically. "No one," he answered. "Well, Mr. No One, I can't help you in your quest," the Guardian said and moved to close the door. "Oh, but you can and you are going to, 'Guardian,'" Ranma said sweetly, blocking the door with his hand, "just think about your duty to the Joketsuzoku and the Musk, and what they'd do if you ever were dimwitted enough to renege on the solemn words your ancestors made to The Council and the Emperor." "I... Who are you?" the Guardian asked after several moments of silence. "Like I said, I'm no one, Guardian. Are you going to tell me about The Pools, or..." Ranma left the rest of the sentence hanging, leaving it up to the Guardian to fill in the rest of the gruesome details with his mind. "I... All right," the Guardian nodded in defeat. "Excellent. I knew you'd see reason," Ranma said, a little smile of satisfaction adorning his face, "So..." "The Pools dried up about a day and a half ago. I believe it was the bird-people from Phoenix Mountain who're responsible for its disappearance." "Go on," Ranma nodded. He had guessed as much. Saa Fuu Lang needed the mana rich waters to overflow his mana reserves and ascend to his adult form. "They also stole one of my precious family heirlooms." "Oh," Ranma said, letting just enough interest leak into his voice to cajole the Guardian into revealing more. "It had been in my family for generations and..." "And what exactly is this 'it?' Ranma asked. "The map to the source of The Cursed Springs..." Ranma held up his hand, making the Guardian pause. "Tell me, how does taking what is rightfully yours constitute an act of thievery?" "Huh?" "C'mon, be truthful. I know as well as you do that the map was and always has been the property of The Phoenix. Are you telling me that you never read the lore of your ancestors about this valley?" he asked. "Well, it was theirs, I accept. It was theirs until five hundred years ago when a Phoenix sold it to one of my ancestors. It has been in my family ever since. What have you to say about that?" the Guardian replied in a confronting tone, trying to get the momentum on his side. "Nothing," Ranma replied, smiling enigmatically and stalling the Guardian's offensive with his unexpected reply, "don't let me stop your narration. Do go on." "So I sent my daughter to the Land of the Wa to get some help..." "Help?" Ranma asked, interrupting the Guardian once again. "Why didn't you go The Council with your case?" "Because they wouldn't have helped, that's why... Anyways, The Pools ought to return to their former glory within the week. So, there's no need to worry about that." Ranma nodded. "What makes you so sure of that?" he asked. The lore said that it'd be at least a month before The Pools return to normal. The Second Birth took a lot of mana, and it'd be a month or more before the waters could reabsorb all that lost mana from the air and regain its potency. "My daughter returned a week ago with the help I had summoned from the Land of the Wa. They have gone to the Phoenix Mountain to retrieve the map," he said, smugly. Ranma looked at the Guardian for a long time as if he had grown a horn on his head. Finally, he spoke. "What in the devil made you do that? You wanted to kill your daughter or something?" he asked, his voice slow and seething with restrained fury. "I..." "Do you realize what you've done?" Ranma continued accusingly. He paid no attention to what the Guardian had to say. "You have fired the opening shots of the first Joketsuzoku-Musk-Phoenix war in over two thousand years, that's what! God Almighty," he said in an uncharacteristic show of emotion, "whatever made you do it?" "I... I... I don't know what you're talking about," the Guardian stuttered. Ranma eyed the Guardian critically. He was telling the truth. "What kind of Guardian are you?" he asked. "You seek to guard The Pools and yet, you seem to know nothing about its history, and even worse, you know not the relation between The Pools and The Phoenix." The Guardian did not reply, wisely choosing to keep his mouth shut. "Tell me," Ranma asked, "did you, or did you not learn the lore?" "I did," the Guardian said, "I learnt everything there was from what remained of them." "Remained?" "Yes. About a hundred years ago, most of my ancestor's records were lost during a freak fire that destroyed his house and most of his library." Ranma rubbed his forehead, his eyes closed in deep thought. He just knew that he was going to have a huge headache before the day was out. "Which way did they go?" "I told you," the Guardian said, "I sent them to Phoenix mountain." Ranma shifted his fingers from his forehead to his eyes, rubbing them wearily and looking as if the weight of the whole world rested on his shoulders. "Your daughter and her friends are most probably dead by now, and The Phoenix army is probably marching against the Joketsuzoku and the Musk even as we speak," he announced offhandedly, "this is not the homecoming I was expecting." "Huh?" "You should have consulted The Council before you sent for help. Do you even know the true extent of Saa Fuu Lang's power? He is one of the most powerful of the Gods, and you just sent your daughter and her friends to steal from him what he considers his rightful property... How long do you think they'll survive against an angry God?" "I... I'm sorry," the Guardian whispered, staggering back, "I didn't know." His feet gave out and he fell on a heap to the ground. Ranma stepped into the hut and guided the Guardian to his chair. "There may be hope yet," he said, "so, pull yourself together." The Guardian looked up, his eyes full of hope. "You mean it?" he asked. Ranma nodded and closed his eyes. Wisps of fluorescent blue began to dance around his body, and he remained motionless for a few seconds as he located and scanned the ki of the 'help crew.' Finally, he opened his eyes. "Consider yourself lucky, Guardian. Your daughter and her friends are unharmed, though I don't know for how long they'll remain so. They are within Phoenix Mountain and if I hurry, I might even save them before they do something rash." "You'll save my girl?" the Guardian asked with hopeful eyes. Ranma nodded. "Yes, I will." "Thank you. Thank you," the Guardian repeated fervently, his voice filled with immense gratitude. "Say your thanks when I have returned your daughter to you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go rescue her," Ranma said and with a polite bow walked out of the door. Once outside, he took to the air and sped off towards Phoenix Mountain. *********************************************************************** Ranma arrived at Phoenix Mountain half an hour later. Expecting armed resistance, he cloaked himself with a ki technique he had learnt a thousand years before in Japan and looked around for the least guarded entrance into the mountain. He was surprised to see that all the entrances, save the ones at ground level were unguarded. Not one to look a gift horse in its mouth, Ranma silently thanked the Gods for the small bit of good fortune, and began the search for the Guardian's daughter and her friends. He did not have to search for long, as the sounds of a large battle reverberated across the passageways, drawing him to their source. It looked like Saa Fuu Lang had reached his adulthood and now was very pissed at the intruders who had dared trespass into his domain. Ranma rushed through the passageways to the scene of battle and de-cloaked himself, only to find that he need not have been in a hurry. Now that his ki senses were not constrained by the technique, he could tell that Saa Fuu Lang was weak, much weaker than when Ranma and he fought, and he was growing weaker with the passing of each second. If his condition kept deteriorating at the rate it currently was, the God-king would not survive the day. Sure, the God-king's attacks were no laughing matter as they still packed quite a punch, but they were nowhere near as powerful as the ones Ranma faced two thousand years before. Furthermore, it did not help Saa Fuu Lang's cause any, the fact that he was in a berserk rage. Apparently, the God-king's young opponent had damaged Saa Fuu Lang's Second Birth cocoon evoking the God's ire and was even now, goading the Phoenix king into even higher levels of fury by taunting him relentlessly. The boy maneuvered away from the mana blasts that the God-king shot in retaliation and occasionally rushed in to deal Saa Fuu Lang a crippling blow. Ranma narrowed his eyes at the brown-haired boy. There seemed to be something strange about him that he could not quite place and his ki seemed familiar somehow. He shrugged off the feeling of deja vu, allowing himself to relax a little and enjoy the experience. 'I needn't have worried about these people, after all. They seem quite capable and at the rate Saa Fuu Lang's going, he'd end up burning himself out within the hour,' Ranma thought. He leaned against the rock face and bemusedly surveyed the battleground. There were some minor conflicts brewing here and there, and if their progress was anything like the main fight, he need not interfere at all. The first to catch Ranma's attention, mainly because he was fighting nearest to Saa Fuu Lang and his young opponent, was a bandanna-clad powerhouse of a boy, who overcame all show of resistance by virtue of brute strength alone. From the way the boy shrugged off blows that would have felled any mortal man, Ranma surmised that he had been taught the Bakusai Tenketsu technique. The revelation came as a surprise, for the Joketsuzoku had strict rules about teaching outsiders their techniques, just like the Musk, and the boy was definitely an outsider. 'Looks like a lot has changed since I left the village,' Ranma thought to himself and shrugged, silently filing away the information for later use. He would worry about the changes in the Joketsuzoku society later. Now, he had a serious fight to watch and enjoy. It was then that Ranma noticed a two-foot Wise One with well- focused ki mowing through the Phoenix ranks. Those who stood in her path were quickly overpowered and knocked unconscious, and as Ranma watched the seemingly random movements of her body, he began to appreciate the skill that she possessed. 'She's most probably the Matriarch... Hmm... Her ki and mana tastes familiar... Yes, of course,' Ranma thought, excitedly, wanting to half slap himself for not having seen it sooner, 'she's my great, great something granddaughter! I wonder what she's doing here, fighting besides these outsiders, though. And perhaps I can train her... And that little brown-haired rascal, too. They both have the potential...' Shrugging off the thoughts from his mind, which seemed intent on wandering from one subject to another, Ranma resumed his survey of the battlefield. He sensed two men, both in their middle ages and both martial artists, next and turned his attention towards them. One was mustached and Japanese, and the other was bald, pot-bellied and Japanese. Moustache was crying over the dehydrated body of a girl who was fast dying, and Baldy was standing over him, taking down any Phoenix who got too close to Moustache and the dying girl in a remarkable display of skill that belied his appearance. Ranma shook his head. It was obvious, the cause of the girl's predicament. The children must have pissed off Saa Fuu Lang a great deal to warrant such an arcane form of punishment. 'Hmm... Perhaps I should start a conversation with the Matriarch. Let's see, she should be able to sense this,' Ranma thought, initiating a probe of the Matriarch's ki. He had learnt long before that it was never a good idea to enter a battle without precise knowledge and the Matriarch was as good a source as any. The results were immediate. The Matriarch came to an abrupt stop. She made short work of her opponent and turned towards Ranma. "Who are you?" she asked, giving him her undivided attention. The vaguely familiar looking boy had used a ki probing technique that was known only to a handful of people amongst the Musk and the Joketsuzoku, and she meant to find out exactly how he had come to learn it. Ranma smiled. "Come, Honored One," he said, taking a step forward and seeming as if he was not paying any attention to his surroundings. A lone Phoenix guard noticed it and tried to sneak an attack on Ranma from the side. He was greeted at the very last second with a straight fist to his face. The guard flew through the air, hit the rock face and collapsed, senseless. Ranma took another step forward, not even taking a moment to survey his opponent. "Do you not recognize me?" Guu Long shook her head, imperceptibly, keeping her eyes on the boy. Whoever he was, he was no ordinary man. She had not even seen his fist move when he took out the guard. One second, it hung limp at his side and the next, it was embedded into the man's face. "I'm sure I'd remember you if I had met you before. Who taught you that ki probe?" she replied; asked. "Oh, but we have never met face to face," Ranma replied with an enigmatic smile. He was sure that they still kept that stupid statue of his likeness carved out of jade by Guu Lin somewhere safe in the village. It had been crafted soon after the victory over The Phoenix. Guu Long's eyes narrowed. "You haven't answered my question." "Who taught me the ki probe, you mean?" Nod. "No one." Guu Long's eyes narrowed further. She was not in a playful mood. "Don't play with me, Child. You know not who you deal with!" "On the contrary, Honored One, I think I do. Are you not the Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku? Are you not a descendant of The Dragon?" Guu Long's eyes widened. For an outsider to know her station in the village was bad enough, but for an outsider to know the legends of The Dragon and her relation to him was unpardonable. Even though the Joketsuzoku and the Musk societies were not as secretive and rigid as they were during the time of The Dragon, they still valued their privacy, and the boy standing before her was confirmation that privacy was no longer theirs. Whatever happened, heads were going to roll when she returned to the village. "What do you know about The Dragon? Who told you about The Dragon?" Ranma's lips curved upwards in a small smile. "I know everything about Ranma Saotome Qin," he replied, softly. Guu Long stifled a gasp of surprise. "And..." she asked, trying to look nonchalant and failing miserably. "Come now, Honored One," he said, jovially, "Can you still not tell who I am?" She shook her head. Why was she getting a funny feeling in the depths of her stomach all of a sudden? "But the clues are all around you. My knowledge about The Dragon and my mastery of the technique he taught your tribe..." Still, Guu Long's mind did not make the connection. "I'm your grandfather, Honored One. I'm The Dragon." That brought up Guu Long short. Suddenly, his face, which had been vaguely recognizable but implacable until then, became familiar. She had seen it dozens of times on the jade statue stored in the village armory. However, she told herself, the boy standing in front of her could not be him, The Dragon. The Dragon, her venerable grandfather, had not visited the Joketsuzoku in over two thousand years. Why would he want to visit them now? Obviously, some blabbermouth in the village had leaked the legend to outsiders along with a photo of the statue, and the boy who stood before her was a spy from the People's Army sent to infiltrate The Council and weaken it. "You lie!" she said, firmly. She sounded very convinced. Ranma sighed. "Then how do you explain my face? It's obvious that you recognize it now." Guu Long smirked. If he thought that the Joketsuzoku were unaware of the happenings in the outside world and that he could easily fool her, he was wrong. "Plastic surgery," she proclaimed, as if everything was explained by those two words. "Huh?" Ranma asked. Why was she blabbing about plastic surgery all of a sudden? "Don't think that you can fool me," Guu Long pronounced, victoriously, "It's obvious that you're from the People's Army. You must have snuck a photo of The Dragon out of the village and then used plastic surgery to mould your face in his resemblance." Ranma blinked. His granddaughter had a healthy imagination, even for a Matriarch, he had to give her that. "Then, how, pray tell, do you explain the ki probe and my knowledge of your ancestry?" "That's very easy," Guu Long proclaimed. She really was on a romp now. "There's a traitor in the village working with the People's Army! Don't think that you can fool us, Liar. We..." Before she could proceed any further, Ranma closed the distance between Guu Long and himself in the blink of an eye with every intention of beating some sense into her wayward imagination. He succeeded. Twap! Mrs. Head, meet Mr. Knuckles. Guu Long looked as if she were about to blow a fuse. Ranma hit a pressure point on her and paralyzed her before she could. "Insolent child, calling your ancestor a liar!" he said, indignantly. "Why can't you just accept the truth instead of deluding yourself with lies. People's Army, indeed!" Guu Long glared at him. "You still don't believe me?" he asked her aloud, knowing that she could not answer. "Well, I have means of making you believe me. Can a People's Army impostor do this?" he asked, shifting to his hybrid form for a couple of moments and reverting back. "Or, can a People's Army impostor do this?" he asked, releasing her from the pressure point and pointing towards the main battle. She turned. She saw that Saa Fuu Lang bore a mana ball in his hands and was aiming it at the brown-haired boy, who was still taunting him. Ranma produced a small ball of mana in his hands and flung it between the two opponents. It rocketed through the cavern in the wink of an eye and exploded, flinging the two dueling warriors apart. Both of them were up on their feet instantly, looking around angrily for the one who had interrupted their fight. "Hello, Saa Fuu Lang," he said, waving his hands. His voice, amplified by his mana, boomed across the cavern, "long time no see." Time stopped. Every eye in the cavern turned to look at the smiling intruder; stranger, sporting a nasty looking aura of blue white. Saa Fuu Lang saw him, too. It took a few seconds, but in the end, his mind made the connection. The look of righteous fury that he had sported just a few moments fell and his face turned deathly pale. He knew whose voice it was. It was that thrice-damned landling. Ranma cleared his throat. "Yes," he said, sarcastically, taking a step forward, "I'm delighted to see you, too. How fare you, Saa Fuu Lang?" Saa Fuu Lang's jaws worked, but no sound came out. A Phoenix guard tried to charge Ranma, but Ranma shot a displeased look in his direction. The guard screamed, as if something powerful hit him, and was flung through the air into the walls of the cavern. Ranma turned his attention back to the God and continued towards him, his steps slow and measured. "Oh, don't bother," Ranma continued halfway, "I can tell you're not doing well." He narrowed his eyes. "And if you can't come up with a very good explanation for this mess, things are going to turn a whole lot worse, real soon," he said pleasantly. His eyes narrowed even further. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember telling you to keep your hands off the Joketsuzoku and the Musk, Saa Fuu Lang. Yet, when I drop by to say hello, I discover that you haven't kept your word. Do your words mean nothing, Saa Fuu Lang? Are you honorless?" Saa Fuu Lang's flame, his aura, flickered out as the God-king quenched it. He took one hesitant step toward Ranma, then another. His resolve seemed to strengthen with each step as his confidence returned to him. He was afraid of the landling, yes, but he was not going to show it. He was a God and Gods do not fear mortals. "You dare accuse me of breaking my word?" he began, boldly, indignantly. "You dare accuse me when it is the Joketsuzoku who have broken their word!" Ranma's face remained neutral. "Explain," he ordered the God-king. "She," Saa Fuu Lang pointed to Guu Long, "broke into my domain and she attacked my soldiers. These," he waved his hands at the Matriarch's 'support' crew, "hooligans disrupted by Second Birth and because they did, my people will starve to death. Does that not break your word to my people?" he asked. [5] Ranma turned towards Guu Long. "What do you have to say for yourself, Honored One?" "These children came to the village," she pointed towards the 'support' crew, "and asked me to help them fight the God-king. The Council and I refused." "Then why are you here?" "I followed them here without their knowing as an observer. To make sure that they do not get themselves killed..." "Hey," the brown-haired boy interrupted, indignantly, "we can take care o' ourselves!" Ranma turned towards the boy and shot him a look. The boy opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, he saw the look on Ranma's face. It was enough to convince him that discretion was the better part of valor and he quickly shut his mouth. "Go on, Honored One." "However, by the time I arrived here, it was too late and the battle between the God-king and Ryuu," she pointed to the brown-haired boy, "had already began. "I stood in that corner over there with the intent of observing the proceedings peacefully. It was my hope that I could intervene and save them should they get into trouble. As my luck would have it, one of the Phoenix guards," she searched the battlefield and identified her first assailant. He lay senseless where she knocked him down, "attacked me and I was forced to defend myself. And before I knew it, I, too, was knee deep in this mess." Ranma nodded and drummed his lips. "One thing I do not understand, Honorable One. Why would these people come to you?" he asked. "I taught him," she pointed again to the brown-haired boy, "for three years. Obviously, he thought that he could enlist the Joketsuzoku's help in clearing up this mess." "Obviously, he was wrong," Ranma said, his voice hardening a little, "why did The Council not inform him of the map's true owner? It seems to me that a great deal of trouble would have been avoided if you had revealed to these people that little bit of information." Guu Long shrugged. "That information was only on a need to know basis, and he did not need to know." Ranma sighed. Politics. The bane of his life. He turned towards Saa Fuu Lang. "As you can see, Phoenix God, the Joketsuzoku did not attack you, though they are guilty of withholding crucial information. But the past is past and nothing we can do can change it." Pause. "It seems to me that you have nothing to apologize for. It is I who should apologize. Please, accept my most sincere apologies." Saa Fuu Lang's eyes examined Ranma from head to toe, judging him against some ancient scale. He remained thus for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he snorted derisively and shot Ranma a look of contempt. "You apologize?" Saa Fuu Lang asked. His voice was filled with indignation. "What need do I have for your apologies? Use it to save my people from starving to death?" Ranma remained silent. "Pray tell, Landling," Saa Fuu Lang continued, "what do I tell my people when they ask me to provide them light?" Ranma did not answer immediately. He kept his head bowed in shame, thinking about possible solutions to The Phoenix's problem. He, by virtue of being a Joketsuzoku, the oldest one at that, was responsible for the actions of the younger ones and by that logic, he was guilty party, for it was they who were responsible for The Phoenix's current predicament. "Your people will not go hungry," he said, at last. "Huh?" Saa Fuu Lang said. Did he hear what the landling said right? "I said your people will not go hungry. The Joketsuzoku are responsible for this mess and they will bear full responsibility for it." He turned towards Guu Long. "Tell me, Honored One, are the granaries full?" Guu Long nodded and then shook her head. "Yes, but they will not be enough to feed the entire Phoenix nation half through the winter," she said. "Let me worry about that," Ranma said cutting her off. He turned towards Saa Fuu Lang. "Send your people to the Joketsuzoku. They'll give you their surplus harvest." "And what good would that do?" Saa Fuu Lang asked, putting an edge into his voice. Most of his anger was mollified, but some still remained. "My people will still starve when the food runs out." "No, they will not. Send a list of what you need to me through The Council and I'll see to it that everything your people need to survive this winter will be at your doorstep within the next three or four weeks. You have my solemn word." Saa Fuu Lang nodded. "Apology accepted," he said after a pause. Ranma nodded and without another word, turned towards the dehydrated girl. He walked up to her. Baldy looked like he was going to oppose, but before he could, he saw the look on Ranma's face and silently gave way. "Is she your daughter?" Ranma asked Moustache. "Yes," Moustache replied, teary-eyed. His cheeks were puffy from the crying and he looked near hysterical. "I'm Ranma," he said, shooting Baldy an unidentifiable look through the corner of his eyes, "move back and I'll try to help your daughter as best as I could." Moustache wiped away his tears and took hold of Ranma's hands, his face showing his immense gratitude. "Thank you, thank you," he said, thanking Ranma profusely. Ranma bore the attention good-naturedly for a few seconds. Then, he gently pushed the man away, and knelt by the girl, probing her ki and mana lines. Her reserves of ki and mana were severely depleted, and her body critically dehydrated, but otherwise, she was fine. "I think some water should do the trick," he said, aloud, "can someone bring me some water from the fountain?" The bandanna clad boy rushed off and came back within seconds with several flasks of water. "Thank you..." "Ryouga." "Thank you, Ryouga. Now, if you'll please step back and give me some room to work," Ranma said, upending the flasks one by one over Akane's body. Her body returned to normal, but her ki and mana lines remained the same. Ranma sensed that if they remained depleted any longer, there was a chance that she could die. 'Let's see, a transfusion should do the trick,' Ranma thought, diagnosing the problem correctly. He summoned his aura, placed his hand on the girl's chest, and transferred a healthy dose of ki and mana into her. Then, he waited. Within seconds, the girl had regained consciousness. "There," Ranma said, standing up and turning so that he faced her father, "your daughter's all recovered. Allow her some time to rest and recuperate from this ordeal, and she'll be just fine." Moustache nodded, his eyes shining with gratitude. He rushed to his daughter and promptly began to fuss over her, shedding tears of joy. Ranma looked at the crying man for a couple of seconds. He shook his head and turned his attention towards Guu Long. "Where is the Guardian's daughter?" he asked. "She's safe in the village. Why do you ask?" "Well, I gave my word to the Guardian that I'd bring her back to him safe and sound," he replied. "Oh!" Nod. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Honorable One, I have to speak with Saa Fuu Lang," he said and without waiting for a reply, turned towards Saa Fuu Lang. "Was that absolutely necessary, what you did to that girl?" he asked, pointing towards the rehydrated girl. Saa Fuu Lang shrugged. He did not regret the punishment he gave the girl. It was war as far as he was concerned; the break-in into the mountain, and one did things in times of war that one would never do otherwise. Ranma looked at the God-king, his face neutral, for a long moment and nodded. He did not agree with what the God-king had done, but he understood. "Could you send a couple of your guards to escort us out of the mountain?" he asked, changing the topic. Saa Fuu Lang nodded. He turned towards two of the still standing Phoenix soldiers and beckoned them. "Escort these people to the base of the mountain," he ordered them. The two guards bowed to their king and moved to stand along Ranma's side "Good day to you, Saa Fuu Lang," Ranma said and turned towards the rest of the 'support' crew. "C'mon, People, pack up and move out. Our business here is done. You," he commanded, pointing to Ryouga, "carry that girl. The rest of you follow me," he said and began walking without giving the mob anytime to loiter. Free time, in this case, would be counter productive and might very well result in a new fight. The 'support' crew, for their part, shot each other looks of utter confusion, asking themselves who died and put Ranma in charge, but in the end, they slowly trickled behind him, following his lead. The Phoenix guards, for their part, followed their orders to the last word. Throughout the walk through the winding passageways, they did not speak to the humans once. They simply led the way, until the entrance was in sight. They pointed Ranma to it and without a word, parted, leaving the humans to walk out by themselves. Sure enough, when the team exited the tunnel, they found themselves at the base of the mountain. Ranma called for a short rest when they had put a distance of two miles between them and the mountain, and used the time to check up on the girl, whose name, he learnt, was Akane. She was fine. He exchanged a few words with her father, Soun Tendo, to mollify his fears and having done that, retreated to the edge of the impromptu camp. From there, he beckoned Guu Long to his side. "Honored One?" "Yes, Gran..." she began when she was near him, but before she could complete the word, Ranma silenced her. "There's no need for these people to know who I am," he said. He had a vague suspicion about Ryuu and his father, and if his suspicions were right, there was every reason that his identity should remain hidden for as long as possible. Guu Long nodded. "Now," he began, "I want you to tell me why The Council is, for the lack of a better word, screwing with The Phoenix?" Silence. "Let me guess, internal politics." Guu Long nodded. "Yes, but that's not all of it," she said. "Oh?" "Yes. We have reason to believe that The Phoenix were getting friendly with the People's Army." "And so, you decided to do something about it," he asked. She nodded. "Yes, that is correct. If The Phoenix were to align themselves with the People's Army, then the balance of power in the valley would shift. We couldn't let that happen." Ranma nodded. "Your concerns are understandable, Honorable One. However, I do not quite agree with the way you went about it." Guu Long shrugged. "The Council had nothing to do with the Guardian sending for these people. We just manipulated an already existing situation for the best results." "And the best results would be, what, the extinction of The Phoenix?" Guu Long shrugged again. "That was highly desirable, yes, but we were willing to settle for less." Ranma nodded. "And now, what? It's obvious that I have driven a wedge in your plans; a wedge that can't be removed." Guu Long smiled. "There will be other opportunities. The Joketsuzoku and the Musk have remained all-powerful in this valley for two thousand years. They will remain so for another two thousand more, if we can help it." "The Joketsuzoku and the Musk? Care to elaborate on that?" he asked. It was the way she said it. Something had changed between the two nations. "Yes, Wise One, the Joketsuzoku and the Musk. The relation between our two nations improved after you left the nation all those years ago. Now, we are two nations in name only." Ranma remained silent, filing this important information and drumming his knees with his fingers for nearly a minute. Finally, he spoke. "Tell The Council that they needn't worry about the People's Army, Honorable One. I'll take care of them." "Thank you, Gran... Wise One." "Now, about these people," he began, pointing towards Ryuu and his friends. "Who are they?" Guu Long cleared her throat and began. *********************************************************************** Ryuuken 'Ryuu' Saotome was feeling very curious; no, curious was definitely not the right word to describe the way he felt. Not only had this Ranma appeared out of nowhere and stopped the fighting, but he also easily got Saa Fuu Lang off their back. He saved Akane's life when everyone, Ryuu included, had given it as a lost cause and again, he did it as if it were a walk in the park. Not that Ryuu was ungrateful or anything, but how the heck did Ranma really save her? And that was not all. Ryuu had been fortunate enough to see the look on Saa Fuu Lang's face when the God-king first laid his eyes on Ranma. He recognized that look easily enough. He had seen that expression on his friend, Ryouga, many a time before. Ryouga would assume that 'I am so dead' expression just after he did something that pissed his girlfriend, Akane, royally. Thinking about his pig-headed moron-friend, Ryuu turned around and looked for him. It would not do if Ryouga were to lose his way while carrying Akane. The girl would probably bash his head right into the ground if he did that. Fortunately, Ryouga was right where he was supposed to be - between Soun and Genma, who held onto him with a dog- lease. Ryuu shook his head, desperately holding back a snicker. It was probably for the best. Ryouga was capable of losing himself in a room with a single door. Ryuu looked back a little further and noticed Ranma. He and the Elder were bringing up the rear, and they were discussing something between themselves. Ryuu stopped and waited until he was on level with them. "'Allo," he asked, trying his best to look nonchalant. Ranma stopped in the middle of a sentence and turned his attention to Ryuu. "Hello," he said amicably. He turned towards Guu Long and addressed her. "Honorable One, thank you for your insightful commentary on the subject. I'm very grateful for it." Guu Long nodded. "You're welcome, Wise One." Ranma bowed, slightly. "Perhaps we can continue this conversation later?" he asked. "Yes, perhaps," Guu Long replied with a deep bow. Straightening, she shot a parting glance at Ryuu and with a cursory nod, pogoed off. "So," Ranma began, turning his attention back to Ryuu, "how do you do, Ryuu? That's your name, correct?" Ryuu nodded. 'Man, that was weird! Why the hell are the Elder and he so formal? And why did she bow as if he were higher on the social rung than she was?' It did not make sense. The Matriarch was at the very top of the Joketsuzoku social hierarchy and she never, ever bowed submissively to anyone. "I'm all right," he replied with a shrug, cataloguing the incident as just another oddity. "The Honorable Matriarch tells me that you are a student of hers. Can you tell me the name of your school?" "It's Musabetsu Kakutou Ryuu. I'm not sure whether you'd have heard of it, though. Not dat many people practice it." Ranma nodded as if in deep thought, his face neutral. 'The plot thickens!' he thought to himself. "No, I have not heard of it before. Oh, pardon me; I haven't introduced myself, have I? My name is Ranma Qin," Ranma said and bowed, ever so slightly. Ryuu noted the bow and the way Ranma bent. The guy was definitely high up in the food chain, he decided. His left hand went to the back of his neck and he tugged at his pigtail. His right hand extended forward for a handshake. "I'm Ryuuken Saotome, but you can call me Ryuu. All my friends call me by that handle." "Ryuu it is," Ranma said, noting Ryuu's coarse speech. He clasped Ryuu's hand in his own and returned the vigorous handshake. The boy was definitely an outcast in the mainstream Japanese culture. "So, who are you, Ranma-san?" Ryuu asked when the handshake ended. Normally, he would not address with deference someone he had just met, but in Ranma's case, Ryuu felt that his new friend had more than earned it. Ranma smiled. He noted that for some reason, Ryuu sounded uncomfortable. "Please, call me Ranma." Ryuu smiled and relaxed. Ranma noted it. "Ranma, huh? Okay!" "So, Ryuu, how did you come to become the Honorable Elder's student?" "I was with pops," Ryuu said with a shrug as if his words were explanation enough. "I'm not sure I understand," Ranma said. "Oh, you don't know about my pops, do you?" Ryuu asked. "Of course you don't. When you do something pops tells you to, accidents are prone to happen and you're bound to get into trouble," Ryuu said with a shrug. "Accidents?" "Yeah! Been on the road with my old man as long as I can remember, except for the last five years, of course, and it was one stupid accident after another." "Your father is clumsy, I presume?" "No, he's not clumsy. Just has no judgment, whatsoever." "Oh!" "Yeah, I got cursed because of him." "Cursed?" "Yeah!" Ryuu said, vigorously nodding his head. "It happened five years ago, just about the time I celebrated my tenth birthday. Me and pops were on this quest on sorts - you know, visit all ancient training grounds and all..." Ranma nodded his head. In ancient times, it was common for practitioners of The Art to visit ancient training grounds. It was a kind of pilgrimage. The practice had fallen out of vogue a long time ago, however, and not many did it in the modern era. "Well, pops bought this brochure-thingy in Chinese from some salesman and we came to Jusenkyo. Pops said that it was this very dangerous training ground used only by the best martial artists. When we got there, we discovered that it was nothing but a valley dotted with lots and lots of springs. So, me and pops did what pops said was the wisest thing we could do under the circumstances: we took a dip." "You two took a bath in The Pools? What do you turn into?" Ranma asked, not even trying to hide his surprise. 'So, the Guardian was speaking from experience when he asked me whether I was going for a swim in the pools, huh? And just when I thought this trip could not get any weirder, too!' "Yeah, we did. In two different pools, too, thank God. I turn into a wolf and pop turns into a panda." "A wolf and a panda, aye? Well, that's not so bad." "Not so bad?" Ryuu asked, incredulous and indignant. "What do you mean not so bad?" "Yes, well, you could have bathed in the spring of the perverted old man..." Ranma trailed off, looking right into Ryuu's eyes. Ryuu shuddered. "Is there even such a spring?" he asked. "Yes, there is," Ranma confirmed. "Thank God I dinna bath into that," Ryuu said with a shudder. "See," Ranma pointed with a knowing smile, "I knew you would agree with me. Anyways, you haven't told you what happened after you got cursed." Ryuu shrugged again. "Same old, what else?" he said. "I got pissed, beat up the old man some for coming up with such a stupid idea. Anyways, we learnt from the guide that the curses are reversible with hot water, though the cure is not a permanent one." Ranma nodded. "The guide told us he was willing to take us to the Joketsuzoku, who might have a cure... In return for a small payment, of course." Ranma stopped. "There is no cure for the curse. Why would the Guardian lie about that?" "Beats me... Maybe he needed the money or something," Ryuu replied with yet another shrug, "Anyways, we went to the village, but the Joketsuzoku said that they could not help us with a cure, even though there was one... Hey, you said there was no cure for the curse..." "And I wasn't lying. There is no cure for the curse, strictly speaking. There is, however, a way around it." "Oh! Anyways, pops got mad. He challenged Elder Guu Long for the cure and she agreed to it, provided he'd leave me with the tribe for three years if he lost. "Pops lost, of course. He was simply no match for the Elder, who was all over him like a Kentucky tornado," he said. Hearing him, Ranma got the distinct feeling that Ryuu did not respect his father as much as he once must have. Ryuu's voice certainly sounded disappointed enough whenever he spoke of his father to warrant Ranma's suspicions. "Your father has lost your respect, hasn't he?" he asked. Ryuu nodded. "Yeah!" he said and fell silent, "One can handle one disappointment, or even a couple, but when one is disappointed at every turn, one stops caring at some point." Ranma nodded in understanding. He also made a note to himself that behind Ryuu's seemingly gruff exterior, there was a philosopher just waiting to be found. "And that allusion to the Kentucky tornado... Where did you learn that?" he asked. Ryuu's lips curved upwards in a smile. "From Bob, of course." "Bob?" "Yeah, Bob from the Americas. He came to the Joketsuzoku village about a year into my stay. Apparently, he was there to study tribal customs and such. We became good friends and I learnt some English from him." "English?" he asked, switching to English. "Pray tell, what other languages do you know?" Ryuu shrugged. "Japanese, Miao, Mandarin and Sanskrit, Man-o. Gotta tell ya, tho' dat Sanskrit's some weird shit! And why da hell are you speakin' all weird and shit, Ranma-bro?" he replied in English. Ranma tried his best to look unruffled, even though he was. 'It figures! This Bob character taught him Punk English!' "Tell me, Ryuu," Ranma asked, reverting back to Japanese, "your friend, Bob, did your friend Bob have a queer sense of humor?" Ryuu nodded. "Ah! I thought as much." Ryuu shot Ranma a strange look. "Anyways," Ranma continued, not paying attention to Ryuu's questioning look, "Do continue with your narration?" "Umm... Where exactly was I when we drifted off?" "Your father lost the challenge to the Elder." "Yeah! Well, as per the agreement, she kicked him out of the village without further preamble and took me to her house. That very night, pop tried to sneak back in and steal me back. He must have made too much noise, for the Elder was right behind him. She confronted him and when he tried to run away from her, beat him to within an inch of his life. Pops," Ryuu's voice grew subdued, as if in disappointment, "did not even show his face in the village for the next three years." "Oh!" 'If I were you, I'd have been disappointed, too,' Ranma thought to himself. Ryuu shrugged. The look of disappointment fled him and he became cheerful, once again. "Anyways, the first coupla weeks with the Elder were painful. I had very little respect for authority, or for elders, then and the Elder made me learn it the hard way... Sometimes, I think I can still feel the sting on my butt from all those beatings!" Ranma smiled. The Joketsuzoku were very lenient with their children, more so than most of the other cultures he had encountered. However, when they thought that a boy or a girl needed to be taught a lesson, they taught that lesson. Painfully. "Yeah," Ryuu continued, "those were the fun times," his said as his face fell a little, "anyways, the three years eventually ran out and pops came back for me. We spent another year wandering from place to place training. "At the end of the year, however, we had a little disagreement about whether I should continue my training, or not. Pops said I should and I disagreed. We decided to make a match of it to see who was right. If he won, the training journey would continue and if I won, we would return to Japan. I managed to impress him enough with my newly acquired skills in The Art, and we decided that it was time to end the training trip and return home," he said, his face lighting up towards the end of his speech. Ranma noticed the twinkle in Ryuu's eyes and smiled knowingly. Apparently, the 'impressing ceremony' had been very painful for the elder Saotome. "I bet your father did not enjoy it," he said. Ryuu nodded, emphatically. "Yep, he didn't. Anyways, we swam back to Japan and we came to Tokyo. I was thinking that we were going home to visit mom, but I was wrong. Pops took me to the Tendo dojo. 'To meet my old friend,' he said. We met old man Tendo there and Tendo-san invited us to stay. Pops agreed, immediately. "I should have known something was up, but I guess I wasn't paying attention. Anyways, evening came and Tendo-san's three daughters - Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane - returned home from school, and bam, pops asks me to choose one of them to be my fiancée. "I was reluctant at first and objected to their proposition, but pops said it was a matter of family honor. We would lose face if I did not uphold the agreement made between him and old man Tendo. Seeing no way out, I reluctantly agreed. "Akane was the youngest and even she was nearly three years older than me. Worse, she had a boyfriend, Ryouga, and they were going steady. She was out of the picture, therefore and that left me stuck with Nabiki and Kasumi. "Nabiki," Ryuu said with positive distaste, "was not my type and Kasumi... She's too old. So, I told pops and old man Tendo that I ain't choosin' no one, not until I turn eighteen. They did not agree with me, but I persuaded them to go along with my plan on one condition, I had to stay with the Tendos to get to know the daughters better. "I spent a year with the Tendos, then The Phoenix happened. The guide's daughter came to us asking for our help in retrieving the map. We came here and took the map from The Phoenix and they kidnapped Akane in retaliation. They held her ransom for the map and we decided to not abide by her demands but to mount a rescue mission. We went to the Elder to ask for her help, but she refused. So, we decided to go ahead by ourselves and the rest is history." Ranma nodded. "So, how do you know the Elder?" Ryuu asked. It seemed only fair that he asked a question of his own. After all, he had just bared his entire life story to the man. In detail, no less. "Oh, that's ancient history. You don't want to hear it," Ranma said, maneuvering around the topic. He did not intend to answer the question. Ryuu tilted his head upwards and narrowed his eyes at Ranma. "That's all you're going to say?" he asked. Ranma saw Ryuu's expression and burst out laughing. "Yes, that's all I'm going to say... I won't be the mysterious figure you respect and admire if you knew my secrets now, would I?" he said, hoping to pass off his reluctance as a joke. He did not succeed. The silence that followed was uncomfortable. "What techniques did the Joketsuzoku teach you?" Ranma asked finally. "Why should I tell you? Last I heard there's such a thing as give and take." Ranma chuckled. "Ah, disappointed, are you? Maybe I can do something about that. You know I'm very good at The Art, right?" Ryuu nodded. One only needed to see the way Ranma moved to tell that he was very good at The Art. His movements were efficient and similar to a predator stalking its prey. "Well, maybe if you describe your techniques to me, I can help you improve them..." "You would?" Ryuu asked, his eyes glinting with excitement and hope. Ranma nodded. "Yes, I would," he replied in earnest. "That's great!" Ryuu exclaimed excitedly before sobering up, "let's see," he said, counting with his fingers, "they taught me the Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken, Hiryuu Shoten Ha and the Bakusai Tenketsu. Yep, that's that!" he said, looking proudly at Ranma, "I asked them to teach me the Splitting Cats Hairs and stuff like that, but they refused, saying that the only way I was ever going to learn those techniques was if I married a Joketsuzoku and became a tribesman... Let's just say that even though I wanted to learn the techniques, I did not want to learn them that badly." Ranma laughed. "I'm impressed, Ryuu," he said when he stopped laughing, "you already know three advanced ki manipulation techniques at such an young age," he said in awe. "Those were the techniques that the Joketsuzoku taught me. I know other techniques, too." "Other techniques? Who taught them to you?" "No one! Pops helped me a little, but I created the Mouko Takabisha." "You created your own technique?" Ranma asked. He was very impressed by Ryuu's achievements. Ryuu nodded vigorously. "Yeah! It's a ki projection technique. I use my confidence to channel the ki into a blast." "Ah! You mean a chi projection technique." "Chi, ki... What difference does it make? They are all the same," Ryuu said with a shrug. Ranma smiled. Apparently, the Joketsuzoku had not been as thorough in teaching Ryuu as the boy thought. "But you're wrong. Ki is the pure, unadulterated thing. Chi is when you access ki using your emotions as a proxy." Ryuu turned towards Ranma. "So?" "So," Ranma added with a smile, "ki is much more powerful than chi. Moreover, if you use chi attacks long enough, you risk doing irreparable damage to yourself. Chi, to say the least, is very dangerous stuff." "And ki isn't?" "Ki is infinitely more dangerous than chi, yes, but if you learn how to use it properly, it's very safe. There is no safe method of using chi in the world, however. None." Ryuu nodded in understanding. "Oh!" Silence. "Whatever gave you the idea for creating the Mouko Takabisha in the first place, anyway?" Ranma asked. Ki and even chi projection attacks were not that common anymore. The skills needed to use them were mostly forgotten. "Ryouga learned this technique called Shishi Houkoudan that uses depression to form a ki... chi blast. I could not use it, since I'm not a depressed kind of person as he is. So, I created the Mouko Takabisha." Ranma nodded. "Ah, the miner's technique," he said, "well, you better stop using it and you better tell your friend to stop using the Roaring Lion's Bullet Technique." Ryuu looked up at Ranma, a small pout on his face. "Do I have to?" "Yes, you have to. I believe we have gone over this part, already. Chi is bad for your health, just like smoking, remember." "But..." "But nothing." Pause. "Tell you what, I'll give you some pointers on developing your own ki attacks if you promise me to stop dabbling with chi." "You would?" Ryuu asked. "Gee, thanks a lot, Ranma-san." Ranma smiled. "You're welcome. Now..." Ranma began, starting his lecture on ki and its applications. *********************************************************************** Ryouga was happy. What reason did he have to not be happy about? The evil Saa Fuu Lang was defeated, his girlfriend, Akane, was alive and she was in love with him. And on top of all that, he was carrying her. 'Yes, today is just perfect!' he thought, happily. He thought he could drown in happiness and lose himself forever in it. Of course, his mind had other ideas. It pulled him screaming from the world of runaway daydreams to the world of the living with horrible thoughts that sent his mind reeling with terror and dread. Ryouga's mind reminded him what he already knew from experience: Lady Misfortune followed Lady Fortune everywhere and she stayed a lot longer than her sibling, too. With her coming, things have a 'tendency' to take a turn for the worse and given the way he was enjoying himself, he just knew that things were going to go very bad very soon. Moreover, Ryouga's mind told him that he had as much a chance of escaping his fate as he had of never getting lost again. Lady Fate could be so cruel when she wanted to be! Ryouga sighed, despondently, his feet trudging on the ground. He knew enough to know that it was better to resign himself to the inevitable rather than challenge it. If he did not resist, it'd hurt a little less. His face fell and he sank into the familiar well of depression. His shoulder's drooped, and his footsteps fell heavier, if that were possible, than before. A thin, scarcely discernible corona of depressed chi began to condense around his body as his overactive imagination fed him images of all the horrible things that could go wrong. Seeing them in his mind's eye, Ryouga felt like crying. Tug! In the midst of this nightmare, Ryouga felt something pull at his dog lease. Naturally, the lease tightened around his neck. 'Hmm... The dog lease seems to be getting awfully tight all of a sudden. I wonder why it is so... Oh my God! Could it be that since I have experienced the perfect day, I have to be strangled, impaled, roasted, skinned alive and diced to death?' he asked himself and immediately, tears welled up in his eyes. He did not want to die. There were many things in the world that he had yet to experience and he was too young to die. "Ryouga, if I told you one time, I told you a thousand times: Keep your eyes on the whoever's walking in front of you and walk in a straight line!" The voice sounded far, far away and Ryouga thought that it carried a slight hint of exasperation. He recognized it as belonging to Akane's father, Soun Tendo. It did not take long then for his mind to make the connection and realize that Tendo-san was calling to him. He turned to face Tendo-san, shaking his head at the same time to clear it of the disturbing images and the nightmarish thoughts. At once, he became aware of his surroundings, and Ryouga realized sheepishly that the dog lease could not possibly tighten on its own. Someone had to pull it and that someone must have been Tendo-san. He was the one with the other end of the lease, after all. "Yes, Tendo-san?" Ryouga asked, turning his head sideways towards Soun. "I said: Walk straight, and walk between Genma and myself," the elder Tendo said. Ryouga nodded, embarrassedly. "What were you daydreaming about anyway?" Soun asked him. "You nearly threw a Shishi Houkoudan there, Son." Ryouga's face turned crimson. "Nothing, Tendo-san," he replied, stuttering. Soun stared at him for a long second and nodded before turning away with a faraway look in his eyes. Ryouga saw the look on Soun's face and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it at the last instant. Once again, silence descended upon the trio. 'Tendo-san probably has his reasons for discontinuing the conversation,' he thought. Soun, for his part, noted Ryouga's half-attempt at starting a conversation, but paid no attention to it. He had other things to think about, like his family and his life. He knew that he had not been the model father, or even an average father. No father would have abandoned his daughters to look after themselves as he did after his wife's death. Sure, the loss had been heart breaking, but it was no excuse for the pathetic way he abandoned his family. His eldest daughter, Kasumi, who was then barely ten years old, had been forced to become a grown up overnight because of his cowardice. She had not enjoyed a single moment of childhood, since that day. Moreover, the situation was no different with his other daughters. Nabiki, too, had been forced to grow up and face the real world, when she was ill prepared for it. With no one to guide her, she had fallen upon less than honorable ways and even though Soun acted as if he did not know about her activities, he knew that she had a healthy connection with the Japanese underworld, the dreaded Yakuza. Only Akane had been spared the burden of growing up when she was not physically and mentally ready. However, she, too, had suffered like her sisters. Without his guiding hands to show her the way of honor and guide her down the road, she went astray. She was temperamental, conceited and hotheaded, though she could be the kindest, most adorable girl when she wanted to be. He was not the father he could have been. He was not the guide to his daughters he should have been. He was not... Tug! 'Ye Gods-in-heaven! Why can't he even walk in a straight line?' Soun thought with a slight degree of disgust and annoyance. The disgust was undeserved, but the annoyance was well warranted as Ryouga had once again strayed from his position and disturbed Soun's thoughts. He gave a strong tug and Ryouga, whose feet seemed to be set on automatic mode corrected his direction unconsciously. Returning once again to his disturbed chain of thought, Soun shot Akane, who was sleeping in Ryouga's hands, a look of concern, regret and love, and sighed. Ryouga, for his part, walked mechanically, having lost himself in his thoughts once again. He daydreamed about his childhood, remembering a time when he had been a worse brat than Akane ever was. 'Not that I think Akane is a brat, of course.' The entire Hibiki line shared his bad sense of direction. Right from the first Hibiki, who had been a fisherman on one of the smaller Ryukyu Islands and who had been lost at sea, every single one of them had been cursed with a very, very bad sense of direction. But seldom had there been a worse case in the annals of his family's history than Ryouga. His father was bad with a tendency to get lost inside his own house, but Ryouga surpassed him easily. He had lost himself once, to the complete disbelief of his parents and relatives, inside a cupboard with one door while playing hide and seek. Ryouga still remembered that day. His father, his mother and even grandfather Yoshihiro had laughed at him. It was still, in Ryouga's eyes, the worse humiliation he ever suffered. From that day forth, Ryouga thought of himself as the laughing stock of the family. He was the freak among freaks, the joke and the idiot in the village of idiots, and he drifted into the deep end of depression. He became so depressed that at the tender age of seven, Ryouga had more than once thought about committing suicide. It would have been so easy; there would have been no one to save him, and all he had to do was take a knife and cut his wrists. However, he had never been able to. Something always happened at the last moment - his mother or father would come home, the phone would ring, or some salesperson would knock at the door. It had been frustrating then, to be deprived even his chance at death, but Ryouga was glad that he had not went ahead with any of his plans. After all, if he had committed suicide, he never would have met Akane. Ryouga knew that Akane alone was not the reason for his recovery. The Art and Ryuu had played equally important parts. True, Ryuu had come only later, much later, in fact, but the friendship he shared with the little kid was one of the most wonderful things that ever happened to him. To that extent, Ryouga was very grateful to Akane and Ryuu. They had brought meaning to his life and if the need should ever arise, he would be more than willing to lay down his life for them. As Ryouga imagined these sweet things, Akane's body began to slide off his hands and he adjusted her to get a better grip. He closed his fingers when he felt she was sufficiently well snuggled and inadvertently made a mistake. One of his hands, the one that held her upper body up, clasped hard something soft. He realized his error and tried to correct his mistake, but it was too late. Akane opened her eyes. There was pain and promise in them. The pain was caused by Ryouga's hand crushing her breast. The promise was a solemn oath to inflict ten times as much pain on him as he had on her. "Hi," Ryouga squeaked, a disarming smile on his face. Akane's face did not soften. Even though Ryouga had removed his hands, the pain remained. "Heh... Heh... Heheheheh." "You hurt me," she said slowly. Her eyes were narrowed at Ryouga. "Heh... Heh... Now, Akane-chan, I did not mean to hurt you," he replied sweetly, sweating profusely. "You hurt me, Baka!" "Akane-chan, I'm sorry. Really. You know I'd nev... Urk!" Akane's mallet connected with Ryouga's head, cutting off his explanatory speech midway. His hands automatically released their cargo as he lost consciousness, and both Akane and he fell. She landed on her butt on his chest and he landed on his back on the ground. If he had been awake, it would have hurt a lot. Fortunately, he was not and it did not hurt at all. Genma, who had been mulling things over like his companions, snapped out of his trance and stepped forward to help the duo. He extended Akane a hand. She grabbed hold of it and rose to her feet. "Thank you, Uncle Saotome." "You're welcome," he said, bending down to pick Ryouga up, "Can you walk on your own?" Akane nodded. "I think so." She took a wobbly step forward and Soun had to grab her around her waist to keep her from falling. "Easy now," he said, "You don't want to exert yourself too much." "I'm all right, really," she replied. "Anything I can do to help?" Ranma asked, coming up along with Ryuu behind them. "No, thank you," Soun assured him, "I can carry Akane and Genma can carry Ryouga." Ranma nodded. "Is she always this fiery?" he asked. "Yes, she is," Soun replied. "I'm not," Akane said vehemently. "Are too," Ryuu replied. He decided that now was a pretty good time to jut into the conversation. He had very big smile on his face. "Am not," she insisted. "Are..." Ryuu began, but before he could proceed any further Ranma laid a hand on his shoulder and he closed his mouth. "How do you feel, Akane-san?" "A little woozy, but I'm all right, I guess." Ranma nodded. "You'll feel tired for perhaps another day, whilst your body rebuilds the reserves of ki you had lost. Until then, I'd advice you to take it easy." Akane nodded. "Thank you..." "Ranma. Ranma Qin." "Thank you, Ranma-san." "Ranma-san saved you when all of us had given up on you, Akane," her father told her. "I..." Akane began, but Ranma silenced by putting his finger on her lips. "Take rest, Akane-san. We can talk later," Ranma said and turned to Soun, "Are you sure you and your friend don't need help carrying your charges, Tendo-san?" "No, we don't, Ranma-san. Thank you for the offer, though." "You're welcome. Tendo-san, Saotome-san," he said, bowing slightly to both men. He straightened and turned to Ryuu, "Shall we?" Ryuu nodded and the two of them began walking away. After a couple of steps, Ryuu turned around and flashed Akane a grin. "Nice hit, Akane. I give you ten out of ten," he said, sticking out a tongue at her. Akane was not pleased by the gesture at all. Her face reddened and she grit her teeth. Ryuu laughed and pulled his left lower eyelid down, further mocking her. Then he turned around and wagging his behind at her, walked away. "Grr." 'Oh! Just wait until I get my hands on you.' Genma saw his son's antics and allowed himself a rueful smile when Ryuu's back was turned on him. The boy had once been like that with him, but somewhere along the line, things changed. He had stopped respecting Genma, and started treating with disrespect coupled with disgust and a tinge of loathing. Genma did not know what exactly it was he did that made him lose his son's love. It would have been easy to point out if he had made one or two mistakes, but he had not. His past, he knew, was littered with mistakes of all sorts, the biggest one of them being Ranma, of course. Genma regretted his mistakes. He regretted them all, but he regretted Ranma the most. His eldest son had such potential, and worked so hard to please a father who misused his trust and tortured him in the name of training until the day he died. The day Genma realized he was the cause of his son's death was the lowest point of a life filled with low points. Yet, even that realization had taken a long time coming. To Genma's eternal shame, it was not Ranma's death that made him realize his errors. It was his visit to Soun soon after Ranma's death that brought that realization. Soun had then been a broken man. He had recently lost his wife and he was a lifeless husk who went about the motions of everyday life as a machine would. He spent days on end mourning his wife, refusing food and company until he collapsed from exhaustion. It took Genma three months to get Soun out of that state; three months of absolute agony during which he had never left his friend's side. And when Soun returned to normal, he had been a changed man. Those three months had affected Genma, too. In fact, it was those three months spent listening to the grieving Soun that made him acknowledge his errors and the role he had played in his son's untimely demise. Until that day, he had felt despair, but never guilt. And it couldn't have come at a better time, for when Genma returned home, his wife greeted him with a baby boy, his son, in her arms. Nodoka took the news of Ranma's death and the story Genma told her, very badly. For a time, she was intent on upholding the seppuku pledge he made her, but ultimately, she relented. After all, Genma portrayed Ranma as the epitome of manhood in his recital of the events that led to his son's death and she couldn't hold that pledge valid after Genma succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, could she? True, Ranma was dead, but he died honorably as a man among men, upholding the Saotome honor to his last breath. For the new 'moral' Genma, it had been a necessary evil, lying to his wife, and he did not regret it. He viewed Ryuu, his second born, as the key to his redemption, and how could he redeem himself in his eyes and in the eyes of the Gods if he committed seppuku. As such, Genma took it upon himself to take care of Ryuu as he should have taken care of Ranma. He wanted to raise Ryuu without making the same mistakes that he made when raising Ranma and he did. Only he made new mistakes, or in some cases the mutated version of old ones. Some of those mistakes were small while the others where large, like the pledge that promised Nodoka that he would raise Ryuu as a man among men or commit seppuku. It was similar to the one he signed on Ranma's behalf. Only this time, there were a few additional, more stringent classes. Nodoka was determined that the mistakes of the past should not be repeated and she was adamant on seeing her own additions to the document added. Genma had tried to dissuade her from altering the document, but when she refused, he, in an act of great stupidity, tried to steal Ryuu from her. She caught him and the fiasco ended with the addition of even more clauses to the agreement. That was why when the time came to return to Japan, Genma took Ryuu to the Tendo's and not his ancestral home. The document was too stringent and even without the curses or any of the other assorted misgivings, Ryuu would not have satisfied all the conditions set in the agreement. And Nodoka, being the traditional woman that she was, would have demanded that they commit seppuku. Nevertheless, in spite of all of Genma's efforts, the damage had already been done by that time. Mistakes had been compounded by mistakes, and trust and love eroded away until Genma lost the only thing that mattered to him at that point: Ryuu's love and respect. The erosion had not been overnight, for if it had been, Genma would have noticed it and made amends. It was a slow process that started with his first mistake and grew until it cost Ryuu's love for his father. If the mistakes had driven a wedge between father and son, the visit to Jusenkyo and the disaster at the Joketsuzoku village sealed it. The challenge to the Matriarch had been a desperate gamble on his part to gain Ryuu's respect. Even before Guu Long ever offered Ryuu her skills as a teacher, Genma knew her prowess in The Art through reputation, and when he challenged her, he had in mind a good showing that would earn his son's respect rather than a victory. Unfortunately, Guu Long was too skilled and he had not lasted a single minute before she knocked him unconscious. He lost Ryuu's respect that day, Genma knew, perhaps forever. Genma sighed, shifting Ryouga a little so that the boy's elbow did not press uncomfortably against his neck. 'Oh, how I regret my mistakes! If only I had a chance to correct them...' Ranma called a halt then and everyone settled under the shade of a tree to eat. Conversation started hesitantly, and soon grew into a raging storm of laughter and joy making everyone forget their troubles and enjoy the beauty of the moment rather than delve in the past. *********************************************************************** The group walked all that day and the day after, stopping only for brief rests along the way before they reached Jusenkyo. Ranma informed the Guardian that his daughter was alive and well, and that she was living with the Joketsuzoku. The Guardian was overjoyed at the good news and wanted to celebrate, but Ranma politely refused his offer of alcohol. They had a long walk ahead of them, after all. "Honorable One, I observed you during the battle at Phoenix Mountain. I must say that I'm impressed," Ranma said. Guu Long's face beamed with pride as she said, "Thank you, Wise One." Ranma nodded. He had a thoughtful look on his face. They were sitting at the very edge of the camp, about five hundred yards from the Guardian's hut and about a hundred-and-fifty yards from the camp proper. "However, there is still scope for improvement. Will you let me teach you?" The Matriarch's eyes widened. Had she heard correct? Did The Dragon just make an offer to teach her? "Y... Yes. I'd love to learn under you, Wise One." Pause. "Does this mean that you're finally returning to your people?" she asked. Ranma shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm asking you to stay with me for a couple of years and during that time, I'll teach you to improve your skills. "But surely, Wise One, if you'd come home, you'd help our people a whole lot better. Many will learn from you, and the Joketsuzoku and the Musk would grow even stronger." "My mind is made up, Granddaughter," Ranma said with a tone of finality, "I will not return home now. I wanted to see my family and I have seen you. There's nothing more to see. The village still holds too many dark memories and I'd rather not visit it if I could help it." "But..." "I said my mind is made up, 'Granddaughter.' There's nothing that you can say that'll alter my decision." "I understand, Grandfather. You still mourn grandmother's death." "Yes... Yes, I do. Will you come with me?" Guu Long nodded. "I will, but on one condition. I get to bring Shan Pu, my great, great, great granddaughter with me." Ranma's lips curved upwards in a smile. "Done. When we break up camp, I want you to return to the Village of the Councilors and organize your affairs there. Make haste, for should the Phoenix messenger arrive there before you do, things will end up worse than they were before... Runners use two or four-wheelers, correct?" Guu Long nodded. "Right. Go to the nearest outpost, and secure a runner and his or her wheels. Make haste to the village and give them an account of what transpired at Phoenix Mountain. Tell The Council that I ordered them to cease all aggressive actions, both passive and active, against The Phoenix. Prepare them for the Phoenix messenger and give them this," he said, handing over a visiting card, "The Joketsuzoku and the Musk are to treat all Phoenix as they would their family. Once all of that is done, safely return the Guardian's daughter to her father and meet me at hotel Crowne Plaza Chengdu at Chengdu two weeks from now. The address is 31 Zong Fu Street, Chengdu." [6] Pause. "Did you get all that?" "Yes, Wise One." "Excellent. *********************************************************************** Notes: 1. Ka Ka Ree did not protect his son and he did volunteer his name, which, though useless to Ranma and the Joketsuzoku, was something that only a dishonorable man would do. 2. Ranma's killing Ka Ka Ree is different in his eyes because Ka Ka Ree killed a pregnant woman. In his view, Ka Ka Ree deserved the death he suffered and a whole lot more. 3. There are those in India who believe that India belongs to Hindus and to no other. Do not take my words in this story to mean that I belong to this group. A whole lot of people, including myself, do not agree with you, Bastards! 4. This is the fifteenth/sixteenth century church we're talking about. Things, as you may realize, were a lot unhealthier with it then, what with the witch-hunts and the selling of indulgences and all. 5. Even though Ranma never said that the Joketsuzoku and the Musk would cease all aggression towards The Phoenix, it was implied. After all, The Phoenix have the right to self-defense and if Ranma had denied them that, it would have reflected badly on his honor. 6. There is a Crowne Plaza Chengdu at Chengdu. It is a five star hotel. I chose Chengdu because it was there on the Atlas and it was on the Chinese cities with airports list. ^_^ For further information on Crowne Plaza Chengdu, Chengdu, go to http://www.asia-hotels.com/country/China.asp The story can be found at the following webs: mine [When I get around to updating it, which won't be anytime soon. :p], Darkensis - the Red, The Penultimate Ranma Fanfic Index, Yoruko's Den (www.geocities.com/yoruko7), Getzeye's Fanfic Page(http://getzeye.anifics.com), Lady Cosmos, Ranchan & Co Crossing Bridges, the RAAC and the FFML miniarchive. Much thanks goes to Alex, Chelsea, Getzeye, Lance Garvey, Steven, Yanslana, Malikite3, RyuJin, Aarik Ilharess, Yanei Wu, Pete Blundell, Jakub, Lance Smith and Ranko for making this story what it is. There are others, too, that have helped with this chapter and I want to thank all of them.