Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Pursuit of Power ❯ One Sweet Day ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimers: Characters are not mine - they belong to Takahashi.

 

The Pursuit of Power

 

Chapter Two - One Sweet Day

 

 

He looked like a harmless old man, sitting under the shade of a tree as he lazily smoked his pipe. Just an ordinary, harmless older gentleman taking his leisure.

 

However, as it was in this part of Japan, nothing was what it seemed and this old man, smoking his pipe was not at all ordinary, definitely not harmless and least of all a gentleman. He sat under this particular tree that morning contemplating silk and lace and the effect of such delicate weavings on a feminine body.

 

Happosai was many things and he enjoyed a great deal of activities, but he only had one burning passion - girl's underwear. Panties, bras, in varying designs. He had a keen eye and an artistic preference. Not just any ratty panty would do, it had to be soft, delicate, well-made…

 

However one thing, or should he say, one annoying pest of a boy, had been thwarting this simple pleasure of his. Cruel, heartless boy who wouldn't let an old man enjoy himself.

 

Ranma Saotome. The bothersome son of his disciple continued to plague him, hound his steps and snatch his silky darlings from his grasp. Happosai sighed, clearly it was time for him to venture further a field, cast a wider net and perhaps shake off that annoying Ranma.

 

Having decided on a course of action, Happosai sprang nimbly to his feet and stowed his pipe away. Time waits for no man, and neither did the panties.

 

 

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Kagome stepped off the bus, thanking the driver for his directions and headed down the street. She glanced at the scrap of paper that she had in her hand, checking the address. She was still fuming from the early morning argument with Inuyasha; it had ended with Kagome uttering the word and Inuyasha telling her that he didn't need a weak, useless miko like her.

 

She was even more determined to prove that insensitive jerk wrong.

“Tendou Dojo” Kagome eyed the sign, before stepping into the courtyard. Hesitantly, she knocked.

 

She was greeted at the door by a shrewd eyed young girl with chestnut-brown hair sweeping delicately at her nape. “Yes? Can I help you?”

 

Kagome bowed and hurried to introduce herself. “My name is Kagome Higurashi and I've come to your dojo to learn martial arts.”

 

The young woman continued to study her and Kagome wondered if she had the right place, before the girl smiled, “Why don't you come in, I'll get my father.”

 

Kagome bowed again and slipped out of her shoes before stepping into the house. It was a lovely entranceway, with not many frills and decoration, but nevertheless was obviously well cared for.

 

An older gentleman approached, followed by a….a panda? Kagome didn't know that you could keep pandas as house pets; she chose not to comment as the man beamed at her.

 

“Well now, my daughter Nabiki says you're here to learn our ways? I'm Soun Tendou, the owner of this dojo.”

 

Kagome nodded, bowing to him. “Yes sir, I've come to learn some self-defence and I thought that I would get some instruction from you sir.”

 

The man eyed her before exchanging a glance with the panda, “Why don't you come and have a little tea with us dear?” With a welcoming gesture, he motioned for Kagome to precede him.

 

He motioned for her to take a seat, as he settled himself at the table. The panda ambled to sit beside Mr. Tendou. “Kasumi dear, a little tea for our guest.”

 

The young woman who greeted Kagome poked her head out of the doorway. “Kasumi isn't here Daddy, she went to the market remember? I'll get it for you.”

 

Nabiki smiled warmly at Kagome before ducking back into the kitchen.

 

“Ah, excellent Nabiki!” Mr. Tendou turned to Kagome again. “Now tell me dear, why is that you want to learn martial arts?”

 

Kagome couldn't seem to stop her hands from fidgeting. “Well sir, like I said I wanted to learn some self-defence. A girl can't be too careful this day an age right?”

 

He smiled and nodded as Nabiki came back in, setting the tray down and passing cups around. She even set one in front of the panda, who nodded its thanks. “Oh I agree dear, but you see our ways isn't exactly for simple self-defence and we require quite a bit of dedication from our students. You see Anything-Goes Martial Arts is not simply a technique, it's a way of life!”

 

Kagome took a delicate sip of her tea, her brow furrowed, “Anything-Goes Martial Arts?”

 

Mr. Tendou nodded, “Why don't I look up some names of other suitable dojos for you my dear, I'm sure together we can find you a decent one. Not as fine as ours' of course. Maybe, if you get more into the art, you'll come back to us hmm?”

 

Kagome smiled and nodded her thanks, “That would be great sir!”

 

It was then that she noticed the panda delicately sipping his tea. Nabiki noticed her gaze and laughed, though it sounded quite a bit forced. “Isn't he great? He's very well trained.”

 

Kagome could've sworn that the panda was glaring at Nabiki, but did pandas glare? Or drink tea? She thought it best not to probe deeper. Mr. Tendou returned with a piece of paper which he handed to Kagome.

 

She scanned the list before expressing her gratitude once more which Mr. Tendou brushed off.

 

Kagome was slipping back into her shoes and scanning the addresses given to her trying to think of the best plan of action when she walked straight into a muscular chest.

 

“Ooof, sorry about that!”

 

Strong hands grasped her arms gently, righting her and Kagome looked up into dark eyes. “I'm so sorry, I wasn't…”

 

The young man that Kagome had walked into grinned at her and she was struck by his resemblance to Inuyasha in his human form. This boy's hair was obviously not as long as Inuyasha's and it was braided into a pig-tail.

 

Kagome shook her head, realizing that she was clinging to this young man and quickly let go. “I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going.”

 

He continued to grin at her, “No big, so what are you doing here?” He eyed her school uniform, “Taking a break from classes hey?”

 

She flushed, “I'm…taking a day off, and I wanted to find a place to teach me martial arts.”

 

“And you came here?” The boy shook his head, “I'm Ranma and I can tell you right now that its probably better if you look somewhere else, things can get pretty crazy around here.”

 

She returned his friendly smile with one of her own, “My name is Kagome. I can handle some pretty hairy stuff, but your dad, Mr. Tendou turned me away already.” She waved the list in her hand, “Gave me other places, see?”

 

Ranma shook his head, “He's not my pops, come on, let me have a look at that. I can point you in the right direction at least.”

 

Kagome handed him the paper. As he studied the addresses listed on it, she couldn't help but stare at him. He really looked a lot like Inuyasha, even sounded like him a bit. She was shaken out of her reverie when he began to give her directions. She listened intently, nodding before taking off in the direction he pointed out.

 

“Thanks! I owe you guys one!”

 

Ranma waved her off, bemused. At least Mr. Tendou had the sense not to drag an innocent school girl like her in their midst. He noticed Kasumi walking up the road and seeing her heavy burden rushed to help her with them.

 

The eldest Tendou daughter smiled gratefully at Ranma as he relieved her of her load. “Oh Ranma, thank you, I'm glad you're home already, I was also wondering if I could ask a favour from you?”

 

He shrugged, pausing to nudge open the front door with his toe. “Yeah, shoot.”

 

“I saw grandfather Happosai at the other end of town; could you please take this to him? I promised that I would get it for him right away.” Kasumi pressed the small package in his hand.

 

“Sure Kasumi, what is it?” Ranma eyed the package, setting his bags down on the floor.

 

Kasumi smiled as she took the bags and set them on the counter, “It's just some medicine, Grandfather was saying that his hands were hurting, so I got Dr. Tofou to make an ointment for them.”

 

Ranma rolled his eyes, “Hurting, yeah right, probably from all the panty-snatching.”

 

Kasumi only smiled and turned to put her apron on. “Hurry back now; you don't want to miss dinner.”

 

Ranma nodded, before turning to hunt the old goat down.

 

 

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Angered screams rent the air as Happosai cackled, clutching his sack of goodies. Oh this was perfect, no Ranma and his fill of lacy darlings.

 

He marvelled at the sight of his haul, he wondered which lacy beauty he would bestow on that ungrateful wretch. As a boy, Ranma thwarted his plans for enlarging his collection. As a girl, Ranma…well Ranma was something else and would fill out his finds beautifully.

 

 

 

He cackled again as he spotted another bra, blue, lacy and divine, twitching in the afternoon breeze, just begging not to be ignored. His eager fingers snatched it, freeing it from the confining line.

 

“How sweet!”

 

Yes, this was a perfect new hunting ground.

 

 

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In the darkness it twitched, irritated. Someone wanted access. It sighed as it recognised the scent and allowed it through. It was tired, tired of the darkness, of the hunger and simply tired of being stuck! Why oh why did they keep her alive at all? In this non-existence, living but not. There was no mercy for her, she thought long ago that it would have been far kinder if they had just killed her and gotten it over with. But this? This was cruelty. To be used, to be harnessed…one day…one sweet day she would break free.

 

 

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He wasn't waiting for her, of course he wasn't! Why would he wait for that ungrateful wench anyway? This was just his favourite tree. So it happened to give an excellent view of the well and of anyone coming out from it. Pure coincidence!

 

The demon slayer sighed and eyed the inu-hanyou that now sat perched in his usual spot, waiting for the girl from the future. She had been surprised when Inuyasha had returned without Kagome; he almost never failed in retrieving her when he did go. Either Kagome was just that mad, or they fought again. She was betting on the latter.

 

“Sango? Why did he come back without Kagome?”

 

The dark-haired slayer, turned to look down at the sweet kitsune child who peered up at her sadly, his bushy tail drooping. “I'm not sure Shippou, I'm sure it's all okay though, Inuyasha wouldn't leave Kagome alone if she was in trouble.”

 

The fox child frowned, now that he had been reassured that his beloved Kagome wasn't hurt, there was now no excuse for her not to be there with him. Inuyasha went to get Kagome and he always came back with her. He just wasn't doing his job right then.

 

Before she could stop him, Shippou ducked past Sango and climbed the tree that Inuyasha was perched upon. “Inuyasha! Where's Kagome? Why didn't you bring her back?”

 

“Leave me alone runt! If she didn't want to come back that's her problem!” Inuyasha folded his arms, and did his best to ignore the teary eyes of the child.

 

“She didn't want to come back? Why isn't Kagome coming back?”

 

Sango edged towards the base of the tree, looking up at them. “I'm sure she wants to come back Shippou, just ignore him.”

 

Shippou's teary gaze turned to one of anger. “It's your fault isn't it? It's always your fault Inuyasha!”

 

“Oi! Now get this straight runt it isn't always my fault! She's got a mind of her own you know!” Inuyasha bristled at Shippou's accusations.

 

“What do we have here?”

 

Turning towards the deep voice, Sango sighed, “Shippou is upset because Kagome hasn't come back yet.”

 

The monk, Miroku looked surprised, turning his startled gaze towards Inuyasha. “Is that so? Well I'm sure she'll be back soon Shippou.”

 

“It's all his fault!”

 

Inuyasha sighed, the child's eyes had begun to tear up again. He hated crying, why was everyone so intent on letting liquid seep from their eyes these days? “Oi, stop that. She's coming back, she just had to do something. I'm sure she'll be back by this afternoon.”

 

Sango was surprised that Inuyasha had chosen to soothe Shippou, she was about to comment on this new found kindness when she felt a very familiar sensation.

 

“Houshi…hentai!”

 

The resounding slap echoed throughout the forest as Sango unleashed her fury on Miroku who seemed to have an undeniable attraction for feeling her bottom.

 

Inuyasha and Shippou simply shook their heads. Shippou sighed, “Now all we need is Kagome to `sit' Inuyasha…”

 

Inuyasha's fist met with the top of Shippou's fair head with enough force to knock the child out of the tree.

 

Shippou gurgled as Miroku nursed his reddened cheek. “You know Inuyasha, Shippou is just a child, you really shouldn't be so harsh on him.” He tried to exchange a glance with Sango but the demon slayer refused to meet his eyes. “Maybe you should retrieve Lady Kagome, we should be getting back to our mission after all.”

 

“Feh. I'm not her minder, she's got two feet, she can find her own way back.” Inuyasha turned away from them, hoping they would go away.

 

Sango sighed and picked Shippou up, “Come on Miroku, we should go back and help Kaede with dinner anyway.”

 

Miroku simply shrugged and followed Sango who was walking towards the village.

 

Ears keeping track of every footstep, Inuyasha made sure that the trio had gone back to Kaede's hut before lightly jumping down from his branch and into the well.

 

 

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Where could the lecherous goat have gotten to this time? Ranma had been searching for Happosai for quite a while now and he was beginning to fear that he was going to miss dinner. He hated to miss dinner especially when Kasumi was cooking chicken curry. Kasumi's curries would have pleased the emperor himself, or at least Ranma thought so.

 

Ready to give up searching for Happosai, Ranma had turned back in the direction of Nerima when he heard several feminine cries of outrage.

 

“Eri, get him, get him! He's got my gym shorts!”

 

“Why don't you grab him Yuka? He's got mine too!”

 

“The whole class lost their shorts to him!”

 

Ranma turned in the direction of the voices and sure enough he saw a large group of incensed school girls all chasing after…

 

Stepping to the side, Ranma caught hold of the nearest street lamp and hoisted himself up. As Happosai ran underneath, chuckling in demented glee, Ranma effortlessly grabbed the old letch's precious haul.

 

“Wha…hey! You give that back right now Ranma!” Momentarily confused, Happosai skidded to a halt glaring up at his adversary. Unfortunately he had forgotten about the angry female mob that were in hot pursuit of him, all holding aloft brooms and other implements that would prove very effective in doling out appropriate punishment.

 

Ranma rolled his eyes and waited for the crowd of angry girls to get their revenge on the old man. It was so much easier then doing it himself.

 

“What? Where did he go Ayumi?”

 

“I…I don't know, one minute he was there and…”

 

Happosai was not receiving his well-deserved punishment, he was standing on top of a shrine's entry way, glaring down at Ranma. “Hah! Missed me! Now give those back Ranma!”

 

Ranma snorted and in reply pulled open Happosai's sack and threw it to the gathered girls.

 

“No!” Happosai howled as he watched his day's work all undone before his very eyes, all because of … “Ranma! You'll pay!'

 

Ranma leapt lightly to the ground, glaring at him, “Heh, you don't scare me old man!”

 

“Why? Why do you insist on tormenting me? Why can't you just leave an old man to his harmless pleasures!” Happosai began to cry in earnest, heartbroken sobs racking his small body.

 

“Tormenting you? I just came to give you Kasumi's package you old freak! And this is the thanks I get?” Ranma glared at him, before shaking his head. “Come on now, Kasumi will have dinner ready soon, we should be going back.”

 

“Harmless!” One of the school girls shrieked, “You call stealing girls' underwear harmless! You pervert!”

 

Happosai grinned and leapt down among the girls. “You won't miss them at all!”

He snatched the gym shorts that were loosely held by the girls and ran back up towards the shrine.

 

“'Do something!” One of the girls grabbed Ranma's shirt, big brown eyes looking pleadingly up at him.

 

Ranma sighed, why did he always get pulled into this crap? Shaking free of the girl's grasp he ran up the stairs and into the shrine. He found Happosai standing in the courtyard, one of his famous bombs in his hands.

 

“Hey old man! What are you doing, this is a shrine!” Ranma yelled at him, hoping to talk some sense into him. He really should've known better.

 

Happosai threw his bomb squarely at Ranma, who deftly avoided it, running straight towards him, his only hope was to get this over quickly before the old man caused too much damage.

 

The battle raged on with furious punches and kicks, occasionally Happosai would throw another of his bombs but Ranma eluded them all. Grunting in frustration, Happosai jumped far from Ranma, landing next to a small wooden building on the premises. He took out a wand-like object from his shirt and holding it aloft he glared at Ranma.

 

“Ranma! You've stopped me for the last time!”

 

“What are you doing? Are we gonna fight or what?” Ranma held his fists at the ready, whatever the old goat could throw at him he was sure he could counter.

 

“Oh we're going to fight alright, but I think I'm going to get a little help.” Eyes twinkling with suppressed mirth, Happosai held the wand up and shouted with all of his might. “Hear me oh great Shakuhou! Help me in this battle! Send me your power!”

 

Overhead, the clouds began to thicken and darken as thunder began to ominously boom through the skies. Ranma eyed the clouds warily, before shifting his attention back to Happosai, “What the heck are you up to?”

 

Happosai cackled evilly as the structure by his side began to shake….

 

 

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The darkness was lifting, she could see light! She felt the chains bonding her snap and with one glorious roar of triumph she soared free from her confines.

 

She breathed in the air. Air! Real, true air, sucking through her lungs…she had lungs again! She snatched at her chest. Hands! A body….

 

Opening her eyes, she looked around her, dazed, disoriented but giddy. Before her she saw two mortals, one old, one young, both powerful. Deliciously so.

 

“Who? Who freed me from my prison? Who!”

 

The old one cackled, delighted, “I did my dear and I must say you are a truly delectable helper…”

 

The old man tried to leap on top of her and to caress her, with a shriek of fury she batted him away. “You dare! You dare touch me?”

 

She felt laughter bubbling up within her and she let it seep forth. The young one stared up at her with a mixture of horror and fascination. “Who…what are you?”

 

Who was she? What was she? They were good questions, smiling indulgently at the boy, she leaned close. “Ido…my name is Ido…or at least that's what I've been called these last few years.”

 

She kept her voice sweet as she leaned towards the boy. Hungry, she was so hungry and this dark haired boy would make a fine first meal…

 

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Whew - there's the second chapter! Hope it's not too confusing for you guys, I promise to clear up any questions you might have in the next chapter…or at least by the time the story is finished!