Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Future 2 - First Blood ❯ Boot Camp ( Chapter 25 )

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice to make things clearer. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi, Naoko Takeuchi, or anything in the GURPS Ogre and GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol settings published by Steve Jackson Games. Everything else is mine.

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Xian Pu, Champion of the Chinese Amazons, reflected that there were times that her high status was less than a blessing. Like now.

The purple-haired teenager's lip curled in derision as she glared down at the heavyset man sleeping on the barroom floor in a pool of his own vomit. {Disgusting,} she sneered in her native Chinese dialect. {And to think that he used to be one of the finest martial artists of his generation.} Sighing, she motioned to the four men that she had brought with her. {Well, let's get him out of here and back to the house,} she said with a sigh.

As the men stepped forward to lift Genma by his arms and legs, she turned to the bar owner beside her. From the sweat beading his forehead, she was pleased to see that he knew of her from her time living in Nerima. “You have no problems with us seeing the Panda home?” she inquired, and carefully didn't let her amusement show when he stiffened at her flawless Japanese. He glanced from her to her fellow warrior, leaning against the bar apparently absorbed in running her whetstone over her large knife, then looked back at Xian Pu and frantically shook his head. “Good, thank you for opening early so we could retrieve him,” she said calmly. “May the gods smile on your business.” Bowing, she motioned to Jen Ni to precede her out of the bar.

/\

Genma slowly came awake with a groan. He had certainly been enjoying the stash of yen that Nodoka had accidentally left behind when she abandoned him, but the mornings were no fun at all. Still, there was an easy cure for what ailed him.

Opening bloodshot eyes as he sat up, he stiffened in shock at finding himself lying on his futon in his bedroom. Glancing around, he suppressed a snarl at finding five Chinese Amazons in the room with him. He rose unsteadily to his feet, careful to avoid the empty sake bottles scattered over the floor.

“So you're finally awake.”

Genma turned to find another Amazon had entered the room as he had been rising — one of the people he hated more than any other, the purple-haired bitch that had played him, his son, and the Tendos for fools and helped her even greater bitch of a great-grandmother take his son away from him. “What are you doing here?” her snarled as he fell into his Art's basic stance.

“I'm here to see to it that you live up to the deal you made with Ranma,” Shampoo replied calmly.

“What, is the battle coming already?” Genma asked in shock.

“No, it isn't for at least a month, yet,” Shampoo said. She tossed several plastic bags to the four men and pointed to the bottles on the floor. As they started gathering them up, she turned back to the middle-aged martial artist. “But you won't be able to earn your lifelong lush fund if you keep getting drunk every night and don't start practicing again. So Jen Ni, here” — nodding to the warrior young woman leaning against the wall, who quirked an eyebrow — “will be your keeper and sparring partner and Jwo Nan” — nodding to one of the men cleaning the room — “will stay to look after the house. You will be allowed to indulge your thirst one night a week until the fight.”

Genma looked Jen Ni over, and his eyes lit up with glee. This could be fun, he thought eagerly. Suddenly he became aware of Shampoo stepping toward him, and quickly refocused on the primary threat in the room.

“Listen, Panda,” the teenager murmured quietly, “Jen Ni is good, but we both know she's not in your league. Don't forget she's here for sparring. If when the battle comes she isn't able to participate, for any reason at all, you won't get to enjoy your stipend for long because we Amazons will hunt you down and kill you — all of us, not just me. Clear?”

Genma stared into the ice-cold eyes of a predator, and remembered the weeks he and his son had been hunted through China by a purple-haired teenaged lunatic. He nodded jerkily, unable to speak with a mouth gone dry.

Shampoo smiled viciously. “Good, I'm glad we understand each other,” she said quietly. Stepping back, she looked over at the men picking up the last of the bottles. {Ma Ma, San Tou, Bin Da, you remember how to get to Ono syan-sheng's office?} Three of the men exchanged glances then nodded. {Good. Once this panda-sty is cleaned up head there, I'll meet you.} With one more cold glance at the Panda, she stalked from the room.

/\

Xian Pu leaped to the roof of the home across the street from the Saotome residence to find Ping Ping waiting for her. {That takes care of that,} she said with a sigh of relief, sitting beside the other young woman. {Shu Te and the rest of the men?}

{Waiting in the park on the way to the Tendo dojo,} Ping Ping answered. {I was expecting Jen Ni.}

{Change of plans,} Xian Pu replied. {The Panda hates me too much, I don't think he could keep from trying to kill me before the fight for all the sake in the world. And he'd probably succeed, much as I hate to say it,} she added with a sigh. {For all that he has all the worst qualities of men, he's a magnificent fighter. I'm just glad he passed off the fight onto his son that first day in the village — wouldn't it have been a mess if he had been the one to beat me instead of Ranma?}

Ping Ping shuddered. {Absolutely!} she agreed fervently. {Am I still handling the training for Tendo syan-shen?}

{Yes, and you can keep whichever one of the men left you want, to help Ninomiya syau-zhye with the housework. From what Princess Yasuko said, she's been trying but hasn't done so well — probably because she's spent more time in her child form since she quit teaching. Though the Princess did say that her older sister would be dropping by the dojo from time to time to help out.

{Shu Te will still handle Ono syan-sheng's training, and his new wife won't need help with the housework — not Kasumi, she'd be insulted if we offered!} Xian Pu added with a short laugh, then sighed at Ping Ping's look of distaste. {I know, it shouldn't be Kasumi doing the housework and loving it, but they're barbarians, what can you do? And she's one of the most loving, serene people you'll ever meet — if there's anyone destined to be welcomed into the ranks of the million unnamed saints, it's her. I'm just glad we'll be able to tell them that — in spite of the training — we'd prefer that her husband stay behind the fighting taking care of the wounded.}

Rising to her feet with a sigh, Xian Pu added, {Let's get this over with, it'll take most of the day for me to shepherd the men that won't be staying back to Nikko.}

{Ah, that's it, you're just eager to get back to Mu Tse!} Ping Ping exclaimed as she rose to her feet, then laughed at Xian Pu's growl. {Relax, I know better — the whole village knows better, after the way you played the bimbo harassed by a love-besotted man for two years. That took serious willpower, considering Mu Tse was playing the opposite role — for him, too, you'd think he'd been born with a woman's soul. But you're right about the time constraints, let's go.}

/oOo\

Sergeant MacKenzie sighed with relief as he glanced up at the windows that ran the length of two of the dojo walls just below the ceiling — though the way Princess Yasuko and Akane had been bouncing around when he'd first met them, he wasn't sure the windows were high enough.

Still, that was a problem for another day, and a minor one at that compared to the ones that had become obvious to him in the course of the day the lack of light through those windows showed was now over. Just as well, Akane was staggering and even the Princess seemed a little worn around the edges. The pair had the energy of youth and long training, but they had their limits.

“Break!” he called out, and the pair of girls in the middle of the dojo floor separated and bowed to each other, the slightly taller raven-haired girl gasping for breath and the translucent shield seemingly made out of light on her left arm seeming to flicker and waver. That didn't concern him as much as the fact that the sword made out of the same light was doing the same thing, and he'd decided that it wasn't enough to hope it was still blunt like the pair had demonstrated they could make them earlier.

“That's it for the day,” he asserted firmly. Then, when the redheaded Princess looked rebellious, he motioned toward her companion. “Yasuko,” — the girl had insisted he drop the “Princess,” at least while in the dojo — “while I have to admit that you two are as dedicated as any soldiers I've ever known, check out Akane. You won't be able to fight if she loses control of her sword and accidentally cuts off your arm — or your head.”

Yasuko glanced over at Akane, finally looking at her as something other than a threat/target, and gasped at her state. The redhead's shield and sword vanished and she stepped over to put an arm around the other girl. “Sorry, Tomboy, I didn't realize we were pushin' ya so hard.”

Akane's own shield and sword vanished as she leaned on the shorter girl. “We ... we have to train ... be ready,” she replied breathlessly.

“True, but ya won't be ready ta fight if ya push yerself ta the point of collapse, either,” Ranma responded as she guided Akane over to sit with her back against a wall.

MacKenzie walked over and sat down beside them. “It's the lack of other people for you to spar with,” he said to Yasuko. “If there was even one more person that could give you a decent run for your money, we'd be better off. But I can't do it, I'm not fast enough. And while Elder Ku Lon said there's a few here around Akane's level, maybe a little better, that's only with their traditional weapons and from what you tell me that isn't the weapons mix you're going to be going up against.”

“No, it isn't,” Yasuko agreed. “But —” She broke off as another teenage girl stepped into the dojo, Chinese, purple-haired, wearing a tight dress with a high hem, even bustier than the Princess, and stunningly gorgeous.

The newcomer walked up to the three and bowed deeply to the redhead. “Your Highness,” she intoned, and a smile seemed to flicker across her face as Yasuko groaned.

“Yeah, whatever, you've minded yer manners,” Yasuko replied with a wave toward her official bodyguard standing against the wall across the dojo. “Now go give Lover Boy a proper greeting.”

MacKenzie's eyes followed the girl as she rushed across the dojo, focusing for a moment on the tight derriere the view permitted before he yanked his gaze back to Yasuko and Akane. “Who is she?” he asked with forced nonchalance.

“Oh, that's Shampoo,” Yasuko replied then added with a smirk, “an' she's already taken. Besides, isn't she a little young fer ya?”

“I've found that the girls grow up faster where the living's harder,” MacKenzie said, eyes straying back toward the newcomer, then he sighed as he watched her embrace and thoroughly kiss the boy that had been holding up the dojo wall all day, except for meals and short rest breaks. “But yes, she's definitely taken and I'm no poacher.”

“Good ta know, since Mousse could take ya — or take ya apart — in a straight up fight, too. Believe me, after all the times he attacked me I know,” Yasuko said with a grin, ignoring her new sensei's widening eyes. “But if you're lookin' fer a strong wife, I'm sure there's any number a' girls in the village more than happy ta accommodate ya, with or without a Kiss a' Marriage.

“Anyway,” she continued as MacKenzie shuddered (remembering what the gnomish Elder had told him about the Kiss earlier even as she assured him it wouldn't apply), “as I was about ta say before Shampoo walked in a couple a' weeks before she's supposed ta be back from her mystery job, Mousse, there” — nodding toward the couple still embracing — “could do a decent job, an' Shampoo if we could get Cologne ta bring her back early. Hey, that's enough, you two, break it up!” she called to the couple. “Get over here, I'm gonna pull rank an' give you two a new job.”

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syan-shen: Chinese for Mr.

syau-zhye: Chinese for Miss

About Akane's skill level, yes, I know that in canon Shampoo could probably beat Akane without breaking a sweat and there should be at least a few warriors back at the Amazons' village that could make their Champion work for it, so yes, there should be some that are definitely better than Akane, not just “a few around Akane's level, maybe a little better.” However, for the past four months Akane has been training intensively under Ranma's tutelage, she's gotten better.