Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Big Help ❯ The Arrival of the Lost... Boy? ( Chapter 5 )

A Big Help

A Ranma one half/Sailor Moon crossover fanfic

By Michael A. Ivins

 

Mykon and Jora are my original creations so I request that nobody uses them without permission. The rest of these characters are the property of their creators, publishers, anime production companies, etc. I write this for fun and make no profit off it.

 

Chapter 5

The Arrival of the Lost… Boy?

 

Ranma and Akane were heading out from Furinkan. The school day was over and they were getting out with no additional harassment from Kuno. He and Akane were chatting. Now that the hentai horde had stopped their daily attacks, Akane was opening up a little and not so distrusting of males in general.

 

Akane's training was advancing as well. She was closing the holes in her defense and learning finesse over brute force. The meditation she was doing was allowing her to channel more of her ki into increasing her speed. She still had not advanced to a point where she could project her ki outside of her body like Ranma could, but she was getting better.

 

Perhaps the greatest change was in her anger. She was starting to gain control of it. She still had a long way to go.

 

Suddenly Ranma held up a hand and warned, “Trouble.”

 

Akane took a quick step back. By now she trusted Ranma's instincts and knew to get out of the way if he sensed trouble.

 

Ranma looked up and saw the figure of a muscular youth at the top of an arc from a leap just starting to descend on his position. Held out ahead of the boy's body was what appeared to be an umbrella pointed toward him. The young man called out, “Saotome Ranma, prepare to die.”

 

Never one to stand idly when someone was attacking, Ranma leapt out of the way. The boy's umbrella struck the ground where Ranma had been standing and blasted out an impact crater four feet across. Several students were pelted with fragments of rock and bits of dirt.

 

He knew this boy, had gone to junior high with him. This was Hibiki Ryoga, the fangs in his mouth were a pretty good give away for that. The yellow bandanna with black spots was another good clue.

 

Ranma also thought he recognized the umbrella. He had seen it in a catalog of exotic weapons. It was a combat umbrella that was useful for keeping one dry in the rain but was also steel lined and very heavy. Few normal people could even lift the thing but for someone with Ryoga's enormous strength he handled it like it was nothing.

 

This was also the boy that Ranma had constantly had to lead home from school because he was always getting lost.

 

The Lost Boy said, “You haven't changed, Ranma. You're still good at running away.”

 

“Running away? What the hell is he talking about? When did I ever run away from him?” Ranma thought. “Hello Ryoga. What have you been doing since I last saw you in school.”

 

“Oh don't act like you don't remember. Why did you run out on our duel?”

 

The pigtailed boy looked confused. “Our duel? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you choose the time and place for that fight?”

 

“I did.”

 

Ranma looked even more confused. “I waited at the appointed place for three days. You didn't show up.”

 

“Oh, sure three days. When I got there on the fourth day you had already run off to China with your father.”

 

“Ok, so let me ask you something. The place you chose for the fight was the vacant lot in back of your house. Why did it take you four days to get there?”

 

“Do you think I was traveling around all of Japan for my health? I suffered to meet up with you.” There followed a recitation of some of the places that Ryoga had visited in his travels.

 

Some of the students from the school who had gathered to observe commented, “No sense of direction.” “None at all,” agreed another. “Can't read a map,” someone else observed.

 

Ryoga wasn't listening to the crowd. He swung his umbrella at Ranma who leapt over it almost negligently. “Breaking a vow between men and running off with your father is unforgivable.”

 

“So you want to finish the fight?” Ranma asked.

 

Popping open the umbrella, Ryoga scoffed, “Finish the fight, how feeble.” The Lost boy spun the handle of his weapon and so that it flew in Ranma's direction. Ryoga yelled, “This is revenge!”

 

Ranma inclined his body a little to the right so the umbrella missed him. As the weapon flew up and around it then returned and Ranma again made the barest of movements to avoid it again.

 

“What did I do to you that you need to get revenge for? Missing a duel isn't enough even if you do think I ran off (which I didn't.) So what is it?”

 

This seemed to enrage the fang-toothed boy even more. “Don't play dumb! You know very well what you did.”

 

Heaving a huge sigh the pigtailed boy said, “For the sake of the people listening, let's just pretend that I don't know what I did to make you mad. Please explain it in detail and use small words.”

 

“Enough talk!” The lost boy charged forward and Ranma sidestepped. Ryoga couldn't halt his charge in time and crashed through the wall of the school. Instead of stopping and turning around, the boy just kept charging forward and crashed through more walls until he was back outside again. By now he was on the far side of the school and unsure of his location.

 

Ranma stood and waited. When Ryoga hadn't shown up again after another hour he and Akane went home. While they were walking Ranma explained, “I would have waited for the duel even longer, but my dad knocked me out and dragged me away.”

 

When they were back at the dojo Akane asked, “Can you think of anything you might have done that he would be so mad for?”

 

“I've been wracking my brain. The only thing I can think of is that he must have followed us to China and something bad happened to him while there. With his sense of direction that is more than a little bit amazing.”

 

“How would he even know to go to China?”

 

The pigtailed boy quoted, “When I got there on the fourth day you had already run off to China with your father.”

 

“Oh, right.”

 

Musingly Ranma said, “The only thing I can think of is that he went to China looking for us and something happened to him while he was there.”

 

“How would that be your fault?”

 

“From what I remember of the guy from junior high, he was always blaming his problems on other people. I knew it was lonely for him at home so I was willing to cut him some slack.”

 

“Why was it lonely for him at home?” Akane was confused.

 

“A bad sense of direction was sort of a family curse. His parents were cousins so they both had the same problems. It was kind of sad. One of them could go out for groceries and maybe not make it back for a week or more. Their house was more of a place to drop off souvenirs of their travels than a home.”

“How sad.”

 

Ranma nodded. “Like I said, I felt sorry for the guy. I was willing to overlook his behavior and I can admit that I wasn't the nicest either. I used to guide him home after school. I think the main reason for him challenging me to the duel was what I call the bread feud.”

 

“Bread feud?”

 

“Lunch at an all boy's junior high can be a little like feeding time at the zoo. Often when they were serving these flavored breads like curry bread, they would throw out the last one for who ever could catch it. There was pretty much of a mad scramble to catch that last bread and I wasn't immune to the craziness. I even bounced myself off Ryoga's head to catch that last bread.”

 

“That would likely make him mad.”

 

“It shouldn't have made him that mad, I did share my bread with him.”

 

The black haired girl bit her lip and thought for a moment. “Was I like him?”

 

“Do you mean angry like that?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You were never that bad that I've ever seen. I think the most important thing about you is that you recognized that your anger could be a problem and you are working on controlling it. You are switching over to using pure ki instead of anger based ki and I think it has helped you.”

 

She nodded. “It also helps that those boys aren't attacking me any more. You are helping me to learn to trust boys again, or at least to trust you. I don't know how long it will be before I can trust boys in general.

 

One week later a letter arrived for Ranma. When he opened it he told everyone, “This is a formal challenge letter from Hibiki Ryoga. We are to meet at one of the Furinkan athletic fields to fight.”

 

Looking over his shoulder, Akane asked, “Did you realize that this was supposed to be today after school?”

 

The young martial artist shrugged. “With his sense of direction he likely won't show up for at least a couple more days.”

 

Ranma's prediction proved to be accurate. It was three days later after school when the confrontation took place. The pigtailed boy was not happy with the nearly carnival atmosphere that prevailed. There were people selling popcorn and other snacks and another vendor was selling cold drinks from an ice chest.

 

Nabiki was taking bets. From what she was shouting through her megaphone it sounded like she was betting against Ranma. He scowled at that. After he'd helped her with Kuno, it didn't seem fair.

 

The field they had selected for the fight was fenced with chain link so the audience would be relatively safe from the fighting. The safety was only `relative' because either of the combatants could easily demolish the fence if they chose to.

 

When Ranma went into the fenced enclosure Ryoga taunted, “So you finally decide to show up, Saotome.”

“Ryoga, I'm tired of your mouth. I'm the one who should be saying that. I'm not the one who is always getting lost and showing up late.”

 

The boy in the bandanna lunged forward and suddenly Ranma could feel metal on his wrist. He found a handcuff locked on with a steel cable leading from it to a similar handcuff on the Lost Boy's wrist. “Now you won't be able to run away like you did the last time.”

 

“Arrgh! You seem to have a warped perception of reality, Hibiki. The last time at this school you attacked me without warning. You flung that umbrella around like we were standing in an empty field. I've got news for you, idiot - the field was not empty. There were innocent bystanders who could have been hurt.”

 

The other boy snorted contemptuously, “Then it would have been their own fault for getting in the way.”

 

“NO! That's bull and you know it. It is the duty of a martial artist to protect the weak, not to put them in danger. The next time you start throwing ranged attacks around you should make sure that the only person who could be hit is your opponent. As for running away you are the one who crashed through the school building and got lost. I stayed right where I was and waited an hour for you to come back.”

 

“You're damn lucky there were no people in the rooms and halls you crashed through. If there had been they could have been injured by your negligence. I'm just glad they aren't making me pay for the repairs to the school. By the way, I understand the Ministry of Education would like to talk to you on that subject.”

 

“It's about time you stopped blaming your problems on other people. I tried to be a friend to you. I shared that bread that I snatched away from you. I took you home when you couldn't find the way. How do you repay my attempts at friendship? You challenge me to a duel.”

 

The lost boy wasn't buying the argument. “Because of you I've seen hell.”

 

“Something happened to you in China, didn't it?”

 

“Enough talk.” The lost boy charged forward throwing a punch that could have shattered stone. The pigtailed boy dodged it easily and threw a punch of his own.

 

Ryoga blocked the punch with his furled umbrella. Ranma commented, “That's a Mark 5 `Battle Brella' from the exotic weapons catalog isn't it?”

 

The boy with the bandanna just said, “Yeah,” and swung the weapon, then thrust it like a sword. As always his target danced back out of the way. While doing so he remembered that the Mark 5 Battle `Brella was extremely heavy. It would take some serious strength to wield it one handed and so lightly.

 

Ranma begged, “Would you just tell me what happened in China that would make you want to get revenge.”

 

“As if mere words could convey the depths of my suffering. Because of you I have seen hell.”

 

Ranma looked angry. “You know what, I'm getting tired of your self righteous attitude. `I'm a victim and terrible things have happened to me. I deserve to get revenge'.”

 

“I never understood why you even wanted the duel. If the bread I caught had been thrown to you, I could understand it. The lunch lady was throwing it to whoever could catch it. I even shared it with you. Was I insulting when I led you home or around the school building? Is that why you wanted the duel?”

 

“How can you even pretend to understand my suffering?”

 

“Oh yeah, right. You went to China and you picked up a problem. Well, guess what… everybody's got problems. Some have more problems than others. Would it be such a bad thing to sit down and compare so we can decide whose problems really are worse?”

 

The lost boy shouted, “Just shut up and fight.” He launched his spinning umbrella once again.

 

Instead of dodging it this time Ranma simply caught the handle, stopping the spinning with the strength of his grip. “If you had managed to get to the duel on time I was just going to fight you to a draw so maybe you'd start to treat me with some respect. Well, it looks like you don't want a friend. If it's an enemy you want, I can do that too.”

The pigtailed boy proceeded to swing the heavy umbrella around like it was a wooden practice sword. He then tossed it to the side and fired a small ki blast that severed the cable that connected the handcuffs. Ranma said, “I think it's time you get a little better idea of just who it is you are challenging.”

 

Ranma'a battle aura ignited and he flashed forward in a blaze of light. He buried his fist into the lost boy's abdomen and followed it with an uppercut to the jaw. Ryoga was too tough to be knocked out by this but was knocked down. “I don't remember Ranma being this good.”

 

The blow that had knocked the lost boy down had landed him next to the umbrella. He snatched that up and swung it in a blow that should have nearly taken Ranma's head off. The pigtailed boy instead caught it and in his grip the steel reinforced weapon actually bent.

 

The boy with the bandanna swung around and delivered a roundhouse kick that was textbook in its execution. Ranma absorbed the blow as if he hardly felt it and returned a kick of his own that knocked Ryoga back to the fence.

 

The next thing Ryoga was aware of was Ranma flying toward him in a maneuver similar to the same one he had used with his original attack out in the schoolyard. In a desperation move he rolled below the attack.

 

While the two martial artists were in motion a regularly scheduled event was starting to take place. The sprinkler system for the field next to the fenced enclosure came to the moment programmed into its simple controller. The heads of the sprinklers popped up out of the ground and began to spread the moisture needed to keep the fields green. One of the sprinkler heads was poorly installed and the water sprayed through the chain link fence right on Ranma.

 

Those students who had been aware of the schedule for the sprinklers had avoided the area. The rest shouted protests at the injustice of getting wet and quickly got to their feet and rushed away.

 

Ranma stepped out of the stream of water and shook some of it out of her red hair and turned to face her opponent again. She found Ryoga just staring, mouth gaping.

 

“Yeah, I'm still Ranma and yeah, I turn into a girl,” she announced. “Like I said before, everybody's got problems. This is just one of mine.”

 

When the lost boy just kept standing with his mouth hanging open, Ranma continued, “I don't know what the terrible thing is that happened to you but I got a curse in China. Even with this body, I still manage to be nice to people and cope. The only person I blame is my idiot father for refusing to listen to the warnings about that place.”

 

Ryoga walked forward to where the sprinkler head was still spraying through the fence. As he went he said, “I hate irony. That body is cute and you have an adorable figure in that form. Although…” He hopped under spray and continued, “I think my figure's pretty cute too.”

 

The girl Ryoga turned into was slightly taller than her male form. Her hair was still black but had gained brownish highlights and her eyes took on an amber tint. Her features were still obviously Ryoga but they had a more delicate cast. While her body was more slender than the boy's stocky, muscular build, she was muscled like a fitness model.

 

The overall effect was beautiful even in the masculine garb. If she'd been dressed in more flattering clothes she'd be a knockout.

 

Ranma was not impressed. “This is IT? This is the `hell' you've seen? You got a curse to turn into a gorgeous girl and you go around acting like it's something that would justify using deadly force on a person. At least you're still human. I've been told of people who have changed into all kinds of animals, some of them pretty disgusting.”

 

“But Ranma…”

 

“Don't `but Ranma' me. You act like you were turned into a hideous monster and you're prettier than my girl form. When you are ready to act like a reasonable human being then come talk to me.” She turned and stalked off. As she went she shouted, “Has anyone got a towel?”

 

As she got out the gate Akane handed Ranma a towel to dry off. After she finished drying her face she looked up to see the lost girl standing in front of her. Ranma scowled and said, “What do you want?”

 

“Uh… Do you really think my girl form is pretty?”

 

Ranma rolled her eyes. “You have eyes and a brain when you bother to use it. Look in a mirror and see what you think. Just try looking at the image in the mirror like you would at a woman you met on the street. Then you judge if that woman is pretty or not.”

 

“Um… Ok, I'll try that. I'm… I'm sorry I overreacted. It's just that I was so angry when I saw I'd changed.”

 

Ranma shook her head. “When I changed the first time I beat my dad almost bloody. He was sore for a week after that. I can relate to being angry from the change but you should have calmed down on the trip back to Japan.”

 

Looking sheepish, the girl with the bandanna said, “You know what kind of temper I have. All I needed to do was think about you and I would get mad all over again.”

 

Ranma looked at her for a while and finally said, “Look, unless you want to keep fighting, why don't you come with us back to the dojo and we can talk about this like civilized people.”

 

Before they left Nabiki approached, she looked quite pleased. “That went great, Saotome. The odds on the fight going to a draw were very high against. I made out like a bandit.”

 

In a voice dripping with sarcasm, Ranma said, “Oh, good, I'd hate to cut into your profit margin.”

 

Ryoga looked a little confused. “She was taking bets?”

 

“That's Akane's sister. Don't be offended, she's always like that.”

 

“Ok… I guess.”

 

Akane offered, “When we get back home we can get you some hot water.”

 

As they left the school ground Ryoga asked, “It doesn't bother you that both Ranma and I change into girls?”

 

Akane shook her head. “I've had some time to get used to Ranma's curse. It doesn't change the person she is inside. Ranma is basically a good person boy or girl and a good friend. I will try to hold off forming an opinion about you until I get to know you better.”

 

“Uh… Thanks, I think.”

 

The youngest Tendo daughter said, “Look, I've had a pretty bad temper too. Maybe someday I'll tell you some of the reasons behind it. Ranma has been helping me to calm down. Maybe he…” she glanced over at the redhead, “…she can help you too.”

 

Ranma nodded. “If you're willing, we can talk about it. I do know that anger can rob you of control.”

 

They continued back to the Tendo home. There they availed themselves of hot water then went out to the Dojo to talk. Ranma started out, “I should tell you that I was willing to wait longer than the three days, but my dad wouldn't let me. He knocked me out and carried me off. He later said that he wasn't going to let me wait longer for someone who might not show.”

 

“'Might not show?' It may take me a while to get there, but I always show up for my duels.”

 

“Look, I knew about your sense of direction, so I was willing to wait. If I hadn't been I wouldn't have waited past the first day.”

 

Akane was looking in a book and read, “In the standard book of rules for martial arts duels, unless otherwise specified both combatants must show up within two hours of the agreed time or forfeit.”

 

“But…” started Ryoga.

 

Ranma interrupted, “I wanted a friend. If I'd left after the first day you'd have got mad and any chance I had of getting on your good side would be out the window.”

 

“You wanted to be my friend?”

 

Akane put in, “I don't know if you've noticed it, but Ranma's a pretty friendly guy. He acts like a jerk when his father is around, but it is just an act.”

 

“I guess I was too angry to notice.”

 

“So tell us about China.”

 

“I caught a ride on a freighter and worked for my passage. When I got to port I asked around and found someone who had seen you and your father. A guy working for a trucking company was going that way so he gave me a ride.”

 

“In the next town they had seen you as well. That was sort of the pattern for a while. I would find out you had been to a town and they would tell me that I had missed you by a week or more. I always got rides whenever I could because that helped to cut down on the problems from my bad sense of direction.”

 

Ranma nodded. “We walked the whole time. It was supposed to be better training. We also stopped at dojos, temples and shrines to learn anything we could. Besides martial arts I read scrolls and learned everything I could from the monks, priests and such. I also did a few odd jobs finding lost things and making us some money. The fact that we dawdled so much makes me think that the lead we had on you was shrinking.”

 

“That's right. It started out where they said it had been almost two weeks, then one week, then days and so on. I wasn't always closing the gap. I did still get lost at times and the gap widened. Finally I got to one place where I was told that you were only hours ahead of me. The next place I went was to Jusenkyo.

 

“It was when I was on the cliff looking over the valley that it happened. I could hear a girl's voice screaming insults and threats. The next thing I knew a panda ran past me. I must have moved into the path because someone shoved me aside, yelling `outta the way!' I lost my balance, tripped over a rock and fell off the cliff and into the same pool you must have fallen in.”

 

At that moment the dojo door opened and a panda could be seen standing there. He flashed a sign that asked, “Did Soun come in here?”

 

“Sorry Pop, I didn't see him.”

 

The sign flipped and it read, “I wonder where he went.” It flipped again and the sign read, “Sorry if I was interrupting anything.”

The Lost boy looked angry. “That girl that pushed me was you. I didn't get a good look at her.”

 

“Remember, same curse.”

 

The boy with the bandanna just said, “Augh!”

 

Ranma was concentrating and said, “I remember that now. You weren't that close to the edge of the cliff. A martial artist of your skill should have recovered from that push before going over the edge.”

 

“I was distracted by the sight of a girl chasing a panda. It's not something you see all that often.”

 

The pigtailed boy nodded. “Ok, I'll concede the point. Let's split the blame. Part of the blame goes to me for pushing you (I was so mad at the panda I really wasn't looking) and you for tripping and falling off a cliff. In this case I guess you should be grateful you had water to soften your landing. A fall onto hard ground from that high cliff could have hurt you badly.”

 

Akane asked, “Sorry if this is probing a sensitive spot, but what about your directional problem. Have you tried using a compass?”

 

“Do you have one?”

 

Ranma went into the house and got his compass from his pack. When he got back to the dojo he flipped open the case and handed it to Ryoga. The lost boy set the compass on his palm and held it out and directed the others to, “Look.”

 

While they watched the needle of the compass rotated in a lazy circle. It would not settle on any one direction. Ryoga explained, “Any compass will do this if I get within two meters of it. When I was on that freighter I had to stay away from the pilot house or they couldn't navigate.”

 

“Have you tried one of those GPS things?”

 

He sighed. “I hitched a ride with a guy once who had one in his car. It blew up.”

 

“Blew up?”

 

“Maybe more like melted down. It started showing random maps, slow at first then faster until a spark came out of it and the screen went dark. It smelled burnt. Some time later a nice lady gave me a pocket model of one those and it did the same thing. I got a small burn off it. I felt bad because I know those GPS things are not cheap.”

 

Ranma considered this for a while. “Maybe you are going to need to start treating it like a handicap, the way some people are with blindness or deafness.”

 

“What! I am not blind.”

 

“I'm not saying you are, but when it comes to finding your way around you have a problem that is almost that bad. Some blind people get a dog to help them get around, maybe you could do something like that too.”

 

“No! It's not like that. I can get to where I need to. I'll prove it!”

 

Ryoga stood and, grabbing his pack exited the dojo. Ranma and Akane followed him and had to stop him and redirect him to where he finally found the gate. He refused any more help than that.

 

Akane shook her head. “Will we ever see him again?”

 

“I don't know, maybe. I was also going to suggest that maybe he just needs to use some kind of buddy system. You know, if he needs to go somewhere he should find someone who is going there too and follow them. From what he's been saying it looks like that's the only kind of thing that will work for him.”

 

“Crime Stoppers” Interlude #1

 

Ranma-chan was walking around the neighborhood at night. Being an early riser, she was often in bed fairly early but tonight she had a reason for being out late. The neighborhood watch had come to Mr. Tendo and asked for his help in catching a mugger who had been plaguing the area.

 

The mugger was preying on young women, beating them up and stealing their money. Descriptions said he was a tall, muscular man with dark hair and eyes and a scar on one cheek.

 

The fact that the man was going after young women made it look like Ranma would be the perfect bait for a trap. The red haired girl was beginning to wonder if that was true. It was near midnight and no man had done more than leer at her for hours. She was getting tired and thinking that the mugger wasn't going to show.

 

She was walking past the entrance to an alley when a man who was leaning against the wall straightened up and stepped toward her. “Hello, little girl. Should someone like you be out at this hour of the night? I hear there is a mugger who is beating up young girls.”

 

Hmm, this guy fit the description. She just said, “Nah, I'm not worried. I'm guessing he's left the area.”

 

“What makes you say that?”

 

“I had some business to take care of tonight and the mugger hasn't bothered me yet.”

 

The man looked Ranma up and down and asked, “Are you playing dress-up in your big brother's clothes?”

 

Oh, this guy was pressing all of her buttons. She embraced the soul of ice to remain calm. “What of it if I am?”

 

“Is wearing your big brother's clothes suppose to make you look tough and scare away the mugger?”

 

“Maybe. Maybe I have other reasons too.”

 

The man just shook his head. “You are such a pretty little thing, even with the boy's clothes. Maybe we can have some fun together.”

 

Increasing the power of the Soul of Ice to where it was chilling the air, Ranma put as much scorn as she could into her voice, “Thank you for the compliment on my looks, but you are not my type.”

 

The man raised an eyebrow. “Well, I need to take care of business before pleasure.” Out of his sleeve the man pulled a knife and ordered, “Step into the alley and give me all your money. If you don't I will cut up that pretty face of yours.”

 

The faintest trace of a smirk came to the girl's face. “If you don't find the boy's clothes intimidating, try this”

 

She moved into a defensive stance. The mugger seemed amused and said, “You don't seem to understand, little girl. I'm the one in control here.”

 

“You think that,” gesturing at the knife, “puts you in control? I think you need a dose of reality.”

 

At that point Ranma manifested her battle aura. As mentioned before, the flaring battle aura made the petite girl seem much larger and more intimidating. She ordered, “Now put that knife away before you hurt yourself. If you don't I'll have to take it away from you.” “I really hope you try to fight.”

 

The mugger didn't disappoint. He stepped forward and thrust with the knife. Ranma was now in full speed-mode and pushed the knife aside and landed fifty punches on the mugger.

 

Looking down at the unconscious mugger Ranma pulled a walkie talkie from stuff space. She gave her location and reported, “This is the bait. I got the guy. Call the cops to come get him. (Why couldn't we have come up with some cool code names?)”

 

A short while later a police car pulled up and a policeman got out. A name tag proclaimed this to be officer Takata.

 

Ranma introduced herself. “I'm Saotome Ranma with the Neighborhood Watch. This is your mugger. If you need me to testify in court I'm ready to do it. He's unconscious now because he tried to knife me and I took him down.”

 

The policemen gave mugger a cursory examination. “How many times did you hit him?”

 

Ranma gave a nervous chuckle. “It was 50 times. I can hit really fast.”

 

“You're a martial artist, aren't you?”

“Yeah. I've been training in martial arts for 10 years.”

 

The cop gave the girl an appraising look. “That would basically be most of your life, right?”

 

The girl nodded.

 

“I'm guessing you know ki techniques too.”

 

“Why would you think that?”

 

The cop gave the girl a “who do you think you're kidding” look. “The only way a human being can throw punches like you describe is with ki enhancement of their moves.”

 

Ranma produced a ki sphere and let the cop look at it. He said, “You are the first martial artist I've met who could do that. I hate to ask this of someone as young as you, but could the police call on you sometimes when we need someone of your talents?”

 

“Sure, I'd be willing to do that.”

 

Author's Note: Yes, Ryoga is OOC but his cursed form is much better than a pig. He hasn't really got as good a reason to be so angry or hold so big a grudge as in canon.

 

A word on my creative process: I first started out writing a few “scenes I'd like to see” for fun. After a while I realized that I had the core (middle) of a story. I decided to write a beginning to the story to explain how Ranma got to be like he was in that middle. I still haven't finished the end (but I'm working on it.) One reviewer complained that if Ranma's so smart it doesn't make sense that he's putting up with so much crap. To avoid giving spoilers I'm just going to say, “All will be revealed in time.”