Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Fighter's tournment ❯ AFTChXIII ( Chapter 13 )

Scene: with Mai and Andy

"In love with him?" Mai repeated Andy's words. "Andy, he and I were talking about the status of our shaky relationship. He pointed out several mistakes I made when I chased you. He was being so kind and helpful that I kissed him and the kiss turned into something more."

Andy could see the truth in Mai's words.

"Before the kiss could escalate even farther he stopped. He could sense my feelings were confused. Ranma could have taken advantage and we would have ended in bed with each other but he didn't."

Andy stayed silent.

"I don't know what my feelings are at the moment for Ranma but it could turn into love. Who knows?" Mai knew she had said enough. "Good night Andy."

With those three words Mai walked into the hotel and left Andy to his own thoughts.

Scene: Next day

"So where have you been last night?" asked Rock. He tore open a bag of sugar and poured it into his tea before drinking it.

Ranma paused in between bites of his large breakfast. "Just went out for dinner with a friend."

"Really?" Chae swallowed some pancakes before speaking again. "Did you have fun?"

"We actually spent more time talking about ourselves and our lives." Ranma bit into a piece of sausage.

Rock nodded. "I see." During their months of training, everybody shared some parts of their past with the rest of the team. From what Ranma told them about himself, they were glad that he found his way here and away from those problems back in Nerima.

Mignon spread some butter on a piece of toast. "So where did you go for dinner?"

Ranma told her and she smiled.

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The stadium gradually got filled to capacity as people came in to check out the last two matches of the first round. The first match of the day would be the Women's Team against the Psycho Soldiers Team.

King got selected as the first fighter for the Women's Team. She tightened her white gloves before getting into a comfortable battle stance. In the other corner... "Asamiya, Athena...Ikimasu!!" That should be self-explanatory.

As soon as the bell rung, Athena leapt into the air to start things off with her Phoenix Arrow move. King rolled past it and fired a projectile. "Venom Strike!!"

Athena tried to put up her Reflector move but the projectile hit her. King used this opportunity to continue her offensive. "Tornado Kick!!" The pop star quickly rolled backwards to avoid the two hits.

Before King could make another move, Athena called her striker. "Onegai!!" Bao hopped on the stage.

"Psycho Ball!!" He fired some energy from his palms that stunned King long enough for Athena to use her next move.

"Show Time!!!" She immediately went into her Psychic 9 move that she had been working on before, following a mental rhythm that she perfected prior to her minor 'accident'. After hitting King twice, each consecutive hit she made, she changed into an old costume from the year before. So it went from 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995 until 1994. When she reached the ninth hit, she launched into one of her three finishers and changed into an armored version of herself before slashing King three times with a sword.

King landed heavily on the ground...

King shook her and stood up. That new move of Athena's was devastating. The French fighter knew if the pop star got in another hit in she was done for. That is why she signaled for Chizuru to come in so she could heal up. Her teammates knew that she had taken a lot of damage.

Athena was very cautious concerning this woman. The pop star knew Chizuru was very powerful and skilled. Athena also knew if the priestess managed to confuse her she would be in deep trouble. Athena decided to take the offensive so Chizuru would not have time employing her illusions. Chizuru reacted by running off to one side leaving illusions of herself behind her.

'Damn. She shortened the time it usually takes to create her illusions and their more realistic.'

Her thoughts were broken off has the copies started to attack. Athena used her Reflector move to get rid of one of the illusions but as she did that she got hit in the sides as more illusions came from the sides. Athena tried to back off to get some breathing room but her opponent would not let her.

Athena knew her only chance was to locate the real Chizuru but she could not tell which one it was. Athena stiffened when she suddenly sensed Chizuru behind her.

On Chizuru's command all her illusions plus herself attacked Athena.

'Her control and skill using her illusions is incredible now.'

The idol was racked with pain as she dropped to the mat...

When the crowd saw their idol slam into the mat they could not decide if they wanted to cheer or boo for the victor. The crowd just mumbled as Athena was carried out on the stretcher. Before the medics could take her to the infirmary she woke up. She wasn't hurt that badly but was a little stiff.

She walked back to her team and watched as Kensou stepped into the ring to face off against the priestess. Both dropped in their stances and the fight began. Chizuru decided to stay in to get their second point and give more recovery time to King. Kensou wanted to end this as soon as possible because he knew that time was working against him as well as Chizuru.

"Choukyuu Dan!!!"

A blue orb was fired off by Kensou at Chizuru. Chizuru quickly sidestepped the attack and started making her illusions again. The blue orb was a warning that Kensou might have regained his powers back after losing them. Chizuru had no intention of being hit by his most damaging move.

The Senki Hakkei.

One of Chizuru's new tricks was to cover herself with an illusion of the area and make it look like she had disappeared. She had perfected this move during the training and now was the first time she has used it in battle. While Kensou was looking away from her she used her move and disappeared from sight within the ring. The only things that could be seen left in the ring were her illusions and Kensou.

With but a thought Chizuru sent her illusions attacking the young psychic warrior. Kensou was still trying to figure out which of the illusions was not an illusion but he couldn't. With no target Kensou could not even call in Bao for a striker attack. Like Athena he was getting pummeled by the illusions.

Chizuru realized she had bought enough time and decided to finish the fight. Another thought went out and Kensou was knocked to the mat unconscious.

Chizuru reappeared and once again was the victor.

Chizuru was hiding her weariness well but she knew Chin would overcome her in a battle so she called in the bouncy kunoichi. The priestess and Mai switched places.

Mai's brown eyes narrowed as she stared at the old man sleeping on the mat. She was remembering an incident that happened 5 months ago involving her and Master Jubei and this particular old man with her in the furo.

The fighters knew something was up when she slowly took of her kimono covering her revealing outfit. She didn't even pose. To them Mai was angry and all of the fighters (except one who recognized the 'old lecher must have been peeking and caused an incident when she was in the furo' anger) were puzzled to see the usually easygoing girl angry.

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"I wonder why Mai is so angry." Rock wondered. Almost all the other fighters heard the question and couldn't answer him. Except one.

"Chin probably caused an incident where he was trying do something in the furo when she was bathing and she wants justice." Ranma answered.

Yuri looked at the handsome man cross-eyed and asked. All of the fighters were also looking at the newcomer to the KOF tournament with strange looks. "How do you figure that Ranma?"

Ranma gave her a flat stare. "When you get hit into the female side of public bath houses or one at a home and there is a girl there often enough you recognize that type of feminine anger."

All of the fighters just shrugged as Yuri stared at her newest crush and started to watch the match.

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Chin woke up and gulped nervously when he recognized his opponent. As soon as the bell rang Mai started throwing one fan after another at the old man. The only thing he kept doing was dodge. When she he got him into position and off balance near her she covered herself in flames. Then launched herself at the perverted old man with her elbow in front of her.

"Chou Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi!!!!"

Mai saw her opponent go up in flames when she hammered him hard in the chin with her elbow. He fell to the ground and Mai was waiting for the old pervert to get up.

What she didn't know was that the flames she created around were a lot more powerful because of her focused anger. The referee walked over when the last fighter for The Psycho Warriors didn't get up and indicated that Mai had sealed the win for her team.

Instead of doing her 'Yo, Nippon Ichi!' win phrase she just nodded in satisfaction, picked up her kimono and put it on, and walked off the mat.

King whistled. "Wow. You really did a number on Chin with that move. What happened?"

Mai blinked. "What do you mean?"

Chizuru crossed her arms. "Don't try to deny anything. Your Chou Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi move was more intense than usual and the driving force behind that new strength...I'm guessing that it's anger."

Before Mai could protest, King spoke again. "Yeah. You didn't even do your usual poses and stuff. In fact, after you whooped Chin, you looked very satisfied in that you defeated him. I'm guessing that he ticked you off somehow. So spill the beans already. What did he do?"

"Don't ask. Just don't ask," replied the kunoichi.

"Well, I guess we should ask Mr. Chin what happened. As soon as he recovers," said Hinako.

"As soon as he recovers, I'll burn him with another Chou Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi!!" muttered Mai darkly.

"And unless you tell us why you want to burn him so badly, I'm afraid that we'll have to restrain you," stated Chizuru in a matter of fact tone.

Mai sighed. "I hate it when you get like this, Chizuru."

****************

"The match with the Kyokugen Team is in an hour. The Sakazakis and Robert Garcia can be pains to deal with. So we'll have to figure out who will act as striker and who will make up our roster for this round," said Billy.

Chae spoke next. "How do we determine who will act as striker? It should be the person with the attack that can be most efficient against the Kyokugen team."

"Well, over our training period, we all developed different striker moves for different teams so anyone of us is a sufficient candidate," noted Mignon.

Rock nodded. "Right. So in order to pick a striker, I ripped up four small pieces of paper and wrote striker on one of them. Whoever draws that piece will act as striker for the match."

"Sounds good," said Ranma.

Rock took off Billy's bandanna and placed four pieces of paper in it. He mixed up the pieces by shaking his bandanna a bit. Then each member drew a piece of paper. And the fighter who is stuck with striker duty is...

End of chapter.