Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Spring of Drowned Vampire Girl ❯ Shampoo... ( Chapter 8 )

Vampire Chapter Eight

 

Disclaimer: Characters of Ranma 1/2 are owned by somebody else.

Characters within the story will be acting out of character, this warning is to cover

any inconsistencies in character behavior in my story. And finally, this is my story, so the characters are perfectly within character while in it. If you want the characters to remain in character, read the manga.

 

One month had past since the trip to Hong Kong for Ranma and Nabiki had past and things had settled into a dependable pattern. Thanks to the liberal use of water proof soap, a good many potentially embarrassing situations had been avoided and a few deadly ones as well. But that hadn't prevented Ranma from getting into some unusual challenges and learning some unique martial arts.

 

Akane's new `dog' made a habit of coming and going when it wanted. It had made its position on Ranma clear the first night and Ranma had stayed clear of the animal since then. It had also seemed overly protective of Akane where Ranma was concerned. Ryoga also kept showing up from time to time, usually to start a fight with Ranma over something. The sight of Ryoga just appearing out of the furo had become a common one and no one seemed to have much to say on it, at least when he took his fight outside first.

 

Ranma and Nabiki had, much to the satisfaction of Akane, grown apart after the trip. While they still did things that marked them as a couple, it was notably subdued on Nabiki's part and she didn't spend as much time with Ranma as she did before. Ranma dealt with it the only way he knew how, by burying himself into his martial arts and now, thanks to Nabiki's influence, his schoolwork.

 

Ranma's tattoo did not escape notice, but after a few comments about it everybody just accepted it. Though it did tend to make Kasumi a little uncomfortable to see it.

 

The Water proof soap had been a continual issue with Genma, with him trying to steal it at every opportunity after he found out about it.

 

While crazy things still happened to and around Ranma, it was as if suddenly he could handle them better without the threat of a painful sunburn and an embarrassing situation looming over his shoulder with a splash of water. He still suffered from foot in mouth disease, but the medication for that seemed to be a stern look from Nabiki.

 

There was, briefly, a situation involving `P-chan' being called `Charlotte', but the thing about great big wolves is that they can look big and beautiful one second and big and deadly the next. No animal is cute when it is as big as you are and growling certain pain.

 

While things were starting to get settled for Ranma and family, events were about to shatter the peace…further…

 

888

 

“Damnit Pops, give me my soap!”

 

“Growf” ^Don't be greedy boy!^

 

“That's my last bar of soap, you overgrown rug!”

 

^It shames me that you hid such a thing from your father.^ flip ^My need is as great as yours.^

 

“Yeah, right!”

 

It was dusk, just between day and night, and Ranma was in his boxers with a towel over his shoulders ready to take a bath for the evening while the panda was running around with only a towel and a slim sliver of soap that had been given to Ranma during his trip to Hong Kong. Ranma had been careful about the application of the soap since then, but somehow after going through the three bars given to him, his father had found the last one and had stolen it for his own use.

 

With a mischievous look in his eyes, the panda slowed down until Ranma was just about on top of him when he jumped into the koi pond in the Tendo's backyard, drenching them both. It was still light enough with the suns light to give Ranma pause, enough of a pause for the Panda to escape. Ranma had fallen into a magical spring in Jusenkyo that turned him into a vampiric girl when hit with cold water. It was later revealed that as long as Ranma did not drink any blood then the sun's light would only be painful rather than deadly. However, the word painful shouldn't be confused with bearable. Ranma described it as being cooked over an open flame.

 

The curse had many hidden aspects to it, for one, Ranma was essentially cursed with two curses, one; to change into a girl and two; to become a vampire. While the girl part wasn't as bad as the vampiric part, it was still embarrassing at how much of a girl Ranma became. Where Ranma was ruggedly handsome, as handsome as someone could be at the age of sixteen, his vampiric girl form was exotically beautiful. With alabaster skin that was flawless in it's complexion, and an ageless look that refused to give any hints to his true age, Ranma's bright red hair completed the transformation from teenaged boy martial artist to super model.

 

The tattoo had proven that both bodies were Ranma's because despite the obvious differences between them, the tattoo remained where it was on both of them. The only real difference that the tattoo showed was that it shrank a little in his female form and darkened a bit, giving it a little more contrast between it and her alabaster skin.

 

One of the effects that sunlight had on Ranma's cursed form was a tendency to be dormant during the daylight hours, a survival trait in vampires he supposed. So it was mixed signals that Ranma received when he got wet right at dusk, falling down unconscious only to get up again after a couple of seconds.

 

“Damn it, pops.” Ranma's new voice sounded strange to him, he didn't like being this way, female, because of the way his father had brought him up. Being taught that girls were weak in everyway compared to a man and then having that lesson brought to question by becoming the demonstation model had not been a good experience for Ranma. Meeting Nabiki had only proved to him further that Pops had gotten something wrong in his assessment of the female race.

 

Ranma also didn't like being female because of the effect it had on the household he was living in with his pops. The Tendo's were as a whole accepting of Ranma and his father and their special conditions. While the family in general didn't know the full truth behind Ranma's vampiric curse, Nabiki, Ranma's fiancé did and accepted him for it. However, Akane, Nabiki's younger sister, also knew and wasn't so accepting, downright hostile would have been a more accurate description of her attitude towards Ranma.

 

For the past couple of months, Ranma had been using a special brand of soap that was water proof, it gave him limited protection against any errant water that would trigger the transformation. It had done wonders for the attitude of Akane who seemed to settle down as long as she didn't see any red hair, even to the point of talking to Ranma. While they weren't friends yet by any stretch of the imagination, she wasn't avoiding Ranma as much anymore either.

 

Wrapping the towel around his…or rather, her chest to hide her newly feminine breasts, something that Nabiki had insisted she do whenever the situation arose, Ranma headed back into the house to search for some hot water before Akane could see her and go back to her old ways.

 

P-chan, Akane's pet wolf, growled slightly at Ranma as she was about to enter the house. Akane had gotten the animal while Ranma and Nabiki were in Hong Kong, since then, P-chan had shown a distinct dislike for Ranma in either form, but especially his cursed form. Ranma felt that they had an understanding going on, he would leave the animal alone if it would do the same to him, so far there had been no misunderstandings.

 

Ranma's attention was grabbed by one of the walls of yard, it was cracking as something was pounding on it from the outside. Suddenly it bubbled out and exploded in debris as a perfectly round hold was made in the concrete. Stepping through the hole and rubble was a nightmare out of Ranma's worst memories.

 

“You I kill.” Came a singsong voice in bad Japanese that was thick with a heavy Chinese accent. A bombori, a circular piece of metal on a stick, was pointed at Ranma by a china girl of exceeding beauty, as long as the bloodlust she had was not directed at you.

 

The china girl wasted no time attacking Ranma. Ranma's skill in martial arts had been honed over the years to a high level and it was obvious who the better fighter was almost immediately.

 

“Shampoo, you…are…the…one…person…I…can't …deal…with.”

 

Ranma dodged every one of the girl's attacks before using the towel to blind the new enemy. When Shampoo cleared her vision of the offensive towel, Ranma was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Where Ranma go?” She demanded of the Tendo family who had watched the fight with interest.

 

Wordlessly they all pointed towards the hole in the wall where Shampoo had made her entrance. Shampoo was off and in pursuit of her prey as fast as her legs could propel her.

 

After a minute of waiting to see if she would return, Nabiki got up and walked towards the koi pond.

 

“She's gone Soatome, you can come up for air now.”

 

With a splash, Ranma rose out of the water and tredged over to the side where Nabiki was holding a towel for her to dry off with.

 

“Tell me, Soatome, is there going to be anybody that comes to visit us that doesn't want you dead?”

 

The dirty look Ranma shot Nabiki was somewhat ruined by the state of her hair and the water dribbling off her nose.

 

Kasumi came over and poured hot water from a tea kettle over Ranma, changing him back into a guy.

 

“Who was that, Ranma? An ex-girlfriend?” Kasumi asked innocently.

 

“That is not my girlfriend!” Ranma denied hotly while wrapping the towel around his waist, wet boxers left nothing to the imagination and Ranma didn't have to force any modesty about his male self.

 

“Well? Who was that? Even though we are all getting used to the idea of random people attacking you, you knew this girl. What did you call her? Shampoo?” Nabiki was showing her unnerving habit of being exceptionally observant and getting straight to the point.

 

“Whoa! Let me take a bath and get some clothes on and I'll tell you all about her.” Ranma exclaimed while moving towards the bathroom.

 

They let him go only to hear him yelling at his father, who came running down the stair and into the backyard in Panda form with suds covering his massive frame. The Panda's signs read of trickery and how he was deceived. Nabiki just asked if he had bothered to change into a man before using the soap.

 

888

 

“We met her just after Jusenkyo. It was rumored that her village may have had a cure for the springs, not that we ever had a chance to find out.” Ranma's glare at his still panda father could have killed.

 

“We got to her village just as they were they finishing up with a tournament, it was after dark so I was in my cursed form because we didn't have any hot water. Turns out the table full of food that Pops decided to eat from was the grand prize for the tournament and Shampoo was the winner.”

 

“Ahh, I see, she's out to kill because your father ate her prize.” Akane ventured.

 

“Not quite. She came over and demanded that the panda be killed and some other stuff for her honor and for eating her prize, so I challenged her for it.” Ranma got a faraway look in his eyes as he retold the story. “She was good, she was the village champion and everything, but I was better. Beat her in two seconds flat.”

 

“My aren't we modest.” Nabiki said mockingly.

 

“Anyway, the ref was declaring me the winner while everybody else was acting in shock that I beat their champ, when she got up and kissed me.”

 

“Ranma…” Nabiki's voice and look were filled with menace.

 

“Hey! She kissed me on the cheek and I was a girl! The guide freaks out and drags both me and pops out of the village screaming something about a kiss of death. Turns out that the entire village was Amazon, and they have a really weird honor system. If an outsider defeats them in combat, then the loser has to kill the victor to reclaim their honor. After that, we couldn't get rid of her, any time we stopped for any length of time she would show up and try to kill us…me.” Ranma shuddered at the memory of being hunted.

 

Nobody noticed the look that Akane gave her wolf, or that the wolf left during Ranma's explanation.

 

The next morning…

 

“Good morning, Ranma, you have guests.” Kasumi's said, again, innocently.

 

Sitting at the table were both Ryoga and Shampoo. Ranma's heart rate went through the roof at seeing shampoo, but Ryoga?

 

“Hey, Ranma, look who I ran into on my way over here, she said that she wanted to see you again…”

 

“Ranma?” Shampoo looked over at Ranma and scooted over a little closer, giving him a very thorough pat down and inspection. “Male.” She said dismissively when she was done.

 

“Hmmm…Do you think this is the first time she ever saw him as a guy?” Akane speculated.

 

“What possessed you to bring her here, lost boy? She's trying to kill me!” Ranma hissed into Ryoga's face.

“I don't think it's very wise to talk to me like that, especially when you're out of soap?” Ryoga sloshed his cup of cold water meaningfully.

 

“Hey now!” Ranma backed off from Ryoga in fear.

 

“I mean, she did come all this way to see a girl, we wouldn't want to disappoint her.”

 

The pair was interrupted by the introduction of a bonbori being thrust between them. The bonbori was caught by Akane, causing her to drop her own glass of water.

 

“Give me Ranma!” Shampoo growled out.

 

“That's what we're trying to…”

 

“You hide Ranma, you too…KILL!” Shampoo's bonbori started to swing their way towards Akane's head, only to be intercepted by Ranma's foot, snapping the weapon in half and sending the metal ball upward.

 

“No playing ball in the house!” Ranma roared.

 

The metal ball swung upward and fell back to earth making a single stop on the way down, connecting with Shampoo's head and bringing her down as well.

 

“Oh my.”

 

“…” Ranma was speechless.

 

“Defeated again. Poor girl.” Ryoga deadpanned.

 

“It was an accident!” Ranma gasped.

 

“Ranma, you're too modest, of course you defeated her” Kasumi dismissed.

 

^Knockout^

 

“No! I didn't mean to do it!” Ranma practically yelled.

 

“But this means that she'll be after the male Ranma too!” Akane worked out.

 

Shampoo woke up with a grimace on her face, her eyes fixed on the panicking Ranma. She growled as she got up and advanced on him.

 

“I didn't beat you! It was a fluke accident!” Ranma tried to ward off the advancing China girl.

 

“Be a Man…and Accept your Kiss!” Ryoga yelled, shoving Ranma into the girl's arms.

 

What happened next could only be described as a disappointment to both Ryoga and Akane and a major surprise to everybody present.

 

“You I love.” Shampoo said as she gave Ranma a passionate kiss.

 

Ranma couldn't handle this new development and ceased all higher brain functions and subsequently stopped struggling against Shampoo.

 

888

 

Nabiki's relationship with Ranma was of some concern to Nabiki. Ever since the morning that they had woken up together, naked, in bed, she had been intentionally cold towards him.

 

The reason for this was because she had surprised herself by actually starting to have feelings for him. She hadn't planned on that. Originally, she was only interested in him because of his curse. But as she spent more and more time with Ranma trying to learn more about it, she got to know him, and slowly he wormed his way into her heart.

 

She had an idea about what happened that night in Hong Kong, after arriving at the club, things just seemed to be a bit more clearer when in reference towards Ranma. Not to be with him had seemed wrong that night. When they got back to their room at Eve's, it was like she was doing precisely what she had wanted and just hadn't realized it. But then the morning after came and the clarity of the night before vanished as a hangover rushed in to take its place, and the full implications of what they had done began to sink into her pounding head.

 

For her own sake, she needed space.

 

While she couldn't just shut Ranma out of her life, she had distanced herself from Ranma as much as she could until she felt she could be ready to deal with the feelings that were holding her prisoner. It tore her up the first week to see the hurt look on Ranma's face as she cancelled study sessions and ate lunch away from him at school. But then he had stopped seeking her out and she tried to deal with what she was feeling.

 

She had come to a decision that night, with the introduction of yet another person interested in killing her fiancé, she had decided to have a nice long talk with Ranma about what had happened that night and where they stood with each other. Something that should have been done the first morning.

 

So it was with the intent of apologizing to Ranma for being a royal bitch to him for the past few weeks when she walked into the Shampoo kiss.

 

One thing can be said about Nabiki, she never jumped to conclusions without some solid evidence to guide her feet. Even though her first reaction to seeing Ranma in what first appeared to be a passionate embrace with the same Chinese girl that had been trying to kill him the night before was to feel a stab of betrayal, and to go into her professional mode that she used at school. Once she shunted all emotions for later, and looked at the scene again, she noted that all the passion was on the girl's side.

 

After a night of wild sex with Ranma, she knew what kind of kisser Ranma was. He didn't just stand there, he guided the tour.

 

So with Ice Queen persona fully in place, she proceeded to pull Ranma out of the grasp of Shampoo and tried to stare the girl down.

 

888

 

“Laws of the Amazons; in the event that a woman warrior is defeated by an outsider if her opponent is a woman she must give her the kiss of death and kill her!? However…if her opponent is a man she must make him her husband?”

 

“This can't be real, this must be some sick joke.”

 

“Sorry, Ranma, it's all right here.”

 

“ I can't deal with this. I'll be outside.”

 

888

 

Ranma was on the roof, trying to think of how to get out of this situation when he heard a noise behind him. Turning to look, he tensed up.

 

“Ryoga.”

 

“Ranma.”

 

“What was the big idea in bringing her here?”

 

“Such a cute girl, I just couldn't say no to the one thing she wanted most. Killing you!” The pail of water that Ranma missed seeing came flying at him, drenching him with cold water. For a split second, Ranma swore that he would make his father pay for stealing his last bit of waterproof soap.

 

Ranma dropped like a stone as his body shifted, unconscious. Ranma wasn't still and quiet for very long, however, as the sun broke from behind cloud cover and bathed Ranma and Ryoga in sunlight. Ranma's screams of pain shocked Ryoga as he watched the petite redhead's body squirm and twitch to get away from the light.

 

“So it's true.” Ryoga said to himself.

 

888

 

Akane's thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of Ranma's screams coming from outside. The sound had a quality that made Akane's teeth grate and hair stand on end. She hated that sound, because of what it represented. While Nabiki jumped up and ran outside, Akane stayed where she was and tried to ignore the howls of pain.

 

When Ranma had first arrived and beat her in a sparring match, Akane had felt betrayed that the girl she was befriending wasn't a girl at all. But then her screams started, only when Ranma was a girl in daylight did it happen, but they always made her feel horrible because she was secretly glad that she hurt.

 

That was before she overheard the conversation between Ranma, Nabiki, and Akira. Then it all made sense. Why Ranma went unconscious if he got wet during the day and screamed when in sunlight. Why Nabiki had taken an instant liking to him. His cursed form was a vampire.

 

Akane had solid thoughts on vampires, thanks to Nabiki's fascination with them when they were all younger. Nabiki had, before their mother died, been one of those gothic girls that were obsessed with vampires and black clothing. Nabiki would constantly scare Akane with false teeth and stories about how the vampires were coming to get her.

 

Ranma and his curse had only seemed to confirm all of her fears.

 

Things had been different since they had gotten back from their trip to Hong Kong. Ranma hadn't…screamed as much and Akane saw less of the thing that had come to represent some of her darkest fears, the redhead that had defeated her so easily the first night.

 

Finding Ryoga had done wonders for Akane's state of mind, having a wolf to protect her and share in her desire to get rid of Ranma settled her down and gave her a sense of security that had been missing.

 

Akane was eagerly waiting for some sound of that Chinese bimbo, hoping that she had capitalized on Ranma's sudden incapacity.

 

Akane had put some of her plans on hold for the past few weeks, but now that it was obvious that events like this were going to be a little more common place, she decided to move forward with them.

 

Thankfully, Ranma had stopped screaming. Akane got up slowly and went outside, looking for some purple hair.

 

888

 

Pain.

 

Her whole body was aflame as if she were being burned. She couldn't see, it was too bright and she was blinded by the light. For the briefest of moments she felt as if she were flying, but the pain drove all coherent thought from her. Her skin burned, her throat was raw, if she could have held on to a thought it would have been to wish that she could die.

 

Suddenly, the pain was gone and she was now a he. Ranma felt lost as disorientation prevented him from immediately figuring out what happened. He found himself being cradled in Nabiki's arms, his head in her lap and her tears falling on his face.

 

This was the first time since Hong Kong that Ranma had changed during the day. He had forgotten how painful it was and he grasped Nabiki like his life depended on it and started to cry at the memory of the pain and the thought of having to endure it again.

 

It was a tender moment between the two, their first since that morning, unfortunately, it couldn't last long, maybe long enough though. Just as Ranma started to calm down in Nabiki's arms, Nabiki released him and pushed away from Ranma as a bonbori flew through the air where she had been a few seconds before.

 

“Where Girl type Ranma?” Screeched Shampoo as she stood over Ranma. She looked at Nabiki with hard eyes. “You know where! Tell Shampoo now!”

 

Nabiki was still gasping air as she collected herself from just preventing an early funeral for herself. She pointed in a random direction over the wall just to get rid of the bitch.

 

“Stay away from Shampoo Airen or Shampoo will do same to you as Shampoo do to Girl Ranma.” And with that Shampoo jumped the wall and gave chase.

 

Nabiki's eyes hardened as Shampoo made her threat. Nobody ever threatened Nabiki Tendo and got away with it. Nobody ever took anything from Nabiki Tendo and got away with it. It was one thing to try and kill Ranma, that had become old hat and she knew he could take care of himself, it was quite another to threaten her.

 

“C'mon Ranma, we've got something to do before she gets back.”

 

After a few calls and a brainstorming session with Ranma later, they both felt that they were ready to face the Chinese huntress

 

888

 

The next morning, Nabiki went to go and wake up Ranma and found Shampoo snuggled up in bed with him. Nabiki pulled out her camera and snapped a few pictures. She looked at the window to see the sun still down so she got some water and poured it on the pair and started taking pictures of the chase that Shampoo gave Ranma.

 

Nabiki left school early and wasn't back until later that afternoon. She didn't come home alone.

 

With her were several government men and none of them looked happy. Spotting Shampoo latched onto Ranma's arm they moved forward and seized her.

 

“Shampoo, you are under arrest for entering this country illegally, attempted murder, possession of dangerous weaponry…” They had her cuffed and were dragging her out the door before she knew what was going on. Nabiki couldn't resist to tease her as they led her out.

 

“Too big an obstacle for you?”

 

Shampoo's foot came up and knocked the first government man down, she broke the handcuffs they had on her like nothing and then lunged for Nabiki, screaming murder.

 

Shampoo never got to her. The second agent pistol-whipped Shampoo across the back of her head, sending her down for the count. Nabiki breathed a sigh of relief.

 

After loading Shampoo up into a car and strapping her in, the first agent turned to Nabiki and thanked her for helping them catch her before she killed anybody. They left soon after promising to keep Nabiki informed on the case.

Nabiki then went inside and sat down as if there was nothing wrong. Everybody except Kasumi and Ranma was watching her like they expected an explanation.

 

When no explanation was forthcoming, Akane decided to come forward. “Nabiki? Why…? How…?”

 

“Nobody threatens me. It is amazing how quickly the Chinese Embassy will act when one of their citizens is about to start a war with another country.” Nabiki left it at that.

888

 

“You get one phone call.”

 

“Great Grandmother”

 

TBC…