Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Winds of Change ❯ Out of the fryingpan... ( Chapter 12 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Winds of Change

 

AN: I know I’ve been gone for a long while! Sorry ‘bout that. Life kinda happened. Ruskies and Ukrainians going crazy next door. I’ve been also busy relocating my mother to the western end of the country. Who knows what might come flying over the border.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Ranma ½ in any way I just like to play around in the sandpit created by Takahashi Sensei. I don’t make any money by writing this so keep your lawyers at bay!

 

Chapter 12: Out of the fryingpan...

 

Ranma stared. His head swirling with emotions. His attack. One of his best moves. A pride of his arsenal. One he had fully mastered long ago. He couldn’t fathom how he managed to botch it. Panicking, dread taking hold of him even more, he tried again. He focused the energy. He felt it! The surge or kii. He saw the glowing ball form. However, the colour was off. It was not blue but a sickly pale orange. It was also unstable. He focused more. The technique stabilised. At least it stopped flickering, the pre-mature explosion that almost happened didn’t come to be. He channelled more of his inner energies into it feeding the attack.

 

The shade of the attack turned green. Green, turned into a strange shade of pink. Or yellow... He couldn’t really tell. He focused more, his emotions running wild. It shifted again. This time it became white. The ball of life force flickered. The size of the sphere kept on shifting as he fought to maintain control. The boy took a deep breath. He knew he was good. He knew he could pull the attack off. He focused, he did his best to keep his emotion in check. The colour of the attack shifted once again. It became blue, although a bit darker than usual.

 

Kodachi smiled. She placed the blade of the dagger against Akane's skin. The other girl tried to pull away, but her body simply refused to cooperate. A shiver ran across Ranma. The colour of his attack shifted. It became red. A deep crimson red. It grew in size. Its surface changed. It seemed to shimmer. The power stored within. It almost escaped his control.

 

The boy knew there was no time. If he messed around too much the attack was sure to fail and blow right in his face. It was now or never. If he messed it up now. The consequences... He fired. The kii blast shot forward its power menacing. The strength it radiated. Immense. It travelled a few feet almost making it to Kodachi who couldn’t help but stare in awe and fear.

 

Before the attack could reach the girl something happened. Without any plausible explanation, the ball stopped. Its outer layer, if it could be called that, cracked. The energy within escaped in a brilliant yet harmless light-show. It was no more than a brilliant disco trick. A cold shiver ran across Ranma’s form. He felt as if a cold hand had reached up from the depths of hell itself and took hold of his heart. Complete and utter panic set in. "Touch either of them and I'll murder you!" he whispered in despair.

 

Kodachi stared back at him in confusion. "They are just simple commoners my lord!" she spoke sounding genuinely surprised. "They are a dime a dozen! I don’t see what the fuss is about killing a few."

 

The boy stiffened. The Kuno girl, something within her was truly broken. More than he would have believed possible. He had to put an end to this. He had to find a way to stop this and quick. His head was on a frantic search for anything that could help him. His mind was ablaze with swirling thoughts. Then he noticed it. The dust in the air. A large portion of it had burned away by his failed attack and was now nothing more than ash. A hopefully harmless ash. A plan was starting to form in his head. If he charged in now. If he was fast enough. Kodachi was not much of a close-range fighter. If he can get in and take the crazed gymnast down fast everything would be fine. Even with the Kuno’s vast wealth, attempted murder was not something she could just talk her way out of. Especially now that the authorities were starting to gain interest in the family’s antics.

 

The gymnast turned away from Ranma. Assured of her defence she looked directly into Akane’s eyes with a menacing grin on her face. "Time to die peasant!" he declared. The Tendo girl stared back with a grim expression. She refused to show any sign to fear. She stared back at her would-be killer with a stiff determination.

 

Ranma charged into the cloud. The moment his body came into contact with the poison he felt it. The numbing sensation, the general loss of feeling in his fingers. It was almost instant. Kodachi’s concoction was really something else.

 

The crazy gymnast turned to meet him in battle. She was smiling. "So, you finally acknowledge me as your one true love!" she said, her voice dreamy. "Finally, you and I will be united!" she continued as Ranma rained down strikes on her.

 

The martial artist fought his need to throw up. "Not in this lifetime!" he thought pushing himself harder. Several of his punches got through and hit the girl. But it was not enough. Each hit was accompanied by a puff of white. More poison released. The Kuno girl seemed to be virtually covered by the stuff from head to toe.

 

Ranma was surprised how quickly his ability to fight kept deteriorating. With each moment his strikes were getting more sloppy and he was in the cloud for less than ten seconds. His punches came in wide arcs that were all too easy to predict. On a normal day, the girl would have been easy for him. He knew he was more powerful and skilled than her. Mere seconds would have, should have, sufficed to put an end to it. Yet, here he was. Unable to take her down. The numb feeling in his limbs was increasing. It was obvious that this was not a fight he could win. Not here. Not like this. He had to get out no matter what.

 

He glanced at the girls on the ground. Even now they were struggling against the effects of the poison. Against the paralysis that had taken hold of them. The answer was obvious. Honour, pride and everything be dammed. There were things more important than winning.

 

Akane, Yuka. He had to get them out of here and run. The further the better. Ukyo and Elena were probably arguing somewhere close by. If he could find them. If they saw how Kodachi had bent the laws of the whole engagement debacle. They were sure to gang up on the gymnast. If not. It was still better than to fight this fight in a closed environment where the raven-haired maniac had the upper hand.

 

Yes, that was what he had to do.

 

He delivered another punch against Kodachi’s midsection. The force of the strike sent the girl flying into the wall behind her. Her leotard let out a generous amount of white powder. However, she remained standing. Another sign that he was losing. That he had to get out. Ranma fought to remain standing. The amount of poison in the air. It cast a strange haze across the school's corridor. The way the sunlight reflected off the particles. It had a surreal feeling to it. He felt weak. His balance felt off. There was a scent in the air. Like fresh-cut lilies. Sweet and alluring. To him, it felt like the smell of death.

 

Ranma staggered. He shook his head fighting off cobwebs in his mind. His thoughts were starting to feel sluggish. He knew he had to keep moving. He launched a feint, Kodachi dodged easily. It created the opening he needed to make his escape. He rushed to the girls, or rather stumbled. He grabbed Akane and hastily pulled her over his shoulder. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kodachi approach, looking for the dagger she had dropped sometime during the scuffle. There was no time to waste, he had to get out. He grabbed Yuka and cradled her form against his chest.

 

His legs were trembling. Not that he felt any of that. His entire body was now an empty weightless void to him. It was as if he was floating. Like a ghost. Without his expert balance he would have toppled over long ago. He knew he won't be able to stay standing for long. He knew he had to get out. Now! His only exit was the closed window on his right. It was that or nothing. The shards he could take. A few cuts were nothing compared to saving lives. He was ready to take the price. He would shield the girls from the shards on the way out. He jumped. Or at least he wanted to.

 

There was just one problem. His legs. They didn’t move. No matter how hard he willed them. He didn’t take off. He just stood still. Straining. Fighting to keep standing. To remain upright. Moments passed in utter silence. They felt like hours. He fought to stand. His legs, however. They simply collapsed. All he could do on the way down was to ensure that the girls, his girls, would remain unharmed. Then it was over. He was down. Out of the fight. Unable to do anything as his body froze up completely and utterly.

 

He heard Kodachi’s movements. He heard the clatter of the tanto blade as she picked it off the ground. It re-ignited his will to fight. Not that it made much of a difference. His body was unresponsive. He saw the crazed gymnast raise the weapon. "You are not going to hurt them!" he growled at Kodachi. Or at least he tried. He glared at her threateningly. As if that would stop the Kuno girl.

 

Where were his other suitors when he needed them for a change? Where was Shampoo? Where was Ukyo? Or Elena for that matter? The faint blare of horns and sirens reached his ear. By the sound of things, somebody in this home for clinical cases had finally gathered enough wits to call the authorities. Finally! All too late for his taste.

 

"I guess I'll remove you first witch!" remarked Kodachi as she raised her weapon glaring at Yuka and Akane. "Even if you barely pose a threat I can't have you sniffing around my man!" she remarked with a twisted grin. There was a panicked yelp. An attempt to scream for help. "Die!" yelled Kodachi as she swung down.

 

At that point, Ranma lost it. His world became a slow-motion. The tip of the blade. It became his world. All his attention was drawn to it. The blade. The maniac wielding it. His body straining. If he didn’t act now. The last thing he wanted was to become an unwilling witness to the murder of two girls he had become more than fond of. He strained he fought. His form twitched. A surge of power rushed across him.

 

He did not know how or why. His body reacted. Even without any feeling in his limbs he moved. He launched himself from the ground and at the Kuno girl with an almost animalistic howl. His fist shot up with his normal speed and precision. His punch flew straight at the crazed girl's lower jaw. All his qualms about hurting women were gone. He truly wanted to put harm to her. He wanted her down for the count and did not care about the consequences. He felt as if it was someone else delivering the blow, not him, yet he saw and willed it all.

 

The moment his strike connected. It was glorious! The gymnast’s head shot back. It was all the way human physiology would allow without permanent or lethal consequences. The hit was accompanied by a distinct fleshy boom, there was also a crunch. A single bloody tooth sailed across the air. The girl remained completely still for several long seconds. Then, slowly, painfully slowly, she started to fall.

 

The tanto slipped from her grasp. Ranma grabbed it mid-air not caring when the blade cut deep into his skin. "You will not hurt them!" he growled menacingly. "Nobody will hurt them!" he said his voice loud and booming as Kodachi’s unconscious form slumped onto the tiled floor and landed with a weak thump.

 

Ranma's breathing was ragged. He gasped for air as if he had run two marathons in a row while fighting a dozen powerful opponents on the way. His mind slowly but surely fought its way out of the haze and fog. He heard the distant sirens getting closer. Louder. He glanced out the window. The bunker complex dominating the school-yard remained still. In the distance, a tree sprang to life. It reached full adulthood in a matter of moments. There were a series of flashes. Explosions. Elena and Ukyo were at it again, tearing up the other end of the ward. A tornado sprung to life. Its unnatural origin was obvious. The technique, however. It was incomplete. The force behind it was lacking. The whirlwind died off rather quickly. The upward strike had been launched too early. Or the intended target knew when to pull back to get away from it.

 

Cologne would not have made sure to get it right. There was only one other person in the entire city who could have done it. Shampoo. The fight between Elena and Ukyo had just become a threesome. More chaos and destruction was certain. Ranma groaned he knew well who'll be the one to take the blame.

 

The first tinge of pain finally reached him making the boy wince. His adrenaline-based sedation was starting to wear off. He tightened his hold on the tanto applying pressure on the polished steel. The delicate weapon snapped in half. He hurled the broken thing away in a random direction happy with its destruction.

 

"This is insane!" he whispered. “All of it is insane!” he added with more force. He turned to the girls. Akane was still at it. Fighting to move. To overcome the iron grasp of her paralysis. There was no sign of her even thinking of giving up. She was going at it like some bull trying to break through a stone wall. Charging forward. Again and again. Refusing to give up. The girl was winning, slowly but surely overpowering the poison. It was that fierce determination in the Tendo heir that arose Ranma’s interest. The reason why he was impressed by the girl.

 

Yuka was the polar opposite. Now that the immediate danger was over she seemed to keep her calm. She took the ordeal with a placid determination. Her eyes, those chocolate orbs, they showed equal amounts of relief, gratitude. There was also something else in the girl's gaze. Trust. In him.

 

His thoughts were interrupted by a huge explosion. He glanced towards its most likely origin and frowned. The huge tree in the distance. The one that had just grown out of nowhere. The immense pine. It was tumbling towards the ground. The plume of smoke at its base telegraphing what had happened. An explosive charge. The majestic plant slammed against a nearby building with an echoing boom. It smashed the roof to smithereens. The blaring sirens appeared to be heading in the direction. Ranma groaned. Of course! The mass panic at a well-populated school was completely overlooked.

 

A feeling of anger sprang to life within him. His life, the madness it had become. The chaos. The multiple fiancé situation that just kept on going worse and worse. The roller-coaster ride of crazy enemies and challenges. There had to be an end to it. If this continued...

 

He glanced over to Kodachi. The girl was out cold. A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of her mouth. He guessed she won't be doing any talking anytime soon. Not with the jaw he had most probably cracked. In a way, she was worse than Saffron. The demigod might have been a nightmare, but at least he had reasons to act the way he did. This girl? She was bonkers. Crazy. She only cared about herself. He hoped the local medical ward had a nice room with soft insulation and sturdy walls reserved for her.

 

His attention moved to Akane and Yuka. "This can't go on anymore!" he thought as he moved to gather them up. He knew he had to get them out of here. Preferably before his adrenaline-induced resistance against Kodachi’s poison wore off. He gathered the girls up, muttering a sorry to Yuka as he placed her over his shoulder. This time it was Akane who ended up in his arms. He wanted them out of here.

 

The walk had been a silent one. "This has to stop!" he thought turning to the stairway. "What kind of a man am I?" he asked silently. "A man is supposed to be in control of his life!" he thought heading down. He almost laughed.

 

"Me and being in control..." Ranma scoffed at the idea. "Yeah, right!"

 

He paused at the bottom of the stairs and stared ahead. His thoughts lead him down on what could have so easily happened. Of what could have been if he didn’t manage to break free of the paralysis. A droplet of his own blood landed on the ground. The sound was barely noticeable compared to the explosions in the distance, yet it reached his attention. He looked down at the small speck on the ground. A second droplet landed mere moments later. The blood. It was his. But if things went only a bit differently. It would be Yuka's and Akane’s blood, not his.

 

There was another rumble. It came from closer but from another direction. He heard more sirens. A loud noise boomed. It was strange. Unlike anything he had heard before. Like something he had once heard while watching a cheesy sci-fi show on TV. A kind of a whoosh.

 

Before he could voice the thought he was interrupted by a crash. Something vaguely human with red hair came flying through the school's back door. At least partially through the back door. A chunk of the wall didn't survive the ordeal. The door itself had been shattered beyond the point of any possibility of repair.

 

The form flew passed by Ranma as he moved to avoid the splinters flying about. All the while the boy saw something strange, bizarre, through the new opening. There was now a large hole in the school fence. A gap that definitively hasn't been there earlier in the morning. In the gap there was this... this thing. This huge creature.

 

It was vaguely green… ish. It had immense bulging muscles. Skin filled with scars. Parts of its body were missing, replaced by machinery. Crude machinery. Its left hand ended up in just a stump. A stump that bore something akin to some-sort of an industrial cutting implement of the heavy kind. Ranma had seen many things, in his life. He had seen many weird things. He had seen crazy things. He had seen many insane things. He had seen many frightening things. This went immediately up into the top three of every category.

 

"What in the world..." he muttered in disbelief.

 

Before he could finish that thought a red blur raced past him and at the creature. Unlike before, he could get a better glimpse of the person. It was Katia, the allegedly German exchange student. And some extras. "Is that a tail?" he voiced aloud frozen in place. This day. It was turning out to be one of those.

 

The girl, the girl whose rumoured tail had now been clearly confirmed to him, hurled herself against the strange being with a furious howl. It sounded like something an angry lizard would emit. A lizard that had a raging wolf for an uncle.

 

Ranma just stared at the scene as the girl unleashed a volley of attacks. "What did you put into that stuff you leotard-wearing maniac!?" he wondered vary of the scene in front of him. He truly hoped it was all a hallucination.

 

The redhead landed strike after strike on whatever she was fighting with no real effect. The creature took the beating without even flinching. The force of her strikes was not the problem. Each impact she delivered was accompanied by a respectable boom or a crack. There was strength there. More than enough to reduce an average person to a bloody mess within a moment's notice.

 

"What the hell is that thing?" muttered Ranma again tightening his grip on his hold.

 

The creature suddenly made a move. It was fast, really fast. A calculated strike right at its red-haired adversary. The girl with extra limbs tried to dodge but it was hopeless. The retaliation was simply too sudden. It was too swift. She got hit smack in her midsection and was sent flying. She took roughly the same trajectory as before. The hole she had so involuntarily created earlier became just a bit bigger she tore off what was left of the door-frame. Her flight finally came to an end when she made contact with the school's interior wall where she slumped to the ground, groaning.

 

Ranma stared at her then quickly re-directed his attention to the monster standing outside. The thing lifted an arm. Nestled between the four fleshy fingers of the gigantic creature he saw something that made him go even paler than he already was. A gun, more like a cannon was aimed at him. From within the barrel he saw a glimmer of light. His inaction was immediately replaced by a hasty scramble for safety as the otherworldly bark of the weapon filled his ears.

 

The boy zig-zagged around like some three-legged insect dodging what appeared to be genuine laser-rifle rounds. All the way he was using his free arm to cradle the forms of Yuka and Akane against his chest in an attempt to shield them from the blasts. To say he was scared was an understatement. Martial arts techniques were fine with him, but weapon’s fire was something way out of his ballpark. Once around the corner, he collapsed into a wheezing mess on the ground. His clothes got a bit singed, but he didn't care. Yuka and Akane, his girls. They were safe and that was all that mattered.

 

Not even a moment later Katia collapsed next to him, her back against the wall. Ranma stared at her. His earlier suspicion now doubly confirmed. The girl had a long slender tail attached to her. He did not care about the extra appendage. There were more pressing matters at hand. Like the ten and something ton, gun-wielding beast outside.

 

"What is that thing!?" he yelled, screamed at the redhead doing his best to overpower the noise made by the gunshots.

 

"That..." said the tailed girl panting heavily. “That… I think your tongue would call it an ork!”

 

Ranma stared, his face blank.

 

“A what?” he asked not really familiar with the term.

 

“An ogre!” shouted the tailed woman.

 

“The hell is that?” Ranma yelled back screaming over the weapon fire which ceased halfway through his sentence. It was replaced by something that sounded vaguely like laughter.

 

Katia glanced around the corner. She pulled back almost instantly. A single round rushed by her side clipping a chunk out of the wall. She glanced at Ranma angrily. “Don’t you speak your own specie’s language?” she yelled angrily. “A monster! An abomination! A dammed disgrace to my people! A maniac who...” The girl visibly stiffened.

 

The relative safety provided by the school wall was shattered when all of it was brought down as a clawed strike smashed across the thick structure. Katia lunged for safety amidst the rain of shattered brick and concrete. Ranma followed on her heels making sure to protect his precious cargo. He kept close to the floor once more opting to crawl with his girls underneath him to shield them.

As the sounds of fighting resumed he risked a glance in the direction of the combat. It was just as uneven as before. Katia was whizzing around. Fast and powerful. Her movements were skilful, yet futile. That huge thing she was battling took it all. It was almost as if it enjoyed getting hit. He turned back to check in on his girls. At least he wanted to. He stopped for a second. His mind almost took a double take. Akane and Yuka? His girls? “I am not Kuno!” roared his inner self. He banged his head against the ground. At least he wanted to.

His forehead was stopped by something fluffy. Something more comfortable than the cold hard tile that was the school's floor. Two sets of something much, much softer. He stiffened and glanced up at two females. One a crimson of embarrassment. The other a crimson of anger.

 

His face was not even an inch from their chests. He knew what was coming.