[Ranma][Fanfic][Lime] Childhood of a Modern Dynasty - Chapter 22: Too Many Piggies in Nerima ======================================================================= Childhood of a Modern Dynasty Chapter 22: Too Many Piggies in Nerima Ranma 1/2 characters/situations created and copyright by Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty/Fuji/Viz - Used without permission Childhood of a Modern Dynasty series created, written, and copyright 1998-1999 by Jim Lazar An ongoing series set after the end of the Ranma 1/2 manga and anime. "Speech text in double quotes is spoken as Japanese." E-mail comments and/or criticisms to: jim [at] animeprime.com Make sure to check out my Modern Dynasty website for all released CMD stories, graphics files, and other information: http://www.animeprime/ff/md ======================================================================= >From the personal journal of James Davidson: October 7, 2057 I walked towards Akane's house with Hanaki. Since she didn't have any Task Force assignments this morning, I was glad to have her company. As we approached the house, I cleared my throat to break up the kiss that Akane and Sanma were in the middle of. Sanma looked over at me. "You really should get that cough looked at, James." He winked. "Very funny." I looked over at Akane. "Good morning." "Morning, James, Hanaki." She gestured at a chair near her. As I sat down, I noticed the koi pond was empty. "Why is the pond empty?" Akane smiled. "Don't want to take any chances with Sanma getting wet. He might like to live dangerously, but I prefer to keep him a man as long as possible." Sanma acted nonchalant. "Feh, I've told you not to worry about that, Sparky. I'll break my record this time." "What's your record?" I asked. "One hundred and twenty-eight days as one-hundred percent man!" Sanma thumped his chest. "Wow, that's a lot of sex." I smirked at Akane. Akane frowned. "Yes... but it was before I married Sanma." That's another foot tasting I've given myself. "I'm sorry... didn't mean to bring up a sad subject." "It's okay, I think I've gotten... what? Forty-seven days straight out of my man here once?" Sanma nodded his agreement to Akane's inquiry. "So what did you want to talk about today?" "Well, you and Shashiki covered Ranma and Sanma getting out of their respective Amazon entanglements. So what about telling me about what happened when they returned to Nerima?" A knowing grin appeared on Akane's face. "Well, they didn't exactly come back at the same time." She glared at Sanma, who gulped loudly. "Really? I'd have thought they would be in a rush to get back to you." "Yeah, me..." Akane was interrupted by an alarm going off followed by a voice calling out from one of the myriad of hidden speakers. "Matriarch, incoming avian headed directly toward your house. It's a big one." All around us, tactical holo-displays popped up. Three heads snapped upwards. My gaze was slightly behind theirs, but when I looked skyward, I saw a large, black shape shooting towards us. Fast. Very fast. Akane went into action without any hesitation. "Hanaki, protect your husband. Sanma, let's flank it." "Right!" Sanma took off running towards the south, while Akane scurried away from the house a dozen or so meters and took up an offensive posture with her hands held high. A chi ball flickered to life between her hands. As Akane took her position, I heard her shout out a rapid series of instructions to the unseen control personnel. "Control, have two teams approach from the north and south in case it gets by us. But get the children out of harm's way first." "Already working on that. All normal defense procedures initiated. Two teams... E.T.A. two point five minutes to your location." Hanaki pulled me into the house. "James, stay close to me and do exactly what I say." I nodded. "I will." Hanaki reached over and tapped the wooden wall beside us. A panel in the wall slid down and revealed a keyboard and other controls. Several tactical holo displays appeared around us. She keyed in a few commands and three video views of the attacking avian and a couple tactical maps appeared. "Damn..." "It's only one..." "One large avian can do a considerable amount of damage." The avian was like the others that I've seen pictures of. Unlike the 'ground variety' of Buyierfei, the avians were always visible. The most common theory about why that was revolved around the avians needing all their energy for flight and couldn't spare the energy to make themselves invisible like the other Buyierfei. What ever kept it visible, it was an ugly mass of black leathery skin. Its central body mass extended into two flat, leathery 'wings'. It looked a little like a stingray, but with two tails trailing behind it from the tips of the wings instead of a single one from the middle. One of the displays caught a shot of the huge maw that formed the creature's mouth. It was filled with dozens of tentacles lashing about as if seeking to devour everything in its path. At the moment, that path included my wife and me, so I sincerely hoped it was a vegetarian. "Um... shouldn't we be getting out of here? That thing is headed directly towards this house." Hanaki shook her head. "We'd be too exposed out in the open and the avians aren't too picky about their targets. Let my aunt and uncle take care of it. We'll be okay." I trusted Hanaki's judgment, but her voice did have a slight waver in it that showed she was worried. In the distance, I could see all sorts of activity from the compound. Large towers, which almost looked like castle turrets, rose at the edge of the Compound and the wall surrounding the Compound tripled in height. Maybe Imoki was right, the Compound was a fortress after all. Akane suddenly yelled out, "Moko Takabisha!!" and the large chi ball she had been generating shot into the sky. It was followed by another chi ball from Sanma, who I could just see in the distance. "Again!! I'll do a shift-blast this time!" Akane shouted and ran to a new position to avoid a large piece of leathery flesh that fell from the sky. I guess they must have winged it. Akane seemed to key something on her wristpad and then started generating a chi ball in front of her. "Understood!!" Sanma replied from his position. I strained my neck trying to see him or the enemy, but couldn't see either from my position. I must have stuck my neck out too far, because Hanaki pulled me back and hissed, "Keep back." I nodded, moved back a bit, and then looked back at Akane. I gasped when I saw the huge chi ball she was generating. It was several meters in diameter and totally obscured her form. Yohachi had told me a while ago that size doesn't matter, but I could almost feel the massive amounts of power in this chi ball. It was unlike anything else I've ever seen any of the task force members generate and it made my hair stand up straight. It might have been static electricity causing that... or sheer terror. It's hard to tell which at times like this. Suddenly, Akane released her ball into the sky and I saw her collapse to the ground. My first instinct was to run to help her, but Hanaki had a firm grip on my arm and was scanning the skies and the displays for signs of trouble. Two of the video displays were blank, possibly damaged. The third was panning across the sky, trying to locate the avian. Akane wearily rose on one knee and looked up. Instantly, her fatigue seemed to leave her and she snapped her head in our direction. "Out of the house... NOW!!" Hanaki didn't hesitate. She grabbed my hand and took off running for the open door to the porch, dragging me behind her. As we ran, I saw Akane and Sanma running towards us and blasting away at something behind us with smaller chi balls. I wasn't about to stop and look to see what it was. I wasn't eager enough to know to risk my life over it. "Get down!!" Akane yelled. Hanaki and I hit the deck as two medium-sized chi balls shot over us. I looked back just in time to see the chi balls impact the large avian, which already looked badly wounded even before they hit. After they hit, the creature screamed a horrible grating sound that will probably haunt me until I die. Parts of its wings and body fell off and impacted the ground around us. After it expelled one last warbling grunt, the central mass of the creature dropped out of the sky and crashed onto Akane's house. "Shield!" I didn't know what Sanma's shocked cry meant, but Hanaki did. "Wrap your arms around me!" She slipped in front of me and folded her arms around her chest. "Quickly!!" As I wrapped my arms tightly around my wife, a misty green aura formed around us. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Akane and Sanma had taken up similar postures, except separately. And then the shock wave hit. Debris flew everywhere as a wall of pure energy erupted from the location where Akane's house used to stand. I had a feeling that whatever Hanaki was doing was keeping me from feeling the full force of the blast, since I could feel something pushing us backwards, but we weren't being tossed around like the shrubs and trees around us. After almost a minute or so of this, the force pushing us disappeared and the green haze died down. A gentle breeze caressed my face once again. "Are you okay, Hanaki?" I grew a little worried after Hanaki didn't respond right away, but then I saw her head rise from her chest. "Yes... just... a little tired." I helped her up and looked around. Akane's house was half gone. It must have been built very solidly to even partially survive that huge blast. The steel girders that were visible were bent in all sorts of directions. Considering that Akane's house looked like a rather typical Japanese wooden house, the use of steel beams in its construction indicated it was built to stand up to a lot of abuse. Of course, everything has its limits and this time the house lost against the large avian. Not that the avian was in any condition to gloat over its destruction of the house. It was in even smaller pieces than the house was. And those pieces were already starting to dissolve into a fine black powder. The force of the blast had ripped most of the trees and shrubs out of the ground and even the heavily fortified main dojo looked to have taken some damage. Normally you wouldn't be able to see it from where we were standing, but with the newly created hole in Akane's house, you could now. I looked around to see Akane run up to me. "Are you both okay?" "Yes." "Thanks to my wife... what was that green mist?" "Chi shield... helps deflect chi attacks and withstand the worst of nearby explosions," Akane quickly explained. "Handy technique." Akane smirked. "Yes, most of us wouldn't be here if we hadn't developed it." "Looks like your house got the worse of it." Akane sighed and nodded her agreement to my observation. "Yes, but it isn't the first time my house has been destroyed over the years." I nodded my understanding. "And probably not the last." Akane frowned and she looked around. "Sanma?" I realized I hadn't seen him since the blast. We all looked around for him. "Oh my." Hanaki suddenly gasped. I followed her gaze to a little potbellied pig that was pulling itself out of the nearby stream. It shook itself dry and then started walking towards us with a very angry look on its snout. "Well, nine days isn't that bad, honey." Akane picked up the pig and kissed it on its snout. As she stroked it, I noticed a red swirl pattern that ran down the pig's back. "Huh?" "James, do I really need to introduce you to my husband again?" I looked down at the pig. "Sanma?" The pig grunted in disgust. -C- -M- -D- October 8, 2057 After the dust settled yesterday, the repair crews descended on the debris as soon as we made sure that everyone in the Compound was okay. They immediately went to work cleaning up and repairing the damage caused by the Buyierfei attack. It looked like they were used to making repairs to the Compound, but that really didn't surprise me considering their history. Unfortunately, Akane's house was almost a total loss and it would probably take a while to rebuild. The up side of this was that I now found her as my neighbor, which would at least make it easy to conduct my interviews for the next few weeks. The down side of that is that they kept banging on my wall last night when Hanaki and me were... Anyway... we invited Akane over for breakfast this morning. I don't think Sanma was amused at the bowl of vegetables Hanaki prepared for him. "But, Uncle, you have to eat your veggies to grow up big and strong." Hanaki smiled. Sanma, who was still a pig of course, snorted and looked at his wife and let out a few short squeals. Akane nodded and reached into the bag she had brought along with her. "Don't tell me you understood him?" I asked. Akane shook her head. "Not exactly, but I've gotten used to the different sounds and I can kind of figure out what he wants by the tone and duration." "So what was that one about?" "He wants his keyboard." I frowned. "Keyboard?" Akane finished pulling out the object from her bag. "This." She set it down in front of the pig and hit a power switch on it. Sanma immediately started to hit various keys on it. It did look like a keyboard, but had larger keys than normal and were arranged in a half circle. It wasn't a kanji keyboard or even an English keyboard. The symbols were unfamiliar to me and it had about half as many keys as a standard keyboard. "What's that for?" "It's so I can tell your wife that I don't like vegetables. I'll have the same miso soup you're all having. Please." My jaw dropped at hearing Sanma's female voice. I looked around to find the source of the voice, but couldn't. "Who said that?" The pig clicked a few keys. "Me." "Sanma?" The pig nodded. Akane smiled. "It's his keyboard, since he'll be a pig for at least a few days. A long time ago, we had to devise a way to communicate while he was in one of his animal forms. This is one of those ways." "Convenient. The voice sounds perfect." "Almost perfect. I can tell the difference between his real voice and the artificial one generated by the keyboard." "So why a female voice?" Sanma answered via his keyboard. "You spend enough time as a woman, you kind of get used to the sound of your voice. My male voice sounds a little strange to me after spending so much time as a woman. Not that I don't enjoy the times I get to spend as a man, but... you know." I nodded my understanding. Hanaki put down a big bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice next to Sanma. "There you go, Uncle." More hooves on keys. "Thank you." I leaned over to Akane and whispered to her. "Is it my imagination or is Sanma more polite as a pig?" Akane grinned. "The keyboard is programmed to be polite. The Rei's added that 'feature', much to Sanma's chagrin, the last time he cycled through his blessings." I chuckled and tried not to burst out laughing. It wasn't easy. Sanma tapped some more keys. "By the way, Hanaki, that vegetable joke is getting a little old." Hanaki smiled and knelt down at the table. Akane let out a laugh. "You should have heard all the jokes about Mousse's name back in my day." "Worse than my failed Shampoo pun?" "Much worse." *********************************************************************** July 1-9, 1999 - Nerima, Japan "I can see the head!!" "Gross!" "Here it comes... it's a boy!!" "It's so cute!!" "Ah, there's the next one!" "Twins?" "Well duh, Ranko. Of course there is going to be more than one baby." "Well, how the hell would I know that, Nabiki?" "You know, you really need to pay more attention in school." Akane put a small wrapped bundle into Ranko arms. "Here take this already, I've got to help Kasumi with the next one." Ranko frowned. "Next one? Triplets?" Akane rolled her eyes. "Five to six is normal." "What?!" Ranko frowned and looked at the little bundle in her arms. The two little newborn piglets squirmed around in the towel. "They kind of look like Ryoga." Akane handed another piglet to Ranko. "I doubt very much Ryoga is the father, he's not that kind of a man." "Don't you mean 'that kind of a pig'?" Ranko remarked, grinning slyly. "No, I don't. Here's number three and four." Ranko looked down at the piglets in her arms. "It sounds like you've forgiven Ryoga." Akane nodded while handing over one more piglet. "Yup. I guess I can't hold a grudge forever." She suddenly gave Ranko a very scolding look. "Otherwise, I'd have never married you, would I?." Ranko smirked. "True. And it's a good thing mallet blows don't really hurt me... or I'd be dead." Akane stuck her tongue out at Ranko. Kasumi finished with her work and looked up. "That's all. Just five. We'd..." Ranko interrupted her. "Just? I hope I don't end up having five babies!" She started to absently prod the piglets with one of her fingers. Kasumi smiled. "I doubt that. Unless one is hiding from the ultrasounds, your baby is all alone in there." She gently patted Ranko's stomach, which clearly showed that she was six months pregnant. "I hope so... Ouch!!!" Ranko screamed when one of the piglets attached itself to her finger. "Get it off!" Kasumi and Akane helped get the piglet off Ranko's finger and then laid all five of them next to the mother. Ranko rubbed her sore finger. "Damn, they sure bite like Ryoga." Kasumi smiled. "Ranko, they don't even have any teeth yet." "It still hurt," Ranko muttered and looked down at the newborn piglets, which were sucking away on P-chan's engorged teets. "Gross." Akane smiled. "Not to long until YOU'LL be breast feeding too, Honey." "No way!!" -C- -M- -D- "Would you like some Outback Fries with that?" "Kang?" Ukyo gasped. Kang looked behind the customer he was serving. "Ukyo?" He quickly did his best to hide his uniform using a serving tray. The uniform for the burger joint he was working at was styled after the clothes worn by Crocodile Dundee. In short, it looked pretty much like what Kang normally wore. Not that Kang would ever admit he usually dressed like a stereotypical Australian, of course. And therein lay the source of his embarrassment. "Kang, I didn't know you were still in Japan! You should have come over." Kang quickly took care of his current customer and then answered Ukyo. "Um... yeah... well I decided to stick around for a bit. Got a job here... err... to just earn a little extra spending money." He didn't want to tell her that he was flat broke and trying to scrape up enough money to get home. Besides, there were a lot of cute girls around for him to try to date. Key word was 'try', he hadn't been having much luck yet in that department. "Oh, I could have given you a job at my restaurant." Kang frowned. "I don't think your boyfriend would like that." Ukyo sighed. "No, probably not. At least come over sometime and we can talk. We are still friends, after all." Kang smiled slightly. "If you're sure your boyfriend won't mind... Okay, thanks, I'll do that. Why are you here, anyway?" Ukyo blushed and looked around awkwardly. "I'm sort of... checking out the new competition." Kang nodded his understanding. The restaurant Kang was working in had just opened. Or reopened. It used to be a greasy burger joint, but had reopened with an Australian themed menu--although the burgers were still greasy. Needless to say, Kang fit in extremely well there. Not that he was greasy, mind you, just that he was born and raised in Australia. That didn't keep him from getting sick of saying "G'day mate" in English to every customer. Kang leaned forward and whispered to Ukyo. "Don't worry, the food is no where near good enough to pose any real competition to your okonomiyaki." Ukyo smiled. "Thanks, Kang. Um... just give me what ever is most popular so I can check it out for myself." "One Kangaroo Burger and Outback Fries coming up." He noticed Ukyo grimace suddenly. "Don't worry, it's not real kangaroo." Ukyo relaxed. "Thank goodness." "Kangaroo meat is too tough and tastes kind of bland." Ukyo's face went pale. "Err... wasn't your mother raised by Kangaroos?" "Just kidding about the meat." Kang winked. -C- -M- -D- That night, Ryoga was by himself trying to control the chi blast he had managed to form during the battle in the Amazon village. Before leaving the village, he had talked to Ranma about the blast. Ranma believed it was related to the Moko Takabisha, but also seemed a little more like the Aikizuna Mokoutsu technique Akane had developed, since it had traces of red sparks in the blue beam. He stood on the roof of Ucchan's and held out his hands. He concentrated on Ukyo and his love for her, causing a small chi ball to form. He concentrated harder, but the ball wouldn't grow or produce a beam. Reluctantly, he let his focus shift and the ball suddenly filled with a tremendous amount of energy. He was both surprised and horrified when his theory was confirmed. With one last push with his mind, he sent a beam of pure energy screaming into the night. "Wow." Ryoga looked back and flinched. "Ukyo! Hi.... um... I wasn't doing nothin'!" Worried that Ukyo could read his mind, he quickly erased all other thoughts out of his mind. He should have been more concerned about wiping the guilty look off his face. "Relax, my sweet piggy, I just wanted to see what you're up to." Ukyo wrapped her arms around and gave him a long kiss. Ryoga smiled after the kiss broke. "Just practicing that blast I discovered during the battle... it's easier to form than the Shishi Houkou Dan... not as depressing either." He chuckled nervously. Ukyo smiled. "Good, I like it when you're not depressed. Want to go for a training walk before bedtime?" Ryoga nodded, took Ukyo's hand, and walked towards the stairs. -C- -M- -D- "Where are we now?" Ukyo asked, not for the first time since she started dating Ryoga. Ryoga looked around. "Paris?" He motioned towards the spotlight-lit Eiffel Tower. "Nope, that's Tokyo Tower." Ukyo smiled and slapped Ryoga on the back. "Way to go, Pig-boy, you kept us inside Tokyo this time." Ryoga grimaced. "Ukyo, could you please stop calling me that?" "Calling you what?" "Pig-boy." Ukyo smiled and looked into Ryoga's eyes. "Awwwww, it's just a pet name." "I am not a PET!!" Ryoga screamed and hit the wall beside him with his fist. Unfortunately, he hit a water pipe and was suddenly sprayed with cold water. "Bweeeeee!" Ukyo looked down at her boyfriend, who was struggling out of his clothes. "I'm sorry, Ryoga." She bent over, picked up the pig, and collected his clothes at the same time. "I didn't know you were that touchy about it." She gave the pig a kiss on his snout, earning some stares from some passing tourists. -C- -M- -D- The next day, Sanma walked up to the door of the Tendo house carrying a bouquet of roses in his hand. He had been a little surprised to see the new fence and Amazon warriors surrounding the house, but fortunately they recognized him and let him pass. Of course, they thought he was Ranma. He shrugged and decided it wasn't important. Sanma took a deep breath. He reached up to knock on the door, but paused when he felt something on his hand. He shrugged and knocked on the door. After feeling the drops again, he looked up into the sky just before the rain started pouring down on him through the holes in the little awning covering the steps. Sanma suddenly found that he was shorter than he had been. He looked around and wondered what happened. He looked down at his body, only to see a black pot belly. And hooves. "Bweeee?" His eyes went wide at the sound of his squeal, which should have been his voice. As he crawled out of his clothes, he ended up pushing them and the roses off the side of the steps. Before Sanma could figure out what had happened, Kasumi opened the door and looked around. "Hmmm? No one here?" Just before she was going to close the door, an insistent "Bweeeee!" was heard. She looked down to see a little pot-bellied pig on the stoop. It had a red pattern on its back and seemed to be confused and upset. "Ryoga? No... the markings are different." Suddenly, a smile grew on Kasumi's face. "I know who you are." She bent down to pick up the pig. Sanma was shocked and confused at what was happening, so he figured he'd be better off letting Kasumi take him inside. He tried to figure out if that was better or worse than being a girl full time, but couldn't decide. Kasumi didn't notice the clothes and roses as she walked back inside the house with the pig in her arms. "Have to dry you off before you catch cold." -C- -M- -D- Kasumi walked into the family room carrying a wet pig in a blanket. "Guess who I found on the doorstep?" Akane looked up and saw the pig. "Ryoga?" Ranko looked closely at the pig. "No, the markings are different." Akane took the pig from Kasumi and looked at it. Instead of yellow dots, it had several red swirl patterns running down its back. Suddenly, she gasped. "Maybe he's the father?" She held up the pig and confirmed its sex. "See?" The pig squirmed a little. Akane tried not to blush. Kasumi nodded. "That's what I guessed, too." "Ha! Come to see your new family, huh, piggy?" Ranko chuckled, and reached for the pig, who snapped at her fingers. "What is it about pigs and my fingers?" Sanma couldn't believe this was happening to him. He tried to think of some way to let them know who he was. But while he was clutched in Akane's bosom, there wasn't much he could do. Sanma snuggled in a bit, relishing the scent and feeling of being close to Akane. It was a feeling he had missed desperately over the past couple of months. Akane cradled the new pig in her bosom, stood up, and walked to the little storeroom under the stairs where the mother and piglets were. She slid the door open and approached the cardboard box where P-chan was feeding her babies. Ranko and Kasumi looked in behind her. Akane showed the pig the babies. "See, you're the proud father of five beautiful babies." "Aren't we getting a few too many pigs around here lately?" Ranko wryly commented. "Who's a pig!!" They all looked over to see Ryoga and Ukyo in the doorway. Ranko smirked. "Well, you are. But relax, Ryoga, you're off the hook. The father of P-chan's babies just showed up." She gestured towards the pig. Ryoga took a look at the pig. "Hmmmm, never saw him around here before. He's not one of the local pigs." "He's so cute! Can I hold him?" Ukyo said and reached for the pig. "Sure." Akane handed the pig over. Ukyo took the pig and hugged him tightly. "What a cutiepie!" "You have a pig-fetish, Ukyo?" Ranko remarked. Ukyo blushed. "No, he's just so cute." "Well, just dump Ryoga and he's all yours." Ukyo flinched. "Ranko!!" She awkwardly handed the pig back to Akane. "What's its name?" Akane frowned. "No idea, he just showed up. Hmmmm, how about S-chan?" "S-chan?" Ranko asked, confused by the choice. "Yes, S for STUD." Akane smiled broadly. Ukyo burst out laughing. "Well, he did get P-chan pregnant, the little stud!" Ryoga and Ranko looked at each other and shrugged. "Must be a girl thing," Ranko commented. -C- -M- -D- That night, Ranko walked into their room and stopped at the sight that greeted her. "What's with the pig?" Akane stroked S-chan, who was curled up on her chest. "Well, he doesn't seem to want to sleep with his girlfriend and the babies, so he'll be staying in here. He has been acting so cute all day, doing little dances and acting like he can write... just such a cutie pie." She gave the pig a quick kiss on his snout. A warm feeling rushed through Sanma's body. "Hmmm, I'd kind of gotten used to sleeping with you alone." Ranko meant without P-chan, since the pig had been sleeping alone since she became very heavy during the pregnancy. Unfortunately, Sanma took it to mean that Ranko liked not having to sleep with Ranma and himself in the bed. "Well, it won't be for long. Ami said she can help find some homes for all the spare pigs we've seem to have attracted." Akane gently stroked S-chan who was looking very content resting in Akane's bosom. Ranko slipped off her bra and sighed as she cupped her breasts in her hands. "Damn, these things are getting heavier every day." "Are you boasting about your breasts being bigger than mine?" Akane slyly asked. Ranko gasped. "No! I just meant that the weight is straining my back." "I know... I was just kidding. Now, stop fondling yourself and come and fondle me." "As soon as you lose the pig, I will." Ranko grinned. Akane smiled seductively and placed the pig on a pillow against the wall. S-chan looked on horrified at the scene that unfolded in front of him. -C- -M- -D- The next day, Akane finished undressing and was about to slide open the inner door when she heard some scratching on the outer door. "Yes?" There was a soft squeal in response. She held a towel over her body and peeked out the door. "S-chan!" She smiled and let the pig in before closing the door and going into the inner bath. The pig silently watched her wash up and while she slipped into the tub. She looked over at S-chan. "Hop in!" Akane smiled as the little pig made its way towards the hot water with a very determined look on its face. "You are so different than P-chan. He never tried to take a bath with me... oh, that was Ryoga back then. Silly me." S-chan made it to the rim of the tub and prepared to dive in. Akane held out her hands and called S-chan. "Come on, S-chan, come to mommy!" Sanma blushed at the sight of the woman he loved in front of him. The pig jumped into the hot water with Akane. Akane smothered S-chan between her breasts. "Oh, what a strong jump that was." Sanma was very confused. He liked the sensation of where he was being cradled, but he was still a pig. Tears started to flow from his eyes. "Awwww, is the water too hot?" Akane asked, noticing the tears. S-chan shook his head 'no', so Akane squeezed him into her bosom again. Although he was glad to be near Akane, despair at his fate slowly started to eat into Sanma. As Akane and her former fiance, now pet, soaked together, Sanma started to realize exactly why Ryoga had gotten a crush on Akane. -C- -M- -D- About a week later, a white duck strained at the bars on the steel cage he was in. He quacked loudly when a young shorthaired girl walked by. The duck squinted trying to make out the girl. The girl smiled. "Awwww, don't worry, Mr. Duck, the vet who is taking care of the hospital while the Doctor is away will be here shortly to do the operation that your owner asked for." The duck went pale, not a small feat for a white duck. The girl put some food in the duck's food dish and smiled. "Clipping your wings is a simple operation, so don't worry." The duck suddenly went paler than pale and almost became translucent. Ami turned around and went to feed the rest of the animals. The duck started desperately trying to get out of the cage. He started going through his feathers looking for something to escape with. He was amazed at all the junk he had accumulated. After a while of searching, he finally found something that he had forgotten he had and went to work on the cage's bars. Later, Ami walked back into the room and gasped when she saw the duck's cage. She rushed over and looked through the melted bars. "How did this happen?" She spied a little acetylene torch on the bottom of the cage. "Err... that's the first time that's happened. At least since I've been here." -C- -M- -D- The duck was wearing a pair of glasses he had found in one of his old hiding places as he flew through the pouring rain towards the Tendo house. Suddenly, he had to swerve to avoid the hail of arrows that were shot at him. The duck veered off and headed east towards Mon Canard. -C- -M- -D- Nabiki lay on top of Tomu and brushed the hair out of his eyes. "What are you thinking about?" Tomu smiled. "I was wondering when you are going to introduce me to your family." Nabiki's eyes widened in amazement. "I'm laying on top of you, naked, and that is what you're thinking about?" "Well, not all I'm thinking of." He winked. "Good. Why are you always asking about that anyway?" "Well, I just think it's time that I met the family of the woman I'm sleeping with." "Trust me, Tomu, my family is not exactly normal." "You don't really expect me to believe all those things you've told me, do you?" "Yes..." She kissed his lips. "I..." She nibbled his neck. "Do." She nibbled his chest. Tomu rolled over, pinned Nabiki under his body, and kissed her deeply. The kiss was interrupted when the window shattered and a very angry white duck swooped in and extended his wings. Held between the feathers of the wings were several small throwing knives. Tomu backpedaled against the far wall and looked at the duck with a mixture of shock and confusion. "What the..." Nabiki looked over at the duck and gasped. "Mousse, NO!!" "Moose? It's a duck, isn't it?" Tomu suddenly had to dodge a series of knives that were thrown at him. He managed to twist out of the way of all of them, including the one that embedded itself in the wall right between his legs. Since he was naked, it was a very close call indeed. Nabiki jumped up and put herself between Tomu and the duck. "Mousse, stop it!!" The duck started quacking angrily and readied another set of knives. "You made your choice! And I made mine!" She looked back at Tomu briefly. "I tried to tell you that Shampoo already had someone she loved, but you wouldn't listen... you just flew off into that bim... her arms!" The duck quacked once. "Don't give me that! I've had enough of you, my family, and all the craziness! I love Tomu, so leave!" The duck started to shake. "NOW!!" The duck suddenly produced a bouquet of roses from under one of his wings. Nabiki slapped them away. The duck produced a diamond ring. Nabiki paused briefly to look at the ring, but then slapped it away. The duck produced a Mercedes Benz 300SL. Nabiki was so stunned, she didn't even try to image where he could have hid that. "You can't buy my love!!" Mousse tossed the car out the large, broken window and started searching through his feathers for something else. A large crash was heard from outside. "Nabiki?" Nabiki looked back at Tomu. "Yes?" "What's the deal with the duck?" "That's my ex-boyfriend." She turned and glared at the duck. "Did you hear that, Mousse? My *EX*-boyfriend!" Tears came to the duck's eyes. Suddenly he took to the air and flew out the window. Nabiki ran to the window and looked at the receding duck. "He gave up a little too easy I think." She wiped the single tear that formed in her eye before turning around and rushing to Tomu's side. "Are you okay, Mousse?" "Err... it's Tomu." -C- -M- -D- "Now, Father, you promised," Kasumi said, helping Soun sit up near the family room table. She positioned him in the little chair that made it possible for him to sit up straight despite his paralysis. "I know... but why can't I wait to meet him until I can walk?" Soun replied irritably. "Because Nabiki wants you to meet her new boyfriend tonight. She said she had something important to talk about. Since she moved out, you've only seen each other a few times, so you should be glad she's coming over." "I am, but... it seems like I'm losing all my daughters at once." "Well, me and Akane are both still living in the house. And I won't be moving out until I get married." Soun looked up at his eldest daughter. "Has he asked you?" Kasumi blushed and nodded. "Yes, but we didn't want to say anything until we had decided when. Probably not until after I finish with college." Soun reached up and gave Kasumi a hug. "Congratulations, Kasumi. I hope you'll be happy together. He's a fine man." "Thanks, Father." Kasumi straightened Soun's shirt and then stood up. "Just don't be too hard on Tomu." -C- -M- -D- Sanma, in pig form, walked in the Tendo's garden and thought about the past week. Despite his best efforts, he had been unable to change forms. He tried all sorts of combinations. Hot water, cold water, alternate hot and cold water, luke-warm water, warm water, warm water that was not quite hot, and even frozen water. Spending an hour sitting on top of a solid box of ice was not very pleasant for Sanma, but not as unpleasant as being stuck as a pig. After being unable to become human again, Sanma found himself growing more and more concerned over the fact that Akane never mentioned him. Not once did he hear her ask about when either he or Ranma would be returning to Nerima. Not once. Not once in the week he'd been there. Sanma sighed. Which sounded more like a snort in his pig form. He had given up trying to get people to realize who he was shortly after he found that he was stuck in his pig form. It wasn't until he had unknowingly walked several blocks away from the house that he realized he had made his decision. -C- -M- -D- "What a fine lad you are, Tomu," Soun said as dinner drew to a close. "Thank you, Mr. Tendo," Tomu said, bowing slightly. "Your daughter speaks highly of you too." Soun looked at Nabiki briefly, a little amazed that his middle daughter would praise him at all. Tomu looked at Ranko. "So, when are you due, Ranko?" Ranko blushed. "Err.. October." Genma laughed. "Yes, my son here will give us a nice strong grandson!" Nodoka put a hand on her husband to calm him down. "It could be a girl, dear." "Ha! No son of mine will give birth to a girl!!" "You tell them, Pop!" Ranko agreed. "Son?" Tomu asked. Nabiki leaned over and whispered to Tomu. "I'll explain Ranko's gender problems to you later." Tomu nodded and then looked around the family room. "So, what did you say you did, miss?" Ukyo looked up from the stain she was trying to get out of Ryoga's shirt. "I run a okinomyaki shop... and go to high school of course." Tomu slapped his hand. "Ah! That's the little shop that Nabiki keeps saying is her only real competition." Nabiki blushed. Ukyo beamed. "Thank you, Nabiki. I've noticed a slight drop in nighttime customers since you opened myself." Nabiki shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, with most places around here serving food like that awful Australian place that just opened up, we've pretty much got the market for good food split between the two of us." Ukyo smiled. "Yeah, I checked that place out too. Pretty bad. Speaking of which, Kang is working there." Ryoga coughed and ended up spilling some more juice on his shirt. "Kang is still in Japan?" Ukyo smiled. "Yeah, but don't worry, Ryoga, he's just a friend." Ryoga tried to act unperturbed. "I knew that. I was... just amazed he was still around." Ukyo wasn't fooled. "Who's Kang?" Tomu asked. Ukyo gulped. "Sorry, he's a friend of ours that we met in Australia when we went down to find Shampoo's great-grandmother." "I see. Is he a good fighter like the rest of you?" Ukyo nodded. Nabiki suddenly cleared her throat. "Actually, that reminds of something I wanted to mention tonight. Mousse is back." Various gasps and signs of shock went around the room. Ranko spoke first. "Really?" Nabiki nodded. Akane clutched her chest. "Did he say where Ranma and Sanma are?" Nabiki shook her head. "No... he was a duck at the time. From what I could gather, Shampoo dumped him just like I expected. Problem is, Mousse thinks I'm going to take him back. He almost killed Tomu yesterday." Akane gasped. "Did he hurt either of you?" Nabiki looked at Akane. "No. Akane, I hate to say this after the way I stormed out of here after the Amazons took over... but I need your help. I need to make sure Mousse won't hurt Tomu." Tomu kind of looked nervous. "Well... I was just shocked. I'm sure I can protect us if he comes back again." Nabiki put her hand on Tomu's arm. "No offense, Tomu, but you've only seen a small part of how bad the fights can get around here." Ryoga nodded. "Yeah, you should have seen that huge fight over in China we just had. Those Buyonegetonefree creatures were tough bastards to kill." Ukyo smirked. "That's Buyierfei, Honey. We did beat them pretty soundly." Tomu had been listening to this exchange as he ate. He lifted his rice bowl and prepared to use his chopsticks to pick some rice out when a knife embedded itself in the bowl. "Huh?" Everyone looked to where the knife had come from and saw Mousse standing on the patio with a handful of throwing knives ready. He was dressed all in black, which had allowed him to sneak into the compound. "Mousse!" Ranko exclaimed, getting shakily to her feet. "I will get Nabiki back!" Mousse screamed and unleashed another volley of knives. The knives never reached their target. Instead, they were vaporized in mid-air. Mousse's fast reflexes allowed him to get a duck shaped training potty out from his robe and in front of him before the black ball of chi vaporized it just like the knives before it. The force of the blast sent Mousse crashing outside and into the back wall. Stunned, Mousse rebounded and fell into the koi pond and transformed into a duck. The duck lay unconscious at the edge of the water. Everyone looked back to find the source of the black chi ball and saw Tomu standing with his arms outstretched. His eyes were completely black. Nabiki looked at Tomu and frowned. "Tomu?" Nabiki cringed backwards after seeing his black eyes. Tomu glared at Nabiki. "Shut up... you have served your purpose." He pushed Nabiki violently away, sending her crashing through the doors leading into the side hallway. Then he looked in Ranko's direction. "You all could have enjoyed a long life as collectors, but you had to meddle. Now you all shall die." "No!!" Akane gasped and started to rise. "He's being controlled!" Ranko shouted and pushed Akane down to the floor as a ball of black energy flew from Tomu's body directly at them. The black ball missed them by a hair, but it didn't miss the wall leading to Soun's room, his room, or the bathroom, which were all reduced to rubble. Parts of the second floor suddenly made their appearance on the first floor. From the floor, Ranko shot off a quick one-handed blast. It hit Tomu and pushed him away from the others. Everyone, except Soun of course, jumped to their feet after the blast. Ranko and Akane played a brief game of 'I'm protecting you... no I'm protecting you' as each of them tried to keep the other behind them and out of the line of fire. Ryoga and Ukyo were faster to respond, since they didn't have to worry about a baby. Ukyo flipped the table up and into Tomu's face, distracting him. Ryoga followed with a series of fast punches and a savage kick. Tomu went flying into the garden and made a sizable indentation in the back wall when he hit it. Ryoga and Ukyo jumped outside. Genma made to follow, but turned back inside. "Get Soun, the women, and my grandson out of here!" Nodoka shuddered. "No! Genma, you're still hurt!" Although Genma's wound was mostly healed, she was overprotective like most wives. Genma ignored his wife and jumped into the Koi pond, transforming into a panda. "What are you doing, former husband of mine?" Nodoka dryly asked, suddenly wondering why she had been so concerned over her foolish husband. The panda held up a sign reading, 'Confusing the enemy!' Then he leapt over the wall and disappeared into the night. In fact, Tomu did briefly follow the panda with his eyes, allowing Ryoga and Ukyo to get some solid hits in. Nodoka made a quick mental note to sharpen her katana later and then started to help Kasumi get Soun into his wheelchair so they could get him away from the fight that was raging outside. He wasn't exactly helping by trying to do it all himself. "Soun, stop it! This isn't the time." Nabiki had stumbled back into the room and looked out at the garden. She shuddered as she saw the black aura surrounding Tomu. "What is he?" Akane and Ranko broke out of their attempt to keep the other from joining the fight just long enough to explain. "He must be possessed like the Elders in the Amazon village were," Akane suggested. "Yeah, that's why I have to help! I'm the only one around who can do the fire and ice dragon blast!" Ranko insisted, itching to get into the fight. "But you need two people for that! You should have taught me!" "Well, err... I can still help!" Ranko made to leave again, but Akane stopped her. "No! Your baby comes first!" "But..." Nodoka looked over at her daughter and daughter-in-law and then shouted to interrupt their ill-timed fight. "Stop it! Ranko, you'll come with us to protect us as we get Soun out of here. Akane, you see if you can help Ryoga and Ukyo kill that thing that has possessed Tomu." Ranko clenched her fists and started towards the back yard. "No way am I letting Akane fight that thing alone!" "This is not the time to be pigheaded, my son!" Ranko flinched at her mother suddenly calling her 'son'. Her mother usually called her 'daughter' since the split and this sudden change make Ranko stop in her tracks. "A husband and father has to protect his children first." She paused to glare at the wall the panda had bounded over just a second earlier. "In this case, you are carrying your child... so protect it. Akane can handle herself in battle, can't she?" Ranko felt backed into a corner. She knew Akane was good, but not as good as she was. She had learned not to mention this, of course. But most of all, Ranko didn't want to chance Akane getting hurt and that usually meant sticking close to her in battle. "I guess..." "Good, lets get going then!!" Nodoka shouted and, with Kasumi's help, pushed the wheelchair Soun was in. She pulled on Nabiki's arm to get her away from the spot where she just stood and stared at the battle outside in shocked bewilderment. "I'll be okay. Just take care of everyone." Akane gave Ranko a quick kiss and jumped outside and into the middle of the battle. Ranko brought up the end of the evacuees, still looking like she wanted to help in the fight. She knew that she had to keep her family and, most importantly, keep her baby safe. That understanding still didn't make her feel good about leaving Akane to fight by herself. -C- -M- -D- After Tomu crashed into the wall, Ryoga and Ukyo flanked him from two sides. Ryoga started firing chi balls using the technique that he had been practicing since he had first been able to use it in China. "I really have to think up a name for this technique!" he shouted, firing another blast. Ukyo was whipping spatulas at Tomu, but most of them were deflected easily by the possessed man. "This is not the time to be worried about that!" Tomu was holding up well under the onslaught. The throwing spatulas were but a mere nuisance that he swatted away casually. The chi blasts from Ryoga were more damaging and had kept him from forming another black blast. So far. Akane jumped into the fray and sent a huge chi ball directly into Tomu's chest. Tomu was blasted backwards and crashed through the already damaged wall into the street beyond. He rose from the pavement. "Ah, the Un-cute-one. You will die first for your part in destroying our nest." He held up a hand and a black ball formed. Akane jumped out of the way of the chi ball that flew at her. Instead of hitting her, it hit the house and vaporized the room where the Saotome's lived. Or used to live. It was after the explosion subsided that what Tomu had called Akane finally sunk in. "Wh... why did you call me un-cute?" She punctuated her question with an angry red chi ball, which looked vaguely like a mallet, aimed directly at Tomu's head. Tomu dodged the ball and glared at her. "It's what the male collector called you when you invaded our domain," he explained, while absently defending himself against Ryoga and Ukyo's attacks. Akane swore internally, but pushed that thought deep down inside her in order to concentrate on the battle at hand. She charged up a chi ball between her hands and then leapt at Tomu, intending to ram it down his throat since he was able to avoid her long distance blasts. Tomu passed his hand slowly in a sweeping motion, as if brushing aside an unwanted pest, and a wave of energy pushed his three attackers backwards. Akane crashed into the wall behind her and the chi ball she was generating exploded in her hands, burning her arms. "Ahhhhhh..." "Fools." He generated a large black chi ball and aimed it for Akane, who was still on the ground after being hit hard by the energy wave. Suddenly, Tomu found himself pinned under a big furry butt. His blast skewed wide of its intended target and screamed off into the Nerima night sky. "Father-in-law?" Akane gasped. The panda held up a sign reading, 'Genma to the rescue!' Three Amazons leapt onto Tomu and started hacking away with their weapons, barely letting the panda get out of the way before he became panda burgers. Suddenly, a large aura surrounded Tomu and the Amazons were thrown in all directions. Akane and Ryoga took this opportunity to hit Tomu with their respective blasts. Tomu was forced back from the blasts, but still seemed to be resisting the constant attacks without too much trouble. He wiped some black blood off his lip and then sneered at his attackers. "You can't kill us!!" "Us? There's only one of you!" "To your pitiful eyes, maybe. But we are five hundred times stronger in this shell, than as in our solo forms." Tomu finished by throwing a dozen or so baseball sized chi balls at his attackers. Akane dodged to the side and landed besides Ukyo. "I think he means there are something like five-hundred Buyierfei inside Tomu." "Then we just have to wear him down just like the others did to the Elders." Akane nodded. "I wish Ranma and Sanma were here... this would be so much easier." Soapring suddenly landed beside Akane. "Leader, the perimeter is holding, but I don't know how much longer we can hold off the attackers." "Huh?" "Invisible Buyierfei are trying to tear down the outer fence. Fortunately, the furry-one alerted us to your need here." "Damn." Akane muttered and shot off a Moko Takabisha blast at Tomu, which he dodged. She followed Soapring to avoid Tomu's follow up blast. "Let's leave them to your warriors for now and concentrate on taking out Tomu here. He's possessed by the Buyierfei." "According to legend, cutting off a possessed person's head was the fastest way," Soapring informed Akane, straight-faced and hefting her sword in front of her. Akane grimaced and looked at the frail looking warrior. "Lets try to keep Tomu alive and just destroy the Buyierfei inside, okay?" Soapring nodded. "Yes, Leader." She started barking out a series of instructions to her warriors and the started to take turns at attacking Tomu. One warrior would attack with a blunt instrument such as a bonbori or mace and then another would follow up. In between Akane would try to hit Tomu with a chi blast. It was slow going, but they seemed to be wearing Tomu down. -C- -M- -D- Kang had just closed the restaurant he worked at and was walking away when the building exploded behind him. He was thrown across the street by the force of the blast, which was caused by a large black chi ball that had just hit the Australian restaurant. He coughed a few times and then looked up to see that his workplace, make that former workplace, was now a pile of debris. "Eh? What the hell happened?" He stood up and brushed off his clothes. He looked to the north when he heard a distant explosion. "What is that?" He ran over to the scooter that his boss was letting him use and grabbed his giant barbecue fork. He jumped on the scooter and drove off toward the sounds of the distant battle. When he reached the fence that the Amazons had erected, he saw a very unusual sight. The Amazon warriors were fighting... nothing. "What?" Suddenly Kang saw a black creature with tentacles flash into existence at the end of a sword of one of the Amazons. That was when Kang made the connection to the stories Ukyo had told him about the invisible Buyierfei she and the others had fought in Australia and then China. He grinned broadly and drove towards the fight, his giant barbecue fork held in front of him like a lance. Amazingly, by luck or skill, he had managed to spear two invisible Buyierfei by the time his fork slammed into the wall. The two creatures thrashed around trying to break free of the fork that held them to the wall, their tentacles were flaying wildly. An Amazon warrior landed by Kang's side on the end of a bungee cord and quickly dispatched the two wounded Buyierfei. "Thanks, what's going on?" Kang asked the woman in front of him. The purple haired woman replied in Mandarin, then grabbed him and jumped up to the top of the fence using the bungee cord. When the reached the top, she gestured towards the area below and pointed at his fork. "I guess I'm drafted, huh?" Kang smiled and took up a defensive position. He scanned the area around him and could see that the Amazons were spread out across the walkway that topped the fence. They were doing their best to keep the hordes of Buyierfei out of the makeshift compound created when they erected the fences. The first task, of course, was to find the enemy. With normal enemies this was easy, but not with invisible ones. One of the ways the Amazons accomplished this task was by randomly tossing darts at the area surrounding the fence in hopes of hitting the attacking Buyierfei, which they occasionally did, and letting the black blood give away the location of their enemy. The sharp spikes that were randomly scattered across the surface of the wall also helped cause wounds to reveal the position of the invisible creatures. Why they were scattered randomly and not in neat rows--that logic would dictate would be more effective--was lost as the technique was handed down between Amazon generations. The second task was to kill the Buyierfei once they were visible due to their wounds. Since the Buyierfei didn't seem to be able to climb well, they became targets for arrows and other long-range weapons. When they managed to get by the arrows, swords and spears took over. Cutting the central mass in half was the most effective way of killing them, but repeated wounds to their central mass would also cause death. So far, the Amazons seemed to be succeeding in keeping the Buyierfei out of the area inside the fence. Of course since the uninjured Buyierfei were invisible, there was no way to be sure none had slipped by, but they were doing their best. The collection of black leathery pieces at the base of the fence proved that at least. Kang spotted some black blood to his left and thrust at it with his fork. He could feel the prongs hit something and a split second later he saw the creature he had speared. He grimaced at the apparition in front of him. In one swift movement, he twisted his fork and then sliced upwards to gut the creature using the sharpened edge of his weapon. The Buyierfei crashed to the ground below and sprinkled black blood as it fell. The drops of blood splashed against several invisible creatures coming up the wall. The blood dripped off the creatures making them invisible again, but the brief glimpse Kang got indicated he had his work cut out for him. -C- -M- -D- Ranko lead the way away from the house until she saw the Amazons atop the fence were obviously trading fire and blows with Buyierfei. "Damn, the Buyierfei are attacking from the outside as well." Soun frowned. "Tomu must have come in to try and take out the most powerful of us or at least distract us while the others attacked from the outside." Ranko nodded her agreement to Soun's assessment. "Yeah... there's no way out for us then. Let's get over..." Ranko was cut off by an urgent scream. "Look out, they're breaking down the fence!!" They all looked over and saw the nearby fence start to buckle. More surprising was who they saw on top of it. "Kang?" Ranko said softly, then raised her voice. "Kang, what's going on?!" Kang looked down at Ranko and the others. His face was dirty, his shirt torn, and one of the tines on his fork was bent. "Ranko, get clear... they're breaking down the fence!" Ranko snapped into action. "Get Mr. Tendo out of here... NOW!!" She pointed away from the fence and away from the Tendo house to a location that would be as safe as possible. Nodoka put her hand on Ranko's shoulder. "What about you?" "Mother, don't argue with me this time!! I'm the only one here who can stop them from getting in and killing everyone!" Nodoka nodded and ran off with others. Ranko took up a position in front of the rapidly crumbling fence, held out her hands towards it, and started generating a chi ball. "Kang, are there any Amazon's in the way?" "No, it's clear!!" Ranko grinned and let the chi ball fill with energy until the fence gave way. It crashed to the ground in front of her. She shielded her eyes briefly from the dust and when she opened them, she could see a hoard of bloody Buyierfei rushing through the breach. "Moko Takabisha!!" The large chi ball flew from her hands and incinerated the advancing creatures, both those that could be seen and those that couldn't. She also vaporized the remains of the fence and parts of several nearby houses. Ranko exhaled deeply and then built up another chi ball. While she did so, Kang and the Amazons dropped down to ground level and took up positions around the gap in the wall, hoping to catch any of the intruding creatures that had survived. Ranko let loose again, this time using a wide beam of chi energy and fanning it across the opening. Several creatures could be seen flickering into sight just before dying as she did so. Then Kang and the Amazons then started picking off the ones that got by the chi blasts. The ones that they could see, that is. -C- -M- -D- Nodoka and Kasumi wheeled Soun down the street that was now enclosed inside the Amazon's fence. Soun looked around. "We should go to the former Takahashi house. It's furthest from the battles and is a western-style house with thick walls. We can fortify the doors and make a stand until the children take out those creatures." Kasumi smiled. "That's a brilliant plan, Father." "My legs might be useless, but my mind is still sharp." Nodoka smiled at the sudden spirit she saw in Soun. She turned around to address Nabiki. "Nabiki, lets..." She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that Nabiki wasn't there. "Oh my!" Kasumi turned around. "Where is she?" "I don't know. Damn... maybe she's worried about Tomu." Nodoka made to go look for Nabiki, but was stopped when Soun grabbed her arm. "Don't, it's too dangerous. She'll be okay." Soun wished he felt as confident as his words indicated. He was worried as well, but separating was a bad idea and Nodoka wasn't likely to be able to help much anyway. "Lets go." Inside, Soun decided that he had to protect the two women he found in his care, no matter what the cost. Nodoka reluctantly agreed with him and they continued down the road. -C- -M- -D- Akane gasped for breath and struggled to get out of the vise-like grip that Tomu had on her throat. She was kicking and punching Tomu with all her strength, all to no avail. Ryoga and Ukyo were slumped against the remains of the Tendo house, apparently unconscious. Nearby, a panda and all the Amazons except for Soapring were unconscious or dead; it was impossible to tell which. Soapring hacked at Tomu's arm with her broken sword, but was unable to break his hold on Akane's neck. "Tomu, stop!!" Tomu looked over at the source of the voice. "Eager to die, are you? Just a moment while I put this one down and then I'll be glad to strangle you." Nabiki flinched. "Tomu... fight the beast within you..." Tomu raised a hand towards Nabiki. "You pathetic... urk..." He was silenced when a series of small throwing knives hit him from behind. He flinched, dropping Akane in the process. He reached behind him trying to extract the daggers from his back. Nabiki looked behind Tomu to see who had thrown the daggers and gasped when she saw a duck swoop in and a release another volley. "Mousse?" Suddenly, she looked around the area, as if searching for something. Tomu staggered under the impact of the second set. Abandoning his attempts to extract the daggers, he spun around and shot a black chi ball at the duck. The duck barely dodged the blast, but singed his feathers during the near miss and crashed to the ground. Tomu grinned and picked up the stunned duck by its neck. "Even a lowly bird dares to attack us?" He squeezed the ducks neck and brought his other hand up to snap it. Before he could, he was drenched in hot water. Tomu lashed out and knocked Nabiki away from him. She dropped the empty kettle when she crashed into a nearby light pole, getting the breath knocked out of her. Tomu suddenly felt the duck's neck grow in size and looked around. He was startled to find a naked man in his grip instead of the duck. Unable to hold onto the thicker neck, Tomu dropped Mousse and the sudden shift in weight caused him to fall backwards. An unsteady Mouse opened his eyes and glared at Tomu. "Die, you girlfriend stealing asshole!!" He flicked his hands and produced two handfuls of throwing knives. A split second later, they embedded themselves in Tomu's body. An inhuman cry of pain emanated from Tomu's throat. He took a long look at Mousse before speaking. "You... you... you've been touched!!" Blackness swelled up inside Tomu's eyes and a black ball formed in one of his hands. He held his arm towards Mousse. Just as he released it, a large blue chi ball hit him from behind. Tomu collapsed to the ground. The black chi ball went wide of its intended target, Mousse's stomach, but it did manage to graze Mousse's side and hip. The force of the blast pushed him against an already damaged wall, which promptly collapsed and buried him. Nabiki turned around to find the source of the blast, but could only see a little black pig that in the darkness she mistook for P-chan. She could still see Ryoga was unconscious, so she guessed that the blast must have been a stray one from Ranko. She rushed over to Akane and tried to help her sister up. "Akane! Akane, get up!" Tomu staggered to he feet. His skin had an assortment of black splotches covering it and was starting to flake off. "We will not be defeated by the likes of you!!" He was then sent flying backwards by a chi ball that came from the direction of the pig. Before Sanma, who had run back to the house after hearing all of the explosions, could blast Tomu again, a tentacle wrapped itself around his potbelly and lifted him off the ground. Sanma let out a pained squeal and tried to bite his captor, but couldn't. Even though he was in contact with the Buyierfei, it remained invisible. A fleeting thought that the creatures only turned visible when in contact with a human flashed though Sanma's mind. He saw Tomu moving towards... "I shall end this!!" Nabiki snapped her head around at hearing the raspy voice and saw Tomu just as he released a large ball of chi energy in her direction. She gripped her younger sister and closed her eyes expecting to die. She didn't. Soapring had thrown herself between Tomu and the two sisters. She screamed in pain as the black energy enveloped her and burned her skin. She collapsed to the ground, still smoking. Growing weary, Tomu dropped to his knees and held out a shaky hand towards Akane. He started crawling slowly forward attempting to reach Akane. Before he could reach her, a large explosion assailed him and bits of Buyierfei were scattered across the yard. Tomu looked over at the source of the explosion. Before he could react, a pig tackled him. It snarled and bit angrily into his shoulder. With the last of his strength, Tomu pulled the pig off him and flung it away. Sanma flew through the Tendo yard and into the ruins of the family room where he was immediately buried under rubble from the collapsing second floor. A water pipe from the ruined bathroom poured water down over the pile of debris. Cold water. -C- -M- -D- Kasumi and Nodoka finished moving a large chest in front of the door and then returned to Soun's side. Soun looked around the small bedroom they had barricaded themselves in on the second floor of the house. "This'll have to do. Kasumi, can you reach under the chair... there is a package strapped to the bottom." Kasumi did so and pulled the long package out. "Here you go, Father. What is it?" Soun took the package and opened the end. He slipped out a short sword. "Insurance." Nodoka smiled. "So... you hid a weapon on the infernal contraption you swore you would never use, did you?" Soun became evasive. "Um... that... um... came with the wheelchair." Kasumi kissed her father on the cheek. "Of course, Father." -C- -M- -D- Ranko released another blast at the hole and then slumped to the ground, exhausted. She looked to see if anything was hit by her most recent blast. Her spirit, but not her energy, was revived when she saw no Buyierfei flicker. "Was that all of them?" Kang rushed up to Ranko, the remains of his torn shirt falling from his shoulders as he did so. "I think we got them all. I just hope none of them got by the chicks and me." Ranko smiled weakly. "Take it from me, Kang, you might want to avoid getting too close to the Amazons... they are kind of obsessive." "If you say so." Kang looked around. "So what happened here?" Ranko stood up. "The Buyierfei possessed Nabiki's boyfr... AKANE!!" She suddenly took off towards the Tendo house. She couldn't quite manage a run in her condition, but she made an impressive dash down the street. Impressive for a pregnant woman, that is. Actually, it would be impressive for most women period, but it wasn't as fast as Ranko normally could run. A confused Kang followed, leaving the small group of Amazons to check for more Buyierfei. -C- -M- -D- The door to the room shook, causing Soun to grip the sword in his hand tighter. Nodoka and Kasumi were behind him, each holding a wooden chair that they had found in the house. The door splintered as a bloody mass of tentacles crashed through it. The wounded creature advanced on the three, leaving a trail of black blood behind it. As it got within range, Soun swung his sword and grazed its skin. His follow-up swing went wide and he found himself picked up by a pair of tentacles and thrown across the room. Nodoka and Kasumi backed up as the Buyierfei advanced on them. They took turns bashing it over its... central mass with their chairs, but they didn't even faze it. Kasumi let out a scream as the creature grabbed her with it's tentacles. "Leave my daughter alone!!" Kasumi and Nodoka looked over at Soun and gasped. Soun stood shakily on his feet with the sword held in front of him. He tried to take a step forward, but only managed to slide his right foot forward an inch or two. Recognizing Soun as a more immediate threat, the Buyierfei released Kasumi and lashed out at Soun with its blood-covered tentacles. Soun swung the sword and sliced the tentacles off. Unfortunately, the momentum of his swing sent him crashing to the ground. Relying on the instincts he honed with a lifetime of martial arts training, he rolled to the side as he hit the floor and swung upward with the sword. The Buyierfei had been closing in for the kill, but instead was sliced in half. With a last inhuman scream it became opaque and fell to the floor in pieces. Kasumi and Nodoka quickly rushed to Soun's side. -C- -M- -D- Ranko rushed into the area and saw Tomu slowly crawling towards Akane and Nabiki. "Stop!" Tomu paused and looked around. "How... how do you collectors manage to survive against our superior might and numbers?" Ranko smirked. "You're dealing with the greatest martial artists in the world, that's why!" She held out a hand and sent a chi ball racing towards Tomu. Tomu rolled out of the way. As he rolled, he grabbed a large chunk of the demolished wall that was almost twice his size and tossed it at Ranko. Ranko dodged the large chunk, but didn't see the second one that Tomu had thrown after the first. The smaller chunk hit Ranko in her stomach and sent her crashing to the ground. She clutched her stomach in pain and glared at Tomu. "You bastard!" A chi ball flew from her outstretched hand to punctuate her anger. Tomu flinched under the impact of the blast. "You... will... not..." His declaration of superiority was cut off when Ranko blasted him again. Ranko waited for Tomu to collapse to the ground. "What the fuck is keeping this bastard going?" She grimaced at a sudden pain that shot through her body and she clutched her stomach. "No..." She looked down at her stomach with a look of pained concern on her face. Her expression changed to one of anger and a dark red aura formed around her body. "If you've hurt... my baby, I'll kill you!!" Her arms shot out in front of her and Tomu was blasted with a beam of powerful energy that Ranko projected from her outstretched arms. This blast was more than enough to finish off the Buyierfei possessing Tomu. His black skin dissolved into black powder and his body collapsed to the ground, as if he was a puppet and his strings had been cut. "Akane!" Ranko ignored the shooting pains from her stomach and stumbled over to Akane. She took her wife into her arms. "Akane!" Nabiki shakily rose to her feet. "I think she's okay. But I don't think Soapring is." Ranko followed Nabiki's gaze and saw the Amazon lying in front of them. The burned woman was still alive, as evidenced by her short shallow breaths, but Ranko had trouble even identifying the burned mass as human. *********************************************************************** >From the personal journal of James Davidson: October 7, 2057 "Akane, you constantly manage to surprise me. I had no idea there was an attack by the Buyierfei in Nerima that early in the year." Akane nodded. "Yes, the authorities put it off as a gas explosion. That's actually partly true, since we did hit some gas lines during the battle. The gas company actually ended up paying for all our damages... the material ones at least." "Did Nabiki arrange that deal?" "No, she had other things on her mind." I nodded. "Of course. So what about..." "I'll tell you the rest tomorrow, it's getting late." Akane stifled a yawn. "Okay. That'll give me time to look up the official records on the 'gas explosion'." "Ironically, except for the actual mention of possessed people and demons from hell, those records are fairly accurate." "Nabiki didn't do any alterations then?" My mind was rapidly filling with the implications of seeing unaltered records for once. So, far many of the records my research uncovered ended up being modified or even created outright by Nabiki or other Tendo family members. "Nope... there was no reason to change them. Like the authorities in Hawaii, the Nerima authorities chose the story that was the easiest for them to cope with and ran with it." "Well, it seems like they had always turned a blind eye to the weird goings on in Nerima." Akane sighed at the memories my comment must have reawakened in her. "Yes, I guess they did." "Hmmmm... I'll still look at the records tonight. Maybe I can get some idea of the extent of the damage and details on the wounded." "Unfortunately, that battle caused wounds worse than the physical ones," Akane remarked as she rose to leave. "Much worse," Sanma added from his keyboard [End - Chapter 22] Coming soon: Chapter 23: The Heartbreak of Love; the Sorrow of Death; the Children of Tomorrow ======================================================================= The real author's (Jim Lazar) notes/ramblings: Okay... exhale. I'd like to thank my pre-readers David Johnston, Michael A. Chase, EBJ, Stephie-chan, and Jyh-I Lu for helping me find and fix problems with this story. FFML members Christopher J. Olsen, Lathrop Preston, and Pat Olsen were also helpful in fine tuning this story. Thank you all. Of course in the end, any mistakes and botched characters are my fault. Revision 0.0 - Rough draft (June 27, 1999) Revision 0.3 - Pre-reader draft (August 30, 1999) Revision 0.4 - FFML draft (September 11, 1999) Revision 1.0 - Final version (September 26, 1999) Revision 1.1 - First RAAC posting (October 3, 1999)