...continued from part one

- - - - - - 

"Oh, Akane!" Kasumi called to her as she began her climb 
up the stairs.  "We have guests!"

Akane closed her eyes and pressed the heel of her hand 
against her forehead.  She didn't feel in any shape to deal 
with guests right now.  She knew full well that she looked 
a fright - the black eye she'd gotten from a member of the 
Furinkan bowling club was in full bloom, she was wearing a 
very prominent wrist brace at the insistence of Dr. Tofu, 
and she'd split her lip on the boulder today during her 
training.  Really, she felt much better than she had just 
a few days ago, but she looked appalling.

"I think I'll have to miss them, whoever they are," she 
called back down to Kasumi.  "I'm gonna take a bath."

"But Akane, they're here to see you," Kasumi insisted.  
"They're already waiting at the dinner table."

<Me?> she thought.  <Who would be here to see me?>

"And father has an announcement to make to the family," her 
elder sister continued.

This was starting to seem just a bit familiar.

<He CAN'T have,> she thought angrily.  <He can't possibly 
have... given up on Ranma and engaged me to someone ELSE!>  
But he had gone so far as to make that crazy announcement 
at her school.  He'd claimed it was just for her training, 
but what if there was more to it?  Nobody had heard from 
Ranma in weeks, the old ghoul had all but predicted he 
wouldn't survive...  

What kind of fiancee had he found for her THIS time?  
Assuredly a martial artist - he was totally fixated on 
getting an heir to carry on the Anything Goes School.  
Probably some smooth-talking playboy who he thought would 
charm her off her feet and make her forget about Ranma.  
He probably figured she'd turn to this smug womanizer in 
her time of grief, looking for a shoulder to cry on, and 
then the next thing she knew she'd be a brood cow for the 
Tendou Dojo.  What kind of bleary-eyed milksop did he take 
her for?   The gall of him!  Well, she wasn't going to take 
this lying down, that was for sure.  This slimy pervert 
her father had dragged home to marry her had better have 
come with a helmet, because she would sooner stave in his 
skull than go through with an engagement to some scumbag 
she'd never even met...

Akane spun and stomped back down the stairs.  Kasumi 
followed in her wake as she stormed into the dining room, 
battle aura flaring and face already darkening with rage.

"ALL RIGHT!" she shouted as she flung open the door.  "WHAT 
is the BIG IDEA HERE?"

Nabiki raised a cynical eyebrow.  Her father and Mr. Saotome 
vainly attempted to hide behind one another.  The guests 
pivoted to stare at her in astonishment.  

Both of them, she noted, were girls.  In fact, she recognized 
them both.

Akane let out a little embarrassed laugh.  "Heh... excuse me. 
 Um... I... er... had the wrong room.  For that entrance.  
Let me try that again."

She slid the door closed.  

"Oh dear," Kasumi said.  "Are you all right, Akane?  I 
didn't realize our guests would upset you so much..."

"No, sis.  Sorry.   Just got carried away there."  Akane 
took a deep breath to settle her nerves, arranged a smile 
on her face, and opened the door once again.

"Natsumi!  Kurumi!" she said cheerfully.  "It's good to see 
you again.  What are you two doing here?"

Her father and Mr. Saotome, upon seeing that she was no 
longer in the grips of a violent rage, scrambled back to 
the table with as much dignity as they could muster.   
Nabiki shook her head and picked at her rice.  The two 
martial artists who had once thought they were her 
half-sisters looked relieved at her change of attitude.

Natsumi stood to give her a formal bow as a way of 
greeting, her face a well-composed mask of dignity.  She 
was a splendid-looking young woman, with a strong, elegant 
figure and a long, graceful ponytail which flowed in a black 
wave behind her.  Everything about her bearing spoke of a 
true warrior.  Akane had no doubt that her severe expression 
and penetrating gaze had served to dissuade many a rogue 
who would have thought to take advantage of two girls 
traveling alone.  

Kurumi popped up like a cork beside her sister, bounced 
her way through a bow of greeting, then beamed happily at 
Akane.  She fidgeted as if she wanted to rush over and hug 
her, but the presence of her more formal elder sister held 
her back.  Kurumi was bright and energetic in all the 
places where Natsumi was cool and composed, yet she was 
as quick as a striking snake and a fearsome martial artist 
in her own right.  "Hi Akane!" she chimed, waving 
vigorously.

"I'm very pleased to see you again, Akane-san," Natsumi 
said.  

"Come and sit down, Akane," her father said.  "I have an 
announcement to make."

Akane eased herself into place at the table, and Kasumi 
did the same.  Kurumi eyed the food on Akane's plate with 
unmistakable longing - she'd already demolished the meal 
that Kasumi had set before her.  The girl had an appetite 
as bad as Ranma's, though she wasn't as finicky about what 
she ate.

Tendou Soun cleared his throat and began to speak in his 
best patriarchal tones.  "Akane, I want to take this 
opportunity to tell you how proud I am of the way you've 
pushed yourself in your training.  The dedication you've 
shown to your fiancee brings such joy to your old father's 
heart.  This is a time of great adversity, but your love 
for Ranma is finally beginning to shine through."  Tears 
trickled down his cheeks.

Akane blushed.  "Daddy, please..."

Soun regained his composure as he continued his speech.  
"In the face of your dedication, I promised myself that I 
would do everything in my power to help you with your 
training. Therefore, I have called Natsumi and Kurumi here 
to act as your personal teachers.  They are both 
practitioners of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, and we have 
seen how skilled they are."

That much was true.  When the two girls had believed 
themselves to be potential heirs to the Tendou Dojo, they'd 
given Akane and Ranma all they could handle.  Losing the 
first challenge had been one of her most embarrassing 
defeats, and winning the rematch had been one of her sweetest 
victories.  She didn't know how much more training she would 
be able to endure in her condition, but there was no denying 
that these two had a lot they could teach her.

Her father turned to the two girls to continue.  "Natsumi, 
Kurumi - I know that you've had no success in your search 
for your real father.  To express the depth of my gratitude 
for your help to Akane, I offer you a place in my home.  
You may keep the name of 'Tendou,' study at my dojo, and 
consider yourselves a part of this family for as long as 
you would wish to stay."

Akane felt her jaw loosen and drop.  Mr. Saotome seemed to 
have much the same reaction.

"Oh, how wonderful!" Kasumi exclaimed.

Even Natsumi's composure failed.  She bowed deeply to show 
her gratitude and to hide the look on her face, but her 
voice threatened to break as she offered her thanks.  Kurumi 
made no effort to conceal her own reaction.  Her eyes went 
wide as saucers and filled with tears.  With a cry of 
delight, she flung herself at Tendou Soun and hugged him 
so fiercely that the air rushed out of his lungs in a 
squeak.

Nabiki's reaction was somewhat less positive.  "Oh GREAT 
idea, Daddy.  Yet another bottomless pit to feed.  Someone 
help me contain my enthusiasm, please."

"Nabiki!" Kasumi seemed shocked.

The middle Tendou sister stabbed her rice with her 
chopsticks angrily.  She'd never been the most tactful 
girl in the first place, and the stress from her work had 
made her as short-tempered as a badger.  "I mean, with 
Ranma and the old freak gone, it just didn't seem the same.  
I'm SO glad you found a couple of replacement freeloaders.  
We really needed them."

Soun looked mortified, and Kurumi shrunk away from the open 
hostility in Nabiki's words, but Natsumi faced her without 
flinching.  She bowed her head respectfully as she addressed 
Nabiki.  "It is not our intention to be a burden on this 
family, I assure you.  I promise that we will both do 
whatever it takes to pull our weight in this household.  
My sister and I are not afraid of hard work."

Nabiki snorted.  "Work?  Don't expect ME to give you a job 
in my restaurant, 'sister.'  A pair of notorious food 
thieves are not exactly my idea of reliable help."

"Please, Nabiki!" Kasumi cried in dismay.  "Where are your 
manners?"

Natsumi's brow knit in confusion.  "I thought... that is, 
it seemed that the most obvious way for us to earn our keep 
would be to teach lessons in the dojo.  Surely with more 
teachers, we can support more students..." 

Nabiki made a disparaging noise.  "Sorry, wrong answer.  
Nobody's taught regular lessons at this place for over a 
year.  Better think of something else."

Natsumi and Kurumi turned to Tendou Soun with questioning 
looks.  He looked a bit chagrined.  "Er... yes, it's true, 
I'm afraid.  You see, I took a break from teaching when I 
heard Ranma and his father were coming, to give the family 
time to adjust.  I intended to resume instruction, but then 
the Master came back.  You see, the Master is very... 
possessive about Anything-Goes Martial Arts.  He refused 
to allow us to teach lessons, even basic self-defense, 
without his direct involvement in the training.  And when 
the Master trains a student, he... uh... he tends to... 
er..."

"He tends to torture them and get them to steal panties 
for him," Nabiki finished.  "It was hard enough to harbor 
a wanted criminal around here without letting him corrupt 
the minds of a bunch of students."

"Yes, well, anyway," her father continued, "when we thought 
the Master was dead it was safe to teach, but now that the 
Master has forbidden us to reveal the secrets of 
Anything-Goes Martial Arts..."

Akane interrupted.  "You keep saying 'the Master, the 
Master,' but he's NOT the Master anymore!"

Her father and Mr. Saotome looked at her with frank 
astonishment, then at one another.  Clearly, this had 
not occurred to them yet.  They were so accustomed to 
thinking of Happosai as their Master that they had never 
bothered to consider the implications of his abdication of 
that title.  Akane had been so absorbed in her own problems 
that she hadn't given it much thought either, until now.  

"Ranma is the Master, remember?" Akane insisted.  "The old 
pervert said so himself, and everybody heard him.  That's 
what got us into this stupid mess in the first place, so we 
MIGHT as well get something GOOD out of it!"

A long silence reigned in the Tendou dining room.

The next day, the word hit the streets of Nerima that the 
Tendou Dojo was accepting students once again.  Two new 
Tendou girls registered for classes at Furinkan High.  
And Akane discovered that, in spite of the strain she had 
endured thus far, she still had the energy left to train 
with her new sisters.

She was getting stronger.  But the rock would still not 
break.

- - - - - - 

Ukyou snatched at the throwing spatula as it spun towards 
her and missed.  Her rhythm was broken, and the next two 
which were already airborne clattered to the ground as 
well.  

Ranma caught the pinecones he'd been throwing into the air 
before they fell.  

"Sorry, Ran-chan," Ukyou said, breathing hard.  "It's 
getting kind of dark for this."

Dusk was upon them, and she could barely make out Ranma's 
features at this distance, but his voice was firm and 
gentle.  "I know it's dark.  I want you to hit the targets 
without seeing them."

She frowned.  "How am I supposed to do that?"

He tossed a pinecone in the air and caught it again.  "The 
spatulas spin when they come to you, and the pinecones catch 
a lot of air.  You should be able to hear 'em both just 
fine."

Ukyou sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.  This 
training was starting to get really hard.  

At first, the exercise had seemed laughably easy.  Ranma 
had a pile of pinecones, Ryouga had her throwing spatulas.  
Ranma would throw the pinecones into the air one at a time, 
and Ryouga would throw her weapons to her.  All she had to 
do was catch the spatulas and throw them at the targets 
before they hit the ground.  After the grueling Amaguriken 
training, this was almost a joke.  She said as much to Ranma 
after their first session.

"I'm just gettin' a feel for how good you are," he'd told 
her.  "We're gonna step things up next time."

And so they had.  He'd started by moving farther away from 
her, and by picking up the pace.  She'd handled that easily.  
Then he'd told Ryouga to start moving around as he threw her 
weapons to her, so she'd have to compensate for the new 
angles, and he'd picked up the pace.  That had been a little 
harder, but not much.  She was proud of her new speed.

Ryouga had seemed as confused as she'd been.  He'd stopped 
in the middle of one of their training exercises and demanded 
to know exactly what technique Ranma was trying to teach 
her.  Ukyou was curious about that too - the training would 
help her speed and accuracy, but he wouldn't tell her its 
ultimate purpose.  She'd hoped he was going to provide them 
both with an answer then.

Instead, he'd pulled Ryouga out of her hearing range and 
talked to him in hushed tones.  She'd watched them as Ranma 
ran through an explanation, and Ryouga's face had slowly 
filled with comprehension.  The lost boy had considered 
Ranma's words for a while, then he'd given a curt nod.  
They'd returned the training again, with Ukyou itching to 
know what had passed between the two boys.

Ranma had made each session more difficult.  He'd gotten 
smaller pinecones and moved even farther away.  He'd started 
throwing two at a time, then three, mixing it up in 
synchronization with Ryouga.  He'd told Ryouga to start 
moving faster, then he'd started moving as well, until 
they were all circling each other in a weird looping 
dance as the pinecones flew and the spatulas hissed through 
the air.  And every time, he'd picked up the pace even 
more.

Now he wanted her to do this when she couldn't even see.  
It was too much.

"Ranchan!" she shouted in exasperation.  "This is hard... 
but what IS the point?  Can't you at least tell me that?"

Ranma crossed his arms and contemplated a bit.  Ryouga 
regarded him with curiosity.  Finally, he set down his 
pinecones and approached her so she could hear him 
better.

"There's a lot of different purposes to this trainin'," 
he said.  "But one of them is to develop your dairokkan."

"My... dairokkan?"

"It's your sixth-sense to danger," Ranma explained.  "It's 
one of the marks of a great martial artist."  He nodded 
at Ryouga.  "His ain't bad.  I've seen him catch arrows 
before he even sees 'em coming.  Mine's real good.  It's 
why people have a hard time layin' a finger on me."

"How come Akane can nail you all the time, then?" Ukyou 
asked.

Ranma looked mildly irritated.  "That's different.  Anyway, 
that ain't the point.  What I'm sayin' is that you're real 
strong and quick, Ucchan, but we gotta work on your 
dairokkan."

She leaned forward eagerly.  "What should I do?"

"Trainin' in the dark like this is gonna help," Ranma 
explained.  "You gotta learn to rely on all your senses, 
not just your eyes."

"'Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them,'" she said 
in her best Alec Guiness voice, and giggled.  Ryouga 
looked confused.

Ranma just nodded.  "That's right.  You gotta learn to 
look with more than your eyes, hear with more than your 
ears.  There's a mental space you have to achieve where 
everything comes to you by instinct.  You've been there 
before, but you ain't learned to apply it to your martial 
arts."

"What do you mean?" she asked, listening raptly.

"I've seen you get into that zone when you're cookin'," he 
explained.  "You've felt it, haven't you?"

She nodded.  "Yeah... I know what you mean now.  It's 
like... it's like the world narrows down and opens up at 
the same time.  The distinction between who I am and what 
I'm doing fades away, and I... I become the task.  It's 
like the act of cooking takes over and I just ride the 
wave.  Does that make any sense?  It sounds sort of 
corny..."

Ryouga shook his head vigorously.  "No, that's just it!  
That's what you have to do!"

Ranma nodded.  "He's right.  If you can get to that same 
kinda focus in your martial arts, your dairokkan will take 
over.  It won't matter if you can see your targets or not.  
And you'll have taken your martial arts to the next level."

Ukyou's heart was beating fast with excitement.  Most of her 
combat skills had been self-taught.  To have Ranma and Ryouga 
train her like this was an extraordinary experience.  She 
nodded and wore a serious expression.  "All right.  Let's 
try it again.  I'm ready!"

Ranma jogged backwards towards his pinecones and grinned.  
"Good!  'Cause tomorrow, I'm gonna blindfold you!"

Ukyou gulped, but she refused to let herself be intimidated.  
She could do this.  She wouldn't let them down.  She adopted 
a ready stance and waited for the training to begin again.

- - - - - - 

"Oh no!  Not you again, sir!"

Pantyhose Tarou smirked as the Jusenkyo Guide stumbled away 
from him, holding his chubby hands up in a futile gesture of 
warding.  He took a step forward and regarded the Guide with 
disdain.  "Yes," he said with a chuckle.  "Me again."

The Jusenkyo Guide had dealt with Tarou more times that he 
would have liked.  Tarou had never done him any actual harm, 
but the encounters in the past had always been harrowing and 
unsettling for the caretaker of Jusenkyo.  Tarou saw the 
cursed springs as a resource, a place to gain power, and he 
had used them in his schemes in the past.  Exploiting the 
magic of the springs went against the Guide's beliefs about 
how they should be treated, but he had no strength to stand 
up to Tarou.

"Why you come again to this place, sir?" he asked nervously.  
"What you want with accursed springs now?"

"Nothing terribly complicated," he said casually.  Then he 
told the portly man what he was looking for.

The Guide mopped his brow and looked nervous.  "Oh sir, what 
you want that for?  Is very dangerous to tamper with springs 
like that!"

Tarou snorted.  "Spare me your superstitious prattle, man.  
I know what I'm doing." 

The Guide looked about with shifty eyes.  "Is... is very 
difficult to do what you want, no?  Even for me, who has 
been the Guide in this place for many year, yes, is still 
very hard to find specific spring in the way you ask.  Maybe 
the springs move, maybe they cloud the minds of men.  Even 
I do not know what really happen, nor any other man.  No map 
of cursed springs of Jusenkyo ever survive for very long, 
sir, did you know that?"

"Yes I did," Tarou grumbled irritably.  He'd encountered 
the problem before in his attempts to harness the power of 
the springs.  There was some aspect of the magic which made 
the place seem to shift, though he suspected it was only in 
memory rather than reality.  Locating an individual spring 
in the enchanted region was a treacherous task indeed.  
Careful testing was required to make certain the spring you 
found was the one you'd sought, and even then Jusenkyo 
played tricks on the unwary.  He'd found that out when he'd 
attempted to use the water of the Spring of the Drowned Good 
Samaritan on Happosai, and ended up with a flask of the 
wrong water in spite of his precautions.

It was harder with some springs than others, it seemed.  
Those who came to search for a cure always seemed to 
encounter difficulty, though he'd never had that problem 
himself.  He'd searched for weeks trying to find the pool 
into which Rouge had fallen to gain the godlike power of 
Ashura before finally giving it up entirely.  

Still, he knew he could do what he wanted to this time, and 
he would not be stopped.  Jusenkyo's mysterious nature was 
an inconvenience, nothing more.

The Guide continued to rattle on.  "There other persons who 
try to use springs in such a way recently, sir," he stammered.  
"Did you know?  Is very tragic story..."

"Shut up," Tarou snapped.  He reached out and hauled the 
Guide into the air by the collar of his shirt.  "You keep 
chattering and telling me things I already know.  I think 
you're trying to stall me, fat man."

"Put him down!" came an imperious command from behind them. 

Tarou released his grip.  The Guide fell to the ground in 
an ungainly heap and crawled backwards.  Tarou pivoted 
slowly towards the source of the voice, a menacing look 
in his eyes.  

A thin man in a uniform similar to the Guide's stood with 
his finger pointed at Tarou.  "So, we finally meet... 
Pantyhose Tarou!"

Tarou smirked.  "Let me guess.  You must be one of those 
idiots from the so-called Jusenkyo Secret Preservation 
Society.  I've been wondering when you'd show the guts to 
finally come after me."

"Ha!" the man barked.  "Long have you eluded us, villain, 
but at last your time has come!"

Tarou had heard about the Secret Preservation Society and 
their ridiculous agenda, though he had managed not to cross 
paths with them up to now.  They seemed to have some sort of 
ludicrous set of standards about how a Jusenkyo curse should 
or shouldn't be used, and they tended to chase down any 
unfortunate soul who had fallen into one of the springs and 
try to inflict their values upon them.  The whole thing would 
have been a total joke, if not for one factor.  

A shadow shifted in the forest, and a hulking figure emerged 
from the gloom.  Tarou knew him by reputation alone, but what 
he'd heard had been enough to command his respect.  It was 
Kiini, the enforcer for the Jusenkyo Secret Preservation 
Society, and the only reason anyone had to fear them.  

The muscle-bound Chinese warrior stepped forth into the 
light.  He brandished a great curving blade in one hand, 
twirling the monstrous weapon as easily as if it were a 
toothpick, and smiled down at Tarou.

The other speaker crossed his arms and looked satisfied.  
"You have abused the Springs of Jusenkyo as much as any 
man in history," he said.  "The time has come for you to 
pay for your crimes!"

"Oh please, do shut up," Tarou said with a yawn.  "My 
business is with your thug here, not you."

Kiini took an earth-shaking step forward and swung his 
sword to point at Tarou.  "Yes," he rumbled in a seismic 
voice, "your business IS with me!  I've been waiting for 
this chance, Pantyhose-boy!"

Tarou's hand crept behind his back, almost by instinct, 
towards his flask of water.  From what he knew about Kiini 
and his legendary Muscle Sword technique, this was not a 
man to be taken lightly.  Even in his monstrous cursed 
form, he had to be wary of a warrior who could part stone 
as easily as water with his powerful blade.  But he knew 
Kiini's weakness - he had a curse of his own which rendered 
him utterly harmless.  The warrior was quicker than his bulk 
would suggest, but Tarou was confident that his own speed 
was greater, and that he could slip the water through Kiini's 
defenses.  One splash was all it would take to end this 
fight...

<That's right, Garden-Hose,> came an unexpected and 
unwelcome voice in his head.  <Throw some water at your 
problems.  That's all you ever do.>

He ground his teeth in rage.  Who cared what that fanged 
idiot had said?  Tarou had always prided himself on never 
letting his emotions rule over his intellect.  What was the 
point of risking a dangerous fight when the path to victory 
was so easy?  Perhaps he should test his adversary's reflexes 
before trying to splash him, but there was no reason not to 
transform into his mighty cursed form.  

He drew the flask from behind him with the speed of a 
gunslinger.  Kiini flinched back, but no water splashed 
forth from the container.  Tarou had not opened the 
stopper.

Tarou smiled.  "Afraid of this, are you?" he taunted.  
Then, somewhat to his own surprise, he tossed the flask 
aside.  Part of him screamed that he was being a fool, but 
he refused to listen.  "I wouldn't want to scare you," he 
said.  

Kiini regarded the fallen flask suspiciously for a moment, 
as if suspecting some sort of trick, but then a grin spread 
across his angular features.  "So, the child wishes to test 
himself against the master of the 3,000 year old Muscle 
Sword technique, does he?"

The huge man spun the sword above his head like a propeller, 
and suddenly the wind rose and the ground shook.  The Guide 
and the spokesman of the Jusenkyo Preservation Society ran 
for cover as the earth trembled and rocks hurtled themselves 
skywards.  Power flowed from the swordsman in waves,  and 
Tarou shielded himself from the storm of debris.

"Come on!" Kiini shouted in a thunderous voice.  "Fight me!"

With a snarl of rage, Tarou leaped forth to battle.

- - - - - -

Ranma shimmied his way along the narrow ledge towards the 
outcropping of stone and looked back towards his friends.  
There wasn't too much room here, but it would be a good place 
to take a short break before pressing on to the second half 
of their climb.  He saw Ryouga making his way towards the 
ledge, with Ukyou following in the handholds he'd punched in 
the stone face and occasionally steering him back in the 
right direction.

Ranma took a drink from his flask and looked up the mountain 
wall.  It shouldn't take them more than two hours to clear 
this, he decided, and after that it was all downhill.  By the 
end of the day they'd reach the river, and the villagers had 
assured them that it would be easy to hitch a ride on one of 
the numerous junks and barges which traveled the running 
water.  

Ukyou and Ryouga were soon beside him on the ledge.  "Ain't 
gonna be long," he assured them with a smile.

"I can't wait to get out of these mountains," Ukyou said as 
she adjusted the ribbon which held her hair back.  "When we 
get to a real town, we're going out to eat!  Somebody else 
gets to do the cooking for a change."

Ryouga nodded.  "But first we take a hot bath," he insisted.  
"The first hot bath after a long journey is like a trip to 
heaven."

Ukyou grinned.  "I heard that, sugar.  I'm gonna soak my 
troubles away."

Ranma cracked a smile.  "I think we found somethin' we can 
all agree on," he observed.  The three of them laughed.

In truth, there really hadn't been much dissention in their 
small party since he began Ukyou's latest training.  
Concentrating on traveling and martial arts gave them 
plenty to think about, and there was little room for the 
kind of bickering that usually seemed to arise on its own 
accord between them.  He'd even gone back to trying to 
help Ryouga with his Amaguriken training, though he suspected 
that the lost boy might never quite have the speed to truly 
master the technique.  Ukyou's training was coming along 
better - even if he wasn't able to teach her what he really 
wanted her to learn, her general skill level was improving 
dramatically.  And he was almost there with the self-training 
he'd been doing in his dreams; a couple more nights and he 
was sure he'd have it down cold.

"I'll take the lead again," Ranma said.  "You guys think 
you can keep up?"

Ryouga smirked.  "Heh.  See if we don't beat you to the 
top!"

The competitiveness between Ranma and Ryouga would probably 
never go away, but there wasn't an angry edge to it anymore.  
They challenged and pushed each other, but there was a 
mutual respect between them now.  Ranma kind of liked it 
this way.  He also liked the way Ukyou seemed to have stopped 
dropping little hints and overtures all the time.  She could 
be pretty reasonable when there weren't other girls around, 
he decided.  Maybe it was because she'd pretended to be a 
boy for so long.

Ukyou was scanning the rock face, probably trying to plan 
out their route up.  "I wish we could climb like them," she 
said, pointing to a pair of mountain goats on a distant 
boulder.  "We'd have been out of these mountains a long time 
ago."

Ranma shielded his eyes and looked at the goats.  "Maybe we 
need to develop an Anything-Goes Mountain Goat Climbing 
Technique or somethin'..."

As he was watching, the two shaggy animals both tensed 
suddenly, staring back the way they'd come with ears 
pricked.  One of them let out a frightened bleat, and 
then they clattered out of sight.

The three martial artists looked at each other, smiles 
vanishing from their faces.

In the distance behind them, somewhere in the sparse 
mountain forest through which they'd just traveled, a 
monkey was screeching in a piercing, shrill voice.  

"Oh no," Ukyou whispered.

A flock of pheasants suddenly burst into the air, sunlight 
glimmering off their iridescent feathers as they beat their 
wings in fear.  

"Damn it!" Ranma shouted.  "Let's go!"

The other two needed no encouragement.  Ukyou followed close 
behind as Ranma scrambled up the cliff, while Ryouga took 
the rear.  He tried to keep his wits about him - climbing 
in a panic was an invitation for disaster - but his heart 
was thundering in his chest.  Even pushing themselves to 
their limit, they could only scale the cliff so quickly, 
but their pursuer was hindered by no obstacle.  After weeks 
of relative peace, the Reikoku had finally found them at 
the worst possible time.  

Ranma spared a look back down to see how his friends were 
doing, and he saw it.  It was little more a shambling black 
smudge at this distance, barely visible against the 
shadow-laced boulders below, but he could feel its presence 
like a hot, terrible wind in his face.  It was already at 
the bottom of the cliff face and beginning to climb.

"We're not gonna make it!" Ukyou cried.

She was right.  Ranma felt the terror coursing through his 
blood and knew they couldn't run.  There was only one 
chance.  He secured his handhold and fished in his backpack 
with his free hand, trying to concentrate and focus his fear 
where he wanted it to go...

"Ranma!" Ryouga shouted, interrupting his concentration.  

"What?"

"You'd better take care of her, damn you!" 

Ranma didn't know who he meant, but he realized what Ryouga 
intended to do.  "Ryouga... no!  Don't!"

"BAKUSAI TEN-KETSU!" Ryouga cried.

The face of the cliff exploded beneath Ryouga's striking 
fingers, and a torrent of stone erupted forth.  Rocks and 
boulders plummeted through in a chaotic tide of dust down 
the side of the mountain, burying the Reikoku under a wave 
of angry stone.  

Ranma watched in dismay as Ryouga dropped through the air 
as well, red umbrella in hand as he fell... 

- - - - - -



                    end of chapter seven



-----------------------------------------------------------
                      AUTHOR'S NOTES
-----------------------------------------------------------

A bit about some of the more obscure characters from this 
chapter...

ROUGE - A sweet, harmless-seeming girl who fell into the 
most powerful spring yet revealed in Jusenkyo.  According 
to the very tragic story of the Ashuraniichuan, a statue of 
the goddess Ashura was dropped in this spring 4,000 years 
ago, any person who falls in gains the power to turn into a 
giant 6-armed fireball throwing demigod.  She and Pantyhose 
Tarou clashed in one of the later manga stories, and she was 
demonstrated to be significantly more powerful than Tarou.  
Though it is not ever stated in the source material, I have 
taken the liberty of supposing a certain enchantment over 
Jusenkyo which makes some of the springs more difficult to 
find than others, because I'm pretty sure that such a 
powerful spring would be actively sought by ambitious 
sorts...

NATSUMI and KURUMI - I tend to use the manga as the primary 
canon for "Relentless," but when there's an anime episode 
that I think contributes to the series in a faithful fashion 
I like to weave that into the continuity as well.  The story 
of the martial artists who thought they were Akane's sisters 
is a 2-episode OAV which is commercially available in the 
U.S., and the characters appeared in the anime version of 
Ranma 1/2 only.  I liked the story and the characters, and 
we'll b seeing more of them as "Relentless" continues.  But 
why do they practice Anything-Goes Martial Arts?  Where did 
they learn it?  Hmm...

KIINI - Another anime-only character.  I wasn't overly 
thrilled with the "Once Upon a Time in Jusenkyo" episode 
of the anime from which Kiini originated, but it wasn't a 
bad show either, and it provided me someone to fight Pantyhose 
Tarou in this circumstance.  Kiini turns into a Buddhist monk 
when splashed by water - his is one of the curses which 
dramatically alters the personality as well as the body.  



There has been much debate amongst fans about whether there 
are actually students taking lessons in the Tendou dojo, 
since we never see them.  In one of the anime episodes, Soun 
says something about having "no steady source of income," but 
other than that we aren't given much clue.  My explanation 
is not to be taken as canon by any stretch, but I thought it 
fit the evidence well enough.

I would like to acknowledge my customers, my family, the 
I.R.S., some microscopic organisms, and Squaresoft for 
conspiring to help delay this chapter of "Relentless."  
I look forward to working at a faster clip through this 
spring and summer.

COMING SOON:  Ryouga vs. the Reikoku, round two... does 
he have a plan to keep from becoming P-Chan?  Can Tarou 
win his fight without resorting to using water?  What IS 
Ranma trying to teach Ukyou, anyway?  Can they ever hope to 
find Happosai after being out of touch so long?  Will Akane 
master the breaking point technique?  These questions and 
more will be answered in Chapter Eight...



COPYRIGHT STUFF:  All the Ranma characters belong to Takahashi Rumiko,
and are licensed in America by Viz Communications.    

GRT - March 1999
grayson@rigroup.net

All existing chapters of this story may be found at:
http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless