[FFML] [Ranma]Hengeyokai 8

"What are you doing, Akane?" Nabiki asked coolly.
Akane turned to her and blinked in confusion.
"To school, where else?" Akane demanded of her.
"No, you're recovering," Nabiki said. "Stay at
home and let's figure this out."
"You don't really believe that Yuka is dangerous do
you?" Akane asked. "It had to be some trick that
Ranma pulled."
"Nabiki is right to be cautious," Kasumi said
bringing in breakfast to set on the table. "Please
sit down, Akane."
"Oh my girls!" Soun wailed. "I have let my own
folly condemn you to this fate." Nabiki and Akane
rolled their eyes.
"Oh father, father, father," Kasumi sighed, shaking
her head. "You should really have thought this
through a little cautiously." Seeing that Kasumi was
giving him even gentle reproach sent Soun into deeper
paroxyms of grief.
"So what do we know here?" Nabiki asked, getting to
the point. "Very little, there are three supernatural
factions at work within the Nerima area..."
"Three?" Akane screeched. "What else is there?"
"Ranma," Kasumi said. "These demons,
and...ourselves." She hesitated on the last point.
"Oh..." Akane said quietly. Then she growled.
"That's right."
"Yes, and Ranma told the doctor there was a 'bad
bunch' out of China that got here ahead of him,"
Nabiki said.
"That really isn't enough information to proceed,"
Kasumi said softly. "We need to know what they both
are here for."
"Then we can tear that lying pervert to pieces for
what he did to us," Akane said angrily.
"By the way, Akane," Nabiki said. "I was his
fiancee, he surprised Kasumi, but you never said how
he got your kiss." Akane flashed beet red.
"That's not important," Akane said irritably.
"What is important now is getting that jerk, from you
say he even let his sister get hurt last night."
"Actually I'm not sure of that anymore," Nabiki
said. "Ranma's 'sister' had a much more identical
scent to his than we do to each other."
"You said they were both foxes," Kasumi noted.
Nabiki nodded, though looking around at the three of
them, sparrow, tanuki, and dog, made the thought of
two foxes in the same family seem odd.
"In any case we need information," Nabiki said. "I
think I know how to get some."
"You mean..." Akane paused, remembering how the
dogs howling in the night before had been howling
words during her brief time in hybrid form.
"I...suppose that is the safest way," Kasumi said.
"Oh dear...that'll be hard on you, Nabiki, there
aren't all that many tanuki in this day and age."
"It'll be harder on Ranma," Nabiki said smirking.
"And sparrows and dogs are everywhere."
"The first idiot to try to send me to the pound
gets hurt," Akane promised irritably.

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

"It's no use, Grandmother," Shampoo said coming
back as she dropped from the window onto her feet.
The former amazon now had a pair of violet blooms
braided into her hair, decorations that carried into
her cat form.
"You could find no information then,
Granddaughter?" Cologne asked.
"I found too much information," Shampoo said. "The
fox is here, the fox is there, the fox is everywhere,
the fox is nowhere. They think the fox runs away
before the cats can see him. Maybe he knows I am
looking for him this way?"
"More likely he is avoiding the cats for other
reasons," Cologne said. "Are friend Ranma has
suffered the neko-ken training according to his own
mouth." Shampoo froze in shock, suddenly worried.
"Do not provoke his fear too greatly, and it should
not be a problem. I dread to think what a creature
like him in the neko-ken would do."
"Perhaps Mousse's bats will bring a different
tale," Cologne said
She looked up into the ceiling as the named person
dropped to the floor and yawned. Shampoo's yawn
matched his, and she followed it by smacking her lips
a little.
"You will both be able to get some more sleep
soon," she promised.
"You don't have to sound so testy about it," Mousse
muttered. "Withered up old monkey." The resultant
knock on the head almost sent Mousse into a slumber.
"You respect your elders, Boy," she snapped. "Now
did you learn anything of import."
"Nothing more than what we learned last night,"
Mousse said, shrugging. "Bat's don't spend time
looking for foxes in the night."
"That leaves us with our other captive," Cologne
said.
"She's just a weak Japanese girl," Shampoo said,
shrugging the question of Sayuri aside as she worked
on arranging the sofa the previous owners had left.
It was the closest soft surface after all, but she
still had to get it to just the right amount of
comfort.
Mousse was reluctant to suggest torturing the girl
for what she knew. Suggesting such activity toward
any female, even "weak foreigners" such as Sayuri,
among even two ex-amazons was tantamount to suicide.
"I have already made arrangements for her," Cologne
said, apparently having noted Mousse's thoughts
regardless. "I think we should begin to get an idea
how to deal with hannya."

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

"He left me here with these gaijin...things,"
Sayuri grumbled to herself after listening to the
arguing. And after Ranma's escape they had closed and
locked the window, and tied up Sayuri. It wasn't as
though they expected Sayuri to make it as easy as
Ranma had, but they had their pride to think of.
Sayuri was currently working on the tied-up portion
of her problem. They may have taken a few extra
precautions to keep their remaining prisoner, but they
weren't nearly as cautious as they had been with
Ranma. It hadn't taken her long to find a suitably
sharp portion of the steel chair she was tied to and
start rubbing the rop along that portion.
"Warn the Tendos," Sayuri mutters. "And learn how
to 'get demons out of people' he says. How does he
expect me to do that stuck here? And the pervert
KISSED me!! Making me think he was going to make me a
werewolf or something, and all he's doing is sneaking
a kiss in."
She paused in working the rope to listen to the
discussion out in the front room for a moment. Being
in Chinese meant that she couldn't understand a word,
but she COULD tell that they were distracted. Sighing
in relief she cut the last strand of the rope.
Rubbing her hands she stood up and looked around
the room. In a moment she was quietly building a
small stair to the window that Ranma had escaped out
of. It had been difficult for him as a fox to work it
open enough, and it would be a tight fit even all the
way open for her, but it was the only escape she could
see. She wasn't going to stay with these strange
foreigners and wait for them to decide she was a
liability.
In climbing out of the room she almost kicked over
her improvised stair, but managed to avoid that as she
slowly dragged herself out of the window. She panted
on the other side.
"Okay, I have to find Akane," Sayuri said. "She'll
know what to do about...everybody. But one quick stop
first."
She failed to notice a small, irritated looking,
cat following her and yawning.

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

Ranma noted the scents around the botanical gardens
and frowned. He wasn't sure that he was safe going in
there, but the best clue about these things he'd
gotten yet was this vulnerability to violets. That
old woman probably knew more, but he already knew that
would be a bad way to get information.
Then there were his injuries. They were worse than
he had at first supposed after the nursing the Chinese
had given him.
He was sore all over, and he already realized that
he'd have to be very careful or else that first slash
would reopen and he'd be in trouble again. Still, he
thought he should be combat ready by the end of the
day.
He was reasonably certain of it at least.
Then he smelled someone coming and froze, before
his fox-face broke into a huge grin.
~I knew she'd get out,~ Ranma said. Then he
frowned. ~Damn, maybe I spoke too soon.~
He glanced around quickly to make sure nothing was
watching him, and then, with a shiver, turned into the
last thing Shampoo would be looking for him as.
Shampoo was chasing after the girl, grumbling about
how she wasn't going anywhere they didn't already know
about. At least the girl was smart enough to go get
some violets before she went too far.
"RRRRRRRRRR!!!!"
The frightened, shaky hissing surprised Shampoo and
she jumped away from the source of the sound prepared
for a fight. She'd learned that frightened cats
tended to do stupid things, like think they could take
her. The pathetic red cat that she saw was hardly
what she was expecting. There was something strange
about its aura, but she expected that was just the
terror she was seeing.
"W...w.why..d..did you step on me!?" the cat asked
shakily. "I w...w....wasn't doing nothing!" Shampoo
relaxed and rolled her eyes irritably at the terrified
cat.
"You're in my way stupid cat," Shampoo said. "I
didn't see you." She tried to go further, but the cat
hesitantly, moving like a superfast, twitchy bullet.
"D...didn't see me," the cat whined. "I was
r...r...right in the m....m...middle of the street."
"Get out of my way," Shampoo said, looming in the
other cat's face. "Or I'll HURT you!"
"I...if...if you want my territory," the cat said.
"I....I'll move..."
"I'm just passing through stupid!!" Shampoo shouted
in a roaring, hissing shout that sent the other cat
cringing. "Get out of way!"
At this point the other cat seemed to be shivering
uncontrollably.
"Hey, you," a shopkeeper said, batting at Shampoo
with a broom. "Shew, shew, get out of here!"
Shampoo grumbled angrily and let herself be chased
away. That girl couldn't be useful anyway, so why
bother going through all the trouble. It wasn't as if
she HAD any Amazon honor to maintain anymore. She
didn't see Sayuri step out after the cat had left.
"Thank you, sir," Sayuri said, then bent down to
the shivering cat, which strangely seemed to be
calming down.
"I've heard of being afraid of mice," the man said.
"But alley cats?"
"I've had problems with that one before," Sayuri
said grimmly, and then looked to the cute little red
cat that had alerted her to the shapechangers present.
"Poor dear, did that mean little bimbo scare you?
Ahh! You're cut up all over, that little foreign
bitch!"
"Err...how could you know that cat is foreign?" the
shopkeeper said.
"I know who her owner is," Sayuri said, picking up
the cat. The cat looked up at her blinking and meowed
quite convincingly before snuggling comfortably in the
nice human's arms.
"Oh, I see that," the man said. "You said you were
here for violets?"
"Yes," Sayuri said.
"Well," the man said. "Somebody had a fight in
here last night, and most of the violets were
scattered about. The police wouldn't come, said they
had bigger problems than 'vandals.' You can have what
you can find. I can't sell them."
"Oh thank you," she said. "I'm not really using
them for decoration anyway."
"Warding off evil?" the man asked jokingly. Sayuri
blinked and looked up.
"Hmmm?" she said. "Excuse me?"
"Just a joke," the man said. "There are a lot of
legends about violets from many parts of the world."
"Like what?" Sayuri asked.
"In one myth, they came about from the blood of a
slain god who's mother took the flowers and set them
as decorations to remember him," the shopkeeper said.
"The greeks thought that they were created when Zeus
turned the tears of one of his mistresses into flowers
to provide her food while she hid in the form of a
white cow. There are many such beliefs."
"But the warding off evil thing?" Sayuri said.
"Just one of the mythical uses," he said. "You
don't believe in that do you?"
"No..." Sayuri said. "That would be silly,
wouldn't it kitty." She blushed as she found herself
talking to the cat. ~At least this one won't talk
back to you. And when I get my hands on that fox,
he'll give me some better answers than just, 'this is
war.'~
In Sayuri's hands, the person in which the hope of
the world lay calmly considered the tantalizing way
that Sayuri's bangs hung down toward him.
"Oh stop playing with my hair, you," Sayuri said.
"You know girl," the shopkeeper said. "You seem
familiar."
"Well, I live around here," she answered, noticing
a paper blow by with the headling "girl kidnapped."
She did not want to be found publicly yet, not until
she got somewhere safer, like with Akane.

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

"The sparrows were...confusing," Kasumi said.
"They had a great deal of information about the
changing of the seasons and the where the best meal
worms can be found, though they've been competing with
the bats for such insects. At least they were all
quite polite. Oh yes, I am to watch out for cats
since they have been much more active since last
night."
"Okay," Nabiki said. "I struck out too, none of
the tanuki saw a fox in the last week, but they said
they'd keep an eye out. How about you Akane?"
"A fox fought a demon on Yuka's street," Akane said
soberly. "The dog said the fox was losing badly.
Whoever she was she's probably dead, and Sayuri with
her." Nabiki turned to her sister and laid a hand on
her sister's
"I really don't think so," Nabiki said. "Otherwise
Yuka wouldn't be trying to draw them out with that
news story. She or it'd make something else up."
"That still leaves Yuka," Akane said quietly. "My
two best friends, and ones missing while the other is
taken over by some demon, while I'm in bed because
some pervert wanted to satisfy some weird wet dream."
"Everything will work out fine," Kasumi promised
her.
"Tadaima!" a desparate and nervous sounding voice
called out. "Is anybody here?"
"Sayuri?" Akane blinked, then she was up and
running as the caller's scent was brought to them.
"What are you doing here? The news said you were
kidnapped! Oh, what a cute cat!" She leaned down
tickled the yawning cat.
"He got in a fight he shouldn't have," Sayuri said,
she glanced at the speckled brown color of Akane's
hair and sighed nervously. "Akane, I have to tell you
about Yuka." Akane turned grave and looked up.
"I know," Akane said. "She's possessed by some
demon, and it's all that Ranma's fault!" The cat in
Sayuri's hand seemed to look at her strange as she
said that, but that had to be imagination.
"There's more Akane," Sayuri said. "Umm, is Kasumi
awake yet? I'd like her to see to...um...Cat here."
~Oh, real original name there.~
"Yeah, sure," Akane said. "Hey, wait, how'd you
know about Kasumi."
"Ranma," Sayuri said simply. Akane nodded and
narrowed her eyes.
Nabiki saw the girls come back in with the cat, and
just to be on the safe side looked the cat's aura over
carefully. Everything seemed perfectly cat like about
the little creature. Nabiki watched a little longer
just to be sure and then paid it no mind.
"Oh my," Kasumi said. "What happened to the poor
thing?"
"He got into a fight with something like Ranma,"
Sayuri said. That brought the attention of all in the
room. "Can you patch him up, Kasumi?"
"Of course, please," Kasumi answered. "Take a
seat." She accepted the cat, which reluctantly left
Sayuri's grasp to allow itself to be held by a new
human. Kasumi blushed as the cat sniffed her and
proceeded to happily lick at her hand.
"Well, seems like he likes you Kasumi," Nabiki
said. "Or at least how you taste." She smirked as
Kasumi gave her a firm reproving look and walked into
the bathroom to find the first aid kit.
"So what were you doing with Ranma?" Akane asked.
Sayuri took a deep breath and began to tell the story
of what had happened to her last night.

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

Ranma blinked awake with a feeling of warmth and
looked about. Suddenly he froze as he smelled the cat
in the room. It was a few moments before he
remembered that he was the cat, and his terror was
reduced to mere discomfort.
Then the terror came back as Ranma realized where
he was. In Tendo tea room. With the three AWAKENED
Tendo sisters. In Sayuri's lap. This was not good,
how had he gone so long undetected. He didn't think
he could fake a cat aura for much longer than a minute
or two.
Unless, of course, he had fallen into the neko-ken.
Ranma would have smacked himself in the head if he
could.
"Settle down, Cat," Sayuri said gently, stroking
Ranma soothingly. "Kasumi said you had to take it
easy for a few days." She sounded somewhat worried.
~I wonder where she got that name,~ Ranma asked as
he puzzled out the English word.
Ranma would have purred if the fact that he was
currently a cat in a room with people that would skin
him alive the moment they recognized him.
"So there's a fourth faction in town," Nabiki said.
"And Kuno is one of the demons, too."
"Ranma said there were three of them," Sayuri said.
"Then he left me to get myself away from those
gaijin."
"He's a perverted jerk all right," Akane said,
trying to work around the whole fact that Ranma had
been female for most of Sayuri's rescue.
"He's going after six more people then," Kasumi
said.
"And the question is," Nabiki said. "Do we stop
him?" The table was quiet for a moment.
"Well, of course we stop him!" Akane said.
"Otherwise we're just as bad as he is! And if he
REALLY only did it to keep us from being possessed,
what about Yuka and Sayuri?"
"He said it would kill me," Sayuri said irritably.
"Pervert probably just didn't want to bother with
you," Akane said, unaware that that was pretty much an
insult to Sayuri and Yuka.
"Sayuri," Kasumi said. "Why don't you take Cat
upstairs and make him a box and then we'll get back to
this."
"Hai, Kasumi-san," Sayuri said, giving her friend a
hard look that Akane missed. ~Wonder what she would
say if I included that kiss in my story.~
She realized that Akane was going through a hard
time, but so was she damn it. She'd just spent a day
thinking one of her best friends was dying, been
attacked by her other friend, chased through the
streets by a demon and held prisoner by Chinese
barbarians.
She had finished settling Cat into a bed and was
leaving the room when a rustling alerted her. She
turned about to see a little red fox with a sheepish
expression look at her apologetically and then jump
out the window.
~He sat there in my lap the whole time,~ she
thought. ~And at my chest...and
I....ARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!~
"THAT PERVERTED LITTLE FOX!!!"

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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