Ranma 1/2

Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, Rumiko Takahashi does. I just borrowed some of the characters. Rated: NC-17

Shades of Home

Chapter 34

Ranma didn’t wake up till almost noon. He’d had a really hard last few weeks and he decided not to set his internal alarm at all. He’d just wake when he felt like it for once and he wasn’t going to train at all for the first time in more than three years.

When Ranma finally did wake up, he felt eyes on him immediately. Sunny was leaning against the door frame snickering softly. His huge yawn had alerted her that he was waking up.

“Hello sleepy head. I thought you’d never get up. You feel better?

Ranma grinned at Sunny and held out his arms, three short steps and Sunny launched herself into them with a glad cry. They sat on the bed just hugging and enjoying each other’s touch. The door was open, so they didn’t even go past French kissing. But Ranma paid the price for even that much.

“Koi? . . . you better get offa me. I’m gettn’ too hot.”

Sunny dragged herself off Ranma, taking her time and doing her best to make sure Ranma understood how reluctant she was. Ranma finally scooped her up and deposited her on her feet with one last kiss with which he made sure she still had her tonsils.

“Love ya. But I’m about to starve and I can’t be seen in the mess with a hard on. I’m takin’ a very cold shower . . . Off. Off.”

“Ok Mr. Prude. But I’ll have you know that Steven has gotten rid of the proctors. I’m glad too. I always felt like I was in some kind of reformatory or something.”

Sunny left to let Ranma take a shower and get dressed. When he came out of his room, he was dressed in jeans and a t shirt. He looked just like any other muscular sixteen-year-old boy. He ambled over to Sunny, plopped down between her spread knees with his back to her and handed her a hairbrush with an elastic around the handle.

“Brush this mess, will ya. And use the elastic on the handle. No more improvising with threads and stuff. I hate it when my hair falls into my eyes. I ought to cut off about half of it.”

Sunny griped Ranma by his bangs, tipped his head back and kissed his nose.

“If you value your life, you won’t even contemplate that. I’ll tell you when you need a hair cut. If you want your bangs trimmed, I’ll do it tonight. Ok! You understand me, Mister!”

“Ma’am; yes, ma’am! Not a hair, not unless you do it. I promise.”

{This is so different from before. Akane was always at me to cut it. And Soun kept tellin’ me I looked like a girl. Now Sunny loves my hair. I’m truly happy for the first time in my life.}

~ * ~

Sunny and Ranma wandered into the Mess Hall and got trays. Ranma, as usual, got at least twice what anyone else would even consider eating. As they made their way to a table Ranma scanned the room. He was always doing that and supposed he always would. They got seated and Ranma was just getting ready to dig in when he saw a man with a steel fan.

Ranma approached the man with the fan. He knew the man didn’t have a clue

“Hey, you know you’re not suppose to have weapons in the mess. That fan’s not a good idea.”

“What? It’s a fan!”

“Come sit with us and I’ll explain ‘K?”

The man sat with Ranma and Sunny. Ranma reached over and took the fan.

“It’s a steel fan, a real martial arts weapon. Looks innocent dosn’t it? But you can cut a man’s throat with it before he even knows he’s threatened. See?”

Ranma opened the fan all the way and showed the ribs were made of steel. The silk covering was prettily embroidered and the whole thing looked so innocent.

“May I? “

Ranma reached over to Sunny’s tray and took her apple. Tossing it into the air Ranma flicked his wrist twice, plucked the quarters of the apple out of the air and deposited them back on the tray.

“Thank you Ranma-kun.”

Sunny smiled proudly. He was so smart and very clever as well. He was teaching the man about weapons without embarrassing him or getting him on the defensive.

“Wow! I never saw anything like it. I just thought it was pretty, so I got it for my girl in America.”

“Well, the fan is considered a woman’s weapon, but here in Japan men use fans like this too. They are just everywhere. One of the reasons women use fans is they are pretty. Look.”

Ranma suddenly changed into Ranko. He looked at the man over the edge of the fan and batted his eyelashes, smiling seductively. Then he rolled the fan between his fingers, snapping it closed and then open again. He flicked the fan through a series of beautiful passes then closed it and tapped it on his chin, tilting his head coyly.

“Mean while you’re bleedin’ your life out on the floor.”

The man looked down and realized that Ranma had cut all the buttons off his outer shirt and shredded his neck tie.

“Shit. I didn’t even notice. You are one scary dude. Man or woman, I don’t want ya mad at me. I really don’t want to meet you in a dark alley.. . . Un.. . . Well, thanks. I think I’ll take that fan and put it in my foot locker then I’m changin’ my shirt. Will you autograph it for me?”

Ranko blinked, changed into Ranma, and autographed the shirt with a very bemused expression on his face.

“Geeze. That guy wanted my autograph. Like I’m a rock star or somethin’ I don’t believe it.”

Sunny giggled, things were getting back to normal, she’d missed this so much. Ranma always seemed to attract this sort of attention. But she didn’t mind.

Ranma laughed softly.

“Well, that went over well. I was afraid he wouldn’t listen. I think making it funny really helped. What do you think?”

“I think that man listened to you better because you didn’t make the lesson threatening . . . Ranma, what are you up to?”

“I don’t really know, I just . . . well never mind.”

Ranma tucked into the tray of food in front of him.

~ * ~

Vignette

I wonder if the kid would consider teaching an advanced class of some kind. He really took the sting out of that lesson.

He’s a George. I don’t know if he’d teach a class or not. But it wouldn’t hurt to ask. He’s really good, not cocky or arrogant, treated that guy real nice.

If he’s a George I’d really like to get him to teach advanced classes. The advanced guys come in with all kinds of misconceptions. That kid could really cure them without doing a lot of damage, especially since he’s not conceited in the least.

(A/N *Snicker*cough*wheeze*)

~ * ~

“Oh! Ranma I nearly forgot we have to go to the school today classes start tomorrow so we have to get our schedules for right now it’s just you, me and Shuba everyone else is going away. Danny will be in America where he’s already graduated in their system Ryouga and Leela will share tutors with Kuno and Kodachi I personally don’t see why we have to have a schedule when it’s going to be just the three of us but there you are.”

“Damnit! Don’t tell me I’ve spent the whole break in the stockade. I swear, just once I’d like to get a break. I’ve passed every test they’ve thrown at me and come back for more, but if they don’t cut me some slack soon, I’m gonna kick over the traces big time. I’m runnin’ for the hills.”

“Ranma don’t freak out on me. There’s only this one more class we have to take Socialization or social skills 101 it’s really fun stuff like ball room dancing and how to write thank you notes and what fork to use art classes that kind of stuff. I guess they’re trying to keep us from turning into a bunch of little savages.”

Ranma laughed so hard he nearly choked on his rice.

“Too late for me. Maybe I could teach a class. Advanced Barbarism, what do you think?’

Yeah and survival, any martial art, sharp shooting, troop management, I’m sure there are a lot more but I can’t think of them. You’re smart Ranma I wish you would quit selling yourself short like that”

“I’m not sellin myself short or any other way. I just know what I am. I don’t have any social skills outside what it takes to stay out of jail,” Ranma froze for a second. “Most of the time that is. Pop didn’t think I needed them and neither did I, now that I know better, maybe that class isn’t such a bad idea after all. “

Sunny just smiled at Ranma, she was looking forward to this class, ball room dancing with a skilled martial artist like Ranma was going to be fun. They’d been swing dancing for a while, but the dance club had fallen apart from lack of members, so there was no excuse for her to dance with him.

Ranma smiled back, he wanted to dance with Sunny. She was so light and quick on her feet it was a pleasure to dance with her. Not like the wrestling match dancing with someone else had been. He hadn’t liked skating with her either. {I wonder if Sunny can skate}

Ranma gathered the remains of his lunch and, stacking Sunny’s tray on his, took the trays to the drop off. Gathering Sunny under his arm, he headed for the school building.

“Sunny?’

“Yes, kichu koibito.”

“Suki da.”

“Yeah, Suki da.”

They walked in companionable silence for a while

“Hey Sunny, you know why they have such a big building for maybe six or seven kids?”

“Yeah, it’s the old class building. They built a new one for the Compound proper last year. There’s a lot of guys that want to take College classes, get a degree in something or the other. We don’t spend all our time fighting and training, do we?”

“Nope. But I hate to see a whole building wasted that way. They should do something better with it than keep it for just us. “

“I think Steven had plans for it before Downs and his crew got involved in it. After we pass this last requirement, we’re all college freshmen and we’ll be attending classes in the new building . . . what do you want to do? Do you have any idea?”

“Whada ya mean . . . “

Sunny interrupted Ranma softly, saying, “Ranma you mean to say ‘what do you mean’ I’m sorry, I hate to interrupt you, but I’m going to. Your English is really good, but when you speak Japanese you sound like a harvest hand or a dock worker. You can’t keep that up. I . . .”

“Yeah, I’ve seriously considered speech therapy or whatever. I need to learn to talk better. I can’t command men if they don’t respect me and they won’t if I sound like a ignoramus. I been listenin’ to guys around me, especially Kuno. Since he’s been on medication, he’s not half bad and he talks real pretty. I ain’t never gonna sound like him, it’s not in my nature I don’t think. But I think I’m gettin better. Ne?”

“Aho! You’ll learn. All you have to do is listen to people like Steven and Dorie, Kuno’s good too, but I can only stand so much of him, he’s too high class. But, Itoshii, you can do anything you put your mind to. Just don’t get down on yourself, I don’t care how you talk.”

“Thanks bishoujou . . . what the hell!”

Ranma felt a cold chill, the shadow that had passed over him wasn’t a bird, not even a very big bird made a shadow like that.

“Sunny, go into the building and don’t come out. If you need to go anywhere, use the old maintenance tunnel. Go on! Call Steven and tell him the shit just hit the fan.”

Ranma started after the shadow and caught up to it just in time to see what it came from. Something nasty swooped down and snatched a screaming man from the ground; a chopped off scream and a crunch left no doubt what the thing wanted with a human.

“Marisheten save me!”

Ranma looked up at the beastie that had just flown away with a full-grown man, eating him like a chicken wing. He’d never seen anything like it but he knew it was in the Deamondex, nothing like that could have been missed.

Steven slammed the phone down on the cradle so hard the whole phone shattered. He couldn’t believe they had just lost a man to a wyvern. The observers all agreed that it was the only thing possible.

“Steven, I told ya somethin’ was still up there. Fuckin’ great big flyin’ snake thing, where’s a deamondex when ya need one. I’d . . .”

“Quiet!” Steven exhaled thought his nose slowly, “It’s a wyvern. We got more shit on our hands than a . . . . son of a bitch. I wish I’d listened to you, now we’ve got to find that damn thing and kill it. But it took off in the direction of Nerima. Fuck! “

Steven slammed both hands down on his desk. They were in a lot of trouble. Kuno and Ryouga had taken Kodachi out of the country to see a specialist. They would be out of touch until their plane landed and it had to be all over before they had time to get back, it would take at least six more hours for them to get where they were going and they might not even get in touch for another day or two. So, through no fault of theirs, they couldn’t be counted on.

That left Steven and Ranma to deal with a wyvern.

Ranma expressed himself thoroughly, forcefully, and foully; starting with Shit and going rapidly down hill from there. When he calmed down, he read the ‘dex and sighed.

“Well stick a fork in me. Can you find that thing or do I have to do that too?”

“No, we’ve got choppers in the air searching right now. If we can’t find it soon, it’s going to disappear again.”

“No, it won’t, it’s hungry and it’s gonna hunt. All we have to do is follow the string of missing cattle and people, the one’s who got snatched into empty air.”

Just then Sunny walked in with a pot of tea and three cups. She poured tea and handed a cup to Ranma and another to Steven, taking her own cup, she raised it to the two men and watched as Ranma sipped. Steven smelled the tea and declined any.

Ranma knew exactly what he was drinking, it was a combination of herbs Sunny had compounded herself. It would calm him without making him logy or confused in anyway.

He admitted that he needed it badly. He was pissed, at himself, at Steven, the chopper pilots and maybe just life in general.

“Damnit, this is one of those times I wish I didn’t know anything about martial arts. I’ve got to figure out some way to kill that thing. I’m so not looking forward to trying to kill a nest of those things.”

“They’re solitary.”

“That’s not what the ‘dex said.” Ranma yanked on his pigtail grumping, “Kami! I wish you’d get that thing updated.”

“The ‘dex was programed by a bunch of poor saps trying to make sense of a bunch of contradictory info. They did the best they could. But Wyverns are solitary. They may start out in a nest but the strongest eat the weaker ones until there is only one left. Either because it ate all the others or because the smarter of the weaker ones ran. So we have a solitary Wyvern, hungry and hunting.”

“Well, ok, but, . . . “ Ranma sipped his tea and tried to calm down. “Get Shuba to put his skills to work. I don’t know exactly what needs to be done. I just know we need to find that thing and kill it quick. What if it breeds? What if it’s pregnant? Makes me nervous just thinking about it.”

“Wyverns are oviparous. Make a nest like a giant chicken and sit on it.” Steven hoped to lighten the mood by comparing the wyvern to a chicken.

“Well Whoopee ding dong. Makes me feel a lot better. A giant, scaly, man-eating chicken thing sitting on a nest full of eggs that’ll hatch out into more of the fuckers. Great.”

“Ranma, calm down.” Steven reached over and patted Ranma, “We’ll find it. Then you and I go out and kill it. Simple.”

Ranma slammed his cup down so hard it broke. He clenched his hands into fists, eyeing the bits of china

“Yeah . . . real simple, but not easy by any means, and how many men are we going to lose trying to get to that thing. It’s a grizzly. So . . . “

“Ranma, it is a grizzly, so there’s no use in any men getting anywhere near it. You and I and enough men to get us up to wherever it is. That’s all. We need a chopper crew and maybe four other men, if that. Depends on where it holes up.”

Ranma took a deep breath. Steven was right. He hated to think of all the men who’d died trying to kill something that they didn’t have the tools for. But now that they had gotten a handle on what was what, they knew more or less what they needed to do the job. Thank Marishiten for small favors.

~ * ~

Ranma looked around the communications center. Every man and woman in the room was busily doing their best to find the Wyvern. He wasn’t sure why he was here or Steven either. They didn’t know how to use any of the equipment and were more or less just getting in the way and bothering people.

“Steven, let’s get out of here. We’re just in the way and bothering people who really don’t have the time to answer ‘are we there yet’ every ten seconds. We’re just wasting our time and making nuances of ourselves.”

Steven eyed Ranma wearily and then nodded, Ranma was right. He didn’t know why he felt the need to be here. There were other things he could be doing that were a lot more useful. Like making sure that his pack had everything in it that he might need. Or even just taking a nap so he would be rested.

“You’re right. Let’s get out of these people’s way and let them do their job in peace. I’m going to go find Dorie and make hay. Then I’ll be around. You can get me on my phone I’ll keep it with me and turned on.”

Steven stretched and yawned as he walked out the door, he was going to find his wife and then he was going to take a nap, eat something and wait for a report.

Ranma headed for the bath house, he was so tense, he decided to see if a hot soak wouldn’t loosen up his muscles. He’d keep his phone with him, like Steven, and with his watch/tracer they could find him easy.

~ * ~

Ranma had just gotten into the tub and started to relax when someone rattled the shoji calling, “Can we come in? There’s not enough room in the other tubs. Do you mind?”

Ranma groaned, but the voice sounded like an older man and they usualy weren’t trouble, so he called out to them to come in.

“As long as you don’t wanna fight with me or nothin’. I’m tired and I don’t wanna put up with no shit.”

At the soft gasp, Ranma opened an eye, then sat up straight. The men wanting to join him were the three judges. He looked them over and liked what he saw. Even thought they were desk jockeys, they were all three well set up, older yes, but still firm and hard, with good muscle tone and lean, hard bodies.

“Well? Ya gonna stand there like a bunch a storks or ya gonna get in the tub? Sorry about starin’, I know it’s rude but I’m kinda used to checkin’ people out.”

The three men slid into the tub with a minimum of fuss. They had all been in Japan for a while, so they were used to the idea of communal bathing.

Ranma leaned back and let the men get comfortable, he wasn’t going to bother them and he assumed that they weren’t much interested in him either. Was he wrong.

“Look, I know you’re probably sick and tired of stupid questions, but I’ve got a bump of curiosity that’s as big as I am. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a buch of personal questions.”

Ranma opened his eyes and looked at the man for a moment. Then he just closed them and nodded, saying, “I don’t mind questions, if you don’t mind me sayin’ it’s none of your business on some of them.“

“Ok. Fair enough . . . I don’t understand how the slavers made you do what they wanted, you’re so strong, I’d have thought you’d just walk off.”

“The collar they put on me bonded to my chi and they used it to punish me. It was like being dipped in lava, only it just went on and on. I’d pass out and wake up wherever they wanted me. And every time I disobeyed, they’d not only punish me but someone else too. They found out that I’ll do almost anything to keep someone else from sufferin’. I can’t stand that. So they used it against me.”

All three judges looked disgusted. That was something despicable, to use Ranma’s soft heart against him.

“Say, I can’t just keep thinkin’ of you as the three judges, you guys got names or did they forget to issue ya one in your duffel.”

“Damn, sorry, I’m Prescot, he’s Anderson, and this jerk is Foreman. We’re all generals. Just call us by our names, saying general get’s confusing real quick, besides we’re all off duty now and sharing a tub. Seems a little stupid to stand on formalities when we’re all naked and wet.”

“Ok. And you can call me Ranma. But please don’t call me Ran-chan. Only my best friends call me that.”

“I looked that one up, I don’t get it. Ran is wild, chan is little, right? “

“Yeah, but the best translation is honey.”

“I give up! Next question. You said the slavers made you kill, how the hell did they do that? That’s just about the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard of.”

“Well . . . it’s a kinda long story. But you’ve been nice to me, so here goes. They made me a gladiator, I wasn’t much interested so I just refused to fight the guy they set me against. Instead of lettin’ him kill me, (I was kinda hopin’ they would), they took us both out of the arena and made me watch them whip him to death. Then they told me that was what would happen to every opponent I didn’t fight. So the next opponent I went up against I killed as quick as I could, so he wouldn’t suffer. That made ‘em really mad, so they took me to the arena of punishment. They nearly whipped me to death and the crowd really loved it. They worked on me for most of a day. Wore out two whip masters . . . Hey! Do not puke in the tub.”

Anderson had to leave the room rather quickly. Ranma watched as he stumbled out, holding one hand over his mouth and the other over his stomach.

“Geeze. Don’t ask questions if ya can’t stand the answers. What set him off?”

Prescot and Foreman eyed Ranma as he stood in the tub watching Anderson leave. His scars showed up bright and gruesome in the daylight streaming in through the open shoji leading to the engawa.

“Un . . . I think the view of that was what finally did him in. His son is about your age. Last question, if you don’t mind?”

“Ask.”

“What were you doing in the sale barn that Steven raided? I’d have thought you were too valuable to get rid of.”

“I’m so stubborn that even gladiatorial trainers couldn’t cope with me. So they decided to get rid of me 'cause I was giving the other slaves ideas. They were sendin’ me to the mines. By the time Steven got to me I was such a mess, you wouldn’t believe it. “

Anderson came back in, apologizing and asking what he’d missed. When he was told that they were going to send Ranma to mines somewhere, he just slid into the tub and submerged himself, mumbling something about raiding mines and skeletons.

“So when Steven rescued you . . . what?”

“What? By then, I didn’t trust anyone and all I wanted was a safe place. Steven could make anyone feel safe and he knew what I’d been through, except he was born a slave . . . you tell anyone and I’ll hunt ya down and strangle ya in your sleep . . . so we got along real good. He put up with me being a total head case and I trusted him with everything. He even understood about the mushrooms.”

“You don’t strike me as a drug user type.”

Ranma blinked at the man for a second, then laughed.

“I don’t use drugs. I was so messed up, I was afraid I couldn’t control my temper. I never lost control of my powers, so I was really afraid of what I might do if I lost control of it. I decided to ‘take myself out’ if I was ever convinced I was dangerous to others.”

All three men just stared at Ranma for the longest moment. Then Foreman growled, “You mean you were going to commit suicide if you thought you might be dangerous to others?”

“Sure. It’s not like I want to die. But I won’t have innocent blood on my hands. Not again. Not ever.”

Ranma looked so fierce that Foreman was glad he was on their side.

“So, Downs is so full of shit his eyes are brown. I’m so gonna enjoy turning him over to Levenworth.”

“What’s that? I heard of it before, I think.”

Ranma scrunched his face up, trying to remember what he’d heard, and looked so young that all three men wondered how anyone really looking at him could have called him a violent, psycho killer. He looked about twelve, maybe.

“Levenworth is the American military prison, the one where the big time offenders go. We’re sending him to America to stand trial for crimes there. But he’s also got to go to Russia. We’re sending him there last. “ At Ranma’s raised eyebrow he explained, “It’s just tradition, but the last country who has a trial usualy retains custody of the individual and they serve all their sentences in that country . . . Russian prisons are quite bad. Ever heard of the Gulag? Probably not as bad as a slave what ever you call it. But not good.”

Ranma threw back his head and laughed. He laughed til he couldn’t catch his breath and sank down in the tub to snicker occasionally until Anderson asked his question.

“Son, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? You can’t do this forever.”

“If I live long enough to be old, I’ll probably teach. I’d like to try to teach anyway. There will be times when there aren’t any incursions. The experts say they won’t last long, probably only six to nine months. But incursions will be spread throughout all the different jurisdictions. I’m only responsible for Japan and parts of China, Viet Nam, places like that So I’m not spread as thin as some. There’s only two people for all of Russia and half of China and the Chinese aren’t real forth coming with intel. There will be times that I don’t have anything to do but train, and I don’t like over training, it doesn’t help, so I might as well teach what they can learn.”

Ranma’s phone went off and he reached over the side of the tub to get it. All three men flinched as he showed them his back again.

“Moshi Moshi. Saotome . . . yeah . . . no . . . I’ll be there in twenty minutes, unless you need me sooner. No . . . sayonara.”

Ranma folded his phone up and got out of the tub. He sauntered toward the door, wringing the water out of his hair. He picked up a towel and wrapped it around his waist and draped another over his shoulders.

“Would one of you please tell the other two to close their mouths? I know I look like shit but I really don’t appreciate that particular horrified look, kinda sets my teeth on edge, if ya know what I mean.”

Three mouths snapped shut with almost audible clicks.

Ranma turned to them and smiled that sweet, shy smile that made anyone who saw it wonder how anyone could think he was anything but a true angel.

“I gotta go kill a wyvern. The damn thing has gotten into Nerima. Even those people are panicking. See ya around? Or do ya have to go somewhere?”

Ranma left as casually as if he was going to a movie, rubbing his hair with a towel in preparation to braiding it.

~ * ~
Vignette

"Damnit, he looks like they really did try to whip him to death. Downs said he was just dramatizing himself. A more unprepossessing boy I’ve never seen."

"Yeah and he just wanders out like he’s going to hang with his friends and says ‘I gotta go kill a wyvern.’ Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill one of those?"

"No and I don’t want to."

~ * ~

Ranma gathered up his equipment and headed for the chopper that would take him to Nerima. He knew exactly where the Wyvern was and he was trying to organize his thoughts.

Getting to the thing wasn’t the problem, getting it to follow him out of the city so the damage was contained to crops and grass land was.

Ranma climbed into the chopper and belted himself into the flight engineer’s seat. He could see out of the chopper from here without being in the way of the pilot or copilot.

The flight into Nerima didn’t take more than 15 minutes, at most. Ranma didn’t enjoy the flight in the least, all he could do was worry about what he was going to see when he got there. And it was as bad as he’d feared. The wyvern was in the outskirts of Nerima, tearing up the area like a, well, like a monster should. It was wreaking buildings in a clear attempt to find food.

The creature was approximately twenty feet long, but it was impossible to tell exactly, because its snake like body was in continuous motion, coiling and flexing. It had two legs, somewhat chicken like, if a chicken had razor sharp, eight inch long claws. It had a tail that was half again as long as its body, tipped with a dark stinger which dripped poison. The wings were bat like and flapped slowly. It had a crocodile like head and ferocious teeth. All in all not something you really wanted to mess around with.

“See if you can’t get me close to the thing. I’d like to get a better idea of how big it is.”

As the chopper circled, Ranma got more and more angry, he should have found the thing before it got this big. There was no excuse for him. He’d been lazy, incompetent and down right stupid. If he’d only insisted that Steven order a thorough search, but he hadn’t and now he had to face the consequences.

“Can you tell how big it is? I need some kind of reference. Damnit, that thing has to be really big.”

“Ranma, that wyvern is at least twenty feet long. And the wing span is around twenty. It’s skinny, but judging it by the same parameters I’d use on a cow or horse, it has to weight in at around six to eight tons. How are we going to kill something like that?”

Ranma watched the wyvern as it strode through the streets, tearing up buildings like doll houses. It was going to be hard to get out of the town, never mind kill.

“You don’t have to kill it. I do. All you have to do is get it out of town. If it will follow us, we could lead it somewhere and I can get my hands on it. Buzz it. Maybe that will get it moving in the direction we want it to go. It might chase us, like we’re rivals or something.”

The pilot thought about that for a second, then agreed with Ranma and buzzed the wyvern. They found out that the wyvern’s wings were for more than flying. The heavy knuckle made a good battering ram. It almost hit the chopper and the wind of its attack made the chopper shudder.

“Shit! That’s all I need, a crashed chopper. Look for some way to get it to follow us without us getting attacked. ok?”

“Sure thing Ranma. I’d rather not crash. We also have to watch out for the rotors. Once that’s stopped this thing flies like a rock. I’d can’t auto rotate with a broken rotor.”

The chopper pilot managed to get the wyvern to follow the chopper by flying around its head like a fly buzzing a horse. It aggravated the thing and while it roared and snarled, it followed the chopper, but it was clear that the chopper could out fly it easily. Ranma directed the pilot to lure the wyvern as far as he could but also to try finding a place that the wyvern would want to stay.

~ * ~

Vignette

"May I have a pot of tea please?"

"Yes, ma’am; it’ll be a few moments. We’re watching the wyvern on TV, Would you like to see too?"

"No, I don’t need to watch my useless son make a fool of himself."

"Saotome is your son? You’re Nodoka?"

"Yes, I am. May I please have my tea?"

"I’ll call the manager."

"Onna, I’m the manager of this establishment and as a representative of the entire staff I’ll have to ask you to leave the premises. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone and we are refusing to serve you."

"Excuse me?"

"Please leave now. Thank you."

~ * ~

Ranma took a stand right outside the valley they’d managed to lure the wyvern to, he had his AK-47 and more ammo than anyone else could carry. He’d gotten ammo before he’d come down from the mountains and never turned it in.

Ranma used the AK-47 to shoot the wyverns wings. He sighted in on the delicate bones that held the wings open. He knew that he couldn’t do anything about the large muscles that flapped the wings, but no amount of flapping would do anything if the wings didn’t extend. He used bursts of fire and fractured the bones of each wing, crippling the beast so it couldn’t fly, Then he sat down and cried like a baby. It made him sick to do such a thing, but what else could he do? He couldn’t let it get into Nerima.

“Fuck I hate this part of my job. Why couldn’t I be a damn librarian or somethin’?”

Ranma sighed and started watching the wyvern. It was just laying down moaning, but he knew the minute it saw him, he was going to have the fight of his life on his hands. The feet were clawed and even thought the small bones of the wings were broken, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t use them as battering rams. He’d had run-ins with geese when he was a kid so he had some idea of how wings could be used as weapons.

The wyvern screamed and tried to fly away, all it could do was flap the main beam of its wing, the membranes wouldn’t extend, they stayed folded. Ranma could see that it was in pain, he was going to have to kill it soon, he couldn’t stand to see it in pain, especially since he’d caused it.

He swiped the tears off his face with one hand, holding on to the AK-47 with the other. He’d sent the chopper back to base, so when he heard the whap of a rotor, he knew Steven was on his way.

Steven jumped out of the chopper and ran over to Ranma. He saw the tears on his face and jumped to the only conclusion he could. Ranma had to be wounded badly to be weeping like that.

“Where are you hurt? How bad is it?”

Steven pulled Ranma into his arms and started to pat him down, looking for the wound.

“I’m not cut. It’s just. . . .oh shit Steven. Some of the things I have to do make me sick. Look!”

Ranma pointed to the wyvern. Steven looked at the monster. It was still trying to fly, beating it’s useless wings and screaming.

“Damnit.“ Steven grimaced, he knew it was necessary to keep the wyvern from flying but this was hard. “I wish you’d waited for me. I’ve done things like this before. You shouldn’t bear the brunt of every attack by yourself.”

Ranma gripped the front of Stevens shirt with one hand and clutched the AK-47 with the other, they wound up kneeling, facing each other, with the AK-47 trapped between them as Ranma buried his face in Stevens shoulder for a moment while he collected himself. Steven wrapped his arms around Ranma and patted his shoulder.

“Look Kiddo, it’s hard, I know it is, but if you didn’t keep it from flying away, we’d be hunting for it again while it ate everything it could get its claws on and continued to grow. The more they eat, the more they grow, with no limit on how big they can get. This one is just past impossible. I’ve killed wyverns before, well just two, but I know the only way to get it is for one of us to distract it while the other jumps it and breaks its neck. If we could cut its throat it would be better but it’s too big for steel to affect. “

Ranma rubbed his face with both hands, cradling the AK-47 in the crook of his elbow. He looked at it like he’d never seen it before then handed it off to a waiting man. He started at the sudden realization that there were several men standing around waiting for orders.

Steven obliged by issuing several orders. He had a small tent set up and com gear installed. He also had camera gear set up to film the kill so they could study it later. Ranma spent the time watching the wyvern and getting himself back together, he would always regret the necessity of crippling the creature but he had priorities and human life came before a monster that didn’t belong in this plain of existence.

“Steven, I’ve been watching it while you set up. It’s not going to go far. It’s in pain and angry. If it see’s anything that vaguely resembles a threat, it’ll attack right away. If you draw its attention, I can cut its throat. I think a strait forward attack, then try to get it to extent its neck.”

Steven peered at the monster and realized that Ranma was right, the wyvern was in pain and couldn’t fly. It was going to attack anything that got near it. If they could get it to extend its neck, it would be vulnerable. But how was Ranma going to . . . Neko-ken!

“Ranma are you sure that the Neko-ken will work on something that big? I mean, I’ve seen you cut steel but that thing is just so big. Its neck is three times as thick as my body. That’s pretty thick. Can you make a claw that long?”

Ranma was squatting behind the same log as Steven, head to head with him, so Steven could see the doubt in his eyes.

“I’m not sure I can get it with one cut. I’m not sure how long a claw I can make. But if it takes more than one cut, I’ll just have to keep at it until I get it. We can’t let it just suffer like this. I hate this, I really do.”

“Ranma, we do what we have to. I’ll cut around to one side of it and see if I can’t attract its attention, get it to stretch out its neck, you get into position. . . Ranma?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t get eaten.”

“You too. You’ll give it indigestion.”

“I’m gone.”

Steven stood up and started for the other side of the valley. Using brush and small trees as cover, he managed to get to the other side of the creature without being seen. He showed himself for a second. then ducked back out of sight. Ranma’s voice in his ear told him that he wasn’t in the right position. He needed to come back more so that Ranma was at the side of the beast.

Ranma watched as Steven teased the wyvern into extending its neck in an effort to bite him. Steven jumped back several feet and lunged to one side so the wyvern’s teeth snapped on empty air. But it was really close.

“Ok, that’s got it. Keep at it until I get on it. Then get out of there. I’ll probably need more than one cut. I really wish my Moku Takabisha worked. Why won’t it?”

It was really a rectorial question, but one of the techies answered it anyway. “Ki attacks are too close to magic. Magic don’t work on them either because they’re magic themselves. It’s odd. I’d like more research on the whys myself.”

Ranma wanted to swat the guy, he didn’t need all that chatter and said so.

The wyvern had extended its neck while they were chattering and Ranma jumped on it. The thing’s neck was as thick as the barrel of a Percheron. It was like riding a scaly horse. Ranma reached down and cut as deeply into the neck as he could. The wyvern writhed and that was when Ranma realized that the wyvern had a spine like a snake, the thing coiled in on its self and tried to sting him. It missed, but only because Ranma had lightening reflexes and really good peripheral vision.

Ranma felt the poison drop on his back as he jumped off and ran. He shed his armor and watched it smoke.

He didn’t bother to get new, if the poison melted it, he needed the slight extra speed advantage more that he needed the armor.

“Steven, I need you to try again. And watch out for the tail.”

Steven teased it again. And again it tried to strike him. Ranma mounted its neck and called the full Neko-kun. Drawing on all the power of his extraordinary physique and every ounce of nerve he had, he started cutting at the wyvern’s neck. It sounds so simple, ‘he cut its neck’ but he was cutting on a jumping, bucking, writhing creature, the scales were slick, like a snake’s scales. And it also tried to scrape him off on the ground, trees, and rocks. It clawed at him with both feet and rolled on him. All the while he clung grimly or jumped off and back on again. The wings were also a consideration, as it battered at him with the boney elbow joints which also had a dew claw that was sharp as a razor.

That dew claw caught him across the back just under his shoulder blades, cutting him from side to side. He yowled in pain and fury and sprang back in with all four limbs, cutting hard. He bounced off the wyvern as it tried to sting him again and wound up slapped away by one of the flailing wings. The wyvern screamed in triumph and snapped at him. Ranma managed to flip around so that he kicked the wyvern in the nose instead of winding up in its mouth. He used the kick to launch himself away, landing several feet outside the combat zone. He crouched, panting, and waited to see how much more damage he was going to have to do to the beast before it was dead.

”Koi . . . don’t do anything I won’t like.”

Sunny slipped up to Ranma, touched him gently and ran like hell. She had healed Ranma and taken off again before he could do more than twitch. She didn’t want to be in the way, especially of a wyvern, but Ranma couldn’t be allowed to bleed out.

The wyvern darted in Sunny’s direction and left itself open to Ranma’s attacks. He landed on its neck again and clawed deeper into its flesh. He wondered if he was ever going to get to the spine. He was hoping to sever it, but it was deep in heavy muscle and it was hard going. Steven hadn’t had to deal with such a big wyvern, if he had killed it by breaking its neck. Ranma wasn’t going to have it that easy, he was going to have to do it the hard way. Or the harder way, depending on how easy you thought it was to kill even a small wyvern.

“Fuck. Even crippled it’s mean as I am and strong. I’ve got to call the ultimate Neko-kun. I’ve got to become a cat completely. I just hope I can come back.” Ranma called Steven on the com. “Steven! Listen quick and don’t argue with me. I’m going to use the ultimate Neko-ken attack. Get a tranq. ready. I may not be able to come back by myself. And don’t fool around. I may not be safe.”

Ranma closed his eyes and began the ingeii that summoned the pure Neko-kun. Without the summons, he couldn’t use the Neko-ken ultimate attack. He began to radiate an aura that made Steven and Sunny cringe. It was fierce, primitive, and cruel. This was not Ranma, it was a throwback to a more violent time, a warrior capable of ending this fight.

The snarl Ranma let out started deep in his chest, it rumbled its way into his throat and exited, sounding like tearing canvas. It made the hair on the back of Steven’s neck stand up and gave him gooseflesh. Sunny just made a small eep-ing sound and readied a tranq.

{Shit, shit, shit! We are really in big trouble. If Ranma can’t come back from that Neko-kun, we can’t control him.}

Ranma pounced on the wyvern and began clawing, the Neko-ken claws glowed and his entire body was enveloped in a red shadow-like image. It looked somewhat like a saber-tooth tiger. As he clawed at the wyvern, it clawed back, it writhed and coiled, trying to constrict Ranma like a python but every time it got a coil around him, he slithered out and continued his attack. They rolled across the valley, snapping and snarling, clawing and scratching. It sounded like two gigantic cats and they were in fight to the death. As they rolled, the observers were horrified to realize that they were leaving gobbets of flesh behind. Ranma was literally clawing the wyvern to bits before their eyes.

The squalling and shrieking was horrible and they were moving so fast that no one could tell exactly what was happening. Ranma was thrown out of the fight twice and both times he rolled across the bloody grass and landed sprawled in a panting heap and both times he scrambled to all four feet and sprang back into the fray, snarling.

Ranma finally managed to cut through to the spine and with a crack like a cannon shot he broke the bone and destroyed its medulla oblongata, cutting off all the nerve impulses, ending its autonomic reflexes. It didn’t scream or struggle anymore, it just collapsed, dying with a shudder.

Ranma was pinned under the body and had to struggle with the heavy dead weight. But when he got out he was still Neko-kun and just crouched beside his prey for a moment. When Steven approached him, he snarled at the threat to his property. Steven crouched near Ranma and turned his head, offering his neck in a submissive gesture that got the cat’s attention like nothing else could have. Ranma sniffed at Steven, then sniffed the wyvern, he sneezed and humped his back at the stench of the already rotting body.

Sunny approached Ranma carefully, holding a hypodermic behind her back. If she needed it, the needle had enough tranquilizer to knock out Ranma. But he didn’t seem interested in attacking anyone, all he wanted to do, it seemed, was crawl into her lap and curl up. Sunny arranged herself so that Ranma could get on her lap, and when he did, she started petting him, he began to purr and soon fell asleep.

While Ranma was asleep Sunny healed his wounds and held him while the medical team cut his clothes off and gently washed him. He was covered with wyvern blood and had smeared it all over Sunny as well.

When they got his clothes off him, it was plain that he again had a nasty scar. The cut across his back was now a smooth sightly reddened mark but other than that he was in good shape. They managed to get him dressed in jeans and a t shirt.

Sunny helped them get Ranma into a cot and left to clean herself up. It only took her twenty minutes or so but she was suddenly aware that she wasn’t alone in the tent where she was attempting to do something with her unruly mass of hair. Ever since she’d quit dyeing it different colors it had grown and was now below her shoulder blades.

“If. You. Ever. Do. Something. That. Stupid. Again. I’m. Gonna. Spank. Your. Butt.”

Every word was bitten off with fierce clarity. Ranma was as quietly furious as Sunny had ever seen him. He wasn’t red in the face or especially rough but Sunny knew he meant business.

“Don’t ever touch me when I’m fightin’ again. I coulda killed ya an’ then what would I do? Huh? Ya never thought ‘bout that didja. I’m half Neko an’ half crazy an’ you’re touchin’ me. Stupid! “

Ranma wrapped her in his arms and pressed his forehead to hers. He looked mad and scared and sorry, all at once. Sunny realized that what she had done had put her in danger but it had also put Ranma in danger as well. If he’d hurt her, he’d have been so distracted that he would probably have gotten himself killed.

“But Ranma you were hurt, you could have bled out on us, . . . again. What am I supposed to do when you wouldn’t come in to be healed before you go back into combat? If you bled out . . .”

“I’m sorry Koi, I promise I’ll come back to be healed if I can. But if I can’t, I don’t want you in a combat zone. Promise me.”

“Ok! Suki da.”

“Suki da you too.”

Ranma snugged Sunny against his side and headed for the chopper that would take them back to the Compound, he was tired and wanted to go to sleep.

~ * ~

Aho - Dumbass

bishoujou - pretty girl

suki da - I love you. Ai shiteru is for old fogies and romance novels, or so I’ve been told.

Marisheten - Goddess of the Northern Star, Protector of warriors and solders

Itoshii - Darling

Ingeii - ritual gestures used to begin a ki attack

Shoji - sliding screens used as doors.

Engawa - porch