Saiyajin Nibunnoichi (V. 2.0) Disclaimer: Dragon Ball is owned Akira Toriyama, Toei Animation, etc. and Ranma Nibunnoichi is owned by Rumiko Takahashi. This fanfiction is not making a profit for its author (It's gettin' a job starting tomorrow though). Chapter 4: "We aren't getting married." The two affianced were walking down the street to their respective schools several weeks after the "Light-eater" incident and, as usual, had been bickering quite extensively. "You don't have to tell me!" An angry Shanpu shot back. "Especially not after that stunt you pulled in that... that 'Ramen Incident' of yours." "Hey, I already told you what really happened; I am not lying." The Saiyajin argued defensively. "I swear I would never do... THAT. Especially in that position." He shivered. "Well..." The Joketsuzoku warrior cut off as she noticed dust rising in the distance. "Oh great. Now I'll have to fight off another horde... all thanks to you!" "Don't tell me you don't like it. I thought Amazons were supposed to be prideful." The black haired girl didn't answer, but merely picked up speed as she rushed to meet Torankusu's suitors. She glared angrily as she heard the love struck throng's shameless exhortations of passion. It wasn't that she was jealous... She just couldn't believe these so-called proud warrior women would reduce themselves to fawning schoolgirls. a voice at the back of her mind told her as she went toe to toe with the first foe. "Wow, she seems a little more intense today than usual." Torankusu commented at the raven haired warrior's abrupt pick-up in speed and strength when she met the lead lady. He whispered the next to himself more softly. "I can see why Tousan would think she'd make a good Saiyajin's wife." He pinked slightly in the cheeks. Shanpu finally mopped up the last of the women and wiped the sweat out of her eyes. "What a workout. I remember hearing something about Akane doing something like this before she met Ranma; I can see why she was so irritable, now." She spoke next to her reluctant fiancé. "Well, the path is clear. Do what you will." "Hai..." the mauve coiffed martial artist answered in Nihongo as he tried to ignore her somewhat smug glance. He jogged the rest of the way to class, though "class" wasn't so much a classroom as it was a few poles with a sheet over it. "Hold it!" An apparently P.O.ed voice called out to him as he reached his destination. "I challenge you, boy!" The young Saiyajin turned slowly to face the speaker, though he already had a good idea who it would be. "Muusu. I thought you would have learned your lesson the last time." It wasn't the "first time" he was referring to as the myopic warrior had challenged him again a few days after the aforementioned battle. It had been rather uneventful, though his opponent had shown some marked improvement. "Ha! It won't be so easy this time, fool." The duck-cursed young man grinned menacingly. "I've learned a few things..." Torankusu gave the other a bored look. "Oh? Like what?" By this time a crowd had gathered, and the man with the world's worst vision could see just enough to know he was ready to give them a good show. "Like this!" His arms blurred and five shining streaks left them for his enemy. The other dodged all five with fluid grace. "Gomen... what was that? I must not have been paying attention." "Apparently." Muusu stated, pointing. "Or you would have noticed that." Torankusu turned around just in time to see the five projectiles coming right back at him. He didn't have time to properly dodge, so he focused his ki on the spots he figured they were going to hit, restricting blood flow and hardening muscles. When they struck, he felt no pain, having stopped the incoming signals through force of will, but he certainly was unprepared for when the shuriken exploded. The duck-boy laughed hysterically at the scene. He quickly regained his composure, though, and took out another set of throwing blades. "As you can see, you're no match for these blades. Gomen." He was suddenly shaken from his confidence when he saw the other rise relatively unscathed. "That really hurt, you know! And where'd you get a technique like that, some cartoon show?!" The Saiyajin yelled angrily. "I'd like to see you try that again." "Very well then!" Once more, Muusu hurled the blades towards his opponent, but the shuriken once again missed there target as it jumped into the air and stayed there. Torankusu frowned at the spinning metal objects arcing up to meet him and directed enough ki at them to force them to the ground. They moved even faster toward him. Somewhat confused, he still managed to catch them in the air and throw them to his opponent. The blades exploded halfway between the two warriors. "Clever. His shuriken must have been designed somehow to use my ki to pull themselves toward me." The violent haired man muttered. "Too bad it won't work now, though!" He shouted towards a dazed Muusu. The myopic martial artist growled. "So, what? I've got better tricks." He rose into the air slowly. "This was one the old hag taught to an outsider named Ryouga in order to counter the air style of his opponent. I learned it from reading the secret scrolls." "Che! So you learned the Bukujutsu from reading some piece of paper. I'm guessing you learned the other one from that, too? No matter, I know techniques that would blow your mind; none of which are found on some stupid paper!" Torankusu retorted. Muusu flew at the other, intent on proving him wrong, but only hit a zanzo ken after-image. He, too, blurred out of sight as a foot passed through were he would have been. "Take this: Hane no Washi!" He crossed his arms, extending blades from each sleeve and uncrossing his arms so that the clashing metal created a thin vacuum blade. Torankusu flipped over it with ease, despite its speed and dodged subsequent attacks which his opponent, in anger, launched repeatedly at him. "Listen!" He shouted when the other seemed to have tired. "You're only hurting yourself, so stand down!" "Never! I'll beat you yet." The duck-boy cupped his hands vertically parallel and began to will the air within to excitement. "This I learned a while ago, but I was never able use it against the one I intended. You'll have to forgive me if I couldn't come up with a better name than... Boiled... Egg... Attack!!!" The now huge sphere of plasmic atmosphere erupted out of his hands. Torankusu scowled deeply. "I forgive you for that, but I'll still have to counter with Gya..." He brought his hands to his side and rapidly built his ki influence. "Rikku..." He extended his hands, one behind the other, and unleashed his own sphere. "Ho!" Though both balls were of the same size, the Saiyajin's was considerably denser and thus retained enough net force after impact to collide with the nearly blind Joketsuzoku male and hurtle him into the vicinity of the female school. Shanpu turned to the source of the thunderclap of sound. "What could have made a noise like that?" To answer her own questioned she hurried towards the source, with several of her fellows falling in behind her. When Torankusu arrived where Muusu had impacted, he was surprised to see a crowd of women, including his fiancée, milling around the area, watching him. Muusu rose from the ground with his nose bleeding and a ghastly gash across his forehead. "I'm not beaten yet. There's one more trick that can not be beaten. Not even by you!" He lifted his right arm and extended it towards the other quickly. The Saiyajin, with his naturally superhuman vision enhanced by his ki, saw the attack coming and dodged. It looked as if nothing was there, but when the other lurched his arm back, the tree behind the young fighter cracked along the trunk and flew at him, forcing him to dodge yet another attack. "I'm surprised you avoided that." The duck-boy told him smugly. "But once I get you, you'll be helpless. You see, the string I used is charged with ki and will pierce your body like a needle upon contact. Then it will wrap around whatever limb may have been hit and you will be trapped!" "Thanks for the lesson, so are we gonna fight or are you going to keep blabbering." The purple haired boy retorted. Muusu simply smiled and let his strings fly. They came out in mobs from both sleeves and were pulled back upon impact with an object, yet they were not able to hit their target. Shanpu watched the exchange with mixed emotions. She told herself that she liked neither boy, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't be sorry if they killed each other. When she saw one of she strings hit Torankusu's right leg, she nearly called out, but managed to keep her cool. "Shimatta! Looks like you got me." The violet haired Saiyajin cursed. He tugged on the line, but it was so tight that he didn't want to risk it. "You know this won't stop me. It's only made it so I'll have to fight you up close." He smirked. "Here I come..." It was Muusu's turn to curse as Torankusu ran towards him at a, to him, incredible pace. "I'll stop you!" He blasted into the air and threw a few more of the deadly strings, catching both of the other's wrists and his left leg. "Ha! Now I'll show you just what I can do with this new mastery!" He flicked his wrists and the cords wrapped themselves around and bound his opponent's wrists and legs. Another whipping of his arm and the other was effectively hog-tied. "Amazing." A voice at Shanpu's side said. Shanpu craned her neck around to gaze upon Koron. "What do you mean?" The old woman's eyes narrowed. "Look at Muusu's proficiency with his ki. He has gone beyond his simple ability to channel and can now project and, from his newfound ability to fly, even manipulate ki to an extent. I had wondered why he wasn't going after you as much as before and this must be the reason." She turned her gaze to Torankusu, who was now being pounded on the ground. "The other boy I am not as surprised with." Shanpu looked at the young man as well. "Yes. He's getting beaten up pretty bad..." "Oh?" Koron asked. "Do you see blood on him? Bruises? No, he is far from beaten. His ki is great, but not only that, he seems to know fairly well how to use it. I'd expect nothing less from his family line." Torankusu had just been pounded on the ground for the tenth time and was actually starting to feel the effects; not necessarily from the pounding, but from the swinging around. His stomach was doing flip-flops! Muusu's line went taught and, though he pulled with all the might he could muster, he couldn't seem to get anywhere. He looked down at the Saiyajin. "What are you up to? You know you can't get out of this." "I'm through with you!" The other responded. "I'm going to beat you right now." "And how's that? You can't move your arms or legs and you need one of those limbs to focus ki through." The myopic man retorted. "Ha! That's just the kind of idiotic thing I'd expect from an amateur like you." Torankusu shot back. "Ki is within your body and flows all throughout it. Its outward manifestation can be anywhere within a person's awareness. Just watch!" His eyes began to glimmer as he gathered light energy into them. Shanpu gasped. "Wh-what is he doing?!" Two narrow beams of photonic radiation erupted from the Saiyajin's pupils and pierced his aggressor's right shoulder. Muusu groaned in agony and let his grip on the strings slacked ever so slightly, but he recovered and clamped down on his reigns harder than ever. "D-do you think that will do you any good?! Even if you break my hold, if you try to break free, you'll lose your hands and feet." Torankusu smirked. "That's where you're wrong. I did that to distract you... from this!" He strained his muscles, putting all the will he had mustered into breaking the restraints. With a yell of triumph, he snapped the bindings apart. "How?" Shanpu was clearly astounded. "The way those strings were wrapped around him..." "The way they were supposed to be wrapped around him." The elder Joketsuzoku warrior corrected. "It seems that your husband-to-be fooled Muusu into wrapping him up before he pierced the limbs." "But... how?" Shanpu queried, feeling an odd warmth in her cheeks. "I have no idea. Such a thing is beyond my level of mastery," the old woman admitted. Within seconds after the young man released himself of his bonds it was over. He had performed zanzo ken to dodge a shuriken thrown at him and ended up behind his opponent. He then executed a karate chop to the other's neck, knocking him out. Shanpu ran up to the warrior as he floated gently down to earth. "Why?! Why did you hide such skill from me?" Torankusu scratched behind his head, not missing the subtle implications of the word "me" as opposed to "us." "Well, Shanpu, I... I guess I just didn't want everyone to think I was weird. I get enough of that at home, so I figured I could at least seem normal." Shanpu raised a delicate eyebrow. "You didn't do a very good job of it." Torankusu chuckled with embarrassment for a moment before urgently whipping his head around. "That ki! It's coming right for us." * * * Ranma grinned when he saw the village. It had been well over two years since he had last been there and had beaten Shanpu. Of course, he hadn't seen it from THIS angle. The pigtailed martial artist remembered when he had learned the bukujutsu. Koron had taught it to Ryouga in order to help him beat the hiryuu shouten ha and, after Ranma had been summarily beaten by the lost boy, she had taught him to use it. Several of his more recent training adventures came into his mind, in fact. Most notably, the one which he had begun telling his newest sensei when he had first arrived. Bejiita had been quite surprised at his tale and apparently knew the fighters he had gone up against. He was most definitely annoyed with the outcome, of course, as was Ranma, himself. * * * Ranma eased his boat onto the small island's shore and climbed out. He unsheathed the Yokuseiken and glared balefully at it. Not so much for what it was, but for the THING it reminded him of. "Allow it to taste your blood and all the energy that allows the curse to flourish will be suppressed," Happosai had said. Why had Ranma believed him so easily? Well, he was gullible. When he cut himself with his hard won magic sword, it had suppressed the magical energy, but it had also suppressed ALL his energy, including his ki. Happosai's benefit? All the panty-raids he wanted at half the trouble. Now Ranma was told that one of the masters Happosai had trained under a hundred years ago was in possession of an artifact which could easily take care of all his problems. This had been confirmed by Koron before she and Shanpu left for China, so he was much more inclined to believe it. He began to walk up to the door of the hut when he spotted a fairly old man of diminutive size sunning himself in a lawn chair. "Yo!" he shouted to him. "You the guy who owns this place?" The older man took off his sunglasses and looked at him. "Uh... no, not really. I just live here. You're probably looking for Kame Sennin. The name's Kuririn, by the way." Ranma scoffed. "Yeah, look... I need to get this Kame yarou so I can get that Dragon Ball!" Kuririn froze. "Th-the Dragon Ball, eh? That's what you're after?" "That's right! And when I get it, nothin' will stand in my way!" Ranma exclaimed triumphantly. "I see," Kuririn stated as he stood up. He was probably a head taller than Happosai, though that really wasn't saying much. "I'm afraid I can't just let you have the Dragon Balls." Ranma scowled at the older man. "Oh, yeah? Well, I'm not gonna let you stand in my way." Beads of sweat had already formed on Kuririn's brow. He closed his eyes and set his jaw. "Gimme that Dragon Ball!" Ranma shouted as he lunged at the short man with the Yokuseiken drawn. The other's eyes snapped open and his arm shot out, and Ranma was thrown several kilometers out into the ocean. Kuririn blinked. "Huh?" He grinned broadly. "Whoa, that was easy! Thank you, Kamisama! One of the weak ones!" Ranma struggled back onto shore a few seconds later panting and grimacing with disgust in himself. He held the sword up again. There was one way he could still use his ki with this sword. The sword repressed energy by focusing it all into a tiny point. This would make the energy very strong but it wouldn't effect much more than an atom. However, by using his own focus to concentrate that energy into the sword, he could still cause quite a bit of devastation. "Mou~~~~ko~~~~~ken!" he shouted as he swung the sword, its blade glowing blue, and unleashed a ribbon of ki that had not been unable to cut through anything. Kuririn looked surprised for a split second, but he shouted "Kienzan!" and threw a disk of energy which simultaneously cut and was cut by the other blast. "Hey... pretty good. But it's not gonna beat MY technique. Ranma frowned. "Just you wait!" he retorted as he charged, all his energy focused on the blade tip. Kuririn's image blurred for a moment, just barely perceptible by Ranma's eyes, and, a second later, Ranma collapsed after feeling the pain of thousands of blows delivered in the smallest fraction of a second. "Heh, heh... guess you aren't quite fast enough to make use of all that power..." "I would be, dammit!" Ranma protested. It had taken him a full week of late-night training sessions to learn how to focus his energy with this blade, and he wasn't about to let it all go to waste. He focused his power once more on the blade, making it vibrate with the awesome concentration of power. The energy began to spread from that focal point until it enclosed Ranma's entire body. "There! That should do it!" Kuririn smirked. "Oh, a barrier! How original!" He laughed as he cupped his hands at his side. "Kame... hame..." Ranma almost lost his focus as he recognized that move, but he began concentrating harder, trying to find the right resonance to strengthen his shield. "HA~~~A!" Kuririn belted as he released his attack. It washed over Ranma's shield and through it, causing Ranma to once again take a dip in the ocean. Kuririn fell to the ground laughing. "Aw, man! I haven't had this much fun in a fight for decades!" "Laugh it up, short man!" Ranma said as he pulled himself out of the water. "I'm just gettin' warmed up!" He focused his power once more and concretely sealed the energy of it to the blade. He twirled it around his hand and it went faster and faster, sending out ribbons of blue light that carved grooves in the soft sand. "Hey, neat trick..." Kuririn commented. "Neat trick THIS!" Ranma shouted as the ribbons rushed outward at an incredible speed, demolishing Kame Sennin's house and forcing Kuririn to retreat off the island in order to dodge and block the strong cutting attacks. As the short man rose into the sky, Ranma focused his cuts more, giving Kuririn little opportunity to weave between the attacks. Ranma knew already that Kuririn wasn't being worn down enough by the slashes, but that wasn't his ultimate goal. He was mentally preparing already for the move that would finish the guy. In a split second, he shifted the focal point of ki from burning hot to as cold as he could manage and flicked his wrist so the sword spun around his arm parallel to it. This action caused a very small in diameter but very large in power funnel of cold to open inside the very large funnel of hot energy slashes. Kuririn knew the moment the cold ki bolt slashed his cheek that he was in trouble. He found to his dismay that he was correct when the energy blades he'd been parrying began to whirl around him like a tornado. Now, he'd survived tornadoes well enough, but this was on a different order altogether. Not only were the winds much stronger than any tornado's he'd encountered, but it was also attacking him from all sides with highly charged energy blades. His own ki barrier was able to dampen most of the kinetic energy of the blades, but he was unable to stop them from cutting his flesh all over quite badly. When the winds died down, Ranma noted with relief that the man had fallen from the sky, landing on the other side of the small island. He leapt over the rubble of the house and landed in front of him. "Alright, man. You're gonna give me that Dragon Ball, or--" Kuririn suddenly hopped up and slammed his fist into Ranma's face. "Heh! You think that's all it takes to keep me down? Now, I'd be worried if that were an average attack of yours... but I can see it in your face that it wore you down pretty bad. I doubt you could pull off another one." He gasped as a tightly packed funnel of ki-blades erupted from the ocean and homed in on him. "Uhhhh... spoke too soon!" "KURIRIN!" a voice shrieked. A statuesque blonde landed in front of the short man and erected an energy shield that took all the blades easily. She turned her head to look at him. "I've been watching for awhile from the boat. I thought you might be seriously damaged!" "Aww, #18... you know I'm a little tougher than that!" "Regardless, I know the source of this kid's power," the jinzouningen went on as the aforementioned youth made his way out of the water for the third time. "His sword. If we break it, he'll be powerless." "You go, girl," Kuririn offered. Ranma was shocked to find a blonde woman attacking him, but he put up an admirable defense, nonetheless, with his sword. However, the woman was after the sword, itself, and she kept pounding on it and pounding on it. Ranma could feel the stress the sword was taking in his hands. Finally, he lost hold of it and the woman fired a powerful beam of energy, disintegrating it. #18 smirked. "Well, that takes care of your power source, doesn't it?" She jumped back, however, as a bolt of electricity erupted from the place where the sword had been destroyed and struck the boy. Ranma screamed in agony as he felt his insides being turned out. His muscles strained and seemed to enlarge at first. His eyes began to glow with an unearthly light, and #18 would later swear that she saw his incisors grow at least an inch as he gritted his teeth. Then, in a flash of light, his body shrunk and his muscles seemed to grow softer as a thin extra layer of fat grew under his skin and he gained curves in places no man should. She slumped to the ground in exhaustion. Something went off in #18's head. "I'm... getting a clear reading on his--her?--this thing's life force... it's... it's VERY strong for a human." Ranma yowled. She looked at #18 with a crazed look in her eyes and hissed. "Don't you dare..." #18 warned. It was lost on the maddened Ranma as she leapt for the jinzouningen with "claws" extended. #18 easily caught both paws in her hands, with only shallow scrapes to complain about afterward. "Like I said... very strong for a human... but I'm no normal human..." she charged a sphere of energy, wound back with her right hand, and power-cuffed him into low-Earth orbit. "Wow, #18... nice follow-through." He grinned. "Ahhh, reminds me of when we first started... um... 'dating.'" The blonde jinzouningen chuckled. "Yes, well... we should keep an eye out for that demon-thing for awhile. And... we should also probably get the old pervert's house replaced before he comes back from vacation..." * * * Ranma sighed, remembering how he'd felt upon learning that the sword's destruction had set his curse back to its original form. He'd learned that shortly after waking up in the cabin of the man who would eventually become Kasumi's husband... but that was another story. As the "half female, but all man" approached the ki he had felt upon reaching mainland China, he was surprised to see Shanpu with a violet haired man about his age and an unconscious, bloody Muusu lying beside them. "Did you do this?" Ranma asked. Not in anger of any sort--for he felt little attachment to the almost blind man and might have done it himself if given the opportunity--but in genuine interest. The violet haired man nodded cautiously. "You're Torankusu?" Again, a nod. Ranma smirked. He focused his ki quickly, causing the air to respond in a violent way. "Then let's fight!" With that he burst towards his latest opponent with leg outstretched. Torankusu flowed around the kick and jabbed him in the jaw... hard. "From your description, I'll assume you're the one these two call 'Saotome Ranma?'" He gestured towards Shanpu and Koron. Ranma landed and looked back at the other while wiping blood from his mouth. He nodded. "Then I accept." to be continued... Nihao! This is Shanpu and on the next Saiyajin Nibunnoichi, Ranma and Torankusu duke it out for ME! I want to root for my airen, but, for some reason, I feel my heart ache with every blow my new fiancé takes. Who will win? More importantly, who do I really WANT to win?