This is currently the unofficial 'Just won't die 6' fic. At the current 
moment, I believe 'Spinoff3' to the series will become 'Just Won't Die 8'.
Yes, part 8. I haven't begun part 7 yet because I haven't decided how I
am going to mesh this fic with part 5 and Spinoff3. Hope I didn't confuse
you :)
jeff.oneshot.wong@juno.com



  Lina Inverse was humming to herself as she proceeded to get undressed. 
She had been so glad to have stumbled upon this hot spring in her 
travels and was looking forward to a nice soak. Cautious of a peeping 
tom or the like, she had put up a huge forcefield surrounding the forest 
upon where the hot spring was located.
  Totally naked, Lina proceeded step into the hot spring, loving the 
warm sensation coursing through her body.
  About five seconds after she stepped into the water and walking about 
five feet, where the water was now up to her knees, a huge sphere of 
energy appeared above the hot spring.
  "What the?" she said to herself, looking up.
  The sphere then disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, leaving 
behind a figure. Only a moment elapsed before gravity took its course 
and plunged the individual down toward the hot spring below. 
  "Oh shit!!!" Ranma muttered, his arms flailing. He was about to twist 
in midair to land on his feet, but unfortuantely, it was too lated 
before he noticed a totally naked Lina under him.
  He slammed into Lina with such force that both he and her were 
momentarily submerged under the water. Before he surfaced, he was sure one of 
his hands grabbed onto something soft and round.
  Gasping for breath, Lina's head shot out of the water.  
  Ranma was already standing. Clad in his usually attire, his clothing 
clunge to his body tightly.
  "Eeek!!!" Lina screamed, "A peeping tom!!!!" 
  She quickly covered her breasts only to realize that her lower region 
was uncovered. Trying to cover her lower region, she soon realized her 
breasts were now uncovered. She tried to cover both regions with each 
hand, failing to cover both.
  Ranma blushed as he turned around, "I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to 
see you naked. I didn't see anything though,"
  Lina exploded at the comment. Sure, she knew she had small breasts, 
but to hear it from a peeping tome was outright maddening. "So, you 
think I have no breasts?!? Fine, you'll pay for saying that!!! 
Fireball!!!"
  Ranma turned around to say it was a misunderstanding only to catch 
sight of a massive sphere of energy coming right toward him. With not a 
moment to spare, Ranma had deflected the fireball, sending it spiralling 
upward into the sky where it disappeared beyond the heavens. When she 
shot another fireball, Ranma was ready now and deflected it again, this 
time, the fireball sent flying away from them and into the forcefield 
Lina had set up earlier, shattering it.
  "Hold up!" Ranma said, "This is all a misunderstanding!"
  "No! I heard exactly what you said!!! You said I had no breasts!!!" 
she shouted, shooting yet another fireball.
  "No, y-your breasts are fine! You have fine breasts!" he quickly said. 
He said whatever popped into his mind and hoped it was enough to get her 
to stop throwing these weird projectiles at him.
  Lina seemed to turn into a blushing school girl as her cheeks flooded 
with heat. "T-they are?"
  Ranma smirked, "Saotome Secret Technique!!!!"
  Lina was momentarily shocked to have been fooled. She couldn't believe 
she had been distracted by an obvious ruse and was now going to pay for 
it. She quickly held her hands forward in front of her and summoned up a 
forcefield, hoping it was good enough to counter whatever attack this 
individual was going to use.
  Ranma executed his secret technique perfectly. He had pivoted on his 
feet and lept out of the hot spring, making a mad dash away from the 
extremely powerful young girl. He was already out of sight before the 
girl realized she had been duped again.
  "I'll kill him!!!" Lina said angrily, "No one gets away with seeing me 
naked and fooling me twice!!!!"
  She quickly said a chant and levitated into the air and proceeded to 
chase after the individual. A moment later, she flew back to the hot 
spring and put on her clothes. Once dressed, she began her persuit of 
the peeping tom. He would pay for having embarrassed her like that.
  "I'll get you!!!"

  Lina hovered in the air as she followed Ranma. She couldn't believe 
the stamina this man had. He had been running non-stop for over and 
hour. She wondered if he was ever going to stop. Just where was he 
headed? Where ever it was, she was going to be there to see the shocked 
look in his face when he realized he had been followed this whole time.
  Ranma continued running, only slowing down to dodge the trees and 
branches in his way.
  Hm, I wonder if that girl hovering above me knows that I know that she's 
behind her, he thought to himself. She's pretty persistent, though. I hafta give 
her that much credit. But now is not the time to stop. I hafta find a way 
back home.
  He continued running. All he knew was that since the girl spoke 
Japanese, he assumed he was in Japan, meaning he had to head west to get 
to China so he could find a nanban mirror to get back home. If the girl 
wanted to follow him, fine. Let her be. But I can't let her follow me 
all the way to China. This is ridiculous.
  Lina had to give the running man a bit of respect for having ran for 
so long. But enough was enough. It was time to exact her revenge on that 
man for having seen her naked and saying she had no breasts. Just as she 
was about to swoop down to grab the guy by the back collar of his shirt 
and bring him up into the air with her to give him a good scare, the man 
seemed to disappeared
  "What the?" she was a bit surprised. No one had ever managed to evade 
her when she had been intent on following them, yet it was very obvious 
she had lost track of him. She hovered down toward the area where Ranma 
had disappeared. Where ever he had gone, he was surely hiding somewhere 
nearby and she was going to find him. That was for sure.
  The moment Lina's foot touched the ground, a shadow quickly emerged 
from a nearby tree, heading straight toward her from behind.
  Lina smirked. What a lousy trap. The man must be a complete idiot to 
attack someone as powerful as herself. He wouldn't know what hit him.
  She quickly turned around and extended a hand forward, "Gotcha!!! 
Fireball!!!"
  When the fiery projectile shot from her fingertips and headed straight 
toward the shadow, the shadow seemed to move with supersonic speed as it 
simply sidestepped the attack, continuing to head straight toward her.
  Caught off-guard from having seen one her her spells actually dodged, 
Lina found herself unable to react until it was too late. When she 
brought her hand back up to shoot another fireball, she found her hand grabbed 
by the shadow as she was hit in the with such force that she tumbled backwards 
onto her backside, the shadow falling down on top of her.
  Since there had been so much momentum behind the attack, Lina and the 
shadow continued tumbling several times before coming to a halt, Lina's 
back on the ground.
  Ranma held Lina's wrists firmly, keeping her hands outstretched from 
her body. His head hurt from having bumped it against the ground when he 
had tackled Lina like that. It was almost funny that he had actually 
tripped a split second before he ended up hitting into Lina full force. 
He had meant to grab her instead of slamming into her like that. 
However, he had been able to curl up into a ball and protect Lina so she 
wouldn't get hurt in the tumble.
  "Eeek!!! Rape!!!" Lina yelled. She had found herself in a very 
demeaning position. She was lying on her back as Ranma held her wrists 
away from her body and mounted ontop of her in a missionary position. 
Had they been naked, her body would had been violated.
  Ranma quickly jumped to his feet, holding his hands up defensively, 
"Wait!! It's not what you think!! I-I tripped!!!"  
  Lina quickly rolled away to her feet where she cheked herself to see 
if anything was wrong. When her hands wandered over her breasts, she 
realized one of her breasts were revealed. Her eyes widened.
  "Wait!! T-that's not my fault!! It got ripped against a branch as we 
were rolling!!" Ranma said. It was true. He even had a scratch on his 
forearm where that same branch had caught him.
  "How dare you!!!" she shouted, teary-eyed, "Now I'm no longer pure!!! 
All because of you!!!" 
  "Huh? B-but I did nothing!! I-I wasn't trying to r-rape ya! Honest!"
  "Gotcha!!!" Lina smirked, shooting a fireball right at Ranma.
  Ranma was off-guard then and was struck in the chest full force, sent 
flying bodily through the air when he slammed against and through 
several trees before coming to a halt. He crumpled onto the ground in a 
heaping mess of bruises.
  "Consider that your payment of having been able to see me naked," she 
said, blowing her index finger as if she was blowing the smoke from a 
fired pistol.
  Ranma got up to his feet, glaring at Lina, "That hurt you know!"
  Lina's eyes widened. She couldn't believe that man had survived an 
attack like that. He had been hit in the chest by one of her fireballs 
damnit! Actually, people do survive her fireballs. It was just very surprising 
that this man was able to get up after having been hit. She found her heart 
beating a bit rapidly at the realization that she wasn't dealing with a normal 
human being.
  "You're lucky you're a girl. Otherwise....." Ranma left the sentence 
hanging as he began to dust himself.
  "Otherwise what?" Lina smirked. 
  Ranma shot a ki-blast from his fingertips toward a nearby tree, 
uttering incinerating it, "Otherwise, that tree would be you," 
  He smirked. Hee hee, I'm so cool. 
  "Oh yeah?" Lina retorted, "I guarantee you wouldn't even come close to 
hitting me with something like that. That fireball of yours may be 
powerful, but I can see it coming from a mile away. A snail can dodge 
that fireball. Man, I betcha you're a third-rate magic user,"
  "Magic user? I ain't no magic user. You don't see me going around 
pulling bunnies outta hats do ya?" Ranma replied, almost offended.
  Lina's eyelid twitched. Did he just say what I think he did?! Is that 
what he thinks a magic user is?! Someone that pulls bunnies out of 
hats?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
  "Y-y-you t-think that's what m-magic is?! Pulling bunnies out of 
hats?!" Lina stammered, beyond fuming.
  "Yeah," he said.
  "I'll show you magic!!!! Dragon Slave!!!!!"
    
  Ranma awoke with a start. He was momentarily disoriented and it took 
several moments for him to become familiar with his surroundings. 
Looking around, he realized he was in some kind of barn and that it was 
night out. All he could see was hay. To his surprise, he also saw a 
young girl sleeping peacefully right next to him, snuggled against him.
  When he sat up, he realized that his hands and legs were binded by 
ropes.
  "Yeah right," he smirked, "As if rope's gonna work on me,"
  His muscles flexed slightly as he tried to break the rope that was 
tied around his wrists. To his surprise, he didn't break it.
  "What the? I didn't break 'em," he said. He tried against and noticed 
that the rope seemed to glow as he put more and more strain against it. 
After a minute, he gave up.
  He looked down toward the young girl sleeping next to him. It was the 
same girl that he had met earlier. What the hell was she doing sleeping 
next to him. 
  He nudged her with his knee, "Hey, wake up,"
  Lina stirred, "No, lemme alone. I'm all pooped out,"
  "Hey, wake up," he said a bit louded, saying it into her ear.
  Lina awoke with a start. When she opened her eyes, she noticed a 
looming firgure. In her shock, she slapped Ranma in the face, sending 
him flying bodily into one corner of the barn.
  Quickly getting to her feet, her heart racing, "W-what the hell didja 
do that for?!"
  "M-me?!" Ranma said, leaning against the barn wall to get to his feet, 
"You're the one that was snuggled against me!"
  "M-me?! I-I was not!!!" she stammered. There was no way that could had 
happened. She had laid down to sleep on the other haystack after having 
waited over three hours for Ranma to wake up and finally realizing that 
he was not going to anytime soon. She recalled having been uncomfortable 
sleeping on that haystack until she had found something soft to rest her 
head against.
  "Yes you were!!!" Ranma said, "You were using my thigh as a damn 
pillow!!"
  "No!! I was not!!!" Lina said. That couldn't possibly be!! It 
couldn't!! 
  "Is that why I'm tied up? Because you were taking advantage of me 
while I was unconsious?" Ranma asked, gasping, "God, I feel so violated. 
What did you do with my body?"
  "I-I did n-nothing!!!" she spat, "Nothing!!!"
  "Why am I tied up?"
  "Because I tied you up, that's why," Lina said, "I want answers,"
  "Answers to what?"
  "Answers to some questions I have," she said, "Like how on earth you 
were able to stand up after taking a hit from one of my fireballs like that? Or 
how I found you only unconsious after I used my Dragon Slave spell? Or where the 
heck you came from?"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "I'd like to know myself on how the heck 
I got here," He found that his wrists were aching from the rope rubbing 
against his skin, "Will you please lettme go? I don't like being tied up 
like this,"
  "Too bad," Lina smirked, "Besides, what can you do about it?"
  Ranma gritted his teeth, "Lettme the hell go!"
  "No," she said, crossing her arms over the front of her chest.
  "Fine, then I'll hafta break outta them,"
  "I doubt that's possible," she smirked, "I've enchanted those ropes. 
There's no way you can break through them, not unless I dispell the 
enchantment, which I have no intention of doing,"
  "We'll see," Ranma's muscles strained as he tried to break through the 
rope. The rope glowed red from the strain.
  "My my," Lina's eyes widened in amusement, "You must be really strong 
for the rope to be turning red like that. That means you have more 
strength than the average person. The color of the rope gauges how much 
strain its holding back,"
  The rope then turned oranage, then yellow, then green.
  "Damn," Lina found herself saying to herself. Not even monsters five 
times larger than the noremal human possessed that much strength.
  The rope continued to turn color. It turn, blue, then violet, and then 
finally white.
  "Oh my god!" she commented.
  A moment later, the rope broke. The tattered remains of the rope flew 
toward either end of the barn. With his hands free, Ranma reached 
forward and grabbed hold of the rope binding his legs. He gave it a good 
yank before the rope broke. He had a much easier time breaking it 
because he had used his back muscles to yank, not his shoulders like he 
had been before when the rope was tied around his wrists.
  Ranma quickly got up to his feet, towering over the petite Lina. The 
top of Lina's head barefly reached up to his collar bone. He extended 
his hand forward where the tattered rope was still in his hand, "These 
are yours as I believe,"
  "H-h-how did you?"
  It took a moment for Lina to discern what had happened. She quickly 
took a leap back away from Ranma pulled her sword from her scabbard. She 
would had used a fireball, but she didn't want to destroy the barn she 
and Ranma were in because she owed the farmer for allowing her to sleep 
there that night.
  Ranma looked at the sword and sighed, "Look, I don't wanna fight,"
  Lina smirked, "Sorry, but you chose the wrong person to peep on,"
  "I wasn't peeping on you!!!" he shouted, "Why the hell would I want to 
peep on some flat-chested chick like you anyway?!"
  "Why you!!!" Lina swung her sword skillfully at Ranma's head. To her 
surprise, Ranma caught the blade between his middle and index finger. 
When she tried to pull the blade back toward her, she found herself 
unable, as if she had stuck her sword into a solid stone that refused to 
release its grip on her sword.
  "Little girls like yourself shouldn't play with sharp objects," Ranma 
commented. He flicked his wrist and the blade broke cleanly off from its 
hilt, causing Lina to fall backwards and onto her backside. 
  She quickly rolled back up to her feet, glaring at Ranma, "How dare 
you break my sword!!! That was my favorite sword!!!"
  Ranma quickly turned around when he heard something from one of the 
dark corners of the barn, "W-w-what the h-h-hell was t-that?!"
  Lina heard nothing, "What? I hear nothing," 
  She remained cautious, not expecting to fall for another ruse like she 
had earlier.
  From out of the corner of the barn emerged a tiny cat, a mouse in its 
mouth. It was typical that a barn like this had a cat since there would 
be mice around.
  Lina heard a heart wrenching scream and turned just in time to see 
Ranma jump straight toward her with lightning speed just moments before 
everything went black, just as she realized she had fallen for yet 
another one of Ranma's ruse.
   Lina was knocked unconsious.
  
  Lina awoke with a start, "What? W-where am I?"
  "You're at an inn," came a voice. 
  When Lina turned to face it, she caught sight of Ranma.
  "You!!!" she said, quickly sitting upright. To her surprise, she 
realized that she couldn't, that both her arms and legs were tied to the 
bedposts at the corners of the bed she was lying on, "Hey!! What's going 
on here?! Release me!!!"
  Ranma smirked, "No,"
  "You'll be real sorry if you don't!" she snapped, "Do you know who 
you're dealing with?!"
  Ranma sat down next to Lina and leaned down near her, his face coming 
within inches of hers, making her very aware of that as he said, "I 
dunno. But whoever you are, you dunno who you're dealin' with either?"
  "Well, I'm not worried," Lina smirked, "I can break out of these in no 
problem," 
  She closed her eyes and said a chant. A moment later, the ropes broke. 
  "Oh shit!" Ranma muttered, the blood draining from his face, "Damn, 
who the hell are you?!"
  He quickly made a run for the window just as Lina shot a fireball 
right at him, ducking just in time as the projectile sailed right over 
his head and other the window, destroying the building across the 
street. 
  When Ranma stood up and looked out the window, his eyes widened as he 
turned around, pointing out the window, "Jeez, you just blew up that 
building across the street! Have you no remorse of the damage you cause? 
You're psycho!"
  "Fireball!!" Lina shouted as she shot one right at Ranma, only to have 
it ducked and shoot right out the window, destorying yet another 
building.
  "Quit it!!! You're gonna hurt someone!!!" Ranma said.
  "Yeah, you!!! That's what I intend to do!!!" Lina said, readying 
herself to release another fireball.
  Just before Lina released yet another fireball, someone began pounding 
on the door to the room, "Hey, quit making so much noise in there!!! 
People are trying to sleep!!!"
  Ranma walked over to the door and opened it. He gave a weak smile and 
said, "I'm sorry, but you know how us newlyweds are,"
  "Well, don't let it happen again," came the voice, "There are children 
in this building. If you're gonna go around having sex, do it quietly. 
Jeez," 
  A moment later, footsteps could be heard walking away from the door. 
  Ranma closed the door behind him and let out a sigh, "Jeez, what a 
night,"
  "Newlyweds?! Why do you go and say something like that?!" Lina 
shouted, blushing red, her heart racing, "Now all the people in this 
building will think we were having......y'know!"
  Ranma waved a hand and said, "Hey, I had to say something. I had to 
tell the inn keeper that you were my wife because this was the only room 
left in the town and it was for couples only,"
  "You what?!" Lina gasped.
  "Hey, I had to say something!"
  The door flew open and in entered a burly man, "No more warnings!! 
Either you shut up or get the hell outta here!!"
  Ranma turned to face the burly man, "Hey, can't you see me and my wife 
are arguing? Get the hell away from me!!" Although Ranma never acted 
like this, it was excuseable because he was under a lot of tension and 
wasn't even all that aware of what the heck he was doing right now 
anyway.
  Lina gave Ranma a keen look and had to admire that Ranma had the 
courage to say something like that to a man twice his size. It was also 
obvious that Ranma was unarmed yet didn't seem to be one bit worried 
about that. She then noticed that Ranma had said she was his wife.
  "I ain't his wife!!!" she spoke out.
  "I don't care if she's yer girlfriend, your mistress, or even your 
sister," the burly man said, "If you don't shut up, I'm gonna kick ya 
out, and I mean it,"
  "Don't threaten me," Ranma sneered.
  "Oh yeah?"
  "Yeah," he said.
  The burly man reached a hand forward and grabbed Ranma by his shirt 
collar. A moment later, the man was sent flying bodily out the room via 
the door, slamming into the hallway wall by a well placed open hand 
strike.
  Lina was shocked at the speed of Ranma's strike. She hadn't even seen 
it. One second the man had his hand on Ranma's shirt collar. The next 
second, Ranma's hand was extended forward in an open hand strike and the 
man sent flying backwards. She had never seen someone so fast before.
  Ranma closed the door behind him and turned toward Lina, "Truce?"
  Lina looked at Ranma.
  "No.....Fireball!!!"
  
  Ranma glared at Lina, "That hurt ya know,"
  He and Lina were facing each other. Surrounding them was nothing but 
the debris left behind from what used to be the inn they had been 
staying in. Nearby, a burly man was crying as he looked down at what was 
left of his beautiful business.
  Damn, how the hell does he brush off my fireballs like they're 
nothing? Lina was thinking to herself as she glared back at him. She 
noticed that he wasn't even singed. "Good, I hope it hurts. Consider it 
your down payment of having seen me naked back there,"
  Ranma sighed, "Jeez!!! It's that why you're all pissed at me?!"
  She nodded. No one gets away with seeing her naked against her wishes.
  Ranma proceeded to take off his clothes. He had taken off his shirt 
and his shoes before Lina's eyes widened and she said, "W-w-what the 
hell are you doing?!"
  "I'm gonna letcha see me naked," he said seriously, "Since I saw you 
naked, then I guess you have the right to see me naked,"
  Lina smiled, "Fine. I guess I can live with that. Go on and strip,"
  She knew the man was bluffing and she was going to call it. She was 
wondering just how far he was going to go with his bluff. When Ranma was 
already stripped down to his boxers, Lina swallowed the lump in her 
throat. 
  Just as Ranma was about to pull his boxers down to his ankles, Lina 
quickly turned around, her entire face turning red.
  "P-put your clothes back on!!!" Lina stammered, blushing red. Never in 
her life had she crossed an opponent so unpredictable as the man 
standing before her. "F-forget I said that!!! I thought you were 
bluffing!!!"
  Since Lina had her back to Ranma, she could see several passerbys 
glancing behind her, at Ranma. She knew those females were looking at 
Ranma. The shade of red on their cheeks clearly showed that they were 
having quite an eyeful.
  "Hey! This show ain't free, y'know!" she heard Ranma's voice from 
behind.
  "Put your clothes back on!!! I take it back!!! I thought you were 
bluffing!!!" Lina shouted as she could hear Ranma's footsteps getting 
closer and closer.
  When she felt his hand rest against one of her shoulders, she nearly 
jumped out of her skin as she ran forward away from him, turning toward 
him on instict. Her eyes widened when she saw Ranma.
  Ranma was grinning from ear to ear. He was still in his boxers.
  "Gotcha!!" he smirked.
  Lina fummed, unable to believe she had fallen for yet another ruse. It 
even shocked her more when she had realized she had turned her back 
toward him back then, leaving her vulnerable to a rear attack, yet she 
had done so anyway because she really thought the man standing behind 
her was naked.
  "I gotcha good," he smiled, revelling in the moment. When he noticed 
the starry-eyed stares from several girls, "Hey, there's nothing to see 
here. Haven't ya seen a half-naked guy before?"
  "No," several girls seemed to say at once.
  "Well, this isn't for your enjoyment," he said, "I'm only doing this 
to get this chick off of my case," He jerked a thumb toward Lina.
  "Chick?! Why you!!! Fireball!!" Lina shouted as she shot a fiery projectile at 
Ranma.
  Ranma managed to sidestep the fireball, much to Lina's surprise once 
again. The fireball travelled forward where it struck the ground right 
behind Ranma.
  "Ha, that was a lousy shot," he taunted her. He knew she couldn't 
really hurt him. Her fireballs had little effect and when they did hit 
him, it only stung. However, he would have to avoid that 'Dragon Slave' 
projectile she had casted. Although she had caught him off-guard with 
that, it would still hurt him.
  Lina smirked, "You really think I was aiming for you?"
  "Huh?"
  "Take a look behind ya," she smiled.
  Ranma turned around and realized that his pile of clothes were 
burning, "Oh shit!!! My clothes!!!"
  When he tried to run to his flaming clothes to smolder them out, he 
found himself unable to move. His arms were held tightly against his 
side. He suddenly realize he had been restrained by some invisible 
force. Looking over his shoulder, he realized that that girl had her 
hands extended toward him.
  "Hey, you're the one doing this!! Stop it!!!" he shouted, "My clothes 
are burning!!!"
  "I know," Lina smirked. She was going to get him back real good for 
causing her such embarrassment, "I've put a restraining spell on ya, so 
you can watch your clothes burn. That's what you get for trying to pull 
a stunt like that,"
  Ranma gritted his teeth. A second later, his arms shot outward from 
his body as the invisible restraining spell seemed to have been broken 
right before Lina's very eyes. He ran toward his clothes where he just 
stared down at the ashes of what remained of his clothes.
  "Serves ya right," Lina taunted the man.
  Ranma turned toward Lina, "Oh yeah? Fine, ya wanna play it that way?" 
  Clad in his boxers, he slowly walked toward Lina. When she noticed him 
approaching her, she extended a hand forward, "Don't come any closer or 
your gonna be sorry," She found it rather odd that she was even giving 
this man any warning. Usually, she would just blast a person into the 
stratosphere, but with him, she had to admit to herself that he was 
quite the unusual character.
  Ranma smirked. A second later, he darted forward at supersonic speeds, 
closing in on Lina before she even realized he had even moved. Before 
she could  even blink, Ranma seemed to have passed right through her and 
was sliding to a halt behind her.
  When she turned around to face him, his back was toward her and he was 
in a low crouching position, like he had just executed an attack.
  "What the hell was that?" Lina asked.
  Ranma stood up and turned toward her, a smirk on his face.
  A second later, Lina's clothes seemed to shred right before her eyes 
and fell down to her feet in tattered remains. She looked down and soon 
realized she was only clad in her bra and panties.
  Ranma smirked, "Now we're both in the same boat. Now neither of us 
have clothes,"
  "M-my clothes!!!" Lina shouted, covering over her chest, blushing beet 
red. She glared at him.
  Hm, I guess I was wrong, Ranma thought. She doesn't have that small of 
breasts. I guess her clothes were a bit restricting. Of course, her 
breasts were still small, just not as small as he thought.
  "W-what are you looking at?!?" Lina shouted. She had noticed Ranma's 
eyes lingering on her chest far longer than they were supposed to. Sure, 
it was a bit flattering that he was staring at her, but then again, he 
was a guy, and all guys were like that. And what was worse was that it 
was from a guy she now hated and would kill in an instant had she her 
clothes and not her half-nakedness to worry about.
  Ranma continued to glance at Lina's breasts. If those wonderbra 
thingies exist, she would be even more attractive. Attractive?! What the 
hell am I thinking?! She's trying to kill me!!!
  Lina slapped Ranma, "Quit looking at me like that!!!"
  That seemed to snap Ranma out of his revierie, "Hey!! What the heck 
didja do that for?"
  "You were staring at my breasts!!!" she shouted, very embarrassed.
  "Yeah, so?" he replied without much thought.
  Lina blushed another shade of red. This was a very awkward situation 
she had gotten herself into. It didn't help that the man before her was 
staring at her breasts. But then again, no one had actually looked at 
her like that. Her heart started beating faster than it already was at 
the realization.
  "Quit having perverted thoughts about me!" she said. She could picture 
the thoughts running through that man's mind. It was enough to make 
anyone's heart race, especially hers. 
  "Hey, what the heck makes ya think I was having perverted thoughts 
about you?!" Ranma said, blushing slightly. It didn't take long for him 
to realize why that young girl thought that. He had been staring at her 
for longer than he cared to admit.
  Ranma was about to say something else when he realized the young girl 
turning her attention elsewhere.
  "That's them!!!" They're the ones that destroyed my inn!!!" the man, 
forgotten until now, told several townsmen. It was clear that these 
people were authority figures since they were dressed in uniform. They 
looked at Ranma and then Lina, a bit surprised at seeing two half-naked 
people. 
  However, they pulled out their swords as one of them said, "All right, 
you two are gonna have to come with us,"
  "Um, what do we do now?" Ranma asked, turning toward Lina. He had no 
idea what he was supposed to do in a situation like this. He probably 
would had gone with them, but he didn't want to be executed because he 
knew nothing about the laws of this world.
  "What else, we run!"

  Ranma and Lina ran for what seemed like several miles. Actually, it was
Ranma that did the running while Lina simply used her levitation spell 
and hovered those miles. When they finally stopped, Ranma didn't look 
like he was at all tired despite having run for such a long time. They 
endd up in some forest. It just so happens it was the same forest where 
Ranma had first arrived unexpectedly.
  Hovering down to the ground, Lina gave Ranma a glance, "My my, I'm 
impressed that you're not tired,"
  Ranma smirked, "Well, I guess I can't say the same about you,"
  "And just what is that supposed to mean?" she glared at him.
  "I betcha you're outta shape from lettin' your magic do all the work," 
he commented, "But then again, I guess you're not that outt shape 
considering you ain't fat,"
  Lina found herself almost blushing until she realize what Ranma had 
really said. "And just what makes ya think I'm out of shape? I betcha 
I'm in much better shape than you. Hey, what the hell are ya looking 
at?!?" She realized Ranma wasn't paying much attention to her. It was 
until then did she realize that both she and Ranma were still clad in 
their undergarments.
  He gave a weak laugh and said, "Sorry," After a moment, he turned 
around and headed off in western direction.
  "Hey, where do you think you're going?" Lina called out, following 
behind him. Since Ranma had a large stride, Lina had to take two steps 
to Ranma's one. 
  "Consider ourselves even," he said, stopping. Lina ended up bumping 
her nose into Ranma's muscular back. She rubbed her nose as she looked 
up at him. She felt almost intimidated at Ranma's size. He stood not 
only a full head taller, but he was much more muscular than she had 
originally thought. It seems that the weird clothes that he wore hid his 
physique.
  "Hey, quit having perverted thoughts about me," Ranma teased, 
smirking, when he noticed Lina staring at him.
  "I was not!!!" she shouted, blushing red. Unable to deal with the 
embarrassment, she did the first thing that popped into her mind. 
  She threw a fireball at him to get her point across. Unfortunately, 
Ranma had picked up on her early execution of her fireball and simply 
sidestepped it, the fireball arcing up into the air where it disappeared 
somewhere beyond the heavens.
  "Don't bother," he said with a wave of a hand, "Unless you catch me 
off guard, you're never going to hit me with those lil fireballs of 
yours,"
  Lina smirked, "You think a fireball is the only thing I can cast? 
Well, you're dead wrong,"
  Ranma got into a defensive stance, "All right, fine. Gimme your best,"
  Ranma was barraged by every one of Lina's spells. 
  He didn't stand a chance.

  Ranma was muttering to himself as he proceeded to wander aimlessly 
through the woods. It didn't help any that he was still clad in his 
boxers and had bruises all over his body. He had to admit that he had 
underestimated that young girl. He had really taught him a lesson in 
humility.
  "Stupid chick," he muttered, "She's so damn lucky she's a girl. 
Otherwise I wouldn't've let her get away with the crap she has. I 
haven't taken so much crap from anyone in the longest time,"
  He smirked as he recalled the incident a short while ago. Lina had 
nailed him with projectile after projectile, alternatng between ice 
spells and fire spells. He managed to dodge most of the porjectiles, but 
those that had hit him really stung. Eventually, he realized the 
futility in continuing on and had simply said, 'Fine, you win. I'm 
leaving.'
  When he had simply turned around and proceeded to walk away, that 
young girl smiled and watched as he left. Luckily, she never bothered to 
follow after him. He had to admit that she was a very powerful opponent, 
probably one of the most powerful opponents he had faced in the longest 
time, but he had swallowed his pride and walked away. There was no use 
in proving himself. He did not hit girls.
  Ranma's eyes widened as he came to a clearing. In the middle of that 
clearing was a hot spring. His jaw dropped when he recognized that that 
hot spring. It was the same hot spring where that young girl had been 
taking a bath in when he had appeared.
  "Goddamnit!!! I'm back where I started!!!" he shouted, shooting a 
massive ki-blast up into the air.
  From well over a mile away, Lina had been muttering to herself about 
how she had been too soft on that man, to have let him live. She had to 
admit that she was rather amazed that he not only dodged most of her 
attacks, but also managed to brush off the attacks that would had 
otherwise knocked any mortal unconsious.
  She looked down at her undergarments and gave a slight laugh. She 
still couldn't understand how he had managed to do that to her. She 
hadn't even seen him do that. She wonered just how much that man was 
holding back. However, she smiled to herself because she had won that 
match. She had put that man in his place.
  When she saw a massive sphere of energy shoot up into the air, she had 
the funny suspicion it was that guy who had did that. Her heart skipped 
a beat as she wondered what would had happened to her if something like 
that had hit her. She'd probably be dead.
  She continued to watch as the ki-blast rose high into the air and stop 
about a mile up. It seemed to hover there for a second before gravity 
seemed to take course and bring the ki-blast back down toward the terra 
firma.
  "Jeez, what kinda projectile is that?" she asked herself, regarding 
the ki-blast.
 Her eyes widened when she saw the ki-blast come slamming back down on 
the part of the forest where it had emerged, exploding upon impact with 
the ground.
  Lina was forced to shield her eyes from the brilliance of the blast, 
hiding behind a nearby tress to protect herself from the shockwave. When 
everyhing subsided, she gingerly looked back around the tree and nearby 
fell over from the shock when she saw the destruction the blast had 
caused. A huge crater about fifty feet in diameter could be seen, as if 
a huge chunk of the forest had been uprooted.
  "Whoa," Lina smirked, her heart racing. She suddenly realized that 
that blast was close to as strong as her Dragon Slave. To think that 
someone else could possess such power made her very curious. She had to 
find out more about him. "I know it's going to gnaw away at me at just 
who that guy was so I might as well go back and find out,"
  Slowly, she made her way toward the huge crater.
  "This sucks," Ranma muttered to himself as he sat on his backside in 
the middle of the crater. He had accidentally destroyed a good portion 
of the forest, and for what, to let out his anger. He couldn't believe 
he had done that. Somehow, it turns out that he had accidentally 
executed a Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan since he had been depressed from 
realizing he was right back where he started. When the ki-bast hit him, 
it had left him unscathed but the shockwaves had caused massive 
destruction as it rippled away from him.
  "Damn, how the hell am I gonna fix this fuck up?" he asked himself. He 
knew tha hundreds upon hundreds of animals were now without homes, or 
worse, dead.
  He sighed. There was nothing he could do. What was done was done. All 
he could do was go on.
  After a few minutes, he got up to is feet and proceeded to climb on up 
out of the crater.
  When he finally reached the top, he was a bit surprised to see the 
young girl looking down at him, still clad in her bra and panties.
  "What the heck do you want?" he asked. He wanted to kick himself for 
snapping at her. But then again, she had been quite a nusance to him 
since his arrival.
  Lina continued to look at Ranma. For some reason, she felt this urge 
to extend her hand and help Ranma up to his feet, but she chose against 
it. She took a step back as he climbed out of the crater and got to his 
feet, facing her. 
  Standing in front of her, Ranma regarded her for several long moments, 
making Lina very aware of herself.
  "What?" she snapped at him, not liking his critical gaze.
  "What do ya want?" he repeated.
  Lina stopped for a moment to firgure out what she was going to say. 
After a moment, she said, "I was merely curious as to where you learned 
that technique, that's all,"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "What makes ya think I learned it? I did 
that by accident,"
  "A-accident? You're lying,"
  He turned around and proceeded to walk off in western, hopefully western, 
direction. It was going to get dark and most likely cold. He needed some clothes 
and shelter.
  "Hey, where do you think you're going? Don't walk away when I'm 
speaking to you," she said coldly, authoritively. It really got her 
peeved that this man showed no fright toward her, even after learning 
the hard way that she was someone not to be crossed.
  Ranma turned to face Lina, an annoyed look on his face, "What?! What 
the hell do ya want?! Can't you see I'm in no mood to talk to the likes 
of you?!"
  Lina smirked, "So? You think that bothers me?" This was more to her 
liking, when her opponents let their emotions take control of them. 
  Taking a deep breath, Ranma sighed. Figuring it wasn't worth it, he 
turned around again and proceeded to walk away from her. When Lina 
realized what he had done, she quickly followed after him. When she 
asked him where he had been intent on going, he simply ignored her. 
After asking several times, she realized he was purposely ignoring her.
  "All right, ignore me if you want. I'll just continue talking," she 
said.
  Ranma turned toward Lina, "Quit following me. You're nothing but 
trouble,"
  "You bet," she retorted, "And I could be a whole lot more trouble if 
you continue to ignore me. I want to know where you learned that 
technique," It was a technique no mere sorcerer was supposed to know. 
Who did this guy work for? She wanted to know. It was not common for her 
to cross paths with someone of his calibur.
  Gritting his teeth, Ranma shouted, "Get the hell away from me! I ain't 
gonna say it again!"
  Lina wasn't at all intimidated, "You don't scare me,"
  Ranma smirked, "What, you wanna fight?"
  Momentarily caught off guard, Lina said, "What, y-you wanna fight?"
  Smiling, Ranma said, "All right,"
  He got into a battle stance. When he did, Lina seemed to be speechless 
because she had never seen such thing as a battle stance before. The 
only battle stance she had really ever seen was that of a swordsman, his 
sword held up front. This was very different, however. The man had no 
weapon.
  However, Lina was well aware that this man was capable of doing some 
amazing things with his hands, like shred her clothes without her 
knowing or feeling it. 
  "Fine, let's fight," she said, readying herself for a fireball. She 
would end this fight fast.
  "C'mon," he taunted her.
  Lina took the initiative and threw a fireball at Ranma, only to have 
it skillfully deflected back at her. Luckily, she managed to dodge right 
out of the way, rolling to her feet several meters away from the now 
evident hole in the ground that that fireball had caused.
  Goddamnit, she thought, breathing heavily. This guy is using my own 
projectiles against me.
  Just to make sure, she shot another fireball, only to have that one 
also deflected toward her, missing her by inches once again.
  "Hey, that's not fair!" Lina said.
  Ranma smirked and even chuckled a bit as he said, "Hey, quit your 
complaining. I'm already going easy on you,"
  For some reason, Lina had a funny suspicion that he was. He wasn't 
breathing heavily. He just stood there, calm, waiting for her to attack, 
anticipating her next move. All she knew was that in order to defeat 
him, she had to do something he had never seen her do before. 
  "Whatever you throw at me, I'm gonna simply throw it right back at 
ya," he said, "You probably used every spell you knew on me back there. 
But don't think I got all these bruises in vain. Now I know what move 
you're gonna be doing next as soon as you try,"
  "Why you arrogant-" she spat, fuming.
  She shot a massive fireball at Ranma, channelling all her anger into 
it and sent it rocketing toward Ranma. Once again, it was deflected 
right back at her. Although she knew he would had done that, it had been 
too late for her to realize that that deflected fireball had been too 
large for her to dodge in time as it struck her in and sent her flying 
bodily through the air, sliding to a halt. Luckily for her, she had 
managed to extend her hands forward just in the nick of time and summon 
a barrier to absorb most of the blast. Unfortunately, she had still be 
caught in the blast.
  Ranma's eyes widened as he saw Lina lying unconsious on the ground a 
short distance away from him. "Oh shit," he muttered to himself as he 
ran toward her and knelt down next to her. He pressed a hand against her 
throat and felt a pulse and then sighed in relief. He couldn't believe 
what he had done. He had just injured this poor girl because he had 
assumed she would had dodged that fireball he deflected toward her. It 
was all his fault. All he had wanted to do was give her a scare and make 
her realize it was useless to fight him.
  "Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!" he muttered, "What the hell were you 
thinking, Ranma. You're an idiot, deflecting fireballs right back at the 
girl like that. Why the hell didja assume that she could dodge 'em in 
time. You should've left well enough alone and let her be and continued 
on walking,"
  Now knowing that he had an obligation to get help the injured girl, he 
gently picked her up in his arms, noticing how warm her body felt 
against his. But then again, it was skin against skin. Holding her in 
his arms, he headed off in western direction.
  "I hope there's a town in this direction,"

  Lina felt this incredibly warm sensation flooding through her body, as 
if she had been lying down in a bath full of warm water. It felt very 
soothing and comforting, a sensation she could get used to. It was just 
too bad that she knew this was all a dream and that she would eventually 
had to awake. 
  Slowly, Lina reluctantly opened her eyes. Not even a split second 
passed before she realized she was being carried in some sort of a way. 
A second later, she noticed that somebody had their arms wrapped around 
her body and that she was being held gently against their body as her 
head rested against the crook of the person's neck and shoulder.
  Her heart skipped a beat as she wondered how on earth she could had 
gotten into this situation. She noticed the rythmic steps the person was 
taking. She didn't tilt her head but rather shifted her gaze upward and 
caught sight of the pig-tail that the person had his hair tied into. She 
realized that she knew only one person wore his hairstyle like that.
  Not really knowing what to do, she said nothing and didn't move. 
Thoughts were racing through her mind as she wondered what she should 
do. She didn't know how she got there, why she was there, or where he 
was taking her. It also didn't help that her body was very aware of his 
body pressed against her.
  She gazed at a nearby tree and noticed it was rustling quite 
violently. That meant the winds must had picked up. One thing did seem 
very odd though. If the trees were being blown rather violently from the 
winds, how come she couldn't feel the wind herself. She answered her own 
question when she realized that some aura seemed to surround both her 
and the man to keep them warm since they were still clad in their 
uderclothes.
  If I'm not the one projecting the aura, then it must be this man, Lina 
thought. This man must be more skilled in magic than he lets on. It felt 
nice for a change to let someone else do the concentration of projecting 
an aura to keep them warm. Usually, she had to do it for herself. It was 
nice that some else was doing it this time around.
  Not really knowing what to do, Lina kept quiet and to herself. Only 
time would tell where he was taking her or why he was carrying her. All 
she could was wait. Since she had to wait, she might as well close her 
eyes for a moment and get some rest. Throwing all those fireballs back 
there had taken quite a bit out of her, especially that last fireball 
she had thrown. It wasn't until then did she realize she had been struck 
by her own fireball and knocked unconsious. It seemed to make sense. 
That was probably why this man was carrying her, because he wanted to 
help her out because she had been too slow to dodge her own projectile.
  She smiled slightly as she closed her eyes.
  What an absolutely idiot gesture he was doing.
  But then again, it was also a kind one.

  Lina awoke feeling refreshed. She stretched for a moment before wiping 
the sleep from her eyes and surveying her surroundings. It only took a 
second for her to realize that she was at an inn. She got up and out of 
her bed, surprised to see that she was no longer clad in her bra and 
panties. She was clad in a pair of pajamas. Her visage sullened as she 
realized that she hadn't been the one that put those on. That meant 
someone else must had done it for her.
  She blushed as she wondered if it hade been that man to have done it 
for her. If it had, then that meant he had had his hands all over her. 
But how could that had been? She had fallen asleep. If he had touched 
her in any way, she would had awakened. Sleeping? Oh my god! How could I 
had fallen asleep while he had been carrying me?!
  "What the hell is wrong with me?! I don't even know the guy!!!" she 
shouted.
  She quickly looked around the room and already knew that he was no 
longer there. There was no indication that he had been there that night. 
The room had had only one bed, and she had been sleeping in it all this 
time.
  There came a knock at the door, which startled Lina. She quickly 
turned toward the door and approached it cautiously. Opening it, she had 
been half expecting to see that man, but almost felt disappointed when 
it wasn't. Standing before her was an elderly woman, most likely the 
maid, here thinking Lina had already left.
  "Yes?"
  The maid gave a warm smile, "I'm sorry, I wasn't too sure if you were 
still here or not. I'll clean up after you leave,"
  Lina asked, "Excuse me, but who paid for my room?"
  "I'm not too sure. A young looking man, about a head taller than you. 
Black hair. Blue eyes. Handsome," she replied.
 "Did he leave a name?" Lina asked. She figured it was about time she 
knew that man's name.
  The maid shook her head as she replied, "I'm sorry, but he never left 
a name. He left quite early this morning, several hours ago,"
  "What time is it?"
  "It's noontime," came the reply.
  "Damn, I can't believe I was asleep for so long," Lina commented.
  The maid asked, "I assume you've picked up the package left behind,"
  "Package? What package?"
  The maid said, "Before the man left, he had left a package behind at 
the front desk and asked that it be given to you,"
  "For me?" Lina smiled. She liked presents. She quickly left the room 
and headed for the front desk, which was down the hallway and down the 
stairs. 
  Arriving at the desk, she asked if there had been a package left 
behind. The girl behind the counter regarded her for a moment before 
believing that the girl fit the description Ranma had given her. She 
reached under the counter and picked up a package and handed it to Lina.
  "It isn't some kinda bomb is it?" she joked, smiling.
  She opened up the package and was pretty surprised to see an outfit 
that looked like her clothes. Pulling the outfit out, she noticed that 
it looked identical to the one that man had shredded. However, it wasn't 
the same one. It seems that man had gone out and bought her another 
outfit. It was odd that it looked exactly like this because it had been 
custom made for her. He must have had quite the memory to remember how 
her outfit looked like.
  She quickly ran off into the restroom located off to the side, 
emerging a minute later, clad in her uual outfit. It had fit perfectly. 
She gave herself a little twirl, noticing that it had been a new outfit 
because the fabric wasn't worn in like her other one.
  "I'm impressed," she said, "It's not often a person comes along that 
manage to surprise me one surprise after another," 
  She felt something in one of her pockets and reached in and pulled it 
out. It was a tiny piece of paper with some writing on it.
  'I know you woke up while I was carrying you'

  "Have you seen a man that's about this tall, black hair spun into a 
pigtail, blue eyes......and.....fine, I admit,  very very handsome?" 
Lina asked a passerby. She had spent the pass hour asking passerbys if 
they had seen a man that fit Ranma's description. 
  "Yes, I think I've seen someone that fit that description," a young 
girl said. She was with two of her female friends.
  "Well, tell me where he went," Lina said, almost getting angry.
  "I saw him down in the town square about two hours ago," she replied, 
"He was talking to these two girls,"
  Lina found herself getting angry for some reason at the mention of 
Ranma talking to two girls. Why did he have to talk to them? She took a 
deep breath and said, "Would you happen to know what they had been 
talking about?"
  "Probably asking him out," one of the girls commented with a slight 
grin. She gave a laugh but immediately stopped when she noticed Lina 
glare at her. It scared her.
  "Anyway, we saw him a while back," the other girl said, "I don't know 
if it's the same guy you were mentioning, but I'm pretty sure it was,"
  "All right, fine, thanks," Lina said.
  She turned around and headed off for the town square, making it there 
in record time. Upon arriving there, she noticed a whole bunch of 
passerbys, but none of them remotely fit Ranma's description. She 
continued looking around for him, wishing she could call out for him had 
she known his name.
  "Jeez, where the hell is that jerk?" Lina muttered to herself. She 
wasn't going to let him walk out of her life like that, not after 
leaving behind such an embarrassing message like that. She had to 
explain herself that she had been simply tired and wanted him to do the 
work of carrying her to an inn. She had wanted to conserve her enery and 
let him do all the work. Yeah, that's why.
  As she walked by the same buildig for the fifth time, she bothered to 
actually look at it and noticed that there were several posters posted 
on one of its walls. She walked up to it and gazed at the poster. It was 
a poster asking for worthy mercenaries willing to fight off a black 
dragon that keeps attacking the village at random times.
  "Hm, so this must be Tinial Village," Lina commented. She had once 
passed through this village before and had remembered someone realizing 
that she was the great Lina Inverse and asking her to rid the village of 
tha black dragon that resided in the mountains nearby. She hadn't 
accepted and went about her journey because they didn't offer her 
enough.
  "I haven't been in this village in months and they still haven't found 
someone to get rid of that dragon? Jeez, what a bunch of incompetent 
fools," she said.
  As Lina gazed at the poster one last time and then looked up, she 
caught sight of a familiar individual.
  Her heart skipped a beat as she realized it was the same man she had 
been with the pass couple of days. It was Ranma, fully dressed in his 
usual outfit. It seems he has found some clothing for himself. Her eyes 
widened as she noticed that he wasn't alone. Trodding behind him was 
this huge black dragon, roughly ten times larger than Ranma, a massive chain 
around its neck. When the dragon tried to raise its head and hopefully cause 
Ranma to be swept off his feet, Ranma had simply turned toward the dragon and 
gave the chain a good jerk. 
  Lina couldn't really understand how this could happen. The dragon was strong 
enough to simply take off flying and Ranma would be helpless to prevent it 
because there was no way he would be able to hold the dragon on the ground. 
Ranma was probably only a thousandths of the dragon's weight.
  And above that little feat, how that man managed to chain that huge dragon was 
also incomprehensible.
  "Hey, quite yer jerking around," Ranma turned toward the dragon, 
jerking the chain and causing the dragon's head to come down near 
Ranma's, "I caught ya fair and square. You knew that sooner or later 
that your terrorizing days would end and that someone would come and 
kill ya. Just be lucky I just captured ya,"
  Lina watched Ranma ask he continued walking down the street, oblivious 
to the gazes everyone was giving him. Just as he was walking past Lina, 
he noticed her.
  "Oh, I'm glad you're awake," he smiled warmly. He turned his attention 
back on the street and continued his journey.
  "Where are you going?"
  Ranma said, "To turn this dragon in and pay back my debt. You don't 
think those clothes you're wearing are free, do ya?"
  Lina bit her lip. This meant Ranma had done her a favor. "Hey, I never 
asked you to buy me some clothes,"
  "You mean you'd rather go about in your bra and panties?" he smirked. 
He continued walking. When Lina caught up to him, he said, "Hey, why're 
ya following me? Are you attracted to me or something?"
  Lina blushed a horrible shade of red. She couldn't believe how such a 
silly comment could embarrass her like that. She shouted, "You've gotta 
be kidding! There is no way in hell I would be attracted to you!!! 
Never!!!"
  "So why're ya following me?" he asked.
  "I wanted to tell you.....about the other night," she said, "The 
reason why I woke up and then went to sleep is so I can conserve my 
energy. I figured I might as well let you do all the work instead of 
having to walk also,"
  "Fine, then you're welcome," Ranma replied, continuing on.
  "I wasn't trying to thank you!"
  "Look, can you please leave me alone?" Ranma turned toward her, 
regarding her intently, "We started off on the wrong foot but what's 
done is done. We can't change that. I did you the favor of going out and 
buying some new clothes for you. Now we're even. So just lettme go about 
with my business and you with yours,"
  "Are you trying to get rid of me?" she asked.
  "Yeah," he said matter-of-factly.
  "Well, you're not going to get rid of me that easily," Lina snapped, 
"You still owe me,"
  "Owe you? For what?"
  "For having seen me naked," she said.
  Ranma walked up to the town hall and knocked on the door. After having 
done that, he turned toward her, "Hey, it wasn't my fault. Jeez, what 
the hell do you want from me?"
  Lina smiled, "Monetary compensation,"
  Ranma regarded her, "Is that it?"
  "I guess,"
  "Okay, fine, you can have all the money I'll receive when I bring the 
dragon in. After that, you'll leave me alone?" he asked.
  "R-Really?" Lina's eyes widened. She had seen the reward to be given 
to the death or capture of the black dragon. It would set her for 
several months without worry.
  The door opened and out emerged the mayor of the town. He gazed up at 
the dragon and then at Ranma.
  "Here's the dragon," Ranma said, "Like I promised. What you do with it 
is not my business,"
  The mayor nodded meekly before disappearing back into the town hall. A 
minute later emerged several heavily arms guards, whom took hold of the 
chain Ranma had been gripping. They led the dragon around the block to 
the back of the house.
  "How can I ever thank you?" the mayor said, "That dragon had been a 
nusance for so long,"
  "Just pay off my debt to the store, 'Joan's Outfitters'. I owe them 
some money for having made me an outfit. And give the rest of the reward 
to this girl," he said, jerking a thumb toward Lina.
  The mayor glanced at Lina for a moment and then nodded. He disappeared 
back into the hall and reappeared a moment later with a bag full of 
gold. He handed it to Lina, no questions asked, and said, "I'll send one 
of my staff to pay your bill for the store you mentioned,"
  Lina's eyes widned at the sight of so much money. There must had been 
fifty gold pieces in that bag. 
  "It's been nice knowing you," Ranma said, bowing toward Lina politely 
before he headed off down the street.
  "Wait! Are you serious? How can you just walk away from this much 
money?" Lina had to ask.
  Turning to face her, he said, "Because all the money I'll ever need is 
for food. That's all I care about. You can keep the rest,"
  "Well, I guess a deal's a deal," Lina said, hugging the bag of gold 
close to her chest, "I'll leave you alone. But before you leave, I'd 
like to know your name,"
  "Why bother, you'll probably never see me again," he replied. He then 
shrugged his shoulders and said, "But what the heck, I might as well 
tell you anyway. My name's Ranma Saotome,"
  Lina smiled, "Well, I'm Lina Inverse,"
  "Well, Lina, it's been nice knowing you. Goodbye,"
  He turned around and left, not bothering to look back.
  For the first time since she met him, Lina felt this empty feeling 
within her.

  Lina had made a fortune in the past few days since she and Ranma had 
gone their seperate ways. She had been smart enough to project an image 
of Ranma taking a bath and having girls pay to see it. Sure, it was 
similar to what she had done with her sister, Luna, but she wasn't at 
all worried about the consequences. Afterall, they would probably never 
see each other again.
  After having made a bundle for the third day straight, Lina started 
feeling a bit depressed for some reason. She couldn't believe how many 
females would be desperate enough to pay for something like this. With 
men it was understandable. What had probably made her depressed was when 
one of the females made a comment about how Lina must had been a really 
lucky girl to met someone so handsome. She had denied having felt lucky. 
  But as more and more females turned up for the 'show of the century', 
Lina started wondering if that many girls were swooning over Ranma this 
very moment. Even after a few days, she still hadn't gotten over the 
fact that she had gotten angry when that girl had commented about her 
seeing Ranma talking to two girls down by the town square.
  When she thought about it, Ranma wasn't all that bad a guy. They had 
just gotten off on the wrong foot. She had long forgiven him for that. 
It wasn't worth it to hold a grudge. But then again, Ranma was the type 
of person she had trouble holding a grudge against. 
  "I wonder what happened to him," she found herself saying as she gazed out of 
a window of an inn one rainy day. Since she didn't want to be out in the rain, 
it gave her time to think. 
  Unfortunately, it was kind of hard not to think of Ranma.

  Lina sighed as she gazed down at the unconsious bodies. There were probably 
more than twenty bandit strewn about a single campfire with Lina standing before 
that fire. Lina had stumbled upon a bandit's campground and had attacked it, 
hoping to find something good to loot. Although she still had more than enough 
money from the bagful Ranma had given her, it would never hurt to have more. She 
hadn't anticipating it to be this simple to incapacitate twenty people with a 
single fireball. There was a single conscious bandit, his wrists and ankles tied 
as he lie on his stomach. 
  Where was the challenge? There had only been on person in a long long time 
that had provided any challenge to her.
  For a brief moment, she missed Ranma. 
  "What the hell am I thinking of?" she told herself, believing she must be some 
kind of sicko to be thinking this. This was the same man that annoyed her to 
hell and back, than had shredded her clothes, that had actually deflected her 
own fireballs back at her, that.....that had done the kind gesture of carrying 
her, that had repaid his debt to her by giving her his reward.
  She looked down at the bag of gold in her hands, "This is all you've got? 
There isn't even enough here to last two days," she asked the consious bandit.
  "I-it's all w-we have left,"
  "Left? What do you mean by that?" Lina asked curiously. Bandits had a tendancy 
of collecting treasure, not spending it.
  "Someone else had attacked us before you," the bandit said.
  "Who?"
  "I-I dunno. He had black hair and blue eyes,"
  That must have been Ranma, Lina thought. But why would he attack them? If he 
had the decency to pay back his debt to that clothing store where he had gotten 
our clothes, then why would he attack them? They're just ordinary bandits so 
they wouldn't have bounties on their heads. What gives?
  "Why did he attack?" she asked.
  "Um, w-well, h-he didn't really attack," the man said, "H-he had stumbled upon 
o-our campground and had asked for food. W-when we tried to attack him, he had 
fought back and had taken our foodcart,"
  "That doesn't explain why you have so little loot for me to steal from you 
guys," she commented.
  "Um, well, we had all our loot hidden in the food cart," came the reply.
  "How much?"
  "T-thirty pieces,"
  "Thirty pieces?!" Lina gasped. That was more than the reward Ranma had given 
her. She would be living quite splendidly if she got her hands on that. And 
since she knew Ranma had no real need for money, perhaps he might not mind 
giving it to her.
  Lina smirked. She would find Ranma. If he was carrying thirty pieces of gold, 
then she wanted it. Afterall, Ranma had said he didn't care about the money. 
What better way for him to relieve himself of the burden of carrying so much 
gold than to give it to a sweet girl like her.
  "Which way did this man go?"
  "West,"
  
  Ranma was enjoying his meal as he sat on the foodcart which sat in front of a 
campfire when he caught a familiar sight. He had been about to finish his meal 
and get ready to set up a makeshift tent to spend the night because it was 
getting pretty dark, when Lina appeared from one of the shadows.
  "Not you again," he muttered.
  "Hey, is that anyway to talk to a lady?" Lina smirked, glad to have found him. 
She had seen a campfire from a nearby mountain and had hoped it was Ranma's. Her 
guess proved right.
  "I don't see no lady, do you?" Ranma smirked, his mouth full of food. 
  Lina's facefaulted. She couldn't believe how much she had disliked Ranma. 
Perhaps having been away from him for a few days did that to a person.
  "I'll let that slide," Lina said, her anger starting to build. She took a deep 
breath.
  "Whatcha doin' out here?" he asked, hopping off the foodcart and leaning 
against it.
  Lina answered, "Well, I was just in the neighborhood and figured I should drop 
in,"
  Ranma chuckled, "Yeah right, I betcha you just want something,"
  "No," she replied a bit too quickly. She cleared her throat and said, "Um, I 
notice that foodcart behind you. Where did you get it?"
  "I stole it from a whole buncha bandits," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He 
then realized something and turned toward the foodcart, "Oh, I found something 
in here that ya might want,"
  He produced a bag of gold and threw toward Lina who caught it with eager 
hands. Lina managed to hide her joy and said, "Um, w-what's this for?"
  "I found some gold in the foodcart. Since I'm only interested in the food, you 
can have it," he said.
  "Y-you're just giving it to me?" Lina was thoroughly surprised. She didn't 
even need to ask him. She had been thinking of a way of finding out of he had 
the gold and a plan of stealing it from him, but here he was, giving it to her, 
making all that time spend planning void.
  Ranma shrugged his shoudlers, "I guess. I don't want it so you might as well 
have it," He walked over to a nearby tree and sat next to it, his back against 
it. He closed his eyes, "If you don't want it, chuck it in a lake or something. 
I have no use with it,"
  "But gold can buy you things," Lina commented. This man was starting to get on 
her nerves. How could anyone not want money?
  "But it can't buy buy me a way home," he said softly to himself.
  "What did you say?"
  "Nothing," he said, leaning his head back against the tree and waiting for 
sleep to bestow him.
  
  When Ranma woke up, the campfire had died out. It was now somewhere around 
eight in the morning. He got up to his feet and stretched out, rubbing the sleep 
from his eyes. As he stretched, he noticed something fall to his feet. 
  Picking it up, he noticed it was a cape, Lina's cape. He hadn't noticed it at 
first, but it must had been placed on him as if it were a blanket. Sure, it 
wasn't that he needed a blanket to keep warm, but he had to admit that the 
gesture was nice of her.
  Looking around, he noticed Lina was no where to be seen. It didn't really 
surprise him, though. She was very independent, afterall. 
  He looked at the cape in his hands and wondered what he should do with it. 
Figuring Lina would want it back some day, he threw it into the foodcart. 
Looking down at the foodcart, Ranma stood very still, wondering what he was 
going to do now. 
  He had just found out the other day that he was on a totally different world, 
that China didn't exist. Because if this, he is led to believe that there would 
be no nanban mirror. He had been spending most of his time eating dinner and 
wondering how the heck he was going to get out of this mess, how he was going to 
get back home, when Lina had appeared.
  Because she had been there, he had momentarily forgotten about his problems in 
Getting home, what with him having to deal with the one named Lina Inverse, but 
now that she was gone, he had time to think.
  "Damn, how the hell am I gonna get home," he muttered to himself. He looked 
into the foodcart and noticed that there wasn't all that much food left since he 
ate most of it last night.
  Figuring it was useless to wheel the foodcart with him where ever he went, 
Ranma decided that it was best to have a hearty breakfast and simply ate the 
remaining food.
  With no more food to worry about, thus, no foodcart to wheel, Ranma proceeded 
west where he had caught sight of a village from a clifftop a while back. He had 
no real idea what to do, but he figured there might be some way of getting home 
and that being in a village full of people, people that might know of a way, was 
a lot better than staying out in the woods alone.
  Not knowing what to do with the cape, Ranma threw it around his shoulders. 
Without even needing to look, he knew the cape looked too small on him, what 
with him being both taller and bigger than Lina, but it didn't bother him. 
  He had other things to worry about.

  "Who is he?" Ranma asked, almost jumping with joy. 
  While on his way toward the village he had seen earlier, he had come up with a 
plan to getting home. Although it was a long shot, it was better than nothing. 
He wanted to find the most powerful sorceror on this world. Perhaps he would be 
able to send Ranma back.
  Ranma had spent most of his day going from one tavern to another, asking the 
locals if they know who that person was, much to no avail. That was why Ranma 
was so surprised when someone gave him an answer after he had just about given 
up.
  "No, the person isn't a 'he' but a 'she'," the tavern keeper said. He was the 
one that knew quite a bit about the world, a rarity nowadays.
  "All right, who is she?" Ranma asked.
  "Her name is Luna Inverse," the man said.
  "L-Lina Inverse?! S-she's the most powerful?!" he said, nearly falling off the 
barstool.
  The keeper chuckled and said, "No, not Lina Inverse. Luna Inverse. She is 
Lina's older sister,"
  "How do you know this stuff?" Ranma had to ask, curious.
  "Well, I actually know quite a bit. Being a tavern keeper and all, you listen 
to people from all over the world tell you their stories and the people they've 
met. I've never actually met her before, but I have heard stories of her through 
other people. That's the extent of my knowledge of her,"
  "Do you think this Luna Inverse person is the most powerful?"
  "I dunno. Your guess is as good as mine,"
  Ranma frowned. So it was basically a shot in the dark.
  "Well, do you know where I can find her?"
  "I'm sorry, but I don't know. All I know is that she lives west of here. In a 
town called Zeifielia. That's all. Sorry I can't help you out much,"
  "Thanks anyway,"

  Ranma wondered where Lina could be as he wandered the streets of the village 
that night. If anyone were to know where Luna is, then her sister would be it. 
However, the problem was finding Lina, where ever she was. 
  He asked passerbys if they had seen a girl that fit Lina's description, much 
to no avail. He continued to do this until it got dark before finally giving up 
and calling it a day. He would continue asking tomorrow and the day after that 
and the day after that and so on until he would find her. Besides, it wasn't as 
if he were going anywhere anyway.
  
  Through some stroke of luck, Lina ended up walking into the exact same tavern 
that Ranma had been in two days ago. She had been just about to sit down to 
order some food when the bartender said something to her as she was walking by.
  "Hey, aren't you Lina Inverse?" he asked. 
  "The one and only," she smirked. Her eyes narrowed a bit, "Why do you ask?"
  "There was some fellow here looking for you?"
  "Oh?" that piqued Lina's interest.
  "You fellow. Looked to be in his twenties or so," the man said. He held his 
hand up about a foot above Lina's head, "He was about this tall, had black hair 
and blue eyes,"
  "Did he wear a red shirt and black pants?"
  "As a matter of fact, he did,"
  "What did he want?"
  "He was asking around for you," came the reply.
  "H-he was?" a slight blush came to Lina's cheeks. There was no reason for this 
to happen to her, but she couldn't help it, "Do you know where he went?"
  The bartender shook his head, "I'm sorry. All I know was that he headed west 
after he left,"
  Lina sighed, "West? That's it? Can't you be a little bit more specific?"
  "Sorry,"

  Ranma seemed to always be in the right place at the right time. At around one 
in the afternoon, he had been walking down the only dirt trail through the 
forest when he came upon a clearing. Upon emerging from the woods and into the 
circular clearing, he was shocked to see a dozen bodies strewn about. Just off 
to the right was the broken remains of a carriage.
  "What the?" he seemed surprised. He walked up to one of the bodies for a 
closer inspection and noticed that, judging from the person's attire, seemed 
like some kind of royal guard. He held a shield that was adorn with a crest that 
probably belonged to the family of the member he was supposed to protect.
  As he gazed down at the body, he heard what sounded like a battle, the clash 
of swords heard faintly, beyond the clearing and within the woods just beyond.
  He quickly ran back into the woods, running for about a hundred meters before 
he caught sight of a battle. He came to a sliding halt when he caught sight of a 
single armored soldier, the royal guard from Ranma's assumption, as he battled 
three bandits, the three of them holding swords. At least they looked like 
bandits, but Ranma couldn't be sure.
  "Jus' give us the princess and you'll live," one of the bandits said.
  "Never!" the guard said, his sword at the ready. The man looked badly injured. 
There were many scratches in his armor where swordblade seemed to have met 
steel.
  Ranma's eyes widened. The guard took a slight step toward the right, revealing 
to Ranma view a young woman, the woman the man had been trying to protect. She 
seemed terrified.
  The guardsman managed to dispatch one bandit with a well placed upward slash, 
but was stabbed through the opening between his his shoulder plates and breast 
plate by the second bandit.
  Ranma watched as the guardsman slashed upward, cutting off the second bandits 
arm at the elbow before he collapsed, unable to continue on, the extent of his 
injuries and the newly opened wound finally taken its toll.
  "R-run!!" the guardsman said as he fell to his knees, right before he was 
stabbed in the back of his neck by the last remaining bandit, seeking revenge 
for his two comrades.
  The princess shrieked as the blood from the guardsman spewd out, staining her 
attire. She gazed up in terror as her assassin grinned at her, his sword ready 
to impale her.
  Before the bandit had a chance to follow through with his attack, Ranma was 
already behind him and tapping on his shoulder. As the bandit turned to face 
him, Ranma landed an open hand slap against the man's jaw, most likely 
dislocating in, sending the man flying through the air and slamming into a 
nearby tree when he slumped to the floor unconscious.
  The princess looked up at Ranma, not knowing how to react. She was still in 
shock over what had just transpired in the past ten minutes. She had been riding 
comfortably in her royal carriage when the bandits ambushed her and now she was 
the only one alive from the convoy.
  "You okay?" Ranma asked, figuring it was he would had to initiate the 
conversation.
  "Um....y-yes," she said meekly. She was still terrified. Nothing like this had 
ever happened to her.
  "What happened?" he asked.
  "We were a-ambushed,"
  "No duh," he said, smirking, "The dead bodies seemed to give it away,"
  The princess regarded Ranma for a moment. Was this man smiling? How could 
someone smile at a time like now?! She definitely wasn't smiling!
  There was a moment of awkward silence before it was broken by Ranma. He said, 
"So....what do ya plan on doin' now?" He knew all the others were dead. He 
didn't even need to check.
  The princess steeled herself and said, "I must return to Anlinson,"
  "Anlinson? Where's that?"
  "It's a two day's journey west from here," she replied.
  "That's not that bad. I'm heading in that direction," he said. He reached a 
hand out and took hold of the princess' hand, "All right, c'mon, let's get goin' 
then,"
  The princess tried to jerk her arm away from Ranma's grasp, much to no avail, 
"Unhand me!"
  Ranma released his grip, the pricess falling down and onto her backside when 
she pulled at the exact same time he released his hand. Her eyes were wide as 
she then realized what had just happened, that she was sitting on the filthy 
floor.
  "You said for me to let go," Ranma said matter-of-factly.
  The princess got up to her feet, brushing her backside of dirt before looking 
up at Ranma, noting that he was very tall compared to her, that the top of her 
head only reached his collarbone.
  When another awkward moment ensued, Ranma stared back at her, "Yeah?"
  The princess let out an exasperated breath. "Do you know who I am?" she asked 
patiently. She had never been treated like this in her life.
  "Some kinda princess, ne?" Ranma asked.
  "I'm Rene Anlinson, daughter of Roun Anlinson, heir to the thrown of-"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "So?"
  "W-what?" the princess looked at Ranma with wide eyes. No one had ever cut her 
off when she had been speaking, "Why you uncooth-"
  Ranma sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "Tell me this isn't 
happenin' to me....she's getting' pissed at me for saving her,"
  "Such vulgar language!"
  Ranma turned around and started walking away, 
  "Goodbye. It was nice talking to ya. Good luck getting' home,"

  Ranma came back to the place where the battle had taken place about a half 
hour later. He wasn't all that surprised to see Rene leaning against a tree, her 
legs pressed against her chest, her chin resting on her knees. He had been 
watching over her for all that time, but had kept out of sight, making her 
believe he had actually left her behind. He would had never left her behind. He 
wasn't like that.
  "You're still here," he said. It was a statement, not a question.
  "What do you want?"
  "Whatcha gonna do, just sit here and wait for someone to come along?" Ranma 
asked.
  "Yes,"
  "And what happens if a bandit shows up?" he smirked. He felt bad at scaring 
her, but if he had to do so to get her to follow him, then so be it.
  The princess said nothing for a moment. She gulped and said, "That had never 
occurred to me,"
  Ranma said, "We should get going,"
  Rene extended her hand. Ranma looked at it curiously.
  "Yeah?" he asked. It took him a moment before he realized she wanted him to 
help her up. He took her hand and helped her to her feet. When she was on her 
feet, she glared at Ranma for a bit, somewhat annoyed that it took him so long 
before he had realized he was obligated to help her to her feet. 
  "Let's go," he said, heading off toward the west, "We've got a long way to 
go,"
  The princess stood where she was.
  "Now what?" he asked, very annoyed.
  Although somewhat used to Ranma's personality, it still bugged her that he 
actually showed his annoyance toward her. It was also very surprising that an 
individual would display such vulgarity in her precense.
  She said, "If you must know, since you're going to be my escort, that will 
mean you are to walk along side me," 
  "You've gotta be shittin' me," 
    
  Rene said weakly, "How long have we been walking? What times is it?"
  "About ten hours or so," Ranma answered, "It's probably around seven or seven 
thirty," 
  He looked at her and immediately knew what had compelled her to ask. She 
looked dead tired. That wasn't all that surprising because she was a princess 
and probably never had to lift a finger to do anything, much less walk for the 
past six hours.
  "Let's eat. I'm starvin'," Ranma said, "Let's stop at the clearing just up 
ahead," 
  He ran up ahead, totally forgetting the fact that he was supposed to be at 
Rene's side. He didn't even realize that Rene had been about to scold him by 
telling him that it was her job to decide when they should stop to eat. But then 
again, she would let this slide because he was new at this, being around royalty 
and how he should act.
  She would have to talk to him about that.
  Coming up to the clearing, she was very surprised at how fast Ranma worked. He 
had already in the middle of gathering a small pile of sticks for a campfire, 
which was good because she was a bit cold at the moment.
  She watched him as he picked up a whole bunch and then approached her. He 
dropped the pile of sticks by her feet and walked back off.
  Rene looked down at the pile of sticks. Surely, Ranma didn't expect someone 
like her to start a fire. Someone of her stature would never do something like 
that.
  "Yo, Rene, you know how to start a fire?" Ranma called out to her from the 
other side of the clearing. He was in the process of gathering rocks.
  "Surely you don't expect someone like myself to-"
  "Oh, I should've guess. You don't know how to," Ranma said, walking back up to 
her and dropping the rock by her feet. He knelt down and proceeded to stack the 
rocks in a circular formation.
  "And just what is that supposed to me?" Rene asked, a bit annoyed. How dare he 
assume anything of her!
  "There's no double meanin' in what I was saying," Ranma replied, "It simply 
means that you don't know how to start a fire. If ya wanna prove me wrong, then 
go right ahead,"
  Rene looked down at the pile of sticks that Ranma had proceeded to place 
within the circle of rock. She wondered what she should say. She didn't know how 
to start a fire.
  "Here, lettme show you," Ranma said.
  He proceeded to explain how one would go about starting a fire. Rene didn't 
bother to listen until Ranma almost snapped at her and said, "C'mon, Rene, 
listen. I ain't gonna explain this again. This shit could come in handy,"
  Rene, almost afraid of Ranma, listened intently.
  Within a few minutes, there was a campfire. Rene had to admit that the 
campfire provided quite a bit of warmth. It was a rather chilly evening, 
afterall.
  "All right, now that the fire's up," Ranma said, getting gup to his feet, "I'm 
gonna go find us some food. Jus' keep the fire goin'. I'll be back in a short 
while,"
  "Don't tell me what to do," 
  Ranma pretended like he was ripping the hair from his head in frustration, 
"Will you quit actin' like there's a stick up yer butt? Have ya any idea what 
kinda predicament you're in? You're stuck in the middle of nowhere, two days 
away from home, with no one even aware of you havin' been ambushed, and you 
still believe acting like a princess really matters,"
  Rene was a bit shocked at Ranma snapping at her like that.
  "Why I have never-"
  Ranma got up and proceeded to walk away and toward the forest, "Once again, 
I'm gonna go find us some food. Jus' keep the fire going,"

  It took Ranma half an hour before he emerged out into the clearing. To his 
surprised, the clearing didn't flicker from the campfire because the campfire 
was now out. Sitting near the campfire was Rene, her legs bent against her 
chest, her chin resting on her knees as she stared down at the burnt out 
campfire.
  Ranma quickly rushed toward Rene and noticed that she was shivering.
  "W-why'd you let the fire go out?" he asked. He knelt down next to her, "Holy 
shit, you're freezing,"
  Rene was indeed freezing. She had choosen to let the campfire go out, to show 
Ranma that she wasn't going to do his bidding. However, after ten minutes, when 
she realized how cold the area got without the camefire, she had grown to regret 
it, especially when she forgot how to restart the campfire.
  Ranma sighed and then chuckled.
  "What so funny?"
  "You're trying to prove a point to me, ne?" he asked. He proceeded to start 
the fire, getting it started after a few minutes, but not until after replacing 
all the sticks.
  When the fire was up again, Rene could feel the warmth from it. She decided to 
answer his question and said, "I was just trying to let you know that you have 
no control over me and that you can't tell me what to do,"
  "Did it work?" he asked with a smirk, "All that seemed to do was make you 
shiver in the cold for about half an hour,"
  Rene said nothing. She really disliked this man. Why did he have to be right?
  "Well, what's done is done," he said after a minute or so, "I'm too hungry to 
continue arguin'. Let's eat,"
  "Eat? Eat what?" Rene asked. She noticed that Ranma was holding a couple of 
dead fish in his hands, "Eat that? You have got to be kidding me,"
  Ranma ignored her as he used one of the sticks and jammed it into the fishes 
mouth so that it would emerge from its tail. After doing so, he handed one of 
the fish on the stick to Rene, "Here ya go,"
  Rene crossed her arms, indicating that she refused to take hold of something 
so disgusting.
  Ranma sighed. He turned toward the fire and proceeded to hold the two fish 
over it.
  "You don't expect me to eat something such as that, do you?" she asked after 
several long minutes. She wanted to break the awkward tension.
  "Hey, if you don't wanna eat it, then I'll eat it," Ranma answered, eyes 
intent on the fishes, "I'm starvin'. I could eat twenty of these and I'll still 
be hungry,"
  They said nothing aftewards. After several minutes, the fishes were done. 
Ranma pulled them from the fire and bit into one of them, nearly eating it whole 
with a single bite. In his other hand, he held the other fish on a stick.
  "Ya still want it?" he asked, mouth full.
  "You're so uncivilized, eating with your mouth full," Rene commented. 
  Ranma bit into the rest of his fish, finishing it off. Throwing the stick 
away, he looked at the other fish on a stick. He smiled at it, and then at Rene, 
and then bit into it.
  "T-that was mine," Rene's eyes widened. Although it looked disgusting to be 
eating a fish cooked over a campfire, she was starving and probably wouldn't had 
minded eating it.
  Ranma asked, "Do ya still want it?"
  "But you've already took a bite of it," Rene commented.
  "Do ya still want it?" he repeated.
  Rene thought about it for a moment and then finally yielded and said, "Yes, I 
do,"
  She took hold of the stick and regarded the fish for a moment. She couldn't 
believe she was going to eat something like this, but she was too hungry to 
care. Just for once, she was going to abandon the way a princess should act. 
  She bit into the fish, savoring its taste.
  Ranma smiled, "Hm, perhaps there is hope for ya, afterall,"

  "You expect me to sleep on the ground!?"
  Ranma said, "Where else do you plan on sleepin'? In the trees? Good luck from 
falling,"
  "I can't sleep on the ground," she said.
  "Why not?" he asked.
  "Because the ground is hard and cold and dirty," she replied matter-of-factly.
  "Of course it is," he said, "But where else to you expect to sleep? If you 
want, we can continue on walking and hope we come across a town, but we could 
probably miles and miles away from the nearest town. Ya wanna take that chance?"
  Rene took that into consideration for a moment. 
  "I don't care if I sleep here and now or go on. You make the decision," he 
said.
  Several moment of thinking passed before Rene asked, "Um, what do you think we 
should do?"
  "Hey, you're the princess," Ranma smirked, "Aren't ya supposed to be the one 
that's supposed to be makin' all the decisions?"
  The muscles around Rene's jaw tightened. 
  "I suggest we just call it a day and get some sleep," he said after a short 
while, "It's pretty late and the campfire'll keep us warm,"
  "That sounds like a good idea. Very well, we shall rest for the night, then," 
she said, sounding somewhat authoritive.
  Ranma laid down on his back, staring up at the skies and yawned, "Well, 
goodnight,"
  Ranma was fast asleep before Rene had a chance to ask him exactly how she was 
to get to sleep herself.

  Rene felt horrible when she woke up. Last night had probably been the single 
worst night of her life. She had barely slept. She had been all too aware of the 
campfire finally burning itself out after several hours and of how could it had 
gotten. For a good portion of the night, she had taken glances toward Ranma and 
was very envious of how peacefully he slept. Even when the campfired had died 
out, he looked perfectly warm. Several times, she had wondered if snuggling up 
to him would had kept her warm. Of course, she never followed through with it. 
She couldn't follow through with it, shouldn't follow through with it.
  Looking around as she rubbed what little sleep she had out of her eyes, she 
surveyed her surroundings and noticed that Ranma was nowhere to be found.
  She was about to call of for Ranma but realized that she didn't know her 
escort's name. It had never occurred to her that Ranma knew her name but she 
didn't know his. 
  Getting up, Rene looked down and noticed how wrinkled her outfit with. She had 
been wearing a white silk dress when she had met Ranma. Now the white dress was 
filthy from her having slept on the ground and there were splotches of blood 
from when the guardsman had been trying to protect her.
  "I need to get out of these dirty clothes and into clean ones," she commented 
in disgust. This had been the first time she had worn the same pair of clothes 
two days in a row.
  Just had been about to head on into the woods in hopes of finding Ranma, Ranma 
emerged from them and out into the clearing. In his hands he held a dead rabbit 
by its hind legs. 
  "Looks like we're gonna be eatin' rabbit for our breakfast," Ranma grinned, 
gesturing to the rabbit.
  Rene regarded it for several moments, a bit disgusted at the thought of eating 
a rabbit.
  Ranma walked passed Rene and up to the campfire, replenishing the sticks and 
proceeding to get a fire started. When he walked past her, Rene noticed that 
Ranma's hair was wet.
  "How come your hair is wet?" she asked curiously.
  "There's a river just over that hill. It's where I got the fish last night," 
he answered, without looking, "I took a dip in it,"
  Rene's eyes widened, "But isn't the river freezing?"
  "Yeah," he replied, "But theren't nothing better than taking a dip in the 
freezing water to wake ya up. Ya might wanna give it a try sometime,"
  "Um, I'll take your word for it," she said a bit nervously. That man must be 
crazy. She was freezing right now and would do just about anything to get 
herself warmed up, and Ranma had voluntarily taken a dip in a freezing river. 
She could never do something like that.
  With the campfire now up, Ranma turned his attention toward the dead rabbit 
and skinned it with his bare hands. Rene had been forced to turn her attention 
away, unable to watch.
  It wasn't until Ranma had said that the food was ready did she turn back 
around. Although starving since the fish didn't fill her up completely last 
night, Rene couldn't bring herself to eat the cooked portion of rabbit Ranma 
offered her.
  Ranma hadn't hesitated in eating the rest of it. 
  "Rene, you can't choose to be picky about whatcha eat," he commented, "It's 
basically eat what's presented to ya, go out and fetch your own food, which is 
harder than it seems, or go hungry,"
  "What about perhaps gathering berries and such?" she had to ask, "Surely, 
there has to be some bushes that have berries and such,"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "I guess so, but you're gonna hafta gather quite 
a bit of berries if you plan on making it a full meal," He smirked and added, 
"And dontcha go thinking I'm gonna be the one collecting them. If you want 
berries, you go fetch 'em,"
  There was a moment of awkward silence as Rene looke down at the cooked rabbit. 
It didn't really look like a rabbit. She was hungry and the rabbit did look 
pretty good right now.
  "I can't eat that," she finally said. 
  "Then you're going to go hungry," he said matter-of-factly.
  At that moment, Rene's stomach grumbled. She was indeed hungry and the thought 
of getting even more hungry didn't sound all that appealing. She looke down at 
the rabbit. Right now, it looked really good.
  When Ranma noticed her looking at the food, he ripped off a small piece with 
his hand and held it out for her, "Here, try it. It's pretty good,"
  "I'm not going to eat that piece. You're hands must be dirty,"
  "Do you see any forks or spoons around?" Ranma said, "I sure don't. And second 
of all, I came from taking a dip in the river so I'm pretty sure my hands are 
cleaner than yours,"
  Rene looked down at her hands and noticed how dirty they were. Ranma was right 
about that. She would have to head down to the river and wash her hands if she 
were to handle to food herself. At at the moment, she was probably too hungry to 
do even that.
  Ranma held the piece of meat to Rene's mouth, "Here. Just eat out of my hand 
for the time being,"
  Rene looked down for a moment before she reluctantly gave in and took a bite 
of the meat from Ranma's hand. She chewed the meat for a short while and was 
surprised at how juicy the meat was.
  "Well, do ya like it?" he asked, a bit curious.
  "It's.....it's sufficient," she finally said. She didn't want allow Ranma the 
pleasure of knowing that she believed the food was quite delicious.
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders.
  "Whatever ya say," he said before taking a bit into the meat, savoring it. 
  He then proceeded to rip pieces of meat off and feeding it to Rene, taking 
bites of it himself from the carcass he was holding in his hands.
  They continued to eat. When they were finished, Ranma chucked his bones over 
his shoulder and got up to his feet, looking down at his hands. His hands were 
greasy from the juices of the meat. After a moment, he chuckled, forgetting that 
there were no napkins around, and then proceeded to wipe his hands clean on his 
clothes.
  "How uncooth," Rene commented.
  Ranma extended his hand forward and grabbed Rene's hand. He grinned as Rene 
looked down at her dirty hand.
  "All right, let's see how you clean your hand,"

  "Um,"
  "Yeah?" Ranma asked. He and Rene had been walking side by side for the past 
hour. They weren't talking to each other. Actually, Rene wasn't talking to 
Ranma, not after that stunt he had pulled on her, dirtying her hands like that. 
It annoyed her even more when she watched Ranma jump into the river, clothes on 
and all, emerging from it clean albeit wet, something that didn't seem to bother 
him despite the cold.
  She had tried to walk up to the river to clean her hand, only to take a wrong 
step, her foot becoming submerged in the freezing water. It hadn't been amusing 
that Ranma laughed at her clumsiness, but she had been secretly grateful that he 
had taken the time to dry her shoes over the fire before heading off on their 
journey.
  She had been silent for the past hour, doing nothing else but walking along 
and keeping her thoughts to herself. However, as she kept on walking and 
thinking, she had come to realize something.
  "There is something I wish to know," she steeled herself in asking.
  "What is it?"
  "What is your name?"
  "Does it really matter?" he asked seriously, "I mean, two days from now, 
you'll be back home and I'll be on my way. We'll never see each other again,"
  "What do you mean?" she asked. 
  "Let's just say that I'm going to be going back home, and once I do, I have no 
intention of ever coming back," he said.
  "Is it because of me?" she saked out of nowhere. She had simply been curious.
  Ranma looked at Rene like she grew a third eye, "Huh?"
  "Nevermind. I had merely been curious as to what your name had been. That's 
all,"
  "It's Ranma. Ranma Saotome,"

  Ranma and Rene emerged from the forest and were relieved to see a town. The 
town seemed somewhat busy, most likely a maret town instead of a residential 
one. There was a good reason considering it was located right by the mouth of 
the river, a dozen or so merchant ships docked there.
  "Jus' wait here for a moment," Ranma said, "Better yet, hide,"
  "For what?"
  "I'm gonna go steal us some clothes," he replied, "We can't have ya walkin' 
around town dressed in your attire. It'll give ya away. If no one is aware that 
you're the princess, then there'll be less chance of trouble or whatever,"
  Before Rene had a chance to say something, Ranma ran up ahead. She hid behind 
a tree, not because Ranma had told her to, but because she felt it would be 
prudent that no one see her. The incident that had left her with no escorts made 
her realize that she probably had many enemies, and it was all because she was a 
princess.
  She ended up hiding behind a tree a dozen meters away from where she had been, 
figuring it she should let Ranma suffer and start panicking about where she 
could had gone.
  She watched as Ranma disappeared into the crowd of people walking about. After 
a both ten minutes, her emerged and headed toward the part of the forest where 
she was hiding.
 When he got close enough, Rene was surprised to see that Ranma walked right up 
to the tree where she had hidden behind.
  "How did you know I was hidding behind this tree?" she asked curiously.
  Ranma smirked, "It isn't all that hard spottin' a white dress among a bunch of 
brown trees,"
  Rene glared at him for a moment. Was that his way of telling her she did a bad 
job of concealing herself? The nerve of him.
  Ranma extended his hand forward.
  Rene looked down at what Ranma was holding. Her eyes widened upon realization 
of what he held. The outfit wasn't even silk, but some rough material, most 
likely wool. It would chaff her delicate skin.
  "What's wrong?" he asked.
  "You expect me to wear something like that?"
  "Yeah," he replied, "It's either that or continue wearing those dirty clothes 
of yours and risk being found out. It's your choice,"
  Rene's lips became a thin line as she stared at the outfit in Ranma's hands.
  "Look," Ranma said after a moment, "It's the only thing I could find. It's 
already bad enough that I stole these clothes from a clothing store,"
  Letting out and exasperated breath to show her disapproval of Ranma's choice 
in clothes, she reluctantly took it from Ranma's hands. When she grabbed hold of 
the outfit, a pair of panties fell out.
  "Oh yeah," he said, bending down and picking the panties up and holding it out 
for her, "I also stole ya a pair of panties. I figure if you were going to 
change outfits, why not change clothes completely,"
  She noticed they were silk panties and said, "I only wear cotton. Silk is 
uncomfortable," It wasn't until after she had said that did she realize she had 
told Ranma that didn't need to be told. It had simply come out.
  Ranma gritted his teeth, "Fine, then don't wear panties for all I care. You're 
being awefully picky for a person who has little choice in what she has on hand 
to wear. I'm gonna go wait on ahead while you get changed,"
  "Y-you expect me to get changed out here?!" the thought appalled her.
  Ranma sighed, "Where else?"
  "We shall goto an inn," she replied.
  "All right, let's waltz into town with you wearing that expensive outfit while 
we go around lookin' for an inn. I'm sure no one will notice," he said 
sarcastically.
  Rene glared at Ranma.
  Ranma sighed, "Look, can you please jus' get changed. Just think of it as 
this, you'll only hafta put up with this for one more day. After that, you'll 
never hafta do it again,"
  After a moment, Rene reluctantly took the clothes and headed off into the 
forest to get changed.

  Ranma quickly ran toward Rene's location when he had heard her scream.
  "What's wrong!!" he said, emerging from the bushes.
  He was momentarily shocked to see Rene, totally naked, running around in 
circles.
  "Get it off of me! Get it off of me!" she shrieked.
  Ranma caught a quick glimpse of a bettle that was on Rene back, easily 
noticeable against her smooth skin, and flicked it off. 
  "There, it's off. You've got nothin' to worry about anymore," he said, 
watching at the bettle took off toward the skies after it had found itself 
flying through the air a second ago.
  Rene ran forward, pressing her face against Ranma's chest.
  "Um," Ranma said nervously, standing very still, very aware of Rene's breasts 
being pressed against his stomach, "Er, y-you're naked,"
  Rene's fear disappeared when she realized where she was. She was pressed 
against Ranma, and was totally naked. It took a moment for the situation to 
finally settle in and then she finally screamed.
  She slapped Ranma.
  "Whatcha do that for?" Ranma rubbed his cheek, "I heard you scream,"
  "Pervert!!!"
  Ranma realized that Rene was still naked and quickly turned his back toward 
her, "I'm sorry. I-it's just that I heard you scream and all and figured you 
were in trouble,"
  "You're still here, you pervert!"

  Rene glared at Ranma as they walked down the street, which was bustling with 
people. The streets were full of vendors, all of them selling anything and 
everything. It seemed as if there was some kind of annual flea market that moved 
into town for the day.
   Rene was now clad in the outfit Ranma had brought her. Although it was no 
where near as magnificant as the outfit she wore before, it did help make her 
fit in with the common people.
  "C'mon, will you quit looking at me like you're trying to burn a hole through 
my head?" Ranma said, "I'm sorry I saw you naked. It couldn't be helped. I 
thought you had been in trouble,"
  "That still doesn't excuse the fact that you peeped on me," she said.
  "I'm sorry," he said softly.
  "That's not good enough," she turned her attention away from him, her arms 
crossed in front of her chest.
  "What do you want me to do, get naked so you can get a look at me so we could 
be even?"
  Rene blushed a horrible shade of red, "N-no!"
  "Good," Ranma smirked, "Cause I wouldn't've done it for ya anyway,"
  "Hmph, it's not like I would've wanted to see you naked anyway," Rene 
retorted.
  Ranma's gaze was elsewhere. He was standing in front of a store, looking at 
all the rings for sale. The rings weren't all that magnificant, ranging from 
mediocre to somewhat decent. To Ranma, the most expensive looking ring looked 
like it would cost around five thousand yen back home.
  "Hey, did you hear what I was saying?" Rene asked, running up and next to him. 
  "Hey, look at all of these rings," he commented, picking up a ring and 
inspecting it.
  "Might I interest you in a possible ring for your girlfriend?" the elderly 
female attendant asked.
  Rene blushed, "G-girlfriend?"
  "We're not a couple," Ranma replied matter-of-factly, "We're just travelling 
together,"
  Rene regarded Ranma's back for several moments as he looked at the rings. 
After a minute or so, she said in a soft voice.
  "Um, yeah, we're only travelling together,"

  In the massive castle of the Anlinson royal family, his majesty, Roun, paced 
back and forth around his bedchambers.
  "Honey, I'm sure Rene's fine," Evina Anlinson, Rene's mother, said to her 
husband. Although she didn't pace around the bedroom like her husband, she was 
still worried sick about her daughter. When their daughter hadn't come back one 
the schedule day, they had sent out their fastest scouter to find out what could 
had happened. It had taken a full day before the terrible news had reached back 
home.
  "She better be," he muttered, "Whoever's taken her will suffer a horrible fate 
if a single hair on her had been harmed,"
  "I wish at least one of the guards had surivived," Evina commented, "That way, 
we'd at least know if she'd been kidnapped or could have at least escaped,"
  "I pray she's still all right," he said. He stopped his pacing, coming to a 
decision, and called out, "Emiko!"
  Before Roun even finished saying that person's entire name, a shadow appeared 
into the room, kneeling before him, startling Roun and Evina a bit.
  "You called, your majesty?" Emiko asked. 
  Upon first glance at Emiko, it was easily discernible that she seemed to be 
some kind of ninja. She was clad in the traditional ninja outfit, her face 
totally concealed behind a mask over her mouth and nose. The only thing exposed 
were her eyes and the large mane of hair coming out through the back of the wrap 
that was covering over her most of her head. No one, not even the king had ever 
seen her face before, and it was best left that way because it was rumored that 
if anyone tried to remove the mask over her nose and mouth, then they would 
surely die. Although Emiko serves the king with undying loyalty, he would never 
test to see her loyalty to her master exceeded that of her loyalty toward her 
heritage as one of the members of the world's most powerful ninja group.
  "Yes," Roun said, managing to bring his heartbeat back to a normal rate, "I 
have a job for you,"
  "What is it you would like me to do?" she asked.
  "What else? Go find my daughter," he told her.
  "Yes, your majesty," she said before disappearing as fast as she had appeared 
earlier.
  Shortly after Emiko disappeared, Evina turned her attention toward her 
husband.
  "Roun, honey,"
  "Hm?" 
  "Why didn't you send her out earlier?!?"
  "Um, er,"
  "You're sleeping on the couch tonight,"

  Rene gazed out at the countryside as she and Ranma sat in the wagon. They had 
hitched a ride with a farmer, the man offering to let them bum a ride in his hay 
wagon all the way to the town where he planned to barter his crops for 
necessities. The town the farmer was headed toward was the halfway point to 
Rene's home.
  "The scenery's cool, huh?" Ranma asked, his arms behind him head as he laid on 
his back, his feet dangling over the edge of the back of the cart. 
  Rene looked toward the surrounding area. They were heading down a dirt trail, 
large prairies on either side with luscious forest beyond. She had to admit that 
the scenery was nice. Unfortunately, she had trouble taking the scenery in 
because there was this pervading smell that almost made her gag. It was probably  
coming from the donkey that was pulling the wagon along.
  "What's wrong?" Ranma asked, sensing an uneasiness to Rene.
  "It stinks on this wagon. The stench is almost overwhelming," she commented, 
cringing her nose a bit.
  Ranma smiled at Rene. That was Rene all right.
  Rene felt a bit awkward when she noticed Ranma's gaze on her. Their eyes had 
met for a brief moment before she turned her gaze away.
  "What?" she said, a bit nervous.
  "I shoulda figured something like that would bother ya," he grinned.
  "What do you mean by 'figured'?" her eyes creased.
  Ranma chuckled a bit, a husky chuckle Rene noticed, as he said, "You should 
get outta yer castle or where ever ya live a bit more. Just look at the scenery, 
it's beautiful. You shouldn't let something like that smell keep you from 
enjoyin' something like that,"
  Rene regarded Ranma very intently. That made total sense. Her bedroom 
overlooked a great portion of Anlinson city and the forests beyond, but she had 
never really enjoyed the scenery before because whenever she looked out her 
bedroom window, she was mostly aware of her being cooped up in a castle instead 
of being outside with people her age.
  "You seem to be easily amused," she commented. 
  Ranma said nothing for a moment.
  "It wasn't meant to offend, Ranma," she said. For the first time, she had 
called him by his name. It sounded weird saying his name. Although she had been 
aware of everyone's name, she had never referred to them by name before. It was 
something she never said.
  Ranma smiled slightly, "No, I'm not offended. It's just that I guess I learned 
to appreciate things a whole lot more considering all the things I've been 
through,"
  "Like what?" Rene asked, a bit surprised to notice that she had actually been 
interested in knowing more about what Ranma had meant.
  "Like going to the beach and making a sandcastle," he said.
  "What's so special about that?"
  "Think about it," he said, "Imagine letting you creativity take over and 
building what you believe is the best castle of them all....and then having the 
high tide come in and wash all of your work away,"
  "That doesn't sound all that amusing,"
  Ranma nodded, "True, it'll be a bit disappointing in seeing your hard work 
getting washed away, but then that'll mean you can start all over again and 
build another sandcastle, and perhaps believing that one will be better than the 
one before. It's also very fun trying to build a dam in  front of the sandcastle 
in hopes that it'll stop the incoming tide," When he noticed that Rene was about 
to ask what was so fun about that also, he added, "The greatest part is 
believing that perhaps you can stop the inevitable. And who knows, sometimes it 
could actually work,"
  "Sounds like hard work," she commented.
  Ranma stood up in the wagon, "Imagine it, digging your fastest, racing against 
the incoming tide, doing whatever you can to stop but never having to worry if 
you succeed or not because you'll know you can start all over again," He 
proceeded to pretend like he acting out the scene, scooping up invisible sand 
with his hands.
  "'Oh no, here it comes, the water's almost there! Hurry, dig a moat, incase 
the water breaks through the dam,'" Ranma grinned, almost picturing he was there 
on the beach, "
  Rene's eyes widened as she seemed to join in, "Well, surely they'll be other 
around. Ask them to dig also,"
  Ranma smiled, "There ya go. See, now you get it. Even though we're not at the 
beach, knowing that you can go there, to build a sandcastle and such, is what 
something one can enjoy. That's the kinda stuff I like doing, that I enjoy 
doing,"
  Rene looked down at herself. Her heart was beating a bit rapidly, caught up in 
the moment. It was a very strange feeling, this exhilaration about something as 
simple as making a sandcastle.
  After a moment, her visage became sullen when she thought about it some more.
  "What's wrong now?"
  She smiled weakly, "I've never been to the beach before,"
  "What?! You haven't?"
  "I've only read about them in books," she replied, "I can see it from the 
highest window within the castle, but I've never been there before,"
  Ranma smirked, "All right. How about this? We'll go to the beach when we 
getcha home,"
  "Really?" Rene's eyes brightened.
  "Sure, why not? It'll be fun," he said. Although she had gotten under Ranma's 
skin quite a bit of times, he had no objections of spending some more time with 
her, especially if she hadn't been to the beach nor made a sandcastle before.
  Rene cheered. She would be able to goto the beach, to make a sandcastle, to 
perhaps fight the incoming tide. It sounded grand, something she would never 
forget.
  At that moment, the wagon bounced from hitting a tiny hole in the dirt road. 
Because Ranma had been standing, the sudden movement caused him to lose his 
balance.
  Ironically, Ranma wouldn't had fallen what with his great sense of balance, 
but Rene quickly reached out to steady Ranma, grabbing onto his leg, making him 
unable to catch his balance. 
  Ranma ended up tumbling forward and out of the wagon, bring Rene along with 
him. They both hit the ground with a thud, Rene's fall cushion by Ranma's body 
being below her.
  As the lay in the middle of the dirt road, now dirty from the fall, Ranma 
started laughing. He found it very funny that they had just fallen from a wagon, 
something that required effort to do, something they seemed to have done 
effortlessly.
  Pretty soon, Rene started laughing, Ranma's amusement contagious.
  After a minute of laughing, Ranma got up to his feet, helping Rene to her feet 
also. As he helped her, their eyes had held contact for that moment. 
  It had been the first time she had noticed Ranma's eye color. 
  
  Emiko gazed from the tree tops. Through absolute luck, she had stumbled upon 
the campsite Ranma had just set up. It was a bit odd that she would stumble upon 
the princess so quickly. It was as if they were camped directly in the middle of 
the path between the castle and the location the ambush had happened.
  She watched the scene before her intently. The princess was clad in a simple 
outfit, probably something her captor made her wear so that she wouldn't be all 
that recognizeable. Emiko had to admit the captor was pretty smart in doing 
that.
  She watched at the captor say something toward the princess, but because of 
her vantage point, she couldn't hear what they were saying. She noticed the man 
look in her direction, and that made her wonder if he had been aware of her 
presence. No. It was impossible. She was extremely skilled in the art of 
stealth, no one ever able to detect her until it was too late.
  The hairs on the back of Ranma's neck stood on end as gazed up from the 
campfire, a campfire Rene had actually made, and toward the shadowy trees 
surrounding them. It was looking in Emiko's general direction but not directly 
at her.
  "Somethin' wrong?" Rene asked. When she looked at Ranma, she became a bit 
concerned. Something had Ranma on edge, and she didn't like that one bit. She 
had been with Ranma long enough to know that he was someone that wouldn't get 
worried about his surroundings unless something was wrong.
  Ranma didn't reply to Rene's question. His heart was beating rapidly. It was 
an odd feeling, to be this nervous, but whatever it was, it was something he 
didn't like one bit. He sensed something within the trees but couldn't tell 
exactly what or where it was.
  "What's wrong? You're making me nervous," Rene said, scuttling closer toward 
Ranma. It was instinctive of her to move closer toward her protector when she 
felt scared and threatened.
  "There's something out there," Ranma said softly, trying to keep his voice 
soft and soothing.
  Rene gulped, terrified, "W-what is it?"
  "I dunno," he replied, scanning around the surrounding trees. He sensed 
something but it disappeared. However, his gut feeling told him it was still 
there, where ever it was.  
  "I'm gonna put out the fire," Ranma told Rene.
  "W-what? Why?" Rene asked. The last thing she wanted was the fire to be 
distinguished, "Without it, there'll be n-no light,"
  "Exactly," he answered.
  Rene shook her head, "No, I don't want you to. I-I'm scared,"
  Ranma placed a hand on her shoulder, "Jus' trust me,"
  "F-fine," she said.
  Ranma kicked dirt on the campfire, extinguishing it.
  Emiko watched the scene play out before her. She had watched Ranma put the 
campfire out. Something within her was telling her that the man was aware of 
her. The man was good, really good. The only person that had ever detected her 
was her master, the captain of her clan.
  She patiently waited. She wanted the man to be away from the princess, so he 
wouldn't be able to harm her in desperation.
  Ranma called out, "I know you're out there!"
  Emiko said nothing. She had to be patient. It was probably a coincidence that 
the man believed she was watching them. There was no way the man could sense 
her.
  Ranma waited for a full five minutes before he turned toward the terrified 
Rene, who was very close to him, "Let's get the heck outta here. On the count of 
three, jump into my arms. We're gonna make a break for it. I'm gonna carry ya,"
  Rene gulped and stood very close to Ranma. Although she didn't like the 
thought of being told what to do, she was too scared to argue.
  "One,"
  Emiko's eyes narrowed as she watched them through the dark. The man was up to 
something. She just wished she was close enough to hear.
  "Two,"
  Figuring that something was going happen, and perhaps it being something bad 
to the princess, Emiko proceeded to make her way closer to the two individuals, 
not making a single sound, her presence supposedly completely concealed.
  "Three," Ranma said, his heart skipping a beat. He definitely felt the 
presence getting closer. 
  Without wanting to stay to find out what the presence was since it would be 
easier to avoid it than to fight it, Ranma picked Rene up into his arms, Rene 
wrapping her arms around his neck tightly, her head resting against the crook of 
his neck and right shoulder.
  "Hang on tight," Ranma said before taking off in a mad sprint away from where 
he had first sensed the presence. The speed of his take off was so powerful that 
a crater was formed from Ranma's feet propelling him forward.
  "What the?" Emiko's eyes widened as she watched the man dashing away from her 
and into the woods. She quickly followed suit.
  Ranma continued to jump from branch to branch, every branch breaking from his 
feet propelling off them, even some small trees becoming uprooting and falling 
over.
  "Man, I should use my wings," Ranma muttered, continuing to run and jump 
through the woods.
  "What did you say?" Rene asked, believing she had heard him say something, 
perhaps something to her.
  "Don't worry about it," he said.
  Rene dared to peek over Ranma's shoulder and caught sight of a shadow behind 
her. She shrieked, her heart at her throat.
  "I-I see it!!!" she yelled into Ranma's ears.
  Taking that into consideration, Ranma darted even faster. He needed to get out 
of these woods and fast. He didn't bother looking back. Eventually, he would 
make it out of the woods.
  Emiko continued to follow Ranma. Chasing after him was child's play. She could 
move twice as fast through the woods if not faster. However, she had never tried 
doing it while carrying someone. She had to admit that the man possessed great 
strength and endurance to move so fast and for so long.
  "It's playing with me," Ranma said, smirking a bit. He was no longer scared. 
Rather, he was feeling a bit exhilarated. He hadn't felt this good in a while. 
Now that he knew the presence was following him, he took a glance back and 
caught sight of a human silohuetted against the moonlight that seeped in through 
the open areas of trees.
  The pursuit lasted for a good ten minutes before Ranma made it to an open 
area. This time, it was a wide open area. If the person wanted to follow after 
him, he or she would have to also come out into the open area or risk losing 
track him and Rene.
  Stopping in the middle of the open field, Ranma turned his attention toward 
the figure a short distance away from him.
  "So, the person followed me into the open area," Ranma smirked, placing Rene 
down. The battle would be easier now that there were no trees around. He shouted 
out toward the figure, "Who are you? What do you want?"
  Emiko didn't reply. She continued to walk closer and closer. The moment she 
was within range, she would launch her shuriken at the man. Even if Rene was 
close to him, of directly in front of him, Emiko would not miss. The man was 
larger than Rene, thus, a larger target than Rene could cover.
  Ranma said to Rene, "Get away from her. I think a fight's gonna happen, and I 
don't wantcha getting' hurt. I've got the funny feeling it's gonna be between me 
and him or her,"
  He watched as Emiko got closer and closer. Although she was about a good 
hundred meters away, Ranma could discern the ninja-like attire. So, I'm gonna be 
up against a ninja, huh, Ranma thought with a smirk.
  He waited patiently as Emiko approached. By now, Ranma was calm as could be. 
Now that he was aware of who or what his opponent was, he wasn't all that 
worried.
  Emiko smirked. The man was standing away from of Rene. He was going to die a 
quick death.
  In a blink of an eye, Emiko broke out at a sprint toward Ranma and near 
supersonice speed, and with speed faster than humanly possible, she launched six 
shuriken at Ranma, each one aimed at a vital point. 
  Ranma's heart skipped a beat when he saw the shuriken flying toward him. It 
came him at such a high speed that it caught him by surprised. However, he was 
easily able to swat three of them away, dodging the last three.
  Just as he swatted the shuriken away, Ranma was narrowly missed by a dagger 
stab that would had pierced right into his chest and heart. He had managed to 
sidestep the other way, grabbing Emiko's blade between his index finger and 
thumb before the blade managed to connect with skin.
  Ranma grinned, looking right into Emiko's eyes, as he said, "Ya almost got me 
there," 
  He then lashed out with an open hand strike toward Emiko's chest. The shear 
speed of his attack seemed to rip through the air, causing a sonic boom, only 
narrowly dodged when Emiko leaned backwards at the waist and kicking a leg out 
toward Ranma's chest, her other leg keeping her balanced.
  Just before Emiko's foot managed to connect, Ranma released his grip on the 
blade and used his other hand to push her foot toward the side, missing his 
chest. However, she used the momentum of Ranma pushing her foot aside and hopped 
onto that foot and used the one she had been previously using to hold her 
upright to execute a wicked heel kick to the side of Ranma's head.
 The heel of Emiko's foot managed to actually connect, but the moment it 
connected, the nanosecond her heel touched Ranma's temple, Ranma titled his head 
in the direction of the incoming attack and stepped in the direction it had been 
moving, capturing the foot between his shoulder and the side of his head, like 
the way someone would hold a phone receiver without their hand.
  Emiko was absolutely shocked when she regarded the situation. Her she was 
standing on one leg, her other leg raised high in the air with her foot caught 
between Ranma's head and shoulder.
  She quickly stabbed at Ranma with the hand holding the dagger, shooting it 
under her captured leg, only to have it intercepted again between his index and 
thumb. With one hand holding the blade, Ranma used his free and and shot it up 
and around the leg, his hand gripping the ankle close to his ear, his arm 
brushing quite intimately across her inner thigh.
  Emiko almost yelped at the invasive touch Ranma had done to her, and then 
quickly found herself falling to the ground when Ranma stepped forward and used 
one of his legs to kick out Emiko's standing leg from behind, sending her 
crashing down and onto her backside, Ranma falling down and on top of her. They 
both tumbled on the ground, eventually ending up with Emiko lying on her back, 
one of Ranma's leg resting over her face and the other over her chest, her arms 
stretched out ninty degrees from her body, Ranma holding the wrist tightly. 
  Ranma had just placed an armbar hold on Emiko. Her arm would be hyperextended 
and would eventually break at the elbow if Ranma administered any pressure.
  Ranma held her in the position for close to a minute as Emiko struggled to 
break free, very much aware that he could break her arm at any time, much to no 
avail.
  After a minute, Emiko became tired from struggling, but she never stopped 
trying. She did stop struggling when Ranma released his grip of her, rolling 
backwards and onto his feet. She seemed to be momentarily shocked that he had 
let her go instead of incapacitating her by breaking her arm.
  "You yield?" he asked. He didn't really want to fight anymore. She was a good 
fighter, but his skill far exceeded hers it wasn't even funny. He had fought 
superboomers, Angels, Adam, old rivals like Saffron and Taro and Herb, an EVA, 
and those damn Angels Revisited for god's sake. 
  Emiko flipped up to her feet and threw six shurinken's at Ranma, each aimed at 
his vital points. Ranma waved his hand in front of him, conjuring an AT field. 
It only formed along the path of Ranma's hand, which had been in front of all 
his vital points.
  The shuriken hit the impenetrable barrier and fell to the ground.
  "You yield?" he repeated. He grinned a bit. He must look so cool right now.
  Emiko took a step back. She didn't expected the man to be a powerful magic 
user also. He didn't even need to cast the barrier spell like other magic users, 
the barrier seemingly instinctive.
  Emiko threw the last of her shuriken, only to have Ranma swat them out of the 
way. He caught the last one and began flipping it up and down, eventually 
balancing it at his fingertip.
  "You yield yet?" Ranma seemed annoyed now. It was either have her yield or 
strike her sleep pressure point. He didn't hit girls. He had found out she was a 
female during the battle when he had her in that arm bar, able to feel her 
breasts brushing against the back of one of his legs.
  Emiko threw her dagger, Ranma catching it between the index and middle finger 
of his other hand just a centimeter about the indent between his eyes, all the 
while still balacing the shuriken.
  Ranma let out and exasperated breath and walked forward, throwing the dagger 
and shuriken away. When Emiko executed a knife hand toward Ranma's chest, intent 
on piercing her fingertips through his ribcage, Ranma grabbed it with one hand. 
He then used his free and and grabbed at Emiko's right breast.
  Emiko shrieked as she felt Ranma's hand brush against her breast. She used her 
free hand and slapped him.
  Ranma gritted his teeth. What is it with girls, he thought. When they thought 
he was some kind of pervert, their slap always connects. He shrugged off the 
stinging sensation in his cheek and touched the pressure points on Emiko's right 
breast. 
  He saw the shocked look in Emiko's eyes before they closed and she slumped 
forward and into his arms, fast asleep.
  Ranma breathed a sigh of relief, glad she had slapped him instead of perhaps 
kicking him in the groin. 
  That would had hurt much more.

  Emiko awoke with a start, quickly hopping to her feet, and into a defensive 
stance. She quickly surveyed her surroundings and noticed that she seemed to be 
in the same area where she had been fighting. It was night time but the 
surrounding area was illuminated by a campfire. 
  Looking at where the light had been coming from, she saw a tiny capfire with 
the princess and Ranma gathered around it. Emiko was also near the capfire since 
she seemed to have been cold when she awoken.
  "Have a nice sleep?" Ranma smirked. He had been paying close attention to her 
sleeping. She had slept for over six hours before his pressure point technique 
had finally subsided. He had to admit that most people slept longer.
  Recognizing her target and her objective sitting next to her, Emiko rushed 
forward toward Rene, hoping to grab onto her and make a break for it. She was 
stopped when Ranma reached a hand out and grabbed one of her ankles as she tried 
running past, she falling down onto her stomach.
  "Oh no you don't," Ranma said, his grip tight. He had no idea who this person 
was and didn't know if she was a threat to their well being. He had sensed no 
hostile intentions from her toward Rene, but he didn't want to take a chance.
  "Who are you?" he asked.
  As Ranma held onto her ankle, Emiko rolled onto her back and kicked toward 
Ranma's face with her free leg, the attack dodged easily when Ranma weaved 
slightly toward the right from where he was sitting.
  After trying two more times, both attacks missing, Emiko kicked at the 
forearms of the arm holding her. She almost yelped out in pain when she realized 
she had kicked as hard as she could at something that seemed as solid as steel.
  Ranma, a bit annoyed with the situation, stood to his full height, which would 
tower over Emiko since she was Rene's height. He held his arm extended from his 
body, the female ninja dangling upside down from her captured ankle as she 
proceeded to kick at Ranma's forearm.
  "It ain't hurtin' me, y'know," Ranma said after he received a dozen or so 
kicks to his forearm. He was a bit surprised at Emiko's persistence. In a 
situation like that, he probably would had done the same until his foot was numb 
from kicking.
  Emiko continued kicking at Ranma's forearm. The princess was so close yet so 
far away. If she could free herself, she would grab hold of the princess and 
make a run for it.
  "Who are you?" he asked again, a bit less patient.
  Emiko continued kicking.
  "Goddamnit!" Ranma muttered. He used his free hand to press one of Emiko's 
pressure points, to get her leg to spot functioning momentarily, only to have 
the hand intercepted at the wrist and then twisted very hard toward one 
direction.
  He released his grip on her ankle, Emiko suspended in mid-air as she held onto 
his extended hand. Because she had no footing, she had no leverage to twist his 
arm. After a moment, she realized this and leg to, landing skillfully on her 
feet.
  She looked up at Ranma, only to find him not there. She looked around and 
finally noticed that he was standing directly between her and Rene.
  Damn, Emiko thought, I'm gonna have to fight him again to get to the princess. 
She didn't really know if she was up to the task. Ranma was far and beyond more 
skilled than her. The only thing she could perhaps match with him was in speed, 
provided he wasn't holding back. For some reason, she had the funny feeling he 
held back quite a bit.
  "Who are you?" Ranma asked again, making eye contact. All he could see of 
Emiko were her brown eyes. He hadn't removed the mask, figuring she might prefer 
to remain mostly concealled.
  After surveying the situation a moment, Emiko decided it was best to talk 
instead of fight. She got out of her battle stance and said, "My name is Emiko. 
Emiko Kusanagi,"
  "Why are you attacking us?" 
  "I'm only attacking you," Emiko replied, her eyes narrowing. Was this man 
stupid or something? Didn't he notice that she had been trying to kill or 
perhaps incapacitate him all this time?
  "Then why were you going straight after Rene?"
  "Bite your tongue! You will not address the princess in that manner!" Emiko 
sneered.
  Ranma's eyes lit up. When Emiko said that, he realized that she been trying to 
protect her.
  "Oh! Now I get it!" Ranma said, snapping his fingers, pointing toward her, 
"You're supposed to rescue the princess, huh?"
  "Yes," Emiko continued to glare.
  Ranma turned toward Rene, "Y'hear that? She's here to take ya back home. You 
can probably get back home much faster with her than walking on foot with me,"
  Rene, standing close to Ranma, regarded Emiko, "How do I know you're here to 
help me? I've never seen you before,"
  "That's because I've mostly kept to the shadows, your highness," Emiko 
replied, getting down on one knee, "Your father has me look out for you, but 
doesn't want you aware of my presence. That is why you've never seen me,"
  "I'm still not convinced," Rene said.
  "I've watched over you for the past two years," she replied, "If you don't 
believe me, I understand. But perhaps I can convince you,"
  "Go right ahead