[soundtrack for this: believe, by Kalafina, then Light My Fire by Kotoko, then Enigmatic Karma by Eir Aoi, in that order (it's a long chapter)]

[2016-11-09
The story is coming to a close. I will be releasing one chapter a day from here out, until I close the story. I will mark the story complete when I load the final chapter.
I think I have learned all I can from this experiment, and it is time to move on with working on publishing my novel. Thank you all for reading and reviewing, you have helped my writing a lot! :)
However, there is still a CONTEST running. To enter the CONTEST, simply send me a couple of sentences detailing why you have stuck with this story until the end. For full details of the contest, see my profile.]

Nabiki stumbled then caught herself as she ran next to Ranma. They were darting down narrow moldy smelling alleyways and ducking between buildings as they fought their way through Nerima. She was tired, but holding on well enough. Her plan for ending the Amazon threat had been simple. Find Shampoo's Great Grandmother, confront her, and end it.
She hadn't counted on just how fierce the fighting would be to get from her home to the restaurant the Amazons were using as their base. That was throwing off her plan. She knew the Amazons were still using the Cat Café as their base, because Riko and the others had passed it on their way to her house while being escorted by Miso, and they'd slipped her a report on what they had seen earlier.
The Cat Café had been closed, and her friends hadn't seen any Japanese people inside or outside the building. All they had seen, as Riko had put it were, "A casting call for angry Chinese women with bodies to make men weep with desire." She smiled inwardly at Riko's sense of humor as she ran alongside Ranma.
At first they had fought every Amazon they had come across, and after Ranma had won she had asked in Mandarin where the old woman was. Most of the defeated Amazons had either been too out of it to answer, or had feigned ignorance. The few who had answered had usually just pointed in the direction of the Cat Café and muttered, "over there." A very small number of them had actually said the words café or restaurant.
After a couple dozen or so fights, they had shifted their tactics to trying to avoid the Amazons. They hadn't been getting new information, and the fights had been slowing them down.
The Amazons had started to figure out what they were doing though. It was clear the word was getting out that she and Ranma were outside the safety of the walls of her family's lands, and that they were on their way towards the Cat Café. The resistance was starting to get serious. Instead of running into random Amazons here and there, and occasional pairs of them, they had started to run into squads of three to five and the Amazons were starting to position themselves to watch alleyways and other sneaky ways of moving. The rooftops were out of the question. Every other time she looked up she could see an Amazon up on a rooftop scanning for them.
Ranma, when he had to be, had proved to be quite good at running and hiding. He hadn't liked the idea at first, but she had convinced him by telling him that the more small fights he avoided, the more of his strength he could save to face their matriarch. She had also pointed out that every fight he got in brought with it the risk that she could be hurt or killed while he was busy fighting. He had agreed but she could tell it still rankled him.
Don't worry, Ranma. I'm sure you will have all the fight you can handle when you face the old woman. She thought with a mix of emotions between pride and fear. She honestly didn't know if he was good enough to beat the old woman on his own. She also didn't have any other options open for dealing with the Joketsuzoku elder. As Miso had said, she had bet on Ranma. Now she had to wait and see if the bet would pay off.
She looked over at him and smiled to herself as she ran. She was out of breath, and having to summon all of the inner strength she had just to keep moving, but she was ignoring her body's protests. He's going to be—
Her thoughts were cut off as Ranma suddenly stopped and held a hand out. They were about to emerge from the alleyway they were in out into a little open area that was sandwiched between buildings. It looked like a combination of a garage and parking area with a narrow driveway that led back into it.
She looked at him with wide eyes as she stopped and did her best to catch her breath as quietly as she could. It annoyed her a bit that he wasn't even breathing heavily. Even Akane would at least be breathing a little bit heavily after the distance they had run.
"What's wrong?" She whispered to him.
"Doesn't smell right." He whispered back.
She looked around at the open area, then back at him and shrugged. There were some deep shadows around the garage, and by the tree that stood next to the garage, but otherwise it looked clear. "It looks clear, and besides, unless you want to backtrack and try a different path, we have to go through here." She whispered to him. She was all for safety, but she also just flat out couldn't run as long and as far as he could. They were going to have to start slowing down, or taking rest breaks, for her to keep up. If they didn't do that, he would have to carry her. If he carried her though, he would have to waste precious seconds putting her down safely when they ran across an Amazon.
He looked over at her, and nodded with a frown etching his face. She saw in his eyes that she had been wrong, he was tired. But it wasn't his body that was tired. She could see in his eyes that his patience and control were rapidly fading. The kind spark she usually saw in his eyes was dimming. She could still see in his eyes that he had feelings for her, strong feelings, but the part of him that she associated with his kindness, was dimming to the point of almost disappearing. That worried her.
It's amazing how certain experiences can alter one's point of view. She thought as Ranma slowly stepped forward and waved her to follow him closely. Just a few days ago she had called for him to finish off a defeated opponent. Now she was worrying about what he would do if he lost control.
Of course, in my defense, I had just been thrown off a building. She thought glibly as she followed him into the little courtyard.
They made it to the center of the courtyard, then the attack hit. Several Amazons boiled out of the shadows near the tree and garage, and two stepped out of the shadows along the walls that touched the alley they had exited. They'd had no way of seeing them.
Ranma growled and danced backwards from the leading two Amazons and parried the strike from the lead Amazon with his right hand while he kept his left hand on her. The Amazon pressed him, but he simply slipped through her guard with his left foot and wrapped her ankle as he leaned in and took her balance while he flexed his leg and dropped the Amazon to the ground. The young warrior tried to get back up but Ranma quickly slid in and kneed her to the chin and knocked her out as he pulled Nabiki forward and kept his hand on her at all times.
A moment later he wrapped his arms around her and spun her out of the way of something. He released her just as quickly but again kept his left hand touching her. The next two closest Amazons were attacking him. Well, actually she could tell that the Amazons were trying to get to her, but Ranma wouldn't let them.
The Amazons double teamed him and threw rapid kicks, high and low in her direction, trying to get to her. Ranma circled the Amazons while keeping his left hand on Nabiki and moving her with him. That placed one of the attacking Amazons slightly in front of the other. With one of them isolated, he concentrated on that Amazon's kicks and slapped the next two down, then met the third with a dropped elbow right above the knee.
Nabiki heard the Amazon suck her breath in sharply as the Amazon hobbled back from him and switched to trying to use hand techniques. Ranma tightened his hand on her and darted into the Amazon's guard. He slipped his body sideways and parried the Amazon's hands to get into her guard, then threw two low body punches to get the Amazon's attention. As soon as the Amazon switched her defense low, he flexed his legs and surged upward and smashed an elbow into the side of the Amazon's head. The Chinese warrior dropped to the ground and didn't move.
The Amazon he had effectively blocked with the body of the other one surged forward and jumped over her fallen comrade as the two from behind them reached striking distance.
Ranma responded by grabbing Nabiki and jumping clear of the middle of the Amazons and landing a short distance away so all of the Amazons were in front of him again. It was a tactic he had been perfecting in their numerous fights of the day. He set her back down on the ground and stepped in front of her again while continuing to keep his left hand on her. He was growling louder now as the Amazons sprinted over to him to re-engage the fight.
All she could see of him at the moment was his back, but she could feel in his aura how angry he was becoming. Even though the anger wasn't directed at her, it still made her nervous. Ranma commanded a great deal of power. If he lost control ... it would be ... bad.
That won't happen though, right? He hasn't lost control yet, and he's even stepped in and stopped Akane when she's lost control in situations where he could have lost control himself. She worried as she watched him. She wasn't even paying attention to the Amazons. It never even crossed her mind that he would lose against any of them, and therefore they weren't a threat to her.
The Amazons reached him, and he exploded into motion. He yanked her forward so her body was literally pressed up against his back, and then he let go of her with his left hand. She tried to watch over his shoulder at what he did, but he was a blur. She saw his hands become a circular blur of weaving motion, and she heard the sounds of the impacts of fists striking human flesh.
It was over a moment later. Ranma stopped moving and stood in a guard position in front of her. When the dust had cleared she saw all three of the remaining Amazons lying unconscious at his feet. All of them were already showing signs of bruising on their faces. And she was pretty sure one of them had a broken nose.
She walked hesitantly towards the Amazons. Ranma caught her motion, and held a hand up and stopped her.
"What're ya doin'?" He asked her in a low and dangerous voice. She turned slowly back towards him and gasped softly. The spark of kindness in his eyes she was so used to seeing, was almost gone.
She raised an eyebrow at him and put a slightly harder edge into her voice than she usually used with him. "I am just going to check if any of them need an ambulance. We can tell someone to call one before we leave." She said sternly. She was hoping that she could snap him back from the brink he seemed to be standing on. But her words seemed to have no affect on him.
He shook his head and stepped forward quickly. "No. Too dangerous. They could be playin' dead. I'll check." He said as he moved rapidly to kneel down next to the Amazons and blocked her access to them. He moved his hands rapidly to each girl's neck to check for a pulse, and he pried open the eyes of each girl and looked at their pupils. He stood up as soon as he was done and reached for her hand without looking back at her.
"They're fine, let's go." He said in an angry voice.
She nodded and squeezed his hand gently. It had the desired affect on him. He paused and looked back at her and tried to smile. She could tell he was pretending for her sake, but just the fact that he could still do that told her that he wasn't as far gone as she had been worried he was getting.
"Ready?" She asked him softly.
He nodded. "Yeah." He said in a weary voice.
"Do you need to rest?" She asked him. She knew he was in better shape than she was, but he was also the only one fighting.
He shook his head. "Nah, the sooner we find the Old Ghoul, the sooner we can end this." He said in a tone that left little to interpretation. She sighed and nodded.
"All right, let's go." She said as she squeezed his hand again. He set off a moment later after he squeezed her hand in return. She once again found herself running next to him as they ran up the next alley as they made their way ever closer to the Cat Café.
Just hang on, Ranma. Just a little bit longer and then you won't have to fight any more. She thought anxiously as she followed him.

***

A half hour later Nabiki found herself in yet another fight against the Amazons. They had been in so many fights now that she had lost track. Ranma was handling it as he always did, but she was growing increasingly worried about him. She was also growing increasingly annoyed with the Amazons.
Ranma was using his usual tactic of keeping his left hand on her while he fought, and moving her around as he did so. It wasn't working as well as it had in the past. She was pretty sure some of the Amazons they had already fought had regained consciousness and told the rest of their sisters the tactics he was using. For the last few fights they had been in, the attacks had been coming more and more from every direction. The Amazons were working hard to attack him in a way where he couldn't focus his attention in just one direction. There had already been a couple of close calls where the Amazons had slipped past his guard and almost managed to get to her. In those instances, Ranma had reacted the most strongly, and the damage he had done to the Amazons who had almost managed to get to her, had been much worse than usual.
She was growing increasingly worried for her own safety, and also for the safety of the Amazons. She knew Ranma was getting increasingly close to the edge; she knew his self control couldn't endure for much longer. But even with him fighting so hard for her, she also knew it was getting increasingly likely that the Amazons were going to hurt her. She had stopped ignoring the danger the Amazons represented, and started focusing strongly on the Amazons as they attacked. A couple of times it had been the warning she had called out that had saved Ranma from getting hit from behind. And she had now had to dodge two attacks that had gotten through Ranma's guard. Luckily for her all she'd had to do was duck so far.
She was sure people thought she was crazy for going with him; she wasn't. She had gone with Ranma for two reasons. The first, and main reason was exactly what she'd told Daddy. If Ranma was going to fight for their family, she wanted to support him as best she could. She also wanted to lend her tactical thinking experience to his efforts, and to help him plan on the go. But, the other reason she had gone with him, which she had left unvoiced, was that he was the person she felt safest with.
Daddy was strong, but Ranma was stronger. Even though going with him had meant she would be putting herself into the midst of the fighting, she had still felt that had been the safest option available to her. At least ... that had been what she had thought before they had left. Now that she was actually experiencing it, she was having second thoughts. But it was too late now, she couldn't very well ask him to escort her back home and then set off again alone. He was strong, but he wasn't a machine, he would grow fatigued from fighting, the same as anyone.
Ranma's abrupt movement in front of her snapped her out of her reverie. Ranma stepped into yet another nameless Amazon's stance, and crashed his fist into the Chinese warrior's face. The Amazon crumpled to the ground in front of him. Then he pivoted, and grabbed her, and yanked her back before he spun and slammed a devastating rear-kick into the ribs of another attacking Amazon who had been creeping up behind her with a weapon raised. She could hear ribs break as the Amazon was launched back away from them.
Ranma was breathing hard and she could feel the heat of his battle aura pouring off him. She knew if she was able to calm herself down and use what he had shown her, that she would see him blazing with his battle aura. She was too upset to do that, though. Despite her own efforts to remain calm, she was getting angry too.
Another two Amazons plopped down to the ground from the roof above them. Ranma reacted instantly to the one on the left, and she launched herself at the one on the right. She didn't know who was more surprised, the Amazon or herself as she punched at the Amazon. The Amazon managed to block her first punch, but not her second. She growled as the Amazon's head snapped back and ran forward to carry the fight to her. She felt someone incredibly strong grab her and pull her back before she took more than a step forward. Then Ranma slid in front of her and chopped down with his left hand as he struck horizontally with his right. The Amazon collapsed from the chop to her carotid artery in her neck. At the same time a metal clattering sound rang out at her feet.
She looked down and saw a knife. She looked quickly at Ranma with wide eyes. He nodded. "She was going to knife you with the hand she was hiding from you with her body. She took the second punch to get the knife out." He said in a dead voice as he swept his eyes around them looking for danger. The attack seemed to be over for the moment.
She sucked air in through her teeth and nodded as adrenaline surged in her system. Fist fights were one thing, but she was clearly not ready for weapon fights. Her mind just didn't operate on that level. Not yet anyway.
"Clearly I need more training." She said nervously. That had been close.
He nodded. "Later though." He said with a small smile. "I'm so tired of this!" He added darkly, angrily.
"I am too." She said wearily.
"Maybe we cou—" Ranma interrupted himself as he lunged forward and stepped past her. She turned as fast as she could and saw him put his body in front of hers to shield her as the Amazon who'd tried to knife her lunged forward with the knife in her hand again. Clearly the Chinese warrior had only been stunned.
Ranma didn't have time to do anything other than put his body in the way of the attack. She screamed as the knife darted in towards his body. It was going to hit his heart! "Ranma, NO!" She screamed as a fear worse than any she had ever experienced in her life seized her body.
At the last possible moment he jerked his body to the right as he flapped his left arm open and closed quickly and the knife-hand passed to his left side then was pinned against his body by his arm. He twisted sharply to his right and she heard bones break in the Amazon's wrist and arm. As he unwound from the twist stance he was in, he unloaded a rear cross-punch into the Amazon's face and sent her sprawling. The Amazon hit the ground hard with no effort to break her landing. Ranma stayed in a fighting stance for another few moments, then relaxed and turned back and smiled at her.
"Anyway, like I was sayin', maybe we cou—"
This time it was her turn to interrupt him. She felt like she was slipping back into the darkness. She felt hysterical, her breathing was ragged and panicked. She ran up to him and grabbed his shirt in her hands and shook him.
"YOU HAVE TO BE MORE CAREFUL!" She screamed at him. He physically recoiled from her like he had been punched as his eyes went wide with surprise.
"Nabiki, I ..." He stammered.
She stepped angrily towards him and pushed him back as she continued to scream at him. "YOU HAVE TO! I CAN'T, I CAN'T, I CAN'T!" She screamed hysterically at him.
"What? Can't what?" He asked, wide eyed and alarmed as he backpedaled away from her.
She let go of his shirt and brought her fists up and slammed them into his chest as hard as she could. "YOU! I CAN'T LOSE YOU, YOU IDIOT! I CAN'T I CAN'TICAN'T!" She screamed at him as she collapsed on to him and sobbed. He caught her and pulled her in close and held her. It had never even crossed her mind that he wouldn't catch her.
"I ... I'm sorry, Kiki ... that's just ... it's always the way I've fought. It's the Anything Goes style. We take risks." He whispered to her as he stroked her hair and rocked back and forth with her. She was silent for a long while as she shuddered in his arms and let it out. The worry, the anguish, the fear, all of it. Everything that had been building up since he had started having to fight the Amazons for her. When she started to get herself under control, he whispered to her again. "I ... I can't fight to protect you and your family ... and not take risks..."
"I know ... Ranma ... I know. But ... I still can't handle it. If I trust you completely, and tie my life to yours, you can't go away. I can't handle it if you die. Do you understand? If we do this, I CAN'T lose you! I can't go through it again. You know what losing my mother did to me, it almost killed me. It WILL kill me, if you die." She whispered to him.
He nodded fiercely and held her even more tightly and rocked with her back and forth. Of course he knew, he'd been there when she had finally had to face it. He was, literally, the only person on Earth besides herself, who did know.
"I ... I promise ... I swear, Nabiki, I'll be careful. I won't take unnecessary risks. Okay? I promise."
"Do you mean it?" She whispered back.
"I mean it. I promise, I'll be careful. I'll only do what has to be done to protect you and our family, and nuthin' more, all right?" He asked quietly.
She sniffled into his shirt and nodded her head sharply, then the tears came again. He just held her while she cried and clucked soothing noises to her until she stopped.

***

Less than a half hour later, Nabiki found herself running again. She and Ranma were both tired. It felt like they were running into fewer of the Amazons, but the ones they were running into were taking Ranma longer and longer to beat. It was wearing him down. At the moment they were quietly running up an alley and trying to avoid a group of the Amazons they had spied in the street down the block. She had been almost positive that Shona had been in the group. They had still yet to see Shampoo, Mousse or the elder Joketsuzoku. They were only one street away from the Cat Café.
They made it to the end of the alley and found a small wooden fence blocking their path. Ranma didn't even pause. He simply reached over for her, wrapped an arm around her, and leaped over the fence. While he held her, she could feel his heavy breathing as his chest heaved mightily as his body tried to bring in enough oxygen to fuel his nonstop motion. He had been running or fighting almost without a pause for well over an hour now. She had only been running, and she got to rest every time they were forced to stop and fight. And even with the rests she was getting, she still felt exhausted.
Ranma looked tired, and he was breathing heavily, but otherwise she saw nothing to indicate how exhausted he had to be. Her biggest worry was the darkness she now saw in his eyes. The spark of kindness that defined him was still there, but it was even more dim now than it had been earlier. She was sure it was mostly because the Amazons kept trying to hurt her. If they were only targeting him she didn't think he'd be as upset as he clearly was.
They cleared the fence, and she smiled. She could see the Cat Café. We made it. She thought to herself. As he set her down she reached out and grabbed his wrist tightly. For a split-second she felt him tense up like he was going to fight her, then his control asserted itself and he paused and looked back at her with some impatience showing on his face.
"What?" He asked in a tense voice.
She smiled softly and pushed him back against the wall of the alley they were still in. "Hang on a minute. There was a reason you brought me with you besides my charming personality." She said with as much levity as she could. She had been hoping to earn at least a smile with her self deprecating humor, but he didn't even crack a small smirk. She swallowed nervously and continued. "Rest for a bit. We're here, we've made it. We need a plan." She said softly as she slid herself into his arms and laid her head down on his shoulder.
His body stayed tense against her for many long seconds. After what felt like an eternity, he finally nodded and relaxed against her slightly. She could tell he was still holding himself ready to fight, and she could feel the motion of his head as he continued to scan for danger. But she had succeeded in pulling him back from the edge he had been standing on.
"So, what's your plan?" She asked him. Combat was his specialty. She had more experience with general tactical planning, but she had no practical experience with the costs and requirements of combat. So she would need him to come up with at least part of the plan.
"I ... um ... I was just going to kick in the door and challenge the Old Ghoul." He said after a moment's thought.
She grimaced. It appeared she was going to have to help him formulate more of the plan than she had thought she would. "All right, and what happens if you kick the door in, and you trigger a trap or there are a thousand pissed off Amazons inside?" She asked as gently as she could.
"Nah, I've been to their village, I don't think they have a thousand people who could fight in that whole village, even if they brought the kids and old ladies. Heck, even if they brought the guys, I don't think there were a thousand of them. They have a couple hundred fighters at best." He said confidently.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I wasn't being literal, Ranma. I don't think you could squeeze more than a hundred people into that café anyway. That wasn't the point. The point was, you're tired, and you've already fought at least fifty of them. I could tell some of them weren't very good. But the last half dozen or so you've fought have been pretty good, haven't they? Not as good as Shampoo or Shona, but good enough to cause trouble, right?" She pressed him.
He started to shake his head so she looked up and scowled at him.  He grimaced and sighed as he shrugged and changed his head shake to a reluctant nod as he shrugged. "I dunno, maybe. But don't worry, I can handle it."
"You're tired, Ranma. It was harder getting here than I thought it would be. What if there are twenty Amazons in there, all as good as Shona? Can you handle twenty Shonas?" She asked him.
"Sure I can, I—"
"Ranma!" She growled sternly at him, interrupting him. "This is not the time for your pride to be making decisions. You aren't going to impress me by acting macho. I already know you're strong. You don't need to prove it. If you want to impress me, show me you can fight smart as well and strong." She whispered to him more gently as she laid her head back down on his shoulder.
He tensed under her again, and she braced herself for a fight with him. She knew if she was Akane, they would already be fighting. After an uncomfortable moment had passed, she felt him deflate under her, and then nod.
"All right ... let's do it your way. What do ya suggest?" He asked her in a voice that was a mix of defensiveness and determination.
She smiled and tilted her head towards the café. "Can you get us up to the roof without being seen?" She asked.
He looked over at the café then back and her and nodded.
"Can you throw a rock down the block accurately enough to hit something to make noise?" She asked.
He nodded again.
"Okay, then my plan is simple. Grab one of those rocks in the alley, throw it as far away as you can while still hitting something to make a noise. As soon as however many Amazons are watching the café look at the noise or go to investigate, you get us up to the roof unseen, and we'll go in from the top floor." She said in a rush as the plan unfolded in her own mind.
"Okay, then what?" He asked.
She smiled at him slyly. "Then ... you get to do what you wanted to do in the first place. Take them by surprise, knock out anyone who gets in our way, find the old lady, and finish this." She said calmly. She was placing her life in his hands by willingly going with him into a hive of the Amazons. She looked into his eyes and saw him thinking exactly what she was thinking.
"Maybe ... maybe you should wait here..." He said uncertainly.
She shook her head no. "What happens if someone finds me while I'm waiting? I'd have no chance. At least if I'm with you, I'll have a chance." She said firmly.
"Why is everything always so difficult?" He grumbled as he tightened his arms around her.
She smiled at him. "Because neither one of us are willing to let life come to us. Both of us keep insisting on meeting life on our own terms, and that makes things difficult sometimes." She said with a wink.
He looked into her eyes briefly and she saw a small twinkle appear in the darkness there for just a moment. "Yeah, I guess that's true." He said with a small amount of amusement in his voice.
"Ready?" She asked him. She was willing to let him stand and rest as long as he needed. There was no huge rush for them to take the next step in the plan. She could already tell that he had recovered a great deal just by standing still with her for the half minute they had been talking. His heart rate was down, and his breathing had slowed. She could tell just by looking at him that he was still tired, but his miraculous recovery abilities were already at work peeling back some of the exhaustion that had been wrapping around him as they had fought to get to the café.
He smiled and nodded as he let go of her and bent down to pick up a rock. He hefted it in his hand for a moment and tested its weight. Then he looked over at her with an anxious expression on his face. "You sure about this?" He asked nervously.
She smiled sadly at him. "If we fail, we fail. At least we'll be together. But I don't think we're going to fail. I've never seen you lose, Ranma. I don't see why today will be any different." She said with as much confidence she could put into her voice.
He looked into her eyes silently for a few more seconds. She could tell he was trying to communicate with her a lot of things he wasn't able to put voice to yet. Chief among them was that he was scared. She didn't think he was scared for himself, she was sure he was scared for her.
She stepped closer to him and gently put her hands on either side of his face and pulled him towards her. She pulled him to the right and placed her lips right next to his ear and whispered gently to him. "I believe in you, Ranma. Let's finish this. Don't forget, today's the end of the week-long promise." She said in a teasing voice. She felt it was a perfect combination of encouragement and intimacy.
She stepped back and laced her hands behind his neck and looked into his eyes. He licked his lips nervously, then swallowed hard and nodded. "All right, let's do this. Get ready, cuz I'm gonna grab ya an' jump as soon as I throw the rock." He said anxiously.
She nodded firmly and let go of him and stepped so she was behind him and slightly off to the side. He poked his head out of the alley quickly and looked around, then stepped back as he angled his body and pulled the rock back like a baseball and then threw it high into the air in a huge arc. He watched it sail up into the air and counted down silently to himself as he reached back for her. She stepped up quickly next to him and he wrapped his arms around her tightly and picked her up. A second after she heard a loud clanging sound down the street from what sounded like the something running into a wall, he tensed his legs, and leaped.
Even knowing what he could do, and experiencing it in the past, she still wasn't fully prepared for the experience. The sense of speed was incredible, and she could actually feel the pull of gravity increase on her as Ranma moved them at super-sonic speed up to the roof of the café.
As soon as Ranma landed on the roof he set her down in the lee of the chimney he had landed them next to and he quickly took up a fighting stance in front of her. She could hear Amazons yelling on the street as they raced towards the sound.
"We did it." He said quietly as he turned around and smiled at her.
Fear seized her heart and she shook her head strongly as she pointed behind him. "Behind you!" She called out as Shona stepped out into view behind him. The young Amazon had a bladed weapon in her hand. Shona was trying hard to look confident, but she could see the fear in the Amazon's eyes.
Ranma cursed and spun around again into a fighting stance in front of her. "Where's the Old Ghoul?" He demanded.
Shona gazed at him in silence for a moment. Nabiki could tell by the slight tremor in Shona's hands, and the nervous twitches Shona was making with her body, that the Amazon didn't expect to survive the upcoming fight.
"Stupid boy ... h-honored E-Elder k-know you here come. S-Sisters tell. S-School E-Elder at g-gone. H-Here u-us stay. G-Girl we must k-kill, t-take you. Home go." Shona said in a shaking voice. Nabiki could tell the speech had been intended to intimidate him, but the delivery of it had clearly shown who was actually afraid.
Ranma growled as Shona snapped her fingers after fumbling them for a bit, and two more Amazons stepped into view. They were the ones who had attacked them after Miso had stopped their assault at the school. One of the Amazons was still wearing a black armband, while the other was still wearing a white armband. Like Shona, they were clearly more than an average Amazon. None of them were on Shampoo's level. But they didn't need to be. A weapon that killed less efficiently than another weapons, still killed.
"S-Say y-you—" Shona started to say, but she clamped her mouth shut and grunted in surprise when Ranma exploded into motion to meet the sudden charge of the armband girls. Nabiki didn't think that had been part of the plan Shona had been expecting.
He raced forward and kicked sharply at Shona as he parried the strikes from the armband girls. Shona was forced to step backwards rapidly. As soon as Shona was out of range he pivoted and grabbed the wrist of black armband as the Amazon punched at him. Without wasting any motion he yanked black armband towards himself, and threw the Amazon behind him to crash into white armband who was also attacking.
As they untangled themselves, Shona jumped back into the fray and tried to push him back towards the two armband wearing Amazons. He danced back just a little and it seemed like Shona might succeed, until he pivoted at the last moment and spun to the left as he whipped his body around in a tight arc and lashed out with a hooking kick that caught Shona in the back and launched her forward to slam into black armband who was in the process of trying to punch him.
Nabiki was afraid. She was breathing heavily and wincing as they fought. She wasn't afraid for herself, although she was aware of the danger she was in. She was afraid for him. Shona and the two armband girls seemed to be the best fighters the Amazons had who were willing to attack him. She had to admit, they were pretty good. They wouldn't be good enough to beat him in a fair fight. But, only one of them needed to get lucky just once, and it would be all over.
She was starting to see red at the edges of her vision as her fear and anger grew as she watched them fight. She was still holding on tight to what she still thought of as her courage, which Ranma called Ki. She hadn't let go ever since they had set out from home. Now she was starting to pull on the energy inside herself. She was drawing on the energy to fortify herself. That energy was her birthright as a Tendo and a former student of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. She didn't really know how to control or use the energy, but she felt better holding on to it.
As she watched, Ranma whipped around and slammed a back-knuckle strike into white armband's temple and dropped her prone to the rooftop. He then hopped to the side and dodged a weapon strike from black armband. He danced back again and got out of the way of a kick from Shona. Then black armband surged forward and tried to hit him again with an overhead weapon strike. Ranma sidestepped and slipped into black armband's stance smoothly and took her balance. As black armband tried to recover, Ranma stepped to the side and pushed the Amazon hard, right into the path of Shona's next kick.
Black armband went sailing over the edge of the roof with a surprised yell. Ranma pivoted and just barely managed to catch Shona's sword arm as she swung at him in what looked to Nabiki like a lethal strike.
Nabiki winced as the blade of Shona's weapon got within centimeters of his face. He backed up a few steps and tried to reposition himself. Panic seized her heart. He's lost track of his position! She thought to herself in a panic as she took a hesitant step towards him as he backed slowly to the edge of the roof as Shona pressed him hard.
She wanted to call out a warning to him, but she was afraid that if she did it would distract him just enough that Shona might be able to get through his guard. With Shona's weapon literally centimeters away from his face, she didn't dare.
It was weird that the fighting was happening in silence. Aside from the occasional grunt of pain and the sounds of their breathing, and their feet on the clay tiles of the roof, nobody was making any sound. It wasn't like it was in the movies, or even most martial arts schools. The fighters weren't fighting for show, they were doing their best to hurt each other and win the fight, and yelling wasn't part of any of their efforts.
White armband surged to her feet and rejoined the fight with a dizzy shake of her head as she attacked from his periphery. Ranma darted to the side as he tried to fight both of the Amazons. She could tell he was tired. His movements were just a little more sluggish than usual, his footsteps were just a bit heavier. Nabiki was dancing from foot to foot, anxiously wishing she could help.
Ranma pivoted to the left and locked his wrists together into an X-block as Shona tried an overhanded swing with her weapon. He then twisted his hands so his right hand dropped down and grabbed Shona's wrist while his left slid up the Amazon's forearm. He swung his arms to the right in a strong arc as he twisted his hands and hips in unison. Shona was thrown hard to his right, as the Amazon lost control of her weapon.
She wanted to cheer, but bit her tongue instead. Now was not the time to distract him. Her happiness faded almost immediately as white armband ran up quickly behind him and landed a solid strike to the back of his head. He stumbled forward on shaky legs and pivoted into a rear elbow strike with his left arm that white armband blocked. Before his left arm had even finished moving he shot out a lightning quick series of punches using his Chestnut Fist technique to the Amazon's solar plexus. The Amazon gasped and sank to her knees just as Shona recovered and jumped into a kick to his head.
He pulled his head back quickly and dodged the kick but failed to dodge the followup punch Shona threw at his head as she landed. He staggered back as Shona laid into him heavily, not giving him a moment's pause to recover his defenses. He was stepping rapidly back away from Nabiki and towards the edge of the roof. As Shona drove him back, white armband picked herself up from the roof again and ran to join her sister in fighting him.
A strangled warning shout managed to escape Nabiki's lips in the form of a small yelp as she fought her urge to yell out to him to warn him. She was afraid he wouldn't hear her words, but would only hear her panicked tone of voice and he would react to that by trying to rush to her rescue, opening him up to further attack.
However, she couldn't stop herself from walking towards the fight with increasing speed. Her own fear and desire to help him was overpowering her sense of self preservation. The redness was creeping further into her vision.
She felt a strong urge inside herself to do something, and her own limited training and knowledge of the Art were coming together and pushing her to act. The dragon inside her was growling as it strained to help her focus. She reached down further into herself and focused the power she was pulling on.
Ranma danced to the side of Shona's attacks and grabbed white armband's outstretched arm as the Amazon punched at him. He yanked the Amazon in front of himself and used her as a shield against Shona. Shona didn't hesitate, she simply attacked through her sister. It was a tactic Ranma probably hadn't been expecting.
As white armband crumpled back to the roof, having been kicked in three places, Shona managed to land two solid hits to him. One hit him in his gut and jerked his head forward. The second one hit him solidly in his temple. Nabiki started to run as she tasted blood in her mouth and red flashed across her vision.
Oh no, oh no, oh no! She screamed to herself as she raced to help him. He slumped backwards and started to fall back off the roof. A strange sensation she had only seen in movies settled over her. The world was suddenly silent, and things were moving in slow motion. She could hear the sound of her own breathing. She could hear the blood thundering in her ears. She pulled on the power inside herself, and it jumped at her call and surged out of her body and wrapped itself around her as she ran to him.
She grit her teeth and balled her hands into fists as Ranma fell over the side of the roof. He managed to catch the edge with one hand, and yelled out in pain as he wrenched his shoulder as he stopped his fall. Shona raised her weapon with a wicked smile curving the edge of her mouth up. The Amazon most likely intended to wound him enough to prevent him from fighting them any more.
Not again, not again, not again! She chanted to herself as her world focused down to just Shona. "NO!" Nabiki screamed as time came to a standstill and she switched from pulling on the power inside herself, and pushed that same power with every gram of her strength as she punched towards the back of Shona's head. She saw a shimmering mote of light dance on her hand a moment before something exploded around her and pulsed out from her in every direction and the dragon inside her roared!
She slammed her body down to the roof and slid the last half meter to the edge and reached desperately down for Ranma ... but he wasn't there.
"Oh no." She whispered to herself as the redness invaded her vision more. She stood up, and turned to fight as she looked at the world through a blood-red haze. She knew she was about to die, but she no longer cared, she would take at least some of t—
"Kiki!" Ranma's voice sounded from above her. She looked up to find him landing on top of the chimney. He looked panicked. He jumped down from the chimney and raced over to her.
The amount of relief that flooded into her was beyond anyone's ability to describe. There was no language on Earth that could properly describe the intense surge of happiness and release that hit her when she heard his voice, alive, and coming back to her.
Her body shook as she opened her mouth to yell for him, but only a sob managed to escape. He reached her and wrapped her up in his strong arms and hugged her so tightly she thought for sure her ribs were creaking. He released her a moment later and pushed her back at arm's length and looked at her with wide eyes.
"How did you ... what did you ... Nabiki ... you ..." He stammered as he looked her up and down with wide eyes. She looked down and saw the flickering remains of a ghostly battle aura that was quickly dying out. It had been red. The same color as Akane's, when her sister was angry. She looked at herself and saw that her clothing was torn, and smoke was swirling around both of them. The air around them was alive with power. She could feel blood trickling down the side of her face from several cuts, and she still tasted blood in her mouth from her lower lip she had bitten into. She didn't care.
"You're alive." She whispered as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Yeah ... I'm alive. ... holy crap, Nabiki...what did you do?" He asked in wonder.
She looked around blankly and saw Shona slumped down on the roof, as was white armband. Both Amazons seemed to be already stirring awake though. There was no sign of black armband. She looked back up at him. "Well ... I am my daddy's daughter." She said with a small shrug and an even smaller smile.
He blinked at her in surprise, and smiled nervously. "We really need to talk about your trainin' when this is all over." He said as he stepped forward and grasped her hand. "But right now, we need ta get off this roof, and go find the Old Ghoul." He said with urgency in his voice.
She allowed him to pull her forward several steps, then stopped walking and looked at him in concern. She could tell he was limping from his gait, and she could feel how tired he was.
"You need to rest first." She said sternly.
He shook his head. "No time. We gotta—" He stopped and looked over his shoulder. She heard it too. It sounded like quite a few of the Amazons were headed their way. She was sure they had seen and heard the fight. Without another word, Ranma grabbed her and leaped off the roof. She squeezed her eyes shut and begged fate to let him hold out a little longer.
They landed at the street level in the alley between buildings, and surprised black armband who looked like she had been in the process of jumping back up to the roof. Ranma didn't hesitate. He leaped strongly towards the Amazon and kicked her hard in the head. The Amazon was launched across the alley and slammed into the wall. As black armband slumped to the street, unconscious, Ranma started to run while carrying her.
It looked different when she was part of it, but she knew he was moving so fast, he was blurring. He ran for blocks while carrying her. She could tell by the landscape whipping by, that he was trying to get to the school. But he kept veering away from the school to go around large groups of the Amazons, who appeared to have stationed themselves at critical junctions leading to the school.

***

Eventually, after about a quarter hour, he paused and set her down in a small alcove behind a building. He leaned heavily up against the wall, pressed his hands up to his eyes, and tried to control his breathing. She could tell he was afraid. She could also tell he was exhausted.
"You all right?" She asked him, worried.
He nodded slowly, but didn't say anything. He was gulping air and clearly trying to recover some of his endurance. She couldn't even imagine the amount of strength it required for him to run like he had been running, while carrying her, for as long as he had been. She watched in slowly growing fear as he slumped down to the street. He appeared to be almost falling asleep. She wanted to let him rest, but she could hear the Amazons getting closer to them. They had to keep moving.
"On your feet, Saotome." She urged him as she stepped forward and shook his shoulder gently. She wasn't strong enough to carry him. They needed to hide for a little bit so he could recover. But they couldn't do it where they were, so he had to stand up. She held her hand down to him.
He looked up at her with exhaustion written across his face, but nodded and took her hand and allowed her to pull him up. Unlike in the past, he actually did put some of his weight into it when she pulled. He was reaching his limit.
She smiled a shaky smile at him and tried to bolster him. "You are one of the strongest people I know, Ranma. You can do this, I know you can." She whispered to him.
He was still gulping air into greedy lungs and looked at her with a haunted expression, but nodded. She could tell that his mind was shutting down, and he was running on almost pure instinct. He would be able to fight, but the higher order functions of his mind that were responsible for planning and strategy, were being overridden by his survival instincts right now. He hadn't whited out yet, but he was close. It was up to her to get them to safety to allow him to recover.
She steeled herself as best she could and pulled even more strongly on her Ki to fuel herself. She didn't focus it into a battle aura, because she didn't want to draw attention to them. But she could at least use her Ki to help keep herself going. She knew he had been doing that for hours now. If he could do it, she could as well.
She took his hand and pulled him gently to follow her. She paused almost immediately when she heard something across the street. She didn't know if it was because she was actively using her Ki, or if it was because she was just growing accustomed to listening for such signs, but she was sure the sound she had heard was of an Amazon creeping around on the rooftop across the street from them.
Ranma would probably be able to fight off one of them without too much trouble. But if the Amazon managed to summon the rest of them, they would be in real trouble. She held her hand up to Ranma in a closed fist to signal him to wait as she listened for sounds from the Amazon. Ranma just stood mutely behind her and waited. He was clearly nearing his limit if he was relying on her to navigate them to safety while the Amazons hunted for them.
Eventually, the sounds from across the street receded enough that she felt it was safe to creep further away from where she was fairly sure the Amazon was, and put more distance between them. She grasped Ranma's hand tightly, and wished she had a way to give him some of her energy.
She thought about that and thought about pushing her own energy into him. She looked at him and gave him a tight smile to encourage him. Oddly, as she stood there with him, wishing she could send him some of her energy, she could swear she felt something weird happening between the connection between them they shared as they held hands.
Ranma stood up a tiny fraction of a millimeter taller for a moment and looked at her with eyes that were slightly less glassy. She was sure his own superhuman healing and metabolism were just kicking in, but still, it was fun to imagine that she could send him some of her own energy. That was a connection with him she would love to have.
When she was fairly sure the Amazon across the street had moved on, she yanked on his hand and pulled him to follow her. He did so with stumbling steps. She could tell his endurance would only last a little longer. She ducked around corners, and went up and down stairs with him following behind her with increasingly heavy footsteps.
When she was fairly certain nobody had followed them, she pulled him under the concrete staircase of a nearby building and led him to the back corner where it was damp and smelled of old water, and most importantly, where it was dark and hard to see. In the shadows she crouched down with him next to her, and whispered to him. "Sit. Rest."
The fact that he didn't argue with her, and instead immediately sat down where he had been crouching, spoke volumes about how tired he must be.
"You're going to be okay, Ranma." She whispered to him as she sat next to him and huddled with her arms around her knees.
He nodded but didn't say anything. She could tell he was trying to recover his strength as fast as he could. She reached out and stroked his chin with the palm of her hand gently. He looked over at her with tired eyes.
"Thank you." She whispered to him.
"Fer whu?" He asked in an exhausted whisper.
"For everything. For protecting my family, for protecting me, for caring. I know you don't have to do what you are doing. It isn't your duty. Nobody can make you do it. I know you are doing it because you care. I want you to know that, whatever happens, I understand the sacrifice you are making for us, and I appreciate it. I am in the favors business Ranma, I know full well what the scope of what you are doing for us is." She said with tears in her eyes as she held his chin in her hand.
He looked down in embarrassment and nodded. Then he leaned into her hand with his cheek and closed his eyes and breathed deeply as he relaxed a little bit. He opened his eyes a few moments later, and looked a lot better. She could tell that his superhuman healing and endurance were already rapidly bringing him back from the brink.

***

They set out again just a short fifteen minutes later. She had sat patiently with him and watched and waited as his unbelievable healing ability showed itself and he recovered before her eyes. He wasn't at one hundred percent again, but he was back in the high eighties even low nineties, for sure. He smiled at her reassuringly as he lead her weaving through alleyways and over and under buildings, trees, and even moving vehicles as they made their way slowly to the school.
They slipped on to the school grounds near the rear of the school. Very close to the same spot by the old equipment shed the Amazons had ambushed her and Akane.
He stepped forward boldly to leave the cover of the trees they were standing amid, but she slapped a hand on his arm and held him back.
"Come on, Ranma. Think. Shona told us the old woman was here. There was no way that was an accident. This has to be a trap." She whispered to him nervously as she scanned the school grounds looking for signs of the Amazons.
He turned back to her with wide eyes. "Then ... whadda we do?" He asked.
She sighed. It was a good question. Their mission was to seek out the Joketsuzoku elder, confront her, and end the conflict. They couldn't very well do that and avoid her. "I ... I guess we go anyway." She said hesitantly.
He nodded and stepped forward again. She lashed her hand out again and yanked him back again. He looked back with surprise on his face. "Just ... just be careful, all right?" She asked.
He nodded and smiled as he stepped forward again. She followed behind him without stopping him again. "Where do you think she is?" She whispered to him. He shrugged in response as they walked across the deserted school grounds. Ranma was keeping a fair distance away from the school buildings. She was sure he wanted to avoid tight spaces if he could help it.
The made their way across the grass of the sports fields, and down the dip in the ground formed by the natural slope of the hill one of the sports fields had been built next to, which provided a natural place for people to sit and watch the games.
As they descended the slope of the hill, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise, and goosebumps invaded her exposed skin. She looked over at him in alarm and he nodded. "I feel it too." He said quietly.
"Can we—" She started to ask as they reached the bottom of the slope.
He shook his head. "No, they're surrounding us. I think we found the trap." He said quietly as they walked towards the center of the sports field.
"Well, that didn't take long." She said with a sigh.
"Let's run for i—" He began to say.
"Welcome, grandson-in-law. Long time, no see." The booming voice of Shampoo's great grandmother interrupted him. It sounded like it was coming over a loudspeaker. They looked around for her, but didn't see her. Ranma stepped in front of her anyway and put a hand on her like he always did when he defended her during a fight.
"Come out and fight, you Old Ghoul!" He shouted.
There was silence for a moment, then the old woman's voice sounded again more clearly as she hopped into view at the top of the hill they had just descended. "Very well, grandson-in-law. If you insist." The old woman said as she hopped to the apex of the hill, perched on her staff as she usually was.
Shampoo walked into view a moment later. She had her hands clasped tightly in front of herself, and her gaze locked firmly on her feet. She looked miserable.
"I'm sick 'n tired of all of this! This ends, today!" Ranma yelled angrily.
"Oh, I agree. I think we've shown remarkable restraint up to this point, but I grow tired of this little battle of wills as well, grandson-in-law. I am not going to allow you to flaunt our laws. Thousands of years of Chinese Amazon history cannot simply be ignored because you don't like our laws." The old woman said coldly.
Nabiki could tell that Shampoo's elder was angry. She had seen that kind of icy-cold resolve many times while negotiating in the past. The old woman was acting civilly, but inside, Shampoo's great-grandmother was seething. She could feel a very cold aura radiating from the old woman. She was sure Ranma felt it too.
"I never asked for this. You can take your laws and stuff 'em!" Ranma growled back angrily.
"Oh, come now, don't be ridiculous. You most certainly have asked for this. You came to our country without speaking the language. You stole the prize for a contest you had no rights to. You defeated the rightful winner of that prize, and then ran like a coward afterward. Then you defeated her again in your male form and invoked one of our oldest laws, and you have spent the last several months stringing her along. As the old saying goes, stay out of the bear cave, if you don't want to meet any bears." The elder Joketsuzoku said in a calm and cold voice.
"Yeah, all right, whatever. I'm sorry about that stuff, I didn't know, all right?" Ranma said somewhat less angrily.
"We are well past apologies at this point, young man. Your options are simple. Come with me, now, back to China, and marry Shampoo as the law commands. Or, continue to fight with us until you eventually lose, and we hobble you and haul you off to China anyway, without any dignity at all." The old woman said sternly.
"If that's the way ya want it, then fine. Come and get me!" Ranma yelled confidently.
Shampoo's great-grandmother smirked and shook her head as she waved a hand forward and Shona and the two armband girls walked into view above the crest of the hill. Well, it looked like some of them were limping a bit, but they were working not to show it. Nabiki took some small solace in that fact.
"Young fool. You still haven't earned the right to face me unrestrained in battle. They will deal with you." Was all the Amazon Elder said before she snapped her fingers and Shona and the others raced down the hill towards them. Behind them more and more Amazons ran into view and followed their leaders down the hill.
"Run?" She asked Ranma.
"Run." He confirmed under his breath as he reached back for her and turned them both ... and swore. Standing behind them was at least several dozen Amazons who had quietly taken up positions behind them while he had argued with the Amazons. They'd formed a human wall blocking their escape.
"Ranma!" She yelled in a panic as she felt him tighten his arm around her in fear. "Can you—" She started to ask.
"To Nabiki Tendo!" Kuno's voice interrupted her as he ran down the adjacent side of the hill in between the two groups of Amazons. Behind him the entirety of the Kendo club was following him, all of them were wielding their standard wooden bokens.
"Down!" Ranma yelled as he shoved her roughly to the ground and dropped her under the swinging blade of a sword swipe that had been aimed at her as Shona and the rest of the Amazons reached them, and Ranma began to fight.
He stood over her, and radiated calm, efficient, deadly skill. He wasn't striking to kill, but she could tell his patience was leaving him rapidly. More and more of the Amazons launched themselves at him from every direction, and he fought them all as he stood over her, never giving a centimeter. They quickly learned that to hurt him, all they had to do was target her, because he would take the hit for her, every time. He was bleeding from several cuts in his shirt now.
"STOP! PLEASE! ... STOP!" She yelled, but they ignored her.
A moment later Kuno arrived and knocked several of the Amazons away from Ranma. She looked up at him in surprise as he yelled something incoherent then stood back to back with Ranma. Together they were able to hold the onslaught off a little better. She watched the rest of the Kendo club members rush the field while yelling to rally on Ranma.
They don't realize that this isn't just a usual school yard fight. Nabiki thought to herself as she winced while she observed several of them go down clutching bloody wounds to their shoulders and arms with bewildered looks on their faces. Luckily for them, the Amazons clearly didn't want to waste time on anything but their main target. They formed up into a fighting group and stopped attacking from multiple directions.
She scanned the horizon hopefully, looking for Miso. Tofu's master had said that she would help them if they were on school grounds, hadn't she?
She didn't see Miso. She did see the old ghoul standing at the top of the hill that led down to the field. The old woman was perched on her staff as per usual, and watched the fight with dispassionate eyes, like a General. Shampoo stood next to her grandmother looking down at her feet and miserable. Nabiki growled with frustration.
Some of the Kendoists called out to Kuno as they reached Kuno and Ranma and took up stances around them. "What do we do, captain?"
Kuno returned their yell calmly. "You will hold your ground. Fight! Fight to the last man! For the glory of Akane Tendo!"
She would have rolled her eyes at his hyperbole, and his never-ending attempts to impress her little sister. But, at the moment, she was too busy being afraid and also wracking her brain trying to figure out a way out of the mess they were in. Her eyes were drawn to the elder Joketsuzoku when she caught movement in that area. She looked up again, but didn't see Miso arriving to turn the tide in their favor. Instead she saw Shampoo's great grandmother sneer with derision and turn to hop away from the battle. Shampoo remained behind, still staring forlornly at her feet.
Her attention was yanked back to the battle raging around her as Kendoists started dropping left and right as the Amazons systematically pushed through them to get to Ranma and herself.
Kuno went down a moment after the last of his clubmates went down with a grunt of pain. She saw Ranma's eyes dart back to register the change in the battle. He shifted his stance slightly so he was able to pivot better in any direction, and kept fighting. She could tell by how he was clenching his muscles, he was about to do something desperate.
"Nabiki, get ready, I'm gonna—" He started to yell, but stopped as he grunted in surprise when one of the Amazons tackled him around his ankles. He kicked the Amazon off, but two more jumped on his legs and wrapped themselves around him as best they could as he tried to kick them off.
More and more Amazons ran forward while Shona waved them on. They didn't try to fight him, they just threw themselves on him, and grabbed on to him wherever they could. It took him a moment to realize the danger they represented.
She saw panic cross his face when he realized what the Amazons were doing, and he started frantically trying to peel them off in any way he could. He was using the close-quarters techniques he had refrained from using against Riko yesterday. But there were just too many of them. Her own rough estimates put their numbers well north of thirty. For every two or three he would knock off, four or five would pile on while he was doing that and pull him further away from her. A moment later he was clearly having trouble moving, and a moment after that he could no longer strike. He was straining mightily against their hold on him though. She could see that he was gathering power inside himself.
She was anxiously glancing at him and the rest of the Amazons on the field. Most of them were still focused on him. But a few were watching her carefully now. She licked her lips nervously as ice water smashed into her veins, and she tried to decide what to do next. She wouldn't be able to pull the Amazons off him, but she also wouldn't make it far if she tried to run.
She unconsciously stepped towards him. It was fatalistic, but she felt that if she was going to die, she would rather do it with him, than running for her life and being hunted like an animal. He looked towards her in a panic as he strained harder to break free.
She smiled softly to him. She wanted him to know she didn't blame him. He'd fought hard for her and her family. She walked another step closer to him, then paused when his eyes shifted from her to something behind her. Against her better judgment she turned slightly to look over her shoulder to see what he was looking at. She sighed. It was black armband, one of the elite ones. The Amazon was grinning at her and lazily swinging a wooden stick with some kind of a wicked looking hook on the end of it.
She closed her eyes and pulled in a deep calming breath. If she was killed, then so be it. But she wouldn't show fear. Instead, she would show Ranma that she didn't blame him. She turned back to him, and smiled for him as she took another step towards him. His eyes were wide with panic now, and she could see he was blazing with his yellow battle aura now. It was getting easier for her to see auras in general, especially his. But she knew she would have been able to see it at the moment even if she'd had no formal training on seeing them.
She could feel how scared he was, and that he was putting everything he had into trying to break free. She reached her hand towards him as she took another step forward. She knew it was an empty gesture, as he couldn't reach back for her at the moment, because they were literally being pulled apart. But she still wanted to show him how she felt.
She knew black armband had to be approaching her from behind, and that she could die at any moment. But she wasn't concerned about that. She was concerned with him blaming himself for her death. She shook her head softly and smiled for him again. She wanted to—
She never got to finish the thought as Ranma's eyes widened in fear as he looked behind her again, and opened his mouth to yell. She closed her eyes and waited for it to happen. Instead she felt a thunderous impact as someone jumped right on top of her and knocked her to the ground while shouting NO in Chinese. Whoever it was, was powerful. Hope surged in her heart and she looked up hoping to see Miso.
She opened her eyes and was surprised to see Shampoo standing literally right over her. Up close, she could see that the young Amazon warrior was bloodied and dirty, but Shampoo had a fire in her eyes she hadn't ever seen before. Shampoo was boiling with a battle aura. It felt cold and hot at the same time, and she could feel the confliction Shampoo herself had to be feeling in that aura.
"不要杀，不！[1]" Shampoo shouted in a strong voice as the young warrior flexed her muscles and held black armband's weapon immobile above her.
Black armband, was straining mightily against her. "叛徒、滚开！[2]" Black armband shouted through grit teeth.
"决不！[3]" Shampoo shouted back in defiance as the strongest Amazon from Nyucheizu slowly won the fight with black armband and pushed the weapon away from her.
Shampoo had been smiling as she won the struggle, but the smile fled her face as she glanced over her shoulder quickly and scowled. She followed Shampoo's gaze and just had enough time to gasp as her own eyes found the threat from white armband as the other elite Amazon stabbed down at her with a spear.
She flinched back and tried to scoot out of the way, but backed up into Shampoo's leg. She heard an impact sound like someone slapping a fish against a counter top. She squeezed her eyes open and found Shampoo straining between the two Amazons now. Shampoo had shifted herself so that her left hand was holding the weapon of black armband, and her right hand was now holding the spear of white armband.
"不要杀了这个，不要！[4]" Shampoo yelled again, forbidding them from killing her.
"你什么意思？这是命令！[5]" White armband shouted back with surprise on her face.
"她是一个叛徒。杀了她！[6]" Black armband growled out the order to attack Shampoo. White armband looked at black armband with wide eyes, then back to Shampoo who met her gaze coldly, and without flinching away.
While the Amazons were trying to stare each other down, she looked over at Ranma. He was still struggling to break free of the Amazons holding him down. He had his hands free now, and he was fighting viciously to free himself. She wasn't sure, but she thought she could hear bones cracking as he fought. He didn't have the usual playful expression on his face when he sparred. He looked deadly serious.
She looked back up at Shampoo then back to Ranma. It was a stalemate. The elites couldn't get through Shampoo to get to her, but Shampoo didn't seem to be strong enough to stop both of them at once.
She looked back over to Ranma, and froze. Shona was in the way. Shampoo's older sister was walking towards them with a sword in her hand, and a determined expression on her face. Shampoo growled and shifted her stance and visibly prepared to fight.
She looked back over at Ranma, and saw that he had finally managed to break away from the horde attacking him. He was sprinting over towards her with his mouth pulled down in a grim frown. He had death in his eyes again. Shona raised her sword. She didn't think he would arrive in time.
She saw Shampoo's eyes dart in Ranma's direction, then to Shona, and to the two elites she was still holding immobile on either side of herself. Then Shampoo blurred into motion. Instead of attacking though, Shampoo shoved the weapons she was holding out towards Shona, then Shampoo dropped down over her and tackled her to the ground. Shampoo wrapped her arms and legs around her, and tucked her own head in next to hers and shielded her as best she could with her own body. The young Amazon smelled like stale sweat. She was sure some of that was fear, and the rest was the long week they had both been having.
She heard Shona yell something, then she felt Ranma arrive. She knew it was him both because she could sense him, and also because the shock waves from his strikes at full power were something she recognized now. A moment later Shampoo lifted herself up off of her, and stood to the side.
Nabiki gazed out at the battlefield and saw Shona and the two elites dusting themselves off as they stood up. Ranma was now standing over her, but he wasn't fighting at the moment as the Amazons regrouped. Most of the rank and file Amazons were still on their feet, and they were already heading back in their direction.
Ranma risked a look back at Shampoo and asked a simple question. "Why?"
Shampoo looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Because you is love her." Shampoo said sadly. 
Ranma stepped backwards and reached his hand down for her without looking back. She reached up and took his hand and he pulled her to her feet immediately. His hand was shaking. He continued to step backwards as the Amazons ran towards them.
"We gotta get outta here, get ready ta—"
He froze as a blur of motion streaked in front of them, and an explosion shook the ground a moment later.
She looked over his shoulder and saw dust clearing around a new crater in the ground, right in front of them. Standing at the center of it was Ryoga. His eyes were blazing with anger as he moved backwards to shield them as he raised his fighting umbrella to deflect weapons thrown at them, and answered them with thrown weapons of his own.
"Ryoga, what're ya—"
"Get outta here man, I'll take care of them!" Ryoga yelled, cutting him off.
Ranma hesitated. She knew he hated to run from a fight, and with Ryoga helping there was a much better chance that they could win.
Ryoga arrived to stand right in front of them, and pivoted for a half second and punched Ranma hard in the face before he turned back to face the Amazons.
"Go! Get out of here! Now! I'll hold them off!"
"Ryoga, I—"
"I'm not asking you! Don't make me smack you again. Go! Get out of here, now! Go go go!" Ryoga yelled as he backpedaled under the fierce onslaught of the combined forces of the Amazons still on their feet. He kicked backwards and hit Ranma in the chest which forced him to take a step back, and seemed to snap him out of his reverie.
"Ryoga ... thanks man, I—"
"GO!" Ryoga yelled back in a straining voice.
Ranma didn't say anything further, he pivoted and grabbed her and leaped clear of the fight. She looked down as he did so and saw Shampoo standing to the side of the fight, neither raising her hands to assist her sisters, or to help them any further. Shampoo watched them go with an unreadable expression on her face.
Unfortunately, Ryoga wasn't able to hold back that many of the Amazons. Now that she and Ranma weren't a stationary target on the ground, most of the Amazons had disengaged from the fight with Ryoga and were sprinting after them in hot pursuit.
The Amazons started to get ahead of them, and throw weapons at them, which slowed Ranma down even more than he was being slowed by carrying her. They landed on the opposite end of the field, and Ranma positioned her so that she was behind him again as he allowed some of the Amazons to catch them. His hands and feet blurred out and every time he touched an Amazon, they dropped to the ground. She could tell his patience was almost gone just by looking at the Amazons when they hit the ground. Most of them were either heavily bruised or bleeding where he'd hit them. And some of them clearly had broken arms and legs as well. She sucked cold air in past clenched teeth nervously as she stood behind him and watched him fight.
The bulk of the Amazons arrived again a moment later, led by Shona. Ryoga surged ahead of them and took up a position next to Ranma. The eternal lost boy looked surprised.
"Hey man." Ranma said to him by way of greeting. She could tell Ranma was tired.
"Hey yourself." Ryoga shot back.
"Not that I'm complain' or nothin', but ... what are you doin' here?" Ranma asked as they fought.
Ryoga shrugged. "I came by the house to visit Akane. She asked me to come help protect her sister ... well, once she was able to get those soldiers to let me in the gate. Akane sounded really worried, so I had a taxi take me here so I was sure I wouldn't get lost."
Ranma nodded. "Thanks, man. If ... if I go down ... will you—"
"Of course I will, you idiot!" Ryoga cut him off. "Even if Akane hadn't sent me, you know I hate it when people bully the weak." Ryoga growled.
"Yeah, I know ya do man. Thanks." Ranma said as he clapped him on the shoulder.
"I still don't like you, Ranma." Ryoga growled in a way she could tell was an attempt to lighten the mood.
"I know." Ranma said grimly. He was clearly past the point of being able to joke while fighting.
The Amazons chose that moment to attack again en masse. They seemed more serious now. Ranma and Ryoga clearly out-classed all of the attackers on a one-to-one basis, but the numbers they were fighting still tipped the balance of power in favor of the Amazons.
She knew it was harder for them to fight than usual, because they had to more or less stay in place in order to protect her. She hated that she was so useless in a fight. She couldn't see much of the battle with them surrounding her. As the minutes passed, the attacks came with less frequency, but they got stronger.
A minute or so later, Ryoga went down. She saw two very fast motions from the Amazons as they darted in and converged on him heartbeats apart. He turned just enough one way to meet the first one, then the second one dropped him. She didn't see how he had been hit. He hit the ground hard, and didn't get up.
She looked up at Ranma in a panic. Could he do it by himself?
Ranma looked ... scary. His battle aura was a towering inferno pouring off him in streams of power. His eyes were dark with hate, and his face was blank. He was clenching and unclenching his hands from fists into claws, and back again.
The Amazons left on their feet stopped moving for a moment. There were only three of them now. Shona, and the two elites. The strongest ones. Shampoo had followed her sisters at a distance, and was standing at the rear of the fight, watching, but not moving.
The three facing Ranma raised their weapons in a salute, then started darting around again. One darted in and moved past Ranma in a feint. She guessed it was a feint, because the Amazon didn't attack.
Ranma twisted slightly to meet a possible attack anyway...like Ryoga.
"Ranma!" She called out, to warn him. But it was too late, the second one was already moving towards his unprotected back.
But, Ranma didn't go down like Ryoga did. Instead, he pivoted and punched towards the second attacker. Black armband collapsed backwards from the punch to her face she had just run into.
She was about to cheer when Ranma suddenly shrank and changed to a red-head as white armband splashed him from the other side. White armband smiled at Ranma as she dropped the bottle of water she had used to splash him. Ranma growled.
Ranma wiped the smirk off white armband's face a moment later by blurring into motion and engaging the Amazon in a fierce fight. If anything, it seemed to make it easier to fight the Amazons when he was female. Nabiki watched nervously as both Shampoo and Shona started walking forward while he was distracted with white armband. Shona was looking directly at her with determination in her eyes. Shampoo had her eyes locked on Ranma, and desperation written across her face.
Shona started to sprint towards her and yelled out a battle cry as she raised her sword right as Ranma dropped white armband to the ground.
She felt Ranma's control break. His normally warm battle aura changed to icy cold and burst out from him like a dam breaking. A terrible flood of icy cold power swept over the field. Her eyes darted from Shona over to him, and she sucked in air between her teeth as fear flooded her body. Ranma still had death in his eyes.
She watched him as he raced to intercept Shona. She knew he would get to Shona before the Amazon reached her. He didn't yell. He didn't call out a warning. He just ran towards Shona with a cold and deadly aura radiating from him.
Oh no! It's happening, he's lost control! She thought, terrified to see what he would do. She didn't want to die, but she didn't want Ranma to become a killer either. She opened her mouth to shout a warning to Shona. But no sound came out. She couldn't bring herself to essentially betray Ranma, even if her intentions were honorable.
She darted her eyes back to him as he raced towards Shona. His eyes had changed. She didn't see any of his usual restraint in his eyes anymore — she saw hate, and emptiness. He wasn't himself anymore. Images of Akane standing over Kodachi and a defeated Amazon with those same eyes, flashed through her mind.
If he's out of control ... there's no telling what he'll do. She thought in a panic. Oh, Ranma ... Ranma ... no! She thought in despair as he stepped in front of her and turned his back to her as he surged forward and attacked Shona before Shona could react to the change in conditions. She had never seen him attack before, only defend.
Shona tried to backpedal but stumbled and only succeeded in slowing herself down. Ranma stepped hard into Shona's stance as the Amazon raised her right hand to swing her weapon. He punched the Amazon sharply in the throat with his right hand clenched in a vertical fist as his left hand slammed into Shona's right biceps muscle. The sword clattered to the ground as the nerves in the Amazon's sword-arm went dead. Ranma smoothly shifted his stance so his left leg locked straight, and his right leg twisted towards Shona as he bent the knee strongly. At the same time he punched hard with his left hand as he slapped his right hand into a positional check against Shona's still outstretched arm. Shona's own momentum carried her into the punch. The opposing forces of her momentum and his punch intensified the hit by an order of magnitude.
She heard Shona get the wind knocked out of her. Shona started gasping and choking as the Amazon tried to recover from the hit. Ranma smoothly transitioned from the punch and shifted his stance back to a neutral fighting stance as he surged to his left and brought his left hand up into a vicious chop back to the same point in Shona's biceps he had hit earlier. He stepped like he was going to step clear of Shona, then paused for a microsecond as he changed his tactic from the hardwired defensive motions his muscles remembered.
Nabiki stepped a bit to the side so she could see his face. It was calm, but his eyes were blank and unfocused as he looked through and past Shona.He calmly slid his left hand down to Shona's wrist and grabbed it before he twisted hard as he shook his own arm hard in a wave motion like he was shaking a rug while he walked forward to the side and took Shona's balance to lead her where he wanted her to go. Shona had no choice but to flip forward to take the pressure off her wrist, or it would break. She landed on her back and continued to choke and gasp as she struggled to breath.
Ranma then stepped across Shona and flipped her over while maintaining his hold on her wrist. He stepped on her ribs next to her shoulder as he held onto Shona's wrist and pulled her up with his other hand and twisted in concert with his main hand, locking Shona's wrist in place as he forced Shona's grip to swing with his while he forced Shona's fingers to stay pinned down to his own forearm, locking Shona's hand into a bent S-shape. Ranma then pushed down and pulled out, putting Shona into a wrist lock that looked painful. Shona had been trying to push herself up and out of the prone position she was in, but as soon as Ranma put his weight behind the lock, Shona collapsed to the ground and gasped in shock and pain. Her face changed from determined anger to surprise to pleading. Ranma's face stayed impassive.
"DIDN'T. I. TELL. YOU. ALL. THAT. NABIKI. WAS. OFF LIMITS!" Ranma said coldly as he increased the pressure and punctuated each word with a bit more of an increase of the pressure as his voice increased in volume with every word.
"N-no choice... i— is ... l-law..." Shona managed gasp out through the pain.
"I'm so tired of this. What do I have to do to get you people to take me seriously? Do I have to make an example of one of you?" He asked in a quiet and deadly voice.
Nabiki was edging around them so she could see what was happening better. Shampoo was also moving too. She could see Shona's sister running towards them with alarm on her face. Shona's face was pressing into the ground as she squeezed her eyes shut tight from the pain. Ranma's face was strangely impassive as he looked down at Shona and kept her firmly locked in place. But his eyes ... his eyes were still burning with hate. As he talked about making an example out of one of them, he sounded calm and peaceful like he was discussing the weather. Ranma was whiting out. The thing she had been afraid of, was happening.
"Ranma ...." Nabiki said softly in a bit of a disapproving voice, hoping to snap him out of it.
Ranma didn't look away from what he was doing, but he did reply. "No, Nabiki. I'm done bein' nice. I've tried bein' nice. I've showed mercy. I've tried to reason with them. They don't listen. You ... you were right, I shoulda listened to you earlier about the rules of war. Eventually they're gonna manage to get to you or Akane or Kasumi when I'm not there, and your dad isn't there, and Doctor Tofu isn't there ... when nobody's there..." He trailed off sadly. Nabiki could tell that part of him was dying as he increased the pressure on Shona's wrist. Shona kicked the ground involuntarily as the pain increased and started breathing rapidly in panic.
"Ranma ... please.... " Nabiki begged him as she took a step towards him as tears streamed down her cheeks. "No Ranma. I was wrong. You were the one who was right. It's your mercy that makes you better than them! If you turn away from that, you can become as bad as they are. There has to be another way ... don't settle it like this ... not like this ... not like this ... please..."
"Airen ... please ... please not hurt sister. Please...?" Shampoo said softly as she arrived next to him and asked him in a pleading voice. Ranma ignored Shampoo.
Instead, Ranma looked over at her and whispered to her in a voice breaking with emotion. "If they get to you, Nabiki ... if they get to you ... I won't be able to stop! I will end all of them. It's ... it's better if I make an example out of one of 'em, than hafta do that, right?" He said in a weirdly detached way like he was talking about just another fight.
Lightning struck Nabiki's heart again and again as waves of emotion shook her. The dragon inside her was roaring.
I'll just know.
Nabiki smiled tightly at him as tears streamed down her face and said after a moment's hesitation in a voice heavy with emotion she could barely control, "I ... I love you too, Ranma." She said as electric shivers ran down her spine from Ranma's words.
Ranma's eyes came a bit into focus at that, and he looked up at Nabiki with unshed tears of his own in his eyes, but he did not let go of his grip on Shona. "I can't, ... I can't let this continue." He said in a heavy, determined voice. It was his girl form voice, but that didn't diminish the weight of what he was saying. "I need to let them know I'm serious. They won't stop otherwise. I have to ... for you, Nabiki..." he started putting even more pressure on the lock. Shona was gasping sharply in pain in an increasingly frantic tempo. Nabiki could tell Shona would pass out soon, the young warrior was already going limp.
Shampoo surged forward and put her hands on his arm and tried to pull him back. The young Amazon warrior might as well have been pulling on a tree. He didn't move.
"Airen ... Airen ... PLEASE ... PLEASE NO! NO DO THIS!" Shampoo begged him as her knuckles turned white while she frantically pulled on his arm and tried to release her sister.
Nabiki was panicking.
What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? She asked herself as she hesitantly stepped forward a step, then paused. Ranma was whiting out, she knew how dangerous that was. She didn't think he would hurt her in that state, but she wasn't eager to test the theory.
"Help me, please!" Shampoo screamed to her as Ranma put even more pressure on the wrist lock, and Shona whimpered.
She looked over at Shampoo and nodded hesitantly. Shampoo had acted honorably during the entire ordeal. The young Chinese girl had done all she could to warn and help them, including willingly suffering punishment to defy her great grandmother, to try to protect her.
Nabiki took a risk and reached out and put her hand on Ranma's. "Please, Ranma. Please ... there has to be another way. Don't give in to hate. The man I love doesn't hurt defeated opponents who are helpless on the ground. That's not our way, remember?"
Ranma focused sharply on Nabiki. He still hadn't let go of Shona. "You ... you love me? Really?" He whispered.
Nabiki nodded fiercely. This hadn't been the moment she would have chosen to tell him for real, but it felt right.
"Of course I love you! You didn't give me any choice, at all! You caught me and saved me that night, and you never let me go. I couldn't stop loving you if I wanted to! It doesn't matter that we aren't a perfect fit. You are the most wonderful person I have ever known. You're kind, and loyal, and sincere, and you care about me. You would never hurt me. You'd never abandon me. I would trust you with anything... anything, Ranma! How could I not love you?!" She said in a rising voice that was quickly reaching a feverish pitch while she clasped her hands together tightly and willed him to come back to her.
"But ... what about what you said ... about us bein' too different?" He asked in a shaking voice. His arms were shaking too, but not because of anything Shampoo was doing.
She smiled softly at him as she reached inside herself and found her courage as she stood on the battlefield her school had turned into while she tried to bring him back. The answer to his question seemed so simple now, she didn't understand why it hadn't been obvious to her earlier.
"Love is ... what we decide it is, Ranma. Nothing else matters. If I decide I love you, and you decide you love me, that's all that's required. Nothing else matters. I think that's ... the big mistake ... so many people make about love. They think it has to fit into a certain kind of category; they think it has to conform to their expectations; they think that it has to have a certain form or a certain set of events leading up to it. They're all idiots. Love is what two people decide it is, nothing more, and nothing less. Our love may look entirely different from other people's love. The shape of our love might be wildly different from someone else's. That doesn't make theirs better than ours, and it doesn't make ours better than theirs. It simply is." She said with confidence. It felt right to say the words.
"I ... I ... " Ranma whispered in a voice breaking with emotion. He hadn't moved to release Shona, but he hadn't pressed the attack either.
Nabiki took another risk and stepped closer to him and put her hands on his face, and traced his jaw gently with her fingers. "Please..." She whispered to him as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Ranma looked over at her, as emotions waged war across his face from determination to regret to guilt. "I ... I ..."
Nabiki decided to go for broke, she stepped even closer to him, and pressed herself against him gently as she stroked his hair and whispered to him gently. "Please ... please Ranma ... come back to me ... " She could feel the muscles in his smaller female arms shaking as he both strained to hold the lock, and to let go. "Please..." She whispered as she leaned down and cupped his chin in her hands, tipped his head back, and lay her cheek against his. "Stay the man I know you are, stay the man I love."
"I ... I ... " he said as he loosened his hold on Shona, "I ... l— ... all right, Nabiki." He whispered. He opened his top hand locking Shona's wrist in place, and released his other hand's grip on Shona's hand as he stepped to stand so he was placing himself between Nabiki and Shona.
Shona's arm fell down limply as she lay there unmoving and breathing heavily. Shona wasn't unconscious, but it was clear she wouldn't be moving again for a while. Shampoo dove down to the ground and pulled Shona's head into her lap and rocked back and forth with her as she called out softly to Shona in Mandarin, asking if she was all right while checking her vital signs.
Ranma slowly sank to his knees in front of Nabiki and wrapped his arms around her knees and hugged her tightly as his body shuddered. She smiled down at him and reached down gently to his chin and pulled him up. He rose to his feet and frantically pulled her closer to him like he needed to hold her to keep from falling.
Ranma stood as tall as he could in his female body and nuzzled his face into Nabiki's neck. She felt his lips kiss her neck once, twice then a third time as a dam seemed to break inside of him. She gasped as he pulled her down a little and kissed her on the lips desperately. She was taller than he was in his female form. She smiled into his kiss and returned it with equal enthusiasm.
She saw some tears glistening on his cheeks, he was clearly shaken. He had also obviously forgotten that he was a girl at the moment, but Nabiki didn't care. She kissed Ranma back just as desperately as he kissed her. She could feel his body shuddering, most likely from shock, as he kissed her. A few moments later Ranma pulled back from her and slowly turned back around to face Shona again.
His eyes hardened as he wiped the tears from his cheeks and crouched down next to Shona's head. Shampoo surged to her feet and took on a fighting stance, but Ranma held a hand up to pause her. He then leaned down and spoke to Shona in a quiet and deadly serious tone of voice. "Listen to me carefully ... I'm fair game, Nabiki's not. If you or anyone else from your tribe attacks her again, even Nabiki won't be able to stop me the next time. I'll destroy all of you. If anyone from your tribe attacks any of the Tendos again, I'll go to China and wipe out your entire village. If any of you manage to hurt them, or God help you, take any of the Tendos away from me, your sufferin' will be legendary.
"I won't be responsible for what happens if you ignore this last warnin'. This is it, I don't have no more mercy in me. I don't have no more sympathy, or pity, either. I'm empty. All of you've drained it out of me. I'm officially at my limit. I don't care what I have to do to protect them all. Got it?! Everyone in the Tendo family is one hundred percent OFF LIMITS!
"I promise you, if you test me on this again, I will bring misery to you that you couldn't even dream of. At the end, you would pray for death. Tell the Old Ghoul that. Tell her to come face me. Now! I'm done with this." He said in a cold, remorseless voice. He then leaned down, grabbed Shona's chin roughly, pulled her face around so he could look her in the eyes, and then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, just as Shampoo had done to him in China. It was the Kiss of Death.
Ranma then said something in Mandarin, which surprised her. "我没有说谎。"
I'm not lying? I wonder when he picked that up? She thought with respect. Shona shivered with dread and shrank away from Ranma in palpable fear.
"A-Airen..." Shampoo managed to gasp out in a strangled breath as Shampoo began to weep softly while she looked at Ranma as the terrible reality of what had happened in her name, fully settled on her. She sounded absolutely devastated. Intellectually, Nabiki felt sorry for her. Shampoo had only been doing what she had been raised and trained to do, same with Shona. In their eyes, what the Amazons had been doing wasn't even necessarily wrong. Neither of the Amazons could probably really understand why Ranma kept interfering with their tribe's laws.
Ranma focused on Shampoo and continued remorselessly as he stood up. "Go away, Shampoo, and take your sister with you. Go back to China. There's nuthin' for you here. I'm sick of your tribe. If you stay in Japan, stay away from me, and my family. I won't warn any of you again." Ranma said in the coldest voice Nabiki had ever heard him use. It had taken a lot to get Ranma to the point he was at now, and Nabiki was really afraid of what Ranma would do if any of them did push him again.
Ranma stepped back and looked at Shona with raw hate on his face for another moment. He then looped his arm around her protectively. It would have been somewhat comical if the situation wasn't so serious. Ranma in his female form was much smaller than Nabiki was. Seeing him standing in a defensive posture to protect her just looked weird to people who didn't know what Ranma could do.
"Let's go, Nabiki. Let's get you home." Ranma said warmly to her as he turned her to leave, keeping his arm around her.
Nabiki let herself be led away. She couldn't help herself from looking back once to see Shampoo's reaction. Shampoo was kneeling down next to Shona, who seemed to have fainted. The young Amazon was watching them leave with tears streaming down her face as she sobbed while she tended to her sister. She didn't look like the best fighter in her village at the moment, she just looked ... heartbroken.
I really wish it hadn't come to this. I hope this is the end of it. Nabiki thought sadly to herself as she walked home arm-in-arm with Ranma.
———————
1. "不要杀，不！ (Bùyào shā, bù - Don't kill, no!)"
2. "叛徒、滚开！ (Pàntú, gǔn kāi - Traitor, move!)"
3. "决不！ (Jué bù - Never)"
4. "不要杀了这个，不要！ (Bùyào shāle zhège, bùyào! - Don't kill this one, do not!)"
5. "你什么意思？这是命令！ (Nǐ shénme yìsi? Zhè shì mìnglìng! - What do you mean? It's the law!)"
6. "她是一个叛徒。杀了她！ (Tā shì yīgè pàntú. Shāle tā! - She is a traitor. Kill her!)"