Destiny's Wish Part Twenty-Eight: Don't You Get the Point? written by Mike Koos ------------------------ "Idiots," Ayumi growled to himself. He had just come from the usual tiring debate with Hiroshi and Daisuke over lunch, listening to them fantasize about Ranma and how unhappy she must be or continue to suffer alongside Ayumi. Did they keep doing that just to annoy him, or were they *really* still carrying a torch for Ranma after all this time? If they were, they would have to contend with the tomboy's mother. Kunou had tried to go against Nodoka's wishes - and that had earned him an order, in no uncertain terms, from Nodoka: stay far away from her daughter, or else. From others' accounts Kunou had become somewhat distraught of late, believing that Ranma's mother had judged him before witnessing his true self, lineage and skill, and was endeavoring to prove to Nodoka that no one aside from him was proper enough for Ranma. Ayumi smirked. The half-wit Kendo swordsman had always had a problem with seeing the world any other way than what he wanted to see. Kunou thoroughly believed he was the strongest, most noble warrior the world knew; Saotome Ranma, like many of the girls at Fuurinkan High, revered him and loved him with all her heart - though Ranma was the only one who had captured his heart. Tendo Ayumi cowered severely in fear at the mention of the swordsman's name. Kunou still hadn't figured out where the girl whom had been Ayumi under a temporary Jhusenkyou curse had vanished to; but that 'vision of beauty,' as Kunou put it, had been gone for quite a long time. Perhaps for good... as long as Shampoo and her great-great-grandmother didn't try to give Ayumi another dose of Instant Nyan-Nii-Chuan. He'd made up his mind while suffering from the curse - Ranma had put it lightly when she had said that being cursed was bad enough. It wasn't, and Ryomi would have been the first to agree. Ayumi would be second, if only because his curse hadn't been permanent. Perhaps Ranma was more tolerant of her curse than she would have everyone - even herself - believe? He would have to ask her about it, one of these days. Back to the subject of people falling in love with Ranma... misguided as that idea might have been. How would Mrs. Saotome respond to Daisuke and Hiroshi? Well, the two *did* seem to have Ranma's well-being in mind, though for the wrong reasons. Ayumi was willing to bet that Nodoka wouldn't perceive the pair to be as much of a threat to Ranma or the engagement as Kunou, and write them off as a simple case of jealousy. Did Nodoka know Ranma could easily defeat Kunou, armed or not, in a fight without much thought? Well... Nodoka was aware that Ranma had been raised primarily as a fighter. That, she didn't mind. Nodoka had told everyone that she had *wanted* Ranma to be strong, a fighter... but *not* a mirror image of Genma. Thank goodness that hadn't happened - Ayumi shuddered at the thought of Ranma being more like her father, in personality, habits, characteristics... An image of himself marrying a female version of Genma, with Ranma's pigtail, slipped past the roadblocks into his thoughts. Ayumi nearly choked on his breath as he frantically tried to force the image from his mind and succeeded, for the most part. He shook his head. What would have happened if Ranma had been born as a boy? *Then* who would everyone have had Ranma marry? With his luck, he figured, if Ranma had been born male then Fate, Destiny or whatever powers controlled the lives of mortals would probably have caused Tendo Ayumi to be born as a girl. *That* was a possibility he didn't want to think about. Or many other possibilities... letting his imagination come up with alternate versions of his life was always interesting, but sooner or later Ranma came along - in one form or another - to bring it all crashing down around him. Or anyone else he knew, such as the boyish-looking girl who happened to turn onto the street from an adjoining side road - like a black cat crossing his path. Ayumi felt as happy to see her, at any rate. It was Ryomi's thick clothing and the mop of brown-black hair which constantly fell around her eyes despite her best efforts to keep all of it tied back that tended to make the Eternally Lost Girl look somewhat masculine. Ryomi thoroughly hated the fact that she was commonly mistaken for a boy. That she had an explosive temper and an amazing amount of raw strength backing her up was no help at all. At this particular moment in time, she seemed to be trying to make sense of a well-worn Hokkaido road map; it was one she commonly kept with her because Hokkaido was apparently the one location in Japan she wound up in the most. It was a pity her home wasn't located there. <*Please* don't let her notice me...> She didn't. Ayumi breathed a sigh of relief and turned his back to her, preparing to put a great deal of distance between him and her as quickly as possible. Why deal with Hibiki Ryomi if he didn't have to? And, if he let her keep on walking, she'd soon find herself in another part of Japan. Anywhere but here. Ranma was sad that her little pet P-chan hadn't come home in several weeks - but if he could keep Ryomi lost long enough, eventually, Ranma would get over it, he assumed. *Then*, maybe he would get around to telling her who her 'P-chan' truly was... The sound of someone absently walking head-on into a utility pole came from behind him. Ayumi looked back at Ryomi in time to see her fall onto her back, stunned. He stood in place for several seconds, wondering whether he should check to see if she was okay, or take this chance to get as far away from her as he could. Because sooner or later, dealing with any of the girls he knew would get him into some kind of trouble. His conscience eventually won out over everything else. He sighed, moving to crouch by the Lost Girl's side. Were Ranma here, she'd most likely hand him another useless glare of suspicion. Ryomi was slow to return to her senses. Ayumi smirked; Ranma had been pressuring him lately to at least make a quick analysis of an opponent before impulsively leaping into a fight like he supposedly always did. And the tomboy said she never jumped to conclusions. Ryomi's eyes fluttered open to the sight of a familiar face staring down upon her. "Ah... A-Ayumi san...?" she blushed. Having the face of the boy she'd happened to fall in love with this close to her own caused her to wonder - had Ayumi *finally* realized how she felt about him? No. No, she knew Ayumi, and there was no trace of embarrassment on the boy's face, or repulsion... a sense that Ayumi didn't want to be here, tending to her like this, yes... but not much else. So the baka, as Ranma liked calling him, still hadn't figured it out. Could she tell him, here, now? She couldn't bring herself to say the words; those died halfway out of her throat. Ayumi closed his eyes for a second in exasperation. "Yeah." He paused. "...Where'd you go this time? We expected you t'drop by weeks ago." "I was training, mostly. I found some old scrolls with a few techniques I've never heard of in the remains of an abandoned old dojo, and I thought I'd try to learn them," she answered offhandedly, climbing to her feet. "To use on me and Ranma, huh?" Ayumi still believed she was out to kill him and Ranma, or something else unspeakable along those lines. She wasn't, and as with her love for him, Ayumi couldn't see that. After several seconds of an uncomfortable silence, Ryomi decided to change the subject. "So, uh, where *is* Ranma? Usually she's with you or something." "She's visiting her mom for a few days." Ayumi absently started to walk. Ryomi blinked. "Her mom?" she asked in complete surprise. "I thought Ranma said her mom was dead?" Ayumi wondered for a second when Ranma had told Ryomi that particular piece of information - but then he figured Ryomi must have overheard it as P-chan. Ranma did share some of her thoughts and secrets with her pet pig on occasion. If anyone was to know things Ranma wouldn't want to be made public, it would be Ryomi. Wonderful; Ranma's rival was in the unique position of being able to learn all sorts of dangerous information about her. Ryomi could literally join forces with Naka and destroy Ranma's life that way. He considered confronting the Lost Girl about the issue, but he didn't feel like inciting Ryomi's anger... for the moment, at any rate. "Her dad's been giving her that lie all her life to keep her concentrating on her training." Ryomi felt a momentary touch of sympathy for Ranma, and tried to keep it hidden. She knew from watching Ranma, from listening to her, that Ranma had had to lead a difficult life without anyone to counter the influence provided by her father. Certainly, Ranma wasn't the arrogant, unthinking person Ryomi had originally made her out to be. "I'm glad my Dad never tried to do anything like that..." she remarked, exhaling. "Your folks are much more respectable than Ranma's dad, huh?" Ayumi glanced sidelong at her. She was reluctant to answer the question. "Well...... I'm not sure. Either they're gone somewhere, or I am... we're hardly ever home together as a family, even on holidays." Her wistful tone told Ayumi she was more than likely telling him the truth. he wondered. If that was indeed the case, then it was an incredible miracle the Lost Girl was around to talk to him now, if it was rare for more than one member of the Hibiki family to be in one place at any time. Maybe Naka could calculate the odds on anything like that happening. How had Ryomi come by her education, for that matter? She obviously would have a problem with attending school on a regular basis. Ranma hadn't spoken much about how often Ryomi was in school during the time they both attended the same private school, or how much time had passed between her first meeting with Ryomi and the day when Ryomi finally called her out to fight. For all Ayumi knew, the whole thing could have taken months. He was willing to bet that Ryomi had mostly taught herself all she knew while on her 'travels.' That made sense, and it *did* explain a few things... As for Ryomi's infamous sense of direction? That was nothing new. Everyone in Japan who knew her took that in stride, these days. Ryomi was the only person Ayumi knew who could wind up in Kyuushuu by simply looking for the bathroom in a regular house in Tokyo. The exception being the bath in the Tendo house, of course; Ryomi never seemed to have any problems finding it when she needed a source of hot water in the area. Other questions came to Ayumi's mind as he and Ryomi continued to walk toward his home. Did Ryomi spend more time being lost, or training? How often was any member of her family home - come to think of it, where did they live? Did they have any problems paying the bills if they weren't always home? That was when it occurred to him that he was walking home with *Ryomi*, of all people. Oh, well; at least Ranma wasn't around to get mad at him for walking home with one of her rivals... "Ayumi-san?" Ryomi abruptly asked him, looking directly into his eyes. Ayumi glanced at her in mild surprise. "Huh?" "I know Ranma thinks of me as a rival, but... how much of a threat does she think I am?" Ayumi stopped to think about it. "If you wanna know the truth," he said after several seconds, "I'd guess that she's a lot more worried about Shampoo right now than you." He caught the anger temporarily surfacing on Ryomi's face and wondered if he'd chosen the wrong thing to say yet again. This *was* Hibiki Ryomi, after all. Why wasn't he being more careful about what he said in her presence? True, she had asked him for the truth, but couldn't he have made up a lie or something? She deflated. "I see." "Hey, don't worry! I'm sure she's plenty scared of you--" Ayumi trailed off as he saw Ryomi's expression give way to one of wide-eyed bewilderment. He blinked twice. "I, um... I'll shut up now." They went back to walking in silence for a couple of blocks. And Ryomi would notice if he tried to lose her now. Okay, then, why not try distracting her? "Y'know, I never did find out - what happened between you and Shampoo after I left with the Shampoo for Ranma?" "Nothing much." She subconsciously clenched a fist at her side... dutifully following Ayumi along the right turn he made at the end of the block. "That..." Ryomi considered an insult but thought better of it and began anew. "She gave me the Kiss of Death, and we fought for a little while until she ran away. I spent some time looking for her. Never found her." smirked Ayumi, pretending to be interested in a small group of birds flying overhead. He was well aware that Ryomi refused to admit to herself that she might have a problem with her sense of direction. Ranma also had a problem with refusing to see certain things, in his not-so-humble opinion - for instance, didn't she refuse to believe that her pet P-chan and Ryomi might be one and the same? "So what has *Shampoo* been doing while I was gone?" The venom in Ryomi's voice was apparent, particularly in the distaste with which she said Shampoo's name. Her walking partner gave a nonchalant shrug. "Well, right after you left they forced me to be a girl for like a month with some Instant Nyan-Nii-Chuan and a pressure-point trick that kept me from touching hot water to change back." "*What*!?" the cursed girl very nearly exploded. How *dare* Shampoo and that grandmother of hers cause problems for her Ayumi! "You're not cursed now, are you?" Apparently Ayumi missed her concern for him. "Nah. It was only temporary. But while I was stuck as a girl, they tried to humiliate me, made me fight this really nearsighted loser from China named Mousse who couldn't fight without a hidden weapon, and tried to teach me some stupid speed technique to pull chestnuts out of an open fire." Well... when he worded all of it that way, it *did* sound trivial. Of course, he was tending toward remembering the events his own way, rather than what had actually happened. As long as Ranma wasn't around to contradict him, everything would turn out okay. Right? Since when did things turn out the way he hoped they would? Ryomi was well on her way to full-blown rage - or possibly her normal rage, whichever came first. "This is UNFORGIVABLE!! I'm going to go find them and teach them not to play games with people like that!" She broke away from him and ran in what she thought was the way they had come, before Ayumi could stop her. "Wait!" He raised his voice even more. "Be careful around Shampoo's grandma! The old witch cheats!" But Ryomi was long gone, and he wasn't sure if she had heard him. Oh, why bother? Why was he concerned with Ryomi's safety all of a sudden? The girl wanted to hurt him, hurt Ranma and even had the nerve to shamelessly masquerade as Ranma's pet, playing on Ranma's sympathy! Ryomi was a freeloader in his house. Plain and simple. If only Naka knew... Anyway, if Ryomi wanted to risk fighting Shampoo and Cologne at once, why should he care? Her impulsive offensive would likely end up taking out at least one of the major thorns in his side, assuming she ever found her way to the Nekohanten. It took five minutes for his nagging conscience to get the better of him once more. "I guess I've gotta save the idiot before she gets herself killed," he growled. Now, exactly how lost could the Hibiki girl get in only five minutes? If she somehow made it to the Nekohanten - Ayumi realized that he didn't know what Ryomi's success rate was in finding all the places she set out for, eventually or not - surely Ryomi would be no match for Cologne, or Cologne and Shampoo, who no doubt would look favorably on another rival. Ryomi wanted to get rid of Ranma, so maybe the old witch would try to use that to her advantage, though they'd probably end up killing Ryomi in a fight, anyway... since Shampoo *had* given Ryomi the Kiss of Death. Shampoo had given the Kiss of Death to Ranma, too, but seemed to have given up on the idea of killing Ranma for the time being. He began to run. Ayumi considered himself more than a match for Ryomi when it came to fighting, yet he knew he wasn't on the same ground with Cologne. It had taken the Nekoken to defeat the elder the last time - though, according to Ranma, Cologne had already known about the Nekoken and had merely been taken by surprise. To his credit - in his opinion - he was no longer trapped in a physically weaker female body, even if that form had allowed him a greater measure of speed... and perhaps improved stamina, he wasn't sure. Ayumi had also never truly learned to harness the speed of the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken and sorely needed the additional speed. Ranma had the speed of the Tenshin Amaguriken, but that was *her* gain, not Ayumi's. Besides, having her fight his battles for him wasn't an option. He was about to call out Ryomi's name to see if he could locate her that way - when the girl in question suddenly appeared to trample over him as he stood in the middle of an intersection. Ryomi abruptly realized she had just walked over a living being. She looked back into the intersection. Seeing a boy lying there, she rushed to his side. "Sorry!" Ryomi helped him to his feet. "Would you happen to know where I can find..." It was at that moment that she recognized who she was talking to. "Ayumi-san! I'm really sorry! What are you doing here? I thought you were going home?" Ayumi shrugged, sighing. "I thought I'd try to talk you out of wanting to fight Shampoo or that old witch. At least not until you know how strong they are..." Ryomi blushed slightly, though Ayumi didn't notice it. Her emotions wavered and became apparent in her eyes. "...and I wouldn't want to see a weaker fighter like you get hurt." Her eyebrows furrowed. She held in her temper for the time being. Ranma would no doubt have yelled at him - or used her fists or mallet on him for that remark... and he *did* deserve something for that thoughtless remark, but... "Ayumi-san, let me ask you something." She paused. "I forgot to ask you earlier... what do *you* think of me?" Ideally, such a question should have set off every last alarm in Ayumi's mind and then some - but for some reason, this one hadn't. He blinked. "Honestly?" "Yeah. Honestly." Another blink. "Well... you're self-centered, arrogant, you lie, have a really short-fuse temper and will do anything to get revenge on Ranma for things that weren't really her fault--" "WHAT!?" shouted Ryomi, her temper flaring. Why did Ayumi either not want to see past that or want to keep dwelling on it? It made no sense to her at all. Ryomi's change in attitude had yet to make an impact on Ayumi. "--and then there's that crappy sense of direction of yours..." That did it. "THERE IS *NOTHING* WRONG WITH MY SENSE OF DIRECTION!!" Once again, Tendo Ayumi had said the wrong thing to a girl, and it had gotten him in deep trouble. Serious trouble. Threatening life and limb trouble. Or something like that. Anything else he could have said never made it past the nervous lump that had formed in his throat. One of these days, he was going to have to establish a rule - never again saying a word to any girl relatively close to his age! - and vow to stick to it no matter what. Speaking to *Ranma* alone was earning him more bruises, fractures, concussions and trips to Tofu-sensei's clinic than he could count. Ironically, none of it ever seemed to make much of an impact on him... and the way he 'treated the opposite sex,' as big brother Naka liked to put it. Ayumi had always imagined Naka making his dates pay for everything... though he dared not say it out loud for the would-be blackmailer to hear. Never mind that Naka rarely ever went on dates to begin with; Kasuga had tried to play matchmaker for Naka while he attended Fuurinkan High - but he'd had to give up after a few attempts. If anyone was going to go on a date with Tendo Naka, she would have to be someone special. Ayumi had come to wonder why anyone would want to bother. Most of the girls he knew were either deeply in love with him or wanted to kill him, like Ryomi, here. And then there was Ranma, who clobbered him in the unspoken name of jealousy whenever another girl dared to show interest in him. Why, exactly, did he always have these types of problems? Ryomi attacked him, charging full-tilt with her right arm pulled back for a punch. Ranma occasionally went after him with the same opening attack, but he knew he couldn't use the same tactics against both fighters. Thank goodness Ryomi was easier to second-guess than Ranma. Although Ranma often used her mallet only in anger, it was far more difficult to develop a pattern or strategy to use when fighting her. Factor Ranma's enhanced speed in, and it was plainly obvious that he would be in big trouble were he ever to face off in a serious fight against the tomboy. Ayumi's overconfidence began to fade after he found he couldn't maintain the same distance from Ryomi's attacks as he could in their last fight. Of course! he berated himself for not realizing this would be the case sooner. She had been training, he hadn't, and now her speed and strength came close to surpassing his once more. It was as if all that training he'd done to compensate for her brute-force attacks had never existed. That meant he had only one rational choice of action left - to run, hoping that the Lost Girl would get lost while chasing after him and wind up in Alaska. Besides which, if Ryomi was too busy chasing him everywhere, she wouldn't be able to destroy anyone's property as easily or readily. He didn't relish the idea of having to pay for the things she'd destroyed last time. Did Ryomi ever have to pay for any of the damage she caused? Ah, well, that was a pointless question to be asking right now, wasn't it? If he could find an open field to take this fight to, that wouldn't matter. The open ground would give him at least one advantage back over Ryomi, or so he believed - freedom of movement to avoid her attacks. It was difficult dodging her swipes as it was while running... and she didn't even have her umbrella! The welcome sight of the local park came into sight ahead, to his left. Wrenching his body away from another impulsive swipe, he changed course in midair and bounded toward the park. Ryomi doggedly followed him into the park, all the while continuing to try to either punch him or grab hold of him so that she could pound him. It was a pity she didn't have a weapon to fall back upon, like her umbrella or Ranma's mallet; there were definite advantages in saving those to use in supplementing one's normal attacks. Neither she nor Ranma depended solely on their weapons in a fight, however - for dedicated fighters like Ryomi and Ranma, that would be a fool's choice. One corner of Ryomi's lips turned up in a smirk. Nerima's Kazekawa Park had a reputation for essentially being a large-scale rock garden. Perfect for what Ryomi had in mind. Sure, what she was about to do to him was shamelessly underhanded, something Ayumi's brother Naka might think to do were he a martial artist, but *someone* needed to teach Ayumi a lesson... She maneuvered him closer to one of the larger piles of small boulders by subtly guiding him with her punches - if she wanted him to move to his right, she concentrated on his left-hand side; if she wanted him to move left, she concentrated on his right-hand side - until she had backed him against the boulders. Ryomi extended her index finger and gave the largest boulder behind Ayumi a precise touch... "BAKUSAITENKETSU!!" The rock exploded, to Ayumi's horror. He dived out of the path of the explosion and the resulting abruptly airborne debris. He paled. "Wh-what the heck was THAT!?" Ryomi was offering him a tight smile. "One of the techniques I learned from those old scrolls. One touch," she pointed a lone finger toward the sky, "...and rocks explode. I can't wait to show you what it'll do to an insensitive jerk like you..." She took comfort in the fear that appeared on Ayumi's face, if only for a second. "No way!" shouted Ayumi. The cursed girl readied the index fingers of both her hands. "Stop whining and take responsibility for what you said!" "And let you kill me?" came the incredulous yell. "No way!" Ryomi's smirk seemed to increase. She blew up another rock, and one more after that. "What makes you think I'm trying to kill you?" Ayumi dived, rolling past her, and ran. He'd chosen the wrong place to take their fight after all. *Now* all he had to do was keep her away from rocks. Wait - she could blow up practically anything with that Bakusaitenketsu technique, couldn't she? Which meant that anything she touched could be used against him... Even a self-assured martial artist like Ayumi who believed he was one of the best could see that he'd need to regroup and come up with a far, far better plan if Ryomi had learned a technique that allowed her to blow things up with a single touch. It wasn't advisable to let Ryomi run around freely with both her anger and such a deadly technique at her call... but he had to lose her in order to regain his composure. He led her in a straight line, leaping over rock arrangements while Ryomi plowed straight through them. As he neared the edge of the park, Ayumi ducked behind the rocks and made a dive for the rock arrangement immediately neighboring the one he had hidden behind, hoping the Lost Girl wouldn't see him and continue bulldozing her way through in a straight line. Thankfully, that was exactly what she did. "WHERE ARE YOU!?" was the last thing he heard her yell before she disappeared into the streets. "Hope she'll be gone for another month this time," Ayumi muttered to himself while he stood, brushing himself off. He resumed his walk home. Of course, with his luck she would probably return a lot sooner than that. ** ** ** "You LOSE! Game Over." Ayumi exhaled. The game he'd just bought was one of the hottest new fighting games available for the home market, though he wished it wouldn't make such a *loud* production over his loss. Ranma would like it, though - there were almost as many female characters in the game as there were male characters. More often than not, Ranma only seemed to want to play the female characters in a fighting game; she claimed that since she liked to fight defensively in the games, the female characters were better since they often had a good balance of speed and power. Ayumi, however, played offensively. What better way to play a fighting game than to pound your opponent with everything in your arsenal, keeping him or her from being able to fight back? His brute-force, unrelenting tactics in fighting - both in real life and in video games - were something Ranma was always pressuring him to change, just as his spending habits annoyed Naka. Yes, Naka would be upset that he'd spent money on yet another videogame CD, household funds being tight and all that. But his older brother couldn't complain... after all, he usually bought the games with his own allowance and saved-up money... "Ayumi? You have a guest." Huh? Ayumi took his gaze away from the television screen at Kasuga's call. Who could it be? None of his friends had said they would be dropping by. Maybe he'd get to brag about his new game to Daisuke ahead of time... But it was Ryomi that Kasuga led into the family room. "What...!?" Ayumi spluttered, a lapse that the Lost Girl caught. "Kasuga, why'd you bring her here?" After all the trouble he'd gone through to lose her the day before... Kasuga reacted to the displeasure in his younger brother's voice. "Now, Ayumi. I found her in the shopping district, asking everyone for directions to our home, so I decided to help her." Ayumi mentally frowned; elder brother Kasuga never had a mean thought in his head, did he? "Thank you, Kasuga-san. Sorry to be an inconvenience," Ryomi apologized. Kasuga nodded. "That's all right, Ryomi-chan. If you'll excuse me, I really should be getting dinner started, now." Ryomi watched him leave the room. Now why couldn't her Ayumi be as considerate as his older brother? "Thought you could lose me, huh?" she asked Ayumi in a low voice. The other sighed. "I guess you wanna pick up where you left off?" Ryomi appeared to think about it for a moment. "...Okay!" she ultimately replied. Ayumi stared at her in nervous disbelief. Not about to give him the chance to respond, she lazily brought up a finger and acted as though she were going to poke him in the chest. Her target hastily dodged. "Can't you at least wait until we're outside to try to destroy something?" "Like you?" Ayumi ran to the sliding door that led out into the garden and yanked it open. "Yeah!" he yelled before bolting through the open door. Ryomi sighed. Granted, she wasn't entirely sure *that* would work, either. Ranma had been pounding Ayumi for months and the guy never did change. She followed Ayumi over the property wall and back out into the streets. No matter what Ayumi thought she was up to, she had to stay with him or else he'd pull that stupid trick of hiding from her until she gave up on trying to find him. The chase didn't last long, however. Her 'victim' ducked onto a side road, which turned out to be a dead end. Ayumi backed himself against the fence at the far end, turning to face Ryomi. "Ayumi-san," she said with a note of slight bemusement. Ayumi's sudden overconfident smirk startled her. "*Ha*!" he announced. "You're really in for it now, you know that? You've forced me to use the most advanced, top-secret techniques in my arsenal!" Her sharp intake of breath betrayed how she felt at that instant. An advanced, top-secret technique? What could it be? Something more dangerous than the Bakusaitenketsu? Oh, Ayumi thought she wanted to kill him! Was he going to try to kill *her* in self-defense? Ryomi's mind was racing in fear. She watched him, unable to convince herself to move, as the Tendo boy raised both hands into the air - like a cat ready to pounce on its terrified prey. "Super-secret Tendo Ultimate Technique Number Twenty-Seven!" Then, he leaped over the fence and was gone. It took a few seconds for Ryomi to find her voice. "What!? What kind of stupid 'ultimate technique' is that!? Come back here, you coward!" She thanked her luck that Ayumi wasn't long gone by the time she cleared the fence. Ranma, she knew, would have been able to disappear for good had she been given an opportunity to escape like that. Maybe Ayumi would, too, but the Tendo boy's mind was so overwhelmingly focused on self-preservation that he was acting for the most part on desperation. As if to prove that point, it wasn't long before Ayumi took the chase to the rooftops. Well, she wasn't going to give him a chance to plan, escape, or whatever the heck it was Ayumi wanted to do! She was doing this for a reason, after all. "Come back here!" Ryomi repeated, to let him know he definitely hadn't shaken her. "Not on your life!" They bounded from roof to roof. Where was this going to end? Ryomi wondered. Exactly how far was she willing to take this? *Ranma* never took this long when she wanted to convince Ayumi that he was wrong, so why was *she* going to all this trouble? Answer? She loved him. Would do anything for him, if Ayumi asked. *That* was the primary reason she continued to pretend to be Ranma's pet, P-chan - that way, she could be near the one she loved. Now, if only Ayumi would understand that she loved him. It hadn't taken Ranma that long to see it, at all. Why couldn't Ayumi see it? Or anything, for that matter. Ayumi heard the chime of a bicycle bell ring out just as he was preparing to leap from the end of another rooftop. Oh, well; nothing to worry about. Just someone riding their bike in the streets below. But... didn't he know that particular chime from somewhere...? Ryomi's eyes went wide with astonishment as Shampoo landed on the roof, pedaled her delivery bicycle over Ayumi and off the roof - completely oblivious to their presence, thanks to the portable tape player Shampoo had been wearing. She stared at the spot where Shampoo had dropped off the roof in stunned silence for a few seconds, then remembered something. Reluctantly, she glanced back at Ayumi. The boy was lying spread-eagle on his back, near the opposite edge of the roof. "I'll bet that hurts," she remarked, walking closer to him. Was it only her imagination... or did she actually see *tire tracks* running a straight line from Ayumi's waist to his forehead? Ayumi frowned, yet said nothing. Ryomi knelt down and touched a finger to his forehead. "Got you." He screamed and broke into a fit of twitching. She'd gotten his attention, all right. "Oh, don't worry," Ryomi said after watching him twitch for roughly a minute. "You'll be fine. The Bakusaitenketsu has no effect on living beings. Only things like rocks. It was invented as a quick and easy way to clear away rocks without having to haul them around. I've been using it to get through rough terrain a lot faster than I used to." Ayumi refused to stop twitching. She sighed, offering him a smirk. "Maybe *now* you'll think twice before insulting a girl or saying something stupid." With that, she hopped off the roof. Ryomi walked a handful of steps away from the house before turning to look back at the roof, and shrugged. "Who am I kidding?" On the roof, five minutes later, Shampoo returned to steamroll her bicycle over the twitching Ayumi in the opposite direction. (end) ------------------------ Credits: Written by: Mike Koos Pre-readers: Richard Beaubien, Jonathan Ng, Tom Williams, David Wills With apologies to Takahashi Rumiko... All parts of this series are available at the RAAC archives at ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/anime-fan-works or from my WWW pages at http://www.fanfic.net/~makoto/ Comments and questions welcome. * Mike ('Kino Makoto') Koos: makoto@cal.net * http://www.fanfic.net/~makoto * * "I can do nothing to stop you. Your background music is too strong * for me." - Sam Johnson, Whose Line is it Anyway?