Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Spring of Drowned Vampire Girl ❯ Ryoga ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Vampire Chapter 3
 
Disclaimer: Ain't mine, no one's paying me. Only enjoyment here.
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It had been a week since Akira's visit with Ranma and Nabiki, and things had fallen into something of a routine. With Nabiki's help, Ranma could avoid cold water during the day for the most part. The few times that water did find him, Nabiki had been near by with a thermos of hot water ready to dump on him. Ranma had started to spend part of the night in his female form just in the vain hope that water wouldn't seek him out if he spent time as a she.
 
The attacks on Akane didn't let up, but Akane seemed content to beat on something during the day. She would savagely pummel her way through the horde and then through Kuno, then she would come to class and either ignore or act coldly to Ranma. Ranma, for the most part, couldn't care less about Akane's thoughts about him.
 
Akane had thought long and hard about Ranma ever since she had listened in when the stranger had stopped by. She was scared of Ranma. The daily attacks of the Hentai horde and Kuno had left her with a rather negative impression of boys in general, thus she didn't and could probably never bring herself to trust any boy. But now she was living with a boy that turned into a female vampire with cold water. Akane had seen his skill before during the morning sparring with his father and knew that if he or she decided to do something, she wouldn't be able to stop him/her.
 
So it was that during the day when Ranma was male and in school or at the dojo, Akane would act cold and do her best to ignore the young man, but always had a water balloon handy just in case. After the sun went down, she would become more nervous around him, and would disappear entirely if he happened to get wet, locking herself in her room and surrounding herself with vampire wardings of crosses and wards.
 
It was now Friday and school had just let out for the day, Ranma was on his way out the doors to meet up with Nabiki and go home when his danger sense went off. Jumping up and out of the say of the rapidly descending umbrella, Ranma was left wondering at the huge crater that resulted from the umbrella attack.
 
“RANMA, BECAUSE OF YOU, I'VE SEEN HELL. PREPARE TO DIE!” Came the yell of a familiar, bandanna clad boy with fangs. Soon enough Ranma was ducking and weaving around the bandana boy's punches and kicks while trying to figure out who this guy was.
 
“Excuse me, but do I know you?”
 
“Don't play dumb with me, Ranma. I'm here to destroy your happiness.”
 
“Hey Nabs. Am I happy?”
 
“Not that I've seen.”
 
“Don't make light of me!”
 
“Tell what I did to get you so upset and we can talk this out.”
 
“No! The time for talk has past, the time for revenge is now.”
 
Ranma did some more ducking and dodging until finally he just jumped out of the way of the rampaging young man. Losing sight of Ranma, the bandana boy started to run in a random direction, yelling; “Come back here you coward, I'm not done with you yet.”
 
The entire school body that stuck around to watch the fight just looked at the retreating back of the young man like he had grown a third head.
 
“Well, that was weird. I wonder who that was. Let's go home Nabs.”
 
That night at the Tendo's.
 
“Ranma, you got a letter.” Kasumi's voice called to the young martial artist.
 
“Thanks, Kasumi.” Ranma took the letter and started to read it. As he progressed with the letter his face got a little darker.
 
“What is it Ranma?” Nabiki asked in a concerned voice.
 
“It's a challenge letter, I think that it's from the guy from today. Says here his name's Ryoga. Waitaminute! Ryoga, Ryoga,… I remember where I know him from.”
 
“Do tell.”
 
“It was before the trip to China. I was going to an all boys' school; lunch periods were pure chaos and pandemonium, with the lunch breads being tossed out to the crowd of boys to be fought over.”
 
“Let me guess, you would always get the bread.”
 
“Well, yeah. The first time it happened, I caught it out of midair and when I landed, Ryoga was standing there saying something about getting revenge, but I didn't really think anything of it. It was just bread. Then one day he challenged me to a duel.”
 
“Oh my, Ranma did you know that this challenge was dated for yesterday?”
 
“Don't worry about it. I should still have a few days before he shows up, you see he has the worst direction sense I've ever seen on anybody.”
 
“What happened at your duel?”
 
“It never happened. We were supposed to meet in the empty lot down the street from his house on Saturday, but he still hadn't shown up on Monday, that was when pop knocked me out and took me to China.”
 
“Do you think that he was so upset over bread?” Nabiki asked.
 
“I don't know, it's the only reason I can think of.”
 
***
 
Three days of waiting at the appointed place finally saw the return of Ryoga.
 
“So you finally decided to show up, Ranma?”
 
“What's he talking about? Ranma's been here for the past three days.” A voice from the students called out only to be ignored by both combatants.
 
“Ryoga, I don't want to fight you. Here.” Ranma threw something to the lost boy.
 
“What's this? Bread?”
 
“Here and here and here.” Soon Ryoga was standing there with an armful of bread products with a darkening look on his face.
 
“You think this is about bread?”
 
“uhm, yeah.”
 
“This hasn't been about bread for a long time, you ran out of our man to man duel and I followed you. Thanks to you, I've seen hell. PREPARE YOURSELF.” With that Ryoga dropped the bread, pulled his umbrella and charged.
 
Ranma calmly backed out of the attack range of the thrusting umbrella before taking to the air with a powerful leap only to have Ryoga match him. Ryoga's strike in the air met with the same result as the rest of his attack, Ranma dodged it.
 
“What are you talking about?” Ranma asked with the same calm attitude.
 
“Do you truly believe that words can convey the depths of my suffering?!” Ryoga opened his umbrella and sent it flying towards Ranma, who was momentarily distracted by dodging that as well, which Ryoga used to ensnare Ranma's wrist with one of his many bandanas.
 
“This will keep you from running away!”
 
Punch
 
Deflect
 
Kick
 
Kick
 
“Tell me something, how many bandanas are you wearing?”
 
“You won't make light of this Soatome!”
 
The pair danced the deadly dance with Ryoga throwing all of the punches and kicks and Ranma only deflecting and dodging as he wasn't fighting for his life. The bandana on his wrist keeping him from getting any distance between him and Ryoga.
 
Some yelling from the sideline where the umbrella finally came to a stop distracted Ranma enough for Ryoga to get a scratch in on a punch to his face, drawing blood.
 
He cut me, well looks like I may have to get serious.
 
Ranma waited for Ryoga's next punch before sending himself down between his adversary's legs and up to latch onto his shoulders with his feet, pulling his right hand down with Ranma, between his legs. The end result was Ryoga on his knees with his head down while Ranma was perched up on his back smirking like the cat that caught the canary.
 
“You…dare…try to push me TO MY KNEES!!?” In remarkable display of balance and upper body strength, Ryoga lifted himself and Ranma up with one arm before launching into the air like a rocket. He attempted to continue to kick at Ranma only to have Ranma dodge and then power kick him out into the crowd. Ranma was quickly behind Ryoga kicking and dodging, but it didn't stop Ryoga from reaching his umbrella.
 
“Eat this!” The umbrella was thrust at the advancing Ranma who pivoted while kicking Ryoga in the jaw, the umbrella ripped the front of Ranma's shirt, leaving his chest bared.
 
“This was my favorite shirt!!”
 
“This is war! Don't act like a GIRL!”
 
Ranma had been calm, or at least cool up until this point. Being called a girl was one of his buttons, especially after Jusenkyo. Ranma's expression started to match Ryoga's in terms of anger.
 
Ranma launched into the most vicious kicks and attacks he knew.
 
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A GIRL?”
 
“Whoa!”
 
The force of the attack sent the pair over the fence of the school yard they were fighting in. Neither were paying attention of where they were going.
 
“WELL? WHO ARE YOU CALLING A GIRL?!”
 
Ranma had Ryoga on the defensive for the first time in the fight, and it was obvious that Ranma could have had him there any time that he wanted. The fight would have been over if the kick that Ranma threw at Ryoga had landed, but Ryoga flew out of the way, and the water fountain behind him crumbled under the attack.
 
Nabiki saw the pillar of water rise from behind the trees where the fight was now taking place. Oh shit. Was all she thought before making her legs move to get back to the fight before something regrettable happens. The thermos in her hand suddenly took more meaning than just a precaution.
 
Ryoga managed to avoid getting wet by opening his umbrella and blocking all the water that came his way. Ranma was not so lucky. Unseen by Ryoga and the rest of the class the water hit Ranma with enough force to send him flying into the shadows of one of the nearby trees.
 
Ranma's female form bonelessly landed in the shadows, dripping wet, and not getting up. After coming to a stop, the red head curled up into a fetal position and remained there, shuddering slightly as if in pain.
 
The water died down, and Ryoga was looking for his missing opponent, eager to finish this fight. Scanning the area, he noticed that the school crowd had finally caught up with the fight. Ryoga continued to look for his black haired opponent, ignoring everybody else, when he saw the red shirt of Ranma.
 
Nabiki was a little confused, she knew that Ranma was at the middle of the pillar of water, was probably responsible for it, yet he wasn't screaming in pain like last time. She caught up with the rest of the people from school surrounding Ryoga, and started to push her way through, when she saw that her worst fears were coming true.
 
Ryoga was standing over the cowering form of Ranma, smirking at his fallen foe, that is, until he noticed the red hair. Ryoga bent down, reached out and took Ranma's chin into his hand to better look at the girl in his mortal enemy's clothing. The look on Ranma's face conveyed a painful unconsciousness that would last.
 
It was at this point that Nabiki was able to get close enough to throw the contents of her thermos out and onto the body of Ranma. Ranma awoke with Ryoga holding his chin with a stunned look on his face. Ranma didn't waste any time to question what happened and just reacted to the sight of Ryoga with a series of punches, driving Ryoga back.
 
“So, now you know about my curse. Do you think that I haven't seen hell because of it? Aren't you going to make fun of me now?”
 
Ryoga stood there stunned, but then started to chuckle, then laugh, then cackle madly. “You say you're cursed? You don't know the meaning of the word. Prepare yourself.” Ryoga pulled off several bandanas and tossed them into the air where they became discs and flew towards Ranma.
 
Ranma dodged them all, but not before one ripped his shirt again. Next to him, a bandana had gouged into a tree before embedding itself there. He just happened to notice Akane standing at the edge of the crowd as well as the stray bandanas that were headed her way. Without thinking or pausing, Ranma bolted to save his fiancé's sister.
 
Ranma was just able to reach her by tackling her and knocking her to the ground as the bandanas whizzed right through the spot where her neck would have been, a fact that was not lost on the martial artist or Nabiki, but went unnoticed by Akane.
 
“What are you doing? Are you trying to kill somebody?” Ranma yelled at his opponent after getting up. Akane got up as well, a little pale.
 
“Yes! You! DIE!” Ryoga let loose with another barrage of bandanas and tossed his umbrella at Ranma for good measure. Ranma was a little stuck, because he had put himself between Akane and Ryoga on purpose and if he moved to dodge, everything would just hit her. Without thinking, he kicked the umbrella up, caught it, and used it as a shield as he grabbed Akane by the waist and jumped up with both to remove her from danger.
 
“Hang on Akane!”
 
“Aaaaaa!!!”
 
“Running away you coward?!”
 
Akane was not comfortable being held by Ranma, and squirmed to get out of his grasp the entire time. When he finally stopped jumping, landing on a small open building, she was doing her best to get away from him and started to scream,
 
“DON'T TOUCH ME YOU PERVERTED FREAK!!”
 
*SLAP*
 
Ranma was left with both hurt feelings and a throbbing cheek as well as confusion over why Akane reacted like that as she stalked off.
 
Ryoga saw Ranma standing on the building and wasted no time in pulling off his belt and using a special technique to make the belt act like a sword and cut through the support beam. The building buckled, and Ranma again wasted no time in scooping up Akane so that she wouldn't be harmed.
 
Akane didn't react well to being carried again by Ranma and was again struggling against him as if her life depended on it. Ryoga was now using his belt like a whip and snagged the umbrella that Ranma had managed to get in the way of Ryoga's weapon. The umbrella was cut in half by and was rendered useless.
 
Akane broke away from Ranma as they landed and started to run. Ranma made to go after her, a concerned look on his face.
 
“Ignore me will you?!” Ryoga roared and whipped his belt out to attack Ranma with deadly intent.
 
“Give it a rest!” Ranma yelled back, kicking the weapon out of Ryoga's hand, it went flying up into the air in a manner not like a buzzsaw.
 
Ranma ran up to Akane, yelling her name, trying to get her attention.
 
She stopped and turned around yelling.
 
“I DON'T WANT TO KNOW YOU. I NEVER WANT YOU TO TOUCH ME YOU PERVERTED BLOOD…” The rest of her sentence was lost as the buzzsaw belt came down and lopped off the long hair off of Akane's head. Had she not turned around, it would have hit her.
 
The tension of that moment was drawn out as the rest of the school crowd caught up with the combatants. Nabiki noted the condition of her sister's hair, but hadn't seen how it had happened. She was relieved to see that Ranma and Ryoga did seem to call of hostilities in light of what just happened. As she got closer she could hear Ranma's voice.
 
“If it will make you feel better you can hit me.”
 
“You may hit me, too.” Ryoga said. It seemed that vengance against Ranma wasn't the only thing that he focused on.
 
Nabiki wasn't surprised to see Akane lay into both Ranma and Ryoga with a series of slaps that left both their cheeks bright red. Akane then stalked off.
 
“Agreeable girl, isn't she.” Was all that Ryoga had to say.
 
 
 
Author's notes:
 
I thought that I would take this opportunity to respond to some of the reviews that I've gotten so far.
 
Mordamir
 
Hey, nice piece of work you have here. I mean, this is an issue that already appeared in other Ranma fics, but you managed to make it original. Congratulations on that.
Anyway, I guess this chapter didn't explain all that you wanted about vampires and all, like, how much time it would be considered extended periods?
Is this a crossover with the RPG game?
 
Mordamir
Thank you,
No, there's going to be another big exposition chapter coming up again to explain the rest of what I want to tell about vampires. It's coming up soon.
Yes this is a crossover with the RPG game and once I come up to a certain point, I'll be posting the notes that I wrote up that pertain to the RPG.
 
Jonakhensu
 
Is the name of the handbook "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Spring of Drowned Vampire Girl"?
 
I'm glad that somebody caught that reference, and no it isn't, it just felt right to put that there.
 
Dassadec
 
Japanese telephone numbers have eight digits unlike most of the world that has seven digits in a telephone number.
 
I'll be the first to admit a certain ignorance to Japanese culture and the little details that pertain to that culture, like how many numbers make up a Japanese telephone number. I am relieved that this is the only hole you've found in my story and that you enjoy it enough to point it out to me.
 
Wonderbee31
2005-04-16
ch 3, signed
Interesting, and I wonder how Akane'll react now, will she try to "save" Nabiki, or help them? Will Akira be able to help out Ranma, or will one of those darker vampires decide to try and hurt Ranma through his new family?
 
Innortal
 
Great job. I love the tension building up. If it looks and is planned to be a R/N matchup, send a link to , so they can post it there.
 
Great job. I love how the cliffhanger is set up. I almost wonder if Ryoga's curse will be different. Keep going.
 
Innortal
 
The link never showed up, so could you send me a copy of it or something.
 
 
I would like to thank everybody that has reviewed so far and I urge you to continue reading. I have a definite plan for the future of the series up to a certain point and I am open to some suggestions for after that point. I'm trying to keep the story close to the original for now, with some major differences where it counts. But the story will take a much darker tone later on.
 
Thanks again.