Jedi Kasumi13 Jedi Kasumi By Jim Robert Bader (Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi & George Lucas, with ideas and inspiration supplied by Brandon Kelley and others) Chapter Thirteen. Hard Targets. (The Story So Far) The war between the Jedi and Sith has taken a new pitch as the two Apprenticed Sith, Ryoga and Mousse, stage an ambush of Kasumi and Ranma, who were on their way to the market... Meanwhile Shampoo, who is visiting with the Tendos, has taken an interest in training Akane in order to refine her Force Mastery, to say nothing of forging other ties that have assume a far more personal nature... "Wow!" Akane said in amazement, "You sure are talented, Xian-Pu! Is there anything you're not good at?" The Amazon eyed her friend coyly and smiled, "That remains to be seen, but some things I am very good at...very good indeed. This one is a woman of many talents..." "So I've noticed," Akane chuckled, glancing down at the repaired floor of the dojo and rubbing her bare foot across it to confirm in her own mind that it was a very good sanding job, so perfect that she could hardly even tell that the floor had been damaged in the first place. "This one thinks that even Elder Trieste will be much impressed with these results," Shampoo noted coyly, "Which means that we should be free to do as your mother has instructed us..." "You mean clean up, go back to my room and get ready for dinner?" Akane replied, pausing before adding, "You know...dinner isn't for at least another three or four hours..." "Think that will be enough time?" Shampoo asked with a slight lilt to her voice. "Just about," Akane said eagerly, and with a grin that was an open promise, and no further ado the two new friends linked hands and started running for the house, laughing like school children with the hint of much fun that was shortly to be forthcoming... Ranma slammed into a wall with his back taking the brunt of the blow, cracking the brickwork while doing little real damage to himself as he absorbed the impact with only a grunt to acknowledge that he was even bothered by the rude treatment. What HAD hurt him a lot was the blow that had sent him into the wall, a punch delivered not by a fist with bone, sinew and muscle behind it but rather the mysterious Force backing up the natural raw power of Ryoga Hibiki, a fighter who was obviously no slouch in the martial arts department, and possibly even a near-equal to Ranma's own skills in this endeavor. "Like that?" Ryoga snarled, his rage boiling over as he stalked towards his mildly stunned opponent, "Well, that's only just the beginning, Ranma!" "What's your beef with me, Ryoga?" Ranma asked as he straightened out, "Is it because of that bread thing? Are you still mad over that?" "Bread thing?" Ryoga snarled, "You think I'm challenging you now over BREAD???" This time Ranma felt the punch coming in time enough to avoid it, but since the actual Force extended far beyond the reach of his arm, Ryoga's blows were hardly that easy to dodge or shrug off. It was all Ranma could do to deflect the invisible field of energy as it rolled right at him like a wave of tangible hate, the very wrongness of the sensation it caused him running up and down Ranma's arms and nape hairs, causing him to give ground rather than launch a counter-offensive as Ryoga stalked him down like a relentless force of nature. "I've only got one thing to say to you, Ranma," Ryoga snarled while he was attacking, "Why didn't you meet me in that man-to-man fight like you promised two years ago?" "Two years ago?" Ranma almost stumbled before catching himself and regaining his bearings, "You mean when you failed to show up for that challenge match you gave me?" "Failed to show up?" Ryoga snarled, launching a kick that took out a tree that had been directly behind where Ranma had been standing, the invisible wave caused by his foot snapping the trunk without even coming near to touching, "You coward, YOU WERE THE ONE WHO FAILED TO BE THERE!" "I was there three whole days waiting for you, you moron!" Ranma snarled as he managed to land his first good blow to the back of Ryoga's head, only to feel his foot bouncing off the invisible Force that surrounded his adversary, causing Ranma to rebound and regain his bearings after putting some much needed distance between them, "I waited through mornings and evenings, through rain and even the hot sun for you to show up! What do you think I was doing in all that time? Getting a suntan?" "Sure you waited three whole days," Ryoga growled as he rounded on his opponent and prepared to launch another fierce attack, both hands shooting forward as though to push a wall of air directly at Ranma even as he shouted out the words, "BUT ON THE FORTH DAY YOU RAN AWAY LIKE A COWARD!" Meanwhile Kasumi was busy deflecting the attacks aimed at her by Mousse, who seemed to pull weapons out of no where as fast as she could destroy them with her lightsaber, the sheer relentlessness of his assault undaunted by its lack of effectiveness in overcoming her single weapon. "I know you, I know what you did, corrupting Shampoo, turning her against me!" the winged boy snarled, "You seduced my innocent love and taught her your ways and made her a slave to your wicked lusts!" "What are you talking about?" Kasumi asked reasonably, "I didn't seduce anyone. Shampoo and I are friends...and more than friends. I didn't turn her against anyone, least of all you, Mousse..." "Don't lie to me!" he cried as he literally threw the kitchen sink at her, forcing her to deflect it away with the Force rather than slice through the heavy thing with her weapon, "You were her lover! You made her hate all men and despise me...!" "I won't deny that Shampoo and I shared something special," Kasumi tried again to be reasonable, "But it was an innocent thing on both our parts, nothing more than sharing pleasure. I didn't make her hate you, Mousse, or any other man..." "Then why does she continue to reject me!" Mousse declared as he produced a wicked pair of bladed claws, only to have those get reduced to scrap metal with a single pass of her lightsaber. "You were never her choice of a companion to begin with," Kasumi explained, "Shampoo told me all about you, how you've chased after her for years in spite of her rejection. She has told you time and again that she doesn't want to be your wife, but you continue to harass her..." "THAT ISN'T TRUE!" Mousse cried as he dropped to his knees and dug new claws into the ground, only to rear up again hauling several slabs of concrete sidewalk at Kasumi, their mass alone more of a threat to her than any of his other weapons. "Oh bother," Kasumi murmured to herself as she got out of the way of the asphalt, only to find that newly hurled chains wrapped themselves around her body and immobilized her arms so that she could not make more effective use of her lightsaber. "This ends now, you Witch!" Mousse declared as he pulled out a pair of wicked curved blades and swung them at her head with a scissors-like motion... "YOU IDIOT!" Ranma cried as he tried to brace himself for the wave of force that was bearing down at him, knowing it was futile to avoid it. The dark mass bore down on him and hit like a wall of icy chill that sent a frightening surge of electrical sparks all over Ranma's skin and body, sending him tumbling backwards in a momentarily stunned and quite helpless condition. "And idiot am I?" Ryoga grunted in grim satisfaction, "So who's flat on their back now, old buddy? This is nothing less than you deserve for breaking your man-to-man promise to me and running off to China." "T-To China?" Ranma gasped as he felt his body convulse inside with pain and revulsion, the touch of icy hate doing more damage to him than any mere impact, "W-What are you...Ryoga! You---you didn't...follow me...?" "Yes I did," Ryoga snarled as he loomed over the now- helpless Ranma, "Followed you all the way to Jusenkyo, which is how I wound up with my curse. A funny thing happened to me there, if you know what I mean...I was peacefully minding my business when I got run down by a girl chasing after a panda...and they knocked me into one of those cursed springs. Care to guess which one I fell into, old buddy?" Ranma grit his teeth and tried to fight off the spasms that were wracking his muscles, "You...fell into a spring...and changed...?" "Yeah...changed into a nightmare!" Ryoga cried as he reared back with both hands, prepared to finish off his fallen foe with a single maneuver, "Now prepare to die, Ranma! This is where it ends!" Ranma managed to raise both of his hands in the hope of withstanding the hammer-blow, but before it could be delivered a plane of flat, hard metal came down at the back of Ryoga's skull, and unlike Ranma's foot it penetrated his defenses, making an almost hollow sound as the enraged Lost Boy started to sag to his knees, already quite unconscious. "Idiot," declared the one who had just rescued Ranma, "I told you that Ranchan was mine to finish off, but just like the pig you are, you never listen." "H-Huh?" Ranma blinked, staring up in disbelief as he said, "U-Uchan?" "On your feet, Mister," his former iinazuke declared haughtily, "We've got unfinished business, and I want you standing up when I kill you, unless you fall to your knees and beg for mercy, in which case I'll be quick about it..." Kasumi knew that she had no choice but to defend herself. Until now she had been taking it easy against Mousse because she did not want to harm the misguided Chinese boy, but with an obvious threat against her life she knew that the dye was cast and that she had to resort to her training. The Force flowed strongly in her, and all at once the chains binding her wrists shattered into pieces, freeing her arms as she sliced the air and intercepted both of Mousse's scythe-like sword blades long before they could reach her neck. Mousse staggered back clutching the stumps that were all that remained of his weapons, then stared in disbelief at her, unable to fathom how she had overcome his attack with such apparent lack of effort. "Mu-Tsu, you are a fool," Kasumi softly declared, "You claim that which was never yours to have, and you make it seem as though Shampoo were some prize that you could win by effecting my death. Let me assure you that you would never earn her love by threatening the life of another, let alone one she has counted as her sister." "Don't call me a FOOL, you HARLOT!" Mousse roared as he reared up with a two-ended lance, which same he whirled in a deadly arc and brought to bear against Kasumi, only to see her chop his weapon into bits before it could come anywhere within striking distance. "Are you done?" Kasumi said simply, "Does it pleasure you to exchange insults or to call me names? I don't mind for myself, but it is really yourself that you are actually hurting, Mu-Tsu." "As if you care, Jedi!" he snarled impotently at her, "You took from me the one treasure that I desire above all others..." "I took nothing that belonged to you," Kasumi said in a slightly tired tone of voice, "Shampoo was never yours to have. You tried your best to win her to your side, but everything you did only drove her further away from you. There is nothing to be gained now by these tactics but your useless humiliation." "SHUT UP, YOU BITCH!" Mousse snarled, then he drew back within himself, folding his wings behind him and concentrating, "You are the one who took her heart, not me! You...outsider woman...you dare to conquer that which should have belonged to me. I worked hard to make myself into a man that any woman could be proud of..." "Did you really?" Kasumi asked with no trace of scorn in her voice, "By challenging her and losing, by blindly attempting to glom onto her when you were not using your glasses? By confusing her with a pig in front of your fellow villagers? By chasing off any man who might potentially become a suitor? Or was it by constantly harassing her and ignoring her wishes that you desist and leave her alone? No woman wants a clinging vine who disregards her own wishes, or presumes to know someone while giving no heed to her complaints..." "Shut...up..." Mousse snarled, his eyes almost blazing, and all at once Kasumi sensed her danger, reacting barely in time as the various objects which she had obligingly cut to pieces rose up off of the ground and began to swarm all around her. "Oh my..." Kasumi said, sensing that Mousse was manipulating these objects, and that combined they posed a more credible threat than even her lightsaber... "I said get up!" Ukyo snarled, flashing her bakers peel like the deadly weapon it could be in her hands, "Don't feign weakness around me, Mister, or I'll take your stupid head off!" "I ain't doing this, Ucchan," Ranma said as he got to his feet with a tired expression, "We were friends...and deep down I think we still are, even after what you did to Nabiki. It ain't my fault the old man made that stupid arrangement with your Pop..." "Don't you dare try to pass this off on your father's shoulders!" Ukyo snarled as she took a swing at him that came very near to connecting, the blade-like spatula in her hand whipping the air with an ease that was almost ridiculous considering its mass and composition, but Ranma had no doubt that letting it strike him would be a VERY BAD suggestion! "You were the one who tricked me, abandoned me, stole my father's cart and left me in the dirt! I had nothing but ashes on account of you, and I swore that I would get my revenge...!" "I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU WERE A GIRL!" Ranma called out as he ducked out of the way of another series of attacks, "C'mon, Ucchan, I thought you were a BOY for Kami's sakes!" "A-A boy?" Ukyo almost staggered, then snarled with new fury, "Do I look like a boy to you, you Jackass? Don't even try to pretend you were innocent! You left me behind, you left me in humiliation...!" "I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHY WE LEFT YOU!" Ranma said as the wind picked up by her spatula nearly blew him over, "Pop is the one who ran away and dragged me along with you! Ucchan, I was only SIX YEARS OLD! How the hell could I know anything about us being engaged and all that!' "You think I'm some kind of a fool that I'll buy such a lame story?" Ukyo snorted in contempt, her spatula-strikes coming nearer to connecting as anger leant her a new strength born of her fury, "Even you couldn't be that stupid..." "Yes I could---I MEAN---I could too make a mistake like that!" Ranma insisted, "I thought you were a boy who just liked to play games with me..." "You mean when you'd steal okonomiyaki from my father?" Ukyo hissed as her battle aura grew even more intense. "And you'd try to prevent me and I'd jump on your head and then your Pop would GIVE me the okonomiyaki!" Ranma declared, feeling a bit winded at having to explain himself while furiously dodging her attacks, "He sure as heck thought we were playing..." "And that's another thing!" Ukyo grit her teeth as she stabbed at the jerk who was doing his level best to avoid her, connecting instead with a telephone pole, which same she neatly snapped at the base with a single strike of her baker's peel blade-edge, "My Dad thought more highly of you than he did of me, and I was his DAUGHTER! He always wanted a son, especially after my mother died after having me! He would have shown more love and respect to a brother if I'd had any! The only way I could get any approval from him was by pretending to be a boy, and then you come along and steal him away from me...!" "That's ridiculous!" Ranma protested, finally tiring of the game of dodging her attacks as he finally saw her give him an opening in her defenses, and when she next lunged forward he fell to the ground and lashed out with both feet, catching her by the wrists and causing her to lose her grip upon her weapon. He righted himself out and started to say, "I couldn't take nothing like that away from you! Your Pop just thought I was your friend and---urk!" All at once he found the tip of a ruby-read lightsaber pointed just beneath the bridge of his nose, so close that he could feel the heat it gave off as she leveled it at him, only centimeters away from drilling a hole clean through his head. "Sucker!" she smiled without humor, "Thought I was just being sporting by playing with you, and all the while I was just leading you up into this..." "Ucchan," Ranma thought furiously, considering and discarding numerous techniques that he might use to rectify this situation, "You gotta believe me...I never meant to hurt you..." "Well, you did a great job!" she cried as she thrust forward, only to have Ranma fade out from before her eyes, and all at once his hands were gripping both of her wrists while his foot shot out to catch her in the mid-section and knock her backwards. She easily absorbed the kick but by the time she had straightened up she found that she was staring at the blade end of her own lightsaber, with Ranma holding it by the handle. "Surprised?" he asked, "I watched you, so I know how to work this. Now...are you gonna listen to me, Ucchan, or do I have to get nasty?" "Do your worst, Saotome," Ukyo sniffed, "I doubt you even have the balls for it anyway..." "You're right," Ranma deactivated the lightsaber and tossed it to one side, "Besides...Saotome school teaches that relying on a weapon is a sign of weakness..." The saber did not even hit the ground before it flew back into Ukyo's hand, at which point she reactivated it once again and said, "Is that so? Then it won't bother you too much if I put that theory to the test...?" Kasumi did her level best to dodge, deflect and avoid the numerous bits of wood and sharp metal that went flying towards her, but it was a cloud of steel and not a single object that lashed out towards her, so she did the only thing that was available and used her Jedi might to boost her leaping ability, vaulting backward out of the deadly cloud while nursing a number of minor cuts and lacerations for her trouble. Mousse saw her landing and sensed that Kasumi was in pain and thus vulnerable, but when he directed his barrage of weapons towards her it was in the belief that she would be unable to concentrate in time to protect herself from so many hurtling projectiles. He was wrong. Kasumi had taken the moment to gather her strength into herself, then with both hands she pushed forward and willed the air to form a barrier as the Force intercepted Mousse's steel storm and countered it, the clash of Light and Dark energies causing the air to spark and shimmer between them. "I ask you again to desist in this folly, Mu-Tsu," Kasumi said calmly as the clatter or wood and steel fell all around her, "I have no wish to harm you..." Mousse was too enraged to listen to reason, picking up another large chunk of concrete with both hands as he prepared to hurl it, screaming, "YOU WON'T DO ANYTHING TO ME, YOU MOTHERLESS WHORE...!" That was a mistake on his part. Kasumi did not anger easily, but being addressed in that tone was not a thing that she could easily forgive and forget. Her eyes flashed in genuine anger, the serenity of her composure sharpening to crystal clarity as she willed a ball of concentrated Force into her hand and pushed it forward, aiming it directly at his solar plexus. It is a known fact that for everything in the universe there is an equal and opposite effect or reaction, and use of the Force was no true exception. Many times Kasumi's mentor had stressed that one should never use the Force itself aggressively because an injury inflicted upon another could rebound and affect one if not properly braced to resist such a "feedback." Thus hitting Mousse in such a vulnerable spot---though arguably effective---caused a rebound effect where Kasumi felt a similar force sympathetically strike her own solar plexus, and she grunted slightly as some of her wind was driven out of her lungs, though Mousse took the brunt of it and lost his focus altogether... Which proved to be disastrous considering that he was holding a sixty-kilogram block of asphalt over his head. Said block shattered over his skull and rendered him quite effectively disabled. As he fell face-down onto the tarmac his opponent straightened out and forced herself to regain her wind, eyeing him coolly with less than her usual ration of pity. "Don't ever say something like that about my mother," she said softly, which for her was the equivalent of shouting at his fool carcass. "Ucchan," Ranma said, remaining very still as he faced burning death and ignored it, "I'm telling you the truth, I never meant to hurt you, I didn't know about our engagement, I really did mistake you for a boy, and...and...and I'm sorry about that. Now, are you happy?" "Happy?" she grit her teeth as her saber quavered while she shook herself in anger, "HAPPY??? You wrecked my life, you stupid Baka! You think saying you're sorry now is gonna make up for years of having to live with the shame of my own father's rejection? What about the scorn and humiliation others gave me because I was dumped by my fiancée?" "Okay, so I can't do anything about that," Ranma said, "I can't give you back what you lost on account of Pop being such a greedy, lazy, lying, two-faced double-crossing backstabber! I know he hurt you by making that deal and then welshing on it! And now he wants me to marry a Tendo...I mean, it ain't like he tells me about this stuff before he goes ahead and does it!" "So you're saying it's all his fault, that you don't have anything to be sorry about?" Ukyo snarled, "Like hell you don't, Mister! A real man would accept the blame for his mistakes..." "I ain't got time enough for that," Ranma said, "I got more mistakes to regret than I hope ever know about, Ucchan, but...for what it's worth...yeah...I screwed up...I made a mistake and I let the Old Man pull a number on me...ain't the first time, probably won't be the last...but I never did anything to hurt you, Ucchan...you gotta believe me..." "Why should I?" Ukyo demanded, "Do you know what I've been through? All the years I've suffered and slaved away because of you...?" "Then you wasted your time," Ranma said, "Ucchan...I ain't worth it. A pretty girl like you oughta have a better reason to live than to beat up on some guy who ain't got nothing in this world but a curse that makes me look worse than you ever could..." "And how do you figure that?" she wondered with obvious skepticism. "C'mon," Ranma said, "You only pretend to dress up like a guy...right? Well, I turn into a girl...what could be worse than that?" "What could be...?" for a moment Ukyo seemed stunned by the question, then she cried out, "YOU IDIOT! You think being a girl is the worse thing that could happen?" "It is for you," Ranma pointed out, "You said it yourself, your Pop wanted you to be a boy, right?" Ukyo's eyes narrowed as she studied him, then reluctantly she said, "Yeah...good point..." "Instead he got a cute girl like you," Ranma said, "A girl any guy would be a fool not to notice..." Her lightsaber dropped by a few centimeters as her eyes widened considerably, "What did you just call me?" "Huh?" Ranma blinked, "What do you mean what did I...?" "Did you just call me CUTE?" the lightsaber was back pointing right at him, close enough to nearly sear the tip of Ranma's nose off. "Uh..." he backed away by a fraction, "Well...yeah...but you are, right? I mean...look in the mirror, you're Cute, all right?" "All right?" Ukyo slashed at him, forcing Ranma to back away out of her saber-beam's deadly arc, "I AM NOT CUTE, DO YOU GET THAT!?!" "Hey, what are you so mad about?" Ranma wondered as he readied himself to leap out of the way of her next assault, "I was just telling you the truth!" Ukyo's hand stabbed the air between them, aimed directly at Ranma, and all at once he felt as if a tremendous weight was bearing him down, as if gravity itself were sharply increasing, or else a giant hand was pushing him down to where he stooped under the strain, almost falling to his knees as he fought to resist the pressure. "On your knees, Mister!" Ukyo declared as she increased the pressure, forcing Ranma to fall down to his hands and knees while she declared between grit teeth, "I am a Sith Apprentice, the right hand to my Lord, Darth Purge! I am a Master of the Dark Side of the Force, and I AM NOT CUTE, do you get my drift, you Jackass?" Ranma fought against the pressure but would not give way to her efforts, "I said it...I ain't taking it back...you are cute, Ucchan...even if you got no reason...to be this angry..." "No reason?" she cried, drawing back with her lightsaber, "NO REASON? I'LL GIVE YOU A REASON YOU---YOU JACKASS!" She slashed down with all the strength that she could spare from holding him in place, but even as she did it she felt her aim go a little off and realize that she would pull up just short of striking him, which was precisely what did happen, her lightsaber going motionless in mid-strike while still a good ten centimeters short of her intended target. (What's wrong with me?) Ukyo furiously asked herself, (Why can't I do it? I've been training to do this all these years! What's keeping me from killing him? Am I getting weak all of a sudden? And why is he looking at me like that...like he doesn't want to fight me anymore? What...am...I doing...?) And then a voice very calmly spoke to one side, "I would very much prefer if you do not hurt him, Kuonji-san." Ukyo snarled and slashed sideways with her Saber, only to have the beam be caught and deflected as Kasumi's own lightsaber flared up in time to intercept it. "There has been enough violence," Kasumi assured the Sith apprentice, "And you don't really want to hurt him after all or you would have done it already." "SHUT UP!" Ukyo snarled, striking out at the Jedi once again, only to see Kasumi calmly turn her blade aside then step inside her guard with her own lightsaber pressed up within a few centimeters of her face. "You are skilled," Kasumi said, "But you are not my equal. Your hate has blinded you, it has made you weak and easy to manipulate. Your Master is using you and you are intelligent enough to see it. Do not force me to hurt you...there has been enough pain in both of your lives. Can you not see that Ranma is already hurting?" "Huh?" Ukyo asked, turning from this hated rival to stare at Ranma, who was looking at her with a soulful expression curiously devoid of either fear or anger. "Ucchan," Ranma said, "I mean it...I am sorry..." "S-Sorry?" Ukyo's voice trembled as she did not know whether to laugh or cry at that statement, "And why the hell should I believe you?" "Because you're not completely evil," Kasumi answered for her, "Nor are you as blind to the truth as either Mu-Tsu or Ryoga." "You're comparing me to them?" Ukyo asked, glancing at the green lightsaber beam that was threatening her own life while her own hung uselessly pointed down to one side. "Think about it," Kasumi replied, "Mu-Tsu has been taunted and made fun of nearly all of his life on account of his weak eyesight and the scorn he has received from the one he professes to desire. Ryoga...for what I could hear of the matter...blindly holds a grudge against Ranma-kun for petty slights that were never intended. Even the curse he bears is the result of his blind obsession in following Ranma into Jusenkyo. Would you be like either of them, full of hate and self-pity, unable to see the good in your own life or the pain that is felt by others?" Ukyo stepped back from the older girl, and Kasumi allowed her to retreat out of sword-reach, the two of them still holding their lightsabers at the ready as they contemplated one another, a dual of wills as well as minds making the air between them crackle with far more tension than the simply tension of their opposing philosophies. "Are you saying I should just give up on my vengeance?" Ukyo asked, "On my family's honor? On the wrongs done to me as a woman?" "Which wrongs are those, Kuonji-san?" Kasumi asked, "The hurt done to you by Ranma and his father, or the wrongs which you have done to yourself that were in part caused by your own father? How does vengeance make right either one of these two wrongs?" Ukyo did not answer right away but continued to glower for a moment, then raised her sword and said, "Why don't we just settle this like Jedi and save the flowery words for when we know which of us is the victor?" "I already know who would win," Kasumi replied, "But do as you must if it will bring an end to your unjust anger." Ukyo snarled and lashed out at her, striking hard and fast at Kasumi, who met and countered each thrust with a casual ease that was barely ruffled. Then all at once Kasumi reverse the motion of her blade and the resultant leverage caused Ukyo to lose the grip on her own blade, sending it flying out of her grasp, even as Kasumi brought her point up once again and directed its tip just inches from Ukyo's forehead. "I did not defeat you," Kasumi said calmly, "You defeated yourself. Hate and anger make you weak, cause you to scatter your focus and divert the flow of your emotions so that you do not know who it is that you hate more...me...or yourself." Ukyo considered the blade then calmly stepped away, losing some of her contempt in her expression, "Okay...you're good...but I'm not saying you're my better...but...but what do you know about pain and hate anyway...?" "I have seen enough of both in my travels," Kasumi replied as she lowered her lightsaber without taking her attention away from the girl before her, "Enough to make me weep for those who allow themselves to be used by the dark side of their own emotions. A Jedi is never truly strong, Kuonji- san, unless she has the strength to care for the welfare of others..." "The philosophy of a weakling," Ukyo sniffed, "You can't expect me to believe that..." "Believe whatever you want," Kasumi replied, "But is it my weakness that you despise, or do you feel weak because some part of you now accepts the truth about Ranma? Look at him now with clear eyes that are not blinded by hate...do you truly believe him capable of deceiving you? Though his father lies easily, Ranma does not know how to hide his own emotions...what you see is literally what you get with him, and because of this I know that he is sincere when he says that he did not intend to hurt you." Ukyo wavered for a moment before narrowing her eyes again as she looked directly at Kasumi, "And what good is your word to me anyway? You're not an unbiased witness you know. I can tell just by looking at you that you love him." "N-Nani?" Ranma blinked, seeing the slightly surprised look that crossed over Kasumi's expression. "I..." Kasumi paused, momentarily at a loss for anything to say. "Yeah, that's what I figured," Ukyo continued to back away, then she raised both hands and summoned the Force once again, causing her lightsaber to fly into one hand, her baker's peel into another. She holstered one and slung the other back over her back, then scowled as she said, "You win this round for now...Jedi...but don't think I'm gonna forgive and forget about everything...just because you got lucky. We'll see each other soon enough, and just make sure you look over your shoulder next time before you see me coming." With that Ukyo started to turn around, only to be stopped in her tracks as Ranma said, "Wait! Ucchan...what about your buddies?" "What about them?" Ukyo sniffed, "Just a pair of losers. You think because I train with them that I call either of them my friend? No way! I've only had one friend in my life, Ranchan...and he hurt me worse than anyone else but my Dad. I...I won't call us even just yet, even if you're a loser who's got a moron for a father. I can't forget what you two did to me...I...I need to think some more...just don't get killed before I make my mind up about you..." And then she walked away, never even glancing back once in her passing. "A strange girl," Kasumi said, then sagged a little as the effort of remaining upright became too demanding. "Kasumi!" Ranma moved to catch her before her knees gave out underneath her, and then he gasped as his hand encountered a wetness, making him aware that she was bleeding from a dozen shallow cuts all over the length of her body. "Ah...Ranma-kun?" Kasumi winced, "Could I...trouble you for some...assistance? I need to get back home...and I don't think I can walk the distance..." "Sure, no problem," Ranma said as he gathered the taller girl into his arms, easily supporting her weight as she proved surprisingly light and maybe even a bit more fragile than he would have estimated. He paused to glance at the fallen Ryoga and Mousse, then said in worried tones, "What about them?" "Leave them for now," Kasumi sighed, "They should recover before too long. Mu-Tsu has a remarkably thick skull, and your friend...Ryoga..." Her tone drifted off as she seemed to go unconscious. "Kasumi-chan?" Ranma asked with a note of desperation, not even noticing the shift in his own language as he expressed his concern for her. He spared one last look at the fallen Sith and growled, "You morons...I hope your heads hurt when you wake up." Then he was off at a quick run, making good time as he traced his steps back to the Tendo dojo... Nabiki groaned as her shoulder dropped a bit, then she turned to her Mentor and said, "I think I need a bit more rest, Sensei. The muscles aren't completely knitted in my shoulder..." "You may be right about that," Trieste replied, "But that is no reason to take it too easy, Nabiki-chan. The muscles in your arm can only heal if you work with them and encourage them to restore themselves to the proper strength and coordination. The Naginata requires both in order to be effective in a combat situation, and you can't afford to be slow, clumsy or imprecise when using a Jedi weapon. Just keep practicing the exercises exactly as I taught you and you will soon be back to your normal proficiency. I can't allow you to become a weak link while we are facing our greatest challenge to...date..." "Huh?" Nabiki looked sharply at her mentor while resting on her pole arm, "Sensei?" Trieste looked sideways with a note of alarm in her expression, causing both Nabiki and Kimiko to sense the change in her demeanor, the latter asking, "Is something wrong, my Sister?" "I...don't really know..." Trieste frowned, "I felt something just now...a great disturbance in the Force. It was muted...as if something were dampening the effect to make it difficult for me to sense, but...yes...it seems to have settled for now...but I feel a coldness all about me, and I think Kasumi is in some kind of trouble." Even as she spoke those words Ranma appeared atop the wall of the garden, then vaulted in with a limp Kasumi cradled in his arms, a sight which caused both women to give a sharp intake of breath, even as the fathers looked up from their Shogi game, Soun being first to lurch to his feet with a dismayed, "K-Kasumi...?" "Oneechan?" Nabiki took a sharp breath of her own as she stared at her helpless sister. "She's been hurt," Ranma explained, "We were attacked just a few blocks away from here. We drove them off, but Kasumi..." Kimiko immediately assumed a tone of motherly command as she pointed at the dojo and said, "In there, now...and Soun-chan, bring Trieste's medicine kit at once. Genma- san, please find Shampoo and Akane." Nabiki came up beside Ranma as he carefully lay Kasumi down upon a pallet that Trieste unfolded for her, and with much concern the middle Tendo sister demanded, "What happened?" "Like I said," Ranma explained, "There were three of them...Ucchan and two of those Sith guys, the one with wings and Ryoga. They jumped us from no where and they were trying to kill us..." "Yes, and not doing a half-bad job of it by the look of things," Trieste murmured as she stripped off Kasumi's blood-soaked robes to uncover the wounds that were still bleeding underneath, "None of these appear too deep, but she's lost some blood from so many cuts. How exactly was this accomplished?" Ranma set about giving a terse explanation, at the conclusion of which Trieste nodded her hands while applying some ointment that Soun supplied to her to the wounded areas, bringing a halt to further bleeding. "The Steel Storm attack...a diabolical maneuver," Trieste murmured, "Though I would never have expected Darth Purge to be capable of teaching it to one of his underlings. It requires a difficult amount of concentration in order to manipulate objects in the manner which you have described." "Yeah, well...I just wish I could have done something to help her," Ranma said, "But I was kinda busy with Ucchan at the time and...huh?" Ranma turned to Nabiki, who was running a hand over the surfaces of his body, "What are you doing?" "Checking to see if you have any wounds that you might not have sensed," Nabiki replied, "Just a few bruises...you were lucky. Damn! Do you have any idea how close you came to getting killed out there, Mister? Taking on even a low- level Sith like that..." "Hey, it wasn't like it was my idea or nothing," Ranma protested, only to pause as he felt Nabiki grip his shoulder lightly with just enough strength to be reassuring. "I'm just glad that you're all right," Nabiki said with a sincere look of worry in her expression, "But next time...try to be more careful, will you?" "Indeed," Trieste remarked as she was busy applying bandages to Kasumi, "The both of you could well do to take some of that advice. The Sith are not bound by any code of honorable behavior, and as you can see they don't scruple about ganging up on you. It was a near enough thing for you both to come through this ordeal with your hides reasonably intact, which says a lot for your training, deficient though it may be in other respects." "Uh...well..." Ranma faltered, "About that...you think maybe you could teach me how to stand up better against somebody like that Ryoga? The way he could throw a punch...it was like I couldn't even touch him..." "I don't see why not," Trieste replied, "We can stress that part of your training after you have mastered some of the basics, but it would be a mistake to rush things. Quick and expedient is the way of the Dark Side, a true Jedi Knight must cultivate patience and forbearance, which does not always apply to certain of my students..." "Huh?" Ranma asked, "What do you mean?" "Never mind, Ranma-kun," Nabiki reassured him, "Let's just say in certain cases forbearance is the last thing being practiced..." "Mmmm..." Akane mused as she and Shampoo exchanged kisses while soaking together in the furo, "Y'know...it's traditional to wait until after we clean ourselves up before we get into something like this, Xian-chan...good thing I'm not that traditional minded..." "Indeed," Shampoo said as she continued to kiss her friend on the face, neck, shoulder and lips, "But why waste the time when we'll only have to clean up again when we are through sharing pleasures?" "Yeah, I'll go along with that," Akane said as she nuzzled Shampoo behind the earlobe, playing with her breasts as they bobbed near the surface of the water, her own smaller breasts flicking her nipples against the more substantial knobs of her Amazon friend, "Besides...why waste time...when we can do both..." "Exactly my point," Shampoo replied as she groaned slightly, "Oh yes...that feels very good..." "You mean like when I do...this?" Akane asked as she stuck one finger up into the slit between the thighs of her lover. "Aiyaa..." Shampoo gasped softly, spreading her knees further apart to encourage further exploration. Akane took the invitation and began moving her hand in ways that served to further enhance the pleasure of the moment. Shampoo gave a contented moan of approval as she moved her own hands to feel her way along the smooth contours of Akane's body. The both of them snuggled together with lips and hands exploring and probing with growing boldness, the strength of their ardor causing a heat to rise between them that had nothing to do with the temperature of the water, and the more they fondled and played with the erogenous zones of their respective bodies the more intensely pleasurable was the closeness they felt towards one another. Akane was enjoying the feel of the Amazon's body, the sense of steely strength beneath the soft, well-rounded padding, a strength that was more than a match for her own considerable fortitude. She loved the feeling of the other girl in her arms, even as Shampoo was pleasuring her with much the same passion, talented fingers finding the soft folds of moistened flesh and probing in through the gate to Akane's loins, a mere foretaste of what each had planned for the other as they writhed and moved their bodies one against the other, their skin sliding like smooth seal-hide to the wonderful sensation of nerve endings caressing one another. It was a sheer delight for Akane to encounter another girl who was this uninhibited, neither shy nor hesitant in exploring the potentials of their mutual lovemaking. Ever since awakening to the pleasures that could be had in sharing warmth with another girl's body, Akane had searched long and hard to find a girl this willing and provocative, so easy to share the joys of the flesh without the moral wrangling and ethical moaning that so many tended to profess due to social conditioning or emotional inhibitions. Shampoo made love as if it were the most natural thing in all the world, and there was no selfishness in her demand to be mutually pleasured. She was generous and kind to a fault, yet aggressive and even a little bit kinky the way she would push the envelope in their sexual encounters, and the more Akane learned about her new friend the more she wanted to know, the greater the joy of their shared climaxes. However this time, right when they were about to get so far into the matter that wild horses would not be able to pry them apart, there came a knocking on the door to the furo, then the sound of the outer door sliding to one side before they heard Genma Saotome say, "Are you girls in there? Your mother wants you to come at once, Akane, and...and...and...nani?" Akane was more annoyed at being interrupted than embarrassed at the intrusion but managed to maintain some dignity to her tone as she asked, "What is it, Uncle Saotome?" "Uh...er...um...it's...ah...K-Kasumi..." Genma stammered. "Big Sister?" Shampoo turned her gaze to one side and became momentarily abstracted, then she sat bolt upright in the furo and cried, "AIYAA! Kasumi has been hurt! This one must go to her and lend her assistance!" "Kasumi?" Akane also sat upright in the water, but unlike Shampoo she did not rise to her feet and climb out of the water, heedless of the slight detail that a MAN was watching her as Shampoo reached for a towel and began to hastily dry her hair off before rubbing down her body. "Uh...Shampoo?" Akane pointed to the dumbstruck Genma. "Hmm?" Shampoo wondered what her friend was concerned about, glanced at the motionless statue standing in the doorframe and just shrugged, "It is just a man, no one important, other than that he is the father to this one's Little Brother." "Hmmm...good point," Akane said, still reluctant to expose herself before a man while Shampoo wasted little time getting dressed in her cheosang, at which point she shrugged and said, "Oh well...guess you're right about him not being all that important..." Genma did not bat an eyelash as the two girls left the furo together, Akane hastily tying her gi back into place while wrinkling her nose a bit in regret that there had not been enough time to clean it. It was much more important to see how Kasumi was doing, and if her "Uncle Genma" choose that moment to play "Deer Caught in the Headlight," well...what was the harm in that? It was not like they were about to give the old guy a coronary or something. She just hoped that he wouldn't rat them out to her father...that...would be awkward... Genma remained where he was for a full fifteen minutes before blinking his eyes and looking around, then sagging his shoulders slightly as he murmured, "Ah...no...I didn't see that...I did not see that...uh-um...no way...no how did I just see that..." It occurred to him that Soun deserved to know that his daughter was fooling around with a houseguest, and in a highly inappropriate manner, but given the way Soun tended to...overreact to such matters...plus the secret they both shared, which demanded that neither one of them allow themselves to think...inappropriate thoughts, lest they risk stirring the wrath of a particular Demon...yes...it was all well and good to just pretend the whole thing had never actually happened. "I saw nothing," Genma repeated to himself, "Nothing...that's right...it never happened..." It occurred to him that it had been a very long time since he had shared marital relations with his wife, while Soun had enjoyed twenty good years of fruitful marriage, which hardly seemed fair in the larger scheme of things, but was consistent with the vows they both had taken long ago when burying their past...to say nothing of that aforementioned demon. Stirring up old ghosts was never a good thing, and sleeping demons were best left lying in their gravesites. That point firmly in mind, Genma left the furo area with a (reasonably) clear conscience (a dormant organ in his brain that had long atrophied from lack of proper usage). If only he could shake the odd ringing in his ears...the soft chuckling he thought he could hear upon the breeze that hinted of new troubles that would surely follow as certain ghosts refused to remain eternally buried, a point that caused Genma to shudder with a dread that was almost anticipation, as if sensing that the inevitable was about to descend upon Nerima... ...And...may miles away...a storm cloud passing overhead became more ominous thunder, and a flash of lighting struck a boulder that had been sealed over a cave entrance, the Ofudo strips left in place to guard a tomb falling away with the crack of ozone, even as a pair of crimson eyes slowly opened, and a think pair of lips curled in a wicked smile from beneath a curling mustache. The devil himself was awakening from his dreams, and soon even Darth Purge would have cause to rue this day as events went into motion that would in turn have many **interesting** consequences in the very near future... Continued. Comments/Criticisms/Call of the Hentai: shadowmane@ridgenet.net Guess who's coming to dinner in Nerima? It ain't Santa Claus, as Ranma and the Tendos are shortly to discover! Be with us next time for: "Farewell my Panties," or "Happosai Days are Near Again!" Be there! X