Ranma frowned as she, taking that form for the dual purpose of disguise and it had been too long since she last used it, looked at the sliver of sun that was sinking below the horizon. The whole day had taken too long. Certainly, any teenage girl was already well on the way towards where she planned to spend the night already.
The only good thin was that she had snuck a peek at Yuka's address from the school files, so at least Ranma knew where she was heading.
Now, in the past, Ranma would have been leaping over the rooftops to reach his destination. However, now she was finding flight to be much more useful.
The falcon's form melted and reformed as it dropped toward the roof. Yuka's home was especially easy to find with Yuka's aura radiating out of it. Quickly a small red fox was dropping off the roof and landing on the low fence circling the small yard.
The good news was that Ranma couldn't smell but faint traces of Sayuri anywhere about the house. She was a frequent visitor though it seemed that it had been a week or so since she had last been to Yuka's house.
There was bad news as well. Violence, recent and terrible, and taken place at this house. The smell of blood and fear was strong, very strong. Ranma followed the scent as well as he could to a pair of dumpsters in a back ally.
She didn't have to look in the dumpster to recognize the smell of human beings, she thought maybe two. Ranma hesitated to make a move to open the dumpsters then a thoughtful expression crossed her face and she shifted into her human form.
"You say she was attacked?" Dr. Tofu said angrily.
"Yes, we saw the young man toss Ranma out the window," Genma said. "How that worthless son of mine could let such a thing happen, I'll never know."
"This doesn't fit what I was told about your other two daughters," Dr. Tofu said. "Ranma said Nabiki just collapsed, and nobody knows, apparently, what happened to Akane."
"You don't think Ranma could be involved," Soun said, aghast. "I'm certain that no son of Genma's..." Soun stopped to consider Genma's character.
"This is nonsense," Genma said. "What possible motive could the boy have for attacking the girls in this manner?"
"I don't know the intent of the...attack," Dr. Tofu said, grimmly serious as he too glared at Genma.
"If your boy is the one harming my babies Saotome," Soun said angrily. Genma laughed nervously, wondering if his son had indeed done something to cause this fiasco.
"Oooohhh," Nabiki moaned as she woke up massaging her forehead. "That was some kiss." Her mind was already trying to work out just what exactly had happened in those five seconds.
She quite quickly worked out that she wasn't in the school, recognizing Tofu's patient room. Further examination proved that it was night. So Ranma's "kiss" had put her out for at least the full day. Her father had already produced a tsunami from his wailing and tears.
Looking to her sides she saw two paper dividers and the shapes of two more people laying in bed. She could feel that their bodies were in a riot of activity of some sort, though they weren't conscious. She resolved to stay quiet and not disturb them, though the two seemed familiar in some way.
"Wait a minute," Nabiki said. She sat up and crossed her legs.
She looked first to the left and concentrated. As she noted the soft glow of that person's aura her hackles started going up. Looking to her right finished the job.
"I'm seeing chi auras," Nabiki said quietly, gripping the side of her bed tightly. She glanced around, not willing to investigate why the two women, she KNEW they were female, felt familiar.
The sight the greeted her in the wall mirror across from her wasn't all that different from the one she was used to, aside from a very obvious fact. When Ranma had kissed her she had a very distinct shade of brown hair. Now it seemed that she had iron grey hair with black streaks apparently pointing toward her face.
"Okay, they could have dyed my hair I guess," Nabiki said, looking at those black streaks.
What's more was that, above and beyond the strangeness, she didn't really feel completely at ease. She felt comfortable enough, but it was more like she was putting on a good face for a visitor.
"It has to be just the stress of not knowing what's going on," Nabiki said to reassure herself. She took in a deep breath and resolved herself to just completely relax for a moment. "Then I can plan out how to interrogate...Ranma...about this."
Her voice was truly irritated. That changed as she felt herself...doing something. It was subtle, she almost missed it, but her little medative exercise left her aware enough to catch it.
Especially the fact that she had to rearrange her seating position to avoid crushing her...something.
Nabiki's eyes cracked open and she took in the mirror. She failed to notice that the room seemed significantly brighter than when she had closed her eyes. Considering what she did notice, this was not really a failure.
"AAAAIIIIIIIEEEE!!!"
"Nabiki!" Soun declared loudly. Soon he and Tofu were rushing into the patients' room, leaving behind a very relieved Genma who was very tempted to leave the area while he had the chance. Family honor, meaning the chance for an easy retirement, convinced him to stay behind, against his better judgment.
"Nabiki, you're..." Soun stopped as they came into the room to see a very shocked looking...creature sitting on one of Dr. Tofu's beds.
"Sorry about this," the creature growled. She had a pointed face about half-way between a girl's and a tanuki's and was currently digging a furrow into the bed she was on as a racoon like tail swished behind her, peeking out from under the hospital robe. "Oh, you'll be sorry alright Saotome. You'll definitely be sorry."
"What have you done with my daughter, demon?!" Soun demanded as he failed to see Nabiki anywhere.
The tanuki turned around and looked toward her father and Dr. Tofu and flinched, uncertain how to proceed.
"Daddy," she said, cautiously slipping off the table and taking a step back from the hostile looking martial artist. "I AM Nabiki."
"Nonsense," Soun declared. "You're not even human!"
"But..." Nabiki hesitated and looked to Tofu for help and noticed a hesitant but thoughtful look on his face. Okay I turned into this, I can change back...just concentrate. Putting on the best for the guest, that's right...
Soun watched was the tanuki closed her eyes and started to shrink back into the familiar form of his middle daughter. He flinched back in surprise and then frowned suspiciously.
"Come on, Daddy," Nabiki said quietly. "It really is me."
"Could she be possessed, Tofu?" Soun asked.
"No," Tofu said, stepping forward. "Her aura is changed, but that is Nabiki, I should have recognized it immediately."
"Nabiki?" Soun asked. Nabiki wanted to run and hug her father and beg for his support, but...that just wouldn't do for her reputation.
"Daddy," she said irritably, with an arched eyebrow, arms crossed and the fingers of one hand tapping impatiently.
Predictably the bundle of emotions that was Soun Tendo ran forward and wrapped his daughter in a powerful hug, giving Nabiki the contact she wanted with out really appearing to regress to a child that needed reassuring.
"Well," Genma said from the door. "Everything is okay then, we'll just wait for Akane and Kasumi to wake up and everything will be fine." Three sets of eyes turned toward Genma Saotome.
Sayuri was a jumble of nerves as she walked quickly through the streets. She was late, very late, but with Akane joining her sister in this mystery disease she just couldn't get a handle of keeping track of time.
Yuka was making her nervous too. She had been for a while actually, but that had been different. If she had to compare to anything it would be like the feeling she got when she felt she'd have to give the "let's just be friends" speech, but that wasn't possible.
Today, however, Yuka had seemed downright...Kunoish. There was something about her that had set every alarm off. Still, this was her friend, and she seemed to need to get her mind off Akane and Nabiki as much as Sayuri did.
Still, the mysterious surroundings had her looking into every shadow on the way and expecting some monster to leap out at her. She relaxed as she saw Yuka's house and it's lights. Soon she'd be safely in Yuka's house with her parents there to watch the night.
Something dropped down out of the trees and bounced off her shoulder to land inbetween her and the gate.
"AAAHHH!!!"
"Hmmm," the demon said, looking up. Then she smiled. "I do believe that was Sayuri-chan." The demon frowned. "I hope she didn't find my parents, that would make things somewhat more difficult."
The demon shrugged and stood up, turning to the door.
"Oh," Sayuri said, catching her breath. "It's just a little fox."
She breathed a sigh of relief and then giggled as the little fox sneezed and looked decidedly pitiful and dejected. It looked so cute, maybe she could keep it for a pet.
As Sayuri took a step forward the fox skittered a few feet away and stopped looking back, decidedly more animated and cheerful looking. Sayuri blinked at the strange behavior.
"Maybe it's already somebody's pet," she said taking another couple of steps after it. "It acts like it's playing a game."
The fox backed away again, definitely seeming to be treating this as a fun game. Sayuri was going around the corner when the door to Yuka's house opened.
"Sayuri-chan," Yuka called out. "Are you there?"
Sayuri was too intrigued with the strange little fox to pay the sound much mind and continued further into the alley.
"Are you through playing this game, K-Chan?" Sayuri asked teasingly.
She was hoping to entice the odd fox closer to her. Especially with the terrible smell in this alley. Then she saw the fox vanish behind the dumpster with a little disgust.
"Errr, I already started this," Sayuri decided.
She walked forward carefully around the dumpster and found the fox just around the corner. It was staring at her very gravely and seriously now, before looking up toward the open dumpsters.
Sayuri's eyebrows scrunched up at the definitely bizarre behaviour and glanced toward the dumpster wondering what had attracted the fox's attention. As she turned, her breath caught in her throat and her hand flew to her face.
"Ohh, kuso," Yuka's voice said. "You found them." Sayuri whirled around, noting that the fox had vanished.
"Yuka!" Sayuri shouted. "Your parents are dead!!"
"What?" Yuka declared, switching gears quickly. "B...but they just left here, they can't be dead."
She stepped forward toward the dumpster and tried to look around Sayuri to see what she was looking at. The other girl felt a cold chill spread down her spine as she wasn't pushed out of the way. Yuka loved her parents a lot more than this, and there was what she said first...Sayuri hadn't caught it at first, but.
"L...let's go inside," Yuka said, frightened. "And, call someone...it'll be safe inside, please..."
"You knew," Sayuri said quietly. She stepped away from her friend and trying to back down the alley, away from Yuka's house.
"Come on, Sayuri-chan," Yuka said, she moved to cut off Sayuri. "Let's just go inside...we can call the police."
"I...think I should go home," Sayuri said nervously, she tried again to get past Yuka.
The other girl slammed her hand into the wall. The impact shattered more concrete than Sayuri thought she had ever seen Akane do.
"Come inside!" Yuka was virtually growlling now. "You'll understand a lot better, once your inside."
"Let me leave, Yuka!" Sayuri demanded.
"Not until after you've been..." Yuka stopped talking as something knocked her heavily to the side. Sayuri watched her fly several meters down the alley and land crookedly.
"No technique at all," a voice said.
Sayuri looked to her saviour to see a furred girl with a heavily pointed, fox-like face. The girl's white tipped tail was swishing nervously, angrily as it stood between Sayuri and Yuka. Sayuri blanked out as the fox turned to her with an urgent expression on her face.
"Let's get out of here before the others show up!" she shouted, grabbing the unresponsive Sayuri's hand.
Out of some sense of loyalty to her friend, Sayuri looked over to see Yuka standing up and turning toward them. Her eyes were glowing a formless, empty white, but otherwise the world seem to dim around her.
"Another fox!!" Yuka shouted, screeched, in a voice not altogether human. "Let go of my toy, little fox and I'll just skin you alive!"
"I don't think so," the fox shouted leaning down and smashing the ground. Sayuri still just watched blankly as the ground rolled forward towards Yuka, finally exploding in an almost liquid way and dragging the girl down. "I don't know how long that'll hold it. So like I said...let's beat it."
"But..." Sayuri tried as the fox-girl lifted her up and took off running.
"Damn it," the fox said. "I was hoping you'd leave before she found you there."
"Y...you showed me the bodies," Sayuri realized suddenly, turning pale. "K...k...k..."
"Kitsune," the fox-girl supplied for her. She glanced back towards Yuka's house.
"What's going on?" Sayuri demanded. "Where are you taking me? Wh....what happened to Yuka...why did she do that?"
"I don't know where we're going," the fox-girl said. "An' I don't think that was your...ehh?" The girl looked up in time to shield Sayuri from a slashing attack. Sayuri felt herself rolling and then being sat down as the fox-girl stood between her and...
"Kuno?!" Sayuri gasped.
"Stay back," the fox whispered tightly. "They want to get one of their friends inta ya'." Sayuri pressed away from the fox-girl and took away her hands as she felt a wetness. Looking down she saw the woman's blood on her hands.
"So, there are two of you," Kuno said. "She is ours little fox, you and your...mate? Can't stop us."
"I recognize that sword," the fox said icily as Kuno smirked at her.
"Ah, yes," Kuno said. "We took it from the last fox we destroyed. It had seemed more powerful in the spirit world, but I've acquired some of my host's love of this art, and it seemed a shame to waste such a weapon."
"That's Kitsune weapon," the fox said, certain of himself. "I'll be taking it back now." The demon laughed.
"Come and try," Kuno said, smiling.
"There's a third," the fox girl whispered to Sayuri. "Stay close and call out if you need help. Just don't get close enough to the fight to get hurt."
The woman blazed forward, and the possessed samurai smirked in response, moving to meet the charge. The flash of chi around the fox was visible even to Sayuri as the demon and fox began trading blows.
Kuno struck forward in a barrage of heavy, lunging stabs that almost seemed a wall of metal. Sayuri couldn't see how the fox hoped to survive the attack, but the other fighter seemed to be blurring around the strikes with comprable speed.
Sayuri couldn't understand way she hadn't moved yet, but she was too frightened to do much of anything but watch as the fox-woman slipped downward and flipped a kick up.
Kuno flew backward, his sword flying free into the night to land in the fox-woman's hands. Kuno rolled back to his feet in time to see a tingle of magic flash as the kitsune's hand gripped the hilt.
"Very impressive," he said. "But how much strength do you have left after that?"
"Enough," the fox insisted, taking a stance with the sword.
"You're holding back, so I'm practically fresh," Kuno noted, starting to circle her. "I have no compunctions about going all out though."
A flash of crackling white and black ripped out of Kuno's hands and flew towards the fox woman. The Hengeyokai took in a deep breath as her chi again became visible and the blast washed over her reddish aura. Still she was pushed back several feet from the force.
As the blast wore down, the girl fell to one knee breathing heavily. Sayuri's conscious mind started to consider just running into the night screaming, but still just watched, frozen in shock and terror.
"You really should try harder," the demon smiled.
The fox glared at him a moment, considering. She could take him out, easily, even now. But that would only be the body...and she wasn't entirely certain this Kuno deserved that.
"Time to go, Sayuri," the fox-woman said, twisting about and grabbing the statuesque girl and bolting. Kuno blinked in surprise, but was pelting down the street after them. "Wish I...knew...how to work...this thing."
Sayuri started to panic further as she could feel the fox-woman start to tire. Looking over her shoulder, Sayuri saw Kuno starting to catch up to them.
"Kami, it hurts," the fox-woman whispered faintly. She glanced drunkenly toward her left and caught sight of botanical garden. "Lose him in the plants."
Sayuri wanted to yell at her too stay focused, but her mouth just wouldn't work. The fox slashed forward with the katana to smash the window ahead of them. Then they were into the gardens, and the fox was greatly slowed down now.
"What do you expect to find in here fox?" Kuno taunted from behind them. Sayuri couldn't see him from where she currently was though. "Quite an attractive figure you pose, fox. I can keep you alive long enough for some fun before I kill you. Turn over the girl and I'll let you keep your dignity."
The words were wasted as Sayuri noticed, with a sense of resignation, that the girl's face was even more unfocused than her own. As the resignation started to hit she calmed down.
"Poppa, not the pit, poppa," the fox whispered as it dizzily set Sayuri down, nearly dropping her. Then the fox crumpled against the planters breathing heavily. Sayuri saw her Chinese style shirt slashed in many places, and looked like she was bleeding from all of them.
Sayuri looked back toward where she heard Kuno last and almost bolted right away. Instead she bent down to pick up the fox woman and try to drag her away. It was surprisingly difficult considering the girl's small size. She wasn't quite, tiny, but she was definitely bridging the gap of small and average.
Sayuri found herself wishing that she had spent more time in the gym working out like Akane. The girl had to way at least a hundred pounds, and she wasn't helping Sayuri to move her much.
"What's your answer little fox?" Kuno demanded, not far behind them now.
"We're going to die," Sayuri thought. Then she corrected herself. "No, she's going to be raped and killed...I'm going to be...one of those."
"Sorry," the fox whispered. "Not much of a hero."
The fox steadied herself and started to grow. Sayuri nearly lost her hopelessness inspired calm as the fox girl became a fox boy. Instantly the fox seemed to be much healthier and was dragging Sayuri forward.
"Y..you're still bleeding," Sayuri pointed out. The fox, very familiar looking now, looked down and cursed.
"Damn it," he said. "I guess fatigue's the only thing that gets better." He could already feel himself tiring again.
"Awww," Kuno said as he rounded the corner. "There you..." Kuno's visage twisted into a look of rage as he tried to step forward. The demon samurai covered his mouth and retreated away from them.
"What the?" the fox asked. He looked around to see what was around them. "Violets, violets all the way to where he is." The fox smirked in a decidedly malicious way as he released Sayuri and started gathering his chi again.
Sayuri looked at him in confusion until a window burst out of the fox man, whipping the violet petals out with it. Kuno hissed and roared incoherently as he rushed, terror clear on his face, away from the violets.
"That handles that," the fox said dropping to his knees and leaning on the reclaimed katana. Then he shrink down into someone Sayuri did recognize.
"RANMA?!" the girl declared, surprised.
"Hai," Ranma said. "Sorry about this." Then he fell forward, eyes closing. Sayuri moved to catch him, and looked in shock at the wounds covering him. Whatever was going on, Ranma had the answers, and she WANTED those answers.
"I need help," she said softly.
"Don't worry on that account, child," a withered voice said. Sayuri looked up to see a little old woman on a staff standing in front of two...things. A cat and a bat, Sayuri thought.
"Uhhh..."
"Shampoo, Mousse," the old woman said. "See if the hannya is still in the area. It seems we arrived at least in time to collect our quarry with ease." The animal creatures nodded and seemed to fade away.
"What is going on?" Sayuri asked.
"That is something you and my great granddaughter will have to ask the fox," the old woman said.