Chapter Three

Arrogantly presented by Vex The Warlord

- -

First thing's first, I may as well discontinue the little snippet I usually put here, in favor of more traditional Author's Notes.

I finally got over my Writer's block for this chapter, and the newer chapters will likely be far quicker. Don't hold me to that though...

I've set up a Forum, the address is in my profile, currently being used as my homepage.

- -

They should be- "Ranma.", it ... getting late and- "Ranma!", absence ... be ... "Ranma!!!"

Akane found herself suddenly on the grass, holding herself up with her arms, and looking up at Ranma, now quite conscious. And just out of the bottom of her eyes, she noticed Ukyo blink her eyes back to normal as well.

Ranma swept his eyes over Akane, openly showing her fear at him... Or rather, whatever he was turning into... Or had already become...

His cold, stormy blue eyes shifted focus from his Tendo fiancée as he relaxed his stance. He looked toward Ukyo, she was still sitting, unlike him, and looking up at him, somehow her eyes seemed... different... Somehow.

"Ranchan?" Ukyo asked, very unsure of everything. She was acknowledged with a nod as Ranma fell back, pressing his back against the trunk of the tree and crossing his arms over his chest.

He let his eyelids droop shut as he released a sigh. What the hell was happening to him?

Ukyo looked up at her fiancé, and back at Akane. She was calming down, but still completely on edge. For some reason, this behaviour from Ranma didn't frighten her, or even surprise her... Which in itself frightened and surprised her.

She stood up, and immediately lost her balance, wobbling and starting to fall, until caught around the waist by Ranma, who lifted her back up onto her feet. Why did she lose her balance? That had never happened before.

Akane watched the two; Ukyo seemed to be acting weird, too. What happened? And for that matter, when did it happen? And how could she stop it? So many questions were running through her head, and the most prominent among them was "So have you finally dropped your act Foul Sorcerer?!", ...Wait.

Tatewaki Kuno, Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School! And he would defeat the Dark Sorcerer Saotome today, and free his fierce Akane and Pig Tailed Goddess!

Tatewaki Kuno, The captain of the Kendo team, and resident idiot of the Nerima Ward... Why does he always have to deal with him no less then twice a day? Ranma internally groaned at this as the aforementioned moron arrived.

Kuno struck forward with his blade, and Ranma snatched it right out of his hands, and broke it over his skull with the flat end, effectively sending him to sleep. Ranma caught him by the collar as he fell forward, planning to simply dump him off in the nurse's office as he headed to class, speaking of which, what time was it? He looked around to see... Noone was around, lunch was over.

Ranma released another sigh at his tardiness and dragged Kuno along. To his side was Ukyo, softly blushing, and Akane was finally recovering and scrambled off to follow.

Of course being that this day was going too smoothly with nothing odd happening, fate decided to shake things up just a bit.

"Ranma! Why aren't you in class?" They heard. Shifting to the side they saw Hinako, in her younger form looking at them. But, without waiting for a response, she pulled out a coin, and-

"Happo Five-Yen Satsu!" Resonated throughout the hallway.

Ranma quickly heaved forward, slamming Kuno into the path of fire and spun off to the side, a smirk starting on his face as he paused for just a second. He took a few steps forward then launched himself off the wall at Hinako.

Kuno withered away as his Ki drained, but regained conciousness in mid air, but lost it as his weak body hit the ground. Hinako turned and thinking quickly, she set her hands in front of her in a familiar position, and let loose a chunk of her gained ki. "Happo No Yen Coin Return!"

Ranma crossed his arms and pulled his legs up in mid air, taking the impact as well as possible, and bounced off the wall he slammed against, heading around the corner. This little scene pulled Hinako's attentions completely toward him as she began to follow, leaving Kuno, Akane and Ukyo alone. Akane sighed and grabbed Kuno by the collar and started dragging him again.

"I hope Ranma doesn't get drained." Ukyo commented before following, forgetting completely about class. Leaving Akane staring, and wondering, just what the hell happened to them anyway?

Ranma let an arrogant smirk grace his face as he bounced down the hallway, Hinako hot on his trail. He dodged a drain attack and turned to look back at his English teacher in midair, blowing a raspberry at her, and eliciting a twitch.

Ranma flipped around and slammed his hands onto the ground, then pushed into a back flip, which degraded into a series of them before he slammed his feet on a wall. He pushed off once more, dodging another drain and hitting an adjacent corner, through the turn in the hallway.

He made way quickly before Hinako got to the corner and could start trying to absorb once more. Of course all of the noise was alerting the students in the adjacent classrooms... It was so unfortunate they stuck their heads out just when Hinako drained...

"Ready for practice team!" A boy in full Kendo armor said, raising his practice boken up into the air, he was Mujaki, Tatewaki Kuno's vice-captain. Since his captain was missing at the time of practice, which was not all that uncommon, he was to take over.

Mujaki sliced down, as did the other six boys in the simple room, but they only managed to get through that one practice slice before the low periodic booming sound grew as it passed by, and burst through the door.

Ranma's eyes narrowed coldly and he lept forward, using Mujaki's head as a springboard then out through the adjacent door. Hinako charged in afterwards and partially drained the unbalanced fool, then trampled over him as he fell.

The six kendoists looked back at the exited door, then at their acting captain. Who managed to pull his head up, and glared, "That was-" He was interrupted as his face was forced back into the ground as Ukyo walked over him, calmly, unlike Ranma or Hinako.

She left slowly, well at least comparatively, but leaving a slightly dazed look upon the six watchers. Their leader grumbled and pulled himself up once more, "That was Ranma Saotome! The glorious Blue Thunder's arch nemesis! We must defeat him in the name of our leader!"

The six kendoists nodded and took a soldier's positions with their bokens at the ready, while Mujaki pulled himself up, and charged forward, to be followed by the six.

Ranma bounced along the corridors of the school, a smirk gracing his face as he had fun. He twisted around in midair to avoid Hinako's attempt to drain him, and stalled on one wall for a moment, before launching straight up, well at least up for him. Through an open classroom door, stopped in the middle for a moment, then ran over to the wall, yanked open one of the wall panels, and went back out into the hallway. Hinako, who just arrived in the classroom growled as she spied Ranma's escape before spinning around and running out to pursue him once more.

The Band class just stared. Until of course the conductor raised his fist with a grin on his face, and declared out, "This is perfect! We finally get a chance to practice our Chase Music! Okay let's go!"

The other members of the Band Club, or Acrobatic Marching Band Club, cheered, grabbed their varying musical instruments and rushed out to follow their leader, to join the chase.

Ranma blinked in avid curiosity as he heard some music and spun around in midair to catch a look back, narrowly dodging another attempt to drain him. Damn... A lot of people were chasing him... Hinako was immediately behind him, then there were those Kendo nut cases behind his teacher, behind them was... was that guy pushing a piano? Looked like a whole marching band... And, it looks like Ukyo was at the end.

Ranma kicked off again with the ground, and blinked as he saw Hinako gain a look of shock. He spun around to see what it was.

"Okay girls! The Ranma Saotome fanclub is now in session!" A girl said happily as she stood up in front of a small group of girls, all of whom obviously members of said fanclub. Behind her was a large wall scroll of Ranma, jumping forward, in fact all around the room were some posters, where they got them was anyone's guess, although most would guess Nabiki... And they'd be correct.

"Now then let us-" The fanclub president started, when the wall behind her seemed to explode, causing her to fall forward.

Ranma recovered from the abrupt crash by pushing himself off the floor with his hands, flipping over his fan girls and taking off with a dash on the other side, yanking open the door and rushing through it.

The rest of the chase rushed through the room, as the girls sat in shock, until they recovered, and emitting a squeal the pitch of which was attainable only by teenage fan girls and dolphins, they rushed off following the object of their affections.

Ranma understandably lost himself in thoughts for a moment... He had a fanclub?! That was a boost to his ego... And kinda creepy at the same time...

Of course during this whole, three seconds of time that he was dazed and unaware the water fountain in front of him, exploded, obscuring his view of the second wall he'd crash through today.

Ranma shook her head, and found herself on top of a small pile of guys, she took a quick look around finding the walls eerily similar, but opposite of the last room, covered with picture of her female side... But that would mean...

Ranma twitched once then took off, allowing those guys to get drained by Hinako; soon after they'd probably be chasing him too... A lot of people seemed to be chasing him...

Ranma looked back for a moment, and managed to smash head first into a highly conveniently placed kettle of warm water, transforming him back into his more male form.

As our protagonist made his way through the school, he managed to add several sports teams, as well as Principle Kuno to this gigantic chase scene.

Ranma burst through the double doors of the school and stalled in the middle of the court yard of the school, he turned around to look, checking on the status of the craziness. Unfortunately Hinako had made it far closer then he had assumed.

"Happo-" Hinako managed out as time seemed to slow down for Ranma, by a bizarre twist of fate a memory began to stir within him, and an instant later, just as Hinako's chi tugged at his, it sparked open.

Ranma's eyes opened up completely as his aura flared massively, siphoning off towards Hinako, and an identical aura flared around her as a pained scream echoed from her throat. Images flashed before her eyes, and sound taunted her ears as she experienced what Ranma was.

Crap!

That was his first thought as the alarms started up alerting everyone to their presence.

"Shit! Everyone run!" The big guy cursed out before taking off. The two other guys took off as well, as did the last red headed woman.

He blinked for a moment before spinning around and running down the corridor as the numerous guards all poured into the room.

How the heck was he supposed to escape from these guys?! He couldn't fight them all!

He put a little burst of speed into his sprint, trying to pull away. A guard appeared out of a side corridor, in front of him, luckily he sliced through the guard with his sword and kept on going, without being forced to stop.

The leader turned and busted through a door, several shots were heard from it before the door was sealed again.

Unfortunately this did not help the blonde haired protagonist, as he still had many guards on his tail. He looked back and forth for something to help, then dodged a shot from one of the guard's guns.

They burst through a set of double doors onto a bridge. This opportunity was taken advantage of by the two other men with our hero, who lept off, grabbed a pole and slid down and out of sight.

"Lucky jerks..." The red haired woman in front of him muttered, then spun off down another path of the bridge.

He let loose a sigh as he was left solo, and his eyes widened as he came to a dead end, the bridge ended abruptly, and there was nothing but a free fall nearby. He spun around and squinted at the horde of guards behind him, as he pulled his sword out and readied himself, he had no choice.

He cleaved through two guards, then blasted another off the bridge with a bolt of lightning.

He fought them for several minutes; they seemed to be never ending as he slashed through them, burnt them, and electrocuted them. All the while his mind worked, trying to figure out a way out of this.

That was it! He kicked a guard in the face, snapping his neck thoroughly, he slashed through several guards then stepped back, purposely onto the edge. He let himself fall back and snatched the dead guard by the uniform, pulling the body off with him.

The remaining guards looked over the side, it was far down, there's no way he'd survive...

Under the bridge, Cloud was hanging by a cable, his sword imbeded into the metal, and holding onto the dead guard. Now all he had to do was wait for a bit.

Sometime later, he flipped himself up onto the now deserted bridge, and set the corpse down, he yanked the uniform off and kicked the body off, to dispose of it.

Then, he simply leisurely walked out in the guard uniform, too easy...

Meanwhile, in reality there was an extraordinary sight, as Ranma and Hinako were covered in two massive, connected auras. Both seemed to be unconscious, and both looked bizarre.

Ranma's body seemed to be transparent, as at the same time, a ghostly figure was in the same position he was, only this man had spiky blonde hair, and seemed to be wearing armor.

Meanwhile Hinako's hair seemed to streak itself blonde, starting at the roots, working it's way down to the tips. It started to spike out into locks, which looked vaguely similar to Ranma's dopple ganger's hair, although due to the sheer amount of it most of it remained obedient to gravity, except for some of the locks in the front. Her eyes seemed to glow as they changed from their normal blue, to a glowing green blue.

Ranma and Hinako regained consciousness at the same time, their auras abruptly dying off, their eyes closing for a moment before reopening, aware once more.