I do not own Highschool of the dead. Unlike the writer/artist of that story, I am actually finishing this story. Nor do I own Ranma 1/2, for uncounted number of reasons.

Good evening….. INFIDELS! Ahh, Achmed the dead terrorist, how funny you are, yet also faintly disturbing as a sign of America's desire to trivialize possibly the most serious issue of our lifetimes. Still funny though.

So, I was stuck at my relatives place for two weeks, and since I don't keep my Dragon Naturally Speaking program on my laptop (for some reason it doesn't really work well on it, there's always 'him' between every actual word I speak, none of the names I've added to my profile carry over to my my online profile, no idea why, and the speech recognition is WAAAY off) I had a few hours a day to devote to writing up the outlines for my next chapters of ATP and Wild Wolf, and also finish this story, parts of which I had written some time back, but hadn't polished. I was honestly surprised how many people wanted me to write an actual ending rather than leave this story open ended, but there you are.

I have to say I love the characters in HOTD (the original), and a part of me does wish to come back to this crossover in the future, not this story though. I feel, looking back on it, I sort of emphasized the sex part of things slightly too much instead of making it a point of drama or comedy. Plus, while the idea of heading out to an island was good, that also removed the whole zombie issue. Ranma also, despite his mental issues, is too powerful in this story to allow for much real drama in terms of survival, and unlike in Wild Wolf, where I have plans to correct that imbalance, in this story I can't just make the zombies tougher, because that would cut into the realism of others surviving against them, removing the human element from the list of things the group had to deal with. Maybe if I had him get shot or not have him add new skills to the ones he already had when I first introduced him, but no.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in talking about ideas about another crossover in this fandom, pm me, in particular ways to change the group, make it larger/smaller without cutting into 'air time'. Realize however, that I have a lot of other ideas for fics as well, and I doubt I would come back to this fandom until at least Gods and Devils and Wild Horses, Oh My, is finished.

On a related note, I have decided to not follow up with my Star Wars/Ranma or Harry Potter crossover ideas for a looooonnng while. I am also leaning towards Ranma instead of Harry because I would want it to be primarily combat/comedy based, and Ranma is simply a more random and chaotic individual than Harry, even my initial ATP Harry. I will also not get into Transformers for a long time, unless someone literally begs me, in which case I'll try to put out a one shot/prologue. That story would take too much world building which equals time and effort, and I'm already doing that with ATP and to a lesser extent Wild Wolf.

Thank you again to everyone who reviewed, in particular Prier, who has good enough to point out a lot of my mistakes in the last chapter. I was amused to see however that only two reviewers knew where I got the Makoto Nagano name, so kudos to Tomon and lyoko-kun, who recognized it as coming from Ninja Warrior, one of the three winners.

And now for the final:

Chapter 12 First Zombies, Now Pirates?

The next several days passed uneventfully while the ship moved south into the Kagoshima prefecture through the Satsunan islands carrying the now enlarged group of survivors. They spotted other ships numerous times a day, both moving simply because of wind and wave, while others were still moving under their own power. Yet terror had gripped the populace of even the smallest fishing boat, and not a one of them were willing to respond to the radio hails that Ranma and the other men sent out.

After discussion it was decided that using a male voice would probably be best, but even their relatively harmless sounding voices could not generate any response. They also kept far enough out to sea that no one on the known populated islands they passed, especially Nakanoshima, the most populous island in the area.

The trio of newcomers fit in well with the rest of the odd crew. Makoto knew his way around the ocean having lived on it off and on his whole life, so he had a lot to teach them about wind, wave, triangulation, and of course, fishing. He and Takashi in particular got along. The two of them added to their ready supply of food with at least five fish a day despite the boat moving along, something all of them were thankful for.

Makoto also got along well enough with Alice so there was no friction between the two children. They bonded the evening of his arrival over a silly card game of some kind that Ranma had never heard of. They occasionally dropped references to it in common conversation that Ranma didn't understand but the other teens seemed to get it.

Despite being stuck on board a ship Happosai had proven to be an able teacher, teaching Ranma several meditation techniques that would help them build his ability to manipulate ki. Building up his reservoir however was much more difficult, and required a lot more exercise and usage of his life. Like any physical muscle, the more someone used ki, the more they would have access to. That was on hold for now, until they got to a place where they could really go at it.

But besides his teaching ability, Happosai was not seen as a welcome addition by the rest of the pride. He was an old pervert after all, and Kasumi, who he was almost well-behaved around, couldn't be everywhere. He was constantly hopping from chest to chest, fondling and moving on quickly before any of the girls could retaliate, with, more often than not, their 'silky darlings' in his wrinkled hands.

On the other hand, beating on him gave the girls a decent outlet for any anger or other issues they were currently feeling, which came in handy when Rika and Shizuka had their monthly monsters show up. Without chocolate or any sappy movies to appease the beasts both of them had become terrors to everyone around. Happosai proved once and for all that he was nothing if not durable however, coming back for more every time they beat him down.

Kasumi fit in the most easily of all three, which would have come to no surprise to those who knew her. She was gracious, kind, an excellent cook and had this aura of tranquility about her. All the other girls had befriended her quickly. Even Saya, whose harsh tongue kept most of those who could have been her friends away before this, couldn't muster a harsh word about Kasumi. She tried at first, but Kasumi would simply smile and go about her business which made Saya think of it in the same way as kicking a puppy for wagging his tail.

Surprising nearly everyone given their vastly different natures, Kasumi and Saeko got along famously. They had a few of the same likes in terms of shows, they both were more traditional in their views and hobbies (outside of kendo of course), and even had the same tastes in food.

There was just something about Kasumi that drew even Ranma, and he smiled over at the front of the boat where she was sunning herself in a borrowed swimsuit, one of Rei's, next to Yuuki. Her one piece wasn't anywhere near as overtly stimulating as the two-piece Yuuki wore, but on Kasumi it seemed sexy.

Ranma and Kasumi had bonded that first evening. Kasumi had pushed her grief aside, at first to simply survive then to take care of Makoto and her grandfather. Now, in a place of safety and with others to take up those tasks, she had withdrawn, collapsing slowly under the weight of her grief for her family. Ranma and his mother (whose idea it had been to go looking for her when she retreated to one of the guest rooms) had helped her through it, given Kasumi shoulders to cry on, as well as willing ears.

He smirked when he noticed Yuuki looking at him and then away, flushing. She wore a two piece white two piece bikini. It wasn't anything special, though the body it covered certainly was, but it wasn't Yuuki's normal style. That suit in fact was the second one she had grabbed back at the mall. The other one, Yuuki had worn the night Ranma had finally taken the plunge and made a move on her after Saeko and Saya gave their approval. It had been ruined many times over during their playtime, and Yuuki had reluctantly thrown it over the side.

He turned around at when he heard Saya's voice hailing him. She was walking her way carefully along one side of the main cabin of the ship, one hand on the side of it, the other on the rail. She too wore a bikini, though in her case it was because they had gotten Happosai to agree not to jump them if they gave him enough visual stimulation for the day. That, coupled with the even fiercer beating Rika had given him that morning for trying to take her last pair of panties, was enough to make him agree to play nice.

When Saya was close enough to be heard over the sound of the waves and the speeding boat, Saya pointed in the direction they were heading. "We should nearly be in sight of the island, we should get together and talk about what we our plans are."

Ranma nodded and soon enough all the others, save for Shizuka who was of course still at the helm, came out on deck. Zeke raced around on the deck, with Alice and Makoto chasing after him, while the adults gathered round the prow, trying to see if they could spot the island in the distance.

Saya took out her computer, before sitting down next to Yuuki on her sunning chair. She leaned back against the other girl using her as a back rest for the moment, ignoring the feel of Yuuki's breasts pressed into her back. Last night had been more than enough to quell Saya's libido for the next week at least, despite the fact that she knew Yuuki wasn't sated. Of all three of the girls that were currently with Ranma Yuuki had the highest sex drive. Moreover she seemed determined to try and outlast Ranma, though Saya felt that was a lost cause.

"All right," Saya said looking up at them all. "This is the island of Gajajima. It was abandoned back in the seventies because the bonito fishing that sustained the island's economy died out, forcing the inhabitants to evacuate over time. We might get lucky and find a few buildings still intact. One in particular, the lighthouse, should still be livable."

She pulled up a picture on the computer and turned it around so that the others could all see an image of the island. It was a 3-D rendering from the JGS, which showed the island as a medium sized knoll with only a single large path allowing access up from the ocean. Besides that little bit of beach, the rest of the island was a cliff face.

On top of the island were a few scattered houses connected by dirt paths. In pride of place on the highest point of the island was a lighthouse, four stories tall judging by the size of the rest of the island, but that was all that could be discerned from the picture. Another building stood nearby, which Saya said was an elementary school when the island was inhabited.

"If someone else has moved in that might be a bitch to fight our way through," Kohta said musingly, gesturing with one hand at the pathway up from the sea. His other hand stroked the barrel of his rifle, which Kohta had with him since he had been on over watch up top on the roof of the main section. He smiled however when his girlfriend caught his hand, pulling it away into a vice-like grip, not letting it go.

Beside them, Rika noticed this and smiled, glad Asami was willing to control Kohta's more violent tendencies. Still, she nodded agreement with the other sniper's observation. "That's true, especially if they have set up watchers along the cliff's edge, they'd have a major advantage over us."

Saeko and Ranma simply shrugged. "If push comes to shove I can always scale the cliffs and attack whoever it is from behind." Ranma said shrugging his shoulders.

Both Saeko and the Happosai nodded agreement while Nodoka looked amused at the scared expression Kiriko was making at the very idea. Of course with her bum shoulder she wouldn't be joining them. While Happosai was a master at manipulating ki and healing himself, he had never learned how to use it to heal someone else.

Nodoka's shoulder was still much better than it had been thanks to his aid, but not up for anything that strenuous. She looked over at Saya. "But how likely is it someone's moved in?"

"Not very." Saya replied shrugging her shoulders. "This place is pretty much perfect for group our size, but that's only because we thought ahead and basically planned to do this nearly from the start. I won't lie, getting this place up and running and able to sustain us will take a while, it's not something a lot of people will think to do, at least not this quickly. Not with so much space on the main and even secondary islands available."

"Do recall said space is crawling with zombies. But I take your point." Saeko murmured, pursing her lips thoughtfully. Then she looked up at Ranma. "What do you think we should do?"

Ranma frowned. "If we were facing some group of survivors, I would prefer for us to slow down and come in at night, but…"

Saya shook her head interrupting him. "We're probably already visible from the top of the lighthouse, and if I was them I would certainly put a look out up there."

"In that case we can only go full bore." Ranma said with a shrug. "Saeko myself and Happosai will lead off. Kohta, Rika and Asami, you all stay up on top of the cabin here with Takashi, Rei, and Auntie Kiriko providing close in defense. Keep yer eyes trained on the cliff edge up above just in case. You think those little houses by the roadway going up are still there?"

"I don't know." Saya answered honestly. "Like I said this place was abandoned in the 70s. There were a few squatters a few years later but they were evicted quickly, as far as I know it was simply abandoned entirely, save for occasional stops in by the coast guard to run the lighthouse during the storm season."

Ranma nodded, and glanced in the direction the ship was travelling. He could now see in the distance a clump of rock rising out of the ocean, with what looked like a small spike on top of it. "We're in sight already." He said pointing at over the other's shoulders. "Get your game faces on guys and gals, its show time."

With the speed of Wally 118Power it only took them another twenty minutes to get near enough to the island to make out details. The small spike that Ranma had first spotted it was in fact the lighthouse on top of the rest of the island. But as the ship moved around the island to its southern side and the rest of the island came into view, it certainly looked dilapidated.

The small wharf was gone, leaving only a few rotting stumps behind sticking out of the water. The small houses built nearest heading up the 'road' were gone, or at least the first few were. As they came closer they noticed that around the bend of the road there were a few more there. But they were moss covered and looked very much worse for wear without any humans inhabiting them.

There was however a boat pulled up on the shore. It looked like a larger ship's emergency craft, but it had the words Coast Guard printed out on the side, along with its home ship's name. The boat however had capsized since being beached, and was slowly being pulled back out to sea. "Not a good sign." Ranma growled, but shrugged and the ship continued forward.

With Takashi and Ranma taking soundings from the front, the ship slowly inched forwards, stopping when the chain they were using hit bottom. Happosai had forced Ranma to use his meteor hammer for this, and the younger marital artist gasped a little as he finally pulled it back in, shaking his head. Despite the last few days learning from Happosai, his ki reservoir was nowhere near the size it should be to use his hammer for that long. He took a few deep breaths then shook his head, pushing off from where he had been leaning against the ship's safety railing.

Ranma leaped over the side of the boat followed quickly by Saeko and Happosai, who perched on her shoulders for a moment before hopping nimbly onto the shore without even getting his feet wet. "Kakakaka, come on youngsters, get a move on!"

Behind them, Rika led the three shooters up onto the top of the cockpit area, siting up the top of the cliff which was about 25 meters up here. The island rose higher up along the northern side to a hundred meters, where the lighthouse was, but here it was still a damn good defensible position.

As the three dedicated martial artists moved forwards, Ranma whispered further instructions. "With that boat there, we're going to have to clear the houses one by one just to make sure. I'll take the first one, Happosai you take the next, Saeko-chan third. We need to leave at least two people outside to make certain there ain't any other zombies around that'll respond to the noise."

The others both nodded. Even Happosai knew when to be serious, and he had sucked enough ki from the oh-so lovely ladies aboard the ship to last him for weeks. Not that he was going to hold back because of this, of course.

At first this caution didn't seem to be necessary. The first few houses were empty, falling apart ruins. All of them were single room houses, where a small family or a bachelor could've stayed during that time he wasn't out with the fishing fleet. But after so many years without anyone taking care of them, there was nothing to suggest anyone had lived there at all.

After they reached the top of the island however, they ran into what they had all feared. There were two zombies moving around out in the open, twitching this way and that, possibly in reaction to the crash of the waves and the rustle of the leaves of several trees in the other direction. Both of them looked like coast guard members. One had a large bite taken out of its shoulder, but the other's bite was barely visible, a small bite on the ankle only visible when that foot caught momentarily on a root. That bite must have been overlooked until the man turned into a zombie. At the feet of the one with the visible bite lay a small pistol.

The three martial artists exchanged glances, closing their eyes briefly in prayer for the men in front of them, before Ranma moved forward, killing them swiftly. He turned back to the others. "We'll have to clear the whole island, every place a zombie could hide. If there were two here, who knows how many others."

Ranma could make out a few more moving around the dilapidated houses elsewhere, all of which looked overgrown, and seemed to be collapsing. There was one larger building which was probably the school Saya had pointed out, but it's whole western wall had been collapsed by a tree falling. More, smaller trees had taken up root inside, furthering its collapse.

Happosai nodded, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them he shook his head, reaching into his ki-space, a trick Ranma was desperate to learn, for his small pipe. Lighting it, he puffed a few times, then pointed out into the tiny overgrown community. "I can sense a few animals that way, and one or two other things moving around, my ki sense can't tell me more than that. About five or six 'unknowns', I suppose you could say. I can also sense two more such in the lighthouse."

The lighthouse was in much better condition. No trees were nearby it, the sides were relatively moss and vine free, and it even had a door that was still on its hinges. Ranma nodded. "We'll handle the zombie freaks on the rest of the island first, then the ones in the lighthouse."

Happosai nodded then suddenly leaped onto Saeko's chest fondling her breasts giddily. "MMM, so firm, so supple, nothing like a martial artist's ta-tas for the perfect form, that bounciness!"

Saeko could not stop herself despite the danger. "EEEKK! You perverted old man, I'm finally going to kill you this time!" She swung her katana in a sharp arc, intending with all her heart to slice the little gnome into two halves, but Happosai nimbly jumped away.

Before Ranma could intervene or say anything, Happosai hopped to land so that he put Ranma between himself and the furious swordswoman. "Now, now Saeko-chan, take a look at our guests!"

Both younger marital artists turned toward the ruins of the small community, to see several zombies, about five, stumbling out. All but one of them wore patchwork clothing, as well as straggly beards. There wasn't a single woman among them. "You see?" Happosai crowed. "Exactly as I planned! Isn't this much easier than going in and rooting them out?"

"I'm still going to slice off my pound of flesh old one." Saeko growled, then shot forward toward the zombies, the other two following swiftly. In less time than it would take to tell, all the zombies were dead.

Ranma looked down at them, frowning thoughtfully. "Leave the ero-oji alone for now, Saeko-chan. How the heck did the infection spread here? I mean, I can see what happened with the coast guard guys, but what about these losers?"

The ancient master of Anything Goes knelt down, looking at the uncovered arm of one of them. He spat disdainfully to the side. "Druggies. Look, you can tell where this one injected himself. They must have moved in here, begun to grow their own crops or something. I wonder if they had any actual crops besides whatever drug they use?"

Ranma and Saeko exchanged a grim glance. "We'll have to find those crops and burn them out. I understand marijuana has medicinal value, but anything else needs to be burned now. If we add to our community later, we can't have that kind of crap around." Happosai nodded, and he and Ranma moved off into the woods to take care of that, while Saeko went back to the boat to grab Rei and the other fighters save Rika and the shooters, who, after being informed of what they found, turned their attentions mostly out to the sea, just in case.

Takashi and Kyoko joined Ranma and Happosai moving through the rest of the island, which was about two square miles of usable land, mostly taken up by the ruins of the small community. They soon found another zombie, who Ranma dispatched, as well as the druggies paraphernalia and crops. Under Kyoko's instructions, Happosai set a controlled fire, burning them away.

However, Takashi also found a small area where the squatters had begun to grow other crops, real food type of crops rather than their drugs. "Guess they knew they couldn't live on that shit alone." Ranma and the others nodded, happy to see the small four feet by four feet wheat field, as well as the even smaller section of radishes, some other vegetables, and even sugar beets. No spices of course, but they had enough of those in their horded goods, and they had enough seedling to multiply these crops by a factor of five at least.

Inside the lighthouse, Rei and Saeko did indeed find the two predicted zombies in residence. One again looked like a Coast Guard seaman, while the other wore the same squalid clothing as the others on the island. The inside of the lighthouse was laid out as nearly all such were, a single large room at the base housing the, alas rusted generator, with a staircase leading up to first quarters and then the light itself up top. This place was so old that it had a small room on the first floor set aside for coal, but it also had a small kitchenette the two girls could see.

Done with their perusal, the two made their way up the stairs, making sure there were no more zombies before heading back out to join the others. The rooms on the second floor had to be aired out badly, they stank of mildew and decay, but other than that, there were no problems, and once they got rid of the smell, the three small rooms would provide decent bedroom quarters for the various pairings among them. The top of the light house was in worse shape, with much of the glass smashed, but even that was fixable.

Soon enough the martial artists were back onboard the boat, which Shizuka had grounded on the shoreline. Ranma reported what they found, finishing. "I think we should abandon the idea of fixing up any building but the lighthouse itself. It's still decent enough, no holes in this walls or anything, and I think it'd be big enough, for all of us."

Saeko described the layout of the lighthouse, as well as the degree of damage to the other buildings on the island had taken over the years, and everyone agreed that putting the lighthouse back in working order would be much easier.

"If one of you can show me where the old generator was, I can disconnect it and rig a connection to one of the solar panels while we still have sunlight. If we can get in a full day of charging on it, we should have enough power to power the lighthouse without using our gas reserves." Yuuki said. Another of the portable solar rechargers was already hooked up to the boat, running all the electronics on it.

"I'll take you up there now." Saeko said nodding. "Takashi, Kohta, would you come with me please? We might need some extra hands to get the old generator out of there, it was badly rusted in places so might be hard to disconnect. After that, I think it might be a very good idea to have a watcher set up in the top of the lighthouse.

"What about the boat?" Shizuka asked. She pouted a little as she looked over at it. "That boat saved us a lot of time and effort, and it's a magnificent resource."

"We're not gonna get rid of it or anythin'!" Ranma said laughing a little. "In fact I was thinking of basically pulling it all the way up to the lighthouse and 'docking' it up there somehow. We can't leave it at the bottom here, it sticks out too much, telling anyone who stops by someone's here, and we'd have to leave people onboard to guard it as well." The ship also was a much more habitable dwelling than the lighthouse for now, if only because it actually had furniture whereas a lighthouse barely had any but a few sleeping racks on the second floor, whose mattresses were heavily riddled with mold.

"Ranma" Saya said sighing. "You have no idea how heavy that thing is. Even if we all got together, there's no way we could lift it."

"We can't lift it, but we can drag it up. There are a lot of trees up there,. Put them down as rollers, and pull the ship up by a rope. We can use its anchor chain can't we?"

"Lad you're dreaming!" Happosai laughed, shaking his wrinkled head. "There's no way we can do that. No, we'll have to… why are you looking at me like that?"

Ranma smirked, still staring at the diminutive martial artist. "I just had an idea…"

It took them the rest of the day to get everything ready for Ranma's plan, forcing them to break for the evening. That evening all of them save Yuuki, Kyoko, Rei and Takashi slept on the boat in shifts just in case someone came by and saw the yacht sticking out like a sore thumb on the beach.

Yuuki and her crew however were busy throughout the evening and into the night to remove the old generator, which alas was more 'rust than working parts' in Yuuki's opinion. Eventually they removed it however, and found that the electrical lines of the lighthouse were in decent repair. Many of the lightbulbs were gone, broken or missing, but eventually they would have light, power and even some heat in the lighthouse. Not a lot, the heating system was pretty bad, but the small kitchenette on the first floor would at least have all its parts working, and they could set fires for heat if need be.

The next day, while Nodoka, Kiriko, Kohta, Yuuki and Asami in creating a sort of docking area by the lighthouse (very crude, just enough to keep the boat upright once it was there, and it used most of their cement supply), Ranma and the others got to work. Saya and Kyoko were on over watch in the lighthouse, while Saeko, Rei, Takashi, Rika and Ranma worked on the boat. Shizuka and Happosai however were the main reason this plan was workable at all

.Happosai sighed happily, nuzzling into the giant pillows of Shizuka's chest. "Ah, so happy…. I would name Ranma my heir right now even if he wasn't the last one practicing my school!"

In his diminutive hands, Happosai held one end of Ranma's meteor hammer, whose chain glimmered blue with ki as it passed around the lighthouse like a very primitive fulcrum, then down the gravel path towards the beach. It ended where the other end was looped over the prow of the boat through a series of holes Ranma and Happosai had carefully sliced out of the carbon-composite that made up the hull along the safety railing there.

Down below, the ship had been slowly maneuvered until its keel sat on a makeshift sled, then tied down by every piece of rope they could find. At the back Ranma stood, waiting to help push the contraption along. The others were all lined up along sides of the boat, ready to rush in to aid in anyway necessary.

The idea was built around two things, one, that Happosai had a much larger and more readily available ki reservoir than Ranma, and he could gain power through his perversions. They had found a large natural stone formation, where Happosai would set himself, then he would, using the power he would soak up from being held by Shizuka, set himself, and begin to shrink the chain slowly, pulling the boat up its length along the pathway. It would be slow going, but doable.

Makoto stood by with a radio, talking with Alice who was by the boat, nodded over at the old man and the incredibly busty nurse (who Makoto was developing a bit of a crush on). "The ship's all ready to go!"

"Alright, let's do this oji-san!" Shizuka leaned down, placing Happosai on the ground, giving him an extra tight hug and a kiss on the check before setting him on his feet.

Happosai giggled, ahh, bliss! With a thought, his perversion based ki aura blossomed around him, and he secured his feet under the monstrous piece of granite, sending his ki into the ground further anchoring himself. With his aura on full, the old man began to shrink the chain. There was a squeal behind them as the chain moved along the outer walls of the White House, followed quickly by another sound as the ship began to be pulled up towards him.

Next to him, Makoto listened in on his radio for a moment then gave Happosai and the nurse a thumb's up. Shizuka smiled happily, leaning over, not incidentally pulling Happosai's diminutive form further into her chest, causing his aura to flare even brighter. "It's working!"

Down below things were not going nearly so well. The makeshift lash up that was the sled was not moving very well. While Ranma was busy pushing, the others were busy removing the built-up gravel from the front of it. This was made harder several minutes into the operation when it began to rain. As droplets began to hit him Ranma shook his head angrily. "Great, just what we need!"

Saeko heard him from the front of the boat and shouted back. "Don't complain! Who knows what else can go wrong!"

The rain was making it worse for the group in front. Their footing was worse, the gravel was strangely slippery given the amount of moss that was practically everywhere, and the gravel clumped together worse at the front of the moving sled, making the going even slower. They had to occasionally tell Alice to signal Happosai to stop, allowing them time to remove some of the pile up, as well as redo the ropes, which occasionally came undone despite the Makoto's best efforts. Luckily the boat didn't show any danger of tipping one way of another, thanks to its general shape and the nature of its keel.

The operation continued throughout the day as the rain continued to pour down over them. By around midday the yacht had moved about halfway up the path and gotten around the bend, which was by far the most difficult portion so far. But the workers were beginning to tire.

They were about to take break when Alice held up a hand from where she had been walking next to the boat. Unlike the workers, she wore a raincoat, but it was still getting surprisingly cold thanks to the rain, and she was shivering a little. But that wasn't what had caused her to get the workers attention. She held her radio up to one ear, looking at them all with wide eyes. "Saya oneechan says there are boats incoming."

OOOOOOO

Ranma raced through the woodlands then up through the lighthouse to join Saya and Kyoko staring out into the ocean. Kyoko lifted on hand from her binoculars to point out to the south of the island, straight past where the tiny entrance was. "Three small boats!" she reported. "They look like fishing vessels of some kind but they're moving together, and pretty quickly too."

Ranma frowned. First zombies, now pirates? Great... "Can you make any out any details?"

Saya shook her head. "These binoculars we're using aren't powerful enough. But they're definitely heading towards the island under power. The boat might have been seen sometime last night, or maybe we were spotted while we were sailing along yesterday. I don't want to say that their intentions aren't here in as the driven snow but…"

Ranma chuckled darkly, shaking his head. "No need, let's prepare for the worst and be surprised if it doesn't happen." He turned to Rika, who had just run up the stairs behind them, one of the rifles over her shoulder. "Do you think the snipers should stay up here, or move to the cliff edge by the pathway?"

"Both. Asami should stay up here, and Kohta and I will take position at the top of the cliffs with as many of the others armed with long range weapons as we can. Visibility is so bad because of the rain I doubt Asami-chan will be able to get off many shots, but from the top of the cliffs we should be able to, and be in a position to fire down into the pathway. I doubt we'll be able to tell whether they're good guys or bad guys until they're nearly on top of us in this weather, so that will be where the action really takes place." Rika replied authoritatively.

Ranma nodded, then turned without another word to race down the stairs again, meeting Alice coming up, huffing and puffing with a soggy Zeke next to her. "Call Makoto, he, you and the other noncombatants should fort up here." After that, he relayed his orders to Yuuki and the others in the lighthouse before moving on to grab up some of the weapons.

Soon enough he was back with the others relaying the news, carrying Saeko's blade as well as his cousin's jumonji-yari. Both women gratefully took the weapons while Ranma and Takashi slammed home several dozen makeshift hocks behind the sled.

After that, Takashi joined the others on the top of the cliff, taking a nail gun from Kohta, who was belly down in the wet grass, peering down his sniper rifle's scope already at the incoming vessels. Kohta, Takashi and Yuuki, both of the latter armed with the two nail guns, were on one overlooking cliff, nearly hidden in the scrub brush along the edge. Rika, Kyoko, Kiriko and Saya were on the other. Kyoko was once more armed with the crossbow, while Kiriko and Saya, surprisingly slightly better shots than Takashi or Yuuki, each held one of Rika's special pistols.

Kohta nodded back at the other two teens, pointedly ignoring the ability to stare right down Yuuki's shirt as she sprawled on the ground next to him. He and Asami had indeed had a fun time a few evenings ago, and Kohta was of the opinion that one girl was all he could handle. "Don't try to fire at the boats, even when they land on the shore, it's too far for you to hit. Concentrate on taking out any of them in the path directly below."

Both teens nodded, while Takashi glanced down the cliff to where Rei was waiting with the other marital artists worriedly. On the other cliff, Rika gave the same order then sighted down her scope at the incoming vessels. Below, Happosai joined the trio already there, hiding themselves in the shadows of the cliff out of sight along the bend in the gravel road.

They had to wait another forty minutes before the ships were close enough for the watchers on high to make out details. Ranma's radio crackled and he looked up toward the cliff where Rika was hunkered down. "Almost certainly pirates." she reported. "They're all armed, mostly knives and clubs with more than a scattering of guns. Not a woman among them, and all of them look shabby. Their boats are too from what I can make out, though I'm no expert."

Ranma frowned. That many guns might give us trouble if we can't get close. On the other hand, any extra rounds will be a good addition to our supplies. Kota at least will be happy he thought to himself smirking a little at the thought of the gun nut and his one track mind. Still now he had a battle to plan.

Debating for a moment, he shook his head. "We can't assume we'll be able to treat with them peaceably, especially if they're that well- armed and with no women among them. Take them under fire the moment you can. Disorganize them as much is possible; target their leaders then anyone with a gun who tries to keep his distance behind the main rush."

"Roger." Rika's approval for Ranma's orders came through her voice easily, and not a moment later a single shot rang out from the cliff above, hitting a man on the first ship who was dressed slightly more colorfully than his fellows in the head. A moment later another shot rang out taking a man next to him in the chest.

Over the pounding rain Ranma heard shouts of dismay and rage in several different languages. The most prominent was surprisingly Vietnamese for some reason. The next most prominent was Japanese which made much more sense. He idly wondered where this crew had come from, but of course it didn't really matter, they were all going to die here anyway if he had anything to say about it.

He looked over at the other three. "Get ready, hopefully the shooters above will have disorganized them enough that they'll try to charge forward as a group so we can getting close but if we don't, watch out for their guns."

Saeko and Rei nodded seriously, but Happosai chuckled. "Teach your grandfather to eat rice, boy!" He smirked reaching into his ki pocket once more pulling out a large ball that looks like a very makeshift firework. "Once the battle really gets going, I'll rush forward and burn their ships."

Ranma frowned a little then nodded. "Burn only one of them; we might be able to salvage some from the others."

Rei looked at her cousin shaking her head at the confidence he had in their ability to deal with this. Still, as he crouched, and tiny ki blades began to appear from his fingers, she somehow knew that they would survive this.

The small beach actually wasn't big enough for all three of the attacking boats to beach themselves. The first two slammed into it, the pirates, and whatever they had had once been they were certainly pirates now, swarmed over the sides into the shallows. The third boat was waiting its turn, too far out for the men aboard to jump into the shallows and keep their guns out from the water.

Kohta and the others began to fire into the crowd of 50 or so pirates as they charged up the gravel path. Rika targeted the four pirates that had been left behind with the two beached boats, killing them all in quick succession before they could push their boats back out from the shoreline.

Several of the pirates tried to stay put and fire back up at the cliff top, but they couldn't range on the shooters above. Kohta and Kiriko concentrated on them, cutting them down where they stood.

The rest of the pirates continued their charge up the gravel path, but as soon as they turned the corner on the path up Ranma charged. Slamming into the front of the pirates, he was in among them before the ones with guns could train on him. He was simply too damn fast for any of the ones using guns to get a bead on, never still, striking and moving on.

Rei and Saeko followed quickly, their weapons flashing. Saeko was simply too fast and too skilled to be in much danger from the pirates wielding hand-to-hand weapons, and Rei's spear work was enough to keep them at bay as well, with Saeko watching her back at need. The gunners were the main threat, but they hesitated just long enough for the marital artist to get mixed up with them.

They still fired of course, pirates of any era were not known for caring about their fellow crewmen, certainly not in times like these. But now the three martial artists could use the crowd to protect themselves. It was still dangerous, but poor visibility thanks to the rain, the chaotic conditions they propagated, and the fact that there were only three of them for less than fifty pirates now made the guns more dangerous for their fellows than the defenders.

Happosai literally jumped over the entire fight not incidentally drawing quite a lot of surprised gunfire at first. He landed behind the main melee, racing on towards the beach, preparing his firework. "Happo Daikairen!" He threw it quickly, impacting the boat that was trying to nose its way between its fellows close enough to the shore for the pirates aboard to leap out onto the shallows.

The firework hit the boat, exploding on impact and sending fiery shards every which way. Even in the rain the fire caught helped along by several bottles of alcohol that had been left out on the deck. The pirates slovenly lifestyle came back to bite them in the ass as the alcohol ignited, racing along the small boat.

Several of them cried out, jumping into the ocean but Happosai remained there, killing any of them who made their way to shore. With the end of his pipe he pushed the now merely burning boat away from its two fellows. He watched with hard eyes as it was swept away by the ocean currents crashing into the cliff on the right side of the entrance before being pulled along the edge of it and out to the ocean.

Suddenly there was a booming blast as the fire ignited something explosive inside. Bodies and its of bodies scattered along with pieces of the boat. Thankfully the ocean's current had already taken the boat out far enough that only a few burning bits smacked into the other two, and with the rain they weren't enough to spread the fire further.

With that done, Happosai turned and raced back to join the main battle.

By this time the Pirates trigger-happy attitude had cost them the majority of their men. In return, Rei had taken a blow from a club to her shoulder when she had dodged a pirate firing on her from point blank range, and another blow to her ankle from another pirate who had run out of bullets and been forced to use his rifle as a club. She was limping badly, leaning on her jumonji yari for support, but Saeko and Ranma were nearly untouched save for a few bruises here and there.

The combination of the pirates own gunfire, the fact there were only three of them, the fire from above and their close range skills had proven to be more than a match for the pirates numbers. Happosai came back in time to help finish it, killing the last standing pirate as he frantically tried to retreat while at the same time reloading his rifle.

Ranma nodded his head coming down from his battle high before raising a hand to wipe some pirate blood off his face from his face. The rain was doing it's job to clean the majority of it off thankfully. That battle had been up close, personal, and brutal as all get out, but they had survived it. By his side Saeko was wearily cleaning her blade, her eyes dark, but a thin, ecstatic smile on her face, as she shuddered, coming down from her own high.

Nearby Rei was shaking a little, not having gotten used killing other human beings before this despite the battle against the Shido-shit's forces back in the city. Still she shook it off quickly and, limping, joined the others as they moved towards the beached boats.

Behind them Kohta quickly came down to look at the guns from the dead pirates. Takashi came with him carrying the meat cleaver he had taken from the mall in one hand, and his nail gun in the other. He quickly moved to lend a shoulder to Rei, ignoring Kohta's mutters about the guns he was quickly stacking up, shaking his head in irritation at how many of them were broken, rusty, or otherwise useless. The others stayed up top to cover them.

While Rei rested on the beach, Ranma and Takashi searched one of the boats while Saeko and Happosai searched the other, though unfortunately they didn't find much of use. There was a lot of alcohol, which Happosai greedily stuffed into his the space, ignoring Saeko's look of censure. The blankets and the cots were so dirty none of the searchers wanted the chance them. They found a few crates of bullets and a few barrels of gasoline, which made Yuuki happy once she saw them since it supplemented the amount of fuel that their yacht had nicely.

At the moment however, Ranma shook his head. "These guys must have a main base somewhere I guess, but I don't honestly see anything else here we could use."

Takashi shook his head next to him as he came out of what had been possibly the captain's quarters. "I can't even find any charts or anything. I think we're done here."

Ranma nodded then moved over to pick the large barrel of gasoline while Takashi picked up two of the boxes of bullets, piling a heavy length of rope on top he had found out on deck.

They dropped their goods off after which, they all, besides Rei, Kohta and Rika, pitched in to remove the bodies from the pathway, throwing them onto the boats. This took more than an hour, by which time the storm had worsened even more, and the sun was beginning to descend in the distance.

Finally, Ranma and Happosai pushed the now filled boats out into the ocean after staving them in at both ends. They would soon sink, hopefully leaving nothing to indicate what had happened to them. Despite that defensible position of the island, anonymity was their best defense. With that done, the victorious yet bone weary defenders trooped up to the lighthouse.

The workers trundled into the lighthouse to be greeted by the most magnificent sight of all time. Hot, steaming food was laid out on the table, which had been taken from the yacht. Sandwiches, rice balls, seared tuna and other fish and other things.

Kasumi, Nodoka, the two kids, and Kiriko stood smiling at them all while Asami finished bringing out some of the plates, which had also been taken from the yacht, from the kitchenette, also piled with food.

Saeko shook her head in astonishment. "You did all that cooking that small kitchenette?"

"It was a challenge," Nodoka nodded, "but well worth it I feel."

Everyone quickly fell to with a will as Kasumi passed out warm towels, again taken from the yacht, to the wary warriors. The only one of the fighters who had any energy at all was Happosai, who cackled gleefully at having spent more than half the day with Shizuka either carrying him or pressing up against his back with her magnificent bosom.

It was decided to have Ranma and his 'pride' sleep down on the boat, while everyone else bunked up in the lighthouse, with Kohta and Rika taking turns on night watch up top. Eventually they would add further to their defenses, but for now they were still vulnerable and they all knew it, even if Kohta was ecstatic about the haul of guns and rounds they had taken from the pirates.

The next day, the workers went back to work on moving the yacht up the path, minus Rei, whose ankle, in Shizuka's opinion was too badly battered to take her weight. They finished moving the boat up into its makeshift hold by late afternoon.

Over the next month and a half the group got further to grips with making this island their home. Makoto, Kohta, Happosai and Takashi, surprisingly with Takashi in charge, scoured the remains of the small village for pieces of building material they could use, making the housing for the yacht much more permanent, as well as making a small, very makeshift barricade in the pathway down to the ocean right where it curved. Happosai also began to teach Takashi martial arts construction along with Ranma. Both boys took to it easily, but Takashi had a flair for it that Ranma, for all he was better at nearly all the actual martial arts part of it, couldn't match.

Ranma worked closely with Kasumi to expand the lighthouse's kitchenette with some of the material Takashi came up with, something that made Saeko and Saya as well as Yuuki smile every time they saw the two together. It was obvious Kasumi was attracted to Ranma but didn't want to act on it without getting at least Saeko's okay. She was still not as used to life as it was now as the others were, but eventually Saeko knew that Kasumi would work up her courage enough to ask join them, and Saeko would welcome her. After all, Kasumi was a fine figure of a girl, and it was obvious Ranma was attracted to her as well.

While this was going on the bedding from cots in the crew quarters were taken out of the yacht and cleaned, along with all of the removable sofas and sofa pillows. These were used to make the lighthouse more livable. Kohta and Asami took over the topmost level of the lighthouse, a small area built around the light itself, which they had disconnected from the generator just in case. They used a few of the pillows, and two of the bedding sets.

The next level was somewhat larger, and now contained two rooms. One of them had been taken over by Shizuka and Rika, the other by Takashi and Rei. The others all slept on the first floor in the main area there, using the majority of the pillows taken from the yacht. Ranma and his lovers remained aboard the boat in the master bedroom, where they had built up quite a lot of happy memories.

With the two solar panels fueling their power, both the boat and the lighthouse had power, something that would come winter be a necessity.

While Ranma worked on expanding the kitchen and Shizuka helped Nodoka to redesign the interior, Kyoko led the others in creating a largish garden right outside the lighthouse at the back, where hopefully they would be able to eventually harvest more food for themselves along with a small garden that the drug use it used.

With all of them, even the children, doing their part, the island was both defensible and was quickly becoming more homely and self-sustaining. Thanks to Saya's planning they had enough supplies to last them until their first batch of crops came in, the fishing down on the shore and the few animals (mostly birds of various types) supplemented their diet. They had clothing enough for the time being and for winter when it eventually arrived. They had enough power, and enough material to actually make this place a home, no matter how ramshackle.

Despite all this progress however, there were some things that they couldn't create themselves on the island. There weren't a lot of excess wires so if any of the electronics in the lighthouse went that was it. They didn't have a lot of light bulbs either, making the lighting in the lighthouse intermittent, forcing them to switch some of the lights from the interior of the yacht to the lighthouse.

Everyone knew that they would eventually have to send 'cutting out expeditions' to at least Nakanoshima. Bullets were no longer an issue which Kohta gave thanks for daily, but Takashi was unhappy with the amount of wood that was really too rotted for permanent use. The planks they had already used were unfortunately the majority of the usable wood on the island that didn't come from the trees, which, given the fact they attracted birds to supplement their diet and a few were fruit bearing, none of the group wanted to cut down.

They also didn't have any ready supply of metal; there was no usable metal anywhere on the island that wasn't rusted badly, not even nails. Takashi had already thought up plans to create a more permanent method of moving the ship up and down the trail, but it would require more resources than they had at present.. It would always be backbreaking work, but it could be made much more easier then what had been, most especially with the inclusion of some wheels instead of a sled operation. Some gears could also help the meteor hammer to actually pull the boat up without so much muscle power necessary.

For now however, all of them simply wanted to stay here for a few months and relax. In Ranma's thought, the life they were carving themselves out here on this island was probably the best they could do in today's world. The future could solve itself in his opinion, right now he was just going to enjoy every day as it came.

Several nights after work had completed on enlarging the kitchen, Saeko stared down at two small pills in her palm, while her other hand was gently playing with her nether regions, feeling the fluids slowly dribbling out of her. Yuuki lay collapsed by her side on top of Saya's already dozing form, while Ranma's arm gently held Saeko against his chest from behind. A brunette head leaned lightly against Saeko's sweaty breasts, her own breathing slightly labored. Kasumi had indeed joined Ranma's 'pride' as Saya still rather caustically called them, and fit in immensely well, somehow adding another component to their family.

Eventually the mistress of the kitchens (Kasumi was called that by everyone, her cooking was better than even Nodoka's or her sisters) got her breathing under control. She too down at the two pills in Saeko's hand. The two of them shared a glance, communing silently before Saeko spoke softly. "Ranma could we ask you a question?"

OOO Fin OOO

And there we have the end of Horse of the Dead. I could've expanded this further, going on their first 'cutting out expedition', putting in a few more lemons, but really I felt this was a good time to end the story. It wasn't so much that my muse was deserting me for High School Of The Dead, as evidenced by my pre-author statement, but that this story was coming to an end. Here we have them making home for themselves, making it self-sufficient, and the girls contemplating the future. I feel that is a good place to end it, I hope everyone enjoyed the story and again, if you have ideas you want to share about another crossover in this fandom PM me and I will cheerfully exchange ideas you. If you are a budding writer yourself and want to try this fandom out, I again will cheerfully offer advice. As always read and review, and I hope you enjoyed it.