The two sword mistresses of the Aoyama family looked at each other, wondering why their attack had failed. While they didn’t know who Kencana was, they did know that she’s very strong. Motoko turned toward the Akane and the others who were watching, dumfounded by the fact Ranma was easily knocked down by the woman. “This place is dangerous, you must leave here immediately. We'll take care of her. We the Aoyama family will take care of this demon”

“It’s too late for that,” Kencana said while flapping one of her white wings upward, showing the spherical dome that covered the area. “This place is already cut off from outside” She smiled humorlessly. “I want to talk to you privately” Before she could continue on, a big ki ball exploded behind her, propelling her with its force. However, she managed to stop her fall with her wings. Kencana then turned toward the ki attack’s origin only to see Shampoo with her hands outstretched in front of her, panting. “Hmm… an attack that tap one’s soul. Very powerful at the expense of energy,” She examined her hand that was touching her back to see her blood on it. “A very powerful attack indeed, despite it not being of chaos”

“I… we wouldn’t let you off for what you did to Ranma,” Shampoo said.

“Ranma?” Kencana asked. “Ah, must be the man that I kicked just now. Sorry about that”

“You’re sorry?” Akane asked incredulously.

“Of course, not that I could avoid it. After all, he was trying to waste my time,”

“DAMN YOU!” Ukyo spat while dashing toward the winged woman with her battle spatula in hand.

Akane and Shampoo were about to follow her when Mousse held their shoulders. “Don’t,” he said.

“What’s the hell is your problem?”

“The problem is there,” Mousse said as he pointed at Ukyo being thrown away by Kencana’s wings. “If we fail to attack without any plan, then we’re planning to fail”

“What’s your suggestion?” Shampoo asked.

“I can invoke a binding spell,” Mousse said as he removed his glasses. “It would take me some time to set it up but I need the two of you to keep her busy for some time,”

Akane smiled. “No problem,”

“Tell the Aoyama sisters of our plan,”

“Huh, who are you to order me?” Shampoo said as she sprinted forward and launched a feign snap kick at Kencana who attacked back. The Amazon that quickly jumped toward Motoko and Tsuruko and had a brief conversation with the two of them”

Looking at Mousse, Akane asked, “Are you sure you can pull this off?”

“No,”

“That’s comforting to hear,” Akane said as she focused her energy on her right fist. Then she lunged toward Kencana.

Mousse quickly went through a series of intricate hands seals while incanting ancient Chinese incantation. While he was underestimated by all the younger Amazons in the village, including Shampoo, the elders were wary of him because of his abilities. Sure, he wore clothes with broad sleeve to hid weapons like knives or even a mace, but it was not the main reason. He wouldn’t be born to the world if his father was a mere simpleton instead of a travelling exorcist priest who accidentally stumbled into his mother while travelling in the Amazon territory.

“Are you done yet?” Shampoo shouted while countering an energy bolt with her ki ball.

He ignored the question and instead focusing his attention on the steps. “Hundred fifty more hand signals to go,” he said to himself

Akane was thrown to the ground by a very powerful force.

“Eighty left”

Shampoo, clutching her stomach while blood flow from her lips, fell to the ground.

“Another forty”

Motoko’s eyes widened as her sword was broken. She was so distracted that she didn’t noticed that Kencana was behind her, delivering a blow.

“Ten more,”

Tsuruko’s gambit to protect her sister by launching a sword thrust at Kencana failed as the latter launched an attack that overwhelmed hers.

“Now!” “MAKAI TENSHO! (Hell resurrection)” Mousse shouted as multiple ancient seals appeared on around his body and began to attack Kencana.

Fifteen minutes later, Ranma woke up just in time to see someone flying toward him uncontrollably. He quickly caught the person and was shocked to see a bloodied Mousse.

“Too strong,” Mousse gasped before coughing. “Even with me using my seal…” He didn’t finish his words as he succumbed to unconsciousness.

Ranma gently put his fellow martial artist on the ground before standing up to look around. Everyone, except Kencana was scattered on the ground, injured and out cold, as their weakened kis told him. The said woman was standing in the middle field. She didn’t get away unscathed, however as her right wing was broken and multiple wounds were on her body. Out of the numerous orbs that orbited around her, only a few blue and the red one remained. Ranma looked at her, gritting his teeth. “Did you do all this?”

“Of course not. They decide what position they end up”

“YOU…” Ranma growled as Unmei Kiriage materialized in his right hand while its sheath appeared in his left, making it appear as if he had just unsheathed the sword.

Kencana raised her eyebrows slightly at seeing the sword suddenly appearing in Ranma’s hand. The single red orb around her moved to her left hand. “Vole au paradis, Plume de lune” (Fly to the heaven, feather of the moon). The red orb dispersed into red feathers which then gathered to form a red spear with white feather made out of energy as its tip. She then dashed toward Ranma, trying to stab him with Plume de Lune.

Ranma quickly blocked the attack using Unmei Kiriage to push the spear away before trying to hit Kencana with its sheath.

The winged woman quickly raised the spear to block the sheath. Then she quickly tried to stab Ranma’s head in order to force him to abandon any attack that he was planning execute. However, Ranma dropped to the ground and kicked her feet, dropping her. Before she felt, she quickly stab the other end of the spear to the ground and used it to quickly launch herself and moved away from her adversary.

“You don’t seem too though,” Ranma said.

A small scowl appeared on Kencana. “That’s because your friends have done their job. But I think it’s too early for you to be boasting” She then stabbed her spear in Ranma’s direction, Lightning sprout forth from her spear and hit the pigtailed martial artist.

“Ughh,” Ranma grunted as the lightning shocked him. When it had receded, he almost dropped to his knees.

“Plume de Lune power is lightning and you have no way to win, not when your weapon is made out of metal”

“Don’t count the chickens until they hatch,” Ranma said while struggling to keep straight. Despite the bravado, he wondered how he could defeat the woman who had injured his friends. Then he felt a tingle in his mind. Ranma quickly jabbed his sword’s handle into the sheath’s opening. “Nigan kyousei, Unmei kiriage (Two eyes of justice, Unmei Kiriage)” he whispered as the items in his hands transformed into a weapon with red twin blades with a handle in the middle joining them together. Unlike a traditional Japanese nagitana, its blades were thinner and curved like katana blades, making it as if Ranma was holding some kind of a propeller.

“That looked impressive,” Kencana commented. “But is it enough to defeat my attack?” she said she attacked using her lightning once more.

As if having a mind of its own, Unmei Kiriage’s twin blades extended, forming a round shield. The lightning didn’t even hit the barrier as it was pushed back toward Kencana who had to counter using another lightning attack. To his shocked, the two lightning bolts collided and caused various secondary lightning bolts to hit everywhere around them. To his relief, none of the bolts hit his friends.

“A repelling attack. I should’ve suspected that,”

“Why do you seem to treat this like a giant game? Can’t you see that you’re putting everyone here in danger?”

Kencana shrugged. “They were in danger even before I came here so even if they die, it’s still the same,”

“I’M TAKING YOU DOWN!” Ranma shouted in rage as he ran toward her with his weapon.

She raised her spear to stop his attack while preparing to use the lightning attack at the same time.

At the very last moment, Ranma suddenly changed the position of Unmei Kiriage in his hand. “Sashikorusu, Unmei kiriage” (Pierce to kill, Unmei Kiriage)

Upon hearing Ranma’s command, Kencana’s eyes widened in shock.

A second later, blood dripped into the ground from torn flesh by sharp metal.

The winged woman’s hand was holding Ranma’s spear, red mist coming from it, as she stared into his eyes. “You’re Aozora, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”

“Don’t lie to me. The fact that your weapon can change into Chaos is proof enough,”

Her words caused the pigtailed martial artist to wonder how he managed to know how to transform his weapon and the knowledge behind its each form. “You’re wrong. This form isn’t Chaos, and I’m not Aozora. I’m Ranma”

One of Kencana’s remaining blue orbs moved to her other hand and she crushed the orb. Instantly her hand glowed and she then tried to grab Unmei Kiriage using it. The spear glowed as well and she was thrown off a few feet from Ranma.

“Hey, are you alright? I didn’t mean to blow you away,” the pigtailed martial artist said, forgetting the fact that she was his enemy. Meanwhile his spear’s edge, which was actually a smaller version of a katana, gave off a bluish hue.

Kencana looked at her still glowing hand and then at Unmei Kiriage. “This is IMPOSSIBLE!” she growled in anger.

“Wait. What the…”

“Shut up”. Kencana looked around her before finally settling her gaze at Ukyo who was still unconscious. Before Ranma could react, she was already upon the girl and casted a spell to levitate her. She then touched Ukyo’s face with her still glowing hand.

“Sinar suria menyinari alam,” (The sun that shines the world)

“Membasmi kegelapan, memadam bayang” (That destroys the darkness, erases the shadows)

“Batalkan perjanjian, putuskan kalam,” (Void the contract, sever the oath)

“Yang menghubungkan jiwa dan pedang” (That binds the soul and the sword)

Kencana’s hand on Ukyo’s face began to glow brighter and brighter as Ukyo began to wake up because of the pain she felt. Screaming, Ukyo tried to remove the hand with her own two hands but to no avail.

Ranma could only watch in anger as he knew that attacking Kencana would put Ukyo in danger.

After a while, the glow stopped and Kencana threw Ukyo, who had passed out from the pain, to the ground. “Damn, I wasted my energy on her,” she spat. Kencana then turned her attention back to Ranma. “Come with me, Aozora. I will figure out how sever your connection with them”

“Like the hell I’ll go with you willingly!” Ranma bellowed. “And let me remind you that I’m not Aozora!”

“You would rather allow yourself to be influence by Chaos?”

“All I know is that I wouldn’t be influenced by you!” Ranma held his spear apart. “Zan retsu giri, Unmei kiriage (Fast violent slash, Unmei Kiriage)”. His spear’s edge rotated 90 degrees at its pivot, became longer and more curved. The edge’s blue glow turned greenish and became brighter. It would have been obvious to any onlooker that Unmei Kiriage had transfigured once again, this time into a scythe.

Kencana shook her head. “As I thought, you’re Aozora, although it’s obvious that you have been totally corrupted by Chaos. Now I would like to ask you again, would you join me?”

Ranma lunged toward her, burning with anger that his scythe was aimed at her head. “NO!”

“It’s a pity, really. I could have taught you how to use your weapon effectively” Kencana held her spear in front of her “Deuxieme sceau liberation (second seal release)”

The whole place was engulfed in an explosion so powerful that it alerted everyone in the Aoyama estate.

A very young Ranma was jogging in the park by himself. Earlier on, he was jogging with his father, but then his father run off somewhere, while muttering something about food. Nevertheless, his father told him not to stop jogging and a still naïve and obedient Ranma followed his command. Now, after running nonstop for three hours, Ranma began to feel tired. But, he would have continued running if he hadn’t heard a sob nearby.

He walked toward the source of the sob to see a girl as young as him crying beside a tree.

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

The girl continued crying, but pointed to a branch on the tree. Ranma saw something shining there. Upon a closer look, it was a pendant. He briefly wondered how the thing got there before deciding to climb the tree. Upon reaching the branch, he called out.

“Hey you down there”

The girl stopped crying and looked up.

“This thing yours?”

“Yes” she answered, wiping her tears.

“I can give it to you. But on one condition”

“What is it?”

“You must stop crying and smile”

The girl tried her best to control her tears and after a few seconds succeeded. She then smiled to him in gratitude.

“You look cute when you smile”

“Is it true?”

“Yes, a martial artist never lie”

Then without warning the branch Ranma was on broke and he hit the ground quite hard. The girl quickly went to his side.

“Are you all right?” she asked worriedly

In response, Ranma handed the pendant to her. “Heh! I think I just broke my leg. My father will be angry with this”

Then suddenly, the girl put her hand on his leg and a black aura appeared around the area. The boy was surprised, but did nothing. After a few seconds, the girl pulled away.

“Your leg is okay now” she said, still smiling. “But don’t tell anyone ‘bout this, okay?”

“Okay”

The girl helped Ranma to stand up. He was astonished as it was as if his leg wasn’t broken at all.

“Ano.. may… may I know your name?”

“Saotome Ranma”

“Ranma…Wild horse. What a nice name” The girl giggled.

“What’s yours?”

The girl’s mouth opened to tell him her name. Ranma nodded. “I like that name. It suits you”

“Really?!”

“Of course!”

The girl hummed. “Why don’t you cry when you fell of the tree just now?”

“My father tells me that martial artist don’t cry n I am one”

The girl hugged him. “You’re the best martial artist in the world, coz you helped me”

“No, I’m not the best yet”

The girl was quiet for a moment and then pulled his hand. “Let’s go play at the playground together”

“But martial artist don’t play in the playground”

“Don’t be a stick in a mud. We can practice on lot of things on the playground. Let’s go”

“I’m not a stick in a mud. I’m a boy. Whoa…” Ranma let himself to be led by her.

They played and enjoyed themselves on the playground despite Ranma’s earlier protest. After a while, they finally sit on the swings.

“Ne, Ranma”

“What is it?”

“Will we meet again?”

“Sure”

“Then maybe I can buy you a strawberry ice cream cone as a reward for helping me. I can’t buy you one now coz I didn’t bring my purse with me”

“Promise?”

The girl put her hand on her heart solemnly. “If I break my promise, I will be swallowed by the monsters in my closet and under my bed”

“Whoa! Don’t be too serious”

“For you, my promise must be serious” Then girl became quiet. “Ranma… I think I like you”

Ranma innocently kissed her cheek and she blushed. “I like you too”

Her face was shining with happiness. She got up and stood in front of him. “It is set then, the best martial artist in the world. I promise, when we grow up, I will take care of you forever” She bowed.

To Ranma’s alarm, her image began to become fuzzy.

“I will take care of you forever”

“WAIT!” he shouted, not willing her to disappear.

“Shh…” a feminine voice, clearly resembling the one in his dream said to Ranma, calming him despite the darkness that he was seeing at that time.

He then realized that the reason why he couldn’t see was that there was someone’s hand was covering his eyes. Ignoring the slight pain he felt, Ranma reached to pry the hand off his face.

“I wouldn’t do that, Ranma. Your eyes have been injured,” the girl cooed. “It’s going to take some time,”

“Sorry. Seems like I trouble you again,” he chuckled, “At least this time I don’t fall off the branch,”

The faceless girl was quiet for a few moments. “So… you remember?”

“Yeah, along with what happened recently,”

“I see,” the girl sighed.

“You’re a meanie, you know that?” he complained.

“I don’t know that the great Saotome Ranma is someone to whine,”

“You taught me,” Ranma said while smiling. “How about the others?”

She coughed a little. “They’re all right, although some suffer from slight wounds”

“That Kencana?”

“Left, probably thinking that all of you died,”

“That’s good to know,” Then his face hardened a bit, “Is it true that I’m a part of Chaos?”

The girl removed her hand off Ranma’s face. “Perhaps,”

He opened his eyes slowly and saw that he could barely make out the blurry outline in front of him. “So, am I evil?”

“Well… I don’t know about that. Are you?”

Ranma squinted his eyes, trying to focus but was unsuccessful. “Well, having someone claim that I’m someone else sure made me confident of myself”

“People call you names and you don’t let them get to you,”

“This time it’s different. When I attacked her using Unmei Kiriage, I could feel pure hatred flowing through me,”

The girl cupped Ranma’s face gently. “Do you feel hatred right now? Do you hate me?”

Ranma felt his face began to burn from her touch. “Of course not! How can you say such a thing?”

Sighing, she turned away, “Looks like you’ve gotten the answer wrong,”

“What? How could I…”

She put her finger on his lips, immediately shutting him up. “Would it be evil to love someone, Ranma?” she asked quietly.

“Of course not! Love isn’t evil and you know that”

“It’s not a simple as you said, Ranma,” she said before dipping her head to claim a kiss from him.

Ranma’s world seemed to freeze in that short but long moment. Everything else around the two of them seemed to melt away as he reveled in the softness and taste of her lips. He didn’t know how long they shared the kiss but when she withdrew, he felt intense desire for her.

“Ranma,” she said as she touched his cheek gently, “Have a good rest”

“Huh?” Ranma uttered as he felt himself become groggy and his vision, which was just clearing up, began to fog once more.

The next time he opened his eyes, a man wearing traditional Japanese healer garb recognize was checking at him.

The man got up and when to the sliding door “He’s come to,” he shouted.

Ranma look around him to see that he was lying on a futon. Motoko was lying unconsciously on another futon few meters away from him. Then he heard a sound of feet thumping toward the room and a second later, the man was shoved away as Akane, Shampoo and Ukyo entered the room, with each of them wearing aprons and carrying some kind of pot. Of course, the one Akane was carrying looked more like a cauldron, but Ranma wasn’t the one to care about cook wares. Ranma did what he normally did.

He groaned.

“Ok girls, our hero has just regain his consciousness, so there’s no sense in the three of you killing him by clogging up his stomach” Tsuruko admonished them gently as she entered the room. She then caught a whiff from Akane’s cauldron and immediately went to her. “Can I have a taste of that?”

Akane nodded while handing her the tasting saucer.

Tsuruko tasted the concoction a bit and her eyebrows rose slightly. “Say, I know that you wanted to give this to Saotome-kun, but may I have the whole thing?”

The Tendo girl looked at Ranma and then Tsuruko. “I guess,”

The Aoyama clapped her hands and two men appeared. “Please serve our guest with this morsel. I’m sure he’ll appreciate this very well,”

“Yes, Aoyama-sama,”

After the two left, Tsuruko turned back to Akane. “Is it okay if you give us the recipe as well?”

“Heh heh. I just mix up the ingredients,”

“Then, we would like to ask your permission for us to copy what you did from the video recording,”

Akane was flabbergasted. “Well…”

Tsuruko misconstrued Akane’s hesitation as an attempt to bargain. “Oh, silly me. Of course, we’ll pay you 100,000 yen”

She could only nod as both Shampoo and Ukyo stared at her with jealousy.

“Okay, I guess that settle’s that. Now then, Saotome-kun, how are you feeling?”

“Like being run down by a steamroller,” he groaned. “What happen?”

Tsuroko gave a wan smile. “While fighting against Motoko, a sword managed to appear in your hand. Then the two of you traded your ougis and I had to step in to control the situation. But that didn’t stop the two of you from destroying the whole area,”

“Ah, Unmei Kiriage,” Ranma blurted.

“When did you get such a sword?” Shampoo asked.

Ranma shrugged, wincing as pain gripped his left shoulder. “Would you believe me if I said I got it from Nabiki instead of an ancient cat god that I freed from a boot?”

“Don’t take us for a fool, Ranchan, of course we believe that you get it from a cat god,” Ukyo said.

“Anyway,” Tsuruko said drawing the attention to herself, “that’s a good weapon you have there. It’s the first time I see a sword that can morph into other weapons. I suggest that you take your time to master it though,”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s kinda…”

“ARGGH! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!” an inhuman scream, slightly muffled but still clear, reverberated through the room. “NO! GET THE THING OUT OF MY SIGHT!”

“It seemed that you needed some practice with such weapon,” Tsuruko said, nonplussed by the scream.

“PLEASE, I BEG YOU! STICK MY HEART WITH A STEAK… NO! NO! A STAKE! A STAKE!” the shout continued.

Ranma nodded, “Since it’s quite rare for me to fight using such weapons,”

“I PROMISE YOU THAT I WILL ABSTAIN FROM BLOOD FOREVER! ”

“Would you like our help with that?” Tsuruko said as she eyed Motoko who was regaining her consciousness.

“I KNOW! I’LL HELP YOU HUNT OTHER VAMPIRES!”

Ranma shook his head “Well, I have to decline. As you recall, my mother is an expert in weapons,”

“I SWEAR TO GOD I’LL REPENT! ANYTHING BUT THAT!”

“But if you want to brush up on your skill, you know where to find us,” Tsuroko said.

“NO! NOT THE WHOLE BOWL! IT’S INHUMAN!” the voice shrieked with even more terror.

“Forgive me,” Mousse, who entered the room after Tsuruko and has been keeping quiet the whole time until just then said, “quite ‘lively’ atmosphere’ you have here”

Tsuruko sighed. “Tell me about it. Vampires like to whine a lot; that’s why I really hate them,”

1. Firstly, I would like to apologize to those who have read Ever Stay Chaotic before as the same scene made was reused here. It’s the only way I know to explain what follows after that without confusing those who haven’t. Yes, it’s that important as it provides you the confirmation to a ‘certain’ question that you may have in mind.

2. The story, despite its rather confusing parts, is actually straightforward. Granted, certain things has to be assumed: the NWC crew has improved (covered in ESC), but apart from that, not much has been revealed yet. Of course, some of the things don’t make sense until later. For example, what’s the part about Kencana’s history has anything to do with her being in the present? The answer to that question would explain why Ranma’s weapon has three modes of attacks and other things as well.

3. Yes, some of you may notice the Bleach influence in this story. For those who don’t, don’t worry as while it’s certainly influenced by Bleach (and XXX-holic, Naruto, Ah My Goddesss, to name few), like I said before, it’s quite independent and no knowledge of the said story is needed.

4. Thanks to fan-rei for providing the names for the attacks

5. If you haven't found out by now, yes, it's a RN story.