A Duet of Fists

Chapter 1

Bone snapped on flesh as two martial artists clashed, exchanging blows and bouncing around the Tendou dojo with a manic energy not shared by the rest of the household, still shaking off the sleep in the dawn light. Ranma grinned as he slipped his head past his father's fist, sliding a foot in between his father's legs and lashing out with a vicious shoulder ram to the elder Saotome's solar plexus. The blow stunned him long enough for Ranma to sweep the older man onto his back, not releasing his grip on the man's dogi and rolling over him to send his father into the koi pond.

"Breakfast!" A light voice called from the kitchen as Kasumi walked into the dining room with a tray of lightly cooked fish and seven bowls of rice. Ranma ignored the panda thrashing it's way out of a tattered white training outfit, instead opting to take a seat next to his uncute fiancée in a rush to get to the food as fast as possible.

All in all, it was a rather normal morning for the Tendou household and it's two permanent house guests, save for the diminutive pervert sitting on the dojo rooftop. Happosai stared at the happy family as he seethed at the young pig-tailed man.

The little upstart. The brat had gotten a lot more uppity after coming back from Jusendo. So what if he'd beaten up that little fire bird? That would have been child's play! He had no right to show such constant disrespect!

He'd refused Happosai's training last week. Refused it!

Happosai muttered darkly in an ancient tongue as he toyed with Yuki-onna's Braids. A pair of two chains, one gold and the other platinum, they were designed to control any creature with a simple spell. Upon the completion of the spell, the two chains would hurl from their place on Happosai's lap to fly towards Ranma, each wrapping around one of his arms and binding the pigtailed martial artist to Happosai's will.

Then he would make the boy a proper heir, starting with teaching the young upstart a proper respect for the silky darlings all around him. Ranma had more than enough speed and skill to pilfer them from the weak girls that surrounded him, and he even had the chi control to harness all of that lovely female energy almost as well as Happosai himself! It was just criminal for the heir to the Anything Goes school not to take advantage of his skills!

It would all be fixed soon.

"Ranma! Come out here and fight me like a man!" Ryouga called from the one of the walls of the Tendou dojo, tossing his pack inside as he cracked his fists. Ranma immediately got up from his position at the table, striding out from under the room above the walkway circling the house.

"You're sounding pretty confident, P-chan," Ranma noted with a grin, appraising his foe with both hands tucked into his pant pockets. He cocked his head to the side. "Let me guess, did you pick up a new technique while you were trying to find the bathroom?"

"Shut up, Ranma! I don't need a new technique to deal with you!" With a wordless battle cry, the Lost Boy launched himself from the wall, slashing a devastating kick through the area Ranma had previously occupied. He danced over Ranma's retaliatory sweep, throwing a startlingly fast punch which Ranma barely managed to intercept with his left hand.

Ranma bounced back, once again evaluating his foe.

"Your speed's gotten a lot better, pork breath," Ranma noted, wincing as he tried not to rub the palm of his left hand with his right. Not only was Ryouga faster, he'd apparently retained all of his freakish strength, too. "Let me guess, you happened to have a bag of chestnuts with you one day when you were camping in the Arctic."

"Good guess, Ranma! I figured if an idiot like you could benefit from the technique, I could too!" Ryouga smirked as he slowly advanced on his rival. Ranma charged forward, throwing himself into a forward roll which allowed him to launch himself skyward over the Lost Boy, who was briefly confused by the sudden change in his foe's altitude. Ranma used the opportunity to plant his feet on the young man's face, vaulting further into the air as he knocked his rival off-balance.

"Moko Takabisha!" With a grin, Ranma used his own chi to simultaneously blast Ryouga and gain enough speed to reach the top of the house. Ryouga shook the dirt from his clothes as he leaped up after Ranma, using his newfound speed to surge towards his foe and grab his shirt. Ranma gripped the bandanna-clad boy's arm in surprise, readying a fist for the young man's jaw.

Happosai completed his spell. The two chains rose with a hint of chilled air, launching themselves at Ranma's wrists with blinding speed. The platinum chain struck true, wrapping itself snugly around Ranma's cocked-back right forearm. The gold chain flew towards Ranma's left arm but found Ryouga's right arm in the way instead, and writhed briefly as if trying to find a way past before firmly wrapping itself in place.

Both boys paused in their fight, staring blankly at the new decorations on their arms. They separated in confusion.

"What the hell is this, Ranma?" Ryouga sneered, glancing from the chain on his arm to the face of his enemy.

"How should I know?" Ranma snorted, pulling at the chain in an attempt to remove it. While he could slide the coiled chains all the way down to his wrist or all the way up to his elbow, an invisible force prevented them from moving beyond. Ranma twisted, falling on his back and placing his feet on the bunched coils as he tried to force it off. Though he felt no counterforce on his hand, the chains simply wouldn't move.

Likewise, Ryouga found that the ends of the chain could only lift an inch or so from his skin before totally resisting all attempts to move them. He strained, wrenching the chains this way and that in an attempt to simply snap them off of his arm with his incredible strength. He paused in his struggles, reaching for his inner harmony. His eyes snapped open, thousands of pinpricks of light overlaying his vision.

Here, the spot in which the slightest pressure would shatter the rocks surrounding the koi pond. There, a web of light which showed where he could turn the ground into a series of craters. Even Ranma's clothes shone with lights which would disintegrate them where they lay on Ranma's body.

His eyes fell to the chain on his right arm. Nothing. The chain on Ranma's right arm likewise held no Breaking Points. The technique could not free them, which meant...

"Oh, stop struggling, boy!" Happosai announced, landing beside the pair as he examined the heir to his school. His plans hadn't quite worked out, but Ranma had been caught by one of them, at least. He'd succeeded, the boy was now his to command. "Now, do me a favor and go steal Kasumi's panties for me, would you?"

For a horrible moment, both Ranma and Ryouga felt a desire to do precisely that. Both boys took a step towards the edge of the roof when they mastered the unnatural urge, then turned to glare at the source of the order. While neither boy could be described as intelligent, both could figure out the source of the chains if they were even thinking of listening to the old pervert standing next to them.

In a bizarre display of synchronized martial arts mayhem, both boys lashed out with their feet, stomping the ancient lecher into the ground before following the move with a grab. Ranma grinned at Ryouga in a rare display of camaraderie.

"You can do the honors, Ryouga," Ranma said. Ryouga dropped his end of the pervert, then lashed out at the stunned old man, sending him soaring across the sky before he disappeared into the distance. Ranma raised his forearm, rattling the chains. "Now we've gotta figure out what the heck these things are."

Ranma then jumped off the roof, heading in the direction of the Cat Café. Halfway through Ranma's first leap from where Ryouga stood on the roof, the lost boy was tugged sharply from his position by the chains on his right arm. Ranma was similarly effected, his own right arm snapping out behind him, momentarily swinging him long enough for his body to be entirely horizontal before gravity reasserted itself, plunging him to the ground to land with a grunt on his back.

"Damn it, what the hell was that?" Ryouga demanded, grabbing the pigtailed boy by the shirt and hauling him to his feet. He gestured wildly into the air. "Why was I pulled of the roof like that?"

"I don't know!" Ranma retorted, slapping Ryouga's hands off his chest. He shook the chains, musing. Clearly it had something to do with the chains. He gestured to his left. "Okay, you stay here. I'm going to walk over that way."

As Ranma walked, he noted a slight resistance, but nothing significant. When he got thirty feet away from Ryouga, the resistance increased to the point where the only way he could continue was by dragging his unintentional partner along with him. Ryouga then noticed Ranma was pushing his arm out in front of him as he fought against the pull of the magic joining them and grinned. He firmly planted his feet and yanked his arm back hard, causing Ranma to punch himself in the face.

"Hey, what'd you do that for!?" Ranma demanded, spinning and facing Ryouga, who merely grinned in response. The pigtailed boy launched himself at his foe, getting a good kick in which tossed the lost boy in the air.

"What are you two fighting about now?" Akane queried from the porch. Time seemed to slow for Ryouga as he realized he was headed for the koi pond, as Akane's eyes tracing his graceless arc through the air. Ranma seemed to realize the problem as well, trying to race forward to help, but he was moving too slowly. Ryouga tried to twist out of the way, to redirect his flight, but he lacked the mastery of mid-air combat which was the Saotome specialty.

He landed in the water, shutting his eyes and awaiting death in the form of a mallet. Ryouga feared the coming fury more than he'd ever feared Saffron or Lime. He waited, holding his breath.

Death never came.

"Honestly Ranma, now Ryouga's wet! It's a good thing he doesn't have a Jusenkyou curse!" Akane declared, shooting her fiancé a dirty look.

"I don't have a Jusenkyou curse?" Ryouga muttered to himself, scarcely noticing when Akane returned inside the house, opting to ignore the two children outside. He grinned to himself, reveling in the alien sensation of cold water soaking his human body. "I don't have a Jusenkyou curse!!"

"We're cured!?" Ranma demanded, running and jumping into the koi pond, ignoring the dirty look the fish gave their unwelcome, oft-visiting house guest. Ranma, overcome with joy, likewise reveled in the sensation of cold water on her breasts. Ranma glared down at her chest. "Ah, man! Why only pork breath!?"

"Shut up, Ranma!" Ryouga yelled, slugging the diminutive red-head out of the pond before climbing out himself. He grinned, looking down at his cold, human body. No more transformation. No more being a potential meal ticket for hungry animals. No more defenseless piglet! He stood in frank disbelief of his luck.

"Alright, let's go see the old ghoul," Ranma finally said, having retrieved a tea kettle from the kitchen. She poured the water over her head, smiling as she felt the change return her to her male form.

No doubt the old woman would be able to help out with the problem.

"Well, Son-in-law, it would appear you are indeed in some trouble this time," Cologne concluded, warily examining the chains on Ranma and Ryouga's arms. She tapped it with the narrow point of her staff, as if wary of actually touching the magical restraints with her bare hands. "Those two chains are meant to work in tandem against one foe, putting the victim totally under the spell caster's control."

"I noticed that we started to do something Happosai wanted us to do after the chains wrapped around our arms," Ryouga noted, subdued. So far, Cologne had only confirmed their suspicions, not granted them any new information. Ryouga gestured to the chain on his right arm. "I've got a question, Granny. How come when Ranma gets splashed he changes, but I get to stay as a human?"

"A good question, but simply answered," She gestured to Ranma and flung a glass of cold water in the boy's face, examining him as he lost about six inches of his height and gained significant mass on her chest, her black hair shimmering into a familiar vibrant red. Ranma sputtered as she glared at the old woman. "As you can see, Son-in-law here doesn't change his form, just his gender. The spell on these chains probably allows it because he still has the cursed arm in that form. With you..."

"He's got no arms, so the chains wouldn't have anywhere to go," Ranma finished, examining her own bonds. She shrugged, dropping her right arm. "So what do we gotta do to get these damned things off?"

"Again, it should be simple. Just get the one who cast the spell to use the appropriate counter-spell on the chains and they should drop right off your arms. Though where could that old fool have acquired Yuki-onna's Braids at all?" Cologne's gaze was curious as she examined the gold and platinum chains binding the two foes together. "I was given to understand she hasn't been seen in this world for over two hundred years."

"Probably stole it from her!" Ranma spat, glaring out the door. He shrugged, noting Cologne was nodding. "It's not really a surprise. He seem to steal a lot of magical junk."

"So, all we have to do is get Happosai to use the counter-spell and it will free us?" Ryouga asked, cracking his knuckles eagerly as he considered the thought. Pounding on the old bastard was going to be almost as fun as pounding on Ranma. "We should be able to beat it out of him no problem."

"Well, I wish you boys luck," Cologne finished, giving their arms one last look before beginning to pogo over to the kitchen. She paused on her second bounce, looking back over her shoulder to take in both boys with a measured look. "Keep in mind that if you don't get the counter-spell off Happosai, you two may very well be stuck that way."

"Stuck with bacon breath forever?" Ranma muttered, glaring at his rival with a scowl. He scratched his chin, considering. "I've been stuck with him for an hour and I'm annoyed."

"Like you're any better, Ranma!" Ryouga countered, poking a finger into the pigtailed boy's chest. He then smirked. "The only bright side to this is I get to make sure you can't take advantage of poor Akane's trust!"

"Shut up, P-chan!" Ranma growled. He moved as if to strike his rival before stopping, almost shuddering as he mastered the urge to start another fight. Finally he grinned. "Look, we're stuck like this and neither of us especially like it. Either we work together, or we get to stay together forever. I'll kick your ass when these chains are off!"

Ranma extended his unchained hand.

"Fine, Ranma," Ryouga admitted, taking Ranma's hand with his own unchained hand and squeezing. Hard. Ranma and Ryouga stayed locked that way for a moment, neither giving ground as they crushed the air between their fists. "Though I'm going to be the one to win when these chains are off!"

"Then come on!" Ranma said, leading Ryouga out of the restaurant. They both jumped up to the rooftops, scanning for the inevitable signs of Happosai's daily rampage among Nerima's young women.

They both had a pervert to beat.

Author's Notes

For this one, I decided to pair up Ranma and Ryouga like this so that I could force them to work together. I blatantly stole the idea of using Yuki-onna from Krista Perry, but more so that I could do something a little different. Besides, I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out on using Yuki-onna in Ranma fanfiction by now.

It's been ten years since Hearts of Ice debuted, after all. ;)

I dunno how long I'm gonna stretch this out, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be longer than Loss, Hope, and Redemption. I've already got about ten chapters outlined, and that doesn't even cover the full story by any stretch of the imagination.