Title: Magical Girl Ranko vs. Z-Fighter Ryouga

Author: Rowan Seven

Teaser: Desperate times call for desperate measures, and when Ryouga returns to Nerima with a Dragonball Z power-up Ranma resorts to drastic tactics to defeat his rival. Sequel to Ryouga vs. the Road Runner

Rating: PG-13 just to be safe.

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Looney Tunes, and any other series, characters, and settings I mention belong to their respective creators and copyright holders. I make no claims to these characters and am making no financial profit from writing this story.

Author's Notes: Marked with (#) and posted at the end.

Chapter 1 – Old and New Arrivals (and Rivals!)

It was a dark and stormy night, but this is Nerima so there was nothing at all unusual about that. Nerima Ward saw so much precipitation and freak weather patterns on a weekly and even daily basis that there was an entire school of butterflies flapping their wings half a world away trying to keep up. So, although it was a dark and stormy night life went on as usual for the many people who - sometimes ruefully - called Nerima home. Respectable merchants closed their shops, less respectable merchants opened their businesses, and students, workers, and other pedestrians rushed to their houses. There were even some who'd had enough common sense (often in short supply in those parts) to bring umbrellas with them.

Regardless, it was a dark and stormy night, the people still outside knew it was a dark and stormy night, and thus no one was at all surprised when what looked like a bolt of lightning hurtled down from the heavens and struck a vacant lot well-known to anyone familiar with the antics of the Nerima Wrecking Crew. In the utterly predictable progression of ominous developments, the subsequent boom of thunder was accompanied by a brilliant flash of nearly blinding light that promptly coalesced around a humanoid form of medium height that appeared to be carrying a large backpack. A second later both sound and light resolved into the figure of one recognizable but uncharacteristically smiling Eternally Lost Boy.

"I've...returned," Hibiki Ryouga spoke with borderline disbelief in his voice, brown eyes scanning his surroundings with wonderment and right hand reflexively reaching for the red bamboo umbrella strapped to the top of his backpack. The arm motion halted almost immediately, however, and the young martial artist looked up at the stormy night sky through dark bangs that were quickly becoming rain-slicked and laughed gleefully.

"Porunga(1), wherever you are right now, you have my eternal gratitude for the wishes you granted! While my sense of direction may have been beyond even your power to fix, -" The Lost Boy briefly frowned in displeasure at the disheartening memory but swiftly cheered up again as he continued to be soaked by rain without undergoing a porcine transformation. "-thanks to you I'm free from Jusenkyo's taint, have regained the years I spent fighting alongside Goku and the Z-Fighters, and am finally back in Nerima!"

The bandana-clad youth's voice had steadily risen as he soliloquized, and now it was joined by a nearly manic grin. "At last, after dreaming of this moment for so long, I can prove myself to Akane and defeat Ranma once and for all!" He raised a clenched fist that erupted with barely restrained green ki above his head and pictured his upcoming victory against his longtime rival. With the training he'd gotten in against the invading saiyans and on Namek there was NO WAY Ranma could possibly beat him now, not even if the infuriating pigtailed martial artist had doubled his speed and devised half-a-dozen new techniques on the fly. There was only one thing left that stood in his path to defeating Ranma in a duel, and Hibiki Ryouga was determined to deal promptly with this last obstacle and finally enjoy the triumph he'd fantasized about since junior high.

"Now, where's the nearest mailbox?"

000ooo000000ooo000

One week later...

"Where's Ranma? I want him to try the casserole I cooked today."

It was neither night nor dark nor even stormy at the Tendo household, but the twelve simple words uttered by the youngest Tendo daughter contained more terror than any single horror cliché and not even the warmth of the lazily setting and beautiful sun could offer any comfort to those who heard them. Only experience and mind-boggling good-naturedness allowed the two older Tendo sisters to school their expressions from where they sat around the dining room table, the aforementioned vaguely casserole-shaped dish occupying a place of dubious honor atop the center of the wooden surface and threatening to sunder it through its unnatural mass. Notably absent were the mustached Soun and incorrigible Genma, the two less than respectable adults having done what they normally did in emergencies and ran away at the first sign of Akane practicing her infamous culinary talents.

"Ranma?" Kasumi repeated sweetly, gentle smile kind enough to melt the hearts of any number of Grinches times ten. "He received a postcard from Ryouga in the mail today and rushed out of the house to meet him. Those two are such good friends!" Her smile didn't falter in the slightest as the younger, darker brunette sitting beside her muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "How convenient" under her breath.

The blue-haired chef of horrors' attitude improved almost immediately- "Ryouga's back in town? I haven't seen him in over a month!" -before souring again just as quickly. "What could he have to say to Ranma that's so urgent that that arrogant jerk couldn't wait until after I'd finished in the kitchen to leave?"

Nabiki couldn't keep the amusement out of her voice as she leaned forward and nonchalantly nibbled on one of the dumplings her much more culinary skilled older sister had prepared as a snack. "It was likely another challenge letter, and considering how long Ryouga's been away it wouldn't surprise me if he's been training in a new secret technique he wants to try out against Ranma. Better be prepared to comfort your fiancé when he returns home, Akane."

Akane's usual reflexive protests about the engagement were pre-empted by her oldest sister's next words. "Oh my! I do hope Ranma will be all right. He and Ryouga tend to play a bit roughly whenever they learn something new."

The middle Tendo sister chuckled once at Kasumi's unique choice of words. "Roughly? More like one step away from hospitalization." She shrugged once unceremoniously. "Not that it matters much, since we all know how this'll go. Ryouga will arrive a week late, defeat Ranma without breaking a sweat a couple times, Ranma will suffer a near nervous breakdown as his ego threatens to implode before either coming up with a harebrained but surprisingly effective counter or discovering the technique's fatal flaw at the last minute, and then miraculously pull off a victory. The only real question is whether whatever Ryouga's learned is something he and Ranma will seal up afterwards or add to their regular repertoire of techniques." A teasing grin formed on her devious features. "So you can stop worrying about Ranma, Akane, since no matter what happens it'll blow over in two weeks or less."

The youngest sister's left eye twitched in annoyance. "I'm not worried about that idiot and could care less if Ryouga pummels him into unconsciousness or not! I'm just disappointed that he isn't around to try the delicious meal I spent so much time cooking for him. You'd think he could show a little more consideration when he knows I'm in the kitchen." An idea occurred to her and her mercurial mood trickled upwards again. "Then again, I bet Ranma will get pretty hungry waiting for Ryouga. I'll find him after I finish my homework and give him the leftovers."

"I'm sure your fiancé will appreciate your kindness," Kasumi spoke gently, somehow managing to keep any insincerity out of her voice. "I'll make sure to put everything in a basket later tonight so you can-"

SPLASH!

Nabiki didn't even bat an eyelash at the familiar sound of a human body falling into the koi pond outside from a great height. "Seems like that won't be necessary, sis, since Ranma is apparently home early." She reached forward across the table for another dumpling. "Ryouga must have arrived on time for once, if you can imagine that."

The oldest Tendo sister frowned slightly at her middle sister's words. "Now Nabiki, it's not nice to speak ill of people when-"

"Damn that no-good, directionless idiot!" Ranma-chan shouted in a shrill voice as she slid open the door to the house, kicking off her shoes and shamelessly taking off her shirt to wring it out first before entering the building. "Where does he get off surprising me with his promptness? Only three minutes late for a change instead of three days, and he wouldn't even spare _one_ minute to explain where he'd been before punching me halfway across the neighborhood!"

Any worry Ranma's blue-haired fiancée might have felt for him at his impromptu arrival faded just as quickly at his lack of modesty. "For crying out loud, Ranma, put your shirt back on. Just imagine what would happen if Happosai were here."

The young master of Anything Goes Martial Arts shuddered once at the thought and swiftly did as asked, ignoring the slight chill the damp fabric caused as she put the Chinese silk shirt back on. Nabiki, more than used to such antics, turned to face the Saotome heir and cut straight to what really interested her.

"So Ranma, what new technique did Ryouga use to defeat you this time and when's the rematch?"

"It wasn't a public duel so I didn't officially lose!" Ranma-chan protested vehemently almost as soon as Nabiki closed her mouth, slamming her fists down on the table to emphasize her point. "When we fight again in a week I'll be ready for him! I already have a plan to figure out what that supersonic uppercut he used is."

"Your schoolgirl uniform is in the wash right now, Ranma, but I can have it ready for you in the morning if you need it," Kasumi offered helpfully, pouring a cup of tea and setting it in front of Ranma-chan whose face promptly joined her fists on the table.

"Come on, Kasumi, you know me better than that," Ranma-chan objected with a hint of wounded pride in her voice as she raised her head and sat down on the floor with the three sisters. "I have something much more cunning in mind, I'll have ya know."

"Long lost fiancée this time?" Nabiki inquired with a Cheshire cat grin.

"Cousin searching for an ultimate technique to defeat the Hibiki family's ancient ancestral enemy with?" Akane joined in, a matching smirk on her own attractive features.

The sound of Ranma-chan's face striking the table again promptly followed. "No, and no!" the young martial artist insisted, blue eyes glaring hotly at the two younger Tendo sisters. "Is that honestly the _best_ you think I can come up with?"

Kasumi chose that moment to pour a conveniently placed kettle of hot water over her potential future brother-in-law and interjected herself back into the conversation. "What is your plan then, Ranma? I'm sure we'd all love to hear what you're going to be up to before your next play date."

The now raven-haired young man smirked and opened his mouth to speak before remembering just exactly what his "cunning scheme" was. "Er..." He chuckled weakly once and raised his right hand to the back of his neck. "I'll tell you all later. So, what's for supper tonight?" the Saotome heir asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject.

Akane perked up immediately. "As a matter of fact, you're just in time to taste the casserole I made, and I want you to be the first one to try it. Here." Somehow, with a burst of superhuman strength, the youngest Tendo sister pushed the casserole tray with its squarish, amorphous contents in front of her fiancé and smiled beatifically in expectation. "Eat up."

Ranma looked down at the culinary nightmare that would horrify even a mad scientist with a lisping assistant going by the name of Igor and felt his spirits sink. For its part, the baked monstrosity bubbled up ominously. The Saotome heir glanced once more at Akane's smiling face and sighed glumly. "Man, I almost wish Ryouga _had_ knocked me unconscious. At least then I wouldn't be dealing with your food poisoning."

What happened next was completely predictable.

"Ranma you jerk!" the infuriated Akane shouted as she lifted her unnatural creation off the table and slammed it over the suddenly defenseless Ranma's head. The young Saotome's skull crashed into the dining room's table for the third time that day and, with a strangled cry, he got his wish as the world went dark around him.

Nabiki watched, nonchalantly, as her sister left the room in a huff and Ranma's comatose body slumped to the floor. She turned to her other sister and reached for another dumpling. "Those two never learn, do they?"

For her part, Kasumi only continued to smile as she contemplated a suitable way to dispose of her youngest sister's latest creation. "Tell me Nabiki, about how much does it cost to send cargo into outer space these days?"

000ooo000000ooo000

Night came and went and, as was often its wont, left enough unanswered questions in its wake to fill an entire season of Unsolved Mysteries. Regardless, by the time morning's first light dawned Soun and Genma had returned to the house, their earlier whereabouts an unsolved and better left unanswered mystery in itself. The fact that the respective Tendo and Saotome patriarchs were still there shortly before suppertime playing a game of shogi on the porch was a sure sign that Kasumi rather than Akane was the one cooking dinner that night, as were the absent howls of terror from the neighborhood dogs and any other nearby creatures with sensitive noses. The long-haired Soun sat at ease and met the relaxed gaze of his longtime and bald friend with a calm smile, their tranquil appearances belying the ridiculous amounts of cheating both men were employing to win. Each deceptive gambit countered by the other's trickery, the two old companions could have played on like this all day.

Little did they know – though, since this is Nerima, they really should have – that their moment of relative serenity would be shortlived.

SPLASH!

-It looks like my boy is home.- Genma-panda's newly withdrawn wooden sign proclaimed as the Jusenkyo cursed and now transformed martial artist stretched his bearish form once. Across from him Soun merely nodded his head, studying the game-board intently and not about to let something as mundane in these parts as a splash of water and magical transformation distract him from his masterful strategy. After all, the only thing harder than counteracting Genma's cheating was matching it.

The blue-haired Akane walked out of the house to see who'd landed in the koi pond this time, and her brown eyes narrowed in annoyance as she spied the bedraggled figure of her fiancé...and more specifically, what said fiancé was wearing.

"That was your 'cunning plan'?" the fiery Tendo sister exclaimed as she walked over to the frequently visited body of water and offered a hand to Ranma-chan, equal parts disbelief and derision in her voice. "Dressing up as a cheerleader? I can't say I blame Ryouga for sending you flying this time."

The red-haired martial artist shrugged once and ignored Akane's offer of help, preferring to leap out of the pond herself. "I'll stop using my curse to trick that idiot when he stops falling for a pretty face and sweet talk which, knowing Ryouga, will probably be when he's as old as Cologne if even then." She spent an immodest moment wringing out the cheerleader outfit's short skirt and then grinned triumphantly. "Besides, it worked! I learned where Ryouga trained during the past month, and now all I need to do is find someone who knows about the Trial of the Road Runner and can show me how to duplicate it."

-The Trial of the Road Runner? Gasp!-

Even though Genma-panda's newest sign had made no noise, everyone somehow knew to turn and stare at the now sweating Saotome patriarch. The transformed father of the transformed son hastily held up a new sign, but the damage had already been done.

-I mean, the Trial of the Road Runner? Never heard of it. Good luck to you, son.- Genma-panda stood up and tried to beat a retreat into the house but Ranma-chan was faster, leaping onto his head and knocking her cursed father to the ground before he could move a yard.

"Not so fast, old man! You know something, and I'm not letting you up till you tell me what it is!" Ranma-chan declared adamantly, determined to regain the upper hand against her longtime rival and not about to let a simple thing like filial piety stand between her and victory.

From his position on the porch with his teenage son currently daughter standing on top of him, Genma-panda considered his options and sighed. He didn't feel like fighting right now and his son was stubborn enough that if he continued to lie they'd both be out here all night and miss the delicious meal Kasumi was preparing. If he wanted to fill his stomach he'd have to talk, and the answer to that was a no-brainer.

-Well, it all started a number of years ago...-

000ooo000000ooo000

A number of years ago in a desert somewhere in North America...

Wile E. Coyote couldn't keep the surprise off his lupine face. Yellow eyes filled with shock and glee, the bipedal canine stood still and waited, as if expecting to be crushed by a boulder or hit by an explosion at any second. Neither was forthcoming, though, and the furry carnivore finally released the delight he felt in a muted jump of joy. Quickly regaining his composure, the brown coyote withdrew a knife, fork, and bib from the same undisclosed place he kept his signs and advanced on his prey.

"Beep-Beep?" The blue and lavender roadrunner squawked from where it stood trapped within the confines of a sturdily built metal cage on the edge of a cliff, the one in a million chance Wile E.'s traps had for success having at last occurred. If the bird felt nervous at its impending demise, the Road Runner showed no signs of it and continued to smile serenely at the closing coyote as if aware of some great knowledge that eluded its would be devourer.

Tap-tap.

Knowledge that had just tapped the aforementioned carnivore on the right shoulder from behind. Eyes filled with annoyance at being interrupted during his moment of triumph, Wile E. turned around to face the distraction and found himself glaring at the figure of a Saotome Genma young enough that he still had hair. The youthful future Saotome patriach, familiar by now to the coyote through the time he'd also spent pursuing the Road Runner recently, returned the brown-furred beast's stare with an unconvincing disarming smile and held up a wooden sign.

-Sorry about this.-

SLAM!

Genma smashed the signboard over the head of the very creature who had taught him the trick behind producing them faster than the coyote could react and with enough force that the wooden board cracked in two. Wile E's yellow eyes bulged in shock and pain, and the unfortunate carnivore felt a wave of darkness rush up to meet him as he fell to the rocky surface with a loud thud. His last act before passing out was to hold up a new sign.

-Et tu, Genma?-

The wily martial artist in training spared the brown canine a halfway apologetic look, but any feelings of guilt were quickly dispelled by the knowledge that he could finally leave this inhospitable land of accidents around every corner and more explosions per hour than in an entire summer of Hollywood blockbusters. "At last I can return to Master Happosai in triumph!" Genma crowed victoriously. "Now, with this bird and the rabbit Soun's hopefully nabbed we'll have all the ingredients for the feast Master Happosai has planned and manage to avoid his terrible displeasure!"

"Beep-Beep!"

The noise from behind him came as suddenly and unexpectedly as his own tapping of Wile E. Coyote's shoulder a minute ago, and with an enormous feeling of dread the young Genma turned around. The Road Runner, as serene as ever and no longer ensnared, smiled up at him. The martial artist, eyes wide in surprise, glanced quickly at the now empty cage before returning his sight to its previous target. "How-how did you escape?" he asked incredulously, hopes for leaving soon disappearing faster than a Nintendo Wii in a store during the 2006 holiday season.

"Beep-Beep!" Having answered the young human's question in its own way, the Road Runner then proceeded to do what it did best and dashed away at ludicrous speeds. Genma choked on the roadrunner-shaped cloud of dust the bird left in its wake and shook his fists angrily.

"You're not getting away that easily, Road Runner! Just you-" A rapidly growing dark shadow overhead stopped Genma in mid-angry articulation, and the young martial artist looked up into the sky just in time to cringe as the boulder Wile E. Coyote had expected to be hit with at any second finally arrived.

THUD!

And landed on him instead.

Ka-BOOM!

The boulder was also, for some inexplicable reason, explosive.

Wile E. Coyote, having begun to regain consciousness just in time to watch his betrayer suffer the punishment he normally endured, chuckled soundlessly and slowly rose to his feet. The carnivore walked over to the thoroughly battered and comatose Genma and kicked the youth in the side once or twice out of spite.

-Serves you right.- Returning his sign from whence it came, the incorrigible coyote gazed at the brilliant horizon where his prey had sped off to and prepared to follow. Before he could start running, though, his long ears heard a noise he was all too accustomed with.

CRACK!

The sound of the cliff ledge he was standing on cracking and crumbling beneath his feet. Wile E. Coyote released a resigned sigh and held up a comically small umbrella as, sure enough, the rock face he and Genma were on collapsed and sent the two hapless hunters tumbling to the desert floor below.

THUD!

It would be several hours before either stirred again.

000ooo000000ooo000

-Shortly thereafter, I prudently decided to quit and begged Happosai for forgiveness for returning empty-handed. I did not complete the Trial of the Road Runner, but if Ryouga has succeeded in that challenge then fighting him with conventional means is futile. Your only hope now is the tried and true Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts Maken Dōkoku Ha technique!(2)-

Ranma-chan, Akane, and Soun squinted as they read the last of the story Genma had somehow managed to fit all on one sign, and once Ranma-chan reached the end of the text she grabbed the signboard from Genma-panda's claws and smashed it over his black and white head.

"Like I'd really use such a useless and stupid technique!" the redhead shouted, offended at the very suggestion. In a huff, she leapt off her cursed father and landed gracefully on the porch so she stood in front of him. The young martial artist cracked her knuckles ominously and smiled savagely. "Now then, old man, do you actually have anything helpful to say or do I have to beat the substance of this trial out of your furry hide?"

Moving surprisingly fast for a panda, Genma suddenly stopped his cowering and stretched out his right leg, sliding it across the floor in flash of black fur that Ranma-chan barely avoided tripping over and which forced her to lunge backwards onto the yard. Now with some distance between them, Genma-panda rose to his full formidable height and gazed down at the redhead who'd reflexively fallen into a defensive stance. Rather than initiate a battle, though, the elder Saotome held up a placating paw that was quickly accompanied by another sign.

-Enough, boy. There is nothing I can say that'll help you here. Even if I shared every detail of my harrowing experiences it is impossible to duplicate the Trial of the Road Runner. The only thing you can do is take the teachings of Anything Goes Martial Arts and at last prove that you are a worthy heir to my wisdom by devising your own counter. I have the utmost faith in you.-

Without further aplomb, Genma-panda turned around, lay down, and promptly fell asleep. Ranma-chan's entire body went uncomfortably rigid in a mixture of irritation and exasperation at her father's uselessness, and it took all of her considerable willpower not to kick him into the next ward. Very slowly and with the occasional twitch, she turned her piercing blue eyes on Soun.

"Please tell me you have something to say that's more useful than the garbage my dad's been spewing?" Ranma-chan asked desperately. "What about your own trial that Happosai sent you on? How'd that go?"

Soun tensed and abruptly stood up from where he'd been sitting. "I'm sorry, Ranma, but I don't want to talk about that wousy wabbit. Some stories are better left untold." While Ranma digested his words, the Tendo patriach hastily retreated to the comparative safety of the house where the tantalizing aroma of Kasumi's labors (coincidentally and thankfully for Soun's state of mind completely lacking in carrots) in the kitchen welcomed him with more warmth than one of Lina Inverse's fireballs.

Akane and Ranma-chan exchanged an exasperated look over the quirkiness of their fathers, this being one of the rare occasions when the two engaged youths were in total agreement with each other. As was inevitable, though, Ranma-chan ruined the uncharacteristically congenial moment with her next words.

"So...the only way I can beat Ryouga is to undergo the Trial of the Road Runner myself, is that it? Hmph, well, I could always swim to North America..." the devoted martial artist mused aloud, unaware (but not for long!) of the effect her words were having on a certain mercurial young woman standing nearby.

"Ranma, you'd really...you'd really drop everything and leave Nerima behind just so you can beat Ryouga in a duel?" Akane asked, unable to hide the note of sorrow and disappointment in her voice as she gazed at her fiancé with a face marked by incredulity. "What about your life here? And school and your friends and family?" One could almost hear the unspoken 'What about me?'

"Er..." Ranma-chan answered less than smoothly, knowing she was walking into a verbal minefield but unable to find an exit despite her tactical brilliance. "Well...ya see, maybe...even if I did go to North America it would only be a month or two, so it's not like I'd be gone forever and you'd have to worry 'bout me, ya know? Training is part of a martial artist's life and...well...ahem..."

Rather than respond, Akane merely looked at her sadly and then turned and headed back into the house, keeping her eyes locked straight ahead. Ranma-chan almost reached out for her but stopped herself before her arm had risen even halfway. Instead, she merely cursed under her breath once, stretched, and began going through katas in the yard. After all, she did have a rematch in less than a week she needed to get ready for and who knew? She was a martial arts prodigy and could probably create a counter all on her own without undergoing the Trial of the Road Runner herself, just like her father had recommended in the few seconds he hadn't spouted his usual foolishness. Plus, there was always Cologne. Surely the old woman would know something that could help her.

000ooo000000ooo000

"Nope, there's nothing I can do to help you, Son-in-Law. Nadda."

Ranma's mouth opened in shock as he stared at the uncharacteristically flippant Amazon matriarch, and the shrunken, shriveled elder balancing on top of her staff and sipping a can of cola through a straw stared back. Above, the mid-afternoon sun shone down on them and the empty lot they currently occupied, clearly visible and for once unobstructed by the legion of storm clouds just waiting for their chance to rain on a Jusenkyo victim.

"Oh c'mon, you can't be serious! There's got to be something you can teach me to counter Ryouga's training!" Ranma spoke disbelievingly and with the knowledge that his rematch against the Eternally Lost Boy was another day closer and if he didn't come up with something soon he'd lose in front of a crowd of people. He was determined not to let that happen because, as far as he was concerned, Satome Ranma simply didn't lose and wasn't about to start now! Losing once would start him down the slippery slope of losing again and maybe even again after that, and if he couldn't be the best than what was the point of all his training? He might as well give up martial arts and become a submissive housewife if he couldn't hope for better than being second-best.

Much to the pigtailed boy's unease, Cologne's ancient features wrinkled up in amusement. "Ho ho ho, it may be a new word for me but what part of 'nadda' don't you understand, Son-in-Law? The Trial of the Road Runner is one of the famous Ancient Challenges of Martial Expertise, and there is no means to duplicate its unique training features in such a way as to bestow the same unmatched speed and resilience those who complete the trial gain." The elder's crooked smile grew even larger as she continued. "There are other trials in this world that rival the Trial of the Road Runner, of course, but they are just as hard if not harder to find. You wouldn't stand a chance of completing them in time for your next duel, even with Ryouga's notorious lateness. Swallow your pride and accept defeat, Son-in-Law. That's my advice for you."

Swallowing the defiant retort on the tip of his tongue instead of his pride, Ranma gazed intently at the ancient martial arts master with his penetrating blue eyes. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that, Cologne?" he asked, the challenging edge in his voice impossible to miss. "You are the matriarch of the Chinese Amazons and inheritor of all their thousands of years of secrets and knowledge. I _know_ there's more that you're not telling me."

Cologne met her prospective great-grandson's gaze head-on, not about to be cowed by anyone several generations her junior. Instantly she was all seriousness, and her next words were as hard and uncompromising as rock. "Perhaps, Son-in-Law, perhaps. There may be a few techniques I could teach that would allow you to just possibly hold your own against someone who's completed the Trial of the Road Runner, but such knowledge is forbidden to outsiders. Even among us elders such rare and powerful techniques are discussed only in hushed whispers, and to blithely share such talk with you when there's nothing more than foolish masculine pride on the line...why, that would be taboo." Her crooked smile suddenly returned, but it was ice cold and lacked any mirth at all. "If you accepted your place as Shampoo's groom and joined the tribe things might be different, but we both know the answer to that question, don't we Son-in-Law? Until you're willing to take that step there is nothing I can do to help you in this matter, so the question you should be asking yourself is not 'How can I win?' but rather 'How much do I want to win?' Well?"

The two continued to stare at each other for a long moment, the older with cool satisfaction and the younger with obstinacy and a mixture of complex, contradictory emotions. Ranma was the first to look away, but any uncertainty he felt was quickly masked by his usual veneer of confidence. "Feh, like it even matters. I don't need your help nor Dad's to beat Ryouga. I'll win on my own if that's what it takes, so thanks for nothing old crone!"

"Hoho!" Cologne remarked tauntingly, voice laced with scorn. "Believe what you want to, Son-in-Law, but unless you're as dense as the young Kuno Tatewaki your next duel against Ryouga will open your eyes to the truth of your situation. Come see me again after that if you change your mind." With one last sip the elder finished her cola and, treating her staff like a pogo-stick, bounced out of the lot and out of sight. The last Ranma heard of her was the sound of a metal can being tossed into a nearby recycle bin, proof that even centuries old martial artists did their part to save the planet.

"No-good old hag! Good riddance!"

Even if it was unappreciated by the young.

000ooo000000ooo000

The day of the duel had finally arrived, and Ranma was feeling confident. This was par the norm since Ranma would feel confident even if he came to a match with one arm broken, the other tied behind his back, and obsessive fiancées with deathgrips on both of his legs. More than mere natural temperament, though, the raven-haired martial artist had an angle. Ryouga's supersonic uppercut, whatever he called it, could be countered by simply staying low to the ground and giving the Eternally Lost Boy no opportunity to naturally uppercut him, and even if Ryouga was faster and tougher now he knew his rival's fighting style inside-out and could pre-empt the persistent Hibiki's attacks. Besides, Genma and Cologne were probably exaggerating. Just how much could Ryouga possibly improve in only one month anyway even with a legendary martial arts challenge under his belt?

Of course, none of this mattered until Ryouga arrived and the match actually began, and since Ryouga was the Eternally Lost Boy no one expected his presence for another day or three. Hence the athletic field at Furinkan High where duels usually took place was largely empty except for a patiently waiting Ranma and Akane and the normal crowd of students milling about the school. Clutching tightly to her staff, Cologne expertly perched atop the high school's roof and vigilantly watched the developments or lack thereof on the ground, a silent observer to the dramatic confrontation that was about to unfold...once the Eternally Lost Boy showed up.

"Are you sure about going through with this Ranma?" Akane asked, watching her smug fiancé with a mixture of irritation and concern. "If what Genma said is true you don't stand a chance, so maybe you'd be better off waiting till you've improved some?"

The young Saotome heir rolled his eyes as he turned to face her. "Jeez Akane, if I didn't know better I'd say you actually wanted me to lose! Just 'cause Ryouga's gotten a lucky punch or two in is no reason ta start fretting! I know I can win this duel and I even have a plan so stop worrying!"

"I'm _not_ worrying, idiot!" Akane protested heatedly, throwing up her hands in frustration. "And your last 'plan' was dressing up as a cheerleader to sweet talk him! I certainly hope you have something that doesn't involve mini-skirts in mind this time!"

Ranma almost looked offended. "Please, like I really need a short skirt to defeat Ryouga! And there was nothing wrong with that plan either. It worked and gave me the info I needed to win so stop complaining already!" He sighed in exasperation. "C'mon, don't get jealous just 'cause my female body is cuter than yours."

The veins in the blue-haired Tendo's forehead throbbed and a crackling red aura materialized around her slender frame, promising pain and violence to the oblivious target of her ire. Before the customary mallet could appear in her waiting hands, though, she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Ranma, how dare you insult Akane in front of me! Prepare to die!"

Ranma and Akane pivoted and gazed at the well-traveled figure of Hibiki Ryouga with surprise. From a distance of several yards on the other side of the field, the Eternally Lost Boy stared back, anger in his eyes aimed at his longtime rival. As his vision swept across Akane, though, his gaze softened and a look of such longing and elation that it could be compared to what travelers lost in a desert who suddenly find an oasis feel crept into his eyes. The object of his affection was, of course, blissfully oblivious to this and before she could become aware of the intense weight of his scrutiny her fiancé spoke with unmistakable shock in his voice.

"How the heck did you get here so quickly, P-chan? You're only five minutes late!"

The Eternally Lost Boy refocused his undivided attention on his pigtailed rival and, uncharacteristically, smirked as he crouched down and let his backpack slide off his shoulders to the ground. He reached for his red umbrella with his left hand as the Furinkan student body rushed over and settled around the field, the news of Ryouga's amazingly close to on time arrival and the impending duel having swept across the campus faster than a Final Fantasy game breaks sales records. "Like I would really miss the chance to have my revenge, Ranma," Ryouga spoke as he rose to his feet with a self-assurance that looked totally out of place on him. "I hope you've enjoyed your time in the spotlight because, today, it all ends for you!"

"Feh, as if P-chan!" Ranma replied cockily, hands going to the sides of his waist as an arrogant grin appeared on his face. "I've already got a few counters to your new moves running through my head, and even if the gods take pity on you and you somehow, _miraculously_, pull off a victory here I know where you trained and can always undergo the Trial of the Road Runner myself."

Knowing that a battle was inevitable Akane had joined the spectators ringed around the field, and she suddenly tensed at those words from where she stood between her friends Sayuri and Yuka. Her two classmates turned and saw the blue-haired teenager nibbling her lower lip, perhaps out of worry, but they knew better than to ask right then and instead drew closer to their friend to offer her their silent support. Akane smiled weakly to show her gratitude, but before she or anyone else could say anything they were interrupted by a completely unexpected and nearly unheard of sound.

"Ha ha! Hahaha! Ha!"

The sound of Ryouga laughing, not maniacally or nervously or even what passed for scheming for the Eternally Lost Boy but rather out of sheer amusement and complete hilarity. The uproarious laughter continued for over thirty seconds before Ryouga managed to get a hold of himself, and even then his sides continued to shake with suppressed mirth as he rose to his full height and met Ranma's by now thoroughly perplexed gaze.

"Heh, as much as the thought of you experiencing the same torture I went through chasing that bird amuses me, Ranma, it's pointless." Ryouga raised the thumb of his free hand and pointed at himself. "That misadventure was only the start of my training, and trust me when I say that I've gone _far_ beyond what I learned in that desert."

His pig-tailed opponent blinked once and attempted to hide the unease he was beginning to feel, less at Ryouga's words and more at how the Lost Boy was acting. He'd seen his longtime rival confident and certain of impending victory before, of course, and he only needed to think back to when Ryouga learned the Breaking Point technique to remember how out of control he could get. However, he couldn't think of any time where magic, drugs, or too many knocks to the head with mallets or spatulas weren't involved when he'd seen the Lost Boy so utterly at ease and relaxed. It was as if Ryouga didn't consider him a threat at all and was merely _humoring_ him by going through the rituals of a duel, and that sense irritated the pigtailed martial artist to no end. A frown formed on his sturdy features.

"Strong words for a pig, Ryouga. Why don't we see whether you can actually back them up?" Ranma taunted, crouching back low to the ground in a defensive stance and waiting to see what his challenger would do. He wouldn't have to wait long.

The Eternally Lost Boy's confident smile grew as he suddenly stood ramrod straight, lifted his arms so they were perpendicular to his body, and prepared to shout at the top of his lungs to the heavens...only to almost violently stop whatever he was about to do and look around worriedly at the excited student body surrounding the field on all sides. He nervously scratched the back of his head with his free hand for a moment and, when he next spoke, it was in a voice that almost sounded embarrassed. "Um...excuse me, but could all of you...please move back several yards? _Way_ farther than that...a little more...yeah, by the school should be good. That goes for you too, Ranma. I want to beat you deliberately, not by accident."

The raven-haired youth face-vaulted as the Furinkan student body slowly backed away with confused expressions on their faces. "Will you just hurry up and attack?" Ranma screeched impatiently, fists clenching and unclenching in irritation as he stubbornly refused to backpedal. The Lost Boy examined him closely and almost seemed about to say something before changing his mind and shrugging once dismissively.

For the second time in as many minutes, Ryouga's body became ramrod straight as he lifted his arms and umbrella above his head and screamed at the sky. It was a powerful scream of indescribable determination and resolve that rattled the bones of all those who heard it, but even more startling than the violent howl emerging from the Lost Boy's lungs was the sudden shaking of the ground that reverberated in tune with Ryouga's voice. The dust and dirt around the Lost Boy began to rise into the air in a gradually widening circle that stopped just short of Ranma, and then to everyone's further amazement the very earth itself split and tore itself apart around the Lost Boy and soared up into the sky in massive chunks. And still Ryouga's scream increased in volume and the earthquake grew in strength and more and more of the terrain surrounding the bandana-wearing boy broke free of the earth and levitated, continuing on and on in an ever more violent and intense display of power.

And then...Ryouga began to glow.

The sight of Ryouga glowing with verdant ki was not a new one to Ranma or the teenage onlookers. Indeed, the Eternally Lost Boy was a veritable light show when depressed, and with depression being one of his most well-known emotional states shortly behind anger at Ranma it was almost like being treated to a fireworks display when he was in the neighborhood. No, what took people's breathes away was not so much the green glow silhouetting his body but rather the pulsing. To the observers it almost looked like there was another aura buried within Ryouga's ki-smoldering frame struggling to escape and throbbing in time with the Lost Boy's heartbeat, and as the pulses quickened in speed the air crackled with discharges of green energy that resembled lightning. And then, though it hardly seemed possible, Ryouga screamed even louder as his arms shot into the air above his head and the power he possessed finally erupted from his frame in a jade column of overwhelmingly potent ki that completely enveloped the space around him for several yards in every direction.

The verdant pillar of power, reminiscent of a Perfect ShiShiHoukoudan but far more impressive, rose higher and higher into the sky and parted the clouds themselves as it ascended. How high the column reached Ranma had no clue, but Ryouga's howl abruptly stopped and suddenly the tremendous power he was emitting seemed to reverse direction and all at once return to its owner. Though it seemed impossible to the Saotome heir that one body could possibly hold so much ki, the Lost Boy's massive aura shrank and contracted around him till even his illuminated silhouette disappeared. A second later, gravity caught up with what fragments remained of the field and the debris rained down upon the gigantic crater in which the young Hibiki stood at the epicenter of.

Ranma remained glued in place at the very edge of the manmade depression, Ryouga's aura having halted its expansion mere inches from him although the Saotome heir knew deep in his gut that if the Lost Boy had desired he could have encompassed the entire school ground and possibly the whole neighborhood in his display. As his classmates watched on in awe and perhaps even fear from further back and Cologne watched in wide-eyed amazement, the raven-haired boy tried to think of something - anything! - he could do, some course of action he could implement, but nothing came to mind. It was all he could do to think straight let alone strategize as his mind and martial artist senses struggled to process the inconceivable feat they'd just witnessed, but they were all but overwhelmed by the sheer power Ranma detected still coming from the Lost Boy.

"It's over."

The tone in which Ryouga spoke was strangely detached and somber, but the words jolted Ranma out of his astonished daze and the young martial artist finally sprang into action. Maybe he could use the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts Secret Technique-(3)

Ranma wasn't even able to follow Ryouga's movement. One moment the Lost Boy was at the bottom of the crater but even before the moment passed he reappeared in mid-air dead-even with where the ground used to be and then he was standing in front of Ranma with the upraised palm of his right hand facing the Saotome heir. A spark of ki appeared in front of the hand, and then the next and last thing Ranma felt was his entire awareness disappear into green light.

000ooo000000ooo000

Nerima Ward's reaction to the release of Ryouga's inhuman ki was exactly what one would expect – life went on as it normally did in Nerima's typically abnormal fashion. The ward's residents were familiar with (and in some cases unhappily overly familiar with) centuries old martial artists, ancient Jusenkyo curses, supernatural occurrences, and superhuman feats. They had seen flying ships and what was essentially a winged minotaur. Moreover, many of them knew one Tendo Kasumi by name, and the eldest Tendo daughter's serenity and sheer good-heartedness were so mind-bogglingly great as to make everything else in Nerima seem downright normal in comparison. The sight of an aura powerful enough to level the entire city was, therefore, merely regarded as the curiosity of the week if even that.

There was one person in Nerima, though, who was reacting very strongly to the events that had occurred earlier in the day and for good reason since he'd been at ground zero and on the receiving end of the Eternally Lost Boy's attack. As he sat sulking on the wooden floor of the Tendo Dojo that evening, Saotome Ranma replayed the fight over and over again in his mind and tried to make sense of it. His body was still sore from the ki-blast it had borne, but the Saotome heir begrudgingly knew that if Ryouga had wanted the directionally challenged martial artist could have vaporized him with the power he'd summoned. He'd gotten off lucky with only a few aches and pains and a bout with unconsciousness.

That knowledge hadn't comforted Ranma any when he'd woken up at Dr. Tofu's clinic, however, and the pigtailed martial artist had irritably shrugged off the concerned looks and questions of his friends and family, staying only long enough to learn that Ryouga had left shortly after his victory at Furinkan High and was currently wandering Nerima in his unpredictable fashion. Ignoring the protests of the Tendos and his father, he'd immediately made a beeline to the Nekohanten to track down Cologne and learn her reading of the battle. He'd found the Amazon elder waiting for him outside the restaurant, grim-faced and unusually forthright. Ryouga had surpassed even what she'd believed were the limits of human power and she'd been so surprised at the intensity of his ki that she'd actually fallen off her staff, the wizened matriarch had candidly admitted. She'd then gone on to say that, whether he married Shampoo or not, there was nothing she could teach him that would enable him to defeat the Lost Boy.

Why Cologne had been so honest with him Ranma didn't know, but he suspected that even the Amazon elder had been shaken to the core of her being by his rival's display and that she was probably still reeling from the experience. Her ki senses were far more advanced than his own, after all, and witnessing an eruption of ki like that was probably comparable to going to a sold-out heavy metal concert when all that you normally listened to was folk on the radio. Besides, as wily as Cologne could be she was also honorable in her own way and wouldn't promise him something she couldn't deliver.

Which brought the young Saotome heir back to his current dilemma: how could he triumph over Ryouga now that the Lost Boy was more overpowered than a sumo wrestler at a children's eating contest?

"It just doesn't make sense," Ranma muttered unhappily, slamming his right hand to the floor in anger. "How could P-chan possibly improve so much in just _one_ month? He's fighting like he has the Mark of the Gods again without the Mark!" He briefly contemplated whether his rival was using another gimmick but quickly dismissed the idea. In his experience gimmicks always had a price – the more powerful the gimmick the higher the cost – which Ryouga wasn't showing any signs of, and while he didn't think very highly of the Lost Boy his rival had a strong enough sense of fair play and such a terrible poker face that if he was using some trick to win everyone and their dog would know about it by now. Well, everyone and their dog except for Akane since she could be awfully dense at times...

Tip-tip-tip.

The young martial artist tensed at the sound of approaching footsteps, fearing that it was Akane who'd somehow read his mind and was coming to mallet him but rejecting the idea as his more logical side took hold and pointed out that the footsteps were far too light to belong to his fiancée. No, judging by the sound the person approaching was very small, very light, and-

SPLASH!

"Sweet-o!"

SMACK!

-very perverted.

"Dirty old man, go away!" Ranma-chan shouted in an annoyed voice, glaring at the diminutive and shriveled figure lying prone on the ground with a massive bump on his head from where she'd just punched him off her transformed and suddenly extensive bosom. For his part, the dirty old man known and loathed as Happosai sprang back to his feet with strength that belied his ancient appearance and a low to the ground hop that took him out of Ranma-chan's reach.

"Show proper respect to your elders, boy! It pains an old man like myself to see such callous disrespect from the young these days!" Happosai retorted with about as much sincerity as the stereotypical used car salesman. He made a motion to dust off his red jumpsuit and then unceremoniously sat down on the wooden floor across from the object of his unwanted attention. "Anyway, I heard about your defeat to Ryouga today and came to offer my condolences. Who'd have thought that Hibiki boy would ever gain such power?" An indecipherable emotion briefly entered Happosai's eyes and, for a second, the old man almost looked like the martial arts sage he claimed to be, but the debauchery that usually clouded his vision soon returned.

"Your concern touches me from the bottom of my heart," the buxom red-head replied sarcastically. "Now go away!" In a second Ranma-chan had risen from her seated position and aimed a kick at where Happosai had been sitting. The old martial artist easily dodged the attack and the punches that followed as his cursed opponent lashed out.

"Tsk tsk, getting a little slow, are we Ranma-chan? No wonder Ryouga was able to defeat you," the Grandmaster of Anything Goes chided, taking out his pipe from his pocket and parrying the young martial artist's next several attacks effortlessly. He sighed theatrically. "If this is the best you can do, then perhaps you're not worthy of being the school's heir after all. And here I actually thought you might be able to overcome Ryouga with the knowledge I was going to impart..."

This brought the spirited redhead up short, and she warily ended her assault and slipped into a defensive stance as she eyed Happosai guardedly. Under normal circumstances the Saotome heir would have done a complete 180 degree rotation in personality and suddenly show newfound respect for her elder, but after Cologne's assessment she was more cautious now and knew that it would take more than a new technique to rout her rival. Plus, unlike Cologne, Happosai could and would lie for no reason other than his own perverse amusement.

"Speak, old man, and what ya haveta say better be worth hearing unless you want to get punted through the roof! I want to know what you can possibly do to help me that Cologne can't!"

The ancient lecher feigned injury. "You hurt me with your words, Ranma, but since you're the only halfway decent heir to the Anything Goes School there currently is I'll let your ingratitude pass this once. Now, as for what I can teach you that Cologne can't, quite a bit actually. You do me a disservice comparing me to the likes of her since I know every dirty trick she does and have stooped far lower." He smiled slightly at some memory only he knew. "Still, you're right that there's nothing I can teach you that'll give you the edge needed to defeat Ryouga. He has gone beyond anything Anything Goes was designed to handle."

The amused master martial artist was immediately treated to the familiar sight of an angry redhead about to explode and let him have a piece of her mind (and impart grievous bodily injury too if she had her way), but Happosai interrupted the impending tirade with a raised hand signaling he wasn't done speaking yet.

"HOWEVER," he spoke loudly and clearly, "I do know where you can go to receive training that'll let you regain the advantage in the little rivalry the two of you have going. Anything Goes is the ultimate style of martial arts when it comes to versatility and adaptability and it is unmatched in the realm of aerial grappling. Against a normal opponent Anything Goes all but assures victory, but even Anything Goes has limits and cannot compensate for the power gap that currently exists between you and Ryouga."

The Grandmaster of Anything Goes lowered his voice to just above a whisper and assumed a solemn air, as if he was imparting secret knowledge of fundamental importance. "There is another school of martial arts, though, that has found a way to overcome skill and power gaps. Its style is unorthodox and its methods unfathomable, but it is an ancient art against which even I have proven defenseless. If you master it then truly you will become unbeatable."

Ranma-chan considered Happosai's words carefully, puzzling through them and searching for some hidden catch. Her eyebrows narrowed as she looked down at him suspiciously. "And why are you telling me this, Happosai? What do you get out of it?"

The ancient lecher angrily smacked the redhead with the end of his pipe, knocking her into one of the dojo's walls. "How dare you impugn my pure motives?" he decried histrionically, glaring at the dazed martial artist as she slid to the floor. "Is it wrong for me to want my student to be the best? To learn every worthwhile style of martial arts there is and use them to improve Anything Goes? You insult me, Ranma, and I demand an apology if you want to hear more!"

Still seeing stars, Ranma-chan blearily and reluctantly bowed before Happosai. "Alright old man, I'm s-s-sorry. Now tell me, what's the name of this school of martial arts you're talking about?"

The Grandmaster of Anything Goes couldn't keep the depraved grin off his face as he answered her question. "The style I speak of is...the School of Pretty Magical Girl Martial Arts!"

SMACK!

"Pervert! You just want to see me fight in a skirt, don't you!" Ranma-chan shouted furiously at the departing figure of Happosai as her enraged uppercut sent him soaring through the dojo's roof and upward into the lower stratosphere. Breathing heavily from anger the redhead glared at the vanishing speck that was the ancient lecher, only calming down when he'd completely disappeared from view and she was certain that he wouldn't be back for at least a couple hours. As her rage subsided, though, a thought occurred to Ranma-chan and she groaned in disbelief.

"Aw man, I can't believe that tomboy was actually right. I might need a mini-skirt to defeat Ryouga after all!"

000ooo000000ooo000

"Jadeite, appear."

Although the voice was all but devoid of emotion and spoke in a tone barely above a whisper, the words were unmistakably a command. In a flash of blue magical light the former general of the Dark Kingdom promptly materialized, blond-haired head bowed and one knee on the translucent floor. Clad in the gray military uniform of the defeated Queen Beryl's army, the only sign the slender young man's relatively youthful appearance gave of his true age was the coldness of his blue eyes that had seen far too much to list in his millennia of years.

"What is your command, mistress?" Jadeite intoned passionlessly, going through the familiar motions of vassalage more out of habit than any true devotion to his current sovereign. As the highest ranked survivor of the Dark Kingdom remained bowed and awaited his next orders, he took special care not to let his lowered eyes be overwhelmed by the infinity that surrounded him in all directions. The heavens may be mostly darkness, but here space burned with the glow of billions of stars. No matter where one looked, the cosmos in its full grandeur lay spread out with its innumerable spinning spheres and countless celestial phenomena, a neverending cornucopia of light and action and beauty that could drive the unprepared to indescribable heights of both ecstasy and agony. Had he not already been half-mad from the effects of Eternal Sleep when he'd first been brought here, Jadeite was certain he would have gone insane from the overwhelming experience of seeing every star and every world in, as he'd later learned, every dimension encircling him.

"I have chosen your next target."

The same nearly emotionless voice spoke using the exact same inflection as before, and Jadeite raised his head to gaze at his ancient master. In the center of the transparent circle he stood on was a smaller circular depression with half-a-dozen masterly crafted concentric steps leading down to its bottom, and there the only other humanoid figure in this impossible plane stood kneeling before a vertical disk of such darkness, such emptiness, such entropy that the former general's mind recoiled even at the merest sign of its existence as he intently kept his vision locked on the back of his mistress rather than the levitating circle. It was a shade of darkness darker than black, a color that did not and could not exist and seared itself on a watcher's psyche because of what it was not instead of what it was.

It was the Gateway to Oblivion.

It was Void.

And most disturbing of all to the Dark Kingdom refugee, his master and savior gazed straight at the fathomless, bottomless depths of this entropic nightmare without the slightest sign of strain. A plain black cloak and hood shrouded his mistress, but against the darker pitch of the nothingness that floated before her the curves and outline of a well-proportioned female body could just be discerned. Beside her to the left was a key-shaped metal staff that looked vaguely mechanical and seemed to be standing straight on its own power. Jadeite had practically worshipped her once, back when she had rescued him from the unending torment and solitude of Queen Beryl's cruel punishment. Now, having witnessed her rare but soul-chillingly beautiful smile as world after world fell to the terrifying force she called forth through that dark abyss, the blond mystic feared her more than he ever had his former queen or even Empress Metallia. They, at least, had possessed desires he could understand and fathom, lusts for power and control he could appeal to and reason with, but his new sovereign possessed a singular, unchanging purpose whose attainment would lead to the end of all things. He followed her because to do otherwise and defy her awesome power meant death, but the wages of his service amounted to little more than extra time that would disappear along with everything else when his mistress attained her wish.

It was almost enough to make an unrepentantly evil, energy-draining villain like himself consider joining - of all the distasteful things - a union.

Either unaware or indifferent about her servant's disloyal and quasi-progressive thoughts, the cloaked figure raised one slender, gloved hand and pointed to a tiny blue and green sphere off in the distance that immediately increased in size. Jadeite inclined his head to regard the globe and nearly groaned at the overly familiar planet. "Earth again, my mistress? Haven't we already terminated a thousand variants of that world?"

"One thousand two-hundred fifty-seven variants, to be precise," the dark mistress answered in the same detached tone. "The Vogons unknowingly helped us when they deleted that entire probability axis, but for the desired effect more Earths yet must fall. You know what you must do." Her raised hand became a clenched fist, and as she opened her hand again a black portal seven feet in diameter simultaneously sprang into existence beside Jadeite. An overhead view of Tokyo's bustling, metropolitan cityscape could be seen on the other side of the disc. "There will be consequences if you fail, Jadeite."

The blond mystic nodded his head and rose to his feet, terrified less by his master's threat than by the cold, detached voice she had articulated it with. He had failed before and survived. His mistress knew that in the infinite cosmos a few of her targets were bound to have the means to resist her, and setbacks could be tolerated so long as they did not compromise the ultimate objective which was larger than any single planet. Her punishments, though severe, were not lethal because terminating him over a temporary failure would mean the loss of a useful resource. Queen Beryl and Empress Metallia would have shown heated excitement at the prospect of destroying a world and outrage at being thwarted. His new sovereign had caused the obliteration of countless worlds and been denied on but a few scant occasions, but she always acted with a heartless pragmatism that chilled even his hardened soul. There was something disturbing on a fundamental level – even to him – when the termination of thriving planets was treated as routine, but his mistress seemed unaffected by her callous actions.

Almost feeling a sense of relief at the prospect of leaving his pitiless master and that-that patch of nothingness behind him, Jadeite turned and stepped through the portal to the new world that awaited his presence and the coming of oblivion. A world where the fates were conspiring to produce a new champion to meet the incoming threat. A world that, coincidences of coincidences, just happened to have been featured prominently in the preceding scenes of this story.

Honestly, what were the odds?

Author's Notes:

(1) Porunga is the Namekian Dragon and grants three wishes. In this story's continuity, I've decided that Ryouga caught the tail-end of Season One and stayed in the DBZ universe till sometime after the Frieza Saga. In order not to delay anyone's resurrection, Ryouga waited and was wished to New Namek with the other surviving Nameks where he trained until Porunga could be summoned again. So, all told, he probably spent somewhere between two and three years away from Nerima from his perspective.

(2) Howl of the Demon Dog, according to Viz's translation. It's a technique Genma showed Ranma when the latter was trying to learn the ShiShiHoukoudan and goes as follows: assume the stance, slide back as you gather your ki, focus your ki once you've reached a good distance, and then...act as if losing is no big deal. Unsurprisingly, Ranma was not impressed.

(3) The Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts Secret Technique being to, essentially, run away until you think of a way to win.

Addendum: As stated in the teaser, this story is a sequel to Ryouga vs. the Road Runner. When I wrote that tale I had no intentions of writing a sequel, but the demand for one in the feedback got me thinking about what a sequel might look like. Simply having Ryouga return to Nerima and trounce Ranma would be mostly pointless, and avoiding that was one of the reasons why I ended the prequel on a Dragonball Z crossover rather than Ryouga finding his way back to the Tendo Dojo. Assuming the Lost Boy did find the Tendo Dojo again, though, what could Ranma possibly do against a character with a DBZ power-up? He would be overwhelmed unless he found some way to counter that ridiculous advantage, and since opposites offset each other...what's the opposite of overpowered DBZ fighters? Cute magical girls, of course! Or so the reasoning went, and the mental image of Magical Girl Ranko battling Z-Fighter Ryouga in Tokyo was so amusing that I felt compelled to write a sequel.

Now, chances are this story won't match the prequel in terms of quality since Ryouga vs. the Road Runner was one of those stories that practically write themselves and I could always turn to Youtube videos of Road Runner/Coyote cartoons for inspiration. In contrast, this tale is fragments of scenes and dialogue I want to depict and which I'm struggling to connect into a cohesive storyline so...expect things to be a little rougher, though I hope you'll still enjoy the finished product.

I feel I should also warn readers that there will likely be long waits between updates (i.e. months, not weeks). In the past I've postponed submitting stories to until they were completed because I tend to write _very_ slowly and didn't want to cause disappointment if I decided to discontinue a fanfic, but people have pointed out that I'm potentially missing out on helpful feedback and constructive criticism by doing that and in retrospect my previous multi-chapter Ranma 1/2 tale would probably have been better had the ending not already been written and largely fixed before I started posting chapters. So, apologies in advance for any unreasonably long interludes.

And if any of you are wondering about Jadeite's master, she is not an original character and if you think you know who she is you might be right. I don't plan to reveal her identity until later in the story at a suitably DRAMATIC MOMENT, but I'm not aiming for a plot twist here. She is who she is and I'm not going to make her appear to be someone else just to surprise everyone.

Anyway, there are a few people I want to thank. First, I want to express my gratitude to Kent Hyam whose intelligent and insightful short story "Mask of Victory, Face of Defeat" took a serious look at what the consequences could be on the cast if Ryouga did surpass Ranma. It helped me realize how much of a fanboy I was being years ago when I was toying around with an earlier version of Ryouga vs. the Road Runner that did take the largely senseless "Ryouga defeats Ranma because I want him to!" route.

Secondly, thanks go to Claymade. His hilarious one-shot "Right Place, Right Time" resurrected my interest in the prequel to this story and helped get me to finally start writing it.

Thirdly, I want to acknowledge the influence Lathis' fanfics have had on me. He has a superb and entertaining writing style that I am attempting to learn from and am even blatantly appropriating at times. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?

Fourthly, Ashes2Ashes has my thanks for showing me just how successful and fun a completely irreverent story can be to read and write. I highly recommend his Summer Vacation fics if you haven't read them yet.

And finally, thank you to everyone who commented on the prequel. I really appreciated your generous and at times constructive remarks, and it is largely because of you that this story got rolling. So, in other words, this is all your fault!

Until next time.