Founding Fists Chapter One - The Cause Standard Disclaimer See last chapter. Story by Omega Point and Immortal Wanderer What has gone before… The origin of the Hibiki curse means that on the sixteenth birthday of the eldest Hibiki child, an amulet is magically transferred from its previous bearer. However, as Ryoga hasn't seen his parents for a number of months, he is unaware of his curse's magical origin or that the amulet is a mark of the curse and must never be parted from its bearer. Dark warning. ******* Ryoga, paying no attention to where he is going as usual, looked up and saw a sign, Tendo Dojo. "I'm finally here! After three hellish months of my cursed wandering, I've finally reached my destination! Ranma, if it wasn't for you, I'd never have this problem!" -Logic had had no great hold on the mind of the Hibiki clan ever since one of their daughters had wandered into the Shikima realm. Demon blood is good for strength (and fangs), but not so good for brains.- Surrounded by a slight green glow, Ryoga walked up to the door of the Tendo residence and knocked, to have it answered by Nabiki. "Hi, Ryoga, come on in. Ranma's in the Dojo, Kasumi's in the kitchen with Dr Tofu," -Ryoga winced as loud crashes and other sounds of breakage echoed through the house from that direction- "and Akane's just inside." Ryoga closed his hands to mute their shaking, as the glow surrounding him winked out under the force of his elation and excitement. *Perfect, Ranma isn't harassing Akane, I can give her the present without interference!* "Thanks, Nabiki." was his verbal response, his fangs flashing as he demonstrated his complete lack of a believable poker face. "No charge for the info, but 500 yen for me to disappear for an hour." "Huh? Um, how about 400 yen?" "That's only half a hour." Realising he didn't have time to argue -Ranma would reappear in an instant- Ryoga handed over the 500 yen and smiled as Nabiki, good to her word, disappeared into the city. Steeling himself to face Akane, Ryoga stepped forward. For the first time in his life, he didn't spend 25 minutes practicing what to say, and hence managed to speak much more clearly than on any other occasion so far. He walked straight up to Akane before he started stuttering. "I- I wanted, I wanted to give you this" handing out the amulet, Akane is staggered and is speechless for a moment. That moment is long enough for Ryoga to attempt to turn a corner to recompose himself, and end up in Brazil. Right when a bucket of cold water is thrown out of a window with the usual results. Akane still in wonder at the intricate design of the amulet and not being terribly observant at the best of times failed to notice that the amulet was starting to get warmer. "I wonder why Ryoga ran off, It's wonderful, I wonder where he got it?" these thoughts running through her mind, the medallion now reaching a very warm temperature, one which would change Ranma to boy form if it was water. But Akane was still oblivious, moving to go show Kasumi, about half way to the kitchen the medallion finally got hot enough to cause her to drop it, letting out a yell, "Ranma" she stared at the medallion now scorching the wooden floor, cracks started to appear in its surface. Ranma didn't hear her shout over the disaster that was occurring in the kitchen with Dr Tofu doing his usual delirious destructive mayhem that occurs in the presence of Kasumi. Purplish black smoke issued from the cracks far more issued than should have been possible, but then medallions heating themselves is not exactly a usual occurrence either. The smoke started solidifying into a vaguely human shape but far more heavily built, taller and with a distinctive grace. Then suddenly with an audible snap the gaseous particles joined and a massive black feline human hybrid stood half again as tall as Akane, rippling muscles, and very large canines, definitely looking hungry if nothing else. Dropping into a fighting stance she prepared to fight. "This shouldn't be too hard! I'm not Ranma, I'm not scared of a little kitty cat." The Guardian (for so it was!) looked at Akane and could sense from the scorch mark on her hand she was the defiler. Looking at the stance, the Guardian prepared for a interesting challenge, then it looked at her battle aura or to put more precisely lack of it and frowned. *Be thinking, two possibilities: either she be being abysmal at fighting, in which case she should be running, or she be being able to hold in her aura which be making her a real challenge, before be having reached full strength anyway." Interrupting the creature's thoughts, Akane charged in and threw a volley of punches at her head height, about chest high on the creature. The Guardian, fearing some trick with punches being thrown so slowly, simply knocked the punches aside, Akane went flying into the nearest wall. Closing in on Akane's prone form, the thought flashed though its mind *Maybe she just be being weak. Or stupid.* Kasumi chose that moment to open the kitchen door and see if anyone needed anything. Seeing her sister's prone form, she screamed. This attracted the attentions of both Tofu and Ranma. Akane, stirred by her sister's scream, stirred and saw the hybrid bearing down upon her "RANMA!" This time her shout caught Ranma's already alerted attention; he looked up and ran towards her voice. Kasumi ran towards her sister and impacted with a backwards swing of the creature's arm, all the effort that the creature was going to expend. Just as Ranma and Tofu erupted into the room, an airborne Kasumi sailed past them, thudding into the wall. Unlike her sister, Kasumi didn't have a body to withstand such impacts and Tofu ran to her aid. Ranma moved to interpose himself between the being and Akane, but the creature moved with a speed that defied imagination. Time seemed to slow for Ranma as the claws almost casually swept toward his fiancée. Her expression was one of denial, as if to say 'I don't need anybody's help! I'm a martial artist too!'. The proof that she was wrong was her final legacy, as someone finally took her seriously in combat. One swipe of those terrible claws, plus something extra that Ranma couldn't quite see, reduced a living, vibrant (if slightly psychotic) girl into four distinct, lifeless piles of flesh and bone. There was no way anything could have survived an attack like that. Akane was dead. Still in full battle mode, Ranma was not yet reacting to the shock, still analysing every motion he could see on his opponent's part. The motion he had seen awoke something in Ranma, something was very familiar. When his appraisal reached the tail twitching on the creature's back, the feeling moved towards dread. As the creature turned around and Ranma saw the creature's face, it was most definitely feline. "Ca ca ca cat" The combination of the extreme danger, as-yet subconscious rage over Akane's death, and the ailurophobia instilled by the inhuman training method, brought Ranma into the full influence of the Nekoken in under a second. and he went down on all fours and charged. The Guardian looked at the newest threat and was more than a little surprised to see that it was a match for his current power. It swiped at Ranma but connected only with thin air as Ranma had already leapt and was going for the creature's throat. Ranma's slice, which had cut steel on many occasions was blocked, but by stopping the arm not the claw. Tofu was doing his best to aid Kasumi, and was visibly shocked by the remains of Akane discarded on the floor. Tragically, Kasumi was beyond his help; pressure points had relieved her pain but her lungs had been pierced by ribs broken in the impact and Tofu had neither the equipment on hand nor time to get them to save her. Realising the situation she was in, Kasumi gasped "Just hold me till the end." Ranma and the feline were both grappling with Ranma coming out on the worse end, being equals in speed, and both of them being able to destroy the other given a clean shot the size and strength advantage was giving the hybrid the advantage with the blocks being used by both parties hurting Ranma's arms more and more. The hybrid however was also having problems not reaching his full power for a cycle of a moon after being summoned meant that he didn't have the stamina to fight a battle of this magnitude yet. Kasumi breathed her last breath and died in Tofu's arms, Tofu rose and letting out a almighty yell that made both of the combatants in the fight pause for the duration of the oath before continuing. "I hereby renounce all my oaths! Instead I swear I shall never again use my skills only after the battles but shall use my skills in battle to prevent the harm taking place!" Ranma pressed on in battle blocking and being blocked by the creature when an immense green aura started to light up the room. Tofu waded into battle. The Guardian, already hard pressed against Ranma, decided to retreat. Besides these humans where only incidental to his task anyway. "Be having destroyed one who took wrongful possession of my amulet, and now be going to find the one who took improper care." "NO!" Tofu stepped forward, "You're not going anywhere!" Ranma, still oblivious to his surroundings, pressed on. The feline blocked one of Ranma's slashes only to have it paralysed momentarily by a blow from Tofu to a pressure point, it was less than a second but this was enough to cause one of Ranma's next group of swipes to actually touch skin before being blocked. The damage was minor, but as Tofu watched the wound visibly started closing and healing, and that pressure point was meant to last at least ten minutes. Tofu had seen Ranma recover fast but he was no match for this; it would require a killing blow to defeat it. Tofu went for the fatality points but the creature, now injured, was redoubling its efforts and was driving Tofu and Ranma back. A claw came at Tofu, but, blocking the limb behind it with one finger, he caused the hybrid to step back as its arm suddenly extended, upsetting its balance, not enough to allow it to take another hit but enough to force it onto the defensive. Ranma, not currently sane enough to work in synchronisation with Tofu even if his ego would've allowed it, couldn't capitalise on it, his arms were bruised and his expenditure of energy was catching up on him. The creature was unaware of this and rather than risk being sent to a plane of existence he didn't want to visit (which was the price of failure), he teleported. The inherent problem with teleportation is that the means used by the creature was unstable, similar to the one used in the Hibiki curse. Though the hybrid had a VERY good sense of direction, a teleport could send him anywhere, on earth and occasionally elsewhere. "Where is the recipient?" the hybrid referred to the current primary target of the curse, "I should be able to feel his presence, why can't I?" At this point in time, somewhere in Brazil, a little black pig with a yellow bandanna sneezed. Back in the Tendo residence, Tofu was weeping while tending to Ranma's wounds, Ranma was now unconscious due to the energy expended and his subconscious grief that was suppressed due to the Nekoken. Nabiki walked in the door, saw Kasumi, but did not fully realise the extent of the damage, and fortunately did not see what was left of Akane on the far end of the floor. "Is everyone alright, what happened?" at that point she did turn and saw Akane's scattered remains. She promptly fainted.