Punishment 5. “Hmmm what hit me?”

Author:

Chapter Five

Disclaimer: I don’t own this, you try to sue me, you get lots of court fees and big headache, but no money.

It has been about a year since Ranma left Nerima to train and learn what he was capable of. Over that time, he learned surprisingly few new abilities. He learned Mandarin due to the need of it. After much insistence (heavy bashing and training that exhausted him to the point he wanted to die) from his sensei, he finally started to relearn what his body could do. Ranma and Qai were walking back within the limits of the nexus known as Nerima, Tokyo.

For Ranma this was all new. He had trained in a vacant area of forest and clearing, where it was harder to use majick, but easier to center yourself, due to the lack of outside interference. Ranma was in awe at how many Ley Lines converged on his hometown of Nerima. They had just gotten close to the Nekohaten Area when a bike seemed to fly out of nowhere and an extremely bubbly and energetic Shampoo plastered herself to Ranma. “I am so happy to see you Airen-sama!”

For his part Ranma just smiled. Neither the boy nor the Amazon noticed Qai slip into the shadows and seem to merge and fade into them. Ranma, with Shampoo reluctantly releasing him to continue her deliveries, headed into the Nekohaten and up to the nearest room that was safe, and crashed. He hadn’t slept in several weeks, and felt he deserved some rest.

Qai entered the basement of the Nekohaten via the shadows, and was about to follow the trend being set by his former student and now was his spar partner/friend, but Bast interrupted him. She was rather annoyed that Ranma had gone up to the room he that shared with Shampoo and suddenly vanished from all her senses. When she went up there, Ranma was on the bed and fast asleep. Before she could voice her complaint however, Qai decided to kill it before he heard it. “He vanished because that is the safest way for him to sleep. If you can not find him with any sense other than sight and sound, then and only then is he safe when he is among enemies. He can’t unlearn it and he doesn’t know he can do it yet, so don’t tell him.”

Bast let out a small, ‘Oh’ and went back to her pad. After he was sure the goddess was gone, Qai decided a good nap was in order and left the world of the conscious. It was rather late at night when Shampoo had gotten home. She wanted to just pass out, and therefore missed her husband laying on her bed. She was so tired that she didn’t noticed until she was actually in the bed next to him and almost asleep.

Nodoka sat up in her bed and had the sudden urge that her son was being manly, smiled and passed out again.

The residents of Nerima woke to an oddly peaceful morning. Then they started to pack. Peaceful meant it was about to get real dangerous and insurance rates would go up again due to property damage. Shampoo awoke to find something warm and extremely comfortable. This was a welcome change from the last twelve months of waking up cold. She slowly snuggled up to the heater, to find that it was just slightly harder than a pillow should be, and moving. Her sleep induced mind was slowly putting it together and warming up, taking just as long to get going as a 747 jet takes to warm its engines and take off under its own power. When her pillow shifted, it clicked.

Ranma was awake and was amused to watch Shampoo sleepily figure out he was next to her. It turned into laughter when her eyes went from spaced and droopy to wide and alert in the span of one-tenth of a second. His laughter was short lived however when she decided to shush him with a lip-lock of epic proportions. When the kiss was broken, Ranma told her to get dressed and went to dress himself after standing away from the bed and Shampoo. He then flared his ki to a small but intense amount, instantly incinerating all dead flesh on his body, making him feel cleaner than if he showered, and not leaving that awful smell of seared flesh.

As Ranma is downstairs he gets the impression that Shampoo is still showering, and gets a rather wicked thought. With that thought in mind, he saw just how much power he had, and if he could pull this prank off. With a little bit of concentration he managed to bring her to a mind shaking orgasm in mid-shower while she was lathering up her hair. Ranma’s smile increased as he heard her shout and slump in ecstasy, then screech Ranma after a small pause. Ranma saw Qai doing something strange out back and decided to investigate. Unfortunately for Ranma, he wasn’t the only one doing this. Shampoo had finished with her shower and her mind was no longer mush from that orgasm, and Nabiki was intent on figuring out who he was.

Qai had gotten word from Bast that his job was done, and Ranma would live long enough to improve on his own. He had just gotten his gate up when Shampoo came flying from her window, Nabiki stepped in front of him, and Ranma stepped behind him. Reflexes being reflexes, he threw Ranma at Nabiki, Shampoo chased Ranma into the gate, which Ranma had collided with Nabiki and fallen into. Qai for his part said, Oh holy fuck! And followed them as fast as he could. Several things happen when several unidentified powerful entities enter a gate, which is unprepared for said entities. The most important thing however would be it fluxes.

When a gate fluxes, it is an extremely bad thing. If you are unprepared for it, the gate will scramble your brain, possibly your body, and most definitely strip you of all you non-vital energy. The ’walls’ of the ’tunnel’ you enter when you pass through the gate shift when they flux. They turn from a golden yellow, to an angry purple. If you are unlucky enough to be hit with the sudden flashes of what looks to be lightning flitting between the walls your body will be changed. Due to Ranma having an aura similar to a cat’s, when the lightning hit him, it had a rather unique effect. It shifted his body to a cross between feline and human.

To Ranma, it felt as if his curse had activated somehow. He felt his body shift in weird ways and grow in places. Nabiki was experience a world of disorientation due to her body shifting and growing as well. Nabiki was undergoing the same transformation as Ranma because she had a vice grip on him as the hurtled through the vortex within the gate. Shampoo was unaffected due to Qai managing to get a hold of her, and protecting them both from the Chaotic mutating energies of the gate.

When all was said and done, only a few seconds had elapsed. They all fell in a heap on the other side of the gate, and said gate quickly winked out of existence. Qai noticed how the gate had changed Ranma and Nabiki. Ranma looks like a Panther/Human and Nabiki looked like a humanoid Jaguar.