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A Hollowed Out Heart: Chapter Nine

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"About damned time," Nabiki muttered under her breath as the holding cell door opened. She limply allowed her hands to be cuffed by the pudgy police officer and escorted from her home for the past several hours. Kasumi had at last recieved her message.

A few short minutes passed while Nabiki was out-processed and released into her sister's care. Kasumi had squeeked an utterly predictable, "Oh my!" at the sight of Nabiki's swollen nose and resulting black eyes.

Kasumi thanked the officer at the desk for helping her, by first name no less, and guided her younger sister out of the building. Only when the pair had walked nearly a block in an uncomfortable silence did Kasumi speak to her angrily plotting sibling. "I must apologize, little sister."

Nabiki only half heard the older girl, but turned to regard her more closely, one eyebrow raised inquiringly.

The motherly young woman glanced down, unwilling to meet Nabiki's sullen and strangely raccoon-like gaze. "It's my fault that you were arrested." Hastily, before the startled girl could respond, Kasumi continued. "Ranma came to me last week. He was very upset with you about the CDs you were selling of his encounter with Kodachi Kuno. Poor Ranma, he's not very subtle and has been so thoroughly taught to solve his problems with violence that I feared for your safety, Nabiki."

By now they were no longer walking, standing in the middle of the sidewalk and forcing other pedestrians to move around them. Had she been paying attention to her surroundings, Nabiki would have been gratified to see that several people she was acquainted with chose to cross the street to avoid confronting the obviously angry Tendo.

"I promised Ranma that I would punish you, Nabiki, to keep him from doing something drastic. He really was very angry," she finished quietly.

"So you had me arrested!" Nabiki exclaimed, never expecting Kasumi of all people to turn her into the authorities. "Do you know how humiliating it was to be hauled out of the school in handcuffs? Look at my face!" Her fists balled in rage, Nabiki entertained the thought of punching her sister. Ler her see how it felt to have a broken nose. "Thanks to you, sister," she hissed the last word with malice,"I might end up with felony charges on my record. Do you have any idea what that does to my future?"

Kasumi sighed wearily, her young shoulders stooped under her sister's bitter glare. "Nabiki, sister, please don't be so angry. You're not in trouble. Mrs. Tanaka from the market, her son is the chief of police, she helped me talk him into frightening you. He was very angry that you had stolen sealed evidence, but agreed not to press charges if you turned over any remaining copies you have and informed him of who helped you get it in the first place."

The weight that lifted from Nabiki's shoulders was immense, but she could not release her anger. It was the only thing keeping her from crying in relief. Nabiki Tendo does not cry. Not in public.

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To occupy his mind and keep it from straying to what awaited him very shortly, Ranma played back Cologne's words from their first conversation after concluding his fact finding Hollow hunt. Menos, the ancient Amazon called them. Hollows of enormous power and even greater size, they were the reason that Amazons so carefully avoided the corrupted monsters. Only two had been encountered in the entire history of the Amazon nation, and while both had been forced to flee, it took the concerted effort of many experienced warriors to drive the beast back to its home plane. The cost in lives was incredible.

The last Menos the Amazons fought, more than seven centuries earlier, had apparently been attracted to a massive upwelling of spiritual energy coming from Jusenkyo caused, Cologne speculated, by an almost unheard of planetary alignment, whatever that was. There would not even be a name for the over-sized Hollows if a patroling Shinigami hadn't been in the area. The Shinigami and a dozen Amazons had died in the effort to repulse the Menos.

Could he defeat so powerful a creature? Ranma reflexively told himself that he could do so with little problem. He recognized his overconfidence, such was his nature, and cursed himself for not being more apprehensive. He should still be frightened! It was unnatural and stupid, he knew, to actually be looking forward to a confrontation with a three hundred foot tall super Hollow. How could he be more scared of the unknown Amazon who would be walking through the door any moment now to relieve him of his virginity than of the thought of fighting the Godzilla of corrupted souls?

The door knob began to turn. Ranma really wished he could faint on command.

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"So, how was it, boy?" Happosai queried, a lecherous little grin turning his wrinkled face even more troll-like.

Ranma resisted the urge to giggle hysterically. He wasn't a pervert, damn it! Using the Soul of Ice to lock away thoughts of warm, creamy flesh and soft little moans of pleasure, the young martial artist glared at his instructor without answering the question. "You gonna help me with this or not?"

Happosai sighed in disappointment and nodded. He'd pout later. If he looked pathetic enough he could maybe even convince Kasumi to give him a hug. Mmmm...

"Okay, you ungrateful lout, show me this new technique of yours."

"It's not new. It's one of your techniques. I just made it better."

"I find that hard to believe. Feel free to demonstrate, though."

The construction sight they had appropriated, one of many in Nerima, was pretty much abandoned until new financial backers could be found to continue funding the project. It wasn't a bad training ground. Ranma found a nearby chunk of broken concrete slightly smaller than a bowling ball and tossed it to the skeptical old man.

"Hold that out to the side and watch closely. Tell me if you can see what I'm doing wrong."

The boy's battle aura became visible and from his outstreched palm a hazy golden tendril of ki began to extend towards the debris resting in Happosai's hand. It took a few short moments to cross the distance, but when it did, once the slightest contact was made, the concrete was blasted out of the perverts hand with astounding violence. Eyes widened, Happosai tried to turn to follow the projectile's path while sucking on his painfully scraped fingertips. Even with his inhuman speed, he was unable to view the rock before it smashed into an upright steel I-beam. The beam and the structure it was helping to support held together, but the beam itself was badly dented and nothing remained of the projectile but a rapidly dissipating cloud of dust.

"Color me impressed, boy. The Butterfly Kiss on steroids, eh?" He chuckled at his lame joke. "I can't really see what you think you're doing wrong, though. That was a very efficient conversion of ki energy into physical force. Couldn't have done any better myself," he complimented.

"It's the speed of the attack," Ranma complained. "Any slower than that and whatever the probe touches will explode. Any faster and it just burns a hole through the target. I've got plans for this technique, some real good stuff, but none of 'em will do squat if I can't get this to work right."

Happosai nodded, his brow furrowed in understanding. "I think I've got an idea of what you're doing wrong. You learned to transform your ki into kinetic energy too quickly. You don't have any experience with delaying or extending the conversion."

Ranma scowled. He'd learned something too fast? How did that make any sense? If anyone would know, however, it would be Happosai. He had, afterall, invented the Butterfly Kiss in the first place. "Great. Let's get started."

"Not so fast, Ranma!" Damn, the little perv was leering again. "You want assistance with your new technique? Well, I want details about your first night of carnal adventures with that hot Amazon number I saw talking to Cologne yesterday!"

Grrr...

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Tears leaked from the eyes of the centuries old martial arts master. He was so proud of his student. And so very, very jealous.

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Even if Cologne had allowed Ranma to weaken or even dispel the spirit wards responsible for protecting Nerima and a good portion of the surrounding area, as per Happosai's suggestion, he would not have done so. There was no guarantee that he could destroy all the Hollows that might enter the city at any time. He wasn't a light sleeper. No telling what mischief a Hollow could get into while he slept, or ate, or bathed. Really, it was a daunting thought, imagining himself trying to defend such a large area. Shinigami had a tough job. He didn't envy them.

Since he couldn't just waste days to find some nice uninhabited area to lure a few Hollows to whenever he wanted to test a new method of ki manipulation, Ranma had to work around such limitations. He'd begun creating alarm wards in the neighboring districts, as time permitted, that would mentally alert him to the presence of his prey. His network was small, however, and growing slowly. For now, Ranma would stick with the construction sight he and Happosai had recently adopted for his training.

A leisurely half hour passed while he dug a shaft into the bare earth and levered a stray steel beam into it. He was no physical powerhouse like Ryoga -where was the lost boy anyway, no one had seen him in months- but it didn't prove to be much of a strain handling the beam's great weight. Ranma had just finished packing the dirt and gravel tightly around his soon-to-be target's base when an unmistakable keening wail filled his mind. A Hollow would trip an alarm just as he finished readying his target. Typical.

Judging by the intervals between the mental wails, the direction they seemed to be originating, and their distinct tone, Ranma guessed his prey was somewhere in Karakura. Not exactly close to Nerima. If he pushed himself it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect to make the trip in twenty minutes. Perhaps he would be able to intercept it before any lives were lost?

With one last sour glance at the now superfluous steel beam, Ranma shrouded himself in his battle aura, took a deep breath, and moved.

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There was a lot less physical effort involved in Ranma's method of travel than one would imagine. Each step required little more than a leap, but allowed him to cover hundreds of feet instantly. The toll such speed exacted on his ki reserves was considerably greater. Despite the energy drain, he arrived in Karakura without dangerously diminishing himself. According to his wrist watch, a manual device that required winding periodically(prolonged exposure to his developing battle aura did unfortunate things to electronics), seventeen minutes had passed from the time he'd left the construction site to the outskirts of his destination. Not bad.

Ranma silenced the small ward carved into the base of the lamp post at his feet with a deft stroke of ki then damped his aura down to a near resting level. It tended to drown out other spiritual presences and he needed his senses at their fullest to further home in on the Hollow. Once he'd narrowed down the direction of his enemy, Ranma flared anew with golden radiance.

Less than a minute passed before the martial artist found the object of his ire. It stood atop a multi-story parking garage, it's form surprisingly human-like, if you overlooked the size, the gaping hole in its mid-section, and the tentacle-like hair. Though its victim did not appear capable of seeing her tormentor, the Hollow was taking great delight in terrorizing the middle-aged woman. Destroyed automobiles were a testament to the many places she had tried to hide from her invisible assailant. Clever even in the face of supernatural assault, she dodged a half-hearted swing from the beast's clawed hand by judging its location from the foot prints of crushed concrete it left in its wake.

Before the monster could come any closer to the fleeing woman, Ranma interposed himself between her and the Hollow.

"Hey, big fella," Ranma greeted with false cheerfulness, his eyes gleaming with what even the Hollow could recognize as malicious anticipation. Momentarily confused by the interruption of its fun and the strange greeting, the Hollow stood immobile as Ranma turned to the woman he'd just saved and said,"Now would be a good time to get the hell out of here, lady."

Wide, frightened eyes regarded the glowing boy for a long moment, he was afraid she'd chosen now to go into shock, but she pulled herself together, nodded once, and made a mad dash for the stairwell.

"You only delay the inevitable. She will be mine again, boy," rasped the Hollow in a surprisingly quiet and articulate tone of voice. "But first, I shall make a snack of your pitiful soul."

Ranma didn't restrain his laughter. "Buddy, if you knew how many times I'd heard that from one of you guys and what happened afterwards, you'd be running for your pathetic life." The boy's battle aura did not increase in size, but it grew much brighter, partially obscuring his features. When next he spoke, Ranma's voice was distorted, taking on a more guttaral quality. "It just so happens I've got a new trick I want to try out and you're the perfect guinea pig."

"Ha, do your worst, human!" Lunging forward, the Hollow attempted to impale Ranma with an arm that stretched like taffy, reaching dozens of feet like a deadly living missle. Ranma negligently batted the limb away and blasted the creature off its feet with a wave of ki.

"You shouldn't be so eager to die, Hollow." He paused beforing speaking the ironically named latest addition to his arsenal. "Hell Butterfly Swarming Kiss," Ranma whispered, his blazing palms held out toward the prone monster. Hundreds of streamers of ki, each no thicker than a human hair, exploded into the air in a dense, writhing mass. The streamers fanned out, stretching their full length to fill the air with a glowing curtain of ethereal golden light, then directed by Ranma's will, each and every one angled toward the Hollow. It was over in a moment, the energy filaments striking simultaneously from all angles, each delivering enough pure kinetic energy to pulverize concrete into dust.

The Hollow exploded into a cloud of bloody black mist.

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His presense carefully suppressed, Kisuke Urahara observed the confrontation from a nearby rooftop. The Hollow had been grossly overmatched by the human boy. A mental command returned Benihime, his zanpakuto, to her disguised form as a cane. The boy's intervention had forstalled his cleansing of the Hollow. Acting on impulse, the Earthbound Shinigami exile flash stepped to the battered parking garage, careful not to appear too closely to the boy, lest he provoke an attack.

He had a feeling this would be an interesting meeting.

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Author's Notes: Sorry about the another short chapter and the long delay between updates. The past few weeks have sucked. Real Life deciding to be difficult, you know? I want to try to get back onto a regular update schedule if I can manage it. Wish me luck.