AN: OK, so it I'm actually dying so I figure I should post what I have of this despite it not being quite to my liking. I'll spend a little time getting each of the chapters basically proof read and then post them. I have several I'd wanted to make some changes to, but screw it. They're being posted as is, even though I had planned to make changes and additions to make them better.

Chaotic Evil Part 8. On The Road Again By the Jester of Doom

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The sun had long ago risen when Genma found the others again. After the battle had resolved they had left the swordsman on the road tied up. Ranma had decided to stick his sword under a very heavy nearby boulder to discourage pursuit. He'd tried to simply tie the sword in a knot but whatever the blade was made of was far stronger than the steel it looked like. The priest they had attempted to locate only to find he had escaped. Genma was bound to hide well enough, so as to not be found so they did not bother looking.

The group had covered a surprising amount of distance after the fight, only stopping when they had come to a small town. Ranma and Shampoo had carried all the gear while Ukyo helped Celas move while she healed. As much as they all would have liked letting Celas rest where she was he also did not like the idea of staying somewhere he had been attacked from all sides of. As it was they were all camped out in a small motel while Ukyo looked into getting supplies for cooking. She had had been the only one of them with some money on them and she insisted on having cooking supplies since she couldn't see where else they expected to get money for supplies during the trip. Two of her group-mates were nocturnal, one was a fat lazy bastard, and one a Chinese savage. As such she took it upon herself to handle such matters.

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"Come in!" Genma yelled lazily in response to a knock on the door. He had been told Ukyo was out and did not feel like getting the door for her. There was silence for a minute then the doorknob twisted experimentally. Then as the door opened slightly a canister was thrown into the room and the door was once again quickly slammed. Shampoo and Genma both looked at the can from their respective seats as it began to spew forth gas. "Shit"

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Ranma slid to the side to dodge an attack of one of his many pursuers. Then he slid back into his original stance. Or in any case he tried to. He tried rolling over again and grunted a little, something blocked his way that shouldn't be there. He opened his eyes as he realized he had been dreaming and looked at the obstacle. There was a large wooden stake rammed into the middle of his coffin's lining. Above him was a man wearing a gas-mask who looked to be about to shit himself. Apparently he hadn't expected a vampire who tossed and turned in their sleep.

Sitting up Ranma cracked his knuckles… he never did like being woken up early. At least an attempt on his life was kind of comforting in a weird way, it was like it had always been on the road with his pop.

-----

After finishing up with the newest vampire hunter Ranma walked back into their room though a wall. All wooden stakes were broken, as were all the man's silver tipped crossbow bolts, and his silver knives had been bent into the ground. The guy was lucky Ranma had realized Shampoo and Genma were only asleep or he would have gotten a lot more than just a lot of bruises and all his weapons busted. Well, he would also have to explain how he had gotten wedged so in the ventilation window of the next room's bathroom. The man's hips and chest were too large to go through and leave the metal frame intact, Ranma had to rely on phasing the too large parts through to get him stuck in there.

"Hey Ukyo." He said wearily to the girl as she entered the room. He continued to head back to his coffin.

"Ranchan? What are you doing up?"

Ranma opened his coffin and threw the stake that was still in it over his shoulder. "Vampire hunter. I got rid of him. G'night." He hopped into the coffin and let the lid drop.

"What? Ranchan!" She was ignored as she heard a yawn suddenly turn into a snore inside the casket. She looked at the two sleeping girls in the room and shook her head. They needed to set up some kind of daytime guard system. It was just damned irresponsible of them to sit there sleeping when Ranma was attacked while he slept.

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Ranma woke that night and rose through the lid while stretching. He found Ukyo had fallen asleep slumped against his coffin with her battle spatula in hand. Shampoo and Genma were still passed out on the bed and couch where they had fallen earlier. He couldn't help but notice absently that they all looked a bit more rosy than normal. Must have been an aspect of the motel's lighting.

Looking outside he noticed it was almost night out. Definitely dark enough for them to emerge for the night. He messaged to Celas silently. #wake up# as he did not want to disturb the others. He didn't want to bother them, he at least wanted to take a night or two to practice and see what he could do before he actually had to fight another vampire. Traveling would have distracted him too much from training.

Quietly lifting the edge of the coffin lid with one hand he put a finger in front of his lips to signify Celas should be quiet. Come to think of it while he was practicing and Celas was doing her katas Ranma would have to work on teaching her some Japanese like Alucard had showed him; a little trick of telepathically adding a sense of meaning to the words.

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Ranma ran over the mental checklist in his head of the abilities Alucard had taught him. Most of them had been easy. He had spent considerable time watching Alucard, combine that with vampiric instincts and Ranma's learning curve and the basics of all the attacks were easy. It was only problematic that refining or discovering new powers was what generally took vampires ages.

Mental attacks, he couldn't try as he had no target.

Wolf form, check, easy even, but pretty weak.

Bat form, likewise not hard, but he only managed to become a single very useless bat. Mist form, he didn't even see the point in trying…. What good is turning into fog if he can phase through things?

Summoning bugs, also worthless but it was little enough effort he got it down anyway.

Human with bat-wings, that had been surprisingly hard but was the one he saw a lot of promise for.

Telekinesis: that was damn hard if the stuff he tried to move was already more than an inch or so away from him. As such it was currently labeled useless in his mind.

Walking up things like a spider? That he had to admit was fun, though a little tough.

Making stuff decay really really fast… well if it stood still for a few minutes and was only about 3 inches wide he could handle it.

The last trick he had was making a little venom, that was the toughest thing of the night. He couldn't do much but if he managed to get it down well Alucard had said it would make even vampires continue to bleed a bit after getting cut, humans of course would have a very nasty bleeding wound or would even be poisoned.

Alucard had said there was much more, but that was all he really considered useful until Ranma got older. Then again Alucard mostly let people attack him and then shot them in the head at close range. His actual combat abilities mostly consisted of playing with the target's mind or combining alternate forms. Besides those he tended to just let his gun do all the work; guns are fast, lethal, and easy.

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Celas had trouble sleeping by the end of the night, Ranma's training was a bit odd to watch and the language training was still messing with her mind. Telepathic communication was something she was getting used to but the clashing of unfamiliar speech with familiar meaning was an awkward sensation that put her off some. When it comes from a person who is occasionally growing animal extremities it is of course worse. Beyond that the only other thing she could think of was of the prior attack made on them. Ranma was shrugging it off as commonplace; it still boggled her mind he was really a turned human like herself. She was not looking forward to the journey if this was something so common Ranma had become accustomed to it so quickly. Then again Ranma was the one thing she had relatively stable in her life right then and she planned to stick by him.

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The next day Shampoo grumbled as she worked her way through a practice kata in their hotel room. She had tried practicing out in front of the room so she could guard Ranma and have room to fight but Genma had tried to slide Ranma out the bathroom window and escape. The plan was of course unsuccessful due to the small size of the windows. It had only brought about a large amount of cursing from Ranma. As such she now had to practice inside so she could watch her transformed father-in-law as well.

What really had her annoyed however was that arrogant chef who had attached herself to Ranma. The annoying girl had actually tried to lecture her about having been asleep, as though she had some kind of choice in the matter. Her arguments to did not translate well in her broken Japanese. She had tried to settle it with a good old fashioned fight when debate failed but that had left a window for Genma to try sneaking away with Ranma's sleeping form. Ranma's fight with Genma for having received some bad sun-burns had interrupted their own.

As things stood she was for the moment relegated the task of guarding Ranma, and technically Celas as well, during the daylight hours. That maddening interloper had said she would take care of earning money. A useless seeming venture in Shampoo's mind; a real warrior could hunt and scavenge when on the road. As she had the useful job of guarding her husband however she did not complain, not about the job anyway. It would just endear her to him more when she was allowed by her great-grandmother to pursue him in earnest.

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Ranma awoke to see Genma passed out on the couch surrounded by beer cans and once again in his original male body. That must have been the celebration he had heard a few hours ago.

Both his fiancées looked toward him as he rose through his coffin's lid. They had been sitting on opposite sides of the room and making a point of watching the TV, which neither of them could really understand as it was in English, without acknowledging the other's presence. "Mornin'" he greeted them both and they responded in much the same manner. "I miss anything?" He wouldn't have been surprised if another demon slayer had appeared in his sleep.

"Not much." Ukyo informed him.

"Fat man is man again." Shampoo informed him.

"I picked up a cart today. It will make it easier if we don't have to carry your coffins." Ukyo informed him. She had gotten it very cheap from a store in the town where a farmer had sold it used. "Do you want to leave tonight? We could throw your father on it with the coffins."

Ranma shook his head in the negative. "Thanks Ucchan but nah, until I figure out how ta deal with a strong vampire I want ta train when I can." As an after thought he asked. "That ok with you guys?"

Shampoo nodded. Ukyo did likewise. "Sure thing sugar, we could move during the day too. It'd free you up to train at night and we'd get back to Japan faster."

Ranma nodded, it sounded like a good plan. "Works for me."

Ukyo was relieved, she could still sell some okonomiyaki where they were but sales were really going to be low until she hit Asia again and as she was taking it upon herself to support Ranma she wanted to make sure she had some profits. Thinking of supporting Ranma, he was probably was hungry; she had made food during the day but she had been asleep the last time Ranma had been up. "Sit down, I'll make you some food."

Ranma waved the idea off. In the corner of the room shampoo looked happy at his decision. "Don't bother, I aint able ta eat it. Blood's 'bout all I can taste anyway." Come to think of it he was a little bit hungry, he'd been burning a lot of power. He'd have to figure out how to find food eventually. For the moment though he didn't really have any ideas.

Ukyo's mind suddenly hit a major snag. She hadn't really connected that part of his vampiric nature to him yet. She had never been around him during a meal. Her cooking being something he couldn't appreciate was a major mental stumbling block. That was supposed to be one of the things that would win him over. She'd have to think about that.

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Ranma greeted Genma and his fiancées as he rose from his coffin for the night when he instinctually felt the sun setting. They were in a small camp that had been set up while he was asleep. He got his first look at the little cart that Ukyo had purchased for them; it was more of a trailer meant to be attached to a car or tractor but it was not too heavy to be pulled manually, especially not when Genma was around to be left with the duty of pulling it. He could see a tarp in the corner that they had used to cover the coffins to prevent notice as well, not that he realized that was its purpose.

"Sleep well Ranchan?" Ukyo asked.

"Yeah. Couldn't even tell we were moving." He looked them over briefly, and subconsciously licked his lips a little. "You guys are looking healthy. Gettin' a lot of exercise?"

"Another vampire hunter attack." Shampoo chipped in. "Shampoo take care of."

Ukyo shot the girl a dirty look for taking all the credit on that. "There sure are a lot of them." She noted.

Ranma just shrugged, he was attacked a lot normally, only the type of attacker had changed much. He knocked on the top of Celas' coffin to wake her. It wasn't long before the two vampires were beginning their practices for the night. Ukyo offered to spar with Celas when she saw the girl was practicing early martial arts katas. She would after all have a few hours of wakefulness that overlapped with them and Ranma was busy with practice. Shampoo offered as well, she could show up Ukyo by demonstrating her skill that way. Celas had of course been reluctant as she did not want to hurt them but quickly found out she was having trouble touching them even when she tried her best.

Genma meanwhile watched in disgrace as Ranma poked a small hole in his arm and just stood their watching the blood drop that formed. He wasn't even moving, and he wasn't in the proper positioning for classic meditation. He had hoped he could be lazy after a day of dragging the cart around but he could see his son was slacking off. "Boy, what do you think your doing? Quit sitting their and practice!"

"Shut up pop. I'm workin' on somethin'." The younger martial artist called back as he concentrated on mutating the blood into venom and keeping it that way. If he could perfect that he could use his normal fighting skills with some success against vampiric enemies.

Genma jumped to his feet and adopted a fighting stance. He'd make Ranma practice if he had to.

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Ranma rolled over and tried to ignore whoever was pounding on his coffin lid two days later. He was feeling a bit drained and didn't want to exert himself by waking up. As he continued to ignore the pounding however he found his world turned on its side as his coffin was knocked over.

Grunting as he was slammed into the side of the container the young Saotome decided to see what had someone so annoyed they would tip him over. As his head crested the surface of the casket he saw his fiancées and father engaged in combat with five men with eerily glowing melee weapons. He could see all the participants were getting quite a workout as they were all sweating and the blood was pumping hard enough that their blood vessels were much more visible than normal.

"Ranma late!" Shampoo complained from where she had kicked Ranma's bed off the cart. Ranma rose out of the coffin completely and felt the sun pricking at his skin a little. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his red-tinted sun glasses. He hated being woken up early….these guys weren't going to like him waking early much either.

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Shampoo watched her betrothed from across the fire they had set up in their campsite. The Japanese girl had set herself down next to him and was making advances. At least the fledgling vampire was not seeking his attention, instead she was practicing meditation nearby. She wished her grandmother had not forbidden her from doing the same as Ukyo. She did not at all like the prospect of letting the other girl get attention while she had to sit by the sidelines. Luckily her airen was not responding to the girl as warmly as she wanted. He was making a point of looking away and not staying too close.

"Ranma want spar with Shampoo?" The Amazon asked. Ranma looked a little tired but she knew he was the kind of person who felt invigorated by a good fight, and it would get him away from his other suitor. She might not be able to pursue him but she could still try to show him she was a great warrior.

Ranma looked up as the question was asked. He glanced for a second at Ukyo then nodded; a fight he could deal with, but other close proximity was not something he wanted at the moment.

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"Airen ok?" Shampoo asked a little worried as Ranma walked back to them from his most recent battle with a weakling vampire.

"Fine. Why?" The vampire responded grumpily as he approached. He didn't really want to look at them.

"Well you just ripped his head off sugar." Ukyo voiced her concern. That wasn't like him, it had actually been quite savage. He hadn't even tried to avoid being shot, he just walked up through the gunshots and ripped the young weakling vampire's throat from his shoulders.

They had been ejected from Hellsing a total of eight nights before hand. Ranma and Celas both had absolutely no blood intake in that time. While Celas was mostly just loosing steam in her training, Ranma was taking it much worse. Celas only was healing with her latent abilities and using her increased physical power. Ranma had been burning energy in every encounter. He'd even taken to only using power in fights and it still wasn't helping him much.

He let the bullets heal out of himself slowly, it would hurt more but he did not want his hunger to increase any if he could avoid it. It took less energy to take the bullets than it did to avoid them and still make sure his friends were not hit by bullets meant for him.

He didn't want to face anyone right then besides Celas and so opted to head back towards his coffin. Ukyo had other ideas though and caught him by the shoulder and spun him around. He couldn't help but flinch slightly when he saw her, his eyes were instantly drawn to the slight pulsing of blood moving her skin. His fangs elongated sharply. He made himself look past her with effort. "Ranchan is something wrong?"

He shook her arm off his shoulder and turned to go back to his coffin. "It's nothing ok, I'm just a bit hungry."

"I'll make you a okonomiyaki." She offered following behind him.

Ranma sighed slightly and wished it were that easy. "That wont do nothin'."

"Come on Ranchan it, can't hurt to try it."

Well, swallowing solid food had actually hurt some when he had tried it back at Hellsing, but on the other hand if it maybe gave him even a little more energy he would do it. "Ok." He sighed out.

It wasn't long before she had her grill set up and was busy fixing up an okonomiyaki. Ranma just sat and watched his hands while she did so. It really creeped him out to look at people like they were food, especially his friends. He hadn't noticed it at first, but after he had expended enough of his energy he had realized why he was taking extra note of their health.

"All done sugar." Ukyo told him and he looked up to see the okonomiyaki being served to him. He couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight of the bat she had drawn on it in sauce. It was just like when he'd been a kid.

He picked up the creation and took a bite of it. He almost choked on it, he had not expected flavor. Sure the okonomiyaki still tasted like ash but there was blood on it, the bat had not been drawn for him in sauce. Despite his surprise he could not help but eat the rest at a frenzied pace. Her blood was delicious, strong, healthy, virgin blood. It by no means filled him but it certainly helped take some of the edge off of his hunger.

Ukyo smiled as she watched Ranma demolish her okonomiyaki. She was happy she could help, and to see her fiancée enjoying her food again.

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Ranma growled in annoyance as his father forced him to spar. Just because he had had a little snack of Ukyo's blood the night before didn't mean he felt up to unneeded exercise. He had however found the hard way that if he flatly refused to fight Genma would not get tired of attacking him, and becoming intangible was a waste of power.

He liked the fact that Ukyo had volunteered some of her blood to him, it was very nice, though the idea of actually taking a friend's blood to live off of disturbed him some. He'd much rather find a good source of nourishment that didn't have him feeding off her. She was his friend after all, he could handle the emergency blood Ukyo had already given but actually coming to think of her as a food source was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.

The younger Saotome dodged a kick from his father and retaliated with a punch at his father's face, which caught him with a nail. A small amount of blood dripped out of the resulting injury and a small bit caught on his finger. He brought it back to his mouth and almost licked at it instinctively. He caught himself however, while he didn't want to hurt the girls the idea of drinking his father's blood was more just gross to him. Then again he noticed Celas had stopped and was watching them while biting her lip. Well, Genma was a big guy. He had some blood to spare. And Celas did need some. Now if he could just get some for her without having to cut Genma into ribbons, not that he would mind hurting his father much.

Ranma thought about the dilemma for a moment as Genma attacked him. Then he hit on a good simple idea. He punched at his father's face again so his fist would be in close proximity. Genma dodged but Ranma just needed to be close. He focused a little power and pulled the blood from his father cut into his hand. He pulled it back and looked at the small ball of moving blood hovering over his palm. Genma had a shocked look on his face. Yep. This idea would work well, though he was burning more power then he would like by holding the blood in shape. He was going to need a cup.

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Celas was having doubts as she looked down at the cup of blood she had been given. She hadn't felt too good about accepting it the first time Ranma had given her Genma's blood either. The cup she held was not of Genma's blood but instead came from one of their frequent nightly attackers. She had grudgingly accepted Genma's blood out of a mixture of hunger and reasoning. The reasoning being Ranma decided he would be siphoning a little from Genma whenever the man would not leave him alone when tired. Ranma had called it "motivation" to both get better and to leave him alone when he was feeling drained. And since Ranma didn't want to drink his own family blood that left her to do so unless she wanted it to be wasted; a dilemma that eventually resulted in her being less hungry.

Taking it from Genma was one thing, he was Genma after all and anyone who knew him could not care that he had lost some blood, it was the theft of strangers' blood that made her uneasy. Ranma had justified that one to himself as well but she couldn't help feeling somewhat like a monster for drinking the blood. Then again as Ranma had said if the people wasted his time and energy because they wanted to kill him he thought they at least owed him a meal. Besides, the siphoning did decrease their willingness to fight a bit. Her main wish was just that she hadn't seen the fear that sometimes shone in their eyes when they realized Ranma could steal their blood without biting them. That was what was really putting her off and making her feel bad.

She took a sip of her drink; then again she knew Ranma wasn't the monster they all assumed he was.

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Genma watched his son with some fear as he was once again practicing his vampiric abilities. The boy's behavior was a bit unsettling. The idea of collecting his blood was far too ominous a reminder of the vampire at Hellsing. Ranma only did it to him during sparing, and it was admittedly a useful attack, but it still gave him the heebie-jeebies.

Shampoo meanwhile watched Ukyo training with Celas in how to throw her daggers. The fledgling vampire had quite a collection growing. Many of the knives that were inevitably stuck into her were not able to be returned in time due to their owners fleeing for their lives. Ranma had received two in the same manner, which assisted him greatly in his fights, but Celas had more than a dozen.

She didn't like the girl much. Ukyo seemed to not notice how much the fledgling vampire liked her sire. Shampoo could see it however. The girl wasn't making any advances but she clearly liked him. That didn't sit well with the Amazon. She had awoken silently several times to watch the two vampires in the night and the woman seemed to be resigned to not pursuing her airen. She would tolerate it and not make any trouble dispite her dislike for the situation. She was not to pursue Ranma openly at the moment after all, she had promised her great-grand-mother. For now she would just be present to spoil any of the Japanese girl's attempts to get intimate and prove herself to her husband in other ways.

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Ukyo looked regrettably at the large pile of clothing she had needed to purchase. She liked Celas, she really did. The woman was a good person, even if she was a vampire. Ukyo couldn't even really dislike her for the fact she liked Ranchan considering she wasn't acting on it. And Celas worked hard to protect them from armed opponents whenever they arrived so there was less chance of someone who couldn't heal bullet wounds getting shot. But the woman cost a fortune in new clothing.

Ranma had whatever he did to make his clothing reform after taking damage. Genma, Shampoo, and herself rarely needed new attire due to battle. Celas however tended to run through an outfit every few encounters. Bloodstains, cuts, tears, bullet holes, even the occasional burn mark. It was a small price to pay of course to keep from having any of her own bullet wounds but still it was amazing the kind of damage the girl tended to receive.

-----

It would seem common sense but vampires are not very welcome in most locations. Ranma on the other hand had only learned just how bad the reactions tend to be when in a small town out in the middle of nowhere he had accidently been spotted while fighting with a priest.

The thing is no matter how defensively you're fighting people tend to assume the worst when you start gathering your opponents blood. It was a simple fight and after knocking the reverend unconscious he had assured the few scared spectators that were watching that he was really a very friendly vampire. That was when he discovered most people ignore the word friendly when attached to the word vampire. He also discovered a surprisingly large percent of the population owned pitchforks and torches, though he had no idea why.

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Ranma officially decided he disliked mental attacks. He lay back on the roof of the inn they were at and thought about earlier that night. He'd been fighting one of the demon hunters that was unlucky enough to show up at night. Ranma had been well fed recently and had some energy to burn if he felt the desire to do so. As such he decided to use the new attacker as a test subject for one of his untested moves.

It should be noted that most of Alucard's mental attacks were designed to turn people into weeping balls of suffering as their worst fears tormented them. Ranma of course did not approve of much more than a slight scaring and as such was leaving those attacks untested for the foreseeable future. One of the few things he knew to be relatively safe was a kind of tunnel of souls. It was a simple illusion calling up visions of the people killed by the target in an illusory landscape. The idea behind it was simple, against an opponent who had killed large numbers you could hide among the crowds. If there were not that many it was still an unsettling experience.

Now the idea of testing the attack was sound. Worst come to worst should he fail, which he considered unlikely, he could still defeat his foe the good old fashioned way. If his illusion was weak the enemy would break it and once again no real downside would occur. The only problem was that it had worked as it should. And it worked on a very industrious demon hunter. So while Ranma expected to find his illusion to be a tunnel full of humans it had instead been a mess of nightmarish monsters.

Ranma had felt really bad for the guy when he fell to the floor in fear. It must have seemed to him like Ranma had called out every demon in hell. Ranma wasn't above giving people a bit of a scare but that had probably been a bit too much.

The hunter had of course tried to kill him after Ranma stopped the power, told him it had just been an illusion, and had given him a little time to build his nerve back up. Ranma had felt bad enough he didn't even fight back. Actually he came extremely close to apologizing, though the best he did was admitting he had just been testing the attack. Instead he just led the guy away before disappearing into the ground. He figured if the guy was serious enough to come back he'd have to figure out what to do then but at the moment the guy seemed gone.

-----

Genma rubbed his hands together to work the chill out of them. Now that they'd finally reached an area with mountain temples he had managed to escape with Ranma's coffin and haul him up the mountain. He didn't really have anything against the western religions but when looking for a cure for some strange ailment one always sought out a temple on the top of a ragged mountain. So if anyone could fix his son this was a good place to look.

Genma saw a dozen monks suddenly step out of an errant snow filled wall of wind. "Oh, good, good." He began as they started approaching him slowly. Now he could convince them to carry the casket for him.

Ranma woke up to the sound of his father bouncing hard against the lid of his coffin. Wearily he pushed open the hood and got a look at his opponents. Twelve men with the aura of evil he had learned most holy individuals possessed. Too bad they were so devout; this meal wouldn't taste very good, on the other hand with twelve of them it sure would be filling.

-----

Shampoo looked over her score card. The stupid Japanese girl had managed to tie with her that day. Shampoo had kept a narrow lead for several days but that lead was now gone. Originally she and Ukyo had agreed on tallying the enemies they had fought off to demonstrate who the best warrior was and who was better at protecting Ranma. Then Ranma had discovered it and out of competitiveness had begun to keep a tally with them. Then he insisted his father be included. After all he knew his father would be loosing and wanted to rub it in his face. Celas ended up involved simply because everyone else was.

The Amazon and chef were leading in the departments of demon slayers and holy men. They attacked in the day mostly. Only a few, who usually looked hurried or surprised, attacked at night. And due to the large number of them and their tendency to work in small groups the two women had the most tallies on their cards.

Ranma meanwhile had the most vampires tallied, and most of the humans who attacked at night. Added to that was a minor number of ghouls. Celas by far had defeated the most ghouls, and a few vampires, but no humans; she did not like hurting humans and she still wasn't good at subduing them without causing injury. Genma meanwhile had virtually no Tallies, he only fought when he was endangered and he avoided vampires like the plague. His response to them was simply hit them hard and kill it fast if he couldn't run.

The final categories had been miscellaneous threats and Genma related threats. They had needed to add that first one due to the were-wolf incident. Then there had been the dire-bear. Not to mention the gypsies' menagerie of evil. Ranma was of course dominating in that area. They had needed to add the latter due to the fat man's tendencies to try to run off with Ranma or attempts to get him 'cured'. Once again the human girls were leading here, though Celas had stopped an attempt or two. Strangely enough it was the one category in which Genma was doing well, as he had a tendency to foil his own plans.

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Ranma decided he liked Asia a lot more than Europe as he looked over the twenty defeated ninjas. What ninjas were doing this far from Japan he had no idea. It was quickly becoming clear to him that in while there were more lone-wolf strong enemies in Europe there were tons of teams in Asia. Sure, he had more strange monsters to deal with and less in the way of vampires but he was flexible. He could adapt. He'd figured out how to handle the dragon-panda hybrid thing after an hour or so. He'd discovered bull demons did not like his red shirt in record time. He'd even figured out when some dude calls lighting from the sky by reading a book a quick book burning fixes everything. But whatever new stuff was thrown at him he wouldn't mind if people came at him in groups like this. It was like buffets delivered right to him. All it cost was a major butt kicking, and he gave those away to everyone who wanted one.

-----

Alucard shivered slightly and looked up from his bowl of ice-cream. He had the strange feeling he had inadvertently caused someone's happiness. He could not think of who or how though. Certainly not Ranma, his 'cosmic kick-me sign' would be causing the boy a lot of interesting training but certainly nothing particularly nice. It couldn't be Walter; he had been busy sorting out Alucard's attempts to "welcome" all Hellsing's newest troops after the mess where the mansion was attacked by ghoul shock troops. It most certainly wasn't Integral, he had ensured every beverage that found its way to her was decaffeinated; an amazingly effective form of torture. It most certainly was not the troops, that weren't even a real option. He shivered again. He glanced down at his bowl. Perhaps he just needed to cut down on the ice cream… fat chance of that; he'd rather make people happy.

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Ranma had noticed a certain pattern to vampire attacks in Europe. Weaker vampires relied heavily on ghouls and firearms. Stronger ones might employ the same tactics however tended to fall into three categories. The simplest relied on brute force of either their normal bodies or transformed states of wolf, bears, and the like; they could be dealt with without too much trouble thanks to a large supply of skilled martial artists and several anti-vampire weapons. The second tried to use mind control techniques or illusions. Those were good plans in theory but when forced with concentrating entirely on subduing Ranma or letting him break control they tended to focus on him, and that was a good way to get a holy weapon in the back. The third group tended to have the same problems as the first and second, they just tried to destroy him with ungodly powerful attacks, such as zones of decay that literally caused trees to melt. All in all however they tended to be an entirely un-creative lot with their powers. As such he was completely unprepared as a woman rode a twenty foot golem of fused corpses out of the forest surrounding their campsite.

Celas looked up from performing a kata Ukyo had shown her for use with daggers. Behind her she could hear Ranma start swearing. In front of her was something she expected would hurt, quite badly. She was getting more numbed to the pain of injuries but that thing looked damn unpleasant.

She gripped her daggers tighter and prepared to attack the monstrosity. Once it was down Ranma would have already detained the vampire. It looked like if she attacked it from behind it may not be able to hit her, it's form was bent far forwards leaving its back bent. She had begun to step forward but Ranma called her off. #Forget about that thing! Drop the daggers, and shoot her as soon as I have her distracted!# The daggers fell from Celas' hands almost as much from surprise as from Ranma's instructions. Ranma NEVER liked killing women, even if they were undead ones that attacked them. He had tried to spare them but in the end Shampoo or Celas had to do the dirty work. He still refused to do it himself. He barely restrained himself to let them do it. Likewise Ranma hated the idea of using the gun now that he could fight on his own. They had retained the single bullet they had been given in case they encountered something that was unstoppable by their power alone.

Ranma yelled mentally to wake everyone up. It was much harder to ignore such a cry than it was to ignore sounds. Swearing he made a small gash in one wrist with a nail. He let the blood soak down over his hands before letting the wound heal. He concentrated and the blood took on a much sicklier green tint than its original red and became venomous. He had been practicing that move a great deal since it would allow hand-to-hand combat. He had watched the woman ride in and had expected the goliath she rode on to be a threat, but then he had seen how much energy she had and immediately decided the golem would be child's play.

The golem charged Ranma and smashed the ground where he had stood with both arms, creating a wide but shallow crater. Ranma landed from jumping back. The woman just watched from the monster's head as it turned to face him again. She had a look of minor amusement on her face. She was trying to test him, to assess his worth in a fight before joining in herself. Ranma couldn't help but smirk at the idea, she was giving him time to attack first and for the others to wake up.

He looked over to his left expecting to see the others rising and found them still in their beds; a thick mist occupied the area. He swore to himself; he knew that power, a gas that made people lethargic to the point of sleeping despite any amount of stimulation. Even burning the victim alive would not rouse the person with the strength she was using. And he had no idea how she was forming it away from her, he had not noticed power being sent into the area. The fight was already far too one-sided, he did not enjoy the loss of silver weaponry wielding allies as well.

He needed tactics and all the advantages he could get to win against someone like this. He willed a pair of six foot long batwings to grow on each side of his back. "So you wanna make me do this alone eh?" The woman just crooked an eyebrow at him, of course she probably didn't speak Japanese or any English for that matter. Ranma smirked at her, if she couldn't understand his language she would be able to understand that.

Ranma pushed off with the wings and dove towards her. He slashed at her with his left hand a swooped over to his right. The woman just blocked the attack with one arm and watched the four slashes it created. She watched the wounds and he could feel her testing how much energy was needed to heal them. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Celas moving back into the trees. If she wasn't as visible her attack may be more of a surprise.

The woman seemed satisfied when she finished healing her wounds and gave Ranma a smile of her own. Then she virtually exploded in a mass of wings and feathers as a mixture of bats and ravens began to scatter from their central location. Celas could hear Ranma swearing from her vantage point; a single bullet would not be useful on many bodies.

Not giving up on the chance the woman would change tactics Ranma decided he would throw himself head-long at his opponent. If nothing else the Saotome school of martial arts was largely aerial style so he might have a chance. He dove again, this time at a raven located over his sleeping companions. He managed to cause it to explode in a burst of feathers as he ripped it apart but he was set on from a dozen sides at once as the other animals surrounded him.

Ranma flapped his wings hard to rise over the group. The creatures around him scattered as he did so, others flew in to peck claw or bite him as he rose. He repeated the process five times. The next a furry bat carcass fell to the ground. Then another. Then two ravens. Then one of each. The last time seemed sloppy, the enemies moved out of his way and he neglected to change course after them. Rather than follow the same course of action he flew across the clearing at a distant bird. Once again he did not land a hit.

Settling down on the ground after the latest attempt Ranma willed the wings away and they vanished in a black mist that recoiled into his shoulder blades. He no longer needed the wings, they were bulky and only provided more of a target. Instead of healing the damage they had taken it was better to dismiss them and try to heal the rest of the cuts that were decorating his body. The wounds wouldn't close however, he just managed to slow the bleeding some. He still was left with a lot of leaking wounds.

Ignoring any idea of caution Ranma leapt into the midst of the winged creatures and began slashing and kicking with greater ferocity. #Wake up!# As gravity tried to pull him down he just expended some energy to hover and continue his assault. #WAKE UP!# Ranma continued to beat the small creatures back. A small mound of them was forming on the ground below him. The pile itself was rapidly turning more red the longer he remained over it, his wounds still bleeding. They were landing a lot of new hits, but only due to sheer number and his own attacks were doing more damage per hit. #WAKE UP!#

Suddenly Ranma was surprised to find the veritable wall of flying black flesh in front of him was not solid as the arm of the golem flew through the intangible mess. Ranma found he needed to pry himself out of a tree after the attack. The golem was stalking up in front of him and the winged beasts were forming a half dome around them. And then two in the back exploded, and three lost wings very suddenly, then another fell from the air shishkabobed on knife. Ranma couldn't help but smile as he used the distraction and charged, leaping over the golem; despite its origin a gas is a gas, and a twelve foot wing span can clear even the thickest mist in only a few dives.

Suddenly with the massive number of attacks capable of being launched the form of bats and ravens was no longer an advantage. The creatures could act clumsily left on their own but required specific direction of the central "hive mind" to perform well in skillful combat, and attention can only be split so many ways. As this was the case the animals all flew up, and away, before recombining. Flight had not been an advantage so the female vampire switched to land combat to work in tandem with her golem. A large grizzly bear formed in the air and with a small push of power was angled in a dive at Ranma.

As the creature fell Ranma took up a waiting stance. A dagger flew through the bear. A vacuum blade passed harmlessly through as well. It spun in the air to avoid a chain and add power to its attack as it reached out a claw. If it managed to hit Ranma it would take his head off in a manner that would not grow back. If it failed, there was a golem approaching Ranma rapidly from behind.

Then suddenly the pigtailed boy was in the air on a collision course. But a bullet got there first. A hit to the heart weakened her. A hand jabbing through her neck compounded it. Then a chain sunk in to her back as two knives and two vacuum blades bit in as well. Then she felt herself turn in the air as another hand followed the path the bullet had taken. And then she was between the golem and Ranma, and of course the thing was too stupid and uncoordinated to yield its attack just because she was there.

Ranma jerked from the impact as the body beneath him crashed into an oversized mockery of a fist. Then the creature began to fall backwards, off balance and without its creator to sustain its life. He felt the corpses under him turn to ash and he began to sink into the pile of remains they left behind. He watched blood drip down his arm into the ash. His last thought before darkness took him was what he wouldn't give right then for another ninja buffet.