Chang was just closing up Ucchan's Okonomiyaki when a blur flashed by the shop door, yelling. It was moving so fast that it took Chang a moment to realize that the red part had been Ranma, in girl form, tearing down the street like a tornado. Attached to 'her' back was Shampoo-neko, hanging on for dear life (or perhaps dear love.) {Good thing Shampoo and Ukyo filled me in on the various Jusenkyo-cursed people around here, or I'd never sort it out,} Chang thought.

In pursuit had been: Tatewaki Kuno ("Oh, my pig-tailed Goddess!") moving with a speed he'd never attained in combat; Ukyo, ({So that's why she asked me to close up,} Chang thought;) Akane Tendo; Ryouga ("Ranma!! How dare you two-time Akane that way!!") and the erstwhile Golden Pair, Asuza Shiratori and Mikado Sanzenin. Chang whipped through the closing and tore off after the raging pack.

{Forgiven or not, I owe Ranma big time! I don't know what I can do about all those people, but I have to try!} A moment later, he grinned as a thought occurred to him. {Besides, I suppose that this comes under the heading of 'keeping order and peace' like Father wanted me to do in Tokyo!}

A moment later, Chang caught up with the rear of the pack, which had grown to include a huge sumo-type who carried the bagful of signs that marked him as a Dojo Destroyer and the wacky Principal Kuno. Chang vaulted over the Principal and punched the man's face into the ground as he did. {Makes me glad I've got my High School Correspondence Degree already!} he thought as the Principal struggled to free his head from the pavement. As he pulled abreast of the Dojo Destroyer, Chang flicked out his finger, focusing his _chi_ into the tip, repelling the Destroyer's _chi_ on contact and sending him sideways into a wall, where he sat down hard. Chang ran on.

Catching up to Mikado and Asuza, he whipped an Amaguriken into the lecherous Sanzenin, sending him into a wall. As Asuza was holding onto Mikado's scarf, she followed.

{Ouch,} Chang mused, staring at the pileup, {doesn't that _hurt?_} He ran on. Catching up to Ukyo, he shouted to her over the noise.

"Ukyo! We gotta get Shan-chan off Ranma before he goes nuts!" Shampoo had also, sadly, filled Chang in about the Neko-Ken used (if you could call it that) by Ranma, and he knew the dangers of exposing the poor Saotome son to cats for too long. Ukyo nodded.

"I'll go get some hot water, sugar! You clear the pack!" Chang nodded as Ukyo reversed course to go for the Jusenkyo antidote. It was only after she left that Chang realized that the pack now included most of the foremost fighters of Nerima, and his only allies were (a) Ranma, who was panicking, (b) Shampoo, currently a small cat, and (c) Ukyo, who had just left. {Oh, brother,} Chang thought. {That leaves me alone against Kuno, Ryouga, and Akane!} Suddenly a desperate plan occurred to him. {It's crazy, but...}

Kuno was getting tired, but he was tooling along nicely. {Yes,} he thought, {Instructing Sasuke to assist me with mine glorious sprint training has proved a most wondrously wise idea. Finally, I, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, shall reach my two loves, the beauteous Akane Tendo and the wondrous Pig-tailed Girl, whose name I still know no-ACKKK!}

The sudden undignified exclamation at the end of Kuno's thoughts came as a result of Chang leaping forwards, springing off Kuno's head and propelling him into a trash can, and vaulting after Ryouga. {Hey,} Chang thought as he glanced back at the fallen upperclassman, {that trick of Ranma's really works!} Then he concentrated on running - he had a lot of ground to cover.

Kuno raised his head to see the newcomer to Nerima that Sasuke had told him about-- running away. {Coward,} he fumed, {to use such a base attack you must be in service to the sorcerer Saotome! The Blue Thunder will not let this insult go unanswered!} He then collapsed back into the garbage.

Ryouga was following his beloved Akane as she pursued the bane of his life, Ranma. {Oh, Akane,} he thought, {how can your heart be so great as to still feel for that cad? I won't let him--} "--BWEE!!" He squealed as a stream of cold water struck him from behind, changing him once again into his cursed pig form, better known to Akane as P-Chan. He looked back just in time to see Chang Delune sprinting forward from the ruins of a fire hydrant that he'd evidently just shattered. The Chinese fighter snatched up the piglet and ran on.

"Sorry Hibiki-san, but I need your help - in this form," Chang stated.

{Wha? He needs my help - like _this_? How..} Ryouga got an unwelcome answer as Chang called out to Akane. "Tendo Akane-san! Wait!"

She didn't stop, but she looked back at him. "What?!" She seemed annoyed, but her face lightened as she saw her favorite pet in Chang's arms. "Oh, P-Chan! How on earth..?"

Chang cried back, "He was following you through the chase! I'll handle Shampoo, you get P-Chan out of harm's way!" as he ran up beside Akane and handed over the pet pig.

Inside, Ryouga was enraged. {He's using _me_ to save Ranma from _her!_ Delune, I'll get you for this!!!!} He struggled in Akane's arms, but she held him firmly as she set off toward the Tendo Dojo.

Racing onward, Chang turned a corner into a dead-end alleyway where Ranma-chan was clawing at the wall, though luckily not yet in the Neko-Ken state. Dashing forward, he pulled Shampoo off Ranma's back and the panic subsided. The sheepish young 'girl' slowly turned towards 'her' rescuer. "Whew! Thanks, Chang. She got a glomp on me in front of Akane, who splashed us both, and I just couldn't get her off! She got around to the back and just hung on! I don't know why she clung like that!"

Chang drew in a breath in alarm as he looked over the cat he held by the scruff of the neck. "Oh noo... Ranma, there's a very good reason, she's _IN HEAT!_"

Even as he said this, Shampoo-neko turned in his grip to regard her captor and 'mrrowed' in a _very_ come-hither manner. Chang flushed, and Ranma-chan laughed. "HA ha mrrmpfff.. You better not let Mousse see that, man! I may not be his only rival for her after all!"

Chang's flush deepened. "Knock it off, Ranma, that's not funny! Back home, I was _always_ dodging Amazons out to either beat me, get engaged - by Amazon Law, of course - or both! Even Shampoo got into the act a few times, and Mousse didn't like it at-"

"DELUNE! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY FUTURE BRIDE!!!" A storm of chains, weights, and even a metal duck sculpture rained down at Chang, who had fortunately gone airborne at the first word.

Unfortunately, he'd dropped Shampoo-neko, who immediately stalked Ranma-chan. For her part, she backed against the wall in terror as soon as the cat was released and froze as Shampoo stalked in. Chang, looking down at this from the mid-leap, growled in annoyance.

"NNrraaa... [[Muu Se, you idiot!]]" he snarled in Mandarin. "[[Do you _want_ Ranma to enter the Neko-Ken state?!? Neither of us could stop him if-]]"

Mousse wasn't listening, popping his Ten Swords attack out of his sleeves and multi-slashing at the leaping Delune. "[[I saw how she looked at you! Not content with following us from China to steal her from me, you must drug her as well?? Die!]]" Chang twisted sideways to avoid one set of slashes, then backflipped to dodge the second. As he landed on the street, he saw Ranma-chan knock a hole in the wall behind her and flee, Shampoo-neko in hot pursuit.

"[[AARRGH! Now the whole chase'll start all over again! I don't have time for this! Eat this!]] ISAMU DELUNE FINAL ATTACK!" Chang cried. He charged at the landing Mousse, right arm cocked back for a massive uppercut. The Hidden Weapons master wasted no time in putting up a crossed-arm block, but was surprised at how softly the blow landed.

{What the..} he thought, just as he bounced into the air over Chang's head. {Aarrgh! A momentum strike disguised as an uppercut! It doesn't seem like much of a final attack, though...} A split second later, Chang jabbed two finger-strikes into Mousse's shoulders, which stiffened immediately. {Oh, no.. this is getting bad..} Mousse began to panic as Chang, now below him, cocked both arms at the elbows and cried out, "KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"

Receiving a double-arm Chestnut Fist while airborne and unable to block nearly knocked Mousse out, and he was beyond coherent thought as Chang snagged his ankle just as he started to fall back from the barrage of punches. Slinging the weapon expert around by the trapped leg, Chang sent Mousse into a light pole, two walls of the alley, and the asphalt before catapulting him away into the third (punctured) alley wall, where he dropped unconscious into a garbage can.

Turning to the hole in the wall, Chang got set to sprint after the two cursed youngsters until he noticed that it wasn't necessary. Ukyo was standing near the two, holding an empty (but steaming) bucket and Ranma and Shampoo were watching the fight with interest.

"Aiyah! Mousse okay, Chang?" Shampoo asked, looking a bit concerned. Chang turned away and scuffed his toe in the dirt.

"Yeah... no thanks to my temper, he's just out cold. How about you?" Now it was Shampoo's turn to blush.

"Hai.. Shampoo back to normal. Cat form's cycle no affect Shampoo in human form."

Ranma walked up to Chang. "Nice final attack. How'd you come up with it?"

Chang shrugged. "Actually, it's my dad's technique. Combines a little misdirection for the set-up, the Momentum Strike, standard paralyzing pressure-points, the Amaguriken, and some throws." He shrugged. "Each generation revises the Delune Final Attack with new techniques that they either create or learn from others. I haven't done mine yet - I haven't perfected the technique I want to incorporate." Ranma perked up.

"A new technique? What's it based on?"

Chang rubbed his head as the foursome walked away from the alley. "Well, there's a theory among the Jokuzetsu that magic - no, not magic itself, the energy magic springs from, _mana_ - is the living spirit of the Earth." Ranma nodded.

"Go on."

"Well, 'chi' is the living spirit of a human being, and that's what advanced pressure-point strikes affect. So if the Jokuzetsu are right, a sufficiently skilled Delune style master should be able to influence the flow of Mana."

Now Ukyo broke in. "Whoa, wait a minute, sugar! You mean you could cast _spells_ just by poking your finger in the air the right way?"

Chang shrugged at his employer, embarrassed. "No, on several counts. First, I have to touch my subject for a pressure-point strike, not the air they breathe or the water they're swimming in - so I have to touch the ground to use the technique. Second is I'm just calling up the mana, not altering it like spellcasting would. And there _is_ one other little drawback."

Shampoo shook her head. "Shampoo no understand. What Chang mean by calling Mana? And what 'little drawback' is?"

Chang sighed at his childhood friend as they came to a deserted park. "I'll show you. All of you stay on the road."

The Chinese fighter stroke to the middle of the small park and took a stance. He appeared to the three friends to be concentrating, then finally let out an ear-shaking kiai as he drove one extended finger into the soil.

The reaction was immediate. A column of golden energy blasted up around Chang, hiding him from view, as waves of raw power radiated out from it, gradually losing height as they spiraled out from the column, sinking back into the ground about twenty feet from Chang. Ranma stared in awe until he heard a noise, like a pained growl, coming from the eerily quiet display.

"nnnnnRrrRRRrrRRRRAAAAAA- AAAUUGGHH!!" Chang screamed as the energies tore him off the ground and hurled him into the air, blasting him back to his observers. The three dashed over to him. As the flaring energy faded, he pried himself off the ground, battered and somewhat scorched.

"See what I mean? I know there's gotta be some way to guide the blast around me, but I haven't found it yet. And because it always centers on _me_, until I find it I'll take a worse pounding than my opponents!"

Ranma grinned. "Guess I won't ask you to teach it to me, then."

Chang grinned back. "Hey, brother in arms, quid pro quo. Delune Family policy: techniques are taught to outsiders only in trade for other techniques of equal or greater value - and I already know the Chestnut Fist."

Ranma laughed. "Oh, I'm sure I could find something..." The foursome joked with each other as they made their way back toward home.