The Journey is the Destination Chapter 24 By poetheather Old Perverts, Hot Springs and Pressure Points. Can the training trip get any stranger.

Akane and Ukyo were definitely getting stronger and faster, making the evening sparring sessions harder on everyone and Ranma was amazingly pleased at their progress. The two of them had focused on the training and were picking it up fairly quickly. Not as fast as she did, but that was t be expected. What was a good thing was that it looked like they just might survive the coming battle against the Amazons. She just had to smile at that. The idea of her love and her sister surviving whatever the old ghoul had in store for them was a happy one.

Her stupid plan she had come up with was working. She was actually happier overall, things with Akane were good, she didn’t know when the last time she had been malleted, her father was completely confused, and the Ukyo situation had been disarmed. Being a girl was really very helpful with this plan, so much so that she didn’t mind this body anymore. What a difference this made, her not acting like a macho asshole and screwing everything up. She had gotten over her aversion to this body and was even coming to enjoy it. Maybe she should stay this way? She shook her head in surprise at her own train of thought. No, despite everything that had happened she wanted to get back to being a guy, because that was her real form, but she certainly wasn’t as bothered by her female form anymore. That was a great side effect of this plan. The misogyny that her father had pounded into her was gone.

The training up here in the mountains had been lots of fun and the changes in Akane and Ukyo were pretty amazing. They had gotten a lot better, due to the training and perhaps the sparring that they had done every night. The change was pretty impressive, as the two girls had blossomed under this focused and intense training. Ranma had not been pulling her attacks during sparring as much as she usually did, pushing the two girls to fight smarter and harder. That was coming together nicely as well. One more day left and they could head home and things like Kasumi’s heavenly cooking and a soft bed.

Ranma’s grin faded as she felt a disturbance in the wa, the spirit of the forest. There was something heading their way, something evil, something dangerous. She turned in a circle, trying to get a better bead on the fast moving threat, got into a ready stance, and waited. Akane stopped what she was doing and looked over at Ranma, noticing her stance, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. Ukyo, Akane, be ready. Something is heading our way.” Ranma tried to feel the energy of the thing coming closer. It was familiar but she couldn’t narrow it down and that was frustrating her to no end.

There was a rustling in the bushes near them and suddenly a tiny figure burst from the bushes and leapt out towards Ranma, yelling, “Hotcha!”

Ranma flailed a little when Happosai latched onto her chest, nuzzling her breasts lovingly, with the letch whispering sweet nothings to them. The red head yelped and tried to punch the wizened old pervert off of her. The letch dodged over to the other breast and looked up at the girl with tears in his eyes, “Oh Ranma, I heard how you became a woman completely just for your Master. Oh Ranma, you don’t know how happy you have made me.”

Ranma barely managed to knock the pervert off her and before she could counter Happosai yelled, “Akane!”

She tried to smash him with the mallet as he was flying towards her and failed. The letch groped her all over and said, “Wow, you have certainly firmed up. Very nice. Cute panties.”

Akane punched as fast as she could and Happosai dodged, moving out of the way and bouncing backwards, evading her attack. Ukyo tried to hit him with her throwing spatulas and Konatsu tried with his shuriken but the pervert dodged around them, managing to fondle Ukyo several times, and then moved to fondle Konatsu, yelling, “Lovely ladies!”

As Happosai tried to grope Konatsu, the aged master realized that something was wrong. This beautiful girl did not feel right under his hands. In fact, this girl didn’t feel like a girl at all but felt more like a guy! That pause in shock was his undoing.

Konatsu kicked Happosai over to Akane who smacked him over to Ukyo who batted him over to Ranma with her battle spatula who punched him back over to Akane who slammed him into the ground with her mallet. Akane hit him a few more times to be sure that he stayed down. Ranma quickly ran to grab the flattened Grandmaster of the Anything Goes style but the old man popped back up, an evil gleam in his eyes, and he shouted, “Happo Daikarin!!!”

All of them leapt away from the huge firecracker that Happosai had pulled out of nowhere and flung towards them. When it exploded, dirt rained into the air, along with fallen leaves and branches. Ranma ignored that debris as she sped through, going into full Amiguriken speed. Happosai grinned as he evaded the attacks, bouncing hither and yon. Ranma focused on driving the short freak back towards the others, to try to box him in some more and limit his moves. It was the only way to beat Happosai.

Akane’s unexpected mallet moving faster than expected drove him to the ground again, with the follow up strike from Ukyo’s battle spatula right behind. The chef then managed to catch the short pervert with both her sticky udon noodles and batter. Happosai flung another Happo Daikarin at them but Ranma managed to return it, so that the explosion managed to cook the batter at least a little. The irritating dwarf’s movements were now slower, constrained by the glop that covered him and it became far, far easier to hit him.

That didn’t stop the old perv, who with a grope here and a fondle there managed to gain back some of his strength that had been sapped from the damage he had taken. He managed to burst out of the batter and noodles, gaining some distance from the four youths. “Lovely ladies, don’t be this way. Share hugs with Grandpa Happi! Can’t you do that for a poor old man?”

“Shut up freak! You just want an excuse to fondle us!” returned a very agitated Ranma, pissed over what was the worst part of her new body.

“Why Ranma, you know I don’t need an excuse for that.” Suddenly, Happosai again leeched onto Ranma, fondling and nuzzling her breasts happily. His tiny hands seemed to be everywhere at once.

Ranma screamed and tried to punch the freak, or at least grab him. She had felt the attempt to take the sports bra off her but figured that the freak had given it up due to the difficulty. At Chestnut Fist speed, she finally managed to pluck the wizened Grandmaster off her and slammed him into the ground, causing a small crater to form and the ground breaking in small lines.

Akane managed to get there fast enough with her mallet to whack Happosai good and as he bounced up from the ground a bit stunned, Ukyo hit him with a very powerful swing from her battle spatula that sent Happosai flying away, up through the trees and into the distance. The three women shuddered, feeling dirty from the encounter with the supreme pervert in the world. Akane screamed, to let out her frustrations and Ukyo nodded at the sentiment.

The redhead was still shuddering a little and felt a bit off. What the hell had the little freak done to her, for there was really no other possible source of that. This feeling was familiar, something the old ghoul Cologne had done. She sighed and wanted to check something, since this feeling was familiar. Without saying anything to the others, she heading off to where the hot spring was, hoping that she was wrong. This was something she really didn’t want to deal with and if that old freak had done this to her she would hunt the freak down and make him pay. She reached out to touch the water and jerked her hand back, as the water was clearly too hot and felt almost scalding, the that was just the air above the water. Ranma closed her eyes and screamed out, “You Bastard!! The Cat Tongue? Are you serious? The fucking Cat Tongue, again?! GAH!!!”

Akane rushed up and hugged the pissed off girl from behind, the red head trembling angrily in her arms. “Shh… it’ll be okay Ranma. I am sure Doctor Tofu will be able to fix this.”

Ranma dropped to the ground sniffling, and whined, “But I wanted to sit in the hot spring and relax tonight. I hurt and I just wanted to soak for a while. Damn it, it’s not fair.”

“How about if I give you a nice massage? Would that help?” asked Akane, running a hand soothingly down the red hair. She was trying to get her girlfriend to relax enough to stop vibrating.

Ranma nodded, slumping some more and her twitching stopping. “Yeah… that’ll help. I just don’t want you to be too tired for tomorrow. I have something special planned for you two and I wanted us all to be rested and relaxed for it.”

“Oh?” Akane raised an eyebrow in question, wondering what the slight girl had in store for them.

Ranma of course didn’t give anything away. “Yeah. It should be fun. I think you guys will like it.”

* * * * *

Akane slammed into a tree and tumbled to the ground, leaves and loose branches falling on her, groaning from the force of the kick she had barely managed to block. It had been a really powerful kick and hurt so much and she shuddered to think of how much she would hurt if she hadn’t blocked it. However, there was something she did notice as she scrambled to her feet: Ranma had actually kicked her pretty hard and had not been holding back like he usually did. Some of the other blows that had made their way through had not hurt but that one had. She narrowed her eyes and launched herself back into the fight, eager to see if she was right.

Ukyo was swinging her battle spatula with great speed, trying to keep some distance from the pursuing redhead who was harrying her like a wolf. Ranma was grinning at her as she tried to close with the chef, to get in range for some of her more devastating attacks. Akane rushed in from behind, hoping to be able to flank Ranma and gain some sort of advantage over the red head. Her strikes were blocked and Ranma shifted her stance so that she was able to easier fight the two of them simultaneously.

Ranma blocked punches, kicks, and strikes from the battle spatula, focusing on things closely, moving at Chestnut speed to ensure success. The two girls had gotten nicely faster, they were both better able to take harder hits than ever before, and this was a good thing. This would certainly surprise the Old Ghoul and the rest of the Amazons when they fought, as who would really expect Ukyo and Akane being even more dangerous than before. Ranma moved in order to shift the flow of battle to better get the girls in place for her next major attack.

Once he had been able to maneuver the two girls there, the redhead grinned and spun, grappling the two, and throwing the girls into each other. Just before impact, Akane was barely able to leap to the side and avoid the hit with the chef, straining her back and legs in the process. They both spun and faced their opponent, ready for anything.

Ranma held up a hand to stop the sparring. It was clear that the long battle they had engaged in proved the girls improved skills. “Good. You guys have gotten a good bit faster, stronger, and harder to hurt. I am so impressed with your improvement. I think this was a very successful training trip.”

Akane and Ukyo grinned at each other, happy at the pronouncement. They really had done far better than they had expected to against Ranma in that battle, though neither had really expected to win. The red head had killed a God after all, or something close enough to a God to count. Akane was giddy, as Ranma really had been taking her very seriously in her martial arts. Konatsu then came over and handed out the cold water to the girls. Ukyo held up her glass as for a toast and said, “We need to celebrate.”

The shorthaired Tomboy nodded in agreement, thinking that a celebration would be perfect after what she and Ukyo had managed to do in a full on fight against Ranma. “I agree, I think we should pack up and head back to town. We should stay at a hot spring for a few days and have some fun.”

The mischievous grin that covered the redhead’s face was a bit disconcerting. This may not be a good thing for them. Ranma chuckled a bit and then said, “I suggest a race then, to the nearest hot springs to us. The last one there has to scrub everyone’s back.”

Akane stiffened slightly at the idea and then exhaled, letting herself relax. Part of her wanted to whack her girlfriend for making such a suggestion. It was perverted. However, Ranma was not a pervert and that suggestion was not even all that perverted, since they were all girls, with the exception of Konatsu. Some issues died really hard and thankfully Ranma had been doing really well since this whole being a girl plan started. She then thought of something that worried her a bit. “Ranma, how are you going to enjoy the hot spring? Since you have the Cat Tongue thing again will you be able to get into the hot spring to soak?”

Ranma frowned slightly at that. “I sort of remember there being a spot called the Old Man spot or something like that. Basically, I think it is the counter to the Cat Tongue spot or at least one of the counters. I am trying to remember where it is so I can hit it and try to fix this. Hopefully, by the time we get there I will have remembered it. Otherwise it will simply be a lukewarm shower for me. Now… let’s get going.”

She raced off back to camp to pack her gear up. The others followed, laughing happily. This should be fun.