Lovers' Quarrel, But More Wholesome [Erica, Ranma]

Yay, food. ”Deal…” Ranma agreed, kind of bugged out that he was in such a hurry that he missed out on Mama Tolvan’s breakfast. He wasn’t even that big of a breakfast-kind of guy, but as a being with Spiritual Pressure, he needed to eat well. A random toast, banana or the nearest cup of iced tea wouldn’t do anymore.

He was more of a dinner guy, anyway. Spaghetti was his strength… but you don’t eat spaghetti in the morning!

The sandwich was wonderful and made him forget about training completely… for the next few seconds. Then Erica reminded him, and his eyes lit up. “Mhm!” he agreed wholeheartedly – they were starting off with throwing demonic arts at each other, then-

…

His frame lost color. She mentioned Hohō and its complementation with Kidō, and while Ranma was confident in Kidō, his Shunpo… uh… m-maybe he could just try today? It was meant to be mere practice, after all. Yeah, yeah… he nodded to himself. He wasn’t that bad at Hohō.

Several munching sounds later: “Man… let’s never skip breakfast again.” Eating such a great sandwich reminded him of all the other wonders of breakfast cuisine – pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, actual fucking toast, lentil soup- he was getting distracted again.

“Okay… let’s make it a game. First one to get hit loses,” he suggested before walking a bit over to the other side, now having the field area between him and his girlfriend, “Ready when you are!” It was a good idea, in his eyes, to make it a sort of tag-game, since he didn’t want… he didn’t want… he really didn’t want to shoot her down with spells, and Erica likely didn’t want to hit him more than once.

Yes, he was being very smart and considerate right now. He ought to pat himself on his shoulder.

Chuckling as he mentioned eating breakfast from now on, she’d quip with a big grin. “Mmm. It’s the most important meal of the day after all and you’ll be expected to eat it every day if you plan on hanging around my house. My mum is a healer too, you know, she believes in healthy living and eating well.” It was all said in jest and she was actually surprised that she was in such a good mood considering what they were about to do.

As he walked away and then explained what he wanted to do, Erica would nod. “OK then. Let’s go with that.” It sounded rather less worrying when put that way and the thought of only hitting him once didn’t seem too bad although a part of her wondered if it was wise, given that they wouldn’t be just playing tag in an actual fight. Ah well, it was a good way to start, she felt and given how little she sparred, she reckoned it would work out fine.

Deciding to test her resolve by going first, she’d point a finger towards him and say. “Hadō #4: Byakurai.” Skipping the chant, she’d release a bolt of lightning that would hurtle towards her boyfriend. It was a rather low Hadō spell but with her skill in Kido, even a low one was not to be underestimated.

Now… Ranma usually had no trouble zoning in, but let’s backtrack. Armina? She asked for it – that ice-cone-up-her-ass psychobitch was still out there, a Seated member, and he knew hell awaited him should he ever run into her. He’d been very good at avoiding even being in the same space as her, always looking over his shoulder whenever he had to pass by anywhere near Squad 4, so for now…

Fuck.

Uh, Shura? It was vastly tamer than against Armina, since that was an actual spar and not a crazy cunt losing her mind over the slightest inconveniences. He enjoyed training more with Ranny, too, and Hinamori-sensei was a fun teacher to boot. His girlfriend? He didn’t see himself ever harming her before, and even as far as he’d gotten now, having to spar her meant that a voice was itching the back of his brain…

Be careful…

Almost patronizing… his girlfriend deserved far more recognition than that! Almost biting his tongue, he finally clicked and watched her point at him, immediately glad to be on the defensive. Still, even though it was only the fourth Hadō spell, that Byakurai travelled fast as hell.

“Hadō #1: Shō!” Ranma quickly skipped the chant and shot a lower-ranked Hadō spell to clash with the incoming lightning bolt – it was clear that it wouldn’t stop Erica’s Byakurai, but… it gave Ranma the opening to just barely leap out of the way. Nice thinking, Ranma! Even if it was a weaker spell – both in number and in potency – it still served its purpose!

It’d be way too awkward if he lost then and there… oh boy, would that have been a joke for generations to come. But leaping to the side in a whole somersault-like fashion allowed him to evade in the nick of time… except now, he was in the air upside-down. Not that it’d stop him.

“Bakudō #4: Hainawa!” Ranma ushered, clapping both hands together and emitting a yellow beam that rapidly transformed into a flimsy bolt of lightning itself. However, based by his exclamation, Erica knew exactly what this spell was – slower than her Byakurai, but with a very efficient purpose. Too bad it was linear, unlike Hōrin.

Erica recognised the spell alright and as it approached, she’d use Shunpo to evade the attack, using her decent skills with the art in order to move out of the way. She reckoned that if he was going to be using those spells then the advantage would be hers but the healer wasn’t going to underestimate him. If he’d been training under the Lieutenant of her Division then he must have picked up something and that was why she was a little bit cautious. That being said, now that they were actually getting into it. Her nerves began to fade away a bit. It wasn’t quite so bad when using her favourite art.

She’d reappear above him, her hands already moving in order to cast another spell in his direction. Her dominant hand started to form a blue coloured blast of energy, similar to Byakurai. This time, however, it would be a far more potent spell. “Hadō #33 Sōkatsui” She cried, watching as her Hadō tore down towards his somersaulting form. He was certainly going to need to move fast to get out of the way, of course Erica knew that he may have other plans.

Frankly, she was quite looking forward to seeing what he had in store.

She used Shu- why didn’t he use Shunpo to evade it earlier?! Now he had to finish his somersault and land on his feet again, Ranma, you utter fool! Okay, okay, where’d she go?! He had to spot her quickly, or she’d get a hit in-

ABOVE?!?!?

His eyes bulged out of his skull, clearly showing how surprised he was to see her up there already. It wasn’t just the demonic arts, she also excelled in Hohō, that was for sure. There was no way he could evade the next spell that she was cooking up, not when she too skipped the chant. “Bakudō #39…”

Just like he tried against that eye monster, maybe now was the time to go above and beyond his comfort zone again! This spell was also a simple one – just imagine, Ranma… spinning, spinning, SPINNING DISK! SPINNING, LARGE, UNBREAKABLE DISK-

“… Enkōsen!”

Her Sōkatsui landed squarely above Ranma’s form, spreading its bluish flames across the entire field like a shockwave! It sounded like a panel made of glass shattered on impact, but beyond that, Sōkatsui’s fiery effects clouded the view of him for a bit. Ranma had already begun chanting again, this time intent on summoning the full strength of his next spell while the bright fires gave him a bit of cover. His Enkōsen shattered on impact, far from powerful enough to block the entirety of Erica’s spell, but… it covered him! Even if just for an instant, it gave him the opening to follow up with a full chant.

As long as it’s a triangle… I can change its shape! I just gotta stretch it out, hit from multiple angles! Like… like a violin! Or a harp… or her underwear…

“Bakudō #30!” Ranma ran to the side, shaking off the remaining smoke from Erica’s Hadō and revealing his position again. In his hands, he held a yellow beam stretched out like a string, and the farther he ran, the more it stretched out from his previous position. Like pulling the string of a guitar.

To edges were left at his previous position – each one manifesting a cone of light aimed at her! That was when Ranma let go of his string, releasing the third cone – a three-projectile attack, with the one missile acting as distraction! “Shitotsu Sansen!”

Only by finishing the chant could his spell's potency hope to rival Erica's. Let's see how far her Hohō could push her.

He’d been training more than she thought and as Ranma defended himself well from her latest attack and then countered with a bizarre attempt at Bakudo #30, Erica wasn’t left with much time to do anything about it other than try to Shunpo out of the way. The healer was pretty adept at it and she was able to get out of the way of two of the triangles. There was still one left though and she had to resort to using the same spell as him. “Bakudo #39: Enkosen.” The shield would appear just in time to block the triangle, resulting in a clash of spells.

“Not bad. You’re certainly getting better at Kido.” She cheerfully said, a bright smile on her face, rather enjoying what they were doing surprisingly. The doubts seemed to have disappeared and as she pondered her next attack, she could smell a burst of flowers from her blade, as though her sword was agreeing with what she was thinking.

That was nothing compared to what happened next, hearing a familiar voice in her head. “That’s the way! Think of it not as war but as play!”

Chuckling, she’d place one hand before the other and say. “Hadō #31. Shakkahō.”

Yet, rather than just one ball of flame appearing, a smaller group of six would, before they’d start to chase after Ranma at a fair speed.

Owww, just in time… she blocked it with an Enkōsen of her own. Ranma could faintly see it – there was often a strong sense of urgency when he cast his spells, but for Erica- she cast them like it was second nature to her. “Thanks, I practiced a lot – just ask Beetle,” he replied with a confident snark, seasoned with a bit of… apologizing aura aimed at his squad back there. Hopefully, they’d get some more sleep now.

He wasn’t about to get hit by another fast spell again, so Ranma cast the same spell as her for preparation: “Bakudō #39: Enkōsen! Good luck getting a fast one on me now!” he challenged, manifesting a half-meter radius disk from a light beam spinning in front of his free palm. Simple, simple shapes… just like the triangle for initiating the Shitotsu Sansen. If the shape was simple enough, he felt confident enough in casting them without chants… even though, this shield was still just half the size of Erica’s earlier.

Perhaps if he focused a little mo- oh, no, Shakkahōs incoming! Multiple, in fact – Erica fired off six orbs of red fires towards him, easily intimidating the Squad 8 ghost to go on the evasive with his limited Shunpō! The fact that he felt forced to use his… okay Shunpō meant that Erica had him on the ropes!

Somersaulting, backflipping, he tried his best to evade the orbs, but one of them collided with his raised Enkōsen, shattering it immediately and forcing him to a standstill while the sixth orb landed on his foot. Despite being sort of split in power, the orb still exploded, knocking Ranma several feet back with his face grinding against the floor…

…

…

“I’m okay! I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay- more importantly, how’d you just do all of that?! Did you split- wait, that could be really useful, you could hit an entire squad with that spell!” he geeked out while galloping back towards her with waving arms, “Man, I was too busy thinking about how to alter the spell itself, but splitting it into a bunch of mini-Hadō like that never crossed my mind! You're a genius!”

At first, Erica didn’t look all that happy about winning, a look of concern on her features. He’d landed quite badly and she was generally worried about him but before she could make any real attempt at helping him, Ranma was already on his feet. The healer was glad that he’d only been hit by one of the fireballs, meaning that the damage was relatively minor. Had he been struck by all of them then it might have ended up being quite nasty. She didn’t boast about her powers but Erica was pretty strong with Kido.

“It was just a case of visualising what I wanted.” She answered with a small smile. “The modifying process is always the same and as long as you have the vision and skill, a spell can be altered in loads of ways. The problem is though that the more fireballs I summon, the weaker they are individually, so while I could create more, they wouldn’t do that much.”

Fetching the basket, she’d pull out a small potion and hand it to him. “Here. It’ll heal you up.”

It was fun to know that she had the same principles as Hinamori-sensei. Given that she was able to visualize her Shakkahō to such an extent, she sure was talented at seeing things in her head and making them a reality. Hopefully, it wouldn’t translate to an uncontrollable effect that just birthed whatever Erica was thinking about… that shit could get out of order really quickly. What if she imagined the entirety of Soul Society as a gummy bear?

Wait, that was more up Ranma’s alley… was he projecting? Stop that!

“Ohh, sweet,” he thanked generously before grabbing the potion and treating his foot, “It could be so cool to just shoot down your enemy with volleys of Shakkahōs like that, even if they’re individually weaker. Maybe I can try…”

He did practice altering shapes with Bakudō spells, such as what was showcased earlier, but with Hadō? He’d still need to utter the entire chant if he wanted to change anything with it. “Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of man… inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south.”

Between his praying hands, red flares escaped his palms as he spread them, manifesting a red orb very familiar to the two. “Hadō #31: Shakkahō…” he finished his chant, holding between his begging hands a single, red, bright orb of burning energy. It was the size of a small melon. “…”

Now was the time to make- or split it into two… but Ranma’s facial grimaces, wriggling eyebrows, sheer focus and beating heart kind of messaged his girlfriend that he was mentally stuck somewhere. Like, he wanted to split it into two, just for starters… so it’d be weaker, each one…

By weakening the spell, the size shrank to that of a tennis ball. Now what? It still wasn’t split in two, so… should he chant again?

… He didn’t want it to blow up in his face. Not in front of her, that’d be so embarrassing…

“W-What do you think? It grew smaller now… heh… n-not much…”

Pondering about what had gone wrong during his attempt, Erica would tilt her head slightly. He seemed to kind of have the gist of the theory and the healer could recognise his growing skill but there was clearly something still missing. Perhaps there was a step he was missing or something? It was a bit of a puzzle and the pink haired hummed and mused to herself while she tried to figure it out. The woman might have been acting as though she’d lost her mind but the truth was that she just quite enjoyed the brain teaser put before her.

Her eyes lit up after about thirty seconds or so, as an answer came to her. “I think the problem is that you’re trying to modify the spell after you’ve cast it. What you need to do is visualise how you want it to end up looking as you’re casting. When I used Hadō #31, I imagined it as six fireballs rather than just one and that’s how it came to be that way. Trying to change it after it’s been cast is kind of futile. Have another go but this time focus your mind on how you want it to be, instead of how the spell should normally look.”