***



The day of the big game finally arrived. All the members of team 
Furinkan were dressed in their official uniform, which consisted in 
white pants and shirts with red socks for the men. The women were using 
white shorts instead of pants.

"I hate this uniform!" Ukyou declared. 

"Come on." Terry told her "Don't tell me you've never been in shorts 
before."

"No I haven't!!" she stated. 

"Oh."

"Uniform too feminine for stupid spatula girl!" Shampoo teased. 

"Shut up you chinese bimbo!!" 

"Stop that both of you!" Terry ordered "We managed in not getting 
wounded so far. We don't need to start another riot now."

Ukyou turned her back on Shampoo still upset.

"Don't make such a big deal out of the uniform, Ukyou." Terry said "It's 
only going to be during the game. Besides, there's nothing to be ashamed 
of. You've got nice legs."

"DON'T SAY THAT!!!!" Ukyou spoke as her face turned red.

Terry decided to shut up before making things worst. Although he couldn't 
help himself from smiling after that joke he made.

Team Kyoto began to show up as all of it's players descended the school 
bus. Their uniform was entirely black by the exception of their socks 
which were white. All of them had a devilish look on their faces. They 
were looking convinced of their victory.

"Remember, everyone!" principal Kuno said to his team from the benches "If 
you lose, you get your heads shaved!"

"WHAT???" asked the entire Furinkan Team.

"Did I forget to mention that?" he stated innocently "That's odd! All of 
the other students knew about that!"

"So that's why no one was willing to enter the team!" Akane declared.

"I can't believe that this mad man is actually related to me." Kuno 
said "It is truly a dark day for the house of Kuno."

"Why you dirty..." Ranma began as he was about to go after the principal.

"Take it easy, Ranma." Terry interrupted as he held his shoulder "We 
weren't planning on losing this game anyway. We'll take care of him 
later."


Team Furinkan was going to bat first. Ukyou stepped into the court with 
her bat. The players from team Kyoto began to whistle at her in order 
to break her concentration. That didn't made her feel any better of 
course. She tried not to pay attention to them but the catcher from the 
other team began to tease her.

"Nice legs, sweetheart." he said.

"SHUT UP!!" Ukyou yelled.

Unfortunately, by turning around to silence the catcher, the pitcher took 
advantage of the situation and made the first strike.

[Maybe I shouldn't have made that joke about her legs earlier.] Terry 
thought [She's too nervous to play correctly.]

The catcher kept on teasing Ukyou which caused her to miss the other two 
throws and giving her team the first out. She stepped back into the 
benches and sat down angrily with her arms crossed over her chest. No one 
said anything fearing to make things worst.

"Hey don't worry, Ucchan." Ranma told as he gave her a pat on the back 
"It's no big deal."

Ukyou stood silent and still very upset.
Things didn't went too well after that. The two following batters were 
Ryouga and Akane, two of the most short tempered players from the team, 
it was really easy for the catcher to make them upset. As a result, the 
team ended up having two more outs.

"Don't worry guys." Terry encouraged "We can still get even with them in 
this turn."

During the next in. Things still weren't looking good for team Furinkan. 
All of the members of team Kyoto were professional cheaters when it came 
to baseball. You could even say that they were equal to Kodachi in *low* 
tricks. 

Everyone began to have their doubts about their opponent's sportsmanship 
after one of the batters managed in hitting the ball Terry pitched. It 
wasn't the fact that he hit the ball that made him suspicious. But most of 
all by the fact that the ball became impossible to grab afterwards. 
The moment it was hit, the ball went flying through the right side of the 
field where Ryouga was. He was about to catch it in his glove guarantying 
a sure "out" when it suddenly slipped out of his grasp. Ukyou tried to 
pick it up then after, but the ball slipped out of her hands as well. 
While those two were busy with that unrestrainable ball, the batter 
easily made it to home along with three other of his companions. Ryouga 
finally cleaned with his shirt whatever slippery substance the ball had 
all over it and managed in sending it back home. It was already too late 
though.

"What happened back there?" Terry asked them during time out. 

"Someone put some sort of grease on the ball." Ryouga explained.

"How can that be?" Akane asked "The ball was okay when Terry pitched it. 
How could it gotten so slippery all of the sudden."

"A true warrior accepts his mistakes with honor." Kuno implied "Ryouga 
Hibiki, not only you disgrace yourself by giving us worthless excuses, but 
you insult our team as well."

"Are you calling me a liar?" 

"Calm down both of you." Terry ordered "Blaming each other isn't going to 
solve anything."

"I think Ryouga is telling the truth." Nabiki stated as she walked among 
the group "Take a look at this bat." as she gave a bat to Terry.

Terry took the bat and examined it closely. It looked like a normal 
aluminum bat except for the small hole it had at the far end of the stick.

"What's this?" Terry asked her.

"Touch it and you'll find out." Nabiki explained.

Terry approached his index finger to the hole. The part around the hole 
was soft, as if it was made out of rubber, but very well camouflaged so 
that it would look like metal. Once Terry pressed his finger against the 
hole, an oily substance was shot from it and covered his finger. It 
was a very  slippery substance.

"So that's how they managed in putting it all over the ball!" Akane 
noticed "The moment it got hit it was also covered by that stuff!"

"Very ingenious I must admit." Kodachi added. 

"I'll get them!!" Ryouga stated "I'm gonna rip there arms and legs off, 
and then I'll..."

"Then *I'll* take care of what's left of them!" Ukyou interrupted "I'm 
going to use this bat and hit all of those pigs where the sun doesn't 
shine!"

"No you won't be doing that!" Terry declared "We're here to play 
baseball. Not to turn this into world war three."

"So what are we suppose to do?" asked Mousse. 

"We go out there and we play baseball." Terry simply said "Getting even 
with them would be lowering ourselves to their level. We can beat them 
without doing that."

"Beating them up into a bloody pulp would be more satisfying!" Ryouga 
pointed out, all of the other players nodded to that statement.

"Maybe some other day Ryouga." Terry told him, he then took the bat and 
gave it back to Nabiki "Here you go Nabiki. Please get rid of it so they 
don't use it again."


The match resumed after that short pause. All of Furinkan players weren't 
looking too happy for letting the other team get away with such a stunt, 
but everyone decided to do what Terry asked them. Especially Akane and 
Ranma, they both knew how important this game was for Terry. After all the 
hard training they all went through and all the trouble their Gai-jin friend 
went to pull out a decent team, they felt like owing him at least that. 

Team Kyoto, on the other hand, wasn't planning on giving up their dirty 
tricks; and to emphasize on that, I'm going to take the liberty of 
mentioning you some of the events that occurred during the game. All of 
them having team Furinkan as victims of course.

The ball went flying over to the right side of the field after Ranma hit 
it. Shampoo was in first as this happened. It was a great swing, Shampoo 
might even make it to home before her opponents had a chance to get the 
ball. She began to run with all she had towards second base. Right while 
she was running, approximately half way to second base, her feet got 
stuck. Since she was running with such determination, she fell down. The 
way to second base was covered with a mixture of quick cement and super 
glue that kept her steady, giving one of the members of team Kyoto enough 
time to put her out.

"I don't know Terry," Nabiki began "these guys don't look like they want 
to give up on dirty tricks."

Terry stood there silent with his arms crossed over his chest, he looked 
at the score board afterwards. There were losing by four runs. He then 
turned to Nabiki.

"Don't worry." he said "We can still manage. We'll show'em that we can 
win without cheating."

Later on, Akane was the new batter up, she was sweating as the sun hit 
her face. This was your typical situation of two strikes and three balls. 
The next throw was going to be decisive. If only she was a better batter 
and felt more confident about herself, she wouldn't feel so nervous.

"Go on, Akane!" Terry encouraged from outside the field "You can do it!"

Akane took firmly her bat between both of her hands. The pitcher saw the 
signs that the catcher was doing and nodded afterwards as he pulled an 
evil grin. He made a fast throw. Akane swung her bat and managed to hear 
the sound of wood hitting the ball.

[I did it!] she thought.

She began to run towards first base as she suddenly heard the empire.

"Strike three!" he shouted "You're OUT!!"

Akane stopped dead on her tracks after hearing that statement. She 
immediately turned around and made the obvious question.

"WHAT??"

She then saw the catcher holding the ball in his glove. But how could 
that be possible? She clearly heard the noise of ball-hitting-bat. She 
then turned to look at the bat that she threw earlier behind her. What 
she saw was only the handle of the bat. The rest of the bat was scattered 
all over the place in little pieces. Nabiki took the handle and looked at 
it closely.

"You were using a rotten bat." she explained "The ball went right through 
it." 

"Gee, I wonder how did *that* ended up in *your* hands?" Terry asked in 
rather sarcastic but no less disturbed tone of voice.

Moments later, we see Mousse as a batter up. The pitcher was looking very 
confident, he began to yawn and then threw the ball. 

Only God knows how on Earth did Mousse managed in hitting the ball (I 
think we can call it blind luck), but what no one was expecting to happen, 
just did.
Mousse, even more surprised than the rest, began to run towards first 
base. 
Just as he was about to take the first step, he fell to the ground. 
It was then that all of his teammates noticed that Mousse's shoelaces were 
tied up together.

"That's not only low," Nabiki began "but it's also too old to be even 
used."

Terry grumbled something incomprehensible after what he just saw. The team 
was now lousing by eight runs. He decided to remain silent however.

Some time after that, Ranma is seen standing in second base as he awaited 
for the next batter to make a good swing. The ball went (once again) 
flying between first and second base. Ranma immediately dashed towards 
third base with all he had.

[I'm gonna make it! I'm gonna make it!] he thought.

With the last push his legs gave him, Ranma managed in landing his right 
foot on the third base cushion.

[I did it! I'm safe!] he thought.

Ranma's joy didn't last long as he suddenly heard a <click> that came 
from right under the cushion he just stepped on. 
Right after that happened, Ranma was launched into the air as an 
enormous strength beneath the cushion catapulted him. 

"WWWWWWHHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!" he shouted as he flew next to first base

After following Ranma's trajectory with his eyes for a moment, Terry 
turned around to see what might have caused that. He saw a giant spring 
that was hidden under the third base cushion. By stepping on it, Ranma 
must of set off the trap. Terry didn't had to ask himself who might have 
done such a thing. The answer was quite obvious.

"You know Terry," Nabiki began "maybe it would be time to get a little 
more aggressive about all of this. I really wouldn't like to shave my 
head. And I think I'm speaking for all of the team too."

Terry took a bat and headed to the court without saying a word. Nabiki 
didn't had to be an expert too see how upset he was. The way he clenched 
his fist and squeezed the handle of his bat was proof enough that he 
wasn't very happy about all of this.

The blond Gai-jin held his bat with both hands as he awaited for the 
pitcher to make the throw. 
Everything was going wrong. The only thing he wanted was to play some 
old baseball, but team Kyoto had a very different concept about 
baseball. Was it really too much to ask? Having a simple match with his 
friends wasn't much! He only wanted to have some fun. After all that 
tortuous training he finally managed in making his teammates play more or 
less like a team. This last month had been like hell for him. But he 
managed in setting up a decent team. And now, team Kyoto was ruining all 
of his hard work!
The pitcher finally threw the ball after a short pause. Terry swung his 
bat with all of his rage backing up the strength of the blow.

<KABOOM!!!!!!>


A couple of minutes later, inside team Furinkan's locker room. We see 
Terry who has been laid over one of the benches, unconscious, with all 
of his other teammates standing around him. Nabiki stepped inside the 
group with a bucket of water and splashed Terry's face with it. Terry 
immediately regain his senses.

"Wha... what happened?" he asked once he saw he wasn't in the field 
anymore.

"You went out after the ball exploded!" Ranma answered.

"They were using an explosive ball??" Terry asked in disbelief.

"That's right, sugar." Ukyou responded. 

Terry's face expression began to change gradually from surprise to 
extreme anger. A part of him no one had seen so far. He calmly began 
to stand up and then suddenly punched the nearest inanimate object. In 
this case a locker. Everybody yelped to the sudden change of attitude.

"AN EXPLOSIVE BALL???" he yelled furious "THEY WERE USING AN EXPLOSIVE 
BALL???"

"Er... yes..." said Akane not very sure if it was wise to do that.

"I can't believe they did that!!!" he shouted "I only wanted this to be 
a normal baseball match but I end up hitting explosive baseballs 
instead!!!! That's it!!! No more mister nice guy!!! I should've known 
better than to try to do something in Nerima that didn't had the words 
*martial arts* in it!!!"

"Er... Terry, you fell okay??" Shampoo asked.

"Oh I'm just freaking dandy!!!" Terry responded as his eye began to 
twitch repeatedly "As a matter of fact... I'm felling so good (his tone 
of voice was beginning to get suddenly calm. Scary, isn’t it?)... that I'm 
going to show it to all of those Kyoto punks!!"

"So... What are you planning to do?" Ryouga asked.

"I'll tell you what we're gonna do!" Terry declared "We're going to give 
those guys a taste of there own medicine!"

"What about what you said earlier?" Mousse pointed out "All that speech 
about not going as low as them?"

"That load of bull is for the birds!!!" Terry made clear "If those 
bastards can't learn to play how it's suppose to be, we'll show'em a 
thing or two!"

"So what are you exactly planning to do?" Ukyou questioned.

"Everybody gather around!" Terry told them, everybody did so "There's 
going to be a few changes about our positions from now on. Ranma will be 
the new pitcher. Kodachi, you'll be staying in first base. You have my 
complete authorization to use every dirty trick you have under your 
sleeve. Poisonous gas, slicing ribbons, explosive roses, whatever you 
think of is fine by me!"

"I'll make sure that we are both satisfied about that." Kodachi stated.

"Ryouga, you'll be in second base," Terry continued "I'll be on third. 
Shampoo and Akane, you'll be on the left side of the field. Ukyou and 
Kuno, you'll be guarding the right side of the field. Mousse, you'll be 
staying at home." then he stood up "Now let's get them!"

All of the team players stepped out of the lockers with new impulse. 
Team Kyoto was expecting to see them enraged, but were very surprised as 
they saw that their opponents were smiling at them wickedly. Everyone 
began to take the new position Terry gave them.

Ranma took the ball. Mousse began to make some signs behind the batter. 
Once he was done, Ranma threw the ball. It was a very easy throw; the 
batter filed with confidence swung the bat but found out that somehow he 
couldn't move it. His bat was stuck with something.

"Strike one!" the empire shouted.

The batter turned around to see what happened. One of Mousse's chains 
was tied up around the bat without him noticing. The other end of the 
chain was being held firmly by Mousse.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Mousse cynically replied "Some times it has a mind of 
its own."

After some time, we see one of team Kyoto's players running to first 
base after successfully hitting the ball. Kodachi stood in first base as 
she awaited patiently for her victim to come. Once the runner was about 
half way to her, she broke into a twisted laughter (which is very 
representative of her) and first base was suddenly covered by flying 
black rose petals. The surprised runner inexplicably found himself 
wrapped up in what appeared to be some sort of black ribbon. Kodachi 
yanked her ribbon and catapulted him towards the public.

Moments later, we see another runner who managed in getting through 
Kodachi and Ryouga. On third base, Terry was waiting for him anxiously. 
He sent his fist against the ground when his opponent was close enough.

"POWER WAVE!!" he shouted as he released the blast.

The runner from team Kyoto stopped dead on his tracks as he saw how the 
wave-like ki blast approached him dangerously. He instinctively began 
to run back to second base where Ryouga was. 
Our favorite fanged bandanna boy was also looking very determined in 
guarding his post. He immediately punched the floor as he saw that the 
runner was heading back.

"POWER WAVE!!" Ryouga yelled.

Another wave-like ki blast slid through the ground as it cornered the 
runner between second and third base...
I really wouldn't like to mention what happened to the poor guy 
afterwards, I think everyone can imagine the outcome: KABOOM!!!!

A couple of minutes after that messy event, one of the runners who got 
lucky enough to get to third base began to catch up his breath. Not only 
the pitcher threw balls that aimed at him instead of the catcher, and not 
only all of the bases were guarded by three blood thirsty players, but on 
top of that, he also had to avoid countless stuff that was launched to 
him (in this context, stuff means: slicing, piercing, cleaving, 
bludgeoning and/or crushing missiles thrown by the gardners, who in this 
case are: Akane, Shampoo, Ukyou and Kuno).
If he could make it to home he'd be safe (in one way or the other), he 
had to take his chances, he had to try and steal the base. Just as Ranma 
wasn't looking at him, he took advantage of the situation and began to 
run towards home.

"Ranma throw it home, now!!" Terry shouted.

Ranma immediately turned around and spotted the player running. He 
charged the throw and sent the ball flying towards... the runner's head??

<WHAM!!>

The runner fell to the ground after the ball made impact on his head, he 
lost a couple of teeth as well. 

"Didn't your mother ever told you not to steal?" Ranma declared. 

What all of the members from team Furinkan forgot, was that law in 
sports that specified "That when a fellow teammate gets beaten up, all 
the team has to stand up for him!". And team Kyoto had taken out all the 
beating it was willing to take. Terry started to see how all of the 
players from the other team began to take out a baseball bats each one. 
They weren't looking like they wanted to play anymore. This was going 
to get messy.
Terry then turned towards the rest of his team, they all noticed what 
were their opponents intentions now.

"Everybody get ready for the first impact!" he shouted to all of them.



Later, at Dr. Tofu's clinic. All of the members from team Furinkan are 
being checked by Dr. Tofu or putting on bandages, in some cases even both.
In spite of their condition, they're all looking rather happy.

"You guys still haven't told me what happened to you." Dr. Tofu began 
"It seems that you went to war instead of a baseball game."

"There wasn't much of a difference in this case." Akane pointed out.

"I can't believe one of them had a switchblade hidden inside a bat!" 
Ranma began.

"I think we were lucky they didn't had a machine-gun instead." Ukyou 
declared.

"So... who won?" Tofu asked. 

"Are you referring to the game or the fight?" Mousse questioned.

"Both I suppose." he answered.

"I think we were losing the game," Ryouga started "but I don't think 
anyone cared about the scoring board once that pitched battle started."

"In spite the odds in numbers," Kuno continued "those unfitted players 
from Kyoto were no match for Tatewaki Kuno, Blue Thunder of Furinkan 
high!!"

"Yeah, whatever you say Kuno." Ranma said.

"Haiya! Ranma was so brave by helping out Shampoo earlier!" Shampoo 
said as she began to move next to Ranma "Ranma really do care!"

"Hey!! Stay away from him, you hussy!" Ukyou declared.

"Ranma-sama is *mine*!!" Kodachi stated "Do not intent on poisoning him 
with your cheep looks!"

"Who you calling cheap???" Shampoo asked.

Everyone began to argue like they normally do. But since everyone was 
too injured to start a fight, the only thing they could do was hurting 
each other with words. 
In a corner of the clinic, Terry sat silently while applying the last 
bandage. Nabiki, who was the only member of the team who wasn't injured 
(by the simple fact that she didn't participated in the fight), 
approached her blond friend and took a seat next to him.

"So," she began "how are you felling about all of this?"

"I was really looking forward for a simple baseball game, you know?" he 
said.

"I know." she stated "I think you were the most enthusiastic one of all 
the players about this. Sorry it ended up in such a fiasco."

"Don't worry." Terry declared "To tell you the truth, I'm don't feel too 
bad about it."

"How come?"

"I did this to see if I might have been a good baseball player if I chose 
that as a career." he explained. 

"And your point is?"

"Looks like I'm better off as a martial artist." he added "It seems like 
that was my destiny, and to be honest with you, I'm feeling pretty darn 
good about that."

"So all this baseball thing, what was it for?"

"I just felt like playing, that's all." Terry pointed out "Too bad it 
didn't turned out as I expected it would, but I think we're all better 
off this way. For all of us that is..."

"Are you referring to you wonderful teammates?" she asked sarcastically.

"Yup. I'm mean... just look at them." Terry said as he pointed to all of 
his friends who by the way were too busy arguing to notice him.

"Quite a colorful bunch may I say." Nabiki declared. 

"But that's the way they all are." he explained "Having them all 
together was beginning to be like hell. I don't think I was going be 
able to go through another practice session without going insane. If 
this time they want to fight, I'm not the one who's going to hold them 
back. I'm actually happy everything is back to normal. I think that's 
the way I like them th most. "

"What ever you say."

Suddenly the clinic's door opened and principal Kuno stepped inside the 
room with a pair of scissors on each hand. 

"Aloha, everybody!!!" he declared "Looks like our team lost the game!! 
Too bad, but it also looks like we're going to have a couple of shaven 
heads in school from now on!"

Everyone stopped their argument after the principal made that statement. 
All of the members of the room except for Terry, Nabiki and Tofu were 
looking at principal Kuno with no good intentions in mind.
The last thing Terry saw, before pulling down the peak of his cap, was 
all of his friends grabbing the nearest skull crushing object so they'd 
give that crazy Hawaiian bozo a piece of their mind (along with some 
broken bones as well).

Yes, everything was back to normal...



End of chapter 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See you in chapter 7...