Several days later, Chang was out in the small park where he had shown Ranma and friends his attempted Mana Flare. He was deep in thought. He should have been meditating, but the necessary calm eluded him. {I just feel like something is going to happen soon, and it won't be good.} He shook his head. {AARGH! Concentrate, Chang! I just know there's a way to use the Mana Flare without toasting myself, I've just gotta find it. Let's see, I sense the flow of Mana in the ground under me and focus my _chi_ into my finger, so that when I touch it draws the energy up out of the ground where it flows and into that flare, or fountain, or whirlwind around me. I wonder if that's the key to all this? How I focus?} He thought about that for a few moments.

{Yeah... I focus differently for each technique in the Delune repertoire. A loose focus with the Bakusai-Tenketsu would blast _me,_ so the focus has to be the key. With the Breaking Point, I focus on the faults in the earth to guide the blast _away_ from me. But how can I guide _energy_ around me?} His musings were interrupted as the vague premonition of doom became a definite warning from his martial arts instincts. {Uh-oh--}

"Foul Chinese sorcerer! The Blue Thunder will have vengeance for thy cowardly attack the prior week!" Tatewaki Kuno stated as he leaped into sight and thrust at Chang with his bokken. Chang dodged and grimaced.

"Normally, master Kuno, I'd hold back enough to let you satisfy your 'honor' about that, but I'm a bit occupied at the moment. If you wish to fight me later, very well, just name the time, but if you fight me now, I _will_ end it _very_ quickly!"

Kuno only appeared more incensed. "How dare you! I SHALL SMITE THEE!" he cried as he attacked with a vicious overhand strike. Chang dodged, and was just about to send Kuno orbital with a momentum strike when the Chinese fighter's danger sense spiked again. He leaped as a bandanna blade buzzed through the space where he had been and twisted in midair to look at the source - {As if I need to with _that_ attack,} he thought glumly.

Sure enough, Ryouga was airborne and inbound, roaring in rage. Chang sighed - it had seemed inevitable from the start that the Nerima weirdness would focus on _him_ eventually - and looked back to Kuno, waiting for his reaction to the interference.

Kuno wasn't angry.

Indeed, he _waved_ to Ryouga, crying out, "Come, my comrade! Let us avenge our disgrace at the hands of this foul cheat!" Chang went from stunned to puzzled in very short order.

{Wait a minute, I can understand them both being upset with me about the riot, but working _together_ to fight me?!? Neither one is the type to seek help, and neither's very smart either, come to think of it-} his thoughts were yet again interrupted as he noticed a thrown knife coming at him out of the corner of his eye. He twisted around it, thinking {-but this, on the other hand, answers a _lot_ of questions.}

Mousse was flying in from another direction, and neither of the current two seemed displeased. Chang's mood darkened. {Calling in others to attack me, Mousse? Even for a coward who hides behind his weapons, this is a new low. If I can, I'm gonna hammer you a good one for this!}

That didn't seem likely, however. As he landed, Kuno came in at Chang with a pattern strike, and as Chang dodged, Ryouga blew up the ground behind him. The youngest Delune cried out as his back was gouged by the rock shards. He was clobbered in midyell by a large ball-and-chain, and flew into a wall, where he rolled to his feet and went airborne to buy some time.

{I need a strategy or I'm gonna get creamed,} he thought desperately. He dodged bandannas and chains as he flew. {I should keep the battle aerial and keep moving. Kuno can only attack me upon each landing that way, and Ryoga's Bakusai-Tenketsu is out of play in the air. Mousse can still fight to his full ability, though, and that's no laughing matter. Better take him out early!} The thought of using the Jusenkyo curses of Mousse and Ryouga against them in battle was repellent to the young Delune, as Chang was partly responsible for Ryoga's and if Ranma had never gotten cursed, Mousse would not have trained to beat him at the cursed springs - {Even if the idiot _did_ walk right into one,} Chang thought disgustedly.

He bounced off a fence, dodging Kuno's swipe as he did, and flew up at Mousse, but had to abort his attack to duck a bandanna. He sprang away from Mousse's megamallet to attack Ryouga, and hit him with a right cross while airborne.

It was here that Chang discovered his next disadvantage. Ryouga only moved his head a fraction from the punch, and Chang's hand smarted as if he'd hit a wall! {Ow! Geez, I knew the Jokuzetsu's Breaking Point training could toughen you, but that's incredible! I can't hurt him without a good set-up, and I'll bet Mousse and Ryouga will both intercept me if I attack Kuno! I'm in trouble here!} He hit the ground again, rolling under Kuno's inevitable slash and springing away. {Gotta get some distance!} A barrage from Mousse and Ryouga cut him off, and he spun and contorted madly in midair, getting away with only a few nicks.

As he bounded away, he noted Mousse lashing down with a chain to pick up Kuno and bring him along in the aerial chase. {I hate to admit it, but that's good tactics. One of them is trouble, and _two_ could probably beat me anyway, but all _three_ of them can keep me from getting much offense at all!}

With that, Chang began a crazy leaping chase through Nerima, dodging and weaving and occasionally ducking down to run across an alley or through a building in the effort to throw off his pursuers. Ducking by a scrap yard, he noticed a large electromagnetic crane. It was evidently running, because Mousse's thrown daggers veered off and stuck to the magnet. Mousse simply switched to wooden weapons, though, and the chase continued.

In the back of Chang's mind, something nagged at him. {The daggers... the magnet... THE MAGNET!!} he thought. {The magnet makes a field that attracts energy of the opposite polarity and repels energy of the same polarity! The same principle I use for the Momentum Strikes! _That's_ the key to the Mana Flare!} he realized, still racing madly to keep ahead of his pursuers. {I need to think about this - I've _got_ to lose them for awhile!}

Riding on the tide of inspiration and desperation, Chang headed for the river and dove in, swimming underwater until out of sight of his entry point, then bursting out of the water, gasping for air. To his slight pleasure, none of his pursuers seemed to be around.

Minutes later, he was in the back yard of the Tendo Dojo, where he'd always sensed that the supernatural - _mana_ - was strong. Ranma and Akane were out shopping, according to the ever-helpful Kasumi. Chang thanked her and went to sit by the carp pond. {I need to split my focus,} Chang thought. {The energy I focus to my finger has to be 'opposite polarity' to the mana, to draw it out, while the rest of my aura needs to be 'like' polarity to the mana, to repel it from _me_ while still letting it loose.} With focus restored, he squatted and concentrated on his _chi._

Satisfied that the young man wouldn't be leaving for a while, Sasuke turned away from his usual post near the Dojo to inform Master Tatewaki of the presence of his foe.

Chang continued to focus on himself even as he sensed the approach of his three assailants. {Almost got it...} He felt his energy come into its dual focus as the three revenge-crazed warriors closed in. Ryouga leaped in, Mousse hurled a weight, and Kuno charged, bokken leading, as Chang sprang to his feet and plunged one finger, glowing with _chi,_ into the ground. Instead of a kiai, Chang, sure of his success, shouted the name of his family's newest technique, to be passed down through the generations - his legacy.

"_MANA_... _FLARE!!_"

The resulting column of golden, blazing energy was massive, taking into its surrounding spiral most of the Tendo yard. Ryouga yelled in pain, Kuno flew back to the wall and slammed into it without a word, and Mousse fell off his perch on the gate.

Moments later, the flare died down. Chang looked around mutely. His finger - the one he'd used to initiate the technique - was tingling with pins-and-needles. The technique had worked to perfection, though: the energy rising out of the earth had visibly flowed _around_ his aura. Kuno was motionless by the wall. Ryouga got to his feet and began a lurching charge.

"You'll.. pay for using _me_ to save.. Ranma from Akane, Delune!" he cried as he threw a loopy punch that Chang ducked quickly.

"Who was saved from who, Hibiki? I _DON'T_ use Jusenkyo for any reason less than life-or-death! While you're trying to find your way back here, consider this: what if Ranma had gone into the Neko-Ken just as Akane had caught up to him!?"

With that, Chang dodged the sloppy kick Ryouga threw, and snapped a Momentum Strike into his chin uppercut-style. Ryouga, with a shocked look on his face, went flying on the Air Nerima Express.

"Whew. Glad I cleared _that_ up," Chang said. Kuno still seemed to be kayoed, so Chang leapt up to the gate and out to the street. A lightly scorched Mousse was just getting his wits together when Chang grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and slammed him into the wall.

"[[All right, Muu Se, I think I deserve some explanations! WHAT the HELL brought THAT on?]]" Chang snarled in Mandarin.

"[[You have to ask? I had to get revenge on you for embarrassing me in front of Shan Pu like that last week!]]" Mousse growled back. Chang's eyes closed to slits as he tried to rein in his temper.

"[[And you couldn't even _try_ by yourself?]]"

Mousse's reply was glum. "[[You knocked me out in seconds with that family Final Attack of yours, and you just now showed you were holding _another_ technique in reserve. What chance would I have?]]"

Chang sighed. "[[You _could_ try training. It's what got both of us as far as we've come today.]]"

"[[You farther than me. And training to beat you could've taken months! I wanted my revenge now!]]"

Chang's face went from 'resigned' to 'furious' in an instant. "[[Idiot! Taking the quick and easy path is for those Musk Dynasty abominations, not the honorable defenders of Jusenkyo!! That sort of thinking is what prompted the Musk warriors to breed with cursed animals and become the _monsters_ they are! Think long and hard on what you might become this way, Muu Se - _after_ your nap!]]"

Mousse looked up to see Chang's fist looming in his view like a knuckled meteor - then it all went dark.

"Yo, Chang, you fightin' with Mousse there? He don't look so hot. You win again?" Chang turned around to see a bruised Ranma and a miffed Akane carrying bags toward the Dojo.

"Kind of, oh! I mastered the Mana Flare today! I'll show you after dinner sometime."

"Hey great! This should be good." Ranma replied. Kasumi appeared at the Dojo gate and shook her head.

"Oh my... Ranma, you and Akane bought too much! We can't freeze it all, sukiyaki doesn't keep well. What shall we do?"

Akane turned to Chang. "Uh.. Hey Chang! You want to stay for dinner tonight?"

Chang brightened at once. "The end of a perfect day.. Sure, I'd be glad to! Ukyo knows I was going to be out till all hours, so she won't miss me at the shop."

Akane grinned. "Great! If you eat like Ranma and Mr. Saotome, we'll get through all this tonight!"