Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Fistful Of Omake ❯ How would the manga cast deal with a Menace?!(DARK) ( Chapter 44 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

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**this came out of a conversation of how would the Ranma cast deal with a less than humorous challenge.

Cologne stopped stirring the pot. She looked up and away from her current task, as if listening to a voice no one else could hear. She said a single phrase.

Shampoo blinked. "Shampoo never hear great-grandmother use language like that..."

Mousse also came to a halt. Insulting, mean, yes - these and many other things he expected from Cologne. To hear her cussing was unusual.

"Stop taking new orders. Close up when you can." Cologne frowned. "I don't *want* to believe that someone was stupid enough to meddle with something that even Happosai knew better than to mess with. Hopefully I'll be back soon."

"Great Grandmother?" Shampoo watched the Elder go. "Shampoo have very bad feeling about this."

Mousse brightened. This could be his big chance. "Hey, except for the lunch crowd, we're all alone, Shampoo! How about if we-"

Shampoo interrupted by elbowing Mousse in the face. "Stupid Mousse. Great Grandma look frightened."

Mousse blinked behind his thick glasses. "Oh who cares about *her*, Shampoo, let's talk about us! This could... frightened?"

"Yes," agreed Shampoo. "Shampoo get much bad feeling about this."

------

"HAPPOSAI!" Cologne landed on the Go board, scattering pieces. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Right here," said Happosai, popping up out of nowhere. "It wasn't me."

"What's the old freak done now?" Ranma asked as he and the rest of the household arrived to investigate all the yelling. To his disappointment there wasn't a fight going on, but *something* was screaming "danger" at him?

"What's Ranma done now?" Akane scowled at her fiance.

"Maybe we can figure out where it is," suggested Happosai. "If we combine resources we can locate it before people start dying."

Much blinking.

"What's this 'it'?" Nabiki wanted to know, lazing back and watching for potential profits.

"Something so thoroughly evil and horrific that I had it wrapped in spirit wards, sealed in a leather waterproof pouch upon which a holy man had enscribed symbols to ward against it, followed by it being sewn into a blanket." Happosai answered, shooting a glance at Nabiki. "Wards so powerful that I could only handle the package through the blanket itself. Something that leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever it goes and corrupts all but the purest of souls so that it can enslave those who try to use it."

"Then why do *you* have it?" Nabiki was quick to ask. "You're hardly the 'purest of souls' are you?"

"No," admitted Happosai. "However, I like my free will, not having my soul or guts ripped out of my body so that I can become some undead beast. Besides, if IT is free - then there's a chance that all the pretty girls are going to be less pretty by the time this is through."

"We can't involve them," said Cologne. "Son-in-law wouldn't last three seconds against THEM."

"Hey! There's nothin' I can't beat!" Ranma pumped his fist, full of confidence.

Cologne sighed deeply. "Son-in-law. You are an extension of the Art. You've got more martial arts talent than I've seen in a generation. You wouldn't last *one* second with that attitude. Then you'd be dead or worse. Now be quiet - this is important."

"Huh?!" Ranma couldn't believe after that build up that he was being dismissed that quickly.

"What is it you're looking for?" Nabiki said, vaguely disturbed by all the talk about people dying.

The rear door to the Tendo yard exploded into fragments. It was not, however, Shampoo.

The black figure stepped through the newly remade gateway and pulled a sword out.

"Hold varlet!"

More of the Nerima crew showed up, the word having traveled at almost supraluminal speed. Shampoo, Ukyo, Kodachi, and Konatsu to be exact.

"Everyone stay back, it's more dangerous than you can believe," counseled Happosai.

"Hah! In matters with a blade, Tatewaki Kuno is supreme. Watch, Akane Tendo, as I defend your dojo and your honor." The would-be samurai walked forward, bokken at the ready.

"This guy don't look so tough," observed Ranma. "All those black robes gotta slow him down."

*SCHNIK*

The black-clad figure walked past the posing samurai. Then half of Tatewaki Kuno began sliding down the other half until a second stroke without a backwards glance quartered the kendoist. Pieces began seperating further as they sloshed into the grass. The figure stood and looked around, finally settling on one target.

Akane began to sweat as the stranger oriented on *her*. "Uhm, say, would this have anything to do with a gold ring about so big?!"

Seeing his daughter being threatened, Soun reacted. The Demon Head Of Outrage formed. "HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY HOUSE -?!"

Without even looking, the figure put up a hand. The Demon Head flowed into that hand, along with a screaming transparent Soun Tendo. Soun's body stood there for a moment, transformed to shades of gray and charcoal, before it fell over and shattered like brittle porcelain.

Kodachi, uncharacteristically, fainted.

"Akane, just give it the damn ring!" Nabiki was doing something new. Panicking. Kuno was spattered in their backyard. Her father was shattered. Two deaths in less than a minute.

"NO!" Happosai and Cologne both yelled.

Akane's hand went to her pocket. Then her look hardened. "No. I will not give it up. It is too beautiful. It will make me a better martial artist. I will be stronger than any of you! I will once again be the best martial artist in Nerima! It is my... precious!"

"Akane, you're beginning to freak me out," said Ranma.

Akane smiled, took out a plain gold ring, put it on - and vanished.

"WHAT?!" Ranma yelped. How dare Akane learn a martial arts manuever *he* hadn't?!

"That was a mistake, Miss Tendo," growled Cologne. "The wraith can see you better with the Ring on your finger."

"Ring? As in Ring Of The Rhinegold?" Nabiki managed, working things out as quickly as possible. Wagner's Ring trilogy had been covered in a History class, comparing it to various Japanese myths.

"Close enough," admitted Happosai. "Now if everyone would please run away as quickly as possible, we may get through this with only a few more casualties."

There was frantic nodding from Shampoo, Amazon warrior or not, this was hardly what she considered the sort of battle she wanted to get involved in. Ukyo likewise was considering fleeing at all due speed. Only Ranma's continued presence held them here.

Nabiki really started to get alarmed. Happosai and Cologne - not only cooperating but *scared* and both being serious to this level? She'd be boggling if she could spare the attention.

The Nazgul became a black blur, the sword in its hands howling as it spun out. *Schuckt*.

Akane howled as she became visible and dropped to her knees, one hand clutching the bleeding stump of the other arm.

The black rider reached down to where a severed hand still wore the ring, even as the flesh grew corrupt and began crumbling away.

"No way, buddy," Ranma yelled and leapt to the attack.

Cologne's staff reached up, snagged Ranma, and tossed him away. "Stupid. Don't throw your life away."

A hooked dart stabbed through the glittering ring and quickly retracted with it along a fishing line. Konatsu held the Ring a moment later. "If something is *that* wicked and *that* evil, then anything it wants *that* badly - it would not do to give it too easily."

"RUN YOU FOOLS!" Cologne announced, throwing a packet of something towards the black rider.

The explosion turned the Tendo ancestral home into a flaming crater.

-------

"Well, at least its dead," said Nabiki. *BONK!* "OW!"

"Stupid," said Cologne with a glare. "That was a Nazgul, one of nine. All we did was slow it down."

"It lived through *that*," Nabiki exclaimed, thumb pointing to the pillar of smoke still visible after she'd been grabbed by the collar and experienced the sort of G forces normally experienced by space shuttle pilots and the like. From the park's wooded hill they were on, they had some concealment but were only on the outskirts of Nerima.

"It is neither alive nor dead, Nabiki Tendo," said Cologne with a hint of exasperation. "Even now it heals itself and prepares to hunt anew. Next time it may be with the support of its brethren."

"What did you do to Akane?!" Ranma was practically frothing at the mouth.

"Saved her life, idiot," said Happosai.

Cologne cleared her throat. "Shampoo, do you remember what King's Foil looks like? It may slow the poison."

Shampoo nodded and raced off as quickly as she was able. Which was pretty quick.

"Poison?" Ranma blinked. "I ought to go back there and..."

"Die, Ranma. You would die, your soul would be consumed, and you'd be gone." Happosai sighed deeply and looked out into the deepening gloom of mid-evening. "It was all so much fun, a pleasant game for the twilight of my years. Now the real purpose of the Art returns."

"I could -" Ranma began, only to be cut off. This time by a metal spatula slamming down on his head.

"Don't you *dare* go off and get yourself killed, you jackass!" Ukyo's face was tracked with tears. "That damn thing took out Mister Tendo and Kuno because *they* didn't take it seriously. That was a Nazgul, a Ringwraith, wasn't it?"

Cologne and Happosai showed a little surprise. "You know of them?"

"I spent ten years on a vengeance quest, you'd be surprised what you can pick up," said Ukyo. "Though I never bought into any of that magic stuff until I saw Ranma change forms."

Mousse, grumbling, topped the hill and headed towards them. "Yeesh. Haul this, fetch that, what do I look like?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Cologne raised an eyebrow. "Did you bring what I asked?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Mousse, drawing one large chest after another out of his robes. "What are in these anyway? They must weigh five hundred pounds each."

Cologne flipped open one such chest. "This contains what may yet save the life and soul of Miss Tendo here."

Ranma quieted immediately. "Did you say 'life and soul'?"

"Ranma, one of the idiotic things your father taught you was that you should never use weapons, right?" Cologne took out a mortar and pestle and began mixing powders.

"Well, kinda. I needed to know how to use 'em, but ya can't rely on weapons and shouldn't use 'em if ya could avoid it." Ranma puzzled as to what the Old Ghoul could be talking about. Then he saw what Happosai was doing. "What the ?!"

Happosai tightened a sleeve of hardened leather over one arm. "Hmmm?"

"You're putting on *armor*?!" Ranma couldn't understand that. Armor was something for the weak. It slowed you down and didn't really provide that much protection.

"Ranma, most of the Anything Goes School was founded on one simple principle." Happosai began tightening leg-straps into place as he spoke. "And that is that Rules are made to be broken."

Ukyo looked into one of the now open chests, found a suit of sparkly silver chainmail, and started looking for a place to put it on. Konatsu kept to his vigil in the tree overhead. Kodachi though was strangely silent and seemed to watch everything.

Cologne gave a disgusted noise and focussed up at him. "Son-in-law, you have lived a life free of most cares, flying like the breeze before your father's troubles and untouched by most concerns. There is no *time* to instruct you fully in the dangers that you face. Nor would you willingly have learned anything of it before this day, when you were still dodging responsibility and playing truant. If you have lived all these days with closed ears and mind asleep, wake up NOW!!"

"Hey, old ghoul! Oww!" The boy reacted to the sharp pain, lifting a hand to his head and was surprised to find blood there, with Happosai burning in cold rage behind him, a bloody edged dagger in his hand.

"Ranma!" The word was made more deadly serious by its utter lack of emotion. "Listen to someone besides your father for once! Do you think that this whole 'act - don't think' works in all fights? How do you think martial arts were invented?! You've seen enough fighting to know that blindly flailing around doesn't work! THINK! You've been absorbing techniques like a dry sponge, but someone had to *create* those arts. Genma's not nearly what your potential is, and he's created *two* new Schools. He's a moron as well. What is *your* excuse?"

Ranma stared slack-jawed, hand over his bloody wound. His ego was taking a real beating through holes already torn through his self-confidence by the deaths he'd recently witnessed.

Happosai turned to Cologne. "I still say we leave the boy behind. He's useless to us now. Genma's taught his boy to be even more stupid than he is. He can do nothing but run foolishly into danger that will end up killing all our chances."

Cologne spared a sad glance to the boy, and sighed. "Happy, I believe you're right."

Ranma's ego deflated like a ruptured balloon.

"Ranchan isn't *that* bad," said Ukyo. "He just ain't been taught to think 'cause Genma wanted him easy to control."

"Says the girl who dropped ten years of vengeance because she was called cute," mumbled Nabiki.

Happosai softened, giving the boy he'd chosen as his heir a pat on the back. "Don't take it so hard, sonny. You play martial arts like it was a child's game - nobody gets hurt, there is never anything important lost. That's the way Genma taught you, because that's what he was stupid enough to believe. Even *he* didn't believe it fully, but it made you easier for him to manipulate if he filled you full of foolish ideals he could use to bend you to his will. If you never took anything serious then you'd never get mad enough to hurt him in the ways that he deserved and did everything he could to earn. No, boy. It's not your fault."

Genma groffeled from where he sat in his panda form, still in shock. The loss of his friend, knowing that even if he made it to an afterlife - Soun wouldn't be there, had struck him sorely. Years of planning, years of denying karma, years of friendship. All ended in a moment.

The hastily summoned Nodoka looked about but was uncertain as to what to do. The only practice she'd done with the family honor blade had been the end stroke for seppuku, and that only after Genma's promise.

Kasumi was also lost in her own thoughts. Her home had been destroyed, her father slain, and she had nowhere to go.

Ukyo saw the eldest surviving Tendo and took pity on her. "Sugar, why don't you go stay at my restaurant? This is liable to be all sorts of dark and nasty and there's no reason for you to go through more than you gotta."

Kasumi nodded, but didn't leave.

Happosai had played the old pervert for so long that Ranma was honestly shocked to look into those eyes and see the fires of greatness burning. "You forget, my boy. What is the purpose of martial arts?"

"To steal panties," hazarded Nabiki.

"To do whatever you want," answered Ranma - trying to reconcile this new Happosai with the old.

"To protect those weaker than yourself," guessed Ukyo.

"Not quite," said Happosai, hopping to the top of a boulder. "Martial Arts is the precise application of force to cause damage. When you strip away the philosophies and codes and honor and get to the barest essentials - that is what you have. The martial arts were made to go to war. It didn't mean saving your family from a duel or a rival who never would've sought out a non-combatant anyway. The martial arts only exist as a means of staving off death, or inflicting it. Everything else is a game we play to pass the time away between the crises. Sad to say, you know *nothing* of true martial arts." The old man looked withered and old for a moment. "And you don't know anything else, either - and I'm to blame for not correcting that when I came here. Both those flaws made you useful, even entertaining to me. As a result: You are useless in _everything_ except a fight, and this fight you cannot be of value to anyone but our enemies because you are too foolhardy and overconfident, with none of the killer instinct. Sorry, son, but you're staying home."

"I'm going," said Kodachi, dropping her silence. "Whoever and whatever that THING was, it killed a Kuno. It shall be denied its goal."

"Do you honestly think your ribbon, hoops, or other toys will be of use against undead?" Cologne asked but not unkindly.

Kodachi dropped next to one of the chests and rummaged briefly before pulling forth a European style rapier. "I have also studied fencing, though my skills in that may have gotten somewhat rusty."

Shampoo came out of the underbrush with two handfuls of weed which she passed to her great grandmother. Cologne sifted through the plants, gathering the flowers, and then grinding the white leaves into powder.

Akane cried out in pain and whimpered through the rag shoved in her mouth as the Amazons held the paste to her wound to slow the poison. Freshly chastened, Ranma could only look angry and hunker down, wrapping his arms around his legs and scowling. "Why, I outta..."

"Do what, Ranchan?" Ukyo came out of the bushes, chest unbound to free herself of her breasts minor but still distracting pain of being crushed, bits of silvery chainmail poking out from under pant cuffs and sleeves of her usual okonomiyaki seller's outfit. She threw her spatula to the ground and went over to the chests, lifting out sheathed swords, speaking
all the while. "Let me guess. You want to pound him unconscious, right? Big problem, Ranchan. They *can't* go unconscious, they don't even sleep. So you'd want to pound him anyway, right? What for? He has no flesh to bruise. Gunna use a pressure point? On what nerves? Break a bone? Well, he *has* got those, but it takes a serious magic weapon to hurt them, and
your fists aren't up to the cut. So let's say you survive learning all that and use a chi blast. *BIG* mistake. They *feed* on life-force, Ranchan. You SAW what happened to mister Tendo, didn't you? He'd suck your soul right out of your body and grow stronger for it. So, tell me, you'd do what?"

She turned from the crate, having selected a weapon, a big, odd looking sword with ivy-like markings on the blade and hilt. She tested it's edge (it cut through the metal of a throwing spatula without harm to itself or apparent effort), turned her eyes to her beloved, answering for him. "You'd die, Ranchan. Plain and simple, you'd die. Sorry, but you don't take a fight serious until the other guy's pounded on you for a while - but this guy would take you on at your best and still be at least equal. Only you wouldn't get a chance to learn that as he would start full power. One nick of that sword and he'd kill you, and you'd have to land a hundred blows before you'd really believe you can't hurt him."

Cologne looked over at Ukyo's choice. "Elomir, the wand of smiting. You have good taste in weapons, girl. Ever want to be an Amazon?"

Shampoo looked up at her elder with a frown before returning her attention to "Violent Pervert Girl."

"I'll think about it." Ukyo's answer shocked Ranma yet again.

Nabiki gestured to the discarded breast bindings and giant spatula. "So what about this? No more old buddy? You're just going to walk away from your family's school?"

Ukyo drew the blade and hissed it through a few, practiced motions. "I'm no expert, Nabiki. But I know most weapons, and no one made any magic spatulas that I've found. Wasn't really looking, to be honest. Like I said, I didn't really believe this stuff until recently. Too bad we lost Kuno, now we haven't got a sword expert to give the rest of us pointers." She selected two matched daggers and began strapping on their sheaths.

Happosai smiled grimly, having a sword three times his own height standing idly in his hands, multiple daggers in sheaths around his person. "I know a few things, girl. So does Cologne and *her* heir over there."

Nabiki leveled a gaze at the old man, disliking the surprise. Her voice was bitter. "I thought our families style was *un*armed."

The middle Tendo daughter earned a disdainful sniff from the school's grandmaster. "You think like that and you'll *stay* petty and shallow, girl. I thought you thought you had brains. When you *aren't* killing something, unarmed is best. It saves lots of explaining and you tick off everybody less. On the other hand," he took his enormous blade through some twirls and spins that would've bisected a swarm of gnats closing in from all around him. "While you *can* kill with fists and feet it's a lot more work that way. Swords are real, labor saving devices."

[Besides, haven't you figured out that I'm a hypocrite?] A brief showing of a panda sign indicated that perhaps Genma was not completely lost in his grief.

Happosai's eyes became level and hard and actually frightened the girl. "When you are hacking your way through a field of heavy cavalry isn't the time to be playing childish tricks, punching your way through armor. Even the best, most hardened and seasoned expert would use himself up in minutes. When things get dark and grim you save every erg of effort, get every
advantage you can. Because no one, no one will ever have enough to do it all. There will always be something left undone. And it's when you leave something that your friends die. You just try the best you can and hope nothing important was left uncovered."

"You had _friends_?" Nabiki was disbelieving.

"More than you," was the level answer from Happosai.

"The Boxer Rebellion in China was proof enough," said Cologne with an extra added weariness to her voice. "The best and the brightest, literally hundreds of powerful schools, with techniques that made Ranma's 'Mouko Takashiba' or Ryouga's 'Shishi Hokoudan' look pathetic. They went up against ganglords and thieves and mercenaries armed with Western firearms. Without the crushing defeat China suffered there, there would have been no 'People's Revolution' and the horrors inflicted daily upon the people by a government who sees them as even less than the worst of Emperors in the past had viewed their throngs would not now be the norm."

Shampoo nodded. She knew the history. She didn't disdain weapons though her bonbori were best as wrecking balls and not as something to be used in a life-or-death battle. They had failed because the "Boxers" had failed to use explosives and the Western weapons, and because only the "young hotheads" and not the full Masters had participated - there had been much suffering in China.

Cologne had carefully measured out three times the length of the angry red marks tracing from Akane's bloody stump when she'd first used a length of wire to tie off that arm and slow the poison. Now with a single stroke of a golden sickle she cut off the arm two inches further down than she'd measured,leaving half the forearm lying severed on the ground. Akane surged within their grasp and screamed through the gag. Ranma was up to save her when instantly Happosai tripped him up and sat upon the back of his head, having hog-tied the younger martial artist.

But when he spoke, it was kind. "We're not torturing her, my boy. That poison is more than she can bear, at the limits of what even magic can heal. We're none of us elves or have access to magical healing. The best way to save her life is to cut off the affected limb before the venom spreads, then do what magic and herbs can."

Mousse himself was quiet, while he could not see clearly, and his senses were such that he could mistake the love of his life for a cow, he could tell. "There's something out there. Not near. But it's coming."

Akane whimpered as the fresh stump was slathered in several new layers of crushed herb that Shampoo had been working on. Cologne's voice was dry, unaffected by her patient's tears. "If the wound was in the body there would be little that could be done by mortal man or woman. She is lucky only a bit of arm will die for this incalculable foolishness." She rummaged through the items selected for their healing properties, changing the subject. "Shampoo, garb yourself. We have made too much noise and been here too long."

The younger Amazon nodded and was off to the chests. Another set of silvery mail was found and, with a glance at Mousse, she disappeared into the bushes. If the hated duck-boy hadn't been there she would've changed in camp, in front of Happosai and all. She was back in seconds and had picked out two swords, to her grandmother's fond smile.

"Thamdrun and Aothin, the wind and the waves. You do me proud, granddaughter. Now switch with the ninja while he garbs himself. We move out as soon as that is done. Son-in-law and the mercenary girl can care for this nitwit after we are gone. Mousse, take the chests and all that's left. We leave nothing behind."

"There's just one thing, Cologne." Happosai interposed.

"Yes?"

"Who will bear the Ring?"

All eyes turned towards where the Ring sat in a sealed envelope, a chunk of wood jammed into it to prevent someone from placing it too easily on their finger.

"It's mine. My precious," Akane sobbed as she was allowed to breathe.

"The more power one bears, the more darkness in your heart, the less self-control you have - the faster the Ring will corrupt you and become your master," said Cologne. "Neither I nor Happi dare handle it. Akane has already been touched once, and her self control is lacking in any regard. Nabiki need only look at briefly and it would snare her through her greed and desire for control."

"Hey," protested Nabiki half-heartedly. In truth, anything *that* dangerous - she'd prefer as much distance as possible seperating her from it.

"Kasumi - maybe," put in Happosai. "Though even as innocent as she is, it would destroy her to carry the Ring for long. Perhaps Konatsu?"

"No," said the ninja watching quietly from his tree. "I carried it here. I... no. Not any longer."

Happosai and Cologne nodded, accepting that.

"Ranma's out - he'd go charging into battle with it, and before you know it he'd be eating his girlfriends' livers on toast as an undead servitor." Happosai sighed. "That's a problem with the modern generation. Virtue is considered a laughable quality. No strong-willed but virtuous fellows around to be the Ringbearer."

"Likewise Miss Kuno and Genma are too easily mislead by the darkness within such a thing." Cologne grimaced. "Shampoo is entirely too easily convinced to try for an easy path. I don't know enough about Nodoka Saotome to hazard a guess. Miss Kuonji -"

"Ain't no way, sugar." Ukyo looked up with a frown. "I don't like admitting it, but I got my own baggage and there's a couple of things that I wouldn't be able to handle temptation on."

"It comes," said Konatsu, standing on a branch now. "It's moving quickly."

Ranma could feel it in the air, like a sudden wash of static causing all the hair on his neck and arms to start sticking up.

"We've stayed here too long, we need to be moving," admitted Cologne. "Mousse, gather those chests. Shampoo, Ukyo - help me with Miss Tendo. Everyone else grab your packs and get going now."

"Wait a minute, we can't move her," Ranma pointed to where Akane was twisting in apparent agony.

"We move her or we leave her to die," said Cologne.

Ranma gathered Akane up in his arms, looking like he still wanted to argue.

Akane twisted out of his grip, her remaining hand stretching out for the envelope with the Ring.

Cologne hit a pressure point almost casually. "Perhaps Ranma *and* Akane should be left under *your* supervision, Kasumi. This is going to be a harsh task, and I fully expect that the Nazgul will catch up with us if we tarry any longer."

Ranma stepped back. He'd received some training in being able to detect and avoid danger. Right now it was singing loud and hard.

"They're approaching fast," noted Happosai. "The noncombatants will have to stick with us for now. If they seperate when the riders are this close they'll be even worse off." Taking a pair of tongs, he lifted the envelope up and motioned Mousse to hold up his backpack. "This'll have to do until we can sort things out better."

"RANMA! What have you -" Ryouga burst out of the underbrush and looked around. "What's everyone..." His eyes fell to the unconscious Akane whose right arm ended just below the elbow. "akane?! RANMA! YOU'LL gak!"

Cologne had just tapped Ryouga's Adam's apple with her cane. "Shut *up* boy! If you really want to see Hell, kindly don't drag the rest of us into it. Oh hell."

"They heard. They hasten," said Konatsu, drawing weapons. In the case of the male kunoichi it was throwing stars and small explosive devices.

Nabiki found herself and Kasumi flanked by Kodachi, Nodoka, Ukyo, and Shampoo. Mousse was stuffing chests up his sleeve. Ranma merely tried to watch out while standing next to the fallen Akane.

Black shapes congealed out of the surrounding gloom, silver swords glowing.

"Crap! There's *two* of them?" Ranma frowned. One he could handle. Two might be difficult.

"Three," reported Konatsu. "The third circles us in the darkness, ready to dash in when the other two occupy us."

"Fuss and bother. No respect for a feeble old man trying to get around," grumped Happosai. "Don't suppose you've got any more of those magical firecrackers back, Cologne?"

"I didn't exactly expect the One Ring to be set loose," said Cologne, twirling her cane and when it stopped she was holding a sword instead. "We're a *little* better prepared now."

Ranma leapt to the attack. He was the supreme martial artist - the Heir Of Anything Goes - nobody beat him!

"Ran-" Ukyo began to call out, distracted by the blur.

The blade swung his way as if in slow motion. Ranma performed the sword catcher manuever flawlessly. Lightning flared and threw him away like a ragdoll.

Ryouga's head whipped around as the third wraith strode purposely forward, it's own blade gleaming. He engaged with his umbrella.

*chunk* Ryouga winced as a good portion of his umbrella fell.

Akane woke up and screamed at the sight of the riders. She saw Ryouga turn towards her, concern on his face. She saw bright steel blossom from his chest without any sound. She saw the surprise on his face as he fell.

Chains erupted from Mousse's robes, twining about one of the Nazgul. Other chains flew from Konatsu amidst a storm of throwing knives.

"Shishi hokoudan," tried Ryouga as he felt his lifeblood leaving him. It was very easy to be depressed in these circumstances.

One of the Nazgul feasted, drawing the essence of Ryouga into itself.

Ranma sprang back and noticed that everyone was off in their battles. The women were facing one. Mousse had one under wraps with Cologne apparently trying to figure out how many spears she could drive into those black robes. Konatsu had another tangled with Happosai trying to do something. Perfect.

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken," called out Ranma, hitting the back of the one menacing the women six hundred times. Then a thousand. Then fifteen hundred.

"Ranchan, look out!" "Airen!"

The Nazgul turned its attention to this annoyance.

Ranma waved his hands about, trying to warm them up. That he had *hit* each and every one of those times and done apparently no damage was something to think about later. For now he had to

Lightning flared again, this time shredding cloth and skin as it threw Ranma about.

Looking up from where he'd been thrown, Ranma saw the blade lift up so that it could be jammed point first through him.

"No!" Someone interposed herself.

Ranma stared as his mother died.

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