Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Hearts of Ice ❯ Interlude ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The characters of the Ranma 1/2 universe are the sole creation
and possession of the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi.
------------------------
Hearts of Ice
Part 5: Interlude
by Krista Perry
------------------------


Akane sat quietly, holding perfectly still as Yuki-onna
passed her slim white hands a few centimeters over the surface
Akane's skin. After a few moments, her hands paused over a spot
on Akane's back, just between her shoulder blades.

"Hmm," the Snow Woman said softly. "This looks like a good
place to start today. The spell will be easiest to untangle
here." She began twisting her fingers, as if pulling at
invisible threads.

Akane felt the now-familiar tingle of magic between her
shoulder blades as Yuki-onna carefully removed wisp after wisp of
dragon blood from her ki. This had become a daily ritual. For
the past two months, ever since she had first come to the Kami
plane, Yuki-onna had spent at least an hour a day trying to
remove the blood spell from Akane, but the spell was stubborn and
strong and fought against Yuki-onna's attempts to break it's hold
on her. Every time a strand of dragon blood was removed from
Akane's ki, the spell would simply shift and fill in the gap.

Akane could tell that it was exhausting work for the Snow
Woman, and was finally beginning to understand why it would take
about seven years to lift the spell completely. She shook her
head slightly in bafflement, wondering once again why her
mysterious hostess was helping her. Yuki-onna had taken her -- a
total stranger, and a mere mortal at that -- into her household
and had treated her like a daughter. Which was surprising, since
the Yuki-onna that Akane was familiar with from legend was
portrayed as a cold, cruel woman; an evil spirit who enjoyed
freezing men to death with her icy touch.

"So, Akane," said the Snow Woman as she continued to pull
at the blood spell, "it appears that the bruises from your last
match with Masakazu are healing nicely. You seem to have fewer
than usual. Can I take that as a sign of your improvement?"

"Yes," said Akane, smiling. Then she winced and raised a
hand to a bruise on her cheek; a bruise that matched the dozens
of others all over her body. The swelling had gone down, but it
still hurt to touch it. In spite of the pain, she was glad. For
once in her life, she had a sensei who didn't treat her like a
china doll, as if she would shatter with the slightest touch.
With Masakazu's help, she had slowly, but steadily improved her
martial arts skills. She still wasn't nearly as fast or agile as
Ranma, but she was finally getting enough speed to block some of
her sensei's attacks. And, more importantly, she was learning to
trust her instincts. It was a necessity, really. She always had
to be on her guard, since she never knew when Masakazu was going
to launch another attack, or "training session," as he called it.

At first she had been angry at how rough he was on her, but
she had quickly learned that the tengu had actually gone easy on
her the first time he attacked. Since then, she had seen him
perform feats that made Cologne and Happosai look like first-year
students, substantiating his claim that his people had invented
the martial arts. Also, not only was Masakazu the most
incredible martial artist she'd ever seen, the tengu was also a
very patient sensei. This was good, because more often than not,
her volatile temper got the better of her, especially when he
would use Ranma's voice to mock her during their battles. She
*hated* it when he did that. And yet... it was also nice in a
strange way, because deep down she liked hearing Ranma's voice.
Even if the voice said things to make her mad. Even if it wasn't
really Ranma at all.

It was so strange. Sometimes she felt as if this alien
place were home, as if she'd been here forever. Other times she
was so homesick, it hurt.

She tried not to think of Ranma, but it was no use. He was
always in her thoughts at some level. She missed him terribly
but knew that allowing her thoughts to dwell on him would just
make her miserable. *I wonder what he's doing right now?* she
thought.

Akane sighed. Yuki-onna had certainly scolded her often
enough about wasting her time thinking about a man who had
brought so much misery into her life and who, in all likelihood,
wouldn't even be around by the time she could finally return
home. She almost regretted telling the Snow Woman about her
convoluted history with Ranma and his "other fiancees." Yuki-
onna seemed to take each of Ranma's affronts personally, whether
they were intentional or, as was most often the case,
circumstantial. It was so ironic. Finally, here was a woman who
completely understood the frustration and fury Akane so often
felt towards Ranma. But now Akane didn't want to feel that way
anymore.

She tried to convince herself otherwise. Heck, it should
have been easy; she'd certainly had plenty of practice telling
herself what an insensitive pervert Ranma was, and how there was
no way in the world she could ever love him. But ever since she
had been torn so forcefully out of the mortal plane, she had
become more honest with herself, and her soul refused to let her
live with such a blatant lie.

*You know,* she thought to herself glumly, *you really have
the *worst* timing. You couldn't have had this little journey of
self-discovery a little bit earlier? Like when it might actually
have been useful?*

Yuki-onna frowned, her smooth white face creasing slightly
as she concentrated on removing the dragon blood from Akane's ki.
She paused, surprised, as the ki abruptly began to darken in
color with the girl's mood.

*Blast. She's thinking about her fiance again.* Yuki-
onna's frost-blue eyes narrowed angrily. *After all that idiotic
boy has put her through, she still pines for him. Akane, you
foolish girl, why can't you see how much stronger you would be
without this useless infatuation weighing you down?* The Snow
Woman began to lose her concentration because of her anger, and
the dragon blood began slipping through her fingers, resisting
her attempts to remove it. She sighed with frustration and tried
to regain focus, but thoughts of the mortal boy Ranma and his
cruel treatment of Akane prevented her from --

A flash of red caught her eye.

*What..?* Yuki-onna squinted at Akane's ki. For a split
second, she had seen something in the blood spell, something she
hadn't noticed before. What had she been thinking about? She
knew that an individual's thoughts and emotions could often
effect how a person perceived the nuances of someone else's ki,
which was why perfect concentration was normally required, but
this time...

Ranma. She'd been thinking about Akane's horrible fiance.

Yuki-onna focused once again on the blood spell in Akane's
ki, this time keeping Ranma firmly in mind. There! There it was
again, a flash of red; a tiny, almost unnoticeable wisp of dragon
blood that responded to her thoughts of Ranma. It was woven deep
inside the spell, too deep for her to reach for quite some time.
Still, she concentrated on it...

...and gasped.

Akane turned quickly. "What's wrong? Are you alright?" she
asked, looking with concern at the shocked expression on the Snow
Woman's face.

Yuki-onna relaxed and smiled. "Oh, it's nothing, dear. I'm
just a little tired, that's all. This spell requires so much of
my energies to untangle..." She trailed off as she noticed Akane
stiffen suddenly, her ki changing color once again, flaring
bright blue.

"Akane?" she asked, puzzled. "What--"

Without warning, Akane leaped straight up into the air a
good five meters from her sitting position, just barely missing
the blur of burnt umber that passed through the space she once
occupied. Yuki-onna gasped as the girl's ki was torn from her
fingers.

Akane flipped at the peak of her arc, coming down to land
lightly on her feet. As soon as she touched the floor, she
dropped, bringing her hands up to block a near invisible blow
from her sensei. Rolling, she sprang to her feet, her body
twisting and turning as she swiftly parried each blow the tengu
delivered.

"Well, Akane" said Masakazu with Ranma's voice, "Looks like
you're more masculine than ever, you uncute tomboy. I don't
know how you ever expect to catch a husband."

Akane growled. "Why you...!" And lost her focus. In one
smooth move, Masakazu penetrated her defenses and landed a kick
that sent Akane flying into the wall, and into unconsciousness.

--------------------

"Ite!" Akane rubbed a swelling lump at the back of her
head, and hissed in pain as Yuki-onna gently cleaned a nasty
scrape on her shoulder that she had received upon impact with the
wall. If it were a normal wall, it probably wouldn't have done
much damage, but in Yuki-onna's household, some of the walls were
natural ice formations, complete with jagged crystalline edges.
Akane had the misfortune of colliding with such a wall.

The Snow Woman touched the skin just outside the scrape with
a fingertip and numbed the wound with an icy touch. Akane
shivered, goose bumps erupting up and down her arms. "Oooh,
that's *cold,*" she complained.

Yuki-onna leaned back and cocked a delicate white eyebrow at
her. "Which would you rather have, Akane, the pain or a mild
chill?" she asked calmly.

"At the moment I'd prefer neither," Akane snapped irritably,
glaring at Masakazu, who stood serenely at her side. "No more
pain, no more cold. As a matter of fact, I sure could use a nice
hot day at the beach right about now. Don't you ever get tired
of all this ice and snow?"

"Not really." Yuki-onna smiled pleasantly and tossed her
mane of long white hair.

"Now now, Akane," Masakazu soothed. "You're just being a
sore loser."

"Emphasis on the word 'sore,'" Akane growled.

"I wouldn't have breached your defenses if you had been able
to control your temper," the tengu chided. "You lose focus, you
lose the battle. Still, I must commend you on avoiding my
initial attack. Your leap was quite impressive. You do realize,
I hope, that you have come a long way since we began your
training a mere two months ago."

Akane's temper calmed at the praise, and her expression lit
with a smile. "Really? You think so?"

"Of course. But then, what else do you expect with me as
your sensei? No ordinary mortal could teach you the things I've
taught you."

"Hmph. It's a good thing I'm not relying on you to teach me
humility," Akane responded wryly.

Yuki-onna chuckled. "I, too, am impressed, Akane. This is
the first time in a week or so that I've seen you two spar, and
just in that short amount of time, you have improved drastically.
You'll be ready to defend my household in no time."

Akane turned to the Snow Woman, her expression serious, and
a little nervous. "Um, now that you bring that up, I've been
meaning to ask... I've been here for two months now, and the
only attacks I've seen have come from Masakazu-sensei. You keep
saying that I need to defend your household and that you need a
bodyguard, but so far I haven't seen anything or anyone come
around that you might need defending from." Akane swallowed and
looked down. "Are... are you sure you need me?"

The Snow Woman smiled gently. "Akane, the reason no one has
been able to invade my home is because I am using a substantial
portion of my magic to keep a continuous barrier between my
domain and the rest of the Kami plane. It is a great drain on my
energies."

Akane blinked. "Oh... I had no idea," she said, flushing
with embarrassment. "No wonder you look so tired after trying to
untangle the blood spell every day. I... I'm sorry to be so much
trouble."

"It's no trouble at all," Yuki-onna said firmly. "It's part
of our deal. You serve as my body guard, and I free you from the
blood spell. Once you are fully capable of defending my
household, I will be able to drop the magic barrier and will once
again have my full powers at my disposal."

Akane's eyes widened. "Your full powers? Does that
mean..."

"That means," Masakazu interrupted, "that the sooner you are
able to defend the household, the sooner Yuki-onna will have
access to the power necessary to free you from the influence of
this blood spell your under."

"I've been doing what little I could under the
circumstances," the Snow Woman added. "But once you take your
place as my bodyguard, and I have full access to my magic, it
will speed up the process substantially. You should know," she
continued, seeing the hope blossom on Akane's face, "that I took
this into account when I gave you the time estimate. I still
believe it will take about seven years to break the spell, give
or take a few months, depending on how quickly you learn the
skills necessary to defeat intruders."

Akane's face fell. "Oh," she said softly. For a brief,
wonderful moment, she thought that she might get home sooner.

*Ranma...*

The tears, which she had avoided for weeks, threatened once
again, and she turned away from the tengu and the Snow Woman, not
wanting them to see her cry. "Excuse me," she said swallowing.
"I... I think I'll go to my room now. I need to get cleaned up
for dinner." She walked quickly away.

The Snow Woman and the tengu watched her leave.

**You haven't told her, have you.** Yuki-onna started as
Masakazu's mental voice penetrated her head.

"You don't have to do that," she said crossly. "She's gone,
she can't hear us. And to answer your question, no. I haven't
told her. I don't intend to. And you will not tell her either."

Masakazu sighed. "Yuki-chan, I know what you are thinking.
And it's wrong. Don't you think it would be better for Akane if
you gave her some hope? If you let her know that she might still
regain everything she's lost?"

Yuki-onna turned on the tengu, her eyes blazing. "And what
would you know about what's best for her? Do you know anything
about this boy that she *thinks* she loves? Do you know what
kind of life is in store for her if she goes back to the mortal
plane and he's still there, waiting to torment her as usual?"

Masakazu blinked at her, his black eyes inhumanly calm. "I
know more than you might guess, Yuki-chan. I cannot presume to
tell you what to do in your own domain, but I ask you to
reconsider the course of action you are taking. Remember, your
experience is not the prototype for Akane's life, or any mortal
life for that matter."

Yuki-onna stared at the tengu, cold fury playing across her
features. Finally she spoke. "I must see to the servants," she
said quietly, "and make sure they preparing dinner correctly."

The tengu met her gaze levelly. "I understand," he said
simply. And in a blur of movement, he was gone, leaving the Snow
Woman staring at empty space.

--------------------

The Snow Woman stood before her mirror. Masakazu didn't
understand. She had to protect Akane; protect her from both her
brutish, arrogant, womanizing fiance, and her own naive
ignorance. But that was not why she was here, standing before
her mirror. No, she simply needed to confirm the discovery she
made earlier that evening while trying to untangle the blood
spell from Akane's ki.

Leaning forward, she breathed on the mirror. It frosted
over, then swirled with magic. "Show me the boy," she whispered.

The image cleared to show Ranma pacing back and forth in a
comfortable living room, frustration evident on his face.
Occasionally he would drop to the floor to do a few push-ups, or
just do a few flips to break the monotony.

Sitting curled in a chair, watching him pace back and forth,
was an attractive girl with short, light brown hair. In her
hands, she held a book, apparently forgotten as she seemed
completely absorbed in watching the boy. Frustration was evident
on her face as well. Yuki-onna watched in amusement as the
girl's annoyance level rose to the bursting point.

Finally it came. "Ranma!" she yelled, causing the boy to
startle and turn to her. "Will you please be so kind as to HOLD
STILL! You're DRIVING ME CRAZY!" The girl seemed to calm as she
looked at the dumbfounded expression on the boy's face. "If you
*must* fidget uncontrollably," she continued in a softer tone,
"please. Do it outside."

Ranma looked chagrined. "Sorry, Nabiki. I didn't
realize... I've got a lot on my mind right now."

"I understand, Ranma. But stomping around the house isn't
going to get Cologne and Shampoo here any faster. They're not
due back from China for another two days."

Ranma's gaze hardened suddenly. "Lucky for them," he said.
"When I get my hands on them, I'm gonna make them sorry they ever
messed with Akane."

"Yes, of course," Nabiki replied. She'd heard this for the
past two days solid, and much as she agreed with the sentiment,
it was getting a little monotonous. "Just make sure you get them
to reverse the spell *before* you kill them, Ranma," she said
coolly. "And if I were you," she continued, "I'd get some
sleep. You may be bouncing off the walls right now, but it
doesn't take a doctor to see that if you stop moving for a
second, you'll collapse from exhaustion. I don't know how you
expect to defeat Cologne in such a state."

Ranma looked at Nabiki, and his shoulders sagged, as if
realizing for the first time just how tired he really was.
"You're right, Nabiki," he said. "I'll try and get some rest."
He turned and walked out the door.

Nabiki looked at his retreating form in amazement. He
agreed? And he was acting on her advice? He *must* be tired!

Yuki-onna listened to the entire exchange with interest.
The fluctuating time dilation that occurred between planes was
always a bit confusing, but it seemed that only a day or so had
passed in the mortal plane from the time the blood spell had
first been cast. The poor mortals were still thinking they could
break the spell.

The Snow Woman frowned. If Akane knew about the time
dilation... If she knew that once the spell was broken, she
could return to the mortal plane with only a few months having
passed as opposed to the seven years she had spent in the Kami
realm...

She would leave for certain. She would leave and return to
live under the abusive, unfaithful dominion of the man whose
image appeared in her mirror.

Yuki-onna clenched one slender white hand into a fist.

She could not let that happen.

She watched with an icy expression as Ranma went outside the
house. Her expression faltered to one of amazement as he leapt
to the roof in a single graceful leap. Akane was right. He was
a formidable martial artist.

Ranma laid down on the roof tile, his hands behind his head,
and gazed at the stars, his face creased with a mixture of
frustration and sadness.

"Closer," the Snow Woman whispered.

The image swirled and changed. Now she was close enough to
see his ki. Sure enough, the blood spell permeated his ki as
well. Idly, she wondered what it had done to him, then dismissed
the thought as unimportant.

She concentrated on his ki, her mind focusing on Akane...

There it was. A tiny, almost microscopic wisp of dragon
blood, identical to the one in Akane's ki. One end of the wisp
was firmly rooted in the spell, and the other end... simply
vanished, seemingly connected to nothing at all. Which was far
from the truth.

"Damn it all, they're linked," growled the Snow Woman. "I
was afraid of this." No wonder Akane couldn't seem to get over
her fiance. As long as there was a connection between the two
halves of the blood spell, the very thing that had separated her
from Ranma simultaneously kept her in almost continuous contact
with him.

She had to break the link somehow. But the only way to
break the link was to remove the strand of dragon blood that
served as the connection between the mortal and the Kami plane,
and that particular strand was woven deep into the spell. She
had neither the time nor the desire to remove the spell cast over
Ranma.

The Snow Woman felt a wicked smile crawl across her face.
"Then again," she whispered. "There's more than one way to break
a spell's power over someone. And this way, I'll be getting two
birds with one stone."

Examining Ranma's ki, she knew it would be a matter of
minutes before he fell asleep. The boy was exhausted. She
waited patiently.

Ranma stared into the night sky, his eyelids getting heavier
by the moment. Some part of his instinct warned him that he
needed to stay awake; that he needed to fight the exhaustion that
permeated his body, but he couldn't figure out why. And he was
so *tired.* He'd gone almost 56 hours without sleep, unable to
think about anything except getting Akane back from wherever
she'd been taken. But Nabiki was right. He *had* to get some
sleep, otherwise, he would be too worn out to face Cologne and
Shampoo and force them to undo the spell when they returned from
China.

His eyes glistened wetly as he wondered for the millionth
time that day what Akane was doing right now. He wondered if she
was scared, or if she was angry at him for not being able to save
her. He knew she was alive. The spell-voices that had become a
constant murmur in the back of his mind insisted that she was
alive. But was she safe? Was she hurt? Was she alone or with
other people?

He sighed heavily as sleep slowly overtook him. "Please be
okay, Akane," he whispered. "I promise I'll find you."
Unwilling to resist his weariness further, his eyes drifted
closed in sleep.

Yuki-onna smiled grimly and pressed her hands against the
mirror. Summoning every single scrap of magical energy she could
spare, she pushed. The mirror gave under her hands, liquefying,
and she stepped through.

She could tell immediately that it was spring. The cool
breeze that brushed her white skin spoke of warmer things to
come.

"Definitely not my season," she muttered. It would be a
little more difficult to exert her power, but not much. She
looked dispassionately at the sleeping boy at her feet. It had
been a while since she had done anything like this. Then again,
it had been a while since anyone had given her so much of a
reason.

She knelt down next to the boy. He looked peaceful in
sleep, almost innocent. But appearances could be deceiving. Her
eyes flashed coldly as she thought of the pain this boy had
caused Akane. With a gentleness that belied her intent, she
lifted a deathly pale hand and brushed his dark hair from his
forehead.

Yes, he was beautiful, this one. Even more so in person
than when viewed through the mirror. She could almost understand
why Akane was so taken with him...

The Snow Woman leaned over the boy, her long shimmering
white hair falling in loose waves around her face, until her lips
were almost touching Ranma's. She closed her eyes and parted her
lips slightly.

Then, she breathed.

Frost covered Ranma's face. The frost slowly spread out to
cover his hair, his neck and shoulders, traveling down his arms
and chest and finally his legs until his whole body was covered
with a perfect layer of white crystalline frost.

Ranma began to shiver in his sleep. The Snow Woman touched
him on the forehead, and his trembling ceased. "Can't have you
waking up, dear," she said softly. With his martial arts skills,
he could escape her easily.

Confident that her sleep spell was firmly wrapped around the
boy's mind, she placed her white fingers on his chest and let the
cold seep out of her, willing it into Ranma's body; slowly,
carefully freezing the blood that coursed through his veins.

Minutes passed, and Ranma lay motionless as the Snow Woman
slowly froze him to death. His skin took on a deathly bluish
pallor. Yuki-onna shuddered with sadistic pleasure as she felt
the boy's life seep away beneath her icy fingers. It wouldn't be
long now...

"A... Ak-kane..."

The Snow Woman looked up, startled at the barely audible
whisper. The boy had spoken. But that was impossible. He was
dying under her hands at that very moment. She could feel his
heart slowing, unable to resist the icy cold that penetrated it.
She could see his ki flickering weakly. The blood spell that
bound him, however, clung tenaciously even as his life slipped
away, unwilling to release it's hold until the very last spark of
the boy's life force was extinguished.

She looked at his face. His skin was blue, and still
covered in frost.

Her eyes widened as she saw the tears.

Warm tears leaked from the boy's closed eyelids, sliding
down either side of his face, melting the frost in its wake. And
the frozen lips were once again trying to form words.

"A-kane... I l-love y..."

No. Yuki-onna's hands slid off Ranma's chest, and she
stared at him in shock. He didn't... He couldn't.... It wasn't
*possible*...

She felt a familiar presence behind her.

"Masakazu-san," she whispered.

"Yuki-chan." The tengu made no move towards her. "Will you
be the one to reverse what you've done to this boy, or must I
intervene? I need not remind you that we are no longer in your
domain."

"I..." Yuki-onna swallowed and looked at the boy; at the
tear tracks running down his face even in near death. His
whispered words echoed in her mind. It was almost as if he
knew...

"I... will remove my spell from him," she whispered in
defeat, knowing that even if she did not, Masakazu would. She
placed her hands on Ranma's chest once again, this time drawing
the bitter coldness back inside herself, allowing his blood to
thaw and his heart to beat freely once again.

When she finished, she turned and stood to face the tengu.
The tengu stepped past her and knelt over Ranma, pushing a few
Shiatsu points to make sure the boy was fully restored. Then he
turned back to the Snow Woman. His black eyes glittered
fiercely, and his ruddy feathers gleamed in the starlight.

"You nearly made a grave mistake, Yuki-onna." Yuki-onna.
Not Yuki-chan. He was angry. Masakazu rarely got angry.
"Trying to take a life that was not yours to take, completely
outside your domain of jurisdiction. Your misplaced rage over a
slight you suffered centuries ago has made you hateful. Are you
sure what you have to offer Akane is better than what this boy
offers? You heard the words from his own mouth even as you tried
to take his life."

The Snow Woman struggled within herself, then clenched her
teeth. She looked up and met the tengu's gaze, her eyes heavy
with resignation. "Perhaps... perhaps I was wrong about him.
He does seem to... love her." She said it as if she still found
it hard to believe.

The tengu's hard black gaze softened slightly, and he
nodded. "So much so that his soul's dying desire was to express
that love," he said. "What are you going to tell Akane?"

Yuki-onna paused to consider thoughtfully. "Nothing," she
said finally.

"Nothing?" Masakazu's eyes narrowed.

Yuki-onna sighed heavily. "We cannot know for sure how the
time dilation will flux between now and the time I can break the
spell. I will not interfere with her... relationship with this
boy," she said reluctantly, gesturing to Ranma's sleeping form
with a slender hand. "But I will also not raise hopes that she
will be returning to the same world that she left. If nothing
else, seven years in the Kami plane will change *her.* Even if
nothing changes here, she may find herself a stranger among
friends when she returns. Better to prepare her for the worst
and allow her to be pleasantly surprised, rather than raise hopes
that are dashed by events beyond her control."

The tengu stood silent a moment, then nodded acceptance.
"That is wise, Yuki-chan. I did not expect to find such wisdom
mere moments after I found such foolishness." His black eyes
smiled over his expressionless bird face. "Let us return now to
where we belong."

--------------------

Ranma blinked groggily awake to find Nabiki kneeling over
him, shaking him by his shoulders and shouting his name. When
she saw that his eyes were finally open, she let go of him,
allowing him to collapse unceremoniously against the roof tile
with a painful *thud.*

"It's about time you woke up, Saotome," she said irritably
as Ranma sat up rubbing the back of his head and scowling. "You
sleep like the dead."

Ranma, still half asleep, didn't respond as his thoughts
churned over the strange, disturbing dreams that had plagued his
sleep. Normally, he didn't remember his dreams, except for
certain reoccurring nightmares he had that involved either cats,
or springs with bamboo poles sticking out of them. He remembered
this one, though...

He dreamed that he had fallen asleep on the roof, but that
he then awoke to see Akane standing over him. He was so glad to
see her, so glad that she was alright, that he wanted jump up and
take her in his arms, not even caring what might happen if
someone saw him.

But he couldn't move. He was frozen in place, unable to
even make a sound. It was then that he noticed how strange Akane
looked. Her skin was white and bloodless, her eyes sparking with
anger and contempt. The look on her face sent anguish stabbing
into his heart. *Akane?* he thought. *Wh-what...*

She bent over him then, and he swallowed nervously at how
beautiful she looked in spite of the anger in her eyes. He
wanted to open his mouth, to apologize, to say anything at all,
but he was completely immobile. He expected her to pound him
into the roof tile, or at least punt him into orbit. But
instead, to his surprise, he heard her voice in his mind.

**This,** she said, **is for all the times you've hurt me,
all the times you've disappointed me. This is for being a
selfish, insensitive pervert. And this is for all the times
you've chickened out and failed to express your true feelings for
me.**

Ranma looked at Akane, stunned. The agony her words
inflicted was sharper than any physical pain he'd ever
experienced. *Wait, Akane!* he thought desperately, struggling
to move his unresponsive body in any way. *Please! I'm sorry, I
always meant to tell you, but I...*

His thought was cut off abruptly when she kissed him lightly
on the mouth, his mind freezing in shock. The whispery touch of
her lips sent cold fire burning across the skin of his face, and
he would have gasped in pain if he had been capable of moving.
Instead, he lay helplessly as the burning ice spread from his
face across his body, seeping through his skin. Then, she placed
her white fingers on his chest and began to suck the life out of
him.

*She's... killing me,* Ranma realized. All the feelings of
panic had drained out of him, leaving only a deep sadness as the
cold black fire slowly ate away at his awareness. *I've hurt her
so bad, she hates me so much, that she's killing me. Oh, Akane,
I'm so sorry, what have I done to you to make you like this? I
wish I could tell you...*

He *would* tell her. He may not be able or willing to fight
her, but he couldn't die without letting her know. He would
focus all his strength and will into one last act. His mind
fought, staving off the freezing death that was slowly overtaking
him, and he forced his ice-encrusted lungs to expand, ...

"A... Ak-kane..."

It hurt. He felt as if his frozen insides were shattering
with the effort. The cold black nothingness of death was quickly
swallowing the last living pieces of him. He had to hurry,
before it was too late...

"A-kane... I l-love y..."

Suddenly it was no longer Akane who knelt over him, but a
strange woman with the same white skin, and with long white hair.
She stared at him, her frost-blue eyes wide in shock.

*Where did Akane go?* Ranma felt himself slipping away, the
blackness almost complete. *I hope she heard me,* he thought.

And then he felt nothing.

Nothing until Nabiki shook him awake.

"Hey, Ranma, are you okay?" Nabiki's irritation had faded
to concern as she looked at her sister's fiance. He seemed
really out of it.

Ranma looked at her as if just noticing her for the first
time. "Nabiki?" he asked, his eyes clearing a little. He looked
around and saw that he was still on the roof, and that it was
still dark. "Oh man," he groaned, holding his head. "I just had
the *weirdest* nightmare."

"You can tell me about it later," Nabiki responded, crawling
over to the ladder she had propped against the side of the roof.
"Right now, we've got some serious business to attend to."

Ranma shook his head, trying to push the lingering traces of
the dream out of his brain. "What business?" he asked, confused.

Nabiki paused as she descended the ladder and gave Ranma a
level look. "I've had people watching the Nekohanten," she said.
"I just got word a few minutes ago that Shampoo and Cologne have
returned from China."

The news hit Ranma like lightning, and he was suddenly fully
awake. Awake and angry. "They're back?!" Forget dreams, forget
spell-voices. *This* was something he could understand;
something he could deal with. His battle aura blazed to life,
and his blue eyes narrowed in anticipation. He leaped over
Nabiki and landed in the yard. "I'm gone!" he yelled, springing
to the wall that surrounded the house and jumping to a
neighboring rooftop.

"Ranma, wait!" Nabiki called after him. "We're coming with
you!" But it was too late. He was already out of earshot.
"Idiot," she muttered, descending the ladder.

Ryoga was coming out the patio door as she reached the
ground. "Well, did you wake him up?" he asked.

"He's awake, up, and gone," she said. "He didn't even wait
for me to tell him that Ukyo wants to be there too. She was
pretty upset to hear about what Shampoo did to Ranma."

Ryoga clenched his fists. "That fool!" he snarled. "How
dare he leave without me? Ranma!!" And with a battle cry, Ryoga
leaped over to the wall and to a neighboring rooftop.

"Ryoga, wait!" Nabiki called. "You're going the wrong..."
But it was too late. He was gone. Nabiki moaned and rolled her
eyes in exasperation. "Idiot!" she exclaimed. Then she sighed.
She wanted her sister back, and she wanted to be there to make
sure Cologne or Shampoo didn't try any underhanded tricks.
"Well, I guess I'll call Ukyo and ask her to meet me there," she
said. "It looks like its going to be a long night."

--------------------

End of Part Five