Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ranma 1/2: The Truth and the Tempest ❯ No Holding Back ( Chapter 40 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

[Author’s Note: The characters and setting herein- with the exception of one or two O.C.’s of my own design- are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. We now return to our story in progress.]

Ranma ½: The Truth and the Tempest

Chapter 40: No Holding Back

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Taro’s eyes snapped open. He blinked twice and sat bolt upright, then just as quickly flinched as a stinging sensation darted across his chest. What the… what’s going on? Where did that pain come from… He breathed out slowly, lifting a hand to his chest and noticing his dragonscale armor had been removed; it lay to one side and a light gauze wrap was covering a section of his pectorals. He prodded the bandaged area, wincing once before stopping. It feels like… A moment later, memories started to replay themselves in his mind and his expression shifted from confused to very, very angry.

“That white-haired bastard.” His fists clenched and he gritted his teeth almost hard enough to break a crown. “He… he actually killed that old lecher… good gods, he tried to kill me too!”

He heard a groan and glanced up, finally taking in where he was. Across the room, Soun lay asleep, head tossing back and forth with occasional whimpering pleas for his daughters’ safety. Genma sat against the wall, slowly binding his ankle with gauze and shaking his head, but otherwise seemed oblivious to Taro’s wakened state. He heard voices from the outer halls, two young girls’ voices and a gravely, matronly tone he recognized quickly. One girl sounded to be excessively worried about her ‘sweetie’ being out in the mist and possibly getting lost, while the other girl and the ancient Amazon were trying to calm her and cook something at the same time.

“Child, all we can do is wait. This is something they need to take care of themselves; even I would only be a burden to them at this point.” A pause, and a clattering of cookware. “I know, Granny, but I still wish I could know Ryoga’s safe! I could have sent Katsunishiki to follow him…”

“And let the big pig fall to the mercy of those freaks outside,” the other girl, the mercenary Tendo, interjected. “Look, I know how worried you are, but it’s going to be okay. After all…” A half-hearted laugh. “My future brother-in-law’s with ‘em. They’ll be back, sooner or later.”

“So… fem-boy’s out chasing after ivory-hair right now, is he.” Taro’s eyes narrowed and he pushed himself up to his feet, ignoring the residual pain from where Astaroth’s sword had struck. Damn that man… I let him sweet-talk me into teaming up against Happosai. Old pervert though he was, I didn’t want that man DEAD! I wanted to make him suffer… give me my new name, then I could toy with him for all the years I spent being laughed at because of the name HE gave me, but that white-hair up and slaughters him instead! Tries to kill ME! Smashes up everything around here and just takes off! He grabbed his armor and pulled it over his chest, spinning on one heel towards the shoji doors. “That ivory-hair’s going to pay for this… assuming I can find him before fem-boy does.”

He snapped the door open and slipped outside before Cologne even had a chance to return to the room. Once outside, he grimaced at the swath of fog that still swaddled the backyard, then darted through the near-invisible ki barrier around the house- passing a snoozing sumo pig in the process- jumped to the top of the wall and scanned the darkened skies in all directions. “Heh. That’s got to be it,” he sneered as he caught sight of the purplish flare in the distance, just beyond a section of town that was blanketed in pitch-black shadow. He dropped lightly to the ground, turned, and very nearly ran smack dab into someone running in the opposite direction.

“HEY! Why don’t you watch where you’re going, you big ox!”

Taro’s eyes narrowed instantly, his focus zeroing in on the young man who had skidded to a halt in front of him. “Why don’t I watch where I’m going? I think you’d best ask yourself that question instead,” he growled at the camo-clad teen. “And who are you to call me an ox, for that matter?”

Ryu bristled. “I was watching where I was going, you’re the one who jumped in my path! So just watch it, buddy!”

“I’m not so sure I like the tone of your voice, army-boy…”

“Yeah, well I’m not too fond of your tone either. Now get out of my way, I’ve got some business to attend to!”

“Excuse me?”

“Gentlemen, please!” Both men blinked and halted their mutual staredown long enough to turn towards the black-haired gymnast in the tattered remains of a school uniform and a leotard. “I do believe we have more pressing matters than arguing over who impeded who, do we not? With this vile fog and its equally vile denizens all about, such a trifle could surely be saved for a later time, correct?”

Taro snorted. “And who are you to be telling me what to do, girl?”

Kodachi’s eye twitched, but she let the comment slide without further ado. “I am not telling you to do anything, sir, I merely wish to point out that there is much afoot far greater than some silly argument between men!” She turned to Ryu, brushing her hair away from her face. “As you said yourself, we do have business to attend to, Kumon-san. Would it not be best to see to that first, rather than exacerbate something which is rather inconsequential at best?” She paused, then blinked in surprise. Great Kami… I just gave those two a piece of advice I ignored for so many years. Oh, the irony of it all…

Ryu shook his head. “Well… as much as I hate to admit it, you do have a point, Miss Kodachi.” He squared his shoulders and turned to face Taro again, his eyes still steely. “As I was about to say, the two of us have business at the Tendo estate, and we just spent a considerable amount of time being harassed, poked, slashed at, and otherwise assaulted by the pack of freaks that’s swarming around in that fog. I’m tired, and frankly I’m fed up with the surprises, so I didn’t really appreciate you landing two feet from my face with no warning. Now just let me by so I can take care of business with Ranma Saotome and then I’ll come back and we can sort this out.”

“That reminds me, you never did tell me what business you had with Ranma,” Kodachi mused. “I do hope you aren’t planning to attack him or the family; I still have to make amends with those I have wronged, and that includes him and his chosen fiancée.”

Taro’s expression changed from irked to confused, then amused. “Well, whatever business it is you have with Saotome and that short-haired girl of his, it’ll have to wait. They’re not here.”

Ryu’s eyes widened. “They’re what?”

“They’re not here? But where else could they possibly be?” Kodachi glanced up and down the street, but the fog and distant demon laughter provided no answers.

“Oh, right about now they’re probably off in the distance preparing to beat the crap out of everything in that blasted fog,” Taro chuckled humorlessly. “Which is where I was headed before you ran into me; one of the beings behind all this crap just tried to…”

“They went into that mist?” Kodachi’s eyes practically bulged out of her skull. “Ranma and Miss Tendo… they… they purposely went out to fight those beasts? Alone?”

“I wouldn’t exactly say alone; there was at least one other person with them, carries a straight-bladed naginata. Tried to dispatch the white-haired son of a bitch who did this to me,” Taro grumbled, fingering the section of his armor where Astaroth had cut him. “Didn’t actually do anything of note, but from the sound of things…”

“Great. I finally get back to Nerima and not only is it full of mist and goblins, but Saotome isn’t even around to answer to me.” Ryu reached up and roughly tightened his headband. “What’s he up to, more glory-seeking?”

“That might not be part of the bargain.” Taro glanced up at the blazing sky in the distance. “I distinctly remember hearing him say he was going to kill that ivory-hair before I passed out.”

Kodachi gasped. “You can’t be serious… killing somebody? That hardly makes sense…” She bit back the phrase Ranma-sweetums before it managed to escape her lips. “Ranma would never go so far as to kill anyone!”

“Yeah, well I’d hardly call this ivory-hair anyone, miss,” Taro replied coolly. He shook his head and proceeded to give the two of them a brief but well-detailed summary of everything that had happened- meeting the man claiming to have grievance with Happosai, being talked into tagging along, up to and including all Hell breaking loose at the Tendos. And with each recollection, Taro’s face grew more agitated; his right fist was clenched so tight his fingernails drew blood.

By the time he was detailing Astaroth’s departure with his hostages, Ryu’s mouth had dropped open and Kodachi was on the verge of turning white. “Like I said, seems like ivory-hair’s the alpha wolf of all these goddamned demons…” Taro paused and swung around, driving his elbow into the face of an imp that had lunged out of the fog, breaking its nose and sending it flying. “He played me for a patsy, and fem-boy had the gall to leave me behind.”

“I… I don’t believe it,” Kodachi stammered. “Someone like… like that… is manipulating eldritch forces to subjugate this ward, and Ranma is out there fighting him alone?”

“I didn’t say he was alone; that short-haired girl Akane went with him, apparently.”

Kodachi waved him off. “Yes, well, she may have improved somewhat in her skills, but I’d hardly say that qualifies as sufficient battlefield assistance!” She squared her shoulders and procured her ribbon seemingly from nowhere. “Moreover, I did not come all this way to make amends to a pair of graves, which is what may be the case if those two dare to face the denizens of Hell alone! Whither did they venture?”

Taro gaped. “You can’t be serious, girl…”

“I believe she is serious, buddy,” Ryu growled, his eyes narrowing. “She was pretty bent on coming here after we sort of ‘crashed’ into each other; I can tell by her eyes.” He turned and looked Taro straight in the face. “And I’m not about to be left out of this, either.”

Taro quirked an eyebrow. “Dare I ask why?”

“Simple. I love a good fight. And I’ve got a point of my own to prove with Saotome; this might be just as good a time as any.” Part of Ryu was thinking, I do him a favor and he’ll be obligated to reciprocate, but another part of him- which he didn’t dare vocalize- held genuine concern for one of the two people reportedly abducted by the white-haired man. It was hard for him to forget the affection Nodoka had shown him during his masquerade as Ranma, and the fact that she could be in trouble had struck a chord in him.

Taro, for his part, didn’t care about the hostages or even whether Ranma really needed any help. He was in the mood to brawl. “Look, do whatever you want, I really don’t care, but the longer we keep talking the longer it’ll take us to get around to whatever we want to do.” He snapped his hand behind his back and procured a canteen from a loop in his pantyhose ‘belt’. “If you want in on this mess, fine. But we’d better get moving, and I’m not planning on taking the slow way.”

A moment later, he had upended the canteen over his head and was rewarded by two sets of jaws dropping again. Beast-Taro snorted and suppressed a bovine grin. Heh. That certainly got their attention.

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“Aiyah… where everybody go? We not on same road, and it still too, too dark!” Shampoo tightened her grip on her weapons as she scoured the area frantically with her eyes; she and her fellow Amazon had landed smack in the middle of a vacant lot lined with shadow walls on all sides, save two small passages on either end. Unearthly cackles continued to waft through the openings in the black partitions, and a second later imps began boiling out of the mist on either side.

“I think there’s someone who’s having a lot of fun at our expense,” Mousse groused as he whipped his arms outward, firing a volley of weighted chains into the faces of the oncoming demonkin. “And I’ll bet you Saotome and the rest are in much the same shape as us!”

Shampoo grunted in agreement as several lesser oni lunged at her and tried to claw her tunic off, but she promptly countered with three quick bonbori swipes and a reverse roundhouse that sent all her attackers reeling. “This no good if Brother Ranma and Sister Akane all alone, with stupid beasts that try grope them!” A squat blob of blackness with yellow eyes burbled out of the fog; she promptly boomeranged one bonbori off what passed for its head, smashing it to powder.

“My thoughts exactly, my dear Shampoo; we’d better get out of here and find the others if we can!” Mousse spun his weighted chains in several wide arcs, bludgeoning half a dozen airborne imps into oblivion before retracting said chains and producing his combat claws. Shampoo, for her part, didn’t seem to mind being called his ‘dear’, but smirked and pulled close to him so they were back-to-back. Another cadre of lesser demons swarmed the duo, and they sprang into action, slashing, bashing and kicking the offenders as quickly as possible. The two of them turned in tandem, then sprang sideways into the air, towards one of the gaps in the shadow walls- the gap situated in the direction of the eldritch bonfire at Furinkan.

“Shampoo, look out below!” Mousse shouted as two large serpentine oni slithered out of the mist directly beneath them, jaws open to reveal rows of glistening fangs. Shampoo’s eyes widened, but she recovered in time and twisted in midair, slamming her left-hand bonbori into the maw of the snake. The snake bit hard, then winced as its tongue brushed the pentagram warding Shingen had scribed on the weapon; Shampoo rotated as she descended, clocking the beast on the side of the head with her other weapon before planting her feet on its back and releasing her weapons. Her right hand shot up, and with a vicious kiai, shot back down again behind the snake’s head, breaking its spine.

Mousse, for his part, chose a different line of attack. As he descended, he pulled himself into a ball, keeping his eyes locked on the serpent rearing to strike him. The demon coiled, then lunged upwards- and Mousse promptly shot both feet outwards, sporting his concealed hawk-talon shoes. “INCHUA CHUAN!” The shoes caught the serpent right across the nose just as Mousse shifted his weight and began to fall alongside the demon, rather than into its mouth. As he fell, he left a series of horrific gashes along the back of said demon, with the end result that it fell to the ground and began bucking in agony while he recovered and re-hid his talons.

“This getting to be too much!” Shampoo pouted, reclaiming her weapons. “We go now, right, Mousse?”

“No argument from me. The sooner we get out, the better.”

“Well, now… I’m terribly sorry, but I’m not going to let you go so soon.”

The two Amazons froze as a menacing basso voice echoed through the vacant lot. Their eyes darted from one side to the other, unable to make out little more than black walls and the mist- and they quickly realized the other demons weren’t in the lot any longer. A worried look passed between them… and a second later, the ground behind them exploded as black chains burst from the shadows, tearing the dying serpent-oni to shreds before twisting in midair and heading straight for both their heads. Shampoo shrieked and twisted away, just as Mousse flung his arm out and covered her head, bringing both of them to the ground. The chains missed their heads by mere centimeters, then lurched upward and snapped back into the shadows from whence they came.

A rumble of basso laughter caught their ears. Mousse glanced up, one arm still hovering protectively over Shampoo’s shoulders, and found his eyes locked with the glowing vermillion eyes of Kurowashi. The massive Tengu stood directly before them, wings extended on either side, blocking off the path that ostensibly led ‘out’.

“YOU!” Mousse growled, his tone turning glacial.

“Me,” the demon replied with a light nod. “I take it, then, you recognize my face, Muu Tsu?”

The weapon master nodded slowly. “Yeah… yeah, I do. I saw it once before, that day… the day I almost…”

“Died.” Kurowashi unfolded his arms and flexed each finger in turn; the silver chains adorning his forearms clinked almost musically. “Had it not been for your Hunter friends intervening, you most likely would have died. More’s the pity you didn’t.”

“What?” Shampoo snapped to attention and pulled herself to her feet. “If that joke, Shampoo no think it very funny!”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny, little girl.” The Tengu paused, then bowed to Mousse mockingly. “Though you have my thanks, boy. You made for quite a handy host- I didn’t even need to pull your strings, you acted as hoped with little to no prodding required. Just as I had hoped.”

“SHUT UP! I am nobody’s puppet!”

“Oh, but you are… with the proper motivation, you were an ideal candidate to harass Sagara’s heir and keep him and Saito’s heir from finding peace. All for the sake of your ‘beloved’ Xian Pu.” The demon raised his right hand and pointed a finger at Mousse. “But more than that, you were marked by Yoko after your first failed encounter with Saotome- you became the ideal vessel for me, much like the others. But unlike the others, I at least had the sense to lay low, wait until the time was right. Unlike Sumire- who dwelled in your precious little lady there- I knew enough not to draw attention to my presence. Especially in the vicinity of latent Hunters.

“That is why it was your life energies, and not mine, that released Lord Astaroth’s final seal.” His hand clenched and an avian grin crossed his beak. “Yet you remain alive. And Satan knows I just hate leaving loose ends.”

“Enough talking, stupid bird-man!” Shampoo barked, glaring daggers at Kurowashi and brandishing her weapons. “Get out of way! Ranma and others in trouble, and is bad enough we in stupid black-wall place!”

“And I certainly have no intention of being regarded as a ‘loose end’ to anybody!” Mousse drew his arms inward, crouched and lunged forward. “Try this on for size, demon filth! ARMS CAVALCADE!” His arms snapped out and no less than a dozen weapons of varying sizes and styles burst from his sleeves, each one trailed by a chain, ribbon, rope or some other form of lanyard. Kurowashi blinked, then narrowed his eyes and swung his arms about, deflecting or dodging most of the projectiles; some merely nicked a feather or two on his wings, while at least two short blades got trapped in the chains on his forearms. The Tengu pulled back, and the slack between the two fighters quickly vanished, replaced by a tug-of-war on Mousse’s armaments.

“You foolish boy. I may have spent the majority of my time lying dormant within your curse, but I know full well that trick of yours.” His arms flexed and Mousse found himself dragged forward a few inches. “And I’m rather handy with chains myself. Now… come here!” Eyes gleamed a menacing red, and the demon yanked on the multiple lanyards as hard as he could.

“You want those weapons so bad? You can have them!” Mousse shot back as a sly grin crossed his face. He twisted his arms, and suddenly the connection broke. Every single chain, rope or ribbon snapped free of his sleeves, hurtling into the face of a suddenly-startled Tengu. The demon’s red eyes widened as another fact quickly presented itself- each line was attached, at the other end, to a fuse bomb or a stick of dynamite that just happened to have a lit fuse. A second later, they had fallen into his arms. The second after that, they detonated, engulfing the demon in a cloud of black smoke.

Shampoo stared, then slowly grinned. “Aiyah… never see that move before! When you learn do that, Mousse?”

“It’s nothing,” he replied with a grin. “Just something I whipped up when I…” A movement in the smoking patch of ground caught his eye, and he trailed off.

“Clever. Very clever, little boy. But the fun’s only just beginning.”

A volley of silver chain exploded from the smoke, catching Mousse across the left shoulder and knocking him backwards. Shampoo gasped, her eyes snapping back just in time to see two identical steel lengths hurtling towards her; she ducked underneath one, jumped up and used the second as a stepping stone to propel her skyward. She twisted and was about to hurl a bonbori into the cloud of smoke, when a hard object caught her squarely between the shoulder blades and sent her crashing to the ground. Mousse grunted in pain and sprang to his feet just in time to see her land- and also see Kurowashi striding out of the bomb crater, with little more than a few singed feathers and a mild burn on his avian face.

“If you thought a few incendiary bombs were going to faze me, I fear you’re sorely mistaken.” He raised his hand in a sharp gesture, and several parts of the wall surrounding the lot swelled and distended. Mousse gasped as two black chains abruptly burst from the walls, smashing into the ground and forming an X in front of the passage leading out. “Shall we dance?”

Mousse’s eyes caught Shampoo as she groaned and struggled to her knees, one hand clutching her shoulder, and a fire seemed to ignite within him. His hand flew to his double scabbard, closing around the hilts of his twin blades. “Dance, nothing. You hurt someone very dear to me… so I’m going to hurt you tenfold for that!”

“Mousse… no get carried away, Shampoo not hurt too bad,” the violet-haired Amazon gasped.

“Well, now… this may prove interesting after all.” The Tengu spread his wings, and in an instant, the battle commenced.

Silver chains shot hither and yon across the lot, like snakes under a charmer’s spell. A twist of the forearm was all Kurowashi needed to send multiple steel whips spiraling in Shampoo’s direction; the stunned Amazon quickly shook off the bruises across her back and dove to one side, grabbed her bonbori and spun around in time to see the chains almost upon her again. She batted them away, ducked low under a third length and doubled back, racing towards the demon with alacrity. The beast, who had sent Mousse on the defensive with a similar volley from his other arm, merely swung his hand in a tight arc and cleaved the ground in front of him with the same chains Shampoo had avoided; she barely had time to skid to a halt and spring away. As she did, fine lines appeared across her tunic- followed by the cloth tearing away in places, leaving a tattered shirt that barely covered her breasts. Her eyes widened and she glanced up in disbelief.

“Quite a nimble minx, aren’t you,” Kurowashi snickered. “You’d have been torn to shreds otherwise.”

“How DARE you!” Mousse bobbed and weaved between the chains assaulting him and drew the Sun and Moon swords with one hand, striking two lengths simultaneously. A vicious clash echoed through the lot as the thin steel blades severed Kurowashi’s weapon, followed by the former duck-boy shifting one sword to his off-hand and lunging forward. The Tengu sneered and followed suit, firing a volley of chains from his left arm, but the Amazon weapon master was not deterred. He twirled about the offending lengths with an ease that astounded Shampoo, darted low, feinted to the right, then swung up with his left-hand sword. The Tengu’s left arm swung out, colliding with the Sun Sword and deflecting it down; Mousse spun with the deflection and lashed out with the Moon Sword, cutting a fine gash across the demon’s upper bicep. Kurowashi’s eyes widened- and the tall Amazon continued spinning, slashing again with both swords in turn, cutting a section of the demon’s trouser leg before he had a chance to leap skyward and spread his wings wide.

“Interesting.” The demon flinched as a trickle of white ichor ran down his arm. “You’re more dexterous than I remember. Perhaps I should have watched you more often, boy.” He shook off the pain and glared menacingly at the pair beneath him. “You may have managed to wound me, but you shall not succeed a second time.”

“Why don’t you come down here and say that, you filth!”

Kurowashi snorted. “As you wish.” He twisted in midair, dipped- and dived at an impossibly high speed, flattening out and skimming mere inches above the ground. Mousse flinched and tried to leap over the beast, but had barely gotten a few feet off the ground when his ankle was snared by a massive black fist. He quickly found himself being dragged through the air, then thrown with terrific force at the nearest object in his path- which happened to be Shampoo- and an instant later, the two Amazons found them sprawled on the ground, one on top of another, the wind briefly knocked out of them.

A groan of pain quickly brought Mousse back to his senses; propping himself on his hands, he glanced down and took in the sight of Shampoo clutching her stomach, her clothing barely hanging off her shoulders. He noticed a faint tear at the corner of her eye, and something broke inside him. He had hurt her. Not on purpose or directly, but he had been the one to knock her down. “Oh, gods… Shampoo, are you okay?”

Her eyes opened as she sucked in a sharp breath. “Is nothing… hurt worse than this, many times before,” she coughed.

“Do you understand now, boy?” The sound of heavy footsteps echoed close behind Mousse as Kurowashi drew closer. “You’re putting up a valiant effort, but in the end it all adds up to nothing.” The beast cracked his knuckles. “I’m going to enjoy putting you out of your misery… and you won’t lack company. I’ll be sending that pretty one to join you soon enough.”

With those words, Mousse’s self-control and long-ingrained restraint finally snapped.

“You… will… not… harm… her… AGAIN!” His voice took on the qualities of a roar as he leaped to his feet and barreled towards the massive demon, sword in each hand. Once again, Kurowashi sent his chains dancing, but Mousse defiantly danced about them as though they were stationary, leaping to the left and then lunging right before swinging his blades in wide arcs. Sparks flew as steel clashed on steel, and the Tengu’s eyes widened as several more broken links went flying. He jerked his arm and whipped around to smack Mousse across the face, but the youth was no longer there- five lengths of chain instead collided heavily with his white robe, which fell to the ground with a heavy thud and multiple clanks. The beast had little time to stare before a bare-chested Amazon male sprang into his face and began slashing with a vengeance. Chain-covered forearms shot out to deflect the blows, and for long seconds the two hacked and punched at each other at blinding speed, eventually leaping apart into defensive crouches. Shampoo gasped as she rolled into a sitting position; she could see several large bruises on Mousse’s arms and one on his chest, while Kurowashi sported multiple gashes across both arms and one over his left eye. Both were breathing hard, Mousse harder than the demon.

“It would appear… you’ve become… somewhat faster than I remember,” Kurowashi spat. “Perhaps I should have observed you more often than I did.”

“It wasn’t that hard… once I dropped… some of my excess weight,” Mousse shot back, fire burning in his eyes as he gestured to his discarded robe. “Now… let’s end this, you bastard.”

“Mousse, stop!” Shampoo cried. “Bird-man too strong for you alone!” She leapt to her feet and retrieved her bonbori with shaking hands. The demon glanced at her, and started to laugh.

“She has a point, you know. But I agree with you, whelp. It is time we ended this.” He thrust his hands out, fixing his fingers in an arcane pattern. “Maboroshi Ryu. Shadow Cell.” Pure darkness began to boil out of his hands, dripping to the ground. Mousse’s eyes narrowed and he turned his head, calling for Shampoo to run; she, in turn, shook off his warnings, calling him a ‘stubborn boy’ as she darted closer… and suddenly, the blackness was not merely confined to the walls around the lot. Nor was it more shadow chains leaping from nowhere, catching them across the back.

The darkness was everywhere. Neither Amazon could see anything, save themselves. There was no light anywhere to be found.

“You may have had your eyes cured, boy.” The Tengu’s voice echoed throughout the void, from all directions at once. “I fear, though, they will not serve you here. You see… shadow is, and always has been, my ally.” A hard blow caught Mousse across the face, sending him stumbling back. “In this shadow cell, you won’t be able to see anything… and much like the Shadow Maze, you won’t be able to sense battle auras, either.” There was a rushing sound, then a hard smack; Shampoo cried out. Mousse heard her knees hit the ground and turned to find her, but was quickly belted in the midsection by another unseen hand.

“Damn you… you m-monster…” His grip on the Sun and Moon Blades tightened and he swung out in front of him.

“Yes, I’m a monster.” The laughter began to increase. “How does it feel, being stripped of your eyes yet again, little boy? Does it make you feel… useless?” A rush of air and Mousse grunted as he was chopped across the back of the knee. He bit back the pain and stood back up again, swords held low at the ready. “Do you feel trapped? Unable to do anything? Unable even to save the girl of your dreams?” He heard a chain rattle, felt the projectile slam his shoulder, but he refused to budge. “If you want to save her and yourself, you’d best strike back fast, boy.” A more distant rattle, and Mousse cringed as Shampoo screamed, lifted into the air by unseen hands.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and Mousse continued to stand stock-still, his face contorting every time he took a blow or heard Shampoo cry out. He felt one chain- metal, not a molded shadow, he guessed- fly close to him and flay him across his bare chest, felt the blood running down across his stomach. His eyes screwed shut tighter than before, and the grip on his swords was knuckle-whitening. “Hmph. Looks like you’ve consigned yourself to fate, boy. How very… boring.” There was a rush of air…

The Sun Blade in Mousse’s left hand began to scintillate with an inner glow…

A faint tremor passed through the ground beneath his feet, and his eyes snapped open. There was a flash of steel, a gasp…

The light from the sword spread outward, pushing back the shadows and revealing the blade to be jammed deep into the Tengu’s belly. Kurowashi stared down as white fluid began running down the blade. “How… that can’t be possible… how in Satan’s name did you…”

“You might have robbed me of sight briefly,” said Mousse dangerously. “But you’re forgetting I lived without real sight for a long, long time. And yes, you might’ve made it impossible to sense battle aura. But, guess what? Just because you blinded me didn’t make me deaf and dumb as well. Little word of advice- don’t flap your wings so much, or tread so heavily. Took me longer, but I still found you in the end.”

“YOU PARASITE!” Kurowashi swung a massive fist at Mousse’s head and twisted backwards, ripping himself off the blade just as the remaining pool of darkness burst away; a glance upward and Mousse blanched at the sight of Shampoo stripped nearly naked, suspended in midair from the chains on Kurowashi’s right arm. She twisted and yanked against the offending items, but they stuck fast to her skin- up until Mousse twirled through the air and slashed through the chains like paper streamers. He caught her in mid-descent and laid her gently on the ground before turning his attention back to the Tengu. Shampoo regained a grip on one of her weapons, threw an extremely dirty look at the demon in question- and the two of them charged simultaneously.

More chains erupted from the beast’s arms, but this time both Amazons’ tempers had reached their limit and the resulting adrenaline rush turned them into wild dervishes. Shampoo used the nearest chain as a springboard, leaping from one to another, until she had nearly reached Kurowashi’s arm. She jumped up just as he gestured harshly, then twisted her body just in time to avoid a shadow chain bursting from one of the walls around the lot. Using her momentum, she whipped her arm out and clocked the Tengu across the face with her bonbori just as Mousse sprang at him from the other side. The beast gestured again, causing multiple chains to burst from the ground beneath, but somehow they didn’t seem to get anywhere near Mousse as he ducked in, both swords now glowing gold and blue, respectively. Kurowashi lashed out viciously with his fists, spreading his wings as he prepared to take to the skies…

…an instant later, the golden Sun Blade had gouged a furrow through his chest. He reared his head back to scream- just as the silver-blue Moon Blade cut a line across his throat. The beast gurgled and staggered back, clutching at his wounds as white ichors poured to the ground.

Mousse let out a long breath. “Shampoo… I’m sorry I didn’t catch him sooner; will you be okay?”

She looked up and giggled. “I be fine once we out of here. No need to worry, Mousse…” She rested one hand on his bruised forearm. “You be okay too, right?”

He flinched slightly at her touch, then relaxed. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

Shampoo didn’t say anything in response, but nodded. You always say so, Mousse… but still risk self too much. You no have to do that now. Not now… She blushed, noting his current lack of shirt, forgetting for a moment her own shredded clothing. Shampoo think you holding back on me, Mousse… I never know you become so fast!

The two of them pulled themselves off the ground and turned towards the pathway out, noting the shadow-chain barrier had fallen away. As they did, they failed to notice Kurowashi collapsing to his knees, falling sideways towards the shadows that reached up to engulf him. The blackness swirled around the bleeding Tengu, pulling at him, encasing him… and just as quickly disappearing, along with him. There was nothing else left within the lot.

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Where… where am I? What just happened?

Akane’s eyes snapped open as she realized she was lying on a hard, smooth surface. Her arms felt like she’d been wrenched about by a rope or binding of some sort- just like one of those other times when I got kidnapped, she thought sourly to herself- and moreover, the space around her felt conspicuously empty. It was something she had become more aware of in recent times; ever since her training in aura manipulation at the warehouse, Akane had begun to note the auras of people in her near vicinity, even when she wasn’t actively trying to sense anything. At that moment, she couldn’t feel any aura she recognized, which in itself sent a chill up her spine.

“Ranma?” She propped herself up on all fours and looked up, taking in the fact that she wasn’t on the road they’d been traveling, and was instead in a dark alley with pitch-black shadows filling up every crevice, window and doorway. “Shingen? Ryoga? Ukyo? Anybody?” She shook her head and stood up slowly, dropping into the loose fighting stance she’d been practicing with Ranma. She felt the weight of the Saito wakizashi on her back and was tempted to draw it out, but for the most part she couldn’t see any imps or other oni anywhere near her.

“This is so not good.” Her eyes darted in all directions, trying to get a lock on anything that looked familiar, but the clouds of mist that continued to boil through the alley impeded her vision. “Can’t see anyone, can’t feel anything… Kami, I didn’t want this to happen, I don’t want to be alone, not now…” She gritted her teeth and opened her mind to the Astral, reaching out with all her might. Ranma! Ranma, where’d you go? Where is everyone… Faint buzzing sounds echoed in her mind’s ear, a sound reminiscent of static, but she waved it off and probed again. Ranma, can you hear me? HELP ME!

For three long seconds, she felt nothing but emptiness from the Astral. Her shoulders began to sag; she began to think the blackness had swallowed everyone up, leaving only her behind, when something happened. The static in her mind died away, and a distant, distorted voice touched her mind. …know Acchan’s voice anywhere! Acchan! Where are you?

He heard me! Akane’s heart picked up speed and her eyes brightened. She began to run, searching for a recognizable landmark and hoping she was heading in his direction. I… I don’t know. It looks like I’m still in town, but there’s black walls everywhere! She tried to push the panic out of her mind, repeating to herself that she could at least hear him, so things had to be working out. I don’t see anyone else, I can’t even feel much of… of…

“So here you are, little Akane-chan. Lost and all alone, no one to rescue you now, is there?”

Akane’s eyes widened and she drummed her feet to a halt. Standing in the midst of the abruptly thinning fog was the girl in the purple bodysuit, one hand on her hip and another toying with her ebony hair. Violet eyes gleamed maniacally as Yoko’s smile spread from ear to ear. “It’s dangerous to wander back alleys at night, girl. You could get… hurt.”

Akane took a step backward and fell into a ready stance, but failed to hide the renewed panic in her own eyes. Oh… oh, no. It’s that… that lackey of his is right in front of… Ranma, where are you? Please!

“You have no idea how much fun it’s been observing you all this time, sweetie,” Yoko purred as she stepped forward casually, flicking a lock of hair with an extended claw. “I put an awful lot into trying to keep you and your dear fiancé apart. It wasn’t easy, you know. And difficult to keep an eye on you at all times… but the times I was watching you? Priceless.” The demon-girl stopped and her smile disappeared. “Yet even after all I did, you two still kept coming back to one another. Even with all your denials of your feelings, you and him… inseparable.” She flicked the fingers of her left hand, extending all five claws at once. “I don’t like that.”

“Yeah? Well I’m not terribly keen on having someone else try and tell me what to do with my life!” Akane shot back in a trembling voice. “You think I’m some kind of toy for you to mess with or something? Or that Ranma is?” Speaking of which, I hope to Kami he gets here soon…

A voice in her mind’s ear startled her, but managed to calm her nerves a fraction. Don’t worry, Acchan… I’m on my way. But you’re gonna have to guide me. Just hang on… She felt something reaching out through the static, struggling to reach her; instinctively, she reached back with her mind and felt something take hold- or more appropriately, someone take hold. A warm feeling pulsed through her and the trembling in her hands subsided.

“Let me put it to you this way, girl,” Yoko snapped, “your Hunter kindred aren’t the only ones aware of the dormant power of your clan and Saotome’s. Astaroth-sama has been watching for a long time- even during his imprisonment, when I acted as his eyes- and it has long been his wish that such power not return to the world.” She lifted a finger and ran her tongue along a claw sensuously. “It would have been so much easier and quicker if you had driven him away or destroyed him with your own hand. But, then again… if you’d done that, I wouldn’t be able to indulge in the ecstasy of killing you now.”

“You just try it, bitch.” Akane shifted her stance, pulling into one of her traditional hard-style Kempo stances. “Shampoo tried to erase my memory or kill me several times, Kodachi tried to kill me, somebody in China almost succeeded, but I’m still here. You think you can do better?” You say you watched me, but not all the time? Let’s just hope you still think I’m the same old Akane I was a year ago, then.

“Oh, I know I can do better. Especially with this glorious new body Astaroth-sama granted me.” Yoko twirled on one foot, flaunting her curves with a wicked smile. “But I’m beginning to grow tired of this talk, you sexless little girl. Shall we get this over with?”

Akane flinched the very second the word ‘sexless’ left Yoko’s lips. “SHUT UP!” she screamed as she crouched for an instant, then lunged forward, trying to drive her left fist through Yoko’s abdomen. The devilgirl sidestepped at the last instant, grinning as Akane continued past her.

“You may be a bit faster, girl, but you’re just as short-fused as ever.” Yoko twisted and executed a blindingly fast side snap kick at Akane’s face- but the face was not there. Yoko’s grin dimmed as she felt a hand impact her ankle, her eyes widened as her balance faltered, and the next second she was airborne as Akane flung her across the darkened alley towards the nearest wall. She twisted in mid-flight, planting both hands and feet on the vertical surface and narrowed her eyes on her opponent.

“Lesson three of the Saotome school. Lose your cool and you lose the fight,” Akane retorted with a smug look.

“Interesting… I wasn’t expecting that out of you, girl.” Her claws retracted and a reddish light flashed in her violet irises. “Perhaps I should have watched you more closely!” Yoko promptly dropped to the ground and sprang at Akane, feinted right, then left before swinging up with a knife-hand strike aimed at Akane’s neck. Akane parried the blow and twisted with the motion, aiming a reverse roundhouse kick at the demon’s back that caught her across the flank. The two separated, their motions carrying them to opposing sides of the streets, then bounded towards each other again. They met in midair and began a furious exchange of punches, jabs and palm strikes that brought a look of consternation to Yoko’s face. The familiar anger in Akane’s face was evident, but tempered by a coolness and level of control the former imp had not seen in the majority of her observations. This is not good. The girl’s been training, and somehow I wasn’t able to discern it until now? She shook off her concern and quickly found a minute gap in Akane’s own attacks; her right hand snapped out and the heel struck the young Tendo across the face, sending her reeling and breaking their exchange.

“It seems I’ve neglected to watch you as often as I should have,” Yoko sneered. “Switching from hard style kempo to soft style at the last moment, eh? You’ve improved… a bit.”

“I had a good teacher. And I’m just getting warmed up,” Akane spat, shaking off the sting in her jaw and settling into a looser stance.

“Tough talk, girl. Let’s see how well you can back it up.” The demon raised her arms, fingernails extending into claws again before lunging to the side- and suddenly her form became a blur. Yoko darted in and began to slash and stab at Akane, who quickly found herself on full defense as she parried and sidestepped each attack in turn. In succession, she jumped away from a reverse slash aimed at her stomach, two jabs to her shoulder, then gasped as two clawed fingers came straight at her eyes. She bent backwards, the claws missing her by a centimeter, and Yoko suddenly found herself shaking her hand in pain as Akane continued the motion with a somersault kick to the fingers.

The pain didn’t last long, and Yoko quickly renewed her attack, pressing Akane up against a brick wall and taking a vicious swipe that would have severed her jugular if Akane hadn’t ducked and rolled away; the claws screeched across the bricks and tore four deep furrows into the wall. “You’re really beginning to try my patience, girl. The longer you drag this out, the more painful it’ll be when you do die.”

Akane scrambled to her feet and glared daggers at the imp-turned-Fury. “Sorry, but I’m not planning on going through that again just to please you!” She grabbed the hilt of the wakizashi on her back and pulled, drawing the sword into a ready position.

“Oh… finally decided to draw your clan blade, eh?” The girl’s eyes glinted madly. “Good. Now we can have some real fun.” Yoko’s form blurred again, covering the short distance between him almost faster than Akane could see. Akane blanched and swung the sword at the demon’s neck, only to stare as the girl ducked beneath the path of the blade- and an instant later, the breath was knocked from her body as Yoko slammed her palm into her solar plexus.

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Ranma gasped as a wave of pain and panic hit him in mid-stride. Oh geez… gotta move faster, but it’s like walkin’ through Jello in here! He silently cursed the shadows he had merged with and began moving as fast as the Umisen would allow him, pulled by the ki beacon that was penetrating the darkness. Hang in there, ‘kane, I’m coming…

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Akane had dropped to one knee and was just getting her breath back when Yoko lunged again, trying to spear her throat. She dodged to the right and winced as two claws grazed her left shoulder; trails of blood began to trickle down her arm as she tumbled and got back to her feet. The devilgirl was already circling back around as Akane tightened her grip on the Saito blade, took a deep breath and lunged, slipping into the rapid-fire sword kata she and Ranma had practiced under Shingen’s watch. Sparks flew as her first cut was intercepted and knocked aside by Yoko’s claws, who pressed forward and executed several cuts of her own. Akane dipped and weaved, the awkwardness in her stance lessening as more of her recent training re-asserted itself. “You’re pretty damn fast, but Ranma’s faster than you are, creep!” She parried another claw strike and immediately counterattacked, making swift, precise cuts at Yoko’s head, arms and chest- but the demon merely grinned and danced backwards, letting the sword pass dangerously close to her body yet never actually touching it.

“You’re not so bad yourself, girl,” she taunted, licking a retracted claw, “but if you can’t even hit me, there’s not much point to you using that sword, is there? You might as well throw it away and stick to what you know best- brute force, and little else.” The wakizashi passed just above her shoulder, lightly grazing the skin and eliciting a trickle of white fluid- the demon stepped into the attack, hands shooting up- and Akane let out a strangled gasp as her right elbow was slammed by Yoko’s palm, threatening to dislocate the joint. With her left hand, the demon pulled the arm in question, yanking Akane into an impromptu shoulder throw that sent her rolling across the ground until she collided with a nearby garbage can. Akane hissed and clutched her elbow in pain, the Saito sword still in her right hand.

“Admit it. You really are a helpless little wench, aren’t you. Can’t do a single thing without your precious Ranma to help you through it. Oh, but he’s not here, is he?” A tendril of flame began to dance along the tattoos on Yoko’s right forearm.

“Damn it, I’m not done fighting yet!” Akane snapped; a quick kip-up and she was back on her feet, a soft golden glow enveloping her arm for an instant. “And so what if I’m not as good as Ranma, that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything!” She snapped her leg out, caught the garbage can with her heel and sent it flying at Yoko’s head. The demon snorted and tore the thing in half with a double claw swipe- and as the can fell apart, her eyes widened as Akane burst forward through the scattering rubbish and caught the devilgirl in the chin with a palm-strike uppercut. She quickly dropped low and followed through with a sweep kick that knocked Yoko’s feet from beneath her, but before she could execute a follow-up cut, Yoko had planted her hands and backflipped several paces away. She crouched, pulled her right arm back, then thrust forward.

Akane’s face went from determined to shocked as a stream of fire shot from Yoko’s fingertips almost faster than the eye could see. The flames were practically upon her before she pushed herself to the right, desperately sidestepping the attack as best she could; she felt something impact her left arm, sensed the heat coursing along her skin, and knew she hadn’t managed to evade the blast entirely. A weak gasp escaped her mouth as she staggered back, trying to hold her sword and clutch at her burned arm at the same time… and an instant later, more pain erupted as knuckles buried themselves in Akane’s solar plexus. The punch knocked her against a nearby wall, and her eyes snapped open just in time to see a set of claws blazing towards her. Once again she twisted and rolled weakly away, but still felt the sting of shallow wounds opening across her right cheek and arm. She stumbled and dropped to one knee, tried to spring up again, failed, and drew herself into a weak defensive crouch, the physical pain fading as the pain of the devilgirl’s name calling and denigration of her abilities began to dig at her.

“There. You see what I mean now, don’t you. Get a little distracted, and your concentration falls all to pieces. Nobody around to help you; you can’t even use that Hunter blade of yours properly. And now you’re about to die, all alone.” Yoko laughed mockingly, flicking the claws of her right hand. “Like mother, like daughter…”

You are not alone.

Akane froze. The trembling in her body slowed and ceased as something began to spread throughout her… a warmth that pushed away the pinpricks of pain and doubt in much the way Ranma’s Link had made her feel. What… what was that? Ranma, is that you?

The shadow slows him still, child. Yet he fights on to reach you. He will not be long… but his is not the only power that aids you. On the battlefield or at any other time, you are never alone. Even now, against this beast, you need not fight alone.

She swallowed hard. The warmth continued to spread, and for the first time she noticed it seemed to be centered on her sword hand. The wakizashi was pulsing in her grip, echoing in harmony with her heartbeat. For an instant, she thought she heard the distant growl of a tiger. But how? What am I supposed to do? I’ve been trying to beat her with what I learned, but I can’t get enough opening to hit her hard! And Ranma kept saying all along I had potential…

You do. You are hardly helpless… even a diamond needs to be cut and polished before it can truly shine. The voice took on a melodious quality, and for a moment Akane could almost swear it was a voice she had heard before. It is time for you to shine, child. Do not be afraid to partake of my power. It is yours. Now, stand and fight!

Yoko’s brow furrowed, her eyes tracing up and down Akane’s left arm. “That is most peculiar… I thought for sure I burned that arm, so how is it there is no…”

“For the last time, shut up.” Something seemed to break free inside Akane; the tiger’s growl in her ears turned into a proud roar as she rose to her feet and stared at Yoko hard enough to bore a hole through her. “I’m not letting you turn me into a goddamned punching bag, you filth; I’m going to cut those stinkin’ claws off and jam ‘em right down your throat!” She swung the wakizashi up in a two-handed grip; out of the corner of her eye she noticed her left arm showed absolutely no sign of burns, and no pain from said arm was forthcoming besides the claw wounds on her shoulder.

Yoko shook off her curiosity and glared right back. “You’re still determined to get out of this? You’ve only managed to cut me once, and even then not very deeply. I barely felt it.”

“Dodge this, then.” Akane raised the sword high above her head, then tore across the pavement in preparation for a wide swing.

Yoko stared and shook her head, almost laughing at the attack as Akane drew closer. She must be desperate; even an inexperienced human could dodge a swing like that. As Akane began to bring the sword down, Yoko snickered, allowing the blade to descend closer and closer to her shoulder. It was still descending when she pushed back with her heels, letting the blade pass directly in front of her.

The blade would have passed directly in front of her… had something else not happened to change the dynamic. Mid-descent, Akane’s grip on the sword tightened and crimson ki erupted from her body, quickly changing to white-gold as the sword’s own ki merged with hers. “Lend your strength, KONGOUSEKITOU!”

The wakizashi flared a brilliant white, causing Yoko to wince as she maneuvered just out of the blade’s reach… and an instant later, lances of fire shot through her chest as her left arm was severed neatly at the shoulder. White ichors spilled onto the darkened pavement; the scream that left her lips was bloodcurdling. The devilgirl staggered back, staring wide-eyed at the weapon in Akane’s hands.

The blade and hilt had both lengthened by an unusual amount- indeed, the blade alone stood no less than four feet long, transforming from a wakizashi into an o-dachi in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, the blade itself no longer appeared to be rune-engraved steel, but translucent white crystal that reflected myriad slivers of light from within. The tiger-motif tsuba was no longer circular, but hexagonal, and the grip seemed to mold itself to the contours of Akane’s hands as if she had been born to wield it. For an instant, it was all she could do not to stare in wonder.

Yoko snarled through her teeth, clutching at the bleeding stump of her arm. “How… what in Satan’s name… how did you… IMPOSSIBLE!” She began to glow with indigo ki; the stump quickly stopped bleeding and began to swell, stretching itself into the beginnings of a new arm.

“I told you. I’m not done fighting yet.”

“Maybe not now… but you will be.” The demon’s arm bulged and snapped outward, leaving no hint that her limb had ever been severed. She glared at Akane and swiped her new hand forward; fingernails quickly lengthened to claws… and continued growing, crossing the distance between them in an instant. Two nails caught Akane’s thigh as she spun aside; she shook off the pain and brought the crystalline sword down hard on all five claws at once. This time there were no sparks- the sword cut through all five like a hot knife through butter, causing both combatants’ eyes to widen in surprise. Akane managed to regain her senses faster, darted towards Yoko- noting that for its new size, the sword was surprisingly light and easy to swing- and brought the blade to bear, cutting four times in rapid succession. This time it was Yoko who scrambled for cover as Kongousekitou cut two shallow furrows in her shoulder and across her thigh; she rolled and sprang away just as Akane brought the sword down in an overhead swing that cut a clean furrow through the pavement.

“Okay, I can now say I am officially angry, girl! Now BURN!” Flame quite literally exploded from Yoko’s tattooed arm as the devilgirl drew into a low crouch, spewing an even larger stream of fire across most of the road between them. Akane barely had a moment to raise her sword and lock eyes with her before the inferno struck. In an instant, she was engulfed, a shadowed figure surrounded by orange flame. Yoko took a heaving breath and sneered as she poured more and more energy into the attack. “Yes. Burn… burn till there’s nothing left of you, you ignorant, stubborn little girl…”

Her words caught in her throat as the massive crystal sword abruptly flew out of the bonfire, twirling end over end towards her until the point sank home, jabbing into her right shoulder- and through it, pinning her to a telephone pole just beyond. Yoko shrieked and grasped the sword desperately with her left hand, tugging the blade slowly out even as its ki seared her hand… and stopped and stared as Akane burst through the wall of fire, barely sporting any signs that she was even singed. “You thought you could burn me? I barely even felt that, you minx!” she spat as she elbowed the demon across the face, spun left and yanked the sword out of her arm.

The giant blade quickly shrank to its normal size as she resheathed it across her back, spun and reverse-roundhouse kicked Yoko away from the telephone pole. “Now I’m gonna pay you back in spades; try this one on for size!” Ki flared around her knuckles, and just as Yoko staggered to her feet, she let both fists fly. “RYOUKO…” The left fist caught her full-force in the gut. “TSUME KEN!” Yoko found herself airborne as the follow-up uppercut smashed her sternum and cracked her jaw simultaneously, throwing her up and back against one of the darker sections of shadow wall.

Akane dropped back into a ready stance… then staggered, breathing hard. Oh hell… guess I put a little too much into that last punch, and she’s not out yet…

Yoko leaned heavily against the wall and pushed herself upward, her head drooping forward as she assumed a shaky fighting stance. “This… is not what I had planned for,” she gasped, white fluid dripping from her wounds and the corner of her mouth. “You get faster on the fly… your stance is different, you’re using moves I’ve never seen you use before…” She lurched forward, ki flaring as she struggled to seal her wounds. “And on top of that… I can’t burn you! What’s the matter with you, girl?”

Akane breathed heavily- and blinked as the shadow wall behind Yoko began to bend and swell outward. Something began to prod at the core of her being, and she smiled defiantly. “First off… you don’t call me girl, you sycophant whore. My name… is Akane Tendo, and will eventually be Akane Saotome.” She straightened up. “Second, you should have watched me more than you apparently did… or you’d know I’d been training hard since Jusendo. And thirdly…” Her smile turned coy. “Your game’s over. Right now.”

Yoko stared in disbelief and snapped upright, her aura flaring madly as her wounds sealed at a snail’s pace- and a millisecond later, her eyes widened even further, for another reason.

“HAKU DATO SHIN SHO!”

She barely had a chance to scream in agony as the breath was knocked from her body; dozens of rapid-fire strikes raked up and down her back with the force of a jackhammer, causing several wounds to reopen and ichors to spill from her mouth. The barrage abruptly ceased and she began to fall forward… her eyes caught a momentary blur of red and black at the edge of her vision… and before she could react, the pig-tailed young man who appeared before her had driven his own sword directly through her neck. Her body stiffened, then began to fall slack as she felt her ki draining away from her core.

A-Astaroth-sama… I… I’ve failed you… She dropped to her knees, a single tear escaping her eye before collapsing to the ground and bursting into a cloud of formless energy.

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Ranma slid his wakizashi into its saya, straightened up and looked at Akane with an expression that was part relief, part apology. “Sorry I’m late.”

“You baka…” She shook her head, broke out into a huge smile and caught him in a tight hug that he quickly returned. “I’m just glad you made it at all, I was scared something had got at you on the way…”

“Something almost did before I caught ya calling out mind-to-mind. Then I had to find a shortcut.” He pulled back and gave her wounds a cursory look. “How bad is it? That jerk didn’t get you too bad, I hope…”

“Just a few bumps here and there, maybe a couple scratches. It’s nothing…” She stopped and drew in a hissing breath as Ranma ran a finger across one of the deeper gashes. “I’ve handled worse than this.”

“Didn’t feel like nothing to me,” Ranma replied as he extended his aura into his palm and ran a thumb gently across the lacerations on her cheek. “When I was following you here, I swear I could almost feel some of what that bitch did to ya… and some of it stung enough that I almost lost control of the Umisen.” His hands dropped to some of her other wounds, closing them as the Healing Light touched and rejuvenated her aura. “More than that, though… when that fire started coming at you…” He swallowed hard. “I thought for a second it was gonna be like…”

“I know. Me too- at first.” She shook her head, then glanced down at her left arm again. “But it doesn’t look like it did much of anything. I mean, I could tell it was hot and all, I felt it hit me… but… I didn’t actually feel that much pain. And the second time, I didn’t feel anything, it was more like a sauna than anything else…”

“Well whatever happened, I’m just glad you’re okay, ‘kane.”

“Me too,” she replied, pulling Ranma in for another hug and a brief but powerful kiss. “When that black stuff pulled us under, and I woke up here by myself, I thought that…” She trailed off, her eyes widening. “Oh, Kami… what about the others? Did you see any of them?”

“Only Ryoga; we kinda got separated. Had to deal with some jagoff demons made of rock, and the guy tells me he’ll take care of it himself.” He better not have gotten in over his head.

“You mean he’s still out there?”

“And everyone else is as well, probably. Just Astaroth’s way of making us all late to his damn party if ya ask me, Akane.”

“Then why are we just standing around chatting?” She grabbed his hand and began to run towards the first open path she saw- which happened to be towards the vacillating indigo fire in the distance. “Come on, we’ve gotta go find them; they’re probably up to their ears in freaks like that psycho chick!”

“Akane, it ain’t that easy,” Ranma said evenly as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze and ran alongside her. “These damn walls’ve got us penned in pretty heavy- even with the Umisen-ken, it took me forever to get to where you were, and I haven’t been able to read anything aura-wise except for when ya called out to me! Finding Shin and the others ain’t as simple as that, I hope you know.”

“So what do we do, then? Just keep running and hope we hit something before long?”

At that instant, a vibe shook through the ground at their feet, a ki tremor so massive they both skidded to a halt and stared. The light from Furinkan seemed much closer now, but the colors dancing in the mist-laden sky had taken on a much darker hue. Swirls of royal purple, vermillion and indigo were mixing with snakelike tendrils of pure black that twisted into hypnotic whorls. A slow, steady throb began to echo through the streets, like a massive heartbeat, and one by one the black partitions lining the streets began to fade away.

Akane gulped. “I don’t like this feeling…”

“Me neither,” Ranma added, lacing his fingers with hers. “Bet you anything Astaroth’s finished cooking things up, and we’re the goddamned dinner guests.” His eyes narrowed and he rested his left hand firmly on the sheath of Nibaikotsu. “Not to mention my mom…”

“And Kasumi.” Akane’s eyes hardened and she tightened her grip on Ranma’s hand. “And the others…”

“Are probably heading towards that fire right now. Which is what we oughta be doing.” He glanced sideways at her. “You gonna be okay, Akane?”

She paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously and gave him a confident smile. “Not really. But I will be once we get Kasumi and Auntie back.”

“Then let’s do it…” He paused and smirked. “Kawaii tomboy.”

“Handsome baka.” She reached out- this time with her aura- and took hold of his, feeling an inner warmth flow through her and back out to him again. I’m not losing sight of you again… Heels dug into the pavement together, and the two teens catapulted themselves down the road at breakneck speed, racing towards the Furinkan gates and the inferno that dwarfed both it and the buildings around it.

Soon the side street opened onto the familiar main road just in front of the school. They turned a hard corner, skidded to a halt in front of the gates… and stared.

“Oh… hell,” Ranma whispered.

Akane blinked. “My sentiments exactly…”

To Be Continued.

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Author’s Note 5/31/06: I hate to leave things at another cliffhanger, but that’s just the way the story is progressing at this point. And furthermore, I must say that I will not be able to make the next post within 2-3 weeks. I know this in advance because an important trip I have been planning for some time will be occurring in June, and I have no laptop, thus no means to write while I am away. I apologize for that, but I am cooking up something big for the final conflict and I need all the time I can get.

I do appreciate your continued support and reviews, and I will endeavor to catch up once I return from my trip(I will be gone roughly the entire middle week of June). As I have mentioned before, sometimes I will be delayed by life’s little happenstances, such as my father going in for surgery, which had offset my writing considerably over the past two months. I will finish this story, that much I can promise.

For those who may wonder if the battles went too well for our heroes in this chapter, just remember that each of them has progressively improved in recent times- and Mousse, in particular, is known for overcoming some pretty intense obstacles(in Nihao My Concubine he got hit with a barrage of acupuncture needles that should have at least paralyzed him, but he stood up and beat down the bird-man instead). In addition, it is often arrogance and subsequent carelessness that often makes a foe lose the battle.

Inchua Chuan- The Hawk’s Talon, one of Mousse’s hidden weapon moves featured in the canon. The name is Chinese rather than Japanese; found on an online FAQ.

Kongousekitou- literally a fusion of two words, translates as diamond saber. The name of Akane’s clan sword, suitable for a girl who could be considered a ‘diamond in the rough’.

O-dachi- one of the most massive swords ever constructed by Japanese smiths, they could be 67 inches from tip to pommel, or longer. Rarely made because of the special tempering process needed to make such a long sword. Occasionally confused with nodachi.

Haku Dato Shin Sho- White Snake Reliable Fist, a special attack of the Umisen-ken which potentially exceeds the speed of even the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. Derived from a pilfering technique used to swipe valuables in the blink of an eye(blame Genma, he designed the original technique).

Hopefully you have enjoyed this addition to the chronicle. Stay tuned; all things are coming to a head at the gates of Furinkan- and once again, I apologize for the inevitable delay. Until next time.

-Neon Ronin