Part Two!
---" Ranma is then broken out of reminiscing over one of her favorite pleasant memories as she notices she's arrived back at the Tendo dojo. Walking into the gate she notices the previous signs of where the shit hit the fan, but also the new evidence of the fan hitting back, of the combined Tendo and Sãotomé clans, as well as an irate Ryoga, a pissed Ukyo, and a troupe of not so happy Amazon's standing in the yard, obviously waiting for her. But her gaze is immediately drawn to the tear stained face of Akane. ‘She’s even cute when she’s cryin’…’ Ranma thought she stared at the more matured and filled out Akane.
Ignoring everyone else for a moment Ranma looks to Akane and says with concerned voice "Hey Akane, what's wrong? They didn't do nothing to ya’ did they?"
Akane looks up to face Ranma smiling briefly before it turns back into the pained frown and she mumbles out "I'm sorry Ranma, but I can't, we that is…"
Akane is then interrupted in her muttering by Soun Tendo saying almost angrily "Akane, say it! Say to Ranma that we can NOT allow this… this depraved perversity in our noble house!”
Just as Ranma was about to interject, Genma spoke in a fake tone of hurt “Yes! Well said Tendo! Woe is me for having such a deviant child! You shame your father boy!” Then before Ranma could get a word in edgewise Nodoka spoke up in a disapproving voice “Yes Ranma, Genma and Soun-kun are most correct! Whilst it is a very manly fantasy to watch two women enjoy each others company, it is certainly NOT manly for you to be engaged in such deviant affairs!”
Ranma could only roll her eyes at her mother’s words, as ever since she found out that “Ranko Tendo” was in fact her son, and had declared the Seppuku Pledge fulfilled. She’s been ten times worse at the whole manliness bit… ‘your not sitting very manly Ranma!’, ‘Ranma are you sure you ate enough? It’s not very manly to go hungry!’, ‘Ranma, don’t use a handkerchief! Wipe your nose with your sleeve! It’s the manly thing to do!’ and of course…‘Ranma, are you getting enough manly sex? You have all those pretty girls around ready to service you, you know!’
“Yeah Saotome, I knew my baby sister was a hardcore dyke, but that you’d go along with it? Geeze, now that’s sick!” Nabiki said with grimace, to which Kasumi in a scolding tone just said “Nabiki! That wasn’t nice!”
Before the Amazons, Ryoga or Ukyo could speak, Ranma had had enough!
“I’m so sick of all of you!” Ranma exploded “You’re all hypocrites!” she said pointing to the adults of the group “You three morons kept pushing me an’ Akane together for 3 bloody years! What’d you expect after we were married!? Huh! I’m gonna’ have this curse for the rest of my life! Did y’all expect Akane to ignore my girl side for the next 50-60-70 YEARS!?”
“Now Son, raising your voice to your Mother is hardly manly! And your curse is irrelevant! It is after all your manly duty to marry Akane as a man and produce heirs for the school!” Nodoka reprimanded primly, confident in her argument.
“That’s the gist of it, isn’t it _Nodoka_?...” Nodoka flinched, then glared at that. “…The happiness of Akane and me is _irrelevant_ to all of you, so long as you get an heir. For cryin’ out loud we’re just breeding stock to you people! And don’t you dare scold me _Mother_ for raising my voice, and pointing you all out for who you all really are! After all, what kind of “mother” willingly gives up their own 5 year old child, and then has a death pact against said child should he not meet some vague notion of manliness! And for the bloody last time _Nodaka, I’ve got bigger tits that YOU!, so do I look like your “SON”? NO! Would it really kill you to call me “daughter”? Ranma took a deep breathe and turned towards Akane and said “Come on Akane, back me up here! Are we gonna’ let them trample us down like this! Remember “Perverts together?!”
Akane lifted her head up to look at Ranma, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks and said in a voice filled with pain “I remember, but I’m… I’m so sorry Ranma… I can’t… daddy’s threatened to cast me out Ronin, unless I marry you as a boy! We can’t… not like we have been… together… sorry…”
Ranma paled as the implications all started pouring in.
This was apparently the point at which the peanut gallery had also had enough, starting with Shampoo shouting bubbly “Ai-yah! Airen like kissy-kissy girl with girl?! No be with Kitchen-destroyer and be with Shampoo! We do good fun-fun-time at night in bed!”
With that Cologne and Mousse slapped their faces, and groaned, each for different reasons. Cologne was thinking “Oh Great-Grand-daughter, did you _have_ to say that so loud, or so stupidly! Ancestors save me…’
While Mouse thought piteously ‘I knew it, it just figures that the girl I like, likes the same things I do… other girls!’
Then Ryoga shouted angrily “Ranma! How _DARE_ you drag deer sweet innocent Akane into your sick pervertions! How low can you go! Enemy of women, Die!”
“Shut-up pork-butt, this don’t concern you!” Ranma shouted back to Ryoga, then turned to face Ukyo, still feeling the hit from that spatula earlier in the day that sent her flying through the air and into the drainage canal, and asked with some heat in her voice “And what about you Uc-chan? You’ve been awfully quite here?”
Ukyo turned her head to face Ranma, and Ranma flinched at the hate in the Okonomiyaki chef’s eyes, as she opened her mouth and spoke venomously “You! Ranma are _The Worste_ person I know! All you do is take, take, take… my fathers Yattai cart! 10 years of my life! My Childood! My Gender! And my Heart! And you just kept me hanging! Leaving me to be that bitches plaything!” Ukyo that pauses her tirade to unsling her battle spatula and says is a quieter voice “… for all of that I can never forgive you!”
With that Ranma has a series of pained expressions cross her face before settling into a calm visage, and turned back to face her parents and Soun, only to see them all smiling. Nodoka then spoke in a sneering victorious tone “Give up Ranma, and do the natural and manly thing and marry Akane, and sire grandbabies. It’s for your own good… and really you don’t have another choice!”
Before Ranma could speak the as of now silent Cologne coughed politely drawing attention to her and said “Actually, in case you hadn’t forgotten Nodoka Saotome-san, Ranma most certainly does have a choice in the matter. As even though Ukyo seems to have dropped out of the running…” she made a hand motion to Ukyo who was running a slip-stone on the edge of her combat-spatula, as puffs of steam flared from her nostrils. “… there is still the matter of the Amazon engagement, and it seems Shampoo is more than willing to bend to Ranma’s affixation of a female to female relationship.” To this Shampoo only nodded vigerously, and ‘bounced’ herself…
To this Nodoka just sneered and said haughtily “I can assure you Elder Cologne, no child of mine will be with a primitive Chinese-bimbo, and much less in such a deviant grandbady-less relationship! And that is final!” Nodoka then turned to Ranma, to notice she was backing away… “Come here Ranma, and we’ll call a priest and have you and Akane married before the moon rises. It’ll be romantic, and it’s for your own good after all!”
Ranma looks across the yard to see faces of people she thought she knew thought she trusted… thought she loved as a resolve settled into her stomach, she carefully considered her next words, as she spoke in a low, almost menacing voive. “Is this how it’s goin’ ta’ be then, is it? All the choices in my life made by you all, out of my control? Well, as far as I’m concerned “Mom” and Cologne… you can both take your offers and your plans for me, and shove ‘em up your old cunts till you choke on them!”
Nodoka was absolutely livid in rage as she shouted “You no-good ungrateful Brat! After all I’ve done and sacrificed for you… How _Dare_ you speak to your mother that way! I _Demand_ an apology!” she then started to grasp the hilt of her omnipresent katana.
And Cologne was no better “While our plans for you Son-in-Law are different, I copy your mothers sentiments, and must force you to apologize at once!”
“Apologize? Apologize?! For what?! No, You “Mother” can _apologize_ to ME! For sending me off with that fat moron of a man for 10 years to be tortured! Apologize to ME! Apologize for the Neko-ken! For starving! For Losing my Friends! And You Old-Ghoul! Apologize for the Cats-Tongue! For the humiliation! The Death Threats! Apologize for _that_!”
“I will not apologize for your training, Son/Son-in-Law!” Nodoka and Cologne said simultaneously, then glared at each other.
Akane then spoke with a pleading voice, tears still lightly streaking her face. “Ranma! Just apologize! We can even be married! We’ll be together anyways no matter what! Just do what your mother asks!”
Ranma just turned to Akane, smiling and said “You know Akane, that sounds really good… really good. But this is a matter of principal, a stake of honor. We’ve never been given a choice, but when we do finally chose for ourselves. They come along and knock it down away from us. Do you wanna’ live like that Akane? Never making choices for your life? Always having “her”…” she made a gesture to Nodoka “… or them…” another gesture to Genma, Soun, and Cologne “… making all the choices in your life!”
“Brave words Boy! You got anything to back it up? Or are you gonna’ hide behind your Chinese-bimbo-whore!” Genma sneered at Ranma, and leered at Shampoo.
Shampoo then went purple in rage and shouted “Panda-man no insult Shampoo! Shampoo strong warrior of Joketsozucku Amazon!”
To which Genma just snorted and said mockingly “Bring it on little girl! Maybe when Ranma is finished playing with dolls, she’ll fight too!”
With that chaos erupted, as Genma jumped to avoid a bonbori strike to the solar-plexus from Shampoo. Ryoga and Ukyo, stole each other covert glances and nodded. In unison they attacked! Ryoga in a rush feinted to the left, and Ukyo went center for Ranma. Ranma jumped and pirouetted in mid air to avoid Ukyo’s over-head swing of her weapon, when she landed she was but a few feet from Nodoka, who said through grinding teeth. “Ranma. Apologize. Now!” as she then began to draw her katana from its sheath, Ranma said back “Ain’t gonna’ happen “mom”.” Sneering with contempt, at the “mom” reference. And then had to backflip away as Nodoka growled deep in her throat in rage and had made a sword-sweep that would’ve cut Ranma from shoulder to hip. Before Ranma could orient herself, she had to dodge Ryoga’s ki-empowered umbrella as he brought it down to crush her head with a loud “Kiah!”
By now Ranma could see that the three Tendo sisters were in the middle of the melee, and that Happosai was on the porch, watching. So Ranma called out getting his attention “Hey! Old-Letch, you just gonna’ sit there or what?!”
To which Happosai smiled thinly and said shaking his head “Sorry my boy, I’ve got to sit this one out. Free will has to be maintained this-time… good-luck though!”
Before Ranma could ponder Happosai’s rather enigmatic reply, she had to duck and roll to avoid Cologne’s whirling cane. Cologne then said “Fight back Ranma! I trained you better than this! Apologize, Fight-back or Die!” And as soon as she said ‘die’ Cologne used the ‘Splitting-cats-hairs technique, had blurred into several Cologne’s, as Ranma couldn’t avoid all the possible strikes, she began deflecting with her arms, large angry bruises forming along their lengths. When she then heard Ryoga shout “Damn you Ranma! Don’t ignore me!” And then had to bite her lip hard as she felt a bandana-ken imbed itself in her left shoulder, only to watch the other three spin harmlessly away.
Then she tucked and leaped away from the multiple Colognes, as she knew that to face her like that was a one way path to defeat. To then turn around and literally bump into Soun, and nearly fall on her ass, as he pushed forward. “Ranma! Marry my Akane!” Soun bellowed with his demon-head trick, Ranma instead just roundhouse kicked his side causing him to fall to his knees on the ground weezing.
Before she could press her advantage she was tag-teamed by Genma and Nodoka.
“Son, Apologize!” Nodoka said in mid-strike.
“Boy, Marry Akane!” Genma said as he through a punch for her face. Which Ranma grabbed and used as a spring point, launching herself over Genma to land behind him, where she shouted “Katchu-tenshin-Amaguriken!” and began raining blows down hard and fast on Genma’s backside, mostly around the kidney’s. Successfully felling the big man, as he coughed out blood, but still sneering at her, then she felt it… And tucked and rolled to avoid the downward Spatula, that would’ve cleaved her down the middle.
Then Ukyo said in rage, trying to pull her weapon free of the earth it was embedded in “Stand still and die already!!”
Standing once again, Ranma just wipped a little trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, and said “Sorry Ukyo, but that’s mean I’d lose. And Ranma Saotome never loses!”
“Damn you Ranma! DIE!... Shi-Shi-Houkodan!” Ryoga shouted to the still-standing pigtailed girl. In a flash of insight Ranma realizes that she can dodge, but that’s leave Akane in the path of the purple depression based chi attack. Choices made she bagan pumping her legs running, grabbed Akane up, and flipped to the side in a tucked roll, with Akane screaming in her arms.
Letting go of the now hysterical girl. Ranma once again engages the battle with her own shout of “Moko-Takabisha!” aimed right for Ryoga and Genma, only to see it deflected at the last moment by a series of Vacuum-blades from Genma. Though Genma was a terrible aim, as there is a scream… From Akane!
Ranma rushes in, praying to get to her love before the deathly curved lights of air itself slice her. Just as Akane is pushed out of the way by Ranma, Nodoka readies her sword at a high-swing, and Ryoga launches several more bandana-ken, as Ukyo had finished throwing three of her Spatu-kens.
Time slows to a crawl for Ranma, as she watches Akane fall to her butt, then completely to her back, as she then notices she’s in a kill zone: Four separate deadly attacks all from various vectors, unavoidable.
Ranma then thinks “Hey, always knew it’d end, sothin’ like this…”
Then there is a pain in her neck,, stomach, left leg, and right arm.
For a moment all the battles cease, as they all notice Ranma has stopped moving, all seemingly unaware of just exactly what happened.
Then the combatants, Genma, Nodoka, Soun, Shampoo, Cologne, Ukyo and Ryoga, and the spectators, Mousse, Kasumi, Nabiki, Happosai, and Akane up close and personal, could only stare as thin red lines formed on Ranma’s neck, on her right arm, across her belly, and across her left leg above the knee. Ranma then smiled right at Akane. She opened her mouth to speak. But only blood came forth, lots of blood, she then lifted her left arm towards Akane, and made a waving “Bye” gesture, as Akane notices a tear slide down Ranma’s cheek, Akane could only screem, as she watched Ranma fall apart.
To all the observers, it seemed to happen in slow motion. First Ranma’s right arm fall with a wet plot to the ground, then her left leg fell away, then in a horrific display Ranma began to tilt to her right, with that her upper torso began to fall away from her hips, intestines trailing out as she fell. And just before her upper torso hits the ground, her head rolls off and separate from her neck. To land with a dull, wet thud, in the blood saturated earth.
Immediately, Kasumi, Nabiki and Shampoo begin to vomit, as Akane wails out mournfully “RANMA!”
Everyone else is too shocked to move, though Genma, Nodoka, Ryoga and Ukyo all share a glace that communicated “We Killed Her…”
The sound was only broken then by the sound of Nodoka dropping her sword from lifeless fingers as a look of horror crosses her face.
Then there is wind, more than a breeze, but not strong, but very… VERY cold, then there is a crackling electric sound, and slowly, very slowly not but a few feet from the remains of Ranma’s pieced corpse, a blackness begins to form. From a small dot, growing larger, and larger, until it is a meter-wide sucking maw of angry blackness, from which then black wisps of smoke and light slither out from, snaking their way to Ranma’s corpse. Then they dive in and through the corpse! Seconds later they pull back from the corpse, but now they’re coiled around a grey, lifelessly colored and nude, but intact ethereally transparent Ranma-chan, flailing in her bonds, and obviously screaming, but no sound came forth.
Then there is a male voice, so laden with malice it made all those within hearing range cringe and feeling dirty down to their soul, as is spoke “Nodoka Saotome! The Conditions have been met! For the Cost of the Eternal Soul of Ranma Saotome, The Bargain is fulfilled! And now I, Th’rignal claim my lovely new property!”
With that, there was a tremendous vacuum of wind heading back into the blackness in the ground, and the black wisps constraining Ranma began to pull her into it. A pleading forms on her face, as twin trails of ghostly tears begain to stream down her face as she is dragged to the emptiness. She is screaming something, but there is no sound. She then gets a hand free, and grabs at the ground, but the pulling is too strong for her insubstantial grabbing, leaving only five gouge marks in the soft earth as she’s dragged into the emptiness, finally all that’s left above the hole in reality, is Ranma’s fear filled face, which then turns into a visage of absolute furry seeing her family, friends, lover, and killers, all doing nothing to help her as her face is pulled into the blackness, leaving only her arm sticking up and flailing to slowly sink below through the same blackness.
Then there is nothing.
When just as it came, cold wind began to swirl over the void, a small twister forming, and pulling at the blackness, and pushing, pulling downward, and the darkness shrank, smaller and smaller, still with a small whirlwind over it, until it was but a speck.
The wind died suddenly, no lights, no sound, just stopped. Revealing a patch of vegetation free black soil, in a perfect circle, with only 5 thin marks in the soil as testament as to what happened.
Minutes pass, and there is silence in the Tendo dojo. Only three beings there knowing the significance, of just exactly what happened, and only one, knowing the horror that awaits the young soul of Ranma.
Then the attention is drawn back to the remains of Ranma, as Nodoka slowly approaches the body of the daughter she never had. Looking down on the mangled flesh, she says with absolutely no inflection, in a dead voice to no one in particular. “Call the police… tell them there’s been a training accident…”
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I wasn't planning on it, but I'm thinking of stopping there for chapter one, and have Ranma's "wake up" in hell be in chapter 2. Where there'll be explanations of what the "Hell" is going on here!
Thanks!