I think I'm spending to much time with Ranma 1/2 comics. I'm starting to
inherit Ranma's traits such as saying really stupid things and then 
getting fried for it later. I just hope I don't take on Ranma's most 
well known trait because it rains an awful lot around here and try 
explaining that to someone. Anyway, those who remember "The Mirror Has 
Two Faces" this is the next chapte in a huge series of fics. 

NOTE ABOUT GUNSMITH CATS/DUKES OF HAZZARD FIC: The last part will be out
by the end of the week I hope. Oh, and to those who requested the first 
two parts, unfortunately these were deleted by some idiot, who is now 
dead, before I could post them so they no longer exist unless someone 
else saved them. Sorry. 
 
-The Emperor


The Crimson Empire Presents...
Ranma 1/2: In The Shadows Of Nerima
Episode Two:
BlackLight
By Stephen Schlueter

Our Story So Far: 
The miracle cure intended to cure Ranma of changing into a girl
backfired and gave him a serious split personality disorder
instead. Ranma became bent on killing everyone and injured
Tsubasa, Ryoga, The Kunos and Akane in his attempts. He also
burned down Uuchan's Okonomiyaki and the Kuno house. 
     Ranma, stuck as a girl in Dr. Tofu's office, is under the
doctor's observations in case the cure for Ranma's messed up
brain chemistry fails.


Prologue:

     The black clouds obscured the sun and the nagging rain
pattered annoyingly on the clinic roof. The last week had been
nothing but dismal weather in Nerima. It was almost like a sign
of darkness.
     Ranma-Chan was bored out of her mind. She had spent the last
week in Dr. Tofu's clinic with virtually nothing to do except
watch the rain much of the time. Ranma-Chan couldn't change back
since the doctor feared that his evil half might pop-up. If the
cure failed the nice sweet Ranma-Chan personality would be much
easier to deal with.
     The bitter cold and relative warmth of th clinic'c sterile
facilities kept a thin layer of fog on the windows. Ranma-Chan
just sat on the bed and stared out at the black void of clouds
and rain. Her mind wandered. There was nothing else for it to do.
     Later that afternoon, Akane showed up to change the bandage
on her shoulder and visit Ranma. The weather had prevented most
people from visiting her, Not that Ranma cared in the slightest.
     "Why do you keep comin' in here?" Ranma-Chan grumbled, her
back turned to Akane "The only reason you're here is to get that
bandage on your shoulder changed, so why don't you just go home
now, hm?" Ranma sounded bitter. Perhaps it was the constant
hatred and anger towards him that had created the evil
personality.... perhaps it was more the lonliness.
     "I... I just came to check on you.." said Akane nervously
"Everyone's worried about you."
     "You're lying." Ranma-Chan said coldly "They wish I was
dead, they're scared.. scared for their pathetic little lives
that I'll suddenly attack them. Ryoga would've killed me if he
had the chance, but he couldn't do it in front of witnesses. That
would have been murder I believe." Ranma-Chan stared at the solid
black sleeves of her shirt with the white cuffs "They're
scared..." she looked up "You're scared..."
     "What?!!" shouted Akane "I am not!!!"
     "Then why are you keeping your distance?" said Ranma-Chan
turning her head just enough to see Akane's face "As I recall,
you were terrified of me... because I was finally fighting back.
You always felt I could be your punching bag, that I would never
hurt you. That was why you were scared, your pride backfired on
you. You have that bandage on your shoulder because maybe you
pushed me a little to far...."
     "You remember that?" said Akane.
     "I do.." said Ranma-Chan "I remember everything, not that I
told anyone. I didn't mean to do it, of course. But people, when
someone abuses them, store it up. The scar that's on your
shoulder will always remind you of that now. It seems this time
it was you, not me, who suffered for not thinking about their
actions."
     Ranma sounded deeply philosophical, of course she had all
week to think. 
     The rain pattered loudly on the clinic windows. 


Chapter One: The Ruins.

     The Kuno house had been reduced to burnt and rotting ashes.
The members of the Tendo household looked about the wreckage. 
     Ranma, who had just been declared cured, wandered though the
maze of debris. "Wonder who did all this?" he said knowing that
no one would tell him that he had done it. Akane considered
saying something but decided not to bother.
     Ranma had changed into different clothes as soon as he had
the chance. The black clothes had started to scare Ranma as
though they had been responsible for his actions.
     Akane almost tripped over something. She looked down at the
object she had stumbled on. It was a box. A green metal box.
     "What is that?" asked Genma.
     "I don't know." replied Akane.
     She opened the box. Inside were lots of long, slender black
crystals about two or three inches long. Akane could see her
warped reflection in the layers of shining black.
     By now everyone had gathered to see. Akane held one of the
crystals in her hand. The crystal seemed to emit a dark glow for
a moment... then, suddenly it shattered violently and crumbled to
dust. The breeze carried the small black particles from Akane's
hand as they drifted off into the sky.
     "Oh my.." began Kasumi "Those are fragile."
     "Hmm..." Mr. Tendo thought for a moment "Well, we can't
leave them here.. we'll take them home and return them to the
Kunos when they get back from the hospital."
     The group agreed to take the box home. As they walked off
someone watched them from the shadows.


Chapter Two: The Walking Mirror.

     Ranma sat in the bathtub wondering how he was ever going to
forget the events of the last week and the days before. He
wondered if anyone would ever trust him again. He had not face
Ukyo or Tsubasa since he got back. He didn't want to.
     Just then he heard something. Someone was opening the window
from the outside of the house. Ranma had always found it a tad
unusual to have a window near the bathtub. He wondered what was
going on but he wasn't about to get up to find out.
     Ranma was about to go back to his thoughts when Akane
climbed through the window. At least it looked like Akane, but
there were subtle differences. Her hair was darker, so were her
eyes and her skin was slightly paler. All and all she looked as
though she had a shadow permanently cast over her body.
     "Akane!!" shouted Ranma as he quickly put his hands in his
lap to cover himself "What the hell are you doing in here?!!!"
     "Relax, already." Akane began "It's nothing I haven't seen
before."
     It was true, when they first met there was that incident
involving the bathtub. Ranma had tried to forget it.
     "Would you just get out of here already?!" Ranma yelled with
a certain amount of panic.

     "What's going on up there?" mumbled Nabiki turning her head
towards the direction of the bathroom "Who's arguing with Ranma
in there?"
     "Oh, dear." began Kasumi "Akane should really learn to pick
more appropriate times."
     "More appropriate times for what, Kasumi?" asked Akane as
she walked in.
     "Wait a minute." said Nabiki "You mean you're not the one
arguing with Ranma?" 
     "I can't be in two places at once, you know." Akane replied
sarcastically.
     "Well... if it's not you then who is it?" asked Kasumi.

     "Why are you so mad?" said Akane "Because I saw you naked?"
     "Listen..." Ranma began.
     "Would you rather see me naked as a trade-off?" said Akane
cutting him off."
     "What??!!!" said Ranma with more than a little surprise.
     "All right!" shouted Nabiki as she swung open the door with
Kasumi and another Akane behind her "What's...." she stopped
suddenly when she saw the other, somewhat darker Akane.
     The Dark Akane turned toward the three sisters in the
doorway. 
     "What's going on?" shouted Akane as she stepped in front of
Nabiki. Akane stopped in her tracks.
     "What the..." began Ranma "There's two of 'em!"
     The Dark Akane walked up to her lighter counterpart with a
wooden bucket in her hand. "I was looking for you." she said
coldly. The Dark Akane smashed Akane over the head with the
bucket then threw her against the far wall.
     "What going on here?!!" shouted Mr. Tendo as he came
charging down the hall "It sounds like World War 3 in here!!"
     "What is this?!!! A convention?!!" shouted Ranma.
     By now everyone was watching the two Akanes attacking each
other. Everyone was too busy standing there with stupid looks to
do anything.
     "Don't just stand there, Ranma!" shouted Nabiki "Stop that
crazy person!"
     "Which one?" Ranma shouted back, he couldn't tell the
difference between the two. By the time everyone's attention had
turned back to the Akanes, the Dark Akane had vanished leaving
the battered true Akane lying in a corner on the floor.
     "Wh.. what" Ranma began "What the hell was that?!"

       
Chapter Three: The Night Patrol.

     It was alreay dark out by the time Akane, Ranma and Ryoga
had left in search of Akane's attacker. Ryoga, who had just
conveintlyt appeared, insisted on going with them.
     "So..." began Ryoga "What does this person look like?"
     "She looks just like Akane." replied Ranma.
     "What?!" stammered Ryoga.
     "Do't bother, none of us have a clue either." Ranma went on.

     Meanwhile, the Darker Akane was watching from the rooftops.
She smiled seeming fairly smug. "You're pretty stupid, Akane."
she began "And you're going to pay for your stupidity with your
life... but first... there's something else that I want to take
from you first.." She held a black gymnastic ribbon from Akane's
training for the fight with Kodachi. "So I guess I'll kill you
later."

     Ranma felt something wrap around his wrist.
     "Hey!" he said. Ryoga and Akane turned towards him. 
     "A gymnastic ribbon?" said Akane.
     "Must be Kodachi." said Ranma.
     "No, it not." The Dark Akane stood on one of the street
lamps with the other end of the ribbon in her hand. She yanked on
the ribbon pulling Ranma several feet into the air. Ranma shouted
a flailed wildly trying to get down. Seconds later, the Dark
Akane knocked him out using a mallet. Some things never change.
     "Ranma!!" shouted Akane running towards the lifeless
dangling form. The Dark Akane took off with Ranma over her
shoulder.
     "Hey!" shouted Akane "Get back here!!" But they had already
disapeared into the darkness of the night.

Epilogue: In Search Of Ranma.

     The next morning Ukyo, Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse sat
around the table with the rest of the Tendos as they explained
what was going on and what had happened.
     "You lost him?!!" Ukyo and Shampoo shouted in unison.
     "Akane so stupid to let Ranma get taken like sack of rice."
said Shampoo.
     "Why didn't you do something?!!" shouted Ukyo.
     "That's not the point right now." said Mr. Tendo "We have to
find this strange girl and Ranma. Those are our main concerns
right now. Blame can be laid later."
     "So who is this girl?" asked Mousse.
     "She looks like Akane..." said Mr. Tendo.
     The converasation would only continue for a few more minutes
before the search would begin.

THE END

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Okay, I admit it, this is a shameless cliffhanger 
intended to increase hype for episode three. Actually this is just a 
lead in to a much bigger plot. I really went all out on the prologue 
though which I think is the best part of this fic. 

-The Emperor













------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emperor Stephen "The Mega Man" Schlueter
Leader Of The Crimson Empire
"It's not like I start the fights or anything. She just overreacts to 
every little thing." -Ranma Saotome
------------------------------------------------------------------------