Here you go. :)
A note... the machine Transpacific is on will probably be down til
Sunday... I'll try to set up an alternate archive page.
-------
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LOS Website at: http://www.humbug.org.au/~wendigo/los.html
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Other works by Susan Doenime, Mike Loader, and Alan Harnum can be found
at: http://www.humbug.org.au/~wendigo/transp.html
----------------------------------------------------
* Last One Standing * by Mike Loader *
----------------------------------------------------
* All R1/2 characters and situations are the creations
and Property of Takahashi Rumiko, and are used without
her knowledge or permission, either explicit or implied.
No challenge or claim can or should be percieved to the
validity of any copyrights from the posting of this work.
Please do not reproduce this work in a public forum
without permission from the author. *
----------------------------------------------------
Canto 3 - Blood Ties
Through a door that leads to a fire blazing red
Where she makes no distinctions
'tween the living and the dead.
She can find your secret madness
She knows your secret name
What demons do you hide, my friend?
What creatures lurk inside, my friend?
To her, you know, it's really all the same.
Beasts and demons laugh and yell
The lonely midwife sings
They dance about like puppets
But the Lady works their strings
- Boiled in Lead
Kick. Punch. Kick.
Stupid tomboy, Ranma thought.
Punch. Feint. Kick.
The practice dummy was beginning to look more than a
little battered. He had gone out in the yard to train until Akane
got back. The sun had set, and he was still out here.
Take her for a walk, he had told Ryouga. Talk to her. Find
out if she's really okay with this challenge. A _walk_, for
crying out loud, not a vacation!
What had he been thinking, sending her off with Ryouga
like that? He'd gone through hell in the past to make sure they
_didn't_ have long, solitary walks like this! Yeah, maybe
Ryouga was fixed on Akari now, but he wasn't completely over
Akane... and she always did seem to like him...
Stupid tomboy.
They should have been back by now. Dinner was over. Had
they eaten together in a cafe, by candlelight? Ryouga could
have given her a gift, and they could have eaten together,
laughing...
No. Not Akane.
Or... or maybe something had happened. Maybe Anjin had
hurt her. Maybe she was in a hospital right now, and he hadn't
been there to do anything.
Ranma forced himself to relax. Ryouga was an idiot, but
he certainly wasn't going to let Akane get hurt right in front of
him. And a hospital would have called the Tendos.
They had probably just gotten lost. Yeah, that had to be
it. Akane had probably let Ryouga lead the way, and before she
knew it they were in Osaka, or Kyoto, or who knew where.
She'd roll her eyes and get them a train ticket, and they'd get
home tomorrow morning.
That had to be it.
Ranma kicked the post viciously, unleashing a fast set of
punches as he did. It tottered, creaked in protest, and then
toppled to the ground.
Stupid tomboy.
He slowly turned around and walked into the house. There
wasn't much he could do out here, and it was getting dark.
Akane would just have get home when she felt like it. It
wasn't like there was any reason to be concerned. None at all.
***
The hallway was long, and dark, and it seemed as though
she had been walking forever.
Well, not forever, Akane mentally amended. Hours,
perhaps. An hour. Maybe not even that. It was hard to tell in
this place.
The floor her footsteps echoed on was lined with black
tile, chipped and broken in places. The walls were of some
material she couldn't identify; the lack of color in this world
made her sense of texture uncertain at best.
Roughly every five minutes - she had counted - she would
pass a black picture frame, inside which was mounted a
featureless black canvas. Who had hung them? Were they just
naturally occurring features of this place?
Akane swallowed, her footfalls loud in her ears. The
magnitude of what she was doing was beginning to sink in. She
was going to walk into another dimension, or world, or
whatever, fight her way through a bunch of creatures from
myth and legend, rescue Ryouga - Ryouga, for heaven's sake! -
and somehow escape.
Yeah, right. Maybe next she would go fight Cologne with
both hands tied behind her back, or challenge Ukyou to an
okonomiyaki bakeoff while blindfolded.
Still, what else could she do? Leaving Ryouga there was
not an option. Getting help would be next to impossible; Ranma
apparently wasn't able to, Shampoo wouldn't be interested, and
she didn't want to put Ukyou in harm's way. Besides which, she
suspected that you had to be able to phase to enter this world,
and there wasn't time to teach any of the others.
So it was just her and the incredibly ugly sword Tofu had
given her.
With luck, she wouldn't have to use it. But she doubted
she had that much luck in her.
One more little fact to dwell upon at day's end. She had
killed. Not a human being, but an intelligent, sentient creature;
a Kitsune.
Akane still wasn't sure how to feel. A bit numb, perhaps.
It bothered her that she didn't feel worse about it. The events
on the hill still seemed unreal, hazy, like a bad dream. Maybe
that was part of it.
And, to be honest, the creature's death had been more a
positive event than anything else. It had been trying to rip out
her throat, it had scared her out of her wits, and she couldn't
think of a single good thing to say about it. It actually gave her
a feeling of relief to know that it was dead.
Did that make her a killer? She didn't think so. It
troubled her all the same.
She passed another black frame, and idly wondered where
she was. The Gloaming, Tofu had called this place, and
Underneath was where the Nogitsune Kitsune lived. So what
else lived here? Who had built this tunnel?
And why, she suddenly wondered, was there a long
hallway leading from the analogue of Doctor Tofu's office to
the edge of the Underneath?
Akane frowned and bit her lip. She suddenly had a lot of
questions to ask, with no-one to answer them.
The hallway seemed to widen after a while, and in the
distance she caught sight of a barrier of some sort. Quickening
her pace, she began to lope forward at a near-run.
It turned out to be a door made of rough wood, a small
crescent moon carved into it making a windowlike slit. Cold
air rushed through it, rustling the hair on her brow.
Akane hesitated for a minute, and then pushed it open.
Trees greeted her, evergreens and pines stretching away
for as far as she could see.
Silently she stepped outside, and her vision seemed to
ripple.
She could see colors again, Akane suddenly realized. The
trees were green, the trunks a blackish-brown. But all were of
a dark composition, as though the artist who had painted this
landscape had mixed all his colors with a strong black dye and
faded the result with charcoal.
She looked around, suddenly curious as to what she had
emerged from, and blinked.
It was a small wooden outhouse, no more than a few feet
across. She got a brief, maddening glimpse of the long
passageway through the open door, and then a gust of wind
blew it shut with a loud slap.
Suddenly feeling very lost, Akane tugged open the door
again.
A gasp of dismay escaped her lips. The passageway was
gone. Inside was simply a wooden toilet seat and a catalog
missing half its pages.
Her way back was gone. Not that she had expected to turn
back, but the fact that the option was there had been one of the
things propping up her resolve. Now, though... now she was lost
in a dark forest in another world inhabited, as best she knew,
by fox-beings who for some reason wanted to kill her.
Not one of her better days, she thought miserably.
Oh well. Standing and staring at a toilet wouldn't do her
much good.
She chuckled, her insides suddenly telling her that in at
least one way the transformation had been fortunate. With a
certain grim humor, she stepped inside, made use of the
facilities, and then emerged, leaving the catalog with two less
pages.
A moment's study revealed that the outhouse had a small
track leading away from it. Akane hesitated for a second, then
decided that it was better than wandering aimlessly off into
the forest, and certainly better than just standing there.
As she walked, she couldn't help but notice the way the
place seemed at once sterile and suffocating. No insects
seemed to buzz or hop about, no squirrels darted across the
path. But the trees seemed to go up and up, and the branches
hid the sky from view.
Was there a sky?
Of course there was, she firmly told herself. There had to
be.
After a minute or two of walking, the path opened up into
a clearing. A cabin, the chimney smoking, sat in the middle of
it.
She started to walk towards it, then hesitated. What sort
of person - what sort of thing - made its home here? Was
there a squad of Kitsune inside, waiting to pounce upon her?
She stared at the cabin, torn, and then the door swung
open.
The figure that emerged was short, and dressed in baggy
greens and blacks. A leather hatband and the tattered remains
of a hat brim held a shock of unruly black hair in place. A
shotgun was casually held in one small hand, but only a pair of
green eyes seemed to be aimed at her.
He had to be all of eleven years old, Akane guessed.
"Hello?" she said cautiously, keeping a careful eye on the
gun. She wasn't sure what a kid was doing here, and she wasn't
completely convinced that he was a child at all. The memory of
the almost-Ranma on the hill was still lurking in the back of
her mind.
"Hello," the boy said, an undertone of amusement in his
voice.
Akane waited for a second. The boy smiled slightly.
"Who are you?" she asked, feeling slightly awkward.
"Mika," he replied. The grin grew broader.
"Is something funny?" she said, slightly annoyed. Of all
the things she had been expecting to face, the amusement of a
grade-schooler with a shotgun wasn't among them.
He nodded. "The way you're standing there."
She scowled. Another Ranma. Wonderful. "And why is the
way I'm standing so amusing?"
"Because the Kamaitachi are going to kill you in a few
more seconds unless you move."
Akane stared at the boy. He grinned, nodded, and then
something leaped at her from the side.
Akane jumped backwards as fast as she could, her sword
scything out as she did so. She saw what appeared to be a
fanged, squealing, gnashing set of jaws close in on her like a
guided missile, and desperately threw herself to the side,
slashing upwards as she did so.
There was a scream like a crazed rat, and the thing spun,
a bloody slash along its flank spurting crimson. Akane heard
the roar of the shotgun, and then the thing lunged towards her
with inhuman speed.
The sword caught it beneath the jaws, sinking into
matted, mud-colored fur. Akane was slammed back against a
tree by the impact, and she watched with horrified fascination
as the creature began to push itself further up the blade,
impaling itself deeper as it struggled to get the slashing jaws
closer...
It convulsed, suddenly, and went still.
Shakily, Akane pushed the thing off her blade with one
foot. Lying on the ground, she could see that it was about the
size of a large dog, mostly composed of ugly, unkempt fur and a
long, sinuous body. It looked like a giant weasel, she thought,
save for the huge set of jaws that dominated the head. It didn't
seem to have any eyes.
Turning to look at the porch, she saw the boy lower his
shotgun. Two more of the things lay sprawled at the edge of
the clearing, twitching slightly.
"Thank you so very much for warning me," Akane said,
forcing herself to keep her tone even. "I could have been killed,
you know."
The boy grinned again. "I don't think so. You're good
enough to take one of them by yourself."
"How did you know that?" she asked, suspicious. Those
things had been _fast_.... for the boy to hit both of them with
fatal shots...
"I didn't," he said simply. "But if you weren't, something
here would have killed you before long anyway. Do you want
some food?"
Akane stared at him. The green eyes stared back. "I
don't..."
"If I was going to hurt you, I could just shoot you," he
pointed out. "I promise it isn't poisoned or anything."
She sighed, and stepped forward. "All right. I am a bit
hungry."
He nodded, and smiled as she followed him inside. "Is
deer okay?"
Akane nodded, amused in spite of herself. "Cooked,
right?"
"I can cook it if you like."
She stopped in the doorframe, glancing around at the
cabin. A wooden table and some chairs stood near a hearth, and
a bookshelf leaned precariously against one wall. On a
sideboard in a corner, the carcass of a stag bled.
A heap of furs in one corner seemed to provide a rough
bed, a battered knapsack lying tossed in a corner of it.
"Who are you?" she asked, less afraid than confused.
"What are you?"
"I'm Mika the Raven," he told her, setting the shotgun
down on the table. "And I'm a hunter."
"Where are your parents?" Akane asked. Perhaps he was
an orphan?
"Where are yours?" Mika pulled a long knife out of his
jacket, strolled over to the stag, and began to cut a bit off.
"Somewhere else," she said. Somewhere a long, long ways
away. "But I'm older than you."
Mika glanced up to look at her. "I know. You're the oldest
and the youngest."
Akane blinked. Did he mean the youngest of her family?
And the oldest of what, her and him? "Excuse me?"
He shook his head. "How much do you want, Oneechan?"
"Just a little." She smiled slightly. "And now I'm
'Oneechan'?"
"Yup. You are." Mika sliced off a cut of meat, and moved to
hold it over the hearth.
She laughed. "My little brother should treat his big sister
better, then, instead of letting her almost get eaten by... by...
What were those things, anyway?"
"Kamaitachi. There's a couple packs of them around."
Akane recognized the name from another fairytale. The
sickle-weasels, who always hunted in threes and were faster
than the wind, faster than lightning... "Another damn living
myth."
"Not anymore."
She smiled. "Isn't it dangerous, living here with those
things running around?"
Mika shook his head. "They don't attack me. They know
better. Besides, I'm just here for a while." He turned the meat
over, letting the flames lick each side equally. "I'll be moving
on soon."
Akane wasn't sure whether to be amused or alarmed by
his confidence. The Kamaitachi weren't quite as fast as legend
claimed, but they were still swift enough to be very, very
dangerous. Unarmed, she wasn't sure how she would have done...
and she strongly doubted that she could have held off three at
once. A pack of them would probably have eaten this little
fellow up in one gulp, if they ever jumped him.
Then again, Mika was decidedly uneaten at the moment.
"Where are you from?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I don't think I'm really from anywhere. I
travel a lot, following things." With a flip of the knife, he
tossed the hunk of meat onto a chipped china plate and slid it
across the table to her. "What's your name, Oneesan?"
"Oh! Sorry, I'm Tendo Akane," she told him, slightly
embarrassed. "Pleased to meet you." She bit off a hunk of the
offered meat, and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor.
"You're a good cook, Mika."
"Thanks, Oneesan." He smiled almost shyly, and scratched
at the shock of black hair above the hatband. "I do it a lot."
"I can't cook at all," she admitted. "I want to, but I'm no
good at it. Maybe someday I'll learn."
"It's not your job," Mika said, looking amused.
She glanced at him, half-amused, half-surprised. "Well,
shouldn't your older sister be able to cook?"
He shook his head. "I don't think it works that way."
"My older sister cooks for us." Akane sighed. "I always
wanted to be able to cook like Kasumi, but I can't. I can't do a
lot of the things she can." A sour chuckle emerged. "Mostly I
break things."
Mika nodded solemnly. "That's your job."
"Are you the one who divides up labor, Mika-kun?" she
said, chuckling.
His face darkened slightly. "Not me. I just hunt and wait."
"For what?"
"To hunt some more." He stared at her. "You don't know
much, Oneesan."
"Sometimes I feel like I don't know anything," Akane
admitted. "I just want to get my friend out of..." She blinked, a
thought suddenly occurring to her. "Mika, do you know where
the Kitsune are? The Nogitsune?"
"They're all over Underneath," he said seriously. "There's
a big barrow to the west with a lot of them. But they have
lodges like this all over the place."
"Would they have taken..." A cold feeling shot down her
back as the words fully registered. "Mika... Mika, is this a
Kitsune lodge?"
"It was, yeah."
She jumped to her feet. "Mika, they're hunting me. We'd
better leave as quickly as..."
He laughed. "Don't worry, Oneesan. They won't bother me."
It was hard to tell whether or not to believe him, she
thought with frustration. There was something odd about him,
about this place, about the way he'd shot down the other two
Kamaitachi, but he was only eleven or ten... "Mika, have you
ever seen a Kitsune?"
"I saw the ones I killed for this lodge," he told her,
smiling slightly. "I needed a place to sleep. And I shot one in
the woods yesterday because he tried to run away. Those are
the only ones I've seen this week."
Akane stared at him, suddenly certain he was telling the
truth. "Who are you?"
"I'm Mika the Raven, Oneesan," he said. "I told you that
already."
"I've never had a little brother who massacres Kitsune
before," she said with a calm she didn't feel.
"First time for everything." He looked up sharply,
frowning. "Why are you here? I knew you'd come, but I don't
know why."
"You knew I'd come?" she repeated dumbly. "How?"
"Just knew. I usually know where my sisters are."
"I am not your sister," Akane said forcefully. "Were you
waiting for me?"
He nodded. "I wanted to meet you. Are you here for our
other sister?"
"What sister?" Akane demanded. The boy was beginning to
both confuse and frighten her. "Nabiki? Kasumi?"
Mika shook his head. "Our sister. Guess not."
"I'm here for my friend Ryouga," she said. "The Nogitsune
took him. Do you know where they might have taken him?"
"They took him?" Mika bit his lip, his green eyes suddenly
narrowing to slits. "Oh. They probably took him to the barrow.
Are you going to try to get him back?"
She nodded. "Yes. I have to." Hesitating, she studied the
boy, her conscience struggling with the request. "I don't
suppose you could help me?"
Mika stared at the table for a second, and then shook his
head. "I can't, Oneesan. The Fair Lady doesn't come into the
forests after me, and I don't go into the barrows. It's your job."
"That's okay. He's my friend, not yours." Standing, she
glanced out the window. "I have to get going, Mika. Thanks for
the deer."
The boy nodded. "Oneesan... be careful."
Akane forced a smile. "I will be. I have iron, and I'm told
Kitsune don't like it."
He nodded, face troubled. "But our sister doesn't mind it,
and the Fair Lady isn't as sensitive to it as the Kitsune are."
"Sister?" she asked, a sinking feeling rising in the pit of
her stomach.
He nodded. "She's the middle one. She's younger than you,
and I'm a lot older than her, but she's still..." He froze. "She's
not that far off. You'd better leave, Oneesan. I might have to
kill you if you don't."
Akane looked at him for a second, nodded tersely, and
stepped out the door. "Goodbye, Mika the Raven."
"Goodbye, Oneesan. You'll see me again."
And she probably would, Akane thought dazedly, running
from the cabin. It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen of
late.
The barrow was west, Mika had said, and had pointed to
the left. Akane began to angle that way, suddenly feeling a
need to move quickly. Maybe something was hunting her, and
maybe it was just her imagination... but the quicker this was
done, the better.
Mika the Raven remained standing in the door for a long
time, watching her go. When she finally faded from sight
amidst the trees, he sighed, walked back into the cabin, and
picked up his shotgun and shouldered his knapsack. Taking a
candle from the hearth, he set the curtain aflame, and watched
until the windowframe had begun to burn.
"The circle is closed," he whispered, something in his
voice afraid, and something gleeful and expectant. Then,
chuckling, he dashed into the woods and headed south for the
lands now crawling with Hisa Mei.
From a ridge to the north, a gaunt figure watched a
column of smoke and flame rise from the clearing, scowled,
and moved on faster than before.
***
The Fair Lady sat in her parlor and sewed.
The needle she used was bone and silver, two materials
which pleased her and complemented her beauty admirably. The
parlor itself was mostly made of them as well, since silver
was beautiful and bones, after all, were plentiful in a barrow.
So the walls were femurs and the floorboards were ribs and
tibias, and the overall effect was quite pleasing to her.
The Kitsune swarmed about the barrow, agitated. The
Hunter was in the forests, and the Fisher was Underneath, and
all of them remembered previous visits by those two. The
Kitsune had long memories, especially for cold iron and those
with the power to use it.
The Hunter, the Fisher , and the... other one. All three. The
Kitsune were afraid, or at least experiencing the analogue of
the human emotion of fear. The barrow literally stank of it.
And this, too, was pleasing to her.
The Lady deftly threaded her needle with black and
yellow, and sewed. A boy dressed in those colors quickly
appeared on the cloth, a chain of something harder than silver
about his neck and arms. The thread changed color as she wove,
her needlework rapid and sure.
After a time, she absently stopped to examine her work.
Selecting a second needle, she began to pick out the form
of a girl next to him, with short, blue-black hair and a yellow
gi. She sewed faster and faster, the girl's features coming
clearly into focus, and then stopped. A whimsical smile
crossed her face, and she added a poker to the girl's hands,
stitching the end of it in glowing orange and red threads.
A hesitant knocking sounded at the door, and the Lady
reluctantly set down her sewing. "You may enter."
The door swung open, and a Kitsune entered, head bowed
low in deference. "Fair Lady."
"Tamamo," the Lady graciously replied, treating the
Kitsune to a smile. "You are well?"
"Well enough for having spent the last few centuries
sealed inside a rock," the Kitsune said cautiously, brushing her
hand along a golden-furred arm. Her tail lashed nervously out
from the back of her richly brocaded kimono, blurring into nine
parts as it flicked back and forth. "The Gakido, the Demon Road,
has been seen, Fair Lady. There are whispers in the wind that it
runs towards Mount Teidi."
"Does it pass through Underneath?" the Lady asked.
"No, Fair Lady, not yet. I have sent scouts along it to
trace its course, but the Hisa Mei are swarming about it. It is
difficult."
"My Hunter has killed several of them, of late," the Lady
said petulantly. "You are not trying hard enough."
"The Hunter kills everything," Tamamo bitterly replied.
"Including my scouts, and once nearly me. He is making our job
harder."
The Fair Lady smiled and nodded. Tamamo gritted her
teeth.
"Lady, I have served you as well as any Kitsune," she
slowly said. "And all of my nine tails have come in your
service. I brought down Pan-Tsu, and the dynasty of the Chou,
and the Son of Heaven himself nearly fell to my charms. I spent
what seems like an eternity bound in a rock on the plain of
Nasuno, killing those who rested against me, all for your cause.
Have I not served you well?"
"You have," the Lady said, smiling.
"Then, Fair Lady, is it too much to ask that you keep your
pet mortals from killing those of your children engaged in
efforts on your behalf?"
The Lady thought for a second.
"Yes," she finally said. "It is too much to ask."
Tamamo shrieked as razors seemed to slide up her bones,
and fell to her knees in agony before the Lady's white wicker
chair. A beautiful, white-slippered foot kicked her in the side
of the head, the force of the blow sending the golden-furred
Kitsune tumbling across the room to land in a heap by the
fireplace.
As the Lady smiled gently, Tamamo lay by the crackling
hearth, the pain beginning to recede from her body. The flames
seemed to scream, and she realized that the flues were
carrying noises up from somewhere further below.
She couldn't make out many coherent words in it, other
than a name and the word 'stop', shrieked over and over again...
"'Akane'?" she said gingerly, slowly rising from the floor.
The Lady nodded. "She will be coming soon."
Tamamo blinked. She knew all of the Nogitsune Kitsune
by name and smell, at least those of any importance, and there
were none by that name. And none of the Lady's other servants
would have such a...
Her eyes widened. "Fair Lady! Not the third?"
"She will be coming soon."
Tamamo felt fear knot her fur, and her tails lashed.
"Lady, it is too dangerous. Use the Hunter; he is an old and
potent tool. Use the Fisher; newly come to service. But all
three, at once, and especially that one..."
"Do not worry, Tamamo. And do not question."
"Yes, Fair Lady."
The screams wafted up, louder than before. The Fair Lady
blinked slowly, and made a dismissing gesture with one hand.
Tamamo bowed, and silently left.
With a satisfied noise, the Lady picked up her sewing,
noting with interest how the girl in the yellow gi was now
applying the poker to the needlework form of the chained boy.
With a low giggle, she sewed a wide splash of blue across the
agonized face of thread, and watched as the strands rearranged
themselves to form a small black piglet.
A few more passes with the needle added a boiling pan
and a set of thin silvery skewers to the needlework girl's hand.
Smiling, the Fair Lady set the cloth down on a low side table
and selected a fresh white napkin, upon which she began to
embroider a stylized assortment of baby chicks and rabbits.
Squeals echoed up the flue, and the fire crackled. It was
pleasing to her.
***
Akane walked on, the trees looming over her like giants.
She still sensed that she was being pursued, but the feeling
was no longer as intense as it had been.
After leaving Mika's cabin, she had kept moving steadily
west. A smell of smoke from behind her had momentarily
caused her to hesitate, and then instead made her redouble her
pace.
She hadn't seen a barrow yet... but then again, she wasn't
completely sure what one looked like. A mound of some sort,
she supposed. Perhaps a hill.
That brought to mind images of the last hill she had been
on, and a shudder ran through her. She was running from
something, but what was she running towards? A pit full of
demons, by all accounts.
Akane's shoulders slumped slightly. Things were looking
bad, and getting worse. She wasn't out of energy yet, but what
happened when she did tire? There were supposedly more
Kamaitachi roaming around, and they would undoubtedly be
delighted to stumble across a sleeping 16-year-old. She
probably wouldn't even have a chance to wake up.
Although, she grimly thought, if a pack of Kamaitachi
found her it really wouldn't make much difference whether she
was asleep or awake. She was barely a match for one of the
things; three would rip her to pieces in seconds. She was
staying alive only by virtue of luck.
"You're thinking cheerful thoughts today," she said out
loud. Then she chuckled ruefully; she supposed that she had a
right to be gloomy.
In a strange way, she almost wished Mika was with her.
Her younger brother had nothing to fear from Kamaitachi, one
or three or three hundred of them...
"And what makes you think that?" she suddenly muttered,
alarmed. And why on earth did the younger brother title he had
claimed seem to fit so naturally?
Akane was suddenly seized with the desire to just run
through the instructions Tofu had given her, to phase back into
into the real world. To give up. To get Ranma and Ukyou and
Shampoo, all of whom were much better equipped to deal with
this than she was, and let them rescue Ryouga... or at least get
them to come with her.
She stopped, sighed, and forcefully shoved the idea away.
There was limited time, she didn't know if any of the others
would be able to help, and it was at least partly her fault that
this whole mess existed in the first place.
A baying howl suddenly split the air, echoing through the
forest. Akane froze, sucking in her breath, and then another
howl answered it.
A feeling of dread beginning to build in her, and she broke
into a trot. She didn't know what there was in a forest that
made that sort of noise, but she was sure that it was nothing
good.
The wailing howl echoed again, this time closer and off
to her right. Akane swore silently and began to run.
The trunks sped past her as she dashed through the
woods, the darkness somehow not obscuring her vision. A stand
of tightly tangled underbrush blocked her way for a second;
drawing her sword, she hastily cut them away. The baying of
whatever was pursuing her echoed louder and louder, growing
ever nearer, and something like panic began to emerge.
Finally, panting, she dashed through a thicket and froze.
She was on top of a ridge, the ground falling away in a
cliffside before her.
Heart sinking, Akane looked over the edge. The bottom,
several feet below, was a dark tangle of broken branches and
sharp-looking boulders. Jumping would be a good way to get
impaled or break her neck.
She could hear the sound of running feet now, the rhythm
of them suggested something with more than two legs. The
yelping howls were echoing like klaxons, and she knew that in
a minute they would be through the woods and upon her.
Swallowing, Akane glanced wildly around, desperately
seeking some way to escape. Her gaze fell on a particularly
large tree and she scrambled up it, using her sword as a piton
to climb with. Maybe whatever was chasing her couldn't climb,
or wouldn't see her.
Hacking and scrabbling, she pulled herself up onto one of
the lower branches and crouched on it, flat on her belly. If the
thing could climb, she could at least stab at it from above...
The howls and running feet grew closer, and suddenly
Shampoo burst out of the woods and pulled to a halt before the
edge of the ridge.
Akane almost fell out of the tree in shock. Her mouth
opened to call out to the Amazon, and then she remembered the
almost-Ranma Kitsune on the hill, and Akari's voice calling
through the fog, and kept silent.
Shampoo turned, a large, two-handed sword whipping out
of a back sheath, and then a huge white hound leapt out of the
trees.
The Amazon's sword slashed forward in a blur, and the
hound fell in two halves as three more dogs sprang from the
trees. Shampoo retreated backwards, sword moving in a
scything arc as the dogs snarled and began to close cautiously
in from different directions.
Akane bit her lip. Impostor or not, she couldn't just sit
and watch as someone who looked like one of her
acquaintances was ripped apart.
Crawling forward along the branch, she gauged the
distance and jumped, sword high.
The closest dog turned just as her blade stabbed down
into its back. The other two snarled and leapt for the throat of
the Amazon. One fell, head bouncing away into the bushes, and
the second was met by a vicious kick to the body, sending it
sliding away. It scrabbled for traction as it landed, growling,
and then a blow from the two-handed sword severed the top of
its head.
Akane stared at the other girl, sword held in a ready
position, and abruptly realized that this wasn't Shampoo. She
looked enough like her to be her sister or cousin, but the face
was slightly different, and there were subtle variations in her
fighting style.
At the same time, though, she didn't look like a Kitsune...
Akane opened her mouth to say something, and two
figures in green and white charged into the clearing. She spun
to face them, and one look at the odd, silvery blades and the
pinched, white, foxlike faces told her all she needed to know.
One of them ran at her, his blade slashing viciously down
towards her head. Akane darted to the side, allowing the cut to
swing harmlessly past her, and then sliced upward at him.
As she had expected, his sword beat down to block her
attack. What she hadn't expected was what happened next.
Her pitted blade seemed to pass through her opponent's
silver sword as if it had been made of cardboard. It continued
upward to gash the Kitsune's shoulder, ignoring the armored
cuirass he wore.
The fox staggered backwards, dropping the broken hilt of
his weapon. His eyes widened, and then smoke began to pour
from the cut. He opened his mouth to scream and a cloud of
red-tinged steam emerged along with an agonized shriek.
Sickened, Akane turned away as the Kitsune's rapidly
blackening body fell to the ground.
On the other side of the clearing, the other Nogitsune cut
and feinted and danced as the Amazon did the same with her
larger sword. Akane saw to her dismay that the remaining fox
seemed more skilled than the one she had cut down, and that
the Amazon's weapon was clattering against her opponent's
parries rather than hewing through the strange metal.
Yelling wildly, Akane charged, sword held high. Surely
the thing wouldn't be stupid enough to face both of them at
once...
The Kitsune spun as she closed the distance. Its mouth
bared in a snarl, and then the two-handed sword flashed out,
sliding through the thing's chest. It gave a sharp cry, jerked,
and then went limp.
The Amazon gave a snort of satisfaction and wrenched
the sword away, letting the body crumple to the ground.
"Thanks for the help," she said, her voice a low rumble. "Two of
them in addition to the dogs would have been tricky."
Akane nodded, not putting away her sword. "You're
welcome. I think they were after me in the first place, so it's
the least I could do."
The Amazon chuckled. "The Nogitsune are after everyone
in this damn place. Especially humans." She blinked. "You are
human, aren't you? You sound Japanese."
She nodded. "I'm Tendo Akane. From Nerima, in Tokyo."
"Well, Tendo Akane, you're a long way from home.
Stumble into a cave or something?"
"I'm looking for a friend of mine," she cautiously replied.
"The Kitsune took him, and I've come to get him back."
"Brave," the other girl said. "Perhaps not very bright, but
brave."
Akane flushed slightly. "What about you?" she asked
pointedly. "You look like a Joketsuzoku, and you're here as
well... and without cold iron."
The Amazon raised an eyebrow. "You've got a good eye for
tribe, Tendo Akane. I didn't think we were so well known in
Japan."
"You aren't," Akane replied, chuckling. "I just happen to
know several Joketsuzoku. They drug and kidnap and beat me to
a pulp on occasion, in between serving me ramen and hanging
around with us."
"Sounds like us," the other girl said, shaking her head.
"I'm Byen Tai. Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," Akane said, lowering her sword. This clearly
wasn't a Kitsune. "Do you know where a barrow is?"
"The big Nogitsune one? It's right down the trail to the
left, and then along the river. Why?"
"That's where I think they're taken him," Akane said. "At
least, that's what I've been told."
"You're going into a Nogitsune fortress? Brave or dumb
you are, Tendo Akane. Probably both."
"More the latter than the former," Akane muttered. "But I
don't have much choice."
Byen nodded. "Honor. I understand." She glanced down the
side of the ridge, and them smiled. "Mind if I come along? I'm
kind of brave and dumb myself."
Akane glanced at her, startled. "Why? You said yourself
that this is pretty dangerous..."
"I thought you knew Joketsuzoku? We like dangerous.
Besides, you may have saved me there, and if I let you wander
off alone you'll get yourself killed, cold iron or no. I know
Underneath well, and knowing this place is half the trick to
surviving it."
A trickle of suspicion ran through Akane's mind, but was
quickly dammed by the relieving prospect of having someone
else to share the rescue with. "Okay. I certainly don't mind the
company. Just one thing..."
"Hmm?"
Akane drew her sword in a smooth motion, reversed it,
and rapped Byen on the hand with the flat of the blade.
The Amazon looked amused. "Is that a Japanese custom?"
"Just making sure you wouldn't go up in smoke like that
one back there," Akane said, relieved. "No offense, but I don't
really trust you."
"You _do_ know Joketsuzoku!" Byen said, laughing. "Come,
Tendo Akane. The path is this way."
The two girls made their way along the side of the ridge,
Akane following. The branches creaked and swayed above them,
and soon they vanished from sight.
Some time later, a lone figure loped onto the ridge,
studied the bodies, and chuckled harshly. Then she bent and
examined the footprints, a baffled frown slowly spreading
across her lean face.
"Bones?" she muttered, glancing back at the smoking
corpses. "What are you, Tendo?"
Then she set off in pursuit once again.
***
Kodachi shrieked and ran.
Blackness surrounded her, enveloped her. Not the heady,
exhilarating darkness of the nighttime rooftops, but an inky,
suffocating blackness. She could almost feel it in her lungs,
feel it beading on her skin...
She stumbled, quickly pulled herself up, and ran on. The
ground was a blasted heap of rubble, pitted and broken, and full
of places to snag her feet, twist her ankle.
The heavy footsteps pounded behind her, slow and
deliberate, and always closer and closer. She was running as
fast as she could, and it was only walking, and still it was
gaining. There was no escape.
Panting with terror and fatigue, Kodachi pulled to a stop
under a broken column of blackened stone. Slowly, reluctantly,
she turned around.
Two glowing red eyes stared back at her.
"Stay back," she commanded, trying to sound imperious
and confident. It came out as more of a plea.
The thing strode forward, wearing the darkness like a
robe, red eyes burning. It reached behind it, and unshipped a
long, twisting, wickedly-sharp scythe.
Kodachi took a step backwards, and then another. Then
she snarled in defiance and flung a razor hoop at the thing's
head.
The scythe lashed out, and the hoop fell to the ground,
broken. The cowl masking the thing's face seemed to shake
slightly, as if in amused laughter.
Anger suddenly filled her. She would not be mocked. She
would not!
With a cry, she leapt at it, clubs fanning out in a deadly
arc. Several of then struck the thing, and she hurled a heavy
iron ball into its stomach, causing it to grunt in pain. Landing,
she lashed out in a kick, felt it connect, and then sent her
ribbon lashing around the robed figure to tie its arms.
The red eyes blazed, and the ribbon burst into burning
fragments. The scythe swung down at her, and she gasped in
sudden pain as it cut a shallow gash along her side, staining
the purple leotard with a darker crimson.
Enraged, Kodachi leapt for the thing's throat, springing
for it like a jaguar. Her hands closed around a neck, and she
squeezed, yelling in fear and rage.
The figure simply raised the scythe blade, and brought it
over, down, and up.
Kodachi felt the blade slip into her back, and watched in
fascination as the steel tip emerged from her chest. Her hands
clawed at the cowl, and it tumbled free.
She looked into the smiling, horrifyingly familiar face,
the eyes glowing like coals, and screamed. And then the scythe
began to tear its way downward...
Kodachi sat up in bed, her mouth moving soundlessly,
sweat and tears streaming down her face. She could still feel
the burning pain in her chest and back, and was afraid to look,
afraid to see whether or not there was a wound, or a scar, or a
mark.
Now she knew what she was running from. It had chased
her in her dreams every night for weeks, but this was the first
time it had caught up with her.
She mechanically reached for the pill bottle by the
dresser, removed a tablet, and swallowed it. They helped. The
pills let her go back to sleep without fear of the dreams, let
her find peaceful oblivion...
But there were only three more left.
The doctor had said they would help. He had said that if
the dreams got worse, there were other pills. Ones with side
effects, but ones that would be certain to work.
A choked sob escaped her lips. Side effects. How could
they be worse than what tormented her every night?
The muscles underneath her arms and legs began to roil
and spasm, and she gritted her teeth. Her current pills had side
effects too. But it was worth it. The silent, peaceful sleep
afterwards was worth it. She had to walk a little funny,
because of it, but she needed to be able to sleep without fear.
Another spasm shot through her, and she quickly lay flat
on the bed. Her back arched as the convulsions hit with full
strength, and she gritted her teeth and watched as the muscles
under her stomach and arms and legs writhed and twisted.
Finally it passed, and she stood, her legs weak and
shaking. She moved with an odd, shuffling step into the
bathroom, back bent forward as if under a heavy load, and
turned on the shower unit, setting the taps to cold. She stood
under the freezing water for almost a minute, letting it wash
away the sweat and scent of fear, and then turned it off and
staggered into the bedroom.
Still dripping, shivering slightly, she crawled under her
writing desk and curled into a tight ball. Sleep came quickly,
peaceful and dreamless.
***
The two made their way down the side of the ridge,
following a narrow path curving downward.
Akane wasn't sure if it was night or day. It was dark, but
then it had been dark since she had arrived. The branches from
the trees curled overhead, impossibly long, and were lost in
the blackness above. Had it been a day since she had entered
Underneath? Six hours? Two days? She wasn't sure.
She carefully avoided peering over the edge of the cliff.
It was a long way down.
Byen trotted on ahead of her, the huge sword slung across
her back. The Joketsuzoku had led them without hesitation, and
Akane felt somehow sure that they were on the right track. At
the very least, nothing else had attacked them yet.
"So what are you doing here?" she asked as they
descended. "In Underneath, I mean."
Byen shrugged. "I was given a mission. I haven't finished
it yet, and it's led me here."
"The Joketsuzoku know about this place?" Akane asked,
curious.
"They know more than they like to tell," Byen said, a
trace of bitterness entering her voice for a second. "But yes,
we know how to enter this place. And others, as well. And we
know something about what dwells within."
"I know next to nothing," Akane admitted. "Aside from
what I was told about the Kitsune, and what Mika told me..."
Byen stopped. "Mika the Raven? You met Mika the Raven?"
Akane nodded. "He mostly just confused me, although he
did shoot a pair of Kamaitachi that were stalking me. Do you
know him?"
"I know of him. I've never met him, and I don't want to,
either. He's dangerous."
"He seemed nice enough," Akane said, somewhat
defensively. "A little strange, but to be wandering around this
place at that age..."
The Amazon chuckled. "Tendo Akane, from what I've heard
Mika the Raven has been wandering around this place at that
age for the past few centuries, if not longer. Everywhere he
goes, he hunts, and he's not supposed to be too choosy about
what his prey is. Myobu and Nogitsune Kitsune, Tengu, Gaki,
Hisa Mei, Oni, Kappa, mortals... I don't think there's a race alive
he hasn't hunted at one point or another. The Kitsune are
terrified of him, and so is anything else with the sense of a
toad."
Akane stared at her incredulously. "What is he?"
"I don't know. I think he's human, but... it's hard to
explain. He's taken up the mantle of the Hunter, and it makes
him what he is." Byen shrugged. "I mostly just try to keep out
of his way, if possible. There are things in this place, and in
other places outside the Waking World, which are best left
undisturbed."
They passed along a steep switchback curve, and rounded
a cliff edge. The sound of rushing water sounded in the
distance, and before long they passed through a crumbling
archway and onto a crumbling stone causeway.
A river, the water black and swift, flowed past. Massive
trees lined the bank, roots twisting down to drink the water,
their branches forming a tunnel above the rushing flow. The
causeway jutted a few feet out into the water, stairs leading
down to a fragile-looking dock.
Byen strode across it, motioning for Akane to follow.
"This is the river Cocytus. It flows out of the forest and into
the fields of Erebus, where the barrow stands."
Descending the steps, the Amazon walked out onto the
dock. Four wooden boats, their hulls painted in peeling orange
paint, were tied to it; Byen carefully inspected them and then
began to clamber into one.
Akane moved to get in as well, and Byen held up a hand in
warning. "Don't let the water touch you. It doesn't have good
effects on mortals."
Pursing her lips, Akane carefully lowered herself into
the boat. "Like what?"
"I'm not sure. I know the Lethe erases memories, and the
Styx tends to kill..."
Akane snapped her fingers. "Greek mythology, right?"
Byen pulled away the mooring rope, and the boat began to
drift out into the current. "In a fashion. 'Mythology' is just a
mixture of the old lore about places like this and some crazed
shaman's drug-inspired babblings. Different names, same
beings and places. But the Greeks were the ones who best
described the rivers of this place, and so their Greek names
are the ones most commonly used." She picked up a set of oars
from the boat's bottom and began to steer it out into the flow.
"The scenery along the way isn't supposed to be very pleasant,
I'm afraid. The Nogitsune barrow is built at a spot in
Underneath where the realm of the dead seeps through, and all
sorts of unpleasant things wander around."
"This whole place seems to be nothing but unpleasant
things," Akane said, chuckling nervously. "I suppose I can stand
a few more."
"Good. We should be fine if we stick to the river. It's bad
for other things as well as mortals."
They drifted down the river in silence for some time,
Akane gazing at the leaves passing by overhead like a black and
green canopy. The rhythm of the oars against the water almost
lulled her to sleep, and instead she found her mind wandering.
She wondered what Ranma would think about her trip.
Ranma. A lump rose in her throat, and she forced it down
with effort. She wished he was with her. She wouldn't feel so
afraid if he could just be here, smiling cockily, assuring her
that everything would be fine.
'Don't worry,' he'd say. 'I'll show those Kitsune a thing or
two. That jerk Ryouga's sure put me to a lotta trouble, gettin'
himself captured like that. I mean sheesh, how gullible can you
be?'
And he'd stroll into the barrow, beat the crap out of
anything that got in his way, and then they'd all go home.
Kasumi would make them supper, and the next day it would be
business as usual.
"Ranma, where are you?" she whispered.
"Hm?"
"Nothing," she said, embarrassed. She bet that Byen
wasn't wishing her crush was here to hold her hand. Shampoo
probably wouldn't even think about bothering Ranma for a little
jaunt like this.
Stronger. She had to be more reliant, less of a baby. If
that meant being a 'macho tomboy', so be it. She didn't need
Ranma to take care of her. She could take care of herself.
After all, she hadn't had Ranma at Shiningen'ya, or at the
cabin, or when the Nogitsune attacked her and Byen. And she
had taken care of things herself, and come through just fine.
You were scared to death, a little voice reminded her. You
were shrieking and bawling on Shiningen'ya, and it's a miracle
you didn't get yourself killed.
But she hadn't been, she shot back. She had come through
it all, on her own. She could handle this. She could handle this,
because she had to.
Byen started to whistle a intricate tune, somehow
keeping two interweaving melodies going at once. Akane sat
up, glancing curiously at her companion. "Song from home?"
The Amazon nodded. "An old Joketsuzoku traveling song,"
she said, stopping the tune. "Gives me something to row to."
"Would you like me to take a turn at the oars? You've been
going for a while now..."
"That's all right, Tendo Akane. I don't tire as easily as
most, and I suspect you'll need your strength when we get to
the Nogitsune barrow." Byen stared ahead, her face looking thin
and hollow for a second as the light from the branches played
strangely across it. "The fields of Erebus are not wholesome,
and the barrow-mounds of it are less so. We'll be in for a
fight."
"Fine with me," Akane said with more enthusiasm than
she felt. "The Nogitsune haven't had much luck with me so far,
and they'll..."
An odd feeling ran through her, and she slowly turned and
stared down the river.
A small black dot was visible in the distance behind
them. As she watched, it grew larger...
"Byen, something's following us," she said urgently.
The Amazon looked, squinted, and then swore and began
to row faster. "We are in for trouble, Tendo Akane. The Cocytus
is rarely traveled, and almost everything that does venture
upon it is of the fouler sort of being."
Nodding grimly, Akane drew the iron blade. "Well,
whatever it is, it'll get a warm reception if it tries anything."
The dot grew into a dim shape, then into a small boat.
Orange paint showed dimly on it, matching their own, and a
figure stood crouched in the bow.
"It's one of the boats from the causeway," Akane said.
"Something must have been following us..."
The other boat pulled closer, and Akane saw with alarm
that no oars were propelling it. The water around its hull
seemed to froth and churn, as though the river beneath it was
boiling...
Their boat slowed as Byen negotiated a turn in the river,
and the figure in the bow came into clear focus as a shaft of
light from the branches above briefly illuminated her.
"Tetsuko," Akane whispered, shocked. What the hell was
her rival doing here? How had she gotten into the Underneath,
let alone found them?
"What?" Byen asked sharply.
"It's someone I know from back home. She's been trying to
defeat me for a while now. I don't know how serious she is, but
she's played pretty rough in the past." She mentally rattled off
an assortment of curses; there was a time and a place for
rivalries, and this was most certainly neither.
The Amazon glanced behind her, and turned grey. "Oh Lord
Emma, it's the Fisher!"
"You know her?" Akane said, a sinking feeling beginning
to build.
"It's the thrice-damned Fisher! And we're on water! Are
you sure she's after us?"
"Well," Akane said, "she seems to have devoted a fair
amount of time recently to punishing me for a fight we had
two years ago. I'm guessing she's after me." The other boat was
gaining rapidly now, and Akane could see Tetsuko crouched
atop the bow like a vulture, a short, spearlike object in her
hands. "It could be worse. I mean, I've beaten her before, and
with two of us I don't think she'll try..."
"If you have some mighty way to defeat her, do it now!"
Byen snapped. "And hurry!"
"It's just Tetsuko!" Akane snapped back. "She's only about
as good a martial artist as me! Maybe not even that good! What
are you so worried about?"
Byen stared at her. "Tendo Akane, that's the Fisher. She's
like Mika the Raven, who is the Hunter. Normally she's not
supposed to be as dangerous, and certainly not the random
killer that he is, but she has dominion over water." Byen shook
her head fearfully. "She's supposed to be benign, for the most
part, and seldom seen. You're a strange one, Tendo Akane. You
have tea with Mika the Raven, then go on to be hunted by the
Fisher. Usually it's the other way around."
Akane stared back at the gaunt figure following them, a
horrible suspicion building. "The Fisher... does she have any ties
to the Kitsune?"
"They're both supposed to be linked to the Lady in some
fashion, although it's unclear how."
Well, Akane thought grimly, that explained why the
Nogitsune were after her. Tetsuko had sent them to hunt her
down.
Hunt her down and kill her, she suddenly realized, a cold
feeling running through her. The Nogitsune on the hill had tried
to stab her, and the ones hunting Byen had been out for blood as
well. Tetsuko had sent them to kill her, and had kidnapped
Ryouga to lure her in...
"Anjin!" she yelled, anger filling her voice. "I'm going to
beat you to a pulp, you psycho!"
"Don't think so," the other girl called back. "Hold still."
And with that she raised the spear, pulled back her arm, and
threw.
It shot towards Akane with unnatural speed. Tracking it,
Akane raised her sword, the zenlike state used for such
purposes filling her. It would be very bad if she missed...
The sword slashed through the air twice, and the spear
fell into the water in three pieces.
Tetsuko nodded, her face emotionless. Then she bent,
leaned over the side of the boat, and struck the surface of the
water with her fist.
With a roar, a furrow of water shot up the river, heading
straight for their boat.
Byen swore. "That's going to rip us apart!"
Akane desperately glanced to the banks of the river. Too
far; they'd never make it there in time, and now Tetsuko's boat
was speeding towards them, almost keeping pace with the
onrushing wave...
"Byen," she said quietly, "follow me. We're going to jump."
"I told you, the water's..."
"Not into the water."
Byen's eyes widened, and then Akane dashed forward,
shouted, and leapt.
She hung in the air over the river, and then landed almost
on top of Tetsuko.
The Fisher had already begun to bring her pole around, and
Akane had to tumble to the bottom of the boat to avoid being
hit. Byen landed with a thud in the prow a second later, and
Tetsuko had to duck to avoid being decapitated by the two-
handed Chinese sword.
Akane clambered to her feet as Tetsuko warily spun her
pole in a slowly revolving circle, her calm expression belied by
her enraged eyes. "You keep strange comp'ny, Tendo."
"No stranger than yours," Akane snapped back. "Throwing
people to monsters? How could you? I thought this was about
honor!"
Tetsuko's face contorted suddenly, the mask of calm
shattering into pure, naked fury. "Bain't your affair!" she
hissed. "Didn't know until too late! And now you! No more! Die,
you devil bitch! Die an let me be!"
She slammed her pole down, hard, and geysers of water
suddenly shot up around the boat. As Akane watched, tendrils
of black, writhing water shot from the surface towards them.
Her sword cut through the air as she dived to the side,
sending a rope of water splashing apart into harmless droplets.
Byen's massive blade cut through another, with as little effect
as a butter knife through a candle flame. The tendril lashed
around the Amazon's throat and began to tighten, driving Byen
to her knees. The two-handed sword fell to the deck as she
clawed at the watery tentacle, her face looking pale and
hollow.
With a shout of rage, Akane lunged for Tetsuko. Sword
met pole with a clash, and they stood for a few seconds,
muscles straining, before Tetsuko broke the lock with a
vicious swipe. The pole rapped sharply against the deck again,
and two more tendrils erupted from the water to grope for
Akane.
With a speed born of desperation, Akane slashed at both
tentacles. The blade of cold iron cut through both, and they
dissolved into falling water. Which splashed against her
unguarded left arm.
Agonizing pain ripped through her, and suddenly the
image of her mother filled her mind. Her dead mother. The
person who had meant the most in the world to her, who she
would never see again... she would never win Ranma, either. He
was going to marry Shampoo. And P-chan, P-chan was probably
lost somewhere, hurt, run over by a car...
Images of sorrow and loss, one after another, dashed
through her brain, dancing, shrieking. Her mother, Ranma, P-
Chan, Ryouga, her sisters, her lost doll, the homeless child she
had seen years ago, all the hopelessness and sorrow of the
world, all of it fell down upon her, sending her crashing to her
knees in the bottom of the boat, bawling and sobbing like a
baby.
She could dimly see Tetsuko approaching, pole held high.
What did it matter? Better to just let her end it than to live
with this sorrow...
Akane watched, uncaring, as the pole curved back. And
then something sped through the air and stabbed into her left
arm.
The grief and sorrow vanished as quickly as they had
appeared. Akane rolled to the side, thrusting upwards with her
blade, and barely avoided being skewered by the descending
hook.
She regained her footing, blinking away tears of pain.
There was a slender, needlelike blade sticking out of her arm,
a throwing knife of some sort. In the prow, she could see Byen,
her face grey and hollow, one hand grappling desperately with
the tendril around her neck. Her other hand flopped against the
deck, open as if for a throw.
Tetsuko lunged forward again, and Akane barely managed
to parry the swinging pole. She was in trouble, she thought
muzzily, her mind still trying to clear away the haze of grief.
With her arm hurt and Tetsuko able to pull off tricks with the
water, she didn't stand a chance of winning... besides which,
Byen couldn't possibly last much longer without air.
The shadow trick was useless here, and she couldn't
phase into a world she was already in...
A desperate idea jumped into her brain. Sword moving
defensively, she mentally began to call up the vision, to rotate
away the hull under Tetsuko.
For a second, nothing happened. Then, without warning,
the wood underneath the Fisher's feet swirled into a nebulous
spiral of black.
Anjin shot downward, a surprised look on her face, and
vanished.
Akane released the swirling wood, a satisfied smile
briefly passing across her face. If she could whirl the fabric of
this reality while in her own, why shouldn't she be able to do it
while on the spot?
Her sword lashed out, and the tentacle choking Byen fell
apart with a splash. The Amazon rubbed gingerly at her throat,
and stood. "Thank you. I thought it was going to snap my neck."
Wincing, Akane withdrew the thin dagger from her arm.
"Is this yours?"
Byen took it. "Yes. Cold iron, similar to your sword. Sorry,
but it was that or watch you get taken out."
Akane shuddered. "I felt like everything that mattered to
me was gone. Was that the river?"
Byen nodded. "The Cocytus is the River of Lamentation.
Touch the water, and..."
"Oh..." Akane stared at the strangely shaped patch of deck
where Tetsuko had vanished, and swallowed. "I just dropped
Tetsuko under the boat..."
"If she were anyone else, her heart would have burst
from sorrow by now," Byen said grimly. "As it is..."
A geyser of water shot into the air several yards
downriver. As they watched, Tetsuko slowly rose from the
black surface, the waters swirling around her.
"How is she doing that?" Akane muttered desperately. "Is
she some sort of kami or something?"
"Or something," Byen said, watching as Tetsuko's ascent
finished. The gaunt fisher stood on the surface of the water,
face calm and impassive, and then began to walk across the
churning river towards them.
Akane swallowed, the wound in her arm throbbing. "I
don't know if we can stop her, Byen. Not on the river."
"I think you're right," the Amazon said slowly. "Damn. I
didn't want to do this, but..."
Reaching into her shoulder bag, Byen withdrew and
oilcloth bundle. She carefully unwrapped it, exposing a ball of
mud and twigs and grass. Wincing, she muttered a few words in
an alien tongue and tossed it over the side.
The water rippled where the ball had sunk, and then
began to bubble and churn. After a few seconds, a head emerged
from the water, muck and weeds and river scum covering it.
Akane stared. It wasn't covering it, she suddenly
realized. It was _made_ of it.
"Destroy her," Byen commanded, pointing towards the
Fisher. The muddy head nodded, and vanished beneath the water.
Tetsuko strode onward, face cool, eyes burning. Her steps
became more and more rapid, and then two massive arms of
mud and slime exploded out of the water, grabbed her by the
leg and waist, and pulled her under.
"What did you do? What was that?" Akane cried, staring
at the churning water with a sick sort of feeling. "Is it going
to kill her?"
"I only wish," Byen said sourly. "It was a River Hag,
brought from home. Nasty beings, but no match for the Fisher
in her own element. It'll buy us a bit of time and nothing else."
Taking the oars, she began to steer the boat towards the bank.
"We'll have to walk. On land, I don't think she can do those
tricks."
"I hope not," Akane said fervently. Part of her was
relieved that Byen hadn't killed the other girl. But another part,
equally strong, wished that the River Hag tore Anjin into
bloody shreds. A fight was one thing, sending creatures out of
nightmare to kill her and kidnap Ryouga was quite another.
The boat thudded against the bank. Akane took one last
look at the roiling, churning water where Tetsuko had been,
gritted her teeth, and scrambled ashore. Byen followed, a
slight smile playing across her thin face, and they dashed into
the thinning woods.
***
Ukyou looked up as the chime attached to the doorhandle
rang, and smiled. "Ranchan! I haven't seen you in a day or two."
With the skill born of long practice, she tossed an
okonomiyaki on the grill. Ranma trudged up to the counter as
she did, and her smile faded somewhat when she saw the dark
circles around his eyes. "Something wrong? You look a bit
down."
He shrugged slightly. "Akane and Ryouga went for a walk
yesterday, and they haven't come back yet."
Ukyou's eyes widened, delight and apprehension
scrabbling for position. "What was she doing on a walk with
Ryouga?" Was it a date? she mentally added. Please let it have
been a date...
"I kinda asked him if he could sound her out about what's
going on, see how she feels about it," Ranma said gloomily. "I
suggested they take a walk or something, and off they went."
Ukyou shook her head, disappointed. "It sounds to me like
Ryouga just got them lost, Ranchan. You know how he is."
"Yeah, I know. Still..." He sighed, a look of frustration
appearing. "I just have a bad feeling about this entire duel
thing. Akane's been actin' kinda funny lately, and... well... I don't
want her getting hurt, ya know?"
"I don't think you need to worry," Ukyou said. "Anjin was
in here a day or so ago, and we talked for a bit. She isn't quite
as frightening when you get her talking, and she told me that
all she was after was a simple win. If Akane concedes, she'll
be happy and go home."
Ranma's face brightened. "Really? So she isn't out to
cripple her or nothing?"
Ukyou pursed her lips, weighing her next words. "I think
she's out to win. If that involves really hurting Akane in the
process, so much the better, but she'll take what she can get."
"Better than I'd expected, I guess."
Ukyou slid the freshly-made okonomiyaki across to him,
and for a minute they were silent as Ranma moodily ate. As
always, watching him devour her meal gave Ukyou a surge of
happiness. She wanted to feed him and take care of him for the
rest of his life, and vice versa - and she would, she promised
herself.
A slight smile crossed her face. Who knows, she thought
with a tinge of optimism. Maybe Akane and Ryouga were lost in
someplace isolated, remote, and romantic.
"Didn't sleep much, did you?" she finally said.
"Nope," Ranma replied around a mouthful of okonomiyaki.
"Too worried. Feh, dunno why."
"I slept pretty well, myself. It was a nice change." Ukyou
made a face. "I've been having a string of nightmares lately.
Not every night or anything, but one or two a week. Bad ones."
"I had a really bad one a few weeks ago," Ranma said
sympathetically. "I have bad dreams more than I wanna admit,
actually. There were a couple after I first got the curse..."
Ukyou winced. "Concerning your, ah, manhood, right?"
He shuddered. "Yeah. Man, I nearly woke up screaming a
couple of times."
"Mine have been pretty ordinary, I guess. Someone comes
in and kills me. You know, typical psycho nightmare." She was
careful not to mention his presence in them. It was a little
embarrassing, and would be even more so if he asked what they
had been doing together.
"Heh. I haven't had any of those in a long time."
"So what was your bad dream about?" she asked, curious.
His face fell. "I hurt someone," he said. "Killed them."
Ukyou gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze. "That's a
pretty natural dream to have, I guess. I mean, you do have a lot
of potential to hurt people, especially with those fancy special
techniques you and Ryouga throw around. It's probably good
that you're subconsciously concerned about hurting someone by
accident."
He shook his head. "It wasn't an accident, Ucchan. I meant
to do it. I broke her neck on purpose." Ranma stared at the
counter for a second. "I know it was just a dream, but it scared
me."
Chuckling, Ukyou turned and began to wipe down the grill.
"Bad dreams scare people, Ranchan. That's why they're bad
dreams." She flicked the cleaning cloth at him, making him
jump nimbly off the stool to avoid it. "Look, don't worry about
it. You don't strike me as the killer type, and Akane's probably
screaming at Ryouga right now for getting her lost in Nagasaki.
So cheer up, baka."
He grinned. "Okay. If you put it that way, I guess I'd
better."
"Damn straight. Tell you what; when Akane gets back,
call me and we can go and get lost ourselves."
"We'll see." Ranma glanced at the wall clock. "I've got to
get going. Promised Kasumi I'd pick her up some stuff from the
store."
"Bye, Ranchan. Stop by tomorrow, and bring Akane if she's
back yet."
"Sure thing. Seeya, Ucchan."
After he had left, Ukyou went upstairs, settled down into
her overstuffed chair, and frowned.
Why had she asked him to bring Akane? She really didn't
feel like seeing Akane right now, Ukyou suddenly realized. She
hoped that Ryouga and her stayed lost.
Ukyou shook her head, surprised at the depth of the
sudden wish. It must have been just watching Ranma eat; the
simple enjoyment of it reinforcing her desire to be the one
who won him. She was Akane's friend, but...
Damn it, she thought tiredly. If only she and Ryouga _did_
fall for each other.
But even if they did, part of her still hoped they stayed
very far away, and she wasn't sure why.
***
The river Cocytus flowed, black and silent and still, past
a small boat with peeling orange paint. It lay abandoned on a
bank, with footprints leading off from it.
The flow was dark and calm. Then a ripple marred it, and
then a second, and then a head broke free of the water, hair
and skin strangely dry. Like a submarine's conning tower, Anjin
Tetsuko slowly rose from the river to stand upon its surface.
Face expressionless, she walked across the top of the
water to the bank. She stared at the tracks leading away from
it, and scowled.
Tendo Akane was not what she had thought. She was
beginning to fear that the girl was considerably more.
Tetsuko had come to the Underneath with a few options
in her mind. The most likely by far had been collecting the
girl's body, assuming there was anything left of it. Even a
martial artist as good as Akane would have trouble surviving
alone in this realm.
There had also been the chance of finding Akane alive, in
which case she would have taken her back to the Waking World.
It wouldn't have done for Akane to die before Tetsuko had taken
her revenge.
And then there was the third option, which had started
unfolding almost as soon as she had picked up her rival's trail.
Akane had killed a pack of Kamaitachi, and set a
Nogitsune hunting lodge ablaze. In the smoking ruin of the
cabin, under the floor, Tetsuko had found seven bodies.
Two more Nogitsune and a pack of storm hounds, dead on
the trail by Akane's hand. Akane's hand, and that of the thing
that served her.
She had followed the Tendo girl, a very bad feeling
building, and then she had seen the thing in the boat with
Akane.
Tetsuko wasn't sure when she had decided to use lethal
force. It was at some point during the fight. Akane had held her
off long enough to get away; working some spell or power on
the fabric of the boat, shaking off the effects of the water,
destroying her tendrils with an entire blade of cold iron... and
then having her minion send a river demon to kill her.
The waters Underneath were her strongest ground, and
Akane had escaped her. The girl, or sorcerer, or demon, or
whatever the hell she was, would be harder to stop anywhere
else.
Whatever she was, Akane was not just a martial artist.
This had ceased to become a matter of revenge. This was now
dangerous.
And Akane knew.
A bright tear ran down a weatherbeaten cheek. How dare
she throw that in her face?
Akane was after something. She would not, could not let
her have it. Tetsuko didn't know what the girl was, but it was
nothing good. And Anjin's debt was not yet paid.
The screams echoed in her mind once again, and she
carefully kept her face impassive. She had an idea of what
Akane was after, and it horrified her. Anyone who would
intentionally seek such a thing...
She would stop Tendo Akane. She had to. It wouldn't fix
things, but it would at least keep them from getting worse.
Revenge and debt. She suspected now that she would have
to kill Akane, or at least imprison her. That was okay. She
hadn't liked the Tendo girl to begin with, and she liked her even
less now that she knew her true nature.
Her pole thumped twice against the bank, and the mud
under the boat writhed, shimmered, and then began to move,
easing the small craft back into the water like a conveyer belt.
Tetsuko hopped into the bow, glanced at the water, and silently
ordered the current to take her downriver.
She didn't need to follow Akane. There was only one place
on the fields of Erebus that the other girl would be heading
towards, and that was the Nogitsune barrow. When Akane
arrived, she would be waiting for her.
And - be she some creature out of the Gloaming, a mortal
mage, or another tool of the Fair Lady's, sent to torment Anjin
- Akane would be stopped. Stopped dead.
***
The trees had begun to thin, and the mists were rising.
Akane surveyed the plain ahead of them with
apprehension. "Erebus?"
Byen nodded unhappily. "This will not be pleasant, Tendo
Akane. I had hoped to take the river all the way in, but..."
"But my rival turned out to be some sort of evil river
kami," Akane finished grimly. "I still don't understand why she
never did any of that stuff before. I mean, we've fought at
least three times, near water in every case, and she never had
tentacles bursting out of the pond to grab me..."
"The Fisher is tied to this world," Byen said. "Her power
is here, in the rivers and oceans of Underneath. In the Waking
World, I doubt she could use much of the power of her office.
There is..." she paused for a second, looking for the right word,
"a sort of insulation that prevents the mortal world from fully
accepting things from other planes."
Akane winced. "No wonder she wanted to lure me in. I
don't suppose this barrow's near water?"
"There are supposed to be streams within it, and the
Cocytus flows through tunnels inside of it for part of its
course." Byen pursed her thin lips, wincing. "And, of course, it
is a domain of the Lady, who is tied somehow to the Fisher. Her
power may well increase simply by being so near to her
patron."
"Wonderful." Akane stared at the swirling mists, and took
a hesitant step forward. "What are we likely to encounter?"
"The Dead. For the most part, they will ignore us; they
merely wait on the plains before passing on to their ultimate
destination. However, there are some things which are not
completely dead, but in no way alive, and they are often
decidedly hostile."
"Like Jikininki?" Akane asked, suppressing a shudder.
"Of their ilk, yes. Follow me, and be ready for anything."
With that, Byen stalked forward into the mists. Akane
swallowed, then hurriedly followed.
For several minutes they saw nothing... but this in itself
was enough to give her a bad feeling. The ground was barren; a
slick, swampy morass of brown-black mud and the occasional
jagged rock. No grasses grew, no insect hopped fro flower to
flower. The world seemed composed of fetid earth, swirling
fog, and them.
Then a shape dashed through the mists, outlined for a
second before vanishing.
"Byen?" she whispered.
"Do not worry, Tendo Akane. It's just the Dead."
"Oh. Right," she said, trying to keep the unease out of her
voice. Just the Dead. Uh-huh.
Another shape appeared in the mists, and then another,
and another... some walking, some running, some moving
uncertainly forward in a sort of trudge. They loomed out of the
fog; blocky, man-shaped silhouettes that then melted back into
the swirling white.
Akane's hand tightened around the hilt of her weapon, the
chill of the air seeming to seep into her bones. "Will cold iron
hurt them?"
Byen chuckled grimly. "They are the Dead. Nothing can
hurt them anymore. But, by the same token, they are incapable
of causing harm."
Somehow, Akane wasn't convinced.
The forms around them grew more numerous. One lurched
out of the fog in front of her, a surprised-looking old man with
Asian features and a blue face. As if in a daze, he stumbled
past her and vanished.
Others grew more distinct. Most of them looked elderly,
but there were younger ones as well. Akane quickly looked
away as a dark-skinned young woman, half her head ripped
away, jogged past.
Bile began to rise in her stomach as she walked, and the
Dead walked by in ever-increasing numbers. The older ones
were bad enough, but a young person, torn by shellfire or
crushed by an automobile, would inevitably walk into her line
of vision and cause her stomach to lurch.
Akane was suddenly very grateful for the smothering fog.
She didn't want to think about what the plain would look like
without its covering.
A young boy skipped past, wide eyes angling inward to
stare at the bullet hole in his forehead, and Akane had to
physically fight down the urge to shut her eyes. She had to
look, to follow Byen, or she'd get lost. And of all the places to
be stranded in, lost and alone, this had to be the worst she
could think of.
Desperately she cast her eyes downward, keeping them
fixed on Byen's feet as they strode through the muck. Just look
at the ground, and not at the corpses strolling around her...
A small shape ambled along the ground, and then another.
Akane blinked.
"Byen?" she said hesitantly. "Do dead cats come here as
well?"
"No," the Amazon replied. "Just people."
Akane stared at a tiny, quadruped shape crawling past,
and then stopped. A sound, a sick moan of protest, escaped her
mouth as she watched it vanish into the mist. Then she bent
double and vomited, tears streaming down her face.
Byen halted for a second, watching her with an
unreadable expression. "Infants die too, Tendo Akane. Quite
often, in poorer countries."
Akane miserably looked up, one last retch making her
shake slightly. "But... but to just... in this horrible place by
themselves..."
"This is just a transit point on the way to their final
destination. They do not tarry long, and I do not believe they
are aware of their surroundings. They are beyond discomfort."
Byen shrugged slightly. "It is sad, but the world has much
sadder things."
Nodding reluctantly, Akane straightened, tears drying.
"How much more of this?"
"Just a few hours, I think. Possibly less. The geography of
this place is not constant."
She wasn't sure if she could stand a few more hours of
this... no, Akane thought fiercely, she could! Byen wasn't even
fazed by it! So what if there were dead people walking past? It
wasn't like people hadn't been dying in the world before this. It
wasn't like she had never seen a dead body before.
It wasn't like she had never killed anyone herself.
Were the two Kitsune she had cut down waiting
somewhere in the fog?
With an effort, Akane forced her mind away from the
thought. With studied effort, she made herself think of other
things, played stupid games to avoid looking at the dead
shuffling around her. How many pointy rocks did she find for
every flat rock? What did the patterns and craters of the mire
resemble?
Before long, she had put herself in a sort of daze,
counting and fancying the hours away. She assumed they were
hours. They felt like hours. It could actually only have been
fifteen minutes since they had entered the fields of Erebus,
but she preferred to think of it as longer.
Slowly, however, the horror of it began to vanish. The old
people began to seem like mannequins, the mutilated young
people like bad special effects in a slasher film. It made her
feel better - stronger, more in control of the situation - and
she forced herself to dispassionately watch a few of the less
savory walkers without flinching.
Twice Byen called a sudden halt, and they waited until
the Amazon felt it safe to go on. On the second stop Akane
heard hooting, grunting laughter in the distance, and her hand
once again tightened around her sword hilt. The animalistic
sounds of mirth peaked, faded, and then vanished, but the
echoes of them seemed to ring in her ears even after Byen
resumed their trek.
Finally, out of the mists, a black, squat, bulbous mound
rose.
"The barrow," Byen said, pulling to a halt. "Or at least the
top of part of it. This is where the trouble shall begin."
Akane studied the hill, the dark bulk of it crouching in
the fog like a huge toad. "How do we get in?"
"There should be an entrance along the side. It may or
may not be guarded. Come on."
The two crept towards the barrow, bent low and moving
in a near run. They reached the slope of it, and Akane saw to
her surprise that the outside of the hill was composed of black
loam and black bricks, looking almost like a charcoal mosaic.
She scooped up a handful of the loose earth, sniffed it, and
wrinkled her nose in disgust. It smelled like mold and ashes.
Silently, they began to circle the hill, eyes alert for any
sign of guards. Nothing called out in alarm, though, and before
long they found themselves standing at the edge of a dark,
narrow shaft cut into the side of the hill, leading straight
down into blackness.
Byen studied the drop, apprehension showing on her
hollow face. "That's a long way down, and I don't see any
handholds."
"I don't think this is an entrance," Akane said, studying
the shaft. "It's probably a ventilation shaft. I can't see the
Nogitsune climbing a sheer wall every time they want to go for
a walk."
"I cannot see that either. We had better move along."
Akane began to follow, then stopped. "Wait. This might
actually be the best way in. The entrance is sure to be guarded,
but I bet there's no-one watching the other end of this thing."
"That's because they don't need to," Byen pointed out.
"There aren't any handholds, and it's far too deep to jump. We'd
be spread all over the bottom."
Smiling slightly, Akane began to concentrate, the
beginning of an idea forming. "There aren't any handholds now,
but..."
Again, she entered the trancelike state of the vision,
mentally swirled aside the fabric of shadow in the shaft wall.
Not much, not too deep, but just enough to push away a bit of
substance...
The wall of the shaft seemed to melt in one spot, and
slowly an oval depression the size of a football formed. Then
another, below it. And another, and another, until ovoid niches
dotted the shaft down as far as the eye could reach.
Akane released the vision, sweat pouring down her brow.
She felt drained... not tired, but somehow fatigued in a way
that had nothing to do with muscles and stamina. "There.
Handholds."
"Not bad, Tendo Akane," Byen said admiringly. "This
should get us well within the barrow."
She wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a good thing
or not. Of course it's good, she mentally berated herself. She
wasn't going to get Ryouga out by sitting here. "Do you want to
go first, or should I?"
"I shall." Byen smiled humorlessly. "Please do not fall on
me."
"I'll try not to," Akane dryly replied. She watched as Byen
nimbly swung herself over the edge of the shaft, grabbed for
the first depression, and began to make her way down. After
waiting for a short interval, Akane followed.
They descended carefully but quickly, the dim light from
the top of the shaft soon receding into the distance. An odd
sort of stillness seemed to envelope the shaft, and Akane
found the noise of her breathing and Byen's progress echoing in
her ears.
Despite her reassurance to Byen, she almost did fall
once, her hand slipping off a particularly slick section of their
makeshift handhold. She started to topple, and desperately
grabbed at the depression in the wall with both hands, falling
for a split second before regaining her grip. The jolt from it
sent waves of pain up her arms and back, and her muscles
protested as she resumed the climb downward.
They emerged into an oddly shape room; almost hexagonal
in architecture, Akane thought, dropping from the hole in the
ceiling to land with a muffled thump. It reminded her of a
poorly-drawn picture - the angles were at improper
relationships to each other, and the lines seemed to be
unsteady, as if the builder had been a bit drunk during the
drafting of the plans.
It was, however, empty except for the two of them.
Which was fine with her. She had no desire to meet any more of
the residents of this place than she had to.
Two doors, each roughly the same size, stood at opposite
ends of the chamber. Akane glanced at them, then shot a
questioning look at Byen, who held up her hands in bafflement.
Well, she thought, one was as good as another.
Walking over to the one to her left, she turned the handle
and swung it open.
Four Kitsune looked up from their gameboard in the
revealed chamber.
Akane froze, smiled weakly, and waved. "Uh, hi. Sorry.
We're lost... we should be, uh, two levels up, doing... uh...
something else..."
"Wonderful cover story," Byen hissed behind her in
exasperation.
The rasping sound of four swords leaving their sheathes
echoed through the two rooms.
Akane barely had time to draw her own blade before the
first Nogitsune leapt at her, silvery weapon cutting through
the air towards her head. She parried, the cold iron slicing the
other weapon in half, and brought her sword around into a
striking angle as the Kitsune stared at the broken hilt of his
weapon in astonishment, and then drew a long dirk from his
jacket.
The other three were seconds away, their mouths bared
in snarls of eager bloodlust, and Akane suddenly realized that
she didn't have the time to disarm the one confronting her.
She hesitated a split second and then thrust out, the
sword's tip piercing the dirk-wielding Kitsune's shoulder. As it
screamed and fell, body smoking, she dove into the room,
slashing at the charging Nogitsune as she did.
The doorway clear, Byen drew her massive blade and
advanced, the two-handed sword neatly impaling the fox
closest to her. Her advance distracted the other two for a pair
of heartbeats; enough time for Akane to cut down the one who
had turned to face her seconds before.
As the harsh, yelping screams of the burning Kitsune
faded, the remaining fox slowly backed away from the two, his
weapon falling from his hands. It clattered on the floor as
Akane grimly closed in.
"Mercy..." he hissed, eyes darting back and forth like a
trapped animal. "Mercy, fierce ones."
Akane nodded faintly, feeling slightly sick. Somehow, she
wished that the Nogitsune hadn't spoken. It made it easier to
think of them as things when all they did was snarl and leer...
it made her feel like she hadn't really killed _people_, just
animals or demons. "Tell us where my friend is, and we'll let
you live."
"Friend?" the Nogitsune asked, a puzzled expression
briefly moving across its face. Then comprehension dawned,
and he nodded eagerly. "The strong one?"
"Yes! Where's Ryouga?" she said, relief bubbling through
her. She had been secretly afraid, she realized, that Ryouga
hadn't been taken here at all, that they had made the trip for
nothing.
"Below. In the rooms of pain." The Nogitsune chuckled
unpleasantly, a cruel look moving across the pinched face, and
Akane almost reversed her decision. Maybe their speech didn't
make her feel bad about killing them after all.
"Is he okay?" she asked coldly, hand tightening around the
sword's hilt.
The fox's expression went from malign to fearful, and he
gave a slight shrug. "He is alive. He had all his parts the last
time I saw him. His mind was not irreparably broken."
Akane swallowed, the import of the words sinking in.
"Not irreparably?"
"Mortals break so easily. This one doesn't scream as
often as most of them, but they often go silent before breaking
completely." The Nogitsune, glanced nervously at the sword in
her hands, and licked its lips. "I can tell you the way to him, if
you like."
"I think you'll show us the way," Byen said, a cold smile
on her sallow face. "And Tendo Akane shall be right behind you,
with her sword."
The fox's eyes widened. "I cannot. You would encounter
more of my kin, and would kill me when they attacked."
"Point," Byen conceded. "Although if we kill you right
here, you'll not have to worry, will you?"
"I was told the Kitsune were shapeshifters," Akane said
slowly, an idea beginning to form. "Is that right?"
Both Byen and the fox nodded, and Akane gingerly pulled
the white-grey jacket from one of the bodies on the floor.
Pulling it on, she donned the cloak and helm that went with it,
and picked up one of the silverlike weapons. "There. I'm a
Kitsune."
Grinning, Byen followed suit. "And so am I. There, you fae
bastard, now we're just three Nogitsune off to visit the
prisoner. Happy?"
The fox nodded reluctantly. "If it keeps you from killing
me out of hand, it shall do."
"Sensible attitude," the Amazon told him. "Now move."
***
The great gate of the Nogitsune barrow was made of
silver, and guarded by nine tall foxes in bright armor. All of
them lay dead on the ground, smoking corpses under silver
breastplates.
Tetsuko crouched in the shadows of the gatehouse,
waiting.
She had arrived via the river, and had made her silent
way to the outer gates that opened onto the plain of Erebus.
After dispatching the Kitsune who guarded it, she had settled
down to wait for the arrival of Akane and her servant.
They were overdue. Tetsuko had a sense for time and
position in this realm, especially where the Tendo girl was
concerned. And all her senses told her that Akane should have
passed this way by now, _had_ passed, was behind her instead
of before.
Anjin swore. She didn't think there was another way in
from the plain, but she was no expert on the cursed place. The
only other time she had been here was during her rampage, the
first time, when she had just wanted to kill as many of the
Lady's creatures as she could. The Nogitsune had almost killed
her, instead; she still carried a silver mark on her thigh where
a fox's rapier had stabbed her. That had been long ago, and
much could have changed.
Turning, she dashed into the barrow with a sudden sense
of urgency. If Akane had outflanked her, she might yet win the
race. And that couldn't be allowed to happen.
***
They passed through dark tunnels, the alien architecture
flickering wildly in the light thrown by lamps and open fires.
Akane had been certain almost a dozen times that they
were about to be caught. A band of Nogitsune, pale white skin
highlighting feral red eyes, would scurry past, glancing
curiously at them as they did. They never stopped, but it often
seemed as through they about to; that they weren't fooled at
all.
Finally they arrived in a high, vaulted room. Three
windows of stained glass were set towards the ceiling, dust
and soot covering them. Curious, Akane squinted at the one far
to the left, and then sucked in her breath in surprise and alarm.
It depicted a forest scene, a stag of brown glass lying
dead on a field of green. A small figure stood over it, a long
gun raised in threat or promise, and Akane did not need to see
the grinning face to know that it was Mika the Raven. A
stylized hunting horn was picked out in silver in the air behind
him, dots of bright red rimming its mouth.
The second window showed a river or coast, a fleet of
ships staggered along its length. In the center floated a long
grey boat, and in the prow stood an unmistakable gaunt figure,
brooding eyes searching the water. Anjin Tetsuko. A glittering
mesh of lines, tangled and intertwined, hung behind her in the
same manner as the horn and Mika.
The third window showed a field at night. A cut row of
some sort of produce lay to the right, an uncut one to the left,
and in the center stood a figure in a robe of red and black and
yellow. The face was a blur, an ugly morass of badly shaped
glass, and she wondered why it had been allowed into an
otherwise flawless work of art. Behind the robed figure hung
the silver outline of an L-shaped implement, a plowshare or
scythe.
"What do they mean?" she asked in a hushed voice.
"They serve the Fair Lady," the Nogitsune said, a slightly
fearful air in his voice. "Or perhaps the other way around. They
kill us, for they have no love for our kind."
"It's a sort of Trinity," Byen explained. "The Hunter, the
Fisher, and the other one. Who doesn't exist, thank Emma. Two
of them is quite enough."
"They all exist," the fox said in a low voice. "They all
exist, and they are terrible."
"So are we," Byen said. "I did not ask to be taken to the
chapel of your particular furies, Kitsune. Where is the
prisoner?"
Wordlessly, the Nogitsune pointed towards the far end of
the room, where a vaulted fireplace burned brightly. "Through
there."
Akane stared at the flames. "How do we get through?"
"I have no idea of how a mortal would go about passing,"
the fox replied, his voice faintly amused. "I simply walk
through. Whether you would be burnt or not, I cannot guess."
"They would be."
The chalk-white face of the Kitsune turned paler yet, and
he fell to his knees. Akane and Byen spun, retreating forward
into the room, and Akane laid eyes on the most beautiful
woman she had seen in her life.
"Welcome to my House," the Lady said gently.
Akane was suddenly seized by two impulses. The first
was to fall to the ground and worship at the feet of such
beauty, such glory. The second was to draw her weapon and cut
the lovely creature in half.
She obeyed neither, instead merely moving her blade to a
ready position. "Let Ryouga go."
The Fair Lady looked amused. "Why?"
"Because if you don't, I'll ruin your good looks," Akane
growled, doing her best to sound menacing... although in her
own ears, the threat sounded more like desperation than
anything else.
"We can't have that," the Lady mused. "But do you have
teeth, to snap your jaws so boldly?"
"Try me," Akane replied, fear and despair beginning to
rise within her. She wasn't sure that her sword was of any use
against such a being, and she was certain that her fists
weren't.
"Ranekan?" the Lady said.
"Yes, Lady?" the fox replied, his head still bowed in
submission.
"Kill her."
The Nogitsune was springing the instant the words were
spoken, his form rippling as he changed in midleap. Akane saw
the pinched face taper into a muzzle, saw the needlelike teeth
bare in a snarl, and instinctively stabbed out with her weapon
as the Kitsune slammed into her. There was a tearing sound, a
set of jaws snapped impotently next to her right ear, and then
the form pressing against her exploded in a ball of dull flame.
The Fair Lady watched as Akane pushed the smoldering
body off her sword. "It does have teeth, then."
"Yes," Akane replied unsteadily. She wished the smell of
the burning fox was not so strong, wished that it hadn't
shrieked so loudly. "I do."
"In that case, I had better come to terms," the Lady said,
a smile lighting her face. "You want my latest ornament, so I
shall make fair bargain. You may have him, but first you must
enter my service."
Akane hesitated for a moment then shook her head. "If
you think I'd take orders from you, you're crazy."
"I would not tell you what to do. You would have no
duties, no tasks, no requirements to obey me save of your own
free will."
"So how does that constitute service?" Akane asked
warily.
"It is a formality. Nothing more, and certainly nothing
less." The Lady smiled, an almost playful look crossing her
face. "Formalities are important."
Akane stared at her, mind racing. It sounded too good to
be true, which meant that it probably was. "I wouldn't have to
stay here, or give you my firstborn, or do anything you asked?"
"You need stay nowhere you do not wish. You need give no
one you do not want given. You need accept no command that is
not in your heart to accept."
Biting her lip, she turned to look at Byen. "Is she telling
the truth?"
"She pretty much has to, in this sort of deal," the Amazon
said warily. "You can't trust her, but she has to stick to the
letter of her promises. And if you don't accept, I think things
will probably go very poorly with us."
Akane swallowed, and turned to glare at the radiant
figure in white. "If I take your offer, then I get Ryouga back,
alive and without lasting harm. And then he and Byen and I get
to leave safely."
"That is acceptable," the Lady said.
Akane opened her mouth, hesitated, and shut it again. She
did not want to do this. It was like the bargains in the folk
tales, where seemingly meaningless pledges turned out to be
horribly important...
Still, the alternative to not making the deal was pretty
clear, and Akane did not wish to die quite yet. Not to mention
Byen and Ryouga, both of whom would fare just as badly.
"I accept," she said.
"Done," replied the Fair Lady.
"Done," said Byen, an odd note in her voice.
Done, the room seemed to whisper.
***
In the forest, on the very fringes of the Gakido Road, Mika
the Raven paused in mid step.
"Done!" he shouted, and threw back his head and laughed.
Then, his attention snapping back to his surroundings, he
drew a bead on the Hisa Mei he had been pursuing and fired. The
echo of the shotgun, the screams of the fallen demon, and the
laughter of the Hunter rose through the trees, hanging and
ringing through the valley.
***
In a crooked tunnel beneath the ash-choked soil of
Erebus, Tetsuko froze, her soul recoiling.
"Done," she whispered, appalled. "Oh, no. No, no, no."
Then, turning on her heel, she dashed off down the
corridor. She knew exactly where Tendo Akane was now. She
knew to the very inch.
***
It felt as through someone had flicked on a light switch,
and she was the bulb. A charge seemed to flow through her,
pulsing, almost bringing her to her knees. The image of a long,
wickedly sharp plowshare seemed to flash before her eyes and
leap into her brain, and she felt the air around her crackle with
some sort of power.
The sword in her hand began to twist and writhe, the
slight curve in it becoming more pronounced, the inner edge
seeming to take on an extra degree of sharpness. She had a
sudden vision of dark fields under a starless sky, and then
slowly the air seemed to still, the charge to fade.
Akane's legs swayed, almost giving way. Something had
just happened to her. She had been changed in some way. She
wasn't sure how, but something inside of her had woken up.
"What did you do to me?" she croaked.
The Lady smiled. "Nothing at all. You did it."
And then her eyes fell on the sword in Akane's hand, and
the Tendo girl was shocked by the sudden change that swept
over the beautiful face. A vicious, uncertain look came into the
Lady's eyes, and for a second she just looked at the blade like a
deer into headlights. Then she fixed Akane with an imperious
glare.
"Give me the weapon," she said starkly.
Akane was seized by a sudden urge to simply drop the
weapon at her white-slippered feet. Then she could leave. What
need did she have for a sword? She should give it...
No, something within her replied. Not the weapon in your
hands. Keep that above all else.
"Don't give it to her, Tendo Akane," Byen whispered
urgently. "Whatever you do, don't let her have it."
"I won't," Akane said with effort. She glared at the Fair
Lady defiantly. "You can't have it. Now where's Ryouga?"
The Lady's face contorted in rage for a split second, and
then was suddenly again a gentle mask. "Step through the fire.
It cannot burn you, now."
"Right," Akane said determinedly. "Byen, stay here. I'll be
right back."
"Please do not take long," the Amazon replied, watching
the Lady like a mouse watches a snake. "I find my current
position less than comfortable."
"I won't be long," Akane replied. She walked over to the
massive fireplace, stared for ten long seconds at the roaring,
leaping flames, felt the heat from them. Then, hesitantly, she
reached out and poked her left hand into the fire.
It tickled, almost, like feathers brushing against her.
There was no pain, no searing agony, and when she withdrew
her hand the skin was whole and unburnt.
Taking a deep breath, Akane stepped into the fire.
Although the flames did not burn her, they still obscured
her vision. Sweating from the heat, one hand held instinctively
over her eyes, she slowly made her way forward.
And then she began to hear the screams.
They were low, ragged, as if the person making them had
overused his throat for that very purpose and was trying to
hold back his cries. She recognized who they came from with a
cold certainty.
And then another voice that she recognized floated past
as well.
"Hold still, Ryouga... don't struggle, now... there." The
screams reached a tattered peak, then faded. "Don't you love me
any more? Look at me, Ryouga. Don't you want to look at me?"
"No," Ryouga's voice weakly rasped. "Please, Akane..."
Enraged, she charged forward through the flames. A stone
arch appeared before her, and then she burst out of the fire,
emerging from a fireplace similar to the one she had entered.
Ryouga lay on a stone table, thin cords of a silver
material binding his wrists and arms and neck. He wore the
remains of his pants, but his shirt and shoes lay tossed in a
corner. Welts and burns covered his torso and much of his face,
and his feet looked red and raw.
Standing over him was a girl, nude except for a yellow gi
top indecently left open. A black belt loosely secured it around
her waist, but her legs and torso were bare, and streaked with
the soot that seemed to cover the room. She held a glowing
coal in one hand, the heat of it not seeming to burn her, and
was in the process of withdrawing it from Ryouga's neck.
She looked exactly like Akane.
"Poor Ryouga," the thing purred to him, seemingly
unaware of her presence. "Don't you want to look at me?" It
bent over him, bare chest brushing against his. "Don't you love
me any more? I'll have to use the needles again if you don't..."
Akane watched for a split second, a sick rage building
inside of her, and then jumped forwards, screaming
incoherently. Her double turned, surprised, and then Akane
grabbed it by the neck.
She saw her own face leer down at her in malign glee and
snapped, slamming the thing into the wall again and again, fury
and horror and outrage sweeping her away. After a time
Ryouga's shouts began to register, and she stared in numb
disbelief at the body in her hands. The wall was stained with
red, and the back of her double's head was a mess of hair and
blood and bits of white.
For several seconds she looked into her own dead face,
the empty eyes still seeming to wish her ill, the mouth
twisted in a obscene expression. Then she opened her hands and
let it fall to the floor in a heap.
Ryouga's shouts suddenly ceased. "Akane?" he croaked,
eyes wild. "Don't hurt me..."
"I won't," she said, staring at her hands for a second.
Crimson and some grey material marred them, and she slowly
wiped them off on the yellow gi top. Then, taking her sword,
she walked over towards where Ryouga lay bound.
His eyes widened in fear as she approached, and his
mouth began to open for another scream.
"It's all right!" she hastily said, a ill feeling rising in her.
"It's me, Ryouga. It's really me. I'm here to rescue you."
"You said that before," Ryouga said quietly, eyes
flickering back and forth between her and the body crumpled on
the floor. "I wish you hadn't killed Akane." Then he stared at
her, a confused look entering his eyes. "But you're Akane?"
"I'm the real Akane," she said, pity flooding her. "I'm here
to take you home, Ryouga. Let me get those cords off of you."
He flinched when the sword came near him, but did not
scream as she carefully cut away the thin bonds. The last one
fell away, and she helped him slowly sit up. "Can you walk?"
"I.. I think so." He stared at her in confusion. "I'm sorry,
Akane. You don't have to let me go if you don't want to."
"God, what did she do to you?" Akane whispered, aghast.
"She told me she knew, and then she hurt me," Ryouga
said simply. "She'd do things..." a faint blush rose in his cheeks,
and Akane turned red. "And then she'd use the knives, or the
poker..."
"It's okay," she said, shaken. "It wasn't me, Ryouga. I'm
going to get you out of here."
"I should have told you," he said dazedly. "But I couldn't. I
knew you'd be angry, and I was too much in love with you..."
Akane froze. "In love with me?" she slowly whispered.
All the gifts. The deference he gave her. They way he
fought Ranma over the slightest insult to her...
"I didn't know," she said, mouth dry.
"I should have told you about it, but I was in love and
weak," he repeated. "I should have told you about the curse. I'm
sorry."
"What curse?" she said, confused. She didn't want to
know, she suddenly realized. She didn't want him to tell her...
"My curse," Ryouga said, eyes staring past her. "I couldn't
have your love, so I settled for being your pet."
"No," she said, quietly. "No."
The bandanna, the frequency in which her pet 'got lost',
Ranma's countless pig jokes, Ryouga's avoidance of water... of
course he was P-Chan. How could anyone not see it?
How could she have missed it for almost a year? How
could she have been so stupid.
How could Ranma have not told her?
Tears came to her eyes. "You lied to me," she said, voice
shaking. "You both lied to me. I trusted you."
"I'm sorry," he said, eyes still fogged. "I should have told
you. But I couldn't, and I couldn't leave. You don't have to let me
go. I know I deserve it."
For a second she was almost tempted to agree with him,
then shook her head. "I'm going to take you back to Nerima,
Ryouga. And then you're going to have to go away for a while
while I try to forgive you. It's probably going to take some
time." She glanced at the body with the short, blood-matted
hair, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I wish I could just hit you,
but that's not going to be enough, not for this. And we've both
hurt each other enough for today."
Standing, she picked up his shirt and his pack and helped
him put them on. Then, pulling him roughly to his feet, she led
him into the flames.
How could they? she numbly thought as they walked, the
fire flaring around them. She had trusted him. He was the one
who always took her side, and instead he betrayed her like
this...
And Ranma. She hadn't trusted him. She loved him.
"Why couldn't you have told me?" she choked, the heat of
the fire drying the tears as they left her eyes.
They emerged back into the chapel, and Akane suddenly
recognized it. "This is the church on Shiningen'ya," she said
slowly.
The Fair Lady nodded. "It is the counterpart of it in this
world."
"Byen, we're going," Akane said. "Back to the real world."
The Amazon shook her head. "I can't, not yet. My mission
is still unfinished." Her sallow face parted in a grin. "I'll just
make my own way out. Good luck, Tendo Akane."
"Good luck, Byen," she replied. "I hope you finally finish
your mission."
The Amazon winked, and then walked swiftly past the
Lady and vanished down the corridor.
"She will leave safely, as promised," the Lady said
mildly. "As may you."
Akane grabbed Ryouga's shoulder and began to
concentrate. Her mind slipped into the trance of the
shadowweaving, and with effort she dredged up the memory of
colors. Her mental images of the old church slowly interwove
the chapel of dark stone, and color began to seem to seep into
the bricks, the mortar... the room began to shift and blur...
"Goodbye for now, my Reaper."
And then, with a jolt that almost sent her tumbling, the
world seemed to slap into focus, and she and Ryouga stood in
the ruined chapel on the hill of Shiningen'ya.
Silently, not trusting herself to speak, Akane led him out
of the church and down the slope. It was late afternoon, and
soon the sun would set. A raven watched, curious, as they made
their way past the peeling white fence.
Akane stopped by the low pit of earth where she had
almost been pulled under, in what seemed like an eternity ago.
She wondered if it would frighten her as badly now, and
decided it would not.
They walked out through the trees, and stopped by the
side of the paved road.
"Are you yourself again?" she asked, her voice cold.
He nodded, not meeting her eyes.
"Go. Don't come back for a long time."
He nodded curtly, and turned to leave.
"Wait," she suddenly said, a tinge of regret in her voice.
"I don't... I'm sorry. I'll still be your friend. It's just going to
take a long time. You took advantage of me, and..."
"I know," he said, not turning around. "I'm sorry. Goodbye."
He left.
Silently crying, Akane began the long walk back to Doctor
Tofu's office.
***
"Where the hell is she?" Ranma grumbled for the third
time.
"How should I know?" Nabiki snapped back from across
the room. "You're the one who sent her skipping off with
Ryouga!"
"Oh yeah? Well..." Ranma stopped, and then slumped back
into the living room chair. "I guess I was."
"Look, she's okay," Nabiki said wearily. "Ryouga got her
lost. She'll be fine. She's probably safer anywhere that isn't
Nerima anyway, with Anjin after her."
"I guess," Ranma mumbled. "But they should have been
back by now..."
"Ranma, just go out and look for her, okay?" Nabiki said
irritably. "I doubt you'll find her, but at least it'll give you
something to do aside from sitting around and moping at me.
Okay?"
"Well..."
"Either that, or join Daddy upstairs crying in bed.
Honestly, the two of you!"
Ranma glared at her. "Look, I ain't that bad."
"You're coming close," Nabiki dryly replied. "Go run around
the block a few times."
"Maybe I will," he said thoughtfully. It certainly couldn't
hurt, and it might make him feel like he was actually doing
something instead of just sitting and awaiting the worst... "I
think I will."
"Bravo," Nabiki said. "Now get out."
***
Tetsuko ran into the chapel, knowing that she was too
late.
The Fair Lady turned to look at her. "Welcome home, my
Fisher."
"Damn you," Tetsuko spat. "Felt it. Th'surge of it. She ask,
or you offer?"
"She accepted of her own free will. I offered her nothing
except safe passage out, and I made no threats." The Lady
glanced down at the charred corpse of the Nogitsune. "No
serious threats."
With a heavy heart, Tetsuko stared at the third window,
where Akane stood, her face intricately cast in glass, looking
over moonlit fields. "Fair Lady, you've done th'worse you could
do. She'll kill you, an me."
"She will not harm me," the figure in white said. Tetsuko
narrowed her eyes.
"You bain't sounding confident as usual, Fair Lady. Would
kill you myself, if I could. Even if you killed me, th'price'd be
worth paying."
"How unkind of you, my Fisher," the Lady replied,
sounding amused. "I am hurt. Do you not love me anymore?"
"Hate you," Tetsuko whispered. "Always have. I hope she
kills you afore I kill her."
"Will you kill her, then?"
"Have to," Tetsuko replied. "Afore she begins to do your
work."
"She already has, my Fisher, as do you. But follow her, if
you will. Kill her, if you can. And if you bring me the weapon
she carries, I will reward you."
Tetsuko spat at her feet. "Nothing you could give me that
I want, Fair Lady."
"You once thought different."
"Did. Gods forgive me."
The Fair Lady laughed. "Are you still toying with that
silly notion of redemption, my Fisher? I will never understand
mortals."
"Understand us all t'well, Fair Lady," Tetsuko said. "Send
me t'her or let me be."
Giggling slightly, the Lady took a flask from her belt and
poured its contents onto the floor. The water rippled, flowed,
and a reflection of Akane appeared within it. "There you are,
my Fisher. Do as you will, as always."
Tetsuko stared at her, eyes full of hate, and then glanced
down at Akane. Then she stepped into the water and sank from
view into it.
The Lady laughed, but in the musical sound could be heard
a chord of doubt.
***
Akane hiked along the avenue as the sun rapidly sank
from view over the horizon. It wasn't far now.
She sighed, the dried trails of tears still heavy on her
face. Doctor Tofu had a lot of questions to answer, both about
his techniques, the land he had sent her into, and the nature of
her opponent.
As she crossed the canal, Akane paused to stare into the
still waters. Tetsuko would pay, she silently promised herself.
To nearly kill her was bad enough, but to do what she had done
to Ryouga...
She flushed, anger and embarrassment mixing at the
thought of the half-naked thing in the room. It made her feel
almost as violated as Ryouga's secret had; like someone had
taken her body without her permission. Anjin would pay for
that, as well.
She stared into the water, and Tetsuko stared back.
Akane jumped backwards as the gaunt Fisher sprang from
the canal, the hooked pole swinging in front of her. Dodging the
first two swipes, she reflexively drew the iron sword and
turned to face Anjin. "You bitch. Don't you ever give up?"
"Die," Tetsuko hissed, and the pole began a series of
lashing strikes.
Akane retreated slowly, parrying, an eye on the canal
when she could afford it. No tendrils of muddy water seemed to
be arcing towards her, which was good; apparently Byen had
been right. Here on the mortal plane, Tetsuko was just a
martial artist.
A swipe nearly knocked her weapon from her hand, and
she leapt backwards as the blunt end of the pole knocked
painfully against her ribs. This wasn't good. She didn't
remember Tetsuko being this fast before...
"You've trained with Shampoo's grandmother, haven't you!"
she snarled, lunging forward in a series of swipes. Tetsuko
parried, then countered with a thrust that sent her reeling
back.
"Have," Anjin replied, face a cold mask. "No tricks t'help
you here, Tendo."
Tricks. She could pull up the shadows and...
The hook stabbed into her shoulder and she gasped in
pain, wildly swiping with her sword to keep the Fisher at bay.
She couldn't, Akane realized with despair. Not like this, not
with Tetsuko this fast. In the second of concentration she
needed to enter the trance vision, Tetsuko would skewer her.
Anjin pressed the attack, a slash almost ripping into
Akane's neck. She was losing, Akane thought with despair. They
were too close to run away, and if this kept up Tetsuko was
going to get in a good hit... had she come through the
supernatural hell of Underneath just to get chopped to pieces
in her own world by ordinary old martial arts?
Another swing of the pole ripped a line across her chest,
tearing the white cloth and staining it red.
She would not lose.
Akane felt something rising up, and the sword seemed to
twist in her hand once again. In desperation, she let it carry
her away, bury her beneath it, and the image of fields and a
scythe hung in her vision.
***
Ranma trudged on. He hadn't really expected to find her,
but still...
The sounds of fighting suddenly rose in the distance, and
then he heard Akane yell.
Heart in his throat, he ran forward in a sprint. It was
coming from near the canal, he thought. And if it was Anjin, to
hell with whose fight it was, he was breaking it up and taking
her home. He had been worrying about her too much to let...
He rounded the corner, and stopped dead.
Akane, her shirt torn and bleeding, was moving forward,
a halo of black seeming to surround her. A sword was in her
hand, oddly curved and pitted, and he watched in disbelief as
she swept forward with it.
That's not right, he thought. Akane can't move that fast...
Tetsuko parried the first blow. Then the second. Then her
pole was cut in half by the third, and then Akane's blade sliced
deeply into her side.
Ranma ran forward, shouting. What the hell was she
doing?! She'd just seriously hurt the other girl, and was
drawing back for another... for a death blow! "Akane! Are you
crazy? STOP!"
She turned as Anjin, side spurting blood, staggered
backwards and fell over the side of the canal. "We've got to get
her to a doctor," he said urgently. "Damnit, Akane, you nearly
killed-"
The sword swung in a scything arc towards him, and he
nimbly darted to the side, reaching out to grab her by the arm.
"What the hell are yo-"
Her eyes were just swirling pools of black, he realized,
and then the sword entered his chest. He mentally cursed
himself for not taking the unexpected speed into account - he
always did leave himself open with her - and then fell away
into darkness.
***
Somewhere in the back of her own mind, Akane felt the
sword sink into flesh. She made one last, supreme effort, and
pushed away the power flowing through her, forced down the
persona in her head.
A haze seemed to clear from her eyes, and then she saw
Ranma slide off her sword and crumple to the ground. A pool of
crimson began to creep out from beneath him.
The sword fell from nerveless fingers. "Ranma?" she
whispered.
He lay on the pavement, still and pale. Oh God, she
thought, oh God, what had she done?
With a low moan, she quickly knelt by his side, one hand
going to check his pulse while the other fumbled with his
shirt. Bleeding, she thought frantically, she had to do
something to stop the bleeding...
Sobbing, she tore away his shirt and began to wrap it
tightly abound the wound. It went all the way through... she had
stabbed him all the way through... she had stabbed him...
"Oh God, hold on Ranma, please don't die... hold on..."
His pulse was rapid and weak, and frighteningly uneven.
The cloth she had wrapped around the wound was already
soaked with his blood, and her hands were scarlet.
Hefting him as gently as she could in a fireman's carry,
she ran, tears pouring down her cheeks. Ranma gave a low,
choking gasp, and she doubled her speed, running as fast as she
could. She could feel blood begin to pool where he rested
against her, could feel little rivers of it begin to run down her
arms...
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Ranma... I'm sorry, hold on, just hold
on..."
She ran, the streets blurring past, doing everything she
could not to stumble. His face was a pale mask... he looked
dead, she thought in a rush of panic. He was losing too much
blood. She must have cut an artery... she had done it, she had
killed him, it was all her fault!
A low cry ripped from her lips, the tears blurring her
vision. What had she done?
"Please don't be dead... Ranma.. hold on, please, I love... I....
oh God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
The clinic rose in front of her, and she ran up the steps,
kicking open the door with one foot.
"DOCTOR TOFU!" she screamed. "HELP! PLEASE, HELP!"
Ono emerged from the back office in a run. He stopped
dead when he saw them, and them dashed forward, his face
grim. "Put him on the table, Akane. Hurry."
Sobbing, she gently laid Ranma's crimson-soaked form on
an examination table. His face was almost grey, and she could
he his chest spasmodically heaving. "It was my fault... I'll was
all my fault..."
"Not now," the doctor said curtly. "Draw the blinds,
Akane. Hurry."
Numbly, she got up and hauled down each of the
windowshades, the last one plunging the room into almost
complete blackness. "Doctor Tofu... you can help him, can't you?
Can you help him?"
"I can save him," Tofu's voice said from in front of her.
"He should have died almost instantly, but I can save him.
However... I need a promise from you, Akane."
"What?" she said, not understanding. "Promise?"
"There is a task for you to perform afterwards. Promise
me that you will complete it to my satisfaction."
"I don't understand," she sobbed. "What do you..."
"Promise!" he snapped. "He doesn't have much time, Akane.
Hurry!"
"I promise!" she screamed. "Help him! Please, just help
him!"
There was a noise of satisfaction, and she heard the
sound of Tofu walking towards the examination table.
She wished she could see. How could he know what he
was doing without any light? What did he mean by...
A thought occurred to her, and she pulled up the
monochrome vision in her mind.
With a sort of sick fascination, she watched as the
basalt form of Tofu wove a ball of shadowstuff, gently tamped
it into the wound. She moved closer, slowly, and gasped as she
saw it begin to ripple, contort, and shape itself to the contours
of his body.
"I'm replacing the lost tissue," Tofu said calmly. "Vessels
and capillaries of shadow will do just as well as his real ones,
at least until he heals." He jabbed at a few spots on Ranma's
chest, and then glanced at Akane. "Go into the second room
down the hall, and bring me the ice chest with Ranma's name
on it."
She did. The room turned out to be refrigerated, and the
cold air seemed to nearly freeze the tears on her cheeks.
Several ice coolers were piled towards the rear of it. Ranma's
name was on one. Her name was on another.
Hefting Ranma's, she ran back to the examination room
with it. Tofu took the chest without a word, opened it, and
withdrew a bag of whole blood.
"I made sure to keep compatible blood stocks for my
high-risk patients," he said. "He should have died instantly, but
Ranma is tough."
"I did it," she said numbly. "I stabbed him. Something rose
up and entered my mind... I let it, but I didn't think... I didn't
want to hurt him, Doctor Tofu. I didn't. I couldn't stop myself..."
"You're getting hysterical, Akane. That's not helping
either of us."
"I'm sorry," she said miserably. "I just want him to be
okay."
"He'll live," Tofu said. He placed the bag of blood on
Ranma's chest, and Akane stared as it seemed to glow, bubble
for a second, and then... just drained away. "The replacement
took, the bleeding's stopped, and I've focused his ki into
healing his wound. Bedrest for a week, and he'll be fine."
"Oh God. Thank you, Doctor Tofu," she said, knowing she
was babbling. "Thank you so much."
"Don't thank me yet," he replied, his voice suddenly flat.
"You made me a promise, Akane. Now you get to follow through
with it."
She stared at him, bewildered, a cold feeling suddenly
running through her. "I don't... I don't understand..."
"I've found myself at war, Akane. Your rival is part of
something larger."
"I know," she said slowly. "She was the one who
kidnapped Ryouga, Doctor Tofu. She..."
"I heard, too late," he said. "There is a vast and evil plan
afoot, Akane. The very world could be in danger eventually, but
you and I and your family are in more direct trouble." He
paused. "There is a man, a sorcerer. It was he who allowed the
Kitsune to be brought into the Waking World. His name is Ogata
Tadao."
"T..Tadao-Sensei?" she stammered, shocked. "The
librarian? He can't.. I mean, he's always been so nice, he's a
sweet old man..."
"And I am a kindly family doctor," Tofu said, a sardonic
tone in his voice. "Akane, people are very seldom who they
seem."
She nodded faintly. "What do you want me to do? Warn
him? Stop him?"
"No," Tofu said levelly. "I want you to kill him."
***
Tetsuko slowly pulled herself up the bank, gasping in
pain. The water had helped stop the bleeding, but she was hurt,
and badly. She needed to get to the old woman...
Her eyes fell on the blood that stained the pavement, and
then on the discarded sword. She slowly picked it up. And
smiled.
So! Here we are again, at our wits' end already - here where
the minds of men snap. Why mix with us at all, if you're not
able to go through with it? You want to fly, and you can't keep
from getting dizzy? Did we force ourselves on you, or you on
us? - Mephistopheles, Goethe's _Faust_
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C&C is, as always, welcomed and craved.