Previous chapters are avalible at http://tannim.anifics.com/
and the church of Ranma and Kasumi when I send them an
update (sorry)
Disclaimer: This space vacant due to the inability of the
author to insult the intelligence of his readers (all three
of them).
Ranma's Bane
By Andrew Wilson
Chapter 6: Homeward Bound
The staring contest between Nightbane and Nightlord seemed
to last hours. Ranma's eyes were constantly scanning the
room, watching the hounds scattered about, noting their
posture. Ahriman finally broke the match with a dismissing
gesture.
"There is nothing more to discuss. You may leave now. Do
not try my patience."
Their previous escort, including Xelloss, gathered around
the group.
"You won't get away with this," Owens stated.
Ahriman laughed. "Ask yourself what is more important:
fighting a hopeless battle against a single Nightlord, or
saving your world, and your race." The laugh continued as
the Nightlord faded into the air.
"An illusion," Taro grumbled.
"Of course," Xelloss explained, as he lead the group out of
the palace. "While the Master has nothing to fear from mere
mortals with a fraction of his power, he also knows that
even inexperienced losers sometimes get lucky."
*******
Once outside the main doors, Ranma made her move. A quick
pair of energy bolts followed by a spin kick knocked her
'escort' away. Once the hounds hit the ground, she and
Kasumi bolted for the pens. Looking back, Ranma could see
most of the guard force chasing after them, while the rest
of their group were rushing for the outer perimeter, to meet
their companions.
Any reassurances that may have come from that sight were
pushed from Ranma's mind as she focused on her task. Kasumi
was right behind her as yet another energy bolt shattered
the lock on the pens. The people imprisoned looked
startled, but most made no reaction. It was as though the
life had already been sucked out of them.
The exceptions to that rule were also the ones Ranma was
heading for. The two young women made Ranma aware of how
the past four years had passed in a blur. Behind the dirt
on her face, Ranma could tell that Akane had matured, if the
fierce scowl was ignored.
"What are *you* doing here?"
"Sheesh, Akane, don't you know a rescue when you see it?"
"Don't argue," Kasumi said, helping Nabiki to her feet,
"we're here to get you out of here."
"What about them?" Nabiki asked, waving to the others in the
pen.
Kasumi shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we don't have time."
Nabiki nodded, but Akane moved over to a woman that had been
with them.
"We can't take them, Akane," Ranma explained, looked over
her shoulder at the approaching hounds.
"Just her," Nabiki insisted.
Ranma sighed. Rather than argue the point, she scooped up
Nabiki and the woman, while Kasumi took Akane. With a
running start, Kasumi took to the air, while Ranma paced her
on the ground.
Thankfully, their passengers remained silent until they
reached the rest of the group. Owens was holding his hands
above the ground, concentrating, while circled him with
weapons bared. Ranma disbelievingly glanced back at the
hounds chasing them. *I can't believe we outran them. They
building them slower lately?* Their pursuit was visible in
the distance, though it would take several minutes for them
to catch up. By that time Ranma meant to be out of the
Nightlands.
With little fanfare, the patch of ground under Owens'
skeletal hands swelled, then collapsed in on itself, giving
the appearance of a bottomless hole.
Taro was the first down the hole, followed quickly by
Felicia and Raptor. Next it was time for their passengers.
Nabiki all but jumped in, dragging Akane behind. The woman
that had joined them was more intent on studying Ranma's
face than escaping.
"Ranma?" She whispered. "It is you, isn't it?"
"No time," Arachne stated, shoving the woman down the hole,
then jumping in herself. Lobo slithered in after her.
"Go," Owens commanded.
Ranma glanced back at the army chasing them. There wasn't
enough time for all of them to get out. Turning to Kasumi,
Ranma motioned to the rabbit hole.
"No time, go!"
The two exchanged a look. Then Kasumi flipped Owens into the
hole. With it's controller's concentration broken, the
rabbit hole immediately began to close.
"We both go home, or neither of us goes home," Kasumi
stated, holding out her hand.
Ranma shrugged. Taking the offered hand, the two of them
began to run like the wind.
Neither saw Xelloss among the pursuing hoard. The trickster
demon smiled. Well, he was already smiling, so it could be
said that his smile grew into a full "I know something you
don't" grin, except that is his normal smile, so what was on
his face could be described as-
GET ON WITH IT!
-a shit-eating grin.
"Everything is going according to plan," he mused. Allowing
a group of his minions to keep up the chase, he strode back
to his master's fortress to make his report.
*******
They ran for hours, with Kasumi spending half the time in
the air. It wasn't until there was no sigh of pursuit that
they finally called a halt.
"We can't run forever," Kasumi said, out of breath.
Ranma was barely winded. "I don't intend to. I think we
should transfer over."
"We might end up in the middle of a Nightlord torture camp."
Ranma simply shrugged. "Would it be any worse than getting
caught here?"
Kasumi nodded in agreement, and took Ranma's hand. Within
moments, they had faded into mist.
When they appeared on the Astral Plane, the first thing that
greeted the pair was a scream. It was a scream of the
damned, soul-chilling and blood-curdling. Though they could
hear it clearly, it also appeared to come from a great
distance.
"Ranma," Kasumi commented when the scream ended, "that
sounded like you."
"Spooky," Ranma replied.
*******
As Keiichi Morisato could tell you, weird things happen when
people jump out of your mirrors. In this instance, a man in
the middle of his morning routine was thrown back from his
bathroom mirror as two bizarre figures emerged. The man
could not help but stare as the two creatures transformed,
and ended up looking like a normal young couple.
"I told you we could have just shifted back from the Astral
plane," the young man argued, "and this wouldn't have
happened."
"If we did that," the woman replied, "it would be that much
easier for our movements to be tracked."
"Ranma?" the man gasped.
"Do I know you?" Ranma examined the shaving-cream covered
face. "Hey, Doc! Nice to see you again!"
"Likewise," Tofu Ono replied. "What have you two been up
to?"
"More than you would believe," Kasumi said. "Are you
feeling alright, Doctor?"
Tofu shrugged. "I'm fine, why do you ask?"
"Because you're not freaking out with Kasumi being here,"
Ranma explained, backing as far away from the doctor he
could manage in the cramped room.
It didn't help. Before either could back up more than a
step, Tofu planted a kick on Ranma's abdomen, propelling the
youth through the wall and out into the street. Kasumi
joined him on the pavement a second later.
"You always had a problem with keeping your foot out of your
mouth," Tofu explained, dropping to the street. "And now
you've dragged Kasumi into this."
"That's it," Ranma said, standing, "you and me, right now!"
Tofu smiled, then knocked Ranma back to the ground. "Just
because you defeated that weakling Kuno does not mean you
are at my level."
"Why the Doc, you bastard?"
Tofu leaned down to whisper to both. "What makes you think
'Doc' ever existed?"
Ranma just looked confused as Tofu jumped back though the
hole in his wall. A slight ripple filled the hole, followed
by the wall looking undisturbed.
*******
Turning away from the mending wall, Tofu resumed shaving.
"I thought I could drop that ludicrous charade."
Xelloss stepped out of the shadows (which was an interesting
trick, since the only shadows in the room would be hard
pressed to hide a roach), his usual grin steady on his face.
"You could, and did. What is the problem?"
"The problem is that my cover is blown."
Xelloss shrugged. "So? Are you afraid that the Master might
find no more use for you?"
Tofu laughed. "Hardly. Even before the two idiots were
killed four years ago, I have been among the best of the
Masters legion."
"Really? I thought Kodachi had that title."
Wiping the last bit of foam from his neck, Tofu returned
Xelloss' smirk in full.
"The 'Bondage Queen of Darkness?' You must be joking."
"Of course I am."
The two demonic creatures shared a laugh.
*******
Ranma shook her head as she and Kasumi resumed their normal
forms.
"How long was Doc working here?" he asked.
"As long as I can remember," Kasumi replied.
Ranma sighed. "Why is it we can't just get the
doppelgangers, or the hollow men, or even hounds? Nope, we
always have to run into the uber-badasses."
"Because," Kasumi replied, "we're dealing with a smart
adversary. Remember when we met Burgerface? He told us
about the tactics Moloch and his followers use. Mostly it's
brute-force, overwhelming his opponent. I think Ahriman is
more concerned with having a smaller number of skilled
minions than hoards of cannon-fodder."
"Well, what should we do now?"
Kasumi sighed. "As much as I hate to say it, we may have to
take Ahriman up on his proposal."
"What! Peace with the Dark?"
"Temporary non-interference. There is a difference. Only a
fool fights a war on more than one front."
"So we can concentrate on Moloch? Save most of the world,
then save the rest later?"
"Exactly."
Ranma shook his head. "So what now? It would be nice to
stay in town for a few days. We haven't been here for a
while, and I want to see if our friends are alright."
"It will take the group a few more days to get here, even
with the time distortion on the Astral plane, it's been a
week since we freed them."
"So what do we do until then?"
"Well..." Kasumi began whispering in Ranma's ear. Before
long, Ranma's face was blushing a deep crimson.
*******
Ukyo Kounji transferred the last of the dishes from the sink
to the shelves. The lunch rush was over, and she had a
while until the restaurant reopened for the afternoon
crowd. She really wished she could find an assistant, but
the last three had tried to kill her, and she didn't feel
like pushing her luck.
A quick check of the wall clock told Ukyo that she had over
an hour before she reopened. True to her routine of recent
years, she headed the stairs to her loft apartment, intent
on studying for her night classes.
A gentle rapping on the front door halted her ascent.
Turning back, she saw a man and a woman outside, both of
average height (though the woman was a little taller) and
build. Something about the pair looked familiar, but she
wasn't about to trust anything. Keeping a firm grip on her
dagger, which she kept under her belt, hidden by the hem of
her sleeveless tunic, Ukyo slowly opened the door.
Just in time to have her jaw drop to the floor when she got
a good look at the pair.
"How...What...Who..."
"Hey, Ucchan, you feeling alright?"
The last time Ranma had come into her life (well, more like
she barged into his) Ukyo had been amazed at how much he had
grown, and how different he had looked. Now, the surprise
was just the opposite. Ranma, like Kasumi behind him, had
been untouched by the passage of time.
She would have believed that the past four years had not
happened, if it wasn't for the hint of something around his
eyes. It reminded her of a grizzled old man who had stopped
in for a meal several months back, and who spoke for hours
of his years fighting in World War II. Ukyo had missed a
history class that night, but received a far better lesson.
Ranma's eyes held the same look, one of a man who had seen
things that horrified him, yet continued to fight for
whatever reason.
"It is good to see you again, Ukyo," Kasumi said, giving a
slight bow.
"Um... Yeah, why don't you two come in?" Ukyo released the
dagger as she ushered her friends in.
"How has everything been going?" Ranma asked, taking a seat
at the counter.
"If I answer, do you promise not to do that weird
shapeshifting?" Once both nodded, Ukyo continued. "I have
some bad news, about Akane and Nabiki..."
"Not bad anymore, we sprung them about a week ago." Ranma's
egotistical grin was still there, but slightly muted.
"About?"
Kasumi nodded. "It's hard to get an exact reference, since
some of the places we had to go to escape pursuit have...
odd effects on the passage of time."
Ukyo glanced at the clock again. Calculus could wait, and
she didn't have to worry about tomorrow's exam anyway. She
had always possessed a head for numbers.
"Do tell."
*******
"So, we arrived back in town yesterday evening, and decided
to see how you were doing." Ranma finished close to an hour
later. He and Kasumi had moved to the back of the
restaurant to help Ukyo get ready for the next wave of
customers.
"So why are you here now instead of yesterday?"
Ranma blushed a bit. "We were, busy."
"Busy?" Ukyo could guess what 'busy' meant, but still
enjoyed making Ranma squirm.
"Busy," Kasumi confirmed, without a trance of blush on her
cheeks. "And we wanted to make sure that you were you, and
not some replacement."
Ukyo was in the process of flipping the door sign from
'closed' to 'open' when she paused, left the sign at
'closed' and walked to the back. Returning with a large,
metal box, she motioned the pair closer as she unlocked the
lid and swung it open.
Inside, each sealed in a layer of some clear substance, were
eight objects. Two of them were large insects, beetles the
size of a persons head, while the other six were heads. Two
of the heads looked like those of mannequins, slightly
unreal and by no means flesh, but the other four were
genuine.
All shared the same features, that of the young woman
holding the box.
"Two hollow men and four doppelgangers," Kasumi whispered,
"oh, my."
"Three came the first year, two the next, and only one last
year. I got the impression that whoever was sending them
decided to cut his losses."
"Ahriman," Ranma growled.
Ukyo slammed the box shut, and replaced the lock. "I can
understand why you wanted to wait. Are you satisfied that
I'm me?"
"I was the instant you opened the door," Kasumi said. "And I
can understand why you had your hand on that dagger."
"You could see that?" Ukyo asked incredulously, the turned
to Ranma. "How much have you been teaching her?"
"Everything," Ranma replied.
Ukyo just shook her head, and changed the sign on the door.
Soon all three of them were too busy for further discussion.
*******
"So there is no plan to recapture those three?" Tofu asked.
"None at all," Xelloss replied. "A few slaves are of no
consequence. They also allowed the Master to gain more
information on how those two act, which is very valuable."
"You don't agree with his plan, do you?"
Xelloss merely smiled. "What makes you say that?"
Tofu laughed. "You could fool anyone with that but me. I
know you, and twenty years do not change us as they do the
humans. You do not like the Master's plan."
Xelloss shrugged. "It is not my place to agree or disagree."
"Bull," Tofu replied, and was treated to a very rare sight
(so rare that he had only seen it once, over a thousand
years before), Xelloss sweating.
"Alright, if you insist. While this is, in a way, a win-win
situation, since the two most expected outcomes involve the
death of these Nightbane, or the death of Moloch, it has far
too many risks. If Moloch kills them, he might learn of the
Master's plan. In that case, it would be highly unlikely
that we could survive against the hoards that would soon
attack. The other option, them killing Moloch, would mean
that they would be incredibly powerful, and might not be
easy to eliminate."
"I thought as much," Tofu replied. "What about Kodachi?
Last I heard, she was in charge of killing this bunch."
"She is currently infiltrating the one of the factions over
in America."
Tofu shuddered. "Killing of the heads of the Spook Squad
with her laugh?"
"Nothing so simple, especially since she would never be able
to get into the so-called American Defense Agency. The real
reason, and what I am doing about all of this..."
"Is a secret?"
"How did you guess."
*******
By the time they left Ukyo's, it was full dark. Ukyo had
gone off to class, studying for a degree in business
management, after Ranma and Kasumi helped clean up.
"Well, that was a nice break," Ranma said as they walked
back to their hotel.
"From what?" Kasumi asked.
"From staring death in the face. From all the psycho's
chasing us. From the world itself."
"From me?"
Ranma laughed. "Never. Why would I want to get away from my
one ray of hope?"
Kasumi giggled.
"I just hope tonight is just as quiet as last night was."
A sound in the near distance prevented Kasumi's response.
It was a sound they had become familiar with over the past
four years. It was the sound of stone, metal, and other
building materials being ripped apart. Somewhere close by,
hounds were attacking.
Ranma and Kasumi exchanged a glance, shifted to their
morphus, and headed toward the sound.
End chapter 6