Author's notes: A few years ago I wrote a multi chapter story that borrowed heavily from the source of Ranma, and I let it stop on a bad note. As it is, I recently stumbled upon some of my notes again and was inspired to finish it so I could move on to the second book in my little world. Of course I forgot my password for the account where the story is archived, so I am posting it in my other account and I hope that those who found my original story so fascinating will find this final chapter to that saga here.
888
Nabiki was dead tired from the day, Ranma's vampiric form didn't have the basic signs of life and it had taken both Nabiki and Genma to convince the family that Ranma was fine and this was just part of the curse. The worst part was that the fight between Mousse and Ranma never happened.
Nabiki studiously avoided school that day, calling in for her and Ranma, she had no control over what Akane would say that day, but she was beyond such things currently.
The entire family, sans Akane, were eagerly waiting nightfall, waiting for Ranma to awaken. Her head was resting in Nabiki's lap. As soon as the sun crossed the horizon line, Ranma's eyes blinked open. Looking up into Nabiki's face, full of concern, she realized that the day had passed her by, and her fight was forfeit.
Tears welled up in her eyes, blood red tears.
"I missed the fight." She whispered.
"Shhhh… It's not important."
It was as if a switch had been flicked with the family, the mood of the house shifted suddenly, going from one of general concern to contentment.
"Everything is going to be all right." Nabiki stroked the redhead's hair.
"I made some arrangements."
Earlier that day:
"Look, I know why you want me to do this, but why do I have to wear his clothes?" Ryoga asked an intense looking Nabiki.
"Because the Fool doesn't see very well and while you and Ranma are unmistakable under normal circumstances, you should be able to pull off this simple masquerade." Ranma's clothes fit Ryoga almost perfectly, a little snug in the shoulders, but he would be able to fight in them.
"Ranma has been fighting with an umbrella lately, so your styles are similar enough, and I'm expecting those Amazons to use dirty tactics like water bombs or something like that."
"This isn't good, Ranma should…"
"Ranma can't because they did something to him, made him hypersensitive to water temperature and now he can't stand even lukewarm water and you owe both me and him." Nabiki looked over the disguised Ryoga. From a distance it would work, but not an up close examination. Nabiki hoped that if Ryoga just jumped in and started fighting…
"Good, now get over there and fight that stupid Amazon before I schedule a vet session for Akane's dog."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me. Oh, did I mention, he thinks that Akane is me, so who do you think he'll claim for his prize if somebody doesn't answer the challenge?"
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"Did it work?" Ranma was up and about, much to everybody's relief. Akane and Ryoga were nowhere to be found, thus the drama was focused on the television.
"I think so. I didn't walk the mongrel to the fight, but he's got a decent nose on him, and the Amazons haven't appeared yet. Even if they do, we now have something they are not aware of."
"It wouldn't have anything to do with the men hiding in vans around the compound would it?"
Nabiki was only slightly impressed.
"Yes, it does, and try to keep quiet about them. They're our insurance in this."
"Have you heard anything about Akane? As much as I want to avoid her while I'm like this…"
As if on cue, P-chan limped through the door, favoring one of his front legs, whimpering pathetically.
"Kasumi, hot water quick!"
Ryoga was a mess, bruises covered his body and a few cuts as well, nothing life threatening, but enough to slow a man down. The worst was the broken arm.
"I won," Ryoga said through gritted teeth. "but they weren't too happy that it wasn't you who did the fighting."
"What happened? Where's Akane?" Ranma was upset that she had to use a proxy for her fight, her challenge.
"You were right to think that they would use dirty tactics in the fight, it was more of a water fight than anything else, and that Mouse guy is no slouch, hidden weapons technique my ass." Ryoga said to Nabiki. "I managed to go a few rounds with him without getting wet, but I got soaked during the last round. They were planning on using the cat's tongue as a weapon against Ranma because all of it was hot."
"After the fight and Mouse was unconscious, the ref came over and declared me winner. That's when that wrinkled old woman came over with shampoo, I guess during the fight, they couldn't tell, but with me standing still, they realized that I wasn't Ranma."
"They attacked me and took Akane. They want you to go to them to live up to your honor. They said they would kill Akane if you didn't show up."
"Where?"
"The abandoned restaurant."
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Ranma didn't wait for Nabiki to say anything, she was pissed off and wanted to hit something and the Amazons were begging to be her punching bags. She felt something inside of her shift as if waking for the first time. She ignored it for now, instead focusing on moving unnoticed from the Tendo home to the abandoned restaurant where they were keeping Akane.
Nabiki was on the phone moments after Ranma left, giving the address to the severe looking government men who had been waiting outside for the Amazons to reappear. The screech of tires could be heard outside as they tore off seeking to head off an international event.
Now all that she could do was wait.
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The restaurant was dark from the outside, but Ranma's vampiric eyes could see as if it were daylight within the dark building. There was a light on in the back of the dining area, where the kitchen would be. Cautiously, Ranma snuck up upon the doors and peered within the small round window.
The kitchen was a mess, white tiled stained with food and the dust of ages. The electric lights were on; telling Ranma somebody was planning something with the building soon, but the shoe prints on the floor also told him that whoever had been here recently only came to turn on the light.
Deceived! Ranma turned from the empty kitchen only to be hit from the side.
"Now, now Ranma. Stay and play awhile, we still have a fight to finish." Mouse's voice came from above the door.
"Where's Akane?" Ranma turned and glared at the blind martial artist.
"She's around. Either on one of the upper floors of this building, or out with Cologne and my dear Shampoo hunting down my real prize."
"What do you mean…?" The cold feeling in Ranma's gut told her exactly what Mouse meant. Something shifted inside of her chest and made itself known. Ranma was overwhelmed by the emotion of rage and bloodlust. She could smell the martial artists' blood from the fight earlier with Ryoga and it made her mouth water. She wanted to make him pay for his part in making her life a living hell. To gut him like a pig.
Yet at the same time, she knew that if she didn't get back, then there was nobody to protect the family.
Ranma rejected the idea of attacking the blind martial artist in favor of getting back to Nabiki. Ranma quickly turned and focused. She felt something snag her ankle, but she didn't care and tugged, there was a brief bit of resistance that quickly relented.
Ranma ran, her surroundings blurred, the blood boiling within her and the thing within her chest was eager for something.
The government men arrived just in time to witness the front of the restaurant explode in a shower of splinters, an unconscious Mouse slid towards the agents and a blur of white and red raced away.
"I think he's one of the Amazons."
888
Ranma hadn't been gone a minute before there was a knock on the door. Kasumi went to open it.
"Hello Akane, Shampoo, and who is this?"
"I am Cologne, Elder of the Amazons. Akane has been telling me all about your lovely family. May we come in?"
"Oh my yes, it is so nice to have Shampoo come through the front door instead of just making a hole in the wall. Would you like anything to drink?"
"I do believe that would be lovely."
"Kasumi, what are they doing here?" Nabiki was had been expecting a lot of things from the Amazons, a covert assault, a letter of challenge, but they just came in like guests.
"Don't worry about us, dear. We're just here to collect on a wager made earlier, or to make other arrangements…" The glint in Cologne's eye spoke volumes to Nabiki's trained skill of observation.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Nabiki lied.
"Ranma didn't show for his challenge today, a good attempt at a proxy though, I would have at least expected Ranma to make to the fight. I didn't believe that he was one to let others do his fighting for him."
"You made it impossible for him to fight." Nabiki hissed.
"Not according to what I witnessed the night he started this mess by defeating my great grand daughter. He's more than a capable fighter as a female. Other than his overriding masculinity, what could possibly have prevented him from…" Cologne trailed off as a long forgotten connection was made.
"His cursed form can't tolerate the daylight, can it?" Cologne whispered.
"No, it can't. Not that it matters to you monsters." Nabiki was irate and frustrated.
"Hey! You don't talk to our guests like that!" Akane started hotly. They wanted to remove Ranma from her life; they were good people in her book.
"Quiet child. We have acted prematurely in this matter. Come Shampoo, we must act quickly." Cologne and Shampoo left, leaving a bewildered set of Tendo sisters.
"What just happened?" A dazed Akane asked.
"They didn't know. They thought he had a different curse, and the one he has changes everything."
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The scene at the restaurant was quiet, the hole where the door used to be was still a mess, but a contained one. There were no out of place vehicles and more importantly, no Ranma, or Mouse.
Cologne made her way around the restaurant as if she knew it by heart, and pulled out her hidden possessions.
"How long has it been Cologne?" The voice was as sudden as it was unexpected, making Cologne pause in extracting her belongings.
"Who there?" Shampoo was in a battle ready position set to defend her matriarch.
"Over two hundred years since we last met, a long time to hold out on a promise." A lovely young woman stepped from the shadows of the dining room in front of Shampoo.
Shampoo wasted no time in attacking the new girl, but could not seem to land a single blow. It was as if fighting mist.
"Come out 'old friend'. I know that you have one. You amazons have really got to update your tactics if you're going to survive the coming years. The Pheonix Pill is all I want, it is what you promised me so long ago."
"Grandmother, what she talking about?" Shampoo was still going full tilt against the stranger, but was no closer to landing a blow than before.
"She is Vampire, one of the daughters of Jusenkyo as they have come to call themselves." Cologne spoke as she came back into the main room. "One of the forsaken ones, cursed of the cursed."
"And we had a pact, one that you have yet to live up to. You and your accursed village have cost me more than you could ever repay. But now you are out of the protection of your village and I am eager to see the daylight again. Are you going to give it to me or are you going to force my hand?"
"Your punishment was for stealing secrets of the Amazons. We would have given you much of what you tried to take if you had earned it. I will not give you what you desire."
Eve, who never stopped dodging Shampoo's relentless attacks, suddenly shifted her stance and went on the attack. Shampoo never saw Eve actually move. One second she was in front of her, the next she was in her grip from behind, claws dangerously poised at her throat and her arm gripped in a painful grasp.
"A fair trade then. Your future for mine. One pill in exchange for one great grand daughter. Choose quick though, I'm very hungry." Eve's fangs were extended and Shampoo could feel them against her skin.
"Wait. You win." Cologne seemed to age visibly. Her shoulders slumped forward. "There is only one. Meant for Ranma to win him over." She reached within her sleeve and produced a gaudy looking locket. "Release her and take it." Cologne threw the locket on the floor between them.
Eve stared at Cologne, never releasing Shampoo.
"I think not." Shampoo gasped in pain. "The real one, please."
"Grandmother." Shampoo whimpered.
"What about the boy?"
"That is up to you. Make another pill, or don't. You are the one who has condemned him to this existence, and it is within your power to save him. Now if you please."
Cologne threw a second locket down. Eve blurred and was on the other side of the room with both lockets before either Amazons blinked.
"Ranma is too young for the curse that you have condemned him too. It won't take long for him to lose himself in the night and the curse, and when his life in the day is but a moment compared to his time in the night, he will know that it was your hand that put him there." With that, Eve was gone.
Shampoo dropped to the floor and rubbed her throat.
"Come Child. Our business here is done."
"Airen?"
"Is no longer our concern. We have Damned him and we have much to do if we are to prevent him from making than damnation permanent. "
888
Ranma had over shot the tendo household in her haste to return. She had never moved as fast as she had just now and was too focused on returning to wonder at what this new ability meant. The thing in her chest was making some demands for all the power that it was granting Ranma. Hunger was not the right word for it, but Need. It wasn't overwhelming, yet it was more intense than the hunger that Ranma had experienced up to that point.
Ranma was worried for Nabiki and by extension, her family. Ranma was upset that she had been forced by her curse to miss such an important challenge by the Amazons, and to have been forced to use a proxy.
Ranma had perched herself outside the tendo house and was watching the building. She was struggling to control her urges that were new to her tonight. The desire for blood was strong. She could feel the razor's edge that she was balanced upon, slip even once and she would descend into a rage.
Only the thought of Nabiki kept her from giving in.
Something yowled in the night, an old tomcat across the way that was prowling along a roof.
The Beast within Ranma bared its teeth.
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Akane had stepped out into the back yard to check on her sister. P-chan had returned and was padding out with her, a slight limp in his stroll.
Nabiki was staring out into the night, her hands were clutched near her chest, she could hear a cat yowling off in the distance.
"Where is he?"
"Out killing innocent people probably." Akane tossed out casually.
"Why do you hate him so much? He's never done anything to you."
"Yet. I don't want to wait for him to attack me before we do something about that monster."
"He's not a…"
"Yes he is. He's brought nothing but pain and suffering to our family ever since he came into our lives." Akane was full of herself and righteous fire.
Nabiki was about to tear into her sister when something made a noise behind the dojo, a rustling of the bushes and a ripping sound.
The three of them stopped and turned. Akane motioned for her wolf to come with her while Nabiki stay back.
Nabiki wasn't having it. Akane may have been the fighter of the family before Ranma, but she was less than helpless. Together they all crept around the corner to peer into the darkness behind the dojo. Nabiki pulled out a small penlight, and shone it into the inky blacknes.
There was a sound that was a wet, slurpy, meaty kind of sound. Nabiki shown the light on the ground and illuminated with her weak light green grass and a spot of a darker color. Advancing it forward, the darker color grew and trailed off until the light revealed Ranma crouched down, her face deep in a cat's body, mouth covered in the animal's blood. She paid no attention to those who were intruding on her feeding.
Akane screamed.
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"Why?" Nabiki asked.
"Because I've changed since that night. Because Akane has become intolerable and because I won't be a burden to your family."
"You can stay, I can handle Akane."
"No, I can't. I'm losing myself and becoming something else. I don't want to lose you, but I also don't want to be responsible for…"
"You would never…"
"I can't take that chance."
"Ranma…"
"…"
While the two young lovers were alone upstairs, the family was meeting downstairs. Akane had made her case, multiple times at great volume. Alex was present, having arrived during the day. The family spoke long and hard about their future with Ranma and Nabiki. Things had become clear to the family, with the body of the cat found in Ranma's hands and the unfortunate letter sent by the Amazons renouncing their claim on Ranma, but also explaining why in great detail. The letter was addressed to Soun.
"It is arranged then, Ranma will come to stay in Hong Kong with us until we are able to break the lock on his curse." Alex said to the assembled Tendo Family.
"But not before he marries Nabiki." Genma rumbled.
"He can't…" Akane started hotly.
"Silence." Soun's voice was uncharacteristically authoritive.
"Despite, your obvious distaste for your sister's fiancé, my friend's son, he has until recently acted with honor. Were he able to return to male form, then I would bless their union, but as it stands, our families cannot bear the appearance of that type of union, no matter the actual circumstances. He cannot stay here any longer, I am sorry my old friend, but I am not doing this out of malice for him, but concern. We cannot support his curse as I would have hoped, and I will not have my family in danger."
Alex coughed slightly.
"There is a way for us to circumvent the pressure point, but it is a one time temporary solution to a long term problem, and unfortunately, according to what Akane keeps repeating, his curse has become fully realized."
"So?"
"This means that if he were to be exposed to sunlight again in his cursed form, he would be either severely burned or even killed. We can bring the male Ranma back for a while, but after that, if his curse is activated again, then it will be essentially permanent."
"Would that be long enough to hold the ceremony?"
"Long enough for the ceremony and the flight to Hong Kong."
Soun appeared to be thinking it over. Genma was sweating next to him while Akane was glaring at him.
"How soon can it be done?"
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Both Ranma and Nabiki were accepting of Soun's decision, Ranma for the chance to be male again, even briefly, and Nabiki because of what had happened before. The Ceremony was a small affair, the majority of the money being spent making the couple look good and a professional photographer and video producer.
Their day was spent creating as many memories for Ranma to hold on to. Akane was curiously absent from the entire event, which was a relief to many seeing as how she had promised to disrupt everything. It was that night that Nabiki revealed to him that she was carrying.
Even with the waterproof soap, nothing can last forever. The days ended and Nabiki Soatome said goodbye to her new husband.
Alex was stood next to her as she made her final good byes.
"Why can't I go as well?"
"Because he will be a danger to you and your children. His resolve is impressive, but he will be fighting himself when he resists the hunger. He will come to you hungry and confused and ultimately feed on you without realizing it. Or he will attempt to feed you his blood in hoping to give you some of his immortality, but that will kill you as surely as if he had drank you dry."
"Will there ever be a time?"
"Yes, I can give you that much hope. There will come a time when the two of you can be together again without this darkness clouding your lives, but it will not be soon. He has much to work out on his own, and you have your own concerns. We will provide for the both of you. Do not let yourself dwell on him though. The best thing to do is live your life as much as you can. Experience everything you can, live life."
Alex left.
Nabiki was left alone with nothing but fresh memories and a hope.