It had started like any other day, with a splash of water as she awoke from being thrown into the koi pond. Her father landed next to her as she leaped out of the pond, and their sparring started in earnest. Inside Kasumi was up and making breakfast, a pleasant smile on her face. Nabiki was sipping her coffee and Akane was coming back from her morning run; while Mr. Tendo read his newspaper.
Indeed, all was normal in the Tendo Household. It had been like this for months after the failed wedding attempt; and Ranma and Akane had actually stopped fighting and even shared a few quiet moments on the room at night; overall things were looking up for Ranma, the Amazons seemed to have gone quiet and Ukyo had packed up and left after realizing she destroyed her chances even more with her help in ruining the wedding; severing what sympathy and friendship Ranma had for her.
Breakfast passed along with the dull day and Ranma set out to look for Happosai, it was summer now; and it was the perfect time to train away from distractions such as school. The day passed and it was twilight as Ranma knocked on the Grand-master's door; he could have barged in but the two had reached a peace after Happosai explained what would have happened if he hadn't drank the water from the spring of drowned man. Being a transvestite was not in Ranma's plan, and he'd given up seeking a cure altogether.
"Enter Ranma my boy" Happosai called from inside of his room.
Ranma opened the door and stepped inside. Around the room were panties sorted into piles by color, and Happosai was relaxing in a pile of pink panties. Ranma's eye twitched at the casual perverseness but he remained otherwise unfazed as he bowed slightly. Respect had come hard, but training with the grand-master had increased his skills beyond his previous limits and he was sure he'd be able to take on Herb or Saffron with much more ease if they were still a threat. "You ready to train you old perv?"
Happosai stared at Ranma intensely for a moment before grinning. "You've already learned all I can teach, and only experience will teach the rest. Congragulations my boy, you're a master now."
Ranma stared, and then stared some more before a grin broke across his face. "Well; maybe it's time for another training trip then? I could take Akane with and get her up to snuff."
Happosai nods in a manner befitting someone of his wizened years. "And it'll give you some alone time to figure out where you two stand and time to bond." Happosai pointed out. It might have an actual chance of working things out between them and advancing their relationship to a more physical level. One could only hope.
With a smile Ranma began to take a seat before a loud crash was heard throughout the house. Ranma quickly aborted his motion to sit and left the room to investigate, followed by Happosai. What he saw churned his stomach, Akane was defending herself from an armed Shampoo while Cologne and Mousse sat by watching the fight unfold. The rest of the family was already knocked unconcious and as he descended the steps in a run Mousse leapt in front of him, a blade in each arm; and Happosai jumping past him was intercepted by Cologne. It looked like the Amazons were done being quiet.
A swipe from both blades was dodged and then the rush from Mousse was on; He'd improved Ranma noticed, and with more swings came more dodging, until after a minute he disarmed both swords by stepping into Mousse's swing and delivering two palm strikes to Mousse's wrists, followed by a swift Tenshin Amaguriken. The punches from the attack enough to leave Mousse out cold; he began to move towards Akane, but he was too late. Shampoo had sheathed her own swords inside of Akane. "Obstacles are for Killing" Shampoo said bitterly, before wrenching her swords out to the sides, nearly cutting Akane in two. She was dead before she hit the floor.
Ranma let out a scream of rage before it turned to sorrow, followed by despair and self disgust. She wasn't quick enough; when it mattered most she wasn't quick enough. With his hair hanging over his eyes he raised his hand towards Shampoo and uttered two words. "ShiShi Hokodan." The emotions condensed into a ball and it let loose, striking Shampoo with enough force to topple her her head over heels. It was followed by several more Shishi Hokodan's Each with enough power to blast through a few walls. When she let up and collapsed to her knees Shampoo was nothing but a splatter on the floor.
Oblivious to her surroundings she wasn't able to witness Happosai take a critical hit from Cologne's staff; though she looked up when he went flying past her. Cologne's eyes narrowed in anger when she saw the remains of her granddaughter and she moved to strike Ranma down but was intercepted by happosai who grabbed her from behind and called out "Nijū jisatsu āto: Abisu!" (Dual Suicide Art: The Abyss) "I won't let you cologne, you'll die with me today." A black aura appeared around the grand-master as he clutched onto Cologne despite her attempts to escape by beating on him with her own Tenshin Amaguriken. The black aura surrounded both elders and with a flash of blackness they were both gone.
Ranma not aware of his surroundings crawled over to Akane, and rested her head in his lap as he cried, tears of frustration and anger pouring from him. He'd be in the same place for hours, until the others woke up from the knockout they'd all been dealt. When Ranma felt someone shake him gently he looked up with Anger on his face, but it was Kasumi who had shook him and the anger left his eyes only to replaced with heartache and sorrow. It was so stupid he could only admit it now, but there it was. "I loved her you know." He said quietly.
Kasumi nodded and attempted a smile, but it was a bitter smile with tears ruining it as well, out of place on Kasumi's face. "I'm sure you did all you could Ranma." She said gently. "Why don't you get cleaned up?" Ranma looked down and noticing the blood on him from Akane, he stood up mechanically. He looked around and spotted his father comforting a tearful Soun Tendo, and Nabiki looked like she'd just had her world destroyed. Happosai was nowhere to be found. And Mousse was still on the floor.
Ranma's eyes hardened and he picked up one of shampoo's sword and moved to Mousse and made to cleave his head from his shoulders, but was stopped by a firm grip. He could have ignored it and powered through, but he stopped and looked. It was his father. "The battle is over son. Don't bloody your hands more than you already have." Ranma snarled and wrenched his arm free. But he dropped the sword, moving past his father he made his way to the furo. Stripping, he set the tub to fill and doused himself with cold water -triggering her transformation- before scrubbing the blood and dirt off. Letting out a sigh as the furo filled, she stepped in transforming back into her male self as she did so. He let himself soak for awhile, pondering what he'd do now. The despair was still great but it was easing away already; and Ranma realized she had started to use the soul of ice, which triggered her transformation due to cooling the water down. Getting out with a huff she kept the soul of ice up, it was better to deal with the numb and logical mind than let herself feel right now.
Dressing, she made her way back to the living room, and as she did she thought about her options. The thought of staying with Akane gone was heartwrenching even with the soul of ice so that was quickly discarded. And with that out of the way a training trip seemed acceptable; but not what she wanted either. She walked into the living room, and noticed men in paramedic outfits lifting Akane into a bodybag and a police officer talking to Soun. They must have come while she was in the furo. Moving forward when the Officer turned to her she let out a sigh and relayed what had happened at his questioning. She told him the whole truth, and when he asked about Happosai and Cologne she admitted she didn't know. The twilight passed as it became night, and Ranma ascended to the roof, staring at the stars and the full moon.
The night passed without any sleep from Ranma, and she'd come to the conclusion that Happosai and Cologne had taken each other out. Morning came and Ranma entered Happosai's room, hoping to find anything that would give him an idea of where to go from here. Searching throughout the room and even digging around the piles of panties she found nothing worth noting. She was about to leave when a scroll behind a dresser caught her eye. Moving towards the scroll, she picked it up and opened the scroll. The first thing that struck her was how old the scroll looked, and as she read it a small hope came to her; a way to be rid of this world, a suicide technique called Nijū jisatsu āto: Abisu. It apparently worked on whoever was touched as well as the user itself and there was instructions on how to use it. This had potential, and there was only one person worth using it on. The one who had stopped him from saving Akane. With his death Ranma would rest in peace, knowing Akane had been avenged. There was only one thing left to do; find Mousse and bring him with him into the cold hands of death.
Finding Mousse was easy, he was a the Cat Cafe owned by the amazons and he wasn't expecting Ranma either. Blasting open the entrance with the Yama-sen ken move Mōko Kaimon Ha she stomped in with her battle aura flaring. Mousse was down the stairs a moment later, stopping when he saw Ranma. "So you wish to take revenge on me as well after taking out my darling Shampoo? Very well Ranma, a fight to the death then."
Mousse struck first, letting fly multiple daggers and drawing two swords from his Ki Space and Ranma used the Umi-sen ken, rendering her presence as nothing, and quickly moves out of the way and behind Mousse "I have no reason to live, so die with me. Nijū jisatsu āto: Abisu!" He said grabbing Mousse in a stranglehold. Darkness rose and engulfed them both and they saw nothing but darkness.