A Private Bet Entry-Shadow's Stone ver. 2.01
Disclaimer: Everyone belongs to whoever owns them.
Warning: We forecast dark scenes ahead,
this is your last chance to turn
back without suffering possible
psychological trauma.
You were warned!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Cringe*
"I'm old!! Take my son instead!!!"
Morrigan looked at the old fool before
her and sighed in disgust, not even she
would stoop so low as to take one
so...pathetic. The boy on the other
hand, now *he* had potential.
"Very well, your son for your wretched life."
Her crimson nails pinched harshly on Genma's exposed jugular.
"I will come for him when he reaches his prime."
The succubus slowly licked her lips as she imagined
how tasty the "beef" would be once it was properly aged.
"Now begone from my sight mortal before I change my mind."
Genma tore out of the castle like a bat out of Hell, vowing to
never again tamper with the forces of darkness in his quest to
make Ranma the ultimate martial artist.
He'd made a lot of promises like that before.
Genma would probably be making them for years to come...
...if he lived that long.
~~~~~~~~~~
"So in exchange for my son's immortal soul I get
the chowmein, eggrolls, and TWO fortune cookies?"
"Yes." Surely no mortal was this stupid.
"It's a deal!"
Then again, maybe he was.
Mara was ecstatic, at this rate she'd
make demoness first class in no time.
This was simply too easy.
{Absolutely nothing can go wrong!}
As an agent of Chaos and Misfortune she really
should have known better.
~~~~~~~~
"He'll be perfect for Yohko when she's grown."
"Is it agreed then? Your daughter will be
engaged to my son Ranma."
{Finally boy, you're becoming useful.}
Two innocent children played happily in the grass,
unaware and uncaring of the plots and plans for
the future hatching in the house behind them.
Each new friendship he made Ranma treasured, because
even though the pain of leaving them behind was great,
the sheer joy he felt whenever he was with the other
kids was worth it.
Yohko Mano smiled cheerfully at her new playmate.
The Saotome charm struck again.
~~~~~~~
"Engage him to my Ayahko. I'll pay double what she did!"
"Sold!!!"
{Heh, this is too easy. I should do it more often.}
~~~~~~~
Seen in hindsight, it really was a stupid
idea to try and pull a fast one over the
Lin Kuei. But Genma being Genma, he was
dumb enough to try once a sufficient amount of
alcohol was swimming through his bloodstream.
Of course once he realized that they wanted to
turn his son into a robot he'd wasted no time
in making tracks.
Sub-Zero and Smoke were excellent assassins,
but Genma was much better at running away
then they were at following him.
Losing that Scorpion character
that kept trying to kill Ranma,
now *that* proved to be more difficult.
~~~~~~
"Oooo, he's cute."
"He's a bargain for just that bottle of sake."
Urd thought about it, a pet human of her very own!
"...okay!"
{Hah, what a sucker. Foreigners are so gullible. After
all what were the chances of this girl ever showing
up in Japan again?}
A wiser man would have been warned
by the ominous rumble of thunder that
followed that thought.
~~~~~~
-Here Comes Trouble
"Amateurs." Shadow was disappointed by the stones
cast so far, this was hardly going to be a challenge for him.
"I suppose you can do better?" The Bard was still
peeved at the treatment his neck had received from
the arrogant cynic
A gesture from within the folds of Shadow's cloak
dissolved the view of the last entry.
"Remember the rules! No blatant darkfics!"
"Would I do such a thing?"
"In a heartbeat." The entire gathering answered him.
"Just watch." A small flick of Shadow's wrist
sent the marble-sized pebble into the still waters.
"Hah! you only got one ripple!"
"One is all I need."
~~~~~~~~
Private Bet #3: Eternal Night
by Shade
~~~~~~~
Part 1: Genma no Baka!
~~~~~~
-Contact-
Reality shifted.
A horrifying cry of pure agony arose.
Genma knew something was very wrong
the moment he drew back the cover
to the pit.
It was suddenly quiet inside...too quiet.
After a few moments his eyes adjusted to the lack
of lighting, despite the cover being off the bottom
of the crude hole was still not illuminated very well.
Then Genma saw what had happened to his son, the damage
that he had inadvertently inflicted on his sole heir.
"RANMA?! NO!!!"
Nodoka was going to kill him.
~~~~~~
"Ugh-ugh...." The Bard had turned a
faint shade of green after seeing what
Shadow's change had done and was now
making a heroic effort not to be very,
very sick all over the pool.
"This had better be good Shadow, inflicting
something like that on him..."
"Relax, you're too uptight Rowan. You seem to
forget that my sphere of influence is darkness
and conflict, Ranma is definitely going to be
heavily involved with both in this time-line."
"We shall see..."
"Trust me. I know exactly what I'm doing."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
~~~~~~~
At the hospital Doctor Mizuno broke the bad news to Genma.
"BLIND?!?!?!"
"Yes, I'm afraid that the damage to his
optic nerves was too severe, although
the cosmetic surgery will probably repair
his eyes, the boy's vision is permanently gone.
He's lucky to be alive all things considered,
I've never seen such a vicious animal attack
on a human body in all my years practicing
medicine. Have you any idea of how such a
thing could have happened?"
She gave him a direct stare,
suspecting that this weasely man
knew more then he was letting on.
"Uhh...no. I just found him like that
and brought him straight here." Genma sweated,
he didn't think that a mere doctor(and a woman at that)
would understand the importance of the Art or the
sacrifices involved. But this was unacceptable,
Ranma would never be able to become the world's greatest
martial artist with a disability like this!
"Surely you can do something can't you? He has a duty
to carry on the Saotome School of Anything Goes School
of Martial Arts! You're a doctor, fix him!!"
"MR. SAOTOME! THIS IS YOUR SON WE ARE
TALKING ABOUT HERE!! NOT SOME TOY
THAT CAN BE PUT BACK TOGETHER AFTER
YOU BREAK IT!!! WHAT KIND OF A FATHER
ARE YOU?!!!"
With Mrs. Mizuno being only a normal human it was
rather amazing to see her do a Flaming Demon Head
impression that Soun would have envied at the now
cowering Genma.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm SORRY!!!"
No matter what else could be said of Genma Saotome,
he sure knew how to grovel.
"...You sir, are simply pathetic."
~~~~~~~~~~~
In the intensive care ward 8 year old Ranma
Saotome was crying. His father had told him
that crying was weak and unmanly, but that
didn't matter anymore. After all he couldn't
even see his own tears anymore and if there
were no tears then he wasn't crying.
His last memory was of being tossed into
the dark pit with the hungry yellow eyes.
Then the sharp scratches, a white-hot pain
in his eyes and after that...nothing.
He had awoken in this strange place.
It smelled kinda like that nice old lady's
home he and pop had been living next to,
waxy clean with a faint tinge of medicine
in the air. Without his eyes Ranma was
forced to explore with his other senses,
his hands told him he was in a bed, with
bandages around his eyes and on his
body. He could hear a steady roaring in the
background as the hospital's staff attended
to the multitude of patients.
And now he could hear the footsteps
of someone coming towards him.
"Who's there?!" Ranma asked, quelling
the slight quaver in his voice.
{A martial artist never shows fear.}
The lesson had been drilled into him relentlessly
and was strangely comforting right now.
"hello." It was a girl's voice,
but so soft that Ranma could
barely make her words out.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Ami, Ami Mizuno.
"I'm Ranma...Ranma Saotome."
"You want to be friends?"
"Sure."
~~~~~~~~~
-A few weeks later
"Hahahaha! I beat you again A-chan!"
Ranma had pinned his new playmate with a hold he'd
learned just before the *incident*. He loved any kind of
physical activity and had finally convinced Ami-chan to
try a little roughhousing.
"I'll get you Ran-kun!"
The blue haired girl analyzed the situation.
She couldn't match Ranma's strength so she'd
have to use her wits instead
"Hahahahaha...No fair tickling!! Heehahaheeahahaha!!"
The first Tickle Wars began.
And thus a beautiful friendship was born.
Alas, this happy time would not last long.
~~~~~~~~~~~
-A couple months later
"Bye bye A-chan."
{Why do I always have to leave my friends behind?}
Ranma did his best to hide how much this departure hurt him,
he wouldn't shame his friend by breaking down crying like a
little kid. But it hurt so much, the next few nights would
be ones with damp pillows and cold sheets.
"Bye Ran-kun."
She was glad her friend couldn't see her tears,
this was hard enough already.
Though she had only known him for a few months
Ami knew that she would never forget her special friend.
Ranma had shown her a whole new side to life that she
had never known existed, for the first time Ami had
played with someone in her age group and enjoyed it.
She'd learned how to have fun for the sake of having
fun instead of always using it as a learning tool.
Ran-kun had become her pet name for the both brash
and shy boy that had stolen her heart with his
openness and sincerity. He was simply so innocent,
always happy to just be with her even if it was
just to talk or simply sit next to each other
and enjoy each other's company in silence.
{I hope to see you again someday...Ran-kun.}
~~~~~~~~~
"If only she knew..."
"Don't spoil it Bard." Shadow gave him a warning glance.
"Sorry."
~~~~~~~~~
*Smack*
The sound of flesh striking flesh was
unnaturally loud in the normally peaceful
forest.
"Oh the shame!!! Why am I cursed with
such a weak good for nothing son!? WHY?!"
*Slash*
The tiny drops of crimson that fell were absorbed
by the dry ground, leaving no trace of their existence.
"Papa that hurts!" A weakening voice cried out to no avail.
*Whack* A finger cracked as the joint bent
in a direction it was never meant to go.
"Quiet, you weakling! A real man can deal with a little pain!"
Ranma bit on his tongue in order to prevent the
scream that threatened to escape his lips as he
was hit by another one of those strange vacuum
blades his Father was throwing at him. He couldn't
hear them, since they weren't solid he didn't feel
the air that would normally forewarn of such an
attack pushing against his skin. Ranma's lack of
sight had never frustrated him as much as it did now.
"These techniques will make you stronger. Now get up and try again!"
Slowly the bruised and bleeding
pigtailed boy struggled to his feet.
A brutal blow to the ribs sent him back down,
this time unconsciousness mercifully claimed
the child.
"Get up!!"
*KICK*
~~~~~~~~~~~
-KILL!!!
Several hundred battle auras lit up the
dusky plain as the spectaters watched
Genma beat on his boy's limp body.
A lot of the beings gathered here were either
directly or indirectly linked to protecting children.
Needless to say, they were NOT happy about this.
"That's it, he dies!" A healer cried out.
A loud chorus of agreement came from the crowd.
"Tear him limb from limb!!!" suggested a pacifist.
"Burn him!!!" This came from a Naiad.
"Lock him up in a room with the Barney/Smurfs/BeanieBaby/
PokemonLemon/MagicalSelfInsert/DragonballAuthorAvatar/
CareBears/MyLittlePony fanfic dubbed in bad Japanese!"
The suggestion came from an anonymous otaku in the restless crowd.
Everyone shuddered at that one.
Some fates were even *worse* then death.
-To be continued
Disclaimer: Everyone belongs to whoever owns them.
Warning: We forecast dark scenes ahead,
this is your last chance to turn
back without suffering possible
psychological trauma.
You were warned!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Cringe*
"I'm old!! Take my son instead!!!"
Morrigan looked at the old fool before
her and sighed in disgust, not even she
would stoop so low as to take one
so...pathetic. The boy on the other
hand, now *he* had potential.
"Very well, your son for your wretched life."
Her crimson nails pinched harshly on Genma's exposed jugular.
"I will come for him when he reaches his prime."
The succubus slowly licked her lips as she imagined
how tasty the "beef" would be once it was properly aged.
"Now begone from my sight mortal before I change my mind."
Genma tore out of the castle like a bat out of Hell, vowing to
never again tamper with the forces of darkness in his quest to
make Ranma the ultimate martial artist.
He'd made a lot of promises like that before.
Genma would probably be making them for years to come...
...if he lived that long.
~~~~~~~~~~
"So in exchange for my son's immortal soul I get
the chowmein, eggrolls, and TWO fortune cookies?"
"Yes." Surely no mortal was this stupid.
"It's a deal!"
Then again, maybe he was.
Mara was ecstatic, at this rate she'd
make demoness first class in no time.
This was simply too easy.
{Absolutely nothing can go wrong!}
As an agent of Chaos and Misfortune she really
should have known better.
~~~~~~~~
"He'll be perfect for Yohko when she's grown."
"Is it agreed then? Your daughter will be
engaged to my son Ranma."
{Finally boy, you're becoming useful.}
Two innocent children played happily in the grass,
unaware and uncaring of the plots and plans for
the future hatching in the house behind them.
Each new friendship he made Ranma treasured, because
even though the pain of leaving them behind was great,
the sheer joy he felt whenever he was with the other
kids was worth it.
Yohko Mano smiled cheerfully at her new playmate.
The Saotome charm struck again.
~~~~~~~
"Engage him to my Ayahko. I'll pay double what she did!"
"Sold!!!"
{Heh, this is too easy. I should do it more often.}
~~~~~~~
Seen in hindsight, it really was a stupid
idea to try and pull a fast one over the
Lin Kuei. But Genma being Genma, he was
dumb enough to try once a sufficient amount of
alcohol was swimming through his bloodstream.
Of course once he realized that they wanted to
turn his son into a robot he'd wasted no time
in making tracks.
Sub-Zero and Smoke were excellent assassins,
but Genma was much better at running away
then they were at following him.
Losing that Scorpion character
that kept trying to kill Ranma,
now *that* proved to be more difficult.
~~~~~~
"Oooo, he's cute."
"He's a bargain for just that bottle of sake."
Urd thought about it, a pet human of her very own!
"...okay!"
{Hah, what a sucker. Foreigners are so gullible. After
all what were the chances of this girl ever showing
up in Japan again?}
A wiser man would have been warned
by the ominous rumble of thunder that
followed that thought.
~~~~~~
-Here Comes Trouble
"Amateurs." Shadow was disappointed by the stones
cast so far, this was hardly going to be a challenge for him.
"I suppose you can do better?" The Bard was still
peeved at the treatment his neck had received from
the arrogant cynic
A gesture from within the folds of Shadow's cloak
dissolved the view of the last entry.
"Remember the rules! No blatant darkfics!"
"Would I do such a thing?"
"In a heartbeat." The entire gathering answered him.
"Just watch." A small flick of Shadow's wrist
sent the marble-sized pebble into the still waters.
"Hah! you only got one ripple!"
"One is all I need."
~~~~~~~~
Private Bet #3: Eternal Night
by Shade
~~~~~~~
Part 1: Genma no Baka!
~~~~~~
-Contact-
Reality shifted.
A horrifying cry of pure agony arose.
Genma knew something was very wrong
the moment he drew back the cover
to the pit.
It was suddenly quiet inside...too quiet.
After a few moments his eyes adjusted to the lack
of lighting, despite the cover being off the bottom
of the crude hole was still not illuminated very well.
Then Genma saw what had happened to his son, the damage
that he had inadvertently inflicted on his sole heir.
"RANMA?! NO!!!"
Nodoka was going to kill him.
~~~~~~
"Ugh-ugh...." The Bard had turned a
faint shade of green after seeing what
Shadow's change had done and was now
making a heroic effort not to be very,
very sick all over the pool.
"This had better be good Shadow, inflicting
something like that on him..."
"Relax, you're too uptight Rowan. You seem to
forget that my sphere of influence is darkness
and conflict, Ranma is definitely going to be
heavily involved with both in this time-line."
"We shall see..."
"Trust me. I know exactly what I'm doing."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
~~~~~~~
At the hospital Doctor Mizuno broke the bad news to Genma.
"BLIND?!?!?!"
"Yes, I'm afraid that the damage to his
optic nerves was too severe, although
the cosmetic surgery will probably repair
his eyes, the boy's vision is permanently gone.
He's lucky to be alive all things considered,
I've never seen such a vicious animal attack
on a human body in all my years practicing
medicine. Have you any idea of how such a
thing could have happened?"
She gave him a direct stare,
suspecting that this weasely man
knew more then he was letting on.
"Uhh...no. I just found him like that
and brought him straight here." Genma sweated,
he didn't think that a mere doctor(and a woman at that)
would understand the importance of the Art or the
sacrifices involved. But this was unacceptable,
Ranma would never be able to become the world's greatest
martial artist with a disability like this!
"Surely you can do something can't you? He has a duty
to carry on the Saotome School of Anything Goes School
of Martial Arts! You're a doctor, fix him!!"
"MR. SAOTOME! THIS IS YOUR SON WE ARE
TALKING ABOUT HERE!! NOT SOME TOY
THAT CAN BE PUT BACK TOGETHER AFTER
YOU BREAK IT!!! WHAT KIND OF A FATHER
ARE YOU?!!!"
With Mrs. Mizuno being only a normal human it was
rather amazing to see her do a Flaming Demon Head
impression that Soun would have envied at the now
cowering Genma.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm SORRY!!!"
No matter what else could be said of Genma Saotome,
he sure knew how to grovel.
"...You sir, are simply pathetic."
~~~~~~~~~~~
In the intensive care ward 8 year old Ranma
Saotome was crying. His father had told him
that crying was weak and unmanly, but that
didn't matter anymore. After all he couldn't
even see his own tears anymore and if there
were no tears then he wasn't crying.
His last memory was of being tossed into
the dark pit with the hungry yellow eyes.
Then the sharp scratches, a white-hot pain
in his eyes and after that...nothing.
He had awoken in this strange place.
It smelled kinda like that nice old lady's
home he and pop had been living next to,
waxy clean with a faint tinge of medicine
in the air. Without his eyes Ranma was
forced to explore with his other senses,
his hands told him he was in a bed, with
bandages around his eyes and on his
body. He could hear a steady roaring in the
background as the hospital's staff attended
to the multitude of patients.
And now he could hear the footsteps
of someone coming towards him.
"Who's there?!" Ranma asked, quelling
the slight quaver in his voice.
{A martial artist never shows fear.}
The lesson had been drilled into him relentlessly
and was strangely comforting right now.
"hello." It was a girl's voice,
but so soft that Ranma could
barely make her words out.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Ami, Ami Mizuno.
"I'm Ranma...Ranma Saotome."
"You want to be friends?"
"Sure."
~~~~~~~~~
-A few weeks later
"Hahahaha! I beat you again A-chan!"
Ranma had pinned his new playmate with a hold he'd
learned just before the *incident*. He loved any kind of
physical activity and had finally convinced Ami-chan to
try a little roughhousing.
"I'll get you Ran-kun!"
The blue haired girl analyzed the situation.
She couldn't match Ranma's strength so she'd
have to use her wits instead
"Hahahahaha...No fair tickling!! Heehahaheeahahaha!!"
The first Tickle Wars began.
And thus a beautiful friendship was born.
Alas, this happy time would not last long.
~~~~~~~~~~~
-A couple months later
"Bye bye A-chan."
{Why do I always have to leave my friends behind?}
Ranma did his best to hide how much this departure hurt him,
he wouldn't shame his friend by breaking down crying like a
little kid. But it hurt so much, the next few nights would
be ones with damp pillows and cold sheets.
"Bye Ran-kun."
She was glad her friend couldn't see her tears,
this was hard enough already.
Though she had only known him for a few months
Ami knew that she would never forget her special friend.
Ranma had shown her a whole new side to life that she
had never known existed, for the first time Ami had
played with someone in her age group and enjoyed it.
She'd learned how to have fun for the sake of having
fun instead of always using it as a learning tool.
Ran-kun had become her pet name for the both brash
and shy boy that had stolen her heart with his
openness and sincerity. He was simply so innocent,
always happy to just be with her even if it was
just to talk or simply sit next to each other
and enjoy each other's company in silence.
{I hope to see you again someday...Ran-kun.}
~~~~~~~~~
"If only she knew..."
"Don't spoil it Bard." Shadow gave him a warning glance.
"Sorry."
~~~~~~~~~
*Smack*
The sound of flesh striking flesh was
unnaturally loud in the normally peaceful
forest.
"Oh the shame!!! Why am I cursed with
such a weak good for nothing son!? WHY?!"
*Slash*
The tiny drops of crimson that fell were absorbed
by the dry ground, leaving no trace of their existence.
"Papa that hurts!" A weakening voice cried out to no avail.
*Whack* A finger cracked as the joint bent
in a direction it was never meant to go.
"Quiet, you weakling! A real man can deal with a little pain!"
Ranma bit on his tongue in order to prevent the
scream that threatened to escape his lips as he
was hit by another one of those strange vacuum
blades his Father was throwing at him. He couldn't
hear them, since they weren't solid he didn't feel
the air that would normally forewarn of such an
attack pushing against his skin. Ranma's lack of
sight had never frustrated him as much as it did now.
"These techniques will make you stronger. Now get up and try again!"
Slowly the bruised and bleeding
pigtailed boy struggled to his feet.
A brutal blow to the ribs sent him back down,
this time unconsciousness mercifully claimed
the child.
"Get up!!"
*KICK*
~~~~~~~~~~~
-KILL!!!
Several hundred battle auras lit up the
dusky plain as the spectaters watched
Genma beat on his boy's limp body.
A lot of the beings gathered here were either
directly or indirectly linked to protecting children.
Needless to say, they were NOT happy about this.
"That's it, he dies!" A healer cried out.
A loud chorus of agreement came from the crowd.
"Tear him limb from limb!!!" suggested a pacifist.
"Burn him!!!" This came from a Naiad.
"Lock him up in a room with the Barney/Smurfs/BeanieBaby/
PokemonLemon/MagicalSelfInsert/DragonballAuthorAvatar/
CareBears/MyLittlePony fanfic dubbed in bad Japanese!"
The suggestion came from an anonymous otaku in the restless crowd.
Everyone shuddered at that one.
Some fates were even *worse* then death.
-To be continued