Author's Notes: This story was written for Halloween, and includes werewolves, witches and things that go bump in the night.
DISCLAIMER: Ranma & Co. don't belong to me.
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Chapter 1: The Red Man
A Remote Forest in China
THE beast snarled, wrinkling its night-black muzzle, revealing sharp feline teeth. A line of saliva dripped from a knife-like incisor slowly down to the ground, stretching the moment out.
The pig-tailed young man facing it grinned, crouched and made a come-hither motion with the tips of his fingers, a fierce light in his blue-grey eyes. "Come on, you big, overgrown cat. You made a mistake when you decided to dine on me. In fact, ANYone else in this godforsaken country would have been a better choice." He paused, then modified his statement. "At least, anyone who hasn't mastered the catfist, anyway."
The black jaguar decided it was time to eat, and sprang forward. The air in front of it blurred, and incredible pain ripped across its shoulder. It yowled and twisted in midair with lightning fast reflexes, trying to return the strike, but its quarry slipped out of reach.
"It's nearly midnight, too," the young man murmured. Not that the lack of light gave him any problems. "When all the ghost and ghoulies come out, right?"
The big cat stalked the man around the clearing as he retreated on light feet.
"And things that go bump in the night."
The jaguar gathered its back legs behind it and pounced like a coiled spring. Anyone else, catfist or not, would never have avoided the animal's blinding speed.
"Fuck! No ordinary jaguar moves like that!" Ranma stepped back, barely in time to avoid a line of scratches.
Man and beast circled in the moonlight, while around them in the forest, multiple eyes watched with interest. The jaguar moved forward again. The two of them grappled together on the ground, the jaguar's superior strength matched by Ranma's fierce speed and cat-like reflexes.
Ranma gave a feral smile. "Time for you to go bump."
He caught the jaguar by the throat and slammed it backwards into the ground.
There was a sickening crack and a howl of pain.
"Ugh! There are better ways to die," Ranma said with disgust, as he watched the jaguar writhe on the ground. He clenched and unclenched his fingers, releasing the tension of battle. Once again, he could be grateful for Cologne's speed training. If only she'd lose the idea that he oughta marry her great-granddaughter. Shampoo was nice n' all, but...
Anyway, he had other things to do. Had to find his oyaji, for one thing. Damn fool had drugged him and left him and run off to Japan, leaving some kind of scribbled note as an explaination. Unfortunately, his scribbling was nearly impossible to read, so Ranma was as mystified as ever. Only thing to do was to find Genma and beat it out of him. And for that, he had to find Himura, the only link to his father.
Did it have to do with Jusenkyou? Sure, he was cursed, and turning into a girl when splashed with cold water was no fun, but hey, it wasn't like it was permanent or something.
The jaguar was silent now, and Ranma decided he'd better find another place to camp for the night.
City, U.S.A
It was a dark and snowy night.
Just as the chirpy weatherman on WorldTV had predicted, Wednesday morning had seen a colossal snow blizzard move into the city, clogging traffic and turning the outdoors into a gigantic icebox. As the day wore on, conditions only got worse.
Car wheels everywhere churned helplessly against mounds of snow and a biting arctic wind came up out of nowhere, whining eerily past doors and windows downtown.
In one small office at the edge of downtown, a small figure sat typing on a computer, her fingers flying. The phone rang and the figure paused, watching the cursor blink in place on the screen.
With a sigh, she picked up the phone."Good evening, Wellstar Realty," she said. "This is Akane."
"Hi, is Arnold there?" Arnold was one of the realtors at the office.
"He's not in, but I can page him for you." The girl cradled the receiver against her slim shoulder as she quickly typed in a message on the online paging system. The wind howling beyond the glass doors made her shiver with cold.
"...Lisa at home. Sure," she said, listened sleepily. "No, I'm the evening receptionist. You're welcome. Goodbye." She hung up the phone and glanced at the clock. It was nearly nine p.m.
Another 35 minutes before her shift ended for the evening. The glass door a few feet away from her desk showed that it was dark long since, and snow was gathering in little drifts beside the welcome mat.
The glass doors opened and closed, letting in a freezing gust of wind that ruffled her short hair and made her shiver briefly.
"Akane! How're you doing?" A short, stocky man stamped his boots on the already wet doormat, shaking off snow in wet clumps. He grinned, his eyes glittering, his cheeks red from the cold. "Your night for the late shift, huh?"
"Hi, Gus," Akane replied, smiling politely, making the small talk that was expected of her at the front desk. "It looks very cold outside."
"Yeah, it's colder out there'n the inside of my beer freezer." Gus came forward, leaned his arms on Akane's desk. "I'm a little under the weather, though."
"Oh, no." Akane examined his face and realized that the hectic flush coloring his cheeks looked feverish. "Are you ok? You look ill."
"Naw, I'll be fine! Popped a couple painkillers already." Gus laughed heartily. "I'm just gonna go to the back of the office and do some work, ok?"
"If you're sure." Akane eyed him carefully.
"Don't worry, it's just that bug that's been going around."
Akane nodded with some concern. She watched as he disappeared around the corner, into the back of the office. She heard a computer beep on. Reassured, she went back to work, glad that there was someone to keep her company on such a night, especially with the world as scary as it had become in the last few years.
She stopped typing and pulled up the news website she'd minimized on her desktop.
Monster attacks growing in number closer to Halloween! the headlines screamed. Vampire attacks man in subway. Goblins loot woman's home! Frankenstein's monster spotted in Bulgaria!
A few years ago, such news only belong on the front pages of the National Enquirer, but now even the local city newspaper printed the stories. Because they were true.
Ever since that reporter had revealed the existence of monsters on national television, things had gotten hairy. Ghosts and ghoulies started attacking more openly. Of course, there were the 'civilized' monsters too, who claimed that they only wanted to live side-by-side with humans.
Akane remembered that a few weeks after Larry Porter's fiancé ate WorldTV personnel on live television, her father had received a postcard from China. He'd read it, then scrunched it up and thrown it into the fire. She remembered it because she hadn't known her father KNEW anyone in China.
That was when he'd lost any interest in her training, Akane remembered with regret. She sighed and scrolled through a story about a man winning the lottery. If only that were me, she thought.
There was a soft bump in the back.
Akane continued typing, although her glance moved away from the screen for a split second.
She waited, heard nothing, continued.
The wheels on one of the office chairs in the back squealed as it was pushed backwards.
There was a sudden thump.
"Gus! Are you okay?" Worried, Akane stood up and walked around her desk. She peered uncertainly into the dimly lighted rear of the office. A row of cubicles blocked her view and she took a step closer.
She couldn't see much in the dark shadows of the cubicles. Gus was back there somewhere. But she couldn't make herself move forward and switch on the hall light.
The silence was ominous, broken only by the sound of the clock ticking away the seconds, one by one by one. Akane's breathing sped up slightly, and she tensed, wondering if she was overreacting.
"Akane!" Gus stumbled into sight, hanging onto a cubicle wall, breathing heavily. His face was flushed, and sweat beaded his face. His eyes were wild and scared.
The short-haired girl shrieked and jumped back, her hands flying up into the old defensive position automatically.
"Akane, you have to...get out ...of here!" He grunted. He took another step forward, and stopped, trembling. His fists were clenched. Akane could feel waves of heat radiating from his body.
Worried, she lowered her hands and stepped closer.
"Gus, you're sick! You're about to fall!" Her eyes widened in distress, and she turned to call 911 from her telephone.
"Akane, don't!" Gus tripped, and fell down with a hoarse cry, his body hitting the carpeted floor. He began to writhe, his back bowing out in pain, his eyes clenched shut. There was something inhuman in his voice, as though more than one voice tried to scream through his tortured throat. It was eerie.
"But you might have pneumonia! I'm not just going to let you die!" She stared down at his bent form, chewing her lower lip in indecision. He obviously needed medical care, but she couldn't lift him to her car in her short skirt and high heels. She was strong but she knew how heavy dead weight could be.
Gus reached out a hand and slowly raked the floor with long grey nails, gritting his teeth as though he would rip the carpeting right off. Akane stared at his nails, wondering what to do. He might be delirious, and she couldn't just leave him on the floor.
Her mind made up, she turned and picked up the receiver.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"Hi, one of my co-workers is...Aaack!" She jolted as she felt a hand wrap around her ankle. She glanced wildly down to see Gus glaring up at her. His eyes were burning red.
"Noooo!" He screamed. "Akane, please...I..I was bitten...I'm...turning!"
"Turning? Into what?" Even as she said that, Akane felt as though ice water had been dashed onto her face. His eyes…the irises had changed shape, turned to slits…
Oh, no, she thought. Poor Gus.
His nails sank into her leg and she screamed. The phone dropped from her lifeless hand.
"I went...camping last weekend...foolish...took no...protective silver..." Even as Akane watched, horrified, dark, springy hair sprouted on the palm of the hand that clawed at the floor. Fine whorls of carpet and wood were curling up behind his fingertips, and he was gouging four deep marks in the floor.
Claw marks. Akane realized. She gently pulled her bleeding leg out of his grip.
"Run! While you still can, ruuuun...!" Gus screamed again in that unnatural double voice, and even as Akane watched, his face began to get distorted, began to lengthen, in a way that reminded Akane of South American ant-eaters. She could see teeth now, sharp and hooked…
The face that glared up at her was that of a werewolf. That snapped her paralysis.
She grabbed her jacket and dashed for the glass door, cursing her high heels that rang sharply against the wooden floor. She pushed the door open, emerging into the piercing cold air outside. The wind hit her face immediately but she didn't falter.
She made her way through the snow to the edge of the main road. The office was on the edge of downtown, and consequently the area was quite deserted at this time of night, except for the cars that screamed past her. They were going too fast for her to hope she could jump in front of one to stop it. By the time the driver saw her, it would be too late to stop.
Akane heartily wished she hadn't stopped her martial arts training just because Soun had wished it. She could have really used some of it right now.
She heard a roar of animal rage behind her and shivered at the eerie howl. Where could she run? Her best bet was a lighted area, filled with people. Hopefully the werewolf would veer away from bright lights. She made for one of the strip malls in the distance. There was a 24-hr Chinese take-out joint there, and a pub or so. Hopefully, she'd find some help there.
Akane ran easily up the snowy slope that led to the main road. Behind her, she heard the crash of the glass door, and realized the werewolf had completed its transformation. She imagined the wolf pounding across the snow on all fours, bringing her down like a deer, tearing into her warm flesh, digging its snout into her steaming blood….
Stop it, Akane! Get a grip!
She didn't have much time left. Her heart thudding with terror, she ran across the road, watching for cars. She chanced a quick look behind her, and saw a dark, hunched shape shooting across the slope toward her.
The werewolf was almost on her! She had to run faster, but all the snow was slowing her down, and if it wasn't so cold she would have kicked off her pumps.
A fresh legion of cars came swarming up the highway, hiding the werewolf from Akane's view for a moment. She used the time to sight again on the strip mall and run towards it as fast as she could. Almost, she could feel the werewolf's breath on the back of her neck, hot and fetid, its wrinkled nose drawing in her scent.
Despite her efforts, however, freezing snow filled her shoes, turning her legs numb. After a few seconds, she couldn't feel her feet at all, and it was getting hard to run on numb legs. She heard a car screech, the sound of metal, and turned to see the werewolf leaping across the road towards her, even as cars swerved and tried to stop.
It was much faster than she had imagined.
"Dammit!" She swore. I'm so close! She was almost at the parking lot of the strip mall. She'd almost reached the pool of light cast by the closest street light.
She was going to get murdered and eaten a few feet away from safety. Despair filled her.
Exhausted and numb, she tripped, sank upto her knees in a snowdrift and tumbled to the frozen ground. Almost as though in a dream, she turned, watched as the werewolf scampered closer, saliva pooling in its red mouth and dripping from its sharp jaws at the sight of its fallen prey. Its crimson eyes gleamed with bloodlust, and it paused, raised its snout and howled with triumph. It stood nearly seven feet tall at full height, and the breadth of shaggy chest, muscled arms ending in claw tipped hands, the leaf-shaped ears, all brought home to her the horror of the man-thing before her.
Akane crawled backwards, panting, dragging her useless legs over the snow.
The werewolf pounced, and Akane turned in a final attempt to escape.
Something stood in her way. No! Surely, not two! She let out a mental scream of despair.
Amber eyes gleamed in the dark, something blurred in an arc of silver over her head, and she heard a thump. She screamed, throwing her arms around herself, screwing her eyes shut. The cold air moved past her silently. She waited-one heartbeat, two- and then slowly let her lashes drift open.
On the ground beside her, the narrow eyes of the werewolf glared up at her from the severed head. Blood gushed from the stump and steamed in the snow. She looked behind her. The body lay on its side, already turning human again, the furry pelt giving way to human skin.
She swivelled her head and looked back up at her rescuer, blinking from where she sat sprawled in the snow.
A flame-haired man stood before her, dressed in dark clothing, Most of his face was in shadow, even though his hair had been caught in a high ponytail away from his face. The metallic sheen of his sword caught her eye. So that was what had rescued her. Blood still dripped from the blade to spot the snow.
"Thank you," she said.
"Did he bite you?" Her rescuer had a soft voice, like velvet. Yet Akane discovered that for some strange reason, he seemed almost as scary as the werewolf had been.
"No."
"I smell blood." Without another word, her saviour knelt and captured her ankle, turning it this way and that under the streetlamp. He skimmed his hand from her ankle to her knee, making Akane press her knees together in embarrassment. He pressed gently with his thumb, and Akane yelped.
"The werewolf has scratched you. You might be infected." He rose, and pulled her to her feet none too gently.
"Cursed? To become a werewolf?" Akane wanted to laugh. She simply couldn't believe the way this was turning out. A hysterical giggle escaped her lips and she clapped her hand to her mouth.
"Well, I'll make sure to check in at a clinic tomorrow." She began to brush the snow off her skirt. "Thank you for your help."
She looked at Gus' naked body steaming in the snow and shook her head sadly.
"Poor Gus." She shuddered at the thought of her close call.
"You knew him?" He was cleaning his sword with a piece of cloth now. He wiped the edge carefully, then folded the cloth and put it in his pocket.
"He was a co-worker. He went camping last weekend. Forgot his silver amulet at home."
"Akane Tendo."
"Wha...?"Akane spun around in shock to see the guy swiftly rifling through her wallet, her purse in one hand.
"Hey! Give me that!" She snatched at her wallet and purse but he easily pulled away, his eyes never leaving the wallet. He was reading her driver's license. Akane had the odd feeling that he was memorizing her address.
"Here." He stuffed the wallet back into her purse and handed it back to her. "There's no point going to a clinic. They can't help you now."
"Well, that's really none of your business." Akane felt better once she had her purse back. She was alive and thankful for it.
"Oh really? Like 'poor Gus' could have avoided this if he'd confided in someone? Do YOU want to attack someone next full moon?" Her savior's amber eyes narrowed, and Akane shrank a little. It was true. That was how she'd ended up in this situation, after all. She needed to be more responsible.
"Well, what am I supposed to do?" She slung her purse over her shoulder. "Should I pour some holy water on the wound?"
"That's for vampires."
"Oh. Well, how am I supposed to know?" she demanded. "I'm no expert! I've never had to be."
"Come with me."
"Y-you? Why?"
"I can try to help you." He sheathed his shining sword into a scabbard at his side. The single motion was calm and collected. It bespoke years of practice and usage.
Akane blustered. "I don't even know your name!"
"Kenshin. Kenshin Himura."
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