Nightmares In Nerima

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Part 1

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Happosai steamed in unrestrained fury as he dragged his trampled body to the Tendo residence. The throbbing knots that now layered his wrinkled skin only contributed to his anger. He arrived in the back yard of his former student's home and paused outside the shoji door.

He knew he was now standing before the nest of his current target. Ranma Saotome.

Mercy was long forgotten and only vengeance and consequence concerned the old martial artist. He had settled that this would be the very last time Ranma would ever humiliate or disrespect him.

'The VERY last,' he thought. Happosai clutched his fists as his growing aura shot out demoniac flames. 'I'll make that little imp regret ever confronting me. I'll force him to fall before me in despair.'

It had been obvious that facing his previous wrath had not gotten through to the younger martial artist. Back then, Happosai's intention had been to discipline the boy for audacity. To show him that he was of lesser rank and should give more honor to his elders. But from what he understand, it would take far more than a few vindictive pranks to get through to his senseless brain.

Happosai declined the idea of using combat against the boy. He could always just trounce him with a Happo-Fire Burst. But this method was excessively familiar to Ranma and from past instances, proved to be useless. He needed a new method that would place him on edge.

He thought back to the galling incident that had just taken place only minutes ago.

He had pounced merrily through the campus of Furinkan highschool, hauling his loot of stolen girls' gym and lockerroom attire. He had managed to escape the angry mass of female students who pursued him with brooms, mops, bats, hockey sticks, and other equipment they managed to get a hold of.

Happosai chuckled. "Let's do this again some time, eh girls?"

He reached the front yard of the school and was met by many annoyed glances, most from females. He smiled and darted from girl to girl, gusting enough wind with him to make skirts flutter, providing him a decent peak. The girls shrieked and clutched their skirts down.

"Someone stop him!" a male student shouted.

Happosai pleasingly sprung toward the gate ready to make his escape, right when a familiar red-headed beauty blocked his path. A mischievous glint sparked in her eye. "Old maaan," she sang. She reached for the latch of her red Chinese shirt and began to undo them one by one, revealing her pleasantly sized breasts.

Happosai's eyes protruded in delight. "Ranma!" he shouted expanding his arms for potential embrace. The girl's grin grew wider. "That's right," she said seductively. "Come...right...to...me!" Suddenly Happosai found his face smashed with the vigorous impact of her fist and spiraling through the air. "You little freak!" she shouted after him.

Happosai cursed himself for once again falling victim to her trap. When he reached an elevated point in the sky, his body slowed down, favoring gravity and reversing his route. He fell freely back towards earth. He noticed that this time, Ranma had punted him directly up, instead of in an arch as he usually did. Meaning, that he'd fall back to his original destination.

When the people below began to shuffle backwards to allow him landing space, Ranma suddenly stepped forward with a tennis racket in hand. She smirked at Happosai.

Before Happosai had a chance to land, he found himself served across the school yard with one shot of the racket. Seconds later, he was struck by another racket, sending him the opposite direction. A few seconds later it happened again.

Between serves, Happosai caught a glimpse of a red blur dashing back and forth with a racket. Only after being struck again, did he recognize the blur as Ranma. She was flinging back and forth at incredible speed, making sure to hoist Happosai right before he hit the ground.

This game continued on and before long, Happosai had grown painfully worn, loosing count of the number of times Ranma struck him. The next hit sent him straight up in the air again.

"Give it a go, Akane," he heard Ranma say. She quickly flung the racket in her fiancee's direction and she confusedly caught it. Happosai felt gravity taking over again and he descended down toward the school yard. Akane positioned her hands correctly on the handle and glanced up in focus. Happosai held his breath and shut his eyes at the coming impact.

With one dynamic slam, the racket sent him spiraling up toward the sky once more. He reached such a high elevation, he thought he would crash the sun. By now his head was pounding and spinning in disorder and his body bruised all over.

On his way back down towards the yard, he plunged into a tree, momentarily being caught by the leaves, then hitting several branches on the way down. "Aaaaagh!" he shouted after hitting the last branch. He anticipated another strike from the racket but was payed with a smash to the ground instead. Everything spun uncontrollably around him. He could hear his heart thumping through his ears and a stream of stars circled his head in a halo.

He attempted to gain his sight back, against the blurriness that clouded around him. When he finally did, he found that familiar red-head standing over him frowning.

"That'll teach ya to come here again," she said. Ranma turned away. "There you go, girls. He's all yours."

A stampede of female students surrounded him from every direction.

"...Gah!...W-Wait a seco-...Aah!" He had little opportunity to get up before several feet stomped him into the ground continuously. "Aah! RANMA!"

Happosai shuddered at the memory as he came back to reality. His aura had seemed to spark even more at the reminiscence. He slowly slid the shoji door open arriving at the living room of the Tendo house. He came to find the entire family gathered around the table. The room went quiet and everyone turned to stare at him.

Soun and Genma jolted in terror at the intense rage that omitted from him. "M-Master?..." Genma stammered.

"...What is it, Master?" Soun asked.

Happosai silently eyed his target (who now took on his original male body).

Ranma carelessly looked away, turning back to the snow cone in front of him. "Still alive are we, you little monster."

"Ranma!" Soun scolded.

Happosai growled in such a cold manner, even Ranma had to look up. "Learn your mistakes, Ranma Saotome...Because soon enough, they'll all come back to you." The old martial artist shuffled past the family, then down the hall.

Ranma stared after him, confused.

"Well..."Nabiki said. "The old coot actually said something right for once."

"What's he babbling on about anyway?"

"I don't know, but something most have really set him off," Genma said. "I hope you didn't go and do something reckless again, Boy. You'll get us all killed!"

Ranma casually pecked his snow cone. "Stop overreactin'. He's probably just havin' a moment. He'll be back to his creepy old self in no time."

Akane stared at Ranma.

She hoped he was right.

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The normal sounds of the night filled the dark streets of Nerima. Dogs barked back and forth simultaneously, crickets chirped and hissed in ongoing rhythms, and the occasional sound of a car honking in the distance kept the town's atmosphere from being mute.

Happosai sat in his dimly lit room going through his rucksack. Majority of his previously purchased valuables were kept hidden there. He came across an old yellow cracked mirror that had been restored with tape. Happosai stared into the mirror and grinned. "Ah...I've had good times with this old thing." He remembered all of his adventures through time with the tear-powered mirror. He set it aside and reached in his sack again. He found a styrofoam container wrapped protectively in plastic. The label on the container read 'Instant Super Soba.' This brought back one of the few instances that hadn't turned out so well. He hadn't even known he had another one stashed away. He made a mental note to try it the next day.

Next he came across a polished wooden box. The box was latched closed with a golden hook. Happosai grinned. "Here it is." He ran a hand over it preciously before unlatching the hook. Inside he found an assortment of various colored and shaped incense burners. One was auburn colored and pot shaped. He reahced for it.

"This should do it." He sat the burner aside before scanning the arrangement of incense. The half-used purple incense, known as the Nightmare Incense of Spring, brought him back to the incident of accidently using it on Akane. The Incense was created to allow it's object to sleep throughout the spring season, while at the same time releasing their latent potential to guard against foes. The incense was practical. But it wasn't exactly what he was looking for.

He placed it back in its spot and redirected his attention to the wrapped new stick of incense beside it. He smiled and held it up. This was more like it.

"The Fear Stressing Incense...Used on an enemy to stress their obvious and underlay fears in the form of dreams."

He remembered buying it from the Exclusive Incense shop when on a trip in Kyushu. The incense was somewhat of an advancement of the Nightmare Incense. The shop owner in Kyushu had told him that the Fear Stressing Incense had been used in previous eras by warriors on their enemies or rivals. The purpose was to withdraw the enemies fears (conscious and subconscious) in their sleep. The fears would constantly appear in the enemies dreams and haunt them in every sleep period. It was a form of revenge through psychological torture.

Happosai laughed vilely before unwrapping the stick. He had yet the opportunity to test the Incense out. The shop owner had promised that it was authentic and told him that if he bought it, he would throw in the cure for free and give him the pick of any other incense for half-price.

Happosai couldn't argue with that.

He grabbed the incense burner in the opposite hand and removed his gas mask from his sack. 'But there's only one way to find out...' He quietly made his way down the dark hall way toward the guest room Ranma shared with his father. Carefully sliding the door open without a sound, he peeked in.

There sprawled out on a futon beside a huge panda, was his victim.

Happosai tiptoed over keeping in mind to remain silent, an essential step he had forgotten the last time. He suddenly froze when Ranma scratched his exposed stomach. As a loud snore followed Happosai released the breath he had been holding in. He kneeled beside the boys' futon and put on the gas mask then lit the incense burner.

'Now Ranma...prepare to taste REAL consequence.'

The flame began to modify the stick into smoke. He hovered it next to the boy's head, making sure the smoke floated in the correct direction.

'That's it,' Happosai thought. 'Just breath it all in.'

After the stick had smoldered down to a small stub he covered the burner. He watched as Ranma continued to sleep unfazed. 'We'll see if this stuff really works.' He gathered his materials and made his way over to the door. Before quietly sliding the door closed, he looked back at the oblivious Ranma and grinned.

"Sweet dreams."

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Hi there! ^ ^

Sorry if you consider it a little short. But it is just the beginning after all. The current rating of the story is 'T', though that is subject to change. The intensity and detail of the story may be appropriate for only mature audiences. I'll be sure to let everyone know if that happens.

But tell me what you think of it so far. What do you expect to happen? Or what would you like to happen?

Thanks for reading. Please review.