Morbid Irony.
It is said that the moment you die your subconscious takes over your brain entirely and shows you an eternity of your promised reward. People who have faith in their religion live out an instantaneous dream between the loss of conscious thought and life. This explains why people see their life flash before their eyes when death comes near. You judge your life to find a suitable punishment when you come up lacking.
'This is it, my revenge has been taken. Those who have wronged me now suffer in their eternal nightmares. I must join them, for I have betrayed them by letting them travel down a path devoid of redemption.' Ranma barely managed to finish his note as the life drained from his eyes. He felt the encroaching darkness at the edges of his vision as his decidedly demented mind melded into the recesses of his subconscious. He knew his fate. His punishment had been decided and foretold. His only solace was that his visions would be no more consistent or vivid in death than they had been in life. He sank to his knees smiling as the dream that had plagued him started for the last time.
Because of the crowds of fanatics trying to decode his message, and the constant media attention, it took the asylum a full year to get the bloodied inscription off of the front of the building.
I sink into my life, as it has been for as long as my memory holds. Those nights imprinted into my mind for longer than life itself would allow. I will endure until an instant of endless torture. For my revenge, even this price is welcomed. The acceptance and apathy that have sustained me will be my only shields against further madness. For the first time in my life, confidence is overwhelmed by fear. I fear I won't last long with justice turned against me
Akane walked in the front door, announcing herself but greeted with a silence almost as solid as the wall of darkness she had stepped through. The entire house was pitch black, despite the noonday sun being at its peak. Akane shivered as she stepped through, knowing immediately that something was horribly wrong.
"Hello…?" Akane jumped as a voice called out from the darkness in perfect synchronization with hers. She wondered briefly how whoever was there knew what she was about to say before slipping into a basic defensive stance. She saw her disadvantage immediately. She was standing in the doorway, the only source of light in the house, which kept her eyes from adjusting to the darkness in front of her. Her opponent however, could see her perfectly, and would take all the time he needed to analyze her stance and attack from a weak point.
Akane backed slowly out of the door, determined to lure her enemy out into the open. She was so focused on the door she never saw the barbell roll off the roof to land squarely on her head, knocking her into a daze.
She slumped to the ground as her assailant dropped off of the roof. She only managed to catch a glimpse of the hem of his black pants before she drifted into the darkness.
The first kill is always the hardest. Good thing this isn't my first.
Akane blinked herself slowly awake, eyes becoming used to the bright glare that flooded them. Her head throbbed uncontrollably as she struggled into a sitting position. She fell back onto her back as immediately as she had risen, more from dizziness than actual fatigue.
Her eyes shot open as she heard her voice from somewhere off to her left, "Don't bother getting up 'Kane, that'd only ruin the fun. Wouldn't want to have to put you down again after I went to all the trouble to get you here in the first place." She'd always thought it was a sweet voice, if a bit high pitched and girly for him.
"What's the meaning of this." she struggled out through her headache as her eyes tried to orient themselves on the smirking red figure in front of her, "Ranma? What's going on?"
"Oh don't act so naïve Akane-chan, I hoped you'd be a bit more aware than all that." The now identified Ranma kept on smirking as she watched Akane's eyes widen considerably. It wasn't just her hair and shirt that was red, Ranma's petite little girl form was covered in copious amounts of fresh blood.
"After all, it's not every day I decide to hit back is it youngest Tendo? It took me a good long while before I decided to "spring the trap" so to speak. Before you start to delude yourself, let me assure you that this is me, Ranma Saotome, I haven't hit my head or been possessed or anything. This is the real me and I'm going to enjoy yours more than anyone on the bloated dying earth."
Akane gulped as reality hit her hard, Ranma had gone from arrogant and egotistical to frightening and menacing, a thought broke through her conflicting emotions and rationalizations, "My what?" she said before she realized it.
"Your penance Akane, my dear sweet violent fiancée, I will make you suffer ten fold what you have visited upon me; and I will do it in the span of…" Ranma checked the pink clock on Akane's nightstand, "one hour, that's all I have until my next appointment. I'm a VERY busy man for the next three days, and I have to do away with all of you before they catch up to me. I hope you don't feel neglected dear one, but as they say 'Till death do us part!' ne? And a relationship as spectacular as ours deserves a spectacular death."
Ranma lifted a pile of what looked like cinder blocks over his head and Akane braced herself for what she knew was coming, it occurred to her that it was ironic she would be killed by her fiancé. The one she could never admit to loving. The one that had saved her so many times. She was still woozy from her concussion, too out of it to dodge or even feel angry at him for doing this to her. But what she didn't expect was him laying the huge pile of bricks gently on her chest. It was a massive weight; one that would have killed her had it been dropped recklessly, but as it was she just had troubles breathing buried under it.
She opened her eyes, realizing she had screwed them shut in expectation and looked up into that impish, and at the moment frowning, face.
"Oh come now Akane you don't think I would be that merciful did you? I told you we have an hour together and I want you to understand what you put me through those two long years. While all of your blows were quick, they could never be considered merciful." Ranma paced about the room; every so often he would pick up an object and add it to the pile. Now despite her growing awareness of her plight and her constant struggles to break free there was simply too much on her to do anything but remain prostrated. Even her extremities had been secured by masses of barbells and other training weights she owned.
"Perhaps I'll throw you out a window mi'love, or kick you across all of Tokyo to end up on some conveniently placed railroad spike." Ranma said this conversationally, as if her death was no more interesting to him than the weather, "But nooooo, they would notice you too soon, and I can't have myself caught after only three of you. I suppose I'll have to use 'that' instead. That leaves us with around twenty left before I have to prepare, so if you like you can ask me questions until I must dispose of you. Anything you like." He giggled slightly.
Akane strained her neck mightily to stare him in the face. Her grogginess had faded for the most part and left her clear headed and angrier than any time she could remember, "You sick bastard, you unrepentant Pervert! Why are you doing this? What have you done with my sisters?" Akane's rambling trailed off before it had truly begun as Ranma's eyes hardened considerably.
"One at a time Akane, don't push your luck." Ranma still smiled widely and his tone was still conversational but none of this demeanor reached his eyes. Akane found it odd how even though Ranma was in his female form she couldn't bring herself to think of him as a girl, "I'm doing this because it's the only way I can pay you back for your cruelty. Because you would continue sinning and harming people, even innocent people without me. This ward is draped in the trappings of sin and depravity and mostly mi'love it's because I'm off the deep end. Well and truly out of my mind and deep into the malevolent pool that you call insanity. I know what I do is wrong, but I do it. And don't think that you are in any way remarkable Akane, I have done this for years and would continue to do so if I hadn't come to this cesspool. This will be my life's work. I'll join those I have murdered in the underworld, knowing that both they and I deserve our fates for what we've done." He paused in his lengthy rant to see if it had the desired effect on her. It did, as he knew it would, so he went on to provoking her as he used to do, "Next question, and ask nicely or we might have to finish up early."
She swallowed, the nasty taste of outright terror still fresh in her throat. Although he'd used a lot of vague language his message became shockingly clear. She'd been the fiancée of a career killer for the past two years, and if she had of been a bit nicer about it she might just have escaped the massacre that he was initiating, "What did you mean by not wanting to get caught after 'just three of us'?" Akane knew what he would say, but if she was to preserve her life he had to be stalled. Maybe Uncle Genma or Daddy would come home and find this mess.
"You know what I meant; I had to get Pop and Mr. Tendo before you so we wouldn't be disturbed. You're my central work 'Kane, we lived together for so long I felt that you of all people should have the right to know the what's and why's of it all. I was merciful at least, after all their only true sins were sloth and greed, not much to get poetic about."
Akane felt like crying, but it wouldn't help any so she kept up with the questioning, "What about my sisters?"
"Nabiki has been called away, and Kasumi is visiting a friend, she at least will be spared though." He smirked as he watched how much this thought appeased her, "I'm going to have to get the burner ready, think on your questions while I tend to it." He slipped from the room so quickly she couldn't bring herself to stop him in time.
Left to herself her imagination ran wild, what did Ranma need the burner for? Was he going to cook something for her as a final moment of pity? Bile filled her throat as the fear overwhelmed her. It was an odd feeling for Akane Tendo to be this afraid, but in the face of this completely bizarre situation she couldn't even muster anger at her soon-to-be murderer. Besides, she knew what the consequences of another outburst would be.
Ranma hummed to himself as he skipped back into the room and jovially plopped himself onto the bed. "Your up again mi'love, I know you've got something stewing around up there, I can see it."
She bit her lip as a sharp retort nearly crossed her tongue, "What do you need the stove for?" Once again she was afraid she already knew the answer.
"Well, did you know this room is exactly above the kitchen? But I digress, the real reason is that I could get a clean shot, straight through to the floor here. I might get a bit of mess everywhere but there's a good chance some will still get in the pot."
Now she knew, so she didn't bother asking more about it, afraid of a firsthand demonstration, "What made you this way Ranma?" it had been on her mind since she could form coherent thoughts, and from the way Ranma was bouncing in his seat and the time she could make out on her clock it was to be her last question.
He said nothing as he walked to the closet, nothing still as he opened the door and withdrew her tool of choice, and then finally paused in his work to answer her, "As long as either of us will live, and I can guarantee it won't be long in either case, we will never know the answer to that question Akane. It could've been the neko-ken, or the separation from my mother or any of what Genma put me through. Whatever it was it's getting worse and I'm afraid I might just harm someone that doesn't deserve it. That scares me more than anything Akane-chan, so I'm ending it with you and the rest of them that have failed my tests. Now it's time to say goodbye mi'love, I'm afraid I'm running late."
She loved me, or the image of me that lived with her. I could see it in her eyes. It didn't matter, for no one could love the truth and this time the truth won't just hurt, it'll kill…
There we go, I dug this up from my old Dell hunk-a-junk and decided with a bit of editing it might make a few of you happy. It's definitely more detailed than the first chapter in terms of pure insane evil, but I found I got a bit Orwellian towards the end. I've decided to write out most of their deaths for the hell of it, and I hope the long monologue doesn't become a theme with it.