Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, not me.

AN: Warning- This chapter gets DARK. It contains graphic violence and mentions of rape, although nothing explicit. (Edited Sept. 2017)

No More Pussyfooting Around: a Ranma ½ fanfic

By Indygodusk

Chapter 4: Bondage and Beads

Upon waking, Akane first noticed the pounding of her head, as if she'd landed in a mosh pit at a heavy metal concert. Her skull felt like it was going to break open. A second later, she realized that someone must consider skulls breaking open a valid threat, because a cloth strap circled her head tightly and bit uncomfortably into her cheeks. It must be there to keep her skull in one piece. The fact that it secured a gag in her mouth at the same time was only a coincidence, she was sure. I'd rather you allow my head to just break open, if anyone cares to ask, she thought with black humor. A twitch of her wrists confirmed that they were tied together as well.

A brisk wind blew across her body, causing painful prickles across her bare legs. Akane shivered. Pain, nausea, and grogginess had her eyes glued shut, but it was time to wake up and get a move on. She needed to know what was going on. You've been kidnapped tons of times before, she told herself. Stop dawdling. You should be blasé about this sort of thing by now.

Slowly Akane cracked open her eyelids. Outside an open window she saw a gentle slope leading to a river bordered by a jungle. Above the trees hung a hazy, blue-gray sky. No bars on the windows at least, so escape should be easy once she got the bindings off. She just needed to get her head to stop throbbing for a minute so she could think of a plan. As she slowly turned her head to take in the rest of the room, she couldn't help but twitch in surprise.

Across the room, a large man crouched over Ranko's unconscious body, her red lashes fanned shut above pale cheeks. The man wore the same black and purple uniform as the men they'd fought the temple. Ranko looked petite next to his bulk. But as Ranko had proved time and again, size wasn't everything in a fight. At least, when she was awake.

As Akane watched in increasing horror, the burly man tried to wrench open Ranko's belt. The puzzle-link clasp on Ranko's new belt refused to budge. With a dissatisfied grunt, the man pulled out a gleaming little knife and started to saw. "Did they really have to double-dose this one? She couldn't have been as difficult as they claimed. She's too small to put up much fight," he complained in a baritone growl. "I like them all squirmy."

Gasping in outrage through the dirty rag in her mouth, Akane tried to leap to her feet. She had to save Ranma! Before she could do more than sit up, however, a hand reached out and brutally slammed her body back down. Akane's head rebounded hard off the floor.

Painfully dazed, it took a moment for Akane's vision to clear of spiky black spots. When it finally did, she saw a second man come into focus standing above her. He wore the same purple uniform.

"Me too," he chuckled. "But luckily, mine's awake. You can have her when I'm done if you want, though I can't promise not to break her first."

Through the pulsing in her head, Akane saw him undo the fastenings of his pants. The breeze from the window made her sweat feel icy cold, even in places where the wind shouldn't reach. Bile surged up her throat when she realized that her skirt had been pushed up above her waist and her underwear was missing.

Catching Akane's eyes, the looming man grinned, revealing brown-stained teeth. "I like the ones who scream and struggle, so why don't you give me and my friend both a treat. She won't mind the noise." He jerked his chin at the unconscious Ranko.

"Can't be too loud though, or somebody might come and ruin things," his partner warned. "If we're gonna take off after this, you better leave the gag. Otherwise, someone might try to come and join in, and then we'll have'ta split the girls and the profit even further," he shrugged. "Won't be as fun that way, but that's life."

Before Akane could find the wits to react, her attacker wrenched her bound wrists above her head. He used his other hand to push her naked legs apart. Rough nails stabbed into the flesh of her knee as she slammed them back closed. "C'mon," he growled, "be a good girl and open up." A bony knee joined the fingers prying at her legs and succeeded in pushing her knees apart. Akane felt wiry hair scraping against her inner thigh and screamed around her gag.

Rearing up, she bashed her forehead into his nose with a loud crunch. Blood exploded across her face and into one eye, partially blinding her. He screamed and flinched back. As his hold loosened, she twisted her arms free and rammed her elbow into his temple, knocking him off her body. Scrabbling to her feet, Akane barely kept upright as his booted foot kicked her hard in the right thigh, flinging her back into a table.

The impact of her body knocked a wooden chest down onto the ground. It splintered open with a loud clatter. Coins, jewels, and broken pottery skittered across the floor. A ball of rotting cloth spun out and bounced several feet. Each impact with the floor sent up a puff of blackish-purple dust as the cloth disintegrated before her eyes. When the bundle finally rolled to a stop, a loop of glistening black cord fell out.

Time slowed. There was something... strange about that cord. It almost seemed to be absorbing the light, causing the room to slowly dim.

"You're going to pay for that," her attacker snarled wetly through his broken nose, breaking Akane's momentary fascination. Through the blood blurring her eyesight, she saw the man pull up his pants and come up onto one knee. Her right leg almost gave out as she retreated to the side.

Glaring hatefully, Akane's attacker paused to hawk up a mouthful of blood and snot. Taking advantage of the pause, she rubbed her eyes clean of blood, restoring her peripheral vision. She saw the second man jump up to join the fight. Akane needed to end this quickly.

Blood continued to trickle from her attacker's broken nose and dripped off his chin. He bared red-stained teeth. "After I rape you, I'm going to cut up your pretty little face with a rusty knife and throw you in the basement for the rats to eat," he gurgled, then spit more blood to the side.

Putting a hand on the floor for leverage, he lunged up at Akane. She leaned back with a sob and executed a sidekick. Her foot rammed into the side of his chin with all the force of a bullet train, shattering his jaw and flinging him unconscious into the wall across the room.

The second man barely dodged his partner's flailing body. "Bitch!" he screamed.

In response, Akane narrowed her eyes. Rushing forward, she walloped him across the side of the head with her bound fists. He grunted and staggered back, but didn't go down.

Bringing up the shiny little knife hidden in his hand, he slashed at her. The sharp blade slid through her shirt like it was butter. For a moment, she didn't feel anything. He missed, she thought with relief.

Less than a second later, fiery pain burned through her side. Akane whimpered with shock and pain into her soaked gag. As she dodged his wild slashes, she could feel wetness seeping down her body. Each movement hurt.

Staggering back, Akane feared that this was a fight she was going to lose. More and more, she was having trouble getting enough air through the thick cloth in her mouth and her runny nose. The tight bindings on her arms also made maneuvering difficult. Now that she'd been cut so deeply in the side, she had a limited amount of time before she passed out from blood loss. Things were not looking good.

Out of the corner of her eye, the bright red of Ranko's hair caught Akane's eye. Ranma would never quit, Akane thought. Hundreds of images of Ranma fighting, getting knocked down, failing, only to get back up again until he finally won raced through her mind. He doesn't know the meaning of the word! Well, neither do I, Akane declared to her aching body.

Resolved, Akane waited for an opening in her opponent's defenses. I've got to protect Ranko until she wakes up. Seeing an opening, Akane hit her attacker with a back kick. He staggered, but didn't drop the knife.

After barely dodging several more blows, Akane knew that she needed to end this soon. Her energy was almost gone and she felt like throwing up. If she did that with the gag in her mouth, she could choke to death on her own vomit. Swallowing hard, Akane barely avoided another slash.

Then Akane got lucky. Her attacker stepped on the glistening black cord and his foot rolled. It was only a slight stumble, but it was enough.

Akane put all of her power into a spinning kick. The ball of her foot slammed into his solar plexus, folding him over her leg as all of the breath exploded out of his body. Bringing her hands down hard on the back of his neck, she knocked him out cold. His body dropped onto the wooden floorboards like a stack of bricks.

Panting through her gag, Akane waited for more guards to come running at all of the commotion. When no one appeared, she realized that they must be used to screams around here. The thought made her feel even more ill. Turning the man's unconscious body over with her foot, Akane looked for his knife.

Finally she spied the hilt sticking out underneath his ankle. Kicking his leg away, she flopped down and grabbed the knife. She had to hold the hilt awkwardly, with the blade parallel to her forearms. Akane sprawled sideways onto the ground and sawed determinedly at her bonds.

Time slowed, like oozing honey. It felt like her strength was draining into the ground. Had she felt this weak a minute ago? She couldn't remember. Warm blood pooled beneath her side. Something thin and hard beneath her body dug into her skin painfully.

Added to that, the bloody knife kept jumping out of her fingers, as if it had a will of its own. But Akane Tendo was nothing if not stubborn. She would not quit or be defeated by a little knife.

Finally an eternity later, the rope parted. Akane had nicks all over her forearms, but her hands were free. She rubbed her painfully tingling fingers as the blood rushed back into her hands and then gingerly cut off her gag. Spitting out the foul fabric, half splattered with her opponent's blood, she slowly rotated her aching jaw and sprawled onto her back. Being able to close her mouth felt blissful. She wanted to just lay her head down on the floor and sleep.

Yet there was something she still needed to do. What was it? A voice urged her to ignore it, to just lie there and let her pain seep away into the floor. A moment or two more wouldn't hurt anything… but Akane couldn't quit.

You don't know the meaning of the word, remember?

Gritting her teeth, Akane slowly forced herself up onto her side and, even more slowly, onto her hands and knees. It felt like the floor was suctioning onto her body, trying to hold her down, but she fought against it.

Akane had decided to stand up. Therefore, nothing was going to stop her. Simple. A minute later, she felt a surge of success and renewed energy as she stood swaying on her own two feet.

Looking down, she saw the black cord saturated by the blood spattered across the floor. Some of it came from the two unconscious guards, particularly that gusher of a bloody nose, but at least one of those puddles came from the gash in her side. If she continued to bleed like that, she was going to be in big trouble. Bigger trouble.

Then Akane remembered, "Ranma!" How could she have forgotten Ranma?

Stumbling over to the redhead, Akane quickly cut her friend loose. She felt exquisite relief when she saw that Ranko's pants were still in place, the belt only partially cut. There didn't seem to be any other wounds besides a shallow scrape along the side of her face.

"Ranma," Akane called as loudly as she dared. She didn't want to bring any more guards. "Wake up." When shaking failed to rouse her friend, Akane started to get angry. Better that than scared.

"You idiot, stop being so freakin' lazy!" Akane slapped Ranko. Hard. But Ranko's pale face simply lolled to the side, unresponsive.

Akane bit her lip in worry. What had that guard been saying earlier? Something about a second dose? Whatever the gas or drug was, it had proven to be surprisingly effective. She couldn't think of anything else that would keep Ranma asleep through a battle, much less an attempted rape.

Don't think about that right now.

Seeing a purple sash discarded on the floor, Akane picked it up. It looked mostly clean. Taking a fortifying breath, Akane lifted up her sliced shirt and examined her side. The gash still bled sluggishly, but she didn't think it had gone deep enough to puncture any organs. Not that she could do anything about it right now if it had. Gritting her teeth, Akane wrapped the sash tightly around her waist several times and knotted it.

By the end of this procedure, her breath came in panting little whines. Black and white spots jumped across her vision. She was thoroughly sick of the little black spots. Seconds later, Akane fell to her knees, gagging. Pain wracked every inch of her body as she vomited repeatedly onto the floor.

Don't pass out, don't pass out, don't… pass…out. DON'T! Finally, Akane's heaving stopped. She had nothing left to bring up. Spitting one last time, she wiped her mouth off shakily. Then she crawled over to Ranko.

The redhead still hadn't woken up. Akane picked up Ranko's hand and held it in her lap. Placing her fingers over Ranko's healthy pulse, Akane let the solid beat of it soothe her. Just touching Ranko made her feel a little bit better, as if strength were flowing into her body. She counted heartbeats until she reached two hundred.

Akane was going to have to rescue both of them.

No problem, she told herself. It would give her something to hold over Ranma's head after this was all over and, strangely enough, she had started feeling better. Taking a deep breath, she released Ranko's hand with a caress and stood up.

Another wind swirled into the room from the open window. The air crawled up her legs and skirt, all the way up her skirt. Akane swallowed hard. Feeling sick again, she searched the room for her missing underwear. She couldn't find it anywhere. Akane had to sit down and put her head between her knees before she hyperventilated and really did pass out. You can't think about this right now, you just can't.

When she finally calmed down, she checked on Ranko again, but the girl was still passed out. Looking at the notch cut on Ranko's belt, and thinking of her own lost panties, Akane felt a bolt of livid rage explode in her mind. Something snapped. Akane found herself standing over the unconscious guards with the knife clutched in her hands.

Go ahead, something whispered in her mind, they deserve it. No one will ever know. A little more blood on the ground won't make a difference.

Flushed with rage, Akane dimly realized that her self-help books hadn't prepared her for this. She could feel the solid hilt of the blade in her hand, tacky with blood, begging to be used. She'd never been this angry before.

Anything goes martial arts, right?

But is stabbing helpless men really part of the code?

They'd do it to you, after raping you and Ranma both.

But….

The pressure inside her head built, until finally she couldn't take it anymore.

Do it! Something inside her head shouted.

With a strangled snarl, Akane stabbed the blade as hard as she could into the red-spattered floor. It sunk in up to the hilt, quivering, equidistant between her would-be rapist's throat and the loop of ebony string saturated by the pool of her congealing blood.

Akane Tendo had a lot of practice ignoring the voices in her head. Sure, those voices usually whispered sweet nothings about Ranma instead of trying to get her to cut somebody's throat, but it was the same principle. All those weeks of controlling her violent tendencies also helped.

However, sparing their lives didn't mean she didn't feel angry. Jumping up, Akane found herself kicking and stomping her attackers in a mad tap dance of revenge. She concentrated particularly on the genitals. Finally, panting, she stopped. It would be hard to identify the two lumps of flesh on the floor as human beings anymore, but they were still alive.

Akane felt a lot better. The renewed ache in her side was totally worth it. Taking a deep breath, she decided that it was now time for her and Ranko to escape. First, she had to get out of the building. Then an escape down the river would be their quickest getaway. After that, they would find some nice people to help get them back to the city.

Ignoring the fact that she couldn't swim, Akane concentrated on her first goal. A quick glance around the room showed her the limit of her assets: some sashes on the floor by the wall, two unconscious guards, an empty table, and the broken box with coins and gems on the floor.

As for the 'valuables,' they would just weigh her down. The coins and gems wouldn't help her escape. If she did run into any guards, they'd just take them from her before she could even get out the word 'bribe.'

However, those sashes could be useful for more than just bandages. Picking up several, Akane turned them over in her hands a few times in consideration. Decided, she began knotting them together until she'd constructed a harness to help secure Ranko to her body once they got in the water. If only Ryoga had given me his water wings instead of those bath salts, she thought longingly.

When she finished, she looked around the room again. There had to be something else useful in here. The knife?

Akane didn't want to touch it again, but it was her job to protect Ranko until she woke up. With a gash in her side and a likely concussion, Akane needed all of the help she could get. Firming her lips, she forced herself to walk back over to the blade stuck in the floor. Akane came within a few feet of it before some inner sense of revulsion boiled up and sent her stumbling to a stop.

Something was wrong. Wrong or different, but what? The hair on the back of Akane's neck prickled. Her empty stomach churned. Taking a slow breath, she took a step back and examined the scene.

Everything looked just as she'd left it, didn't it? The hilt of the blade protruded from the wooden floor and reflected in the high gloss of the golden-brown floorboards. On the floor nearby lay a necklace of blood-red beads, which scintillated in the sunlight from the window. A few patches of decayed cloth rested nearby.

The longer she looked at the scene, the more her eyes kept returning to the necklace. As she watched, the light across each bead seemed to ripple, as if there were pale pink shapes undulating inside. Akane took a step forward. Around the necklace, gray shadows and thin red streams seeped along the clean floorboards like water down a drain. The crimson beads on their black string pulsed.

As she watched, the dark red of the beads slowly began to change, lightening to the blush of a woman's cheek and then the pink luster of a peony petal. It was the loveliest thing Akane had ever seen. The necklace turned paler and paler, until only white pearls remained. Each pearl contained a squirming, ghostly shape. She couldn't quite make them out. Akane squinted and stepped closer. She wanted, needed, to put the necklace on. It called out to her. Kneeling down, she slowly stretched forth her hand.

TO BE CONTINUED

AN: Thank you for continuing to read now that we are getting into the meat of the story. What did you think of the chapter and of the story so far? Thank you to my reviewers: Chishiosama, SenceLess, jd, Rebel Sage, Vlightphase, kurasuchi, coughdrop101, Shikyo-sama, Nekoi, AK-47, thwarth, Bloodsong, hon, quivering quill, J Luc Pitard, superbunny, JeremyGU, , gort 420, Jeschura, jdcocoagirl, bambii46, Pat Stapleton, Rio Grande, Doctor Emmit Brown.