Ranma awoke in pain. He had not gone down easy, and they had not been gentle afterwards. It seemed every area of his body hurt, blood crusting a lot of his exposed skin. They had stripped him down to his trousers and boots and tied his hands behind his back. He was also tied to the floor, tight enough that he couldn't stand even if he wanted to.
"Ahh the fool awakes at last" came a voice. Ranma raised his bloodied face, allowing a dribble of the mess in his mouth to leak out through puffy lips. The room he was in was suddenly lit by a bright white light and the heavy steel door opened. A beautiful white haired woman came in. She was dressed in neo-traditional soldier's garb, cut from expensive silk and banded with gold. Her hands were concealed in delicate white gloves and her feet in soft white boots. She had an impressive looking sword belted at her waist. That he recognised.
"Kiima" he grunted through the pain.
"Very impressive prole." The woman said pulling her gloves off. "Do you also know how much you have annoyed me? No of course not how could you?" She squatted down bringing her face to a level just higher than his. Then she grabbed him by the back of his hair and twisted his face to look at her. "You made me look bad!" she admonished "Nobody makes me look bad"
"Tough shit" he said through his abused face. She smiled and belted him full across his cheek, knocking him to the floor. "Bad enough that you maim of injure so many of my troops, but you also manage to hold us up long enough for your stupid sex toy to throw herself out of a window." Ranma ducked his head to hide a smile. "Silly thing, choosing death over service. I am sure that someone would have been willing to master her." Kiima was leering. "Never mind the others will no doubt prove entertaining, after they have been properly, trained, of course" This time Ranma failed to hide his emotion. "Oh you didn't know" she laughed, "how amusing. You honestly thought that we wouldn't find out about your little plot? How very….ordinary of you." Then the girl left, still laughing.
Inside Ranma a deep pit was forming, he had failed, worse he had led the others into a trap. Now these bastards had the whole Tendo family, and Tofu and Konatsu. What-ever they did to Ranma they would do worse to the Tendo girls, twisting their innocent natures for their own ends. Even lovely Kasumi, soon to be a noble's pliant plaything, programmed to need her master's attention. And Nabiki, smart independent Nabiki, doomed to a life begging some bastard to abuse her. The pit turned into a fire, and the fire into a blaze. Ranma strained against the bonds, they held. So he strained again, harder. The bindings cut into his skin, his shoulders strained. At his neck the tendons stuck out in stark relief. A vein on his forehead bulged and pulsed with the strain. From his mouth came an inhuman growl. And the cable ripped the bolt from the floor. With a surge Ranma was upright.
The door swung open and two hefty guards came in with electrified batons. They found an inhuman monster. A mess of blood and bruise Ranma looked more daemon than man. A fact that was borne out further what the man lifted both his arms over his head, dislocating them, and then pulled those same arms down in front of him. With a twist of his head and a shrug of his shoulders the man reset his abused arms and favoured them with a chilling grin.
"This is not your lucky day," the apparition growled. They had time enough to look at each other and then the pain began. Ranma used the cable to whip one man's arm, flicking him head over heels into the floor. Mean while he leapt at the other, foot lashing out from below and connecting brutally with the unfortunate guard's face. Ranma brought both fists back the other way and smashed the man into the wall making him pivot around his neck. The first guard was just trying to stand when Ranma turned and delivered a double palm strike to his back, rib and spine crunched and the man fell to the floor coughing blood.
A quick search provided Ranma with a key that released his wrists and the two batons. Then he jogged from the room, flames burning in his eyes and his heart.
-
More unfortunates tried to stop him, he broke them. One managed to get a shot off, only to see Ranma dodge it and then break a titanium baton across his face. He moved with the fluid motions of a predator and struck without pity or remorse.
Soun sat quietly in his cell with the sleeping Tofu. Both had tried to resist when the noble hover vans had stopped them. But they had quickly blind sided him and beat Tofu down. The last thing Soun ahd seen was his sweet daughter Nabiki emptying a clip from a heavy pistol into their assailants. Even if they got out of this alive he knew things would never be the same.
Gradually he became aware of a new sound, someone running into the corridor outside the cell, a rapid conversation and then a shout.
"He's here!" the cry was half warning and half terror. The next few seconds contained the sounds of heavy impacts on flesh and the noise of bones crushing. Soun could make out the heavy thuds of bodies hitting solid surfaces, walls, floors, even the ceiling.
Then the door was burst, lock snapping loudly. And Ranma stood there. His face and body covered in a mix of old and new blood and his lawman's white trousers splattered with droplets of blood. The man carried two bloodied batons and an expression that was nearly feral.
"Soun" Ranma growled "Can you walk?"
"Yes, I think so," Soun replied.
"Get him up and do it!" Ranma commanded. Soun struggled to obey, by the time he had managed to obey and get Tofu awake and moving Ranma had already started off down the corridor.
The two of them had to struggle to keep up. But never risked losing him, all they had to do was follow the trail of bodies. Tofu, leaning on Soun's shoulder, was struggling to breathe but managed to wheeze, "He's scary!"
"He'll need to be!" wheezed Soun back.
-
-
Nabiki was scared, she wasn't shy about it, in fact they had quickly been forced to gag her to stop her screaming. Kasumi on the other hand had been more easy to deal with, she had fainted within seconds of every time she woke up.
The main reason Nabiki was scared was currently sat at a computer not two feet away from where she was restrained. He was a vile leering man with a long hooked nose, who had taken great joy in abusing her bruised body under the guise of checking for injuries. Since she had woken up that was admittedly as bad as it got. They had drawn a little blood and forced her to drink something smelly but otherwise they had been taking care of the new merchandise. And that was the root of her fear, she had shot at least two of them and been as much trouble as she could manage since but still they were being nice. The only bruises she had were caused by herself, probably when she was twitching under the electric shock of the batons that downed her.
The doctor had gone into great detail about what exactly he was going to do to her, the chemicals that would throw her into a spiralling hormonal imbalance, the micro-pulse electrical implant that would interfere with various glands, causing her personality to be rebuilt along set lines. It would mean enslavement, inescapable, permanent enslavement to any one who cared enough to tell her what to do. She had seen Shampoo and this doctor had made it clear that what he intended was far more complete.
It was simply put a nightmare coming true before her eyes.
Then Ranma arrived. He was heralded by the door shattering inwards, struck by a flying body. When she saw Ranma standing there her first thought was not good. He did not look like a knight in shining armour. The way the blood matted in his unbound hair made it stick out, the grisly colouring of his skin all of it pointed more at an angry ghost. When she caught sight of his face she froze in fright, his eyes were alight, his mouth fixed in a rictus.
The doctor reached for a syringe gun, and was turning to stand when Ranma crashed the baton in his right hand across the pervert's face. Nabiki saw the man's cheekbone collapse, his jaw snap and his blood spray across the clean white wall.
Then she was being picked up, it was her father, Soun, crying tears of relief. She could just see Tofu cradling the sleeping Kasumi over his shoulder. She turned back to Ranma. He was standing over the doctor as if debating whether he had done enough. He turned to look at her, something had changed in his eyes, the fire dimmed. She reached a hand out towards him. He dropped a baton and reached his own hand out to grip hers.
For a long moment they stared into each other's eyes, and Nabiki breathed a long sigh of relief. The fire in his eyes cleared, like a dawn rising on a stormy day. Ranma's beast was restrained again. He squeezed her hand again.
"Akane" he whispered. She suddenly remembered why they were here. Soun wailed again.
"We have to leave" he said, heart break in his voice, I have already lost too much, I cannot lose any more."
"I Will Get Akane" Ranma said and the storm clouds were gathering.
"Ranma" Nabiki said stopping him from letting go "be careful." He cracked a half smile and nodded.
-
-
Ranma slid open the door. He was rapidly approaching the inner sanctum of the Sau estate. The room in front of him would lead him to the ornamental garden that surrounded Sau Fron's private abode. It was made up in old Japanese style, with sliding shoji doors, tatami mats and hanging banners. Ranma clenched his fists around the batons and advanced.
He reached the far door and as he reached out a familiar voice called to him from behind, "Stop prole!" it was Kiima, "No filthy peasant will be allowed to disturb my lord" Ranma turned, sliding a foot back and bending his knees.
Kiima stood there armoured for battle, sword drawn and blazing with anger. In the background the rain could be heard falling.
She leapt forward sword raised. Ranma dived right, his own weapons reaching to block and strike simultaneously. But the block never happened her sword swept clean through the metal of both batons and only a last desperate roll saved Ranma from more than a nick on his belly.
Again they faced off, eyes locked, bodies tensed like coiled springs.
Again she leapt , this time weapon held low, ready to sweep it up through his torso. Ranma leapt too, open palm, knife edged, leading the way. She swung; he slapped the blade away with the back of his hand, and drove the sharp end of the severed baton up under her ribs.
For a long moment they stood there, surprise written all over her face and grim determination on his. Then a thin trickle of blood ran down her chin, followed by more. She fell side ways, her sword falling from nerveless fingers.
For a moment he stood over her, then he reached down and took her blade, turned and walked to the door.
-
-
The garden was being lashed with rain, a full scale storm raging overhead. The trees swayed in the gusts, the rain bouncing off every surface. Ranma stood there in the doorway, lit by the flashes of lightening, hair trailing in the wind.
In front of him ranged the last of Sau Fron's bodyguard. They wore black ninja suits and carried ultra modern looking bows. Behind them was Sau Fron's home, styled in the old manner with white walls and tiled roof.
Every bow had an arrow in it, and every bow was now pointed at Ranma.
As one they loosed, modern technology speeding the arrows towards the ronin with deadly precision. Ranma took one pace forwards and leapt. He scythed the sword through the air ahead of him in a figure eight pattern and when he landed he was untouched.
The bodyguard dropped their bows and drew shining blades. Ranma assumed a stance and beckoned them on. They rushed, he ducked low and leapt up into them sword leading. The following battle was one of rolling motion, leaps and feints interspersed with deadly strikes. Singly or in pairs the ninja were dying, thrown back by the ronin's fierce skill and deadly borrowed blade.
"ENOUGH!" called a voice masked by an amplifier. The ninja stopped and backed off. As they did they revealed the master of the house. He stood arrayed in a golden suit of powered armour, complete with wings and fiery halo. The suit made him stand nearly twice the height of a normal man, and would grant him many times the strength. In front of him he held a sheathed Katana. Slowly, with a ringing noise he drew the exquisite blade.
"ITS NAME IS WRATH OF HEAVEN, AND YOU SHALL BE HONOURED TO DIE BY ITS BLADE!" Sau Fron intoned. Ranma took up a stance.
"I know not my blade's name, only that until very recently it belonged to your finest warrior, and that she has no need of it any more."
"YOU SEEK TO ANGER ME!" Sau Fron broadcast "FOOLISH PEASANT, SHE, LIKE ALL YOUR BREED, WAS DISPOSABLE" Ranma beckoned the golden man forwards.
"Bring it on golden-rod" he growled. And under the lightning smote sky the fight was joined.