Ranma the Forever Man
'Too Far'
Ranma stepped back in quiet shock, as he stared at the person before him. Of anything he had expected to meet, this wasn't one of them.
"Ranma? Ranma is it really you?"
He recalled who she was from his recent trip into the past, but he easily felt the importance of what she once meant to him; the sense of comfort, of motherly affection; it was unmistakable...
"Ka-Kasumi?"
The young lady looked no more than twenty, even amidst her dirty face, unruly hair, and slightly tattered and ruffled clothing. She stood before him, nervously fiddling with her hands, as if awaiting further acknowledgement from someone of high regard.
"What the hell Happened to you?" Ranma asked in a whisper, as he stepped forward, "Why are you here?"
Kasumi immidiately rushed toward Ranma, and wrapped her arms around him, as if he were the only real thing she had ever encountered in millions of years, "Oh Ranma! They won't let me leave! I don't want to be here anymore!"
Tenatively, Ranma enclosed his arms around the girl to comfort her as best he could. As he did so, he noticed that his skin looked fresh as if it were belonging to the living, instead of an animated corpse. He cataloged that for a later time, before speaking to the girl, "Who won't let you leave? Can you tell me?"
"The Dark..." Kasumi sobbed into Ranma's chest.
_______________________
Kodachi swayed slightly, still unused to the disorientation of their teleporting. She spun around, taking in her surroundings, and noticed the etheral tower behind them. Akane and Keiko had continued looking forward, as they were both more interested in the gathering of robed individuals that suddenly were prostating themselves at their feet.
Akane immidiately frowned, "Lillin."
"Oh! What are they doing here?" K-chan asked with a surprised lilt to her voice.
Kodachi focused on the group of men, confused as to what was going on. She moved closed to Akane, and regardless of being taller, she seemed much smaller in stature than the other girl. The gymnast tapped the immortal girl on her back to get her attention, "Who are they? And where are we?"
Akane didn't turn to address Kodachi, "My children..."
Kodachi's eyebrows raised at the large army, "You've certainly been busy..."
"Get up," Akane commanded with a slight tone of irritation. Kodachi quickly noted the change in her tone in demeanor; the flightiness and maddened air about her disappeared as if it were never there. "What the Hells are you doing here?"
One of them quickly rushed to the fore, and bowed to knee before their proclaimed mother. With the most respectful of tones, he addressed her, "Our great and cherished Mother Lillith! We have accomplished our holy quest that you have tasked us with! It only now requres completion with your ascension, taking your rightful place as the true Lord of all!"
Akane stared hard at the gray haired man, who she believed to be the current leader of the Lillin, "Ascension? What's this about?"
"Ah, Akane-chan..." Keiko tapped her sister on the shoulder, and pointed behind them, "I think they're talking about us climbing that..."
Akane turned to where her sister was pointing, and froze, with all the color draining from her face. Before her, stood the tower. It no longer stood constructed of stone, wood, and cement; Ranma saw to its destruction long ago. It now writhed with the souls of thousands of the unjustly slaughtered, their etheral beings becoming tangible to support physical matter.
"It cannot be..." Akane whispered, before her eyes went blank, and she collapsed forward.
"AKANE-SAMA!" Kodachi yelled, not even realizing what she had just said. All the Lillin gasped, as their patron Goddess and mother faltered.
Keiko was quick to cradle her sister, before she hit the ground. With a frantic voice, she addressed Akane's followers, "QUICKLY! WE MUST BEGIN SOON! EVEN NOW SHE'S GROWING TOO WEAK TO SUSTAIN HERSELF!"
"Oh!" The gray haired man in the techno-mesh leather armor exclaied, "I never realized the urgency! Her children shall dilligantly work towards bringing her to power in haste. It is the task-"
"NOW ALREADY!!!" Keiko shouted, extremely irritated with the long-winded man.
"Oh yes, it is paramount that we are immidiate-"
He was abruptly cut off, by the gory explosion of his head.
"YOU..." Keiko pointed to a random Lillin, a young boy, "You're the leader now!"
"But I..." Keiko raised her hand, as if to fire another blast that felled the previous leader, "I am honored by your annointment, regardless of bypassing heirarchy..." the teenager stated with a now cheerful demeanor. Taking on a tone of authority he didn't really feel, he commanded several of the other Lillin to take their mother's body up to the top of the tower. All of the chosen members groaned at the task at hand, but they didn't want to argue with the scary lady that looked a lot like their Mother.
"Careful with that disk on her back!" Keiko shouted, drawing Kodachi's befuddled attention to what she realized was the seal that Akane had proclaimed to have created.
_______________________
"What Dark? How long have you been in here?" the Forever Man enquired, starting to feel the anxiety the girl was radiating from herself.
"I don't know! They won't let me know!" Kasumi raised her head, and looked into Ranma's eyes. He could see that her's were just as tortured, tormented as his.
She may have been in here as long as she's been deceased.
"Am I a bad person, Ranma? What did I do to be sent to the Hells?"
"Kasumi... chan..." He found the honorific somehow familiar to say for her, "I promise you that you aren't a bad person, and that this isn't Hell." Hell was nowhere near as dire as this realm of warped and twisted despair was. Of all people, he knew Kasumi didn't deserve this fate.
"Then WHY? WHY AM I HERE?!?" Kasumi shouted in a sudden burst of despairing rage, as she broke away from Ranma, and then collapsing to the ground. Ranma slowly kneeled to her, and once again was hugging her.
"I can't answer tha-" Before Ranma could even finish, the whole ordeal he experienced on the way to where he was suddenly became less of a moot point. One particular point in his journey through his past, when he and Akane were visiting the graves of their families...
When Akane plunged the Soul Swallower into the middle grave.
He could now recall the last battle he had, it was against Akane. He underestimated her, and thought her defeated. And as he resheathed his sword in triumph, she proved to him just how 'defeated' she was. "The sword..." Ranma growled in realization
"Ranma?"
"WERE'RE IN THE DAMN SWORD!!!" Ranma shouted, and in a fit of rage, slammed his fist onto the hall stand next to him, crushing it completely.
"What sword? What are you talking about?" Kasumi asked, confused and frightened, "Ranma, please calm down, you're scaring me!"
Ranma looked back to Kasumi, and cursed himself for causing her alarm. Kasumi looked back at him with eyes of the oppressed meek, "Would you like some tea to help you? I think the water may be running again, if I think about it hard enough. I... I'm sorry I'm not being a proper hostess. I try to clean, but it won't let me, and it.. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm not being a proper hostess, Ranma!"
He gently rubbed her shoulders in order to console the babbling girl, before speaking directly to her, "Kasumi-chan, we're going to get you out of here. You don't belong in here, you got that?" Kasumi looked back with hope in her eyes, possibly the first inkling of the feeling she's experienced since only eternity and death knows. Ranma would have to ask the latter about that, at a later date.
As he brought him and Kasumi to standing, several other things came to mind. Someone, or something intentionally had shown him those specific events on purpose. Some of them still didn't fit into his discovery, and he knew that the revelations from this ordeal were far from over. There was also the question of who his benefactor was, and what it would cost him, in the end.
_______________________
Kodachi kept pace with Keiko, as they ascended the spiral stairway that seemed to go on forever. She cast an anxious look to the comatose Akane being carried by four men, before addressing her sister, "What happened to Akane? Where are we? What is this all about?"
"Akane's been extremely ill, we're taking her to be helped," Keiko lied, but was little concerned about arousing the mortal's suspicions. Close, she was now so close to fulfilling her objective, and her dear older sister had been oblivious to it all. In just a scant amount of time, nothing would be above her; not Ranma, not Akane, not even her beloved husband, Death.
Kodachi's eyes narrowed at the small smile that appeared on K-chan's lips.
_______________________
Ranma lead Kasumi by the hand out of the house, and ran to the gate at just enough speed for his rescuee to keep pace.
"And where do you think you're going with her?" a familiar voice asked with wry amusement. Ranma stopped, and looked around for where it was coming from, and stopped at Kasumi's terrified whisper.
"The Dark..."
'Too Far'
Ranma stepped back in quiet shock, as he stared at the person before him. Of anything he had expected to meet, this wasn't one of them.
"Ranma? Ranma is it really you?"
He recalled who she was from his recent trip into the past, but he easily felt the importance of what she once meant to him; the sense of comfort, of motherly affection; it was unmistakable...
"Ka-Kasumi?"
The young lady looked no more than twenty, even amidst her dirty face, unruly hair, and slightly tattered and ruffled clothing. She stood before him, nervously fiddling with her hands, as if awaiting further acknowledgement from someone of high regard.
"What the hell Happened to you?" Ranma asked in a whisper, as he stepped forward, "Why are you here?"
Kasumi immidiately rushed toward Ranma, and wrapped her arms around him, as if he were the only real thing she had ever encountered in millions of years, "Oh Ranma! They won't let me leave! I don't want to be here anymore!"
Tenatively, Ranma enclosed his arms around the girl to comfort her as best he could. As he did so, he noticed that his skin looked fresh as if it were belonging to the living, instead of an animated corpse. He cataloged that for a later time, before speaking to the girl, "Who won't let you leave? Can you tell me?"
"The Dark..." Kasumi sobbed into Ranma's chest.
_______________________
Kodachi swayed slightly, still unused to the disorientation of their teleporting. She spun around, taking in her surroundings, and noticed the etheral tower behind them. Akane and Keiko had continued looking forward, as they were both more interested in the gathering of robed individuals that suddenly were prostating themselves at their feet.
Akane immidiately frowned, "Lillin."
"Oh! What are they doing here?" K-chan asked with a surprised lilt to her voice.
Kodachi focused on the group of men, confused as to what was going on. She moved closed to Akane, and regardless of being taller, she seemed much smaller in stature than the other girl. The gymnast tapped the immortal girl on her back to get her attention, "Who are they? And where are we?"
Akane didn't turn to address Kodachi, "My children..."
Kodachi's eyebrows raised at the large army, "You've certainly been busy..."
"Get up," Akane commanded with a slight tone of irritation. Kodachi quickly noted the change in her tone in demeanor; the flightiness and maddened air about her disappeared as if it were never there. "What the Hells are you doing here?"
One of them quickly rushed to the fore, and bowed to knee before their proclaimed mother. With the most respectful of tones, he addressed her, "Our great and cherished Mother Lillith! We have accomplished our holy quest that you have tasked us with! It only now requres completion with your ascension, taking your rightful place as the true Lord of all!"
Akane stared hard at the gray haired man, who she believed to be the current leader of the Lillin, "Ascension? What's this about?"
"Ah, Akane-chan..." Keiko tapped her sister on the shoulder, and pointed behind them, "I think they're talking about us climbing that..."
Akane turned to where her sister was pointing, and froze, with all the color draining from her face. Before her, stood the tower. It no longer stood constructed of stone, wood, and cement; Ranma saw to its destruction long ago. It now writhed with the souls of thousands of the unjustly slaughtered, their etheral beings becoming tangible to support physical matter.
"It cannot be..." Akane whispered, before her eyes went blank, and she collapsed forward.
"AKANE-SAMA!" Kodachi yelled, not even realizing what she had just said. All the Lillin gasped, as their patron Goddess and mother faltered.
Keiko was quick to cradle her sister, before she hit the ground. With a frantic voice, she addressed Akane's followers, "QUICKLY! WE MUST BEGIN SOON! EVEN NOW SHE'S GROWING TOO WEAK TO SUSTAIN HERSELF!"
"Oh!" The gray haired man in the techno-mesh leather armor exclaied, "I never realized the urgency! Her children shall dilligantly work towards bringing her to power in haste. It is the task-"
"NOW ALREADY!!!" Keiko shouted, extremely irritated with the long-winded man.
"Oh yes, it is paramount that we are immidiate-"
He was abruptly cut off, by the gory explosion of his head.
"YOU..." Keiko pointed to a random Lillin, a young boy, "You're the leader now!"
"But I..." Keiko raised her hand, as if to fire another blast that felled the previous leader, "I am honored by your annointment, regardless of bypassing heirarchy..." the teenager stated with a now cheerful demeanor. Taking on a tone of authority he didn't really feel, he commanded several of the other Lillin to take their mother's body up to the top of the tower. All of the chosen members groaned at the task at hand, but they didn't want to argue with the scary lady that looked a lot like their Mother.
"Careful with that disk on her back!" Keiko shouted, drawing Kodachi's befuddled attention to what she realized was the seal that Akane had proclaimed to have created.
_______________________
"What Dark? How long have you been in here?" the Forever Man enquired, starting to feel the anxiety the girl was radiating from herself.
"I don't know! They won't let me know!" Kasumi raised her head, and looked into Ranma's eyes. He could see that her's were just as tortured, tormented as his.
She may have been in here as long as she's been deceased.
"Am I a bad person, Ranma? What did I do to be sent to the Hells?"
"Kasumi... chan..." He found the honorific somehow familiar to say for her, "I promise you that you aren't a bad person, and that this isn't Hell." Hell was nowhere near as dire as this realm of warped and twisted despair was. Of all people, he knew Kasumi didn't deserve this fate.
"Then WHY? WHY AM I HERE?!?" Kasumi shouted in a sudden burst of despairing rage, as she broke away from Ranma, and then collapsing to the ground. Ranma slowly kneeled to her, and once again was hugging her.
"I can't answer tha-" Before Ranma could even finish, the whole ordeal he experienced on the way to where he was suddenly became less of a moot point. One particular point in his journey through his past, when he and Akane were visiting the graves of their families...
When Akane plunged the Soul Swallower into the middle grave.
He could now recall the last battle he had, it was against Akane. He underestimated her, and thought her defeated. And as he resheathed his sword in triumph, she proved to him just how 'defeated' she was. "The sword..." Ranma growled in realization
"Ranma?"
"WERE'RE IN THE DAMN SWORD!!!" Ranma shouted, and in a fit of rage, slammed his fist onto the hall stand next to him, crushing it completely.
"What sword? What are you talking about?" Kasumi asked, confused and frightened, "Ranma, please calm down, you're scaring me!"
Ranma looked back to Kasumi, and cursed himself for causing her alarm. Kasumi looked back at him with eyes of the oppressed meek, "Would you like some tea to help you? I think the water may be running again, if I think about it hard enough. I... I'm sorry I'm not being a proper hostess. I try to clean, but it won't let me, and it.. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm not being a proper hostess, Ranma!"
He gently rubbed her shoulders in order to console the babbling girl, before speaking directly to her, "Kasumi-chan, we're going to get you out of here. You don't belong in here, you got that?" Kasumi looked back with hope in her eyes, possibly the first inkling of the feeling she's experienced since only eternity and death knows. Ranma would have to ask the latter about that, at a later date.
As he brought him and Kasumi to standing, several other things came to mind. Someone, or something intentionally had shown him those specific events on purpose. Some of them still didn't fit into his discovery, and he knew that the revelations from this ordeal were far from over. There was also the question of who his benefactor was, and what it would cost him, in the end.
_______________________
Kodachi kept pace with Keiko, as they ascended the spiral stairway that seemed to go on forever. She cast an anxious look to the comatose Akane being carried by four men, before addressing her sister, "What happened to Akane? Where are we? What is this all about?"
"Akane's been extremely ill, we're taking her to be helped," Keiko lied, but was little concerned about arousing the mortal's suspicions. Close, she was now so close to fulfilling her objective, and her dear older sister had been oblivious to it all. In just a scant amount of time, nothing would be above her; not Ranma, not Akane, not even her beloved husband, Death.
Kodachi's eyes narrowed at the small smile that appeared on K-chan's lips.
_______________________
Ranma lead Kasumi by the hand out of the house, and ran to the gate at just enough speed for his rescuee to keep pace.
"And where do you think you're going with her?" a familiar voice asked with wry amusement. Ranma stopped, and looked around for where it was coming from, and stopped at Kasumi's terrified whisper.
"The Dark..."