RANMA ½ - THE ENEMY WITHIN - CHAPTER 25
"Where the antidote?" Ranma demanded.
"There is none," Copycat Ken said smug, but lying. "You're beloved fiancée and your eternal rival are going to die, and there's nothing you can do to save them!"
"How long?" Ryoga spoke up.
"I'd say just under three minutes, give or take the potency of the poison and how much Akane Tendo applied with the lipstick."
Akane Tendo looked at the lipstick applicator and threw it in anger at Copycat Ken. Ken easily avoided it. "How could you?" he shouted. And then she started to cry. "I don't want to die!"
Ryoga sighed deeply. "Dry those tears, Akane. You shouldn't cry…" he said calmly, softly, smiling sweetly. Then said to Copycat Ken, "Then I suppose I have only that long to kick your ass!"
"Huh?" Copycat Ken voiced.
"We can sit back and what for death or we can face it head on. I prefer the latter. Xi'an has foolishly done the unspeakable! And I will not stand for it!" He loved at Akane. And for the first time he said without being nervous he said, "I love Akane, wholeheartedly.. I've always loved her, ever since I first saw her. And if we are to die, I don't want to have any regrets without saying such!"
Akane started to say something, but remained speechless.
Ranma merely shook his head. He knew Ryoga loved Akane. And normally he would protest to his eternal rival professing his love to Akane, but in this case he let it pass.
"Now! For you!" Ryoga faced Copycat Ken.
Copycat Ken narrowed his eyes and curled his lips in a sneer. "You stupid-headed fool! You should cherish your last minutes alive instead of picking a fight with me!"
"I'm a martial artist," Ryoga said proudly. "We don't pick fights, we end them!" And he suddenly smirked.
"Why are you smiling?" Copycat Ken said.
"There's something you should know before we get started," Ryoga said.
"Yeah? And what's that? And I remind you, every second you waste, is another second closer to your death!"
"Shut up! In my travels, along my journeys, I once met a wandering monk who taught me a little bit about poisons and how to negate their effects. And with a little help from my depressive energy I use for my Lion Roar Shot, I've suppressed the effects of the poison you so hopefully thought would kill me. But Akane will be fine. My depressive energy sucked the poison out of her system and gave it to me using my Lion Roar Shot, with the addition of one other factor…"
Akane gasped, and Ranma looked at him shocked.
"That's right," he nodded to the both of them. "I'm the only one who's poisoned. My Chi detected the poison immediately. Strange how it sounds. The monk instructed me in how to use the Lion Roar Shot on another level and told me why I can use it so effectively, channeling my anger, my bitterness, my sorrow into a weapon. Negative emotions are more powerful than positive ones. So it sucked the poison out, in a matter of speaking, using depressive energy. And I while I might die, Akane will live on. But there is an antidote and I know you have it. I can see it in your deceptive eyes!"
Copycat Ken smirked. "Well, you sly little…" Ken snorted annoyance. "Yes Ryoga, you're right. There is an antidote. And I know where it is. But you won't be able to synthesize the enzyme in time to save yourself. The antidote comes from a flower than grows at the base of Mount Fuji."
"The Blossom Yeti, correct?" Ryoga said.
Copycat Ken's eyes widened sharply. Then dropped with disdain. "How the hell did you know that?"
"I'm not as dense as some people might think I am." Ranma gave a brief glance to Ranma, then turned back. "I may have my quirks, and I may have a lousy sense of direction, and yes, I do become love struck on occasion which clouds my thinking - " He looked at Akane with a smile " - but because I travel a lot, I better myself, usually in a hopeless bit to defeat Ranma, I educate myself on my terrain: what's safe, what's edible, what's poisonous, and much more. And now that I know what kind of flower the antidote comes from, I can cure myself."
"But that flower is too far away from here to be of any help to you."
"You haven't been listening, have you? I said the poison might kill me, didn't I? On my latest journey, I met a medicine woman who told me traveling across China and Japan can be dangerous. So she gave me some medicinal dry herbs and told me to sprinkle them on my food at every meal. She said they help prevent and help fight off ailments, including poisons which I might contract along my journeys. She told me they came from the Blossom Yeti, a flower that grows at the base of Mount Fuji."
"No..." Copycat Ken said. "You're lying!"
"I never lie, especially when it comes to matters of life and death," Ryoga said strongly. "My body already has the enzyme cure. And when Akane kissed me, I gave it to her in our shared saliva. Saving her. Our lips touched directly, so she received a direct dose."
Copycat Ken cursed. "But you said you were going to die?"
"I can feel the poison ravishing through my body and it will kill me, eventually. But not in your time allotted. I need some more of the herbs to help fight off the poison, however." He turned to Akane. "Akane, there's a small clear bag in my backpack with some of the herbs. Can you get them for me?"
Akane nodded, her eyes elated hearing she wasn't going to die, and left.
"In the meantime…" Ryoga said, turning back to Ken, "I'll take care of you!"
Ken jumped down to the ground. His had his cloak in his hands. "You may have seen my chameleon tricks before, but since being with Master Xi'an, I've learn a few new ones…"
Ranma stood by Ryoga's side, readied himself in a fighting pose. "What are you…"
"Don't argue, I'm here to help," Ranma said, "Thanks Ryoga for saving Akane. If you can fight with that poison in your body, then I can handle my injury. I used some of the glue from this marriage license stuck to me to seal off the wound temporarily, the blood's stopped. It's amazing what you learn in school."
"Good," Ryoga said.
"I'll never call you stupid again," Ranma then said.
"Good," Ryoga said. "Now let's take this guy down. Tricks or no tricks, he can't defend against the both of us!"
"Right!" Ranma agreed. "Let's gettem!"
Xi'an sat in the lotus position, in a mediation session with his students in his dojo. The atmosphere felt ghostly and incense filtered through the air that each of his students were breathing in, their eyes closed, their breathing calm.
Xi'an started all his martial arts sessions this way.
Regardless of the events transpiring between his warriors and Ranma and his allies, he didn't disrupt his class schedules. Class had just started for today, and twenty of his students emulated Xi'an in the lotus position: their legs crossed in front of them and hands, palms out, sitting on their knees.
But Xi'an could see things were not going well for his generals. His mind's eye could see everything. The only member of his elite generals left was Copycat Ken. But he would not be a match for both Ranma and Ryoga even with his tricks. And Xi'an could not allow Ranma and his friends to defeat Copycat Ken.
The plan to poison Ranma and Akane Tendo had failed. He didn't anticipate she would kiss Ryoga instead and he would have a cure for it. It was something he had not foreseen in his visions when he set his plans into motion.
Xi'an has come from Jusenkyo and possessed the body of Oro Hiroshi, used him. He wanted revenge for what the Saotome Clan did to his ancestors a century ago. Things were not going according to plan, but much like the ancient Chinese game of Go, he always had an alternative strategy. And he had implemented it beforehand just in case. Now was the time to use it.
Xi'an opened his eyes and spoke, "Students, this dojo is in grave danger. Defend it. I want you to kill Ranma Saotome and Ryoga Hibiki. And bring me their broken bodies to me!"
Each student looked at him, each with red eyes, each possessed. Over the past couple of weeks, he had secretly delved into each young boy and girl's mind and implanted them with a demonic influence through the mystical incense that filtered through the room during each mediation session before lessons. This is how he called upon his generals from the demonic world in the first place, why he kidnapped Ranma's friends, and it was how he possessed the weak minds of his students with the beginnings of his dark army.
In unison, each student said, "Yes, Master Xi'an! We hear and obey!"
They stood, bowed, and exited the dojo.
And Xi'an smiled.
"Soon, very soon my family...you will be free!"
To be continued…