I do not own Ranma ½ or any characters part or parcel of that great work, nor lay claim to any of the incredible ideas expressed by Rumiko Takahashi, or Viz video. This is just a labor of love from one fan to the rest.
Yin, Yang, Yakuza chapter 18: The high cost of living.
Ranma staggers out of the small pond she had landed in, water and blood dripping from her smaller form. It seems that the curse was not done with her yet. Of all the places to land when she leapt backwards, of course it had to be the one decorative pond that just happened to be in the right place. Not that she was arguing, the water and her smaller form sheltered her from the worst of the blast.
Now, she had to hurry. No telling how long she had before the poison spread too far and she lost more mobility. Nabiki was waiting for her, and it was never good to keep that woman waiting for long. Ranma had the definite feeling that she would extract some sort of cost from her if she dallied too long.
Just a bit farther, just ahead. Keep walking. Don't stop, ignore the chaos. Ignore the pain, the numbness. All that mattered was the next step, and the one after that. The very fact that she had run into the problems she had told her everything she needed to know. Nabiki was somewhere ahead. And, if anything had happened to her, people would pay. They would pay in blood, bone and pain.
And Ranma was in the mood to collect payment in full.
"Oh ho ho, and what do we have here? A battered, bleeding redhead. It just sets my heart a flutter." A high pitched voice calls out from the opening ahead of Ranma, a woman wearing some sort of latex body suit adorned with all manner of knives and other implements. Her dark hair is styled high and tied back out of her way, falling to her slim waist. There are specks of dark red blending into the black of her outfit, and her eyes are like looking into the yawning pits of madness and hell.
Ranma knows who this is, how could she not? Everyone that lives in the shadows knows of the Kuno's, and especially the so-called 'Black Rose' Kodachi Kuno.
Ranma braces herself into her stance, glaring at the gloating madwoman. "I'm here for Nabiki Tendo. Give her back to me, and you won't meet the same fate as your brother. Be reasonable, Kodachi. Walk away while you can." Ranma says, her eyes narrowing.
"Did you face my brother, then? I doubt it. Nothing can stop him as he is now. No, I think you avoided him and are just trying to get out of your just punishment. Now, what fun would that be? I plan on us having lots of fun, just like that peasant Tendo and I have been. She is proving to be so much fun to break." Kodachi says as she unwraps a long lash from around her waist, giving it a crack like a gunshot as she pulls a knife with the other.
Ranma narrows her eyes, wiping a wet loch of red hair from her eyes as she tightens her stance. "You know, on second thought I don't think I am going to let you walk away, Kodachi."
"See, now you're taking this seriously. This will be so much fun, I am quivering! Oh! Ho ho ho!" the crazed woman screeches as she strikes with the lash, the ends blurring as another snap like a gunshot echoes in the area. Ranma fades back at the last moment, letting the strike crack the air just in front of her face as she starts to circle her opponent, eyes narrowed and a grim expression on her face. The next two strikes are dealt with in similar fashion, as she gauges the reach and speed of the crazed woman she is facing now. No matter how unhinged she seems, there is a cruel calculation to each strike, each movement.
Perhaps, at one time Ranma would have enjoyed fighting Kodachi, and enjoyed the challenge of her unorthodox style. Now, she just wanted to get past her, to get to Nabiki before things got any more out of control.
Ranma narrowly avoids a double snap of the lash, one towards her face, the other attempting to ensnare her leg. How the light glints off the knife lets her know that there is something on the blade, more than likely yet another poison of some sort. Kodachi's fondness for obscure drugs and poisons was well known in her circles, and she was in no great rush to find out what concoction the mad woman was using today.
Ranma shifts her stance, feet sliding shoulder length apart and body mostly squared up. The next lash strikes at her leg she steps over it when the second strike snakes towards her head and neck. This is what Ranma had been waiting for as her hand flashes out, letting the lash wrap around her bracer covered forearm. She grins at Kodachi as she rapidly begins to take in the lash before Kodachi let's go and steps away before Ranma can move all the way up the lash to her opponent.
They separate, Kodachi tumbling rapidly to gather distance as another nerve-wracking laugh fills the area with the sounds of her madness. The two of them square off once again even as Ranma can feel the slow spread of numbness across the right side of her body.
Ranma flexes her right hand, shaking it a bit to try to work some feeling back into it as Kodachi gives her a knowing look. "Oh ho ho! It seems one of them did land a hit. I thought you were better than that. A shame, really. It won't be long now."
Ranma grits her teeth, then takes a slow breath, controlling her heart rate to slow the spread of the poison. She flows into a new stance, rushing towards her opponent like quicksilver. Her hands dart and weave like the heads of snakes, her fingers curled like fangs.
Kodachi laughs as she avoids Ranma's strike, her knife flickering as she engages her opponent. They make pass after pass, neither getting a clear advantage towards the other. Deadly precision strikes are countered by almost artful flashes of her knife, attempting to make long, drawing cuts.
Ranma gives Kodachi a cold, deadly look as she silently moves to engage her again, both of them continuing the flowing, graceful dance of death. Ranma is well aware that she is running out of time, and that is precisely what Kodachi is counting on. She lets her next right-handed strike falter a bit, be just a bit off target and can see the gleam in her opponent's eyes, the sudden sadistic glee that prompts her to press the attack, go after the perceived opening.
As the knife flashes in, Ranma seems to glide to the side, letting it pass her by the scant width of the cloth of her shirt. A flicker of movement, a blurred strike and Kodachi's scream of pain and outrage fills the room. Ranma's fingers flash back for a moment, bloody and splattered with tissue as the gaping holes that were once Kodachi's eyes bleed dark blood. The next series of strikes are performed with almost surgical care, one nerve strike after another as she takes her opponent apart. The final set of blows are to the exposed neck, causing her airway to close and her heart to falter.
The bleeding wreck of a human body falls to the ground as Ranma stumbles and then pushes on. Nabiki has to be close, she has to be near. And when she finds her, people are going to pay. This ends tonight.
Elsewhere, Tachi feels herself being lifted. Perhaps she has died, and is being carried to the afterlife? Her one eye opens, rolling about before she locks onto the worried face of Koda helping carry her. "Did..You die as well, Koda-sama? I am sorry...to see you dead...But at least I will have good company…." She says in a dry, scratchy voice.
"You are not dead, Tachi-chan. Michi will fix you up, good as new. Just wait, hold on my dear sister. You can not die here, Mother would be most upset if we lost her blade." Koda says in a rush of words, her delicate hands tightening on the edge of the blanket they are using as a makeshift stretcher.
"I'm..Not dead? Thats….A shame. I will have to relearn how to tie my obi now...And I was finally getting it to look good…" Tachi mumbles as she drifts off once more, the worried voices of her sisters a pleasant sound in the background.
Kyo Tanaka didn't like to think that he was a vengeful man. He was always hearing his people complain how he was too soft, too likable. He liked to think he was a progressive, moving the Family into the future, seeking a better way to handle the challenges of the modern age. Looking for new ways that the Family could grow and succeed. Yes, some of them were not very traditional, but he stuck to the tenets that his father had passed to him, and his own sense of honor and duty.
He could say that he was seriously reconsidering the softness that others said was his weakness. The Ayanami seemed to have collected a sizable arsenal of weapons that were highly questionable, and he was sure that soon the police and maybe even the JSDF would feel compelled to intervene. What madman had sold the lowlifes rocket launchers was going to be hearing a great deal from the Tanaka. He just hoped that they ran out of the blasted things soon.
His men had been handling themselves rather well, all things considered. They were staying focused, keeping their heads down and finding solid pieces of cover. The wild card was proving to be the silent black geisha that had vanished almost as soon as she had reported that she would be helping them, a massive black case slung over her shoulder raising all too many questions.
The contents of that case were proven soon, indeed. He watched in a mild sense of wonder and horror as the latest rocket man pops up to take another shot, only to fall like the previous two, a third eye glaring darkly from his forehead as the little geisha shoots him, like she had the previous two who had attempted to escalate a good old fashioned gunfight into something more fitting a battlefield.
Perhaps he would have to request her, the next time he visited the Teahouse? It was almost a shame that the ladies of the Teahouse almost never left it's domain. He could learn to be happy with one such as her by his side. Quiet, efficient, beautiful and deadly. Almost like a dark-skinned version of the person he saw as a brother or sister, depending on the weather.
He squeezes off a shot, a sense of contentment settling over him as another Ayanami stooge falls to the ground, shifting his position as he orders his men about.
Details for another day.
Nabiki lets out a stream of almost delirious laughs, the sound echoing about the concrete room she was being held in. Her naked, bleeding form shakes with an almost mad glee as she fixes glazed, drugged eyes on the man who is gloating in the corner. "She's coming for you, you know? She's going to kill you, and it's going to be ugly. She's going to stain those pretty hands red, just like her hair. I really like her hair. It's like the last light of the sun, flashing red. I like the sun, I like the moon. I love how her face looks in the moonlight." She shakes her head, letting out another bout of manic glee.
"Shut up or I will cut your fucking tongue out of that dirty little mouth of yours." The head of the Ayanami shouts, half rising from his chair. He forces himself down, forces himself to school his features. He was the Ayanami. He was above rising to the bait of such chattel. When this was all done, he would have his revenge and those who wanted Ranma laid low would have their wish. The offers that were made were too good to look past, the new revenue had tempted him into taking actions that he would normally not have.
Perhaps he should just have had the little bitch of a tattletale shot like his first instinct was. Had her family taken and made an example of. But no, those bitches from China had to make him an offer, an attempt to draw out the little whore who had ravaged his family once before. He had listened to them, gone with their plans. And now, he might be facing the consequences of giving in to his greed.
He was the head of the Ayanami because of the psychotic bitch and that dark shadow that seemed to accompany her. It was because of them that he was sitting at the head of the table, instead of the foot. Perhaps buying off Ranma and Ran would have been a better idea, after all. A nice quiet exchange of money for honor, a buying of service. But no, instead he had listened to their crazy plan and put things into motion. Even the psychotic little bitch they had saddled him with hadn't been able to do the deed. And now, the Ayanami were paying in blood and bone for his choices.
When this was over and the Tanaka and their little pet whore were dead, maybe he would burn that fucking little village to the ground, and salt the earth with their pulverized bones.
He looks up as the door opens, expecting to see one of the Kuno's making their bloody return, or one of his men reporting on how things were going at the gate.
He really didn't want to see who was standing there, dragging the broken and bloody remains of Kodachi behind her like some creature from a horror movie.
The baleful eyes of the bleeding red headed demon before him promised a bloody end as she glanced at the naked woman who has settled into quiet delirium once more.
Death had come for one of them.