Chapter IV

Ranma felt a chill simmer down his spine. It was an eerie feeling, one he couldn't quite explain. He looked upon himself in the backyard floodwater. How could he be in two places at once and be two different sexes? He was female and the other was male.

The weather rained heavily again. How could the other not be affected by the Jusenkyo curse with all this water? Unless it was an imposter?

But from this fake, Ranma could sense an unbelievable raw aura or Ki. It felt familiar, and yet somehow different. Almost as if there were two indomitable spirits or minds inhabiting the same body. It was his body, but the aura radiating from it was from someone else.

His first thought was Copycat Ken, but there was no way this immense power was coming from him. Copycat Ken was merely a trickster, not a martial artist.

The air around Ranma began to swell and he felt a tightness in his muscles. It was almost as if something was draining all the energy around him and leaving him in a capsule of his own power while everything else was sucked dry. He felt this aura could only come from one person. He had felt this kind of energy drain before. It was the depressive power of a heavy heart.

But that was impossible. He was holding Ryoga in his hand at the moment, P-Chan was even seeing this first hand with wide open eye awe. How could he be sensing Ryoga's Lion Roar Shot now if he was a pig? There had to be another explanation.

"I want answers!" Ranma demanded, dropping P-Chan. P-Chan squealed and made a splash in the water. Then he swam to the porch, shook off, and watched the events unfolded there. "Who are you? You may look like me, but you're not me. I know who I am!"

But the other refused to give him a verbal response. A malice smirk broached his face instead.

Ranma didn't understand.

Suddenly a violent wind whipped up out of nowhere, swirled Ranma around in its vortex, and then tossed him back into the water with a hard splash.

Ranma emerged from the water. He spit out water, got to his feet, and clenched his fists at his side. He gave the other a nasty and hateful stare. "You know what, buddy," he started to say, "I dunno who you are, but I don't care. You're goin' down. You better start explainin'!"

Ranma leapt into the air and attacked the other.

However, his effects were in vain. An invisible force thrust him back into the water. He made an even bigger splash this time and water thundered over Ranma like a broken dike. Ranma emerged once more and looked back at the other, even angrier.

"Idiot! You're no match for me now." The other finally said. "By a freak of nature, I've been granted a wondrous gift. Hence my strength has grown immensely. I am no longer the weaklin' you used to push around. My skills have increased a hundred—no, a thousand fold! At first, I didn't understand why this had happened to me, but it's clear to me now, and this conjoining has given me the power to finally defeat you once and for all! I've spent years honing my new abilities and then came back when I was ready to beat you! Not just beat you, but crush you!"

"You're nuts, whoever you are. Tell me who are you?"

"My name is no longer important because I am no longer and will never be him again. Ever wonder how you're going to die? But, sorry, I've afraid I've already chosen your fate."

The stranger pointed above. Ranma glanced up and gasped, seeing a gigantic ball of energy hovering high above the Tendo house. It was big enough to completely obliterate everything in the vicinity.

"I don't understand?" Ranma began to say. "Only Ryoga can perform the Loin Roar Shot technique. But you're not him—you're me. Are you some sort of demon?"

"The biggest one of all!" the other said over the high winds. The other Ranma's hair whipped in the wind. Ranma then noticed the other's hair was longer with a heftier braided pig tail. It would take him years to grown it like that. "The demon of revenge!"

Instantly, the demon summoned his power and the gigantic ball of energy began to plummet to the ground like a meteorite striking the earth at a hundred times a second.

Ranma saw it approach, but there was nothing he could to avoid it.

It crashed down—


There was a tremendous explosion and the ground shook violently with what felt like a level ten earthquake. The Tendo house and Training Hall were destroyed in seconds and all its inhabitants inside were instantly obliterated. All that remained of the property was a deep crater where everything once stood.

When the winds of the explosion subsided, and the debris settled—the heat from the energy sizzling from the ground—the other opened his eyes.

When he performed the Ultimate Shi Shi Hokodan, he became fully drained of his Ki and the blast went straight through him without the slightest bit of harm, as per its instructions. He learned it from an old mountain miner. It was originally supposed to be used to blast away rock, but it had been moulded into a formable weapon to use against his enemies and rivals.

He looked around.

Temporarily disorientated he lost his balance and collapsed to his knees. He had used too much Ki. But he got right back up and witnessed the huge crater he stood in.

He had done it. He had generated enough power with his Ultimate Shi Shi Hokodan after years of honing it to his special level. The entire Tendo property was destroyed. He had finally defeated the only rival who had ever brought him dishonour.

Ranma Saotome was finally dead!

Ryoga Hibiki laughed.

"I finally did it! I finally beat you, Ranma!" he shouted out.

He climbed out of the crater and surveyed what he had done.

Suddenly, he bumped into something and nearly tripped. He looked down and there was a half-buried body. He crouched down and eyed the dead person. He didn't know who it was, the person's face was planted deep into the debris and mud. Humouring himself, he brushed off some of the dirt and then suddenly froze in horror. He knew who it was.

Of all people…

It was his beloved, Akane Tendo.

"No! NOOOOOOOO!"

He swept her up into his arms and cradled her broken body and wept. He was so intent on killing Saotome that he'd forgotten about everyone else.

He looked down at her dirt encrusted face, her lifeless head limp in his arms.

Ryoga pleaded for her to wake up. But Akane was dead. "I didn't mean it, Akane. My target was Ranma. Not you! I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" He brought her head under his chin and rocked her back and forth, cradling her body in his arms, and cried. He dropped to knees.

He should have thought things out more clearly before he came back to the past, but he was too blinded by rage that he blocked everything other than his own personal vendetta.

"But I can change these events, the Nanban Mirror can take me back!" he said. He reached into his shirt and pulled it out. "I can use it to reverse what I've done. That's what I'll do. I'll go back and bring you back to life, Akane."

"That's easier said than done," Happosai said.

Ryoga looked at the elder martial artist standing on a huge rock that had been uprooted from the Shi Shi Hokodan explosion. When he first went into the Nanban Mirror, Happosai was the one that activated it. He said he only wanted to go back five minutes, but the mirror had "misheard" due to something in his Happosai's voice and they were taken forward into the future instead. "Look at the mirror, you fool!"

Ryoga looked at the mirror in his hand, and to his shock and horror, it was shattered like a spider's web. Pieces of glass fell from its housing to his feet. "What happened to it?"

"The vibration blast from your Shi Shi Hokodan shattered it," the old man said. "There's no way to go anywhere! Your stupid incentive want for revenge has trapped us here forever!"

To be continued...