Author: Leopold Goenitz
Email: Leopold_Goenitz@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own a thing. If did, I wouldn't be writing this
stuff.
Warnings: This story could be dark; it just depends on the viewer...and
on the mood I'm in when I'm writing.
Special thanks goes to Domsablos for being my pre-reader and otherwise nice chap.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A Ranma alternative multi-crossover universe
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sorcerer's Rage - The Darkness Returns
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Prologue
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was a warm and humid day when Genma first decided that it would be
good for him and his son, Ranma to visit the training grounds in China, he
had read about this place in a small brochure that he had bought from a
sleazy merchant near Shanghai, it was written completely in Chinese, a
language that his father couldn't understand even if his life depended on
it.
"We there yet, pop?" Ranma asked his father, a slightly annoyed frown on
his face as he glared at the older man in mild irritation.
His father was slightly taller than him, but also overweight compared to
his son. He wore an old worn martial arts gi that had probably once been
white and a had a bandana wrapped around his head in an attempt to
cover his baldness. He also had a pair of cheap eyeglasses attached to his
head with some sort of thin wire instead of the usual hooks.
"Soon Ranma, very soon. We are not too far away now," the man
responded without looking at his son.
"That's what you said fifteen minutes ago," The boy snorted and turned
away from him, tired of looking at him for the whole trip, going back to
inspecting the surrounding wilderness to pass the time.
The man frowned slightly at his son's behaviour but said nothing as he
continued to lead them down the road that was supposed to bring them
to the famous valley of Jusenkyo. He had heard that it was a superb
training ground but also extremely dangerous, he was sure of this
because of several ominous looking markings on the brochure, but since
he couldn't translate them he dropped the matter as irrelevant and
unimportant. A decision that was to be his downfall...
...but then again, Genma Saotome had never been famous for his
intellect, or of the amount of common sense that his peanut size brain
could hold.
It had taken almost a full week to reach where they were now, which in
Ranma's opinion was right in the middle of nowhere. He didn't like the
wilderness in China as there was too much moisture in the air and too
many wild animals running around for his comfort. He also prayed that
they wouldn't bump into any of the local tigers while they were training...
The area they were in at the moment belonged to the Quangjin province,
somewhere near the Bayankalan mountain range if the scenery far ahead
was anything to judge from.
This was supposed to be the last stop on their long training trip they had
started over ten years ago when Ranma had been no more than five
years old.
He had no recollection of his childhood, his earliest memories being of the
time he had spent with his precious friend U-chan. It still troubled him to
remember the way they had parted, seeing his friend chase after the cart
his father had gotten as a farewell gift from the Kuonji patriarch. Or that
was the story that Genma had told to him anyway.
But before Ranma could dwell any more on the past, Genma stopped
abruptly and pointed his finger at a mist filled valley far in the distance.
"There my boy, is the place I've been telling you about," the man told his
son proudly, almost weeping in happiness. After this last training stop
they would go back to Japan and see his old friend, and meet his family.
"Come, let's go see what the valley holds."
The boy could only sigh as he followed his father, but somehow couldn't
help himself from feeling relieved. Ranma had grown a bit tired with his
current situation and was hopping that perhaps after this he could finally
get rid himself of his father and start living for himself.
Too bad fate and luck don't always go hand in hand when it comes to
wishes like that, especially in Ranma's case...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Two hours later...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Huh? This is it?" Ranma asked his father, obviously disappointed with
what he was seeing. "This is the famous training ground you told me
about?" he said, "What a waste of time."
"Silence boy," his father bellowed, giving his son a good slap on the back
of the head. "Haven't I always told you not to judge a technique by its
looks?!"
"Uh, I think that's supposed to be 'books by their covers', pop," said
Ranma attempting to correct him, but giving up when he realized that his
father was ignoring him again.
"This is Jusenkyo boy, according to the brochure it is one of the best
places in the world to train, due to the great danger the area holds." said
Genma while pointing his finger towards the pools that the mist filled
valley was filled with, they seemed to be arranged one next to the other,
each having at least one bamboo stick, sprouting from them, the number
depending on the size of the pool.
Ranma just rolled his eyes and dropped his backpack on the ground in
front of one of the many pools. "I gotta bad feeling about this place," he
thought with a slight frown on his face, "...am I imagining it, or did the air
around here just get thicker?"
Not noticing his son's worried look Genma glanced around quickly and
dropped his own back beside his son's. "Not too shabby, I thought there
would be more to this place though," he said with a thoughtful look on his
face, his eyes narrowed. "Maybe if we would go deeper we might uncover
something..."
Then a new presence made its existence known to the pair.
"Ah! greetings honourable customers!" said a fat looking Chinese man
who was wearing an old style dark green Mao era uniform 'of the people'.
He looked to be quite formal but showed some obvious hesitation, it was
unlikely he was used to having many guests inside the valley.
"Who're you?" Ranma asked with slightly puzzled expression on his face.
Genma just ignored the man and eyed at the large pool in front of him, or
rather the ten foot high bamboo pole that sprouted from its surface.
"Me?" the Chinese man asked while pointing at himself, "I'm guide, my
work is to keep Jusenkyo clean and warn customers of danger this valley
holds."
"Danger? What danger?" the boy muttered dumbly, but was then snapped
out of it when he felt his father patting him on his shoulder. "Huh?"
"Come on son, let's go!" the man prompted as he jumped onto one of the
poles with a surprisingly steady landing for a man of his size. The guide
could only wonder how the bamboo pole managed to hold the visitor's
weight.
"Feh...you think you can beat me here, old man?" Ranma snorted through
his nostrils and joined his father, quickly forgetting all about the Jusenkyo
guide who was now looking at the two Saotomes in clear shock.
"Aaa! What you doing?!" The guide gasped loudly while rushing to the
pool's edge. "This area very dangerous, very bad if you fall!!"
Unfortunately, both father and son ignored the guide as they eyed one
another. "I won't go easy on you boy," Genma declared while taking up a
crane pose that was quickly mimicked by his son.
"Like you ever have," the boy snorted and leapt into action when he saw
his father doing the same, both of them collided in mid air and traded
some fast paced blows that were easily blocked by both sides. Being
equally unsuccessful in causing their opponent to fall, they landed back on
their own poles and jumped back for another try, this time trading more
powerful strikes where one would occasionally break through.
However, this still failed to make any great difference.
"Humph...it seems the old man actually has been holding back on me
lately," Ranma thought as he faced off against his father with a smirk on
his face, one that was almost matched by his father's stern seriousness.
"Hyyaaa!!" The two combatants met in midair again, trading kicks and
punches faster than any normal person could see, and for a short instant
it seemed that they would both fall into the same pool. But that was until
Ranma made a decisive move that changed this.
"Hah! Take that!" cried the boy with the ponytail as he kicked his father
into the gut, using him as a springboard to throw himself into the air to
land back on one of the poles. "Good riddance!" he laughed as he
watched his father disappear into the pool that had been below them for
the whole match.
The Jusenkyo guide had jumped clear from the pool's edge when the
large Japanese man fell into it, not wishing to be cursed by the pool's
magic. "Aiya! Now look what you do!" he shouted worriedly while rubbing
his temples with the palms his hands. "Honorable customer fall into spring
of drowned panda! A tragic story, very tragic about a panda that drown in
pool over two thousand years ago!"
"Huh?" was all that Ranma managed to get out from his mouth at this
point. And before he could snap out of it, something big and dark
appeared right above the spot on the pool's surface where his father had
landed earlier, something that kicked out of the water with surprising
ease considering its size.
It was a panda. A bloody huge panda with black and white fur. The sight
alone was almost enough knock the boy from his perch. "...pop?" Was the
only thing Ranma could say as he stared at the large animal, his finger
pointing straight at it with shocked expression on his face.
"Grof!" the animal growled and made an attempt to sweep the boy off
with one of its massive paws, a strike that Ranma managed to dodge
easily, but not without putting himself off balance.
Making a neat back flip onto another pole allowed the boy to make some
space between himself and his transformed father, who obviously was still
unaware of his current form and situation. "Whoa! Cut it out!" Ranma
cried angrily as he dodged another wild lunge made by his father. And in
doing so failed to notice that the pole he was standing on was old and
ready to break.
"Crack!"
"Whoaaaaaaa*!" There was nothing Ranma could do to save himself from
his imminent bath, one that he had prayed not to receive after seeing
what had happened to his father. All that he could do now, was to watch
as the pool's surface came towards him in slow motion. He held his breath
and waited for the impact.
The panda, on top of the pole, was looking down at where the boy had
disappeared rather smugly, or as smugly as the facial muscles of its new
form allowed, but then it paused as it seemed to notice something. It
looked down at its paws and seemed to realize that the difference
between them and the human hands it had previously possessed. "What
the...?" was all that Genma could think, when he realized what had
happened to him, and seconds later lead him to realize that his son had
now shared the same fate. "No, Ranma! My retirement!!" he thought
frantically as he leapt down to the edge of the pool into which he had
seen his son fall.
Meanwhile the guide had rushed to the panda's side with perplexed look
on his face and was now paging through his guidebook, trying to find the
spot where this particular pool was mentioned, only to come up with a
blank description. "What is this? This pool have curse, but why it not
marked in book?" the guide muttered while scratching his head beneath
the green cap he was wearing.
But before anything else could be said or done, an unfamiliar body burst
from the surface of the pool with tremendous force that carried him all
the way into the air and away from the pool. Right after he landed on the
dry ground, the person collapsed and began to breathe heavily, several
fits of violent coughs racking his body.
With closer inspection, both the guide and Genma quickly realized that
the figure was Ranma, but slightly different. There was also something
strange happening to him with the way he kept trembling, something that
would change his life forever...
Ranma was having a stroke, or what could have been described as the
equivalent of a stroke. His muscles were violently spasming and his chest
felt as if it was about to explode due to the pressure he had felt building
inside his chest after his fall into the damned pool.
Then a strange sensation flooded his senses right after he somehow
managed to stagger upright. It was as if electricity had suddenly coursed
through his body, charging him with some kind of energy, which while
being un-nerving, was surprisingly painless.
Unseen by Ranma, his father and the Jusenkyo guide were now staring at
him in shock and not a little fear. Neither did he see the way his hair
began to billow upward, due to the sudden upward air currents that were
strangely concentrated around him.
Then, as if called from the heavens, a black lightning bolt struck the boy
dead on, blowing both Genma and the guide off their feet. But it didn't
seem to have any effect on Ranma at all. He just stood there with is
clothes and hair whipping around him in the air currents that were
becoming more and more powerful with each passing moment.
Suddenly the wind stoped, and Ranma screamed, a dark read aura
beginning to form around his body, suddenly his head shot back and his
eyes snapped wide open, and rolled back inside is head leaving him
staring sightlessly towards the sky.
His hair caught fire and burned with unnatural flames that turned a deep
red, while his skin became pale as the snow and his eyes crimson as
freshly spilled blood.
Then everything suddenly went white, as the fiery aura suddenly seemed
to explode outwards filling the entire valley with its light, the shockwave
causing the only other people in the valley beside Ranma, to grab on
whatever they could to keep themselves from being flung into the pools.
Only after the shockwave died down and the light began to dim, did
Genma dare to open his eyes and take look what was left of his precious
son. He was worried that his ticket for easy retirement had been just
taken away from him permanently, but was relieved when he saw the
familiar form of his son rise from the ground. He didn't notice the changes
in Ranma's appearance until he walked right up to the boy. "..." Ranma
stood silently as he examined the loose bang of hair that was hanging
from his forehead. He was slightly shocked by its new colour, but gasped
for air when he noticed the paleness of his skin. He turned to face his
father with confusion and fear evident on his face.
"What the hell is this?" the boy shouted while bringing up his arms for his
father to see, "What happened, pop?! Just what the hell have you done to
me this time?!!"
Genma tried to say something to clear himself of any guilt, by saying
something along the lines of "This wasn't my fault," but all that he got
from his mouth were incomprehensible growls that served about the same
purpose though, as Ranma obviously wasn't in the mood for excuses.
The Jusenkyo guide was also at loss. He had never seen effects like the
ones he had just witnessed and could only wonder at what else there was
different about the boy now. "This be strange...you is feeling all right?" he
asked hesitantly while still keeping good distance between himself and the
red haired youth.
The boy's head snapped around to glare at the guide, his eyes flashing
with purple light, a wave of near invisible power, burst forth from his
body, without him even realizing it at first.
The guide had no the time to react as the shockwave, visible only by the
distortions it made in the air, hit him dead on mercilessly flinging him
across several pools, until he hit the ground rather roughly. Skidding to a
halt mere inches away from the pool of drowned squall.
He wasn't sure what it was that the boy had hit him with, but the way it
had shredded and scorched his clothes, he came quickly to the conclusion
that perhaps getting some hot water for the young customer would
perhaps be safest for everyone involved.
Genma just stared at his son and then over to where the guide was
currently running towards his hut like all the demons in hell were after
him. "How did the boy do that?" the transformed Saotome patriarch
wondered, too occupied by his own thoughts to realize that his son had
now turned his attention back to him.
"Old man! You're going down for this shit!" the boy bellowed. The panda
reacted too late as a monstrously powerful punch hit him square in the
gut and sent him crashing to the ground about two dozen feet away.
Ranma blinked at this, his eyes turning to look at the fist he had used to
punch his father. A cold smirk formed on his lips as he belatedly realized
that he must have gained some sort of new power from the pool that he
had fallen into, and while it wouldn't normally have taken some sort of
supernatural power to aid him in his quest to beat some sense into his old
man's empty skull, Ranma didn't mind it so much since it was being used
on the person responsible for his transformation.
"Time for some payback..." the boy said quietly as he approached his
father, his knuckles cracking ominously as he walked. His eyes once
again, flashing with the strange purple light that was giving the boy a
somewhat eerie look when viewed from Genma's point of view.
Genma hadn't even had the time to recover from the gut wrenching
punch he had received, when he was already receiving another blow. This
one was done with a kick though.
A satisfied smirk fell on Ranma's face as he watched his father sail into
one of the trees that occupied the valley bottom, and how it snapped in
half with the force of the impact, the top part of the tree landing on top of
Genma's head and promptly knocking him unconscious.
"Pathetic..." the boy sighed, suddenly feeling extremely tired. He had
calmed down visibly after his brain had registered the fact that the reason
for his anger was no longer accessible for the time being. No use beating
someone who couldn't feel anything.
After regaining his senses somewhat he noticed that the guide was
running back towards them with a steaming kettle swinging from his
hands and a worried frown on his face. "Huh? What's with the kettle?" he
muttered and paused when he realised the guide had rushed over to
kneel beside his father and was about to pour the water over the
unconscious animal's head.
"Hey, what do you think you're...?" the boy started, but then stopped
when he saw the massive form of his father's new form suddenly
shrinking and changing shape. "Pop...?" he gasped after he realized that
his father had transformed back into his normal form. The Saotome
patriarch was still unconscious, though.
The guide turned to look at Ranma and nodded at him after seeing the
questioning look in his eyes. "Yes, hot water reverse curse," he explained
while standing up with the half empty kettle in his hands. But before he
could even think of getting any further in his speech, he realized that the
kettle was no longer in his hands and that the young customer was
currently emptying the contents of the kettle over himself.
The only thing that surprised the guide more than the boy's speed was
the fact that there was no change in the younger customer's appearance.
"What? Hot water...no work?" he gasped while tentatively approaching
the boy.
"Huh? I didn't change back?" Ranma muttered confusedly, his eyes
staring at the now wet and still very much red bangs of hair that were
hanging in front of his eyes, with a slight feeling of panic growing in his
mind he spoke. "Why? Why didn't it work?!" he suddenly roared as he
threw the kettle at the guide who nearly caught the thing right in the
middle of his face.
"I know not!" The guide yelped fearfully at the sudden outburst. "I only
work here. There be no records about pool where honourable customer
fall!" he explained while shielding his face, crossing his arms in front of
his face.
"Why you..." the boy growled lifting his hand into the air, a strange
sphere of black electricity forming in his palm, but he froze when he
realized what was happening. "What the...?" he gasped while wrenching
the hand down as if it had been burned, sending the sphere shooting
down into the nearby forest narrowly missing the guide.
Both the guide and Ranma were staring at the following effect with their
eyes wide. Right after the sphere had disappeared into the grove, a bright
flash emitted from amongst the vegetation, and several trees were blown
spectacularly into toothpick sized splinters, the explosion even managed
to throw some of the remaining tree's flying all the way into the clearing
with most of the trunks shredded and/or burned to a cinder.
Ranma could only gape at his own handiwork. "What...how?" he
stammered while turning towards the guide with shocked expression on
his face, one that was mirrored exactly by the Chinese man.
"This one not know..." the guide answered slowly. "Never seen anything
like this one," he continued with slightly fearful look on his face, one that
was quickly followed by his body as he slowly began to edge away from
the obviously unstable and probably dangerous boy.
Ranma noticed this, but couldn't bring himself to blame the man. "Just
what was that thing? How did I do it? Can I even control it?!" he thought
desperately while dropping to his knees, not noticing the dark aura that
was starting to form around his body. Never in his life had there been a
technique that he hadn't been able to control, the only exception being
the Neko-Ken, and he really didn't need another one to add to the list.
Seeing the dark red aura forming around the boy's frame, the guide
decided that he wouldn't stick his neck into this mess any further and
quickly scurried away lest he get himself blasted with some strange
energy blast, like the one that the boy had accidentally thrown only
moments before. He wasn't sure whether the boy had done it intentionally
or not, or if he would use them on him if he stayed, but since he didn't
wish to find out, he made a decision to run as fast, and as far away as he
could.
That proved most likely to have been a wise choice, as when he looked
behind him, he noticed the boy's aura turning from dark red to pitch
black. A seemingly impenetrable mist of darkness that did not allow any
light to pass through it.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!" the boy roared to the heavens, pouring
out all his anger, fear and desperation, everything that had been locked
away inside his soul, suppressed for most of his life. Up until this day he
had never really been able to release any of it thanks to the principles his
father had pounded into him, ones that taught him not to release his
emotions in any situation. But like everybody else in the world, even
Ranma had his limits.
Inside his head, Ranma found himself in a battle of wills against
something he could not understand, something that had not been there
before and was now trying force him to release all the suffering he had
gone through by using violence. It was something dark, something evil,
and something that was trying to reach out into his mind and bend him to
its will, if he ever had one to begin with. "...what...is...this?!" The boy
thought in desperation, clutching his head, his body convulsing
involuntarily as he tried to resist whatever it was that was attacking his
mind.
This continued for some time, the black aura around his body never
diminishing even for an instant, not until he managed to win the battle
against whatever it was that he had been fighting against when it
vanished completely
Or at least he thought he had won.
Collapsing in a pathetic heap, Ranma just kept gasping for air and
clutching at his head, wishing that this was all just a bad dream and that
he was going to wake up soon. Unfortunately it was not to be.
"...what...was that?" he wondered as he slowly let his head go. His mind
felt numb and exhausted, just like rest of his body. His mind was filled
with worry of what had happened to him, but he also knew that just lying
around on the ground, thinking about it wouldn't bring him any answers.
After his first try at getting up he realized that he was too tired to even
lift his arms and promptly decided to just to stay down and rest, praying
that whatever it was that had happened to him just moments ago,
wouldn't repeat itself. Or not until he was ready at least.
He had a strange scent of a memory, something about having a presence
inside his mind when the 'attack' occurred, but couldn't confirm it. This
did nothing to ease his worry especialy since he had no way of
guaranteeing that it would not happen again. But despite all that, he felt
strangely calm about it all. As if there was nothing to be worried about
anymore.
Soon the exhaustion of both his mind and body finally caught up with
him, causing him to slip into unconsciousness...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sometime later...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The first thing Ranma felt when he woke, was a dull pain that seemed to
be spread all around his body, soon after he realised that someone was
sitting next to him.
"Ranma? You awake?" asked the voice that he recognized only too well. It
was his father.
"Yeah...had some weird dream though," the boy replied while rolling onto
his side. He felt strangely refreshed despite the slowly fading pain that he
could still feel.
Genma raised an eyebrow at this but did not turn away from the crude
campfire he had built. "Dream?" he repeated giving his son a questioning
glance.
"Yeah," he nodded while rubbing his eyes, it was already dark and he lay
looking up at the near pitch-black and star filled sky above. "I had a
dream where we went to this weird valley with these pools. You dropped
into one of them and turned into a panda." The boy almost chuckled.
"It wasn't a dream, boy," his father cut in flatly, not looking happy at all.
"Huh?" Ranma muttered dumbly while turning to look at his father again.
"What d-do you mean, it w-wasn't a dream?!" He gasped and almost
jumped to his feet, but was quickly stopped when his back complained.
The Saotome patriarch turned to look at his son, just in time to see the
grimace on the boy's face, he sighed. "I met with the guide after I woke
up, that was several hours ago. He told me about this area and gave
some explanations regarding the curses," he said, waving his hand,
gesturing at their surroundings.
That was when Ranma realized that they were still in the valley, a good
distance from the pools though; he could even see the guide's hut from
where they were. "Not a dream..." he muttered as he slowly digested
that, what had occurred, hadn't been just a figment of his imagination.
"Curses? What curses?" the boy suddenly snapped back to reality as he
tried to reach out towards his father, his mind praying that this was just
one big sick joke and would go away soon.
"The pools," Genma started while pointing towards the centre of the mist
filled valley, "They each hold a different curse according to the guide.
Whoever falls into them turns into whatever had last drowned there. The
pool where I fell was the pool of drowned panda..."
"..." At fist Ranma just stared at his father. "Then...where did I fall? Why
didn't the cure the guide used on you work on me?!" he snapped almost
angrily. He was still pretty upset at what his father had done to him and
wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon. For some reason he had this
strange urge to roast his old man alive, but he shook it off quickly and
waited for a reply, as the dead didn't tell any tales.
"It wasn't a cure, boy. It is only a temporary fix," his father replied calmly
while poking at the fire with a small stick. "Hot water returns me back to
my human form, but then cold water activates the curse again..." the
man was silent for a moment as he peered into the fire.
"I don't know why the hot water doesn't work on you, boy, and neither
does the guide. But I guess your problem isn't so bad," Genma continued
as he turned to look his son, or rather the boy's hair. "All you've gotten is
a red hair and a pale skin."
This made the boy to blink and steer his gaze to his bangs of hair. "Huh?"
he muttered dumbly as he grabbed some of it for closer inspection. The
look on his face turned a bit sour as he realized that it was probably his
natural colour now. "Man, this sucks. I can't walk around with this kind of
hair, it's embarrassing," he complained and stuck it out to show it his
father, as if to emphasize his words.
Genma just snorted and shrugged his shoulders at this before he
continued, "But aside that, I'd like to know one thing..."
"What?"
"How did you do that attack you used on that guide? When did you learn
it?!" the man asked him with suspicious frown on his face. He was pretty
sure his son hadn't been going through his backpack and found any of the
old scrolls that he had stolen...eh, borrowed from those monasteries they
had visited during their ten year long journey. So Ranma couldn't have
learned it from those, and besides, he didn't recall any technique like the
one that his son had used earlier today being among them either.
"Huh? What attack?" Ranma muttered confusedly, but then suddenly
became rigid as the memories began to flash through his mind. "...I...I
don't...know. I can't remember," he admitted with troubled look on his
face, "I don't know how...they just came out."
"Hmm..." the older Saotome frowned at this. It was obvious that he
wasn't quite buying the explanation, but did not press on it however.
"The boy is either hiding information from me, or that strange technique
he used on the guide is directly connected to his curse and he just isn't
just aware of it yet," Genma mentally concluded as he turned back to the
fire. He might have been a greedy bastard and an idiot to boot, but he did
have a surprisingly strong intuition towards things like this.
"Well, rest now. I don't know what happened while I was unconscious, but
I can see that you're still tired from your ordeal," the man continued while
watching the campfire.
Ranma just nodded and closed his eyes. His mind, however, was still
quite active. He couldn't just let the matter drop and began to feverishly
ponder what had happened today.
All that he could really remember doing was attacking the guide with a
blurred recollection of anger and frustration. But as he tried harder, he
did recall that he had felt some extreme emotions during the second
attack, the one that his father was either not aware of, or just hadn't
bothered to mention yet.
The first time had been when he had been both mad and desperate,
fearing what he might have become thanks to his father. That had been
the time the strange wave had thrown the Jusenkyo guide across the
springs. The second one had occurred when he had felt just anger, or
perhaps it was rage, filling his mind. He had felt an urge to kill the man,
something that the boy himself found quite disturbing since he had
always lived by the belief that killing was the last option when defending
those who could not defend themselves.
A small shiver ran up Ranma's spine when he realized that he might have
come close to murdering both his father and the guide, and would
probably have done so if he hadn't noticed the strange sphere of energy
that had emerged from his hand before he had thrown it off into the
forest. And now when he thought some more about it, he had a quite
clear memory of what he had done when it had appeared.
This made the boy frown slightly. "Hmm...I wonder if..." he muttered
silently to himself while raising his hand above his chest. He concentrated
on the feelings he had felt when he had created the sphere last time, a
few beads of sweat fell down his forehead as he tried to summon the
energy again. But nothing happened.
"Damn," he cursed lightly, and was about to drop his hand back down in
defeat when he noticed it. A small sphere of black electricity coursed
along the surface of his palm but quickly disappeared before he could
concentrate on it again.
"That was weird," he commented to himself and stopped when he realized
that his father was still awake. And since he did not want his old man to
find out what he was doing, he quickly rolled onto his side, vowing to find
out how he had managed that thing. It was obvious that his father was
interested in the attacks that he had created, so if nothing else, Ranma
wanted to at least learn them so that he could show off to his old man.
It didn't however take away the worry that he had for his current form.
While he still might have looked like a normal person, despite his new
rather colourful hair he had, he felt that something was wrong with him.
And that the attack he had before when he had blacked out was giving
him the creeps.
Ranma wasn't sure, but for some reason he felt that whatever it had been
that had attempted to invade his mind, had not gone away. Heck, he
wasn't even sure if he had won yet.
All he could do was hope that he had.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
End of prologue...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Next chapter: Awakening
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So, how did ya like it? Want some more? Then put some reviews on the
list people, otherwise I might just let this one wither away and die. And
yes, I'm still working on the When Fates Collide, I'm just trying to finish
up with the ending part of the third chapter, and the reason why it has
taken so long is because I once lost the damn file when I was near
completing it and then because I've (still) been having some rough time
back at home...
-Goenitz
Updated: -2002-22-04-
Ok, got a of pre-reader now, told me that help he could. So I took
the offer, now helping me he is, and doing great job so far. I only
wish I could do as great job as he is...
So in other words, I would like to give my gratitude to Domsablos for his
patience and effort in guiding me to the right path, which I hopefully will
pick up on my own so that he doesn't need to be pulling his hair out in
frustration all the time.
Oh, and give a big cheer for Dom for pointing out the glitches I had in my
grammar! Without him I would probably still be going on with my faulty
writing style, so show him a bit of appreciation, mmmmkay?
-Goenitz
Email: Leopold_Goenitz@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own a thing. If did, I wouldn't be writing this
stuff.
Warnings: This story could be dark; it just depends on the viewer...and
on the mood I'm in when I'm writing.
Special thanks goes to Domsablos for being my pre-reader and otherwise nice chap.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A Ranma alternative multi-crossover universe
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sorcerer's Rage - The Darkness Returns
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Prologue
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was a warm and humid day when Genma first decided that it would be
good for him and his son, Ranma to visit the training grounds in China, he
had read about this place in a small brochure that he had bought from a
sleazy merchant near Shanghai, it was written completely in Chinese, a
language that his father couldn't understand even if his life depended on
it.
"We there yet, pop?" Ranma asked his father, a slightly annoyed frown on
his face as he glared at the older man in mild irritation.
His father was slightly taller than him, but also overweight compared to
his son. He wore an old worn martial arts gi that had probably once been
white and a had a bandana wrapped around his head in an attempt to
cover his baldness. He also had a pair of cheap eyeglasses attached to his
head with some sort of thin wire instead of the usual hooks.
"Soon Ranma, very soon. We are not too far away now," the man
responded without looking at his son.
"That's what you said fifteen minutes ago," The boy snorted and turned
away from him, tired of looking at him for the whole trip, going back to
inspecting the surrounding wilderness to pass the time.
The man frowned slightly at his son's behaviour but said nothing as he
continued to lead them down the road that was supposed to bring them
to the famous valley of Jusenkyo. He had heard that it was a superb
training ground but also extremely dangerous, he was sure of this
because of several ominous looking markings on the brochure, but since
he couldn't translate them he dropped the matter as irrelevant and
unimportant. A decision that was to be his downfall...
...but then again, Genma Saotome had never been famous for his
intellect, or of the amount of common sense that his peanut size brain
could hold.
It had taken almost a full week to reach where they were now, which in
Ranma's opinion was right in the middle of nowhere. He didn't like the
wilderness in China as there was too much moisture in the air and too
many wild animals running around for his comfort. He also prayed that
they wouldn't bump into any of the local tigers while they were training...
The area they were in at the moment belonged to the Quangjin province,
somewhere near the Bayankalan mountain range if the scenery far ahead
was anything to judge from.
This was supposed to be the last stop on their long training trip they had
started over ten years ago when Ranma had been no more than five
years old.
He had no recollection of his childhood, his earliest memories being of the
time he had spent with his precious friend U-chan. It still troubled him to
remember the way they had parted, seeing his friend chase after the cart
his father had gotten as a farewell gift from the Kuonji patriarch. Or that
was the story that Genma had told to him anyway.
But before Ranma could dwell any more on the past, Genma stopped
abruptly and pointed his finger at a mist filled valley far in the distance.
"There my boy, is the place I've been telling you about," the man told his
son proudly, almost weeping in happiness. After this last training stop
they would go back to Japan and see his old friend, and meet his family.
"Come, let's go see what the valley holds."
The boy could only sigh as he followed his father, but somehow couldn't
help himself from feeling relieved. Ranma had grown a bit tired with his
current situation and was hopping that perhaps after this he could finally
get rid himself of his father and start living for himself.
Too bad fate and luck don't always go hand in hand when it comes to
wishes like that, especially in Ranma's case...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Two hours later...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Huh? This is it?" Ranma asked his father, obviously disappointed with
what he was seeing. "This is the famous training ground you told me
about?" he said, "What a waste of time."
"Silence boy," his father bellowed, giving his son a good slap on the back
of the head. "Haven't I always told you not to judge a technique by its
looks?!"
"Uh, I think that's supposed to be 'books by their covers', pop," said
Ranma attempting to correct him, but giving up when he realized that his
father was ignoring him again.
"This is Jusenkyo boy, according to the brochure it is one of the best
places in the world to train, due to the great danger the area holds." said
Genma while pointing his finger towards the pools that the mist filled
valley was filled with, they seemed to be arranged one next to the other,
each having at least one bamboo stick, sprouting from them, the number
depending on the size of the pool.
Ranma just rolled his eyes and dropped his backpack on the ground in
front of one of the many pools. "I gotta bad feeling about this place," he
thought with a slight frown on his face, "...am I imagining it, or did the air
around here just get thicker?"
Not noticing his son's worried look Genma glanced around quickly and
dropped his own back beside his son's. "Not too shabby, I thought there
would be more to this place though," he said with a thoughtful look on his
face, his eyes narrowed. "Maybe if we would go deeper we might uncover
something..."
Then a new presence made its existence known to the pair.
"Ah! greetings honourable customers!" said a fat looking Chinese man
who was wearing an old style dark green Mao era uniform 'of the people'.
He looked to be quite formal but showed some obvious hesitation, it was
unlikely he was used to having many guests inside the valley.
"Who're you?" Ranma asked with slightly puzzled expression on his face.
Genma just ignored the man and eyed at the large pool in front of him, or
rather the ten foot high bamboo pole that sprouted from its surface.
"Me?" the Chinese man asked while pointing at himself, "I'm guide, my
work is to keep Jusenkyo clean and warn customers of danger this valley
holds."
"Danger? What danger?" the boy muttered dumbly, but was then snapped
out of it when he felt his father patting him on his shoulder. "Huh?"
"Come on son, let's go!" the man prompted as he jumped onto one of the
poles with a surprisingly steady landing for a man of his size. The guide
could only wonder how the bamboo pole managed to hold the visitor's
weight.
"Feh...you think you can beat me here, old man?" Ranma snorted through
his nostrils and joined his father, quickly forgetting all about the Jusenkyo
guide who was now looking at the two Saotomes in clear shock.
"Aaa! What you doing?!" The guide gasped loudly while rushing to the
pool's edge. "This area very dangerous, very bad if you fall!!"
Unfortunately, both father and son ignored the guide as they eyed one
another. "I won't go easy on you boy," Genma declared while taking up a
crane pose that was quickly mimicked by his son.
"Like you ever have," the boy snorted and leapt into action when he saw
his father doing the same, both of them collided in mid air and traded
some fast paced blows that were easily blocked by both sides. Being
equally unsuccessful in causing their opponent to fall, they landed back on
their own poles and jumped back for another try, this time trading more
powerful strikes where one would occasionally break through.
However, this still failed to make any great difference.
"Humph...it seems the old man actually has been holding back on me
lately," Ranma thought as he faced off against his father with a smirk on
his face, one that was almost matched by his father's stern seriousness.
"Hyyaaa!!" The two combatants met in midair again, trading kicks and
punches faster than any normal person could see, and for a short instant
it seemed that they would both fall into the same pool. But that was until
Ranma made a decisive move that changed this.
"Hah! Take that!" cried the boy with the ponytail as he kicked his father
into the gut, using him as a springboard to throw himself into the air to
land back on one of the poles. "Good riddance!" he laughed as he
watched his father disappear into the pool that had been below them for
the whole match.
The Jusenkyo guide had jumped clear from the pool's edge when the
large Japanese man fell into it, not wishing to be cursed by the pool's
magic. "Aiya! Now look what you do!" he shouted worriedly while rubbing
his temples with the palms his hands. "Honorable customer fall into spring
of drowned panda! A tragic story, very tragic about a panda that drown in
pool over two thousand years ago!"
"Huh?" was all that Ranma managed to get out from his mouth at this
point. And before he could snap out of it, something big and dark
appeared right above the spot on the pool's surface where his father had
landed earlier, something that kicked out of the water with surprising
ease considering its size.
It was a panda. A bloody huge panda with black and white fur. The sight
alone was almost enough knock the boy from his perch. "...pop?" Was the
only thing Ranma could say as he stared at the large animal, his finger
pointing straight at it with shocked expression on his face.
"Grof!" the animal growled and made an attempt to sweep the boy off
with one of its massive paws, a strike that Ranma managed to dodge
easily, but not without putting himself off balance.
Making a neat back flip onto another pole allowed the boy to make some
space between himself and his transformed father, who obviously was still
unaware of his current form and situation. "Whoa! Cut it out!" Ranma
cried angrily as he dodged another wild lunge made by his father. And in
doing so failed to notice that the pole he was standing on was old and
ready to break.
"Crack!"
"Whoaaaaaaa*!" There was nothing Ranma could do to save himself from
his imminent bath, one that he had prayed not to receive after seeing
what had happened to his father. All that he could do now, was to watch
as the pool's surface came towards him in slow motion. He held his breath
and waited for the impact.
The panda, on top of the pole, was looking down at where the boy had
disappeared rather smugly, or as smugly as the facial muscles of its new
form allowed, but then it paused as it seemed to notice something. It
looked down at its paws and seemed to realize that the difference
between them and the human hands it had previously possessed. "What
the...?" was all that Genma could think, when he realized what had
happened to him, and seconds later lead him to realize that his son had
now shared the same fate. "No, Ranma! My retirement!!" he thought
frantically as he leapt down to the edge of the pool into which he had
seen his son fall.
Meanwhile the guide had rushed to the panda's side with perplexed look
on his face and was now paging through his guidebook, trying to find the
spot where this particular pool was mentioned, only to come up with a
blank description. "What is this? This pool have curse, but why it not
marked in book?" the guide muttered while scratching his head beneath
the green cap he was wearing.
But before anything else could be said or done, an unfamiliar body burst
from the surface of the pool with tremendous force that carried him all
the way into the air and away from the pool. Right after he landed on the
dry ground, the person collapsed and began to breathe heavily, several
fits of violent coughs racking his body.
With closer inspection, both the guide and Genma quickly realized that
the figure was Ranma, but slightly different. There was also something
strange happening to him with the way he kept trembling, something that
would change his life forever...
Ranma was having a stroke, or what could have been described as the
equivalent of a stroke. His muscles were violently spasming and his chest
felt as if it was about to explode due to the pressure he had felt building
inside his chest after his fall into the damned pool.
Then a strange sensation flooded his senses right after he somehow
managed to stagger upright. It was as if electricity had suddenly coursed
through his body, charging him with some kind of energy, which while
being un-nerving, was surprisingly painless.
Unseen by Ranma, his father and the Jusenkyo guide were now staring at
him in shock and not a little fear. Neither did he see the way his hair
began to billow upward, due to the sudden upward air currents that were
strangely concentrated around him.
Then, as if called from the heavens, a black lightning bolt struck the boy
dead on, blowing both Genma and the guide off their feet. But it didn't
seem to have any effect on Ranma at all. He just stood there with is
clothes and hair whipping around him in the air currents that were
becoming more and more powerful with each passing moment.
Suddenly the wind stoped, and Ranma screamed, a dark read aura
beginning to form around his body, suddenly his head shot back and his
eyes snapped wide open, and rolled back inside is head leaving him
staring sightlessly towards the sky.
His hair caught fire and burned with unnatural flames that turned a deep
red, while his skin became pale as the snow and his eyes crimson as
freshly spilled blood.
Then everything suddenly went white, as the fiery aura suddenly seemed
to explode outwards filling the entire valley with its light, the shockwave
causing the only other people in the valley beside Ranma, to grab on
whatever they could to keep themselves from being flung into the pools.
Only after the shockwave died down and the light began to dim, did
Genma dare to open his eyes and take look what was left of his precious
son. He was worried that his ticket for easy retirement had been just
taken away from him permanently, but was relieved when he saw the
familiar form of his son rise from the ground. He didn't notice the changes
in Ranma's appearance until he walked right up to the boy. "..." Ranma
stood silently as he examined the loose bang of hair that was hanging
from his forehead. He was slightly shocked by its new colour, but gasped
for air when he noticed the paleness of his skin. He turned to face his
father with confusion and fear evident on his face.
"What the hell is this?" the boy shouted while bringing up his arms for his
father to see, "What happened, pop?! Just what the hell have you done to
me this time?!!"
Genma tried to say something to clear himself of any guilt, by saying
something along the lines of "This wasn't my fault," but all that he got
from his mouth were incomprehensible growls that served about the same
purpose though, as Ranma obviously wasn't in the mood for excuses.
The Jusenkyo guide was also at loss. He had never seen effects like the
ones he had just witnessed and could only wonder at what else there was
different about the boy now. "This be strange...you is feeling all right?" he
asked hesitantly while still keeping good distance between himself and the
red haired youth.
The boy's head snapped around to glare at the guide, his eyes flashing
with purple light, a wave of near invisible power, burst forth from his
body, without him even realizing it at first.
The guide had no the time to react as the shockwave, visible only by the
distortions it made in the air, hit him dead on mercilessly flinging him
across several pools, until he hit the ground rather roughly. Skidding to a
halt mere inches away from the pool of drowned squall.
He wasn't sure what it was that the boy had hit him with, but the way it
had shredded and scorched his clothes, he came quickly to the conclusion
that perhaps getting some hot water for the young customer would
perhaps be safest for everyone involved.
Genma just stared at his son and then over to where the guide was
currently running towards his hut like all the demons in hell were after
him. "How did the boy do that?" the transformed Saotome patriarch
wondered, too occupied by his own thoughts to realize that his son had
now turned his attention back to him.
"Old man! You're going down for this shit!" the boy bellowed. The panda
reacted too late as a monstrously powerful punch hit him square in the
gut and sent him crashing to the ground about two dozen feet away.
Ranma blinked at this, his eyes turning to look at the fist he had used to
punch his father. A cold smirk formed on his lips as he belatedly realized
that he must have gained some sort of new power from the pool that he
had fallen into, and while it wouldn't normally have taken some sort of
supernatural power to aid him in his quest to beat some sense into his old
man's empty skull, Ranma didn't mind it so much since it was being used
on the person responsible for his transformation.
"Time for some payback..." the boy said quietly as he approached his
father, his knuckles cracking ominously as he walked. His eyes once
again, flashing with the strange purple light that was giving the boy a
somewhat eerie look when viewed from Genma's point of view.
Genma hadn't even had the time to recover from the gut wrenching
punch he had received, when he was already receiving another blow. This
one was done with a kick though.
A satisfied smirk fell on Ranma's face as he watched his father sail into
one of the trees that occupied the valley bottom, and how it snapped in
half with the force of the impact, the top part of the tree landing on top of
Genma's head and promptly knocking him unconscious.
"Pathetic..." the boy sighed, suddenly feeling extremely tired. He had
calmed down visibly after his brain had registered the fact that the reason
for his anger was no longer accessible for the time being. No use beating
someone who couldn't feel anything.
After regaining his senses somewhat he noticed that the guide was
running back towards them with a steaming kettle swinging from his
hands and a worried frown on his face. "Huh? What's with the kettle?" he
muttered and paused when he realised the guide had rushed over to
kneel beside his father and was about to pour the water over the
unconscious animal's head.
"Hey, what do you think you're...?" the boy started, but then stopped
when he saw the massive form of his father's new form suddenly
shrinking and changing shape. "Pop...?" he gasped after he realized that
his father had transformed back into his normal form. The Saotome
patriarch was still unconscious, though.
The guide turned to look at Ranma and nodded at him after seeing the
questioning look in his eyes. "Yes, hot water reverse curse," he explained
while standing up with the half empty kettle in his hands. But before he
could even think of getting any further in his speech, he realized that the
kettle was no longer in his hands and that the young customer was
currently emptying the contents of the kettle over himself.
The only thing that surprised the guide more than the boy's speed was
the fact that there was no change in the younger customer's appearance.
"What? Hot water...no work?" he gasped while tentatively approaching
the boy.
"Huh? I didn't change back?" Ranma muttered confusedly, his eyes
staring at the now wet and still very much red bangs of hair that were
hanging in front of his eyes, with a slight feeling of panic growing in his
mind he spoke. "Why? Why didn't it work?!" he suddenly roared as he
threw the kettle at the guide who nearly caught the thing right in the
middle of his face.
"I know not!" The guide yelped fearfully at the sudden outburst. "I only
work here. There be no records about pool where honourable customer
fall!" he explained while shielding his face, crossing his arms in front of
his face.
"Why you..." the boy growled lifting his hand into the air, a strange
sphere of black electricity forming in his palm, but he froze when he
realized what was happening. "What the...?" he gasped while wrenching
the hand down as if it had been burned, sending the sphere shooting
down into the nearby forest narrowly missing the guide.
Both the guide and Ranma were staring at the following effect with their
eyes wide. Right after the sphere had disappeared into the grove, a bright
flash emitted from amongst the vegetation, and several trees were blown
spectacularly into toothpick sized splinters, the explosion even managed
to throw some of the remaining tree's flying all the way into the clearing
with most of the trunks shredded and/or burned to a cinder.
Ranma could only gape at his own handiwork. "What...how?" he
stammered while turning towards the guide with shocked expression on
his face, one that was mirrored exactly by the Chinese man.
"This one not know..." the guide answered slowly. "Never seen anything
like this one," he continued with slightly fearful look on his face, one that
was quickly followed by his body as he slowly began to edge away from
the obviously unstable and probably dangerous boy.
Ranma noticed this, but couldn't bring himself to blame the man. "Just
what was that thing? How did I do it? Can I even control it?!" he thought
desperately while dropping to his knees, not noticing the dark aura that
was starting to form around his body. Never in his life had there been a
technique that he hadn't been able to control, the only exception being
the Neko-Ken, and he really didn't need another one to add to the list.
Seeing the dark red aura forming around the boy's frame, the guide
decided that he wouldn't stick his neck into this mess any further and
quickly scurried away lest he get himself blasted with some strange
energy blast, like the one that the boy had accidentally thrown only
moments before. He wasn't sure whether the boy had done it intentionally
or not, or if he would use them on him if he stayed, but since he didn't
wish to find out, he made a decision to run as fast, and as far away as he
could.
That proved most likely to have been a wise choice, as when he looked
behind him, he noticed the boy's aura turning from dark red to pitch
black. A seemingly impenetrable mist of darkness that did not allow any
light to pass through it.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!" the boy roared to the heavens, pouring
out all his anger, fear and desperation, everything that had been locked
away inside his soul, suppressed for most of his life. Up until this day he
had never really been able to release any of it thanks to the principles his
father had pounded into him, ones that taught him not to release his
emotions in any situation. But like everybody else in the world, even
Ranma had his limits.
Inside his head, Ranma found himself in a battle of wills against
something he could not understand, something that had not been there
before and was now trying force him to release all the suffering he had
gone through by using violence. It was something dark, something evil,
and something that was trying to reach out into his mind and bend him to
its will, if he ever had one to begin with. "...what...is...this?!" The boy
thought in desperation, clutching his head, his body convulsing
involuntarily as he tried to resist whatever it was that was attacking his
mind.
This continued for some time, the black aura around his body never
diminishing even for an instant, not until he managed to win the battle
against whatever it was that he had been fighting against when it
vanished completely
Or at least he thought he had won.
Collapsing in a pathetic heap, Ranma just kept gasping for air and
clutching at his head, wishing that this was all just a bad dream and that
he was going to wake up soon. Unfortunately it was not to be.
"...what...was that?" he wondered as he slowly let his head go. His mind
felt numb and exhausted, just like rest of his body. His mind was filled
with worry of what had happened to him, but he also knew that just lying
around on the ground, thinking about it wouldn't bring him any answers.
After his first try at getting up he realized that he was too tired to even
lift his arms and promptly decided to just to stay down and rest, praying
that whatever it was that had happened to him just moments ago,
wouldn't repeat itself. Or not until he was ready at least.
He had a strange scent of a memory, something about having a presence
inside his mind when the 'attack' occurred, but couldn't confirm it. This
did nothing to ease his worry especialy since he had no way of
guaranteeing that it would not happen again. But despite all that, he felt
strangely calm about it all. As if there was nothing to be worried about
anymore.
Soon the exhaustion of both his mind and body finally caught up with
him, causing him to slip into unconsciousness...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sometime later...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The first thing Ranma felt when he woke, was a dull pain that seemed to
be spread all around his body, soon after he realised that someone was
sitting next to him.
"Ranma? You awake?" asked the voice that he recognized only too well. It
was his father.
"Yeah...had some weird dream though," the boy replied while rolling onto
his side. He felt strangely refreshed despite the slowly fading pain that he
could still feel.
Genma raised an eyebrow at this but did not turn away from the crude
campfire he had built. "Dream?" he repeated giving his son a questioning
glance.
"Yeah," he nodded while rubbing his eyes, it was already dark and he lay
looking up at the near pitch-black and star filled sky above. "I had a
dream where we went to this weird valley with these pools. You dropped
into one of them and turned into a panda." The boy almost chuckled.
"It wasn't a dream, boy," his father cut in flatly, not looking happy at all.
"Huh?" Ranma muttered dumbly while turning to look at his father again.
"What d-do you mean, it w-wasn't a dream?!" He gasped and almost
jumped to his feet, but was quickly stopped when his back complained.
The Saotome patriarch turned to look at his son, just in time to see the
grimace on the boy's face, he sighed. "I met with the guide after I woke
up, that was several hours ago. He told me about this area and gave
some explanations regarding the curses," he said, waving his hand,
gesturing at their surroundings.
That was when Ranma realized that they were still in the valley, a good
distance from the pools though; he could even see the guide's hut from
where they were. "Not a dream..." he muttered as he slowly digested
that, what had occurred, hadn't been just a figment of his imagination.
"Curses? What curses?" the boy suddenly snapped back to reality as he
tried to reach out towards his father, his mind praying that this was just
one big sick joke and would go away soon.
"The pools," Genma started while pointing towards the centre of the mist
filled valley, "They each hold a different curse according to the guide.
Whoever falls into them turns into whatever had last drowned there. The
pool where I fell was the pool of drowned panda..."
"..." At fist Ranma just stared at his father. "Then...where did I fall? Why
didn't the cure the guide used on you work on me?!" he snapped almost
angrily. He was still pretty upset at what his father had done to him and
wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon. For some reason he had this
strange urge to roast his old man alive, but he shook it off quickly and
waited for a reply, as the dead didn't tell any tales.
"It wasn't a cure, boy. It is only a temporary fix," his father replied calmly
while poking at the fire with a small stick. "Hot water returns me back to
my human form, but then cold water activates the curse again..." the
man was silent for a moment as he peered into the fire.
"I don't know why the hot water doesn't work on you, boy, and neither
does the guide. But I guess your problem isn't so bad," Genma continued
as he turned to look his son, or rather the boy's hair. "All you've gotten is
a red hair and a pale skin."
This made the boy to blink and steer his gaze to his bangs of hair. "Huh?"
he muttered dumbly as he grabbed some of it for closer inspection. The
look on his face turned a bit sour as he realized that it was probably his
natural colour now. "Man, this sucks. I can't walk around with this kind of
hair, it's embarrassing," he complained and stuck it out to show it his
father, as if to emphasize his words.
Genma just snorted and shrugged his shoulders at this before he
continued, "But aside that, I'd like to know one thing..."
"What?"
"How did you do that attack you used on that guide? When did you learn
it?!" the man asked him with suspicious frown on his face. He was pretty
sure his son hadn't been going through his backpack and found any of the
old scrolls that he had stolen...eh, borrowed from those monasteries they
had visited during their ten year long journey. So Ranma couldn't have
learned it from those, and besides, he didn't recall any technique like the
one that his son had used earlier today being among them either.
"Huh? What attack?" Ranma muttered confusedly, but then suddenly
became rigid as the memories began to flash through his mind. "...I...I
don't...know. I can't remember," he admitted with troubled look on his
face, "I don't know how...they just came out."
"Hmm..." the older Saotome frowned at this. It was obvious that he
wasn't quite buying the explanation, but did not press on it however.
"The boy is either hiding information from me, or that strange technique
he used on the guide is directly connected to his curse and he just isn't
just aware of it yet," Genma mentally concluded as he turned back to the
fire. He might have been a greedy bastard and an idiot to boot, but he did
have a surprisingly strong intuition towards things like this.
"Well, rest now. I don't know what happened while I was unconscious, but
I can see that you're still tired from your ordeal," the man continued while
watching the campfire.
Ranma just nodded and closed his eyes. His mind, however, was still
quite active. He couldn't just let the matter drop and began to feverishly
ponder what had happened today.
All that he could really remember doing was attacking the guide with a
blurred recollection of anger and frustration. But as he tried harder, he
did recall that he had felt some extreme emotions during the second
attack, the one that his father was either not aware of, or just hadn't
bothered to mention yet.
The first time had been when he had been both mad and desperate,
fearing what he might have become thanks to his father. That had been
the time the strange wave had thrown the Jusenkyo guide across the
springs. The second one had occurred when he had felt just anger, or
perhaps it was rage, filling his mind. He had felt an urge to kill the man,
something that the boy himself found quite disturbing since he had
always lived by the belief that killing was the last option when defending
those who could not defend themselves.
A small shiver ran up Ranma's spine when he realized that he might have
come close to murdering both his father and the guide, and would
probably have done so if he hadn't noticed the strange sphere of energy
that had emerged from his hand before he had thrown it off into the
forest. And now when he thought some more about it, he had a quite
clear memory of what he had done when it had appeared.
This made the boy frown slightly. "Hmm...I wonder if..." he muttered
silently to himself while raising his hand above his chest. He concentrated
on the feelings he had felt when he had created the sphere last time, a
few beads of sweat fell down his forehead as he tried to summon the
energy again. But nothing happened.
"Damn," he cursed lightly, and was about to drop his hand back down in
defeat when he noticed it. A small sphere of black electricity coursed
along the surface of his palm but quickly disappeared before he could
concentrate on it again.
"That was weird," he commented to himself and stopped when he realized
that his father was still awake. And since he did not want his old man to
find out what he was doing, he quickly rolled onto his side, vowing to find
out how he had managed that thing. It was obvious that his father was
interested in the attacks that he had created, so if nothing else, Ranma
wanted to at least learn them so that he could show off to his old man.
It didn't however take away the worry that he had for his current form.
While he still might have looked like a normal person, despite his new
rather colourful hair he had, he felt that something was wrong with him.
And that the attack he had before when he had blacked out was giving
him the creeps.
Ranma wasn't sure, but for some reason he felt that whatever it had been
that had attempted to invade his mind, had not gone away. Heck, he
wasn't even sure if he had won yet.
All he could do was hope that he had.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
End of prologue...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Next chapter: Awakening
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So, how did ya like it? Want some more? Then put some reviews on the
list people, otherwise I might just let this one wither away and die. And
yes, I'm still working on the When Fates Collide, I'm just trying to finish
up with the ending part of the third chapter, and the reason why it has
taken so long is because I once lost the damn file when I was near
completing it and then because I've (still) been having some rough time
back at home...
-Goenitz
Updated: -2002-22-04-
Ok, got a of pre-reader now, told me that help he could. So I took
the offer, now helping me he is, and doing great job so far. I only
wish I could do as great job as he is...
So in other words, I would like to give my gratitude to Domsablos for his
patience and effort in guiding me to the right path, which I hopefully will
pick up on my own so that he doesn't need to be pulling his hair out in
frustration all the time.
Oh, and give a big cheer for Dom for pointing out the glitches I had in my
grammar! Without him I would probably still be going on with my faulty
writing style, so show him a bit of appreciation, mmmmkay?
-Goenitz