C. Cowboy: Sorry it took so long to get this out! But I think this was worth the wait. Like all good things, it has to come to an end, and I hope you all like this ending. Has a few references from other animes, too won't go into it though, they both are pretty obvious if you know the shows. Anyway I'd like to dedicate this entire fic to my girlfriend, who got me into Ranma ½ in the first place. Her birthday was a short while ago, and this is her belated birthday present, happy birthday my Angel. Ok, enough of the talkin', read and review please!
Chapter 5: Heaven Blast of the Dragon
"You ready for round two, Jubi?" Ranma smugly asked taking a combat stance between Jubi and Akane.
"You couldn't defeat me before, boy." Jubi smirked, "What makes you think you can now?"
"I've got a promise to keep." Ranma replied. "I promised I'd take care of a close friend's daughters, and I plan on doing just that."
"You make no sense, boy." Jubi snapped and was about to say something else but was forced back by shot to the face.
"What?" Jubi asked shaking his head to clear it, "You weren't that fast before?"
He was answered by a series of rapid punches and kicks. Jubi returned a few with equal force, and the fight was on.
'I can't keep this up much longer.' Ranma thought as he dodged a few more punches, I have to think of something… THAT'S IT!' Ranma stopped the offence and went on the defensive. 'The heat of this fight would be perfect for the Heaven Blast of the Dragon.'
"What are you doing, boy?" Jubi asked throwing punches growing angrier by the second. Ranma didn't respond but just dodged and led Jubi into an inward spiral, letting Jubi's anger grow and keeping his cool.
Everyone else was watching the fight when Ryoga noticed what Ranma was trying to do. "Mr. Saotome…" Ryoga barely whispered fearfully, "Is Ranma doing…what I think he's doing…"
Genma studied the technique his eyes grew wide with one thought. "Find some cover…now…!" he cried out.
The entire group (except for Akane) then started to back step from the fight, knowing that if Ranma were doing what they thought he was doing, this would be big.
'Almost there,' Ranma thought, as they neared the center of his spiral 'he seems angry enough, this should be…oh no…' he suddenly noticed how close Akane was to the fight. "Akane get away from here!" he ordered, "I don't want you caught in this!"
"I'm not going to leave you again, Ranma!" Akane argued. "I left you once, and I almost lost you, I'm not going to lose you again!"
"Great…" Ranma sighed 'Just what I needed, she still isn't over me getting killed…and I think this as a bad thing…' his self-argument was cut off as Jubi caught him by the neck.
"So" Jubi started, "You were trying for some kind of attack, were you, boy? Let me show you an attack." he growled as he shot Ranma with a chi blast point blank sending him flying back against a wall.
"RANMA!" Akane yelled running to his side. "Are you alright?"
"Akane…" Ranma whispered. "Go. Now."
"But…" Akane resisted.
"No buts. Go now, Akane!"
Akane looked back to Jubi, who was watching them joyfully, and then back to Ranma. "I'm not going to leave you to face this monster alone, no way!"
Ranma gently reaching for her cheek cut off her train of thought. "Akane… believe in me," he whispered touching her face with a shaky hand.
"Ranma…I…" Akane stuttered nervously.
"Go, Akane." Ranma whispered softly, "I'll be right behind you, ok?"
"But…" Akane started, "ok… just promise you'll be careful."
Ranma nodded, and Akane gave a faint smile before running toward the others.
"You finished talking to your friends?" Jubi yawned looking toward the young martial artist, before turning his attention to Akane running behind the others.
"This is between you and me now, Jubi." Ranma growled, "Let her go."
"As you wish." Jubi agreed emotionlessly, "Once I kill you, she will not be able to hide from me anyway."
"IF you kill me." Ranma corrected taking a fighting stance, "It's not going to happen."
"Your overconfidence is your weakness." Jubi sneered as he threw an energy blast at the boy.
"You're one to talk!" Ranma replied as he dodged the blast and sent another one in return.
Ranma got in close to the evil prince and the two began to exchange punches and kicks.
'Ok, lets try this again.' Ranma thought as he began to lead Jubi into a spiral.
As the two were almost to the center of the spiral, "why do you keep trying this?" Jubi asked, "I've seen a man lose his eyebrows and change his simple black hair into a long gold mane, what can this attack do?"
'Four more steps, and we'll be in the center of the spiral.' Ranma thought as he made the final few steps of his best technique.
"This ends now, boy!" Jubi yelled as he threw a powerful punch in Ranma's direction.
"You said it, man." Ranma smirked as he threw an uppercut punch at Jubi, "HIRYO SHOTEN HA!!!!"
The attack was created when the heat from Jubi's 'hot' battle aura and the cool from Ranma's 'cold' battle aura met and the massive contrast in a massive 'tornado' that enveloped half of Jubi's castle.
Meanwhile at the other end of the castle, the others were climbing into the speedboat, when the massive winds of the tornado hit.
"Ranma's in trouble!" Akane panicked and jumped out of the boat, "I'm going back to help him."
"Akane, no!" Genma yelled as she ran back into the castle.
"I'll go after her!" Ryoga blurted in confidence, getting up out of his seat but his injured ribs and Ukyo forced him back down.
"No, Ranma will take care of her." Ukyo said before looking down sadly, "He always does."
Ranma stood in the center of the tornado he and Jubi Created, it was as good as over, Jubi was obviously knocked out by the force of the Hiryo Shoten Ha and his castle was being torn apart by the attack. Ranma just had to stay put and wait for the winds to let up and escape. It's never that easy.
Ranma heard his name being called and turned to see Akane running right into the monstrous winds. "AKANE! NO! STAY BACK!" Ranma called but it was too late, the girl was already being picked up by the winds and flying through the air.
"AKANE!" Ranma yelled as he jumped into the nightmarish winds and tried his very best to get to the girl. When he finally got close he reached out to her, and she did the same for him. After what seemed like forever, their fingers finally touched and Ranma jerked her to him in held her tight to his chest, protecting her from all the sharp debris that floated around them, cutting into them.
"Ranma…" Akane sighed with fear in her voice.
"Akane! What were you thinking? Don't you know…" Ranma started but cut himself off when he seen Akane frightened, tear-streaked face.
"Ranma, are we… are we gonna…" Akane asked holding on to Ranma for dear life.
'There's no way out of this one.' Ranma though to himself, "No, Akane, you're going to be just fine," Ranma lied, "As long as I have a say in it, I won't let anything happen to you."
"Ranma…" Akane asked look up to meet his eyes, "What about you?"
"Listen, Akane," Ranma stated looking up into the mess of
wind and stone, "There's something I have to tell you. I… I know I'm a idiot
jerk, I know I'm always hard on you, but Akane Tendo, I… I… I l-love you."
Ranma then took a deep breath and looked down to see her response.
'Ranma loves me.' Repeated in Akane's mind as she forgot entirely about the situation they were in, 'Not Shampoo, not Ukyo, not Kodachi, not Nabiki or Kasumi, not anyone else, he loves me.' She thought, as her shocked look slowly changed to a happy smile.
"Ranma…I…" Akane started when she felt a hand grab her ankle, "RANMA!" She yelped as she was jerked away from the boy.
"AKANE!" Ranma yelled as he grabbed Akane's wrist for dear life. Looking on past her to see who had grabbed her, and noticing who it was he let out a faint growl, "Jubi…"
"SHE'S MINE, BOY!" Jubi yelled jerking hard on the girl's leg
"No!" Ranma yelled as he drew his arm back and used every ounce of energy in his body to form a Ki blast in his hand, "AKANE'S MINE, JUBI!" he cried out as he jerked on Akane to catapult himself into Jubi. He placed his glowing hand less then an inch from Jubi's face, "YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!" He yelled and released the blast, sending the three in different directions.
"RANMA!!" Akane cried out while futilely trying to reach out to him. "Ranma…no…not again…don't… leave…me…again…" She said growing quieter and quieter with each word as the winds and forces around her became to much for her, and she finally gave into unconsciousness.
Akane didn't know how long she was out, a few minutes, or a few hours, but the first thing she noticed was that she was cold and wet, and not in the air anymore. Her eyes slowly fluttered open only to see Ukyo, a giant panda, a duck, a cat, and her pet P-Chan looking down on her.
"You alright?" Genma-Panda's sign read as he looked down worriedly.
"Ranma?" Akane asked setting up a little to fast, "Where's Ranma?"
They all shook their heads sadly, "We're not sure." Ukyo said looking over the wide ocean, " We don't even know what happened to Jubi and his castle. All we know is everything started to glow white and we all took a jump toward the boat but most of us ended up hitting the water." She informed looked around smirking at all the cursed forms.
"I… I lost him again…" Akane whimpered sadly, as she placed her face in her hands to cry.
Genma placed a paw on her shoulder and gently rubbed in an attempt to comfort the saddened girl, as the others gave into their sadness at the loss of their friend and or rival. And not one of them noticed the small hand that reached up and gripped the edge of the boat, followed by another. Akane then looked up and turned to see where the castle once floated and instead of seeing open sea, a girl with her wet red bangs plastered to her face, panting and looking rather unhappy clinging to the back of the boat.
"RANMA!" Akane cried happily as she helped the girl into the boat, "YOU'RE ALIVE!"
"Didn't…you…people… hear…me… yelling…OVER THERE???" Ranma gasped trying to catch her breath while swinging her arm around pointing across the water.
His anger was suddenly changed to shock and then to bliss as Akane grabbed both sides of her face and pressed her lips to her's. Ranma didn't know what to do. Did Akane realize he wasn't a he right now? Was she knocked on her head and not acting herself? Did one of Shampoo's drugs somehow make their way into her system? "Akane…" Ranma said pulling away, "but I'm a girl right now…"
Akane just smiled and slid her arms around her neck, "no…you're just Ranma, and… I… I'm not letting you go again; I… I love you too much to." She whispered with a smile as she kissed her again.
P-Chan scrapped his little foot on the ground and was about to tackle Ranma when a pair of wings wrapped around him and held him firmly to the ground. 'If Ranma is with Akane, then Shampoo's MINE for the taking!' Mousse thought happily, as he held the screaming piglet to the floor of the boat.
Meanwhile Ukyo and Shampoo were about to jump Akane, when something massive landed on top of Ukyo and grabbed Shampoo by the scruff of the neck and held firmly. They both looked up at Genma Panda. Ukyo struggled and Shampoo hissed and swung her claws at the giant panda while he simply laughed happily and held a sign that said 'THE SCHOOLS WILL BE JOINED AT LAST!!'
A normal couple would have been distracted and embarrassed by the chaos that was happening around them, but Ranma and Akane had waited a very long time for this moment, and they didn't care what form Ranma was in, they didn't care what was happening around them, whether the other fiancées had seen them or not, whether the whole world was ending, none of it mattered anymore. Ranma and Akane were together, at last.
Later that night, at the Tendo Dojo…
Ranma slowly made his way toward the kitchen when he heard his father and Mr. Tendo talking. He knew exactly what they were talking about, and immediately got a sick feeling in his stomach.
"Alright, alright, but what if Ranma gets splashed with cold water during or before the wedding?" Soun asked looking over the many draft papers the two men had scattered over the dinning room table.
"Simple, my friend, Simple!" Genma said happily, "I sent Ranma's girl form's measurements to have a identical dress of Akane's made for him er her, that way if worse comes to worse they can match!"
"Brilliant!" Soun responded, "Now what do you think of this…"
Ranma couldn't help but shiver at the thought of wearing another dress, but shook it off and headed on to the kitchen.
A few moments later Ranma walked back upstairs with two sodas in hand, and walked into Akane's bedroom closing the door behind him.
"Here ya go." Ranma said handing his now girlfriend one of the sodas.
"Thanks." She said taking a sip, while watching Ranma sadly set down on her bed.
"What's wrong, Ranchan?" Akane asked making Ranma look up, blinking confusedly.
"Ranchan?" Ranma asked looking toward Akane's smiling face, "I've never heard you call me that before. I thought only Ukyo called me 'Ranchan'."
"I've called you that before too." Akane said taking a slurp from her drink, "just never to your face."
"Oh." Ranma sighed.
"What's wrong?" Akane asked again starting to get worried.
"They're doing it again." Ranma sighed shaking his head.
"I could have told you that one." Akane chuckled wrapping her arms around his neck, before pulling back sadly, "you mean… you… don't want to get married to me?"
"NO! No, that's not it, Akane!" Ranma said near panicking, "It's just… we've been through this before, and look what happened last time. I thought we would really be together the last time we went through their crazy wedding plan. Yea, it wasn't really their fault, it was Nabiki who invited the Fiancées, but still…" Ranma whispered sadly looking at the floor. "We were going to be together, then all hell broke lose and it was like nothing happened. I… just don't want to risk losing you like that again, Akane." Ranma confessed looking into her deep brown eyes sadly.
"Ranma…" Akane said seductively, before forcing him down on his back and laid down on top of her resting her hands and chin on his chest. "If you really want to get married, there is a way for us to do it without any of my family or your father or other 'fiancées' getting involved." She purred with a smirk that proved she was Nabiki's sister.
"Huh… you mean?" Ranma asked earning a knowing nod from his girlfriend. Ranma's confused look quickly turned to a smile as he bent down and kissed her on the lips.
The next morning…
"I wonder why Akane and Ranma hasn't come down for breakfast yet." Kasumi mused as she set before Nabiki, Soun and Genma.
"Kasumi, would you care to go get them," Soun asked, "They will have plenty of time to spend together after their wedding this weekend."
Kasumi nodded and got up and walked toward Akane's bedroom. A moment later her voice sounded loudly through the house, "FATHER, MR.SAOTOME! COME QUICK!"
Nabiki, Soun, and Genma all looked at each other then shot up the stairs. They dashed into Akane's bedroom and found only Kasumi holding a piece of paper and a wide smile on her face.
"Kasumi, What's wrong?" Soun asked as Kasumi nodded and handed him the note.
"They're such good friends." Kasumi said with a ditzy smile on her face.
"Huh?" the three asked in unison as they all red the letter.
"But…but… but… but…" Genma stuttered as Genma dropped to his knees in sobs. Nabiki grabbed the letter and raised her fist into the air, "I JUST MADE A FORTUNE!!!! HAHAHAHA PAY UP EVERYBODY!!!!!" She yelled as she ran out the door laughing evilly.
"They're such good friends." Kasumi said with a ditzy smile on her face before walking back downstairs to clean up the table.
Meanwhile, in another world…
The repairs on Jubi's castle was well on the way, and the evil prince set on his thrown fiddling with the metal mask that hid the scars on his face Ranma left him to remember him by.
"Sir." A servant said walking in to the throne room carrying a knocked out Happosai.
"Yes." Jubi responded unemotionally.
"What do you want us to do with him?" he asked holding out the dazed old man.
"Throw him in the dungeon, I don't care really." Jubi said waving his hand.
"Another thing, sir." He said as he handed the little old man to a guard.
"What else then?" Jubi sighed looking angrily at the servant.
"We've found another potential bride, sir."
"Who and where." Jubi asked growing a little more interested.
"She will be in the city called 'Indigo Plateau, and her name is…" the servant read from his notes, "Uh, her name is Misty Waterflower."
"Very good." Jubi said setting back in his throne, "We go after her when the repairs are finished."
THE END