A Drop of Blood
Half Moon: Crying Cubs
November 16, 2001
The wolf crouched low behind the shrubbery and bushes. The innocent rabbit sat unknowingly on the tree trunk. It's nose twitched slightly as it moved it's head this way and that. The wolf's silver eyes took in everything; every movement, every gesture, every signal. There was a deep satisfaction in the wolf's eyes, a satisfaction one only gets from knowing that one was about to win a game. The wolf lived for moments like these. The wolf moved.
One sound.
The rabbit looks up.
It's ready to flee.
Too late.
One jump and the rabbit lay dead on the wolf's mouth. The wolf nuzzled it's wet muzzle in the rabbit's warm blood. What could be better than this? This pure, utter warmth that spread through the creature and made it shiver. It was as though it had just drank a hot cup of cocoa after hours in the blizzard. Ooh, how utterly-
The wolf's head snapped up. A growl rumbled in it's throat. Though it's physical features did not show it, the wolf scowled in annoyance and frustration. It stood up tall and slowly it's form changed. Soon, a young girl stood there in a beautiful silver dress. Her deep, blue hair was messy and her face was dirty.
"Do you like to hide in shadows like a coward now, Ranma?" Akane asked, refusing to turn her head and look where he appeared.
Ranma walked out from behind the tree and scowled slightly himself.
"I'm not a coward!" he exclaimed.
Akane turned around and stuck her tongue out at him playfully. Ranma smiled. That was more like the Akane he knew. The restless, resentful, agitated way she's carried herself lately wasn't the wolf he knew. He walked up to her.
"I can take you anytime, cub," he proclaimed and quirked his chin up with a half-smile.
"Fine! Come on!" rumbled Akane with a glint of fight in her eyes as she started to crouch. To fight was in their blood.
"Wipe your mouth first. You still have blood," Ranma laughed. Akane's smile faded and she started to straighten. Her hand moved slowly to her mouth and wiped at the rabbit's blood. She moved it down to look at it.
"Of course. It wouldn't be very human of me to do otherwise, right? Only true wolves are allowed to keep the prize's blood on their face, huh? Makes sense to me," she said, half laughing, half crying.
The leader hated to see her this way. He was getting slightly angry himself.
"Aw, come on, Akane! You know I didn't mean it that way," protested the male wolf.
"Of course," the female wolf answered.
Angry now, Ranma grabbed her chin so that she had to look at him. He swiped his other hand across the rabbit and smeared it on her face.
"There! Happy?" he shouted.
Akane reached her own hand down to the rabbit and grabbed a large part of it. She smacked it across Ranma's face and he let her go.
"I'm not a cub! Don't treat me like one! Don't treat me like the cubs you train!" Akane yelled and it echoed in the empty forest.
"Of course not," the leader said scornfully as he kicked the rabbit's body and turned to walk away. "They act more mature than you do."
The only he received was a long, loud growl after him.
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Akane stomped her way back onto the main road. She knew she risked getting caught by someone driving by. A girl in a dress with blood smeared all over her face wasn't something you saw every day, but she didn't cared. She felt like being defiant today.
"Always leaving in a huffy. Don't you ever get tired of throwing your hissy-fits?" a drawling voice called after her. Akane rolled her eyes and stopped.
"I really am not in the mood for this, Ukyo," she warned.
"Oh, but you're always in this mood," the voice replied.
Akane flew around.
"Shut up! Just shut up for once, okay?" Akane yelled.
"Aw, is the poor-"
"Just what-what, what is your problem, Ukyo? Why don't you go attack Shampoo or somebody, huh? Why me? The others don't hate me that much and you're perfectly nice to everyone else!"
Ukyo had stopped her game and now her whole body practically shook with her hatred. She started to approach the other.
"You're my problem, 'kane. You and your whole I-hate-the-world-poor-me act. I don't know why Ranma and the rest of them buys it. Even that stupid Shampoo. But we're all finding out who you are now, aren't we?" Ukyo baited.
"What are you talking about?"
"The murders, Akane. I'm talking about the murders. We all know who did it, don't we?" Ukyo, herself, was moving in for the kill.
Akane wasn't one to back down.
"You can't accuse me of something like that straight forward, can you? The tribe will shun you for distrusting one of your own-"
"No!" Ukyo replied, her face a mere inches from the other's now. "No...they all think you did it too, but they won't say anything. They won't say anything because they known Ranma backs you and they would never go against Ranma."
"I don't need Ranma. I can stand on my own," the silver wolf argued.
Now, Ukyo was really angry.
"You really think you can use him all you want, don't you? You think he'll always be there for you. Well, let me tell you something, honey, he won't be. He'll-"
"This is about Ranma?" Akane started to back away. Her clouded eyes cleared and she gave a laugh. The hard, cold laugh that Ranma hated so.
"This is about RANMA?! And here I am thinking you simply hate me for myself! I thought you had gotten over that, Ukyo! Geez, I thought you an Shampoo had gotten over it."
"Shut up! Just shut up!" It was not Ukyo's turn to boil.
"Heh," Akane gave a pitiful laugh. "Let it go, Ukyo. Just let it go and move on." She turned around and started to walk away.
Ukyo gave a cry and jumped at Akane's back in her wolf form.
Akane had her down with a paw pressing into her eye before she realized she never was able to beat Akane.
"Don't be stupid, Ukyo. If you really think I'm the murderer, you should be more careful." Akane gave a slight push for emphasis before turning into her human form and walking away. Her eyes glinted silver.
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"Akane..."
The girl turned her head around in exasperation to stare at her sister.
"Is it beat on Akane day today?" she sighed. Nabiki gave a wry snort and crawled out onto the roof to sit next to Akane.
"Rough day, I presume?" the elegant one commented.
"Understatement of the year," came the reply.
"You can't let Ukyo get to you."
Akane looked quizzically at Nabiki.
"How did you know?" questioned the wolf.
"I'm the unofficial leader, Akane. It's my job to know. Besides, I'm your sister. Me and Kasumi know everything."
"Spooky," Akane said sarcastically.
"So, what's wrong, little sis? You weren't always this way," the middle child quizzed.
"And what way did I used to be, huh? Nabiki?" came the retort. The silver wolf wasn't ready to let anything go. This was going to be as difficult as possible.
Nabiki answered without hesitation.
"Happy. Content," she said. "You know, I even remember a time when you didn't hate our so oblivious leader's guts."
"Yeah, well," the blue-haired girl said as she stood up to breathe in the night. "That was before I realized just how important Ranma is to our little tribe."
Nabiki's eyes were smoky when she reached for Akane's hand.
"You didn't kill those people, did you, Akane?" she asked as though the question belonged in polite conversation.
"Heh...no, but would anyone believe me?" and with that Akane plopped back down and buried her head in her arms.
After a while, a long while, Nabiki spoke again.
"The mate tournament is coming up, you know. Ukyo and Shampoo as well as the others are training really hard. They all want Ranma. They all want the leader as their mate," she said slowly.
"Yeah, so? Why should I care?" was the muffled answer.
Nabiki didn't answer her question, but just said, "I'm going to be in the tournament to, Akane, and I'm going to fight for the leader. I can't make Kasumi do it and if you won't, I have to. I can't risk one of the other females to gain that much power."
"You don't have to explain yourself to me," Akane said.
"I'm not explaining myself. I'm just telling you so that you know your options. I'm not saying that the position of Queen doesn't appeal to me. Just...think it over."
Akane moved her head up and looked at her sister.
"There's nothing to think over."
Nabiki's mouth tightened and thinned. She got up and left.
Akane laid her head back down into her arms.
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That night another flesh was killed. It was a twenty-six year old woman who had been out jogging along the road by her country home. Her body would not be found until the next day when her daughter, out searching for her, found her body left in a ditch, the stomach ripped out. It appeared, and this was only whispered among the police for who could actually believe this was true, that someone had chewed out her insides and did it quite recklessly, in fact. It appeared as though the woman was used as a punching, or rather chewing, bag for whoever attacked her.
Then, after the event was publicized, an innocent phrase circulated among the children of the wolves. It was a cruel, cruel term to use and if Akane ever heard it, it would have broken her heart. The children did not know this though. They just knew that the phrase made them laugh and shiver and feel exhilarated.
The phrase was, "Be careful with the flesh or Akane will get you!"
On the morning that the police found the body of the dead woman, however, Akane was at the lunch table with Ryoga and his friends. It didn't matter to her that they were flesh. She was half-flesh, wasn't she? Besides, they didn't treat her as though she was a plague that they were forced to deal with.
It didn't bother her that Ranma was laughing it up with Ukyo and Shampoo a few yards a way.
Really. It didn't.
"Hey, what's the matter? You seem depressed," Yuka commented with a tentative smile.
Akane offered a weak smile in response.
"Rough day yesterday, that's all," she answered but couldn't help glancing over at where Ranma and his friends were. No one noticed but Ryoga.
"You know him, Akane?" he asked her, trying to make a joke out of it.
Akane looked back towards the group of kids at her own table. She appeared confused.
"Hm? Yeah, we sort of grew up together," Akane told him.
"Are you two-" Ryoga started but Akane cut him off, much too quickly, "Oh no! Of course not. He's barely a friend. I don't like him that way."
Ryoga gave a weak smile but inside he wondered how she knew what he was about to say before he even said it.
A stronger, more deeper part of him believed that she had been thinking along those lines before he even said anything.
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A tiny wolf, a child really, jumps around by a ravine, chasing the wind. The moon shines brightly on the gurgling river and for the baby wolf, all is perfect in the world. Out of nowhere jumps another wolf, lunging straight for the first wolf's neck. The baby wolf wrestles slightly before getting up and shaking herself.
"Is it me or do you suck?" the second wolf asked haughtily.
"Nyah! I'm the best wolf around, Ranma. You're just jealous," Akane answered back. Ranma gave a little wise grin. He knew better.
"Yeah, work on that jump of yours a little more and maybe you will be," he told her. Akane sighed and rolled her eyes. Just like Ranma. Always a lesson in everything he says.
Akane jumped onto a rock as she said, "I thought you were at a meeting with the elders."
"Changed my mom. Decided to come see what you were doing," Ranma said, following her wherever she jumped.
"It's not fair. Why do you get to go to the meetings? No other young wolf is allowed to," whined Akane.
"It's because they like how I jump," the boy wolf answered and got a paw swipe at him.
"Ah, I don't want to go to any stuffy meeting, anyway," the other wolf said innocently and ran off. Ranma stood awhile before chasing after her.
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The storm thundered outside when Nabiki opened the door to a distraught Ranma. Of course, you couldn't tell it from his physical features. His face and form showed nothing.
"Come on. Kasumi's upstairs," Nabiki told him, shaking with fright herself but keeping it under a tight leash. Ranma entered the house, dripping wet from head to toe and jumped up the stairs. He headed straight to Akane's bedroom. Not that it mattered that he knew where every room in this house was. It was pretty hard to miss the screams.
Inside Akane's room it was dark and the only light came from the moon through the window. Kasumi stood next to Akane's squirming body, wiping a cool cloth across her head and changing it every few seconds. When she saw Ranma and Nabiki entered, she practically wept with relief.
"How long has it been?" he asked both of them as he approached Akane's bed.
"We don't know," Nabiki answered. "It's probably a few hours. We called you as soon as we heard the screams."
Ranma gulped. The screams were pretty hard to miss. They escaped from the girl's mouth randomly, as though they had a life of their own.
"Kasumi, get the rope. Nabiki, get into your wolf form. We don't need to bait her as well."
The two obeyed him without question. First, because he was the leader and second, because this wasn't the first time this happened. Ranma just bent over Akane's tortured face so that his face of anguish could not be seen. It was sad, almost.
Tomorrow morning, Akane would wake up refreshed. She would not remember anything from the previous night and no one would tell her. Even the welts around her wrists and ankles that were caused by the rope would be gone. She would never suspect anything and neither would anyone else. It would be Kasumi, Nabiki and Ranma's secret and burden to bear. Their truth to be kept secret.
For despite what people believed...blood-lust was hereditary.