SINS OF EDEN
Chapter 20
*****
"Whhooo, I haven't seen an ass that tight since, ever!"
Akane laughed as she supported Nui, valiantly managing while trying to
get a cab.
"Nui, you are so drunk."
"Yeah, I know. Tell me something I didn't know."
Akane finally managed to get a cab. She put Nui inside, directed the
driver to the location, and spent the next 15 minutes trying not to laugh
at Nui's drunken comments.
"...sOooo, then he puts his head into my critch and like..."
"Nui, you can tell me later, 'cause we're here."
Having paid and gotten out, Akane led the still very drunk Nui to her
hotel room. She would've taken her to her place, but it was way too late,
and would have been too expensive.
"Ok. Now, just sit down here," she said as she laid Nui on the bed,
"and try to get some rest. You'll have a hangover from Hades in the
morning."
"you'Re not the boSs OF me. I'll just stay HEre and like close my eyes..."
she sputtered, but in one moment, she positioned herself correctly,
and was snoring.
Akane sighed as she too got more confortable. She took off her shoes
and slipped into her sleeping clothes.
"...acks can be fun..." came a comment from Nui's mouth. For a moment,
she wondered what Nui was dreaming, but only for a moment.
Pulling out a seat, she tucked her legs up to her chest and looked
intently out the window, into the dark city. For some reason, she
felt...odd. Not bad but odd.
"I wonder," she sputtered before she felt sleep win her over. She closed her
eyes and fell into a very deep sleep.
*****
"Chijaru?" Ranma asked as he looked in the bedroom of his home. It had
turned out that no one had been at the theater. He'd have a small talk
with Shin later.
"You here?" he asked again. He looked around the house, but nothing
was to be found. He began to worry, since she never went out this late
without letting him know. He sat down on the couch, organizing his thoughts.
*Where is she?* he thought as he took some deep breathes. *She wouldn't
go out without telling me, even less than leaving her purse....*, and
in that moment, a sick thought came to mind. He stood up, and with a shock
of adrenaline so strong that he nearly put a hole in the floor from his
steps, he tore through the door and out to cliff edge.
"Chijaru!!" he called into the night. He could barely see past his hand,
so he went back inside and fetched a flashlight.
"Chijaru!" he called again as he shown the light into the night. He
could only see more dark, but there was a very distinct path going
down the gorges end. The kind made only by someone trying to hold
to anything.
"You're too late. If he got to her first, then she's already dead," a voice
from behind came.
Without even thinking, he got up and dashed at the figure in the dark,
reaching it as fast as a bolt of lightning.
"Where is she!?" he yelled at the figure as he held it up from the collar,
lifting it completely off it's feet.
The figure grabbed at Ranma's hands, vainly trying to release itself from
the powerful grip. "Please," it said painfully, "I'm only here to help you.
Don't hurt me."
With a few deep breathes, Ranma slowly put the figure down. He let the
adrenaline in his blood thin out, and he finally got a good look at
whatever he had assaulted. It was a very skinny man; in fact, he was
almost the spitting image of Gosunkugi way back from high school.
"Please," the man said nervously, "my name is Shingo. I want to to help
you."
"What? Help me with what?" Ranma said as he sat on the ground, a little
shaken up. "Who are you?"
Shingo audibly gulped, but spoke. "I met with Chijaru earlier today.
She came here to get you, and told me to come at this hour. But, if
you're as desperate, then I can only imagine the worst has happened
to her."
Ranma looked up at him, feeling a little scared. "Tell me, what do you mean?"
Shingo sat down in front of him. "I came here to tell you some info. I
believe I can lead you to what you're looking for."
"You mean, 'he who remains nameless'? How?"
Shingo sighed. "What I am about to tell you, will drastically change your
perspective. I uh, I used to work for him."
Ranma looked at Shingo incredulously. "Be serious."
"I am. Up until little over a week ago, at least."
"Who is it?" This was the question that had plagued him for the past
six years of his life.
Shingo gulped. "Shin Sorekara."
Ranma almost turned pale, but breathed in heavily and stood. "Take me to
him."
*****
The trip to Shin's office building, as Shingo had said, was much quicker
than you would've expected. Driving at over a hundred miles an hour was
quite the time saver.
"How long have you known about this and Shin?" asked Shingo, sitting
in the passanger seat.
"I didn't. I thought he was my friend," he responded bitterly. Those
were the first words he had uttered in a while.
Once they came up to Shin's building, which was in the very center of
the business district, Shingo began to sweat and act nervously.
"I don't think we..." Shingo started, but Ranma had already left the car
and was walking quickly to the front door. Seeing no other opportunity
to warn him, Shingo left after him.
Ranma walked furiously, and just before he stepped inside, he was stopped at
the front door by two men who made a mockery of the term, 'giant'.
"Mister Saotome, Master Shin wishes to see you in his office," the one
on the right said.
"Fine," he responded. He was a little releived that he didn't have to fight
off these two guys. They opened the door for him, let him pass, but both
grabbed Shingo when he tried to enter himself.
"Hey what are you doing!? Let me go!" he yelled, vainly struggling.
"Let him go," threatened Ranma in a low voice.
"Master Shin has plans for this man. Pay no attention; he will not be
harmed. Go now, Master Shin awaits." The left guy said. He then
pulled out a thing from his pocket adn blew it at Ranma's face. He
coughed, and closed his eyes to prevent whatever from getting into
them. When the dust subsided, and he opened his eyes again, he
found that he was in another room.
"Mister Saotome, through the door please," a femenine voice told him.
He looked at her and found it was a plain secretary, typing away
as if he wasn't there behind her desk. But, at almost Three in the
morning.
Preparing himself for anything, he opened the leather covered door
and stepped inside. It looked like any other office, save for the fact
that it was unusually large and had movie posters and what-not everywhere.
"Aaa, Ranma! I've been expecting you. Please, have a seat," said Shin as
he turned around in his big executive chair.
Never letting him out of his sight, Ranma slowly sat down in the chair in
front of Shin's large desk, checking for hidden traps.
"Oh please, this isn't a cartoon. No metal arms are going to bound you to
the chair," Shin explained. Ranma seemed to get even more tense, still
keeping the eye lock constant. "Good of you to be here. Brownie?"
"What did you do to Chijaru?" he asked, venom in his voice.
"Sheesh, and to thin I made these last night for just this occasion. They
are rather good mind you," he said as he ate one off the silver plate.
"Fine, I believe it is time for us to talk."
"Where is she!?" Ranma screamed as he leaped forward and grabbed Shin by
his collar.
"Temper now," he responded calmly as he grabbed one of Ranma's hands and
twisted it slowly. Ranma could not hold back the grunt of pain that
shot through him at Shin's inmensely powerfull grip. "Sit."
Ranma took his hand and rubbed it carefully. "Who are you? What are you?"
"Double question; infered, but hard to explain," he said as he stood and
wlaked towards the window. He stopped and stared at the night sky through
the glass. "Let me tell you then. But first, let us go to a more appropriate
location."
Shin turned around and snapped his fingers. Ranma could only describe what
he saw as if reality and everything around him was 'melting', right before
his eyes. He stood just as the chair he was sitting in also melted,
and before he could even wonder what was happening, all around him,
as far as he could see, was just darkness. Forever.
"Where are we?" he asked, and found it odd that no sound came out of his
mouth, yet he could feel as if he was yelling.
"My home," Shin said, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "Or should I say,
my former home."
Ranma kept his eyes fixated on Shin, ready to attack at the drop of
a pin.
"A great big space full of absolutely nothing," he said as he spread out
his arms. "Ah, the memories..."
And in that moment, Shin having his back turned, Ranma sprung immediately
towards him, readying a punch that could crack steel.
"Spare me," Shin said as he turned around. He lifted two fingers to his
forehead and a small speck of light came from their tips. Ranma stopped,
frozen in mid-air, feeling as if every muscle in his body had suddenly
gone numb. Shin then moved his fingers down and Ranma was smashed
to the 'floor', hard. He tried to get back up, but he found that he
was suffocating. He grabbed his throat and started to gag.
"You know, you really are stupid. You'd think that if I can conjure up
a place like this, you'd really try anything. Stupid."
Ranma lifted himself and assumed his position. "Who are you?"
Shin smiled. "You are not the only one entitled to know. Let's bring
the rest here."
"What?"
"Did you really think that only you play a role in my script? Really
now, that's offensive."
Shin snapped his fingers and turned. A small part of the blackness
began to 'melt' away, until a small room, or part of it came into
view, revealing a bed with a person sleeping on it, and a chair
with a woman sleeping with her legs tucked near her chest.
Akane...
"Akane? What are you..?"
"Shh... you'll wake them. Now..." Shin clapped his hands once and the
darkness began to come back, but the two figures remained, exactly
where they were.
Shin came near the sleeping woman and began to rub her forehead. "Time
to get up."
The woman stirred, streched and yawned. "What is it?" she asked, still
sleepy.
"Just the story-time I told you about. You don't want to miss it I think."
Nui nodded and stood up, exactly as if she were getting up from a bed.
After rubbing her eyes and some more stretching, she hugged Shin from
the waist and his arm went around her shoulders.
"Now to wake up the other..."
"Don't even think of touching her," Ranma said firmly. Shin looked at him
in awe.
"Not to worry. The only one who is physically here is you. Nui, as well
as Akane, are here as projections; in dreams in a sense. I can't harm
them, not that I wanted to to start."
Shin released Nui and walked to a 'floating' Akane, who was still deep in
slumber. "Just look at her. How often do you find such a splendid human?
You know, she is rather rare. You see, She is almost a perfect balance.
Anger and hate."
"What?" Ranma asked disdaned.
"Simple. You see, in the time she has known you, she has experienced anger
as well as love to a rather high degree, thus, she has formed what you
humans have often refered to as a yin-yang. Interesting, isn't it?"
Shin clapped again and Akans slowly began to wake up. For a moment,
she seemed blurry to Ranma's vision, but then she dis- and re-appeared
next to him.
"Ranma? What are you doing here?" she asked, now fully awake. She looked
around and saw Shin and Nui. "What's going on here, and where am I?"
Shin laughed. "The correct answer would have to be: Nowhere. Nothing.
The ultimate expression of perfection."
"Shin," Ranma said. "Who are you?" Akane looked at him in awe, trying to
figure out if this was a dream or really happening.
"Well, straight to the point. Now that we are all here, I'll begin. It
is a rather long story mind you."
Shin walked a little away from them and with his back turned, he began
to speak.
"Aeons ago, before anything was anything, I was part of the Elder's council."
"Elder's council?" said Akane.
"Yes. A group of us were here long before anything existed. You see, I had
some revolutionary ideas back then. A young visionary. Yep, that was me."
"But, what?" said Ranma, confused.
"Uhh, let me be a little more consice. You know of the existance of Kami-sama
right?" They both nodded. "Well, back in the day, there was no Kami, so
to speak. Every so often, one from the council would be chosen and assumed
the so called title. My ideas spoke of something so great, that the other
members were almost certain that I would be chosen."
"Who were the others?" asked Akane.
Shin laughed. "Law forbids me to speak names of such. Let's just call them
the law. Well anyway, they did not want me to be the next Kami, so together
they came together and threw me out, and into this," he said angrily
as he spread his arms and circled. "Because they could not tolerate
my changes in the laws of existance, I was cast to this nothing. Made
nothing."
"Wait, that doesn't make sense. Where did you come from?" asked Akane.
Shin smiled and walked towards her. Ranma pushed her back, standing in
between her and Shin. "Unlike you, I don't need a reason for existing.
I just do. I had no beggining, as much as I will have no end. I just
am."
Akane squeezed Ranma's arm, while Shin walked back to Nui. "For countless
time, I was here. Bored, angry, you name it. I tell you, leave a human
in here for a week and it'll go crazy. Record's 9 days."
Ranma stared at Shin. He was speaking like someone out of some bad movie.
No motive. "You suck at lying, you know."
"Lying? Me? Man, I am the only one on Earth teling the complete truth. Now,
let me continue. Here I remained, and by the way, here is the birthplace
of martial arts."
"Yeah right," said Ranma. "Martial arts were created in ancient Japan
by monks."
"Not entirely true. Haven't you ever wondered how such a perfect system
of defense suddenly sprung out of thin air? Or how about all known
variations?"
Ranma went silent.
"Miss Akane, it is true when I said I have been practicing since I was ten,
but that was quite some time ago. It was a rather monotenous existance,
so I had to entertain myself somehow. Let's continue; as I rotted
away here, a new Kami was chosen, one whom had the greatest idea to date.
To create a mortal. Something who's existance was limited. You can say
it was an experiment. The end result? Humanity."
"Experiment?" asked Ranma incredulously.
"It grew to something more, of course. Children of Kami, you could say.
Kami created a home for you, creating this universe, and giving you
a home, which you call Earth. Also, putting endless wonders for
your kind to study. It was enough to make me sick.
"In time, I was finally able to make my way out of this place, and I
came to the human world. At first, out of anger of course, I wanted
to destroy everything. And for a time, I did. I was a great calamity
on your people. But time passed, and I formed a new motive.
"You see, humans are the most disgusting things I have ever encountered.
All that you do is used to destroy what you have made. None of you are
satisfyed until you have destroyed something."
"That's not true," said Akane firmly.
"You should not talk, Miss Akane. Let me give you an example. Did you not
use whatever excuse you could find to destroy your relationship with
Ranma? Hmm?"
"I uh..." went Akane, not able to come back to that remark.
"Anyway, that's where you come in my friend."
Shin pointed at Ranma, who returned a gaze that could freeze anyone's blood.
End of Chapter 20
Author's Notes
Sorry everyone who's been waiting for this chapter. I know I took an
inordinate amount of time to get this out, but I've been up to my head
in work. What with the Pump it up contest next week, I had to come up
with a break dance for my routine. I'm doing Beauty and the Beast.
There's some really good prizes up for grabs, so that's been a time
eater. I'm finally out for the summer from college, so I'll have a
bit more time to write. One more thing, I've decided to end the story
in five more, somewhat long chapters, to get rid of the multiple
tiny chapters. Not to worry, they won't take too long to make.
'Till next time...
BlackDragon
Chapter 20
*****
"Whhooo, I haven't seen an ass that tight since, ever!"
Akane laughed as she supported Nui, valiantly managing while trying to
get a cab.
"Nui, you are so drunk."
"Yeah, I know. Tell me something I didn't know."
Akane finally managed to get a cab. She put Nui inside, directed the
driver to the location, and spent the next 15 minutes trying not to laugh
at Nui's drunken comments.
"...sOooo, then he puts his head into my critch and like..."
"Nui, you can tell me later, 'cause we're here."
Having paid and gotten out, Akane led the still very drunk Nui to her
hotel room. She would've taken her to her place, but it was way too late,
and would have been too expensive.
"Ok. Now, just sit down here," she said as she laid Nui on the bed,
"and try to get some rest. You'll have a hangover from Hades in the
morning."
"you'Re not the boSs OF me. I'll just stay HEre and like close my eyes..."
she sputtered, but in one moment, she positioned herself correctly,
and was snoring.
Akane sighed as she too got more confortable. She took off her shoes
and slipped into her sleeping clothes.
"...acks can be fun..." came a comment from Nui's mouth. For a moment,
she wondered what Nui was dreaming, but only for a moment.
Pulling out a seat, she tucked her legs up to her chest and looked
intently out the window, into the dark city. For some reason, she
felt...odd. Not bad but odd.
"I wonder," she sputtered before she felt sleep win her over. She closed her
eyes and fell into a very deep sleep.
*****
"Chijaru?" Ranma asked as he looked in the bedroom of his home. It had
turned out that no one had been at the theater. He'd have a small talk
with Shin later.
"You here?" he asked again. He looked around the house, but nothing
was to be found. He began to worry, since she never went out this late
without letting him know. He sat down on the couch, organizing his thoughts.
*Where is she?* he thought as he took some deep breathes. *She wouldn't
go out without telling me, even less than leaving her purse....*, and
in that moment, a sick thought came to mind. He stood up, and with a shock
of adrenaline so strong that he nearly put a hole in the floor from his
steps, he tore through the door and out to cliff edge.
"Chijaru!!" he called into the night. He could barely see past his hand,
so he went back inside and fetched a flashlight.
"Chijaru!" he called again as he shown the light into the night. He
could only see more dark, but there was a very distinct path going
down the gorges end. The kind made only by someone trying to hold
to anything.
"You're too late. If he got to her first, then she's already dead," a voice
from behind came.
Without even thinking, he got up and dashed at the figure in the dark,
reaching it as fast as a bolt of lightning.
"Where is she!?" he yelled at the figure as he held it up from the collar,
lifting it completely off it's feet.
The figure grabbed at Ranma's hands, vainly trying to release itself from
the powerful grip. "Please," it said painfully, "I'm only here to help you.
Don't hurt me."
With a few deep breathes, Ranma slowly put the figure down. He let the
adrenaline in his blood thin out, and he finally got a good look at
whatever he had assaulted. It was a very skinny man; in fact, he was
almost the spitting image of Gosunkugi way back from high school.
"Please," the man said nervously, "my name is Shingo. I want to to help
you."
"What? Help me with what?" Ranma said as he sat on the ground, a little
shaken up. "Who are you?"
Shingo audibly gulped, but spoke. "I met with Chijaru earlier today.
She came here to get you, and told me to come at this hour. But, if
you're as desperate, then I can only imagine the worst has happened
to her."
Ranma looked up at him, feeling a little scared. "Tell me, what do you mean?"
Shingo sat down in front of him. "I came here to tell you some info. I
believe I can lead you to what you're looking for."
"You mean, 'he who remains nameless'? How?"
Shingo sighed. "What I am about to tell you, will drastically change your
perspective. I uh, I used to work for him."
Ranma looked at Shingo incredulously. "Be serious."
"I am. Up until little over a week ago, at least."
"Who is it?" This was the question that had plagued him for the past
six years of his life.
Shingo gulped. "Shin Sorekara."
Ranma almost turned pale, but breathed in heavily and stood. "Take me to
him."
*****
The trip to Shin's office building, as Shingo had said, was much quicker
than you would've expected. Driving at over a hundred miles an hour was
quite the time saver.
"How long have you known about this and Shin?" asked Shingo, sitting
in the passanger seat.
"I didn't. I thought he was my friend," he responded bitterly. Those
were the first words he had uttered in a while.
Once they came up to Shin's building, which was in the very center of
the business district, Shingo began to sweat and act nervously.
"I don't think we..." Shingo started, but Ranma had already left the car
and was walking quickly to the front door. Seeing no other opportunity
to warn him, Shingo left after him.
Ranma walked furiously, and just before he stepped inside, he was stopped at
the front door by two men who made a mockery of the term, 'giant'.
"Mister Saotome, Master Shin wishes to see you in his office," the one
on the right said.
"Fine," he responded. He was a little releived that he didn't have to fight
off these two guys. They opened the door for him, let him pass, but both
grabbed Shingo when he tried to enter himself.
"Hey what are you doing!? Let me go!" he yelled, vainly struggling.
"Let him go," threatened Ranma in a low voice.
"Master Shin has plans for this man. Pay no attention; he will not be
harmed. Go now, Master Shin awaits." The left guy said. He then
pulled out a thing from his pocket adn blew it at Ranma's face. He
coughed, and closed his eyes to prevent whatever from getting into
them. When the dust subsided, and he opened his eyes again, he
found that he was in another room.
"Mister Saotome, through the door please," a femenine voice told him.
He looked at her and found it was a plain secretary, typing away
as if he wasn't there behind her desk. But, at almost Three in the
morning.
Preparing himself for anything, he opened the leather covered door
and stepped inside. It looked like any other office, save for the fact
that it was unusually large and had movie posters and what-not everywhere.
"Aaa, Ranma! I've been expecting you. Please, have a seat," said Shin as
he turned around in his big executive chair.
Never letting him out of his sight, Ranma slowly sat down in the chair in
front of Shin's large desk, checking for hidden traps.
"Oh please, this isn't a cartoon. No metal arms are going to bound you to
the chair," Shin explained. Ranma seemed to get even more tense, still
keeping the eye lock constant. "Good of you to be here. Brownie?"
"What did you do to Chijaru?" he asked, venom in his voice.
"Sheesh, and to thin I made these last night for just this occasion. They
are rather good mind you," he said as he ate one off the silver plate.
"Fine, I believe it is time for us to talk."
"Where is she!?" Ranma screamed as he leaped forward and grabbed Shin by
his collar.
"Temper now," he responded calmly as he grabbed one of Ranma's hands and
twisted it slowly. Ranma could not hold back the grunt of pain that
shot through him at Shin's inmensely powerfull grip. "Sit."
Ranma took his hand and rubbed it carefully. "Who are you? What are you?"
"Double question; infered, but hard to explain," he said as he stood and
wlaked towards the window. He stopped and stared at the night sky through
the glass. "Let me tell you then. But first, let us go to a more appropriate
location."
Shin turned around and snapped his fingers. Ranma could only describe what
he saw as if reality and everything around him was 'melting', right before
his eyes. He stood just as the chair he was sitting in also melted,
and before he could even wonder what was happening, all around him,
as far as he could see, was just darkness. Forever.
"Where are we?" he asked, and found it odd that no sound came out of his
mouth, yet he could feel as if he was yelling.
"My home," Shin said, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "Or should I say,
my former home."
Ranma kept his eyes fixated on Shin, ready to attack at the drop of
a pin.
"A great big space full of absolutely nothing," he said as he spread out
his arms. "Ah, the memories..."
And in that moment, Shin having his back turned, Ranma sprung immediately
towards him, readying a punch that could crack steel.
"Spare me," Shin said as he turned around. He lifted two fingers to his
forehead and a small speck of light came from their tips. Ranma stopped,
frozen in mid-air, feeling as if every muscle in his body had suddenly
gone numb. Shin then moved his fingers down and Ranma was smashed
to the 'floor', hard. He tried to get back up, but he found that he
was suffocating. He grabbed his throat and started to gag.
"You know, you really are stupid. You'd think that if I can conjure up
a place like this, you'd really try anything. Stupid."
Ranma lifted himself and assumed his position. "Who are you?"
Shin smiled. "You are not the only one entitled to know. Let's bring
the rest here."
"What?"
"Did you really think that only you play a role in my script? Really
now, that's offensive."
Shin snapped his fingers and turned. A small part of the blackness
began to 'melt' away, until a small room, or part of it came into
view, revealing a bed with a person sleeping on it, and a chair
with a woman sleeping with her legs tucked near her chest.
Akane...
"Akane? What are you..?"
"Shh... you'll wake them. Now..." Shin clapped his hands once and the
darkness began to come back, but the two figures remained, exactly
where they were.
Shin came near the sleeping woman and began to rub her forehead. "Time
to get up."
The woman stirred, streched and yawned. "What is it?" she asked, still
sleepy.
"Just the story-time I told you about. You don't want to miss it I think."
Nui nodded and stood up, exactly as if she were getting up from a bed.
After rubbing her eyes and some more stretching, she hugged Shin from
the waist and his arm went around her shoulders.
"Now to wake up the other..."
"Don't even think of touching her," Ranma said firmly. Shin looked at him
in awe.
"Not to worry. The only one who is physically here is you. Nui, as well
as Akane, are here as projections; in dreams in a sense. I can't harm
them, not that I wanted to to start."
Shin released Nui and walked to a 'floating' Akane, who was still deep in
slumber. "Just look at her. How often do you find such a splendid human?
You know, she is rather rare. You see, She is almost a perfect balance.
Anger and hate."
"What?" Ranma asked disdaned.
"Simple. You see, in the time she has known you, she has experienced anger
as well as love to a rather high degree, thus, she has formed what you
humans have often refered to as a yin-yang. Interesting, isn't it?"
Shin clapped again and Akans slowly began to wake up. For a moment,
she seemed blurry to Ranma's vision, but then she dis- and re-appeared
next to him.
"Ranma? What are you doing here?" she asked, now fully awake. She looked
around and saw Shin and Nui. "What's going on here, and where am I?"
Shin laughed. "The correct answer would have to be: Nowhere. Nothing.
The ultimate expression of perfection."
"Shin," Ranma said. "Who are you?" Akane looked at him in awe, trying to
figure out if this was a dream or really happening.
"Well, straight to the point. Now that we are all here, I'll begin. It
is a rather long story mind you."
Shin walked a little away from them and with his back turned, he began
to speak.
"Aeons ago, before anything was anything, I was part of the Elder's council."
"Elder's council?" said Akane.
"Yes. A group of us were here long before anything existed. You see, I had
some revolutionary ideas back then. A young visionary. Yep, that was me."
"But, what?" said Ranma, confused.
"Uhh, let me be a little more consice. You know of the existance of Kami-sama
right?" They both nodded. "Well, back in the day, there was no Kami, so
to speak. Every so often, one from the council would be chosen and assumed
the so called title. My ideas spoke of something so great, that the other
members were almost certain that I would be chosen."
"Who were the others?" asked Akane.
Shin laughed. "Law forbids me to speak names of such. Let's just call them
the law. Well anyway, they did not want me to be the next Kami, so together
they came together and threw me out, and into this," he said angrily
as he spread his arms and circled. "Because they could not tolerate
my changes in the laws of existance, I was cast to this nothing. Made
nothing."
"Wait, that doesn't make sense. Where did you come from?" asked Akane.
Shin smiled and walked towards her. Ranma pushed her back, standing in
between her and Shin. "Unlike you, I don't need a reason for existing.
I just do. I had no beggining, as much as I will have no end. I just
am."
Akane squeezed Ranma's arm, while Shin walked back to Nui. "For countless
time, I was here. Bored, angry, you name it. I tell you, leave a human
in here for a week and it'll go crazy. Record's 9 days."
Ranma stared at Shin. He was speaking like someone out of some bad movie.
No motive. "You suck at lying, you know."
"Lying? Me? Man, I am the only one on Earth teling the complete truth. Now,
let me continue. Here I remained, and by the way, here is the birthplace
of martial arts."
"Yeah right," said Ranma. "Martial arts were created in ancient Japan
by monks."
"Not entirely true. Haven't you ever wondered how such a perfect system
of defense suddenly sprung out of thin air? Or how about all known
variations?"
Ranma went silent.
"Miss Akane, it is true when I said I have been practicing since I was ten,
but that was quite some time ago. It was a rather monotenous existance,
so I had to entertain myself somehow. Let's continue; as I rotted
away here, a new Kami was chosen, one whom had the greatest idea to date.
To create a mortal. Something who's existance was limited. You can say
it was an experiment. The end result? Humanity."
"Experiment?" asked Ranma incredulously.
"It grew to something more, of course. Children of Kami, you could say.
Kami created a home for you, creating this universe, and giving you
a home, which you call Earth. Also, putting endless wonders for
your kind to study. It was enough to make me sick.
"In time, I was finally able to make my way out of this place, and I
came to the human world. At first, out of anger of course, I wanted
to destroy everything. And for a time, I did. I was a great calamity
on your people. But time passed, and I formed a new motive.
"You see, humans are the most disgusting things I have ever encountered.
All that you do is used to destroy what you have made. None of you are
satisfyed until you have destroyed something."
"That's not true," said Akane firmly.
"You should not talk, Miss Akane. Let me give you an example. Did you not
use whatever excuse you could find to destroy your relationship with
Ranma? Hmm?"
"I uh..." went Akane, not able to come back to that remark.
"Anyway, that's where you come in my friend."
Shin pointed at Ranma, who returned a gaze that could freeze anyone's blood.
End of Chapter 20
Author's Notes
Sorry everyone who's been waiting for this chapter. I know I took an
inordinate amount of time to get this out, but I've been up to my head
in work. What with the Pump it up contest next week, I had to come up
with a break dance for my routine. I'm doing Beauty and the Beast.
There's some really good prizes up for grabs, so that's been a time
eater. I'm finally out for the summer from college, so I'll have a
bit more time to write. One more thing, I've decided to end the story
in five more, somewhat long chapters, to get rid of the multiple
tiny chapters. Not to worry, they won't take too long to make.
'Till next time...
BlackDragon