Ranma 1/2 & Guilty Gear X/XX
Sarrow and Hatred
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I own none of these characters, I am just a humble
writer with an idea.
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Book 3
Chapter 7
Ryouga took them to a building that was for all intensive purposes condemned. Even from the outside it looked as if the place was going to collapse any second. Inside looked even worse than the outside, just lay in thick blankets over the floor, and the inside was without any kind of furniture. It was as if the place had been cleared out in preparation for being knocked down. Light shined though windows that ran from the ceiling of one floor to the floor of the same floor. Every step kicked up dust, and what could have been asbestos, into the air.
"This place is... quaint," Ranma said as he covered his mouth to try not to breath anything bad in.
Ryouga smiled and shrugged, "It was available, don't worry, there is only dust. I made sure of that."
Uncovering his mouth, Ranma followed the other man further into the building. As they walked the windows became darker from being covered by peices of cloth. It seemed that Ryouga had covered these windows so he could sleep without light shinning in his face. There were cooking utinsels laying out and a small hole so the man could light a cooking fire. A sleeping roll was on the floor next to the pit and next to that was a pit.
"This place is where you sleep?" Dizzy asked, "Is this your home?"
The man looked at her seriously, "No, I have no home, because of my bad directional sense I cannot find any home I may have. I have been on the road all my life, I hardly see my family."
"That seems so sad," Dizzy said.
Ryouga blinked, "Um, okay, do you even know how to feel sad?"
Dizzy looked down, "I'm not sure, I don't know what sadness feels like."
Ranma put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "It's alright, you don't have to answer if you don't want."
The woman nodded, "I just want to know what emotions feel like, I feel emotions but I don't know how to describe them. Like when I'm near you I feel safe and warm, I don't know what this feeling is though."
Ranma rubbed his chin in contemplation, "I don't know what it could mean."
Ryouga chuckled, "You've never been good with emotions Ranma, this one's obvious even to me."
"Shut up, pig-boy," The man with the braided ponytail yelled, "you're the one who was two timing."
"I told you not to call me that!" Ryouga yelled back, "at least I wasn't stringing four chicks along for my own pride."
Ranma clenched his fist, "Low blow, Lost Boy."
"Because it's true," Ryouga dropped into a fighting stance, "you never loved her."
The other man clenched his fist hard enough that his fingernails drew blood from his palm. His body started to tremble in anger and his eyes were stuggling to keep focused. A low growl started to elicit from his throat until his aura burst for with emotional energy. The dust around his feet started to swirl around as his aura grew around him. With a scream he threw his hands out and a ball of energy shot out from his palms. Ryouga grinned and put his arms up to black the energy, his feet moved a few inches back but other than that he did not seem affected. Ranma was standing in front of him with his bleeding palms still extended outward, head down.
"I loved Akane more than life itself," Ranma's voice was soft and hoarse, "how could you say that? It was my fault she died! It was my fault they all died! You at least tried to protect them without hesitation while I stood and did nothing! Damn it."
The man hunched forward, Ryouga stood straight and walked over to him, "So you've let your emotions take control. Is that why you are so weak? That is pathetic, I understand the pain Ranma, I lost friends and family also. But I fight still because I know that my purpose is not done. While I grow stronger you turn into a sniveling coward."
Looking up Ranma looked less angry and more depressed, "You're right. I have become a coward, I've tried to run away from my life and my nightmares. I tried to run away when the only way is to fight, I need to fight the demons that plague me."
Ryouga grinned putting his hand out, "Yes, we both have demons to fight. As a team."
Ranma stood straight and firmly gripped the man's hand, "As a team, we will get over the war. We will live our life despite the hardship."
Smiling, Ryouga let go of Ranma's hand and addressed the man, "You should rest, I know you heal fast but that doesn't mean you don't have limits."
Nodding, Ranma went to sit down near Ryouga's site and take the weight off his legs. They were already feeling better than they had been, but they were not onehudred percent. Now that he was resting he could feel how much is muscles acted from fatigue. The constant fighting had put his body through a lot of stress and right now his body was rebelling agianst any movement. Resting like he was now, he realized that he was beginning to get hungry.
"I'm going to get some food," Ryouga said as if he had develope the talent of precognistion, "you two wait here. If someone if after you this would be the most likely time to attack, it's safer to stay in here."
Nodding Ranma grinned, "Hey, be careful, I've met these guys and they don't play around."
Ryouga nodded and walked off, leaving Dizzy and Ranma alone in the otherwise abandoned building. The two of them looked at eachother for a while before Dizzy walked over and sat on her knees next to the man. The blue haired woman smiled at Ranma shyly and put a hand on one arm, scratching idly. Her tail wraped around came to a rest in front of her. Ranma just stared at the woman with an air of interest, curious about what she had on her mind.
"You never did answer me," Dizzy said, "I asked what you thought those feelings meant."
Looking a little embarassed at the cause of the distaction when she brought the subject up, Ranma scratched the back of his neck nervously, "The truth is I don't know. There is no way to say what an emotion definetly is, it's just a feeling."
"So if I feel safe around you it could be friendship or it could be love?" Dizzy asked innocently.
The man, not being use to such a direct approached to a question, blanched slightly, "I don't know about that. Damn you're making me uncomfortable."
The woman giggled at his reaction, "Are you afraid of that word?"
Ranma's eyes suddenly turned cold with irritation, "It's less the word and more the concept, remember my past."
The woman became serious at the mention of the man's past, that he had been hurt so deeply by the war was no laughing matter. The simple truth was that she had forgoten how horrible his life had been during that time. She had been so happy lately that she had not thought about the consequences of her words. She was desperately searching for a way to rectify the situation. Unfortunetly no answer came, and the harder she thought about it the more stumped she was. There was no way to know if her next words would make him happy again or make him even angrier. The man seemed to sense her delimma and took the look on her face to mean that he needed to let her know it was okay.
"Dizzy, I- What," He had sensed the giant spike in energy and lept to cover the woman just as the wall exploded inward.
Standing in the rubble of the wall was a machine that towered over both the man and the woman. Its tail swung back and forth and its long hair moved with the blowing wind. The figure was not known to the woman but the man knew who it was all too well.
"Justice," Ranma flew into action in less than a second, "I will kill you!"
The man launched a jumpkick at the Gear that was blocked with little effort on its part. Landing, the man blocked the counter attack from Gear and jumped back, only to be met by a tail poking up from the ground. Ranma did a backward handspring to avoid the apendage before lauching a medium sized ball of energy at Justice. He quickly followed the ball in and just as the ball of energy hit he let loose with his Kashu Tenshin Amaguriken. The hundreds of punches within one second hit the monster just as the ball of energy struck. The combination of attacks sent the Gear reeling back.
"YOU ARE ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE ONE THAT ORIGINALLY DEFEATED ME," the Gear spoke with a metalic voice, like it was filtered through a computer, "BUT YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME."
Ranma smirked at the first Gear, "Ha, come on, show me what you got."
The Gear made a sound that sounded almost like a laugh, "IT IS NOT YOU I CAME FOR."
With those words he turned to Dizzy who was getting to her feet after being knocked down by Ranma. The giant energy cannons on Justice's shoulders began to glow and then a white beam shot out at the woman. With a curse, Ranma jumped and landed in front of the woman, holding her with his back to the beam. The full force hit him just a second later and he screamed in pain as the beam seared his back. He could not tell if the voice that was screaming was his own or the voice of the woman he was holding. It could have been both, the pain was so intense that he felt his vision wavering. It was only for a short time but it felt like the energy beam had lasted hours.
Falling to his knees, Ranma grit his teeth in anger at his stupidity. He had not seen that, though he should have known that he was not the one who was in danger. Getting back to his feet and summoning his full aura, Ranma let a deep growl elicit from his throat. He would have to unleash his potential, there had to be some way to get past this machines defenses. If he could only disable it long enough that they could run away he could get the woman to a safe place. As it was he was out of luck, most of the moves he knew would not work with this machine.
The hoplessness within him only made him feel angry, and the anger he felt now compounded on top of the anger he felt at Justice for even being there made his blue aura take on a red tinge. The overall effect was an almost purple ring around the man. The Ranma felt something he had never felt before, a burning sensation on his forhead as his energy increased. He felt like fire was burning behind his skull and he knew that it was from the anger he felt.
"SO YOU HAVE THE MARK OF A GEAR," Justice said, "IT MAKES SENSE, YOU ARE POWERFUL, LET US TRY A NEW GAME."
Ranma suddenly heared a wisper in the back of his head, it seemed to be taunting him. Tell him to join the Gears in their fight, to help them rise up and destroy the humans. Ranma paused as if unsure how to react to this phenomena. He felt his mind starting to give into the voices before he realized what was happening. With a yell he burst forward and started attacking the monster known as Justice.
"I will not be controlled!" Ranma yelled as he let loose with a spinning round-house kick to the head of the Gear.
The furocity of the kick was such that it caused Justice to spin around as it fell. It was not down for very long though, Ranma was ready to attack again when heard a voice scream out an attack. He saw a green ball of energy slam into Justice followed by Ryouga falling out of the air towards the Gear. The kick that the man aimed at Justice was blocked but it gave Ranma enough time to catch his breath, so to speak.
"There is only one last move," Ranma said quietly, "but it will require a sacrifice that I'm not sure I should make," raising his voice Ranma yelled out to his friend, "Ryouga, take Dizzy and run, as fast as you can. I'm going to need to fight all out and I can't worry about her if I want to do this."
The man jumped away and looked at Ranma questioningly, "What are you talking about?"
Ranma closed his eyes, "Just take her and go, NOW!"
Nodding the man ran off as Ranma started glowing with an aura that was ominously huge. Without hesitation, Ryouga grabbed the blue haired woman and started running in a direction that would take her away from the scene of the fight. He had no idea what was being planned but he knew that if Ranma wanted Dizzy to get away it had to be big. He only hopped that his old friend knew what he was doing.
Ranma had started powering up even before he had finished talking to Ryouga. He did not know if this move was worth the price he would pay but he knew that stopping Justice was the most important thing. If a Gear like him was allowed to wonder the earth free, the devistation would be even worse than the first time he had commanded the Gears. With hardly any military left that could fight the synthetic creatures, they would roll over the humans like a steamroller of a carton of jello. This was just a last ditch effort that would take care of that problem, hopefully once and for all.
"I will not fail," Ranma wispered to himself, "I won't let you destroy any more lives."
The man could sense that his friends were far enough away that he could safely use the move he thought of. It was now or never, he had hoped it would be never but he had no choice. With every ounce of his will he summoned all his energy to let it grow inside him. There was no way he could control the energy he was producing right now, it would continue to grow. He was like a human timebomb waiting to explode, and he would explode right in this vile creatures face. As he felt the energy reach its peak within him, he ran right towards Justice and grabbed onto him.
"I'll see you in hell!" The man yelled as everything became white around him.
From far away, Ryouga stopped and turned to look back as he felt the dispersion of energy. What he saw both awed him and horrified him at the same time. He had seen the end of the white flash, and now was witness to a mushroom cloud rolling up from the ground. There was not way to know what had just happened but he had a strong thinking that he would not like it. Looking at the woman in his arms he saw a horrified look on her face as she stared at the explosion. He made out what he could swear were tears in the girls face, which he view as impossible, Gears were not supposed to show emotion. Had Ranma been right all along, was she so human that she could show her feelings? Could she feel pain, or fear? Love? Hate?
"He's gone," Ryouga looked down as the woman stared sadly at the now disipating cloud, "both of them are gone."
The man looked from the woman back to where they had been running from, "Damn! That bastard, that selfish, good for nothing, bastard!"
The two of them did not move from the spot for a while, in the back of their minds they hoped that he survived. For all their hope they knew he was gone, nobody could survive that kind of attack. He had used every last bit of energy to kill Justice, and it had worked, but at such a great price.
It was not until they had witnessed the explosion die off and the area calm down once again that they left. Ryouga was angry at Ranma for doing such an irresponsible thing. He was not thinking so much about himself as the woman next to him. Her mood had changed drastically since she had witnessed Ranma's end. In a way he understood, though he was not sure why she was as sad as she was. Ryouga was starting to suspect that this Gear had held more than just friendship towards Ranma. There was a strong sense of something whenever they were close. Perhaps he was just having trouble admitting what that something was, or he just could not think of it, either way it troubled him.
"Dizzy," he spoke finally as they walked, "did you feel... attracted to Ranma?"
The woman did not turn towards him, she just kept looking down at the ground in font of her feet. Ryouga was not sure she would answer at all in truth. It seemed that she heard him, but did not want to answer him. The reason for this trepidation could only be known by her, but Ryouga was starting to get the feeling he knew why she was so depressed about Ranma dying.
"You were," Ryouga said in a sad tone, "that's what that warmth you felt was. I'm sorry, there is no way to bring him back, but he would want you to stay strong."
The woman look up finally, her red eyes looking straight into his green ones, "I know, but it was not his turn. It can't have been his time to die. He said he would protect me."
Ryouga looked akward, "I know, and I'm sure in his own way he is, but you have to understand that death comes for everyone."
"No! I will not accept that," the blue haired woman was practically in tears, "he was supposed to live."
The man said nothing in reply, just tried the best he could to comfort the distraught woman. He felt akward as she cried on his shoulder, almost like he was cheating on his best fried, but he could think of nothing else to do. The woman eventually spent her sadness and fell asleep in Ryouga's arms, leaving him in an akward position. Slowly he set her down, leaning her against a tree, then took out a sleeping roll and a blanket from the backpack he had brought with him to get food. He laid the sleeping roll out, put the woman on it, then covered her with a blanket. Sitting down in the crosslegged position, Ryouga watched the woman sleep, unsure of what he was supposed to do with her.
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End of Chapter 7. I noticed something that I did not when I first started this story. The timelines are a little screwy. It's not too big of a deal, and it seems that most of the people reading this have not noticed this screw up. I am glad for this, by the way, does anyone know a place where I could possibly get the age of the GGX characters? I am taking wild guesses at most of the ages in the story. The game book is no help at all, if you have seen it you know what I mean.
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Hatred and Sarrow
Chapter 8
He felt pain, it was no new sensation, but the fact that he had caused the pain himself was very new. There was the feel of stone underneath him, he was laying face down in a pile of rubble. There was broken glass around him and giant boulders of concrete were strewn about the area. As far as destruction went this war probably his greatest achievement yet. With a tired groan he pushed himself up to his knees and caughed as he breathed in some dust that had yet to settle. He was cut in many places and his hair was matted with an ugly mixture of sweat, dust, and his own blood. His forehead was no longer hot, he still had trouble believing it was even true. He was a Gear, no that was not totally true, half Gear. He would have been controlled by Justice if he was a full Gear.
Putting his right hand to his forehead, he felt the place that had been burning just minutes before. It was cool, normal body temperature, like it had never been there in the first place. Staggering over to a boulder he sat down on it heavilly and grunted as he jostled his body in a painful way. Most of the wounds that had been inflicted on him were already healed. The bigger ones were visibly closing right before his eyes. Caughing again, he gathered his strength and started to stumble away from the site of destruction. It was irritating to him that all that energy had been wasted for nothing.
In truth, he had not counted on Justices teleporting ability, if he had known that the Gear would just dissappear he would have saved his strength. Now he was weakend, and almost positive that the others thought him dead. His power was barely registering on his own scale, it was doubtful that anyone else could even feel his life force.
As he crunched through the debris of the shattered building, he hoped that he did not make Dizzy worry too much. He wondered if she even worried about him at all, sure they were friends, but she seemed a little distant at times. Maybe that was just because she was unsure of how to act around him. Then something caught his eye, a tattered yellow ribbon caught on some debris on the ground. It danced in front of his eye, the wind moving it back and forth, as if tempting him. Bending down he slowly grabbed the ribbon and studdied it. The color and texture were very familiar, the only person he knew that wore this color was Dizzy. Pocketing the ribbon he stood again and made his way in the direction he thought the two had run.
"Wow, what happened here?" A voice sounded suddenly.
Turning in surprise, he saw the same Chinese woman he had faught during their stop in China. The woman had her hair done up in a circle that met at the top of her head, she wore a red dress and white boots. Her brown eyes regarded the mess with wonder as she scanned the bolders and broken glass. Her eyes eventually came to rest on him as he stared back at her, she ran over to him.
"Hey, do you know what happened?" She asked.
He groaned and tried to steady himself as he wobbled, "Yeah, I tried to kill Justice."
The woman seemed to fix him with a look that implied he was crazy, "Justice was already killed."
The man shook his head to show a negative response to her statement, "No," he was still hurting pretty bad, sitting down again he continued, "if what you say is true then someone made another one. Either way it was Justice, and I failed to stop him. I didn't know he could teleport."
The woman blinked as she looked down at him, "Wow, you really were set on killing him. You need help?"
The man nodded, "Yes, if I were younger I would say no, but that would be stupid here. Hey, what's your name?"
The Chinese woman helped him stand, "Jam Kuradoberi."
There was a pause as the man let out a short chuckle, "Sorry, my name is Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."
Jam smiled, "No problem, I was just trying to find a Gear that was reported near here. There was supposed to be a bounty on this Gear's head. I know I'm close if there is this much destruction."
Ranma nodded, "Well you could say you found the result of a Gear fight. I have no idea where your Gear has gone though."
The woman helped support him as he began to walk, "I hoped to get the money to rebuild my restraunt."
The man nodded, "I see."
As the two of them walked, they talked about random things that had happened to them. It was obviously hard for the woman to walk, talk, and carry him at the same time. She was strong, it was not as if she was uncute either, but Ranma found his mind kept wondering back to the blue haired Gear he had been assigned to protect. He knew he had failed her, if he had not gotten so caught up in his petty revenge they would still be together. As it was he had left Ryouga in charge of looking after her, and while he did not doubt his skills, Ranma was more worried about the man's constitution.
"Do you know where we're going?" Jam asked.
Ranma looked at her tiredly, "I can only assume at this point, I have to try to meet some friends of mine. I felt them go this way before I blacked out. Right now I'm so weak I can't even feel a fly on my nose."
The woman giggled, "I'm sure you will be fine, you told me earlier that you heal fast."
"That is true, but I don't know what the limit is," Ranma admited, "the fact that the limit is unknown to me is what scares me."
"Ah, I see," Jam said, "So how much time did your friends have before the attack was let off.
Ranma looked at the woman in surprise, she had known it was an attack, but she thought of a typical Gear doing it, "I don't know, about ten minutes. Knowing my friend that's about two and a half, three miles."
"That far in so little time, he must be strong," Jam said with an almost far away voice.
Smiling, Ranma nodded, "Strong is an understatement in his case, I really think he's not totally human."
"Like half-Gear?"
"No, it's would have to be something more complicated then that," Ranma responded.
By the time two hours had passed the day had given way to dusk, the sun was hidding behind the horizon and leaving an orange glow across the sky. The only thing blocking the orange was the trees that gave off the appearance of hands reaching down from the sky. The two travelers heared crackling of fire nearbye, almost on the other side of the trees. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw a woman with blue hair sleeping next to a fire. Before Ranma could do anything, Jam jumped into the small clearing.
She found her kick, which had been aimed at the girls head, stopped by a strong arm. The woman screamed as she saw the man the arm belonged to. Ryouga was caught off gaurd as the woman brought her other leg up and kicked him in the chin. He stumbled slightly, more from behing unprepared than the actual power of the kick.
"Why you," Ryouga growled.
While Ryouga tried to recover from the kick, Jam pressed her advantage. The man she was fighting was astounded by the speed this woman was displaying. She rivaled Ranma whith the technique and speed, though her power was a little lacking. The woman suddenly seemed to realize something and she stopped and threw off the dress she was wearing to reveal her fighting uniform. Ryouga stared blatantly before fell backwards with blood shooting from his nose. Jam stared at his comatose form with a questioning expresion before shrugging and heading back towards the woman who was still sleeping by the fire. Just as she got near the Gear woman, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Thinking it was the same attacker, she tried to flip him over her shoulder. The move was countered easily though and the woman was roughly pulled back.
"So it was Dizzy you were going after," it had been Ranma trying to stop her the second time.
Jam got into her fighting stance, "I just want the money, I need it for my business. I don't want to hurt you."
Ranma slid into a defensive stance and shot a cocky grin at the woman, "Well you're going to have to hurt me."
Jam stood and stared at the man as he looked at her with determination. She knew he was not up to fighting her right now, but he was still trying to protect this woman. She considered the possiblity that he was in it for the money also and found it unlikely. The way he had stood in the way was not the way a simple motive like money would warrant. It was almost as if he actually felt for this woman, like she was his friend. The whole concept was rediculous, nobody had ever made friends with a Gear. Sure there were aquantences but she had never heard of friends.
"How can you stand up for her?" Jam asked incredulously, "You can barely stand right now and yet you protect her."
Ranma did not answer right away, but when he did the answer was long, "I protect her because she has seen too much pain, she is not some animal to be hunted. Humans and Gears should be able to coexist despite their differences. Throughout history there has been cases of bigotry. Blacks and whites at war, man haters, woman haters, Nazis. They have existed for so long that it seems normal. It's not normal though! How the hell could it be normal? How is hating a Gear different from hating the blacks, or the Jews? It's not! People don't understand... they don't understand because they are afraid.
"How much fear do you think I've seen, I'm twenty-two and I've lived through the near extinction of my race. I saw my family die because someone was afraid, or hated one race. I have so much blood on my hands, both human and Gear, that I'm not sure if I can even call myself a person. Through all this though I've learned that hating one race just out of fear, or because the look different is no way to live!"
Ranma was shaking with pent up anger by now, even after his monologe ended he felt anger at this woman. It was the same anger he felt when he saw his race die, it was anger over blind bigotry. Sure he had treated women different, but he had never used any kind of derogatory word on anyone.
Jam looked at the man with wide eyes, "I never thought to take her feelings into account. I'm sorry."
The man closed his eyes for a second to try to compose himself, "I'm the one who should be sorry, there's no way to know she felt this way. I only know because I've spent time with her."
The woman dropped her hands to her side and stood straight, "I guess I've been selfish, I'll find some other way to get the money to build my restraunt."
As the woman turned to leave, Ranma walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder, making her turn her head to look back at him, "You could stay with us a little longer. If you would like that is, you seem like a nice person."
The woman turned around to face Ranma fully, "I don't know, I really need to get some money to rebuild my restraunt."
"I'm sure we'll take care of that along the way," Ranma seemed unmoving in his request for her to come with them.
Jam nodded, "Alright, just as long as you keep that perverts away from me," she pointed to Ryouga who was wiping his nose as he returned to his feet.
"Hey, listen you insane..." Ryouga was cut off as a foot belonging to an angry Chinese woman stopped just inches from his crotch, "yet nice, and even tempered, can't forget even tempered, woman." the man started laughing nervously as he backed away from the Chinese woman.
Ranma chuckled, "Hey Ryouga, sorry about giving you a scare. That move took a lot out of me."
Ryouga became serious, "It's not me you should apologize to, that person is sleeping right behind you."
Looking behind himself, Ranma was about to walk over to her before he realized he was still pretty dirty. He asked Ryouga for some water to at least rinse some of the dust and blood off himself before he woke the girl up. He figured it would help her to know he was okay if there was not blood smeard all over his body. Once he washed up he went and knelt down next to the girl. He hesitated only because he was unsure of just how he was going to wake her up.
"Hey," Ranma settled for trying to wisper in her ear, "Dizzy, it's me."
Instead of her waking up right away, the man recieved a sleepy hug from the blue haired girl, "Hmm? Ranma?"
Chuckling the man returned the embrace, "Glad to see you too, sorry for making you worry."
The girl opened her eyes and when she saw the sight that greeted her she hugged the man even tighter. Smiling, Ranma returned the embrace. It had not been a long time since they had seen eachother, but to both of them it had been difficult to deal with the loss of companionship. Ranma realized that Dizzy was crying as he felt the warm tears soak through her shirt. Slowly he parted the hair that covered her eyes, looking into their redness. The girl was staring at him as if she did not dare to believe he was really there.
"I missed you so much Ranma," the girl said, "we thought you died in that explosion. How could you make me worry like that?"
Ranma smiled, it was hard to believe just how innocent this girl really was, "I'm sorry, I was just trying to save you."
"Well please don't do that again," the girl burried her face in his chest, "I don't know if I could take losing you."
The man looked down in surprise at the girl, it was true that his feelings for her had been creeping too much past friendship. At first he had rebelled against the feeling. Dizzy was just a Gear after all, he hated Gears, he had sworn an oath to destroy all of them. The more time he had spent in her presence the more his resolution towards that oath had been crumbling. He had said the words to Jam in anger but found that the truth behind them was undeniable. How could he condemn people just for how they were born.
"Dizzy, you won't lose me," Ranma grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "I've been careless because I felt there was nothing to live for."
"So you have something to live for now?"
The man smiled at her and gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze, "You could say that."
The two embraced, feeling comfort from the heat of eachothers body as they got closer. Ranma wiped the drying tears from the girls face. Then he remembered something and reached in his pocket to pull out the yellow ribbon he had found. It was tattered and ripped, but the girl took it anyway. She had not realized she lost the strip of cloth until now, and the fact that Ranma had even picked it up was worth more than any words he could say.
"I thought you might want this, it's not in the best shape but..." he was cut off as the girl suddenly kissed him passionately.
As the kiss broke, Dizzy looked slightly embarassed, "Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I've never felt this way before."
Ranma for his part was stunned, he had felt warmth flow through his body as their lips met. He could not believe he was letting this happen. When Akane had died he had thought she was the last one he would ever love. Now this girl was turning his world upside down, and without him even knowing what was happening.
"I never thought anyone could make me feel this way again," Ranma closed his eyes and dropped his hands to his side, "I'm sorry, this is just too fast. I like you, it's just that I'm not sure if I'm ready to start another relationship."
The man looked as if it pained him to even admit the fact to himself. Most of the time she had seen him, Ranma had either been confident or depressed. His mood right now was neither of those, it was almost regret that he could not return her feelings. Not that he did not have the same feelings, but more that he was just not ready to let those emotions show.
Looking to the side, the girl seemed like she had been hurt by his declaration, "I understand, you still haven't gotten over you're first relationship."
"It's nothing personal," Ranma looked uncomfortable, "I really do like you. I just don't think their has been enough time for me to recover."
Ranma embraced the girl one last time, to show that he really did care for her. It was hard not to feel guilty over his actions, if she really did love him then he would have just broken her heart. It was hard for him to deal with the fact that she loved him in the first place, but to hurt her like that was something he had never wanted to do. Emotional pain was always the worst because there was not way to protect yourself until you had already been hurt by it.
"Hey Ranma," Ryouga spoke up from his spot ten feet behind the man, "wasn't Justice destroyed in the original war."
The man with the braided ponytail turned to look at Ryouga, "Yes, I think someone remade him, for what purpose I don't know."
"Yes, he was destroyed," Jam chimed in, "who would want to rebuild such a horrible monster?"
"That is what I was wondering," it was the police officer who had warned them ealier that walked out of the woods into the clear, "I see by the wreckage furthur back that you have already met Justice. I hope everyone is okay, after I saw you dispatch Sol I had to help him before fallowing you."
"Ky," Jam was sounding like a school girl with a crush, "I'm so glad you could make it."
The blond haired police officer blinked in surprise, "Glad? Jam, I mean no disrespect, but you should not be glad that I'm here. There are two people here whose lives are in jeopordy."
"Why?" Ryouga asked.
Ky brushed the hair out of his eyes and breathed out long and hard, "There are two Gears here now that would be great assets to the enemy."
"Two Gears, where's the other one?" Ryouga asked suspiciously.
Ranma sighed in defeat, he had wanted to keep it a secret but it looks like that was out of the question, "I'm the other one, of course I just found out a little while ago when I was fighting Justice. I don't know how it happened, so don't ask me."
The news came as a shock to all present, they knew that Ranma was powerful but they had no idea he was another half-Gear. The only one it did not phase was Ky, who had expected the declaration even before he said anything. He was not happy he had to trust a Gear in the first place but he could see no way out of the situation. These two needed his help, and he was an officer of the law, even if he had faught against the Gears in the war and had become the leader of the Holy Knights he had to protect these two.
"Yes, you two are the ones I refer to," Ky said as he walked toward the fire and looked into it.
The night was slowly setting in and the wind had picked up, making the officer's clothes billow around him. His blue eyes were like frost as he looked into the dancing flame and frowned. There was no way for him to know why he had accepted this job except that someone was trying to kill these two and start the Gear war all over again. The recent resurection of the Gear Justice had made it clear that whoever wanted this war to start again was not playing around.
"So Ranma got all his power from being a Gear?" Ryouga asked with a frown, "is there any indication of how long he has been like this?"
"No, most of his power right now is purely his, though the Gear power has started to mix with his own. We have no record of him since the destruction of Japan," Ky answered truthfully, "best estimation by how he looks would be last five years. Based on his overall strength this would be most accurate, the stronger an innate ability of a person the long the Gear gene takes to procreate."
Ranma looked stunned, "That was the year of the Saffron fight, how the hell did it happen then. Could it have been the old goul. So much happened during that time that there is a high chance I would not have realized it."
Ky shook his head to show that Ranma's thinking was flawed, "No, it does not take effect like a drug, it has to be implanted in a person's genetics. Your Gear form has not made itself known, it could be a small change or a major change like her," he nodded towards Dizzy, "but when it comes it will be make itself known."
Ranma looked at Ky neutrally, "So you have no idea when this will take effect?"
"No, all the Gears we have dealt with have been engineered from birth," the blond police officer replied with a knowing glance, "that is the problem with the estimation. A lot of the enhancement also depends on your mindset. Certain emotions may trigger the change faster than normal."
The dark haired man cursed, "I think it's already starting to happen. I was on the Mayship when my body suddenly started feeling like it was being turned inside out. I remember I was angry and depressed then, then with Justice the same thing happened. That was just anger though, but it was mixed with coldness. I think the more I fight with mixed emotions the faster the change takes effect. To make it worse it seems that I've been put in situations were I can't avoid the mix of emotions."
"So you are becoming a Gear more and more with every fight," this declaration came from the Chinese woman they had almost forgot about, "should we worry about you hurting us?"
Ky shifted to look at the woman and answered the question for everyone, "No, more than not the Gear personallity will be drowned out by his dominant personallity. In other words, with your will being as strong as it seems you will have little trouble overcoming the take Gear personallity."
"So what do we do now?" Ryouga asked, "we are pretty much stuck with fighting no matter what. Is there any way we can take a stand against this threat."
"Unfortunetly we have no information on the enemy," Ky answered, "All we can do is wait."
By this time it had become dark out and the woods were only lit by the weakend fire. There was another rustling from the trees and a sillouete of a man walked into the clearing. As he came into view the group shifted to look at him. Ranma recognized the man as soon as he walked into the light. He did not attack right away, he waited for the man to make the first move. If he intended to hurt any of them he would be ready to react instead of running right into the attack. The man carried that sword over his back and had a lit cigarette in his mouth. He addressed them with a rough voice that seemed uncaring of what would happen as a direct or indirect action of him being there.
"Relax kid," the man said, his eyes unseeable under the thick red headband, "I was testing you earlier. I have to say you gave me a run for my money."
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End of Chapter 8. Wow, this chapter kind of got longer than I intended. The grammar should be a little better since I got a checker. Only one last chapter to go for the end of this book.
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Hatred and Sarrow
Chapter 9
"Relax kid," the man said, his eyes un seeable under the thick red headband, "I was testing you earlier. I have to say you gave me a run for my money."
"Sol, what do you want?" Ky had shifted his hand to his sword, "I will not have you make a mockery of this situation. The enemy could be closing in any moment."
The man curled his lips up in a smile, the cigarette following the motion of his mouth, "You think they have not already come for those two? They were fun to play with."
"Hey, you're that guy who fought me before," Dizzy said suddenly, "why did you let me go."
Sol looked over at the girl and took a drag of his cigarette before throwing it on the ground and walking up to her, "I let you go because you were whining and crying so much it was pathetic. You almost let me beat you. Don't get me wrong, you did fight well, but your fear of hurting me was just pathetic."
Ranma heard this and tried to jump in to defend the girl, "You really are an ass, you attack her and then accuse her of crying too much."
The man looked over at Ranma with a toothy grin, "Calm down kid, I'm not your enemy. I was just going after a bounty, I'm a bounty hunter, it's what we do."
"If you came here just to insult us then you're not welcome," Ranma said with irritation.
Sol lit another cigarette and put it between his lips, "I came here to tell you why you two are targeted actually," snapping his fingers, a flame sprang to life at the tip of Sol's index finger, "they want to use you," he said after he lit the cigarette, "recognizing your power, they want to use you to start another war with the humans," the man closed his hands and extinguished the flame.
"So they want to use me as a weapon?"
"That was what Gears were originally developed for," the man said as his smile fell from his face, "you are powerful but careless boy, displaying your power so flagrantly is begging for trouble."
Ranma clenched his fist as he felt anger rise inside him once again, "Damn it, you were the one who attacked me. How could I know you were not the one who was after me."
"Feh," Sol shrugged, "whatever."
"Even with this being the case, the point is that a war is coming," Ky said to break up the tense situation, "If they gain control of either of you there will more bloodshed than the history of this place has ever seen."
Ryouga looked at the night sky, "We should continue this tomorrow, it has been a long day and we need rest."
The man in red snorted, "How careless, leaving yourself open to attack. I'll leave you to fend for yourself."
The man walked off, eventually leaving only the trail of his glowing cigarette to be seen. Eventually even that glow faded and the rest of the group was left wondering what to make of his appearance. The stars were bright in the dark sky now and the group was feeling tired from the past few days. The only one who had trouble sleeping that night war Ranma. The words that man had said bothered him, he was being sought after because he was powerful. They wanted to use him to take over the world and kill all the humans on the planet. How could this group exist, and what kind of insanity was behind such a plan?
He sat at the dying fire and looked at the dancing fire as if it would provide him with an answer. As the angry fire danced he though back to his past, every flame he saw reminded him of the death. Charred and blackened bodies lining the streets and red blood filling the streets with the stench of death. He remembered waking up in the street, laying in a pool of blood that was not fully his own. Exhaustion had taken him into unconsciousness, and he had blacked out after overexerting himself. The sickness he had felt when he realized what he was laying in caused him to throw up. His skin had been tainted red with the wet crimson liquid and the smell was stuck in his nose.
No matter how hard he tried, the pain always found him, no matter the distance he ran. The harder he fought to forget the more he remembered of the day that changed his life. It was hard to remember the days before then, how carefree he had been. He had been the best and the strongest, he had been happy. Ranma Saotome use to smile. Now he was involved in a war that he had fallen into just because of his power. Circumstances permitting, he could have been happy with the life he had if everyone had not been killed. In all truth he knew there was nothing he could do to prevent them all from dying. Even if he had used everything he had and fought without fear he would not have been able to win.
"Why would such pain be necessary?" He asked himself softly as he continued his staring contest with the fire, "To cause such bloodshed, and for what, because one country was afraid of another."
He still remembered every day after the annihilation of Japan as if it had happened just yesterday. Walking dirty and directionless through the rubble of what had been his home. Helping survivors how he could, trying to repent for all the wrongs he had done. Broken bones, people died in his hands, wounds too far progressed for him to do anything but ease the pain. He had trained all his life to fight for his honor and for the ones he cared. Now the fighting did nothing to ease the pain of the sick and dying he tried to help.
Ranma had trouble sleeping, every minute he slept he could hear the screaming of people in pain. How was he supposed to get past the agony of those days if he was reminded of them constantly. Looking back at Dizzy who was asleep directly behind him, he sighed and frowned. She had caused so many complications in his life that he felt a great weight on his shoulders. It was not the girl who was the cause of the burden, but what she represented to him. The question was not if he could love her. Ranma already knew he had fallen for the girl even if he was not ready to show the feelings. What he was nervous of was whether he could keep her from being hurt.
He turned back to the fire and put an open hand inches from the flame, "I wish I could feel warmth again, my feelings have grown so cold that I'm not sure if Dizzy's love would be a blessing. Why can't I just get on with my life?"
With the question, a vision of a girl with short dark hair, wearing a gi, came to his mind. He knew the face well from his previous life. Even after she was gone, Akane weighed heavily on his mind and his emotions. It was because he had not fully got over her that he could not accept Dizzy. It shamed him to know that he had trouble admitting his love until she had died. There was nothing glorious about the death either. It was a slash and a spray of blood as she collapsed to the ground, life already gone from her eyes as she fell. He could still feel his aching throat as he screamed out to her for was seemed like an indefinite amount of time.
Wind swirled suddenly and he felt a chill run down his spine, not evil, just cold. Standing he looked in the direction of the wind and he yawned as he walked slightly out of the camp. As he neared the edge of the camp he saw a shimmering figure standing there in white. Rubbing his eyes from the tiredness he tried to make sure he was not seeing things. In front of him he saw the girl he was just thinking about, glowing brightly in the darkness of night. She was dressed in white and her hands where folded down in front of her. Ranma was too stunned to move as she walked up to him and put a hand on his chest. He felt the area she put her hand on grow warm even in the cold of night.
"Hello Ranma, I'm glad to see you," the figure of Akane smiled at him warmly.
The man felt his throat tighten as he tried to reply, "How... Akane, I've missed you so much."
She nodded, "I know, I've been watching you from above. It seems you are well loved by the gods. They have allowed all those who died and cared for you to watch you. My time here is short so I have to make this quick. I came here to help you put the past behind you, we have all seen your pain."
"I miss all of you so much," Ranma said as tears fell from his eyes, "every day I live is painful without you."
Akane moved close, embracing him as best her shimmering form would allow, "I know, but you must move on, there are others here who need you now. Don't think I haven't seen the way you look at Dizzy. You hesitate because of me don't you?"
The man did not answer verbally, he only looked to the side sadly, Akane continued, "She needs you right now, and I know you need her. Please forget about me, we have lived our life and we are happy with what we have done. I have no regrets."
"I know I need to get over you," Ranma said, "but it's easier said than done. Watching you die for a second time that day, only the second time I knew you could not come back. All because of how scared I was."
"We were all scared," Akane said, "you just reacted differently than we did. What's done is done, you have to live for the future and forget about us. Please, move on so we don't have to worry about you."
The man nodded and Akane released her hold on him, "Okay, thank you Akane. I still love you, it was good seeing you."
Smiling the girl started to fade, "I know, it was good to see you also Ranma. Goodbye," and with that she was gone.
He sighed and closed his eyes, when he opened them he was laying on the ground, and the sun was just rising over the horizon. Sitting up with a yawn he rubbed his eyes and blinked. Had it all been a dream, or had she really come back to talk to him? Even if it was a dream he had to take it as a sign to move on with his life. Ranma was positive now that they were happy, even if they had died.
Looking around he found that he was outside the campsite, just beyond the sight of everyone else. Getting to his feet, he walked back towards the site and found that everyone was gone. Their belongings were still there yet they were not present in the camping grounds. Sitting down he waited for them to come back, they probably went looking for some food. Looking at the sky, Ranma cursed as he saw the wispy grey clouds gathering overhead. Rain was on its way, he would either have to find shelter or risk revealing his curse. From the way the land looked it looked like the later would be his only real option.
Ranma felt the ground shake suddenly and jumped into a defensive position. Whatever was making the shaking was moving in his direction slowly. He could hear trees falling in its path as it kept moving towards him. Ranma was starting to get the feeling that whatever was causing this was going to give him trouble. As the shaking increased, the tree fell near the clearing to reveal a huge man. Muscle rippled over his body in great slabs, he wore jeans and no shirt. Around his neck was a metal collar and on his hands were gloves made of metal. His brown hair was medium length and pulled back in a ponytail behind his head. The man had milky white eyes, making it impossible to Ranma to know what the man was feeling.
"Sorry, I kind of got lost," the man proclaimed in a deep voice, "have you seen a Gear girl around her?"
Ranma looked up at the man in surprise before narrowing his eyes, "What do you want with Dizzy?"
"So you have seen her," the man lifted his huge fist and clenched it, "where is she?"
The man summoned his aura, "I don't know, and even if I did you won't get your hands on her."
"You misunderstand," the giant said, "she is in danger."
"I know," Ranma let his aura grow larger, "and I'm the one protecting her."
The huge man looked confused, "Shouldn't you be with her then?"
"Cut the crap," Ranma yelled, "you can't trick me into handing her over so easily. If you want her you'll have to go though me."
The giant shrugged his shoulders and walked towards Ranma slowly, his slowness was only due to the fact that he had immense power. Ranma knew that this fight would rely on his speed over everything else. If this man hit him once it might as well be over. To onlookers, he would have seemed to disappear and reappear in front of the man.
Ranma let loose with a punch that could have broken concrete, the man hardly seemed to take notice. Jumping back quickly, he thought of ways to fight the monster with something other than brute strength. Letting loose with a ball of energy, Ranma waited to see if it would have any affect on the huge man. The energy was blocked by two huge metal gloves.
"I came to protect the girl," the giant man said, "why do you insist on fighting?"
"Give me some proof that you don't want to hurt Dizzy," Ranma began charging for another attack on the big man.
Putting his hands back down, "All I can offer is my words, if you are protecting her I can understand the distrust."
"Potemkin?" Dizzy's voice sounded suddenly from the edge of the clearing.
Looking over at her, Ranma fixed her with a questioning stare, "You know this guy?"
The blue haired girl nodded, "Yes, he helped me the first time we met. Why were you fighting?"
"I thought he wanted to attack you," Ranma admitted sheepishly, "it's hard to believe a big guy like him was not sent to attack someone."
Potemkin shifted his weight slightly, "In all actuality I came because there is news of a Gear army being massed near here. I was sent to get Dizzy to safety so this army could not accomplish their goal."
"I understand," Ranma said, "but I promised to protect her and I will protect her. I feel better protecting her than handing her over to some random person."
The big man nodded, "Very well, I will have to make sure you do keep her safe though. The only way I can do this is if I travel with you."
Ranma could feel the irritation rising at this situation, they now had another person traveling with them. This was supposed to be just him and Dizzy in the first place but it turned out that this was not feasible. There was little he could do to prevent these people from showing up, and the fact of the matter is he knew he would need the help. As powerful as he was, even he had his limits and the fighting had forced him to those limits once or twice already. If they had not showed up then he would have probably failed in his proposal to keep Dizzy safe. If Ryouga had not been there to get the girl away from Justice, that was a good example.
"Fine, whatever," Ranma said with his teeth grit, "do what you have to."
By the time the conversation had ended, the rest of the group had come back. There was no food in their arms so that theory was out of the question. Ranma supposed they were looking for him, it would not be surprising to know. Everyone was a little on edge with the knowledge that two powerful Gears were wanted because of their power. They were about to say something to Ranma when a giant explosion sounded in the distance. Everyone looked to see fire rising above the tops of the trees in billowing columns.
"The Gear army is starting to attack," Potemkin said as he stared, "Justice will be leading them. Damn these people and their stupidity."
Ranma was not looking at the fire for long before he took off in the direction of it. He could hear the yelling for him to stop but he paid no attention to it. This could be real and it could be a trap, all he knew was that if Justice was there he was going to kill him. This army was the same was the one that attacked his home and killed his family. There was no way he would allow something so gruesome to happen again, he was going to put an end to this.
Unknown to the man, he was being followed by the group he was running away from. He had a lead on them, but they were making their way towards where he was going. Moving as fast as they could, they followed the trail the man left through the woods. Two hours later they arrived at a clearing where they saw leveled buildings and dead bodies laying on the ground. In the center of the town was a mass of Gears, some laying on the ground and a large number pulsing around the center square. As they made their way closer they could hear someone shouting in anger as Gear bodies flew in random directions.
As good as he was, Ranma could tell that he was hopelessly outnumbered by these Gears. They lacked basic fighting skills and yet the sheer numbers of them were overwhelming him. There was one trick he had not used lately though, his life energy had not been projected onto these beings yet. Summoning his aura he started to shoot softball sized balls of energy out in every direction. Gears started flying around like gnats as the energy hit them.
"You will not prevent me from killing Justice," Ranma yelled as he hit multiple Gears with an overly huge ball of energy.
This fight was different from the first one because these Gears were commanded to kill him. In the original fight he had not been attacked because they had been ordered to kill humans only. With them attacking him now he was holding nothing back in dispatching these creatures. Then he started seeing Gears fall where he had not him them before, and there was the rest of the people who had been with him. Though glad for the help, he was afraid that it still might not be enough to defeat them all. The only way to stop them was to find and kill Justice, but he had burred himself behind the ocean of fighting Gears.
With a giant leap about thirty feet into the air, Ranma landed on the head of a crowd of Gears and crushed them under his weight. He continued with this until he had actually reached the Commander of Gears. He just stood and looked at Ranma, without reaction, the man was about to run up and attack when he felt something scratch his. It was only then that he realized he had allowed his anger to cloud his senses. Looking down, he wondered why they had just given him a scratch, then he started feeling woozy.
Vision blurring he dropped to his knees before shakily passing out and falling to the ground hard. None of this was noticed by the one he had left fighting the Gears. Ranma was bound and taken into a truck before anyone could see that the man was not there. As they drove off, the Gears withdrew and the group was left wondering what had happened. Then they noticed that Ranma was not present.
"What happened, where did he go?" Potemkin asked.
Ryouga looked around until he saw a wet spot on the ground that was out of the way from where they had been fighting. Walking over to it he bent down and smeared some on his fingers, smearing it around he nodded and stood once again.
"This is his blood, my best guess is that this was a trap to capture him," Ryouga said as he turned back to the group.
Ky sheathed his sword and looked at the man, "Then we have failed."
Ryouga shook his head, "No, we have not failed, I just wish we had some kind of lead."
"You could try the Assassins Guild," came a suggestion from an unknown source.
Turning, they saw a man in a grey suit with a pipe in his mouth and a short red cape on. He was tall and had his short brown hair parted on the side, giving him a clean appearance. A trimmed brown beard ran across the man's face. He stood calmly as he watched the group turn and regard him with distrust.
"Where is the Assassins Guild?" Ryouga asked.
The man chuckled, "Really, how rude the young are, if you want an answer ask the officer over there."
Everyone looked at Ky as he blinked in surprise, "I know where the Guild is but I don't know why they would want a Gear like Ranma, Mr. Slayer."
"I think you do know, you just don't want to admit it," Slayer said starting to walk away, "you better start looking for him, before they carry out their plan."
Nodding, Ky told the group of his plan to rescue the boy, or was about to until he noticed that Dizzy was missing. With a sigh, the police officer revised his plane. He was sure that the girl had gone off without anyone noticing to try to rescue Ranma. She did know where the Assassins Guild was, however she did not know what kind of trouble awaited her there. It was even more important now that they got moving so they could make sure the Guild did not get their hands on both Gears.
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End of Chapter 9. After a long wait I have finally finished this. I feel like this Story is coming to a close, maybe a little quicker than I had originally intended. Who knows though, I may try a sequel when I am done. Though I am not sure how that will work.
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Sarrow and Hatred
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I own none of these characters, I am just a humble
writer with an idea.
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Book 3
Chapter 7
Ryouga took them to a building that was for all intensive purposes condemned. Even from the outside it looked as if the place was going to collapse any second. Inside looked even worse than the outside, just lay in thick blankets over the floor, and the inside was without any kind of furniture. It was as if the place had been cleared out in preparation for being knocked down. Light shined though windows that ran from the ceiling of one floor to the floor of the same floor. Every step kicked up dust, and what could have been asbestos, into the air.
"This place is... quaint," Ranma said as he covered his mouth to try not to breath anything bad in.
Ryouga smiled and shrugged, "It was available, don't worry, there is only dust. I made sure of that."
Uncovering his mouth, Ranma followed the other man further into the building. As they walked the windows became darker from being covered by peices of cloth. It seemed that Ryouga had covered these windows so he could sleep without light shinning in his face. There were cooking utinsels laying out and a small hole so the man could light a cooking fire. A sleeping roll was on the floor next to the pit and next to that was a pit.
"This place is where you sleep?" Dizzy asked, "Is this your home?"
The man looked at her seriously, "No, I have no home, because of my bad directional sense I cannot find any home I may have. I have been on the road all my life, I hardly see my family."
"That seems so sad," Dizzy said.
Ryouga blinked, "Um, okay, do you even know how to feel sad?"
Dizzy looked down, "I'm not sure, I don't know what sadness feels like."
Ranma put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "It's alright, you don't have to answer if you don't want."
The woman nodded, "I just want to know what emotions feel like, I feel emotions but I don't know how to describe them. Like when I'm near you I feel safe and warm, I don't know what this feeling is though."
Ranma rubbed his chin in contemplation, "I don't know what it could mean."
Ryouga chuckled, "You've never been good with emotions Ranma, this one's obvious even to me."
"Shut up, pig-boy," The man with the braided ponytail yelled, "you're the one who was two timing."
"I told you not to call me that!" Ryouga yelled back, "at least I wasn't stringing four chicks along for my own pride."
Ranma clenched his fist, "Low blow, Lost Boy."
"Because it's true," Ryouga dropped into a fighting stance, "you never loved her."
The other man clenched his fist hard enough that his fingernails drew blood from his palm. His body started to tremble in anger and his eyes were stuggling to keep focused. A low growl started to elicit from his throat until his aura burst for with emotional energy. The dust around his feet started to swirl around as his aura grew around him. With a scream he threw his hands out and a ball of energy shot out from his palms. Ryouga grinned and put his arms up to black the energy, his feet moved a few inches back but other than that he did not seem affected. Ranma was standing in front of him with his bleeding palms still extended outward, head down.
"I loved Akane more than life itself," Ranma's voice was soft and hoarse, "how could you say that? It was my fault she died! It was my fault they all died! You at least tried to protect them without hesitation while I stood and did nothing! Damn it."
The man hunched forward, Ryouga stood straight and walked over to him, "So you've let your emotions take control. Is that why you are so weak? That is pathetic, I understand the pain Ranma, I lost friends and family also. But I fight still because I know that my purpose is not done. While I grow stronger you turn into a sniveling coward."
Looking up Ranma looked less angry and more depressed, "You're right. I have become a coward, I've tried to run away from my life and my nightmares. I tried to run away when the only way is to fight, I need to fight the demons that plague me."
Ryouga grinned putting his hand out, "Yes, we both have demons to fight. As a team."
Ranma stood straight and firmly gripped the man's hand, "As a team, we will get over the war. We will live our life despite the hardship."
Smiling, Ryouga let go of Ranma's hand and addressed the man, "You should rest, I know you heal fast but that doesn't mean you don't have limits."
Nodding, Ranma went to sit down near Ryouga's site and take the weight off his legs. They were already feeling better than they had been, but they were not onehudred percent. Now that he was resting he could feel how much is muscles acted from fatigue. The constant fighting had put his body through a lot of stress and right now his body was rebelling agianst any movement. Resting like he was now, he realized that he was beginning to get hungry.
"I'm going to get some food," Ryouga said as if he had develope the talent of precognistion, "you two wait here. If someone if after you this would be the most likely time to attack, it's safer to stay in here."
Nodding Ranma grinned, "Hey, be careful, I've met these guys and they don't play around."
Ryouga nodded and walked off, leaving Dizzy and Ranma alone in the otherwise abandoned building. The two of them looked at eachother for a while before Dizzy walked over and sat on her knees next to the man. The blue haired woman smiled at Ranma shyly and put a hand on one arm, scratching idly. Her tail wraped around came to a rest in front of her. Ranma just stared at the woman with an air of interest, curious about what she had on her mind.
"You never did answer me," Dizzy said, "I asked what you thought those feelings meant."
Looking a little embarassed at the cause of the distaction when she brought the subject up, Ranma scratched the back of his neck nervously, "The truth is I don't know. There is no way to say what an emotion definetly is, it's just a feeling."
"So if I feel safe around you it could be friendship or it could be love?" Dizzy asked innocently.
The man, not being use to such a direct approached to a question, blanched slightly, "I don't know about that. Damn you're making me uncomfortable."
The woman giggled at his reaction, "Are you afraid of that word?"
Ranma's eyes suddenly turned cold with irritation, "It's less the word and more the concept, remember my past."
The woman became serious at the mention of the man's past, that he had been hurt so deeply by the war was no laughing matter. The simple truth was that she had forgoten how horrible his life had been during that time. She had been so happy lately that she had not thought about the consequences of her words. She was desperately searching for a way to rectify the situation. Unfortunetly no answer came, and the harder she thought about it the more stumped she was. There was no way to know if her next words would make him happy again or make him even angrier. The man seemed to sense her delimma and took the look on her face to mean that he needed to let her know it was okay.
"Dizzy, I- What," He had sensed the giant spike in energy and lept to cover the woman just as the wall exploded inward.
Standing in the rubble of the wall was a machine that towered over both the man and the woman. Its tail swung back and forth and its long hair moved with the blowing wind. The figure was not known to the woman but the man knew who it was all too well.
"Justice," Ranma flew into action in less than a second, "I will kill you!"
The man launched a jumpkick at the Gear that was blocked with little effort on its part. Landing, the man blocked the counter attack from Gear and jumped back, only to be met by a tail poking up from the ground. Ranma did a backward handspring to avoid the apendage before lauching a medium sized ball of energy at Justice. He quickly followed the ball in and just as the ball of energy hit he let loose with his Kashu Tenshin Amaguriken. The hundreds of punches within one second hit the monster just as the ball of energy struck. The combination of attacks sent the Gear reeling back.
"YOU ARE ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE ONE THAT ORIGINALLY DEFEATED ME," the Gear spoke with a metalic voice, like it was filtered through a computer, "BUT YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME."
Ranma smirked at the first Gear, "Ha, come on, show me what you got."
The Gear made a sound that sounded almost like a laugh, "IT IS NOT YOU I CAME FOR."
With those words he turned to Dizzy who was getting to her feet after being knocked down by Ranma. The giant energy cannons on Justice's shoulders began to glow and then a white beam shot out at the woman. With a curse, Ranma jumped and landed in front of the woman, holding her with his back to the beam. The full force hit him just a second later and he screamed in pain as the beam seared his back. He could not tell if the voice that was screaming was his own or the voice of the woman he was holding. It could have been both, the pain was so intense that he felt his vision wavering. It was only for a short time but it felt like the energy beam had lasted hours.
Falling to his knees, Ranma grit his teeth in anger at his stupidity. He had not seen that, though he should have known that he was not the one who was in danger. Getting back to his feet and summoning his full aura, Ranma let a deep growl elicit from his throat. He would have to unleash his potential, there had to be some way to get past this machines defenses. If he could only disable it long enough that they could run away he could get the woman to a safe place. As it was he was out of luck, most of the moves he knew would not work with this machine.
The hoplessness within him only made him feel angry, and the anger he felt now compounded on top of the anger he felt at Justice for even being there made his blue aura take on a red tinge. The overall effect was an almost purple ring around the man. The Ranma felt something he had never felt before, a burning sensation on his forhead as his energy increased. He felt like fire was burning behind his skull and he knew that it was from the anger he felt.
"SO YOU HAVE THE MARK OF A GEAR," Justice said, "IT MAKES SENSE, YOU ARE POWERFUL, LET US TRY A NEW GAME."
Ranma suddenly heared a wisper in the back of his head, it seemed to be taunting him. Tell him to join the Gears in their fight, to help them rise up and destroy the humans. Ranma paused as if unsure how to react to this phenomena. He felt his mind starting to give into the voices before he realized what was happening. With a yell he burst forward and started attacking the monster known as Justice.
"I will not be controlled!" Ranma yelled as he let loose with a spinning round-house kick to the head of the Gear.
The furocity of the kick was such that it caused Justice to spin around as it fell. It was not down for very long though, Ranma was ready to attack again when heard a voice scream out an attack. He saw a green ball of energy slam into Justice followed by Ryouga falling out of the air towards the Gear. The kick that the man aimed at Justice was blocked but it gave Ranma enough time to catch his breath, so to speak.
"There is only one last move," Ranma said quietly, "but it will require a sacrifice that I'm not sure I should make," raising his voice Ranma yelled out to his friend, "Ryouga, take Dizzy and run, as fast as you can. I'm going to need to fight all out and I can't worry about her if I want to do this."
The man jumped away and looked at Ranma questioningly, "What are you talking about?"
Ranma closed his eyes, "Just take her and go, NOW!"
Nodding the man ran off as Ranma started glowing with an aura that was ominously huge. Without hesitation, Ryouga grabbed the blue haired woman and started running in a direction that would take her away from the scene of the fight. He had no idea what was being planned but he knew that if Ranma wanted Dizzy to get away it had to be big. He only hopped that his old friend knew what he was doing.
Ranma had started powering up even before he had finished talking to Ryouga. He did not know if this move was worth the price he would pay but he knew that stopping Justice was the most important thing. If a Gear like him was allowed to wonder the earth free, the devistation would be even worse than the first time he had commanded the Gears. With hardly any military left that could fight the synthetic creatures, they would roll over the humans like a steamroller of a carton of jello. This was just a last ditch effort that would take care of that problem, hopefully once and for all.
"I will not fail," Ranma wispered to himself, "I won't let you destroy any more lives."
The man could sense that his friends were far enough away that he could safely use the move he thought of. It was now or never, he had hoped it would be never but he had no choice. With every ounce of his will he summoned all his energy to let it grow inside him. There was no way he could control the energy he was producing right now, it would continue to grow. He was like a human timebomb waiting to explode, and he would explode right in this vile creatures face. As he felt the energy reach its peak within him, he ran right towards Justice and grabbed onto him.
"I'll see you in hell!" The man yelled as everything became white around him.
From far away, Ryouga stopped and turned to look back as he felt the dispersion of energy. What he saw both awed him and horrified him at the same time. He had seen the end of the white flash, and now was witness to a mushroom cloud rolling up from the ground. There was not way to know what had just happened but he had a strong thinking that he would not like it. Looking at the woman in his arms he saw a horrified look on her face as she stared at the explosion. He made out what he could swear were tears in the girls face, which he view as impossible, Gears were not supposed to show emotion. Had Ranma been right all along, was she so human that she could show her feelings? Could she feel pain, or fear? Love? Hate?
"He's gone," Ryouga looked down as the woman stared sadly at the now disipating cloud, "both of them are gone."
The man looked from the woman back to where they had been running from, "Damn! That bastard, that selfish, good for nothing, bastard!"
The two of them did not move from the spot for a while, in the back of their minds they hoped that he survived. For all their hope they knew he was gone, nobody could survive that kind of attack. He had used every last bit of energy to kill Justice, and it had worked, but at such a great price.
It was not until they had witnessed the explosion die off and the area calm down once again that they left. Ryouga was angry at Ranma for doing such an irresponsible thing. He was not thinking so much about himself as the woman next to him. Her mood had changed drastically since she had witnessed Ranma's end. In a way he understood, though he was not sure why she was as sad as she was. Ryouga was starting to suspect that this Gear had held more than just friendship towards Ranma. There was a strong sense of something whenever they were close. Perhaps he was just having trouble admitting what that something was, or he just could not think of it, either way it troubled him.
"Dizzy," he spoke finally as they walked, "did you feel... attracted to Ranma?"
The woman did not turn towards him, she just kept looking down at the ground in font of her feet. Ryouga was not sure she would answer at all in truth. It seemed that she heard him, but did not want to answer him. The reason for this trepidation could only be known by her, but Ryouga was starting to get the feeling he knew why she was so depressed about Ranma dying.
"You were," Ryouga said in a sad tone, "that's what that warmth you felt was. I'm sorry, there is no way to bring him back, but he would want you to stay strong."
The woman look up finally, her red eyes looking straight into his green ones, "I know, but it was not his turn. It can't have been his time to die. He said he would protect me."
Ryouga looked akward, "I know, and I'm sure in his own way he is, but you have to understand that death comes for everyone."
"No! I will not accept that," the blue haired woman was practically in tears, "he was supposed to live."
The man said nothing in reply, just tried the best he could to comfort the distraught woman. He felt akward as she cried on his shoulder, almost like he was cheating on his best fried, but he could think of nothing else to do. The woman eventually spent her sadness and fell asleep in Ryouga's arms, leaving him in an akward position. Slowly he set her down, leaning her against a tree, then took out a sleeping roll and a blanket from the backpack he had brought with him to get food. He laid the sleeping roll out, put the woman on it, then covered her with a blanket. Sitting down in the crosslegged position, Ryouga watched the woman sleep, unsure of what he was supposed to do with her.
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End of Chapter 7. I noticed something that I did not when I first started this story. The timelines are a little screwy. It's not too big of a deal, and it seems that most of the people reading this have not noticed this screw up. I am glad for this, by the way, does anyone know a place where I could possibly get the age of the GGX characters? I am taking wild guesses at most of the ages in the story. The game book is no help at all, if you have seen it you know what I mean.
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Hatred and Sarrow
Chapter 8
He felt pain, it was no new sensation, but the fact that he had caused the pain himself was very new. There was the feel of stone underneath him, he was laying face down in a pile of rubble. There was broken glass around him and giant boulders of concrete were strewn about the area. As far as destruction went this war probably his greatest achievement yet. With a tired groan he pushed himself up to his knees and caughed as he breathed in some dust that had yet to settle. He was cut in many places and his hair was matted with an ugly mixture of sweat, dust, and his own blood. His forehead was no longer hot, he still had trouble believing it was even true. He was a Gear, no that was not totally true, half Gear. He would have been controlled by Justice if he was a full Gear.
Putting his right hand to his forehead, he felt the place that had been burning just minutes before. It was cool, normal body temperature, like it had never been there in the first place. Staggering over to a boulder he sat down on it heavilly and grunted as he jostled his body in a painful way. Most of the wounds that had been inflicted on him were already healed. The bigger ones were visibly closing right before his eyes. Caughing again, he gathered his strength and started to stumble away from the site of destruction. It was irritating to him that all that energy had been wasted for nothing.
In truth, he had not counted on Justices teleporting ability, if he had known that the Gear would just dissappear he would have saved his strength. Now he was weakend, and almost positive that the others thought him dead. His power was barely registering on his own scale, it was doubtful that anyone else could even feel his life force.
As he crunched through the debris of the shattered building, he hoped that he did not make Dizzy worry too much. He wondered if she even worried about him at all, sure they were friends, but she seemed a little distant at times. Maybe that was just because she was unsure of how to act around him. Then something caught his eye, a tattered yellow ribbon caught on some debris on the ground. It danced in front of his eye, the wind moving it back and forth, as if tempting him. Bending down he slowly grabbed the ribbon and studdied it. The color and texture were very familiar, the only person he knew that wore this color was Dizzy. Pocketing the ribbon he stood again and made his way in the direction he thought the two had run.
"Wow, what happened here?" A voice sounded suddenly.
Turning in surprise, he saw the same Chinese woman he had faught during their stop in China. The woman had her hair done up in a circle that met at the top of her head, she wore a red dress and white boots. Her brown eyes regarded the mess with wonder as she scanned the bolders and broken glass. Her eyes eventually came to rest on him as he stared back at her, she ran over to him.
"Hey, do you know what happened?" She asked.
He groaned and tried to steady himself as he wobbled, "Yeah, I tried to kill Justice."
The woman seemed to fix him with a look that implied he was crazy, "Justice was already killed."
The man shook his head to show a negative response to her statement, "No," he was still hurting pretty bad, sitting down again he continued, "if what you say is true then someone made another one. Either way it was Justice, and I failed to stop him. I didn't know he could teleport."
The woman blinked as she looked down at him, "Wow, you really were set on killing him. You need help?"
The man nodded, "Yes, if I were younger I would say no, but that would be stupid here. Hey, what's your name?"
The Chinese woman helped him stand, "Jam Kuradoberi."
There was a pause as the man let out a short chuckle, "Sorry, my name is Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."
Jam smiled, "No problem, I was just trying to find a Gear that was reported near here. There was supposed to be a bounty on this Gear's head. I know I'm close if there is this much destruction."
Ranma nodded, "Well you could say you found the result of a Gear fight. I have no idea where your Gear has gone though."
The woman helped support him as he began to walk, "I hoped to get the money to rebuild my restraunt."
The man nodded, "I see."
As the two of them walked, they talked about random things that had happened to them. It was obviously hard for the woman to walk, talk, and carry him at the same time. She was strong, it was not as if she was uncute either, but Ranma found his mind kept wondering back to the blue haired Gear he had been assigned to protect. He knew he had failed her, if he had not gotten so caught up in his petty revenge they would still be together. As it was he had left Ryouga in charge of looking after her, and while he did not doubt his skills, Ranma was more worried about the man's constitution.
"Do you know where we're going?" Jam asked.
Ranma looked at her tiredly, "I can only assume at this point, I have to try to meet some friends of mine. I felt them go this way before I blacked out. Right now I'm so weak I can't even feel a fly on my nose."
The woman giggled, "I'm sure you will be fine, you told me earlier that you heal fast."
"That is true, but I don't know what the limit is," Ranma admited, "the fact that the limit is unknown to me is what scares me."
"Ah, I see," Jam said, "So how much time did your friends have before the attack was let off.
Ranma looked at the woman in surprise, she had known it was an attack, but she thought of a typical Gear doing it, "I don't know, about ten minutes. Knowing my friend that's about two and a half, three miles."
"That far in so little time, he must be strong," Jam said with an almost far away voice.
Smiling, Ranma nodded, "Strong is an understatement in his case, I really think he's not totally human."
"Like half-Gear?"
"No, it's would have to be something more complicated then that," Ranma responded.
By the time two hours had passed the day had given way to dusk, the sun was hidding behind the horizon and leaving an orange glow across the sky. The only thing blocking the orange was the trees that gave off the appearance of hands reaching down from the sky. The two travelers heared crackling of fire nearbye, almost on the other side of the trees. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw a woman with blue hair sleeping next to a fire. Before Ranma could do anything, Jam jumped into the small clearing.
She found her kick, which had been aimed at the girls head, stopped by a strong arm. The woman screamed as she saw the man the arm belonged to. Ryouga was caught off gaurd as the woman brought her other leg up and kicked him in the chin. He stumbled slightly, more from behing unprepared than the actual power of the kick.
"Why you," Ryouga growled.
While Ryouga tried to recover from the kick, Jam pressed her advantage. The man she was fighting was astounded by the speed this woman was displaying. She rivaled Ranma whith the technique and speed, though her power was a little lacking. The woman suddenly seemed to realize something and she stopped and threw off the dress she was wearing to reveal her fighting uniform. Ryouga stared blatantly before fell backwards with blood shooting from his nose. Jam stared at his comatose form with a questioning expresion before shrugging and heading back towards the woman who was still sleeping by the fire. Just as she got near the Gear woman, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Thinking it was the same attacker, she tried to flip him over her shoulder. The move was countered easily though and the woman was roughly pulled back.
"So it was Dizzy you were going after," it had been Ranma trying to stop her the second time.
Jam got into her fighting stance, "I just want the money, I need it for my business. I don't want to hurt you."
Ranma slid into a defensive stance and shot a cocky grin at the woman, "Well you're going to have to hurt me."
Jam stood and stared at the man as he looked at her with determination. She knew he was not up to fighting her right now, but he was still trying to protect this woman. She considered the possiblity that he was in it for the money also and found it unlikely. The way he had stood in the way was not the way a simple motive like money would warrant. It was almost as if he actually felt for this woman, like she was his friend. The whole concept was rediculous, nobody had ever made friends with a Gear. Sure there were aquantences but she had never heard of friends.
"How can you stand up for her?" Jam asked incredulously, "You can barely stand right now and yet you protect her."
Ranma did not answer right away, but when he did the answer was long, "I protect her because she has seen too much pain, she is not some animal to be hunted. Humans and Gears should be able to coexist despite their differences. Throughout history there has been cases of bigotry. Blacks and whites at war, man haters, woman haters, Nazis. They have existed for so long that it seems normal. It's not normal though! How the hell could it be normal? How is hating a Gear different from hating the blacks, or the Jews? It's not! People don't understand... they don't understand because they are afraid.
"How much fear do you think I've seen, I'm twenty-two and I've lived through the near extinction of my race. I saw my family die because someone was afraid, or hated one race. I have so much blood on my hands, both human and Gear, that I'm not sure if I can even call myself a person. Through all this though I've learned that hating one race just out of fear, or because the look different is no way to live!"
Ranma was shaking with pent up anger by now, even after his monologe ended he felt anger at this woman. It was the same anger he felt when he saw his race die, it was anger over blind bigotry. Sure he had treated women different, but he had never used any kind of derogatory word on anyone.
Jam looked at the man with wide eyes, "I never thought to take her feelings into account. I'm sorry."
The man closed his eyes for a second to try to compose himself, "I'm the one who should be sorry, there's no way to know she felt this way. I only know because I've spent time with her."
The woman dropped her hands to her side and stood straight, "I guess I've been selfish, I'll find some other way to get the money to build my restraunt."
As the woman turned to leave, Ranma walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder, making her turn her head to look back at him, "You could stay with us a little longer. If you would like that is, you seem like a nice person."
The woman turned around to face Ranma fully, "I don't know, I really need to get some money to rebuild my restraunt."
"I'm sure we'll take care of that along the way," Ranma seemed unmoving in his request for her to come with them.
Jam nodded, "Alright, just as long as you keep that perverts away from me," she pointed to Ryouga who was wiping his nose as he returned to his feet.
"Hey, listen you insane..." Ryouga was cut off as a foot belonging to an angry Chinese woman stopped just inches from his crotch, "yet nice, and even tempered, can't forget even tempered, woman." the man started laughing nervously as he backed away from the Chinese woman.
Ranma chuckled, "Hey Ryouga, sorry about giving you a scare. That move took a lot out of me."
Ryouga became serious, "It's not me you should apologize to, that person is sleeping right behind you."
Looking behind himself, Ranma was about to walk over to her before he realized he was still pretty dirty. He asked Ryouga for some water to at least rinse some of the dust and blood off himself before he woke the girl up. He figured it would help her to know he was okay if there was not blood smeard all over his body. Once he washed up he went and knelt down next to the girl. He hesitated only because he was unsure of just how he was going to wake her up.
"Hey," Ranma settled for trying to wisper in her ear, "Dizzy, it's me."
Instead of her waking up right away, the man recieved a sleepy hug from the blue haired girl, "Hmm? Ranma?"
Chuckling the man returned the embrace, "Glad to see you too, sorry for making you worry."
The girl opened her eyes and when she saw the sight that greeted her she hugged the man even tighter. Smiling, Ranma returned the embrace. It had not been a long time since they had seen eachother, but to both of them it had been difficult to deal with the loss of companionship. Ranma realized that Dizzy was crying as he felt the warm tears soak through her shirt. Slowly he parted the hair that covered her eyes, looking into their redness. The girl was staring at him as if she did not dare to believe he was really there.
"I missed you so much Ranma," the girl said, "we thought you died in that explosion. How could you make me worry like that?"
Ranma smiled, it was hard to believe just how innocent this girl really was, "I'm sorry, I was just trying to save you."
"Well please don't do that again," the girl burried her face in his chest, "I don't know if I could take losing you."
The man looked down in surprise at the girl, it was true that his feelings for her had been creeping too much past friendship. At first he had rebelled against the feeling. Dizzy was just a Gear after all, he hated Gears, he had sworn an oath to destroy all of them. The more time he had spent in her presence the more his resolution towards that oath had been crumbling. He had said the words to Jam in anger but found that the truth behind them was undeniable. How could he condemn people just for how they were born.
"Dizzy, you won't lose me," Ranma grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "I've been careless because I felt there was nothing to live for."
"So you have something to live for now?"
The man smiled at her and gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze, "You could say that."
The two embraced, feeling comfort from the heat of eachothers body as they got closer. Ranma wiped the drying tears from the girls face. Then he remembered something and reached in his pocket to pull out the yellow ribbon he had found. It was tattered and ripped, but the girl took it anyway. She had not realized she lost the strip of cloth until now, and the fact that Ranma had even picked it up was worth more than any words he could say.
"I thought you might want this, it's not in the best shape but..." he was cut off as the girl suddenly kissed him passionately.
As the kiss broke, Dizzy looked slightly embarassed, "Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I've never felt this way before."
Ranma for his part was stunned, he had felt warmth flow through his body as their lips met. He could not believe he was letting this happen. When Akane had died he had thought she was the last one he would ever love. Now this girl was turning his world upside down, and without him even knowing what was happening.
"I never thought anyone could make me feel this way again," Ranma closed his eyes and dropped his hands to his side, "I'm sorry, this is just too fast. I like you, it's just that I'm not sure if I'm ready to start another relationship."
The man looked as if it pained him to even admit the fact to himself. Most of the time she had seen him, Ranma had either been confident or depressed. His mood right now was neither of those, it was almost regret that he could not return her feelings. Not that he did not have the same feelings, but more that he was just not ready to let those emotions show.
Looking to the side, the girl seemed like she had been hurt by his declaration, "I understand, you still haven't gotten over you're first relationship."
"It's nothing personal," Ranma looked uncomfortable, "I really do like you. I just don't think their has been enough time for me to recover."
Ranma embraced the girl one last time, to show that he really did care for her. It was hard not to feel guilty over his actions, if she really did love him then he would have just broken her heart. It was hard for him to deal with the fact that she loved him in the first place, but to hurt her like that was something he had never wanted to do. Emotional pain was always the worst because there was not way to protect yourself until you had already been hurt by it.
"Hey Ranma," Ryouga spoke up from his spot ten feet behind the man, "wasn't Justice destroyed in the original war."
The man with the braided ponytail turned to look at Ryouga, "Yes, I think someone remade him, for what purpose I don't know."
"Yes, he was destroyed," Jam chimed in, "who would want to rebuild such a horrible monster?"
"That is what I was wondering," it was the police officer who had warned them ealier that walked out of the woods into the clear, "I see by the wreckage furthur back that you have already met Justice. I hope everyone is okay, after I saw you dispatch Sol I had to help him before fallowing you."
"Ky," Jam was sounding like a school girl with a crush, "I'm so glad you could make it."
The blond haired police officer blinked in surprise, "Glad? Jam, I mean no disrespect, but you should not be glad that I'm here. There are two people here whose lives are in jeopordy."
"Why?" Ryouga asked.
Ky brushed the hair out of his eyes and breathed out long and hard, "There are two Gears here now that would be great assets to the enemy."
"Two Gears, where's the other one?" Ryouga asked suspiciously.
Ranma sighed in defeat, he had wanted to keep it a secret but it looks like that was out of the question, "I'm the other one, of course I just found out a little while ago when I was fighting Justice. I don't know how it happened, so don't ask me."
The news came as a shock to all present, they knew that Ranma was powerful but they had no idea he was another half-Gear. The only one it did not phase was Ky, who had expected the declaration even before he said anything. He was not happy he had to trust a Gear in the first place but he could see no way out of the situation. These two needed his help, and he was an officer of the law, even if he had faught against the Gears in the war and had become the leader of the Holy Knights he had to protect these two.
"Yes, you two are the ones I refer to," Ky said as he walked toward the fire and looked into it.
The night was slowly setting in and the wind had picked up, making the officer's clothes billow around him. His blue eyes were like frost as he looked into the dancing flame and frowned. There was no way for him to know why he had accepted this job except that someone was trying to kill these two and start the Gear war all over again. The recent resurection of the Gear Justice had made it clear that whoever wanted this war to start again was not playing around.
"So Ranma got all his power from being a Gear?" Ryouga asked with a frown, "is there any indication of how long he has been like this?"
"No, most of his power right now is purely his, though the Gear power has started to mix with his own. We have no record of him since the destruction of Japan," Ky answered truthfully, "best estimation by how he looks would be last five years. Based on his overall strength this would be most accurate, the stronger an innate ability of a person the long the Gear gene takes to procreate."
Ranma looked stunned, "That was the year of the Saffron fight, how the hell did it happen then. Could it have been the old goul. So much happened during that time that there is a high chance I would not have realized it."
Ky shook his head to show that Ranma's thinking was flawed, "No, it does not take effect like a drug, it has to be implanted in a person's genetics. Your Gear form has not made itself known, it could be a small change or a major change like her," he nodded towards Dizzy, "but when it comes it will be make itself known."
Ranma looked at Ky neutrally, "So you have no idea when this will take effect?"
"No, all the Gears we have dealt with have been engineered from birth," the blond police officer replied with a knowing glance, "that is the problem with the estimation. A lot of the enhancement also depends on your mindset. Certain emotions may trigger the change faster than normal."
The dark haired man cursed, "I think it's already starting to happen. I was on the Mayship when my body suddenly started feeling like it was being turned inside out. I remember I was angry and depressed then, then with Justice the same thing happened. That was just anger though, but it was mixed with coldness. I think the more I fight with mixed emotions the faster the change takes effect. To make it worse it seems that I've been put in situations were I can't avoid the mix of emotions."
"So you are becoming a Gear more and more with every fight," this declaration came from the Chinese woman they had almost forgot about, "should we worry about you hurting us?"
Ky shifted to look at the woman and answered the question for everyone, "No, more than not the Gear personallity will be drowned out by his dominant personallity. In other words, with your will being as strong as it seems you will have little trouble overcoming the take Gear personallity."
"So what do we do now?" Ryouga asked, "we are pretty much stuck with fighting no matter what. Is there any way we can take a stand against this threat."
"Unfortunetly we have no information on the enemy," Ky answered, "All we can do is wait."
By this time it had become dark out and the woods were only lit by the weakend fire. There was another rustling from the trees and a sillouete of a man walked into the clearing. As he came into view the group shifted to look at him. Ranma recognized the man as soon as he walked into the light. He did not attack right away, he waited for the man to make the first move. If he intended to hurt any of them he would be ready to react instead of running right into the attack. The man carried that sword over his back and had a lit cigarette in his mouth. He addressed them with a rough voice that seemed uncaring of what would happen as a direct or indirect action of him being there.
"Relax kid," the man said, his eyes unseeable under the thick red headband, "I was testing you earlier. I have to say you gave me a run for my money."
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End of Chapter 8. Wow, this chapter kind of got longer than I intended. The grammar should be a little better since I got a checker. Only one last chapter to go for the end of this book.
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Hatred and Sarrow
Chapter 9
"Relax kid," the man said, his eyes un seeable under the thick red headband, "I was testing you earlier. I have to say you gave me a run for my money."
"Sol, what do you want?" Ky had shifted his hand to his sword, "I will not have you make a mockery of this situation. The enemy could be closing in any moment."
The man curled his lips up in a smile, the cigarette following the motion of his mouth, "You think they have not already come for those two? They were fun to play with."
"Hey, you're that guy who fought me before," Dizzy said suddenly, "why did you let me go."
Sol looked over at the girl and took a drag of his cigarette before throwing it on the ground and walking up to her, "I let you go because you were whining and crying so much it was pathetic. You almost let me beat you. Don't get me wrong, you did fight well, but your fear of hurting me was just pathetic."
Ranma heard this and tried to jump in to defend the girl, "You really are an ass, you attack her and then accuse her of crying too much."
The man looked over at Ranma with a toothy grin, "Calm down kid, I'm not your enemy. I was just going after a bounty, I'm a bounty hunter, it's what we do."
"If you came here just to insult us then you're not welcome," Ranma said with irritation.
Sol lit another cigarette and put it between his lips, "I came here to tell you why you two are targeted actually," snapping his fingers, a flame sprang to life at the tip of Sol's index finger, "they want to use you," he said after he lit the cigarette, "recognizing your power, they want to use you to start another war with the humans," the man closed his hands and extinguished the flame.
"So they want to use me as a weapon?"
"That was what Gears were originally developed for," the man said as his smile fell from his face, "you are powerful but careless boy, displaying your power so flagrantly is begging for trouble."
Ranma clenched his fist as he felt anger rise inside him once again, "Damn it, you were the one who attacked me. How could I know you were not the one who was after me."
"Feh," Sol shrugged, "whatever."
"Even with this being the case, the point is that a war is coming," Ky said to break up the tense situation, "If they gain control of either of you there will more bloodshed than the history of this place has ever seen."
Ryouga looked at the night sky, "We should continue this tomorrow, it has been a long day and we need rest."
The man in red snorted, "How careless, leaving yourself open to attack. I'll leave you to fend for yourself."
The man walked off, eventually leaving only the trail of his glowing cigarette to be seen. Eventually even that glow faded and the rest of the group was left wondering what to make of his appearance. The stars were bright in the dark sky now and the group was feeling tired from the past few days. The only one who had trouble sleeping that night war Ranma. The words that man had said bothered him, he was being sought after because he was powerful. They wanted to use him to take over the world and kill all the humans on the planet. How could this group exist, and what kind of insanity was behind such a plan?
He sat at the dying fire and looked at the dancing fire as if it would provide him with an answer. As the angry fire danced he though back to his past, every flame he saw reminded him of the death. Charred and blackened bodies lining the streets and red blood filling the streets with the stench of death. He remembered waking up in the street, laying in a pool of blood that was not fully his own. Exhaustion had taken him into unconsciousness, and he had blacked out after overexerting himself. The sickness he had felt when he realized what he was laying in caused him to throw up. His skin had been tainted red with the wet crimson liquid and the smell was stuck in his nose.
No matter how hard he tried, the pain always found him, no matter the distance he ran. The harder he fought to forget the more he remembered of the day that changed his life. It was hard to remember the days before then, how carefree he had been. He had been the best and the strongest, he had been happy. Ranma Saotome use to smile. Now he was involved in a war that he had fallen into just because of his power. Circumstances permitting, he could have been happy with the life he had if everyone had not been killed. In all truth he knew there was nothing he could do to prevent them all from dying. Even if he had used everything he had and fought without fear he would not have been able to win.
"Why would such pain be necessary?" He asked himself softly as he continued his staring contest with the fire, "To cause such bloodshed, and for what, because one country was afraid of another."
He still remembered every day after the annihilation of Japan as if it had happened just yesterday. Walking dirty and directionless through the rubble of what had been his home. Helping survivors how he could, trying to repent for all the wrongs he had done. Broken bones, people died in his hands, wounds too far progressed for him to do anything but ease the pain. He had trained all his life to fight for his honor and for the ones he cared. Now the fighting did nothing to ease the pain of the sick and dying he tried to help.
Ranma had trouble sleeping, every minute he slept he could hear the screaming of people in pain. How was he supposed to get past the agony of those days if he was reminded of them constantly. Looking back at Dizzy who was asleep directly behind him, he sighed and frowned. She had caused so many complications in his life that he felt a great weight on his shoulders. It was not the girl who was the cause of the burden, but what she represented to him. The question was not if he could love her. Ranma already knew he had fallen for the girl even if he was not ready to show the feelings. What he was nervous of was whether he could keep her from being hurt.
He turned back to the fire and put an open hand inches from the flame, "I wish I could feel warmth again, my feelings have grown so cold that I'm not sure if Dizzy's love would be a blessing. Why can't I just get on with my life?"
With the question, a vision of a girl with short dark hair, wearing a gi, came to his mind. He knew the face well from his previous life. Even after she was gone, Akane weighed heavily on his mind and his emotions. It was because he had not fully got over her that he could not accept Dizzy. It shamed him to know that he had trouble admitting his love until she had died. There was nothing glorious about the death either. It was a slash and a spray of blood as she collapsed to the ground, life already gone from her eyes as she fell. He could still feel his aching throat as he screamed out to her for was seemed like an indefinite amount of time.
Wind swirled suddenly and he felt a chill run down his spine, not evil, just cold. Standing he looked in the direction of the wind and he yawned as he walked slightly out of the camp. As he neared the edge of the camp he saw a shimmering figure standing there in white. Rubbing his eyes from the tiredness he tried to make sure he was not seeing things. In front of him he saw the girl he was just thinking about, glowing brightly in the darkness of night. She was dressed in white and her hands where folded down in front of her. Ranma was too stunned to move as she walked up to him and put a hand on his chest. He felt the area she put her hand on grow warm even in the cold of night.
"Hello Ranma, I'm glad to see you," the figure of Akane smiled at him warmly.
The man felt his throat tighten as he tried to reply, "How... Akane, I've missed you so much."
She nodded, "I know, I've been watching you from above. It seems you are well loved by the gods. They have allowed all those who died and cared for you to watch you. My time here is short so I have to make this quick. I came here to help you put the past behind you, we have all seen your pain."
"I miss all of you so much," Ranma said as tears fell from his eyes, "every day I live is painful without you."
Akane moved close, embracing him as best her shimmering form would allow, "I know, but you must move on, there are others here who need you now. Don't think I haven't seen the way you look at Dizzy. You hesitate because of me don't you?"
The man did not answer verbally, he only looked to the side sadly, Akane continued, "She needs you right now, and I know you need her. Please forget about me, we have lived our life and we are happy with what we have done. I have no regrets."
"I know I need to get over you," Ranma said, "but it's easier said than done. Watching you die for a second time that day, only the second time I knew you could not come back. All because of how scared I was."
"We were all scared," Akane said, "you just reacted differently than we did. What's done is done, you have to live for the future and forget about us. Please, move on so we don't have to worry about you."
The man nodded and Akane released her hold on him, "Okay, thank you Akane. I still love you, it was good seeing you."
Smiling the girl started to fade, "I know, it was good to see you also Ranma. Goodbye," and with that she was gone.
He sighed and closed his eyes, when he opened them he was laying on the ground, and the sun was just rising over the horizon. Sitting up with a yawn he rubbed his eyes and blinked. Had it all been a dream, or had she really come back to talk to him? Even if it was a dream he had to take it as a sign to move on with his life. Ranma was positive now that they were happy, even if they had died.
Looking around he found that he was outside the campsite, just beyond the sight of everyone else. Getting to his feet, he walked back towards the site and found that everyone was gone. Their belongings were still there yet they were not present in the camping grounds. Sitting down he waited for them to come back, they probably went looking for some food. Looking at the sky, Ranma cursed as he saw the wispy grey clouds gathering overhead. Rain was on its way, he would either have to find shelter or risk revealing his curse. From the way the land looked it looked like the later would be his only real option.
Ranma felt the ground shake suddenly and jumped into a defensive position. Whatever was making the shaking was moving in his direction slowly. He could hear trees falling in its path as it kept moving towards him. Ranma was starting to get the feeling that whatever was causing this was going to give him trouble. As the shaking increased, the tree fell near the clearing to reveal a huge man. Muscle rippled over his body in great slabs, he wore jeans and no shirt. Around his neck was a metal collar and on his hands were gloves made of metal. His brown hair was medium length and pulled back in a ponytail behind his head. The man had milky white eyes, making it impossible to Ranma to know what the man was feeling.
"Sorry, I kind of got lost," the man proclaimed in a deep voice, "have you seen a Gear girl around her?"
Ranma looked up at the man in surprise before narrowing his eyes, "What do you want with Dizzy?"
"So you have seen her," the man lifted his huge fist and clenched it, "where is she?"
The man summoned his aura, "I don't know, and even if I did you won't get your hands on her."
"You misunderstand," the giant said, "she is in danger."
"I know," Ranma let his aura grow larger, "and I'm the one protecting her."
The huge man looked confused, "Shouldn't you be with her then?"
"Cut the crap," Ranma yelled, "you can't trick me into handing her over so easily. If you want her you'll have to go though me."
The giant shrugged his shoulders and walked towards Ranma slowly, his slowness was only due to the fact that he had immense power. Ranma knew that this fight would rely on his speed over everything else. If this man hit him once it might as well be over. To onlookers, he would have seemed to disappear and reappear in front of the man.
Ranma let loose with a punch that could have broken concrete, the man hardly seemed to take notice. Jumping back quickly, he thought of ways to fight the monster with something other than brute strength. Letting loose with a ball of energy, Ranma waited to see if it would have any affect on the huge man. The energy was blocked by two huge metal gloves.
"I came to protect the girl," the giant man said, "why do you insist on fighting?"
"Give me some proof that you don't want to hurt Dizzy," Ranma began charging for another attack on the big man.
Putting his hands back down, "All I can offer is my words, if you are protecting her I can understand the distrust."
"Potemkin?" Dizzy's voice sounded suddenly from the edge of the clearing.
Looking over at her, Ranma fixed her with a questioning stare, "You know this guy?"
The blue haired girl nodded, "Yes, he helped me the first time we met. Why were you fighting?"
"I thought he wanted to attack you," Ranma admitted sheepishly, "it's hard to believe a big guy like him was not sent to attack someone."
Potemkin shifted his weight slightly, "In all actuality I came because there is news of a Gear army being massed near here. I was sent to get Dizzy to safety so this army could not accomplish their goal."
"I understand," Ranma said, "but I promised to protect her and I will protect her. I feel better protecting her than handing her over to some random person."
The big man nodded, "Very well, I will have to make sure you do keep her safe though. The only way I can do this is if I travel with you."
Ranma could feel the irritation rising at this situation, they now had another person traveling with them. This was supposed to be just him and Dizzy in the first place but it turned out that this was not feasible. There was little he could do to prevent these people from showing up, and the fact of the matter is he knew he would need the help. As powerful as he was, even he had his limits and the fighting had forced him to those limits once or twice already. If they had not showed up then he would have probably failed in his proposal to keep Dizzy safe. If Ryouga had not been there to get the girl away from Justice, that was a good example.
"Fine, whatever," Ranma said with his teeth grit, "do what you have to."
By the time the conversation had ended, the rest of the group had come back. There was no food in their arms so that theory was out of the question. Ranma supposed they were looking for him, it would not be surprising to know. Everyone was a little on edge with the knowledge that two powerful Gears were wanted because of their power. They were about to say something to Ranma when a giant explosion sounded in the distance. Everyone looked to see fire rising above the tops of the trees in billowing columns.
"The Gear army is starting to attack," Potemkin said as he stared, "Justice will be leading them. Damn these people and their stupidity."
Ranma was not looking at the fire for long before he took off in the direction of it. He could hear the yelling for him to stop but he paid no attention to it. This could be real and it could be a trap, all he knew was that if Justice was there he was going to kill him. This army was the same was the one that attacked his home and killed his family. There was no way he would allow something so gruesome to happen again, he was going to put an end to this.
Unknown to the man, he was being followed by the group he was running away from. He had a lead on them, but they were making their way towards where he was going. Moving as fast as they could, they followed the trail the man left through the woods. Two hours later they arrived at a clearing where they saw leveled buildings and dead bodies laying on the ground. In the center of the town was a mass of Gears, some laying on the ground and a large number pulsing around the center square. As they made their way closer they could hear someone shouting in anger as Gear bodies flew in random directions.
As good as he was, Ranma could tell that he was hopelessly outnumbered by these Gears. They lacked basic fighting skills and yet the sheer numbers of them were overwhelming him. There was one trick he had not used lately though, his life energy had not been projected onto these beings yet. Summoning his aura he started to shoot softball sized balls of energy out in every direction. Gears started flying around like gnats as the energy hit them.
"You will not prevent me from killing Justice," Ranma yelled as he hit multiple Gears with an overly huge ball of energy.
This fight was different from the first one because these Gears were commanded to kill him. In the original fight he had not been attacked because they had been ordered to kill humans only. With them attacking him now he was holding nothing back in dispatching these creatures. Then he started seeing Gears fall where he had not him them before, and there was the rest of the people who had been with him. Though glad for the help, he was afraid that it still might not be enough to defeat them all. The only way to stop them was to find and kill Justice, but he had burred himself behind the ocean of fighting Gears.
With a giant leap about thirty feet into the air, Ranma landed on the head of a crowd of Gears and crushed them under his weight. He continued with this until he had actually reached the Commander of Gears. He just stood and looked at Ranma, without reaction, the man was about to run up and attack when he felt something scratch his. It was only then that he realized he had allowed his anger to cloud his senses. Looking down, he wondered why they had just given him a scratch, then he started feeling woozy.
Vision blurring he dropped to his knees before shakily passing out and falling to the ground hard. None of this was noticed by the one he had left fighting the Gears. Ranma was bound and taken into a truck before anyone could see that the man was not there. As they drove off, the Gears withdrew and the group was left wondering what had happened. Then they noticed that Ranma was not present.
"What happened, where did he go?" Potemkin asked.
Ryouga looked around until he saw a wet spot on the ground that was out of the way from where they had been fighting. Walking over to it he bent down and smeared some on his fingers, smearing it around he nodded and stood once again.
"This is his blood, my best guess is that this was a trap to capture him," Ryouga said as he turned back to the group.
Ky sheathed his sword and looked at the man, "Then we have failed."
Ryouga shook his head, "No, we have not failed, I just wish we had some kind of lead."
"You could try the Assassins Guild," came a suggestion from an unknown source.
Turning, they saw a man in a grey suit with a pipe in his mouth and a short red cape on. He was tall and had his short brown hair parted on the side, giving him a clean appearance. A trimmed brown beard ran across the man's face. He stood calmly as he watched the group turn and regard him with distrust.
"Where is the Assassins Guild?" Ryouga asked.
The man chuckled, "Really, how rude the young are, if you want an answer ask the officer over there."
Everyone looked at Ky as he blinked in surprise, "I know where the Guild is but I don't know why they would want a Gear like Ranma, Mr. Slayer."
"I think you do know, you just don't want to admit it," Slayer said starting to walk away, "you better start looking for him, before they carry out their plan."
Nodding, Ky told the group of his plan to rescue the boy, or was about to until he noticed that Dizzy was missing. With a sigh, the police officer revised his plane. He was sure that the girl had gone off without anyone noticing to try to rescue Ranma. She did know where the Assassins Guild was, however she did not know what kind of trouble awaited her there. It was even more important now that they got moving so they could make sure the Guild did not get their hands on both Gears.
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End of Chapter 9. After a long wait I have finally finished this. I feel like this Story is coming to a close, maybe a little quicker than I had originally intended. Who knows though, I may try a sequel when I am done. Though I am not sure how that will work.
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