Ranma came to without even realizing it. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but he had been out for some time; that, at least, was certain. He remembered being taken prisoner, but he didn't know how he had come to be strapped to a wall. The last thing he could recall was a bright flash, and then... He tried to open his eyes to see where he was, but found that they were already open. Yet he saw nothing but total darkness. Could that flash have blinded him? The mere possibility drove him to panic, and he thrashed as best he could against his bonds. However, the metal straps refused to yield to his strength, remaining securely fastened about his ankles, his waist and wrists, and his neck. Not that he had much strength to offer, at the moment; he felt tired and weak, as if the energy had been drained from his body. He wouldn't put such an act past his captor, in any case.
'Akane, this is all your fault!' he thought bitterly. 'You're the one who trapped me in this freakish body, and then you sent that demon after me, when I was only trying to rescue you and the other girls!' He raised his head from the wall as best he could, relieving the pressure on his aching pigtail. 'I swear, when I finally find you... if you're not already dead, I'll kill you!'
"You're awake," a deep voice announced matter-of-factly from the darkness.
Ranma tried to reply, but the words refused to come out, and he merely grunted.
"Ranma Saotome, the time has come to make your choice."
Ranma cleared his parched throat. "What choice?" His voice sounded strangled, even though the band around his neck offered ample breathing room. He'd gotten used to his new voice in the few days since the final transformation, but it sounded more strained than ever.
"Akane," said the voice, seemingly unconcerned about Ranma's condition. Light flooded Ranma's vision, and he quickly shut his eyes, relieved that he had not in fact lost his sense of sight. He let his eyes adjust to the brightness before opening them again. The light source turned out, disappointingly enough, to be an ordinary ceiling lamp, hanging from some unseen point in the darkness. Yet Ranma's eyes were glued to the object it illuminated: a tall vertical table to which the unconscious Akane Tendo had been bound at the ankles, waist, and neck by large steel bands. Seeing her reminded Ranma of his burning for vengeance, but it quickly subsided as he realized that she had already received the same fate as he had, minus one Jusenkyo curse-based mishap. Actually, she had probably been through worse, judging from the condition of her clothes.
"Shampoo," continued the voice, as Ranma's mind continued to reflect on Akane's fate. A second light turned on to Akane's left, illuminating a second table - third, if he counted the one to which he assumed he was strapped - which held the Amazon prisoner. She, too, appeared to be unharmed, except for the spots of mud dotting her from head to toe and a few tears in her clothing.
"Ukyo," said the voice, and the third light shone down on the okonomiyaki chef, strapped to yet another table. Ranma's heart fluttered at the sight. Even though the revelation of Akane and Shampoo had assured him that Ukyo was safe, seeing her brought back the terror of three nights before, when she had been kidnapped. He'd never expected to see her again, but there she was... and aside from the mud and the fact that she was unconscious, she seemed to be in perfect health. And even before he saw her, he knew that the fourth victim would be just fine.
"Kodachi," finished the voice. The light came on as expected, but the predictable sight of Kodachi Kuno strapped to the fourth table still shocked Ranma. The leotard she wore had the same mud stains and tears as the other girls' clothes, but she seemed to be in worse shape than the others. Her feet, particularly, appeared to have been burned, and her face looked worn and haggard. Ranma couldn't imagine what had happened to her, though. Perhaps it was only the shadow cast by the bun of hair atop her head that made her face look darker than usual. Then again, she might not have been wearing makeup when she was taken from her bedroom in the middle of the night...
"Each of these women cares for you very deeply," the voice cut in. "Each one of them has called you her fiancé."
"So?" retorted Ranma, his voice a bit stronger than before.
"You also have feelings for each one of them, despite the way you act toward them. It is time for you to stop denying those feelings and decide which one you will wed."
"Is that what this is all about?" asked Ranma. "That's why you kidnapped me, and all of them?"
"Your philandering has caused a great deal of trouble for many people, Ranma Saotome. Because you do not take your engagements seriously, all four of these girls must suffer for their false hopes. And as they suffer, those close to them suffer as well."
"They'll suffer even more if I choose one of them," argued Ranma. "Then they won't even have their hopes. Just broken hearts."
"Their suffering will be brief," replied the voice. "I will make sure of that."
"What do you -" The loud whine of machinery starting up at the far end of the room cut Ranma off. It was followed by a low hum, like the sound of an elevator descending. Ranma leaned forward in his bonds, peering into the darkness, but he couldn't see anything. "What's that?"
The voice failed to answer, but Ranma's curiosity was sated anyway as four sharp points entered the cones of light above the heads of his fiancées. The thin shafts holding the spearheads descended until the spikes were barely touching the heads of the four girls.
"What are those for?" asked Ranma.
"You have never taken the choice seriously," said the voice, with just a hint of anger. "Every time you are faced with the choice, you avoid it, knowing that you can change your mind at any time. Well, this time, the choice will be final. You will choose one of the four to become your true fiancée. That one will be released unharmed. And just to prevent you from going back on your word, the other three will die."
Ranma's entire body jerked involuntarily, arrested quickly by the metal straps. "You can't do that!" he protested. "It ain't fair!"
"You stringing them along isn't fair," countered the voice. "I am the one holding you prisoner. I have the privilege of deciding what is fair."
"Just you wait until I get out of these things!" shouted Ranma, straining against his bonds as if expecting his determination to break them. "I'm gonna make you pay!"
"You don't have the strength to break them," said the voice, clearly amused. "I made sure of that. Those straps are made of a material far stronger than anything humans can create, and I have the only key that can open them."
A plan began to form in Ranma's mind. If he could buy himself some time, he might be able to turn the situation to his advantage. He smirked. "You're going to keep me here until I choose, right? So, what if I don't choose? What are you gonna do then, huh?"
"You will choose," replied the voice. The tip of a spike pressed against Ranma's scalp. "You have five minutes. If you haven't made your decision by that time, then all four of them will die, and you will join them."
Ranma swallowed. Five minutes wasn't much time, and there wasn't much he could do while unable to move. No chance of escaping, then. He had to go along with his captor and make his choice. But how could he choose only one of them, knowing that the others would never smile again, never laugh, never try another crazy yet somehow sweet scheme to win his love...
Akane would seem to be the obvious choice. She'd never tried anything crazy to win his love, the way the others had. He had been living with her for nearly a year now, and cared about her more than he'd ever cared about anyone in his entire life. She had to care about him, too; she'd helped him out of dangerous situations many times before, often putting her own life at risk to do it. But after the events of the past few days, he doubted she'd ever want to talk to him again, let alone agree to marry him. Not only had they spent most of that time pissed off at each other, but to top it off, she'd found herself a new boyfriend. If Ranma chose her, she'd go right back to him anyway. Besides, wasn't this entire situation her fault? Hadn't Ranma just threatened to kill her if he ever saw her alive again? Sure, he didn't really MEAN it, but when three of them were going to die no matter what he did... could he let Akane be one of the ones to die?
And then there was Shampoo. Slightly bossy, very forward, and the in-laws would be no treat, not to mention the problem of her cursed form being the very creature he feared most. But it was Ranma's own fault she was engaged to him in the first place. He'd been the one who'd beaten her in combat, forcing her to marry him by her tribe's law. He wasn't quite sure of her real feelings for him, but she'd been there for him when he'd needed her, helping him search for a cure to his curse and protecting him somewhat from Cologne's more harmful schemes. He'd dragged her into his life, and she had fallen for him... could he really condemn her to death?
And what about Ukyo? She had been promised his hand in marriage long before he'd met any of the other girls, only to be left behind; and he could only imagine the suffering that had caused her. To drive her to dress as a boy, it must have been a scarring loss for her. Then she'd found him again, determined to make him suffer as she had... and instead, she too had fallen victim to his charm. Unlike the other girls, though, Ranma enjoyed being in Ukyo's company as a friend. Maybe that friendship would become love, given enough time together, free of the distraction of the other girls trying to tear him away from her. He could think of worse ways to live the rest of his days. And even ignoring the issue of marriage, there was still the question of whether he could leave her to die. He'd already lost her once, recently, and the despair had nearly torn him apart. Could he doom her again, this time to certain death?
And as for Kodachi... well, that narrowed the choices to three.
"Time is running out..." warned the voice. Ranma let his head hang. There was no way to make a decision like this. He cared too much about all of them to let any of them die. Each one had her own problems, true; but each one also had her own strengths, her own abilities, her own personality... her own life, in which he had no right to interfere... and yet he had, whether by his own choice or not, and now three of them would suffer for it. But which three? Nearly five minutes gone, and all he'd managed to do was think himself in a circle! He didn't have time to think any more! He had to make a decision... had to choose... had to watch three girls who loved him die because of that love...
What had he done to deserve this?
Ranma 1/2: A Deadly Choice
