Souls and Shadows

Part 1: A Door Once Opened

Chapter 2

The martial artist population often found itself in the treatment room of Dr. Ono Tofu, despite the fact that, technically, he was a specialist in chiropractics, acupuncture, moxibustion, and the like. His skills were in fact rather more extensive than that, and were more the sufficient to the task of repairing even the major wounds that occasionally crop up as a part of an overactive lifestyle. Just as importantly to said martial artists, who tended towards having a great deal of spirit but rather less money, he didn't charge his friends.

Currently, Dr. Tofu was reading a report that had come to him the day before in a brown envelope marked "Water Waste Disposal Bill," sipping a cup of tea that was quickly going lukewarm, and nodding to himself. At the sound of the door being forcefully opened, however, he immediately ceased all three of these activities, and the report was quickly locked inside his desk. Rushing into the front room to see what the matter was, he was greeted by two very worried looking individuals from the 'poor martial artist' set, and a third, carried between them, who, despite also technically being a part of that group, was more pertinently labeled as 'patient.'

Ryoga was groaning in obvious pain, and Tofu visibly paled as he saw the state of the boy's arm. There was a great deal of blood, and his forearm was bent sharply in the middle. Worse, he could clearly see several bone shards peeking through the skin.

His body began moving on automatic while his conscious mind was still caught up in the question of how something like this had happened to Ryoga, of all people.

"All right, bring him in here and lay him down on the bed, quickly." Without waiting to see if they did so, he rushed back into his treatment room and began gathering together some equipment. He could sense the others entering the room as well, and when he turned back they had indeed laid Ryoga down as per his instructions.

"Good. Now, get out of they way..." He moved with a calm assurance that was, perhaps, a millimeter deep as he quickly selected a set of pressure points and gently pressed them.

Ryoga's whimpering continued, and he managed to hiss "S...Still...Hurtss..."

Tofu frowned, then his face cleared. "Right, of course. Ryoga." He pressed the points again, this time jabbing his finger at them like an awl. He took a moment to wave away the pain in his index finger. "That won't last you very long, I'm afraid. You're very tough, but that also makes you hard to affect with the techniques that I usually employ."

Ryoga nodded faintly. Akane, who had been silent up till this point, frowned. "Is there anything you can do, then?"

Tofu shrugged. "Not as much as I'd like..." He began setting up an IV. "I can give him morphine. That will damp out most of the pain. And I can administer antibiotics. But you really should have taken him to the hospital. I'm not really equipped to deal with something like this here." He tapped off the needle and, with some effort, inserted it into Ryoga's left wrist. He watched as, almost immediately, Ryoga's expression faded into a sort of dim semi-awareness of the world around him.

"No," said Ranma. His voice was flat and distant, as if preoccupied. "We can't take him to a hospital."

"Ranma!" Akane's face had assumed it's accustomed angry expression, though it was now tinted with disbelief. "If Dr. Tofu says that we need to take him to the hospital, than that's what we have to do. Can't you stop being difficult for a couple of hours?"

To both her shock, and Tofu's, Ranma seemed to shrink in himself. He shook his head. "Sorry..." His voice was very small. "Sorry... but we can't. Hospital will ask questions. 'Bout how this happened. Can't answer them right now."

Akane's mouth opened and closed incredulously a couple of times, and then she took an angry step forward. Tofu hastily leaped between them. "That's enough, you two. Please take this into the other room while I do what I can here. If you're going to fight, I'd rather you did it outside, if at all possible."

Ranma nodded, and Akane flushed from embarrassment. Both of them walked out.

Behind them, Tofu removed his glasses momentarily, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Oh Blessed Light... what am I going to do about this?" His training, still in primary control of his body, however, was already preparing the X-Ray machine.

In the other room, Ranma was huddled in a corner staring at nothing, while Akane was staring at him. After a bit, she sighed, and sat down next to him. Ranma gave her a startled glance.

"Um... I thought you were gonna hit me or something?"

"Not yet."

He nodded, and sank back into contemplation, not noticing Akane's frustrated expression.

In the treatment room, Tofu sighed again, and, shaking his head, walked back into the front. Ranma and Akane were sitting next to each other very quietly, and although Akane looked as though she wanted to break something she hadn't yet decided that Ranma was her intended target.

Hmm. Well that's better than I hoped for, at least, he thought. He began speaking without preamble, and both of them looked toward him, startled at his presence. "I'm sorry, Ranma, but the X-Ray shows that Ryoga has what is known as a greenstick fracture. That means that his bones have been twisted apart, leaving a lot of little shards and jagged edges. I can't do anything about that here. It'll require surgery to fix."

Ranma stared at him. "What do you mean? I thought you could fix just about anything. I mean, you can do ki-healing and everything and..." he frowned. "Why are you using X-Rays? Couldn't you use ki-sense to find out what was wrong?"

"Ranma, I could tell what was wrong as soon as I saw him, and just with my eyes. But while ki-sense and ki-healing can work wonders with soft tissues, I'm afraid that it's not nearly as good with bones." He shook his head. "There's no way that the kind of medicine you're used to getting from me can deal with the problem he has. I'm sorry." He raised a hand to hold off Ranma's next question. "Look, the procedure requires, at the very least, one more skilled practitioner, and neither of you are qualified."

Ranma's hands opened and closed helplessly. "You couldn't... y'know, walk us through it?"

Tofu glared at him. "If I wanted Ryoga to lose his arm, I could." His gaze softened as looked at Ranma's stricken face. "I really am sorry. But without another doctor, there's nothing I can do to help him."

The voice from the door was dry and cracked with age and amusement. "Perhaps I might be of some small assistance?"

Both Ranma and Akane's heads turned abruptly toward the door, and their eyes narrowed as they looked at Cologne. Neither of them quite trusted the old woman, and the timing seemed a bit too coincidental. And as a result, neither of them was paying any attention to Ono Tofu's face.

As soon as she had walked in, his eyes had gone wide, and the blood had drained completely away from his face. He swallowed nervously, and responded. "Well... um... I suppose you might be able to help..."

"Good." She smiled grimly. "Please, lead the way." Both of them stepped back into the treatment room. Once there, her amused expression vanished entirely. "What's the situation?"

"Greenstick break on Ryoga's right forearm... I've already administered morphine and antibiotics, but I can't operate here without an assistant. Ranma's dead set against taking him to the hospital for some reason..." His voice trailed off. "Since you're here, I suppose that it's Guardian business?"

Cologne nodded. "Ranma just experienced his first full Change. The mirror confirms it. And unfortunately for Ryoga, that means that Ranma is quite correct. We cannot risk sending him to a hospital now."

Tofu stared at her in shock. "He Changed? Already? But I though it wasn't due for at least another two or three years..." He broke off at Cologne's sharp look. "...Not that I doubt your words. I'm just surprised, that's all." He sighed. "Well, if you say no hospital, I certainly can't countermand that. But are you sure you can do this? You're an excellent healer, of course, but you don't have a medical degree..." His voice faded entirely under her withering stare.

"I may not have a degree, but I do have almost three hundred years of experience tending wounds like this and worse. On the battlefield, and in lost caverns, and on lonely marches where no help would ever come. And I seem to remember, about thirty years ago, a certain ambitious young healer traveling all the way to my village for the chance to beg of me an apprenticeship." She suddenly smiled, and patted his cheek fondly. "Ah, young one. Don't worry so. I acknowledge that you are my superior when it comes to the cut and poke of western surgery. This once, you shall be the leader. But..." she raised a warning finger. "Only this once, hmm?"

Out in the front room, Ranma and Akane were once more sitting silently, her staring and him, and him staring at nothing in particular. Finally, she gave a sigh and said, "Well?"

He slowly turned to look at her. "Well what?"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He turned away. "Not really." He was shocked when his head was grabbed, and forcibly turned back to face her.

"That's too bad, because I do." Akane's face softened. "Ranma, you haven't spoken more than a couple of words at a time to me in weeks now. You've been acting more than a little weird ever since the..." her face flushed. "...the wedding... ...and today you've been even weirder than usual." She reached up to absently brush aside the lock of hair that had fallen down in front of her eyes. Her hand came away sticky, and she suddenly realized that she had forgotten all about her own wound. One look at Ranma's face told her that it had slipped his mind as well.

"Aw, jeeze..." he stood up quickly. "Hold on, let me get a washcloth or something..." He darted into the bathroom, and returned with a wet cloth, which he began using to clean her blood caked hair and forehead. She sat obediently still, somewhat amused at his sudden concern.

"It doesn't look to bad... head cuts bleed a lot, that's all. You might need a couple of stitches or something, though." His hands moved gently and carefully across her scalp. It was always amazing to her that hand like his, which could break stone and metal, could also be so gentle whenever he could bring himself to touch her.

Her own hand caught his, and brought it away from her face. He opened his mouth to protest, but said nothing.

"I wasn't done talking, Ranma. I want you to listen to me, understand?" He nodded guardedly, wary of her serious tone. "You hurt Ryoga badly today, but I don't think that you meant to. I'm not sure what happened, but back in the lot, when you turned toward me... for a second there, you looked... ...strange."

He nodded again, looking down at the ground. "Look, Akane, I can't give you anything like a real answer, all right? I don't have a clue about what the hell happened to me back there. It was like..." He paused, and a puzzled expression came over his face. "It was like being caught in a windstorm at night. Like I was turned around and around until I didn't know what way I was facing, and I couldn't see anything to give me a clue anyway." He sighed. "And then I could see again, but it was like..." He shook his head, and stopped.

Akane bit her lip nervously. She was used to flared tempers, and confusion, and even magic and possession, but as much as she hated to think about it this sounded more like insanity than anything else. "Like what?" Ranma started to turn away, but she once again caught him, and made him look toward her. "I want to understand what's been going on. If you can't give me that, if you can't even try, than what can you give me?"

He stared at her, and slowly, with a voice raw as though the words had been dragged out with hooks, he said, "Everything was completely clear. Everything was simple and easy; I knew what to do, and I did it. He moved so slowly, and I was so much stronger than him... He'd hurt you, and it was so easy to decide that he should die for it..." He shuddered. "I was going to kill him. And it felt so right."

"But you don't feel like that now?" Akane said, the question coming hesitantly. "You seem to regret hurting him so badly..."

"'Course I do. Damn it..." His hands clenched tightly, the scars going dead white from the pressure. "I lost control, somehow. It was like someone else using my body and my mind to do those things. Like it was back at Jusendo..."

The tray beside Ryoga's bed was half filled with bloody splinters, and two stainless steel rods had been driven through the bones of Ryoga's forearm to keep them in alignment. Despite the fact that they had been working hard for nearly three hours to fix his arm as best they could, neither Cologne nor Tofu were sweating. Being able to manipulate one's own personal ki had benefits in situations like this. Ryoga himself was fast asleep, nudged into unconsciousness by a skillful prod of Cologne's walking stick.

Finally, Tofu stretched, and let out a sigh of relief. "There. That's about all we can do, aside from the casting, and I can deal with that myself. I'm grateful for your assistance, of course..."

"But you still wish that he had been sent to a hospital, eh? I can understand that well enough. But you do understand what is at stake here, do you not?" She leaned back on her staff, and realized suddenly that she was getting a perverse enjoyment out his discomfiture. She mentally chided herself. "It's all right. I understand that you are, in your heart, a doctor first. I do not blame you." She nodded as he relaxed. "However, I do request that you move your premises to the Nekohanten." He went rigid. "We can purchase the buildings on either side of the restaurant... we'll need much more space now that the others will be coming to live there. And you'll have to stop seeing other customers. It's too risky now."

Tofu's mouth opened and closed a few times, silently. Then, he nodded. "As you say. But is it really necessary?" Then, before Cologne could respond, he answered himself. "I apologize. Of course it is. I shouldn't have asked that."

She nodded.

"But... Is that enough? Shouldn't they be moved to a more secure location? Where they couldn't harm anyone?"

Cologne gave a sudden dry cackle, so hard that it seemed to nearly knock her from her staff. "Oh, dear boy. Where could I put them? There is no prison in this world capable of holding even Ranma, let alone the rest of them." She shook her head. "No. This was always a gamble, but it was one that had to be made. The Seraphim will not come to save us this time. We've had to find our own weapons, as they said we would."

She stood; an ancient and diminutive figure perched atop a gnarled wooden staff. She was ridiculous and yet somehow radiated a kind of dangerous vitality. Tofu decided that he didn't really want to argue the point. He moved aside, and she walked through the door, to speak with the two who waited there.

In the front room, Ranma was sitting with his head cradled in his hands, staring at the floor. Akane was seated next to him, obviously unsure of what to do about Ranma's uncharacteristically fragile mood. She looked up as Cologne walked in. Ranma's eyes remained fixed on the tiles.

Cologne grimaced. I'd hoped he wouldn't take it this badly. I suppose I should be direct about it, then... She cleared her throat, quite loudly. When Ranma didn't respond, she said, "Not feeling quite yourself, Ranma?"

His eyes lifted to meet hers with flashing intensity. With a wordless growl, he sprang at her, hands reaching out, although whether to grasp her cloak or her neck she was not sure. She spun out of the way of his clumsy charge, and caught him a blow on the back of his knees with her staff.

Akane had barely risen from her seat by the time Ranma, now on legs that refused to support him, crashed into the opposite wall. She opened her mouth, as though to yell at Ranma, then paused, confused as to whose fault it really was.

"Damn you, old ghoul..." Ranma voice was a muffled as he attempted to right himself from the pile of wrecked furniture and old magazines. "You know something about this, don't you? You always know something about what's going on! Tell me now!" His voice rose until he was shouting, and his eyes had locked onto her with a manic glare.

Cologne watched him impassively. "I will tell you, but only if you promise to not try anything so abysmally foolish again. Quite apart from the fact that I have no desire to be strangled by you, I'm also the only person you know who can tell you anything about your current... condition. And I don't think that you really want to kill me, Ranma."

Ranma shifted posture, going from aggressive to pleading in one smooth movement. Cologne thought it might have amusing, if it wasn't for the boy's obvious, desperate need for answers. "You mean there really is something wrong with me? I'm not just going crazy?" Before she could respond, his face broke out in a relieved grin. "Aw, thank God! Curses and demons an' shit like that I can deal with. So, what's the problem this time?"

Behind them, Akane sat down again. Something was odd about Cologne. Always before when the old woman had spoken to Ranma, she had always seemed... acquisitive. Now that was gone. Replaced.

"Odd that you should mention demons, Ranma, because that is indeed where this story is headed. Try to interrupt me as few times as possible, will you?" She smiled faintly, and looked back at Akane. "You should listen as well. This concerns you as much as it does him."

Akane nodded, and motioned for Ranma to move over and sit next to her, since the couch on his side of the room had been thoroughly demolished. He did so. It's odd... thought Akane. Now she seems like she already has him. She was certain she didn't like the implications of that at all. A thought occurred to her, and she said it aloud before she could stop herself. "You haven't called him Son-In-Law since you got here..."

The old woman sighed. "I think that particular game has just about run its course, as fun as it may have been. Don't you agree?" Ranma nodded, warily. "Right. Now, listen to me tell you a story. A true story, just in case you planned on arguing."

Ranma swore under his breath. Puzzled, Cologne glanced toward him. "What is it?"

"Nothing good ever starts with 'let me tell you a story.' I'm going to be up to my ears in prophecy in a second. Just you wait," he said, bitterly.

Cologne rolled her eyes."Not as such. Once again: pay attention, and don't interrupt."

She reached into a pocket, and removed her long-stemmed pipe and a packet of reddish powdery material, which she tamped into the bowl. She flicked it with he finger, and it began to smoke. Neither Akane nor Ranma saw her apply a flame to it. Cologne inhaled deeply from the pipe, and held it for several seconds before continuing. "It begins thousands of years ago, when the world was became the target of forces outside our own realm. Demons, they were called. Or devils, or rakshasas, or oni, or any other of a thousand names. What we called them was unimportant, really, because what they were, were enemies."

As she spoke, the smoke discharged from her lungs drifted up around her head, and formed itself into shapes, which soon resolved into the forms or monstrous creatures. Below them were crude, human figures, who ran as they approached.

"These enemies had power the likes of which had never been imagined by the peoples of the world. This was before steel, before iron. Before more than copper had been mined, and even that belonged only to a few advanced tribes. They came among the humans of the time, and ravaged the earth. They destroyed out of sport, killing and conquering those few who had the courage to stand before them."

Spears of lightning struck among the smoke-wrought humans, tearing them into billowed shards.

"Not all men chose to fight, or even to run. Many, and in increasing numbers, chose instead to follow. The enemies were willing to reward those men who did their bidding, and some tribes grew powerful indeed in the service of their masters."

A human, wearing a crown and long robe, bowed down before another form that was all claws and teeth and bat wings. Behind them, a hundred other men did the same.

"For a time, it seemed that humanity's dominion over the earth might vanish entirely before this wave of darkness. But as well as enemies, there were allies. To oppose the Gods of Darkness, came the Gods of Light."

The scene was shattered, and resolved itself into winged figures, who glowed with a powerful radiance, and carried swords that looked altogether too solid to be made merely of smoke. Akane began coughing, and Cologne looked at her witheringly, the tableau above her freezing as she did.

"It there a problem, child?"

"No... not really. I'm sorry. It's just... angels and demons? It seems a bit too mythological to be real. I mean, we've seen demons before. Most of them were pretty silly." She shrugged. "I'm not saying that you're lying, but you have to admit that it's all a bit... incredible."

Cologne glared at her. "Your demons were the demons of man, and of man's creation. The products of spells and rituals made long after the war I am speaking of. These were gods from outside our realm. Please believe me when I say that there was nothing 'silly' about them." She sighed. "I do understand your perspective, but I promise you that I'm speaking in earnest. Now where was I..." She looked up at the frozen angels. "Ah, of course. These gods of light were likewise from outside our realm, but where the dark gods were cruel, rapacious monsters, these angels were wise and benevolent guardians. For centuries, they fought our enemies across the face of the earth, they and their human allies. It was a war on a scale that has never been repeated in human history but was, according to them, only a skirmish in the war that eternally raged between these two forces."

Above her head, angels and demons of oddly colored smoke fought and tore each other apart, while below them, humans bearing standards both angelic and demonic likewise did battle.

"In the end, the darkness was vanquished, and the enemies were driven away from our world. The gods of light created a great barrier, an ethereal wall that they called 'The Veil,' to keep them from ever returning."

The smoke became a flat gray screen above her.

"But, before they too left this place, they conferred with the most trusted of their mortal allies and told them that while The Veil would keep the gods of darkness out for a very long time indeed, it would eventually fail, and the darkness would return."

A crack appeared in the screen; a rent that glowed with a wine-red light.

"And they told their allies, before they took their last steps from our soil, which they had bought back for us with immortal blood, 'We come to the aid of no world twice. When next the darkness comes, you must find you own weapons.'"

The smoke began to fade and disperse. Ranma and Akane's eyes, which had been fixed on the images, drifted down to meet the old woman's again.

"Do you understand so far?" She said, looking hard at both of them. Akane nodded, her eyes filled with apprehension. Ranma just gave her a blank stare. "I am a member of the Guardians of the Veil. We have, for four thousand years, ever since the end of that ancient war, been the keepers of this knowledge. We have monitored The Veil; maintained it as best we could, and been the guards of more than a few records and artifacts that were judged too dangerous to be released." She gave a grim smile. "And, as you've probably gathered by now, the veil is failing. The gods of darkness will be returning, and very soon."

Ranma glared at her. Then, with an air of exaggerated insolence, he placed his hand under his chin. "I still haven't heard a clear explanation of what's happening to me. If some dark god is possessing me, I think you should tell me right off. That's what I was listening for, anyway."

She shook her head. "Not exactly. You see, we first discovered that The Veil was failing about eighteen years ago."

His eyes narrowed. "Okay..."

"Well, during the ancient war, six dark gods of incredible power had been slain by the angelic forces. Their essences... their 'souls,' if you want to use a fairly inappropriate word, could not be destroyed, and so they were instead contained within six gemstones, which the angels passed on to us for safekeeping."

His eyes narrowed further. "Is this going where I think it's going?"

She sighed. "Likely, yes. Eighteen years ago, I made the decision to use these stones. Across the world, six infant children were found who possessed the highest possible resistance to the demonic taint that the stones gave off. We approached each child, and bonded the essence of one of the slain dark gods to it. We hoped that, when the time came, these children would be the weapons that humanity required to defend itself this time."

Ranma's voice was tight. "And I'm one of those children, right?"

Cologne nodded.

He stood up, knocking over his chair as he did. "Perfect! Just friggin' perfect! So now on top of everything else I have to deal with, I also got some kind of evil god living in me! An' not only that, oh no...." He began stomping across the room, arms up in the air. "I'm also expected to be a living weapon or something." He walked back over to Cologne. "Well, screw you."

Akane blinked. She wasn't surprised at Ranma's behavior, particularly. Not when she new, with a kind of numb certainty, that she was also included in the list of altered children. But she'd never seen Ranma in a full-blown rant before.

"Ranma, I know that you're taking this hard..." Cologne began.

"Damn right! This...this thing that you put in me..." Ranma's fist clenched. "This thing made me a murderer."

Cologne stared at him. "As I understand it, Saffron was not actually killed..."

Ranma waved that away. "Bullshit. I didn't know that he'd come back to life, and I tried to kill him anyway. That makes me a murderer." He knelt down in front of her, and stared her in the face. "Who else? Anyone I know?"

Cologne gave a sickly grin. "Oh yes. Two of them are in this building. Two more are waiting at the Nekohanten. The final one is at her own place of business. I'll have to pick her up later."

His eyes widened. "You... God dammit!" He stood up suddenly. "You put one of these things in Akane?"

Akane sighed. She wasn't sure whether to be grateful that she was the one he was worried over, or whether she should be irritated at the way he was dominating the conversation. "Ranma, I don't like this idea any more than you do, but I think we should..."

"No, you don't have any idea how much I don't like this," he said quietly. "I blink, and suddenly I'm not me anymore. Suddenly wanting blood on my hands. And now you're going to have to go through this too..." He visibly gathered himself together. "Cologne, are you going to help me or Akane..." He paused. "God damn you... Ukyo too right? And Ryoga." He barely waited for her nod. "Are you going to get these things out of us? Make it so we don't become someone else again?"

Cologne shook her head. "I'm sorry. I honestly wish that I could. But the fact is that you are quite possible the world's only hope against the darkness, as trite as that may sound. I can help train you; teach you to take control of these powers so that they no longer rule you. But I would not excise them even if it were possible." She stood up. "I think that it may be best if you go home to your families and say your goodbyes. The rest of you will be coming to live at the Nekohanten for a time. It will be necessary to train you together so that we can..."

Ranma laughed; a bitter, cynical bark. "Screw that, and screw you. I'm going home, and if I ever end up at your restaurant again it'll be a mistake neither of us'll forget in a hurry." He began walking toward the door. "Are you coming, Akane? I'd let her stew in her own mess if I was you."

She bit her lip. "Yeah... I'll be along in a minute Ranma. I just want to talk about a few things with her first."

A slow nod was forthcoming. "Well, okay. Just don't spend too long. You can't trust her." He turned again, and walked from the office. The force of the door slamming shut behind him nearly removed it from its hinges.

Cologne sighed. "Impetuous boy. He never stops to consider the consequences..." She stopped. Akane was glowering at her with a fury that had, up until now, been quite admirably hidden. "...Right. What, exactly, is it that you wanted to speak with me about?"

"I have a few questions, even if Ranma doesn't. But don't think I'm any happier with you than Ranma is. You've put both of us through hell before now, so I can't say I'm too surprised. But this is... well, it's beyond what I thought even you would do."

"Technically, this came before any of the other things..." Cologne murmured.

"Fine. Whatever. It doesn't make a difference." Akane was beginning to calm down. The act of telling off Cologne and, more importantly, living through it was a heady experience for her. "Okay, question one: It's not coincidence that all of your 'candidates' ended up in Nerima, is it?"

Cologne grinned. "Not at all, although it took surprisingly little manipulation to get you all here. We were prepared to expend a great deal of resources to accomplish the task, and almost none ended up having to be used." She leaned back. "Ask on, child."

Akane frowned. She disliked being called 'child'. "And why Nerima?"

Cologne shrugged. "Out of all the candidates, your family appeared to be the least inclined to move. It was judged easier to move everyone else into position around you. Expedience, nothing more."

"If you say so. And finally..." Akane leaned forward until her face was quite close to Cologne's. "Why did it take you so long to tell us? Wouldn't it have been easier if you gave us some warning?"

The old woman glared at her, and then, with a lightning motion, flung Akane back into her chair. Akane winced, and rubbed her shoulder where the staff had struck her.

"That's enough cheek from you, child. I'm willing to take that kind of abuse from Ranma. His actions have earned him the right to talk to me like that. Yours have not." She sighed expansively. "We had hoped that you'd develop into more..." She paused. "Well adjusted is the best term, probably. Yes, we had hoped you'd be better adjusted if you were allowed to live normal lives. We didn't want a collection of deranged psychopaths with godlike powers running amok." The old lady gave a chuckle of genuine amusement. "That backfired more than a little. Out of all them, yours is the most normal personality, and that's certainly saying something." She laughed again. Akane frowned. While she was perfectly aware of this fact, she didn't like hearing it from Cologne.

"No, we should have expected this. You children were in contact with the essences of these dark gods from infancy. That was bound to have unforeseen effects on your personalities." She shrugged. "Ah well. I, at least, still believe that you are suitable for the task."

Akane folded her arms. "And what if Ranma doesn't want to help you? You aren't exactly on my good list either."

Cologne snorted. "Please, child. He can posture all he wants, but the next time he hurts someone because he can't control himself, he'll come straight back to me. And a good thing, too." She stood up, and moved toward the door. "Not many are given the chance to save the world. You can't tell me that you've never dreamed of it. This is your chance to be a valued member of something greater than yourself. You'll want to think about it." She opened the door, and exited. The sound of the door shutting was rather quieter than the last time.

For a while, Akane sat there, fuming. If only Cologne hadn't been so... so damn right about her desire to contribute, to be more than just the kidnapped maiden or the object of cruel jokes about her domestic abilities... It was all she could do to stop herself from pursuing the old woman down the street to give her a good thumping. Only the sure knowledge that she would be the one who received all the injuries kept her in her chair.

After a while, Dr. Tofu came in with a hot cup of tea, and offered it too her. Akane took it from him gratefully.

"Well?" he said, pulling up the chair next to her, and trying not to look too hard at the destroyed furniture on the other side of the room. "Do you have any idea what you're going to do next?"

She mulled it over for a bit. "First of all, I'm going home. Then I'm probably going to get into an argument with Ranma, and hit him a few times."

Tofu laughed. "Of course. Just another day, hmm?" He paused. "But first, I think you better get a couple of stitches for that cut."

Her hand flew up towards her scalp, and touched the once again forgotten wound. "Oh. Right. But please hurry, it's getting dark."

Across town, there was a stirring in the air. If there had been any onlookers, they might have described it as a kind of slow, horizontal whirlwind. Certainly a few stray leaves and bits of trash that littered the back alley were caught up in it, and blown about as though adhering to a water wheel. But that would not have explained why it seemed that, from every direction, the bits of debris were getting smaller, as though disappearing into a distance that surely did not exist inside this small space between buildings.

It would not have explained the flickering scarlet light.

And it certainly would not have explained the massive, snake-like form that slowly forced its way through the aperture, and then stood there, staring with unblinking red eyes out upon the busy Nerima street. Certain drugs may have been able to do so, but even they would not have explained what happened to the first person that stumbled rather unsteadily into the alleyway.