Souls and Shadows
Part 1: A Door Once Opened
Chapter 4
The sun rose over Nerima, bright and rather hotter than was generally considered comfortable. All across the city, people who had lain dormant through the night were beginning to stir to life, and went about their morning routines. The Tendo house was no exception to this, although their concept of 'morning routine' was a far cry from the experience of most.
Despite Ranma's early warning to Genma that he wasn't in the mood for one of their morning spars, Genma had attacked him almost as soon as he had come downstairs. Consequently, Ranma's backpack was lying unattended in the corner, while Genma was lying unconscious at the bottom of the koi Pond. Ranma was still in a bit of a foul mood after the events of the previous day, and the act of taking it out on his father had utterly failed to impinge on his conscience.
He walked back into the dining room, dusting off his hands. He paused to pick up his backpack, and then sat down at the table, where Kasumi had laid out an excellent breakfast. His mother and Happosai were absent, but everyone else was there already. None of them seemed to notice when he sat down. Shrugging, he reached for the nearest pickle and speared it with his chopstick. He was about to transfer it to his mouth when the television news program in which the others were engrossed caught his attention as well.
-"...No suspects have yet been named in connection with the sudden rash of unexplained deaths, but according to Police representative Yoro Tekeshi a number of leads are being investigated..." The scene switched from the solemn, mustachioed anchor to the outside of police headquarters. A harried looking gentleman of middle years was fair being mobbed by a collection of reporters, all of whom appeared eager to get their own microphone as close to him as possible without shoving it up his nose. Attempting to clear himself some breathing space, the man spoke. "We are investigating several possible avenues at this time, and we assure you that despite these unfortunate incidents, the citizens of this city are as safe as ever."
This ambiguous statement incited a frenzy of question, most of which mingled into insensibility. Finally, one clear question broke through the bedlam.
"Sir, what about rumors that all twelve of the bodies carried no lethal wounds? That this is the work of some kind of untraceable killer?"
The police representative glared at the off-screen questioner. "We have no comment at this time."-
Slowly, Nabiki and Akane turned to look at Ranma. He simply stared back at them. Finally, Akane broke in. "So... Demons?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. Who know? In this town, it could be space aliens." He shoveled in a few mouthfuls of rice. "Nothing we can do about it yet. If we see somethin' going on, we'll help out, but I don't know how to track down demons. Do you?"
"Cologne might," muttered Akane.
Ranma glared at her, finished his rice, shouldered his backpack, and walked out the door. Akane waited a few more moments before uttering a rare curse and following him.
Nabiki chuckled. "Aw, they're so cute when they're pissed off."
The Nerima City Morgue was, despite the events that occurred within the town, not conspicuously busier than any other establishment of its kind. Most of the citizens had learned with remarkable alacrity exactly how to avoid the fallout from the numerous super powered brawls that took place on their streets, relatively few were ever injured by the slightly more unexpected paranormal activity that was part and parcel of Nerima life.
According to the mute evidence of the twelve bodies lying alongside one another within its walls, this fact was, however, obsolete.
Dr. Ono Tofu and Cologne walked among them, observing them closely. The city coroner stood outside the room, giving them plenty of privacy. Technically, this was illegal, and certainly unethical: Both Law and propriety prohibited leaving two unqualified individuals alone with the remains. But he was bought and paid for, and he suffered not even a twinge of conscience at his act. And they certainly seemed to know more about what was going on than he did.
Tofu traced a gloved hand along a pattern of bruises marking the arms and chest of a young woman, perhaps twenty-five years of age. They weren't enough to warrant the obvious lack of movement in the corpse. The way they're arranged... Constriction? No...there's no broken bones, no strangulation marks, no hemorrhaging. It looks like she was just held in place, while... He shook his head.
Cologne looked quizzically at him over the body of a middle-aged businessman. "Any theories?"
He nodded.. "According to the report, there's no sign of drugs or poison... other than alcohol in some of them, and PCP in one... but not enough for an overdose in any case. And the symptoms are inconsistent with OD. The wounds are hardly worth mentioning. They would have healed in a couple of days except..." He trailed off.
"Except that the victims are dead, you were going to say?" Cologne tapped her chin with a gnarled finger. "You don't like this, do you?"
He shrugged. "I'm not fond of dead bodies. I try to do my best so that I don't see any." His attempt at flippancy hung in the air with all the buoyancy of granite. He sighed. "Really, I'm fine. It's just that this is so obviously not human work... I didn't expect this sort of thing to happen so soon."
"So you're sure it's demonic in nature?"
"No explainable cause of death, and yet we still have twelve dead bodies. Precious few other things it could be. It'll take a deep scan to be certain, though. Whatever did this didn't leave any surface signs." He paused. "Should you or should I? You're better at this than I am, but..."
Cologne laughed, the sound echoing far too loudly in the corpse-occupied room. "Flattery from you? How novel." She laid her withered hand flat against the thigh of the businessman's remains. "Yes, I'll do it. Hold on a bit..."
She concentrated, sending out skeins of precisely directed ki deep into the cells of the body, searching out the residual echoes of the man's life force. There was nothing. She frowned, and concentrated deeper, sweeping her search across him again and again. Finally she pulled back, satisfied. "Well, that's one answer down." She rubbed her brow. That kind of work could be exhausting.
Tofu looked at her, ill-concealed impatience evident upon his face. "Which is?"
"How this man died. There was no life force present at all. Not a single thread. So whatever did this must have devoured it directly." She sighed. "And that means that it is certainly demonic. That Hinako woman might be able to do something like this... But from what I hear about her, I doubt even she would go this far."
"I assume you have a plan?"
Cologne nodded. "Of course. Ranma still hasn't agreed to our patronage, and as long as he does not, we'll not have Akane either. But once he understands that something like this is loose in his town, he won't stay away from us long." She gave a bitter smile. "As awful as it may seem, we may have to thank that demon."
Tofu's eyebrows raised in mild astonishment. "If you say so... Still, I don't think that I'll be shaking its hand any time soon." He looked down at the dead woman, her eyes open and staring blankly up toward the ceiling, and shuddered. "We'd better get back to the restaurant. Ryoga will probably be waking up soon, and I'd rather we were on hand to explain things to him."
Akane caught up to her fiancé barely a minute after they left the table. For once, neither of them was late for school, and Ranma was walking at a leisurely pace rather than sprinting the entire way. In deference to nigh-unbreakable habit, he was still walking atop the fence, however. He glanced down at Akane, and grunted unintelligibly.
She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for waiting."
He glared at her again, then suddenly hopped down from the fence, landing next to her. Twice he seemed about to speak, but closed his mouth before any words came out. Finally, looking up at the sky as if beseeching heaven for answers, he said, "Maybe we should talk to Cologne, hmm?"
She smiled slightly. "I think so. If it makes it any better, we still don't have to agree to her demands. We can just ask her if she can tell us anything about the murders, and if she refuses to help, than she's at fault."
He nodded slowly. "Right... I don't mind tracking down this demon, y'know. I mean, if there is one. I just don't want to get caught into having to..." He broke off.
"I know." Akane shook her head. "I wouldn't want to either, I guess."
"Hey, don't make it sound like it's just my problem!" Ranma gave a crooked half grin. "You're in the same boat as me, according to her."
She quickly turned away, hiding a rising blush. She couldn't really explain why it was that the thought of sharing something, even something as terrible as this obviously was with Ranma made her so inexplicably happy. Maybe because I can really begin to understand how his life works...
Ranma turned away, and for a split second Akane caught a glimpse of him in profile, pensive and solemn. God, he's beautiful, she thought, and then mentally slapped herself. Still, it was a pleasant thought, and would possibly have continued if she hadn't suddenly seen what he was looking at.
Ukyo Kuonji was crossing over onto their street on her own way to school. Dressed in her normal boy's attire, with bandolier and battle-spatula strapped to her back, Ukyo looked only vaguely feminine, more like an uncommonly beautiful boy than anything else. Akane had seen her out of that costume enough, however, to feel a surge of jealousy shoot up her spine. It didn't appear that she had seen the other two yet, but Ranma was already walking towards her, apparently intent on speaking to her.
Akane ground her teeth together. She knew that Ukyo was Ranma's best friend, and knew that she shouldn't be jealous, knew... well, at least was pretty sure that Ranma loved her, not Ukyo. But that didn't stop her aura from spiking into jagged, flamelike edges.
"Hey, Ucchan," said Ranma, falling into step beside her.
Ukyo looked over at him, and responded in a tired voice. "Hey Ranchan. How're things?" Her eyes were slightly red, as though she hadn't had enough sleep, and her face had that peculiar slackness that came from despair. She'd worn that expression quite a lot lately, although the tiredness was new.
Ranma glanced at her critically. "You don't look so good, Ucchan. Couldn't sleep last night?"
She shook her head. "I probably could have if I tried. It's just that I was up all night, packing. Gotta get everything together for the move..." she yawned. "I just wish I had a little more notice."
He stopped walking, frozen in astonishment. Ukyo continued onward for several paces before noticing his absence, then turned back toward him. By this time, Akane had caught up, and at the sight of her Ukyo's face tightened up into a credible imitation of a smile.
"Akane! How are you? Been treating Ranma right?" Her laugh was singularly unconvincing.
Akane grimaced. Confrontations with Ukyo had become... difficult, since the failed wedding. Privately, Akane believed that Ukyo hadn't quite forgiven the rest of them for completely excluding her from the great 'adventure' at Mt. Phoenix, and certainly had not forgiven Akane for 'trapping' Ranma into that fiasco of a wedding. She hastily shoved aside the insistent whispering of her conscience, which said that he had been trapped; knocked out and forcibly dressed in his tuxedo no less.
"Not too bad. Turns out that we have to save the world, but what's new?" Akane's voice was carefully neutral. Ukyo nodded, her smile fading.
Ranma, finally catching up mentally with Ukyo's last words to him, began, "Wait just a minute... The old hag, she talked to you last night, did she?" Ukyo nodded again. "And just like that, you're going to do what she says? Just abandon your business, and move in with Shampoo and Mousse?" Ukyo nodded a third time. Ranma threw his hands up in frustration. "Why? Jeeze, and here I go, thinking that you're the sane one outta this bunch..." He yelped as Akane kicked him in the ankle.
"Idiot," she murmured.
"Yeah... anyway," he said, glancing warily at his more confrontational fiancée, "That just don't make much sense. I mean, you don't owe her anything. Hell, if you believe that whole demon story of hers, she's the one who owes you." He nodded, satisfied by his infallible logic.
She looked at him sadly. "She threatened to buy out my property if I didn't do what she said. And she said she'd prevent me from ever getting a permit anywhere else. I think she was telling the truth." She looked away, and began walking again. Ranma and Akane both scurried to catch up to her. "Besides, like Akane said, we get to save the world. I can't say that's not appealing." Her face brightened, the first genuine sign of happiness Ranma had seen from her in a while. "And I'll be living with you too. We'll be able to spend a lot more time together, even if it is spent training."
Ranma grimaced, and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Uh... about that... I'm not gonna be moving in with her."
She shot a hard look at him. "Are you being a jackass again?"
He waved his hand in front of him in vigorous denial. "No, no! I'm just... Well, look. Did she tell you what happened to me yesterday?"
"No..." Ukyo's expression became suspicious. "Why?"
Ranma began telling her.
It was very dark, and all around him cold winds howled their fury. Nothing could be heard, except the wind. Nothing could be felt, except the wind. But despite the darkness, images whirled past him, shining with a kind of abstract light.
A figure, cloaked in insubstantial black armor, surrounded by a blue-black aura of shadows and menace...
Ever since you have come into my life, Ryoga, I have tolerated you...Not words, but the memory of what had been said. And then the memory of fear, and of confusion.
Don't interrupt me, Ryoga.
And then the memory of pain, searing through his arm until all the rest of the images flashing past faded to shades of gray. Nothing could penetrate the sheer blinding wall of the agony.
Goodbye, Ryoga.
His mind desperately cast about, searching every which way for the salvation that he dimly remembered, even in this state. This time, no brick was thrown. This time, the hand of that being, sharp edged like a steel blade, descended toward him.
With a start, Ryoga awakened, and for a few moments lay silently on his bed, wondering what had happened to him, and where he was.
I remember...Fighting Ranma. And then... Akane! She got hurt somehow...Anger began to intrude upon his thoughts. She shouldn't have been there... Dammit, Ranma, you always end up hurting her somehow...
Then he paled as what happened next came back to him. Holy hell...did that really happen the way I remember it? He looked over toward his right, and saw that his arm had been bound in a thick plaster cast. Now that he beheld it, he could feel the unaccountable numbness that came from torment fought off by painkillers.
There was an IV connected to his left arm. Contrary to every hospital wake-up scene in every movie he'd ever observed, he did not immediately attempt to rip it out. Instead he sat there for a few thoughtful moments.
Well, I guess that means it was real. He looked around the room. It didn't seem much like a hospital room, really. It was larger than most hospital rooms; more like a good-sized bedroom. The hospital bed and what medical equipment there was looked out of place, as though moved into a room not really designed for that purpose. The walls were varnished wood, and rust red curtains covered the single large window.
He stood up, being careful not to rest his weight on his injured arm, and walked somewhat unsteadily over to the IV. The bag was unlabeled; no clues there. Taking the IV stand with him, he instead went to the window. Once the curtains were thrown back, his suspicions were confirmed: He had no idea whatsoever about where he was.
Glumly, he sat back down on the bed. Being uncertain about his location was nothing new for him, but he'd never before been in such sorry condition while lost. He'd have a hard time defending himself with his arm broken, and the memory of exactly how much it had hurt made him question the wisdom of leaving this place without his own supply of painkillers. Do broken bones hurt very much after they've been set? I've never broken one before...
He'd been run over by vehicles of various sizes, hit by boulders weighing in excess of thirty tons, hit by people capable of splitting said boulders in half, whirled about by tornado force winds, and fallen off of more cliffs than he could remember. None of those experiences had ever ended up with him breaking anything. That the thing that looked like Ranma had been able to do this with a simple twist of his hand... Ryoga shuddered. He wasn't eager for a rematch with that thing, no matter how humiliating his defeat had been.
There was a knock on the door, and a muffled "Are you awake?" The voice was Tofu's. Inside Ryoga's head, questions began to laboriously form. Tofu was taking care of him, but this didn't seem like his clinic...
He shook his head. It'd be easier to just ask the man. "Yeah, I'm up. Sorta, anyway."
Tofu opened the door, and walked inside. He was carrying a large bowl, covered in an embroidered cloth. He set it on a bed tray with pair of chopsticks, and wheeled it over to Ryoga's bed, so that it could be comfortably eaten. Ryoga lifted off the cloth, and found that the bowl contained beef ramen.
Tofu pulled up a chair, reversed it, and sat down facing his patient. "So, how are you feeling? I think we did a fair job on your arm, especially considering that I wasn't allowed to bring you to a proper hospital." His smile tightened a bit at the mention of that, but his expression remained generally open and friendly.
"All right, I guess..." Ryoga began, than stopped. Something about what had just been said... "What do you mean by not being allowed to take me to a hospital?"
Tofu coughed. "Well, I'm not exactly an independent practitioner. I've got rules that I have to follow, and people I have to obey. My... well, my boss I suppose you'd call her. My boss informed me in no uncertain terms that there would be too many questions about how you got that..." he gestured at Ryoga's cast. "...if you went to a general hospital. So we had to treat you at the clinic."
Ryoga nodded, warily. This was starting to sound bad, as though he'd fallen in with organized crime or some such. The only incongruity was that it was Tofu. He tried imagining the man in a bad suit, wearing sunglasses and holding a pistol, and utterly failed. It was like trying to imagine Kasumi as an evil arch villain. Some things just didn't click.
Tofu smiled, and there was nothing false about it. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I'll try to answer them for you." He paused for a moment, thoughtful. "You're at the Nekohanten, by the way."
Ryoga almost spat out his mouthful of ramen. He looked at Tofu in horror, as though the man had mentioned that he'd been eating Arsenic Surprise. It was worse than organized crime. He'd been captured by the Amazons. "Holy hell...I'm laid up in bed in the same house as Cologne, Mousse and Shampoo," he murmured. "I'll be lucky to get out of here with all of my brain cells intact."
Tofu laughed, seeming genuinely delighted by Ryoga's commentary. "Yes... They do seem to have certain fondness for pharmaceuticals, don't they? You don't need to worry though. I know for a fact that Cologne's given strict orders to both of the other that they aren't to use any mind-altering substances on you."
Ryoga relaxed, somewhat. Cologne could usually be trusted, as long as you kept an eye on her. "Oh, thank god..." He'd seen what Shampoo had done to Ranma too often to be comfortable around her. And if ever confirmed the rumors he'd heard; that Mousse had once tied Akane up under a tank of Yahzunichuan water, this city would be minus one myopic weapon master. But if Cologne had given them orders, he could trust them to leave him alone. Mostly.
"Okay. So I'm at the Nekohanten, and I'm mostly safe. Good to start with. But..." he shook his head, trying to clear it. "My memory is a little fuzzy, I think. I remember fighting with Ranma, and then something happened. And Ranma became..." He grimaced. "Look, this is a little hard to explain. You know auras right?" He barely waited for Tofu's answering nod before continuing. "Well, Ranma's aura changed. A lot. It went all huge and black streaked and..." He gave up, acknowledging the futility of attempting to describe an aura in terms of visual effects. "Well, you know what I mean. Like he became someone else."
Tofu nodded. "Someone else in the same body, you mean?"
"Yeah..." Ryoga frowned. "But not exactly. I mean, it talked to me, and believe me it didn't sound a thing like Ranma. Too formal, too educated. No swearing. But the weird thing... The weird thing was that it also sounded like that thing believed that it was Ranma." He shook his head. "Possession I could get. This was something else."
The doctor grinned sadly. "Yes, it was. More amalgamation than possession, I'm afraid. Ranma finally let loose what's been sleeping inside him for most of his life."
Ryoga stared at him, speechless for a time. "I get the feeling I'm not going to like this, but you'd better tell me what you know anyway."
So Tofu told him. Ryoga was right; he didn't like it at all.
In the halls of Furinkan High School, three students had been assigned bucket duty as punishment for being tardy. Akane couldn't quite get it into her head how they had managed to be late, even with the early start they had gotten that morning, but suspected that long periods of standing on the sidewalk shouting at each other might have had something to do with it.
Ukyo had listened quite attentively while Ranma had explained, at some length, exactly why he didn't want to submit himself to Cologne's plan. About how he was perfectly fine with hunting demons and saving the world, but not if it meant he had to become that thing again.
"The worst part about it is that I'm still making the decisions," he had said. "It's just that they aren't the decisions I'd make, not if I wasn't messed up that way."
That had made some amount of sense, Akane had to admit. Ukyo hadn't seen it the same way, though.
"Look, Ranchan. I'm sorry about what you're going through, and I agree that it can't be easy for you to give in to her like that. But she's already said that you can't be 'cured.' And if you don't let her help you..." She'd sighed. "You broke Ryoga's arm, that time. What if next time it's me?"
That hadn't helped matters much. Ranma had vehemently denied that he'd ever do anything to hurt her, and Ukyo had instantly turned that back on him, pressing him about their engagement. And of course, Ranma had dithered, never quite denying her. Her hands had clenched so hard that her nails had dug into her palms, and her jaw ached from the effort of keeping silent. She'd wanted to hurt him.
But she remembered what Cologne had said, last night, about how these demon-essences that were bound to their souls had affected their personalities. The only thing that stopped her from committing grievous bodily harm upon her fiancé was the notion that it might not really be her that wanted it done.
So she had kept silent, and allowed Ukyo to pester Ranma until all three of them had heard the school bell ring. After that, it had been a race to see who could get to the school first. Ranma had won, of course, but she'd been neck and neck with Ukyo the whole way. She smiled at the thought. It wasn't often that she got to compete with the superhuman group and not get thoroughly humiliated.
For now, the three of them stood silently in the hall, carefully not looking at each other. Akane was fairly certain that the others were likewise beginning to realize how stupid their fight had been. Neither of them showed any sign of discomfort from the weight of the buckets, but if she knew Ranma at least, the boredom would be killing him.
Even as she thought this, Ranma shifted, moving closer to the window. From the third floor window they had a generous view of the back schoolyard, and the fields, if one chose to look that way. For now, Ranma's eyes appeared to be fixed on a figure in blue kendo garb that was currently striding... the word 'walking' wasn't adequate to describe the level of haughty ceremony put into his steps... striding across the fields toward the forest.
"The hell is he doing out there?" asked Ranma, a puzzled expression on his face. "Don't he have class right now?"
Ukyo shrugged. "That idiot makes up his own rules. Always has, as far as I can tell. One more privilege of the asinine samurai class." She smirked.
Akane frowned in response. Her own family came from samurai stock, and while she'd be the first to agree that Kuno was a major piece of evidence for the theory that there was no intelligent life on Earth, she had a sneaking suspicion that Ukyo might be deliberately including her in that statement.
Ranma grunted. "Hmm. Maybe. I wonder what he's doing, though. Wandering around in the woods usually isn't Blue Moron's thing."
Tatewaki Kuno, Age 19, walked with stately grace through the wooded area behind Furinkan high, musing to himself as he did so. His ever-present bokken was held casually in his right hand, and occasionally flicked out with lightning speed to remove a stray branch or spider web from the Blue Thunder's path.
He'd ignored the order of his educator to stand in the hall, reasoning that his time might better be spent in contemplation unencumbered by the trivial distractions of the school. The teacher hadn't attempted to obstruct him. Obviously fearful of his might, the obsequious lecturer had merely mumbled something under his breath and turned back to address his class.
No respect for the requirements of a superior mind, the lot of them. He sighed, bemoaning the fate that had him attending this place of infantile learning with the rest of these churls. He learned far more in his solitary studies: of his country's great history, and of the part his own family had played in it. Of poetry, and art, and of warfare. He sighed again, this time more suitably dramatic. Of course, going to this common school did mean that he was able to observe his twin loves on a frequent basis...
As he walked, he began composing a poem in his head, directed toward one of those two spirited beauties.
Pig Tailed Girl, as fair
As autumn leaves blown in the
Wind of my passing.
He frowned. As beautiful as the lines surely were, there was something amiss with them that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
So lost in thoughts of love and poetry was he, that he didn't notice the black, coiled form in front of him until he had already run into it. Puzzled, he prodded it sharply with his bokken, and was rewarded when the the great, snakelike being unwound itself from around the tree, and stared balefully into Kuno's face with scarlet, unblinking eyes.
The thing did indeed resemble a snake, but with several obvious differences. It possessed no mouth, but rather had a small round aperture near the front of its head, about the size of a woman's bracelet. Its black scales shone with a dull finish, and as it reared up to a height of about ten feet, Kuno could clearly see a series of segmented, rib like spines crossing over its chest, thin flesh stretched between them. Slowly, the ribs began to unfold until they formed a pair of sails running down its sides, and exposed a brilliant red underbelly. Its tail, ending in a kind of bony club, twitched as though restive, and the eyes continued to stare down at him.
Kuno gaped at the creature for a few moments, stunned, for once, into speechlessness. Then, a manic glint coming to his eye, he began to chuckle.
The Shadow Snake, already preparing to devour the intruder's life force, paused. It had never gotten a reaction quite like this before from its prey.
"Heh heh... Red and black, eh?" Kuno moved his bokken into a guard position. "So, the demon Saotome finally shows his true form. Has it truly taken you this long to work up the courage to face me directly? Truly, I had tired of defeating your churlish minions."
It stood there, stock-still and utterly nonplussed. It was dimly capably of understanding Kuno's language, but as far as it could tell, the strange man wasn't making any sense.
"So, you stand speechless, no doubt too afraid to even plead for mercy! But this display of cowardice will avail you not, for the Blue Thunder intends this to be our final confrontation!" Even as he spoke, Kuno rushed forward, bringing his bokken around in a dizzying arc to impact on the snout of the Shadow Snake.
It watched the weapon approach with a kind of lazy nonchalance, secure in its inability to be hurt by a bit of wooden stick. The line of pain that flashed through it when the bokken carved a bloody in its hide came as a devastating shock.
Whatever else could be said about Tatewaki Kuno, (and indeed, volumes could have been written on him, although they would be mostly psychological in nature) he was an excellent swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi was generally considered to be the finest in Japan's history, but even he couldn't cut rocks in half by air pressure alone.
For Kuno's part, the events were no less astounding. Accustomed to easily cleaving through stone with his wooden blade, the fact that only this minor cut had been opened was nearly unbelievable. Almost faster than the human eye could follow, he followed up with two more slashes, each opening an equally insignificant wound in the serpent's armored scales.
The Shadow Snake was incapable of hissing like a terrestrial serpent, but managed to convey its displeasure at the way events were turning out all the same. The idiot had actually managed to hurt it! Whatever that weapon was, it needed to be dealt with, and quickly. Managing to dodge a fourth strike, it brought its tail around in a lethal swing which impacted Kuno's torso and sent him flying through the woods, back toward the school.
Confident that its opponent would be dead from the blow, the serpent followed at its leisure.
Ryoga's ramen had long since gone cold as he sat in bed mulling over what Tofu had said to him. That Ranma carried a demon in him wasn't terribly surprising. Anyone who had seen him at Jusendo would have known that something frightening lay within him. The news that the rest of them were similarly bound was only slightly more shocking. After all, there wasn't a normal personality in the bunch, even including, (and here he begged for forgiveness) Akane. But even if it wasn't an incredible shock, it was still a lot to take in.
"So," he began, slowly. "The rest of us are going to have to go through this transformation deal too?"
Tofu nodded. "I'm afraid so, Ryoga. According to what I know of the process, which admittedly isn't a whole lot, eventually you'll be placed in a position where you have to make a choice: Whether to allow yourself to lose something that you value dearly, or to give in to that... dark spot... inside of you." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, this is all pretty theoretical. I'm just relaying the lore that we have about this process. There's never been any test subject, so I can't tell you for certain. Ranma seems to bear it out, however. Apparently while he was at... Jusendo?"
Ryoga nodded.
"Right. Well, apparently, while he was at Jusendo he was faced with the prospect of loosing Akane, and he instead chose to allow the demon essence to awaken. Now, from what you've told me, he didn't exhibit the kind of intense power then that he did with you, so maybe the fact that he didn't consciously know what he was doing affected it." Tofu tapped his chin a few times, then got up and began walking about the room in a contemplative daze. "But conscious or not, he'd made the deal. So when Akane was again injured during your fight..."
Ryoga winced. Saying that he was embarrassed about that would have been like saying that he had a small dislike of cold water.
"...the demon essence immediately awakened again. I'd guess that since this time it already had a channel to come through, the power it endowed him with was far greater." Tofu shook his head. "If I didn't firsthand see the kind of trauma it caused that poor boy, I'd be tempted to call the process fascinating. As it is, I just hope he can survive it."
Ryoga frowned. "Poor boy? Ranma and me aren't that much younger than you."
The doctor grimaced. "Ah, well that's not entirely true... I'm a bit older than I look. I was apprenticed to Cologne some years ago..." he ignored Ryoga's incredulous look. "...and among the things I was taught were the anti-aging ki-excercises that she uses to maintain herself." He smiled. "I don't look to bad for someone who's pushing fifty three."
The lost boy stared at him. "And you're trying to have a relationship with Kasumi?"
Tofu's glasses began to fog up, and then quickly cleared again. "K..Kasumi is very mature for her age."
"Right...Um..." He floundered around a bit, attempting to form a coherent thought that didn't follow those suddenly disturbing lines. "So, you can't cure us?"
"No, I'm sorry. Even setting the whole issue of saving the world aside, it would be impossible without turning you into a vegetable." Tofu stopped short at Ryoga's sudden look of horror, and remembered that he wasn't dealing with most subtle person in Nerima. "I mean, without destroying your personality. I couldn't actually turn you into a... Well, the point is, you were bonded to the demon essence at the age of four months. If we were to remove it, and every trace of alteration it had made to your psyche, you'd be left with the approximate personality of a four-month-old infant."
The boy sighed heavily. Knowing how to perform the perfected Shi Shi Hokodan was beginning to become a serious risk to the structural integrity of this house. "Fine, I understand. But I don't think I'm going to be killing any demons for a while." He gestured at his right arm. "The one I fought yesterday did a number on me."
Tofu nodded, not mentioning that there was already another one running around the city. "I'll leave you alone. You really need to rest; it's the best way to speed your recovery." He paused. "That and drinking a lot of fluids. I'll have Shampoo bring you up something to drink." He turned to leave, picking up the cold ramen bowl as he went. Just as he was about to exit the room, Ryoga's voice stopped him.
"Dr Tofu? When the dem...when Ranma was about to kill me... Why didn't my own demon wake up?"
Tofu grimaced again before turning back to answer. "Well, I can't be completely sure, you understand. But my impression of you is that you've never particularly valued your own life." He paused, obviously torn between propriety and his desire to speak. Desire won out. "Maybe it's none of my business, but... try to find something to be happy about, Ryoga. Life's too hard to go through being miserable all the time." With that, he turned and left.
Ryoga stared at the door for some time after the doctor had gone, and then sank back down into the cushions of the bed. He couldn't help being a bit angry at Tofu for saying things like that to him; what did he know about Ryoga Hibiki's problems? But at the same time...
He reached up to scratch a sudden itch on the back of his head. He hoped he'd get a chance to call Akari soon.
"What the hell..." said Ranma, as Kuno flew out of the woods and plowed a long furrow in the baseball field. The speed at which the upperclassman had been traveling was obviously great, but Kuno's ability to recover from damage was almost legendary, so Ranma was more confused than concerned. It was only when the huge, snake-like form emerged into view that Ranma understood what was going on.
"Wow," said Ukyo. "Big sucker, ain't it? Must be twenty, twenty-five feet long..."
"Who cares how big it is?" said Akane. "We can't let it kill Kuno!"
The others went silent, and looked guiltily at one another. Eventually, Ranma scuffed his slipper against the ground and said, despondently. "Yeah, I guess so. Maybe we could let it rough him up a bit?"
That earned him a glare from Akane, and he retreated. "I guess not."
"Um... While we were talking about it, it looks like the snake made its own decision," said Ukyo, peering out the window. "It's just knocked Kuno...Holy Crap!"
Expletives were not nearly as rare from Ukyo as they were from Akane, but they still served as adequate warning. All three of them had time to duck as the window exploded from outside, and Kuno's battered form struck the ceiling and fell back to ground, limp as a wet rag.
Ranma whistled. "That thing's damn strong. Knocked him up three stories, and an' probably... what, two hundred feet?"
Akane, who was busy looking Kuno over, hissed at him. "Can you please save the commentary for later, Ranma? I'm trying to see if Kuno's all right."
Her fiancé looked at her, annoyed. "Hey, I'm just trying to get a handle on its abilities, okay? I'm gonna be the one who ends up fighting this thing, after all."
Ukyo and Akane shook their heads simultaneously. "Not alone, you're not," said Ukyo.
"Indeed," declared Kuno, in a weak voice from the floor. "The demon Saotome has not yet defeated me..."
Ranma stared at him, and then shook his head. "I don't wanna know where that came from. Akane, keep him from doing anything stupid, will you?" He turned back toward the window, attempting to ignore the clamoring of students and teachers as they began filtering into the hallway to catch the latest floorshow.
The serpent had somehow climbed the wall, and was already dragging itself through the broken window, its scales scraping noisily across shattered glass. Eyes like twin embers fixed Ranma in a predatory stare.
"...Shit," he said.
Authors Notes:
About Kuno and Nabiki's ages. They're both 19 and both still in high school. I rationalize this by claiming that both of them have birthdays very close to the cutoff point for new students, making them among the oldest students in their age group. Second, I have deliberately set this story in late spring, which is, I believe, the last part of the Japanese School year. If I'm wrong about this, please feel free to correct me, and I will make my own corrections.
The upshot of this is that both of them are almost out of their last year of high school. I've known people like this myself, who were 19 in their last year, through no fault of their own. So, before anyone asks, neither Nabiki nor Kuno were held back.
Kuno would certainly kill you if you implied it. Nabiki would probably just laugh.