she spat a few words and a spark of light started dancing about as she flicked the wand about, leaving a trail of light behind that soon started to form a pattern "bring before me the one that might aid in this time of need." she intoned as the light flaired brightly. she stepped back as a body hit the ground and groaned in pain "adjust quickly to your returned life warrior, you are needed desperately by those that you sacrificed yourself for." she walked over and flicked on a light switch and turned to look at the massively built young man before her, the wounds that had stole his life six months ago no longer on him "i trust you enjoyed death, because you shall see it again, in due time."
he looked up at her, his blue gray eyes flashing with pain and
strength he had never felt before "wh- what have you done to me"
he asked in a rusty baretone voice. she smiled slightly "surely you
realize that with the absence of a few items of magic you were
aflicted with, your potential would surface? come, saotome ranma,
did you not wonder about how you never grew after jusenkyo?" he
blinked in shock "i- i'm cured?" he asked softly. she nodded "and
you no longer fear cats. you are a perfectly normal twenty four year
old, whos widow even now flees from those that took your life."
ranma gapped at her in horror "so it was for nothing then?" he breathed. she shook her head "your death was six months ago."
ranma hissed pulling akane tightly to him after rounding the corner
and held her close as the machinegun fire riddled the wall they had
ducked behind. ranma panted softly looking around wildly for a
minute before his eyes fell on the sewer run off a few feet away.
he looked at akane in front of him and a calming feeling passed over
him at the fear on his wifes face, clutching their daughter to her
in her panic. ranma walked her over to the manhole and pulled it
open "get in here, forty yards to the south it'll lead into the
tunnels nabiki used for her business. go." he let her go and walked
back over to the wall looking back he jerked back and snatched out
at the rifle that was in the mans hands and quickly smashed his head
through the brick as he opened fire on the rest of the black clad
ninja coming along behind him. he looked back at his love and jerked
his head at the hole "go!" he shouted firing again "not without
you!!" she shouted in tears. he looked back at her "i can't akane! i
have to stop them from following you! save yourself, save ranko." he
pleaded starting to cry himself. she shook her head and yelped when
he suddenly unloaded his gun into the four man that rushed the
corner. he grunted flying at the last four, ignoring the pain the
bullets he couldn't dodge flaired in him. he quickly took their lives
and ran back over to akane "get in there!!" he shouted desperately.
she cried out looking behind him and he quickly jumped in the way
and jerked slightly shielding his family from the shots. ranma dove
for the four men and killed two of them before crumpling under the
bursts that took him in the chest as he killed the ones that killed
him. he struggled to turn over and looked with tears in his eyes
"go...!" he breathed. he nodded hearing her despairing wail slowly
disappearing as she ran away. ranma grabbed one of the rifles and
sent a burst of fire across the six men that ran up, catching them
all in the chests or faces. he looked down the alley they had been
running down and smiled slightly feeling numb, akane would repay them
for doing this to us.
it was a dark alley, six men were aproaching from the street facing it. looking rediculous in their gray peacekeeper uniforms. they walked carelessly, no one had fought back against the new ruling government since japan had heard that the only ward still fighting their law had lost their chances of staying autonomious, when they had hunted down the last great houses of samurai and the martial arts clans that had settled there a few years before. they laughed looking around the deserted streets, assured no one would dare be out after the curfew. "hey check out the chick." one of them exclaimed softly seeing the small red head that was leaning against the wall just passed the alley we noticed at the begining of the paragraph.
"hey! why are you breaking the curfew rule?" one of them bellowed baring down on her. she smiled "me? i'm hunting silly!" she said sweetly. he started to answer when a hand clamped down on his throat and crushed the life from him, the five gapped in shock as a man in black flew out of the alley and took their lives in less them four seconds. the girl clapped her hands softly looking smug "you honor my decision to bring you back." she said pleased. he looked at her "when can i go to my family?" he growled, his face not seen once since the hood did a good job of hiding his features, but not the blue fire that flaired in them.
"soon, soon, but its not right at this time, we have work to do,
then you may go home, come, lets continue." she patted his arm
soothingly as they faded back into the darkness they'd come from
"you better not be lying to me."
ranma grumbled softly to himself looking at the holes and the burn
marks that were ruining his trench coat "damn it i liked this coat"
he yelled throwing it at the floor. the woman snorted coming into
the room "and it doesn't bother you that the bullets passed through
you to make those holes." she chuckled. he growled at her. she
smirked "enough of this, my time here grows short, once i finish the
last two phases of my plan you'll be able to topple the overlord
china inflicted on us." he nodded laying down on the floor like last
time, closing his eyes to await the sleep.
"i can't believe this! will you look at this!?" ryouga snarled
stalking back and forth in front of the tv that was playing the
anouncement. "and until farther notice, china is now in control of
japan. as the rightous victors in the war with the other asian
nations china is... sending an accupying army into the concured
realms to ensure no aid for the western alliance can be found here.
all clan lords are comanded to report to the generals closest to
you to report the strength of your families." ryouga smashed his
hand into the screen and snarled to himself as the others in the
room with them glared at him "we were watching that." ranma growled
at him. he glared back "why the hell are you so calm?!? how can
you be calm?! after what they did to the people in okinawa!!! don't
you realize they'll do that here too?!"
they blinked looking up at him "what happened?" tofu asked in surprise. ryouga stopped dead in his tracks. "you mean.... you haven't heard?" he paled looking at the families gathered in the room, the onos, tendos, kunos and saotomes, all of them holding at least one child close. he looked horrified "thats why you didn't fight!" he rubbed his head "oh crist!" ranma glared at him "what happened?!" he demanded sharply, stoping to sooth the scare his daughter took from it. he looked at him before falling to his knees before them "ranma.... four months ago..... the magistrate of okinawa enforced a law the overlord passed down.... all children below the age of five were put to death."
the room exploded in horror, shock, and rage on the part of all of
the new fathers in the room. "this can't be true!!" kuno bellowed
enraged putting his hand on nabikis shoulder, trying to comfort her
as she held their son. "why haven't we heard of this before?!" soun
demanded. ryouga shook his head not having an answer "i got lost on
the way here.... i passed through.... okinawa..... eight weeks ago"
ranma surged up and snarled in anger "i will not have this!!" he
roared and took off out of the house. he stopped at the gate when
kuno caught up with him and he restained him along with genma "where
are you going?!" he exclaimed. ranma glared at him "i'm going to talk
to my 'closest chinese representitive." he snarled shaking them off.
kuno nodded standing firm "i shall acompany you." he said grimly,
holding up his sword. ranma nodded stalking out of the gate with him
on his heels.
"hey! whats going on?!" ukyo exclaimed coming to a stop as they
charged down the steet she and konitsu had been walking down,
coming to see them. ranma snarled coming closer "we just heard that
the chinese plan on culling our children!" he bellowed in passing,
not even slowing down. they gapped along with everyone else that had
been within hearing range and almost all the men chased after the
two, ukyo tagging along with her husband. by the time they had
reached the building they had set up their barrecks in the mob they
had attracted made them send soldiers to prevent them from storming the
place "what is this here!?! if you do not return to your homes we
shall open fire on you!!" the man was skinny and looked like a
normal example of chinese enbreeding. ranma marched up to the small
soldier, by comparision to ranma and kuno, and snarled at them
until they gave way a little "we demand to know what you plan on
doing with us!!" he bellowed. the man scowled looking at him "when
we are ready to inform you we shall." he sniffed waving to the
soldiers. ranma didn't budge "is it true that you will try to kill
our children!?!" he bellowed loudly.
the crowd fell silent in shock as the man scowled narrow eyes at him "what is this?!?!" he demanded. ranma shouldered his way through the soldiers "someone told me what you did to okinawa!! how you murdered all the children below the age of five, that you demanded it!!" he roared just barely holding onto himself enough to allow his friends to draw him back "answer him fiend!! the autonomious ward of nerima stayed away from the war because it was not something we wanted to be a part of! we demand to know if you dare concider doing this here!!"
the man took in the grimly waiting people behind the two obvious warriors before him, normal peasents aside from one or two as well that showed signs of skill "what ever the overlord demands you will give or he will punish nerima the way he did okinawa." he intoned grimly. ranma raised his fist "if we hear of you even thinking about trying that we shall cull you from our lands. we cooperated with you because we had no part in this war! do not even think about making us a part of it, you will not be happy with the results!"
ranma glared narrow eyed down on the detention center they had built
almost over night on the sight where the old highschool had been,
also the place where the nerima ward had taken their stand against
the overlord. he snarled softly down on the prisoners, they were
forced to subsist on field rations and in cheap tents, it was
winter, of course they were keeping the children and the dangerous
prisoners under heavy security to hobble the prisoners, threatening
to kill them all if they rebeled. ranma bounced over the fifty foot
fence and the hundred and fifty feet to the top of the building,
timing it just right for the scanners surveying the area to hit the
blind spot he'd found earlier that day as he watched it on the scry
stone. he watched the area carefully as he hit, not moving a muscle,
even though the spells on him prevented the bullets from damaging
him it was better not to be seen.
ranma walked quickly to the stairs and soundlessly slipped into the
ceiling that they hadn't bothered changing out for the floors they
put their offices in, only the cells on the bottom floors had been
changed. he quickly paced ghostly across the slim panels of the
ceiling listening for what he wanted, grinning when he found it.
thrust rudely up through the ceiling was a huge bundle of wires,
they were spiderwebbed about leading to the cameras. he smiled
pulling out a welding torch and set it on the ceiling burning slowly,
soon enough it would burn through the support straps there and the
huge junction box they'd tied up there would come crashing down on
them.
he looked down in the hole hearing something and smiled fading away
"do you smell something burning?" one of the technicians asked.
ranma grinned wider when he saw pretty much everyone in the room
come to stare up into the hole just as the straps parts and sent the
thing hurtling down at them. he chuckled exiting the ceiling as
soldiers hurried into the room hearing the screams and quickly
entered the ceiling looking for anything. "sir! it looks like a
lazy workmen left a welding torch up there, look, it wasn't properly
shut off." the lieutenant said showing the general there. he scowled
narrow eyed at the body bags of the men killed when the thing fell
"who did the work in this area?" he hissed. the soldier walked over
to the roster and looked it over "third platoon sir."
ranma chuckled softly to himself as he listened to the man order all
soldiers put on alert since their survalence was slagged until they
could repair it, meaning all he had to fool was human eyes, a simple
task. he hurried down the four floors and smirked grimly at the
unlatched door that had been locked just a few minutes ago and
hurried down the corrador, glaring at the sight of the children
filling the rooms and the squaller they were forced to live in,
they'ed rounded up all of the children of the ward and put them
here, as well as the defenders that survived to be captured. he
dipped to the side suddenly looking at the soldiers scanning the
area with portable trackers, cursing his luck as he readied himself
for what he would have to do. he darted back down the hall and flash
welded the door shut, as far as he knew, thats the only entrance
they'ed built into the place. he hurried back down the hall and
smashed into the four soldiers like a ton of bricks, the only sound
was the sickening thud as they crashed into the large door holding
what was left of his friends.
kuno looked up from the chains they had him secured to the wall
with, he'd fought them every step of the way, only giving up when
they brought in the horror for them, intending it to break their
spirits, he blinked at the door they were rotting behind and rattled
his chains seeing the air waver around it. the others looked up at
him emotionlessly, only soun and mousse had been killed in the
capture, the women gave up when ranma died. he pointed at the door
with one of the huge mits they had covered all of their hands with,
along with strange skull caps for ryouga and genma that seemed to
cripple them. they turned to look at the door and blinked in
surprise seeing that it was turning from a dull crimson to a bright
red "what ever it is, it is monsterous in strength." cologne said
grimly, they'ed blinded her when she was captured, it hadn't
hampered her.
after only a few seconds the door sagged and melted into the floor to reveal a man in a dark cloak, standing as tall as kuno wearing robes that covered everything, they looked interested seeing the blood splatter on the robes from the lights as well as the bodies that had been mangled. the man took a step into the room and froze seeing the thing set on a pedistal in the middle of the cages they were in. ranma walked slowly over and looked at his old body, the smell must be driving them crazy. he knelt and bowed his head to him before reaching out to it. genma and ryouga snarled when he pulled the worthless clotb medallion he had worn his wedding ring in lately and pulled it from the body. he stood up and looked at the thing "you scum! profaning the body of one far better then you!!" ryouga snarled at him, since kuno couldn't, they had cut his tongue out.
ranma gripped the thing pulling it to his chest before raising his hand and fired a beam of fire at the corpse turning it and the floor to ash, burning even into the tunnels nabiki had had constructed there when the war turned their way. he walked over and ripped the door off konitsu's cage and pulled his rig out. he grabbed its sides and ripped it from him, tumbling him to the floor. he looked down at the freed man before holding out his hands, the jingle of keys catching their attention "free your comrades, then get the children out of here." he said softly, but loud enough for them to hear him.
after that, he'd turned about and walked out the door, fading from sight as he started to turn the corner and konitzu hurriedly freed ryouga "he- he had ranmas face!" he cried in grief. "a specter?" cologne asked in shock. konitzu nodded sobbing "his face was gaunt and his eyes glowed bright blue, it looked older then we know but it was him!" he said starting on the fourth cage as the others ran down the hall frightened women and children were running down. they got there to see that all the doors had been ripped from their housing and the guards inside crushed into the walls "hurry! we must escape before we're discovered!" ukyo called to them waving them down the backway as ryouga and genma worked at helping the ones that couldn't move.
ranma smirked watching his friends finish gathering the children
and nodded blasting the ceiling of the hall leading to their escape
and caved it in, blocking off the route they were escaping by,
everyone looking shocked at the cloaked man before the falling
stone cut him off "come on! lets go before we're followed!" genma
said shouldering cologne as well as three of the children too small
to walk and hurried down the tunnel kuno silently pointed down.
ranma smiled feeling grimly happy looking at the ruins he'd made of their prison, killing all of the soldiers and making sure the prisoners got away "had fun i see." a voice behind him murmured. he blinked in surprise looking at cologne standing there on ryougas shoulder. he eyed them for a minute before ryouga glared "i want what you took from my friend, give it to me." he hissed. ranma shook his head "i took what was mine." he murmured. ryouga clinched his fists "your lying! ranmas dead!" he snarled. ranma chuckled "and yet i am here." he said amused. cologne touched ryougas face "what are you?" she asked. ranma shrugged "i am who i was, returned to life to avenge myself and japans silent protectors on those that hurt us so. please don't tell akane yet, i'm... not allowed to return to her until my job is done."
ryouga walked closer "the ranma i knew could never do what you did"
he insisted. ranma nodded "call me the improved version. my
benefactor pulled me from death with a few things i didn't have
before. i learned many things in the realm of the dead, not only
that, but she freed me from he shackles of restraining magic that i
didn't know i suffered from, the curse limited the amount of power i
could use, as well as the catfist. the overlord is an old enemy come
to exact his revenge on us, by taking it out on our land. it is his
people that are behind the war. i must go. in this state the sun is
harmful to me." he started to leave when cologne pitched something
at him. he blinked at her curiously as it dripped down his face "i
thought you meant you were night stalker." she murmured. ranma
smiled "no, its just that the spells that give me life are
incomplete, as soon as they are finished i'll be coming back. we'll
make these bastards pay for this."
ryouga raised his hand "what do i tell akane?" he asked in a pained
voice. he flashed him a smile, his eyes burning with power
"tell her someone wearing the face of her husband did something no
man was capable of, the others think me a specter, don't disabuse
them of it, as long as everyone thinks me an avenging ghost they
won't draw attention to me. and i don't want company on my hunt"
cologne chuckled "you feel guilt for whats happened to us. you feel
its your dishonor to fix." he looked away "i'm the one that
cautioned everyone from entering the war cologne, they stayed back
because of me, they trusted me as the chinese soldiers came in, they
followed me when we revolted, and lost because of me. it is my
dishonor."
ranma looked up from his dismal thoughts as his redhaired partner
entered the room "that took less time then i thought it would." she
mused. he nodded quietly "if you wish we can finish this now." she
murmured. he nodded standing up "i have a lot of work i need to do,
i can't afford the limitation of the dark." he said softly. she
nodded touching his arm soothingly "after this, we'll be rid of each
other, and you'll be free to strike out at them. i hope you
apreciate the things i did for you." she murmured. ranma smiled at
her "oh i do, i could never do this without your help. you've given
me a way to free our land!" he said softly taking her hands. she
smiled fondly at him "and you use them marveliously. but be careful,
your full potential will surface once this is finished, so far
you've been running at half power." she looked stern "don't let your
power go to your head, you may be powerful, but you are still
mortal, you can die if your hurt enough."
he nodded laying down "i'm very aware of my mortality, don't worry about me, i'll win out."
"they've sent in another battalion to restrain us." nabiki comented pointing to the northern quadrent of the map they all looked at "do we have the artillery to handle them?" ranma asked grimly. she nodded "we're pretty stretched but if you do as good a job with it as last time then your assured of winning." she said quietly "and the escape tunnels? if we fail you have to get everyone out quickly." he said softly. she nodded looking away in worry "we've gotten in contact with the american stronghold in taiwan and they said they would rescue us if we could get ourselves out of the hot zone. which means here. the tunnels go as far as kobe. but we're shooting for the coast up here to the west, its doable. just don't lose alright? this is our home." ranma walked over and hugged her tightly, kuno didn't protest, he knew nabiki was hurting over the death of her father and she needed the comfort.
"we are in the right, we shall not fail because we are the rightous here." he intoned stoically. nabiki laughed weakly blinking away tears before hugging him. ranma pulled akane into his arms and held her protectively close "i want you here with the others." he murmured softly in her ear. she snorted "not going to happen." she said simply catching everyones attention "akane i need to know you and ranko are safe, i won't be any good to our comrades if i'm worried about you." he pleaded. she looked at him sternly "your not cutting me out of this, we stand together in this or not at all!"
ranma blinked looking up from the stone in his hands hearing the booming sounds of artillary in the distance was getting closer. he sighed deeply worried, he couldn't find any trace of his target. he rubbed his eyes for a minute then grinned softly "i'm going about this wrong, its silly to look for a magical enemy using magic." he mused putting the crystal away and walked over to the window, he smirked looking at the shattered bodies of hundreds of chinese soldiers who had up until two hours ago, been patroling around the perameter of the second largest naval base stationed in japan. he smirked looking at the sunken ships and crumpled planes that littered the stretch of field, he had removed the ships from the water not wanting them to turn into a disaster to the local wildlife.
he walked back into the control room and sat down at a computer and started tapping away at it, grateful nabiki had made him learn the decryption protocals a few months ago, it was a snap to crack the new ones. he chuckled when everything he wanted from it practically climbed into his hands. he laughed out loud standing back and blasted the entire building after downloading all the data he needed.
"sir! look at this!" one of the officers at the terminals shouted
catching the attention of all the military and resistance cells
still at work making them come over. he pointed to his screen as
maps and technical data started flashing across his screen as he
downloaded it "sir! its from the guy that sent us that last batch of
data last week." he stated. some of them grumbled "its not that i
am displeased with what he has given us, i just wish we knew whos
side he was on." one of the japanese generals said looking grumpy.
kuno raised his arm and snapped his fingers loudly catching their
attention and pointed at the kanji hidden in the right hand corner
of the screen, ryouga hurried over and traced it lightly "its our
ghost!" he exclaimed. all of them blinked at that and he pointed
"its the oldest translation of the name saotome that ranma knew.
look, this style hasn't been used in centuries. its ranma."
some of them looked skeptical "the guy thats dead." one of the englishmen said. ryouga looked at him "and yet he is the one that freed the prisoners of nerima ward." he pointed out. the japanese general frowned "i can understand your willingness to think him alive but you all say you sat with his rotting corpse for two weeks." he pointed out. ryouga scowled "in the time i've known ranma saotome, i've come to realize that, if anyone could figure a way to win his way free of death its him. nothing will stop him from returning to his family, that need, that burning determination to save his family is the reason he was able to kill two hundred enemy soldiers before dying after taking a fatal wounding. and it seems it didn't hold him for long, because i spoke to him. he said that the silent protectors of japan were not going to allow our land to be soiled like last time."
the american scowled "last time you were in the wrong." he growled.
ryouga nodded "thats probably why they didn't take a hand in the last
war, we were the enemy of the right so they left us to our
punishment." he said firmly. the technician caught their attention
"hes suggesting we bomb these four places sir, this ones the major
supply depot in japan, take that out and their stranded with just
what they carry right now. this place is a command center, its the
one we couldn't find." they looked up when someone whistled "sir!
we're picking up a live feed from one of our spy sats! somethings
ripping the chinese navy a new one!"
all of them ran over as the scene suddenly filled the over head screen, everyone gasped. the remains of the nerima cell cried out in shock turning to a ragged cheer as the scene of ranma in his white chinese silk shirt and black pants ran at a tank and suddenly it split before him as the light that surrounded his cut it in half "good god!" one of them exclaimed as a shield of blue fire swirled into life on his arm to block the bullets flying at him as he fired a bolt of fire at a passing plane, sending it falling into the air field. ranma jumped strait up and flew over the defending wall as a wall of fire shattered it into nothing, obliterating everything in its path. ranma landed and raised both fists into the air as he looked at the row upon row of planes and other aircraft sitting there and slammed them into the ground causing a wake they could see shoot towards them and they gapped when the first plane was picked up and sent smashing through the three it hit, they in turn racing at the next few until they were all scrap. he whipped around and flung his arm at the mass of trucks that were speeding at him and they exploded back the way they had come as they were crushed from the blow "what the hell is he?" one of them asked softly. ryouga smiled "hes a saotome!" he shouted making all of the japanese in the room cheer loudly. after ten minutes the attackers stopped coming and ranma stood strait looking about. he crossed his arms and nodded looking satisfied before walking lazily into the comand bunker "he's getting the data he sends us from the bases he destroy's." one of the englishmen said dumbly. ryouga chuckled "thats why they were so frantic to take the nerima ward, and death has only made him more powerful."
ranma smirked looking at the tv before him, the satalite dish in one of the abandoned homes still worked and he was amused watching himself "this man, reported to be the slain comander of the routed nerima rebellion was caught by one of our satalites here proving to those that fought for him, that the rightous will not fail to protect their families. after looking at this footage we found a few of his old comrades recently returned from the horrid detention center in their ravaged town and we found out that this same person was the one that freed them from their captivity." he smiled slightly when ryouga came on the screen "anyone that knows ranma knows that nothing will keep him from protecting his family, none of us could believe he was dead until they brought us his body and we still couldn't believe it. then, he came." he looked grimly pleased "the first thing he did when he saw his body was retreive his wedding ring. after that he freed us and decimated the bastards that held us."
"its amazing what this person is capable of, its impossible that he can do it, its not something a normal human can do." one of the english generals stated stubbornly. cologne appeared on the screen "in the time i trained that boy he showed a talent none before him could match, his only problem was that he was flawed, his powers were stunted by inccidents in his childhood, what we see of him now, is his full power unchained, death freed him of these flaws and he has burst from the lands of the dead with a burning purpose that consumes him, save his family." she nodded "how do you know this?" the reporter asked. cologne cackled "they took my eyes and all it did was clarify my sight, i SAW this man. unencombered, his power was brighter then the sun. his full potential at work on crushing the red army for daring to set foot in his land. daring to ever bring harm upon his beloved childs head." the reporter nodded "tell us about his family." he asked. she nodded "those two were the closest i've ever seen of a soul bonded pair. their auras were so finely meshed together that you couldn't tell them apart when they sat together, like a being of one soul and two bodies. as i understand it, his wife was ney unto death when he passed, bed ridden for the next six months.... then.... she got better within minutes, i imagine that was the time he reappeared in our land, his triumphant soul calling out to hers."