"Are you sure about this, Happi?" Cologne asked.
"Why, Cologne," Happosai looked at her with a smirk, "You haven't called me that in ages."
"Answer the question," Cologne sighed.
"Yes, I am completely sure," Happosai said, "They will face their inner demons and fears. They will learn what drives them, and they will learn much."
"You sure that they will be all right?" Cologne said, "I don't know about Shampoo but I'm absolutely sure that Ryoga and Ranma have some pretty big demons in them and quite a few skeletons in their closet."
"They shall be fine," Happosai said, "At least I hope so."
"You said something about a schedule, Happi," Cologne said, "What did you mean?"
"I told three men of my ideals, of the Anything Goes style," Happosai said, "In all four of us, we encountered our fears and demons in the exact same order."
"Which one was first?" Cologne asked.
"The worst one, and the only dangerous one," Happosai said, "Tonight, they face their true fear."
Ryoga's Mind
"Wh-where?" Ryoga said. He was familiar with the room he was in, but he couldn't place a name to it.
He was in a relatively small room. In it, there was a dresser, a desk, and a bed. The bed had green sheets and a dark brown blanket. The dresser had many of the drawers ajar. On the desk there were several wooden carvings of wolves.
"Ryoga…" A voice hissed.
Ryoga whirled around. He glanced around the room again.
"Ryoga…" The voice came again from behind him, hissing in the same fashion.
Ryoga whirled around again.
The house suddenly disappeared from view. He had turned, and it vanished. He now stood in an inky black nothingness.
"Useless… little… Ryoga…" The voice called.
Ryoga started to feel the sharp sting of fear.
"Wasn't… able… to… save… you're… brother…" The voice called in its choppy voice, "And… it's… all… your… fault…"
"No!" Ryoga called, "It wasn't!"
"Your… parents… as… well…" The voice seemed to ignore him, "They… too… died… because… of… you…"
"No!" Ryoga yelled, "It was that… that…"
"They… would… still… be… alive… if… it… wasn't… for… you…" The voice called, "Worthless… useless… pointless… little… Ryoga…"
"I'm not worthless!" Ryoga called, now angry, "They may have survived if I hadn't been born, but I was! And I WILL make all those who try to hurt anyone else PAY!"
The voice stopped talking suddenly as Ryoga said the word 'pay'. A sound came to him. The sound of something shuffling on the ground.
In front of him, a huge monster suddenly burst out of the darkness. It was a naga. The lower body of a serpent, the upper body of a person, in this case, the person looked exactly like his mother. Her long sharp canine teeth dripped a green liquid that fell beyond the invisible ground that they were both on. Scars covered her body, and her eyes were completely white.
"I am Fear," The naga said, without moving her scarred lips or her scarred face, "I am your fear of uselessness and denial. I am the cold biting fear that is in the back of your mind at this very moment."
Ryoga just stared at the wolfen naga. It easily was five times taller than even his hybrid form.
"Come… face me."
The naga tore at him.
The naga was fast, maybe as fast as Ryoga was. But Ryoga was used to fighting enemies that were much faster than him; this came from his spars with Ranma.
Ryoga stepped back slightly, before leaping at the naga, slipping through its defenses instantly. He slammed into the naga, his impact caused a flash of red and blue lights to happen. The naga screeched as electricity started to arch over her body, quickly turning her into dust.
Strangely, the fight hadn't last long, but Ryoga was winded and extremely tired.
He slumped to the floor.
Ranma's Mind
Ranma was again in the burning village. She looked around in horror, until something caught his eye. A small boy, lying under a large pile of wet wood. The boy looked to be dead, but Ranma knew better.
She was seeing herself.
She was in the past.
She saw her younger form glance upwards. Ranma looked in the same direction to see the man that had walked by all those years ago.
Ranma followed the man with her eyes, before the man turned and left her eyesight, having gone behind a house. Ranma burst into motion, following the man.
As she turned around the corner, the world went pitch black.
"What the hell?" Ranma yipped as she stopped as fast as she could.
She looked around for a moment, before a figure walked from the darkness.
It was her male hybrid form. But he had no eyes, nose or mouth. He was almost totally feature-less, like a moving shadow.
Ranma backed away from the shadow.
"You should have just died," The shadow said, "You were weak, and the weak deserve to die."
"No," Ranma said, "No one deserves to die."
"Even the people who killed your family?" The shadow asked, "You contradict yourself. You were too weak to do anything that day, and you are still too weak to do anything."
"I'm not weak!" Ranma said, "I was only three! How was I supposed to do anything!"
"Excuses," The shadow said, "A real man would have challenged the werewolves, and died fighting them."
"But I couldn't," Ranma started to shake, "I was only three years old, how was I supposed to do anything?"
"You didn't even try," the shadow said, "If you had tried, you might have been able to save your sister."
"My sister is still alive!" Ranma screamed at the shadow, tears in her eyes.
"No," the shadow said, "That man you saw found her and killed her. You saw her murderer, and you let him go."
"No…" Ranma said, "I can't believe that…"
Halfway around the world, a young girl dropped the card she had been holding. She suddenly felt unbearably sad. A single tear welled up in her eye.
"Hey," A girl next to her said, "You okay?"
"No!" Ranma yelled, her eyes snapping open, "I can feel her! I know she's alive!"
"She is dead, foolish cheetah!" the shadow snarled, "She died because of you!"
The girl slowly bent over to pick the card up.
"Um… yeah…" she said, "I-I'm fine. It's nothing."
The girl almost felt like she was feeling another person's pain. Words and phrases popped into her head, a vision of a shadow. Of a burning village. Of a kind woman. Of a large man, and of a school. Of a kindly looking werewolf, and of a pair of elderly people. Of a phoenix, a dragon, a cat, a duck, a panda, a piglet, and a minotaur.
And finally, the girl screamed as she saw the vision of her dead mother and father lying on a pile of burning bodies, her mothers eyes staring blankly at her.
Ranma shook her head violently, ridding the image of her parents from her mind.
"I can feel her," Ranma said, "I know she's there. I know she senses me as well."
"Fool!" the shadow yelled in anger, "I am FEAR! I rule the lives of every being on this earth, and I rule you! You shall never find your sister!"
"I WILL find her!" Ranma glared up at the shadow, "And there is nothing you can do to stop me!"
The shadow suddenly ripped into motion, flying towards Ranma. Ranma smirked. The shadow was in a blind rage.
Ranma unsheathed her ki claws, and sank them into the shadow's stomach. The shadow gasped. The claws in its chest burst into a green light, and a huge air blast ripped it asunder.
Ranma gasped for air, and slumped to the floor. She was tired.
"Where are you, little sister?"
"B-big…" The smaller girl said.
"What is it, what's wrong?" the tall girl asked.
"Big brother," The girl muttered. Her eyes were out of focus, "I'm here, big brother."
"Big brother?" the taller girl asked.
"…There," Ranma smiled wearily, "Don't worry, sister, I'm coming."
Shampoo's Mind
"SHAMPOO NO LIKE OOMPAH LOOMPAHS!"
A dozen green haired oompah loompahs were chasing after her, singing.
"Oompah, Loompah, dew-pa-dee doo…"
That same day, on the opposite side of Nerima, a young Tendo broke her chain of emotion.
And no, Akane was still pissed off about everything and had gone back to wanting to smash Ranma. Kasumi as well, remained calm and happy no matter what the hell was going on.
It was Nabiki. And Nabiki, for once, was pissed.
How dare he…
Nabiki fumed.
How dare he threaten my family. How dare he pull a stunt like this and interrupt her business. How dare he…
Nabiki, under normal circumstances, would realize how stupid her thoughts were becoming. Honestly, even Akane would have realized they were idiotic.
How dare he be born a freak. How dare he leave the house. How dare he turn into that… monster at school. How dare he make Ryoga a monster. How dare he hurt my family. I'll make him pay.
Ryoga ate at his normal rate. He looked slightly happy, knowing that he had beaten his fear. Although his fear had been absolutely huge.
Shampoo was still shivering. She had kicked the crap out of those oompah loompahs, but they still creeped her out.
Ranma however… now he was grinning ear to ear, eating and snarfing down food at a rapid pace.
"Ranma," Nodoka said, smiling, "You look happy today, any reason why?"
Ranma flashed her a furry and catlike smile.
"Yup," He said, "I know where my sister is."
