Ranma ½: Hell Bound

Disclaimer: I own nothing! Ranma ½ and its characters are the property of Viz and a whole bunch of other people I don't feel like looking up. Mega Man and its characters are the property of Capcom and various other people as well. If I owned these things, I'd be rich and famous, and not here writing this fan fiction.

Speech ""

Thoughts : :

Sounds

Signs [ ]

Any form of electric communication { }

English ""

Author's Notes: Yes, this is the third time this has gone up. No you are not going insane. It's been taken down twice because I had a non-G rated summary. Ah well. I hope daisies work. On to the story... again...

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Birds chirped happily and lizards scuttled across the forest floor in search of a meal as one Hibiki boy found himself lost once again. Today had been rather strange; Ryoga hadn't seen anything he recognized, which was unusual, considering he's been to so many places. He stopped and looked around, trying to find any sign of civilization as a look of confusion and anger melted onto his face.

"Where the hell am I? Damn you, Ranma Saotome! You shall pay for all my sufferings!" Ryoga yelled out, attempting to remove any form of blame away from himself. He looked around once again and took off in a random direction, hoping beyond hope he'd end up in a city or town or something soon.

Unfortunately for Ryoga, his wish came about in a rather unexpected way. He took another random turn and was suddenly in a city, in the middle of two gangs unloading round after round at each other.

"CRAP!" Ryoga started dodging around in every way possible, barely missing each bullet. Some got so close to piercing his flesh that they struck the straps on his backpack, causing them to break and his backpack to fall off, greatly enhancing his movement. Just as he thought he was almost out of the gunfire, he leapt to the side, noticing too late that a man to the side was about to unload his machine gun. Ryoga saw an open man hole and, knowing it was the only way out, allowed himself to fall through. He could hear the roar of the weapon as it unleashed its fury. Ryoga let out a pained gasp as he fell through the small hole, into the darkness.

Chapter 1

Seven Hells

Ryoga hit the ground with a thud, but not a loud thud at all, a bit surprising considering the force he felt himself impact with. He stood up and rubbed his head, feeling for bumps of any kind. When he found none, he peered into the darkness. And darkness he saw. There was absolutely no form of light, and he couldn't even see his hand when it was practically touching his eyelashes.

Ryoga cautiously outstretched his hands and started walking slowly in as straight a line as his supremely degraded sense of direction would allow, sliding his feet along the apparently uneven ground. He stopped and listened, and he could remotely hear the sounds of something or someone moving around in the darkness other than himself, but they seemed to be too far away to be of any concern. Just as he started to continue his shuffling, he had an enormous pain suddenly shoot up his arm, unlike anything he had ever felt. It was as if his arm was being actively munched upon. Ryoga went to grab his arm and felt a large deformed head sitting where he should be feeling arm, confirming that his arm was, in fact, being used as a snack.

Ryoga punched the thing in the side of its head. It seemed to let go and the pain recessed a bit. :What the hell was that? I didn't hear anything within reaching distance...: The pain lingered, but it toned down to something he could handle. Realizing he was in more dangerous situation that he thought, Ryoga calmed himself and focused his other senses on his surroundings. He strained his ears and tried to feel everything that was going on. Suddenly he was sent flying to his left by some unknown attacker and smashed into what felt like a rather large boulder. Ryoga stood and gripped the shoulder that took the impact.

"Argh! I'm getting nowhere with this! Bakusai Tenketsu!" Ryoga brought his finger down through the floor beneath him and it shattered, shrapnel flying everywhere. He heard a distance grunt of pain and assumed some of the shrapnel hit his attacker, but he wasn't about to wait around to find out. He continued shattering the ground beneath him, going deeper and deeper, or so he thought. After several minutes Ryoga managed to resurface, his momentum carrying him forward. He landed on the ground and, looking around in vain, proceeded to wander aimlessly. Though he had no real perception of time, it seemed like he had been wandering for days, jumping from a sound here, being chewed upon there, among other hellish happenings. He was continuing this mundane walk when he heard a voice just barely audible, though it seemed to be yelling.

"STOP!"

Ryoga felt himself freeze in his tracks, but not of his own will. It seemed as though his body had been stopped by some outside force. The voice got quieter when it spoke again, causing Ryoga to have to strain his ears quite a bit to hear it.

"In order to continue, you must first answer my questions."

Ryoga shrugged. "Shoot."

"What ritual do the people of the Hingno Giwana Triba of Peruvian Pirates perform after marriage?"

"Huh? I was there once. They Castrate their donkies and eat the clippings. It was rather disgusting I'll admit. But I have to say, I didn't know it was possible to get a donkey to scream like that with something as simple as an avocado pit."

The voice swore under his breath, and while Ryoga caught only bits of it, I'll elaborate for the benefit of the readers.

"Grr, he even knew about the avocados... I guess I'll have to let him through." He raised his voice to something slightly more audible. "You may proceed."

"That's it?" was Ryoga's reply. "Man, if life was as easy as that question, I'd be sittin on my butt all day watchin T.V.!"

Ryoga walked forward and felt himself go into something that almost felt like water. Instantly he was transported to a room of horrible, blinding light.

"AAAAAARRRRGGGHH!!!! MY EYES!!! THEY BURN!!!! IT'S HORRIBLE!!! OH MY GOD, IT BURNS!!!! THIS IS THE WORST PAIN EVER!!!" Ryoga shut his eyes in pain and quickly covered them with a hand. The difference between utter darkness and blinding light was something yet unexperienced to him. He then realized his screaming was being magnified to an earsplitting level, and promptly stopped that activity. He stepped forward on the now perfectly flat ground and heard it echo loudly. Soon Ryoga realized even his breath and clothes were echoing.

Ryoga took blind steps in whatever direction he hoped the portal wasn't in, mumbling to himself, "What the hell is up with this? Where in Kame's name am I? One minute I'm in the crossfire of some gangs and fall down a man hole, the next I'm in complete and utter darkness with somebody incredibly strong and hungry consistently chewin on my limbs. Then when I try to escape, I end up in a room that looks like I'm constantly looking straight into the sun. If I didn't know better, I'd say I was in hAAARG!"

Ryoga painfully yelled out in pain as his free arm began to be consumed by some unknown entity once again. He brought his other hand down on the creature, which yelped and let go, and, judging by what little Ryoga could tell via sound, began to retreat. Ryoga panted as the pain began to recede from his left arm. Ryoga stood up straight and once again covered his eyes, walking as lightly as he possibly could to keep the noise level to a minimum. For days he wandered, getting himself apparently nowhere. His eyes seemed to not be annoyed as much as they were before, so he could occasionally open his eyes a tiny crack to see what was going on. This was, for the most part, very little. Everything was white, as far as the eye could see, there were no changes in surroundings. Ryoga minutely opened his eyes again, but this time caught a gleam, not too far in front of him. Ryoga painfully kept his eyes open, cursing his inability to walk in a straight line. When he was within 20 feet of the object in question, an ear shattering boom of vocals echoed horribly throughout the emptiness.

"HALT! In order to pass through this gate, you must first complete..."

There was a moment's pause, allowing the echoes to die down and Ryoga to start removing his hands from his ears.

"A GAME OF SIMON!!!"

Ryoga face faulted. "What the heck are you talking about?" The bandana clad boy raised himself to his feet, squinting at the shiny thing before him.

"Are you prepared?!" the voice boomed out.

"For what?" exclaimed Ryoga in bewilderment. Surely this place of torture doesn't want him to play Simon?

Suddenly something appeared right beneath him. It was, in fact, Simon. The Hibiki boy shook his head in disbelief and said, "You have got to be kidding me..."

"Repeat the pattern!"

The Simon game beeped off a pattern. Blue, yellow, blue, green, red. Ryoga sighed and repeated this pattern with some difficulty. Immediately the game went off again, this time with a longer pattern. Red, blue, green, yellow, yellow, red, green, blue, red, red. Ryoga thought for a moment and repeated the pattern on the board below him. Ryoga heard a snicker come from the gate as the Simon game began its last pattern: Green, green, blue, yellow, green, red, blue, red, red, yellow, blue, green, yellow, green, yellow, red, blue, blue, green, red, red, blue, green... on and on it went. After around 100 beeps and flashes of color, it stopped, waiting for its victim to make a sad and likely failing attempt at repeating the pattern.

Ryoga closed his eyes after something like the fifteenth beep and raised his eyebrows. By the time it ended, Ryoga was starting to question his Simon abilities. There was no way he could ever complete that, even if he could see or hear properly. Ryoga racked his brain, trying desperately to figure out a way to escape. He did the first thing that came to mind.

"Open the gate."

The gate scoffed loudly at this. "Open the gate? HA! You haven't even attempted to complete the last sequence!"

"I said open the gate," Ryoga stated a little louder this time, "and then I might now blow you to tiny pieces!" Ryoga Bakusai Tenketsu'd the ground to prove his point.

"Wha?" gasped the gate. It had never seen anything like this. "What trickery is this?! I've never seen a mortal with powers like these!"

"Which means you don't know what it can do to you," said the Hibiki boy as he wagged his finger menacingly. "You might as well just let me through and not chance it. That's not even half the power I have."

The gate growled at Ryoga. He was right. That finger of his could do anything, and the gate would never see it coming. "Hmph. This way," growled the gate, it's voice dripping with hate. "Just, just 25 paces forward."

Ryoga seemed to cheer up at this, and walked in the direction he thought was forward when he felt himself suddenly get grabbed by something with big claws and equally big teeth, and hurled through the gate. He had obviously been walking in the wrong direction again...

Ryoga popped out the other end and felt his feet sink a bit into the ground. He slowly opened his eyes and, seeing that he could, well, see, opened them fully. He noticed he was perspiring greatly, and that as far as he could see, there was sand. The sky was overcast with earthy looking clouds, allowing no way to tell the exact time of day. Ryoga pulled his feet out of the sand and started walking. What else was there to do? On and on he walked, hours, days, weeks. Every so often Ryoga would see something shining in the distance, much like water, and would immediately dash to it as fast as he could, only to find that it's more sand.

After weeks of wandering aimlessly (as Ryoga is want to do), he was tired of chasing after the mirages, but they gave him somewhere to aim. One day Ryoga was following such a thing, with no hopes of relief from this strangling thirst that clenched him. As he got closer, he saw that it looked particularly real, but it wasn't water. Ryoga started up to a jog, his interest sparked by the unknown thing. Ryoga closed in and gasped at what he saw, not out of horror or shock, but relief. It was a gate.

Ryoga strutted through the gate, confident that this had to be the end of his anguish.

He was wrong.

Ryoga was dumped straight into a place of eternal flames that burned brighter than the sun, and hotter than lava. Needless to say, Ryoga was mildly uncomfortable standing in the middle of it. His eye twitched when his brain finally realized where he was. His hands clutched his face in agony as he screamed louder than should be humanly possible.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! OOHH MYY GOOOD! THIS IS... THE WORST PAIN EVER!!!!"

Ryoga fell to his knees and started slamming his head into the ground, producing cracks that grew with each successive smash of his skull. After a few minutes of this activity, and Ryoga's brain was comfortably numb, he fell backwards and passed out.

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Ryoga woke up, and promptly wished he hadn't. The flames were just as high, just as hot, and he was still just as burning. He stood up, realizing it was futile to scream in pain and perform the same maneuver he had before, he ran around, looking for a safe haven while trying to suppress this feeling of constant burning pain.

That was when he saw the gate. At least, he thought he saw the gate, but couldn't really tell, being that the flames that tortured him so were generating from that very spot. Ryoga approached the place and a voice boomed out at him.

"HALT!"

"Dammit!" cried Ryoga in frustration. "Just let me pass!"

"Hahaha! Frustrated?" the voice mocked. "In order to pass through this gate, you must put out the flames that surround the gate!"

"What?! No way!" Ryoga gaped at the easily 30-foot flames rising on and around the gate. "I'll never put those out! Unless... BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ryoga plunged his forefinger into the ground, hurling debris at the fire. One or two of the flames flickered, but burned just as strong. "It's got to work! Bakusai Tenketsu!" Ryoga pierced the ground as rapidly as his arm would allow, hurling much more rocks and dirt at the flames. One of the flames went out, but promptly sprung back to life. "I-impossible!"

"HAHAHAHA! Looks like you're doomed to burn here forever, boy!" The voice laughed maniacally again. This boy was finally defeated!

Ryoga fell to his knees as he took in the gates words. "Doomed to burn... forever... forever..." That decisive, irrevocable word echoed through his mind. Images flashed before him; his father, his dog, Ranma, Akari... Akane. Never again would he see her. He'd be far too busy being consumed in the eternal flames. Tears streamed down Ryoga's face as he threw his head back in a cry of despair as a giant pillar of depression chi rose into the air and quadrupled in size, coming back down the size of a city block. The flames were instantly put out, and miraculously the gate was still standing. Ryoga walked wordlessly through the gate, the previously loud and mocking voice completely silent. Where did that power come from?

He and his depression were promptly doused in boiling water. "Owggglch."

Ryoga looked around and saw he was in a large room, filled to the very top with water that was several hundred degrees hotter than it should be. The walls looked as though they were made of some sort of stone, and below him the gate resided behind a strange, clear rock door. Suddenly the voice Ryoga now associated with the gate boomed out, unhindered by the water.

"So, it seems you managed to put out the fire. Quite impressive. However, you will never get passed this room. In order to pass through this gate, you must sing 'In da Gada of Eda' perfectly, without pause, while doing underwater acrobatics and dodging the giant killer fish which live here!" A giant fish passed just in front of Ryoga for emphasis.

"Gblwat?!" Ryoga attempted to yell. "Blish igb bulglitg!"

"I don't care what you think!" retorted the gate. "You will do it or you will be boiled and eaten for eternity!"

"Bluk thbish!" Ryoga dove down and landed on top of the clear rock door. "BLAKUSHAI GENBGKETSHU!"

"NO!" cried the gate, distress clear in it's voice. "What are you doing?!"

Ryoga's finger easily poked into the door, which shattered outward. Suddenly the water started pouring rapidly through the gate. "You fool, look what you've done!" shouted the gate angrily. "You opened the door without the water repellant active!" That was the last thing Ryoga heard as he was sucked forcefully down the vortex and through the gate. Ryoga came smashing down onto the ground much harder than usual, creating a small crater. He felt boiling water come crashing down on him continuously, and felt consciousness slip.

-Several hours later-

Ryoga woke with a splitting headache and blurred vision. He tried to lift himself off the ground and shake his head, but found he couldn't move an inch. :Great,: he thought, :now I'm tied to the floor. Just perfect.: He tried to move his head to look at his hands and feet, but found that his head also couldn't move. "What the hell?!" he shouted. "Am I in some kind of full body harness?!"

"Yes... and no..."

A deep, gruff, echoing voice reached Ryoga's ears. Ryoga was getting fed up with mysterious voices, and didn't feel like dealing with this one.

"Who the hell are you? And what do you mean yes and no?"

"I mean you're stuck to the ground but not strapped to it."

"Huh?"

"Welcome to Gravity Hell. The gravity here is something like seventy times that of your planet's."

Ryoga nearly scoffed at the thus-far disembodied voice. "Gravity Hell? Look bud, I don't know what you're on, but I'm gettin' the heck outta here." With that Ryoga pulled out all the stops and attempted a pushup, exerting every ounce of his strength, and managed to actually get a full pushup. That's when he heard a rather sickening pop.

Pop!

"AAAAARRRGGH!!!" Ryoga collapsed to the ground as a wave of pain rushed through his right arm.

"I'm impressed, mortal, nobody has ever gotten as far as that on their first try. Too bad your shoulder got dislocated from the tremendous strain."

"Dislocated, huh?" Ryoga grunted. "Well, if that's all it is..." Ryoga felt out his shoulder and the socket, and with great effort, popped it back in place.

Pop!

"AAAAARRRGGH!!!" Ryoga yelled with an equal amount of pain as before. "Ok..." he panted, "and now... to never... ever... do that... again..."

"Hahaha!" laughed the gruff voice. "Hurts quite a bit doesn't it? Ahh, the sounds of pain is sweet to the ears."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow. "You're pretty sick, you know that?"

"Actually, I'm quite healthy."

"Whatever. Look, I don't care what you say, I'm getting the hell out of here." That said, Ryoga set out to doing situps, however slow and painful they may be...

-50 years later-

"198... 199... 2...00..." Ryoga fell flat to the ground, completely exhausted. He had gained an incredible amount of strength over the last 50 years, but could only do 200 situps. Ryoga may have spent the last 50 years in training, but he's had no concept of time due to the landscape. Stretching as far as the eye can see, the ground was nothing but a flat, mundane, dark grey, and the sky was always overcast with clouds, causing there to be an equal amount of light at all times. Ryoga lie gasping for air on the ground, trying to regain his strength as fast as possible. "Hey," he said, "you never told me who the hell you are."

"Who, me? Why, I am the gate, who else?"

"Hmph, should have figured as much"

-40 years later-

The gate gasped in astonishment as Ryoga stood to his full height after a few moments of groaning.

"Ha!" exclaimed Ryoga. "Now you have to let me pass!"

"Eh?" replied the gate. "No no, you first must do a backflip."

Ryoga would have face faulted, but that would've hurt, so he settled for twitching his eye. "You have got to be shitting me."

"I'm afraid I'm quite serious."

"Oi."

Ryoga set to work on doing squats and other leg exercises.

-10 years later-

"Ha! Eat that you stupid disembodied voice!"

"Most impressive, mortal. You have passed the test, and I have no choice but to let you pass."

A portal appeared between the two poles and Ryoga strode through almost easily.

WHOOSH!

Ryoga blinked a few times and looked down.

"Well this is new."

Ryoga was falling, and it didn't look like he was going to land any time soon. He had an overwhelming urge to whistle, but instead looked up, and practically kicked himself.

"Hi."

"Why you little...!" Ryoga tried "swimming" toward the gate a mere 6 feet above him, but to no avail. Ryoga crossed his legs and adopted a thinking position. :There must be a way to get that thing to fall faster!:

"I know what you're thinking, and I'm afraid it's impossible. We're falling at maximum velocity, that is to say, around 500 miles per hour. There's no way to make me fall faster."

Ryoga cursed silently when he got an idea. :Of course! If I shoot a Shishi-Hokudan above the gate, it'll come back down, speeding the gate up!: "Ryoga, you're a genius!"

"Eh?" said the gate dumbly.

"SHISHI-HOKUDAN!" A ball of depression flew above the gate, changed direction, and started falling at the same exact speed they were. "Hmm," pondered Ryoga, "guess I didn't think that through very well."

"Haha! Almost had me there, Ryoga!"

"... why do you sound so whiney?"

"I... beg your pardon?" the gate replied almost prissily.

"All the other gates are deep and mysterious or whatever. You sound like a high pitched little school boy."

"Well!" said the gate haughtily. "I never! We'll see who laughs last when you never escape from here!"

"Hmph!" Ryoga looked down and saw no land beneath him. In fact, the only reason he knew which way was down was the direction of the wind. Ryoga shrugged, got into a comfortable position, and started whistling.

-10 years later-

"Hey, I can see ground!" And ground it was, approaching at a disgusting rate.

"Yes, too bad you won't be able to get around that hole!"

"Hmm, good point. Shishi-Hokudan!" Ryoga let loose a blast of chi to the side, sending him to the side about 10 feet. Unfortunately that wasn't enough. "Crap." Ryoga fell through the large hole in the ground, and somehow ended up in the sky again. "What the hell?!"

"That hole teleports you back to the beginning. You'll have to wait another ten years before you even see the ground again!" exclaimed the gate almost giddily.

"Hmm. Well, that sucks." Ryoga once again started whistling to pass the time. -10 years later-

"Hey look, it's the ground again." And the ground it was, again, approaching at a sickening rate.

"Sucker! You'll never get out of the hole!"

"That's what you think! SHISHI-HOKUDAN!" Ryoga let loose a much large ball of chi, sending him a good 30 feet to the left, only five feet from the edge of the hole. "Eat that, stupid gate!"

If the gate could have shrugged, it would have. "See you in ten years."

SMASH!!

-10 hours later-

Ryoga woke up, and really, really wished he hadn't. Every bone, muscle, and organ was in massive pain. Ryoga crawled out of the 10 foot deep crater he had created, sprawled out on the floor, and started whistling.

-9 years, 364 days and 14 hours later-

"Hey, it's the gate." Ryoga stood up and, timing his jump, leapt out in the path of the gate, successfully going through the portal. :Yes!: he thought, :it's finally over!: Ryoga walked out into a dark abyss, looking around at the emptiness. "Great," he said, "now what."

"Now you get to go back to your own world."

Ryoga sighed and turned around. "Please tell me you're not another disembodied vo- woah!" Before him stood the ruler of Hell, Satan himself.

"Congratulations, mortal," said the great Overlord of Demons, "you've managed to escape from hell in record time. A mere 130 years."

Ryoga shook his head and sighed. "Look, I've had enough crack heads to last me a lifetime, could you just show me the door?"

"So be it. You shall return to the very spot from which you came." Satan raised his hand and a red portal opened next to him. "Until next time."

"There won't be a next time." Ryoga walked through the portal confidently, ready to blame Ranma for everything that had just happened to him or to maybe wake up, but it wasn't to be. Ryoga walked through the portal and noticed something was very, very wrong.

"Move!"

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AN: Well now, not too bad for my first fanfic, right? Please review, questions and comments are welcome, and we'll see when the next chapter pops up. This one took me a long time, but the others shouldn't take quite so much time. Special thanks to ryo-wolf for getting me through writers block and inspiring me to write this story.