Hello! I have decided to finally get down to business and answer my reviews… despite the fact that there weren't that many… which is fine. I shouldn't worry about trivial stuff like that when I have such really good fans on my side! Oh and don't forget to check out my new bio. Finally updated!

Chapter 8

Giving to Fear

Akane had decided miles ago that she was not going to look for Ranma in her journey walking around Nerima.

But what she was actually looking for, she was not quite sure. Her surroundings were growing increasingly less familiar and she even admitted to herself, as the cold night air kissed her neck, she was a little lost.

Goosebumps running the length of her arms and legs made her wish she had decided to wear something warmer than her little black dress. It barely brushed the tops of her knees as she walked, forcing her to rub at the cold in an attempt to subdue it.

As she passed yet another street lamp, her thoughts previously focused on nothing at all drifted to where she hoped they wouldn't.

Ranma Saotome.

Today she shared her first real kiss with the boy and she had felt fire. 'It was like nothing I have ever experienced before. The way everything stopped,' she hesitated at her own thoughts, 'made my heart almost quit.'

She felt her fiercely cold cheeks grow warm at the memory. If she dwelled on the thought too long, she was almost sure she could taste him all over again.

Several trash cans crashed into each other from across the street, causing Akane to jump at the sound. A rather large alley cat 'mewed' and ran back into the darkness.

The golden-eyed girl held her hand over her heart in an effort to quell its rapid pace. She couldn't help but laugh after the incident, "Being scared of cats is Ranma's thing, not mine," she mumbled to herself.

The blunt cold air wafted lazily around her legs. This time the chills brought on another thought besides a change of apparel. 'Ranma had been a girl! That pervert! I didn't even notice…' the thought utterly dumbfounded Akane.

Her pace quickened in her aching heels as her anger piqued. She began talking out loud. "How could I be so stupid as to let that ignorant ass kiss me as a girl? How could I be so stupid as to let Ranma touch me at all!"

She rounded a corner hastily and noticed for the first time that she now had absolutely no idea where she was. Her anger did not dissipate when the fear and panic of being completely lost settled in. They combined and sent her reeling into a state of complete hysteria.

Her thoughts were alien and jumbled to her as she tried to recognize street signs or stores. The buzzing from before settled within her ears but ironically went unheard.

No familiar places and no familiar things were her reward. Akane's dress whipped around her legs as she flew down the road in a mad attempt to regain her bearings, but she was too unfocused to recognize even the things she did know.

The fear in the girl was a tangible thing. It laced around her thoughts and triggered something deep inside her heart.

Akane's breathing was erratic and her vision began to blur as her speed down the road increased. The intense pains in her feet from her heels only resulted in her kicking them off and into wall. They didn't fit well anyway.

As her bare feet slapped loudly against the pavement, dark hair rose in an electric halo behind her. Her vision pumped with the beat of her heart and her entire body felt as if it were a raw conduit of untapped energy.

It almost hurt how full of power Akane felt as her speed increased. Her dress ripped along the sides and whipped sporadically about. The wind from the night only dropped in degrees as it picked up its own intensity.

Her golden eyes shown with a massive heat behind them and tonight, Akane Tendo was a sight to behold.

Somewhere near…

"Akane must think she big brave now she make Ranma pass out," the clearly Chinese voice echoed around the street, "he probably saw how ugly Kitchen Battering-ram is and fall clean down," she laughed to herself.

Shampoo was now desperately looking for a way to vent her own frustrations at the world.

As much as she ridiculed the youngest Tendo, she was well aware of the threat Akane possessed to Ranma and her relationship. "How husband going to run away with Shampoo if hussy always around to beat him?"

The Amazon was a few blocks away from the Cat Café when a massive pulse of power caught her attention. The reaction within her was instant.

She sprang to the rooftops in an effortless jump and found herself running full speed towards whatever could produce that kind of energy.

'This thing is fast,' she thought to herself as she altered her course with the intense speed of the source.

The freezing air made her tighten her shirt in an attempt to keep warm. As her legs found footing and pushed her along the path towards the intense ki spike, she boggled with the effect the intense power was having on her senses.

"This thing is really fast," she mumbled between breaths in Chinese.

She leapt from the final ledge in a surge of strength in an attempt to catch this powerful beast unguarded. There was no question within her; something this strong had to be taken out.

Shampoo's body formed into a perfected high angle attack that would definitely devastate any martial artist and would hopefully do something similar to whatever she was about to come into contact with.

A slight fear clutched at her heart as the light finally lit the source running full speed down the street.

"This thing is…Akane?" Shampoo briefly panicked in the air. There was no way not to hit her. In an instantaneous realization Shampoo knew that this attack could kill Akane if it connected.

She had enough momentum in her from jumping from the roof that she could topple a brick wall, and was headed straight towards the unsuspecting girl.

Just as her extended leg reached range, Akane's hand snapped onto Shampoo's ankle and viciously slammed her onto the concrete road.

The cracking sound her body made on impact was unique and singularly deafening.

Akane's reflexes had been superb. The technique had been of a mastery level.

But the lack of sympathetic emotion displayed by her had been almost evil. Even now, as her golden eyes rested solely on the fallen warrior, her face was stoic.

Shampoo struggled to retain consciousness as black dots attempted to ease over her vision. It was sheer willpower keeping her awake.

"Stupid… girl… no can defeat Shampoo! Shampoo is too too good for you!" She stumbled to her feat. She winced as her limbs struggled to support her.

Something somewhere was broken.

The pain was unbearable.

But real fear was absent from Shampoo until she looked at Akane. It was subtle at first, but it was there. Her entire body radiated something fierce.

Her stance was subtle but obviously wickedly effective. Her joints were jagged in appearance. Akane was a stationary ball of kinetic energy.

Her hair whipped around her face in the wind and would sometimes hide the cold glare her glowing yellow eyes would induce on Shampoo's soul.

She looked like a monster.

She looked like she was hunting.

Every light on the street flickered out but Akane's eyes only picked up in intensity. Yellow sparks flicked about her and her golden orbs slowly faded into red.

Shampoo's own eyes lit with fear and it was very apparent that she needed to run very fast.

Ranma sipped his tea lazily at the diner. He was growing bored waiting on the Old Ghoul. The Amazon Matriarch said something about a book on prophecies and went to go look for it.

This left Ranma alone to sit on the stool and ponder over when exactly his "easy-life" plan had turned to "shit."

"Hey Son in law, you still here?" she shouted from the top of the stairs.

Ranma was relieved to hear her voice, "Yeah, what did you find out," he hesitated, "anything good on fixing the tomboy?"

Cologne bounced down the stairs with grace, "No. But I did find what our teaching say it is."

Ranma looked at her expectantly from his position across the counter. "Well, what is-," his comment was cut off by a pulse in energy around him, "Woah! Do you feel that?"

He turned towards the front just in time to see Shampoo's body tossed from one side of the front display window to the other.

He reacted before the feeling of dread had even settled in. He heard Cologne mutter something but it was quickly ignored. He bolted out the door and into the cold night air towards Shampoo.

Ranma knelt by the fallen warrior and rolled her over to her back. "You ok? You're busted pretty bad… hey, Shampoo, wake up!" He felt for her pulse and gently tapped her on the cheek in an effort to get her to regain consciousness.

She opened her eyes slowly before they shifted to intense fear. "Ranma, you have to save Shampoo! Violent Girl, she-," Shampoo held on to him moments before he was grabbed from behind and tossed away from her like garbage.

He rolled on the street once before watching Shampoo be roughly lifted and slammed back into the ground… by Akane.

He was in shock.

Akane was tearing Shampoo apart limb from limb and he was so numb from the sight that he couldn't do anything to stop it.

A small part of him recorded her movements and decided that he didn't recognize what martial arts form she was using. With what she was wearing, it was hard to even distinguish the combatant as even being Akane.

Why couldn't he move and save Shampoo? He watched Akane roundhouse her into the nearby wall. Blood was coming from somewhere and it caked on her hands and dress.

As his fiancé held the Amazon high against the wall by placing her foot under her larynx, Ranma instinctively knew she was preparing for the kill. 'I have to move now!'

Akane's glowing red eyes landed on him for a second before a small green blur bounced between them and gently tossed a bag of powder towards his fiancé's face.

In an instant her eyes were normal and she wavered a moment before dropping her leg from the high split against Shampoo's throat.

Her eyes glazed a moment before she fell gently towards the ground and Ranma dived to save her from landing on the concrete.

As he held her and looked at Cologne and the battered Shampoo, he had absolutely no idea what to do.

Ryouga Hibiki is missing his eyes.

He woke days ago in a mysterious village and found that someone had stolen them while he was sleeping.

Annika, a young girl only he can hear and talk to, tells him that it is a good thing that they are gone.

That it gives him special powers.

That it is the only way for him to find the true path and communicate with her.

It allows them to become friends with each other; otherwise he could not hear her tell him where to go and where to lead the others.

So now a blind man is walking towards a town, following the orders of the young invisible girl holding his hand.

She tells Ryouga to stay calm and she'll watch over him and that even though he has lost his eyes, she will never let him get lost again.

The thought of never getting lost again comforts him.

Annika told him on the first night without his eyes that while he had them, he misused them. He took his eyesight for granted by constantly getting confused and misguided by direction. Now, even though he can't see, it is more as if he can do it better.

"Hey Annika," he asked after a while of silence, "where are we?"

A slight squeeze on his hand and a voice in his mind whispered, "We are looking for the chosen-born." Her voice was light and girly.

He pondered on that for a second. "So where's that?"

"Nerima, silly," and the little girl giggled.

Oh my.

That wasn't supposed to go so far. But you have to understand, faithful Shampoo fans that I needed this to happen. I will make it up to you, promise.

I am thinking that I need to make this R. I want lots of blood… bits of cussing… and some sexy stuff too.

So, what did everyone think of my fallen love story this chapter? I took the advice of a reviewer and slowed this one down a bit. It focuses more on the "moment." - All for you Cynical Chaos.

Anywho – on with the reviewer responses!

Father Malvado – Oh how I have missed you! Yes, I plan on getting a good bit into this story real soon. All the things we have talked about are soon coming to pass! BWAH HA!

Dagorwen of Ithillien – I will do my best!

Anime addiction 2.0 – yes I found my mistake as well. I rationalize not going back and fixing it because I built my character around the name Hitomi. Going back would only confuse me later. I'm real dumb. Like rice paper dumb.

Inhyel – yes the lovably insane indeed. I am glad you liked Shampoo, cause I plan to use the hell out of her.

Cynical Chaos – oh where has my once faithful reviewer gone? Are you as scorned by my non updating as I fear you may be, my love? Please your forgiveness is what I need, to go on…

The liz – you would be correct good friend!

Compman44 – I am sorta proud of Hitomi too. Just wait to see her in action!

SaKk – I don't know what to tell you without spoiling the story, but just hold on. We'll see who you are rooting for soon enough.