Chapter Nine: Fatal Consequences

Akane and Nabiki raced upstairs with incredible speed (they had left the bigger things such as the radio downstairs). The stairwell was musky and poorly ventilated, the smell of muck and gravel hung strong in the air delaying oxygen and comfort to the climber. It was certainly the most poorly designed stairwell in the town. No architect, engineer, or even construction crew would take responsibility for designing and building such a stairwell, and more than once Starbucks had tried to remove it and install an elevator – unfortunately, the stairwell served as the structural column that held the entire six story building up. Consequently, climbers must simply bear with the circumstances.

This is exactly what Akane and Nabiki were doing as they flew up step by step; so focused upon their goal, in fact, that they practically failed to notice the rickety stairwell. Their – or least Akane's – only thought being to get to Ranma before Kuno could.

Stupid Ranma, Akane thought as she effortlessly leapt, Only Ranma gets her/himself into stuff like this! Just how is she/he going to pull himself out of this one?

Reaching the first doorway, Akane paused to wait for Nabiki, who came huffing and puffing next to her, before brusquely shoving open the door. But judging by the large amounts of bemused businessmen looking to Nabiki and herself from their grayish cubicals, Akane figured they were on the wrong floor.

Uttering a quick apology, Akane closed the door and bounded up to the next floor with Nabiki. Once again more bemused businessmen stared back at her from their even more grayish cubicals. The third, fourth, and fifth floors proved no different, this Starbucks apparently only owned or rented the ground floor in an otherwise normal office building.

Which leaves the sixth and final floor, and as Akane guessed, by process of elimination, must contain the endangered Ranma. She was right.

When Akane forcibly shoved opened the sixth floor door (Nabiki was virtually dying by this point), a lengthy hallway filled with rooms to each side greeted her.

The topmost floor of the office building was designed to provide lodging to workers who happen to work extended overtime or lived in extremely distant areas where daily commuting would prove unreasonable. Normally, the rooms would be filled with the specific employees, but during this hour in this day, a working hour on a working day, the rooms were largely empty.

The company that owned this office, being an American company, spared no luxury for their employees, especially on this floor – however, the designer did have rather questionable tastes. The carpet was a deep blood red, and the walls adorn with mirrors and paintings in the absence of windows. The entire room, reflected back and forth infinitely by the mirrors seemed to glow with an infernal hellish red while the faces of the painted women followed wherever he went. The entire floor was kept dimly lit to save electricity – no one was suppose to be up here at this hour anyway – and was consequently dark and shadowy. The whole floor seemed like a level in Dante's depiction of hell.

Unsurprisingly, the scene made the hairs on the back of Akane's neck stand up as she called out, "Ranma," She checked the closest door – it was locked, "Where are you?"

Silence. Which was strange, as Akane figured she'd hear the ruckus of lamps shattering, chairs being flung against walls, beds turning upside down, toilets being thrown out the window, and whatever else sounds a fight between Ranma and Kuno would entail.

"Ranma!" Akane nervously tried the door on the other side, "Answer me you jerk!"

"Ranma?" Nabiki, a bit breathless, called out as she tested another door, it opened, "Are you there Ranma?"

Still, the same foreboding silence clung in the air.

The duo moved down the hall, trying each door, some were locked, most weren't, but none of them seemed to echo back so much as a whisper – only dead silence, even the sound of their footsteps were strangled by the thick carpet.

Are you here Ranma…Akane thought to herself as if afraid to disturb the menacing silence, this is weird…Akane couldn't help but glances momentarily at the mirrored walls as she crept forward. She saw herself reflected – her face was slightly pale, her clothe were somewhat dusty from the climb, and her hair seemed somewhat ruffled – back and forth hundreds of times over. But then, she also noticed the painting of a young girl right behind her. It was poorly drawn, the head was too big, the cheeks were too sunken in, and the girl in the painting seemed emaciated. But there was something about her eyes, they seemed to follow Akane as she moved, her eyes seemed to glow with a startling red. There was definitely something strange about this painting, despite being seemingly badly painted, there seemed a sort of life to it – as if the lips seemed ready to talk…

"Akane!"

Akane jumped, a quick scream came to her lips but was muffled back, "Nabiki!" Her voice quivered in fright as she turned to her sister, "Don't do that! What do you want!"

Nabiki seemed taken back by her rudeness, but decidedly ignored it, "Try the last door, if she's still not in that one, we'll have to break down the locked ones somehow…"

Akane nodded, regretting her early outburst, she apologized awkwardly before approaching the final door. Immediately, she felt a sense of dread seep into her blood, the hairs on the back of her head pricked up again and a funny quiver kept her fingers from standing still, "Nabiki…I've bad feeling about this…"

"What're you talking about?" Nabiki said impatiently, "Just open the door."

Nervously, Akane gave the knob a twist and the door creaked open. Peering in, the room, a replica of any other hotel room with its curtains drawn, was even more dimly lit than the hall, but there seemed to be no one inside. Taking a quick scan of the area, Akane was about to turn to Nabiki and say, "No one's in here, we'll have to try the locked ones." When something from the corner of her vision caught her attention…Something, which was blocked by the bed, was in there.

Determined not to show anymore weakness, Akane flung open the door and walked into the room and drew open the curtains to allow the sun to flow inside. Turning, her eyes fell on what was previously blocked by the bed. A sigh of relief came to her lips.

"Ranma!" Ranma lay on the carpeted ground; a few bed sheets covered her nakedness.

"C'mon Ranma, get up," Akane called to the sleeping girl as she knelt down, "Are you just going to let Kuno get away with this!"

Nabiki came in too, and always knelt down next to Ranma, she sighed, "Look Ranma, I'm sorry about selling those drugs to…" She paused, she stared at Ranma with a look of growing horror on her face.

Akane looked to Ranma as well, her blood chilled, "No…"

Ranma's face was extremely pale, even her lips were ashen. The normal pink radiance of her cheeks were gone, even her ever bright red hair seemed duller. Worse yet, Ranma's eyes were still open, though they were unfocused and looked past the ceiling in a leaden stare.

Akane reached forth and grabbed onto Ranma's hand, it felt cold; the knuckles were white…and lifeless, Akane felt panic rising in her voice, "Ranma! Answer me! Ranma!"

Nabiki's, slightly more in control than Akane, felt against Ranma's neck for her pulse. But instead of finding the rhythmic beating of life, there was nothing, nothing except what felt like two small holes on Ranma's neck. Nabiki shook her head, "No way…"

"Ranma!" Akane called out again, this time, her voice cracked. Memories of Ranma flashed in her mind, she saw Ranma standing there, her head held high saying, "Plus, I'm built better to boot." Then, she remember Ranma standing in an ice rink, "Akane is my fiancée, and if you touch her, I'll kill you!" Ranma telling her, "You're cute when you smile!" Ranma's first kiss. The journey to help Ranma gain back his strength. So many others…And that time, when she thought she'd die, and Ranma held her in his arms, and rather in a dream or not, confessed to her what he previously only denied…

But now, she held Ranma in her arms. "Ranma," She half-whimpered half-whispered, "Please, Ranma, wake up…Stop pretending Ranma, get up and take down that Kuno!"

"Ahh, but she never will again." A voice spoke from the doorway.

At first, the words didn't even register in Akane's mind, but when it did, she turned to face the speaker. Kuno…Akane thought numbly, What's he doing here? Kuno leaned nonchalantly against the opened door, his robes still the same clean white, two kendo swords still strapped to his sides. There was a decidedly bored expression on his face.

It took her longer to render out the reason through her mind – which was still mostly with Ranma. But when it did, she stood up, drawing herself to her full height, she stared at the figure in the doorway with eyesight fuzzied by tears and a haze of blood, "You bastard! C'mon Ranma, let's get him!" Immediately, her mallet was in her hands, and she charged at the man standing at the door, prepared end the life of this human male. She'll wipe that stupid calm expression off that bastard's face!

But strong hands held her in place, and Nabiki, showing an inner strength previously unknown in her, spoke commandingly, "No Akane, stop. That man, that man will kill you. That man can't be Kuno…" Turning to the stranger in the doorway, she said icily, "Kuno would never kill anyone. Kuno may not have been the smartest man at school, but he would never have resorted to drugs and such underhanded things…I knew there was something wrong the moment you came crawling back after eight months of disappearance…Just who the hell are you! And just what the hell did you do to her!" She pointed to Ranma's body.

Kuno smiled, something else the normal Kuno rarely did, "Good for you, Nabiki, you're the first one to guess at the truth…But about the girl, she…"

Author's Notes: Whoa, major plot twist. Notice (if you haven't already) that this turned out to be chapter nine instead of eight. I wrote up a chapter eight, but decided against putting it in, because if I did, I'd have to up the rating. Chapter eight would've further softened and prepared the reader for the inevitable conclusion of this short story, but I guess it works without it – sort of like being punched in the stomach instead just splashed with cold water – as it made the surprise a bit stronger. There's only one or two chapters left before the conclusion. From here, truths will burn, lies will heal, and hearts will be broken upon a single word (if they haven't broken already).