A Nautilus Production

I will make 1000 words in this chapter.

Ok, now that I got that out of my system. That is my promise to you.

Know for some other stuff. I will be returning to school on the second. This is the most dangerous time for my works. I will keep this one up and running. I will make the time.

On with story

Insert disclaimer here.

Houston, Texas

A man in a dark suit walked into a down town office building. It was mid day and people where going to lunch or returning from it. The weather was cool due to several cold fronts that had rolled through at almost the same time. In the center of down town a culture festival was underway, the theme this year was Germany. It even had a beer garden with a polka band.

"Good day Jean" A man said taking a seat next to Jean in the beer garden. Jean was about 5'10", 182 pounds, brown hair, and oddly white eyes witch he kept under a pair of reflective sunglasses.

The man he was talking with had scar on the left side of his face. He was dressed nicely. He had a slight muscular build that looked ready to kill. His eyes held no feeling at all. They were cold, calculating, and deadly. They had the look of a man who had killed to survive.

"Good day sir. I would like to know why you wanted to meet me sir?" Jean asked.

"I heard that you are the best at what you do. Is that true?" the man asked

"That is not entirely true sir, there is always someone out there who is better then you, or will be at a later date." Jean knew exactly what the man wanted. He was considered the top assassin in the world. No one could match him. "Know, who is the gift for, might I ask?"

"For a group of friends in England, they say that they're the best at what they do." The man then pulled out a disk and handed it Jean. "Everything that I have on them is on that disk. Use the information well." The man said as he got up to leave.

"May I ask why you want to give such a gift?" Jean asked wondering if he had gone too far.

"Just set England ablaze, burn down every house and home, nothing is to be left standing of that one place. Erase it from the earth, not one brick on top of another." The man said with an anger born from hate. He would see this one place burn, even if he had to do it himself.

England. The Saotome Home

"Good morning Akane." Ranma said as he got up. He then headed to the bathroom for the morning ritual. Akane got up and headed to the kitchen to get breakfast started.

"Lets see here, eggs, vanilla, sausage patties, and milk." Akane said as she got the food out. At that time Ranma came out of the bath room and Akane went in. All in all it was a normal day in this Saotome house hold.

When Akane came out she saw that Ranma didn't have his shirt on. She saw some of the more recent scars on his back. She saw the ones that the bullets had made when the thugs had attacked them that night in Tokyo. She remembered how they tried to ignore them and enjoy the night. Then they pulled a gun and pointed it at her. Ranma had pushed her out of the way and got hit twice in the back. Even with two bullets lodged in his back and one collapsed lung, he tore into them and nearly killed them. He had spent two weeks in the hospital.

There was another set from shrapnel. He had gotten those from the now defunct United Islamic Republic. He was visiting with the American 10th cavalry in the Negev desert when they had gone into battle with the Army of God. They ended up crushing two heavy corps with only two battalions and a division of National Guardsmen.

Akane then went to work on breakfast.

Later that day

Ranma was in his little cubical reading over intelligence that said the world was at peace and nothing was up. He then got up, turned in the paper work and went out side. He went out side to do a few exercises. He was in the middle of an easy set when John came up to him.

"Dang, you think you could teach me something like that?" John asked. HE had seen Ranma doing the set and saw one of the most beautiful displays of martial arts that he had ever seen. As an amateur martial artist he was always looking for improvement. In fact he practiced every other day when he could.

"I think I could." Ranma responded. He was always looking for someone to teach his art too. "Lets' see what you can do." Ranma said as he got into a basic stance.

"Ok, here goes." John started with a right hook. Normally his right hook could break someone's jaw. But when he made contact with Ranma it felt like he was hitting a brick wall, a very hard brick wall. "Ouch, damn that hurts." John said as he held his hand. It felt like he had broken it.

"First off we need to work on your speed, and don't worry about your hand, it's not broken." Ranma said and then gave him some exercises to increase his speed. After he made sure that John had them down he went for a light run.

While he was running he saw some children playing in the yard and several cats. Ranma had long ago gotten rid of his fear of cats. He started to remember that trip.

Flashback

Ranma had once again been malleted into LEO (Low Earth Orbit) by Akane. This time he was heading strait for a temple.

'This is going to hurt' Ranma thought to himself, he then saw that he wasn't heading for the pond. With that he braced braced himself for a hard landing when a gust of wind shifted him right over the main temple. He didn't have time to react to his change in course.

He came crashing down through the roof and landed with his head through the floor. He then pulled his head out of the floor and looked around to see if had caused any major damage other then the holes in the roof and floor. He then saw that he had broken a statue. At that moment the head priest came in and saw what had happened.

"Are you okay young man?" The head priest asked. "We saw you flying through the air like a missile."

"I'm fine. It looks like I broke one of the statues." Ranma said deciding to tell the truth. The head priest looked like he could tell if he was lying or not. There was also something about his aura.

"Actually, I've been trying to open that statue for years." The pries said walking over to the statue. He then bent down and picked up a smaller statue of a cat on a base. "So the legends are true after all, the neko-ken is real. This is the one piece of evidence that proves it."

"I could have told you that, my dad put you through it." Ranma told him. He then felt drawn to the statue, not feeling any fear, he then reached out and touched it, instantly his mind was flooded with information. All of a sudden all he could see was a bright light with a cat in the center.

"Hello Ranma, I am C-chan. I am a cat goddess. You have almost proven you self worthy to master the Neko-ken. You must now do what you know is right. You must set right that which is wrong. You must say the words that you have dreaded to say, but the most important thing is to defeat your worst enemy. Your self. After you have done this and only after you have done this will you master the neko-ken." And in an another flash the cat was gone. Ranma now knew what he had to do.

When Ranma awoke he thanked the priest and promised to return to help with the repairs, he then went home. When he got there he saw Akane by the pond. He then built up his courage and walked up to her. He then said the hardest words for him to say.

"Akane, I love you. I have since I first saw you." Akane was stunned, she then said the only words that she could say.

"I love you too, Ranma. You don't know how long I've been wanting you to say that." With that Ranma scooped her up and kissed her on the spot. Nabiki choose that moment to step out and saw the pair kissing. She ran to get her camera. Before she could get to it she heard another voice. One that was not friendly at all.

"Well fem-boy is finally getting some." It was Taro. "I hope your ready for the beating I'm going to give you this time fem-boy" Taro said to anger Ranma

"Go away Taro, Your not welcome here, you never have been." Ranma said sternly. "And since when have you been able to beat me?"

"Since I learned a new trick, you see there's away to take the soul of a person. Taking there power and making it yours. There's only one catch, they have to die."

"You, You, I can't believe that you would do such a thing. I can not let you do that any more."

"The only way you can stop me is to kill me, and we both know that you don't have too much heart too kill anyone."

"You're wrong. I have killed and if I have to kill again to stop you then I will."

Ranma then got ready for the biggest battle of his life.

It was the most powerful battle that Nerima had ever seen. Both combatants would not stop until the other was dead. People fled the district in all directions. School children where bussed out. All the while Taro and Ranma where in the biggest battle of there lives. Finally after three days of almost none stop fighting Ranma landed a knock out blow. It would have been fatal, but he didn't have the strength left to kill him.

Then Cologne and the priest came by and saw the devastation that had been caused.

"I thought I had seen it all. My home town destroyed by the atomic bomb. My friends dying for a useless cause, we didn't see it as useless at the time but I was much younger then. We are lucky that no one has died these three days. I do not wish to see another death in my life. Is there another way?" The priest asked.

"Moxibustion." Ranma stated. "He'll never be able to harm another soul as long as he lives."

"Okay, it will be done." Cologne then went over to Taro and applied the moxibustion. "and so ends the greatest battle Nerima has ever seen."

Ranma then became a master of the Neko-ken, having beaten his worst enemy. He had not killed.

End Flashback

While Akane was cooking dinner she remembered the time when Ranma and Ryoga had gone to America to save her. She had been kidnapped Again, This time it was by some radical anti-Japanese group. They had threatened to kill her and other hostages if the Japanese living in America did not leave. She remembered when Ranma had appeared out of nowhere and Ryoga had come crashing through the roof and nearly killed all but one of kidnappers. The other one had shot her in shoulder and Ranma and Ryoga killed him.

She and Ranma had been through a lot together. They had had more adventures then she could count. Them many times he had saved her life and the times she had saved his. Deep down she felt that the ultimate battle was coming. The one that would change everything, the one that might finally destroy him.

And that's all for today folks.

I'd like to thank those who have reviewed on this fanfic.

To James Axelrad for the help full reviews mostly

To Jerry Unipeg for reading every chapter of all my works. You've been a great inspiration to keep writing

And to all the others who have given me good reviews.

Till next time. Keep your stick on the ice.