Chapter 8: Noboru's True Motivations!
As thanks for everyone being so patient, two chapters for the price of one!
Akane was no stranger to danger. She'd been kidnapped by so many crazies who wanted to marry her or use her against Ranma, she basically spent more time in a cell than in her own bedroom. But she'd never been frightened like this. Noboru had just killed Kuno, and incapacitated every member of the NWC. And now he was walking over to her, with a deathly killing intent in his eyes.
"Little girl… You and your friends have caused me so much aggravation and humiliation… I am going to snap your neck in two… like a tooth-pick…" the demon King growled.
He reached out and grabbed Akane by the throat, squeezing the life out of her. She kicked and screamed frantically, trying to get away as the demon lifted her off the ground with one hand.
As Akane felt the life being literally squeezed out of her, Noboru was suddenly forced to let go as a foot collided with his face, knocking him into, and implanting him in, the door of a car.
"That's what you get for touching my fiancée…"
Standing in front of her was the one, the only: Ranma Saotome.
"Ranma!" she shouted, coming up to hug him. Unfortunately, he had disappeared in an instant and she'd landed flat on her face.
"Don't read anything into this…" He muttered from behind her. "I have absolutely no intention of fighting ever again after this… This is the last time I'm saving your stupid ass…"
Once again, Ranma fell victim to chronic "Foot-in-mouth" disease as a mallet slammed into his cranium.
"RANMA YOU JERK!!!"
"Hate you too, bitch…"
As Noboru climbed out of the car, he clutched his head in pain. This was the first time a mortal had managed to strike him with enough force to actually injure him. Only one man had this kind of power.
"Ranma Saotome…" he sneered.
"Noboru, King of Demons, I heard you were looking for me…" Ranma replied.
"I've been hunting you ever since I arrived in the world of the mortals. I swear I'll pay you back for what you did to me!!!"
"Did you make an appointment?"
"Wh-What?"
"All you had to do was call 1-800-I-want-to-kill-ranma and make an appointment with our user-friendly customer support…"
"You… dare to make jokes… AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO ME!?!"
"Come to think of it, what did I do to you?"
"As if you don't know… Ranma… you killed the woman I loved!!!"
Everyone who had not yet lost consciousness gasped in shock. Ranma killed somebody? It was unthinkable.
"I did what?"
"You killed the woman I loved!!!"
"I never killed anyone!"
"Oh, but you did Ranma, Let me tell you a story. The life of a demon, even a demon king, is one of misery and despair. But in my sorrow, I had one comfort: a beautiful woman here in the mortal world. I saw her one day as I was passing through China… She was… so beautiful and graceful… I was immediately in love with her. From then on, I followed her all through her travels, the whole time she was unaware of my presence."
"So you were a stalker?"
"No! I was in love!"
"So was Masahiko Shizawa*"
"Shut up! You killed the woman I loved!"
"Alright, already. God! So what did I do to this woman?"
"I told you… You killed her… One day, I decided that I would go up to her and confess my love to her! But just before I could, she, thinking I worked at the restaurant she was eating at, asked me for a kettle of hot water…"
"You don't mean…"
"She poured the water over herself… and turned into a man…"
The awkward silence was broken only by the sound of the wind blowing."
"Let me get this straight…" Ranma growled, "You're trying to kill me… because you stalked me… and I turned out to be A GUY!?!"
"I have seen Hell!"
"You're a pervert!!!"
"DIE RANMA SAOTOME!!!"
Noboru launched himself, kicking at Ranma's head. With his superior speed, Ranma leapt into the air, dodging, and kicked at Noboru's head. Noboru was sent spinning through the air. As he landed, he plunged his claws into the ground and picked up a huge chunk, flinging it at Ranma. The pig-tailed martial artist then threw out his fist and smashed the boulder like a wooden board. Through the dust, however, he was unable to see Noboru, until the demon king slammed his fist into our hero's gut.
Ranma quickly leapt into the air, flipping away from Noboru, who was hot on his trail. In the air, Noboru was faster than Ranma and was easily able to catch up and slice at him with his claws. They bored into the martial artist's chest, cutting him deeply. The demon king then kicked Ranma in the gut, grabbed his shirt, and slammed him into the ground.
Noboru rushed to continue punishing Ranma, preparing to slam his claws right into Ranma's neck. Just as he reached Ranma's unmoving body, however, his claws penetrated only the ground, Ranma having disappeared.
Feeling a surge of energy, Noboru looked up to find Ranma seemingly floating in the sky, with his hands encompassing a massive amount of energy.
"MOKO TAKEBISHA!!!"
The demon summoned his chi to protect himself from the blast. Unfortunately for him, he'd closed his eyes in fear, and had not seen Ranma's true actions.
Ranma fired his blast into the sky, propelling him towards Noboru at lightning speed! Noboru's barrier may have protected against chi attacks, but they were useless against physical assaults. As Ranma neared the demon king, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "KATSU TENSHIN AMEGURIKEN!!!"
His fists pounded into Noboru like a hammer into cheap, flimsy nails. In just two seconds, he managed to punch the demon an astounding 583 times. "There, now don't bother me anymore," he said coldly. "I'm trying to enjoy my retirement…"
In a second, Noboru shot up from the ground and fired an energy blast into Ranma's chest at point-blank range.
"RANMA!" Akane screamed in horror, as her fiancée tumbled across the ground like a rag doll.
'Damn it! He got me!' Ranma thought as he tried to stop rolling. 'The wound's deep. I've already lost too much blood from when he cut me. I have to end this soon… There's only one thing I can do. I sure hope this works… even though it like… never does…'
As Ranma picked himself up off the ground, he inhaled and exhaled, trying desperately to calm himself down. If this was going to work, he'd need to be as cool and collected as possible.
"Have you made your peace with the gods Saotome?" Noboru asked mockingly as he walked towards Ranma.
Ranma smiled defiantly. "If there's one thing I can't do, it's make peace with people…"
The demon king's cocky grin faded into an angry scowl. "JUST DIE ALREADY!" he shouted, slamming his fist into Ranma's face. Ranma was knocked back by the impact… though it seemed like was knocked a bit too far back considering the blow… and in something of an odd direction.
Blinded by rage, Noboru failed to notice this strange incident over and over, as he pounded into Saotome's face again and again. Ranma, too weak to hold up his arms and block, was forced to take each blow head on. 'Just a bit more!' he thought as a particularly powerful shot connected with his gut.
'NOW!' he thought. He tried to unleash the attack he'd been preparing, but was once again too slow as Noboru brought his fist down into Ranma's face, smashing him into the ground.
'Damn it! I lost a lot of the built up energy there… I hope that what I've got left is enough to finish this…
As Noboru gathered energy in his hands, he stood over Ranma, ready to blast him. "Any last words, Saotome?" He asked menacingly.
Ranma's cocky grin spread across his face as he said, "Just four…"
With all of the strength he could muster, Ranma made a fist and pointed it directly at the demon king's face.
"Hiryu Shoten Ha… Bitch…"
ULTIMATE CLIFFHANGER! 2000 GAMERSCORE!!!
This is not the end of the story, I feel I should say. It was originally going to be, but a review I got from a mister "O'Donoghue" gave me a lot of ideas on how to improve the story, some of which I could only implement by cutting out everything between this and the last chapter, shortening this chapter, and then writing more content after it. The story will probably be a bit longer than I meant for it, but not much. I think this chapter was better in my original vision for it, but doing this to it is going to make the story itself better overall. In fact, in retrospect, the ending I had in mind pretty much sucked. So praise O'Donoghue. He saved this story.
Next time, the aftermath of the battle with Noboru. Friends adapt to the new Ranma. Ranma finds his promise of pacifism to be harder to keep than he thought. And all the while, one thought lingers within all our heroes' thoughts: college… But at least they're free of Noboru… Or ARE they!?! Find out! Next time!
* Masahiko Shizawa was a Japanese national who stalked Brittney Spears before being deported for stalking Brittney Spears. He then sued Brittney Spears for having him deported.
OH NOES!!! …Um… Uh… Hmm… Review my story…