R+V Time, Place, Destiny! Chapter 56 Kidnapping!
Ranma keep his eyes closed as he waited for his grandmother Tim-Tim, his grandfather Fehiu-Hung, and great grandfather Touhou Fuhai leave the room. All around his crib and the rest of the room hung little paper charms and talsmins that Touhou Fuhai had made for him to ward off evil. Never the less Ranma pretended to be asleep until he heard the door close signifying that his grandparents had left him alone.
The little yasha opened all three of his eyes as he stuck a finger out between the bars of his cradle and touched a single silver coin, one of six large coins stamped with a different youki symbol on it. Ranma had, at first, happily thought that they were simple chew toys, that is until he had saw Fehui-Hung summon a baby phoenix with them in a effort to show off for Ranma's amusement earlier that evening.
It was at that moment that Ranma saw what the little trinkets could do when used to summon a creature. Ranma waited until his family had all gone off and left him alone in his crib to sleep. The little yasha touched one of the coins which were wrapped up inside one of the many of the small paper charms that Fehui-Hung and Touhou Fuhung had hung around his cradle. Ranma closed his eyes and he crossed his little fingers together as he tried to do the gesture that he remembered when he had seen Fehui-Hung summon the phoenix to him earlier that evening.
Thankfully the coins and talsmens began to glow as a puff of smoke appeared and out of the smoke hopped the little yellow baby chick phoinex. For a second the yellow chick hopped up and down on the rail of Ranma's cradle only for Ranma to point to the side rail of his cradle. The small bird flicked his little stubs that were his wings and let a min burst of flame shoot out and turn the side of Ranma's cradle to ash.
Ranma hopped down and began to crawl across the floor to see the one person whom he desired to see the most.
The little phoenix chick hopped beside him and let out a happy chirp as Ranma pointed to the door that lead out of his room and into the main hallway. The little bird sent forth its mimi flame again and burned the door down turning it to ash. Ranma crawled forward and out into the main hallway and up to the door that lead to Fong-Fong's room. The little bird sent forth another burst of flame torching the door down reducing it to a pile of ash.
Then the baby phoenix, its task done, disappeared into a puff of smoke. Ranma then crawled forward into his fathers room and up onto the futon upon which laid his father. Ranma then laid his head against Fong-Fong's bare chest, letting the gentle beating of his fathers' heart begin to lull him to sleep. Suddenly the air around him and Fong-Fong grew cold as if someone of the housekeeping staff had turned the air conditioner down to arctic storm.
Swiftly and silently out of the shadows wrapped head to toe in a long dark cloak a long black scythe held in one of his boney hands strode a grim reaper the face of death itself. A pair of eyeless eyes stared at Ranma whom began to look upwards at the shadow or face of death.
Slowly the specter of death moved its boney mouth and smiled in as about as warm a gesture he could manage for one such as himself.
"Ranma your father has precious little time left….Mere four days left and he does nothing as I told him too. But you know this don't you….. Even now his friends suffer for the foolishness of his inaction. His friends are all going to die…..All because of him."
Ranma looked at his right hand as a long brown sign appeared in his hand with the words.
"NO! I don't want that to happen! I've never met any of them but from what fathers memories have told me he looks and thinks of them with fondness and kindness, and thus so do I….Mother can help us stop it from happening. She loves father and I. Now tell me where mother is! Mother, where is she? I want her to find father so we can all be a family. I know that without grandmother Tim-Tim, grandfather Fehui-Hung, Anty Ling-Ling, Jii-chan Touhou Fuhu, and father's love and affections I would not feel such warmth and happiness like I do now. A person feels cold, lifeless and dead inside without family. Despite the love I get from all of them I still miss momma…..I know she loves father and I. Tell me where is she, so father can find her so we can all be a family!""Sorry….I won't give you what your father already knows."
Death chuckled darkly as he thought about the yasha simple desire and how he would react if he knew the truth about his mother.
"Your desire Ranma may not be possible. Events are now set in motion which cannot be undone, events of your own mothers making….In this life her sins are considerably numerous….Don't put your mother on too high a pedestal boy, for a day will come when she may disappoint you."
The words on the sign changed. "Mother could never disappoint me. She loves me and Father so that is enough!"
"Oh little one are you in for a surprise." Death chuckled darkly once again.
"Tell me why do you think she allowed your father Fong-Fong to have access to her lab? Why do you think she left you in the care and comfort of your fathers family instead of with her? For that matter why do you think she hasn't bothered to make contact with your father to come and see you? If she loves you as you so claim why did she leave you abandoned in her lab for anyone to find? It was only by pure luck that your father found you and brought you into his home. Your mother didn't love you and she didn't want you to begin with." Death said coldly as he reached out his hand as if to briefly touch his godsons living flesh only to pull back at the last moment.
"If your mother really cared for you, then why didn't she simply take you out of your incubation tank and take you to your father in person, instead of leaving you in there for your father to find? Oh yes mommy dearest loves and she dumps you! That is how much your mother loves you boy, you are nothing but a lab experiment, a pile of genes that she meant to use and throw away once she was done with! That is the truth of your birth." Death said coldly.
Ranma blinked all three of his eyes as he struggled to come up with a answer.
"There there boy the truth hurts but there it is….You just have to except it. There, there your not going to cry are you? As I said before the truth hurts. All you can do is just except it!" Death said in a tone like a teacher whom had just given a lecture to a kid in detention on the need to learn math.
A few small pale tears leaked down Ranma's face.
"Crying won't do you any good so deal with it. Now then in regards to your fathers friends there is nothing I can do. I wish that I could be….persuaded into granting your fathers annoying friends certain, considerations…. Like giving out a few second chances which would extend to their peoples as well, considering they will all be dead in a few hours from now anyway."
The letters on Ranma's sign began to shift around forming a new statement despite his tears on his face.
"Why won't you do it?""Sorry its not that simple, I don't play favorites boy you know that."
"Except with me, right you protect me and only me." Ranma's sighn read as the letters began to shift around once more.
"Take me out from under your umbrella. Don't protect me anymore, Father is all the protection that I want or need."
Death chuckled darkly as he smiled once more.
"Are you sure about that? Tell me boy where do you think that all the enemies of your father and your mother have gone? Do you think that they have all just disappeared? You have no idea what type of hell will rain down on you if I stop looking out for you. But if that is what you want then I suppose that I will grant you request. But this doesn't mean that I will grant a few second chances for a few your fathers annoying little friends. Their fates are in their own hands now and soon I will hold a few of them in my embrace." Death chuckled once more and disappeared with a flick of his black robes into the shadows leaving Ranma to bury his face in his fathers chest and let out a fresh torrent of tears as he struggled to come to grips with what death had told him.
'Mother would never abandon me…..She loves me and father….Stupid master death! Its not true mother loves me and would never abandon me!' Ranma thought to himself as he cried.
A silent shadow entered the room though the remains of Fong-Fong's door. In to the room strolled a man dressed in a black suit. A long piece of elegantly twisted iron metal that made up the wicked looking branding iron was clutched in his hands. At one end had two circles one over the other, along with a pentagram inside of them. The pentagram had encased inside it a small spiral all perfectly forged on the single end of the piece of iron metal. The other side was twisted into a elegant vine like shape for the hand grip for its holder.
The man brandished the branding iron in front of him like swordsman would a sword as if using it to defend him against any danger in front of him. The heart shaped locket around Ranma's neck flared up and thrashed around his neck a glow with a green youki only fall silent and still within a inch of the branding iron.
The man rushed forward grasping Ranma tightly by his throat determined to snap his little neck, only to stop short and open his mouth in a silent scream with no one could hear as he felt his heart suddenly stop. The man fell to the floor dead, dropping little Ranma.
Suddenly out from the shadows a pair of cold pale hands reached out and grasped Ranma firmly and pulled him close into the warm silk of a black robe.
A pair of dark blue eyes gazed at Ranma coldy as a man whom looked to be in his thirties with his head now bald save for a toupee to keep his silence of him losing his hair.
Ranma wriggled in the mans hands struggling in vain to get free of his savor now his capture.
"Outa san! (Mother) Oaka! (Father)" Ranma cried out for his father and mother to save him from this stranger whom was now taking him away and into the shadows. The man flicked his hand against Ranma's head and the baby fell silently asleep.
Out of the shadows stepped two dark creatures who appeared to be living shadows concealed in the billowy wisps of blackness that were all their own. A mouth filled with razor sharp teeth gave a gastly horrific smile unseen by Fong-Fong as the two shadow wraths reached forward with their tentacle mist like appendages and began to drag Fong-Fong into the shadows.
The man kicked the branding iron into the darkness behind Fong-Fong even as he clutched Ranma tightly as he stepped into the shadows and disappeared.
Hello everyone! I hope that all of you like this chapter! As always review please. A review to me is like boost to my ego to get me to work on the next chapter for the story! Happy new years everyone!
Cheers Dogsfang