Chapter 4: He Is Shadow~
The Lost Wood was apply named.
Ranma wandered in the form of Sheik, for what may have been days, what may have been eternity, he didn't know. All he could remember was this ongoing music in the back of his mind, faint and far away, and lonely too, for the faces of friends, or of kin. He started hallucinating, seeing Akane at every turn,and over there Kasumi, and over there Hibiki Ryoga.
No, that really was Hibki Ryoga over there. Figures P-Chan would be right at home in the place of eternal wandering...
"Ranma?!" Ryoga gasped, turning about in a 360, and spinning in a 180 again to face his rival. "What are you doing in Finland? And WHERE is that weird music coming from? Crazy Reindeer People!"
"Actually, we're in the Lost Wood,in the mountains around Jusenkyo..."
"Lost Wood around Jusenkyo ?...And...you look weird...SAOTOME RANMA ! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! PREPARE TO DIE!"
Ryoga struck a fighting pose, in preparation to kill Ranma. Business as usual.
Zelda decided to intervene this time. Sheik made a "Hup!" sound,and lifted one hand, and a golden light began to shine out of his palm.
"Listen to my voice..." spoke Zelda out of Sheik..."I am the spirit of Princess Zelda of Hylia, the Maiden Peace Child...I am the spirit of Drowning Girl...
Please...I have come claim the soul of my brother Link The Wanderer from the hands of Farore...Hibiki Ryoga...I ask you to help me..."
There was silence , a long and awkward silence.
"You heard the Lady." Ranma spat ,speaking out of Sheik, at last, annoyed by the silence, and by the look of shock and awe on Ryoga's face.
"What..? What the? You...THAT WASN'T YOU, RANMA!"
"No, it was Zelda. Girl form has learned how to talk for herself...She's uhh...needs me. My help."
Ryoga blinked...
"She...the Drowning Girl...needs my help too...I'll do it for the Lady!" he gasped.."But you're still in there, Ranma! Because of you I've seen hell! And I've got to kill you! SHI SHI HOKODAN!" he cried at the top of his lungs.
A sphere of energy formed in his hand, but it never reached its mark.
There was a wicked laughter, like the merry-making of a thousand devils ,from somewhere in the forest.
Then out from under a tree, having been resting in the darkness, rose a shadow. A shapeless shadow. The energy hit it, and it began to shiver, quaking like the surface of water right before the dam breaks...
"Well, well,well..If it isn't Genma's little bastard and the Pig Boy!" said a voice...a horrible, dark voice...a voice like a spirit drowned in smoke.
And suddenly a man stepped forth from that shadow. One that looked very much like Zelda, only as a man, but the whites of his eyes were teary red ,as if smoke had wafted in his face, and his hair was grey and matted like a vulture's down. He was dressed entirely in black like the clothes that ninjas wear, and had on a long amethyst cloak, and he had a belt made from a serpent's spine, the skull of which wrapped over his shoulder and sat on his chest, right above his heart. When he smiled his teeth were like a wolf's teeth. The air about him flickered, and sometimes flames would shoot into thin air from around him, immediately to disappear.
" WHY DO YOU COME HERE, WRAITH OF ASHES! GO DOWN TO THE BELLY OF HELL! DRINK DEEPLY OF BLOOD; GO BACK TO SLEEP!" Zelda's voice shouted from Sheik's lips.
"None but the Prince of Shadows may command me ,witch of Nayru!" hissed the demon, and turned on her, lifting his hand, starting to strangle her...
Ranma reacted at lighting speed, "MOKO TAKABISHA!" he shouted.
The shadow put up a hand, and caught the attack mid air..."Mmm...this...your soul...the very life inside you...Let's see...what you're all about, eh?"
He suddenly twisted the shape until it was a living, beating heart within his hands. Ranma heard himself screaming in pain before he realized what was happening. Saw Ryoga gaping in horror, heard the music in the background turn to pipes and drums ,as if summoning a dragon from his grave. As the shadow's teeth sunk down into the very pulsating life of Saotome Ranma, and began to drink, straining as much blood from his veins as he could muster, without actually causing him to die.
The heart burned to ashes in the Shadow's hands...His eyes began to flicker, and suddenly he transformed into a Panda, whose teeth were filled with the ribs of a horse, and these were dribbling blood everywhere. The blood began to cry out with the voice of Nodoka, mourning for her child...But crying "Seppuku ,Seppuku! MY SON SHALL DIE, A MAN NO MORE!" And there was a voice that sounded like Genma saying, "You are no warrior...you failed me...You are nothing but dust..."
Ranma didn't understand. His dad was too stupid to even come up with such a sentence? But then the image changed,and this one was more horrible.
It was Akane, standing in front of him, in a wedding dress...Akane, his actually beautiful "uncute" fiancee...Her veil was cast back, and her face was painted ghostly white, like one would a geisha...
Her lips were dripping blood, and her stomach was torn out. White lace was splattered in violent red. But her arms could be seen, the sleeves torn away from her dress, and they were made of porcelain, and cracked and smouldering in places, showing that under all the blood, she was really nothing more than a doll...
"Are you going to marry me, and put all of it right, you PERVERTED FREAK?!" she spat. Her wedding dress began to burn away, and suddenly she was wearing the clothes of a geisha, and Ranma saw thousands of spirits in the likeness of men coming to her, and he knew their intentions for her, and they were so horrible his mind couldn't even conjure that.
Ranma has never known a rage like he did in that moment. But he couldn't move. His body had momentarily frozen ,as if turned to stone, so much of his blood drained from him, and in the bottom of that demon's belly!...
But suddenly a light like dawn pierced through the wandering veil of the forest, and there was an aura of green, and the sound of a bow singing in the air.
Ranma looked up, and he felt his throat close.
As a man who looked exactly like Zelda, if she had been a man, with white-gold hair, and eyes of fearsome blue, who was dressed in dark green, clothes like a samurai warrior would wear, and had on a strangely shaped green hat, skin so white he looked like he was made of pure silver, ears like blades in their fine points, came tearing through the forest.
With a white yew bow he shot the very center of the shadow, and it froze, its tongue turning to solid ice, and thrusting out of his mouth, in a tiny blade-like glacier.
"Down, snake, down! Back in your cage!" Link cried, sliding to a stop, and beating a hand against his chest.
There was a small triangle of solid gold on the back of this hand, burning like the dawn with light.
"MASTER, PLEASE MASTER! PLEASE DON'T DRAW ME INTO YOUR VEINS ,MASTER! THE WOLF IS AWAKE IN YOU, WITH NAYRU'S MOON! HE WILL SWALLOW ME ALIVE, AND TEAR ME PIECE FROM PIECES!"
"Oh, this I know. Which is why I send you out to meet him...A black sheep at the mercy of the wolf..."
Link grit his teeth, and Ranma could see that two of his teeth were fangs made of solid steel,and little sparks emitted from them. The shadow wailed like a loss child, and drew into a cloud, sobbing pitifully, and began to slither on the ground like a snake...
"Mmmmmaster...Puhpuhpuhpleeeeeasssseeee!"
"Stop your sniveling, wretched serpent...Into your cage, and let's have this over with!"cried Link, eyes flashing. He blinked and lighting surged from the eyes of blue, flashing about the forest in a silent reflection, like light off the end of a magnifying glass reflects. The Shadow screamed, drew up, and flew into Link's chest.
It reached up wailing, clutching at Link's ribs like a prisoner does the bars of his cage...
"MERCY,MASTER! MERCY!"
"You won't get any mercy from me! My soul is more lost than your own, being I am your creator!" Link shouted.
Suddenly, the forest began to grow dark.
Ranma heard Zelda weeping quietly in his head.
Ryoga shouted something Ranma couldn't make out, and Link fell to his knees, screaming in unfathomable pain, a wail that was hollow, as if he was used to this, a soul that would be better off damned and in chains...
Suddenly the wailing turned into a growl...and there on the ground lay thrashing not a man, but a wolf, with bright blue eyes.
"Farore, what have you done?!" Zelda cursed.
Ranma didn't know what exactly was going on...or who this guy was. But...he had...saved him... in a way. Saved him from the horrific wraith of his beloved Akane. And for that, if only for that, he had the eternal respect of the young warrior. In one moment, Ranma realized that he really ,really ,really CARED about this guy...and he was going to help him. He was going to defeat the Wolf.