Chapter 11
"Shampoo!"
Ranma halted in his tracks as the water splashed down over the cage. It saturated Shampoo and activated her curse.
Damn you, Tsubasa! He knows everything about the Jusenkyo curses and who has them!
He didn't know how Tsubasa had captured Shampoo, but it must have been in a similar manner as Ukyo.
Already changed into his female form, he yet forged on and jumped through the water. He hated cats, he absolutely hated them, but if he didn't get Shampoo out of the cage, she would drown. Tsubasa was willing to put Ranma's friends in deathly peril to seek gratification in his defeat.
Ukyo was his friend, but only she considered him a suitor. Ranma didn't see Ukyo that way. But Tsubasa was too damn delusional to see through reason.
Ranma swam through the water, it was cold—very cold—and he got to the cage, dived under water. He held his breath and pulled at the bars, but the lock that secured Shampoo inside—as a cat—was solid.
He had no choice and used his Chestnuts Roasting Over A Fire Technique in rapid secession to hit the lock and damage it. As he was underwater, any cameras would be blind to its use, so he could avoid any violations in the rules. His punches were still fast enough even under water and he broken the lock.
"Shampoo!" he mouthed through the water.
Shampoo was holding her breath, but a cat's lungs were only so large. And she began to fade.
He grabbed her, shutting his eyes, trying not think that she was a cat, and swam to the surface. The moment he emerged, he inhaled for breath, and opened his eyes. Shampoo began to cough, but breath. With an almost instantaneous reaction, Ranma's fear burst forth, and he panicked, letting Shampoo go, and screamed, swimming backwards.
Shampoo meowed between breaths and began to tread water. Normally cats didn't like water, but Shampoo was different. A wave from Ranma pushed her towards the wall. Ranma took off his shirt and tossed it near Shampoo so she could use it as a floatation device. Shampoo got on top and because of her light weight, it worked out fine. Ranma had on a tank top undershirt, so he still kept his dignity, if a wet-shirt that exhibited everything that was womanly was keeping "his" dignity?
"Damn you, Tsubasa!" Ranma shouted, raising a fist into the air at the nearest camera. He splashed the water with his fists angrily. "You could've killed Shampoo with that stunt!"
"Ranma, it's Akane!" came a new voice through the speakers. "We've taken control of the Control Room, Ryoga and me."
"That's great, Akane! And Tsubasa?"
"I have him pinned against the wall, Ranma," came Ryoga's voice.
Ranma smiled broadly as he treaded water. "You guys are great!" He looked around. "Can you do sumthin' 'bout all this water?"
"Hold on," Akane said, then Ranma heard her speak to Tsubasa. "How do I drain the room?"
"Saotome has to beat the room for the water to drain," Ranma heard Tsubasa's voice with a light chuckle. "But it won't be easy. I specifically designed the room with Ranma in mind."
"How does Ranma beat the room? What does Ranma have to do?" Ryoga spoke with a demanding tone.
"Nothing much, just find a way to drain the room," Tsubasa replied with an almost sly tone.
With that, Ranma looked around, and then plunged his head beneath the water to find some sort of drain plug. But the room was completely sealed in. He came up for breath. He thought about smashing the wall, but then that would mean he'd lose.
It was then he looked up and saw an air vent in the ceiling. Tsubasa is playin' dirty, Ranma thought. He knows there's no way to drain the room without using his controls. He wants me to drown so he can have Ukyo all to himself. Not gonna happen!
"Shampoo!" Ranma pointed to the ceiling vent. Shampoo looked at it from her floating perch. It was small enough for her to get through. She could crawl through the vent and hopefully make her way to Tsubasa's control room.
Shampoo meowed, knowing what Ranma had in mind.
He swam to her, treaded water, and then waited for the level to rise to a suitable height, and then pulled the vent off. Shampoo crawled in and immediately went to work. But in the meantime, Ranma had little time left. He hoped Shampoo would hurry.
Shampoo made her way through the venting system, using her keen cat senses and sight, and eventually made it to the control room. She smashed through the vent and landed to the floor with cat-like agility.
Both Akane and Ryoga greeted her with excitement.
Shampoo meowed, and then saw Tsubasa's control panel. But she didn't know how to operate it. On one screen, Ranma was almost completely submerged and gulping for his last ounce of breath.
There was only thing she could do. She turned and pounced on Tsubasa, launching into an attack. She began to scratch at his face repeatedly. Tsubasa screamed. Ryoga backed away.
Then Tsubasa shouted, as he tried to pull Shampoo away, her claws swiping at his face, causing deep cuts. "Get it off! Okay! Press the green button to stop the water and drain the room! It will release the sealed floor vent."
Ryoga pulled Shampoo off Tsubasa with considerable effort. "That's enough, Shampoo," he said. Shampoo struggled in Ryoga's grip, wiggling, wanting to attack Tsubasa even more. She wanted to carve Tsubasa into little pieces for what he had done.
Akane worked the control panel and began to drain the room.
Shampoo jumped out of Ryoga's arms, taking a deep calming breath. Tsubasa was holding his face, whimpering. She then looked at the computer screen with Ranma's image on it. The water was indeed draining out of the room, with Ranma treading water, but now breathing normally. It had been close, but she had saved her beloved future husband.
And Shampoo found it strangely pleasing that despite being a cat, Ranma came to her rescue pushing back his fear. There was hope for their relationship yet with her curse. She knew she would have to work on Ranma's fear, ease it out of him.
She looked back at Tsubasa. He had kidnapped her to use her against Ranma and this she couldn't forgive him for that. He would pay, if not now but at a later date.
"You've lost, Tsubasa," Akane then said. "Now, where is Ukyo?"
Tsubasa smiled, looking out from his hands, his face scratched and bleeding. "Oh, the games aren't over yet, I'm afraid," he said with a chuckle, with an almost insane look in his eyes. "Ranma still has to get though one more room. Going backwards isn't an option, and there is no other way for him to escape my gauntlet. Once the water has drained, a door will open, and then the third room will be revealed. As for Ukyo, you'll never find her. She is mine!"
As the water drained, Ranma breathed out a sense of relief. "Thanks guys!" he said over the sound of the water draining. But what was the point of this room? Tsubasa had kidnapped and caged Shampoo, nearly drowning the both of them.
Maybe that's the point? Ranma thought. He was afraid of cats, maybe the harming of one of his friends would turn him to such despair, that Tsubasa would think he would forget all about Ukyo? It would only incite him further. He doesn't know me very well.
"I'm mad now," he said. "Really mad!"
And then felt it, the pull of the water vortex. As the water began to drain, it had to tread water even harder to keep afloat. The spin underneath him pulled him down into its spin.
Ranma felt the pull get even more intense and he began to swirl with the water. He had one chance, go with the flow. He dived underwater and let the vortex take him, holding his breath, until he reached the drain. Taking the plunge, he entered the drain big enough for him to fit through, and allowed the pressure to take him through a valve system. It was intense.
He was then jettisoned out into another room. The vent in the wall shutting itself behind him and Ranma flew through the air. The water had blinded him and he had to quickly rub his eyes as he soared through the air to see where he was going.
That was when he saw it and screamed. Its giant, whiskered, furry face, coming straight at him—or rather he to it.
Akane gasped with shock as she witnessed Ranma fly through the air in the third and final room towards an unbelievable sight. She had to take a double-take to realize what she was looking at was actually what she was seeing.
Ranma landed on it and she could hear his terrified screams as he smashed into its head, holding on with a cat-like grip.
It was a giant white cat that must have been ten feet high and twenty feet long.
"Okay, who'd build such a thing?" Akane turned and questioned Tsubasa.
Tsubasa chuckled. "I told you, I designed this gauntlet with Ranma in mind," he said. "If he wants out, he'll have to defeat it."
"But…" Akane started, but didn't finished. She knew what Ranma would have to do.
"What kind of a demented fool builds a giant cat?" Ranma shouted, shutting his eyes, trying to not to think of what was in front of him, those cold eyes, but holding on to it, nonetheless.
There was a pause. Akane's voice came through the speakers. "Tsubasa says he picked it up from a second-hand discount depot from a factory. He knows you hate cats. But it only looks like one, it's actually a bull."
A bull?
That helped him. Ranma held on tight. He took a deep, calming breath and with his eyes closed he inched his way around to its back mane, this way he wouldn't have to look at its face—which terrified him the most. He never expected to be doing anything like this, riding a massive giant cat.
Don't think of it as a cat, Akane says it's a bull with a cat's fur and appearance.
He wasn't so afraid now. Despite its appearance, it wasn't a real cat.
Suddenly, it began to bulk. And Ranma gripped its fur tight. "Whoa!" It was trying now to throw him off.
He didn't want to fall. Below him was something gooey. It looked like a mixture of floor and batter. If he fell into it, he would be stuck in it like glue and he would never get out.
"Akane! S-s-stop this t-t-thing!" Ranma begged.
To be continued...
