Chapter 8

Her vision was misty, but through the fog Ukyo could see him.

He stood tall and strong with his hands on his hips, cocky and proud. She could see his pigtail waving back and forth as he moved his head, but all she could see was his silhouette. No details like his red shirt or contagious smile.

She went to call out his name, but she had no voice.

She reached out to him, her hand extended through the cloudy, dusky atmosphere, and he reached out towards her, but her grasp passed through the other's hand like a ghost, and he vanished, his image swirling like a wayward wind.

Ukyo looked around, she was alone, trapped in the fabric of this place. And she felt she had no way out.

Ukyo groaned groggily. When she tried to open her eyes, they felt like lead weights. And she felt like she had been asleep for days.

After a few moments, when her mind began to clear, she remembered being attacked in the woman's washroom, with a hand wrapping around her mouth, a cloth saturated with a chemical. Within seconds, she was out.

She found herself in a large room with pink walls filled with stuffed animals of varying size and variety. On the walls were silver framed pictures of indiscriminate female dancers, their faces seemingly scratched out with some sort of brunt object to completely erase their identity, quite violently. She lay in a queen sized circular bed with pink sheets and a flower embroiled comforter. And her left ankle was shackled with a metal link chain to a metal bed frame.

On the upper wall in a corner was a camera facing her with a green light. Someone was watching her.

She didn't need to guess who had kidnapped her.

"Tsubasa!" she shouted.

Seconds later, the door was heard to unlock. Tsubasa opened it carrying a food tray with a silver dome lid. "Hello, my dear goddess," he said with a smile. "Did you have a good rest?" He put the tray on a table nearby.

Ukyo pulled at the chain. "Where am I? Why are you holding me hostage?"

"Tsk, tsk, Ukyo, your accusation wounds me." Tsubasa put a hand to his heart. "I've saved you, from that nasty Ranma Saotome, and I've brought you here to my castle, my abode in the clouds. I designed this room just for you."

Tsubasa meant his new house his family purchased, Ukyo surmised. "I don't like pink. Let me go!"

Tsubasa frowned. He shook his head disappointedly. "When we were in same school together, you were known to change your mind quite often. Have your tastes changed since you hooked up with Ranma Saotome?" He clenched a fist. "That womanizer, that betrayal of the heart," he said with a sneer. "I'm the only man for you, Ukyo."

"Tsubasa, you need serious help. What happened to you? You've always been stalking me, but you've never taken it to this extreme. We went to the same girls school, but I didn't know you were a boy until later on."

"And when you did, you rejected me."

"You were cross-dressing."

"And what makes it okay for Ranma Saotome?"

Ukyo tilted her head. "Ah…it's a different situation…"

"I know Ukyo, I know about him—everything about him. I've visited the springs of Jusenkyo and know of its curses."

Ukyo gulped. "Ranma is different. And we've been friends since childhood." She then told him about the arrangement their fathers made, which was the reason for her and Ranma's engagement. "This new you…it scares me, Tsubasa."

Tsubasa walked to the foot of the bed and extended his arms. "I'm a boy—a boy in love. I love you, Ukyo, and I want to sweep you away. And with my new found riches, I can give you everything you desire. What can a poor leech like Ranma Saotome give you? Are you only bound to him by duty? Has your friendship with him turned to something else?" He thrust himself forward half way onto the bed until he was on top of her. "Do you love that retch?"

Ukyo's lip trembled. She didn't have the words. Tsubasa's eyes were frightening. "Please, let me go," she begged.

Tsubasa backed away and composed himself. "I can't do that. You'll run away. And it took me a great deal of effort to bring you here. Giving a sizeable donation to Furinkan High School under my father's name, adding my name to the student roster, and forming ties with the Head Master to give me what I wanted—were all a means to an end to get closer to you. You'll stay with me until you see the truth, that you love me just as much as I love you."

Ukyo didn't speak.

"It has always been my intention to bring you to here and to show you my new house, but I knew you wouldn't come willingly. And it's amazing, Ukyo. The previous owner left so many interesting things behind. I think that may be why it was a difficult sell, but my father saw its potential—much to his own regret."

What did Tsubasa mean by that? Ukyo wondered. "Tsubasa, please—please—let me go. You're really scaring me."

Tsubasa went around Ukyo's left bedside and cupped her face. "Oh, my sweet, Ukyo," he said, tilting her head kindly. "Why do you lie so? I love you." Then his expression hardened and he slapped her with the back of his hand, and Ukyo recoiled in pain. "And yet you still reject me? I won't allow it! Not anymore!"

Suddenly, Tsubasa grabbed his head with both hands, and with clenched teeth, he staggered back. His fingers pressed hard against his temples, and he cried out in pain.

"Make it stop! Make it stop! I don't want to hurt her! Don't make me do it!" Tsubasa cried out in agony. "Daddy!"

Ukyo gasped "Tsubasa! What's going on?"

Ukyo tried to get off the bed, but the chain held her in place. She watched Tsubasa thrash around holding his head in what seemed like agonizing pain.

"Tsubasa!" He looked sharply at her with teary eyes. Her voice seemed to break the spell. "Look on me!" Ukyo faked a smile and it seemed to help him. Tsubasa began to breath easier.

Tsubasa's face was covered in sweat, his hair drenched over his brow. He looked at her with a wide-eyed shock. He then righted himself. He squeezed his right hand at his side, almost with indignation.

Tsubasa had the look of someone in distress with a hint of shame, Ukyo thought. He cast his eyes away from her.

"I must go!" he said and turned around.

"Tsubasa! Wait! Tell me what just happened," Ukyo asked with an honest plea.

Tsubasa's back was turned to her. Now both his hands were clenched into fists, as if he was fighting an internal battle. "A princess must never see her prince in such reproach and disgrace. I'm sorry…" He lowered his head.

"Tsubasa, please…Is it your father again? Is all this because of him?" Tsubasa's head filtered up as if Ukyo had hit the mark. "You told me your father was an abusive person, you even told me he wished you were never born."

Tsubasa said nothing for a moment.

"You're mistaken, Ukyo," he said straightly, but it sounded forced. "My father loves me, he told me so. He also told me my mother has been a bad influence. She always wanted a girl, and because I looked like one, she dressed me up in a dress, and then enrolled me in an All Girl's School. It was also a good way to save on money, since my father had temporarily left us to build his construction firm. I did what my mother wanted."

Ukyo finally understood a piece of the puzzle of why Tsubasa originally joined the same school as she back then. And it sounded like he came from a dysfunctional home, whereas both is parents were abusive in one way or another.

"When did your father come back?" Ukyo asked.

Tsubasa hesitated. "Three months ago, when my uncle died. His construction firm wasn't doing well, so the windfall from my uncle was enough to drag him back, much to my mother's chagrin."

Ukyo sensed trepidation in Tsubasa's voice. Ukyo knew Tsubasa's father's abusive nature.

"What happened afterwards?" Ukyo knew she was getting into some dark water with Tsubasa.

"My mother left, my father bought her off. Then, all of sudden, my father began to associate with bankers, politicians, and other rich people, and his construction firm began to earn favours. Now, his company is responsible for building a new wing in the new hospital just outside of Nerima. We needed a new residence, so my father bought this house, and because it was cheap, it was a steal. But it has a dark secret."

Ukyo gulped.

"The old owner built a series of game rooms underneath the house. He used it to entertain guests. But rumour has it someone died while playing in it and there was a police investigation. The funhouse and the death had to be claimed with the house on the market, but despite it, my father saw its potential. Other than the history, the house is good, it's more like a mansion, in fact, and it's very prestigious for a man of my father's new standing in high circles."

Ukyo felt sorry for Tsubasa, so much had changed for him since last she has seen him. "And that's when things changed, didn't it?" she said. "Did your father force you to change your behaviour?"

Tsubasa didn't answer. Ukyo took one of the stuff animals on the bed and thew it at his back. "Answer me!"

Tsubasa turned, and Ukyo saw the tears in his eyes. "He told me to act like a boy, to stop wearing girl's clothes, and to cut my hair, or he would hurt—"

"Did he beat you?"

Tsubasa shut his eyes. Ukyo thought Tsubasa looked like he was trying to shut away his empathic feelings. As if he shut his eyes, he was shutting out the world.

But then they shot open, blood-shot. He wiped away his tears.

Ukyo detected a sudden change in Tsubasa. He tilted his head slightly and gave her a wicked looking smile, almost devilish in nature. It was almost like Tsubasa had switched personalities. She had heard of this. Someone who had been beaten so badly that they developed a split personality to shut out the hurt. No wonder Tsubasa had changed.

"Tsubasa! Your father doesn't own you! Be who you want to be!"

Tsubasa approached and grabbed Ukyo's chin hard. "I want to be your husband, Ukyo! That's who I want to be." He then let go, but he had hurt her cheek bones.

The real Tsubasa would never hurt me like this, she knew. Tsubasa was always obsessive, but he was never abusive.

"Okay, then…I'll marry you," Ukyo said.

Tsubasa stood back, his face ashen with shock. "What…did you…say?"

"I said, I'll marry you," Ukyo repeated truthfully. "But you have to promise me one thing. You'll leave your father and come live with me. I have plenty of room at my restaurant. We can run the business together as husband and wife."

Tsubasa's face twitched. Was he trying to process what she just offered him?

"But you're engaged to Ranma Saotome, you were promised to him a long time ago," Tsubasa said.

Ukyo nodded. "That's true, but things can change, Tsubasa," she said earnestly.

But something about Tsubasa's story touched her heart.

Ranma would understand. Besides, he saw her as nothing but his buddy.

Tsubasa was hurting inside, and she felt it was her duty to help him, since it was partially her fault. Tsubasa had fallen for her, it had been love at first sight. Kidnapping her and chaining her up, however, was something new for him.

Tsubasa shook his head. "You lie! I know you, Ukyo. You'd never marry me until I defeat Ranma Saotome. And so it shall be done. And when I beat him, only then will accept me. I've already sent him a challenge letter. Ranma will come to me and I'll crush him before your very eyes."

Tsubasa then turned, and walked out of the room, shutting the door.

"Tsubasa, wait!" she shouted to him, but it was too late.

Tsubasa slammed the door behind him, but as he stood outside in the hall, he suddenly felt very woozy and grabbed the wall. His head began to spin and he collapsed to the ground with his back to the wall, slipping down. He grabbed his head. The head hurt and in a moment of clarity he felt the world around him was wrong.

He grit his teeth as a surge of pain raced through his head like electricity and another flashback hit him.

He remembered being stripped down and strapped into a chair and water thrown into his face. Then some electrical wiring shocked him. Tsubasa could still hear his own blood-curdling screams in his head. The pain was excruciating. But why, he kept asking himself.

And his father kept telling himself it was all for his own good.

He opened his watery teared-eyes and suddenly saw his father standing in the hallway.

Tsubasa smiled. "Father, I have Ukyo, she's mine at last," he said proudly. His father only frowned. His smile faded. "But I thought you'd be pleased?" His father then walked away without a word and suddenly vanished into a mist.

Had it been a ghost?

Tsubasa called out to him. "Father! Father! Don't abandon me!" Tsubasa clenched his teeth. "No, I haven't proven myself to him yet." He got to his feet. "I must beat my rival. Only then will I be worthy in my father's eyes."

He ran down the hall and made his way underground through a secret passage in the library.

From a spiral stone staircase down a long hallway, he pushed open an iron bracket half-moon door hat lead to a Control Room, a room filled with every assortment of electrical surveillance equipment for the games.

He readied the equipment for use, switching on all the lights, the monitors booted up. He activated all the cameras within the "funhouse of horrors" he had nicknamed it, and to its many rooms.

He also activated on an exterior camera for the front door.

And already, the exterior camera witnessed his forthcoming victim. His prey had arrived.

Tsubasa smiled devilishly. "At last, Ranma Saotome, you will be defeated, and Ukyo will be mine!"

To be continued...