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* Illuminations *
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* A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction *
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* By Freemage *
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*Author's Note: This story draws on both the anime and the
manga. Still trying to work out continuity issues: It has now
been pointed out that the chi-blasts also post-date the arrival
of Pantyhose Tarou. *sigh*
This is a dark story, with several sexually suggestive scenes,
although no outright Lemon scenes. If such material offends or
disturbs you, please consider not reading this story--Unless, of
course, you like being offended and/or disturbed....
Thoughts are denoted by {X}.*
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* Chapter Three *
* Growing Awareness *
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Akane's scream shattered through the Tendou house, breaking
the silence of the dawn like rock through a plate-glass window.
Ranma was the first to respond. Orienting on the sound, he
dove through his window and landed on one of the large rocks in
the backyard. "Akane, what's the matter?!?"
Akane, still too horrified to speak clearly, just pointed at
the motionless figure floating in the pond. Even as Ranma's
mind went numb with shock, his eyes were taking in little
details that bore into his skull: The portly figure, the
olive-green Mao coat, the red star-and-sickle on the cap.
It was the man he had always thought of as "The Guide";
the man who had taken them all over China; the man who had
explained the Jusenkyou curses; the man who, they had all
planned, would one day show the location of a "Spring of
Drowned Man".
The man who was undeniably dead.
The others came straggling out of the house, each giving a
different reaction. Genma, of course, broke down into a near-
hysterical babbling, pontificating on the cruelties of fate.
Soun followed suit as he realized the meaning of Genma's
rantings.
Nabiki simply withdrew and went to the phone, seeing which
of the local news stations would pay the most for a "hot
tip".
Kasumi's "Oh, my!" seemed jarringly out of place, while
Ryouga just kneeled, eyes glazed and unseeing, at the edge of
the pool.
Akane looked over at Ranma, watching the collage of horror,
confusion and rage pass over his features. As she, too,
realized the true identity of the unfortunate victim, her heart
almost broke. {What will he do now?}
Ranma, overwhelmed by the emotions that washed over his
mind, did the only sensible thing--He fainted.
*************************************************************
Word spread quickly.
*************************************************************
At the Neko-Hanten, Shampoo, Mousse and Cologne sat around,
all trying to fit this latest tragedy into their current
plans.
{At least my son-in-law will not be able to marry the Tendou
girl, now. If I can just find out which pool is the right one,
maybe I can trade that information in exchange for a change in
attitude.}
{If Ranma does not find Drowned Man Spring, how will he
marry poor Shampoo?}
{If the guide is dead, how can I ever hope to escape this
curse and win Shampoo's love? At least Saotome is in the same
boat...}
*************************************************************
Ukyou was stunned.
"So that means there's no way to find out which pool is the
one to reverse the curse?"
"That's right," replied Kasumi. "Everyone is so stressed
that I didn't even feel like cooking. That's why I came by. I
thought maybe you could whip up a large order of okonomiaki?"
"Of course, Kasumi...." Ukyou's voice trailed off. {Poor
Ranma! I don't care if there's no way to break the curse--But
maybe Akane does! This could be my chance!}
Working quickly, she boxed up more than enough for the Tendou
household. "Here you go Kasumi. The one with Ranma's name on
it is for him. A little something to cheer him up."
Kasumi gave her perky smile. "Oh, how nice. I'm sure
he'll appreciate it."
*************************************************************
Happousai sat at the table, listening to Soun and Genma, who
were engaged in their usual game of Shogi while taking
turns telling the Master of the day's events. Soun had just
related Ranma's faint.
"That brought Ryouga out of his shock," Genma added. "He
stood up, shook his head and took the Boy upstairs to lie
down. Then he just wandered off, saying he would return if and
when the time was right."
Soun took up the tale again. "But that was not the
greatest shock. As we dragged the body onto the shore,
the Guide's hat fell off. On his forehead was a strange
tattoo."
Happousai grew more interested. "What was the tattoo of?
What?"
Genma said, "A simple triangle. But inset into the top of
it was an eye."
Happousai was clearly disturbed by this news. "It cannot
be," he whispered to himself. "But I must be sure."
The old man stood up suddenly and walked out the door,
passing Kasumi on her way in.
"Oh, hello Happousai. Will you be staying for dinner?"
"No, my dear, I cannot dally today. I shall return this
evening though, so if you could save me some...?" he finished
hopefully.
"Of course I will. But where are you off to in such a
rush?"
"An ancient evil seems to be on the move again. But I
must not say more, lest I alert the very dragon I hunt."
Kasumi's "Oh, my!" followed Happousai down the street.
*************************************************************
Moving listlessly, Ranma got ready for dinner, listening
only half-heartedly to the radio.
"And now for the News. Our top story tonight, the strange
pattern of destruction that seems to have descended upon the
Nerima District."
Ranma froze in mid-stride, an all-too familiar feeling of
doom already slithering through his innards, like some ice-cold
eel.
"Of course, any resident of the District can tell you that
the troubles started a little over a year ago, with the
arrival of a strange girl and her pet panda."
Ranma's mouth developed a sudden and erratic tic.
"Since that time, Nerima has been witness to innumerable
martial arts battles, animal attacks and explosions--even
flying ships and animate mailboxes. While this activity has
been upsetting to Nerima's residents, and has inflicted vast
amounts of property damage, residents have managed to adapt. In
large part, this was because despite the violence, no one ever
seemed to be critically injured or killed."
"But of late, that has changed."
"Just last week, a local high school youth died in an odd,
and as yet unexplained accident. He apparently fell against a
curb and bled to death, despite being a martial arts champion
at Furinkan High School."
Ranma was now sitting, attention undivided and dinner
forgotten, in front of the radio. {What's he getting at?}
Ranma wondered.
"And just today, police were called to a local martial
arts dojo--curiously enough, the same one the girl and panda
were asking directions to two and a half years ago--and found
the corpse of a Chinese tourist guide, apparently drowned in
the dojo's pool."
"A source inside the police department has just told us
that they have traced the Guide's movements and found his motel
room. The contents of that room were bizarre, to say the
least."
"Our informant has told us it was full of occult gear.
All sorts of cultures were represented in the glyphs, runes and
wards on the walls and door. Ankhs hung next to crucifixes,
while the floor had an elaborate Hermetic circle surrounding
the bed."
"A Native American `dream catcher' hung over the bed, and
all the entrances, including the air vents, had papers with
Chinese Fire signs."
"'This man was frightened of something,' said the police
source. 'The question is who and why? We don't know yet, but
we intend to find out.'"
Ranma clicked off the radio. {Isn't this ever going to
stop?}
*************************************************************
Despite all the troubles, the family was heartened to hear
Kasumi's announcement that she had brought dinner home from
Ukyou's. Ranma and Genma had just started to try to grab the
same box when Kasumi interrupted: "Oh, no Ranma. Ukyou said
to be sure you got this one."
Ranma blinked, his puzzlement giving Genma an opportunity
to grab the contested box away. Curious, Ranma slid his box
open, and read the noodle-writing set into the dough:
(it read)
Ranma face-faulted even as Akane started reading over his
shoulder. "`Darling Ranma'? `Love, Ucchan'? Maybe you
should just eat this over there, you jerk!"
Ranma, sensing the danger present behind him, turned to
look at his fuming fiancee. {Uh, oh. Better think of
something to get out of this....} "Akane, you know it's not
like that! It's not like I'm askin' for her to do this stuff!"
"Yeah, well it's not like you try very hard to stop it,
either! Why don't you just admit it? You like having those
other bimbos fawning all over you, stroking your ego, you
pervert!"
Ranma had spent years training to take advantage of an
opening, and by now it was reflex. With a sly smirk, he said,
in a mocking tone, "'Other bimbos'? Well, does that mean that
now you consider yourse--" *CRUNCH*
In the resulting, and predictable, chaos, no one noticed
when Nabiki slipped out into the early-evening drizzle.
*************************************************************
Nabiki's steps carried her on a random course through the
Nerima District.
{What am I gonna do? If I tell Akane about this, she'll
kill him. Hell, she'll kill both of them. I don't think she
could trust either one after this--Probably ruin her chances of
any kind of real happiness. On the other hand, if I don't
tell, and she finds out I knew, she'll never trust me again,
either.}
Why did life have to be so complicated?
Nabiki was so distracted by these thoughts that she didn't
even notice that her feet had taken her past the Kunou mansion.
But someone else did.
{It's *her*. The one who forced me to--to discipline
Brother Dearest. It's all her fault. Well, hers and one
other's. Which reminds me, break time is over. There will be
time to deal with the Tendou Whore later.}
Kodachi lingered at the window just long enough to be sure
that Nabiki was leaving. Then she turned, carrying her single
trademark black rose, and went back down into the cellar. By
the time she reached the bottom of the stairs, she could hear
the whimpering again, and it brought a smile to her face.
As she entered the old wine storage room, she looked about,
her expression containing equal parts disdain and amusement at
what she saw. Bottles of fine wines, some hundreds of years
old, lay broken, pools of their "lifeblood" spilled onto the
earthen floor. She had a far more important use for the racks,
now.
"How are you feeling, Father? Ready to begin again?"
"Ch-chil', you don' wanna do this..." The senior Kunou
lifted his head, with its bald and bleeding scalp, to look at
his daughter's mad eyes.
"Oh, but Father, I do. After all, while I may have
finally repaid you for what you did to me so many years ago,
there is still the matter of interest on the debt..."
In response to the look of confused terror that passed over
her father's face, Kodachi raised the tweezers into his line of
vision. "After all, Father, is there not a great deal more
hair besides that which grows on the head?"
As Kodachi slowly and seductively removed his clothes, the
senior Kunou screamed, but no one heard, save for a broken
little girl who didn't care.
*************************************************************
Chapter Four
Thoughts & Reflections I guess I've decided that once Kodachi crosses that final line, there's no turning back. But don't think I have no sympathy for her. After all, I've tried to show one possible reason for her behavior. It's interesting, to me at least, to watch how the story is changing from what I had intended. This is anything but the light, campy romp I had first envisioned. My original idea was to explain one thing, and one thing only: How all these people really ended up cursed. I mean, one or two, fine, but five? Somebody's pulling some strings, and I think I know who. But as time went on, I found myself wondering about other things, too. Kodachi's instability, Kuno's pig-headedness and Nabiki's greed all cried out for some kind of rational, if less-than-plausible, explanation. There will probably be more. Meantime, if you've had the stamina to endure this long, thanks. I'm trying to keep the chapters short enough to load quickly, but long enough to avoid being too choppy. See you at the end of five!
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