Comments (any and all) to "thark@hem2.passagen.se"; find my other crap
at "http://nabiki.newberry.edu/thark/fanfic/". As you'll soon find out,
this starts shortly after the end of volume 38.
  
  Some of the characters and concepts used below were created by
Takahashi Rumiko, others by Howard Phillips Lovecraft and various
authors (most notably Clark Ashton Smith). To these people, my eternal
gratitude, and I sincerely apologize for using said characters and
concepts without permission.
  
  Big thanks to my prereaders, Gary Kleppe and Cyber-com Ash, and to all
others who've already commented on this.
  
  Enough ranting; here's...
  
                           Shadows on the Wall
       A Ranma 1/2 fanfic, by Ronny Hedin (thark@hem2.passagen.se)
  
                            Now that I know that the right time has come
                                       My prediction will surely be true
                                         The impending disaster it looms
                                  And the whole of the village is doomed
                                              Why won't you listen to me
                                             Is it so hard to understand
                               Dave Murray & Steve Harris - The Prophecy
  
  I still don't know if I really should be writing this. You'll probably
think I'm crazy. Heck, I think so myself half the time. My wife insists,
though, and I guess she knows best.
  
  Back when all this shit was happening, I didn't think I was ever gonna
be writing anything. If anyone told to jot down two paragraphs in a row,
I'd laugh in their face. But then, I'd probably do that if someone told
me to *read* two paragraphs in a row, too. I wish that hadn't changed.
  
  Still, I'm no good at this. Thank god for the machine; nobody could
read my handwriting even before I started shaking.
  
  But I guess I better get on with the story. I don't know when it
really started, so I'll begin when I first started noticing something
was wrong.
  
  Back then, I still had four girls fighting over me. Yeah, I know what
you think; god how I wish *that* was the least believable part of the
story. Anyway, at the time, my fiancee and I were still arguing all the
time. I guess the others were fiancees too, but I never thought of them
like that. Only Akane. We were both just beginning to figure out how we
felt, though we had already almost been married.
  
  I'll start on the day after that. You see, two of the other girls,
Ukyou and Shampoo (don't ask) had attacked the wedding. I figured they'd
be upset, sure, but not that crazy. Hurt us both pretty bad. All in all,
a pretty bad day, even for me. Well, then.
  
  Anyway, I'm sorry I'm drifting off. I'm no storyteller and my mind
ain't what it was. The next morning, I managed to tell Akane I was sorry
without getting my head pounded in, and we walked off to school hand-in-
hand for what I think was the first time. I still remember how happy
that made me.
  
  We'd come about halfway when I saw the girls approaching. Didn't think
much of it, except I was surprised they'd apologize so soon. Well, all
for the better - I still don't like making enemies, so I'd forgive them.
  
  So I was about to greet them when I noticed both girls still had that
mad gleam in their eyes. Stunned me for a while. Too long. Akane hadn't
noticed anything wrong - she was busy being generally mad at them. I
tried to pull her close, but Ukyou had already thrown one of her flour
bombs.
  
  Sounds corny, right? It ain't. When the smoke cleared, the first thing
I saw was Akane lying there on the ground, lights out. I got plenty of
bruises myself, but how could I care about that when I could be near
losing her for the third time in a week?
  
  So I scooped her up and ran off towards doctor Tofuu's clinic.
Luckily, I was faster than the girls. I could hear Shampoo shouting
behind me, "Die Ranma!" with that Chinese accent she still had - I
really got running after that; something was seriously fucked up.
  
  It took a while to shake them off, with mini-spatulas flying by my
ears and all, but by the time I got to the doctor's, it was just me and
my fiancee. Looking back, they should've figured out where I went pretty
quickly, but at the time, I didn't wanna look a gift horse in the mouth.
I wonder how the bastard did that...
  
  Well, the doc let me in quick enough, and of course, he looked pretty
shocked.
  
  "What happened, Ranma?" he asked when we'd gotten her down on a bed.
He'd already started checking on her.
  
  "Ukyou got her with one of her flour bombs," I told him. I saw a cut
on my arm, and I put a hand there to stop the bleeding, so the doc
wouldn't see. I didn't wanna bother him when Akane could be badly hurt.
  
  He looked about as surprised as I had. "Ukyou?" he asked.
  
  I nodded. Hey, what was there to do? "She and Shampoo looked plenty
mad. The old ghoul musta' drugged them or sumthin'," I said, shaking my
head. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the dried-up mummy.
  
  Right, old ghoul, that's Shampoo's granny. Cologne. Real nasty amazon
bitch, though she had her moments.
  
  That was when the doc widened his eyes and got this really worried
look. I almost had a heart attack. Couldn't stop myself from shaking him
by his shoulders. "Whatsa' matter, doc? Tell me she ain't gonna die!" I
don't know what I'd do. Probably cut my neck with the nearest scalpel.
  
  Luckily, the doc shook his head, and I let him down to work on Akane
again. "The injuries aren't so bad," he said calmly. Woulda' relieved me
more if I hadn't seen that look, so I stared at him as good as I could.
"Doc, what's wrong?"
  
  He looked up and put a hand on my shoulder. "She's ill." That had me
shaking real bad. I imagined all the nasty shit I'd ever heard of. I
dunno if any of it was as bad as what the doc said next, though.
  
  He looked into my eyes, and said, with a totally calm voice, "It's the
same disease that killed her mother." Good thing he didn't act upset or
so. Now I just sorta sank into a chair. All my energy just ... left. I
kept looking at the doc, begging him for something to give hope.
  
  "She might live, Ranma," he said soothingly. Might. I'm not sure I
really heard him. Felt like he was miles away. I know I head tears in my
eyes but I'm not sure if I was crying or not. "It will take at least a
few weeks though. She'll have to stay here. I'll do what I can, but I
can't promise anything."
  
  I nodded, so I guess I must've heard him. Doctor Tofuu's the best doc,
I told myself. He'll save her. I looked up at him. "Can I stay here?"
  
  The doc looked like he was thinking before he answered. "Yes, Ranma."
I guess he kept saying my name to calm me down. "I think you should.
Your presence will give her strength."
  
  "Thanks, doc. I guess I'd better call the Tendous." That's her family.
Me and pop were staying with them. They'd take it about as well as I
did.
  
  "I'll bring you a mattress," the doc said, though we both knew I
wouldn't be needing it. "Things will be much better if you stay."
  
  Right, things. You trust the doc, right? He knows what's best for
everyone. Besides, I was the one that brought it up. You wouldn't
believe how much I hate myself today, though that's just one of the
reasons. Why do I have to be so fucking blind?
  
  It seemed like a pretty big coincidence that she turned ill at around
the same time she'd been injured. At the time I was thanking my lucky
stars the doc'd found it out so quick. Heck, if I didn't need to stay
with Akane, I'd go out and thank Ukyou for attacking us. Now ... I still
haven't figured out how he did it.
  
  Anyway, the Tendous came pretty quick. As soon as they had the old man
under control, I'd wager. He was a real crybaby, old Souun. Still is,
for that matter. Luckily, Kasumi stayed home; Nabiki'd told her she
needed to be home in case somebody came. Thank god for that girl's sharp
head; I wish she was still around, even if I'd never afford the Dojo.
She'd be able to deal with this shit a lot better than me.
  
  Well, enough self-pity; after all, I'm supposed to be some big, macho
guy. As I'd thought, Souun kept crying about his poor girl. Couldn't
blame him, except half of the time, he was gonna rip my head off for
letting her get hurt. Pop, he wasn't much better. Went on and on about
how a real man would have stopped those crazy chicks.
  
  After a while, I couldn't stand it, family or no. "Shut the hell up
you fucking morons!" Oh, that got'em quiet alright. I think I saw Nabs
applauding. I did my best to glare at them, not that it helped much. Pop
looked like he was gonna start bitching again. He had the sense not to
come as a panda, but I'd wager that was just luck. "Get out of here!" I
shouted again. "Can't you see she's ill?"
  
  I don't know if it was the scream or the tears that started coming in
my eyes, but they got the hint. As they marched out like a bunch of
puppies with their tails between their legs, Nabs put a hand on my
shoulder. "Thanks, Ranma," she said. That just might be the only time
I've ever heard her sound sincere. "I know you'll take care of her."
Coming from her, that *did* cheer me up.
  
  Took several hours before Akane woke up. Man was I nervous. Sure, the
doc told me the illness was only starting, but would that calm you down
if it was *your* girl lying there on the bed?
  
  Anyway, the first thing the tomboy did - I guess I still think of her
like that, not that I know why - was to stare at me and ask, "Why are
you in my bedroom, pervert?" She had her fists clenched and all. Well,
I'd like to think that she'd started trusting me some, but really, if
she hadn't suddenly started coughing, I bet I'd be flying out through
the roof before she even noticed where she was.
  
  Naturally, I got worried, and when she saw my eyes, she asked me,
"What's wrong?"
  
  "You..." Dammit, what was I gonna say? So, I turned to the doc.
  
  He told her what was going on, and after that, she looked about as
shook up as me. "Don't worry," the doc said, but how could we not? "Your
disease has not come far yet, and you could go home, but I would prefer
for you stay here so I can keep constant watch over you."
  
  She nodded weakly. "If you say so, Dr. Tofuu."
  
  I reached out to take her hand, and she smiled at me when I squeezed
it. "I'll be here with ya, Akane. Don't worry. You're strong as an ox;
there's no way this shit will stop a tomboy like you." All that kept me
from getting pounded this time was that she didn't believe that bullshit
any more than I did.
  
  So, I stayed there at the doc's for some time. Missed school, but I
never listened much there, anyway. I regret that now, but at least I've
caught up on some of the stuff. Well, anyway, it was about this time
that Kasumi started having her nightmares. I didn't find out the details
until I read her dairy - I'm glad she kept that - much later, but I
think I should describe them here. I wouldn't recall much, except, well,
I'll be coming to that later. Maybe.
  
  Anyway, in those dreams, she found herself in this dark, grey, slimy
landscape. There's stone all around, except it's not granite or
anything, but some black rock not of this earth. Its surface is
irregular, jutting in and out with really sharp edges. There's barely
enough light to see, and god only knows where that light comes from.
Possibly from this red-greenish slimy liquid that's dripping all around,
slowly oozing down the walls and on the floor. Not that you can't tell
what's floor and what's walls; the angles are all wrong. I know you
can't picture *that*; how can you imagine something that defies the very
basic rules of reality, of three-dimensional space, if you haven't seen
it? For that matter, be thankful that you can't. Everything totally
irregular, there's no up, no down. It's big, too, sometimes it's like
miles to the nearest wall, or whatever, but then, is it really or is
that just another trick of perspective?
  
  She keeps proceeding down this endless hall, the lights are moving
around and the shadows play around the surface of the black rock like
they were alive. She just walks on, without any idea where she going and
why, somehow aware it's a dream even though it feels very real.
  
  Like the place wasn't creepy enough on its own, there's shapes moving
about all the time. Sometimes, they're far off, and that's a good thing,
but sometimes they're not. Luckily, they ignore her, like she wasn't
there at all. Most of those are these really big froglike things. At a
distance, they look like they might be just tall, hunchbacked men, but
when you get closer, their skin is all scaly and slimy and their faces
are like those of toads, their large eyes staring wildly at something in
the distance. They're walking through this place very firmly like they
had a goal, like there *was* somewhere to go in that twisted, unnatural
place that shouldn't exist yet do so anyway.
  
  She had that dream several nights in a row. Always remembered it
afterwards, perfectly, every detail firmly burned into her mind, never
to go away. That's why she could describe it so well. At first, it was
just short snips, she'd be walking through that hall for just a few
minutes and then blissfully drift off to sleep again. Then it grew
longer. On the third night, she was there for several hour, or at least
she thought so; how can you tell the passage of time when everything
else is twisted beyond recognition, when nothing works the way it
should?
  
  It was on that third night she bumped into something that *didn't*
ignore her. She was still walking through that hall, if walking she was,
no way of telling where she'd been or where she was going. Then,
suddenly, she hears this snarl, a low, inhuman growl, like maybe a dog
or something but it's too loud, louder than it should be, resounding
everywhere, and when she turns around to see what made that terrible
sound, it's there just a few yards away, except it hadn't been there
before. She looks right into its eyes, and it looks back, she knows it's
seen her, totally filled up with this feeling that it knows who she is,
staring right into her like her eyes were some path to her soul. Those
eyes are big, bigger than everything and they're red and yellow and
green and glowing and burning and the jaws below are snapping and
dripping with drool that's acid and she screams, and screams and screams
and then she wakes up.
  
  She's lying in her bed, covered in sweat, it's almost morning, and
this is the first time one of the dreams made her wake up. Unlike the
rest of the stuff, she can't grip that thing that saw her, it's not
clear in her mind, just the eyes and the sharp, long fangs, but she
knows that it saw her, she has this feeling of she can't shake off that
it knows who she is.
  
  Souun got there pretty quickly, all ready with tears in his eyes,
concerned since he heard her scream, but she assured him that it was
alright, just a simple nightmare. I saw the expression in her eyes after
that and there's no way he could've believed her, but I guess he'd never
been too keen on responsibility, happy to accept that everything was
fine and that he didn't have to worry. Of course, if she *hadn't* been
alright, he'd just break down crying until someone else came to help.
  
  It was after that last dream she came to visit the doctor. A few days
had passed, and I was starting to look almost as pale as Akane, but no
lack of sleep would stop me from fearing for my life the instant I saw
her entering.
  
  Right, by now you might be wondering if Kasumi is some mad killer or
so; maybe I should've explained above why I was glad Nabiki convinced
her to stay home. You see, she was deeply in love with the doc, and as
far as anyone'd ever been able to tell, he returned those feelings. That
wouldn't be a problem, except it caused Tofuu's brain to melt everytime
she appeared - to the point where patients fled at the mere hint of her
approach. Sounds silly? That's 'cause *you* haven't had your limbs
twisted 'til they almost snapped.
  
  Everyone'd assumed that if she ever needed his help, the doc would
quickly sober up; there'd be no point in loving her if it caused her to
die, right? I think Nabiki had even been hatching plans of deliberately
hurting Kasumi - breaking a leg or so, making it appear like an accident
- since we were all kinda getting tired of their antics; not that theirs
were the only ones.
  
  Unfortunately, we were all wrong; she tried to tell him about her
dreams, but he was no better than usual. As soon as he saw her, his
glasses started fogging up, just like they always did.
  
  This time, though, I noticed something odd. Maybe I'd been watching
him more closely than usual because I hoped he'd be OK. Just a fraction
of a second before the mist covered them, I thought I saw a mad gleam in
his eyes ... a dangerous, reddish glow that was malicious, that spoke of
anything but love.
  
  What with worrying over Akane and all, I wasn't exactly in my most
calm state of mind, so I figured I just imagined it and forgot about it
half a minute later. Now, I'm not so sure.
  
  Kasumi started getting desperate - who blames her, after what she went
through - but all the doc could do was to dance around with Betty,
sputtering some nonsense. I always felt he had a morbid fascination with
that damn skeleton, but maybe I'm just still mad 'cause he frightened me
half to death with her the first time I saw her. Looking back, it's
almost funny, getting scared by a mere human skeleton, a perfectly
natural thing.
  
  That didn't exactly cheer the poor girl up, and so she left again.
Good thing it was just some bad dreams, I thought. Just nightmares. Like
there's any physical injury worse than those dreams...
  
  I never saw Kasumi's body. When she died, half a week later, I was
still keeping almost constant watch over Akane, and when I got home,
they'd already cleaned it off. Thank God. I'm not squemish now, and I
wasn't back then either, but I've been told only a miracle saved poor
Souun from a direct trip to the nearest asylum.
  
  None of them could describe it, not even Nabiki. The report said she'd
been torned to shreds totally. There were fragments spread all over the
room, with marks from teeth and claws on most of them. She might have
been killed by a wild animal, except no wild animal has such strength
and fury ... and no wild animal sneaks into people's kitchens in broad
daylight without being noticed.
  
  Souun claims he just heard her scream, and when he got there, a second
later, it was too late. Kasumi spread all over the damn kitchen, and not
a sign of who did it.
  
  They never found the killer. Not even a slightest clue. Like he ...
it, whatever, like it just sprang out of a dark corner and then
disappeared again.
  
  But that couldn't be, eh? So I did some searching myself, without much
luck. Everybody knows coppers aren't worth shit. I guess I felt guilty;
if I'd been at home, maybe I would've been able to save her. Of course,
I know better now.
  
  When he'd managed to regain what little sanity he still had, Souun
came to me. His hands were all shaking, and in them, he held a book. On
some days, I wish he'd never brought that book. I think that way I would
be a much happier man today. It's not like it ever helped anyone.
  
  "Take this," he said, his voice every bit as unsteady as his body.
  
  I just looked at him confused, wondering just what the heck he wanted
me to do with the thing.
  
  "It's my grandmother's journal," he told me. "She..."
  
  Poor man. Were it not for my cursed impatience, he might never have
gotten it out. "She what?" I spat, wishing he'd stop wasting my time.
  
  "She died the same way."
  
  That stopped me dead in my tracks.
  
  "Read the journal. Maybe ... maybe you'll find some clue ... maybe ...
something."
  
  So I took the book. Myself, I wasn't too good at reading to begin
with, and I had some trouble reading the somewhat outdated calligraphy
within, but neither Akane nor I was going anywhere, and together, we got
through it pretty fast.
  
  We didn't have to page through her entire life; the thin book was just
the last volume of her journals, and she had already been married for
several years when it began. Nothing much seemed odd at first - except
that she was having an affair with a doctor Yamikumo Ono, whom we
guessed to be a relative of the doc. Yeah, his full name's Tofuu Ono; we
hardly ever used it. We found out this affair had been going on since
before the marriage, always in secret, and judging by how often she
mentioned it, she'd been thinking about it a lot. As the journal
progressed, the woman grew more and more restless about it.
  
  Maybe I should mention at this time that Souun had taken his wife's
name; she, just like this grandmother, had been an oldest daughter in a
family with no sons. Actually, the Tendou line seemed to contain
precious few sons, but I never did look into it much.
  
  Towards the end of the journal, she really started worrying, afraid
that her husband would find out, no longer finding the doctor as
charming as she once had. It all came to a head when one day she came to
his house to meet him and found it empty. She'd been about to sit down
and wait for him when she'd found the cellar door open.
  
  "Never having been in the cellar," she wrote, "curiousity took the
upper hand. Not that I really did think there'd be anything special
about it, but it's always interesting to see what old things people
keep, what memories they have stored away. Almost like reading someones
dairy - I hope nobody's paged through this one.
  
  "I was barely at the end of the stairs when I met the thick stench of
incense. It surprised me a bit, since I never thought the doctor was a
very religious man. Unfortunately, it was no family shrine I found
behind the thick iron door at the bottom of the stairs.
  
  "The cellar consisted of just one large room with brick walls, and
five black candles marked a circle at it's edges. And there it was, in
the center of the circle.
  
  "The body.
  
  "Mutalited. Torn to shreads... But it had been human once. I'm sure.
And the heart. God help me, the heart, lying there on the floor, still
red and fresh, in a pool of blood... Still pumping."
  
  "The doctor... God help me... He'd killed someone in his basement.
  
  The poor woman had yet to calm down when she shakingly jotted that
down; even with our combined efforts, we were hard pressed to make any
sense out of her words.
  
  After that, she tried to gather what little courage she had left and
confront the doctor, tell him she no longer wanted to see him, but as
soon as she met him in person, her resolve failed her. The doctor, it
seems, had a very strong personality, a firm, convincing voice, and
somehow, she just couldn't resist him.
  
  And so, the affair continued for a few weeks more. On the second to
last page, she described how she'd found an open book on the doctor's
desk one day, a thick tome written in English, with small, neat
handwriting, bound in black leather, and in a fit of determination she
took it, and ran, and ran, and ran, afraid that the doctor would somehow
find out she was the one responsible.
  
  We can only guess that he did. The last, feverish entry, what little
of it we could make any sense out of, spoke of large, drooling hounds,
of dark creatures coming from beyond time to take her life.
  
  And then it ended, the poor woman's soul deserting her just as her
sanity already had.
  
  The journal didn't help us much, except for one thing; the book.
Unless the doctor managed to take it back, it should still be somewhere
in the Tendou home.
  
  Turned out they had several boxes full of old books up in their attics
- that's where the journal had been - and I spent a few hours coughing
dust before I managed to find what had to be the tome Souun's
grandmother had mentioned.
  
  At the time, my knowledge of English extended about as far as "bye
bye", and though Akane payed a lot more attention in class than I did,
she wasn't all that good at it, either, so this one we had a lot more
trouble with, especially as we tried to avoid reading it with the doc
around; not that I suspected him or anything, but he might get the wrong
ideas if he found us reading a book stolen from one of his ancestors.
Heck, the man might even still be alive, though I'd never heard of any
of Tofuu's relatives living in Nerima.
  
  Turned out this was a journal, too; written by a certain Yamikumo Ono.
Maybe it would have been useful to us had it at least been written in
simple, modern English, but of course, it wasn't; as far as Akane could
tell, this guy was totally deranged. Of course, I could've guessed that
after finding out that he'd been doing ritual killings in his cellar,
but that's besides the point. The journal used terms we had never heard
of, and described strange places, things that almost made Kasumi's
dreams seem normal, even more so as they were written in cold, observing
tones, the doctor calmly describing how he parcipitated in horrid rites,
helping twisted beings that had come from stars commit unspeakable acts
upon young women ... even what little of that we could understand is too
much for me to describe, the very beginnings enough for me to feel ill
just thinking about it now, many years later, the despicable details
burned forever into my memory. Towards the end, it always spoke of a
master, a master never named but who could help him perfect something
that he had himself been unable to.
  
  And yet, the most shocking thing was not what we found in the book.
  
  Just a coincidence. A simple coincidence that seemed lucky at the
time; one that has now made curse fate over and over. But no amount
cursing will ever change the fact hat I happened to glance at some of
the papers the doc had on his desk, a letter to an american collegue,
making me realize what had been nagging me the whole time.
  
  The handwriting.
  
  It could've been similar; I could accept that - after all, the doctors
were related. But it wasn't. It was the same damn handwriting, the same
small, neat characters on the letter as in the accursed journal.
  
  Not a pleasant conclusion to make.
  
  After that, I took every opportunity to search the doc's stuff,
desperate to find some real evidence, or anything to help us. Had
Akane's mother really been ill, or had the doctor slowly taken her life
for some evil purpose? With the same thing happening to her daughter,
the girl I loved, I had to know.
  
  I got my answers soon enough when I opened a drawer to find a neat of
papers, all full of what had to be the same small, neat handwriting -
though with the different characters, it's hard to say. What caught my
eye was the title on the first one; "Stealing the Force of Life".
  
  You  expect mad, evil sorcerors to name their magics strange names and
keep them on well-hidden scrolls, written in nigh-unreadable script. The
doctor, though, was far more practical than that, having everything well-
organized. It might seem odd that he kept the papers in his desk, but  I
guess he never had a reason to believe anyone would go looking in there.
We had all fallen for his "friendly doctor" ruse, and he knew it. As for
me, well, I suspect he didn't see me as the type to start reading stuff.
I sure didn't, myself.
  
  So I made sure to take a copy of the papers pertaining to that ritual,
and put them back before he'd have time to notice. After that, we didn't
have any problems reading them - the doc probably thought those papers
of ours were homework.
  
  I didn't have to read much the get the answers I so badly wanted,
anyway, and it turned out things were about as bad as I'd thought.
  
  From what I could guess, he'd been slowly stealing the power of Tendou
daughters from birth - he'd been doing it to Akane, just as he'd done it
to her mother before her. The last, faint reserves of powers he would
finally gain by some kind of ritual, giving him great powers.
  
  The drain of power had been enough to keep him young, but obviously,
he had not been able to perform that ritual to Akane's mother. I can
only guess that Kasumi was somehow the reason; that had to be why he
held a grudge towards her bad enough for him to lose his temper and drop
the mask that usually hid his madness from the world.
  
  I didn't really feel like waiting to find out if he succeeded with
Akane or not, so as soon as I was sure he'd left the building again, I
took her and fled.
  
  Together, we hid in an abandoned temple I knew of. Of course, leaving
the doctor hadn't helped improve Akane's condition any, so I had to
hurry figuring something out, or she'd die, ritual or no.
  
  Went to the old ghoul for help, but she just laughed at me. "Tofuu a
demon-summoning sorceror? They exist only in legends, son-in-law," she
told me, "and even if the good doctor was one, he still wouldn't have
been able to fool me." Of course, as long as she or Shampoo wasn't
responsible, the bitch had everything to win on Akane's death, so she
might as well have been lying; I'll never know, and I hate her for it.
  
  So I returned to where I'd left Akane and read the rest of those
papers. Had to keep at it all night, all the day, and all night again.
My eyes fumbled and my stomach cried vainly for food, but I couldn't
stop. Had to finish it. Had to find an answer before it was too late.
  
  Beat the doc up? Yeah. I thought about for a while. A real long while.
Oh yes, it would've been so satisfying. But would it have helped? Don't
think so. Unless I did something to stop her life from sipping away,
she'd die, whether the doc was there to absorb it or not.
  
  Hard to say who was comforting who. Even when I was near giving up,
Akane tried to keep my confidence up; I'd always saved her before, so of
course I'd do it again. Well, I wasn't all that sure, with no enemies to
beat up, but I had to try.
  
  Finally, as dawn broke on the third day and rays of sunlight started
shining on my shaking fingers, I thought I knew what to do. The
instructions for the ritual were complete with reasons and discussions
on what to do and why - the doctor had researched it himself, I think -
and with the help of that, I believed I'd managed to create a ritual
that reversed what the doc had done.
  
  Of course, I knew nothing of magic then, and thinking has never been
one of my strong points, but the more my tired mind thought about it,
the more obvious it all seemed, and I felt sure that I had solved the
puzzle, sure that Akane's life was saved.
  
  All that remained was the preparations. No time to sleep. I got some
candles and stuff; most of the money I had saved went on a bunch of old
Shinto wards that I was sure would keep any demons away. Gathering my
friends took all day - Ryouga was hard to find, as usual, but when I
did, all it took was mentioning that Akane was in anger and he forgot
all about trying to kill me. Was a bit less sure about Ukyou and
Shampoo, but I needed as many people as possible to ensure success, so
in the end, I had to trust them. They weren't bad people, so I didn't
think they'd want to see Akane dead any more than me, rival or no, and
they seemed to have shaken out of whatever affected them... But I
couldn't be sure.
  
  Anyway, evening had fallen again when we were all in that old temple
again - Ryouga'd managed to get himself lost again, forcing me to go
find him once more, and it took well over an hour to make sure everyone
knew what they were supposed to do.
  
  I could see how they all thought it seemed pretty crazy, but went
along with it anyway; after all, I was Ranma, the guy who could find the
solution to every problem, who never lost (at least not twice in a row).
If I said this was what had to be done, then it was.
  
  At first, everything seemed fine. We'd gathered in the cellar, and
after placing the wards around the edges of the room, I chalked up an
octagram - though I hardly knew what it was called at the time - and
placed the candles at the points. Firing up the incense burner, we laid
Akane down in the center of the circle and each took our places around
its edge.
  
  I don't know how long we kept chanting. After a while, my tired mind
could no longer distinguish the voices, and all I could do was to keep
mumbling the words, over and over, like a stuck record; they had made
some sense to me when I wrote them down, but now felt no more important
than any random syllables. I don't know what the others thought, their
faces hidden to me behind tears that welled up in my blodshot eyes, but
they all kept chanting. Or maybe they didn't. Maybe the voices that I
thought I heard were just mine, echoing over and over in that long-
forgotten building.
  
  I wasn't sleeping, but I might as well have been, my mind clear of
thoughts. Only the physical evidence left behind makes me sure that I
was not dreaming when a sharp scream woke me from my slumber. I turned
my head to see Ryouga thrown backwards, covered by some black, slimy ...
thing. A creature of some sort, it had to be, though I do not know what
type of creature could move with such determination, such uncaring
coldness; doing what it did not out of any need or want but just because
it was supposed to. It had no real form, its man-sized light-absorbing
mass shifting as needed, and it stretched around his arms, keeping him
from moving with a strength that would have broken any lesser man. His
scream was short, for it gave the thing an opportunity to a quickly
forming appendage down the boy's throat. The sound dried out into a
brief gurgling, then nothing, as I could see the thing burning like acid
all over his body.
  
  But it was not alone. Two more of those things had quietly slipt down
the stairs while the ritual occupied our minds, and they advanced on us.
Maybe they were all just one and the same being, or maybe some other
dark power coordinated their efforts, but they came at, slowly but
surely.
  
  Doing the first thing I could think of, I lept towards Akane,
desperate to keep her safe so that our work was not in vain; the ritual
had to work, what we had already done had to be enough...
  
  Ukyou and Shampoo lept to the attack, having wisely brought their
weapons, and for a while, they seemed to be holding them back, the
creatures flowing to the side and reforming their bodies to avoid the
blows, and sometimes it even looked like they'd hurt them, but in the
end it didn't help as they found their openings and lept at the girl
like unstoppable waterfalls cascading down the face of a cliff.
  
  "RANMAAaaaa" was the last thing I heard of them, Ukyou crying out in
pain as the creature's body burned itself into her skin, the last vowel
drawing out forever until the dark, evil thing covered her completely
and no more sound came.
  
  And then, they moved towards me, only barely recognizable scraps of
bone left behind of the girls, destroyed from both inside and outside.
  
  I tried throwing Ki-blasts at them, knowing that if they got to me, it
was all over, but even that did not help, the creatures not even showing
any sign of noticing the energy as it harmlessly passed through their
bodies, if bodies they were. The things could as well have been a force
of nature, but certainly they were part of no nature on this Earth.
  
  Then, just as they were about to tear into me, standing there
desperately trying to shield Akane, certain that my last moment had
come, it stopped.
  
  They just ... left, flowing out just as silently as they had come,
leaving behind only the acidic burns on the floor that made it obvious
where they had passed, and I was left wondering just what the heck had
happened, if it was all some horrible nightmare.
  
  I collapsed, exhausted, beyond caring for anything in the world.
  
  Akane and I were still alive when I woke up the next morning, her life
saved, but it mattered little. By now, she was so pale and weak she
could as well have been dead already, and it came as no great surprise
when only a few hours later, she died. We had failed.
  
  Maybe it was just as well. It was hard on me, having sacrificed the
lives of all my friends in a vain attempt to save her life, but how
would Akane have felt, having to grow old always thinking of how three
people had died for her sake, thrown away their lives merely to insure
that she could have hers.
  
  But at the time, such deep thought did not enter my mind. I just kept
cursing myself and my idiocy, for convincing them all to help, for
coming up with a stupid ritual that was bound to fail, for putting my
trust in wards meant to keep out beings that came at least from *our*
hells.
  
  Even those thoughts were almost too hard for me to think. All I knew
was that I had to get away, for how could I stay here, here where
everyone was dead, where I had betrayed and failed all those who I cared
for?
  
  First, though, I had to something to save what little sanity I still
had. Gasoline, a lighter, and pretty soon, doctor Tofuu's clinic was in
flames. I stayed for a while to watch my work, hearing the desperate
screams from within, seeing a flaming figure waving its arms wildly and
then collaping, burned beyond recognition. I'm not sure, perhaps I even
laughed.
  
  I never saw him again. Never saw any of them again. I thought I got
away... but then the dreams started.
  
  At least I'm still alive... Though I think there's something familiar
about the guy at the apothecary around the corner, about the smile he
gives me whenever I enter - perhaps he'll be there tonight when I dance
with my friends until the blind god meets us in the moonlight...
  
                                  * * *
  
  AUTHOR'S NOTES
  --------------
  No, Ranma *did* not shack up with Kodachi, even though she's the only
surviving fiancee. In fact, you have no bloody idea who her wife is, and
it's not even remotely important. The first draft of this fic was almost
20k, with lots of stuff about Ranma's new life, but in the end, I think
it is better of without that, no matter how much it hurt to push the big
delete key on it...
  
  As for my next project, "A Boy Went Up A Hill or Akane and Ranma's
Excellent^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HGreat Adventure," it's finally time for me to
do a Ranma-fic where nobody dies, and the continuation of A Trail of
Blood no less. Expect it sometime next millenium. ^_^