The Dying of the Light

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum 

All Ranma characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, first
published by Shogakukan in Japan and brought over to North
America by Viz Communications.

This copy of the story is from my centralized fanfiction archive
at http://www.thekeep.org/~harnums/fanfic.  I can be reached by
e-mail at harnums@thekeep.org

Part 5 : Shades of Night

     The phone rang on the bedside table.  A slender hand emerged from a
tangle of covers, grabbed it, and pulled it into the tangle.

     "Hello?"

     "Ukyou, it's Hikaru."

     "What time is it, Hikaru?"

     "A little after midnight, listen-"

     "Why are you calling me at this time of night?"

     "Ukyou, listen to me!  You have to be outside your restaurant as soon
as possible.  Bring your weapons; I think there's going to be a fight."

     "What's going on?" Ukyou said blearily, pulling her head out from
under the covers.  She'd only been asleep for about half an hour, but it
was enough to make her disoriented.

     "It's started, Ukyou.  I was right.  It isn't over.  I think Ranma and
Akane and their families are in a lot of danger right now."

     "Alright," Ukyou said, throwing the covers off and getting out of bed.
"Konatsu and I'll be out there.  But you'd better be ready to go into some
more details, mister."

     "Thank you," Hikaru said.  She could hear other voices in the
background, and from the way his voice was rising and lowering in volume,
it sounded as if he were speaking into a mobile phone.  Most likely he was
with Kodachi.

     "Goodbye," she said, hanging up the phone and hurrying across to her
closet to get hastily dressed.  Words echoed through her head as she threw
on her clothes, words in a voice that was dry-paper whisper.

     <I've walked in dreams.  I've seen what's coming.  He's coming.
Cities burning with fire.  The bodies piled atop each other like fruit at
the marketplace.>

     The gaki was dead, finally.  But the words echoed still.  She finished
dressing and hurried out of her room, anxious with worry for Ranma and
Akane.

     She knocked on the door of Konatsu's room, and when there was no
answer immediately she pushed it open and turned on the lightswitch.  The
bed was still neatly made, and empty of any occupant.

     "He must be downstairs," Ukyou said.  She walked quickly to the top of
the stairs.

     "KONATSU!" she called, trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

     "What is it, Ukyou?" his voice answered from downstairs.  "Is
everything alright?"

     "No, it isn't," she said as she came down.  "We have to get ready to
go, Konatsu."

     "Go where?" he said, looking up from where he was cleaning a table.

     "To the Tendo house, I guess," Ukyou said.  "That was a friend on the
phone.  I think there's some bad stuff going on, and Ranchan's gonna need
my help."

     "And mine," Konatsu said, standing up.  The look on his face was
fierce and determined.

     "Glad to have you along," Ukyou said.  She shrugged into her coat at
the door, then grabbed her big spatula from where it hung over the counter.

     Konatsu followed her outside into the cold of the winter night, his
face set in a concerned expression.  "Do you know what's happening, Ukyou?"

     "Not much," Ukyou said.  "Hikaru sounded pretty upset.  Then again, he
sounds like that a lot.  But I don't think this is any kind of false alarm;
he's a pretty smart guy, and he knows what he's talking about when it comes
to things like this."

     The winter wind blew around them, swirling their hair about their
faces.  The streets seemed empty and deserted as the streets of some old
necropolis.  For a moment, Ukyou had the strange thought that perhaps she
and Konatsu were the only two people left alive in the world, that some
great calamity had struck down the rest of humanity but left everything
else untouched.

     The winter wind howled, desolate and sad as a fallen empire.

     Ukyou shivered, and it was not entirely from the cold.  "Please be
alright, you guys," she whispered.  Konatsu's breath was a cloud of fog
nearby, and hers was the same.  The sky was dark and empty of stars,
without even a sliver of the moon to light it.  The glow of the
streetlights was harsh and artificial.

     A car pulled up, an elegant black limo.  The windows were tinted, and
the passengers could not be seen.  Perhaps there were no passengers.

     Then the door opened, and the fearful mood that had fallen over Ukyou
was dispelled as Hikaru leaned out the door and grinned nervously.  "Need a
lift?"

     Rubbing her hands together to warm them, Ukyou slid into the back
seat, Hikaru moving over next to Kodachi to give her room.  Konatsu went
around to the front and got in the passenger side, looking around the
inside of the luxurious car with something akin to wonder.

     "Wow," he said.  "This is a nice car."

     "So pleased you like it," Kodachi said flatly, her arms crossed over
her chest.  To Ukyou's eyes, it looked as if she and Hikaru had had some
kind of fight.

     "So, can you expand on just why we're doing this on the night before I
have two exams?" Ukyou said, glancing over at Hikaru.

     He nodded.  His face looked even paler than usual.  There was a book
open on his lap, which he paged through even as he talked to her.  "They
lost contact with the Hakken early this morning; that was the ship that was
doing research out by the island."

     Ukyou nodded.  "And?"

     "There's been a blackout on any news of what happened," Hikaru said.
"No one's saying anything.  Kodachi called me and told me, and I knew
something was wrong."

     He sighed and rubbed his forehead, staring intently at the book in his
lap.  "On the way over here, I tried to call the Tendo house so I could
talk to Ranma; something answered.  It had Richard Stalford's voice."

     Ukyou sucked in her next breath, shocked.  "There's no way he could
have survived."

     Of course, there was no way the gaki could have survived either.  And
yet it had, within the world of dreams, until she'd killed it there two
months ago.

     "I don't even know if he did," Hikaru said.  "I felt a presence.
Whatever was on the other end of the line, it may have had Stalford's
voice, but it felt like the Sleeper."

     "How do you know what that thing feels like?" Ukyou said.

     Hikaru turned a haunted, narrow gaze to her.  "I touched its mind,
Ukyou.  I'm not ever going to forget that."

     "Well, between our fighting skills and your magic, we should be able
to handle it, right?" Ukyou said.

     Hikaru laughed and shook his head.  "I burned out any power I might
have had when I transported us off the island.  I've got about as much
ability to do magic as a dead frog does."

     "I... I had no idea," Ukyou said, turning her eyes away from the cold,
bitter look on his face.

     "It's alright," Hikaru said, his face softening.  "It was a sacrifice
that had to be made."

     He glanced to Kodachi; whatever differences they'd had seemed to
disappear in the face of those memories of the island.  She laid her hands
over his and sighed.

     "So... you have no idea what happened to Ranchan, Akane or anyone
else, do you?" Ukyou said.  "If that thing answered the phone, that means
it's in the house, doesn't it?"

     Hikaru shook his head.  "I got the idea it was interrupting the phones
somehow.  It's probably preventing them from calling out, as well.  It may
not have struck yet, but I know it will soon."

     "I hope we will be in time," Kodachi said.  "Sasuke, drive as if your
life depended on it."

     "I don't quite get it," Ukyou said slowly.  "Stalford's dead, and you
and Ranchan stopped that thing from waking up, right?  So what's going on?"

     "I found this just a few minutes ago," Hikaru said, pointing at a
section in the book he held open on his lap.  It was leatherbound with
cracked pages, and looked to be extremely old.  Kodachi and Ukyou each
leaned in on either side to see what he was indicating.

     "'The elder ones are bound by myriad seals and wards of power beyond
human comprehension'," Hikaru read.  "'Most are helpless as newborn babes,
locked in a sleep akin to death, until the time when they may awaken again.
These dead gods can only dream, but the dreams of the gods are not like the
dreams of men, for they are far further reaching.  Thus they work their
agency upon the earth.'"

     There was a strange, intense look on Hikaru's face as he continued to
read.  He almost looked as if he were enjoying himself in some perverse
way.  "'Sometimes, they will find one whose mind is fit for them, and they
shall call that one to them, through myriad means.  There, they may for a
time escape their bondage, riding this vessel, dead or alive, as a man
rides a horse.'"

     He closed the book with a slam that startled the other occupants of
the car.  "That's why this thing sounds like Richard Stalford, and feels
like the Sleeper.  It's both."

     "You say this thing is a god?" Ukyou said incredulously.

     Hikaru shrugged, and looked as if he wanted to laugh.  "What other
name is there for something so powerful we cannot even begin to comprehend
it?"

     "Then how can we hope to match it?" Kodachi said.  "How do you fight a
god?"

     "Because he's still sealed away under the Pacific," Hikaru said.
"He's using Stalford's body as a vessel, possesing it probably.  But he can
be driven out.  And he won't have his full power.  We can beat him; I know
we can beat him."

     "We'll be there soon," Sasuke said.  "Why don't you try calling
again?"

     Kodachi picked up the phone from where it lay on the seat and dialed
the number.  It rang once, and then cut off, leaving her with the dial
tone.  She was about to try again when the phone began to grow hot in her
hand.  With a yelp, she tossed it on the floor of the car.  A foul odour of
melting plastic and metal filled the air, and they quickly rolled down the
windows to let in the night air.

     On the floor of the car, all that remained of the phone was a puddle
of melted slag, still bubbling and hissing with the heat that had destroyed
it.

**********

     Ranma helped his mother up quickly from where she'd fallen to the
floor.  He could hear the sound of many feet approaching slowly from every
part of the house.

     "FORM A CIRCLE!" he called.  "Mom, Kasumi, get behind us!"

     Mousse and Shampoo had both fallen down the stairs in a tangle when
what appeared to be an earthquake had hit the house.  They got up,
groaning, and dashed over.

     His father and Soun were dusting themselves off and standing up.
Happosai appeared to have struck his head against the coffee table, or
perhaps some of his bandages had come undone.  Either way, he was lying in
a small puddle of blood, trying to raise himself weakly to his feet.

     Akane and Shigeki were across the room by the phone.  The tall man was
helping Akane up with one hand, and pulling a gun with the other.  Whether
it had been an earthquake or something else, there was no mistaking that
there was something, many things, in the house.  He could hear the
murmuring voices, the heavy clump of dragging footsteps.

     And then the first of them stepped into view, around the corner from
the front hall.  It was human looking, in the same way a gorilla was
human looking.  The skin was grey, sagging in places as if it were a few
sizes too large for the skeleton underneath.  The being hunched over as it
walked, but Ranma guessed that if it stood up straight, it probably would
have been well over six feet tall.  The arms seemed too long, the legs too
short, and the eyes glowed dimly red, squinting in the glare of the lights.
A wide mouth filled with long, yellowish fangs murmured continuously.

     The head of the first one disappeared almost immediately in a spray of
gore, as Shigeki raised his pistol and fired with deadly accuracy, even as
he and Akane backed away towards the rest of the group.

     Then a dozen others came into view, from every entrance to the living
room.  Several more appeared on the landing of the second floor, looking as
if they would leap down in their eagerness.

     "What are these things?" Ranma said sideways to Shigeki as he brought
his hands up into a fighting position.  Beside him, Mousse and Shampoo
were the same way, Shampoo holding her bonbori in a crossed position in
front of her, Mousse with his hands buried inside his sleeves, ready to
use any of a dozen weapons.

     "Very bad news," Shigeki said, taking a shot that caught one of the
creatures in the chest and sank it whimpering to the floor.  That was the
last shot he was able to take; some kind of invisible communication
appeared to pass between the beasts, and then they were charging, their
murmuring rising into howling battle cries, made more terrible by the
unison of their voices.

     The first wave fell against the circle, and broke.  Dozens of knives,
axes and chains flew from Mousse's sleeves in an arc of flashing steel,
ripping into the ones that charged his side of the circle.  None of them
fell, but it slowed the attack.  Shampoo smashed heads and limbs with her
weapons beside him, while Soun and Genma presented a wall of kicks and
punches to any who dared approach them.

     Ranma fought beside Akane and Shigeki, driving back any of the beasts
that came close with kicks to their vulnerable areas, while Akane did the
same.  Shigeki took shots where he could, but in the tangled melee it was
difficult.

     They were concentrating most on keeping a wall of fighters between
them and the noncombatants, Nodoka, Kasumi and the injured Happosai.  The
things that had invaded the house were without skill, but they seemed
incredibly numerous.

     Absently, Ranma noted that the two Shigeki had killed were slowly
dissolving away into nasty-looking puddles on the floor.  He swung forward,
cracking one of the things across its rubbery jaw and sending it staggering
back.  At any other time, he would have followed up his attack, but that
would have left a vulnerable gap in the circle.

     "This is strange," Shigeki said, as the creatures which could still
move retreated out of the living room.  "Beasts like these would never act
like this.  They're terrified of leaving their lairs."

     On the floor, several of the creatures that were too injured to flee
squirmed, moaning pitifully.  Ranma grimaced as Shigeki fired, ceasing
their movements.  He could hear the horrible, unified murmuring that told
him that the beasts were still in the house, and that there were lots of
them.

     "Then why are they here?" Genma said, glancing nervously at a rip in
the arm of his gi.  One of the things had managed to scratch him before he
punched it in the throat, although from the shallowness of the wounds the
most he had to fear was getting infected by the creature's filthy claws.
The scent of the things was almost indescribable; even now that they had
retreated, it still filled the room.

     "The only reason they'd be up on the surface, attacking humans like
this," Shigeki said.  "Is if there was something that scared them more
about remaining in their tunnels."

     The strange buzzing that had filled the air in the moments preceding
the shaking of the house was suddenly there again, only louder and more
piercing.  Then, with a sound like a hundred cannons going off, the
shockwave hit.

     Ranma grabbed Akane's hand and tried to hold on as the room seemed to
tilt onto its side for a few seconds.  The two of them flew across the
room, and Ranma saw that the furniture was flying as well, along with the
rest of the rooms occupants.  When the shaking stopped, they were in
several isolated pockets around the large living room of the Tendo house.
Ranma was holding onto Akane; across the room, he could see Mousse crouched
protectively over Shampoo.  His father was standing to his feet, looking
worriedly down at the groaning Soun, who had struck his head against the
wall.

     He looked frantically for his mother and Kasumi, and saw that they
were in almost the same spot they'd been when the second shaking had hit.
Happosai was slowly standing to his feet, and Shigeki was saying something
to the two women, but the ringing in Ranma's ears made it impossible to
hear anything.

     Akane opened her mouth and said something to him, but he heard no
words.

     And then, abruptly, he could hear.  "...again!" Akane was shouting,
and he could hear the murmuring voices, only it seemed that there were more
than before.

     That was because there were; the grey things swarmed into the room,
howling and gibbering, seeming to fill all the available space.  Even as he
began to fight his way towards the others with Akane, even as he heard
Shigeki's gun going off again and again amidst the battlecries of the
others, he could see that there were far too many to fight for long.

**********

     "Look," Sasuke breathed from the driver's street.  "Up ahead."

     A lone figure stood in the snow-filled streets outside the Tendo
house, arms stretched upward as if to call destruction down upon the people
inside.  Ahead of him swarmed two dozen or so hunched shapes that were
making their way into the Tendo house through the front door and the broken
windows.  The headlights shone upon the figure, showing him to be a small,
slightly chubby caucasian in an expensive suit.

     The man turned, smiled maliciously, and pointed one hand at the
speeding car.

     "RUN HIM DOWN!" Kodachi yelled from the back seat.

     "But-" Sasuke said.

     "THAT'S STALFORD, YOU FOOL!  RUN HIM DOWN!"

     Something invisible struck the car at the front.  Sasuke struggled
with the wheel, and somehow managed to remain in control of the speeding
vehicle, even as Richard Stalford, or at least the thing that looked like
Richard Stalford, pulled back its hand again.

     The limo struck him just as he was about to throw it forward.  There
was a thump, and Richard Stalford flew back over two dozen feet, limbs
flailing the air wildly until he hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of
snow around him.

     The limo screeched to a stop, Sasuke breathing hard up front.  "Is
he..."

     Richard Stalford stood up and raised a hand.  There was a sudden smell
of gasoline in the air.

     "GET OUT OF THE CAR!" Hikaru yelled.  "Out, out!  Hurry!"

     They threw open the doors, piled out quickly, running as fast as they
could away from the car.  The heat and shockwave of the explosion washed
over them, throwing them forward into the snow, as the limo tore itself
apart in a bright fireball that lit the night.

     "The car," Sasuke said, looking up and spitting snow.  "I really liked
that car."

     "Worry about the car later," Ukyou said, rising to her feet and trying
to ignore the shaking in her legs.  "I think we oughta be more concerned
about those things."

     She gestured with her spatula towards the hunched creatures that were
rapidly approaching.

     "Why aren't there any lights coming on in the neighbour's houses?"
Sasuke said.  "Surely someone heard the explosion?"

     "I think he thought of that in advance," Hikaru said.  "I can feel a
spell hanging over this area.  I'd suspect no one has any idea what's going
on here but us."

     "I thought you said you couldn't do magic anymore?" Ukyou said.

     "I may not be able to do it," Hikaru said.  "But I've learned I can
sure as hell feel it."

     There was horrible, keening laughter from the darkness ahead of them.
Every streetlight nearby suddenly exploded in a bright flash and a tinkle
of glass, blinding them for a few seconds.

     "Come on," Ukyou said.  "We have to get into the Tendo house and help
them.  There's a lot of those things in there with them."

     She gave a sudden cry and was thrown back several feet by some
invisible force that struck her.  Konatsu called out her name and ran to
her side, as the thing that wore the form of Richard Stalford strode into
view ahead of them, emerging from the clouds of steam thrown up when the
explosion of the car had vapourized the snow.

     He turned and called back in a strange, murmuring voice, and the grey
shapes immediately turned their attentions back to getting inside the Tendo
house.

     Then he turned to face the five of them again.  "Hello," he said in a
strange, emotionless voice.  "My name is Richard Stalford."

     "You lie," Hikaru said.  "I know your true name.  I name you,
creature.  You are the one called the Sleeper Beneath the Waves."

     A strange, dark look passed across the face of the thing that wore
Richard Stalford's form.  "Yes," it said, and now its voice was changed to
something inhuman.  It was wet, echoing and alien, somehow forcing itself
from between lips that should never have been able to make sounds like such
as this.  "That is a name I have been called."

     "A name gives power," Hikaru intoned, repeating the words
instinctively.  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a spirit ward,
holding it before him as if it were a shield.  He began to walk towards the
inhuman thing in the human body, and the others were too stunned by the
sheer bravado of his actions to do anything for a moment.

     "A name gives power," Hikaru repeated.  "Sleeper Beneath the Waves, I
banish you.  Now is not your time; depart this shell."

     "Hikaru, what are you doing?" Kodachi said, running forward and
grabbing his arm.  He shrugged away from her and continued forward.

     "I banish you in your name," Hikaru said.  "I banish you in my name."

     The thing in Richard Stalford's body shrank back, howling, and the
illusions wound around it dropped, exposing it for what it was, a bloated,
rotting corpse in tattered clothing, and underneath the skin came a
continual ripple of movement.

     "I don't believe it," Ukyou murmured.  "He's actually doing it."

     Hikaru lifted the spirit ward high.  He was only a few feet from the
cringing thing now, with Kodachi following warily behind him.

     "I banish you in my name, and in seven other names," Hikaru said.
"The first of these names is..."

     He leaned down and prepared to touch the spirit ward to the forehead
of the thing.

     The thing reached up and grabbed his wrist, twisting it with with a
crunch.  Hikaru's scream was piercing, matched only by the laughter of the
thing as it stood up and grabbed him by the throat.

     "Little fool," it said, no longer even bothering with the illusion.
It smelled of death and rot as it picked him up, tightening the grip on his
thin neck.  "The names you give me do not matter.  It is only my true name
that is power.  And that power is mine alone to wield."

     It locked dead eyes with Hikaru, and said something quietly, something
none of them heard but him.  His eyes went wide, and for a moment the thing
looked eagerly at him, a predator observing prey.

     Then he shook his head, gasped out denial softly under his breath, and
the thing made a hissing cry of rage.  It threw him back, as Kodachi
yelled angrily and leapt forward with her ribbon lashing out.  The others
followed close behind, as Hikaru crashed limply to the snow without a
sound.

**********

     Ranma cracked his elbow back into the jaw of one of the things, then
spun and kicked two of them in the head in one quick motion.  He glanced to
the side, nervous to see how Akane was faring, but he was gratified to see
her grab the outstretched arm of one thing as it snatched at her and throw
it over her shoulder into two more.  The three beasts went down in a heap,
howling angrily.

     "Come on," she said quickly to him.  "We have to reach your mom and
Kasumi."

     Ranma nodded worriedly, then stepped sideways to let one of the
grey-skinned monstrosities charge past him.  He kicked its legs out from
under it, then brought his heel down on its throat.  It stayed down,
gasping and wheezing, with the windpipe shattered.

     But there were still so many.  He could only make it the relative
positions of his mother and Kasumi by looking for Shigeki; the tall man had
been closest to them after the second shockwave that had tossed them all
about the room, which now swarmed with the stupid but numerous horde of
grey creatures.

     He could hear the sounds of the others fighting, and they seemed to be
faring as well as he and Akane.  He was more worried about whatever had
caused those shockwaves; it appeared to be directing the attack.

     Outside, he heard an explosion.

     "What the hell..." he murmured.

     Two of the creatures in front of him were abruptly yanked back, chains
wrapped around their necks.  Shampoo and Mousse appeared through the horde,
fighting back to back in a flawless, deadly duet.

     "Ranma, Akane," Mousse said.  "Good to see you two are alright."

     "We're trying to get to mom and Kasumi," Ranma said.  "I think they're
okay..."

     "They're fine," Shigeki shouted from where he fought.  He had
something in his hand, something that cracked and sparked with electricity,
and when he touched it to the grey beasts they fell writhing and twitching
to the floor.

     "HAPPODAIKARIN!"

     When the smoke cleared, Ranma saw a path had been temporarily cleared
in the centre of the room.  He could see his mother and Kasumi now,
standing nervously near Shigeki and Happosai.  His mother's sword was
unwrapped and held defensively in front of her, but she didn't really seem
to know what to do with it.

     He ran to them, the few creatures that stood in his path falling
quickly.  Akane, Mousse and Shampoo followed behind him.

     "Ranma, where's your father?" his mother said frantically.  Ranma
frowned; the last he'd seen, his father was all the way across the room
standing over Soun, who'd been injured when the shaking had thrown him
against the wall.

     "I'm fine, dear," Genma called, although they couldn't see him.  There
was a loud kiyah, and a crack.  "These things are no challenge for a true
martial artist!"

     That was true; the creatures seemed uncommited to the attack, and even
now they stood nervously as if unsure what to do.  The buzzing filled the
air again, but this time it seemed there was an edge of pain to it.

     "Here it comes again," Ranma said.  "Everyone hold on!"

     This blast was weaker than the first two, and everyone remained on
their feet.  Ranma hoped that meant that whatever was causing them was
growing weak.

     Or, perhaps, it was distracted by something.  That explosion outside
had to have come from somewhere.

     His thoughts vanished as the grey things fell upon them again, driven
by some unseeable impetus.  They'd had no chance before, and they had no
chance now, but still they came on, blindly stupid and trying to overwhelm
them with sheer force of numbers.

     Ranma hated it.  He didn't hate the fighting; he hadn't been trying
not to hurt these things.  They were monsters; he felt no more guilt for
injuring, even killing them, than he had for the death of Stalford.

     What he hated was the blind stupidity of them; Shigeki had seemed to
have some knowledge of what these things were, and he'd said that the only
reason these things would even be up here was that they were more scared of
whatever was making them fight than of anything else.

     He watched as Mousse drove a sword through the body of one and left it
there.  He watched as Shampoo crushed one's head with a swing of her
bonbori.  He watched his own hands crash against stupid, howling faces, and
he felt sickened.

     The things stank of carrion, of rot, of death.  He tried not to
breathe in the foul scent of them, but it was impossible not to.

     "We have to get outside the house," he said.  The ranks of the
creatures were not diminishing; even as they fell, the bodies either
dissolved or were dragged away by their comrades, and more stepped up to
fill the ranks.  "Whatever is making these things fight, it's out there."

     His father and Soun had gradually made their way through the
battleground of the living room to stand with the rest of them.  Soun was
still looking a bit dazed, and his father's gi was torn in places, but they
both looked in fairly good condition.

     "Agreed," Mousse said, taking a deep breath.  "We can't keep this up
forever.  I only have so many weapons, after all.  I'll run out in another
hour."

     "When I say go," Ranma said.  "Run for the front door.  Everyone keep
them off me for a few seconds."

     The others obliged, covering Ranma as he built up his power.  Then,
with a cry, he thrust his hands forward.

     "MOUKO TAKABISHA!"

     The blast tore through the massed ranks, knocking aside the things
like leaves before a hurricane.

     "GO!" Ranma shouted, hanging back as everyone else ran forward.  He
was breathing heavily; the blast had drained him more than he'd thought it
would.  He stood for a moment with his hands on his knees, then took off.
One of the grey-skins, braver than the rest, loomed up in front of him.  He
hit it in the stomach, then brought his knee into its chin as it doubled
over.

     The thing went down, but the delay cost him precious seconds.  He was
almost into the front hallway when another two blocked his path; he cut
them down easily, and raced forward.  He could hear the others fighting up
ahead, trying to clear a path, but he couldn't see them around the corner.

     A long, lanky arm with dirty nails wrapped around his neck from
behind.  He grabbed it and twisted, throwing it over his shoulder and
breaking the arm.

     For a moment, he wasn't sure he would make it.  The grey things
swarmed around, the space cleared by his blast rapidly diminishing.

     "At least everyone else made it out," Ranma said with a sigh.  He
hoped he'd get out of this okay too.

     And then the ones in front of him were falling, chains and blades
striking them down where they stood.

     "Come on, Saotome," Mousse shouted.  Ranma nodded gratefully and ran
through the space Mousse had given him; the things behind him howled
angrily as he headed with Mousse towards the front door.

     Mousse turned as he and Ranma exited the house and hurled several
handfuls of glittering silver objects back into the hall behind them, and
into the path of the pursuing creatures.

     "What're those?" Ranma said, glancing sideways at the other boy.

     "Caltrops," Mousse said, grinning wickedly as the howling screams of
pain rose from back inside.
     
**********

     The dead man grabbed Kodachi's ribbon and yanked it out of her hand.
He raised an arm, palm forward, and laughed hideously.

     "Little toys," he said, black light swarming in the palm of the
upraised hand.  "Pieces of paper and ribbons."

     There was a whistling sound, and dozens of shuriken studded the air,
biting into the dead man with heavy thunks.  The thing screeched, and a
blast of black light smashed clouds of snow and chunks of concrete from
where Kodachi had been standing moments earlier.

     Ukyou was closest to where Hikaru had fallen; she ran to his side, as
Kodachi, Sasuke and Konatsu engaged the thing.  The boy groaned weakly; his
wrist was bent at an unnatural angle.

     "Idiot!" Ukyou said, holding back the urge to smack him.  "You said
you couldn't do magic."

     "I thought it was working for a minute," Hikaru said.  "Thought I
might be able to be of some use for once..."

     "Just stay there," Ukyou said.  "You did your part."

     "Ukyou?" Hikaru said as she turned to go.  The yells of the others
interspersed with the laughter of the thing, and the sound of crackling
energy.

     She looked back at him.  "Yeah?"

     "You don't know that thing like I do," he said weakly.  "It's evil.
Be careful; watch Kodachi.  Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

     "Will do, sugar," Ukyou said, drawing her spatula and starting to run
towards the combat.  Kodachi and Konatsu were dancing around the thing,
hitting it when they could, while Sasuke hung back and threw shuriken and
knives at it.  They seemed to be stalemated; their attacks didn't seem to
be damagine the thing much, through it shrieked and howled, but its
reaction time was slower than that of the gymnast and the two ninjas, and
they weren't giving it any time to build up power.  Occasionally, another
blast of ravening black energy would be launched from the hands of the dead
man, but those were easily avoided, as were the clumsy swings of the
thing's fists.

     "You only prolong the inevitable," the thing said.  "I will devour
you.  I will devour your friends.  And then I will devour your city."

     Ukyou felt the strange buzzing in the air more than she heard it;
there was a sound like thunder, and for a moment it felt as if the air
became solid as rock and hammered against her.  She saw streetlights bend
and car windows shatter as the shockwave rolled out across the streets.
She had been near the edge; Konatsu, Kodachi and Sasuke were right at the
epicentre of the attack, and all crumpled to the ground with pained
screams.

     A flash of blue light momentarily lit the windows of the Tendo house,
pulling her attention there for a moment, and when she turned back, the
dead man was standing over Kodachi, glaring down at the semi-conscious girl
with an indescribably horrible look.

     She started to run, and the thing that wore Richard Stalford's body
reached down and grabbed Kodachi up by her long ponytail, dangling her,
dazed and weak, a foot off the ground.

     The dead man pulled back his free hand, and black lightning flared in
his palm.  Ukyou dashed in and hammered the edge of her spatula against the
dead man's head as hard as she could; the thing shrieked in that hideous
inhuman voice and flung Kodachi aside, turning to look at Ukyou with one
side of its head horribly pressed in.

     "Die," it hissed, levelling its hand at her.  Ukyou brought her
spatula up instinctively as she dodged to the side; the blast hit the flat
of the blade, ripped through in a screech of twisting metal, and clipped
her left shoulder as she fell into the snow.

     She lay on her back, looking dazedly up at the empty black sky, and
discovered she couldn't move her left arm in the slightest.  It ached, and
it felt as if she was going to have one hell of a bruise later.

     "Ow," she said finally.  She heard dragging footsteps coming slowly
towards her, and hideous keening laughter.

     She could see the Tendo house out of the corner of her eye; a group of
people were coming out of it at a run, knocking aside the few hunched
shapes that stood in their way.

     "Thank goodness," she said.  "Here comes the cavalry."

     She just hoped they would be in time.

**********

     Ranma and Mousse hurried to join the others in the front yard.  They
were making short work of the few grey-skinned things that had lurked out
front instead of invading the house.

     Ranma shivered; he had no jacket and only a light pair of slippers.
The night was cold, and the snow beneath his feet colder.

     Squinting to see in the dark night, he wondered why no streetlights
were on.  From what he could make out, a lone figure stood in the streets
in front of the house, slowly walking towards something Ranma couldn't see.
Nearby, the wreck of a car smoldered.

     As his eyes grew more adjusted to the darkness, he saw that what the
figure was approaching was someone fallen in the snow.  Other people were
fallen nearby.

     He realized that he knew the face of the standing figure.  It was
Richard Stalford.  To be more precise, it was Richard Stalford after two
months underwater and quite a few blows to the head.  Dead men had walked
with the sorcerer; now, it seemed that it was the sorcerer's turn to walk
in death.

     "Damn," Ranma said.  He raised his voice and pointed towards Stalford
as he began to run.  "That's him!  That's the one who's behind this!"

     He saw, with a sinking feeling, that the fallen people on the ground
were people he knew.  He could see that Akane, Mousse and Shampoo were
close behind him; the rest of the group who'd fled the house were still
battling with the grey-skinned things.

     Richard Stalford, face a half-crushed ruin, stood over the fallen
Ukyou with a smile made even more terrible by the damage to his head.  He
looked up at the four of them approaching, and his smile widened.

     "I know not two," he said, and his voice was not Stalford's.  It was
not even the voice of something human.  "But two I know well."

     "Ranma, is that..." Akane said, her voice quiet and scared behind him.

     "I think it might be," Ranma said.  "Though not as we knew him."

     The dead man laughed, alien and hideous mirth in his voice, and thrust
a hand forward.  Ranma felt something rush by him incredibly quickly;
Mousse made a suprised sound behind him and was knocked sprawling.

     "Mousse!" he heard Shampoo cry as he charged Stalford.

     "I'm okay, just get that thing!" Mousse responded as he regained his
feet.

     The thing in Richard Stalford's body raised its hand again, and
darkness gathered in the palm.  "Die," it hissed, and black energy tore
through the air towards Ranma.

     He met it with his own power, blue aura flaring around him as he
struggled against the thing.  The power behind the attack was immense, but
it seemed also as if the thing were restrained from using its full might.
If it had, it would have been able to crush him like an insect.

     As it was, it would overcome him in a short time, he knew that.
Locked in a battle like this, the first one to give would be the one struck
by the other's blast.

     He saw Akane rush by and leap for Stalford.  He tried to shout a
warning, but couldn't be heard over the crackling of energy.

     Still keeping up the flow of energy with one hand, the dead man
grabbed Akane as she made her attack and threw her.  She crashed into
Shampoo, and the two of them went down in a heap.

     Ranma pressed forward, drawing on his inner reserves.  Sweat beaded
his face, chill and clammy in the cold night.  He could only last a few
more seconds.

     A blur of white mixed with gleaming steel flashed by, and then the arm
of the dead man that had cast the black energy was lying upon the ground,
and the thing shrieked in suprise as Ranma's blast slammed into it and
hurled it dozens of feet backwards until it slammed into a streetlight with
a crack.  Mousse skidded to a stop, kicking up a trail of snow behind him,
and tucked the sword back into his sleeves.

     "Is everyone okay?" he called.  Glancing back at the house, he could
see the grey things were apparently in retreat, scrambling away down the
snow-filled streets, still murmuring and howling.

     "If Akane get herself off Shampoo, Shampoo be able to get up,"
Shampoo said from the bottom of the tangle the two girls had fallen into.
"Snow is getting down Shampoo's back."

     "Well, it's not exactly comfortable for me either," Akane said as she
got up.  Almost as soon as she rose, she abruptly stumbled, one leg
collapsing under her.  Shampoo caught her and held her up to keep her from
falling.

     Mousse was kneeling down by Ukyou.  "Are you alright?"

     She nodded weakly; the left sleeve of her jacket, and the shirt
beneath had been torn away, and the flesh underneath looked to be one
enormous purple-black bruise.  "I'm good.  How's everybody else?"

     "I'm not sure about the people in the snow, but everyone else is
fine," Mousse said.

     "Guess you didn't need us to rescue you after all," Ukyou said with a
cheerful, pained grin.  "Damn, my arm hurts."

     "FOOLS!"

     Mousse looked up, startled.  The dead man had raised himself up from
the ground, smoke rising from his body.  Ranma's attack had scorched away
the last of the ragged scraps of clothing he wore.  The stump of his arm
leaked a clear fluid into the snow, and something seemed to rippling
beneath his skin.

     "I grow weary of these games," the thing hissed, stalking forward.
"Now, I will kill you all."

     "If you had the power to do that, you'd have done it by now," Ranma
yelled.  "I don't know what the hell you are, but you're not strong enough
to beat us."

     "I speak for you the power of my true name," the thing intoned in the
horrible, inhuman voice.  "With this power, I bring death."

     It raised an arm, and the stump of an arm, to the sky.  "I speak my
true name."

     It spoke its true name.

     Ranma clasped his hands over his ears, as it to stop them from
bursting.

     The name was the buzz of insects, and the voice of the tortured.  It
was the slow shifting of impossibly ancient things in ruined cities no
human hand had built.  It was a name that could not be spoken by a human
mouth, that could not be heard by human ears.

     Ranma fell to his knees, feeling as if his mind was going to leak out
of his head.  He looked up through a haze of pain to see the dead man
standing in front of him, mouth still open.  There was a momentary
expression of suprise on the dead, ruined face of the thing, and then, in
a bright flash of light and a sound like thunder, it vanished, and Ranma
mercifully slipped into unconsciousness, the sound of that name still
ringing in his ears.

**********

     Tensai walked through the snow, through a city he'd last gazed upon
over two centuries ago.  How it could have grown so great, he did not know.
Towers of steel and glass stretched to the sky, beyond the range of his
vision.

     And yet for all its greatness, the heart of the city was twisted.  He
walked through what seemed like endless streets of bright, flashing signs,
advertising pleasures he had no desire to know.  He passed women who
offered themselves to him for money, the look on their faces wan and
hungry as lean wolves.

     Eventually he passed from the city, and as the buildings grew further
and further apart, his mood grew better.  Out here, he could still see
traces of the land he'd known.  The rest was like a foreign country to him.

     He knew a little of what had happened during his long imprisonment;
Hibino had spoken about it at length in the time they'd spent together.
There had been terrible wars, with weapons that had killed thousands in a
single blow.  More and more the country had come to rely on foreigners,
seeking less and less strength from within.

     That was why he had been awakened again; his mother saw the need for
her hand to intervene, as she had seen two hundred years ago.  He had to
fulfill his destiny; he had to restore her again to glory.

     Any who tried to stop him, whatever their reasons, would die.  It was
as simple as that.  As three men who had tried to relieve him of his
valuables as he took a shortcut through an alleyway had discovered.

     Now he was walking in the countryside, going on towards the spot he
knew instinctively with every part of his being.  He'd dreamed of it, come
so close to it two hundred years ago, only to be stopped by those four.

     Now, three of those four were dead.  When his work was done, perhaps,
he would hunt down the last.

     He walked, footsteps crunching in the snow.

     He smiled, looking at the white cloak across the land.  It made it all
seem one harmonious whole.

     He walked on.  His mother's will would be done.

     She would be free once again.

**********

     Ranma awoke, and wished he hadn't.  His head ached; someone was wiping
a cool cloth across his forehead.  He opened his eyes and looked up into
the smiling, weary face of his mother.

     "Good to see you back with us, son," she said.

     "Akane..." he murmured weakly.  It was hard to talk.

     "She's fine.  She's still asleep," his mother said soothingly.  "Most
everyone is.  You've all been injured."

     His father loomed above him.  "How are you feeling, son?"

     "Like someone pulled my brain out and shook it around a bit," Ranma
said.  "Who else is here?"

     "Most everyone you know," Genma said.  "The living room looks like an
infirmary right now.  What I don't understand is why no one called the
police; surely someone heard the fighting."

     "Beats me, pop," Ranma said.  "What happened to all those things we
were fighting?  And the guy who was controlling them?"

     "Those beasts all ran away," Genma said.  "As for that thing you four
were fighting, he just disappeared after he said something.  No one could
hear it."

     Ranma shuddered; obviously his father and the others who'd been near
the Tendo house hadn't been close enough to hear the thing speak its true
name, or perhaps he and those fighting the thing had been the only ones the
thing could affect.

     He raised his head weakly and looked around; his father was right.
The living room did look an infirmary.  Most of the furniture was off in
one corner of the room; he was lying on the floor, a pillow under his head.

     Other people were sprawled on the floor around him; he saw Hikaru
sitting next to Kodachi, a bandage wrapped around one wrist and a book open
in his lap.  She would occasionally make a sound as she slept, and then
Hikaru's good hand would come away from the book and gently touch her face
or her hand.

     Shampoo and Mousse were laid out side by side.  Ranma smiled to see
that Mousse had somehow maneuvered so that his arm was behind Shampoo's
back.

     "Even in sleep you can't leave her," he said softly.  He'd always
hoped Mousse and Shampoo would work things out.  Maybe they were on their
way now.

     If only it were under better circumstances; he knew Cologne's death
would leave Shampoo incredibly vulnerable, even if she tried to hide it.
The old woman had meant a lot to her.  Ranma tried to imagine how he would
feel if his mother or father died, and he couldn't even comprehend it.  

     Not even died; murdered.  Ranma struggled up to his feet, and looked
around the room.  Konatsu, Ukyou and Sasuke were also laid out on the
floor, all asleep or unconscious; he could see Shigeki sitting on the floor
beside Ukyou, holding a bag of ice to her left shoulder.

     Akane was on the couch, one of the few pieces of furniture still near
its original position.  Her father was moving around, alternating short
crying fits with nervously adjusting the position of her head, arms or
legs.  Ranma was worried for a moment, and then Akane let out a loud snore.

     "You're sure you're okay to be up?" his mother said.  He nodded and
shakily made his way towards the couch and Akane.  Soun, overcome with
emotion at this show of loyalty and love, began to cry more hysterically
than before.

     "Hey, Akane," he said, looking down at her.  She gave another
half-snore, then opened her eyes and looked at him.

     "Hey," she said quietly.  "How you feeling?"

     He felt like kissing her, really.  But there were too many people
around.

     "Fine," he settled on, reaching out and gently touching the back of
her hand for a moment.  She smiled at him.

     "This sure isn't going to help how we do on our exams," she said after
a moment, with a short laugh.

     "Probably not," Ranma said, grinning ruefully.

     "Remind me why we do these things again?" Akane said.

     "Because we can," Ranma said softly.

     "Think the house'll ever get fixed?" she said.

     "Hey, if it could survive our fights, it can survive an attack of a
few dozen... whatever those things were," Ranma said.

     Shigeki approached them.  "Good to see you two are up.  You had us all
worried there for a moment."

     "How's Ucchan?" Ranma said.  Shigeki glanced back at the girl he'd
been tending, then shrugged.

     "Her arm's going to be hurting for a while," he said.  "It looks like
she managed to get her weapon in the way of the blast; there's a hole blown
through it I can put my fist through."

     "What was that thing, anyway?" Akane said.  "It was Stalford's body,
but..."

     "You're better off asking... what is his name again?" Shigeki said,
tapping one long finger to his narrow chin.

     "Hikaru Gosunkugi," Ranma and Akane said in unison.  Hikaru looked up
from where he sat by Kodachi and came over after a moment.  Shigeki
wandered away, some vague direction in mind.

     "Ranma, Akane," he said.  "What's up?"

     "Shigeki said you might know more about what was going on?" Ranma
said.  Hikaru nodded.

     "Well, it all goes back to the island..." Hikaru began.

     "No.  It goes back much further than that."

     The three of them looked up.  Happosai stood near them.  The bandages
the old man had worn before were gone; he looked in much better shape than
before.

     "This isn't about the island, or anything else to do with any of
that," Happosai said, his eyes hard and flat.  "The only purpose of this
attack was to distract us from the thing of true importance; we have to
assume that Tensai has all four objects, and he has a big lead on us."

     "That his name, then?" Shampoo said.  She'd woken up, and was sitting
up from her position on the floor.  Mousse was still out beside her.  "He
the one who kill great-grandmother?"

     "He is the one," Happosai said.  "But there's something you should..."

     "Be quiet," Shampoo said.  "For killing member of Amazon tribe, Amazon
law say he must die."

     The words sounded rehearsed; Ranma knew that the reasons were deeper
than that.  It was not Amazon law only that made Shampoo want to kill
Tensai.

     He realized that she'd been upstairs when Happosai had given his short
explanation about Tensai's background.  "Shampoo," he said.  "You really
ought to listen to Happosai about this.  Just for a moment."

     Shampoo nodded, and turned her eyes to Happosai.  "Well?"

     Happosai said a few words, carefully chosen.

     "You lie," Shampoo hissed, glaring at Happosai.  "Is not true."

     "It is," Happosai said simply.  "Whether you believe it or not, the
fact remains.  Tensai is Cologne's son."

     "And who is father?" Shampoo said mockingly.

     "His father was a good man," Happosai said after a moment.  "I knew
him well.  He died a long, long time ago, when we tried to save Tensai's
sanity and failed."

     "He tells the truth," Shigeki said.  "It may be hard to accept, but it
is the truth."

     "I'm still interested to know about how I knew you and then forgot
you," Happosai said, glancing appraisingly at Shigeki.  "You seem to be a
hard one to forget."

     "You'd be suprised," Shigeki said.  "Some parts may come back to you
in time.  Right now, our concern must be Tensai; Happosai is right.  I do
not believe we are done this night."

     "Some of us are," Ranma said, glancing around the room.  "Ucchan's not
gonna be much good with her arm like that, and unless they're faking, we've
still got a bunch of unconscious people."

     He looked at Shigeki questioningly.  "And if I'm right, we don't have
too much time, do we?"

     Shigeki sighed.  "That we do not.  We must catch up with him before he
can do anything; every minute here is another minute he gets ahead of us."

     "The real question is," Nodoka said, stepping up beside her son.  "Do
any of you know where he's gone?"

     "Yes," Happosai said.  "He's going to the same place as before."

     "And that would be?" Nodoka said.

     "It's a hill, a few hours out into the countryside," Happosai said.
"Not distinctive in any way, unless you can see the way the lines of power
run through the Japanese islands."

     "And if you can?" Ranma asked.

     "It's a focal point," Happosai said.  "From there, if you're strong
enough, you can work magic over the entire island chain.  If you had
enough power, and enough patience, you could probably rip all of Honshu
into pieces."

     "Like we did with the Sleeper's Spire," Ranma said, glancing to Hikaru
for confirmation.

     "Exactly, Saotome," Hikaru said.  "Only on a far larger scale.  But
the amount of power required would be incalculable."

     "Does Tensai have that kind of power?" Akane said from her spot on the
couch.

     "Hopefully not," Happosai said.  "And those are not his intentions
anyway.  Tensai believes he is doing right; he is doing the will of
Amaterasu, at least within his mind."

     "So there's something controlling him?" Ranma asked.  The thought of
control brought back shuddering memories of Hibino Kyofu, and his short but
total bondage to the horrible creature.

     "Not really," Happosai said.  "Total mind control is incredibly hard
to achieve, especially upon a martial artist.  It's more likely that
whatever is influencing him is posing as Amaterasu and directing him
through that form."

     "This very interesting," Shampoo said flatly.  "But while we do this,
great-grandmother's 'son' getting away."

     "She's right," Shigeki said.  "We need to go."

     "But what if those things come back?" Ranma said, glancing at his
mother.  "And how are we gonna catch up with him anyway?  We sure as hell
can't take the Kuno limo."

     "I have transportation," Shigeki said.  "There's enough room for
pretty much any number who want to come."

     "Shampoo is going, of course," Shampoo said.

     "As am I," Happosai said.  "Someone needs to keep you kids out of
trouble."

     "I'm in for it," Ranma said with a shrug.

     "Me too," Akane said.  She hopped up from the couch, and Ranma saw as
soon as she stood that she was favouring one leg.

     "No," Ranma said.  Akane looked at him, eyes flashing angrily.

     "How dare you-"

     "Think I can't see how your leg is?" Ranma said.

     "I just twisted it a little when I landed on Shampoo," Akane said.
"It's nothing."

     "It ain't nothing," Ranma said.  "You're staying here, Akane."

     "Ranma..." Akane growled.

     "He's right, Akane," Nodoka said, putting her hand on Akane's
shoulder.  "You have hurt your leg.  And someone needs to stay behind at
the house."

     "That's three," Shigeki said.  "Who else?"

     Genma and Soun attempted to make themselves scarce.  "Really, this is
a thing for the younger generation..."

     "I try and wake Mousse up," Shampoo said, kneeling down beside the
still-unconscious boy.  "Mousse?"

     "Yes, Shampoo?" Mousse said without opening his eyes.

     "Why you still lying on floor?" Shampoo said.

     "It's better than standing up," Mousse murmured.  "But if you're
going, of course I'm coming."

     "I'd come," Hikaru said.  "But I'm no use in a fight.  Besides, I have
to stay with Kodachi till she wakes up."

     "I guess it's just us four then," Ranma said.  "And you, of course,
Shigeki."

     "I'll come."

     "We'll have to be very careful," Happosai said.  "Tensai is strong,
and there's no telling what he's capable of."

     "I'll come."

     "He killed great-grandmother," Shampoo said acidly.  "We know what he
capable of."

     Happosai closed his eyes for a moment.  "Yes.  We do."

     "I'll come."

     The rest of the room decided to pay attention to Konatsu finally.  The
ninja was sitting up, his hands resting on his knees.  "I'll come," he
said.  "If that's alright?"

     "Just fine," Shigeki said.  "I don't believe we've met..."

     "Konatsu Kenzan," Konatsu said, standing up and extending his hand.
"You must be Shigeki."

     Shigeki blinked, then took the hand.  "New experience.  Someone knows
me who I don't know."

     "Uhh... don't you want to stay with Ukyou, Konatsu?" Ranma said,
glancing at the sleeping girl.  Konatsu shook his head, and Ranma saw a
flash of sadness across his face.

     "She wouldn't want me to do that," he said.  "You may need me along."

     "Alright then," Ranma said.  "Let's go."

     "I still can't believe you're making me stay behind," Akane muttered.
"Just be careful, okay Ranma?"

     "Don't worry," Ranma said.  He knelt down beside her, and whispered
into her ear, so only she could hear him.  "I promise I'll come back to
you."

     "You'd better," Akane said.  Ranma nodded, then spontaneously kissed
her on the cheek, no longer caring they were in full view of everyone else.
It was no longer something embarassing; it felt right to do.

     There was a short round of farewells, and then the six of them headed
out, leaving the others behind in the living room.

     "Perhaps a game or two while we're waiting," Genma said.

     "Yes, that sounds like a fine idea," Soun said.

     "Absolutely not," Nodoka said.  "Genma, you and Soun get to work
patching up the windows those things broke.  And go through the house and
make sure there's nothing broken."

     Genma and Soun sighed collectively, and headed off to do as Nodoka
said.

**********

     On a beach near Tokyo, there was a brief flash of light that shone
upon the snow-drenched sand for a moment, and then a twisting, writhing
thing in which only the barest remnants of humanity still existed fell upon
the beach.  The skin was blackened and bubbling, leaking clear fluid that
stained the snow and sent smoke and steam rising into the night air.
Beneath the skin there was a continual writhing, as if thousands of tiny
creatures swarmed beneath it.

     Painfully, each movement spilling more fluid upon the snow, the thing
dragged itself towards the lapping ocean.

     "Home," it whispered.  "Sleep... pain..."

     It did not understand what had happened; it felt different.  It had
none of the clear plans and perceptions that it had possesed before.

     A lambent flame lit the night upon the deserted beach.  The hand which
held the flame approached closer, as dark eyes watched with detached
amusement the struggles of the thing.

     "You'd think more than ten millenia, longer even as the humans reckon
time, would teach you patience," the voice said.  "What did you think you
were doing?  You were using a sledgehammer to kill gnats, to use one of
their metaphors."

     The thing silently watched the figure lit by the flame.

     "What you don't seem to understand," the voice continued.  "Is that
even they are not simply empty vessels to fill with power.  When you take a
host, you do not take just the body.  I think there was a bit too much of
Stalford in you; he always was terribly impatient, especially when he was
losing.  Did you truly think you could channel that much power and remain
in control of the form?"

     There was mirthless laughter from the voice.  "And then, to top it
off, you tried to use the power of your true name against them?  Stupid,
very stupid.  You have to be careful at the start; you have to train the
form to accept the power, and even then you can still be beaten.  You were
only in this body for a month or two, and you've ruined it."

     The thing struggled towards the sea, not caring for the words the
voice spoke.

     When the voice spoke again, there was no more amusement, only a deep
undertone of menace.  "I warned you at the start not to interfere with my
part in this."

     The thing cocked what had once been a head and looked back at the
figure.  It hissed, having lost the ability to speak human words.

     "You set your beasts upon my loyal servant," the voice said.

     The thing hissed again.

     "That may be," the voice replied.  "But she was mine.  Mine to use,
mine to cast away, and mine to leave to die.  You took a life pledged to
me, you idiot."

     The thing bubbled out a growl, and staggered up on feet that melted
and twisted.  It raised something that had been a hand.

     "You know, if you crawled back into the sea, in a week or two you
might have recovered enough that you could come back," the voice said,
amused again, but with all the menace underlaying it like a sword in a
sheath.  "You'd be smarter this time, have more control over the body.
This time, you might succeed in achieving something beyond making an utter
fool out of yourself."

     The air around the hand was rippling and twisting, seeming darker even
than the surrounding night.

     "However, it's unfortunate you won't get that chance," the voice said.
"Because I have no further use for you at this time."

     With a small boom of sound, the black light rushed from the hand
towards the flame-lit figure.  The black light struck the flame and was
sucked within, and the flame rose higher.

     "My turn," the voice said, adding a chuckle of laughter.

     Fire streamed from the hand and engulfed the thing.  The keening howls
echoed into the night, as the thing writhed and danced within the endless
stream of fire.  Blindly, it fled into the ocean, only to discover that
these flames could not be extinguished by water or by anything else.  It
struggled, screeched, and people miles away awoke from nightmares they
could not recall.

     Finally, it ceased to struggle, but the burning went on, until all of
it had been consumed.  Then, and only then, did the flame cease to be cast
from the hand.  The flame drew back, until only that dancing, lambent fire
remained, springing without fuel from the palm of the hand.

     Eyes glittered in the flame, eyes like dark stars.

     "Fear not," the voice said.  "I will finish what you tried to start.
But not yet; the time is not yet come.  They will see what has been
unleashed, and they will try to stop it, for they cannot do anything but."

     Fingers snapped; the flame vanished, leaving the beach in darkness
again.  The figure walked a few steps, and turned to look towards something
no human eyes could see.  "Then, and only then, will I show them the true
futility of what they do."

     Then, there was nothing on the beach, and the only signs that anything
had been there were the dragging trail the thing had left in the snow, and
a few footprints which had melted through the snow and fused the sand
beneath to glass.

**********

     "Our transportation," Shigeki said, indicating the large black van
that was parked a few streets over from the Tendo house.  He took a small
black box from his pocket and pressed a button on it; without even a click,
every door on the van opened up.

     "Where do you get the money for all this stuff, anyway?" Ranma said,
glancing sideways at Shigeki.  "I don't know much about finance, but I'm
pretty sure there's not that much profit in what you do."

     "You'd be suprised," Shigeki said.  "Come on.  Step inside."

     Shigeki got into the driver's side and settled behind the wheel;
Happosai hopped onto the passenger seat, while the others piled into the
back, taking seats on two long, padded benches on either side at the back,
Shampoo sitting next to Mousse on one and Ranma and Konatsu on the other.

     "Everyone settled back there?" Shigeki asked.  They responded in the
affirmative from the back of the van.

     Shigeki put his foot on the gas pedal.  There was a strange clunk,
audible to everyone in the van.

     The vehicle tore off into the night, spraying snow in a wide plume
behind it.

     "What kind of van is this?" Ranma said, gripping the edges of the
bench with white-knuckled hands.  After a few moments, he noticed that
everyone else had their seatbelts on, which were something else he hadn't
noticed until now.

     "Custom built," Shigeki said.  "I just hope the same thing doesn't
happen to it that happened to that limo or my boat.

     "What did happen to the limo?" Ranma said, looking at Konatsu.

     "It blew up," Konatsu said simply.  "What happened to the boat?"

     "It blew up," Ranma replied.

     Ranma looked across at Mousse and Shampoo; they both seemed more tense
than anyone else.  That was to be expected, of course.  With Cologne gone,
Shampoo was going to be on the edge; he knew how deeply it would affect
her.

     She was trying to hide it, of course.  From what little he understood
of Amazon culture, they wouldn't really put much value on mourning the dead
so much as they would on avenging them.

     But he could see it, in the occasional small tremble of her jawline,
in the way she stared at her hands as she twisted them in her lap.  He
wanted to do something to help; she was his friend, after all.  But he knew
there was little he could do; he'd cut the ties between them half a year
ago, when he finally started to try and clear up the mess of relationships
he'd somehow gotten himself into.

     Mousse sat beside Shampoo, her tension reflected in him.  He looked as
if he wanted to do nothing more than embrace Shampoo; Ranma knew that if
Akane or anyone else he cared about as much as Mousse cared for Shampoo
were in the same situation, that's what he would want to do.

     Yet something seemed to be holding him back.  He glanced to Shampoo,
then looked away.  His eyes were magnified behind his glasses, dark and
sad, before he turned his head slightly again and the light made the lenses
turn opaque and make his eyes unseeable.

     Ranma sighed and thought of Akane, and everyone else who was behind at
the Tendo house.  He'd concealed the nervousness he was feeling when they'd
left, but now it was back in full force.

     Cologne had always seemed invincible to him; an old woman with so much
power and experience behind her that she could not be beaten.

     Happosai had much the same quality, at times, but he could be easily
distracted by anything female.  Or at least he had been easily distracted;
now he seemed nearly as focused and controlled as Cologne.

     Cologne had possesed no such vulnerability, or if she had Ranma had
not known of it.  And yet, all the evidence pointed to her death at the
hands of a man Happosai said was her son.

     He remembered running by the Nekohanten, still burning as the fire
department battled the flames.  Shampoo had been unconscious in Mousse's
arms, and they'd been heading back towards the Tendo house as quickly as
they could, not sure of what else to do.

     *"Shouldn't we stop and see if Cologne's there?"* he'd asked.

     Mousse had been silent for a moment, and then a sad, regretful
expression had settled upon his face.

     *"No, Saotome,"* he'd said.  *"I don't think we'll find anything."*

     Was that why Mousse seemed so hesitant with Shampoo now?  It almost
looked as if he'd known Cologne was dead, even before they passed the
Nekohanten.

     Ranma shook his head; no, that wasn't possible.  He was reading too
much into Mousse's behaviour.

     "This is so exciting," Konatsu said cheerfully from beside Ranma,
disrupting his thoughts.

     "That what you think this is?" Shampoo said, looking up abruptly at
Konatsu.  "You think this some kind of game?  Great-grandmother dead.
Maybe we be dead soon too."

     "Shampoo," Mousse said gently.  "He didn't mean anything by that."

     "I'm sorry," Konatsu said, bowing his head so none of them could see
the hurt look on his face.  "I didn't know about your great-grandmother.
I'm not even really sure what's going on."

     Ranma realized he probably wasn't; he'd been unconscious up until very
near the time they'd left.

     "Then why you come along?" Shampoo said harshly.

     "I thought I might be able to help," Konatsu said after a moment.

     "Why you think we need your help?" Shampoo said, glaring at Konatsu.

     "Shampoo," Mousse said.  "That's enough.  The last thing we need to do
is fight among ourselves; we've done enough of that to last a dozen
lifetimes.  Right now, we have to work together."

     Shampoo turned her glare to Mousse for a moment, and opened her mouth,
before she seemed to realize there wasn't anything to say.  Mousse's face
was blank and neutral, without any expression as he regarded her evenly.

     "You right, Mousse," Shampoo said.  She looked at Konatsu, then
sighed.  "I sorry.  You not do anything wrong."

     "It's alright," Konatsu said.  "You're Shampoo, right?  Ukyou's told
me about you."

     Shampoo's eyes narrowed.  "Really?  What she say?"

     "Oh, just a little," Konatsu said.  "That you were a very strong
warrior."

     Shampoo blinked.  "She really say that?"

     "Well, not really in those words," Konatsu said.  He sounded utterly
sincere.  "But I think that's what she meant to say."

     Ranma looked out the window, into the dark of night.  They were nearly
out of the city now, and into the countryside.  He wasn't sure which way
they were travelling, because he hadn't been paying attention.

     The snow blanketed everything he could see out here, lying in a white
cape across the landscape.  Occasionally, he would see a dark patch of
quick movement against the snow, something that might have been an animal,
and might have been something else.

**********

     Tensai stood atop the hill, his breath frosting the air as he leaned
upon his weapon for support.  The running had tired him, but not as much as
arriving here by riding the lines of force that spread out from this point
would have.  That would have exhausted him both spiritually and physically,
and he needed to be strong in both mind and body for what was to come.

     He sat down in the snow, folded some of his cloak under his legs to
keep himself from getting too cold, and laid the naginata across his knees.
He closed his eyes, and focused.

     The lines of force spread out in every direction from this spot,
reaching, he knew, every other focal point for power in Japan.  Here, if
you knew how, you could amplify your own power, filling yourself with the
spirit of the country.

     He opened his eyes again, and breathed in the crip scent of the
winter air.  "Mother..." he whispered.  He could feel her watching him, as
he could all the time, and the winter chilled him not with the feeling of
that glorious presence.

     He dug into his pockets, pulled forth the medallion, and hung it about
his neck.  The metal should have been cold against his skin, but it had a
pleasant warmth to it.

     He slipped a ring upon the finger of each hand; one gold with a blue
gem held between the beaks of two golden birds, one carved of exquisite
wood with a tracery of characters upon its band that he did not know.

     He held his hands in front of him and grasped in between them the
black statue, pressing the rings to each side of it.

     "I'm ready, mother," he said softly, smiling as he felt the power
begin to flow from the land to him.  He stood to his feet, hands clasped
before him, and all around him the winter wind died to nothingness.

     "I'm ready," he repeated.

     And then he began.

**********

     In the front of the van, Shigeki and Happosai sat in silence,
listening to the quiet talk of the teenagers in the back of the van.

     "You never did tell me just how I know you, Shigeki," Happosai said
finally.  "Bits and pieces are coming back to me, but its like a puzzle
that I only have a few parts of, and none of them fit together yet."

     Shigeki nodded and pressed a button on the dashboard.  A pane of
nearly invisible glass slid through the area separating the front from the
back, and the voices behind them died to silence.

     "I suppose you of all of them deserve some explanation," Shigeki said.
"In time, you'll remember more and more about me, but until then I can tell
you a little."

     "Why not all of it?" Happosai said.

     "We both have our secrets," Shigeki said softly.  "I do not tell all
of mine, as you do not tell all of yours."

     "I understand," Happosai said after a moment.

     "Do you know how I came to know them?" Shigeki said, indicating with a
nod of his head the passengers in the back.

     "Yes," Happosai said.  "You asked for their help."

     Shigeki nodded.  "I knew you, and Cologne, and Lukkosai, in much the
same way.  We all of us had a mutual interest in seeing that certain things
are not allowed to walk upon this earth."

     "You've aged better than the rest of us," Happosai said with a short
laugh.  "A lot better."

     Shigeki smiled slightly.  "A truth."

     "You are the fourth, then?" Happosai said.  "We split up the objects,
each of us vowing to keep them out of the hands of any who might use them
for certain ends.  Cologne and I each took one of the rings, Lukkosai had
the statue, and you had the medallion?"

     "Yes," Shigeki said.  "I had the medallion until early yesterday
morning, when Tensai took it from me."

     "Do you think he really did kill Cologne?" Happosai said, looking as
if he already knew the answer and didn't like it.

     "Yes," Shigeki said.  "Or at least caused her death, however
indirectly."

     Happosai sighed.  "I guess I'd always hoped that he might somehow hold
himself back.  I can see him trying to kill Lukkosai or I... but his own
mother?"

     "The thing that holds him is terrible indeed," Shigeki said.

     "Can I ask you something?" Happosai said.  "Why didn't you get
suspicious when you saw the Effigy of the Sleeper wasn't in Lukkosai's
hands?"

     "I was foolish," Shigeki said.  "I thought it didn't mean anything.  I
forgot that it always means something."

     Happosai sighed.  "Do you think we'll get there in time to stop him?"

     Shigeki shook his head.  "Not from starting.  We can only hope to
disrupt what he does."

     "But won't that..." Happosai said, trailing off.

     "Letting him complete it would have far worses consequences than
stopping him," Shigeki said.  "I know that and you know that."

     "Yeah," Happosai said.  "Whatever the consequences may be, he must be
stopped."

     He glanced back at the four in the back, their voices silenced by the
plate of glass.  They talked, but he could not hear them.  If he could, he
likely would not have understood that which they spoke of.

     "Whatever the consequences," he whispered, as the van rode on into the
night.

**********

     "By fire, the cleansing fire of my mother's light."

     And the medallion glowed in response.

     "By water, warmed by her glowing face."

     The statue gave off a low hum in his hands.

     "By air, through which her light travels, as it travels through all."

     The golden ring began to whistle softly as the gem pulsed.

     "By earth, given life by her radiance."

     The wooden ring shone upon his finger.

     "And by void, which is I, her son."

     <Speak the words,> the voice said in his head, the voice of his mother.

     <I know them not,> he replied.

     <You have always known them,> the voice said.

     And he always had.

     He began to speak the words, or perhaps the words spoke him.

**********

     "So they just up and left without us?" Ukyou said.

     "That's basically it," Akane said.  "Although none of you guys were in
any shape to go with them."

     Ukyou sighed and rubbed her arm, wincing as she did.  "It's not like
I'm in any shape to go with them now.  If I hadn't got my spatula in the
way, that thing probably would've taken my arm off."

     "I only hope they will be alright without my presence," Kodachi said,
yawning slightly.  "What is the time, anyway?"

     "Nearly one," Sasuke said.  "Perhaps we should head..."

     "We are going nowhere until they return," Kodachi said, looking at her
servant.  "Or do you think you know better than me?"

     "Oh, no, not at all," Sasuke said.  "Please, forgive my impudence,
mistress."

     "Forgiven," Kodachi said, turning to look at Hikaru.  "Darling, would
you get your nose out of that book?"

     "Just a minute," Hikaru said, rubbing his eyes with his fists and
turning the page.  "I'm still trying to..."

     Kodachi reached over and closed the book.  "You're done."

     He looked up, and sighed wearily.  "I guess I am."

     "Would anyone like tea?" Kasumi called from the kitchen.  Everyone
answered in the affirmative.

     "I hate this," Akane muttered after a moment.  "All this waiting."

     "There's not much else we can do," Genma said as he came by carrying
several boards, a bag of nails, and a hammer.  "You kids could help us with
the repairs..."

     "They're all injured, dear," Nodoka said from the kitchen.  "But you
and Soun can stop and have a tea break if you wish."

     "We do," Genma said, dropping the repair supplies with a crash that
made the entire room jump.  "Oops."

     Akane sighed and looked up at the ceiling; she wished she'd been able
to come along, but her leg really was hurting.  She'd be able to hobble in
a few hours, but fighting would be out of the question.

     "Come into the kitchen, everyone," Kasumi called.  "The tea's ready,
and the radio's talking about what happened at the Nekohanten."

     Everyone anxiously scrambled to their feet, Ukyou hesitantly offering
Akane a hand to help her up from the couch.  Akane smiled gratefully and
accepted it, then walked into the kitchen, leaning on Ukyou for support.

     "...police are seeking the owner of the restaurant, an elderly Chinese
woman, and two Chinese teenagers who lived at the restaurant with her.
Anyone with information is urged to call police," the radio blared as Akane
stepped into the kitchen.

     "What are Mousse and Shampoo going to do?" Akane said worriedly.

     Nodoka sighed.  "I suppose when they get back, they can stay here for
the night.  In the morning, they can decide what to do."

     Akane bowed her head and looked out the kitchen window into the night.
Everyone was talking as if Ranma and everyone else getting back was a sure
thing.  The mood seemed light, but the seriousness of the situation was
lost on none of them.

     Whatever way you looked at it, someone had died tonight.  Akane hadn't
known Cologne well, or liked what she'd known of her.  The old woman had
always scared her, to tell the truth.

     But now, the thought that she was dead scared Akane more.  It brought
thoughts she'd rather not have, most of them involving Ranma.

     "Don't you break your promise," she whispered under her breath.
"You'd better come back to me."

**********

     The words spilled forth from him, words he had not known he contained
within himself.  They were not Japanese, or any language he had ever heard
spoken.  The glow surrounding him lit up the night, as the words tore from
him in an endless stream, music so sweet he sorrowed that it would
eventually have to end.

     At times, he was not even sure himself if he was the one speaking, if
he could have ever stopped the words if he had wanted to.  But he did not;
the feeling was glorious, as the words went forth from him into the night,
each one echoing with power.

     He could feel the lines of force trembling, moving in tune with the
words.

     He felt the fall of snow upon him, rejoiced in the roots of trees and
plants, bathed in the cool waters of the all-surrounding ocean.

     He knew the soul of the cities, from the great towers of steel and
glass to the smallest homes.

     He tasted the breath of the wind, from the crisp chill of the winter
breeze to the lightest spring zephyr.

     He heard the voice of his mother.  <Glory, my son.  Is it not glory?>

     <Yes, mother,> he responded, weeping with joy although he did not know
it.  <It is so beautiful.>

     Tears streaming down his face, he continued to hold aloft the statue
and speak the words.

     He touched, for a moment, the mind of each person in Japan, knew for
one brief and shining instant their hopes and fears and dreams, before he
lost all knowledge, for no mind could contain all of that.

     The land sang, and he sang with it.

     He was the land, and the land sang through him.

     <It is time,> his mother said.  <Speak the other words.>

     <Other words?> he said.  <I know no other words.>

     <But you do,> his mother said.

     And he did.

**********

     "There," Shigeki said.  "Up ahead."

     Happosai looked ahead up the highway, at the bright, golden glow that
shone like a beacon.  His eyes widened.  "We don't have much time."

     There was a crackle and hiss of static, and the radio glowed to life.

     "Wrong," the static said, forming words from the hiss and crackle of
empty radio waves.  "You have no time at all."

     Shigeki slammed on the brakes, as the glow swelled and rushed forward,
spreading out from the point of origin and growing to a massive size,
glowing even brighter as it washed across the slowing van, until all within
it knew no more.

**********

     The words were different know, like a beautiful composition mangled by
an incompetent musician.  Yet he sang them still, because his mother had
told him to, and because he could not stop.

     It was agony, terrible agony.  He was burned, stabbed, beaten, drowned
and strangled, all at the same time magnified a hundredfold.  He screamed
amidst the words, and the land screamed with him.

     And then, mercifully, there were no more words.  He fell to his knees,
crying with pain.  The statue melted away in his hands and ran through his
fingers like icy water.  The rings cracked and fell away, crumbling to dust
before they hit the snow.  The chain of the medallion tarnished in an
instant, and the gold circle dropped into the snow, burning red-hot, and
melted through until it was no more.

     The golden glow was all about him; his mother stood before him again.

     "It is done, my son," she said.  "My freedom is regained."

     "Then it is done," Tensai whispered, all the strength drained from his
body.  "The country is saved..."

     "Nearly," Amaterasu said, her radiance forcing him to turn his eyes
away.  "But not yet.  There is much work for me to do to heal her."

     "I will do whatever you ask of me," Tensai said.

     "I ask now only that you sleep," his mother said.  "Sleep, my son,
again.  I will awaken you if I have need."

     He felt his eyes close automatically.  Sleep seemed like the most
wonderful thing in the world; he was so tired now.  Warm, slim fingers
stroked his forehead as he drifted away.

     "My son, my son," Amaterasu said as he slept.  There was no longer any
affection in the words, only mockery.  "Most beloved and useful of my
slaves."

     The form of Amaterasu shifted, became something else.  Eyes looked
upon the sleeping figure of Tensai, and a mouth split into a smile colder
than the depths of space.

     "My son," the voice said.  Arms bent down and gathered Tensai up,
cradling him effortlessly.  "I may have need of you yet."

     Then the two of them were gone, leaving only the empty hillside
behind.

**********

     Ranma stirred in his seatbelt, and looked up.  The van was stopped.
Looking out the window, he could see they were parked over two lanes of
the highway.

     His last memory had been of the van slowing, and then nothing.  The
others were where they had been before, still strapped into the seats of
the van.

     "Is everyone okay back there?" Shigeki said from up front.

     "I'm alright," Ranma said.  "Everyone else is out, it looks like."

     "Not me," Happosai said.  "What happened?"

     "We were too late," Shigeki said.  "He finished the ceremony."

     "Shouldn't the world be ending now, or somethin'?" Ranma said.

     "It seems not," Shigeki said slowly.

     "We never did know just what would happen when he finished the
ceremony," Happosai said after a moment.  "Perhaps he failed, somehow."

     "No," Shigeki said.  "He succeeded.  You can feel that as well as I
can, Happosai."

     "Then what did he do?" Happosai said.  "What did he accomplish?"

     "I do not know," Tensai said.

     Shampoo groaned and stirred.  "Dark," she said, her eyes still closed.
"Dark and terrible."

     "Shampoo?" Ranma said, getting out of his seatbelt and hurrying over.
"Are you okay?"

     "An infection," she murmured.  "A cancer."

     With a start, he realized that her Japanese with flawless and without
accent.  "Shampoo, answer me!"

     Her eyes snapped open, dilated and fearful.  "Oh!"

     "Shampoo, what's wrong?" he said.

     "Nothing, I fine," Shampoo said, unsnapping the seatbelt and standing
up.  "What happen?  We there?"

     "Yeah," Ranma said.  "But it doesn't look like anything else is."

     "We should still get out and have a look around," Shigeki said.  "Are
the other two awake?"

     "Yes," Mousse and Konatsu said in unison.

     "Where is Tensai?" Shampoo said.

     "I'm not sure," Shigeki said.  "He may still be here."

     "Then we get out of van," Shampoo said.  "And if Tensai here, Shampoo
will kill him."

     "And if he isn't here?" Mousse asked quietly as he stood up.

     "Then Shampoo track him down," Shampoo said.  "And kill him."

     "Hasn't there been enough killing tonight?" Happosai said.

     "Not until one who kill great-grandmother dead," Shampoo said, voice
low and dangerous.  "Not till his body before Shampoo will there have been
enough."

     "Shampoo," Mousse said, cautiously putting a hand on her shoulder.
"You need to be in control."

     "Shampoo in control," Shampoo said, glaring at Mousse.  "I no care if
he great-grandmother son or not.  If someone kill member of Amazon tribe,
they die.  Is law."

     "But as Cologne's son," Happosai said.  "Is Tensai not a member of the
tribe?  Don't try to disguise this with law, dear.  You want him dead
because he killed someone you loved, not because of one of those silly
laws."

     Shampoo's eyes narrowed.  "Laws are not silly.  Do not insult Amazon
tribe."

     "Oh, come now," Happosai said.  "Your great-grandmother thought many
of them were ridiculous."

     Shampoo gaped.  "Is not true."

     "Does it matter whether it is true or not?" Mousse said gently.  "It
is alright to be angry because someone is gone, but we cannot allow that
anger to outweigh common sense."

     Shampoo whirled and looked as if she were going to slap Mousse.  He
smiled sadly at her.

     "There's still much we need to talk about, Shampoo," Mousse said.
"You can't go rushing off after him on your own, however much you want to."

     Shampoo pulled back a hand, seeming to hesitate for a moment.

     "As I said before," Mousse said.  "Hitting me isn't going to change
things.  It won't change what's happened, or what's happening, or what's
going to happen."

     The hand dropped to her side, and tears slowly began to stream down
her face.  "Shampoo sorry, Mousse.  You right.  It... it hurt so much."

     With a sob, she pushed by Mousse, opened the door of the van, and ran
off into the night.  Ranma took a hesitant step towards the open door, but
was stopped when Mousse put his arm in front of him.

     "I think... I think she needs some time alone now," he said slowly.
"She'll come back.  It would probably be best if the rest of you went and
looked around; I'll wait for her here."

     "Alright," Ranma said.  Shigeki, Happosai and Konatsu still seemed a
bit stunned at the interchange between the two Amazons; nervously mumbling,
the three of them got out of the van, leaving Mousse and Ranma alone in the
back.

     Ranma reached out and clasped Mousse's shoulder.  "Good luck, Mousse."

     "Thank you, Saotome," Mousse said.  "I think I'm going to need it."

     He sat back down on the bench, as Ranma stepped out the van and walked
with the others towards the hill.  He would wait for Shampoo to come back.

     He would wait as long as he had to.

**********

     Shampoo huddled under a tree a few hundred feet from the van, uncaring
of the snow.  She held her face in her hands and cried, and was ashamed,
because a warrior did not cry, a warrior did not show weakness.

     Right now, though, she did not feel like a warrior.  She felt like a
scared and frightened girl who had lost the most important thing in the
world to her.

     Possibly because that was what she was.  The mind told the heart again
and again that a warrior did not weep, that to weep was to show weakness.
But the heart knows only itself as master, and no other.

     So she wept, and in her own way mourned the passing of the woman who'd
been more like a mother than her own mother.  Her mother had gone out
hunting one day with two other women, when Shampoo was only five, and none
of them had ever come back.  No one ever really found out what had
happened; Shampoo had found out years later from some of the older
villagers that the day after her mother and the other women vanished,
Cologne and four other elders of the tribe had gone out into the hills
where they'd last been seen, and when they came back there was only her
great-grandmother and two others.

     "Great-grandmother," she whispered, shivering in the cold.  "I no can
do this by myself.  I not understand dreams; I never understand.  Is
Happosai telling truth?  Is this one, this Tensai, is he your son?"

     She felt an odd sensation, as if she were slipping away.  She'd come
to recognize the signs when one of the visions was coming.  She leaned
back, only barely conscious of the tree against her back and the snow on
the ground.

     *"Do not call me that.  I was never your son."*

     The voice was strong, masculine.

     *"You are my son.  Whether you like it or not.  And I am your mother,
whether I like it or not."*

     That voice was familiar.  It was her great-grandmother's voice.

     *"One so foul could never be my mother."*

     Then the voices were fading, spiralling down into the darkness, and
she felt the crackle of flames upon her skin for a moment before her eyes
snapped open.

     She was under the tree, half-frozen.  Her legs and back were stiff and
cold.  She stood shakily to her feet, and leaned against the tree for
support.  "Great-grandmother..."

     She stood there for a moment, breathing out clouds of frost into the
winter night, and then she began to walk slowly towards the van that was
only a dark speck in the distance.

**********

     "Nothing," Shigeki said, kicking at the snow in irritation.
"Absolutely nothing.  It's as if he was never here.  No footprints, nothing
left behind..."

     "No, he's been here," Happosai said, smoke spilling from the bowl of
his pipe.  "I can feel him."

     "Any idea what he did?" Shigeki said.  Happosai knelt down and pushed
his hands through the thin blanket of snow until he touched the ground.

     "Something," Happosai said after a moment, closing his eyes.  "An act
of great power.  There's a... shift, I suppose, in the lines of force."

     "That's impossible," Shigeki said.  "They aren't something that can be
twisted and pulled around.  They influence the entire nature of magic
throughout the country, the world even."

     "And I'm saying they've changed," Happosai said.  "Just slightly, and
only some of them.  But they've changed."

     "So what does that mean?" Ranma said, looking around at the barren
white of the countryside.

     "It could mean a lot of things," Happosai said.  "I'm not really an
expert on magic."

     "So what are we supposed to do?" Konatsu said.  "Isn't there
anything, anything at all?"

     "Not now," Shigeki said.  "Not until we have some idea of what's going
on."

     The tall man sighed and looked up at the sky.  "The best thing to do
now is go back to your homes and rest.  I think we'll be needing a lot of
rest for what is to come."

     The four of them trudged down the hill towards the van.  As they went,
Ranma cast a last backward glance at the hill, as if a final view would
reveal to him the true nature of whatever had happened, or was going to
happen.

     It did not.

     When they got to the van, Shampoo had already returned.  She was
sitting, silent and pale, beside Mousse.  She was holding his hand, but it
seemed more out of a need to have something to hold onto then anything
else.

     "Come on," Shigeki said wearily as he turned the key in the ignition.
"Let's get you all home."

**********

     It was nearly two in the morning when they finally arrived at the
Tendo house; the six of them piled out of the van in front of the house.

     "I guess we'll have to call the police in the morning to report a
blown-up limo outside the house," Ranma said, glancing at the wreckage of
the car.  "It's a wonder no one called the cops already."

     "They're probably used to that kind of thing around here," Happosai
said.  "I've heard in some of the big American cities, people have to learn
to sleep through gunshots.  Maybe people in this neighbourhood have learned
to sleep through gigantic battles between a dozen or so martial artists and
a whole horde of really nasty grey things."

     The other five turned flat glares to him.  He shrugged.  "Or maybe
not."

     He started to walk back towards the house.  Mousse, Shampoo and
Konatsu followed.  Ranma hung back and looked to Shigeki.

     "So where are you going now?" he said.

     Shigeki shrugged.  "To look some things up.  To try and get some
answers."

     "How are we supposed to get in touch with you?" Ranma said.

     "You're not," Shigeki said.  "I'll get in touch with you."

     "I'm not some servant, Shigeki," Ranma said.  "How can we get in touch
with you if we need to?"

     Shigeki scribbled a number on a scrap of paper and handed it to Ranma.
"Call that if you need to.  Only if you really need to; don't call me
because you want a ride to your exam this morning."

     "Oh geez," Ranma said.  "I gotta go get some sleep."

     "I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again," Shigeki said.  "And
soon."

     "Yeah," Ranma said, raising a hand in farewell as the tall man got
behind the wheel of his van again.  "This ain't over.  Not by a long shot."

     "I'd say it's really only just begun," Shigeki said, leaning out the
window to talk to Ranma.  "Take care, Ranma."

     "You too."

     The van sped off into the night.  Ranma watched it go until it turned
the corner, and then started to walk towards the house.

**********

     "Home at last, Sasuke," Kodachi said as they stepped in the door.
"Wake me one hour later than usual."

     "Seven, then, mistress Kodachi?" Sasuke said.

     "Yes, seven.  Goodnight."

     "I really wish that thing hadn't blown up the car.  It was my
favourite one."

     "We still have three of them, Sasuke."

     "I know, I know.  Goodnight, mistress Kodachi.  I'll see you in the
morning."

     "It is the morning."

     "I guess I'll see you later in the morning, then."

     "Goodnight."

     "Goodnight."

**********

     Hikaru looked at the small, unpleasant stain under the window at the
back of the house.  The edges of the spirit ward were slightly singed, as
if by fire.  This was the third one he'd checked; they'd all been the same.

     "Good thing I thought to put these up," he said quietly, taking it
down.  "I suppose that's the last of the really conspicious ones.  I can
take the rest down tomorrow."

     He opened the door to the house as quietly as possible, slipped off
his shoes and tiptoed by his mother's room.  The note was still there, on
her door.  He took it down and went to his room.  With luck, she'd never
know he'd been gone.

     "Now, how do I explain the wrist?"

**********

     "Is your arm going to be alright, Ukyou?  Let me get the door for
you," Konatsu said.

     "I can open the door to my room fine, hon," Ukyou said, demonstrating
that she could.  "See?"

     "Oh.  Sorry."

     "Why are you going downstairs?"

     "There's a stain on the..."

     "Konatsu.  Go to bed."

     "But..."

     "Konatsu, if you don't go to bed I'll use my one good arm and drag you
there myself."

     "Yes, Ukyou.  Goodnight."

     "Goodnight, Konatsu."

     There was a pause.

     "What's that behind your back?"

     "Uh... a dust broom.  You see, the underside of my bed is..."

     "Give it to me."

     Konatsu did, scuffing his feet slightly on the floor.

     Ukyou smiled at him.  "Go to bed, sugar.  We've both had a long
night."

     "Okay," Konatsu said, turning to go.

     "Hey Konatsu?"

     He turned back.  "Yes?"

     "Thanks for your help tonight," she said, leaning forward and pecking
him lightly on the cheek on an impulse she half-regretted and half-enjoyed
even as she obeyed it.

     Then she opened the door to her room and stepped inside, closing it
quickly behind her.  Konatsu stood in the hall for a moment, a smile on his
face.

     "Goodnight, Ukyou," he whispered quietly to the closed door before he
headed for his own room.

**********

     Akane lay in her bed, listening to the soft breathing of the other
occupant of the room.  

     "Shampoo?" she said after a moment.

     "Yes, Akane?" Shampoo answered from her spot on the floor.

     "I... I'm sorry about what happened to your great-grandmother."

     Silence for a moment.

     "Thank you, Akane."

     "She was really important to you, wasn't she?" Akane said, then felt
stupid.  Of course Cologne had been important to Shampoo.

     "Yes," Shampoo said.  "Ever since Shampoo's mother gone,
great-grandmother the one who raise Shampoo."

     "Oh.  I didn't know."

     "About what?"

     "About your mother... I'm sorry."

     "Was long time ago.  Shampoo only five."

     "Oh."

     Another silence.

     "I lost my mother at about the same time," Akane said, after a moment
of hesitation.

     "Shampoo sorry to hear that."

     "Thank you."

     "You have big test in school tomorrow, right Akane?"

     "Yeah."

     "Time for sleep now.  Maybe we talk more later."

     "Maybe.  Goodnight, Shampoo."

     "Goodnight, Akane."

     After a moment, Shampoo spoke again.  "Akane?"

     "Yes?"

     "Thank you for letting Shampoo and Mousse stay here, with family.  We
be out as soon as possible."

     "You can stay as long as you want."

     "No want to be burden."

     "You're not a burden.  You're our friends.  I... I know we never got
along in the past, you and I, but isn't that behind us now?"

     "Yes.  Guess it is behind us."

     "Goodnight, Shampoo."

     "Goodnight, Akane."

**********

     "Hey Mousse?"

     "What is it, Saotome?"

     "You asleep?"

     "Obviously not."

     "You think Shampoo's gonna be okay?"

     "I hope so."

     A silence.

     "Well, I gotta get to sleep.  Exams tomorrow."

     "Yes.  Shampoo and I will have to go down to the police to talk to
them, I suppose."

     "You sure that's a good idea?"

     "Not much else we can do.  It's sure to filter down one way or the
other that you know us, and we can't be found hiding out here.  We'll have
to try and come up with a story they'll believe."

     "That's gonna be hard.  You guys really sure you want to go?"

     "We have no choice.  I'm sure we'll be fairly treated; we had nothing
to do with the fire.  Your mother's offered to come down with us."

     "That's good.  Mom'll know what to do."

     "We should sleep, Saotome."

     "Yeah.  Goodnight, Mousse."

     "Goodnight, Saotome."

**********

     "A bit strange to be sharing a room again, after all this time," Genma
said a bit wistfully.

     "Well, Mousse needed somewhere to sleep," Nodoka replied.  "And that
room would have been crowded with the three of you."

     "Oh."

     "Besides, I've missed waking up to you.  Just a little."

     "Nodoka..."

     "You behaved quite admirably tonight.  I saw you defending Soun after
he'd fallen."

     "It was nothing."

     "It was something."

     "Thank you."

     "Are you as worried as I am by whatever's happening, Genma?"

     "Probably."

     "Do you think they will all be okay?  They're all so young.  Having to
deal with things like this on top of school..."

     "If it is something that can be fought and beaten, then they will
triumph," Genma said.

     There was a long silence for a moment between the two of them.

     "I love you, Nodoka," Genma said finally.  "I never stopped loving
you, through all the years.  I was so terrified of my own foolish promise I
allowed myself to be blind to that love.  I'm sorry.  I know you can't ever
forgive me..."

     "Love is about forgiveness, Genma."

     "Do you mean..."

     "Of course I love you, dear."

     There was another silence, shorter this time.  "It's a little cold in
here, isn't it Genma?"

     "Is that better?"

     "A little... yes..."

     "This room is on the first floor, isn't it?"

     "Yes..."

     "Thick walls in this house.  Needed to be, to stop Ranma breaking
them.  Also blocks sound quite well, you know."

     "Mmm... Yes..."

**********

     A small, hunched figure dug through the snow, coming up finally with a
plain gold ring that sparkled in the glow of the streetlights.  There were
a few traces of fine, silvery powder on it that were quickly wiped off on a
sleeve.

     "Knew it was a good idea to do that," Happosai said, peering at the
ring.  "Make sure I could find you later.  Guess you served your purpose,
even if it didn't work in the end.  It was a good plan, if I say so myself.
Too bad Ranma got caught by that thing."

     There was a pause.  "It was a good plan, though."

     He sighed.  "Well, maybe it wasn't such a good plan after all.  I'll
give this back to Ranma in the morning, I guess."

     He doubled over suddenly, groaning.  The need was desperate, aching;
he tried to hold it back, to resist all thoughts of women or their
underwear.

     "Once more," he whispered.  "Just once more."

     He stiffened; the alchoholic said one more drink.  The old soldier
said one more battle.

     "No," he said.  "Even if it kills me, no.  Never again."

     Slowly, painfully, he began to make his way back towards the Tendo
house.

**********

     No more snow fell that night upon the city.  When people looked out
their windows and doors as morning dawned, they could see it melting from
the streets beneath a clear blue sky and a shining sun.  If things
continued this way, by the end of the day it would nearly all be gone.

     Yet, if the truth be told, some of them felt much colder than they had
ever felt before.

     And some sensitive few had awoke, in the very early hours of the
morning, screaming in fear from a dream they could recall no details of
beyond a light, capricious laughter that was the burble of an infant, the
cackle of an old man, and everything in between.

     Those unfortunate few stayed awake all night, with the sound of that
laughter ringing in their ears still.  And as they went to their windows
hours later to see the sun rise, the sight of it cresting the edge of the
horizon brought them no comfort.