Thy Fate Shall Overtake

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 3 : Journeys Into Evening

     Hikaru Gosunkugi hugged his legs tightly to his chest as he rested
against one corner of the small cabin below the boat.  At first, he'd found
the rocking motion of the boat soothing, but after four or five hours of
drifting in and out of sleep, it was all he could do not to be sick.  Each
time he opened his eyes, he was faced with the sight of Ranma and Akane
lying peacefully across from him.  Akane's head rested on Ranma's shoulder;
the small smile on her face made her look even more angelic to him than
usual.  Ranma had his arm curled tightly about his fiancee, hugging her
close him even in sleep.

     Ukyou lay in the small bed against the wall, sheets drawn up to her
chin.  She'd been the most banged up of the three of them, and Ranma and
Akane had insisted she take it.  Now she slept fitfully, occasionally
calling out words softly that Gosunkugi couldn't hear and didn't want to.

     What had he gotten himself into?  He'd been walking home from school
only hours ago, and now he was out in the middle of the Pacific ocean,
heading for god only knows where for reasons he wasn't quite sure he
understood.

     He looked at Akane and Ranma again, even though each time he did the
cold feeling in his stomach grew worse.  What right did he have to hold her
like that?  Ranma hadn't protected her in the alley; it had been his spirit
wards that had saved the day.  She'd seemed grateful; she'd spoken kind
words to him, but that was it.  He'd saved her; if there was any justice in
the world, he would be the one holding her now.

     But there was no justice in the world; that was something he'd learned
a long time ago.  People like Ranma got all the breaks; they were born with
looks, with bodies built for strength and power.  No matter how awful they
were as people, they were the ones who ended up with the victories and the
girls; it was the way of the world.

     Hkirau sighed; he knew he wasn't being fair to Ranma.  He'd protected
Akane in the past, and he'd been trying his hardest in the alley to do so.
It was only luck that the spirit wards had worked at all; in his heart,
he'd expected them to fail like most of his magic.

     "Barely enough power to set a moth aflame," he said, remembering the
words the man called Richard Stalford had spoken in the alley.  He rubbed
the sore spot on his side where the gaijin had kicked him; it still ached.
He'd heard Ranma screaming helpless on the floor of the alleyway, the
victim of some spell cast by the sorcerer.  That was the kind of power he'd
wanted to have; power that would show everyone who'd ever laughed at him,
or bullied him.

     Was it, though?  Was that the kind of magic he wanted?  He shook his
head.  He'd read all the texts; they spoke of white magic, spells for
healing and protection, and black magic, spells for destruction and
killing.  The simplest texts, the ones you could buy off book shelves in
the New Age section, talked of a clear distinction between the two.  Evil
magicians used black magic; good magicians used white magic.  Other books,
ones he'd had to hunt out of the stacks in old stores, they said that magic
was neither good nor evil in the way a sword was neither good nor evil.
Both were tools; it was the hand of the man who wielded either the sword or
the magic that was evil, not the tool itself.

     He'd believed his intentions were good; he wanted to rescue Akane from
her unwanted engagement to Ranma.  What had he done to do that, though?
Had he ever spoken to her, offered his help?  No; he'd used curses, and
tried to control her.  Had he been any different from Stalford, seeking
power to achieve his own selfish ends?

     He shook himself from his thoughts and looked around again; there was
something different about the room now.  Something missing; he realized
what it was instantly.  Kodachi was gone; the dozen other times he'd woken,
she had been in the same place, stretched out in another corner of the
room, head leaning back against the wall with her hands folded over her
chest.  He hadn't been able to tell whether she was sleeping or not.  Now
she wasn't there anymore.

     He almost wished he'd had more time to talk to her; she'd been about
the only girl to look at the marks on him from one of the beatings and not
either look away or laugh at him for being a wimp.  He remembered her as
being kind of frightening; this time, she'd only appeared concerned for
what had happened to him.  Granted, she was still a bit strange, what with
wearing a leotard like it was normal clothing.  But who was he to be
calling somebody strange anyway?

     She'd probably gone up on deck; there wasn't anywhere else she could
have gone.  Hikaru stood up, moving a bit unsteadily due to the rocking of
the boat.  He picked up his jacket from where it lay on the floor and put
it on; it might be cold up on deck.  Then it was three shorts steps up to
the door, and he was out of the stuffiness of the cabin and into the night
air of the deck.

     Kodachi was sitting at the back of the boat, gazing off into the
infinite empty night.  She was in much the same position he'd been in down
in the cabin; legs drawn up tightly, arms wrapped around them, leaning back
against the side of the boat.  The thrum of the enormous engine was like
some great chained beast; the boat sped through the water, churning white
wake behind it.  All around them was the sea, no sight of land or other
boats.  Hikaru glanced back; Shigeki Kiyokuro stood at the wheel, his huge
height making him look in the dim illumination like a motionless sentinel.
Admittedly a very thin sentinel, but a sentinel all the same.

     Kodachi wore her school dress again; her jacket was pillowed behind
her head against the low railing of the side of the boat.  Hikaru sat down
beside her; she didn't say anything.

     "Hi," he said hesitantly.  Kodachi turned and regarded him evenly; in
the dim light of the stars, the scars on her face seemed to shine even more
prominently.  He realized that they weren't messy or ragged; they were
clean and straight, snow-white against the already pale skin of her face.
They seemed to frame the curves of her face, drawing attention to the dark
eyes, the full lips, the slender cheekbones.

     "Hello," Kodachi said.  Hikaru realized it probably looked like he'd
been staring.  Possibly because he had been; he blushed and looked away,
embarrased for staring, even more so for blushing.

     "Are... are you okay?" he stammered, praying for some kind spirit to
give him a fatal heart attack, or anything else that would get him out of
this situation.

     "Yes," Kodachi said softly, tilting her head back to look up at the
sky.  "I just had to get some air."

     "Uhh... yeah..." Hikaru said lamely.  "I couldn't sleep.  Too worked
up, I guess."

     "Kept looking at them too, right?" Kodachi said as she gazed up at the
stars.  "Wondering just what it was that made you lose out?  Made him
choose her over you?"

     "Uhh... not exactly..." Hikaru said, Kodachi's words giving him
several unpleasant images.

     "I guess I know what it is," Kodachi said.  "In my heart I've always
known.  He never loved me; how could he have?"

     "Err... ahh..." Hikaru said, trying to figure out just what was going
on.  Kodachi looked at him again, a small smile on her face.

     "I intimidate you, don't I?  You act like everyone else.  Afraid that
all of a sudden I'll go completely out of my mind," she said.  "Can't say I
blame you."

     "No, no, it's not that," Hikaru said, waving his arms.  "It's just...
I'm never very good around girls.  Don't have much experience with them."

     Kodachi laughed; it was a regular laugh, not the hideous forced one
she often used.  "Don't worry about it.  I'm not very good around people in
general."

     He laughed nervously with her, not sure if he should.  Kodachi's face
softened as she looked at him.  "You never did answer my question, Hikaru,"
she said quietly and seriously.

     "Question?" he said, looking away from her.

     Kodachi cupped his chin gently in her hands and turned his head back
so that he was looking into her eyes.  "Yes.  Who did this to you?"

     Her hand traced the growing bruise upon his cheek, came up from there
to the ridge over his eye where he'd been cut when they pushed his face
against the brick wall of the school, down to touch the black eye growing
over the dark circles usually there that he'd received as he held his arms
over his stomach to protect it from further blows, further down still on
his thin face to the split lip and bruised jaw a hard punch had given him.
Hikaru sighed slightly; it felt painful to feel her cool touch upon the
wounds, each slender finger that ran over his skin bringing new aches to
where he'd gotten used to the ones he already had.  Yet it was somehow
soothing as well to feel Kodachi's touch.  He closed his eyes even as her
hand came down to his shoulder.  Without even realizing it, he brought up
his arm and drifted it across the space between them, letting his hand
touch that oh-so-pale face, and the even paler scars, slight ridges rising
from the gentle slope of her cheek.  His hand came down her cheek as hers
moved across his shoulder and her fingers gently stroked against his
throat.

     Not even knowing why, his eyes still closed, he brushed a finger
lightly across her lips.  He felt them part slightly as Kodachi let out a
soft noise from deep within her throat; that was what did it.  He snapped
back to full awareness, realizing what he'd been doing, and jerked away
from Kodachi as if she were electric.  Her hand had just been going behind
his neck as if to draw him closer; nails scraped against his skin as he
pulled away.

     His eyes opened; Kodachi was staring at him, suprise and a bit of hurt
showing on her face.  He spoke quickly.  "It was four other guys.  They do
it a lot.  I'm kinda their regular target."

     "Oh," Kodachi said stiffly.  "I'm sorry to hear that."

     "It's only because I can't fight back," he said.  "Not against that
many."

     "Have you ever tried?" Kodachi asked.  Hikaru nodded.

     "I used to," he said.  "But fighting back only makes it worse.  I
can't beat one of them; four of them is impossible.  I used to try anyway;
now I just give them what they want, and they usually leave me alone.
Today was worse than usual."

     "So that's it," Kodachi said.  "You do not fight back.  What of your
pride?"

     He laughed bitterly.  "Pride in what?  I can't beat them; why try?"

     "Because there comes a time when you have to stop running," Kodachi
said.  "A time when you must fight back with all you have, no matter how
little it may seem."

     "They'll be gone next year," Hikaru said with a shrug.  "Hell, I wish
I was strong enough to beat all four of them.  But I'm not; I'll endure
until they're gone."

     "Even if they're gone, there will always be others to take their
place," Kodachi said quietly.  "They want those who do not fight back.
Only by showing them that you will fight back will you ever make it stop."

     "How would you know?" Hikaru said.

     "Do you think I was always Kodachi the Black Rose?" Kodachi said,
looking at him.  "Once, I was only a scared little girl who was vulnerable
and alone.  I thought if I endured it would end as well; but it would not
end.  And one day, the time came that I could run away no more, and I had
to fight back.  That was the day the Black Rose was born."

     Her gaze seemed to trap his eyes.  "That time will come for you as
well, Hikaru.  Maybe soon, maybe years from now.  But when the time comes,
you will find you have power undreamed of.  What is done to you does not go
away.  Oh, the bruises may fade, and the cuts may heal, but something stays
behind.  The longer you run, the worse it will be for you when the time
comes to fight back.  You may find your new strength does more than let you
escape torment; it may force you also to become what you have escaped."

     "I... I don't really understand what you mean," Hikaru said.  Kodachi
smiled ruefully at him.

     "When the time comes, I think you will," she said.  She turned away
from him and looked up at the sky again, a vast black cape punctured with
the flaring pinpricks of the stars.

     Hikaru sighed and looked back towards where he thought Tokyo might be;
the only things that seemed greater than the conflict of his thoughts right
now was the scope of the sea and the sky.

**********

     At the wheel of the boat, Shigeki Kiyokuro gazed out across the ocean,
eyes darker than night looking at something that could not be seen.  On the
deck of Nasake, Hikaru and Kodachi talked quietly.  He could have heard the
words they spoke if he wanted to; he chose not to.  It was not his
business.  He'd hoped so much when he'd first found out that Stalford was
involved in this that this would be one of the times that he was able to go
it alone; unfortunately, that was not to be.  The visions had come, and
he'd long ago realized that it was best to trust them.

     And now he was taking a group that was barely more than children to
face Richard Stalford and who knew what else?  Richard Stalford was even
more dangerous than his father; he'd been lucky that Stalford hadn't stayed
to make sure he was gone outside the shop.  He'd showed up just in time to
prevent the sorcerer from escaping with the box.  It was too much to hope
that Stalford was dead, of course.  No, before this was over they'd
probably all have to face Stalford again.  How many years had it been since
his path had last crossed that of the sorcerer?  So many of the things he'd
hunted over the years, working from the shadows to kill that which lurks in
the shadows, behind how many of them had been Stalford's hand?  

     When the time came, though, he hoped that none of them would be forced
to face Stalford.  Not even taking into account his abilities as a
sorcerer, Stalford was incredibly dangerous.  Behind the body that looked
soft and weak, behind the boyish smile and chubby face, there was a mind
that would have willingly destroyed the world if he thought it would
achieve his own ends.

     There was a mind that would destroy the world if he achieved his own
ends.  Keeping one hand on the wheel, he reached into his pocket and felt
the square shape of the wooden box.  A small thing, yet so important.
Like all of them; he and the five who came with him.  If they succeeded
tonight, things would stay pretty much as they were.  If they failed, they
would become much worse.  That was the problem with what he did; at best,
he could hope to hold back the darkness for a little while longer.  But if
he did not, who would?  He had his duty; it had been given to him long ago
by the one who held it before him.  Perhaps in time he would find his own
sucessor, and he would at last be able to rest.

     Until that time came though, he would not rest.  He had too important
a duty to rest.

     But he was so tired, so weary.

     Shigeki stiffened; now was not the time.  Perhaps he would find rest
after this night, perhaps not until a century from now.  Until then, he
could not feel regret or self-pity.

     He glanced back towards where they'd come from, the city of Tokyo.
They'd been lucky to just miss the edge of the storm as they left; now in
the distance, dark clouds could be seen moving slowly out across the sea.
The storm was coming their way.

**********

     Black stone plowed through dark waves as Stalford's ship moved across
the ocean, leaving as much wake behind it is as a shadow would have.  Oars
slapped the water, leaving the only sign that the ship had passed at all.
Dozens of invisble hands pulled forward and back, as the master of the
black ship stood at the helm, hands gripping the dark sphere tightly, his
eyes rolled back into his head until only the whites showed.  So rigid and
unmoving that he might have been a part of the ship himself, Richard
Stalford guided his vessel more surely than any captain at the wheel could
have.  After an hour, they had finally made it out of the storm, but he was
soaked from head to toe.  The overcoat was drenched, as were the clothes
under it.  His hat had lost all shape, drooping down over his head like a
squashed animal.  His glasses had slipped from his face and fallen to the
deck in front of him.

     None of this he was aware of; he was aware only of the coolness of the
water, the fish swimming by, occasionally brushing against his sides.  His
course was straight and true, guided by something no other human could have
comprehended.  Richard Stalford's mind was one with the dark vessel he'd
given life to, and it was he who drove it across the water, not the
invisible rowers.

     Suddenly, something burst through the stone calmness of his mind, a
white-hot flash of pain as wards long ago enacted were broken.  He nearly
lost control, nearly was broken from contact with the ship.  That would
have been the end; with that kind of breakage, they would have all sunk
below the waves.  But he resisted, fought back and regained his senses.
So, Hibino was gone, either free from the bondage he'd placed her under
or more likely killed by those she'd sought to trap.  A bad situation; he
had been relying on her to defend his house against them.  The thought of
his library and his collections being damaged angered him, but then he
pushed it down.  After this night, he would have no need for books or
mystic artifacts.  After this night, it would not matter if his house
burned to the ground.

     Standing like a statue at the helm, Richard Stalford sailed on
towards a destiny he felt was long overdue.

**********

     Ranma blinked his eyes, lost in a dreamless sleep.  Someone was
shaking him; half-awake, he blearily looked into a skinny, dark-eyed face
with a long, hawkish nose.  It wasn't the most pleasant sight to see upon
waking up, so he closed his eyes again.

     "We are nearly there," Shigeki Kiyokuro said.  Ranma remembered where
he was, then, and came fully awake.  The gently bobbing cabin was lit dimly
by an overhead light; Shigeki was kneeling down by him and Akane, his hand
on Ranma's shoulder.

     "What time is it?" Ranma said with a slight yawn.  Akane was nestled
against him, her head on his shoulder.

     "Around midnight," Shigeki said.  He stood up and looked down at
Ranma.  "Wake the others, please.  I need to go and change."

     Ranma nodded and yawned again.  Shigeki walked across the cabin to a
small door and opened it up, having to hunch down to pass into the room
beyond.  The door closed behind him as Ranma looked down at Akane's
peaceful face.

     "Hey Akane," he said softly.  "Wake up."

     Akane gave an unladlylike snore and shifted a bit, sliding her head
further down his shoulder.  Ranma patted her cheek gently; long lashes
fluttered as Akane opened her eyes and looked at him.

     "What are you doing in my bed?" she said, reaching up and grabbing his
head, probably in preparation to crunch it into something solid.  Then her
grip relaxed as she too remembered where they were.

     "Nice to see you too, Akane," Ranma said.

     "Sorry, Ranma," Akane said.  "Automatic reaction and all."

     "Yeah, whatever," Ranma said with a shrug as he stood up and
stretched.  Akane got up and smoothed out her wrinkled, somewhat dirty
school dress, looking at it distastefully.

     Ranma walked over to the small bed that was built into the wall; Ukyou
slept there, the sheets somewhat tangled, a pained expression on her face.
Ranma grimaced when he saw the finger-shaped bruises standing out on her
throat; he'd almost been too late in the alley.

     And if Gosunkugi and Kodachi hadn't shown up when they did, it would
have been too late.  They'd had a fairly narrow escape, even more so
considering that Richard Stalford had shown up only a little later.

     Ranma clenched his fist at the memory of the man's words to Akane;
there wasn't anyone he was going to let talk that way to her.  From what
Akane had told him, Shigeki might have killed the little man when he shot
him,  but Ranma hoped that he hadn't, just so he might have the opportunity
later on to teach him about proper respect for his fiancee.

     And about fighting fair.  Whatever he'd done to him when he locked
eyes with him, he had to pay him back for that too.  The rememberance of
the pain of the fire he'd believed inside him made him clench his fist
angrily for a moment, before he took a deep breath and calmed down.
There'd be plenty of time to be angry when he met up with Stalford again.

     "Hey Ucchan," Ranma said, gently shaking her by the shoulder.  Ukyou
opened her eyes and looked up at him.

     "Morning, Ranchan," she said a bit hoarsely.

     "Evening, actually," Ranma said with a smile.  "How ya feeling?"

     "Not as bad as I could be," she said, pulling off the covers and
stretching.  Her school jacket was on the floor beside her, and she wore
the short-sleeved white shirt that was part of the Furinkan boy's uniform.

     "Shigeki says we're almost there," Ranma said as Ukyou reached down to
the floor and picked up her school jacket.

     "Good," she said, pulling it on and buttoning it up.  She swung her
legs out of the bed and stood up, grabbing her bandolier of spatulas from
where it hung on a nail in the wall.  Akane walked up to the two of them,
still brushing off her school dress.

     "Where's Gosunkugi and Kodachi?" Akane asked.  Ranma and Ukyou both
shrugged.

     "Beats me," Ranma said.  "Must be up on deck."

     The small door opened up again and Shigeki stepped back out into the
main part of the cabin, now wearing the padded black bodysuit he'd had on
when they'd first met him in the dining room of the Nekohanten.  

     "Everyone awake now?" he said, glancing around at the three of them.
"Your other two friends are up on deck."

     "Yeah, that's what we thought," Ranma said.  Shigeki nodded and walked
over to a tall storage locker nestled in one corner of the cabin; he pulled
a key from his pocket and opened it up.  Then he reached in and pulled out
a bow of dark wood nearly as tall as he was, and a large quiver of arrows.
He closed the locker, re-locked it and turned to them.

     "Well, I'm ready if you all are," he said.  There were general murmurs
of agreement, and the four of them headed up on deck.  

     The night was well lit by the stars overhead; the boat bobbed gently,
still for now upon the dark waters, the engine still running.  Hikaru and
Kodachi sat against the edge of the boat, awake but silent.  Shigeki sat in
the middle of the deck, laid his bow across his lap and began to string it
as the rest of them settled down on the deck as well.

     "Right now, we are a few kilometres from the island," Shigeki said
softly, his long fingers working dexterously to assemble his weapon as he
spoke.  "Most likely Richard Stalford is currently in pursuit of us; I am
unsure of how much of a head start we had, but hopefully it shall be enough
to let us get to the point where the ceremony must be performed before he
arrives.  It remains possible that we may have to fight him, however.  He
will not come alone; most likely he will have at least a dozen of the
seishin-shi.  You can all attest to how difficult two of them are, but
there are ways to fight them."

     He finished stringing the bow and glanced at Hikaru as he gripped the
string, testing the pull.  "How many of those spirit wards do you have
left, uhh..."

     "Hikaru Gosunkugi," Hikaru said with a sigh.  "I think I've got about
a half-dozen or so."

     "Good," Shigeki said.  Seemingly satisfied with his bow, he laid it
down on the deck beside him.  "That's enough for all of us to have one to
use in an emergency; right now, those are the best weapons we have against
the seishin-shi."

     Hikaru nodded and rummaged through his school bag, dealing out one
spirit ward to each of them.  He found he had two left for himself at the
end.

     "Only use them if you have to," Shigeki said as he pulled a large,
heavy pistol from his pocket and began checking it.  "The seishin-shi are
slow, and stupid in the way only dead men can be.  They'll follow
Stalford's orders, but as long as you have room to maneuever you should be
able to run circles around them.  They can take hits that would cripple or
kill living men without a problem; the best thing to do is avoid them.  If
you can't avoid them, try to immobilize them, either by tying them up or
breaking their legs."

     "Isn't that a little..." Akane said, making a disgusted face.

     "They're dead," Shigeki said.  "They can't feel anything you do to
them.  They are empty shells; they will kill you in an instant.  You
mustn't hold back because they wear human forms."

     Apparently satisfied with the state of his pistol, he put it back into
the holster on his bodysuit.

     "What about this Stalford guy?" Ranma said.  "How can we fight him?"

     "I'd prefer if you didn't have to at all," Shigeki said.  "If possible
I'd like to be the one to handle him."

     "You saying I can't?" Ranma growled.  Shigeki raised his hands
defensively.

     "Didn't say anything of the sort," he said.  "If any of you do have to
fight him, keep him off balance as much as possible.  Don't give him time
to cast any spells, and don't make eye contact.  But I'm sure you already
know that from experience, Ranma," Shigeki finished, glancing at Ranma.

     "Is there anything beyond Stalford and his servants we should be
concerned for?" Ukyou said.

     Shigeki shook his head.  "I really don't know.  To the best of my
knowledge, this island is uninhabited."

     He glanced around.  "Any further questions?"

     There were none; he nodded and stood up.  "Good.  We should arrive in
a few minutes; it may take me a while to find a place to dock, though.  We
may have to anchor off the waters near the edge of the island and row in."

     He hopped up to where the controls of the ship stood, gripping his
huge bow in one hand as he pushed the throttle forward.  The engine roared
louder as the ship began to move quickly through the water.

     Ranma lay back and cupped his hands behind his head, gazing up at the
brightness of the stars.  This was one of the things he missed from being
on the road; in the city, you could never see all the stars, only the
brightest ones.  Out here, in the middle of the ocean, there were millions
of them overhead.  His eyes sought out familiar constellations his father
had pointed out to him years ago on the road; memories of sitting on his
father's knee in a field or on the branch of a tree, of watching as his
father's blunt fingers traced in front of his eyes, showing him the shape
of the Dragon, the Horse, and others.  They brought a wistful smile to his
face; back in those days, he'd thought his father was the greatest guy in
the world.

     Akane looked at the thin strip of paper, covered in carefully drawn
calligraphy.  She tucked it into the pocket on the front of her school
dress and glanced over at Ukyou.  The chef was delicately touching her
fingers to her bruised throat, wincing occasionally.

     "Are you okay, Ukyou?" Akane asked.

     "Yeah," Ukyou said.  Her voice was hoarse and strained.  "I don't
think there's any permanent damage, although I feel like my neck got taken
through a wringer a few times."

     "I hope we all come through this okay," Akane said with a sigh.  She
leaned back against the side of the boat; Ukyou joined her.  They both
looked across to where Ranma lay, gazing up at the sky.  "And that he
doesn't do anything stupid just because of what that man did to him."

     "You really care for him, don't you?" Ukyou said softly, glancing over
at Akane.

     "It's not that... it's..." Akane said.  Then she just sighed and
nodded.  "Yeah.  I do."

     She looked at Ukyou's eyes; they shimmered slightly in the starlight,
unshed tears there.  Akane sighed again and put a hand on Ukyou's shoulder.
"Ukyou, I..."

     "I know, Akane," Ukyou said, looking away.  "I know."

     "It's been nice to talk to you," Hikaru said hesitantly to Kodachi.
"You've... given me a lot to think about."

     "That's nice," Kodachi said.  She was staring intently at Ranma, her
eyes narrowed.  "I the night, and you the stars," she whispered softly
under her breath, closing her eyes and lowering her head.

     "Hey," Hikaru said, hesitantly putting a hand on her shoulder.  "Is
everything okay, Kodachi?"

     "I am fine," she snapped, raising her head and glaring at him.  "Do
not trouble yourself with me."

     Hikaru opened his mouth wide in suprise for a moment, then took his
hand off her shoulder and backed off away from her.  

**********

     At the helm of the boat, Shigeki steered the boat one-handed as he
held his bow with the other.  The massive weapon was what he preferred to
use in combat; the pistol had the advantage of compactness, but he found it
impossible to extend himself through a gun as he could through his bow.
There was none of the feeling of symbiosis between weapon and wielder in a
firearm; as practiced as he was with the pistol, he was a hundred times
more accurate with the bow.  It also had the advantage of silence; that was
a great help at times.

     He glanced back at the five who rested upon the deck of the boat; they
were young, but they were filled with so much courage and skill, even...
what exactly was his name again?  The boy had real promise, but only if the
awakening of the power within him came about in the right way.  He could
just as easily become a pawn of forces he could not even begin to imagine.

     The headlights of the boat, which for the past few hours had cast
their beams as far as they could go across the empty sea, illuminated a
long wooden dock stretching out from a sandy beach.  He narrowed his eyes
in mild suprise; a dock meant there was someone on the island.  The small
fishing boats that could now be seen bobbing at the half-dozen smaller
docks confirmed that.

     "What the..." Shigeki murmured.  It was too late to turn back now;
anyone watching would have already spotted them.  He pulled the boat in
alongside the dock and stopped the engine, turning and heading back down to
the deck.

**********

     Ranma sat up when the boat stopped moving; they must have arrived.
Shigeki stepped down onto the deck from the helm of the boat, bow held
loosely in one hand.

     "We there now?" Ranma said.  Shigeki nodded.  Ranma stood up and
looked around the boat; everyone seemed to be alert and ready.

     "I thought you said this island was uninhabited," Ukyou said, gripping
her spatula and glancing around warily at the docks and boats.

     "I thought it was," Shigeki said.  "Anyway, it doesn't matter.  This
late, anyone else will be asleep.  I'm not exactly sure of the location of
the site I need to perform the ritual at, but I'll know it when I see it.
Right now let's get off the boat and take a look around."

     There were general murmurs of agreement; Shigeki walked to the edge of
the boat and hopped over the side, landing lightly on his feet on the dock.

     "Pass me the rope, would you?" he said to no one in particular.  Akane
tossed it down to him and he lashed it securely to a post of the dock.  The
rest of them followed him down onto the dock and stood there, looking
around at the island they'd landed on.  The night was clear and the stars
overhead bright, allowing fairly good visibility.

     The beach led up a hill into an area sparsely forested with a few
scraggly trees.  Beyond that, little else could be seen.

     "Come on," Shigeki said.  "Let's move out.  Stay together, and keep
your eyes open."

     "Yes, master," Ranma muttered under his breath as they walked.  The
island was disturbingly silent; not even the sounds of animals or
night-birds could be heard.  Ahead of him, Ukyou kept her combat spatula
raised high in a ready position; behind, Akane glanced apprehensively from
side to side.

     There was a slight rustling nearby; they all turned, ready to face any
threat.  A bright beam of light flashed into Ranma's face; startled for a
moment, he realized it was a flashlight.  The flashlight was held by a
stocky man in rough peasant clothing that looked as if it had come from a
century ago; his eyes widened as he looked at the arrows, spatulas, cocked
fists and gymnastic pins.

     "Y'all don't mind not pointin' those there things at me?" he said,
gulping.  "It's just I'm awful attached to my head, an..."

     Shigeki lowered his bow, still keeping the arrow loaded.  "Who are
you?" he asked.

     "Names Kotaro," the man said.  "'Scuse me for soundin' unfriendly, but
we don't get too many visitors out here."

     "And out here would be?" Shigeki said.

     "Why, this is our island.  I'm from the village of Kappamura; we keep
pretty much to ourselves out here.  We don't hold with a lot of what goes
on in the world out there," Kotaro said.  "Now, whatcha all doin' out here
at this time of night, with all those weapons?"

     "We're hunters," Shigeki said.  "We heard there was some interesting
game on this island."

     "Mister, you don't go huntin' with big kitchen utensils," Kotaro said
chidingly.  "I think yer telling me lies here."

     "We do not have time for this," Shigeki said, glaring at the man.  "We
will be off your island as soon as possible."

     "I still got a bunch o' questions for you," Kotaro said.  "I'd kinda
like them answered."

     "I do not have time for questions," Shigeki said.  He looked back at
the rest of them.  "Come on."

     "I think you can make the time," Kotaro said, the rough peasant accent
gone now.  His voice was flat and emotionless, with none of the jollity or
simple-mindedness he'd adopted beforehand.  "There's a lot of things we
don't hold with in the modern world, but these aren't one of them.  We're
quite fond of them, actually."

     There were many clicks; from behind the cover of the trees or from
other hiding places, more than a dozen men in the same antiquated clothing
emerged.  There was nothing antiquated about the rifles they held in their
hands, however.

     Ranma glanced around; the men all looked similiar to Kotaro, with
broad, stocky builds and oddly flattened faces with mouths that looked too
wide and too fleshy.  They grinned and levelled the guns at them, as Kotaro
started walking towards them.

     "Put down your weapons," he said.  They complied rapidly.  "Now, two
of these men are going to tie your hands.  If you try anything, the rest of
these men will shoot you.  They will be aiming for your belly, which will
ensure that you will die, but you might live long enough to answer a few
questions as well.  Then we'll all walk back to Kappamura together; if you
try to run, they will shoot you in the legs and we will drag you along
behind us.  When we get back Kappamura, you will have all the time you need
to answer questions."

     "What's going on?" Ranma hissed to Shigeki as two of the men began to
approach, still keeping their rifles pointed at them.

     "I don't know," Shigeki said as the men came closer.  The first one
reached Shigeki and roughly yanked the tall man's arms behind his back as
his partner covered him with the rifle.  Shigeki grimaced but kept still as
the man slung his gun over his shoulder and pulled out a length of rope,
using it to bind Shigeki's arms tightly behind his back before he cut off
the excess with a knife and moved on to Ukyou.  Ranma narrowed his eyes at
the stares both men were now giving to Ukyou; he didn't like the looks of
them at all.

     "Let me tie her," the man holding the gun on them said.  "She's nice.
I like her."

     "You can have the next one," the man with the rope said.  "I want
this one."

     "There'll be plenty of time for that later," Kotaro said from where he
stood.  "Right now, I need them in good condition to answer questions."

     Muttering under his breath, the man jerked Ukyou's arms behind her
back and tied them, letting his hands linger for perhaps a moment longer
than needed on parts that he had no need to touch to tie her.  He gave
Ukyou a twisted smile and moved on to Ranma.  Ranma glared at him, and was
slightly gratified to see the man hesitate a bit.

     "If you touch her," he whispered, turning his head slightly so the man
pointing the gun couldn't see him talk.  "If you touch any one of them, I
will kill you."

     The man grinned and yanked his arms up high, tying them nearly at the
elbows.  The pain was excruciating; he bent forward, which reduced some of
the pressure, but he still felt as if his arms were going to tear out of
their sockets.  He wasn't even able to concentrate on what was going on as
the man moved down the line, tying Akane, Kodachi and Hikaru.

     "Get moving," Kotaro said.  "Half of you stay here.  We'll send some
reinforcements as soon as we get back to the village."

     Trying to concentrate on anything but the pain in his arms, Ranma
started to move forward as the armed men moved up and took positions in
front, behind and to the sides of them.  Kotaro led the column as it moved
up a rough path on the hill, the way illuminated by several flashlights
gripped by their captors.

     Through pain-slitted eyes, Ranma looked around at the men surrounding
them.  Even without his arms tied, there were too many guns to risk it.

     The stock of a rifle crashed into the back of his head, sending him
stumbling forward to the ground.  The fall wrenched his arms, sending
shooting pains throughout his entire body; he was finding it hard to
breathe through so much pain.  He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stop
from crying out.  He wasn't going to give their captors the satisfaction of
hearing him in pain.

     "What are you doing?" he heard Kotaro say.

     "He was moving slow," the voice of the man who'd tied his arms said
sullenly.

     "Of course he's moving slow," Kotaro's voice said flatly.  "Look at
how you've tied his arms.  Do you want him dead before he has a chance to
answer questions, you idiot?"

     Hands fumbled with his bonds, and then blessed relief as the rope
vanished.  His arms fell to his sides limp; he gulped great breaths of air.

     "I don't like this one," the man who'd tied him said.  "He looks like
he's going to try something."

     Right now, the only thing Ranma felt like doing was lying there.  But
he forced himself to stumble to his feet, remembering the looks the men had
given to Ukyou, looks they'd probably given to Akane as well, and to
Kodachi.  Somehow, he was going to get them all out of this safely.

     He just wasn't quite sure how yet.

**********

     "Behold Kappamura," Kotaro said as they approached the town, sweeping
his arms wide.  There wasn't much to behold, really.  A single long dirt
road, a few dozen run-down, crudely built houses and several larger
buildings.  The town was lit by a few electric lanterns hung on tall poles
at irregular intervals, but there was no one on the streets and all the
houses were dark.  It was towards one of the larger buildings they were
headed.  It seemed better constructed than everything else, which wasn't
really saying much considering the condition of the rest of the town.

     The building was two-storied and flat roofed, constructed from brick
as opposed to the cheap wood of the rest of the houses.  Several steps in
front led up to large double doors, over which a large stone archway stood,
carved with a flowing script that Ranma didn't recognize.

     He flexed his arms slightly; they were bound behind his back again
tightly, but at the wrists this time.  The position was still
uncomfortable, but not the excruciating pain it had been before.  He
glanced around at his friends; they all looked the way he felt, scared but
determined.  Akane caught his eye and gave him a small smile before he
quickly turned his head back.  None of them had tried to speak; the men
around them looked too on edge to risk doing anything to annoy them.  Ranma
was hoping for a time when there'd be less of them around and they might
have a chance of escape.  He expected he'd be able to work his way out of
these ropes quickly, or even just snap them, but he was worried about one
of the others getting hurt in any attempt to get away.  Two of the men
walked quickly up the steps ahead of them and opened the doors wide into a
dimly-lit hallway.

     "Please," Kotaro said with a mocking bow.  "Enter into the sanctuary
of Father Dagon."

     Ranma saw Shigeki's head go up at the last part; there was something
about that name that the man had recognized.  The armed men began to herd
them up the stairs and into the building, which from Kotaro's words was
some kind of church.  They walked through the hallway, up a flight of
stairs into another hallway and past several large, strong looking doors.
As they passed one, there was bestial scream like an animal being tortured,
and something smashed heavily into the door from the inside of the room.
They all jumped in suprise, and jumped again when one of their guards fired
a round from his rifle into the ceiling.  The sound of the gun going off
was thunderous in the small hallway, and for a moment Ranma was sure one of
them had been shot.  There was another scream, more like a whimper this
time, and the sound of something large dragging itself around in the room
beyond the door.

     "He is excited," Kotaro said.  "He can smell the new people.  Perhaps
we'll let him play with you later."

     At the end of the hallway Kotaro opened a door and flicked a switch on
the wall inside; the single naked bulb in the ceiling illuminated a plain
room with several chairs.  The six of them were hustled into the room.
Several of the men who'd escorted them followed, dumping the weapons that
they'd dropped in one corner of the room, along with Gosunkugi's school
bag.

     "Search them," Kotaro said.  The men walked eagerly towards Ukyou,
Akane and Kodachi; Ranma clenched his teeth and flexed his hands, but the
half-dozen rifles pointed at them made him think of better of doing
anything else.  They patted the three girls down, giving leering grins as
their hands lingered in certain places.  Ukyou's spatula bandolier was
thrown into the corner of the room, the man searching her running his
fingers heavily across her breasts as he took it off her; Ranma saw Ukyou
close her eyes and grimace, and he held himself back by memorizing the
faces of the three men doing the searching.  Ukyou seemed to get the worst
of it, probably because the man searching her was the one who'd wanted to
do the tying earlier, but none of them were spared from the wandering hands
of the searchers.

     The man searching Kodachi started to lift the hem of her school dress;
she stepped back and glared at him.  Ranma saw the men turn their guns
slightly towards her, and tensed himself in anticipation.  He might be
forced to move sooner than he would like.

     "I hardly think I could be hiding anything under there that would be
of interest to you, peasant," she said.  "It's not as if you'd know what to
do with it anyway.  Or if you'd have the necessary equipment if you did,
you inbred, slack-jaw..."

     The man snarled and straightened up, bringing his hand back and
hitting Kodachi suddenly across the face with a closed fist.  The sound of
the impact was sickening; Kodachi was knocked flying to the floor.  Unable
to catch herself with her hands tied, she hit hard with her shoulder,
letting out a sharp cry of pain.

     Ranma nearly moved anyway, even though he knew it would mean he was
dead.  He couldn't remember a time he'd felt this angry, and this helpless.

     Kotaro reached over and took a rifle from one of his men.  Then, still
with a neutral expression on his face, he fired it through the back of the
man who'd hit Kodachi.  The man fell to the floor, clutching his stomach
and gasping as blood stained the front of his rough clothing.

     "I said I wanted them in a good condition for questioning," Kotaro
said mildly, handing the rifle back the man he'd taken it from.  None of
them seemed suprised at the behaviour of their leader.  On the floor, the
shot man made a gurgling sound.

     "Take him out of here," he said, gesturing vaguely with his hand in
the direction of the man he'd shot.  "You've had enough time to search the
women.  There'll be time for all of this later; right now, we need our
questions answered."

     Kodachi finally staggered to her feet, her mouth bloodied.  She turned
a hate-filled gaze on the man dying on the floor.

     "You are lucky he killed you," she hissed.  "I would have been much
less merciful."

     The two men who'd searched Akane and Ukyou walked over and dragged the
man from the room; he left a thin trail of blood along the floor as they
took him away.  Kotaro looked at them and frowned slightly.  He stepped
forward to Shigeki and began to go through the pockets on the man's
bodysuit; he pulled out the pistol, nodded and threw it into the corner
with the rest of the weapons.  Another pistol, smaller than the first was
soon added to the pile, along with a sheathed knife and several more yards
of bowstring.  It was when he pulled out the small box that contained the
figurine that he displayed interest for the first time.

     "And what have we here?" he said quietly, stepping back and opening
the box.  He gazed in appraisingly, then closed it as he turned to face the
half-dozen men who remained.

     "Tie them to the chairs while I'm gone," he said.  "Do nothing beyond
that.  I should return shortly with Jakukawa.  He will be doing the
questioning."

     There was a collective look of suprise on the faces of the men
guarding them.  Kotaro stepped by them and out into the hallway, the sound
of his heavy footsteps echoing through the silence of the building.

     "Sit down," one of the men said, gesturing with his rifle.  They did
so; Ranma glanced over at Akane.

     "You okay?" he whispered.  She nodded mutely and bowed her head.
Ukyou still had her eyes closed, while Kodachi glared at their guards with
silent fury.  Shigeki kept his face neutral, while Hikaru looked scared,
but also angry.  Ranma looked at the odds; six alert men ready to fire in
a second versus six people with their hands tied.  It still didn't look
good.

     The men moved quickly, lashing them securely to the chairs.  Perhaps
chastened by what Kotaro had done to their comrade, they spent no more time
than was necessary in doing so.  They didn't tie their legs, at least.
He'd be severely limited, but if it came down to it he could still fight.
If he worked carefully, he might be able to loosen the ropes enough that he
could slip them off the chair.  It was a matter of looking for an opening;
right now, there was nothing.  And even if he managed to escape getting
shot, would everyone else?

     At that moment, he regretted ever agreeing to help Shigeki; he
regretted meeting the man at all.  Hadn't he had enough trouble in his life
without seeking it out like this?

     No; what they were doing now affected a whole lot more people than
just them.  That Stalford guy wanted to become a god, or something like
that.  Ranma remembered the threat he'd made to Akane in the alley; he
remembered the look in Stalford's eyes.  A man like that could not be
allowed to gain that kind of power.

     His thoughts were interrupted when the door creaked open again; Kotaro
stepped back in, a bulky figure in a voluminous hooded robe following
behind him.  The men guarding them nodded their heads respectfully to the
robed figure.  No details could be made out through the thickness of the
robes, but it was obvious that this was a person of great respect among
whoever these people were.  The robe was made of green material, with
strange geometric designs spun in gold thread upon it.

     "I am Jakukawa," the robed man said in a hoarse, whispering voice.  "I
am going to ask all of you some questions.  You will answer them, and
perhaps we will let some of you go."

     "Ask away," Shigeki said, too quickly for Ranma's liking.  

     "Master Jakukawa, if it is alright, I would return to the beach,"
Kotaro said.  "You said yourself that there would be others coming this
night."

     "Yes," Jakukawa said.  "Go back to the beach.  Take some more men with
you; these six will remain with me."

     Without another word, Kotaro backed out of the room.  The door closed
behind him, and Jakukawa turned his bowed head back in their direction.
Still nothing could be seen of what he looked like.

     "Well," the robed man said.  "Look at what the seas have brought us
first tonight.  I am most interested how you came to acquire what was
within that box you were carrying, my friends.  What did you intend to do
with that effigy, anyway?  Take it to the southern rock and awaken him?
It's not time for that yet."

     "It's a family heirloom," Shigeki said.  "My grandfather gave it to me
for luck, and I always carry it with me."

     A tired sigh issued from the depths of the robe.  "I hate being lied
to.  I have little patience these days for games like this."

     Jakukawa turned to one of the men guarding them.  "Untie the skinny
boy.  He looks as if he'll break easily enough."

     Ranma looked over at Gosunkugi as one of the men moved behind the
chair and began to untie him.  The boy gulped and closed his eyes for a
moment, but when he opened them again there was no fear in them.  This was
the only time he'd be able to act before any of them were placed in danger;
he didn't know what was planned for Hikaru, but it didn't look very good.

     He looked at the five rifles levelled steadily at him and his friends.
He still couldn't risk it; he'd just have to hope Hikaru would be able to
get out of it on his own.

     Some hope indeed.

     The last of the ropes that secured Hikaru to the chair were taken off;
the boy was yanked to his feet by the guards, his hands still tied.

     "Wait!" Kodachi shouted, startling Ranma.  "Please, don't take my
beloved away without letting us have one last kiss!"

     "Wha-" Hikaru began, echoing Ranma's thoughts.  Kodachi cut him off
quickly.

     "Oh, we've had to keep it a secret because our parents did not
approve, but our love burns brighter than the sun itself! Let me at least
bid him farewell," she said, her eyes wide and appearing to just brim with
tears.

     "Please," Hikaru said, as comprehension slowly dawned on his face.
"One last kiss..."

     Jakukawa laughed a hideous, bubbling chortle.  "Why not?  Perhaps with
the memory of her upon your lips you will be more forthcoming.  You can
consider what we'll do to her if you don't talk."

     The man who'd untied Hikaru led him over to Kodachi, a smirk upon his
face.  Ranma slowly began to catch on.  Kodachi was up to something.  He
kept himself from grinning; perhaps things weren't as hopeless as they
seemed.

     The positioning was awkward, as Hikaru bent down with his hands still
tied and touched his lips to Kodachi's, tilting his head sideways slightly.
Ranma didn't see much, but he could tell it was a fairly serious kiss.
Hikaru pulled away finally, blushing furiously.

     Jakukawa laughed again.  "That was very touching.  Two of you come
with me and our little friend here.  We just want to make sure he doesn't
do anything stupid."

     Hikaru was led out of the room into the hallway by two of the men; the
other four kept their rifles trained on them as Jakukawa stepped into the
hallway, pausing with one hand on the doorframe.  The fingers that slipped
from beneath the folds of the robe were blunt and greyish, and seemed to be
without fingernails.

     "I'll be back shortly," he said to the four men still guarding them.
"Keep a watch on these other five; if we get the answers we need from this
one, perhaps I'll allow you to have some fun with the women."

     Ranma felt himself go cold; the four men smiled broadly.  If it came
down to it, if whatever Kodachi had been planning didn't succeed, he knew
they were going to have to risk the guns if they were going to have any
hope of surviving this night.

**********

     The black ship approached quickly towards the island.  As it came in
sight of the beach and the docks, it simply plowed through several of the
smaller docks, wood splintering beneath the bulk of the dark stone.  It
slid up through the shallow waters leading onto the beach until it was
nearly touching the shore, a feat that should have been impossible for a
vessel of its size.

     Slowly, Richard Stalford slipped from his control over the ship back
into his own body.  He shivered slightly at the chill of his rain-soaked
clothing, then bent down and picked up his glasses where they lay on the
deck.  Another shiver hit him involuntarily; he wrapped his arms tightly
around himself and murmured words under his breath.  A soft glow began at
the centre of his body and spread outward, dispelling the chill and drying
his clothing.  On the deck behind him came the clacking of invisible feet
as the rowers moved back to the lower decks.

     He put his glasses on and gazed around at the island; there were quite
a few people waiting on the beach.  Most likely they were carrying guns;
the seishin-shi would absorb bullets easily, having no need for vital
organs or blood, but for all his power a single bullet could easily take
him out of commission.

     Stalford sighed; he was sacrificing a lot tonight, both of his own
personal power and his artifacts.  But any sacrifice was worth it, and what
better time to use it then now?  After this night, he would no longer need
to fear bullets of any kind.  He would no longer need to fear anything.

     He unbuttoned a pocket of his overcoat and reached in, pulling out a
small, crude-looking knife, wood-handled with an obsidian blade.  Thin
silver wire bound the blade to the handle.  Both handle and blade were
carved with flowing designs.

     Holding the knife in his left hand, he rolled up the sleeve of the
overcoat and shirt on his left arm.  He switched the knife to his other
hand, pressed the razor-sharp blade against his arm, and made a deep slash
from inner elbow to wrist.  Sucking back a cry of pain, he watched as the
blood spilled out onto the knife blade, dark red on black.  He wiped the
flat of the blade along his arm, getting rid of the blood.  The only sign
of the wound was now an angry red line along the path of the cut; he rolled
up his right sleeve and repeated the act.

     Finished, he pulled his sleeves back down and held the knife loosely
gripped between both palms.  He began to speak in a harsh, guttural
language, his words soon answered by a red glow from the knife.  Smiling,
he threw his hands over his head, letting go of the knife as he did so.
There was no clatter as it fell to the deck, and no splash as if it had
fallen into the water.  He picked up his swordcane from where it lay
nearby and hopped down to the deck of the boat.

     The seishin-shi began to file up from the lower decks, and soon the
score of dead men were upon the deck.  He spoke to them in the only
language they understood, and they split off, ten going to each side of the
boat and leaping off, landing with splashes in the shallow water below.
They began to walk slowly towards the beach.

     He glanced back; out of the range of normal eyesight, but not out of
his vision, dark shapes bobbed in the water.  It would not do to have them
interfering with his ship while he was busy on the island; with a few quick
words, he sealed off a wide radius from interference and walked back up to
the prow of the ship.  Below him was the beach; he braced one hand on the
smooth top of the skull adorning the front of the boat and hopped off,
landing lightly in the sand below.  The seishin-shi came up the beach
and gathered around him.  These were not the ones he took with him when he
needed to go about in public; the stitches that held their mouths closed
were on the outside, far more obvious.  They did not wear the dark glasses
that hid their blind, stitched gazes.

     A shot rang out; sand flew up a few feet in front of him.

     "Hold it right thar, strangers!" a voice called out from the dimly-lit
area of trees up the hill from the beach.  "Move and yer all dead!"

     He searched for them; quite a few.  Perhaps a little more than twenty,
all of them armed.  It wouldn't have mattered if there were a hundred.

     He spoke his commands quietly; the seishin-shi began to move up
towards the ambushers.  Shots rang out, the impact of one occasionally
being enough to knock one of the walking dead men to the ground; they got
up moments later and continued.  Behind his servants Stalford advanced, any
bullets aimed at him missing by fractions of an inch.  The power of the
knife was as effective as he'd expected.

     Secure in their convictions of the power of the guns, the men did not
begin to retreat until it was too late.  Then the seishin-shi were on them,
dead hands snapping necks and crushing skulls, as the shots rang out
innefectually.  With a grin on his face, Stalford pulled the blade of the
swordcane out of its disguise and raced up towards the one who looked like
the leader, who was retreating back up the hill with two of his men, all of
them continually firing their rifles.  No bullets touched him; he reached
the three men and thrust forward, driving the blade through the heart of
one of the men, then pulling it smoothly out and slashing open the stomach
of the second.  The leader turned to run; Stalford leapt and drove into his
back, knocking him to the ground.  He placed the blade of the swordcane
against his throat as the man raised his head, standing with one foot on
the man's back as he tilted the man's head up and turned it towards him by
slowly pressing the blade against the neck, not hard enough to cut but
enough to make him move.

     "Hello," he said.  "I suppose you're the welcoming commitee.  Welcomed
anyone else this evening?"

     "Fool," the man hissed.  "You have no idea of what you are dealing
with here."

     Then he felt it; someone had opened the box.  The effigy called to him
like a siren-song.

     He drew the blade quickly across the leader's throat and stood up,
kicking the dying man over onto his back.  He reached down and grabbed the
man by the front of the shirt with his free hand, uncaring as the blood
spilled over his hand.  He locked eyes with the man just as the eyes lost
the light of life, and he smiled slightly as the body shuddered once.

     "Actually," he said calmly.  "I know exactly what I'm dealing with
here."

     Behind him, he heard the screams as the seishin-shi finished off the
men, none of whom had been smart enough to get away.  For all their
inhumanity, their cries sounded human enough to his ears.  A quick glance
around assured him that none had managed to escape; it would be better if
their fellows did not know what was coming until it arrived.

     He called out to his servants.  They paused in their activities, then
stood up, leaving some of the men still dying upon the beach.  Most likely
Shigeki and the others had been captured; he hoped nothing had been done to
them.  He still had a promise to keep to that girl who'd kept the box from
him, the pretty one with the short hair.  The dark liquor had given him a
lot of ideas, but he'd often found that the first idea you had was the best
one to go with.

     In the alleyway, he'd said he was going to rip her heart out.  He
always tried to keep his promises.

**********

     The two men behind him had their guns held loosely in their hands;
they weren't expecting someone who looked as weak as him to be a threat.
Jakukawa walked ahead of him, leading the way to wherever it was they were
going.

     Looking as if he were doing it absent-mindedly, he placed one foot
across from the other and tripped over his own feet, going down with a
suprised yell that he hoped sounded genuine.  He rolled over onto his back,
pushing himself up the hallway a bit with his legs and putting a terrified
expression on his face as the guns in their hands pointed at him; Jakukawa
glanced back.

     "Please," Hikaru said pleadingly.  "I just tripped.  Don't... don't
shoot me..."

     "Get up," Jakukawa said.  "You'll be wishing I'd let them shoot you
when I'm through with you."

     He scrambled to his feet, nearly falling over again, and followed the
robed man to another door in the hallway, which Jakukawa opened.  When he
flicked on the lights inside, they were a harsh bright glare against the
white walls of the room.  The floor was covered with dried brown stains;
Hikaru tried not to think of the probable source.  In the centre was a
large wooden chair, with leather straps to hold the arms, legs and head.

     The walls were hung with dozens of unpleasant looking devices.
Knives, scalpels and cleavers were interspersed with more exotic items of
torture.  Hikaru resisted his urge to faint.  Now he needed to be strong;
right now, he was the one they were relying on.

     "Sit down," Jakukawa said.  One of the men behind him put the rifle
into his back and urged him forward into the room.  The two men came into
the small room and closed the door behind them.

     "Well, what are you waiting for?" Jakukawa said.  "Sit down."

     "I... I... please," Hikaru said, exaggerating the fear he felt.

     "Put the guns down and strap him in," Jakukawa said.  "It's not like
he'll be able to overpower you two."

     The men put their guns down behind them and started to advance on
Hikaru.  He dove to one side of the room, twisting and tearing open the
small package he held in his hands, the one Kodachi had passed into his
mouth from hers as they kissed, the one he'd taken into his hands when he
faked his fall in the hallway.  Black powder filled the space occupied by
his three captors with a dark smoke as he threw himself into one corner of
the room, holding his breath as he heard the other three begin to gasp.
Then there were three heavy thumps as they fell to the floor, and he looked
up to see the smoke was already mostly gone.  The three were collapsed on
the floor, the men's hands reaching for their guns.  He scrambled to his
feet and listened intently; it didn't sound as if anyone were outside.
Before he could do anything, he had to get his hands free.

     He had no idea how long they'd be out for; he had to move fast.
Moving to the wall, he carefully turned around and glanced over his
shoulder as he tried to pull one of the knives off the wall without slicing
his fingers off.  It clattered to the floor, a small, sharp bladed thing
that looked like it belonged in a kitchen drawer rather than on the wall of
this horrible room.  He bent down to the floor and picked it up carefully;
the positioning was all wrong to allow him to cut his hands free.  Maybe if
he could prop it against something...

     A heavy weight hit him from behind, driving him to the floor.  The
knife clattered across the room as he rolled over and landed on his back,
his hands crushed painfully under his body.  Jakukawa loomed over him,
pinning him to the floor by the shoulders.  The hood of the robe slipped
down, giving Hikaru his first glimpse of the face underneath.  It was
hairless, grey, and peeling slightly, as if Jakukawa were inflicted with
some kind of terrible disease.  The man's eyes bulged over a nose that was
almost non-existent, little more than two slits in his face.  His cruel,
wide mouth, far wider than any mouth should have been, opened into a 
hideous smile, a smile that nothing human should have been able to make.

     "Tricky, very tricky," the man said.  Hikaru struggled beneath his
bulk in vain, as Jakukawa wrapped his hands around his throat and began to
squeeze.  He couldn't move his legs, as Jakukawa was kneeling on them.  His
arms were tied, and even if they hadn't been, the man was far stronger than
him.

     Black spots appeared in front of his eyes as he involuntarily tried to
breathe.  Jakukawa tightened his grip and Hikaru nearly passed out; he
forced himself to stay conscious.

     He tried to pull a leg out from underneath Jakukawa; if he got a leg
free he could kick, struggle.  But he could feel himself growing weak even
as he tried.

     Not weak; weaker.  He'd been weak before; now he was dying without any
way to stop it.  And after this, when Jakukawa was finished killing him,
he'd go back and take Kodachi, or one of the others, and bring them into
this room, and...

     <Thanks for the cash, Gosunkugi,> the mocking voice said in his head.
<See you tomorrow.>

     <He's the type nobody notices...>

     <He looks as if he'll break easily enough.>

     Why had it fallen to him?  Why had they chosen him?  If it was Ranma,
if it was any of the others, they would be able to get out of this.  They
were all strong; he was helpless.

     No; he wasn't helpless.  He was weak.  Weak, weak, weak.  This was
like every other time in his life he'd believed himself helpless; he'd
never been helpless.  He'd just been weak.  Too weak to fight back; too
scared to dare.

     Weak, weak, weak, like an endless litany as the dark curtains closed
over his eyes.  Weak, weak, weak.

     He remembered Kodachi's cool fingers upon his face; he thought of the
softness of her face under his touch, the scars that burned there upon her
cheek.  He remembered the man hitting her across the room, the crack of his
fist against her jaw, the cry of pain as she hit the floor.

     Weak, weak, weak.  Couldn't do anything to stop them hurting her;
couldn't even save himself.  Weak, weak, weak.

     How long had it been since he'd breathed?  One minute, two, three?
How long since he'd stopped fighting back, how long since he'd had the
strength to try?

     As he felt himself slipping away, he felt something else as well,
something he'd never felt before.  It was like a tickle on the edge of his
skull, a word on the tip of his tongue, a hidden thought burning within his
brain.

     As he gasped and tried to breathe air that would not come, Hikaru
Gosunkugi reached out and touched that part of himself, finding it as easy
as flicking a switch.

     Dimly, on the edge of his senses, he heard the rattle of metal.  Then
a dozen wet impacts, and something dripped down upon his face.  The hands
upon his throat relaxed and slipped off; he gasped and breathed, unable to
do anything else, unable to even open his eyes.  He felt his heart begin to
quicken, and warmth begin to return to him.

     He opened his eyes; Jakukawa was slumped next to him.  He tried to
avoid looking at the dead man's head, but it was hard to ignore the
multitude of blades driven into it at various angles, blades that had
moments before hung on the walls of the room.  Hikaru unsteadily got into a
sitting position, still gulping air.  It was still there, what he'd felt
before, the part that had never been there.  He couldn't explain it, no
more than he could explain how he made his arms or legs move.  He touched
it again; the ropes on his hands loosened slightly, and he was able to tug
himself free.  Wiping the blood from his face, he stood up, supporting
himself shakily with one hand on the chair.  He felt exhausted, and wanted
more than anything to rest, but he didn't have time for that now.

     Hikaru smiled grimly; he had the power now.  It might take time to
hone it to the right level, but when he did...

     <...it may force you also to become what you have escaped...>

     Kodachi's words came back to him.  The visions of vengeance he'd had
were gone in an instant.  Was that the path he wished to take?  He hoped
not.  Right now, he had to rescue his friends.  They were counting on him.

     There were still four men in that room, though.  He didn't know yet
what he was capable of, but he was pretty sure that he couldn't compete
with that many bullets.

     Hikaru glanced around the room; he needed a plan.

**********

     Ranma shifted uncomfortably in his seat, anxious to know just what it
was Kodachi had planned.  It wasn't like he could ask her in the face of
all these guns, though.  He was able to crack rocks with his bare hands,
and he could take punches that would have crippled a normal man, but even
he couldn't shrug off bullets.  Not that he'd ever tried, but he wasn't
really anxious to.

     Still, he'd at least managed to loosen the ropes binding him to the
chair enough that he could slip out of them when the time came.  If he'd
been on his own, he probably would have gone for it by now, but he couldn't
risk Akane or anyone else getting hurt.  Right now, their best hopes were
with Gosunkugi.

     He looked at the four men guarding them; they weren't paying any
attention to him at all.  They were occupied with looking at Akane, Ukyou
and Kodachi.  Ranma clenched his fists and flexed his wrists, starting to
work on the ropes that bound his hands.  He'd be a corpse before he'd let
any of these guys touch them.

     There was a knock at the door; one of their guards opened it, pointing
his rifle into the hallway carefully.

     "Master Jakukawa!" the guard said as the robed form stumbled into the
room.  The green robe was torn in places, and the hood was stained with
blood.  Ranma still could not see any details of the man's face.

     "Little bastard escaped," Jakukawa said, his voice sounding panicked.
"Tougher than he looked.  He couldn't have got far; you four go and have a
look for him.  Outside."

     "But, sir... what about these..?" the guard began.

     "Do as I say, darnit... dammit!" Jakukawa said.  "I'll handle these
five, or my name isn't 'Voodoo Spike' Jakukawa!"

     The guards trailed out of the room as Jakukawa folded his arms over
his chest and watched them go.

     "Voodoo Spike?  Where'd that come from?" Ranma heard one of them
whisper to another.

     "Last time I heard, he was calling himself Ocean Lord," the other one
replied as he closed the door behind him.  Their footsteps retreated down
the hall.

     Gosunkugi reached up and slid down the hood of the robe, grinning
triumphantly.  "I must say, I do a pretty good Evil Leader."

     "Better than your other acting jobs," Ranma muttered, remembering
Hikaru's prior attempts at fooling people into believing he was someone
else.

     "I'm glad to see you're okay, Hikaru," Akane said.  "Now can you get
us out of these ropes?"

     Gosunkugi nodded and slid out of the robe, dumping it on the floor.
He stepped away, waving his hand in front of his nose.  "Damn that thing
smells bad."

     "Good work, uh..." Shigeki said, an intense expression of
concentration on his face as he struggled to remember the name.

     "Yes, a fine job," Kodachi said.  "Did the powder work?"

     A strange expression passed across Hikaru's face.  "Uhh... yeah.  It
did the job fine.  Didn't have to do anything other than throw it at them
and they were out like lights."

     He pulled out a small knife from his pocket and walked behind Kodachi,
cutting the ropes that bound her to the chair and then the ones on her
hands.  She stood up and flexed her arms, bringing a hand up to touch her
bruised jaw as Hikaru moved on to Ranma.  Ranma stood up, slipping his arms
free of the ropes that bound him to the chair.

     "Just the hands, please," he said with a smirk.  Hikaru muttered
something under his breath and cut him free.  Ranma came up behind Akane
and started to work on the knots holding her, as Hikaru moved on to Ukyou.
Kodachi walked over to the corner and began to pick up her gymnastics
tools, hiding them somewhere on her person.

     Akane stood up from the chair and embraced Ranma tightly.  She looked
shook up, but relieved.

     "You know I wouldn't have let them do anything to you," he whispered
quietly into her ear.

     "What, you would have run into those guns?" Akane said flatly, looking
at him with one eyebrow raised as she broke from their embrace.

     "Well, yeah," Ranma said.  "If I'd to to..."

     "You dolt," Akane said.

     "Hey!  Geez, I try to do something for ya, and you just..."

     "You would've got yourself killed!"

     "Well, excuse me!  Just because I wanna protect you, you start..."

     "Are you saying I can't take care of myself, Ranma?"

     "As lovely and heart-warming as this reunion scene is," Shigeki said
dryly as Hikaru worked on cutting away the ropes, "we really ought to go
and get back the effigy and the box it was in.  If they've taken it out of
the box, it's essentially a gigantic 'Right Here, Mr. Evil Sorcerer' sign
to Stalford."

     "Right," Ukyou said, hefting her spatula from the corner and putting
her bandolier back on.  "I feel like breaking a few heads on those guys who
caught us anyway.  No one touches me like that and lives."

     "I find myself agreeing with you for once, girl," Kodachi said,
twirling her ribbon idly.  "I am not in a good mood right now."

     Shigeki stood up, rubbing his wrists.  "Right now, I don't think any
of us are in good moods.  We don't have much time.  This place appears to
be a temple, so they've most likely moved the effigy into the main area of
worship.  To these people, it would be a powerful symbol."

     "Who are these people, anyway?" Ranma asked.  "And who's Dagon?"

     "Dagon?  I dunno," Shigeki said smoothly, moving into the corner and
starting to put his items back into his pockets.

     "Don't lie to me," Ranma said.  "You've kept us in the dark about
what's going on since you met us at school.  We have a right to know as
well."

     "Dagon is the god these people worship," Shigeki said.  "He's an
oceanic deity.  I don't know much beyond that.  I recognized the name, not
this particular group of people."

     The tall man pulled back the string of his bow, nodded with
satisfaction and slung the quiver over his shoulder.  "Let's get moving."

     Ranma nodded; he still wasn't satisfied with the answers he was being
given, but maybe he could get some more later.

     They headed out into the hallway, Ranma taking the lead with Shigeki.
Akane and Ukyou walked behind them, with Hikaru and Kodachi bringing up the
rear.  Shigeki pulled an arrow from his quiver and nocked it to his bow,
pulling the string back tightly and keeping it loaded and raised.

     The hall was in silence; their footsteps seemed to echo too loudly
amongst the quiet.  "I'd suspect it will be downstairs," Shigeki whispered
back to them.  "Keep alert, and don't hold back if we get spotted by
anyone."

     There was a bestial scream and a thump from nearby; the door they were
about to pass shuddered under some great impact.  Amidst the still silence,
the noise was incredible.

     "Damn it!  If there's anybody near they'll have heard that," Ranma
said.  "What's behind that door, anyway?"

     "I'd rather not find out," Shigeki said.  "We'd better hurry and get
downstairs."

     They rushed by the door, still hearing the screams and thumps as
whatever was kept behind the door tried to break free.  Behind them, they
heard wood cracking and splintering; it wouldn't be held for long.

**********

     The village wasn't too far; when Richard Stalford reached it, the only
signs of life were the lamps glowing on poles in the street.  He'd
encountered four more men walking on the path to the village, apparently in
search of someone.  Perhaps it was him, perhaps it was some members of
Shigeki's party that had managed to escape.  It mattered not; whatever the
reason for their presence, they had died upon his blade as their three
companions on the beach had.  All the killing he'd done in the past few
minutes had filled him with exhilaration and adrenaline; he always grew
excited when he was able to kill so many so quickly.  And the night had
just barely begun; he still had Shigeki and all his friends to deal with.

     He heard the call of the effigy, goading him on towards it.  Still,
for all the crudeness of the setting, he knew the people would be cunning
enough to have some kind of alert system.  When he made his attempt to
acquire the effigy, he wanted them to be as distracted as possible.

     He'd planned ahead, of course.  There was much you could accomplish
with sorcery, but why waste power when you create chaos in more simple
ways?

     At whispered command, the two seishin-shi who carried the gasoline
containers stepped forward and put them down in front of him.  The amount
he'd brought was sufficient to douse the doorways of five of the houses,
and the area around them.  Given the dry, wooden construction and the
packed nature of the houses, many more than five would be ablaze soon
after he lit the spark.  They were spread fairly evenly around the village,
to ensure the most devastation.  Despite the nature of the village, there
would be women and children as well.  The women were, as always, no less
deadly than the men, but the children would be particularly valued.  With
their lives at stake, he would have all the distraction he needed.

     Walking silently through the streets, his servants trailing behind
him, he soon stood in front of the temple where he could feel the effigy
was being held.  He glanced up at the carved stone archway over the double
doors.

     "Father Dagon protect us," he said, translating the script
automatically.  "Mother Hydra preserve us.  The ocean waters shall be our
eternal home."

     A slow grin spread across Stalford's face.  "Not tonight, my friends.
Not tonight."

     It was a simple enough matter; five small sparks flashed momentarily
in the night from no discernable source, and as the gasoline exploded and
the town began to burn, Richard Stalford threw open the doors and stepped
inside, going on towards the continual call of the effigy.

**********

     Ranma rushed down the stairs, taking the lead of the group.  Reaching
the bottom of the stairs, he headed up the hallway in the opposite
direction from the one that would lead towards the entrance they'd come in;
logically, that should take them to whatever the main area of this large
building was.  Behind him, the others followed.

     "You seem to know where you're going?" Shigeki asked as he ran behind
him.

     "Possibly," Ranma replied.  He was gratified when the hallway widened
slightly and they reached a set of double doors much like the ones that led
into the building from the outside.  Ranma was about to open them when the
screaming began outside, the sounds of many panicked people.  Down the
hallway there was the sound of the double doors they'd originally entered
through opening with a bang.

     "Sounds like he's arrived," Shigeki said.  The doors Ranma was
standing in front of opened suddenly, and he was face-to-face with two
suprised looking men carrying rifles loosely in one hand.  Even as
comprehension dawned in their eyes and they began to raise them to fire,
Ranma was moving, the frustration and rage he'd felt since their capture
finally having a way to let itself out.  His kick caught the first man in
the head and knocked him to the floor, and he instantly spun, crouched and
drove his fist under the jaw of the second man.  Both were down and
unconscious; Ranma was into the room the moment after he realized they were
out of commision, the others following close behind.

     The room was wide and flat-ceilinged, with four pillars, one in each
corner.  Several large windows opened into the dark night.  Near the back
of the room was a large, tall altar of dark grey stone, intricately carved
with designs of leaping dolphins, whales and other aquatic creatures.
Behind it was a large statue of a fishlike humanoid, carved from the same
stone as the altar.  Candles burned on the altar, in the centre of which
was an open wooden box, the one which contained the figurine that was the
focal point of it all.  Four more armed men stood around the altar, and
they raised their rifles with a shout as Ranma burst into the room over the
fallen forms of their two companions.  He ducked and rolled, gathering his
energies as he heard the crack of the gunshots.  He hoped no one else had
been hit, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.

     There was the twang of a bowstring, and one of the men shrieked.
Ranma came up from the roll with his hands flaring blue, and released a
blast that slammed into two of the men and sent them flying.  The last one
pointed his gun at Ranma, but there was flash of silver through the air and
the shot went wild as one of Ukyou's spatula shuriken hit his hand.
Kodachi's ribbon lashed out over Ranma's head and grabbed the man by the
throat; a quick jerk flung him across the room and into one of the pillars.

     "The box!  Get the box," Shigeki yelled.  Ranma leapt to the altar and
grabbed it up, tucking it under his arm.  The others rushed into the room,
even as the sound of many heavy footsteps was heard coming down the
hallway.  Ranma snapped the box closed over the figurine and turned to look
at Shigeki, who was closing the double doors leading into the hallway.

     "Guess it's through the windows," he said, hooking his thumb back
towards one of the large panes of single glass.  "Because it sounds like
there's a whole army coming down the hallway."

**********

     Stalford led the way down the hallway, twelve of the seishin-shi
behind him.  He'd left the other eight outside with orders to kill anyone
who tried to enter the temple.  The effigy was just up ahead, a few dozen
yards past the stairs and down the hall.

     A bestial scream was his only warning as an immense dark shape
barreled out at him from the stairway, long arms outstretched.  He ducked,
and the long claws brushed over his head, tearing off his hat.  The thing
was huge, appearing to be a gigantic cross between an ape and a lizard.
Black spittle flew from the wide jaws as it turned its furry head in his
direction.  It appeared to have no eyes, but it certainly made up for that
lacking with the size and number of its teeth.

     A paw lashed out at him even as he cried out to his servants,
slashing him across the chest and knocking him flying.  He rolled with the
blow and came to his feet in time to see the creature grab the first of the
seishin-shi that came at it and pop the dead man into its mouth headfirst.
There was a cracking sound, and the headless body slumped unmoving to the
floor.  Purely out of interest, he noted that he now knew that you could
destroy the seishin-shi by removing the heads; probably had something to do
with the enchantments being linked to the sealed eyes and mouths.  But even
as the first one fell, another half-dozen plowed into the creature, taking
it down through a combination of inhuman strength and weight of numbers.

     The beast screamed and fought back, throwing the dead men off of it
and slashing open deep, bloodless wounds in their bodies, but he knew
they'd overcome it soon enough.  He called to the five still remaining, and
continued down the hallway with them behind him, forcing down the pain
from the slash he'd taken.

     Then he felt it; the call of the effigy was gone.  He paused, stunned
for a moment at the absence.  Then he shook his head.  It didn't matter.
He knew the direction, and whoever had closed the box wouldn't live long
enough for it to matter in the least.

**********

     Ukyou slammed her spatula into the glass again.  It was strong; the
first blow had cracked it, but her second served to cause most of it to
shatter outwards.  The few shards that remained in the frame were quickly
cleared off by a few more swings.

     "Okay," she said, turning to Ranma and the others.  "We're ready to
go."

     From the view out of the smashed window, several houses burned in
different parts of the town.  The panicked inhabitants rushed around,
attempting to fight the flames with buckets of water, but with little
success.  Even as she watched, the flames leaped to another house.

     "I wish we could help them," she said quietly.  Even if this whole
town was full of people like those who'd captured them, they were still
human beings.

     Weren't they?

     "A noble sentiment, but I doubt they would be very grateful," Shigeki
said.  "We need to get out of here, go to the south.  They talked about the
southern rock; that must be the place where the ceremony has to be
performed."

     Ukyou nodded and put her foot up on the windowsill, getting ready to
hop out.

     The double doors swung open, and Richard Stalford swept in, five men
trailing behind him.  There was no attempt to disguise the nature of his
companions this time; the black threads across their eyes and mouths made
it obvious what they were.

     Shigeki yelled a warning and brought up his bow, sending an arrow
screaming through the air at Stalford.  It curved unnaturally right before
it impaled the little man through the throat and sunk into the shoulder of
one of the men with him, who didn't seem to care much.

     Stalford raised a hand at Shigeki and snarled guttural words.  There
was a ripple in the air between them like a rapidly-moving heatwave, and
then Shigeki was knocked sprawling backwards.  The men with Stalford began
to move quickly towards them.

     "Let's go!" Ranma said.  Ukyou leapt out the window, landing a few
feet below.  Glass crunched beneath her shoes as she moved out of the way
and Akane followed her.

     Inside, Stalford raised his hand again and pointed it at Ranma, who
still held the box.  A suprised expression crossed his face as nothing
happened, and then he glared at Hikaru Gosunkugi.  The boy's fist was
clenched tightly as he stared back at Stalford.

     "I was wrong," Stalford said.  "You have got some power.  But no
skill."

     A wave of his hand knocked Hikaru to his knees.  Hikaru grimaced and
clenched his fist tighter, then thrust out with his open palm at the
distance between him and the sorcerer.  Stalford staggered back as if he'd
been struck.

     Ranma kicked the first of the dead men in the chest, knocking him back
a few steps.  Kodachi lashed her ribbon around another of them and spun him
sideways into a third, knocking them both to the ground.  Shigeki stood
back up and shot another arrow at Stalford; this one buried itself in the
ground at his feet.

     "We have to go!" Shigeki said.  "He's got some kind of protection up."

     Ranma pulled the spirit ward Hikaru had given him from his pocket and
slapped it against the face of the next seishin-shi.  The dead man fell to
the floor, smoke rising from him.  Kodachi grabbed Hikaru by the wrist and
tugged him to his feet.

     "Come on," she said.  The two of them ran to the window and jumped
out, as Stalford rose up, still looking a bit stunned, and began to run
towards them.

     The double doors shattered off their hinges and an enormous creature
rushed into the room, one of Stalford's servants still clinging to its back
at it crashed into the sorcerer and knocked him to the ground.  Ranma
didn't stay to watch what happened as he knocked another of the seishin-shi
to the ground and followed Shigeki out the window.

     "To the south," Shigeki said.  He began to run, his long legs carrying
him swiftly.  Towards the south they ran, and towards the south led deeper
into the island, into a huge stretch of dense, dark forest.  The night was
lit around them by the stars, and by the flickering flames of the town that
burned behind them.

     As they ran, cries both human and inhuman filled the air behind them,
and as the flames rose higher, consuming more and more of the town, they
ran on into the forest, as behind them the village of Kappamura burned like
a beacon in the night.

**********

     As the town burned, the cry began to go out to those who the people's
ancestors had long ago made their pact with.  Though they appeared human
enough on the surface, the people of Kappamura had given up their humanity
long ago.  The town itself was but one small outpost in the grand scheme,
and its destruction meant little in the end.  But the pacts had been made,
and the promises enacted.  The fires that raged in Kappamura were a beacon
in more ways than one; as much as they cast their angry light, they cast
also a call for vengeance.

     In the water around the island, dark shapes swam steadily.  They could
not approach the beach; the bodies of those who had tried bobbed for a few
moments in the water before they were pulled down by their comrades.  But
that didn't matter; they knew the destination of those responsible.

     Around the southern edge of the island, an inhospitable area of sheer
cliffs, they gathered in the waters, concealed beneath the dark waves.  And
there they waited; when the time came, they would be ready.

**********

     Beneath the bulk of the creature, Richard Stalford slowly stirred back
to consciousness.  His entire body felt bruised and sore; his right arm was
twisted at an uncomfortable angle, still tightly gripping the swordcane.
The blade of the weapon was driven nearly to the hilt through the throat of
the creature.

     Gritting his teeth together, he struggled his way out from under the
bulk of the beast.  Then with an angry scream that tore from his throat, he
kicked the dead creature in the side as hard as he could, uncaring of how
much it made his foot hurt.

     "SON OF A BITCH!" he yelled, kicking it again.  "YOU STUPID BASTARD!
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?"

     He ripped the swordcane out and hauled it back, preparing to cut the
thing into a hundred pieces.  Then he paused; what would that gain him?
Right now, he didn't have time to rage against a thing already dead.

     There would be plenty of time for rage after he regained the effigy.
He had been so damn close that he could taste it; one quick stab of the
swordcane into that arrogant boy with the pigtail and it would have been
his.

     He took a deep breath; there was still time to catch them before
Shigeki could perform the ceremony.  It took time, as all ceremonies of
this type did.  He couldn't have been out for long.

     He looked about the room; the seishin-shi stood dully around him.
With him unconscious, they'd been reduced to a nearly comatose state
without him to give them commands.  There were the four of the original
five who'd come into the room with him, and three more.  The beast must
have managed to damage half of them so badly they'd been unable to move,
along with the one that it had bitten the head off of.  Quite impressive;
he would have been interested to know what it was.  It looked like it would
have been uncontrollable, however.  It was most likely best that it was
dead.

     There were still the eight who remained outside the doors of the
temple, of course.  But to get close enough to gather them he'd put himself
in sight of too many of the villagers, and he could feel that the
protection spell he'd cast using the knife was wearing thin.  It wouldn't
be long before they came in through one of the side entrances anyway.
Still, it gave him some small pleasure to imagine how long it would take
them to figure out a way to get by the eight dead men and into their
precious temple through the main doors.  As soon as they managed to put out
the fires he'd lit in their town.

     He turned to look at the statue behind the altar.  The brutal icthian
countenance of Father Dagon stared back at him impassively, seeming to
silently mock his failure.  Perhaps after he had acquired the power of the
Sleeper Under the Waves he would let the ocean god be one of his vassals.

     "I think it is about time you learned what it is like to serve
instead of be served," Stalford said, gaving a cheery salute to the statue
with the swordcane.  "So long, Dagon.  It's been a trip."

     The statue of the god seemed to look on disapprovingly as Stalford
swaggered towards the altar.  "Sorry about the village, by the way.  But it
kind of had to be done.  Perhaps since you weren't able to protect them,
they'll find a god who can.  I'll be quite willing to offer myself."

     He swept the blade of the swordcane across the altar, cutting the
tops from the four candles.  They fell to the floor and went out.  Two more
quick slashes scarred the delicate carvings on front of the altar.

     "Oops," Stalford said with a cheery smile.  "Clumsy me.  Send me a
bill, why don't you?"

     He walked to the window, beckoning his servants to follow.  Yeah, he
was on top of the world again.  They probably thought he was dead, or at
least out of commission.  They were going to have another suprise coming
their way, that was for sure.

     He decided to change his promise; he was still going to tear the
girl's heart out, but he was going to do it while her pigtailed boyfriend
watched.  Then he was going to cram it down his goddamn throat right before
he killed him.

     Smiling happily at his thoughts, Stalford hopped out the window and
waited for the seishin-shi to follow.  Seven would be more than enough to
do the job.

     He began to walk towards the south, into the great dark forest that
would lead him towards the rock that was referred to as the Sleeper's
Spire.  His servants followed mindlessly behind him, their clothing and
bodies ravaged by bullet holes and the claws of the beast, eyes blind,
voices mute, ears that heard only his voice waiting in anticipation for the
next command.

     After a few minutes, he began to whistle Schubert's "Erlkonig" in
perfect tune as he walked, his swordcane sheathed now and tapping the
ground beside him as he went.  He had a feeling the night was going to take
a definite turn for the better.