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 4 : To Rule The Night

     Ranma walked between Akane and Ukyou as they headed through the
forest, Shigeki leading the way ahead of them.  At first they'd run, but
after five minutes Gosunkugi had looked like he was about to collapse.  It
seemed as if it was going to be a long way anyway; there was no reason to
exhaust themselves.

     So they had changed from running to walking at a fairly steady pace.
They'd been walking for nearly half an hour now, with no sign of an end to
the forest around them, and Ranma was beginning to get a bit sick of it.

     "Hey, Shigeki," he said.

     Shigeki glanced back.  "Yes?"

     "You sure you know which way you're going?" Ranma asked.

     "I'm heading south," Shigeki said.  "And there's nothing wrong with my
sense of direction."

     "Isn't that what Ryoga always says?" Ukyou whispered to Ranma.  He
gave a snorting laugh and glanced around.  He would have had no idea if
they were going in circles or not; the forest was dark, and every spot
looked the same.

     "I wish we had a flashlight or something," Akane said.

     "The stars provide enough light," Shigeki said up ahead.  "And a
flashlight would be a beacon to anyone who was looking for us."

     "Do you think there is anyone still looking for us?" Hikaru asked from
where he was walking with Kodachi.  "I mean, the people in the town seemed
pretty occupied, and it sure looked like Stalford wasn't going to survive
for long with that thing going after him."

     "I think we can all attest to the fact that Stalford is much tougher
than he looks," Shigeki said.  "I wouldn't count on him being gone without
seeing proof."

     "Yeah, he's a good martial artist," Ranma said.  "Nearly as good as
me, maybe."

     "I seem to remember he was better than you in the alley," Akane said
quietly.

     "That's just because I was tired from fighting those other two guys,"
Ranma said with a shrug.  "I'll take him anyday."

     "In a straight fight, you might be able to take him, Ranma," Shigeki
said.  "But that's not taking into account his abilities as a sorcerer."

     "Feh.  Why are you all coming down on my fighting skills?" Ranma said
sulkily.

     "We're just trying to stop your ego from swelling your head like a
balloon and causing you to float off," Ukyou said.  Ranma turned a slightly
hurt gaze to her.

     "You too, Ucchan?" he said mournfully.  Akane bapped him on the back
of the head.

     "Oh, stop acting like a baby," she said.

     Everyone seemed to feel the need for humour after the tenseness of the
events since they'd arrived on the island.  This was the first time since
they'd got off the boat that they didn't seem to be in any immediate
danger.

     "I've got a feeling the worst of this night's over," Akane said
hopefully.

     "I dunno Akane, we ain't outta the woods yet," Ranma said with a
smirk.

     "That was terrible," Akane groaned.  Ranma grinned and nodded.

     "I expect we should be out of the woods soon enough," Shigeki said.
"This island can't be that big."

     "Hey, everyone be quiet for a minute," Hikaru said.  "I think I hear
something."

     Total silence fell over the group as their cheerful mood was replaced
by one of alertness and caution.  Ranma listened intently, his entire body
tensed and ready to spring at any sound.

     There; a dry scuffle of footsteps nearby, across the leaf-strewn floor
of the forest.  Just out of the corner of his eye, Ranma saw a man-sized
shadow duck behind a tree a dozen yards away.

     "He's right," Ranma hissed to the rest of them.  "There's somebody
else out there.  Looks like it's just one guy, though."

     "Ranma, come with me," Shigeki said under his breath, pulling an arrow
from his quiver and nocking it to the bowstring.  "We'll try to circle
around and catch him between us and the others."

     "Right," Ranma said, falling into step behind Shigeki as he headed off
in the direction where Ranma had spotted the shadow.  Ranma saw whoever
they were stalking dart back the way they'd come from, even as the rest of
the group dropped back to cover any retreat that way.

     The man turned and came back towards Ranma and Shigeki, not realizing
they'd moved off from the rest of the group.  He didn't even seem to notice
them until Ranma grabbed his from behind in an armlock as he backed around
a tree.

     "Okay, it's over, pal," he said.  The man didn't even struggle; he was
clad in a ragged pair of pants that might once have been well-cut and
fasionable, and a torn shirt.  Ranma could see that his feet were bare, a
strange thing outside in the colder autumn weather.

     The expression on the man's face was that of a trapped animal; behind
the thick glasses with one cracked lense, his eyes opened wide with panic
and terror.  His mouth opened, silently at first, as if the sounds he was
making were too high to be heard, and then he was screaming, high and
piercing, shattering the stillness of the night air and the silence of the
woods.

     "...gonna get me too just like you got them oh no please don't..." he
babbled amidst his screams, over and over again.  Ranma didn't know what to
do; the man wasn't struggling or trying to escape, just standing there
screaming.  Shigeki grabbed the man by the shoulders and shook him
slightly.

     "It's alright!  We don't want to hurt you!" he said , as the man
continued to scream.  Ranma let go of his arms and stepped back as Shigeki
began to speak calmly and slowly to the man, as if he were talking to a
small child.  "You're safe now.  We are friends."

     As the others approached and gathered around in a worried circle, the
man's screams slowly dissolved into harsh sobs.  "They made watch," he
choked out.  "My little girl... oh god she was only five... they made me
watch..."

     Shigeki slowly lowered the man to the ground, where he curled into a
tight ball and continued to sob, repeating the same words over and over
again.  The tall man bowed his head sadly.

     "His mind's gone," he said.  "I think he managed to escape from the
village like we did, only... not before they did some things to him."

     "They made me watch," the man croaked.  "If I closed my eyes I could
still see it.  Oh, I could see the screams.  I could hear the blood."

     "What... what are we going to do with him?" Akane said, covering her
mouth with her hand, her eyes wide.

     "We have to take him with us," Shigeki said.  He knelt down beside the
man and reached into his pocket; the man didn't do anything as Shigeki
pulled out his wallet and thumbed through it.  Ranma looked over his
shoulder.  In the dim light, he could see a few credit cards, a driver's
license and a photo.  The photo was of the man who lay on the ground,
dressed in a neat suit instead of ragged clothing, smiling instead of
sobbing.  Beside him was a woman who looked the same age as him.  On his
lap he held a small girl in a green dress.

     "The license says his name is Satoshi Okamoto," Shigeki said.  "He's
got a sailing certificate as well.  I'd guess he and his family were
unlucky enough to end up on this island."

     "Poor man," Ukyou said.  She clenched her fist tightly around the grip
of her spatula.  "I wish we'd stayed and burned that damn place to the
ground."

     "Stalford seemed to be doing a fairly good job by himself," Shigeki
said.  He touched Satoshi gently on the shoulder as he spoke.  "Satoshi, we
need you to get up and come with us.  You'll be safer with us."

     Satoshi didn't say anything, but he stood up, holding his arms tightly
around himself and mumbling under his breath as he glanced frantically to
the left and right in search of something only he might see.  "I left
them... left them... they were already gone..."

     "It's not your fault, hon," Ukyou said, reaching out and holding the
man by the elbow.  "Now come on with us, and everything will be okay."

     Shigeki smiled gratefully at her and started to walk again.  Ukyou
followed behind him, guiding Satoshi gently.  The man walked along beside
her, his eyes unfocused and his mouth still speaking words that they could
not make out.  The others walked a bit back, the light mood of minutes
earlier broken by the discovery of the broken wreck that had once been the
man called Satoshi Okamoto.

     "What in god's name are those people, anyway?" Kodachi murmured to
herself as she looked at Satoshi, who seemed content now to be led by Ukyou
while babbling mindlessly.  The question had been rhetorical, but Hikaru
heard her and spoke up.

     "Actually," he said quietly.  "Some of the books I've read talked
about how..."

     He realized that he'd spoken to her; they'd been walking next to each
other since leaving the town, but the silence between them hadn't been
broken until now.  "Sorry," he said lamely.

     "No, please, go on," Kodachi said, seeming genuinely interested.

     "Well, they talked about how you can get a whole group of people like
that, who worship demons, or whatever else you wanna call them.  It happens
in isolated locations, like places far out in the country or on islands,
like this," he said, encouraged by her interest.  "It starts out with just
a few people, maybe just one family, but it spreads gradually, and by the
time people realize what's going on, the cult's controlling the town and
they get rid of anyone who tries to stop them."

     He put his hands in his pockets and glanced back in the direction
they'd come, back towards the town of Kappamura.  "They said it could even
happen today, but I didn't think much of it until now, I'll tell you that."

     "Fascinating," Kodachi said.  "Do you read a lot of these books?"

     "Uhh... yeah.  Magic's about the only other thing I'm interested in
besides photography," Hikaru said, trying to figure out whether or not
Kodachi was making fun of him.  "Even though I wasn't really any good at it
until now."

     "Tell me, Hikaru," she said.  "What really happened after you were
taken away?"

     "Uh... didn't I already say..." Hikaru said.  He'd been trying to
forget the sight of all those knives driven through Jakukawa; he'd nearly
thrown up taking the robe off so he could disguise himself.  It still
hadn't quite hit him that he'd been responsible, even if somewhat
indirectly, for the death of another human being.

     Although underneath those robes, Jakukawa hadn't looked very human at
all.

     "You didn't have these on your throat last time I looked," Kodachi
said, reaching up and putting her hand against the marks that Jakukawa's
fingers had left on his throat.  "And I think I'm fairly well versed in
your cuts and bruises."

     He blushed furiously, memories of what had happened back on the boat
hitting him full force.  "Uh..."

     "It happened, did it not?" Kodachi said.  "You were finally forced to
fight back."

     "Yeah," Hikaru said, gulping slightly and closing his eyes.  "He...
that guy in robes, he wasn't affected by the powder.  The two guards, they
went down right away, but he was choking me to death on the floor.  I...
did something, I don't really know quite what it was.  But the next thing I
knew, he was dead.  I killed him."

     A long, shuddering sigh escaped his body as he said the words.  No one
other than Kodachi seemed to have heard him.  "It was everything I wanted.
It was real magic, real power, just from me, not from straw dolls or pieces
of paper."

     He brought his hands up to the side of his head and gently massaged
his temples, as if he could somehow rid himself of the memories.  "Oh
god... what it did... it was horrible.  And it's even more horrible what I
thought of doing afterwards... to Ranma, to Akane... to everyone who's ever
hurt me..." he said, nearly choking on his words as he spoke.

     "But you didn't," Kodachi said.  "That's the important thing.
Instead, you came back and got us out of there.  You did not give into
those impulses."

     She looked away, her eyes going half shut, seemingly lost in memory
long past.  "Like I did once."

     "Uhh... the Black Rose, right?" Hikaru said.

     Kodachi nodded.  "Yes.  The Black Rose... she is withering now, I
think.  Soon enough, she will be gone.  It is time that I faced the world
as myself again."

     "I'm... I'm glad to hear that," Hikaru said, nervously putting his
hand behind his head.  He realized that all this talking he'd done with
Kodachi were probably the longest conversations he'd ever held with a girl
before; it was both depressing and exhilarating at the same time.  "I
always thought you were kinda... you know... but once I got used to you,
you're... nice."

     "Thanks.  I think," Kodachi said.  "I always thought you were a
foolish, easily manipulated incompetent."

     His face burned; he lowered his head.  That was what everyone always
thought; it was probably true.  Somehow, hearing it from her hurt worse
than from anyone else who might have said it.

     "Or perhaps I should say the Black Rose thought you were a foolish,
easily manipulated incompetent," Kodachi continued.  "I, on the other hand,
think a fair bit more of you than that."

     He blushed even harder; the praise was more embarassing than anything
else she could have said.  He felt her hand find his for a moment, giving
it a gentle squeeze before drawing away.  A quick glance to the side saw
her smiling softly at him, seldom-seen warmth in her eyes.

     "I... uh... err... umm..." he babbled, before taking a deep breath.
"Thanks."

     Up ahead, Ranma glanced back and leaned over to speak to Akane.  "They
seem to be getting on well, huh?"

     "Don't eavesdrop," Akane said.

     "How would you know there was anything to eavesdrop on unless you were
doing it yourself?" Ranma said, raising one eyebrow as he looked at her.

     "Uh..."

     "Geez," Ranma said, whispering into Akane's ear.  "Who would have
thought any girl would ever go from a guy like me to someone like him
anyway?"

     Akane drove an elbow into his ribs.  "Who would have thought any girl
would be interested in you in the first place, oh ego that walks like a
man?"

     "Hey, take it easy," Ranma said.  "I was just kidding."

     Akane rolled her eyes.  "Really, Ranma, I'm sure you didn't mean that
even one bit."

     "So, aren't you interested in me?" Ranma asked snidely.  Akane looked
away and muttered something non-commital under her breath.  Ranma shrugged
as they continued walking.

     Ranma glanced around; the trees seemed to be thinning out.  It looked
as if they were approaching the edge of the forest.  Up ahead, Satoshi
seemed to grow more frantic, the volume of his continual speech rising,
though still only a little of what he said could be understood.

     "...coming, we'll be there soon, there soon... they made me watch," he
said.  He began to cry again, quiet, bitter tears streaming down his face.
"They made me watch..."

     "Shh, it's okay," Ukyou said.  She moved her hand off his elbow and
clasped his hand in both of hers.  His hand was trembling like a leaf.  She
tried to imagine what he might have been like before this; he was a big
man, tall and strong.  He might have been handsome, but the ragged clothing
and terrified expression made him pitiful instead.  His eyes were empty of
any kind of rationality, the madness in them magnified tenfold by his
glasses; he was like an empty shell instead of a human being.

     "...I left them... left them... already gone... gone..."

     Ukyou spoke softly to him, nonsense words like you would speak to a
baby or animal.  He seemed to calm down, and she gripped his elbow again to
keep him from straying away and continued walking.

     They were almost clear of the forest now, walking through a rocky area
strewn with a few sickly looking trees.  Up ahead, there was a huge rock
formation rising up straight like a tower to the sky.  Unexpectedly, the
clouds that had dimmed the moon drifted off and away, letting the full
light of the moon shine down upon the barren rock.  It was then that they
were able to make out the full details of the formation.

     It stretched a hundred feet into the air, seeming simply to grow from
the surrounding rock.  It narrowed only slightly as it rose, until it was
nearly as wide at the top as it was at the bottom.  At this distance the
top appeared to be flat.  The formation was located near the edge of the
island, and only a few feet away were the edges of tall cliffs that
plunged down to the ocean below.

     Around the sides of the rocky tower was a narrow, steep pathway that
curved around and around in a steep spiral ramp as it climbed towards the
top.  It appeared to have been hewn from the rock by some great hand, for
it seemed too unnatural to have been formed by itself.

     "I think this is the place," Shigeki said.  "Either that, or there's
just no regard for aesthetics around here."

     "No, this is the place," Hikaru said, gazing up at the rock formation
apprehensively.  "Can't you all feel it?"

     Ranma paused for a moment; he could feel something, similiar but
different from the feeling he got when he was about to be attacked from
behind.  He glanced around, but there was no one.

     "Yeah," Shigeki said with a nod.  "This is where it must be done.
Come, my friends.  To the top of the spire."

     He strode forward, heading for pathway that would lead them up the
molothic structure.  Ukyou began to follow, but paused when a gentle tug on
Satoshi's arm failed to move the man.  She looked over at him; he was
staring at the rocky spire, terrified fascination in his eyes.

     "Come on," she said.  "It's not safe down here.  Please.  Come up to
the top with me."

     For a moment, the man's eyes went lucid and he looked back at Ukyou,
pain scarred into his gaze, infinite suffering reflected in the dark depths
of his eyes.  Then he nodded his head and went back to talking to himself
in low tones.  This time, when she walked, he walked along with her.

**********

     Eyes unseen watched the seven people start up the pathway that would
lead them to the top of the Sleeper's Spire.  Hidden amongst a jumble of
rocks nearby, the dark shape moved soundlessly to the edge of a cliff and
slipped off, hitting the water without a splash.  It began to swim out, and
soon it was amongst other dark shapes that lurked in the depths.  These
were not the ones they sought, but they knew in their cold minds that they
would bring the one they did.  Then, and only then, would they move to
destroy all those who had dared to violate the home of those they had made
their pact with, and the sanctity of their master.

     And so they waited, bobbing slowly up and down in the motion of the
water, bodies perfectly still except for the slow action of their
breathing.  They would wait as long as they needed to, but when the time
came for them to act they would be swift, deadly and unstoppable as a tidal
wave.

**********

     Shigeki took the last few steps that brought him up to the flat,
smooth top of the rock formation.  It was roughly circular in shape, around
forty or fifty feet in diameter.  The climb hadn't been particularly
draining, but it had been somewhat nerve-wracking, as the walkway was only
barely wide enough for one person at a time.  Ukyou had needed to go
incredibly slowly to make sure Satoshi didn't fall, but eventually they'd
all reached the top.  The height of the rock tower provided a viewpoint
over most of the island; far in the distance the red glow of a few fires
could still be seen in Kappamura.  Even now, some of the village was still
burning.  The light of the stars and moon seemed to be brighter up here,
allowing them all to see nearly as well as in the daylight.

     Ranma was surprised at how haggard they all looked.  He wasn't feeling
run down in a physical way, just tired of all the running they'd been
doing.  Well, pretty soon it would all be over.

     They'd still have to make their way back to the boat, of course, but
after all they'd gone through so far, that didn't seem like it would be too
much of a challenge.  With a sigh, he sat down on the ground with his legs
stretched out in front of him.  Around him, the others did the same thing,
even Shigeki.  Ukyou gently pulled Satoshi down to a sitting position, and
her face tightened at the sight of his bloody, cut, bare feet.

     "I don't suppose you keep any bandages among all those guns of yours?"
she said to Shigeki.  A neutral expression on his face, the tall man
reached into a pouch on the hip of his bodysuit and pulled out a compact
first-aid kit, tossing it across to Ukyou without a word.  She immediately
began to clean and bandage the feet of Satoshi, who sat there staring off
into nothing while his lips moved continually and silently.

     "So," Hikaru said.  "How long will this ceremony take to perform?"

     Shigeki reached into another pocket and pulled out the box, along with
a folded piece of paper.  There was a dry rustle as he unfolded it and
looked at it.

     "It doesn't say," he concluded.  "I need to keep on repeating this
chant until I know it's done."

     "Are you the only one who can do it?" Hikaru asked.

     "I know the proper procedures," Shigeki said.  "Anyone could do it, as
long as they were trained correctly."

     "What if they just read the words?" Hikaru asked.  "I mean, what
if..."

     "It would be bad," Shigeki said.  "It would be very bad if it were
done improperly."

     "When are you going to get started?" Akane asked.

     "In a moment.  We all need a bit of rest before going back on the
alert, and we need to discuss a few more things," Shigeki said.  "Our
biggest threat right now is the possibility that Richard Stalford is still
coming after us.  Once I begin the ceremony, I cannot stop it until the
conclusion.  Do any of you know how to use a gun?"

     No one answered.  "That's alright.  Unless you got an excellent shot
in anyway, it wouldn't slow him down.  How about the bow?"

     Akane raised her hand.  "I know a bit of archery."

     "It's got a fairly strong pull on it," Shigeki said, picking up and
examining the huge missile weapon from where it lay beside him.  "You think
you can handle it?"

     "Don't worry about it," Ranma said.  "Akane's as strong as..."

     "As strong as what, Ranma?" Akane snarled.

     Ranma blinked.  "As you need to be to handle it.  What did you think I
was gonna say?"

     "Nothing, nothing," Akane said, waving her hands dismissively and
looking away.

     "That's good.  If you can spot Stalford, try to take him down at a
distance with the bow," Shigeki said, handing it across to Akane.  She held
it up and tested the pull experimentally.

     "It's a little big for me," she said speculatively.  "But I think I
can manage."

     "Well, it was personally made for me," Shigeki said as he unslung the
quiver from over his shoulder and passed it across as well.  "Which means
it's built to a scale a little larger than average."

     "What about the people in the village?" Ukyou said, looking up from
her bandaging.  "Could they be coming as well."

     "I doubt it," Shigeki said.  "From what I saw as we left, they were
too busy trying to keep their houses from burning down.  Stalford likely
didn't want any further competition for the effigy."

     "He still has all those... things with him as well," Akane said,
grimacing at the memory of the dead men with their black-sewn eyes and
mouths.

     "The seishin-shi," Shigeki said.  "I've already talked about how to
fight them.  Ranma, you might want to try your chi attacks against them...
I think that might work well.  You also still have the spirit wards."

     He turned and looked at Hikaru.  "Umm..."

     "Hikaru Gosunkugi," Hikaru informed him flatly.

     "Yeah.  You were able to counter some of his spells in the temple,"
Shigeki said.  "Could you do it again?"

     "You bet," Hikaru said.  "Although it gave me a hell of a headache."

     "Excellent," Shigeki said with a nod.  "I guess that's all that I have
to say.  Keep your eyes open, and be cautious.  Watch each other's backs,
and don't go out of your way to fight.  The most important thing is to
finish the ceremony.  After that, we can get out of here."

     "...get out... out... already gone..." Satoshi murmured as Ukyou
finished bandaging his feet.  "...coming...it's coming..."

     Shigeki rose to his feet, holding the paper in one hand and the box in
the other.  He walked to stand in the centre of the rock, and glanced back
at the group who rested near the edge.

     "Good luck," he said simply.

     As they stood up as well and trained their eyes to the forest from
which danger might come, Shigeki opened the case and set it down on the
ground, grasping the effigy gently between his thumb and forefinger.  The
dark stone felt like wet soap in his hand as he raised it up to his eye
level and closed his fist around it until it was entirely hidden from view.

     Then he raised the hand that clutched the effigy to the sky, turning
his body to face out towards the ocean, towards the waters under which the
thing that this graven image represented waited for the time to come that
it would awaken.  That time would a long way away if he had anything to say
about it.

     His eyes checked the paper again; words in a dead language were
scrawled there.  He began to chant, slowly at first, letting the words
become familiar.  The power began to build in the air around him as he sped
up the chant.  It had begun now, and until he had seen it through to the
end, he could not stop.

**********

     Richard Stalford walked through the forest at a quick but relaxed
pace.  As soon as the box was opened and the ceremony begun, he could start
to run and be there quickly.  There was no way Shigeki could perform the
ceremony before he arrived to stop him, so why exert himself needlessly?
Let them think they were in the clear for a while, as Shigeki chanted and
they sat around and watched.  When he arrived, they would have finally run
out of places to run.  He'd take out the skinny boy first.  He'd somehow
been able to disrupt his spells, something he couldn't allow.  From there,
he'd move on to the other two girls.  Left with the short-haired girl and
the boy with the pigtail, he disable both of them either through spells or
others means, and then proceed to carry out the plan he'd had in mind since
hours earlier in the alleyway when the girl had been what stood between him
and the effigy.

     After he killed Shigeki, of course, and got his hands on the effigy.
Business before pleasure, after all.  Although it was always nice to mix
the two, which killing Shigeki surely would be.  He was only sorry he
wouldn't be able to take the time to drag it out, but while the man was no
match for him either magically or physically, he had to go for a quick kill
or something might happen to the effigy.  Unless he killed Shigeki
instantly, he might do something foolish such as tossing the effigy off the
Spire and into the water, which would make retrieval quite difficult.

     He paused, cocking his head as if at some sound.  There; the box was
open, and the effigy was calling again.  It was close, very close.  He
smiled and began to run, the seishin-shi falling into step behind him.

     The Sleeper's Spire loomed up ahead minutes later, as he looked on
from the cover of the forest.  The cry of the effigy was almost unbearable;
he could feel the power flowing through the ground of the island and into
the Spire, as the ceremony sucked in the energies needed to complete what
Shigeki was trying to do.  Fortunately, he wouldn't get a chance to finish
it.  Stalford put his hand into his coat pocket; he had all the necessary
items with him.  The blood of those who opposed him would serve as the
final item in the ceremony that would begin his ascension to godhood.

     Still, he had even more reason to be careful now.  Pulling a vial of
sparkling powder from his pocket, he lifted out a pinch and dropped it over
his head, murmuring a few words softly.  It drifted down across him, and as
he watched his hand start to fade, he began to order the seishin-shi
forward towards the path that led up towards the Sleeper's Spire.  Then he
began to follow behind them, smiling wickedly behind the curtain of his
invisibility.

**********

     "Here they come," Akane said, a wind that had not been there before
blowing her hair back as she stood at the edge, looking down as the first
of the dead men emerged from the forest, heading quickly for the walkway.
The small form of Stalford was not among them; he must be hanging back and
hoping his servants could get rid of them.  There was perhaps a hundred
feet of open ground between the forest and the rock formation.

     Ranma came to stand beside her, his hand on her shoulder.  "Go for it.
Show the little bastard we're up here."

     Akane nodded grimly, and raised the bow, fitting an arrow to it.  The
weapon was taller than she was, but it was light and superbly made.  She
aimed at the first of the walking corpses, even at this distance able to
tell there was something wrong and unnatural about them.  

     "They only look human," she said softly to herself.  "Just empty
shells."

     The arrow flew straight and true, punching into the chest of the lead
man as he reached the halfway point between where Akane had first seen him
and the start of the pathway up the side.  There were six more behind him,
and the arrow didn't do anything to slow him.

     "Alright," Ranma said.  "They know we're here now.  Keep an eye out
for that Stalford guy; a shot like that would be a big help if it got him."

     "I wonder where he is, anyway?" Akane said.

     "Probably hiding in the forest," Ranma said.  "Keep the bow up.  Me
an' Kodachi an' Ukyou'll handle them as they come up the walkway."

     Ranma squeezed her shoulder lightly as he turned away and went to
stand with Kodachi and Ukyou.  The two girls had their weapons out and
ready.  Hikaru hung back slightly, while the babbling form of Satoshi
Okamoto sat where Ukyou had left him.  Shigeki stood in the centre, a dim
silver light glowing from him as he continued to chant, his voice coming
strong and steady as he spoke the same words over and over again, in a
long-dead language.

     The first of them was nearly at the bottom of the walkway; Ranma
tensed himself and let the calm of battle slip over his mind.  He'd
already discussed it with everyone after Shigeki had begun the ceremony;
try to throw the seishin-shi off, and stay away from the edges so the same
thing couldn't happen to them.

     Another arrow leapt from Akane's bow and hit one of the oncoming dead
men in the arm.  Ranma wondered why Akane was wasting arrows, and then the
man dropped to the ground in an instant.

     "Hikaru, do you have any extra spirit wards?" Akane called back.
Hikaru ran forward and handed her the two he'd kept for himself after
distributing them to the others.  Akane wrapped one tightly around the
shaft of another arrow and fired, dropping another of the seishin-shi as it
tore through the shoulder.

     "Good thinking, Akane," Ranma said.  She smiled and fired off the last
spirit ward attached to a third arrow, and a third seishin-shi fell with
the arrow protruding grotesquely from his forehead.  Akane grimaced and
reloaded.

     "They're coming up the walkway now," Ranma said, turning to Kodachi
and Ukyou.  "Four of them.  We can handle that."

     The first of the dead men was near the top when Kodachi's ribbon
wrapped around his neck and jerked him off the side.  The man clutched it
tightly as he fell, forcing her to let go or be pulled off with him.  That
was the last one she'd been carrying with her, her other three having been
left in the alley hours ago.  Even she could only keep so many gymnastics
tools concealed on her person.

     Two of Ukyou's spatula-shuriken hit the next one, but had no visible
effect as he kept on coming.  Ranma cupped his hands and started to build
his energy, but then he felt air rush past him as if something he could not
see had passed by.  He turned and leaped for the direction the invisible
thing had gone, his chi energy dissipating in the distraction as he moved.

     "HIKARU!  LOOK OUT!" he called.  The boy was standing in the path of
whatever invisible thing had come by him; with a sick feeling, Ranma
decided he was pretty sure he knew who it was.  

     Hikaru threw himself back, and that was the only thing that saved his
life as the blade of the swordcane appeared out of nowhere, the tip
catching and tearing off one of the buttons on his school uniform near the
throat.  Hikaru fell backwards, hitting his head on the ground as the
swordcane drew back.  On the end of the swordcane's handle Richard Stalford
faded into view, already rushing past Hikaru for the chanting Shigeki.
Ranma was after him in an instant, but he could see he wouldn't get there
in time, at least not in time to stop him from killing Shigeki, who seemed
to be entirely absorbed in his chant.  Stalford had too much of a lead on
him.

     Akane had dropped the bow and moved to fight with Kodachi and Ukyo
when she saw Ranma turn away.  They were fighting with the three remaining
seishin-shi, carefully avoiding their attacks, while the one Kodachi had
tossed off the top lay twitching on the ground below, the power of even the
sorcery that animated the dead men being unable to overcome a body in which
every bone was broken.

     Then she saw out of the corner of her eye the reason Ranma had turned,
as Stalford came into view and rushed Shigeki.  The only thing that stood
between him and the chanting man was the seated form of Satoshi Okamoto.

**********

     Victory at hand, Richard Stalford didn't even notice the hunched man
talking to himself until the man stretched out a leg as he passed by and
tripped him.  He sprawled forward, nearly losing his grip on the swordcane,
expecting the pigtailed boy to be on him in an instant.  When he wasn't,
Stalford stood up and looked for him; the boy was being held off the
ground one-handed by the man who'd tripped him, who moments earlier hadn't
seemed capable of anything more than babbling.  The man cupped the boy's
chin in one hand, his arm fully extended, holding the boy overhead even as
he struggled and kicked.

     He noticed that his seishin-shi had dropped to the ground; he could
feel that their magic was gone.  For a moment, he thought it was the
little skinny boy, like before when he'd been strong enough to counter his
spells in the temple room of Dagon back in the village, but then he saw
that it wasn't.  The thin boy was sprawled half-conscious on the ground
from when he'd hit his head after he dodged the slash meant to open his
throat and end his life.  How could he not have noticed the power that
surrounded the man before, power that exceeded even his by a great margin,
and he counted himself among the most powerful sorcerers alive today.

     The man threw the pigtailed boy effortlessly twenty feet through the
air; the boy nearly fell off the edge of the Spire.  He turned and looked
at Stalford just as Stalford thrust the swordcane at his heart, intending
to go through the back and out the other side of the man's chest.  Poweful
sorcerer or not, he'd found that there was little a good foot or two of
razored steel through the heart wouldn't stop.

     The blade hit the palm the man upraised and stopped dead.  No blood
stained the man's hand as he closed his fingers around the blade and looked
at Stalford disdainfully.

    "So," the man said lightly.  "You wish to know the power of a god, do
you?"

     The man snapped the blade of the swordcane off like another would
break a twig.  "There are men in this world, Richie.  And then there are
gods.  You are a man, Richie.  Not a god."

     "Who are you?" Richard Stalford whispered.  Only his father had ever
called him Richie, and his father had been dead for more than fifty years.
He'd watched him die.

     "I am me," the man said with a smile.  Then the dark pupils of his
eyes spread wider, until his eyes were nothing but a dark expanse of pure
black, the void of space with no stars to shine in the darkness, black
holes where human eyes should be.  He looked into Richard Stalford's eyes,
and Richard Stalford screamed, high and piercing, as the man ripped out a
part of him and devoured it.  "I am the herald of the new times to come."

**********

     Ukyou watched as the three dead men they were fighting dropped to the
ground.  She stepped back, then heard Ranma's yell and turned to see
Satoshi Okamoto nearly throw him off the cliff.

     "What are you doing, Satoshi?" she called as she ran towards the man
who'd been a broken wreck until now.  She stopped as she saw him grab and
snap the blade of Richard Stalford's swordcane.  He said something Ukyou
couldn't hear, and then Richard Stalford began to scream and collapsed to
the ground unconscious.

     Ranma grabbed Ukyou and held her back.  "He's gone crazy or
something, Ukyou.  Stay away from him."

     "But..."

     "Look at what he just did.  I don't think we were right about him at
all," Ranma said.

     "No, you most certainly were not," Satoshi said as he turned and
looked at them with a smile that was somehow more terrible than any other
expression could have been.  "And now, I shall be finishing my final task
for this night."

     Throughout all that had happened, Shigeki had continued to chant, his
eyes closed, seemingly oblivious to all that happened around him.  Satoshi
started to walk slowly and deliberately towards him, stepping lightly over
the fallen form of Richard Stalford.

     "Stop it right there!" Ranma said.  "Don't go any closer to him!"

     "Or what?" Satoshi said.  He continued to walk.

     "MOUKO TAKABISHA!"

     The blue energy flared out from his cupped hands, engulfing Satoshi in
a flash of light as it struck him in the back.  When it faded, the man was
continuing to walk as if nothing had happened, his back to them.

     "Ranchan, what's going on?" Ukyou said.  Ranma ignored her and ran
after Satoshi, swinging a punch at the back of the man's head.

     Satoshi turned and caught Ranma's wrist.  Then he caught the other
wrist.  Then Ranma kicked him in the knee as hard as he could, and
Satoshi's smile grew broader and he squeezed until Ranma screamed and the
bones of his wrists ground together.

     Ranma looked into the eyes of the thing that had called itself Satoshi
as it pulled up and lifted him into the air by the arms.  In those eyes
were what had been in the dragon-eyes of Prince Herb, or in the scarlet
fury that had been the eyes of Lord Saffron of Phoenix Mountain.  But what
was in the eyes of the thing that had called itself Satoshi was hundred
times greater than what had been in the eyes of either of those two.  They
were the eyes of a thing that might have clothed itself in the form of a
man, but was in truth not a man.

     Satoshi flung Ranma a half-dozen feet with a simple twitch of his
hands.  Ranma fell to the ground, the pain in his hands overcoming all
thoughts of anything else.  The grip had been as implacable and powerful as
a machine, but even that had not been as terrible as what had been within
those eyes.  An arrow whistled by overhead; a few feet before it would have
hit Satoshi it exploded into splinters, as did the two that followed it.

     Kodachi and Ukyou rushed by him where he lay, coming at Satoshi even
as he turned and continued to walk, ignoring them.  They collided hard with
something invisible, letting out suprised yells as they bounced off, and
then Satoshi's leisurely walk brought him next to Shigeki.  He reached up,
grabbed Shigeki's closed fist and opened it.  Shigeki's eyes opened wide,
and there was an explosive burst of white light that knocked him from his
feet.  Satoshi stood over him, tossing the effigy from hand to hand, and
then Satoshi simply wasn't there anymore.  For a moment, there was a
rippling distortion in the air where he had stood, and then there was
nothing.

     Akane dropped the bow and ran to Ranma's side.  "Ranma!  What's
happening?"

     "Wish I knew," Ranma said, staggering to his feet and shaking his
hands.  He flexed his fingers slightly; he'd be okay.  He ran to Shigeki's
side, quickly followed by the others.

     The tall man was pale and still.  He opened his eyes and looked up at
them.  "Where did he go?  Where is the effigy?"

     "He took it," Ranma said.  "That... that guy we found.  He was
something else.  I don't even think he was human."

     "NO!" Shigeki said, sitting up abruptly.  "NO!"

     The ground beneath their feet shook; all of them could barely keep
their balance.  "What's going on?" Ukyou said as the ground stilled again.

     "It's waking up!  The power that built up in the ceremony is being
transferred to the Sleeper!  It's going to wake up," Shigeki said.  "This
is very, very bad."

     "Is there any way to stop it?" Ranma said quickly.  The ground shook
again, longer this time.

     "We have to destroy the spire," Shigeki said.  "That's the focal
point.  If we destroy this tower, we'll destroy the power that is awakening
the sleeper."

     "Dammit, how are we supposed to destroy something this big?" Ranma
asked.  He wished with all his soul that Ryoga were here, but he wasn't
sure if even the Breaking Point would have been able to demolish a
structure of this size.

     "I don't know," a voice said from nearby.  "I think we'll leave it
be."

     Ranma heard Kodachi cry out, and saw her fall to the ground as Richard
Stalford grabbed the back of her neck and squeezed tightly.  Even as Ukyou
turned, he staggered her with a punch to the stomach, then brought his
doubled fists down on her head.

**********

     The second girl collapsed beneath the blow; he would have gone for
killing shots, but he wanted them alive later.  He intended for them to
take a very long time to die.

     Whatever that thing that looked like a man had done to him, it had
completely cut off his ability to do sorcery.  With the effigy gone and his
power vanished, he had nothing left to live for anymore but his vengeance.

     And he was damned if he was going to miss out on that as well.  A
quick kick to the side of the skinny boy's head took him down as well.

     Shigeki was out of it already; the disruption of the ceremony had
drained nearly all his energy.  He'd always known he would kill the hunter
someday, but he'd thought him too wily a foe to have the leisure of
torturing him to death.  Fortunately, he'd been wrong.

     The ground shook again as the Sleeper Beneath the Waves drew on the
power of the ruined ceremony to awaken.  Even if he'd had the figurine, he
wouldn't have been able to call upon the spells he would need.  Most likely
he would die in the next few hours, when the Sleeper fully awakened, but he
was going to make sure those who had caused his failure suffered for as
long as possible before that.

     He whirled and looked at the pigtailed boy and the short-haired girl.
"Just you two kids and me now," he said.  "I've got a promise to keep to
both of you."

**********

     Ranma put his hand on Akane's shoulder and moved her behind him.
"Akane.  Stay away from him."

     "Dammit, Ranma..."

     "Akane, please.  He's too dangerous for you.  I'm not arguing with you
about this," Ranma interrupted.  Akane bit her lip, but stepped to the side
and knelt down by the fallen forms of Ukyou, Kodachi and Hikaru, checking
to see if they were alright as Ranma and Richard Stalford squared off.

     Stalford shrugged and looked at them with a smirk.  "One at a time or
all at once.  It doesn't matter to me."

     "I've wanted to shut your damn face up since I met you," Ranma said,
punching his right hand into his left palm.  "You're a pathetic maniac who
can't win a fight without walking around invisible or putting pain in
someone's mind."

     "You are a stupid, ignorant child with no inkling of who you face,"
Stalford said.  "You and your friends have destroyed everything of
importance to me; now, I will destroy all that you care about before your
eyes.  I don't need spells to kill you, pup.  I'll tear you into pieces
with my bare hands."

     "Try it," Ranma said.  "Just you and me.  No tricks, no spells, no
weapons."

     Stalford laughed softly and slipped out of his overcoat, laying it
down on the ground beside him.  The body that had looked soft and weak
under the bulky coat was revealed to be strong and powerful, though stoutly
built.

     "I don't need anything but these," Stalford said, bringing up his
hands, the fingers curved inwards towards his palms in a claw stance.  The
occasional shaking of the ground had stopped, replaced by a continual low
tremble that seemed to go through Ranma's entire body.

     Ranma looked at Richard Stalford; Stalford stared back, a smirk still
plastered on his face.  Something seemed to pass through the half-dozen
feet of empty space between the two, and then they were charging, meeting
in the middle, kicks and punches flying faster than the eye could see.

     They broke apart after a few moments; Ranma wiped a hand across his
bloody mouth.  His wrists still hurt from when the thing that had called
itself Satoshi had gripped them.  Stalford looked back at him, rubbing his
shoulder.

     "Not bad for a child," Stalford said.  "However, child, you face a man
this day."

     Stalford charged again, and Ranma rose to meet him.  He dodged a blow
meant to shove his nose back into his head, deflected a kick at his stomach
and threw a punch at Stalford's head that the smaller man blocked.  His leg
swept out, trying to take Stalford's legs out from under him; Stalford
leapt back and over the sweep, then came back at Ranma with a flat,
knife-edged chop at his throat.

     Ranma pulled his head back and caught Stalford's wrist with both
hands, turning and throwing the arm over his shoulder even as the momentum
of the blow continued through.  He pulled Stalford off his feet and threw
him over his shoulder; Stalford twisted in mid-air, avoiding having his arm
broken by a narrow margin and slipping from Ranma's grip to land on his
side on the ground.  He rolled and came up instantly, cutting Ranma's legs
out from under him with a long, low kick.

     Ranma flipped backwards as he fell, landing on his hands and
cartwheeling to the side as Stalford's follow-up kick swished by his head.
He came up on his feet and darted in again, the point of his foot swinging
into Stalford's side with all the power he could put into it behind it.  He
was gratified when he heard ribs crack and saw an expression of pain pass
across Stalford's face.

     "Not bad for a child, you say?" Ranma said.  Stalford growled deep in
his throat and thrust out with a flurry of punches that caused Ranma to
stumble back a few steps.  They were fighting in the centre of an impromptu
arena a hundred feet above unforgiving rocky ground, and the ocean further
below; both had to be careful that they not get maneuved back towards one
of the edges.

     Akane watched the fight, wanting to help but knowing that she would
only get in Ranma's way.  So she stayed by the three unconscious teenagers
and Shigeki, who seemed incapable of doing anything more than lying there,
his eyes closed and his breathing slow.

     A kick from Stalford caught Ranma in the stomach as he defended
against the punches; Akane winced as Stalford followed up the advantage
provided by Ranma's injury and punched him in the face.  Ranma threw his
head to the side and the blow caught him in the forehead, but it still sent
him reeling backwards.  He blocked the next punch and gave Stalford one of
his own in the shoulder, then crouched slightly and drove both palm heels
into Stalford's stomach, driving up towards the rib cage.

     Ranma felt the ribs he'd kicked earlier shift slightly, and smiled in
grim pleasure when he heard Stalford scream.  The move had been a bit
risky, but it had paid off.  Those ribs were going to hurting like hell.
Stalford was good, damned good, among the best unarmed martial artists he'd
ever faced, but he wasn't in Ranma's league.  No one was.

     Stalford stumbled back; Ranma aimed a kick at his head, going for a
blow that would finish the fight.  Stalford caught Ranma's foot by the heel
and slammed him down, twisting the leg agonizingly as Ranma hit the ground.
Ranma jerked his leg free and hopped to his feet, trying to lean on his
other leg without making it obvious.  Stalford laughed and kicked for his
bad leg, catching Ranma a glancing blow across the hip that caused shooting
pains throughout the entire leg.

     "I suppose you're one of the lucky ones actually," Stalford said as he
backstepped away from a punch.  "You'll die quickly.  Those other friends
of yours are going to take a very long time."

     Ranma remembered Stalford in the alleyway, slapping Akane across the
face, threatening her.  He remembered feeling as if he was burning up from
the inside.  Stalford's smirking face seemed to be the only thing he could
see now.

     "Shut up," Ranma snarled, lunging forward with his fist raised back.
Stalford raised an arm to block, but he wasn't fast enough this time.
Ranma's first punch crashed into his face, sending his glasses flying away.
Ranma heard them shatter on the ground even as his second punch slammed
into Stalford's stomach.

     He continued forward, pushing Stalford back with his shoulder, raining
a dozen kicks and punches upon the man.  The speed that Stalford had
possesed before seemed like nothing before him now; every attack he threw
was too quick for the sorcerer to dodge.  Stalford fell back before him,
unable to counterattack or even defend himself, reeling from the blows he'd
taken.  Ranma leapt, spun, and kicked Stalford in the side of the head,
the force of the blow knocking the man flat on his back a half-dozen feet
away.

     "It's over," Ranma said as he touched back down to the ground.
Stalford lay still where he had fallen.  Ranma approached cautiously,
waiting to see if the fight was finished.

     Stalford groaned and raised himself up on his hands and knees.  He
spat blood onto the ground in front of him and looked at Ranma with fierce
hatred.  "Alright," he said.  "You've won the battle."

     He leapt up and threw his hand forward; Ranma had been expecting this
and stepped to the side, but Stalford hadn't even been trying to hit him.
His closed fist opened, and black powder spiralled into Ranma's face.  Even
as he felt his body relax and crumple to the ground, he heard Stalford
speak again.

     "But I win the war."

**********

     Akane saw Ranma fall as Stalford threw the black powder into his face.
She was up and rushing him almost immediately.  Her first blow seemed
unexpected, and Stalford staggered back as her fist crashed into his
ribcage.

     "You CHEATER!" she shouted, following up and launching a kick.
Stalford dodged and backhanded her across the face, knocking her down.

     "Not a cheater," he said.  "Just a winner."

     Akane rolled to the side to avoid a blow; Stalford reached down and
grabbed her up by the collar of her school blouse, yanking her to her feet.
His other arm went behind her back and pinned both her wrists.  He pressed
himself against her, pinning her legs with his.  He was shorter than her,
but far stronger, and he had leverage.

     "You are a pretty one," he said with a smirk, "Had I the appetites of
a normal man, I might have some fun with you or the others."

     Akane spat in his face; he grinned broadly and shoved her back,
kicking her legs out and knocking her to the ground.  Another handful of
black powder came out, and though Akane tried to hold her breath, it was
too late.  The paralysis crept over her body as Stalford stood triumphantly
over her.

     "However," he said.  "My appetites are far more exotic than that."

     The low tremors that had been shaking the ground since the disruption
of the ceremony suddenly peaked into a long rumble, then went back to
normal; Stalford looked around and smiled grimly.

     "The Sleeper will awaken soon," he said.  "I suspect that will be the
destruction of all of us, even myself.  I have lost my chance for power,
but I will have my revenge on all of you."

     Akane tried to speak, to scream her defiance at him.  But she couldn't
even do that.  Stalford continued calmly as if he were a teacher and she the
student.

     "I made a promise to you in that alley," he said.  "I said I was going
to rip your heart out."

     He walked over to where he'd thrown off his coat; Akane could just see
it out of the corner of her eye.  He rummaged through it, and returned with
a long curved knife.

     "Actually, you can do it," he said conversationally.  "If you have the
patience and the strength, which I usually do.  However, that paralysis may
wear off soon, and I'm feeling a bit impatient now.  Besides, it makes the
hands so dirty.  So I guess we'll just have to settle for cutting it out."

     He reached down and picked up her limp hand, running her ring finger
lightly across the blade.  Blood welled, and Akane discovered that even if
she couldn't move, she could still feel pain.  "See how sharp it is?  It
can still take a while to cut out the heart.  I assure you you will feel
every bit of it, child."

     He let her hand drop and stood back up.  "I've changed the promise a
bit since the alleyway.  Your pigtailed boyfriend has also been quite a
thorn in my side.  I'm going to let him watch as I cut your heart out, and
then I'm going to make him eat it."

     In her mind, Akane wept, but not even tears would come.  Stalford
walked out of her sight and returned with the limp Ranma, laying him down
close to Akane, his head turned to look at her.  She saw agony and fury in
his eyes, but he seemed as helpless to move as she was.

     "And so it ends for you both," Stalford said.  "As I said to you, my
young man, you two are the lucky ones really.  You'll always carry a part
of her, boy, even when you're dead.  I'm talking literally here."

     With a harsh laugh, he raised the knife high, smiling grimly down at
her and Ranma.

     "No..." Ranma croaked.  Akane's eyes widened, and widened further when
she saw a slight quiver in Ranma's arm as he placed his palm flat on the
ground and began to push himself up.  She couldn't even close her eyes, and
yet somehow he'd found the strength within himself to move.

     "Amazing," Stalford said, glancing down at Ranma as if he were some
kind of interesting insect.  "You are a remarkable specimen, my young man."

     "I'm... not gonna let you... hurt Akane... or anyone else," Ranma
said, each word seeming an effort as he managed to weakly push himself to a
kneeling position.

     Stalford gave another appraising glance to Ranma, then kicked him
swiftly in the side with the point of his shoe, knocking him back over
onto the ground.  "Stay down, little boy."

     Ranma gritted his teeth and began to rise again.  "I... said..."

     Stalford kicked him again, harder, but this time Ranma didn't go down,
only clenched his teeth even tighter, and began to rise to his feet, his
entire body seeming to fight against his desire to stand.  "You ain't
nothin'..." he said to Stalford.  "Just a crazy..."

     Stalford swung the knife at Ranma's head, reversing the grip at the
last moment so that the metal pommel crashed into Ranma's mouth, splitting
his lip and loosening a few teeth.  Ranma staggered back.

     "I said," Stalford snarled, stalking forward, his body tensed and eyes
wild.  "STAY DOWN!"

     He slammed the pommel down on Ranma's head again, and Ranma crumpled
to the ground.  Stalford stood over him, his knuckles white on the handle
of the knife.  Ranma groaned and stirred, and Stalford shrieked an
incoherent cry of pure anger.

     "I SAID STAY,"

     Kick.

     "DOWN!"

     Kick.

     "YOU?"

     Kick.

     "DARE?"

     Kick.

     "DEFY?"

     Kick.

     "ME?"

     Ranma coughed, a thin trail of blood running from his mouth as he lay
on the ground.  Stalford pulled back his foot one more time, and the
expression on his face was furious beyond imagining.

     "You saw its eyes, didn't you?" he said, punctuating the words with a
small, manic giggle.  "God's eyes.  Those would have been my eyes, but for
you.  I would have looked through god's eyes at the burning world.  And now
I die a death without meaning upon this rock, because of you."

     His voice was filled with self-pity now.  "And you would defy me my
last triumph, my last victory amidst all this failure, before the Sleeper
rises?"

     He swung his foot forward, going for Ranma's head this time instead of
his side.  Ranma caught it with one hand and held it, holding Stalford off
balance, but not letting him fall.  Stalford looked down at him in
amazement, incredulity swirling amidst the madness of his gaze, as Ranma
rose to his feet, still holding Stalford's foot by the heel, and grabbed
the wrist that held the knife.

     "And I said," Ranma growled, his fury driving on a body that should
have fallen long ago.  "SHUT UP!"

     He squeezed tightly and wrenched Stalford's wrist, and the knife
dropped free and clattered to the ground, as Ranma bent the wrist back
nearly to the breaking point, then released it and grabbed Stalford
roughly by the collar of his shirt. 

     Stalford seemed to find himself again, and he began to struggle, but
it was in vain, as Ranma hefted him overhead and stumbled slightly towards
the edge of the spire nearby, beyond which lay the ocean hundreds of feet
below.

     "YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!" Stalford cried, writhing and trying to
twist free.  "THIS IS NOT MY DESTINY!"

     "The hell with your destiny," Ranma said, and with that he threw
Richard Stalford over the side.  As he watched the man plunge out of sight,
the strength seemed to leave his body, and as he collapsed backwards, arms
caught him and held him, and a sobbing face looked down at him from behind
a veil of chestnut hair.

**********

     "Ranchan," Ukyou said.  "Wake up.  Please, wake up."

     "Ucchan..." Ranma said, opening his eyes.  His face looked awful,
bruised and bloody, but his eyes were lucid, and she could feel the strong
beat of his heart against her body as he sagged against her.  Holding him
like this sent so many desires rushing through her, desires she'd tried so
hard to forget over the past few months, and it was all the more shameful
to her given the circumstances under which she held him.

     "I beat him, Ucchan," Ranma said, smiling triumphantly.  The ground
trembled beneath them again.  "I beat that bastard."

     "Shh..." Ukyou said.  "Lie down for a bit.  Rest, Ranchan."

     "Can't rest..." Ranma said.  "That thing's wakin' up... we gotta stop
it."

     "A few minutes won't matter," Ukyou said.

     "Take me... to Akane," Ranma said.  Ukyou closed her eyes and nodded.

     "Okay," she said softly, helping him stumble over to where Akane lay,
now beginning to stir from the paralysis.  Ranma lay down beside her and
wrapped his arms around her, and Ukyou turned away and walked back towards
where Ranma had thrown Stalford off.

     Standing with her feet near the edge, she looked over.  The night sea
was dark and rolling, the waves smashing against the cliffs, and the ground
shaking under her feet, but of Richard Stalford there was no sign.

**********

     Beneath the waters off the island, the tremors that shook the
Sleeper's Spire were magnified a hundredfold.  The dark shapes hesitated
beneath the waves, unsure of what to do for the first time in millenia.
They could feel the one they wanted most upon the Spire, but the waves of
power radiating from the Spire and the sounds of the awakening that was
taking place nearby made them hang back.

     Suddenly, there was a splash near the edge of the island, as something
fell into the water.  The dark shapes could see it still weakly struggling
in the water.  With grim precision, they began to converge upon it.  This
was the sign from their master of what must be done.

**********

     Richard Stalford tried to swim; the impact of the water seemed to have
broken his right leg.  But he was alive.  Alive!  Nothing could stop him;
surely this was a sign.  He would regain his power, somehow, and he would
ascend to the place that was rightfully his.  Weakly, he began to struggle
towards the shore.  It had been pure luck that he'd managed to hit the
water as he fell; that was all that had saved him.

     A hand closed over his leg and dragged him back below the surface.  He
yelled in surprise, but his mouth only filled with salty water.  Richard
Stalford had watched a lot of people die in the century or so he'd been
alive.  He knew precisely how long you could extend a man or woman's death,
if you knew what you were doing, what techniques would draw it out the
most, how to bring someone to the edge of that doorway into the next realm
and then pull them back again, so you could repeat the process.

     He was about to discover how long it could take a man to drown, if
those doing the drowning knew what they were doing very well, and had taken
many, many opportunities to practice over the years.

     Around him, dozens of dark shapes watched as he struggled, held in
hands with grips as implacable as the sea.  Even more began to move towards
the hidden places in the cliffs that would let them ascend to the land.
All who walked upon the Spire would feel their wrath, and the wrath of
their master.

**********

     Further out from the island, past the struggles of Richard Stalford,
a flat bare spot of rocky ocean floor shook and trembled.  Perhaps if the
eye had somehow looked closely enough at the top of the dark grey stone,
hidden until only minutes ago beneath ancient ocean debris that had covered
it for millenia, it would have noticed the near-faded symbols carved into
the stone, symbols that were even now beginning to be disrupted by the
cracks that flowed throughout the stone.  The area shook with seismic waves
as the cracks grew larger, and small flakes of stone began to fall away.

     The shakings peaked; a crack a hundred feet long broke quickly through
the rock, and began to spread.  When it was perhaps five feet across, a
long dark shape began to emerge, wriggling like a blind snake.  Even as it
wriggled, the thousands of strands of pale flesh that composed it, flesh
that if it had not moved would have been seaweed and coral in appearance,
wriggled as well within the ill-defined contours of the shape.

     The full length of it emerged, nearly twice as tall as a man.  From
far away, it might have seemed a snake or eel.  Then four more wriggling
shapes emerged to join it from the crack, a crack from which black light
spilled, and where that black light touched water the water boiled.  The
five shapes, of which the first had been the smallest, bent and gripped the
edges of the stone near the crack.  At the point where they seemed to merge
with the black light, deep below where the crack was wider, they joined
into a single palm as wide as a bus, and then no more could be seen.

     And as the crack split wider, a voice began to echo throughout the
ocean depths, a keening, howling wail of triumphant laughter as something
began to wake deep below.

**********

     Ukyou walked back, passing stiffly by Ranma, still embracing the
sobbing Akane, and came to stand by Shigeki Kiyokuro.  Kodachi and Hikaru
were still sprawled on the ground near him, and a quick check ensured they
were both okay.  She sat down and looked at the tall man lying flat on his
back, breathing slowly.

     "Shigeki," she said quietly.  "What now?"

     He opened his eyes and looked at her.  "Where is Stalford..." he said
groggily, blinking slowly.

     "Down below," Ukyou said.  "Ranma threw him off.  Unless he can fly or
survive a drop of a few hundred feet down into the ocean, I think he's
finally done for."

     "I wouldn't put it past him," Shigeki said.  "But we can't worry about
him now.  We must destroy the spire."

     "And if that's not possible?" Ukyou asked.

     "The Sleeper will awake," Shigeki said.  "His first action will be to
destroy this island, ripping it apart and sinking it below the waves as he
sank long ago.  From there, he will move out across the ocean towards the
life he senses on Japan."

     "And once he gets there?" Ukyou said, fairly sure she knew what the
answer will be.

     "Imagine a version of Godzilla malicious beyond human comprehension,
with enough magical power to flatten a city, who would like nothing better
than to wipe out every last living thing from the face of the earth,"
Shigeki said.

     "That bad?" Ukyou said with a sigh.

     "Worse," Shigeki said.  "Much, much worse.  He's also very, very angry
about being imprisoned for the past ten thousand or so years."

     "What will happen if we do manage to destroy the rock?" Ukyou said,
biting her lip apprehensively.

     "At this stage," Shigeki said as another larger tremor emerged amidst
the continual shaking, "I cannot say for sure.  The built-up power may rip
the island apart, or it may simply dissipate.  It's not important so much
to destroy the rock as it is to destroy the focal point of the power being
built up."

     "So we may not make it out of this?" Ukyou said.

     "I never wanted this to happen," Shigeki said.  "I am sorry."

     "It's alright," Ukyou said.  She touched the back of his hand where it
lay against the ground.  To her surprise, his long fingers wrapped around
hers and clutched her hand as if it were a lifeline.  "Is there any way you
can think of we can destroy this thing with what we have now?"

     "If someone were able to tap into the power flowing through this stone
now and redirect it," Shigeki said, "they could use it to destroy the
spire."

     "And what would happen to us?" Ukyou asked.

     "I do not know," Shigeki said.  Ukyou nodded and sighed.

     "Ranc- Ranma can probably do something along those lines," Ukyou said.

     "No..." Shigeki said.  "I don't think he would be able to tap the
power.  He would need to establish a link with someone who could."

     "Can you?" Ukyou asked.

     "I don't have the necessary gift," Shigeki said.  "I can do some minor
magic, but nothing on that scale."

     He looked thoughtful for a moment.  "Wait a minute... is... whatisname
awake?"

     "Hikaru Gosunkugi?" Ukyou asked.  "Looks like he and Kodachi are just
coming around."

     "Bring him over here," Shigeki said.  Ukyou called Hikaru over.  The
thin boy was sitting up and rubbing his head, and he walked over a bit
shakily.  Shigeki explained the situation.  At the end, Hikaru bowed his
head and looked out at the ocean.  The waves were smashing against the
cliffs far below, even as tremors shook the ground.

     "I think I can do it," he said softly.  "I can feel the power flowing
through the air here.  Something... something has awakened within me
recently.  I will have to establish a link with Saotome and transfer the
power from the rock to me to him?"

     "Yes," Shigeki said.  As Shigeki had explained what was going on,
Ranma, Akane and Kodachi had come to sit by him as well.  Everyone
understood the situation.  Ranma and Akane sat beside each other, holding
hands tightly, as Kodachi sat with her eyes closed and her face unreadable.

     "And then I hit this focal point with everything I've got?" Ranma said
as the tremors peaked again.  He now sported a few bandages on his face,
but his usual quick recovery from injury had served him as it always did,
and while his side still ached from the number of kicks he'd taken there,
he was in okay shape.

     "Yes," Shigeki said.  "That will at least dissipate the power, and the
Sleeper will return to his imprisonment."

     "At least?" Kodachi said, raising her head and looking at Shigeki.

     "As I said to Ukyou," Shigeki said.  "The spire, even the entire
island may be destroyed.  That possibility grows even more likely as the
power builds."

     "Alright," Ranma said.  "We have to do it, that's for sure.  No matter
what the cost."

     "Ranma..." Akane said.  He squeezed her hand in his and looked at
Shigeki.

     "Shigeki," Ranma said.  "I want you to take Akane, Kodachi and Ukyou
and get as far away from here as you can.  Go back towards the boats.  If
we can, Hikaru and I'll catch up to you once we're finished this."

     "I understand," Shigeki said.  "If I could offer myself, I would.  But
I am neither mage nor warrior.  I have not the strength of hand or the
magical skill to accomplish this task."

     "It's alright," Ranma said.  "We can't let that thing wake up.  Mom,
pop, heck, everyone in Japan.  If they're all in danger, we have to do
whatever it takes."

     "I believe the discussion is moot at this point," Kodachi said, rising
to her feet.  "Listen."

     They listened; rising above the sound of the shaking ground were
dozens of croaking voices, calling out a song of inhuman words in an
inhuman tongue.  It came from down below, and was already growing louder.
The six of them ran to the side, Shigeki stumbling along and leaning
slightly on Ukyou.

     "No..." Ranma said, looking down upon the scene below.  The ground
around the spire swarmed with dark, hunched shapes, huge numbers of them,
at least a hundred at rough count.  Where the stars had earlier shone
brightly about the Sleeper's Spire, the shadows now seemed to deepen and
hide the true forms of what lurked below.  But still occasionally did
moonlight glint off long claws, or the eye spot wide mouths opening in the
song they sang.  And even if they could only see glimpses of bulging eyes,
they knew that all those eyes looked to them and them only.

     "Whatever the fate of this tower is our fate as well," Kodachi said
quietly.  Her weapons were all gone now, clubs and ribbons and hoops
expended in the battles of the past few hours.  She brought her hands up
into an unarmed stance as the creatures below began to surge towards the
narrow pathway leading up the spire.  They were slowed by their own
numbers, and seemed to fight among themselves to see who would lead the
way.  More were even now hauling themselves over the edges of the cliffs
that led down into the water, in a seemingly endless tide of bodies
slick-wet and dripping.  The song rose in volume as they came forth, and it
was not like the baying of wolves, but like the chant of worshippers at
their prayers.

     Ukyou gripped her spatula and looked down at the horde.  "How can
there be so many of them..."

     "There is far more space in the sea then on the land," Shigeki said
beside her, one hand on her shoulder to support himself.  His other hand
pulled forth his larger pistol from the holster.  "Ranma... it must be done
now.  There is no more time."

     "Dammit, there has to be some way the rest of you can..."  Ranma said,
looking desperately at Shigeki.

     "Ranma," Akane said.  "How could I leave your side anyway?  We're all
in this together.  We've been since the start.  Go on."

     "Damn..." Ranma said, clenching his fist and closing his eyes.  When
he opened them, they were filled with determination.  "Come on, Hikaru.
Let's put this thing back to sleep."

     Ranma released Akane's hand from his and turned to go, as below the
mass finally seemed to find its balance and start up the spiralling
walkway.  Some were knocked off by their fellows in their eagerness, and
those that fell were swallowed up by the dark mass of batrachian shapes,
their cries as they were trampled mingling with the hideous song of those
who trampled them.

     He stopped when he felt a hand grab his arm, and he turned back to
look at Ukyou.  Her eyes shimmered in the starlight, deep pain behind them,
but resolve as well.

     "Goddamit, Saotome," she said, gulping slightly.  "Can't you say it to
her once, at least?  You may not get another chance."

     Ranma gazed back at Ukyou, at his old friend, at his fiancee, at the
woman he might have wished to marry if things had been different.
Something unseeable passed between their gazes, and Ranma smiled softly and
regretfully.

     "Thank you, Ucchan," he said simply.  "You're right.  I... I'm sorry
for..."

     "Shh... no regrets, hon," she said, as the song rose higher and the
shapes continued their slow but implacable advance.  He glanced to Akane;
she stood staring down at the creatures who came, fists clenched at her
sides, her back to him.

     He put his hands on Ukyou's shoulders and leaned down, kissing her
gently on the forehead, the way he imagined he might have kissed a sister
farewell if he had one.  "Thank you," he whispered softly, turning from her
as she turned from him, spatula gripped again in both hands.  Ranma walked
over slightly to Akane and turned her to face him.  She looked at him, and
then away.

     "I love you, Akane," he said simply.  The words came out so easily, he
was surprised.  "I'm sorry I never told you, but..."

     "I love you too," Akane said quietly, turning back to meet his gaze.
"Don't say sorry.  No regrets, remember?  Now go and take care of this
thing; we'll hold them back."

     Their kiss was brief, passionate, intense, contained of all the things
they'd said and not said.  Then Ranma turned and looked at Hikaru.

     "Let's do it," he said.  The spire was swaying from side to side
gently now, and the creatures approaching were halfway to the top, each
few feet sending a dozen tumbling down below, only to have a dozen more
take their place.  And still the song rose, higher and higher into the
night air, the song of things millenia older than humans.  And still the
dark shapes poured from the sea, joining their fellows in a mass that must
have been nearly a thousand strong now, that filled all of the space that
could be seen, thronged around the Sleeper's Spire like devout pilgrims to
some dark unholy Mecca.

     Hikaru nodded slightly, then looked once at Kodachi, and he smiled a
small, sad smile that only Ranma saw, before he turned and began to walk
towards the centre of the swaying tower of rock.

     They stood in the middle, facing each other, warrior and mage, as all
around the music of the ocean swirled in the air, and the tremors of the
awakening shook the earth.

     Hikaru extended his left hand to Ranma.  Ranma reached out and gripped
the skinny wrist, as Hikaru's slender fingers wrapped around his own wrist,
in a grip stronger than Ranma would have ever thought the other boy capable
of having.  They both closed their eyes, and prepared themselves for what
was to come.

**********

     Hikaru Gosunkugi stood rooted at the centre of the Sleeper's Spire,
eyes closed but another part of him seeing the lines of power flowing from
the island and the sea around it, all gathering at the spot where he and
Ranma stood, a fountain of dark energy that writhed and snapped like a
living thing.  From the spot where it gathered on the Sleeper's Spire it
flowed out through a thin precise line that made the darkness of the rest
of the energy seem like pure white, a line that flowed out into the ocean
to something beyond.

     He reached out with that new part of himself, wrapping it around the
the fountain of power that was fed from all around, and was itself the
source of that dark line that was not just the absence of light but the
antithesis of it.  That was simple enough; he merged with the fountain,
became a part of it, and let the power flow through the fountain to him to
the dark line.

     Now came the harder task; he extended himself through the centre of
the fountain and grabbed the line of darkness tightly, and prepared himself
for a struggle that he knew he must win.

     As he pulled, the great incomprehensible thing on the other end pulled
back, and like a fisherman who seeks a carp but finds a shark at the end of
the line, it became not so much a question of how long it would take for
him to gain control, but of who would gain control.

     The line seemed to drop down into an endless abyss, and in that abyss
something waited, something that had been waiting as mountains rose and
seas vanished, something vast and horrible and cruel whose power radiated
from lightless depths even though it was even now barely awake.  How could
he challenge something like this, how could he even think that he could
stop this awakening that had been destined since before the first of his
ancestors had emerged?

     Let go.  Let go of the line and let it wake, and hope that it would
have mercy, mercy upon him, mercy upon the world.  What use was it anyway,
for he would be gone soon enough compared to how long it had been waiting
to awake, his brief candle-flame of life burning out in time that was the
blink of an eye to that which slept.  What matter if it awakened now?

     The thoughts were not his; he felt the probings at his mind, like tiny
needles seeking for a way through, and he knew that if they found it, then
he would be dragged into those lightless depths and to the thing that
awaited on the other end of that dark line, the thing that would have no
mercy because mercy was a human concept, and there was no humanity in what
was now waking beneath the ocean floor.

     Ranma and Akane, their last kiss desperate and final.  Kodachi's touch
upon his face, her eyes locked with his.  Ukyou, barely able to keep
herself from weeping as she forced Ranma to admit how he felt before it was
too late.  Shigeki Kiyokuro, who looked as if he could be no more than ten
years older than any of them, but in whose eyes was something far older.

     Hikaru gritted his teeth, and earthed himself deeper within the
fountain of power.  He wrapped himself tighter around the dark line,
wrapped himself so tightly it hurt, and yanked back as hard as he could,
throwing all of himself behind it.

     The line snapped free, the dark energy flowing up from the abyss on
the other end and trying to escape the forced confines, the fountain of
energy he had merged with trying to separate itself from him and loose the
power it contained in it.  He forced them both to cling to him, made
himself the conduit.  On the edges of his awareness, he saw the slightest
blue glow amongst all the darkness that surrounded him, a blue glow that he
now touched with more than his hand as he began to pass the power to Ranma.

**********

     The first jolt of the power hit Ranma like a physical blow; he nearly
staggered and lost his grip on Hikaru's wrist, but he gritted his teeth and
kept his eyes closed as he concentrated on storing the power, as much as it
hurt to contain it within him.  He was strong enough to hold onto it, had
to be strong enough for Akane, for Ukyou, for his mother and father, for
everyone.  He didn't know what was going to happen to him when he released
all of the power, but what happened to him didn't matter.  The only thing
that mattered was that this thing not awaken.

     He'd felt it slightly as Hikaru struggled, felt it through the mental
and physical link between them, and in that single small glimpse of that
which slept, he had wanted to do nothing more than run and hide as if he
were a frightened child.  But he'd overcome that feeling, and now as the
power built, rising above the song of the horde of monstrosities that even
now were nearly at the top of the tower, rising above the rumblings within
the spire, he knew that he was ready.

     His mouth opened in a battle cry, as he raised his free hand high into
the air, and far below him the milling hordes paused and shielded their
eyes at the blue flames that licked a dozen feet into the air from around
him, flames that were growing rapidly larger as they pushed back the dark
pillar of energy that had grown around the two of them as they stood in the
centre.  The four who stood ready to fight against the horde until the end
glanced back, and then as Ranma continued to yell, having no name for what
he was about to do that he could speak, the blue flames consumed the last
of the dark energy, lashing up into the air nearly a hundred feet, flaring
so that a new day rose over the island in the depths of the night, and then
they were rushing back down towards the top of the spire as Ranma brought
his fist down.

     His punch slammed the exact centre of the spire, as blue flame poured
from the sky and into him, and down his arm and into the earth.  A minute
crack appeared beneath his fist.

     And then in a bright flash, the ground exploded at their feet, stone
cracking into huge chunks and being hurled outward thousands of feet by a
force of unimaginable power.  The power ripped through the Sleeper's Spire,
tearing the great monolith to pieces as easily as a man would smash a house
of cards.

     The things that had been about to reach the summit of the spire were
consumed in an instant, and their fellows below still climbing were gone
nearly as soon.  

     The power flowed out through the ground the Spire had risen from,
slamming the earth like a hammer hurled by a god.  Those on the ground
below who did not die instantly from the force of the blow were almost
entirely wiped out as fissures split the ground and swallowed them, or
debris rained down upon them from hundreds of feet above.  Their song was
replaced by inhuman cries of pain that quickly vanished for nearly all of
them.

     As the power reached the forest, trees exploded into splinters or
were torn from the ground and thrown into the sky.  In the seas, water
boiled into huge clouds of steam.  As a crack miles long tore through the
centre of the island, the half containing the Sleeper's Spire split off
from the other half, and began to slide below the ocean waters.  In
Kappamura, buildings collapsed as the ground vanished beneath them, and the
fires began by Richard Stalford became the least of the worries of the
inhabitants of that damned place.

     The shockwave exploded across the beach, tearing the docks to
pieces, and the boats soon after.  Nasake went up in a bright flash as the
engines caught fire and tore themselves apart, and Richard Stalford's dark
ship cracked in half with a wail like a living thing and began to
disintegrate into black dust.

     And so, the island of the Sleeper died, and with it the awakening of
that which slept below the waves.  Laughter turned to howls of frustration
as seals and wards began to reform themselves, and the great crack that
had begun in the ocean floor began to rumble closed, and an immense hand
drew back below to the lightless depths from which it had emerged.

**********

     Hikaru Gosunkugi felt the power explode through the air around him; he
braced himself for the shock of it as he was torn to pieces.

     But he was not; he could still feel Ramna's arm, though he could not
feel the ground beneath his feet.  Yet he was not falling.  He'd expected
the power to be gone now; it was not.

     Yet it was; this was not the dark power that had flowed through the
rock.  This was something lighter, that left an almost sweet taste in his
mouth.  And it did not come from outside, but from within him.  It was the
new part of him multiplied a thousandfold.

     He opened his eyes; they were all still there, Ranma in front of him,
the others nearby.  All around them was a white glow.  They stood upon
nothing, yet they did not fall.

     "Hikaru..." Ranma said.  "Are you doing this?"

     "I... I think so..." Hikaru said.

     "What happens when it's over?  We just going to fall?" Ranma asked.

     "Not if I have anything to say about it," Hikaru said.  He drew upon
the power he felt, and threw it out around him, gathering in himself and
his five companions.

     The pain as he concentrated was like nothing he had ever felt before;
there was an enormous sensation of movement, of travelling.  He felt the
power bleeding off from him, the newly-awakened senses scraping away.  It
was like losing an arm or leg, only far worse, for this loss tore not only
at the body but at the mind.  He felt as if he were burning; he felt as if
he were freezing.

     He felt cool dampness under his hands, smelled the clean scent of
grass after a rainshower.

     Hikaru Gosunkugi raised his head up and looked around.  He was
kneeling on his hands and knees on the athletic field of Furinkan High
School.  The dim glow from the lights of the school let him see that around
him were the sprawled bodies of Ranma, Akane, Ukyou and Kodachi.  As he
looked at them, wondering if they had made it through okay, Ranma sat up
with a groan and looked around.

     "To quote Ryoga," he said softly.  "Where the hell am I now?"

     "It looks like Furinkan's athletic field," Akane said, sitting up.
"Hey.  We're alive!"

     With happy whoops, Ranma and Akane wrapped their arms around each
other.  Then they remembered what their last words had been to each other.

     "Uh..."

     "Uh..."

     "You know that I..."

     "Of course, it was just..."

     "Yeah."

     "Right."

     Hikaru laughed.  He threw back his head and laughed and laughed and
laughed.  They were alright.  He'd done it.

     He could feel that it was gone, the new part of him, ripped away in
that final surge of power he'd used to transport them across a few hundred
miles of ocean, but who cared?  He was alive!

     Ranma and Akane looked at Hikaru, who appeared to have gone insane.
Then they began to laugh as well.  Sitting up with groans, Ukyou and
Kodachi looked at the three hysterical people, and then they began to laugh
as well.

     "We're alive!" Ukyou said, between snorted giggles.  "I don't believe
this."

     "Best be careful," Kodachi said, snickering in a low-pitched version
of her usual laugh.  "They might have meant it literally when they said
that school is hell."

     "Hikaru, I don't know what you did, but it sure did the trick," Ranma
said.  "I take back everything I ever said about you being a talentless,
spineless wimp!"

     "Hey!  When did you say that?" Hikaru said, before falling over and
lying helpless with laughter on the ground.  His sides hurt, and the damp
grass was fresh and clean against the side of his face.  He felt wonderful.

     "Wait a minute..." Ukyou said.  "Where's Shigeki?"

     The laughter stopped; they all realized that there was no sign of the
one who'd gotten them all involved in this.

     "We... we better look around for any sign of him," Hikaru said,
standing up.  He paused for a moment, then pulled a piece of paper from his
jacket pocket and squinted at the writing.

     "You were all sleeping so peacefully, it seemed a shame to disturb
you," he read out loud.  "A beautiful piece of work, uhh... whatever your
name is.  Stalford is gone, and the Sleeper sleeps once again, hopefully
for a very long time.  It was an honour to fight with all of you, my
friends.  I wish you all well; though I hope we shall not need to meet
again, I think that perhaps we shall.  There is much more darkness in this
world of ours than can be handled in one night's work.  But for now,
farewell.  Kiyokuro."

     "He could've at least stuck around to say goodbye," Ukyou said.

     "What time is it, anyway?" Ranma said.  Hikaru glanced at his watch.

     "Nearly three in the morning," he said.  He'd guess they'd lost more
than an hour in the time between the destruction of the spire and their
arrival here.  He still wasn't quite sure how he'd done it; touching the
power, making it do what he wanted, had been as simple as raising his arm
or nodding his head, but just like he couldn't explain exactly how he did
that, he couldn't explain just what he had done.

     Hikaru paused, still looking at his watch.  Something nagged at the
edge of his mind.  Then, it came down upon him in that quick, horrible way
things come upon you when you put all the pieces together finally and see
the whole big picture.

     "OH MY GOD!" he shrieked, clutching his head.  "MY PARENTS ARE GOING
TO KILL ME!"

     "Hey, relax," Ranma said.  "If what you went through tonight didn't
kill you, your parents probably can't be that much of a threat."

     "We should get home as well," Akane said.  "Everyone's probably really
worried about us."

     "Guess I'm walking home tonight," Hikaru said, standing up.  "Oh well.
I'll see you all at school, I guess."

     "Oh geez," Ranma said.  "I'm being sick tomorrow, I'll tell you that."

     Hikaru turned to go; Kodachi stood up and put her hand on his arm.

     "I believe we go the same way," she said softly.  "If you do not mind,
I shall walk with you, Hikaru Gosunkugi."

     "Umm... uh... sure..." Hikaru said.  Kodachi smiled and turned to look
at the three still seated upon the grass.

     "Goodnight to you all," she said.  "Thank you.  For allowing me to
fight beside you all, despite our pasts."

     "You and Hikaru probably saved our lives in that alley," Akane said
softly.  "Kodachi... I don't know if it means anything at all to you, but
you're okay by me."

     "It would have meant little to the Black Rose, Akane Tendo," Kodachi
said.  "But it means something to Kodachi."

     She bowed slightly and turned away, starting to walk.  Hikaru stood
there for a moment, then raised a hand in farewell and hurried after her.

     "Come on," Ranma said as he stood up, taking Akane's hand and pulling
her up with him.  "Let's go home, you guys."

**********

     Illuminated by the streetlights, Hikaru and Kodachi walked through
nearly empty streets as their made their way towards their homes.  The
silence between them was a comfortable thing; neither felt the need to
talk.  After about fifteen minutes of walking, Hikaru was not surprised to
find that somewhere along the way her hand had drifted into his.  

     After a little more walking, Hikaru looked up, still conscious of
Kodachi's hand in his.  A day ago, it would have been too much to deal
with, a simple act of intimacy like this with any girl.

     A day ago, of course, he had not been the same person he was now.
There was no change on the outside, really.  He still looked the same as he
always did.  But on the inside, the lingering fear that he had always
carried within him, the fear that he would never amount to anything, the
fear that he had no purpose, was gone.  He had fought back this night; he
had helped to save many people from a threat they would never know of.

     And he had given up the thing he had truly longed for all his life.
He had given up true power, burning away all of that newly-awakened part of
himself in one single bright flame that had carried them hundreds of miles
from the centre of destruction to safety.

     He supposed that he should have been upset, angry, disappointed.  Yet
he was none of these.  There had been no better use he could have put his
power too, and if he'd kept it within they most likely would have all died
upon that island.  Even if he had kept it and remained alive, what use
would the power have had?  How could he have been sure that he wouldn't
have given in to temptation and become like Richard Stalford, a monster in
the guise of a human.  Perhaps the man had been like him once, seeking
power that he need not be afraid anymore, until the power had become an end
unto itself for him.

     Power should not come as easily as it had to him upon the bloodstained
floor of the torture room, as his hidden gift had emerged to save his life
from Jakukawa, and then vanished only a little while later to save all
their lives.  He had to work towards a change in his life, not expect it to
fall into his lap in an instant.

     From this day forth, though, he would be fighting back, against anyone
who believed they could push him down.  It might take a while, but sooner
or later he would become strong enough that they'd realize he was not as
easy a target as he'd been before.

     Perhaps he had gained something as well as lost something, he realized
as he glanced at Kodachi.

     "This is where we part ways, I think," she said as he looked at her.
He glanced around; they were at the spot where they had first met in the
afternoon, when all his thoughts had been of Akane and his own self pity,
and he'd had no idea of just what he was going to involve himself in.

     "Yeah," he said slowly.  "But... not permanently, right... I mean,
we've had..."

     "I know," Kodachi said.  "There is still much I would like to talk to
you about, Hikaru Gosunkugi."

     He blushed slightly and looked away.  "Yeah... I just wish I knew what
I was gonna tell my parents when I get home."

     "Why not tell them the truth?" Kodachi said.  Hikaru looked at her
blanky.

     "Yeah," he said.  "I'm sure they'd believe me."

     "With suitable bits omitted, of course," Kodachi said slyly, smiling
at him.  "You were walking home from school when you met a girl, and the
two of you went off together with some other people and did some things you
hadn't ever thought you would do, and you were having so much fun you
didn't realize how late it was getting."

     Hikaru looked at Kodachi's sneaky smile, at the humour dancing in her
dark eyes.  He laughed slightly as he looked at her.

     "Yeah," Hikaru said.  "That kinda works for me.  Thanks, Kodachi."

     "You are welcome," she said, still smiling.  She slid her hand from
his and brought it up to touch his cheek.  Something caught his eye, and he
glanced at the long-faded scars across her wrist.  She noticed him looking,
and pulled the sleeve of her blouse down a bit self-consciously as she took
her hand off.

     "There is still... much that you do not know about me," she said,
casting her eyes towards the ground.

     "There's a lot you don't know about me," Hikaru said softly, taking
her hand and placing it back against his cheek.  "We both have our secret
pains to share, Kodachi.  I... I won't turn away from you.  I promise."

     He put his other hand behind her neck, unsure of where this new
confidence had come from.  The two of them drew close and kissed softly,
their lips brushing against each other for but a few seconds.  They broke
apart and stood, Kodachi's hand still resting against his cheek.

     "I'll see you around, Hikaru," Kodachi said, dropping her hand and
turning away.  He stood, hands in his pockets, the taste of her lips still
upon his, and watched her go until she turned the corner.  Then, hands
still in his pockets, he turned and began to make his way towards home.

**********

     "You sure you don't wanna come back the Tendo's with us, Ucchan?"
Ranma asked as they stood at the intersection of streets, one leading
towards the Tendo house, the other towards Ukyou's restaurant.  "Just to
say hello to everyone?"


     "It's okay, Ranchan," Ukyou said, shaking her head.  "I'm exhausted; I
just wanna get home and sleep."

     "As long as you're alright..." Ranma said.  Ukyou nodded and smiled at
him and Akane.

     "I'm okay, Ranchan," she said.  "I just know that I'm going to be
sleeping in and missing my morning classes."

     The three of them laughed a bit nervously for a moment, and then
Ukyou turned to go.  Akane stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder,
glancing back at Ranma.

     "Ranma, wait here for me.  I want to talk to Ukyou alone," she said to
him.  Ranma shrugged and leaned back against a telephone pole, as Ukyou
looked questioningly at Akane.

     "Let's just walk for a bit," Akane said.

     "Alright," Ukyou said, nodding.  She began to make her way in the
direction that would lead her to her restaurant, Akane walking beside her.
They paused after a few minutes.

     "What do you want, Akane?" Ukyou said.  Akane looked at her for a
moment, then stared intently up at the sky.  Her eyes narrowed, and then
she punched a nearby telephone pole.  The impact caused it to shudder, and
Ukyou heard a quicky muffled shout of surprise from up above.

     "I said WAIT FOR ME!" Akane hissed up to Ranma, who Ukyou could now
see was trying to avoid falling off the top of the telephone pole.  He
dropped to the ground, face red, and stuck his hands in his pockets before
heading back up the street without a word.

     "Honestly," Akane said, shaking her head.  "He is so..."

     She looked up at Ukyou, who was smiling sadly, her eyes looking past
Akane to Ranma, and she trailed off.  "Ukyou..."

     "Yeah," Ukyou said, turning her attention back to Akane.

     "I... I really want to say... thank you.  For what you did for Ranma
and I," Akane said.  "I know... how hard it..."

     "Oh," Ukyou said.  "I... It was about time you two finally said it."

     "Yeah," Akane said, smiling wistfully.  "It was, wasn't it."

     Her smile disappeared when she saw the expression on Ukyou's face, and
the few tears that had finally come forth, glistening in the harsh white of
the streetlights like crystal.  "Ukyou, I'm sorry..."

     Ukyou shook her head vehemently.  "Don't ever say you're sorry that he
loves you, Akane, or that you love him.  Don't ever.  That's the only thing
that lets me..."

     "Thank you, Ukyou," Akane said, blinking back her own tears.  "I... I
just hope that someday you'll find..."

     "I did," Ukyou said.  "But then I lost him."

     "Ukyou..."

     "I have to go home, Akane," Ukyou said.  "Goodnight."

     She turned and started away.  No words came forth from Akane, and the
hand she raised as if to stop Ukyou from going soon dropped again.

     "I'm sorry," she whispered, closing her eyes against tears as Ukyou
gradually walked further and further away from her.

**********
     
     Ukyou slipped the key back into her pocket and opened the door,
stepping into the restaurant and closing it behind her.  She didn't bother
with the lightswitch; she knew the layout by heart.  Walking behind the
counter, she pulled off her bandolier and dropped it to the floor, then
hung her large spatula in its place of honour over the grill.

     Then she knelt down and searched under the counter where she kept her
cooking supplies.  The item she was looking for didn't appear on the menu,
but she kept some around anyway for certain times.  This was one of them.

     She found the case and pulled out a bottle.  She didn't like drinking
the sake cold, but she had no patience to wait for it to warm now.  She
needed to sleep, but she needed right now to ensure that her sleep was
without her dreams of him, and this was the only way.

     She walked to the table and sat down in the darkness, putting the cup
and the bottle on the table in front of her.  There were few times she
needed to do this; only when it hurt so badly to dream of him.

     The first time had been the night Konatsu had left, a few days
after Ranma and Akane's failed wedding.  She closed her eyes against the
tears of shame she felt as she remembered what she'd said to him, the pain
in his eyes as he'd gone.  She'd hoped that he would come back, but there'd
been no sign of him ever since.

     She'd thought she could give Ranma up, and she'd almost convinced
herself she had.  But somehow, hearing him and Akane say those words to
each other, even if they were words she herself had caused him to say, that
pained her so much that she knew she could not.

     To dream of him this night, after all that had happened, all the
horror she had gone through since they'd walked from school with Shigeki
Kiyokuro, she could not bear it.  The events of the past ten or so hours
were jumbled in her memory; the mind so easily forgot some things, while
others stood out clearly.  More clearly than anything was the kiss between
Ranma and Akane, the kiss they'd thought might be their final one.

     No, she could not dream of him this night.  And so Ukyou popped the
cork from the wine and got ready to pour.

     "They say that drinking alone is a very bad sign," a familiar voice
said from the darkness.  Ukyou turned slowly and looked back into the
corner of the room.

     "You really have a thing for coming into people's restaurants
unannounced, don't you?" she said to Shigeki.  His tall form was dimly
visible, leaning back in one of the chairs against the wall.

     "It's a bad habit I've picked up over the years," he said.  "Just
what do you intend to do with that much sake, anyway?"

     "What do people usually do with sake?" Ukyou said tiredly.  "I'm going
to drink it."

     "Do you often drink alone?" Shigeki said.  Ukyou gritted her teeth at
the vague disapproval in his voice.

     "You barely know me," Ukyou said.  "And you're not my father.  Don't
you dare judge me."

     "You are Ukyou Kuonji," Shigeki said.  "You are seventeen years old,
born in Kyoto.  You were engaged to Ranma Saotome ten years ago, although
that engagement is now generally considered invalid.  You spent ten years
living as a man after Ranma's father left you behind and took your father's
yattai, dedicating your life to vengeance against him.  Want to hear more?"

     "You know a damn lot about me," Ukyou said.  "And none of us know a
thing about you."

     "That's for the best," Shigeki said, rising up from the chair and
walking slowly across the room towards her.  "I'd wanted to speak to you
about something.  Perhaps you are not ready to hear it yet, Ukyou Kuonji."

     "I think you should leave," Ukyou said.  "This is my restaurant.  Get
out."

     "I was just about to," Shigeki said, passing by her and sliding open
the door that led out into the night.  He turned and looked back at her,
lit from behind by the streetlights outside, and for a moment there was
more sorrow in his dark eyes than Ukyou had thought any person could bear,
and then they were hard and flat again, unreadable in that long, narrow
face.  Now, he seemed nothing like the man who'd needed her to support him
upon that rock, the man who could not stand on his own.  Now, he looked as
if he would stand on his own now and forever.

     "I have found," Shigeki said.  "That you can choose to regret
the past and reject the future, if you wish.  It is your choice, Ukyou
Kuonji.  But there are others."

     The door slid closed, and his light footsteps were heard outside for a
moment before they were gone.  Ukyou glanced down at the bottle still
half-tilted in her hand, at the empty cup awaiting the sake.

     "That which is empty must be filled," she whispered quietly, and she
began to pour.

**********

     Akane and Ranma stood at the front gate of the Tendo house.  Akane had
refused to speak to him when she came back from talking to Ukyou, simply
walking past him so quickly that he had to hurry to keep pace with her back
to the house.

     "Hey, come on, Akane, I'm sorry I tried to eavesdrop, it's just..."

     Akane looked back, and the anger that he'd been expecting to see on
her face was not there, only sadness.  "It's not that, Ranma.  Although I'm
not too pleased about that either."

     "Is Ucch... Ukyou gonna be okay?" Ranma said.  Akane sighed.

     "I don't know," Akane said.  "I... I think maybe we made a mistake,
never talking to her about things.  Maybe we..."

     "There's still time for that," Ranma said.  He reached out and took
her hand in his.  He'd been hesitant to touch her since they'd left
Furinkan; Ukyou's presence, and the memory of the words they'd said upon
the rock had hung between them until now.  "There's still time for so
much."

     She sighed and leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his chest and
laying her head against his shoulder near the curve of his neck.  "Did...
did you mean it, Ranma?  Was it just that you didn't think that we were
going to make it out of there, or..."

     "Uh..."

     "Well?"

     "You see..."

     "Ah!  I see you two are finally home!" Genma said as he opened the
door and stepped outside.  Ranma and Akane broke apart, surprised at his
presence.

     "Pop?  What are you still doin' up?" Ranma asked.

     "Waiting for you, of course," Genma snorted.  "Could you call the next
time you and Akane are going to be home late, son?  I know how time can fly
when you're with that certain special someone, but..."

     His father trailed off, his amused expression dropping away as his
face grew serious.  "I think we all have a lot of explaining to do.  It's
good to have you two home.  Are Ukyou and Kodachi okay as well?"

     Ranma nodded.  "Yeah.  They went home.  Hikaru's alright as well."

     "Who?" Genma asked.  Then he shook his head.  "Never mind.  Come on
in; everyone's waiting, even if we'll have to wake some of them up."

     "Sorry if we worried you guys, pop," Ranma said, putting his hand
behind his head apologetically as they made their way inside.  "I guess you
all musta had a long night sittin' around waitin' for us to come home,
huh?"

     "Not exactly..." Genma said as they entered the living room.  Ranma
blinked slightly and looked around, confused.  Soun appeared to be teaching
Hinako-sensei, currently a child, how to play shogi.  The little girl
appeared half-asleep, but was paying rapt attention.  Kasumi sat on the
couch next to his mother, talking quietly with the older woman and sipping
a cup of tea.  Mousse and Shampoo were on the floor next to each other,
their backs leaning against the wall.  Shampoo was asleep, her head on
Mousse's shoulder and her body turned to face him.  He had one arm wrapped
around her, and the expression on his face was a combination of
exhilaration, disbelief and exhaustion.  He raised a hand and smiled as
Ranma and Akane entered the room.

     "Welcome back," he said quietly, stifling a yawn as Soun leapt up from
the floor and looked at his daughter and her fiancee, seemingly stuck
between bursting into tears and yelling angrily.  He finally settled on a
combination of both, while in the process of embracing both Akane and
Ranma.

     "DAD!" Akane said, looking embarassed.

     "Mr. Tendo!" Ranma croaked.  "Can't... breathe..."

     "We were very worried about you, son," Nodoka said as she got up from
the couch.  "Where have you been?"

     "It's kinda a long story..." Ranma said, finally managing to struggle
free from Soun.  His mother stepped forward, and gave him a somewhat more
gentle embrace.  Hesitant for a moment, he quickly hugged her back.

     "Oh, Ranma," she said, a slight catch in her voice.  "I... I thought
for a while I might truly have lost you."

     "So," Mousse said as he stood to his feet, Shampoo blinking her eyes
and stretching on the floor as she woke up.  "I guess you all got along
okay without Shampoo and I, Saotome?"

     "Mighta helped to have you guys along," Ranma said, glancing over his
mother's shoulder at Mousse.  "It's been one hell of a night."

     "And we want to hear all about it, Mr. Saotome," Hinako-sensei said
sleepily.  "You think you can go running off without telling anyone, making
your poor parents so..."

     Hinako yawned and closed her eyes.  "I'm tired," she announced
petulantly, before curling up on the floor and beginning to snore.

     "Father, please," Kasumi said.  "I think Akane is quite aware of how
glad you are to have her back now."

     "Thanks... Kasumi..." Akane said, as her father finally let go of her
and continued to cry tears of joy.  Her older sister leaned down and hugged
her.

     "It's good to have you back, Akane," Kasumi said.

     "It's good to be back, Kasumi," Akane said, hugging her sister back
tightly.

     "Son," Genma said, laying his hand on Ranma's shoulder as Nodoka
let go of him and stepped back.  "I think we are all in agreement it is
good to have you two back, but we need to know what happened."

     Ranma sighed.  His body ached, his energy felt drained, and he wanted
nothing more than to sleep.  "Pop, can't this wait till morning?"

     "It can't, Saotome," Mousse said quietly.  "We've all been through too
much tonight to wait till morning."

     "What happened while we were gone?  And why are you guys all over here
anyway?" Ranma said, finally comprehending how many people were in the
house who usually weren't.

     "You should have been here a few hours ago," Kasumi said.  "Sasuke
decided to go back to the Kuno house to wait for Kodachi, and Master
Happosai was finally convinced to leave after he got... a little out of
control."

     Without the barest hint of a smile on her face, Kasumi pointed
towards a broken window currently covered by cardboard.  

     "It's a long story, son," Genma said.  "Although not as long as yours,
I think.  Why don't you and Akane start with why you didn't come home after
school, and we'll go from there?"

     They did.  It took quite a while, and at the end, the faces of all of
them were sombre.

     "Well, what do we do now?" Genma said finally.

     "Right now," Kasumi said slowly.  "We all get ourselves to bed.  It is
very late, we are all very tired, and right now the world appears to be
safe again from evil sorcerers, walking dead men, monsters under the ocean
and entire villages run by evil cults."

     As everyone burst out laughing, Kasumi blinked and looked around.  "Oh
my?  Did I say something funny?"

**********

     Happosai sat in the shadows across the street, watching as the police
and others combed through the pile of ashes that had formerly been the
luxurious house they'd been in hours earlier, a house where he'd felt a
presence he hadn't felt in a very long time.

     "I don't understand it," he heard one drifting voice say as tired
people walked among the ashes.  "What fire is hot enough to reduce an
entire house to ash, with no rubble, no internal structure left standing?
There's melted stone in this stuff, for god's sake.  Marble, granite, other
crap.  It's like somebody dropped an entire art gallery into a volcano and
then yanked it out again."

     "One of the neighbours called in to say the house was burning, and by
the time we got here, it was like this," another said.

     "Is there any trace of gasoline, an explosion?" the first voice said.

     "Not that we've found," a third voice replied.  "We're gonna keep
looking, though.  There has to be some kind of natural explanation for
this."

     Happosai chuckled softly without humour and puffed on his pipe.
"Cliched, and also extremely incorrect.  After you've lived as long as I
have, young man, maybe you'll understand that there doesn't have to be a
natural explanation for anything."

     He stood up from his hunched position, looking across at the site of
the house.  "You're gone now," he said quietly to himself.  "But I suspect
that you'll be back."

     For his moment, his eyes went hard and narrow as he continued to look
at the burned site.  "And we'll be waiting.  Don't think we won't."

     And then the look was gone, and he scampered up to the top of a nearby
roof, pulling out an empty sack.  "But until then... a bit of fun!"

     Happosai bounced off into the night, his worries forgotten, his only
thoughts of underwear and girlies.  But somewhere below that were memories,
memories long buried, brought back tonight by the familiar presence he'd
felt in the house as they'd left.

     He was fairly sure he knew what fire was hot enough to melt stone, to
reduce a house to nothingness.  And he knew that none of the people
searching through that pile of cinders would have ever believed, or wanted
to believe, what had actually happened.

**********

     Akane sat up in bed abruptly, the covers a tangle around her body.
Her pyjamas clung to her, and she felt as if she'd been swimming in her
own sweat.

     <...rip your heart out...>

     She hoped she hadn't screamed; the last thing she needed to do was
wake Hinako-sensei up.  Shampoo and Mousse had headed back to the
Nekohanten, but the young teacher had simply been carried up and put on the
floor of Akane's room.   She glanced down beside the bed at Hinako-sensei;
the teacher breathed softly, hair falling like a curtain over one side of
her face as she clutched one of Akane's old stuffed animals.

     "He's gone," Akane said softly to herself in the dark.  "If the fall
didn't kill him, then he would have died when the island was destroyed."

     The words did nothing to dispel the memory of her nightmare, Richard
Stalford standing over her again, the knife raised in his hand, and she was
helpless.  As small as he had been, he had seemed a giant in her dream, and
his eyes had been the crimson glow of smoldering coals.  She'd awakened
just as he brought the knife down upon her.

     "He's gone," she repeated.  She felt tears on her face, and wiped her
sleeve across her cheek.  "It's over now.  I'm home, we're all safe..."

     "Miss Tendo, are you okay?" Hinako-sensei murmured, still half-asleep.

     "I'm... I'm alright sensei.  I just had a nightmare..." Akane said.

     Her only answer was a snore.  She glanced over at the clock; it was
nearly sunrise.  The first bits of red glow could be seen through the
window.  Despite the fact that she'd slept only a little more than an hour,
she didn't feel tired.  And given what dreams she might have, she didn't
much feel like going back to sleep.

     She got out of bed, carefully stepping over Hinako-sensei, and took
her housecoat off the hook on the door.  Opening the door as quietly as
possible, she stepped out into the hallway and headed quietly downstairs.

     At the back door, she slipped on her shoes and then carefully stepped
out onto the porch, looking up at those dim rays predicting the dawn,
before she headed out further into the yard.  The morning was crisp and
chilly, and she shivered slightly as she headed towards the koi pond.

     As it came into view, she spotted Ranma already there, his head tilted
up to look to the east, towards the glow coming over the tops of the
skyscrapers, flashing upon metal and glass in a growing symphony of fire.

     She came and sat beside him without a word.  He looked over, and
suprise registered on his face for a moment before he smiled.

     "Hi Akane," he said quietly.

     "What are you doing up this early?" she replied.

     "Wanted to watch the sun rise," Ranma said.  "And you?"

     "I had a bad dream," Akane said.

     "This whole past day's been like a bad dream at times," Ranma said.
"Monsters under the ocean, men who aren't men, that Stalford guy..."

     Akane closed her eyes and shuddered at the name.  Ranma wrapped his
arm around her and shifted over a bit, hugging her tightly to him.

     "I've been thinking, Akane," he said softly, whispering into her ear.
His breath tickled against her skin, chilly in the early morning.  "About
what I said on the rock, right before Hikaru and I blew the whole thing
up."

     "Yes?" Akane said quietly.  It was all she could manage to say.

     "I've been thinking about other stuff too," Ranma said.  "About how I
might've only said it because Ukyou made me, because I thought we might not
make it out of there."

     He brought his head back up and wrapped his other arm around her.
"And then I started thinking about other stuff, ya know.  Like when the
dragon had you in Ryugenzawa, or when you nearly died on Phoenix Mountain,
when I was fighting Saffron, or about how we all mighta died if I hadn't
been able to shake off that paralysis.  And I realized how close I've come
to losing you so many times, or how many times I've nearly lost you by
losing myself.  What if I hadn't come back from fighting Herb, what if..."

     He sighed loudly, and Akane was content to just stay there in his
arms, hoping she was right about what he was going to say next.

     "All these what ifs.  And if one of them had ever not been a what if,
then I'd never have been able to tell you how I feel, and that would have
been so wrong.  I... I have to come clean with you, Akane.  Before one of
those what ifs does come true.  And it has to be because I do feel that
way, not because I think you've died, or because I think we may all die, or
because someone makes me, or because I'm under a spell."

     Ranma gulped and held her even tighter, and Akane was suprised to see
a tear fall down his cheek.  "I've got to tell you, Akane.  I love you.  I
love you more than anything in the world, and I don't ever want to lose
you."

     "Ranma..." Akane said.  She'd heard the words only hours earlier, but
somehow now they meant so much more.  "I... I love you too.  If I ever lost
you, I don't know what I would do."

     "But he'll be back again," Ranma said.  "Shigeki.  He may need my help
again, and even if I don't like putting you in danger, he may need yours
too, and if you choose to give it, I won't try to stop you.  No one should
have to stand alone against the darkness, and there have to be people who
are willing to fight back, against people like Stalford, against monsters,
there have to be people to fight for those who can't."

     "I know..." Akane said.  "Let's not think about that now.  We're safe.
Everyone is safe now."

     Holding Akane in his arms, Ranma thought for a moment about a man who
had not been a man, a man with eyes that seemed to look through him and
beyond to things he could never see, a man who had smiled as Ranma gave him
a kick that should have snapped his leg like a twig.  He remembered
hundreds of dark shapes, and their inhuman song rising around him.  He
remembered the thing still asleep under the Pacific ocean, the thing whose
mind he'd felt for a moment.

     And he remembered a man who had been a man, who had sought to leave
his humanity behind and become something more.  A man who had nearly been
the end of all of them.

     "Yeah..." he whispered quietly, as Akane nestled against him and
sighed, and the sun rose higher in the east, rising over the city and the
world, and over the two of them.  "Safe."

     Their kiss this time was far longer than the last one.

**********

     "There you are, sir," the news vendor said, handing the paper across
to the man and accepting the yen in return.  The man smiled and headed off
through the early morning streets of Tokyo, suit neatly pressed, looking as
if he were going off to a job he enjoyed very much.  He was a man handsome
in a way that could not be defined, a handsomeness that had nothing
memorable to it but was appealing all the same.

     He read the paper as he walked, carefully making his way through the
early morning crowds.  Some who brushed against him felt a momentary stab
of abnormal panic before it was gone again.  Behind the glasses he wore,
dark eyes scanned the front page.

     "Mysterious Explosion In The Pacific," he whispered quietly to
himself, smiling as he continued to read in his head.  Ships from miles
away had seen an enormous flash of blue light at around two yesterday
morning, and had heard a sound described by one crew member as 'like a
hundred thousand thunderclaps all at once'.  Several ships had nearly been
capsized by huge tidal waves, and the seismographs at universities and
research stations all over Japan had registered a powerful but localized
quake at the location that was believed to have been the source of the
explosion.  Little was known at the time, but the government has said it
will be launching a full investigation...

     He folded the paper and tucked it under his arm, still smiling
broadly.  His hand slipped into the pocket of his suit, caressing the dead
stone effigy that felt warm and supple beneath his touch, like a living
thing.  He looked about at the faces in the crowd, and where a man or
woman's eyes met his, they looked away for a reason they could not define,
and a cold shiver ran quickly through their entire body.

     The man began to whistle a cheerful, mindless tune as he walked.  He
had work to do this day.

     And the day after that, and after that, and after that as well.

     Quite a lot of work to do indeed.

                                 THE END