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LOS Website at: http://www.humbug.org.au/~wendigo/los.html
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Other works by Susan Doenime, Mike Loader, and Alan Harnum can be found
at: http://www.humbug.org.au/~wendigo/transp.html
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* Last One Standing * by Mike Loader *
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* All R1/2 characters and situations are the creations
and Property of Takahashi Rumiko, and are used without
her knowledge or permission, either explicit or implied.
No challenge or claim can or should be percieved to the
validity of any copyrights from the posting of this work.
Please do not reproduce this work in a public forum
without permission from the author. *
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Canto 3 - Blood Ties

 Through a door that leads to a fire blazing red
 Where she makes no distinctions
 'tween the living and the dead.
 She can find your secret madness
 She knows your secret name
 What demons do you hide, my friend?
 What creatures lurk inside, my friend?
 To her, you know, it's really all the same.
 Beasts and demons laugh and yell
 The lonely midwife sings
 They dance about like puppets
 But the Lady works their strings
 - Boiled in Lead


	Kick. Punch. Kick.

	Stupid tomboy, Ranma thought.

	Punch. Feint. Kick.

	The practice dummy was beginning to look more than a 
little battered. He had gone out in the yard to train until Akane 
got back. The sun had set, and he was still out here.

	Take her for a walk, he had told Ryouga. Talk to her. Find 
out if she's really okay with this challenge. A _walk_, for 
crying out loud, not a vacation!

	What had he been thinking, sending her off with Ryouga 
like that? He'd gone through hell in the past to make sure they 
_didn't_ have long, solitary walks like this! Yeah, maybe 
Ryouga was fixed on Akari now, but he wasn't completely over 
Akane... and she always did seem to like him...

	Stupid tomboy.

	They should have been back by now. Dinner was over. Had 
they eaten together in a cafe, by candlelight? Ryouga could 
have given her a gift, and they could have eaten together, 
laughing...

	No. Not Akane.

	Or... or maybe something had happened. Maybe Anjin had 
hurt her. Maybe she was in a hospital right now, and he hadn't 
been there to do anything.

	Ranma forced himself to relax. Ryouga was an idiot, but 
he certainly wasn't going to let Akane get hurt right in front of 
him. And a hospital would have called the Tendos.

	They had probably just gotten lost. Yeah, that had to be 
it. Akane had probably let Ryouga lead the way, and before she 
knew it they were in Osaka, or Kyoto, or who knew where.  
She'd roll her eyes and get them a train ticket, and they'd get 
home tomorrow morning.

	That had to be it.

	Ranma kicked the post viciously, unleashing a fast set of 
punches as he did. It tottered, creaked in protest, and then 
toppled to the ground.

	Stupid tomboy.

	He slowly turned around and walked into the house. There 
wasn't much he could do out here, and it was getting dark.

	Akane would just have get home when she felt like it. It 
wasn't like there was any reason to be concerned. None at all.

***

	The hallway was long, and dark, and it seemed as though 
she had been walking forever.

	Well, not forever, Akane mentally amended. Hours, 
perhaps. An hour. Maybe not even that. It was hard to tell in 
this place.

	The floor her footsteps echoed on was lined with black 
tile, chipped and broken in places. The walls were of some 
material she couldn't identify; the lack of color in this world 
made her sense of texture uncertain at best.

	Roughly every five minutes - she had counted - she would 
pass a black picture frame, inside which was mounted a 
featureless black canvas. Who had hung them? Were they just 
naturally occurring features of this place?

	Akane swallowed, her footfalls loud in her ears. The 
magnitude of what she was doing was beginning to sink in. She 
was going to walk into another dimension, or world, or 
whatever, fight her way through a bunch of creatures from 
myth and legend, rescue Ryouga - Ryouga, for heaven's sake! - 
and somehow escape.

	Yeah, right. Maybe next she would go fight Cologne with 
both hands tied behind her back, or challenge Ukyou to an 
okonomiyaki bakeoff while blindfolded.

	Still, what else could she do? Leaving Ryouga there was 
not an option. Getting help would be next to impossible; Ranma 
apparently wasn't able to, Shampoo wouldn't be interested, and 
she didn't want to put Ukyou in harm's way. Besides which, she 
suspected that you had to be able to phase to enter this world, 
and there wasn't time to teach any of the others.

	So it was just her and the incredibly ugly sword Tofu had 
given her.

	With luck, she wouldn't have to use it. But she doubted 
she had that much luck in her.

	One more little fact to dwell upon at day's end. She had 
killed. Not a human being, but an intelligent, sentient creature; 
a Kitsune.

	Akane still wasn't sure how to feel. A bit numb, perhaps. 
It bothered her that she didn't feel worse about it. The events 
on the hill still seemed unreal, hazy, like a bad dream. Maybe 
that was part of it.

	And, to be honest, the creature's death had been more a 
positive event than anything else. It had been trying to rip out 
her throat, it had scared her out of her wits, and she couldn't 
think of a single good thing to say about it. It actually gave her 
a feeling of relief to know that it was dead.

	Did that make her a killer? She didn't think so. It 
troubled her all the same.

	She passed another black frame, and idly wondered where 
she was. The Gloaming, Tofu had called this place, and 
Underneath was where the Nogitsune Kitsune lived. So what 
else lived here? Who had built this tunnel?

	And why, she suddenly wondered, was there a long 
hallway leading from the analogue of Doctor Tofu's office to 
the edge of the Underneath?

	Akane frowned and bit her lip. She suddenly had a lot of 
questions to ask, with no-one to answer them.

	The hallway seemed to widen after a while, and in the 
distance she caught sight of a barrier of some sort. Quickening 
her pace, she began to lope forward at a near-run.

	It turned out to be a door made of rough wood, a small 
crescent moon carved into it making a windowlike slit. Cold 
air rushed through it, rustling the hair on her brow.

	Akane hesitated for a minute, and then pushed it open.

	Trees greeted her, evergreens and pines stretching away 
for as far as she could see.

	Silently she stepped outside, and her vision seemed to 
ripple.

	She could see colors again, Akane suddenly realized. The 
trees were green, the trunks a blackish-brown. But all were of 
a dark composition, as though the artist who had painted this 
landscape had mixed all his colors with a strong black dye and 
faded the result with charcoal.

	She looked around, suddenly curious as to what she had 
emerged from, and blinked.

	It was a small wooden outhouse, no more than a few feet 
across. She got a brief, maddening glimpse of the long 
passageway through the open door, and then a gust of wind 
blew it shut with a loud slap.

	Suddenly feeling very lost, Akane tugged open the door 
again.

	A gasp of dismay escaped her lips. The passageway was 
gone. Inside was simply a wooden toilet seat and a catalog 
missing half its pages.

	Her way back was gone. Not that she had expected to turn 
back, but the fact that the option was there had been one of the 
things propping up her resolve. Now, though... now she was lost 
in a dark forest in another world inhabited, as best she knew, 
by fox-beings who for some reason wanted to kill her.

	Not one of her better days, she thought miserably.

	Oh well. Standing and staring at a toilet wouldn't do her 
much good.

	She chuckled, her insides suddenly telling her that in at 
least one way the transformation had been fortunate. With a 
certain grim humor, she stepped inside, made use of the 
facilities, and then emerged, leaving the catalog with two less 
pages.

	A moment's study revealed that the outhouse had a small 
track leading away from it. Akane hesitated for a second, then 
decided that it was better than wandering aimlessly off into 
the forest, and certainly better than just standing there.

	As she walked, she couldn't help but notice the way the 
place seemed at once sterile and suffocating. No insects 
seemed to buzz or hop about, no squirrels darted across the 
path. But the trees seemed to go up and up, and the branches 
hid the sky from view.

	Was there a sky?

	Of course there was, she firmly told herself. There had to 
be.

	After a minute or two of walking, the path opened up into 
a clearing. A cabin, the chimney smoking, sat in the middle of 
it.

	She started to walk towards it, then hesitated. What sort 
of person - what sort of thing - made its home here? Was 
there a squad of Kitsune inside, waiting to pounce upon her?

	She stared at the cabin, torn, and then the door swung 
open.

	The figure that emerged was short, and dressed in baggy 
greens and blacks. A leather hatband and the tattered remains 
of a hat brim held a shock of unruly black hair in place. A 
shotgun was casually held in one small hand, but only a pair of 
green eyes seemed to be aimed at her.

	He had to be all of eleven years old, Akane guessed.

	"Hello?" she said cautiously, keeping a careful eye on the 
gun. She wasn't sure what a kid was doing here, and she wasn't 
completely convinced that he was a child at all. The memory of 
the almost-Ranma on the hill was still lurking in the back of 
her mind.

	"Hello," the boy said, an undertone of amusement in his 
voice.

	Akane waited for a second. The boy smiled slightly.

	"Who are you?" she asked, feeling slightly awkward.

	"Mika," he replied. The grin grew broader.

	"Is something funny?" she said, slightly annoyed. Of all 
the things she had been expecting to face, the amusement of a 
grade-schooler with a shotgun wasn't among them.

	He nodded. "The way you're standing there."

	She scowled. Another Ranma. Wonderful. "And why is the 
way I'm standing so amusing?"

	"Because the Kamaitachi are going to kill you in a few 
more seconds unless you move."

	Akane stared at the boy. He grinned, nodded, and then 
something leaped at her from the side.

	Akane jumped backwards as fast as she could, her sword 
scything out as she did so. She saw what appeared to be a 
fanged, squealing, gnashing set of jaws close in on her like a 
guided missile, and desperately threw herself to the side, 
slashing upwards as she did so.

	There was a scream like a crazed rat, and the thing spun, 
a bloody slash along its flank spurting crimson. Akane heard 
the roar of the shotgun, and then the thing lunged towards her 
with inhuman speed.

	The sword caught it beneath the jaws, sinking into 
matted, mud-colored fur. Akane was slammed back against a 
tree by the impact, and she watched with horrified fascination 
as the creature began to push itself further up the blade, 
impaling itself deeper as it struggled to get the slashing jaws 
closer...

	It convulsed, suddenly, and went still.

	Shakily, Akane pushed the thing off her blade with one 
foot. Lying on the ground, she could see that it was about the 
size of a large dog, mostly composed of ugly, unkempt fur and a 
long, sinuous body. It looked like a giant weasel, she thought, 
save for the huge set of jaws that dominated the head. It didn't 
seem to have any eyes.

	Turning to look at the porch, she saw the boy lower his 
shotgun. Two more of the things lay sprawled at the edge of 
the clearing, twitching slightly.

	"Thank you so very much for warning me," Akane said, 
forcing herself to keep her tone even. "I could have been killed, 
you know."

	The boy grinned again. "I don't think so. You're good 
enough to take one of them by yourself."

	"How did you know that?" she asked, suspicious. Those 
things had been _fast_.... for the boy to hit both of them with 
fatal shots...

	"I didn't," he said simply. "But if you weren't, something 
here would have killed you before long anyway. Do you want 
some food?"

	Akane stared at him. The green eyes stared back. "I 
don't..."

	"If I was going to hurt you, I could just shoot you," he 
pointed out. "I promise it isn't poisoned or anything."

	She sighed, and stepped forward. "All right. I am a bit 
hungry."

	He nodded, and smiled as she followed him inside. "Is 
deer okay?"

	Akane nodded, amused in spite of herself. "Cooked, 
right?" 

	"I can cook it if you like."

	She stopped in the doorframe, glancing around at the 
cabin. A wooden table and some chairs stood near a hearth, and 
a bookshelf leaned precariously against one wall. On a 
sideboard in a corner, the carcass of a stag bled.

	A heap of furs in one corner seemed to provide a rough 
bed, a battered knapsack lying tossed in a corner of it.

	"Who are you?" she asked, less afraid than confused. 
"What are you?"

	"I'm Mika the Raven," he told her, setting the shotgun 
down on the table. "And I'm a hunter."

	"Where are your parents?" Akane asked. Perhaps he was 
an orphan?

	"Where are yours?" Mika pulled a long knife out of his 
jacket, strolled over to the stag, and began to cut a bit off. 

	"Somewhere else," she said. Somewhere a long, long ways 
away. "But I'm older than you."

	Mika glanced up to look at her. "I know. You're the oldest 
and the youngest."

	Akane blinked. Did he mean the youngest of her family? 
And the oldest of what, her and him? "Excuse me?"

	He shook his head. "How much do you want, Oneesan?"

	"Just a little." She smiled slightly. "And now I'm 
'Oneesan'?"

	"Yup. You are." Mika sliced off a cut of meat, and moved to 
hold it over the hearth.

	She laughed. "My little brother should treat his big sister 
better, then, instead of letting her almost get eaten by... by... 
What were those things, anyway?"

	"Kamaitachi. There's a couple packs of them around."

	Akane recognized the name from another fairytale. The 
sickle-weasels, who always hunted in threes and were faster 
than the wind, faster than lightning... "Another damn living 
myth."

	"Not anymore."

	She smiled. "Isn't it dangerous, living here with those 
things running around?"

	Mika shook his head. "They don't attack me. They know 
better. Besides, I'm just here for a while." He turned the meat 
over, letting the flames lick each side equally. "I'll be moving 
on soon."

	Akane wasn't sure whether to be amused or alarmed by 
his confidence. The Kamaitachi weren't quite as fast as legend 
claimed, but they were still swift enough to be very, very 
dangerous. Unarmed, she wasn't sure how she would have done... 
and she strongly doubted that she could have held off three at 
once. A pack of them would probably have eaten this little 
fellow up in one gulp, if they ever jumped him.

	Then again, Mika was decidedly uneaten at the moment.

	"Where are you from?" she asked. 

	He shrugged. "I don't think I'm really from anywhere. I 
travel a lot, following things." With a flip of the knife, he 
tossed the hunk of meat onto a chipped china plate and slid it 
across the table to her. "What's your name, Oneesan?"

	"Oh! Sorry, I'm Tendo Akane," she told him, slightly 
embarrassed. "Pleased to meet you." She bit off a hunk of the 
offered meat, and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor. 
"You're a good cook, Mika."

	"Thanks, Oneesan." He smiled almost shyly, and scratched 
at the shock of black hair above the hatband. "I do it a lot."

	"I can't cook at all," she admitted. "I want to, but I'm no 
good at it. Maybe someday I'll learn."

	"It's not your job," Mika said, looking amused.

	She glanced at him, half-amused, half-surprised. "Well, 
shouldn't your older sister be able to cook?"

	He shook his head. "I don't think it works that way."

	"My older sister cooks for us." Akane sighed. "I always 
wanted to be able to cook like Kasumi, but I can't. I can't do a 
lot of the things she can." A sour chuckle emerged. "Mostly I 
break things."

	Mika nodded solemnly. "That's your job."

	"Are you the one who divides up labor, Mika-kun?" she 
said, chuckling.

	His face darkened slightly. "Not me. I just hunt and wait."

	"For what?"

	"To hunt some more." He stared at her. "You don't know 
much, Oneesan."

	"Sometimes I feel like I don't know anything," Akane 
admitted. "I just want to get my friend out of..." She blinked, a 
thought suddenly occurring to her. "Mika, do you know where 
the Kitsune are? The Nogitsune?"

	"They're all over Underneath," he said seriously. "There's 
a big barrow to the west with a lot of them. But they have 
lodges like this all over the place."

	"Would they have taken..." A cold feeling shot down her 
back as the words fully registered. "Mika... Mika, is this a 
Kitsune lodge?"

	"It was, yeah."

	She jumped to her feet. "Mika, they're hunting me. We'd 
better leave as quickly as..."

	He laughed. "Don't worry, Oneesan. They won't bother me."

	It was hard to tell whether or not to believe him, she 
thought with frustration. There was something odd about him, 
about this place, about the way he'd shot down the other two 
Kamaitachi, but he was only eleven or ten... "Mika, have you 
ever seen a Kitsune?"

	"I saw the ones I killed for this lodge," he told her, 
smiling slightly. "I needed a place to sleep. And I shot one in 
the woods yesterday because he tried to run away. Those are 
the only ones I've seen this week."

	Akane stared at him, suddenly certain he was telling the 
truth. "Who are you?"

	"I'm Mika the Raven, Oneesan," he said. "I told you that 
already."

	"I've never had a little brother who massacres Kitsune 
before," she said with a calm she didn't feel.

	"First time for everything." He looked up sharply, 
frowning. "Why are you here? I knew you'd come, but I don't 
know why."

	"You knew I'd come?" she repeated dumbly. "How?"

	"Just knew. I usually know where my sisters are."

	"I am not your sister," Akane said forcefully. "Were you 
waiting for me?"

	He nodded. "I wanted to meet you. Are you here for our 
other sister?"

	"What sister?" Akane demanded. The boy was beginning to 
both confuse and frighten her. "Nabiki? Kasumi?"

	Mika shook his head. "Our sister. Guess not."

	"I'm here for my friend Ryouga," she said. "The Nogitsune 
took him. Do you know where they might have taken him?"

	"They took him?" Mika bit his lip, his green eyes suddenly 
narrowing to slits. "Oh. They probably took him to the barrow. 
Are you going to try to get him back?"

	She nodded. "Yes. I have to." Hesitating, she studied the 
boy, her conscience struggling with the request. "I don't 
suppose you could help me?"

	Mika stared at the table for a second, and then shook his 
head. "I can't, Oneesan. The Fair Lady doesn't come into the 
forests after me, and I don't go into the barrows. It's your job."

	"That's okay. He's my friend, not yours." Standing, she 
glanced out the window. "I have to get going, Mika. Thanks for 
the deer."

	The boy nodded. "Oneesan... be careful."

	Akane forced a smile. "I will be. I have iron, and I'm told 
Kitsune don't like it."

	He nodded, face troubled. "But our sister doesn't mind it, 
and the Fair Lady isn't as sensitive to it as the Kitsune are."

	"Sister?" she asked, a sinking feeling rising in the pit of 
her stomach. 

	He nodded. "She's the middle one. She's younger than you, 
and I'm a lot older than her, but she's still..." He froze. "She's 
not that far off. You'd better leave, Oneesan. I might have to 
kill you if you don't."

	Akane looked at him for a second, nodded tersely, and 
stepped out the door. "Goodbye, Mika the Raven."

	"Goodbye, Oneesan. You'll see me again."

	And she probably would, Akane thought dazedly, running 
from the cabin. It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen of 
late.

	The barrow was west, Mika had said, and had pointed to 
the left. Akane began to angle that way, suddenly feeling a 
need to move quickly. Maybe something was hunting her, and 
maybe it was just her imagination... but the quicker this was 
done, the better.

	Mika the Raven remained standing in the door for a long 
time, watching her go. When she finally faded from sight 
amidst the trees, he sighed, walked back into the cabin, and 
picked up his shotgun and shouldered his knapsack. Taking a 
candle from the hearth, he set the curtain aflame, and watched 
until the windowframe had begun to burn.

	"The circle is closed," he whispered, something in his 
voice afraid, and something gleeful and expectant. Then, 
chuckling, he dashed into the woods and headed south for the 
lands now crawling with Hisa Mei.

	From a ridge to the north, a gaunt figure watched a 
column of smoke and flame rise from the clearing, scowled, 
and moved on faster than before.

***

	The Fair Lady sat in her parlor and sewed.

	The needle she used was bone and silver, two materials 
which pleased her and complemented her beauty admirably. The 
parlor itself was mostly made of them as well, since silver 
was beautiful and bones, after all, were plentiful in a barrow. 
So the walls were femurs and the floorboards were ribs and 
tibias, and the overall effect was quite pleasing to her.

	The Kitsune swarmed about the barrow, agitated. The 
Hunter was in the forests, and the Fisher was Underneath, and 
all of them remembered previous visits by those two. The 
Kitsune had long memories, especially for cold iron and those 
with the power to use it.

	The Hunter, the Fisher , and the... other one. All three. The 
Kitsune were afraid, or at least experiencing the analogue of 
the human emotion of fear. The barrow literally stank of it.

	And this, too, was pleasing to her.

	The Lady deftly threaded her needle with black and 
yellow, and sewed. A boy dressed in those colors quickly 
appeared on the cloth, a chain of something harder than silver 
about his neck and arms. The thread changed color as she wove, 
her needlework rapid and sure.

	After a time, she absently stopped to examine her work.

	Selecting a second needle, she began to pick out the form 
of a girl next to him, with short, blue-black hair and a yellow 
gi. She sewed faster and faster, the girl's features coming 
clearly into focus, and then stopped. A whimsical smile 
crossed her face, and she added a poker to the girl's hands, 
stitching the end of it in glowing orange and red threads.

	A hesitant knocking sounded at the door, and the Lady 
reluctantly set down her sewing. "You may enter."

	The door swung open, and a Kitsune entered, head bowed 
low in deference. "Fair Lady."

	"Tamamo," the Lady graciously replied, treating the 
Kitsune to a smile. "You are well?"

	"Well enough for having spent the last few centuries 
sealed inside a rock," the Kitsune said cautiously, brushing her 
hand along a golden-furred arm. Her tail lashed nervously out 
from the back of her richly brocaded kimono, blurring into nine 
parts as it flicked back and forth. "The Gakido, the Demon Road, 
has been seen, Fair Lady. There are whispers in the wind that it 
runs towards Mount Teidi."

	"Does it pass through Underneath?" the Lady asked.

	"No, Fair Lady, not yet. I have sent scouts along it to 
trace its course, but the Hisa Mei are swarming about it. It is 
difficult."

	"My Hunter has killed several of them, of late," the Lady 
said petulantly. "You are not trying hard enough."

	"The Hunter kills everything," Tamamo bitterly replied. 
"Including my scouts, and once nearly me. He is making our job 
harder."

	The Fair Lady smiled and nodded. Tamamo gritted her 
teeth.

	"Lady, I have served you as well as any Kitsune," she 
slowly said. "And all of my nine tails have come in your 
service. I brought down Pan-Tsu, and the dynasty of the Chou, 
and the Son of Heaven himself nearly fell to my charms. I spent 
what seems like an eternity bound in a rock on the plain of 
Nasuno, killing those who rested against me, all for your cause. 
Have I not served you well?"

	"You have," the Lady said, smiling.

	"Then, Fair Lady, is it too much to ask that you keep your 
pet mortals from killing those of your children engaged in 
efforts on your behalf?"

	The Lady thought for a second.

	"Yes," she finally said. "It is too much to ask."

	Tamamo shrieked as razors seemed to slide up her bones, 
and fell to her knees in agony before the Lady's white wicker 
chair. A beautiful, white-slippered foot kicked her in the side 
of the head, the force of the blow sending the golden-furred 
Kitsune tumbling across the room to land in a heap by the 
fireplace.

	As the Lady smiled gently, Tamamo lay by the crackling 
hearth, the pain beginning to recede from her body. The flames 
seemed to scream, and she realized that the flues were 
carrying noises up from somewhere further below.

	She couldn't make out many coherent words in it, other 
than a name and the word 'stop', shrieked over and over again...

	"'Akane'?" she said gingerly, slowly rising from the floor.

	The Lady nodded. "She will be coming soon."

	Tamamo blinked. She knew all of the Nogitsune Kitsune 
by name and smell, at least those of any importance, and there 
were none by that name. And none of the Lady's other servants 
would have such a...

	Her eyes widened. "Fair Lady! Not the third?"

	"She will be coming soon."

	Tamamo felt fear knot her fur, and her tails lashed. 
"Lady, it is too dangerous. Use the Hunter; he is an old and 
potent tool. Use the Fisher; newly come to service. But all 
three, at once, and especially that one..."

	"Do not worry, Tamamo. And do not question."

	"Yes, Fair Lady." 

	The screams wafted up, louder than before. The Fair Lady 
blinked slowly, and made a dismissing gesture with one hand. 
Tamamo bowed, and silently left.

	With a satisfied noise, the Lady picked up her sewing, 
noting with interest how the girl in the yellow gi was now 
applying the poker to the needlework form of the chained boy. 
With a low giggle, she sewed a wide splash of blue across the 
agonized face of thread, and watched as the strands rearranged 
themselves to form a small black piglet.

	A few more passes with the needle added a boiling pan 
and a set of thin silvery skewers to the needlework girl's hand. 
Smiling, the Fair Lady set the cloth down on a low side table 
and selected a fresh white napkin, upon which she began to 
embroider a stylized assortment of baby chicks and rabbits. 
Squeals echoed up the flue, and the fire crackled. It was 
pleasing to her.

***

	Akane walked on, the trees looming over her like giants. 
She still sensed that she was being pursued, but the feeling 
was no longer as intense as it had been.

	After leaving Mika's cabin, she had kept moving steadily 
west. A smell of smoke from behind her had momentarily 
caused her to hesitate, and then instead made her redouble her 
pace.

	She hadn't seen a barrow yet... but then again, she wasn't 
completely sure what one looked like. A mound of some sort, 
she supposed. Perhaps a hill.

	That brought to mind images of the last hill she had been 
on, and a shudder ran through her. She was running from 
something, but what was she running towards? A pit full of 
demons, by all accounts.

	Akane's shoulders slumped slightly. Things were looking 
bad, and getting worse. She wasn't out of energy yet, but what 
happened when she did tire? There were supposedly more 
Kamaitachi roaming around, and they would undoubtedly be 
delighted to stumble across a sleeping 16-year-old. She 
probably wouldn't even have a chance to wake up.

	Although, she grimly thought, if a pack of Kamaitachi 
found her it really wouldn't make much difference whether she 
was asleep or awake. She was barely a match for one of the 
things; three would rip her to pieces in seconds. She was 
staying alive only by virtue of luck.

	"You're thinking cheerful thoughts today," she said out 
loud. Then she chuckled ruefully; she supposed that she had a 
right to be gloomy.

	In a strange way, she almost wished Mika was with her. 
Her younger brother had nothing to fear from Kamaitachi, one 
or three or three hundred of them...

	"And what makes you think that?" she suddenly muttered, 
alarmed. And why on earth did the younger brother title he had 
claimed seem to fit so naturally?

	Akane was suddenly seized with the desire to just run 
through the instructions Tofu had given her, to phase back into 
into the real world. To give up. To get Ranma and Ukyou and 
Shampoo, all of whom were much better equipped to deal with 
this than she was, and let them rescue Ryouga... or at least get 
them to come with her.

	She stopped, sighed, and forcefully shoved the idea away. 
There was limited time, she didn't know if any of the others 
would be able to help, and it was at least partly her fault that 
this whole mess existed in the first place.

	A baying howl suddenly split the air, echoing through the 
forest. Akane froze, sucking in her breath, and then another 
howl answered it.

	A feeling of dread beginning to build in her, and she broke 
into a trot. She didn't know what there was in a forest that 
made that sort of noise, but she was sure that it was nothing 
good.

	The wailing howl echoed again, this time closer and off 
to her right. Akane swore silently and began to run.

	The trunks sped past her as she dashed through the 
woods, the darkness somehow not obscuring her vision. A stand 
of tightly tangled underbrush blocked her way for a second; 
drawing her sword, she hastily cut them away. The baying of 
whatever was pursuing her echoed louder and louder, growing 
ever nearer, and something like panic began to emerge.

	Finally, panting, she dashed through a thicket and froze. 
She was on top of a ridge, the ground falling away in a 
cliffside before her.

	Heart sinking, Akane looked over the edge. The bottom, 
several feet below, was a dark tangle of broken branches and 
sharp-looking boulders. Jumping would be a good way to get 
impaled or break her neck.

	She could hear the sound of running feet now, the rhythm 
of them suggested something with more than two legs. The 
yelping howls were echoing like klaxons, and she knew that in 
a minute they would be through the woods and upon her.

	Swallowing, Akane glanced wildly around, desperately 
seeking some way to escape. Her gaze fell on a particularly 
large tree and she scrambled up it, using her sword as a piton 
to climb with. Maybe whatever was chasing her couldn't climb, 
or wouldn't see her.

	Hacking and scrabbling, she pulled herself up onto one of 
the lower branches and crouched on it, flat on her belly. If the 
thing could climb, she could at least stab at it from above...

	The howls and running feet grew closer, and suddenly 
Shampoo burst out of the woods and pulled to a halt before the 
edge of the ridge.

	Akane almost fell out of the tree in shock. Her mouth 
opened to call out to the Amazon, and then she remembered the 
almost-Ranma Kitsune on the hill, and Akari's voice calling 
through the fog, and kept silent.

	Shampoo turned, a large, two-handed sword whipping out 
of a back sheath, and then a huge white hound leapt out of the 
trees.

	The Amazon's sword slashed forward in a blur, and the 
hound fell in two halves as three more dogs sprang from the 
trees. Shampoo retreated backwards, sword moving in a 
scything arc as the dogs snarled and began to close cautiously 
in from different directions.

	Akane bit her lip. Impostor or not, she couldn't just sit 
and watch as someone who looked like one of her 
acquaintances was ripped apart.

	Crawling forward along the branch, she gauged the 
distance and jumped, sword high.

	The closest dog turned just as her blade stabbed down 
into its back. The other two snarled and leapt for the throat of 
the Amazon. One fell, head bouncing away into the bushes, and 
the second was met by a vicious kick to the body, sending it 
sliding away. It scrabbled for traction as it landed, growling, 
and then a blow from the two-handed sword severed the top of 
its head.

	Akane stared at the other girl, sword held in a ready 
position, and abruptly realized that this wasn't Shampoo. She 
looked enough like her to be her sister or cousin, but the face 
was slightly different, and there were subtle variations in her 
fighting style.

	At the same time, though, she didn't look like a Kitsune...

	Akane opened her mouth to say something, and two 
figures in green and white charged into the clearing. She spun 
to face them, and one look at the odd, silvery blades and the 
pinched, white, foxlike faces told her all she needed to know.

	One of them ran at her, his blade slashing viciously down 
towards her head. Akane darted to the side, allowing the cut to 
swing harmlessly past her, and then sliced upward at him.

	As she had expected, his sword beat down to block her 
attack. What she hadn't expected was what happened next.

	Her pitted blade seemed to pass through her opponent's 
silver sword as if it had been made of cardboard. It continued 
upward to gash the Kitsune's shoulder, ignoring the armored 
cuirass he wore.

	The fox staggered backwards, dropping the broken hilt of 
his weapon. His eyes widened, and then smoke began to pour 
from the cut. He opened his mouth to scream and a cloud of 
red-tinged steam emerged along with an agonized shriek.

	Sickened, Akane turned away as the Kitsune's rapidly 
blackening body fell to the ground.

	On the other side of the clearing, the other Nogitsune cut 
and feinted and danced as the Amazon did the same with her 
larger sword. Akane saw to her dismay that the remaining fox 
seemed more skilled than the one she had cut down, and that 
the Amazon's weapon was clattering against her opponent's 
parries rather than hewing through the strange metal.

	Yelling wildly, Akane charged, sword held high. Surely 
the thing wouldn't be stupid enough to face both of them at 
once...

	The Kitsune spun as she closed the distance. Its mouth 
bared in a snarl, and then the two-handed sword flashed out, 
sliding through the thing's chest. It gave a sharp cry, jerked, 
and then went limp.

	The Amazon gave a snort of satisfaction and wrenched 
the sword away, letting the body crumple to the ground. 
"Thanks for the help," she said, her voice a low rumble. "Two of 
them in addition to the dogs would have been tricky."

	Akane nodded, not putting away her sword. "You're 
welcome. I think they were after me in the first place, so it's 
the least I could do."

	The Amazon chuckled. "The Nogitsune are after everyone 
in this damn place. Especially humans." She blinked. "You are 
human, aren't you? You sound Japanese."

	She nodded. "I'm Tendo Akane. From Nerima, in Tokyo."

	"Well, Tendo Akane, you're a long way from home. 
Stumble into a cave or something?"

	"I'm looking for a friend of mine," she cautiously replied. 
"The Kitsune took him, and I've come to get him back."

	"Brave," the other girl said. "Perhaps not very bright, but 
brave."

	Akane flushed slightly. "What about you?" she asked 
pointedly. "You look like a Joketsuzoku, and you're here as 
well... and without cold iron."

	The Amazon raised an eyebrow. "You've got a good eye for 
tribe, Tendo Akane. I didn't think we were so well known in 
Japan."

	"You aren't," Akane replied, chuckling. "I just happen to 
know several Joketsuzoku. They drug and kidnap and beat me to 
a pulp on occasion, in between serving me ramen and hanging 
around with us."	

	"Sounds like us," the other girl said, shaking her head. 
"I'm Byen Tai. Pleased to meet you."

	"Likewise," Akane said, lowering her sword. This clearly 
wasn't a Kitsune. "Do you know where a barrow is?"

	"The big Nogitsune one? It's right down the trail to the 
left, and then along the river. Why?"

	"That's where I think they're taken him," Akane said. "At 
least, that's what I've been told."

	"You're going into a Nogitsune fortress? Brave or dumb 
you are, Tendo Akane. Probably both."

	"More the latter than the former," Akane muttered. "But I 
don't have much choice."

	Byen nodded. "Honor. I understand." She glanced down the 
side of the ridge, and them smiled. "Mind if I come along? I'm 
kind of brave and dumb myself."

	Akane glanced at her, startled. "Why? You said yourself 
that this is pretty dangerous..."

	"I thought you knew Joketsuzoku? We like dangerous. 
Besides, you may have saved me there, and if I let you wander 
off alone you'll get yourself killed, cold iron or no. I know 
Underneath well, and knowing this place is half the trick to 
surviving it."

	A trickle of suspicion ran through Akane's mind, but was 
quickly dammed by the relieving prospect of having someone 
else to share the rescue with. "Okay. I certainly don't mind the 
company. Just one thing..."

	"Hmm?"

	Akane drew her sword in a smooth motion, reversed it, 
and rapped Byen on the hand with the flat of the blade.

	The Amazon looked amused. "Is that a Japanese custom?"

	"Just making sure you wouldn't go up in smoke like that 
one back there," Akane said, relieved. "No offense, but I don't 
really trust you."

	"You _do_ know Joketsuzoku!" Byen said, laughing. "Come, 
Tendo Akane. The path is this way."

	The two girls made their way along the side of the ridge, 
Akane following. The branches creaked and swayed above them, 
and soon they vanished from sight.

	Some time later, a lone figure loped onto the ridge, 
studied the bodies, and chuckled harshly. Then she bent and 
examined the footprints, a baffled frown slowly spreading 
across her lean face. 

	"Bones?" she muttered, glancing back at the smoking 
corpses. "What are you, Tendo?" 

	Then she set off in pursuit once again.

***

	Kodachi shrieked and ran.

	Blackness surrounded her, enveloped her. Not the heady, 
exhilarating darkness of the nighttime rooftops, but an inky, 
suffocating blackness. She could almost feel it in her lungs, 
feel it beading on her skin...

	She stumbled, quickly pulled herself up, and ran on. The 
ground was a blasted heap of rubble, pitted and broken, and full 
of places to snag her feet, twist her ankle.

	The heavy footsteps pounded behind her, slow and 
deliberate, and always closer and closer. She was running as 
fast as she could, and it was only walking, and still it was 
gaining. There was no escape.

	Panting with terror and fatigue, Kodachi pulled to a stop 
under a broken column of blackened stone. Slowly, reluctantly, 
she turned around.

	Two glowing red eyes stared back at her.

	"Stay back," she commanded, trying to sound imperious 
and confident. It came out as more of a plea.

	The thing strode forward, wearing the darkness like a 
robe, red eyes burning. It reached behind it, and unshipped a 
long, twisting, wickedly-sharp scythe.

	Kodachi took a step backwards, and then another. Then 
she snarled in defiance and flung a razor hoop at the thing's 
head.

	The scythe lashed out, and the hoop fell to the ground, 
broken. The cowl masking the thing's face seemed to shake 
slightly, as if in amused laughter.

	Anger suddenly filled her. She would not be mocked. She 
would not!

	With a cry, she leapt at it, clubs fanning out in a deadly 
arc. Several of then struck the thing, and she hurled a heavy 
iron ball into its stomach, causing it to grunt in pain. Landing, 
she lashed out in a kick, felt it connect, and then sent her 
ribbon lashing around the robed figure to tie its arms.

	The red eyes blazed, and the ribbon burst into burning 
fragments. The scythe swung down at her, and she gasped in 
sudden pain as it cut a shallow gash along her side, staining 
the purple leotard with a darker crimson.

	Enraged, Kodachi leapt for the thing's throat, springing 
for it like a jaguar. Her hands closed around a neck, and she 
squeezed, yelling in fear and rage.

	The figure simply raised the scythe blade, and brought it 
over, down, and up.

	Kodachi felt the blade slip into her back, and watched in 
fascination as the steel tip emerged from her chest. Her hands 
clawed at the cowl, and it tumbled free.

	She looked into the smiling, horrifyingly familiar face, 
the eyes glowing like coals, and screamed. And then the scythe 
began to tear its way downward...

	Kodachi sat up in bed, her mouth moving soundlessly, 
sweat and tears streaming down her face. She could still feel 
the burning pain in her chest and back, and was afraid to look, 
afraid to see whether or not there was a wound, or a scar, or a 
mark.

	Now she knew what she was running from. It had chased 
her in her dreams every night for weeks, but this was the first 
time it had caught up with her.

	She mechanically reached for the pill bottle by the 
dresser, removed a tablet, and swallowed it. They helped. The 
pills let her go back to sleep without fear of the dreams, let 
her find peaceful oblivion...

	But there were only three more left.

	The doctor had said they would help. He had said that if 
the dreams got worse, there were other pills. Ones with side 
effects, but ones that would be certain to work.

	A choked sob escaped her lips. Side effects. How could 
they be worse than what tormented her every night?

	The muscles underneath her arms and legs began to roil 
and spasm, and she gritted her teeth. Her current pills had side 
effects too. But it was worth it. The silent, peaceful sleep 
afterwards was worth it. She had to walk a little funny, 
because of it, but she needed to be able to sleep without fear.

	Another spasm shot through her, and she quickly lay flat 
on the bed. Her back arched as the convulsions hit with full 
strength, and she gritted her teeth and watched as the muscles 
under her stomach and arms and legs writhed and twisted.

	Finally it passed, and she stood, her legs weak and 
shaking. She moved with an odd, shuffling step into the 
bathroom, back bent forward as if under a heavy load, and 
turned on the shower unit, setting the taps to cold. She stood 
under the freezing water for almost a minute, letting it wash 
away the sweat and scent of fear, and then turned it off and 
staggered into the bedroom. 

	Still dripping, shivering slightly, she crawled under her 
writing desk and curled into a tight ball. Sleep came quickly, 
peaceful and dreamless.

***

	The two made their way down the side of the ridge, 
following a narrow path curving downward.

	Akane wasn't sure if it was night or day. It was dark, but 
then it had been dark since she had arrived. The branches from 
the trees curled overhead, impossibly long, and were lost in 
the blackness above. Had it been a day since she had entered 
Underneath? Six hours? Two days? She wasn't sure.

	She carefully avoided peering over the edge of the cliff. 
It was a long way down.

	Byen trotted on ahead of her, the huge sword slung across 
her back. The Joketsuzoku had led them without hesitation, and 
Akane felt somehow sure that they were on the right track. At 
the very least, nothing else had attacked them yet.

	"So what are you doing here?" she asked as they 
descended. "In Underneath, I mean."

	Byen shrugged. "I was given a mission. I haven't finished 
it yet, and it's led me here."

	"The Joketsuzoku know about this place?" Akane asked, 
curious.

	"They know more than they like to tell," Byen said, a 
trace of bitterness entering her voice for a second. "But yes, 
we know how to enter this place. And others, as well. And we 
know something about what dwells within."

	"I know next to nothing," Akane admitted. "Aside from 
what I was told about the Kitsune, and what Mika told me..."

	Byen stopped. "Mika the Raven? You met Mika the Raven?"

	Akane nodded. "He mostly just confused me, although he 
did shoot a pair of Kamaitachi that were stalking me. Do you 
know him?"

	"I know of him. I've never met him, and I don't want to, 
either. He's dangerous."

	"He seemed nice enough," Akane said, somewhat 
defensively. "A little strange, but to be wandering around this 
place at that age..."

	The Amazon chuckled. "Tendo Akane, from what I've heard 
Mika the Raven has been wandering around this place at that 
age for the past few centuries, if not longer. Everywhere he 
goes, he hunts, and he's not supposed to be too choosy about 
what his prey is. Myobu and Nogitsune Kitsune, Tengu, Gaki, 
Hisa Mei, Oni, Kappa, mortals... I don't think there's a race alive 
he hasn't hunted at one point or another. The Kitsune are 
terrified of him, and so is anything else with the sense of a 
toad."

	Akane stared at her incredulously. "What is he?"

	"I don't know. I think he's human, but... it's hard to 
explain. He's taken up the mantle of the Hunter, and it makes 
him what he is." Byen shrugged. "I mostly just try to keep out 
of his way, if possible. There are things in this place, and in 
other places outside the Waking World, which are best left 
undisturbed."

	They passed along a steep switchback curve, and rounded 
a cliff edge. The sound of rushing water sounded in the 
distance, and before long they passed through a crumbling 
archway and onto a crumbling stone causeway.

	A river, the water black and swift, flowed past. Massive 
trees lined the bank, roots twisting down to drink the water, 
their branches forming a tunnel above the rushing flow. The 
causeway jutted a few feet out into the water, stairs leading 
down to a fragile-looking dock.

	Byen strode across it, motioning for Akane to follow. 
"This is the river Cocytus. It flows out of the forest and into 
the fields of Erebus, where the barrow stands."

	Descending the steps, the Amazon walked out onto the 
dock. Four wooden boats, their hulls painted in peeling orange 
paint, were tied to it; Byen carefully inspected them and then 
began to clamber into one. 

	Akane moved to get in as well, and Byen held up a hand in 
warning. "Don't let the water touch you. It doesn't have good 
effects on mortals."

	Pursing her lips, Akane carefully lowered herself into 
the boat. "Like what?"

	"I'm not sure. I know the Lethe erases memories, and the 
Styx tends to kill..."

	Akane snapped her fingers. "Greek mythology, right?"

	Byen pulled away the mooring rope, and the boat began to 
drift out into the current. "In a fashion. 'Mythology' is just a 
mixture of the old lore about places like this and some crazed 
shaman's drug-inspired babblings. Different names, same 
beings and places. But the Greeks were the ones who best 
described the rivers of this place, and so their Greek names 
are the ones most commonly used." She picked up a set of oars 
from the boat's bottom and began to steer it out into the flow. 
"The scenery along the way isn't supposed to be very pleasant, 
I'm afraid. The Nogitsune barrow is built at a spot in 
Underneath where the realm of the dead seeps through, and all 
sorts of unpleasant things wander around."

	"This whole place seems to be nothing but unpleasant 
things," Akane said, chuckling nervously. "I suppose I can stand 
a few more."

	"Good. We should be fine if we stick to the river. It's bad 
for other things as well as mortals."

	They drifted down the river in silence for some time, 
Akane gazing at the leaves passing by overhead like a black and 
green canopy. The rhythm of the oars against the water almost 
lulled her to sleep, and instead she found her mind wandering. 
She wondered what Ranma would think about her trip.

	Ranma. A lump rose in her throat, and she forced it down 
with effort. She wished he was with her. She wouldn't feel so 
afraid if he could just be here, smiling cockily, assuring her 
that everything would be fine.

	'Don't worry,' he'd say. 'I'll show those Kitsune a thing or 
two. That jerk Ryouga's sure put me to a lotta trouble, gettin' 
himself captured like that. I mean sheesh, how gullible can you 
be?'

	And he'd stroll into the barrow, beat the crap out of 
anything that got in his way, and then they'd all go home. 
Kasumi would make them supper, and the next day it would be 
business as usual.

	"Ranma, where are you?" she whispered.

	"Hm?"

	"Nothing," she said, embarrassed. She bet that Byen 
wasn't wishing her crush was here to hold her hand. Shampoo 
probably wouldn't even think about bothering Ranma for a little 
jaunt like this.

	Stronger. She had to be more reliant, less of a baby. If 
that meant being a 'macho tomboy', so be it. She didn't need 
Ranma to take care of her. She could take care of herself.

	After all, she hadn't had Ranma at Shiningen'ya, or at the 
cabin, or when the Nogitsune attacked her and Byen. And she 
had taken care of things herself, and come through just fine.

	You were scared to death, a little voice reminded her. You 
were shrieking and bawling on Shiningen'ya, and it's a miracle 
you didn't get yourself killed.

	But she hadn't been, she shot back. She had come through 
it all, on her own. She could handle this. She could handle this, 
because she had to.

	Byen started to whistle a intricate tune, somehow 
keeping two interweaving melodies going at once. Akane sat 
up, glancing curiously at her companion. "Song from home?"

	The Amazon nodded. "An old Joketsuzoku traveling song," 
she said, stopping the tune. "Gives me something to row to."

	"Would you like me to take a turn at the oars? You've been 
going for a while now..."

	"That's all right, Tendo Akane. I don't tire as easily as 
most, and I suspect you'll need your strength when we get to 
the Nogitsune barrow." Byen stared ahead, her face looking thin 
and hollow for a second as the light from the branches played 
strangely across it. "The fields of Erebus are not wholesome, 
and the barrow-mounds of it are less so. We'll be in for a 
fight."

	"Fine with me," Akane said with more enthusiasm than 
she felt. "The Nogitsune haven't had much luck with me so far, 
and they'll..."

	An odd feeling ran through her, and she slowly turned and 
stared down the river.

	A small black dot was visible in the distance behind 
them. As she watched, it grew larger...

	"Byen, something's following us," she said urgently.

	The Amazon looked, squinted, and then swore and began 
to row faster. "We are in for trouble, Tendo Akane. The Cocytus 
is rarely traveled, and almost everything that does venture 
upon it is of the fouler sort of being."

	Nodding grimly, Akane drew the iron blade. "Well, 
whatever it is, it'll get a warm reception if it tries anything."

	The dot grew into a dim shape, then into a small boat. 
Orange paint showed dimly on it, matching their own, and a 
figure stood crouched in the bow.

	"It's one of the boats from the causeway," Akane said. 
"Something must have been following us..."

	The other boat pulled closer, and Akane saw with alarm 
that no oars were propelling it. The water around its hull 
seemed to froth and churn, as though the river beneath it was 
boiling...

	Their boat slowed as Byen negotiated a turn in the river, 
and the figure in the bow came into clear focus as a shaft of 
light from the branches above briefly illuminated her.

	"Tetsuko," Akane whispered, shocked. What the hell was 
her rival doing here? How had she gotten into the Underneath, 
let alone found them?

	"What?" Byen asked sharply.

	"It's someone I know from back home. She's been trying to 
defeat me for a while now. I don't know how serious she is, but 
she's played pretty rough in the past." She mentally rattled off 
an assortment of curses; there was a time and a place for 
rivalries, and this was most certainly neither.

	The Amazon glanced behind her, and turned grey. "Oh Lord 
Emma, it's the Fisher!"

	"You know her?" Akane said, a sinking feeling beginning 
to build.

	"It's the thrice-damned Fisher! And we're on water! Are 
you sure she's after us?"

	"Well," Akane said, "she seems to have devoted a fair 
amount of time recently to punishing me for a fight we had 
two years ago. I'm guessing she's after me." The other boat was 
gaining rapidly now, and Akane could see Tetsuko crouched 
atop the bow like a vulture, a short, spearlike object in her 
hands. "It could be worse. I mean, I've beaten her before, and 
with two of us I don't think she'll try..."

	"If you have some mighty way to defeat her, do it now!" 
Byen snapped. "And hurry!"

	"It's just Tetsuko!" Akane snapped back. "She's only about 
as good a martial artist as me! Maybe not even that good! What 
are you so worried about?"

	Byen stared at her. "Tendo Akane, that's the Fisher. She's 
like Mika the Raven, who is the Hunter. Normally she's not 
supposed to be as dangerous, and certainly not the random 
killer that he is, but she has dominion over water." Byen shook 
her head fearfully. "She's supposed to be benign, for the most 
part, and seldom seen. You're a strange one, Tendo Akane. You 
have tea with Mika the Raven, then go on to be hunted by the 
Fisher. Usually it's the other way around."

	Akane stared back at the gaunt figure following them, a 
horrible suspicion building. "The Fisher... does she have any ties 
to the Kitsune?"

	"They're both supposed to be linked to the Lady in some 
fashion, although it's unclear how."

	Well, Akane thought grimly, that explained why the 
Nogitsune were after her. Tetsuko had sent them to hunt her 
down.

	Hunt her down and kill her, she suddenly realized, a cold 
feeling running through her. The Nogitsune on the hill had tried 
to stab her, and the ones hunting Byen had been out for blood as 
well. Tetsuko had sent them to kill her, and had kidnapped 
Ryouga to lure her in...

	"Anjin!" she yelled, anger filling her voice. "I'm going to 
beat you to a pulp, you psycho!"

	"Don't think so," the other girl called back. "Hold still." 
And with that she raised the spear, pulled back her arm, and 
threw.

	It shot towards Akane with unnatural speed. Tracking it, 
Akane raised her sword, the zenlike state used for such 
purposes filling her. It would be very bad if she missed...

	The sword slashed through the air twice, and the spear 
fell into the water in three pieces.

	Tetsuko nodded, her face emotionless. Then she bent, 
leaned over the side of the boat, and struck the surface of the 
water with her fist.

	With a roar, a furrow of water shot up the river, heading 
straight for their boat.

	Byen swore. "That's going to rip us apart!"

	Akane desperately glanced to the banks of the river. Too 
far; they'd never make it there in time, and now Tetsuko's boat 
was speeding towards them, almost keeping pace with the 
onrushing wave...

	"Byen," she said quietly, "follow me. We're going to jump."

	"I told you, the water's..."

	"Not into the water."

	Byen's eyes widened, and then Akane dashed forward, 
shouted, and leapt.

	She hung in the air over the river, and then landed almost 
on top of Tetsuko. 

	The Fisher had already begun to bring her pole around, and 
Akane had to tumble to the bottom of the boat to avoid being 
hit. Byen landed with a thud in the prow a second later, and 
Tetsuko had to duck to avoid being decapitated by the two-
handed Chinese sword.

	Akane clambered to her feet as Tetsuko warily spun her 
pole in a slowly revolving circle, her calm expression belied by 
her enraged eyes. "You keep strange comp'ny, Tendo."

	"No stranger than yours," Akane snapped back. "Throwing 
people to monsters? How could you? I thought this was about 
honor!"

	Tetsuko's face contorted suddenly, the mask of calm 
shattering into pure, naked fury. "Bain't your affair!" she 
hissed. "Didn't know until too late! And now you! No more! Die, 
you devil bitch! Die an let me be!"

	She slammed her pole down, hard, and geysers of water 
suddenly shot up around the boat. As Akane watched, tendrils 
of black, writhing water shot from the surface towards them.

	Her sword cut through the air as she dived to the side, 
sending a rope of water splashing apart into harmless droplets. 
Byen's massive blade cut through another, with as little effect 
as a butter knife through a candle flame. The tendril lashed 
around the Amazon's throat and began to tighten, driving Byen 
to her knees. The two-handed sword fell to the deck as she 
clawed at the watery tentacle, her face looking pale and 
hollow.

	With a shout of rage, Akane lunged for Tetsuko. Sword 
met pole with a clash, and they stood for a few seconds, 
muscles straining, before Tetsuko broke the lock with a 
vicious swipe. The pole rapped sharply against the deck again, 
and two more tendrils erupted from the water to grope for 
Akane.

	With a speed born of desperation, Akane slashed at both 
tentacles. The blade of cold iron cut through both, and they 
dissolved into falling water. Which splashed against her 
unguarded left arm.

	Agonizing pain ripped through her, and suddenly the 
image of her mother filled her mind. Her dead mother. The 
person who had meant the most in the world to her, who she 
would never see again... she would never win Ranma, either. He 
was going to marry Shampoo. And P-chan, P-chan was probably 
lost somewhere, hurt, run over by a car...

	Images of sorrow and loss, one after another, dashed 
through her brain, dancing, shrieking. Her mother, Ranma, P-
Chan, Ryouga, her sisters, her lost doll, the homeless child she 
had seen years ago, all the hopelessness and sorrow of the 
world, all of it fell down upon her, sending her crashing to her 
knees in the bottom of the boat, bawling and sobbing like a 
baby.

	She could dimly see Tetsuko approaching, pole held high. 
What did it matter? Better to just let her end it than to live 
with this sorrow...

	Akane watched, uncaring, as the pole curved back. And 
then something sped through the air and stabbed into her left 
arm.

	The grief and sorrow vanished as quickly as they had 
appeared. Akane rolled to the side, thrusting upwards with her 
blade, and barely avoided being skewered by the descending 
hook.

	She regained her footing, blinking away tears of pain. 
There was a slender, needlelike blade sticking out of her arm, 
a throwing knife of some sort. In the prow, she could see Byen, 
her face grey and hollow, one hand grappling desperately with 
the tendril around her neck. Her other hand flopped against the 
deck, open as if for a throw.

	Tetsuko lunged forward again, and Akane barely managed 
to parry the swinging pole. She was in trouble, she thought 
muzzily, her mind still trying to clear away the haze of grief. 
With her arm hurt and Tetsuko able to pull off tricks with the 
water, she didn't stand a chance of winning... besides which, 
Byen couldn't possibly last much longer without air.

	The shadow trick was useless here, and she couldn't 
phase into a world she was already in...

	A desperate idea jumped into her brain. Sword moving 
defensively, she mentally began to call up the vision, to rotate 
away the hull under Tetsuko.

	For a second, nothing happened. Then, without warning, 
the wood underneath the Fisher's feet swirled into a nebulous 
spiral of black.

	Anjin shot downward, a surprised look on her face, and 
vanished.

	Akane released the swirling wood, a satisfied smile 
briefly passing across her face. If she could whirl the fabric of 
this reality while in her own, why shouldn't she be able to do it 
while on the spot?

	Her sword lashed out, and the tentacle choking Byen fell 
apart with a splash. The Amazon rubbed gingerly at her throat, 
and stood. "Thank you. I thought it was going to snap my neck."

	Wincing, Akane withdrew the thin dagger from her arm. 
"Is this yours?"

	Byen took it. "Yes. Cold iron, similar to your sword. Sorry, 
but it was that or watch you get taken out."

	Akane shuddered. "I felt like everything that mattered to 
me was gone. Was that the river?"

	Byen nodded. "The Cocytus is the River of Lamentation. 
Touch the water, and..."

	"Oh..." Akane stared at the strangely shaped patch of deck 
where Tetsuko had vanished, and swallowed. "I just dropped 
Tetsuko under the boat..."

	"If she were anyone else, her heart would have burst 
from sorrow by now," Byen said grimly. "As it is..."

	A geyser of water shot into the air several yards 
downriver. As they watched, Tetsuko slowly rose from the 
black surface, the waters swirling around her. 

	"How is she doing that?" Akane muttered desperately. "Is 
she some sort of kami or something?"

	"Or something," Byen said, watching as Tetsuko's ascent 
finished. The gaunt fisher stood on the surface of the water, 
face calm and impassive, and then began to walk across the 
churning river towards them.

	Akane swallowed, the wound in her arm throbbing. "I 
don't know if we can stop her, Byen. Not on the river."

	"I think you're right," the Amazon said slowly. "Damn. I 
didn't want to do this, but..."

	Reaching into her shoulder bag, Byen withdrew and 
oilcloth bundle. She carefully unwrapped it, exposing a ball of 
mud and twigs and grass. Wincing, she muttered a few words in 
an alien tongue and tossed it over the side.

	The water rippled where the ball had sunk, and then 
began to bubble and churn. After a few seconds, a head emerged 
from the water, muck and weeds and river scum covering it.

	Akane stared. It wasn't covering it, she suddenly 
realized. It was _made_ of it.

	"Destroy her," Byen commanded, pointing towards the 
Fisher. The muddy head nodded, and vanished beneath the water.

	Tetsuko strode onward, face cool, eyes burning. Her steps 
became more and more rapid, and then two massive arms of 
mud and slime exploded out of the water, grabbed her by the 
leg and waist, and pulled her under.

	"What did you do? What was that?" Akane cried, staring 
at the churning water with a sick sort of feeling. "Is it going 
to kill her?"

	"I only wish," Byen said sourly. "It was a River Hag, 
brought from home. Nasty beings, but no match for the Fisher 
in her own element. It'll buy us a bit of time and nothing else." 
Taking the oars, she began to steer the boat towards the bank. 
"We'll have to walk. On land, I don't think she can do those 
tricks."

	"I hope not," Akane said fervently. Part of her was 
relieved that Byen hadn't killed the other girl. But another part, 
equally strong, wished that the River Hag tore Anjin into 
bloody shreds. A fight was one thing, sending creatures out of 
nightmare to kill her and kidnap Ryouga was quite another.

	The boat thudded against the bank. Akane took one last 
look at the roiling, churning water where Tetsuko had been, 
gritted her teeth, and scrambled ashore. Byen followed, a 
slight smile playing across her thin face, and they dashed into 
the thinning woods.

***

	Ukyou looked up as the chime attached to the doorhandle 
rang, and smiled. "Ranchan! I haven't seen you in a day or two."

	With the skill born of long practice, she tossed an 
okonomiyaki on the grill. Ranma trudged up to the counter as 
she did, and her smile faded somewhat when she saw the dark 
circles around his eyes. "Something wrong? You look a bit 
down."

	He shrugged slightly. "Akane and Ryouga went for a walk 
yesterday, and they haven't come back yet."

	Ukyou's eyes widened, delight and apprehension 
scrabbling for position. "What was she doing on a walk with 
Ryouga?" Was it a date? she mentally added. Please let it have 
been a date...

	"I kinda asked him if he could sound her out about what's 
going on, see how she feels about it," Ranma said gloomily. "I 
suggested they take a walk or something, and off they went."

	Ukyou shook her head, disappointed. "It sounds to me like 
Ryouga just got them lost, Ranchan. You know how he is."

	"Yeah, I know. Still..." He sighed, a look of frustration 
appearing. "I just have a bad feeling about this entire duel 
thing. Akane's been actin' kinda funny lately, and... well... I don't 
want her getting hurt, ya know?"

	"I don't think you need to worry," Ukyou said. "Anjin was 
in here a day or so ago, and we talked for a bit. She isn't quite 
as frightening when you get her talking, and she told me that 
all she was after was a simple win. If Akane concedes, she'll 
be happy and go home."

	Ranma's face brightened. "Really? So she isn't out to 
cripple her or nothing?"

	Ukyou pursed her lips, weighing her next words. "I think 
she's out to win. If that involves really hurting Akane in the 
process, so much the better, but she'll take what she can get."

	"Better than I'd expected, I guess." 

	Ukyou slid the freshly-made okonomiyaki across to him, 
and for a minute they were silent as Ranma moodily ate. As 
always, watching him devour her meal gave Ukyou a surge of 
happiness. She wanted to feed him and take care of him for the 
rest of his life, and vice versa - and she would, she promised 
herself.

	A slight smile crossed her face. Who knows, she thought 
with a tinge of optimism. Maybe Akane and Ryouga were lost in 
someplace isolated, remote, and romantic.

	"Didn't sleep much, did you?" she finally said.

	"Nope," Ranma replied around a mouthful of okonomiyaki. 
"Too worried. Feh, dunno why."

	"I slept pretty well, myself. It was a nice change." Ukyou 
made a face. "I've been having a string of nightmares lately. 
Not every night or anything, but one or two a week. Bad ones."

	"I had a really bad one a few weeks ago," Ranma said 
sympathetically. "I have bad dreams more than I wanna admit, 
actually. There were a couple after I first got the curse..."

	Ukyou winced. "Concerning your, ah, manhood, right?"

	He shuddered. "Yeah. Man, I nearly woke up screaming a 
couple of times."

	"Mine have been pretty ordinary, I guess. Someone comes 
in and kills me. You know, typical psycho nightmare." She was 
careful not to mention his presence in them. It was a little 
embarrassing, and would be even more so if he asked what they 
had been doing together.

	"Heh. I haven't had any of those in a long time."

	"So what was your bad dream about?" she asked, curious.

	His face fell. "I hurt someone," he said. "Killed them."

	Ukyou gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze. "That's a 
pretty natural dream to have, I guess. I mean, you do have a lot 
of potential to hurt people, especially with those fancy special 
techniques you and Ryouga throw around. It's probably good 
that you're subconsciously concerned about hurting someone by 
accident."

	He shook his head. "It wasn't an accident, Ucchan. I meant 
to do it. I broke her neck on purpose." Ranma stared at the 
counter for a second. "I know it was just a dream, but it scared 
me."

	Chuckling, Ukyou turned and began to wipe down the grill. 
"Bad dreams scare people, Ranchan. That's why they're bad 
dreams." She flicked the cleaning cloth at him, making him 
jump nimbly off the stool to avoid it. "Look, don't worry about 
it. You don't strike me as the killer type, and Akane's probably 
screaming at Ryouga right now for getting her lost in Nagasaki. 
So cheer up, baka."

	He grinned. "Okay. If you put it that way, I guess I'd 
better."

	"Damn straight. Tell you what; when Akane gets back, 
call me and we can go and get lost ourselves."

	"We'll see." Ranma glanced at the wall clock. "I've got to 
get going. Promised Kasumi I'd pick her up some stuff from the 
store."

	"Bye, Ranchan. Stop by tomorrow, and bring Akane if she's 
back yet."

	"Sure thing. Seeya, Ucchan."

	After he had left, Ukyou went upstairs, settled down into 
her overstuffed chair, and frowned.

	Why had she asked him to bring Akane? She really didn't 
feel like seeing Akane right now, Ukyou suddenly realized. She 
hoped that Ryouga and her stayed lost.

	Ukyou shook her head, surprised at the depth of the 
sudden wish. It must have been just watching Ranma eat; the 
simple enjoyment of it reinforcing her desire to be the one 
who won him. She was Akane's friend, but...

	Damn it, she thought tiredly. If only she and Ryouga _did_ 
fall for each other.

	But even if they did, part of her still hoped they stayed 
very far away, and she wasn't sure why.

***

	The river Cocytus flowed, black and silent and still, past 
a small boat with peeling orange paint. It lay abandoned on a 
bank, with footprints leading off from it.

	The flow was dark and calm. Then a ripple marred it, and 
then a second, and then a head broke free of the water, hair  
and skin strangely dry. Like a submarine's conning tower, Anjin 
Tetsuko slowly rose from the river to stand upon its surface.

	Face expressionless, she walked across the top of the 
water to the bank. She stared at the tracks leading away from 
it, and scowled.

	Tendo Akane was not what she had thought. She was 
beginning to fear that the girl was considerably more.

	Tetsuko had come to the Underneath with a few options 
in her mind. The most likely by far had been collecting the 
girl's body, assuming there was anything left of it. Even a 
martial artist as good as Akane would have trouble surviving 
alone in this realm.

	There had also been the chance of finding Akane alive, in 
which case she would have taken her back to the Waking World. 
It wouldn't have done for Akane to die before Tetsuko had taken 
her revenge.

	And then there was the third option, which had started 
unfolding almost as soon as she had picked up her rival's trail.

	Akane had killed a pack of Kamaitachi, and set a 
Nogitsune hunting lodge ablaze. In the smoking ruin of the 
cabin, under the floor, Tetsuko had found seven bodies.

	Two more Nogitsune and a pack of storm hounds, dead on 
the trail by Akane's hand. Akane's hand, and that of the thing 
that served her.

	She had followed the Tendo girl, a very bad feeling 
building, and then she had seen the thing in the boat with 
Akane.

	Tetsuko wasn't sure when she had decided to use lethal 
force. It was at some point during the fight. Akane had held her 
off long enough to get away; working some spell or power on 
the fabric of the boat, shaking off the effects of the water, 
destroying her tendrils with an entire blade of cold iron... and 
then having her minion send a river demon to kill her.

	The waters Underneath were her strongest ground, and 
Akane had escaped her. The girl, or sorcerer, or demon, or 
whatever the hell she was, would be harder to stop anywhere 
else.

	Whatever she was, Akane was not just a martial artist. 
This had ceased to become a matter of revenge. This was now 
dangerous.

	And Akane knew.

	A bright tear ran down a weatherbeaten cheek. How dare 
she throw that in her face?

	Akane was after something. She would not, could not let 
her have it.  Tetsuko didn't know what the girl was, but it was 
nothing good. And Anjin's debt was not yet paid.

	The screams echoed in her mind once again, and she 
carefully kept her face impassive. She had an idea of what 
Akane was after, and it horrified her. Anyone who would 
intentionally seek such a thing...

	She would stop Tendo Akane. She had to. It wouldn't fix 
things, but it would at least keep them from getting worse.

	Revenge and debt. She suspected now that she would have 
to kill Akane, or at least imprison her. That was okay. She 
hadn't liked the Tendo girl to begin with, and she liked her even 
less now that she knew her true nature.

	Her pole thumped twice against the bank, and the mud 
under the boat writhed, shimmered, and then began to move, 
easing the small craft back into the water like a conveyer belt.   
Tetsuko hopped into the bow, glanced at the water, and silently 
ordered the current to take her downriver.

	She didn't need to follow Akane. There was only one place 
on the fields of Erebus that the other girl would be heading 
towards, and that was the Nogitsune barrow. When Akane 
arrived, she would be waiting for her.

	And - be she some creature out of the Gloaming, a mortal 
mage, or another tool of the Fair Lady's, sent to torment Anjin 
-  Akane would be stopped. Stopped dead.

***

	The trees had begun to thin, and the mists were rising.

	Akane surveyed the plain ahead of them with 
apprehension. "Erebus?"

	Byen nodded unhappily. "This will not be pleasant, Tendo 
Akane. I had hoped to take the river all the way in, but..."

	"But my rival turned out to be some sort of evil river 
kami," Akane finished grimly. "I still don't understand why she 
never did any of that stuff before. I mean, we've fought at 
least three times, near water in every case, and she never had 
tentacles bursting out of the pond to grab me..."

	"The Fisher is tied to this world," Byen said. "Her power 
is here, in the rivers and oceans of Underneath. In the Waking 
World, I doubt she could use much of the power of her office. 
There is..." she paused for a second, looking for the right word, 
"a sort of insulation that prevents the mortal world from fully 
accepting things from other planes."

	Akane winced. "No wonder she wanted to lure me in. I 
don't suppose this barrow's near water?"

	"There are supposed to be streams within it, and the 
Cocytus flows through tunnels inside of it for part of its 
course." Byen pursed her thin lips, wincing. "And, of course, it 
is a domain of the Lady, who is tied somehow to the Fisher. Her 
power may well increase simply by being so near to her 
patron."

	"Wonderful." Akane stared at the swirling mists, and took 
a hesitant step forward. "What are we likely to encounter?"

	"The Dead. For the most part, they will ignore us; they 
merely wait on the plains before passing on to their ultimate 
destination. However, there are some things which are not 
completely dead, but in no way alive, and they are often 
decidedly hostile."

	"Like Jikininki?" Akane asked, suppressing a shudder.

	"Of their ilk, yes. Follow me, and be ready for anything." 
With that, Byen stalked forward into the mists. Akane 
swallowed, then hurriedly followed.

	For several minutes they saw nothing... but this in itself 
was enough to give her a bad feeling. The ground was barren; a 
slick, swampy morass of brown-black mud and the occasional 
jagged rock. No grasses grew, no insect hopped fro flower to 
flower. The world seemed composed of fetid earth, swirling 
fog, and them.

	Then a shape dashed through the mists, outlined for a 
second before vanishing.

	"Byen?" she whispered.

	"Do not worry, Tendo Akane. It's just the Dead."

	"Oh. Right," she said, trying to keep the unease out of her 
voice. Just the Dead. Uh-huh.

	Another shape appeared in the mists, and then another, 
and another... some walking, some running, some moving 
uncertainly forward in a sort of trudge. They loomed out of the 
fog; blocky, man-shaped silhouettes that then melted back into 
the swirling white.

	Akane's hand tightened around the hilt of her weapon, the 
chill of the air seeming to seep into her bones. "Will cold iron 
hurt them?"

	Byen chuckled grimly. "They are the Dead. Nothing can 
hurt them anymore. But, by the same token, they are incapable 
of causing harm."

	Somehow, Akane wasn't convinced. 

	The forms around them grew more numerous. One lurched 
out of the fog in front of her, a surprised-looking old man with 
Asian features and a blue face. As if in a daze, he stumbled 
past her and vanished.

	Others grew more distinct. Most of them looked elderly, 
but there were younger ones as well. Akane quickly looked 
away as a dark-skinned young woman, half her head ripped 
away, jogged past.

	Bile began to rise in her stomach as she walked, and the 
Dead walked by in ever-increasing numbers. The older ones 
were bad enough, but a young person, torn by shellfire or 
crushed by an automobile, would inevitably walk into her line 
of vision and cause her stomach to lurch.

	Akane was suddenly very grateful for the smothering fog.  
She didn't want to think about what the plain would look like 
without its covering.

	A young boy skipped past, wide eyes angling inward to 
stare at the bullet hole in his forehead, and Akane had to 
physically fight down the urge to shut her eyes. She had to 
look, to follow Byen, or she'd get lost. And of all the places to 
be stranded in, lost and alone, this had to be the worst she 
could think of.

	Desperately she cast her eyes downward, keeping them 
fixed on Byen's feet as they strode through the muck. Just look 
at the ground, and not at the corpses strolling around her...

	A small shape ambled along the ground, and then another. 
Akane blinked.

	"Byen?" she said hesitantly. "Do dead cats come here as 
well?"

	"No," the Amazon replied. "Just people."

	Akane stared at a tiny, quadruped shape crawling past, 
and then stopped. A sound, a sick moan of protest, escaped her 
mouth as she watched it vanish into the mist. Then she bent 
double and vomited, tears streaming down her face.

	Byen halted for a second, watching her with an 
unreadable expression. "Infants die too, Tendo Akane. Quite 
often, in poorer countries."

	Akane miserably looked up, one last retch making her 
shake slightly. "But... but to just... in this horrible place by 
themselves..."

	"This is just a transit point on the way to their final 
destination. They do not tarry long, and I do not believe they 
are aware of their surroundings. They are beyond discomfort." 
Byen shrugged slightly. "It is sad, but the world has much 
sadder things."

	Nodding reluctantly, Akane straightened, tears drying. 
"How much more of this?"

	"Just a few hours, I think. Possibly less. The geography of 
this place is not constant."

	She wasn't sure if she could stand a few more hours of 
this... no, Akane thought fiercely, she could! Byen wasn't even 
fazed by it! So what if there were dead people walking past? It 
wasn't like people hadn't been dying in the world before this. It 
wasn't like she had never seen a dead body before.

	It wasn't like she had never killed anyone herself.

	Were the two Kitsune she had cut down waiting 
somewhere in the fog?

	With an effort, Akane forced her mind away from the 
thought. With studied effort, she made herself think of other 
things, played stupid games to avoid looking at the dead 
shuffling around her. How many pointy rocks did she find for 
every flat rock? What did the patterns and craters of the mire 
resemble?

	Before long, she had put herself in a sort of daze, 
counting and fancying the hours away. She assumed they were 
hours. They felt like hours. It could actually only have been 
fifteen minutes since they had entered the fields of Erebus, 
but she preferred to think of it as longer.

	Slowly, however, the horror of it began to vanish. The old 
people began to seem like mannequins, the mutilated young 
people like bad special effects in a slasher film. It made her 
feel better - stronger, more in control of the situation - and 
she forced herself to dispassionately watch a few of the less 
savory walkers without flinching.

	Twice Byen called a sudden halt, and they waited until 
the Amazon felt it safe to go on. On the second stop Akane 
heard hooting, grunting laughter in the distance, and her hand 
once again tightened around her sword hilt. The animalistic 
sounds of mirth peaked, faded, and then vanished, but the 
echoes of them seemed to ring in her ears even after Byen 
resumed their trek.

	Finally, out of the mists, a black, squat, bulbous mound 
rose.

	"The barrow," Byen said, pulling to a halt. "Or at least the 
top of part of it. This is where the trouble shall begin."

	Akane studied the hill, the dark bulk of it crouching in 
the fog like a huge toad. "How do we get in?"

	"There should be an entrance along the side. It may or 
may not be guarded. Come on."

	The two crept towards the barrow, bent low and moving 
in a near run. They reached the slope of it, and Akane saw to 
her surprise that the outside of the hill was composed of black 
loam and black bricks, looking almost like a charcoal mosaic. 
She scooped up a handful of the loose earth, sniffed it, and 
wrinkled her nose in disgust. It smelled like mold and ashes.

	Silently, they began to circle the hill, eyes alert for any 
sign of guards. Nothing called out in alarm, though, and before 
long they found themselves standing at the edge of a dark, 
narrow shaft cut into the side of the hill, leading straight 
down into blackness.

	Byen studied the drop, apprehension showing on her 
hollow face. "That's a long way down, and I don't see any 
handholds."

	"I don't think this is an entrance," Akane said, studying 
the shaft. "It's probably a ventilation shaft. I can't see the 
Nogitsune climbing a sheer wall every time they want to go for 
a walk."

	"I cannot see that either. We had better move along."

	Akane began to follow, then stopped. "Wait. This might 
actually be the best way in. The entrance is sure to be guarded, 
but I bet there's no-one watching the other end of this thing."

	"That's because they don't need to," Byen pointed out. 
"There aren't any handholds, and it's far too deep to jump. We'd 
be spread all over the bottom."

	Smiling slightly, Akane began to concentrate, the 
beginning of an idea forming. "There aren't any handholds now, 
but..."

	Again, she entered the trancelike state of the vision, 
mentally swirled aside the fabric of shadow in the shaft wall. 
Not much, not too deep, but just enough to push away a bit of 
substance...

	The wall of the shaft seemed to melt in one spot, and 
slowly an oval depression the size of a football formed. Then 
another, below it. And another, and another, until ovoid niches 
dotted the shaft down as far as the eye could reach.

	Akane released the vision, sweat pouring down her brow. 
She felt drained... not tired, but somehow fatigued in a way 
that had nothing to do with muscles and stamina. "There. 
Handholds."

	"Not bad, Tendo Akane," Byen said admiringly. "This 
should get us well within the barrow."

	She wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a good thing 
or not. Of course it's good, she mentally berated herself. She 
wasn't going to get Ryouga out by sitting here. "Do you want to 
go first, or should I?"

	"I shall." Byen smiled humorlessly. "Please do not fall on 
me."

	"I'll try not to," Akane dryly replied. She watched as Byen 
nimbly swung herself over the edge of the shaft, grabbed for 
the first depression, and began to make her way down. After 
waiting for a short interval, Akane followed.

	They descended carefully but quickly, the dim light from 
the top of the shaft soon receding into the distance. An odd 
sort of stillness seemed to envelope the shaft, and Akane 
found the noise of her breathing and Byen's progress echoing in 
her ears. 

	Despite her reassurance to Byen, she almost did fall 
once, her hand slipping off a particularly slick section of their 
makeshift handhold. She started to topple, and desperately 
grabbed at the depression in the wall with both hands, falling 
for a split second before regaining her grip. The jolt from it 
sent waves of pain up her arms and back, and her muscles 
protested as she resumed the climb downward.

	They emerged into an oddly shape room; almost hexagonal 
in architecture, Akane thought, dropping from the hole in the 
ceiling to land with a muffled thump. It reminded her of a 
poorly-drawn picture - the angles were at improper 
relationships to each other, and the lines seemed to be 
unsteady, as if the builder had been a bit drunk during the 
drafting of the plans.

	It was, however, empty except for the two of them. 
Which was fine with her. She had no desire to meet any more of 
the residents of this place than she had to.

	Two doors, each roughly the same size, stood at opposite 
ends of the chamber. Akane glanced at them, then shot a 
questioning look at Byen, who held up her hands in bafflement.

	Well, she thought, one was as good as another.

	Walking over to the one to her left, she turned the handle 
and swung it open.

	Four Kitsune looked up from their gameboard in the 
revealed chamber.

	Akane froze, smiled weakly, and waved. "Uh, hi. Sorry. 
We're lost... we should be, uh, two levels up, doing... uh... 
something else..."

	"Wonderful cover story," Byen hissed behind her in 
exasperation.

	The rasping sound of four swords leaving their sheathes 
echoed through the two rooms.

	Akane barely had time to draw her own blade before the 
first Nogitsune leapt at her, silvery weapon cutting through 
the air towards her head. She parried, the cold iron slicing the 
other weapon in half, and brought her sword around into a 
striking angle as the Kitsune stared at the broken hilt of his 
weapon in astonishment, and then drew a long dirk from his 
jacket.

	The other three were seconds away, their mouths bared 
in snarls of eager bloodlust, and Akane suddenly realized that 
she didn't have the time to disarm the one confronting her.

	She hesitated a split second and then thrust out, the 
sword's tip piercing the dirk-wielding Kitsune's shoulder. As it 
screamed and fell, body smoking, she dove into the room, 
slashing at the charging Nogitsune as she did.

	The doorway clear, Byen drew her massive blade and 
advanced, the two-handed sword neatly impaling the fox 
closest to her. Her advance distracted the other two for a pair 
of heartbeats; enough time for Akane to cut down the one who 
had turned to face her seconds before.

	As the harsh, yelping screams of the burning Kitsune 
faded, the remaining fox slowly backed away from the two, his 
weapon falling from his hands. It clattered on the floor as 
Akane grimly closed in.

	"Mercy..." he hissed, eyes darting back and forth like a 
trapped animal. "Mercy, fierce ones."

	Akane nodded faintly, feeling slightly sick. Somehow, she 
wished that the Nogitsune hadn't spoken. It made it easier to 
think of them as things when all they did was snarl and leer... 
it made her feel like she hadn't really killed _people_, just 
animals or demons. "Tell us where my friend is, and we'll let 
you live."

	"Friend?" the Nogitsune asked, a puzzled expression 
briefly moving across its face. Then comprehension dawned, 
and he nodded eagerly. "The strong one?"

	"Yes! Where's Ryouga?" she said, relief bubbling through 
her. She had been secretly afraid, she realized, that Ryouga 
hadn't been taken here at all, that they had made the trip for 
nothing.

	"Below. In the rooms of pain." The Nogitsune chuckled 
unpleasantly, a cruel look moving across the pinched face, and 
Akane almost reversed her decision. Maybe their speech didn't 
make her feel bad about killing them after all.

	"Is he okay?" she asked coldly, hand tightening around the 
sword's hilt. 

	The fox's expression went from malign to fearful, and he 
gave a slight shrug. "He is alive. He had all his parts the last 
time I saw him. His mind was not irreparably broken."

	Akane swallowed, the import of the words sinking in. 
"Not irreparably?"

	"Mortals break so easily. This one doesn't scream as 
often as most of them, but they often go silent before breaking 
completely." The Nogitsune, glanced nervously at the sword in 
her hands, and licked its lips. "I can tell you the way to him, if 
you like."

	"I think you'll show us the way," Byen said, a cold smile 
on her sallow face. "And Tendo Akane shall be right behind you, 
with her sword."

	The fox's eyes widened. "I cannot. You would encounter 
more of my kin, and would kill me when they attacked."

	"Point," Byen conceded. "Although if we kill you right 
here, you'll not have to worry, will you?"

	"I was told the Kitsune were shapeshifters," Akane said 
slowly, an idea beginning to form. "Is that right?"

	Both Byen and the fox nodded, and Akane gingerly pulled 
the white-grey jacket from one of the bodies on the floor. 
Pulling it on, she donned the cloak and helm that went with it, 
and picked up one of the silverlike weapons. "There. I'm a 
Kitsune."

	Grinning, Byen followed suit. "And so am I. There, you fae 
bastard, now we're just three Nogitsune off to visit the 
prisoner. Happy?"

	The fox nodded reluctantly. "If it keeps you from killing 
me out of hand, it shall do."

	"Sensible attitude," the Amazon told him. "Now move."

***

	The great gate of the Nogitsune barrow was made of 
silver, and guarded by nine tall foxes in bright armor. All of 
them lay dead on the ground, smoking corpses under silver 
breastplates.

	Tetsuko crouched in the shadows of the gatehouse, 
waiting.

	She had arrived via the river, and had made her silent 
way to the outer gates that opened onto the plain of Erebus. 
After dispatching the Kitsune who guarded it, she had settled 
down to wait for the arrival of Akane and her servant.

	They were overdue. Tetsuko had a sense for time and 
position in this realm, especially where the Tendo girl was 
concerned. And all her senses told her that Akane should have 
passed this way by now, _had_ passed, was behind her instead 
of before.

	Anjin swore. She didn't think there was another way in 
from the plain, but she was no expert on the cursed place. The 
only other time she had been here was during her rampage, the 
first time, when she had just wanted to kill as many of the 
Lady's creatures as she could. The Nogitsune had almost killed 
her, instead; she still carried a silver mark on her thigh where 
a fox's rapier had stabbed her.  That had been long ago, and 
much could have changed.

	Turning, she dashed into the barrow with a sudden sense 
of urgency. If Akane had outflanked her, she might yet win the 
race. And that couldn't be allowed to happen.

***

	They passed through dark tunnels, the alien architecture 
flickering wildly in the light thrown by lamps and open fires.

	Akane had been certain almost a dozen times that they 
were about to be caught. A band of Nogitsune, pale white skin 
highlighting feral red eyes, would scurry past, glancing 
curiously at them as they did. They never stopped, but it often 
seemed as through they about to; that they weren't fooled at 
all.

	Finally they arrived in a high, vaulted room. Three 
windows of stained glass were set towards the ceiling, dust 
and soot covering them. Curious, Akane squinted at the one far 
to the left, and then sucked in her breath in surprise and alarm.

	It depicted a forest scene, a stag of brown glass lying 
dead on a field of green. A small figure stood over it, a long 
gun raised in threat or promise, and Akane did not need to see 
the grinning face to know that it was Mika the Raven. A 
stylized hunting horn was picked out in silver in the air behind 
him, dots of bright red rimming its mouth.

	The second window showed a river or coast, a fleet of 
ships staggered along its length. In the center floated a long 
grey boat, and in the prow stood an unmistakable gaunt figure, 
brooding eyes searching the water. Anjin Tetsuko. A glittering 
mesh of lines, tangled and intertwined, hung behind her in the 
same manner as the horn and Mika.

	The third window showed a field at night. A cut row of 
some sort of produce lay to the right, an uncut one to the left, 
and in the center stood a figure in a robe of red and black and 
yellow. The face was a blur, an ugly morass of badly shaped 
glass, and she wondered why it had been allowed into an 
otherwise flawless work of art. Behind the robed figure hung 
the silver outline of an L-shaped implement, a plowshare or 
scythe.

	"What do they mean?" she asked in a hushed voice.

	"They serve the Fair Lady," the Nogitsune said, a slightly 
fearful air in his voice. "Or perhaps the other way around. They 
kill us, for they have no love for our kind."

	"It's a sort of Trinity," Byen explained. "The Hunter, the 
Fisher, and the other one. Who doesn't exist, thank Emma. Two 
of them is quite enough."

	"They all exist," the fox said in a low voice. "They all 
exist, and they are terrible."

	"So are we," Byen said. "I did not ask to be taken to the 
chapel of your particular furies, Kitsune. Where is the 
prisoner?"

	Wordlessly, the Nogitsune pointed towards the far end of 
the room, where a vaulted fireplace burned brightly. "Through 
there."

	Akane stared at the flames. "How do we get through?"

	"I have no idea of how a mortal would go about passing," 
the fox replied, his voice faintly amused. "I simply walk 
through. Whether you would be burnt or not, I cannot guess."

	"They would be."

	The chalk-white face of the Kitsune turned paler yet, and 
he fell to his knees. Akane and Byen spun, retreating forward 
into the room, and Akane laid eyes on the most beautiful 
woman she had seen in her life.

	"Welcome to my House," the Lady said gently.

	Akane was suddenly seized by two impulses. The first 
was to fall to the ground and worship at the feet of such 
beauty, such glory. The second was to draw her weapon and cut 
the lovely creature in half.

	She obeyed neither, instead merely moving her blade to a 
ready position. "Let Ryouga go."

	The Fair Lady looked amused. "Why?"

	"Because if you don't, I'll ruin your good looks," Akane 
growled, doing her best to sound menacing... although in her 
own ears, the threat sounded more like desperation than 
anything else.

	"We can't have that," the Lady mused. "But do you have 
teeth, to snap your jaws so boldly?"

	"Try me," Akane replied, fear and despair beginning to 
rise within her. She wasn't sure that her sword was of any use 
against such a being, and she was certain that her fists 
weren't.

	"Ranekan?" the Lady said.

	"Yes, Lady?" the fox replied, his head still bowed in 
submission.

	"Kill her."

	The Nogitsune was springing the instant the words were 
spoken, his form rippling as he changed in midleap. Akane saw 
the pinched face taper into a muzzle, saw the needlelike teeth 
bare in a snarl, and instinctively stabbed out with her weapon 
as the Kitsune slammed into her. There was a tearing sound, a 
set of jaws snapped impotently next to her right ear, and then 
the form pressing against her exploded in a ball of dull flame.

	The Fair Lady watched as Akane pushed the smoldering 
body off her sword. "It does have teeth, then."

	"Yes," Akane replied unsteadily. She wished the smell of 
the burning fox was not so strong, wished that it hadn't 
shrieked so loudly. "I do."

	"In that case, I had better come to terms," the Lady said, 
a smile lighting her face. "You want my latest ornament, so I 
shall make fair bargain. You may have him, but first you must 
enter my service."

	Akane hesitated for a moment then shook her head. "If 
you think I'd take orders from you, you're crazy."

	"I would not tell you what to do. You would have no 
duties, no tasks, no requirements to obey me save of your own 
free will."

	"So how does that constitute service?" Akane asked 
warily.

	"It is a formality. Nothing more, and certainly nothing 
less." The Lady smiled, an almost playful look crossing her 
face. "Formalities are important."

	Akane stared at her, mind racing. It sounded too good to 
be true, which meant that it probably was. "I wouldn't have to 
stay here, or give you my firstborn, or do anything you asked?"

	"You need stay nowhere you do not wish. You need give no 
one you do not want given. You need accept no command that is 
not in your heart to accept."

	Biting her lip, she turned to look at Byen. "Is she telling 
the truth?"

	"She pretty much has to, in this sort of deal," the Amazon 
said warily. "You can't trust her, but she has to stick to the 
letter of her promises. And if you don't accept, I think things 
will probably go very poorly with us."

	Akane swallowed, and turned to glare at the radiant 
figure in white. "If I take your offer, then I get Ryouga back, 
alive and without lasting harm. And then he and Byen and I get 
to leave safely."

	"That is acceptable," the Lady said.

	Akane opened her mouth, hesitated, and shut it again. She 
did not want to do this. It was like the bargains in the folk 
tales, where seemingly meaningless pledges turned out to be 
horribly important...

	Still, the alternative to not making the deal was pretty 
clear, and Akane did not wish to die quite yet. Not to mention 
Byen and Ryouga, both of whom would fare just as badly.

	"I accept," she said.

	"Done," replied the Fair Lady.

	"Done," said Byen, an odd note in her voice.

	Done, the room seemed to whisper.

***

	In the forest, on the very fringes of the Gakido Road, Mika 
the Raven paused in mid step.

	"Done!" he shouted, and threw back his head and laughed.

	Then, his attention snapping back to his surroundings, he 
drew a bead on the Hisa Mei he had been pursuing and fired. The 
echo of the shotgun, the screams of the fallen demon, and the 
laughter of the Hunter rose through the trees, hanging and 
ringing through the valley.

***

	In a crooked tunnel beneath the ash-choked soil of 
Erebus, Tetsuko froze, her soul recoiling.

	"Done," she whispered, appalled. "Oh, no. No, no, no."

	Then, turning on her heel, she dashed off down the 
corridor. She knew exactly where Tendo Akane was now. She 
knew to the very inch.

***

	It felt as through someone had flicked on a light switch, 
and she was the bulb. A charge seemed to flow through her, 
pulsing, almost bringing her to her knees. The image of a long, 
wickedly sharp plowshare seemed to flash before her eyes and 
leap into her brain, and she felt the air around her crackle with 
some sort of power.

	The sword in her hand began to twist and writhe, the 
slight curve in it becoming more pronounced, the inner edge 
seeming to take on an extra degree of sharpness. She had a 
sudden vision of dark fields under a starless sky, and then 
slowly the air seemed to still, the charge to fade.

	Akane's legs swayed, almost giving way. Something had 
just happened to her. She had been changed in some way. She 
wasn't sure how, but something inside of her had woken up. 
"What did you do to me?" she croaked.

	The Lady smiled. "Nothing at all. You did it."

	And then her eyes fell on the sword in Akane's hand, and 
the Tendo girl was shocked by the sudden change that swept 
over the beautiful face. A vicious, uncertain look came into the 
Lady's eyes, and for a second she just looked at the blade like a 
deer into headlights. Then she fixed Akane with an imperious 
glare.

	"Give me the weapon," she said starkly.

	Akane was seized by a sudden urge to simply drop the 
weapon at her white-slippered feet. Then she could leave. What 
need did she have for a sword? She should give it...

	No, something within her replied. Not the weapon in your 
hands. Keep that above all else.

	"Don't give it to her, Tendo Akane," Byen whispered 
urgently. "Whatever you do, don't let her have it."

	"I won't," Akane said with effort. She glared at the Fair 
Lady defiantly. "You can't have it. Now where's Ryouga?"

	The Lady's face contorted in rage for a split second, and 
then was suddenly again a gentle mask. "Step through the fire. 
It cannot burn you, now."

	"Right," Akane said determinedly. "Byen, stay here. I'll be 
right back."

	"Please do not take long," the Amazon replied, watching 
the Lady like a mouse watches a snake. "I find my current 
position less than comfortable."

	"I won't be long," Akane replied. She walked over to the 
massive fireplace, stared for ten long seconds at the roaring, 
leaping flames, felt the heat from them. Then, hesitantly, she 
reached out and poked her left hand into the fire.

	It tickled, almost, like feathers brushing against her. 
There was no pain, no searing agony, and when she withdrew 
her hand the skin was whole and unburnt.

	Taking a deep breath, Akane stepped into the fire.

	Although the flames did not burn her, they still obscured 
her vision. Sweating from the heat, one hand held instinctively 
over her eyes, she slowly made her way forward.

	And then she began to hear the screams.

	They were low, ragged, as if the person making them had 
overused his throat for that very purpose and was trying to 
hold back his cries. She recognized who they came from with a 
cold certainty.

	And then another voice that she recognized floated past 
as well.

	"Hold still, Ryouga... don't struggle, now... there." The 
screams reached a tattered peak, then faded. "Don't you love me 
any more? Look at me, Ryouga. Don't you want to look at me?"

	"No," Ryouga's voice weakly rasped. "Please, Akane..."

	Enraged, she charged forward through the flames. A stone 
arch appeared before her, and then she burst out of the fire, 
emerging from a fireplace similar to the one she had entered.

	Ryouga lay on a stone table, thin cords of a silver 
material binding his wrists and arms and neck. He wore the 
remains of his pants, but his shirt and shoes lay tossed in a 
corner. Welts and burns covered his torso and much of his face, 
and his feet looked red and raw.

	Standing over him was a girl, nude except for a yellow gi 
top indecently left open. A black belt loosely secured it around 
her waist, but her legs and torso were bare, and streaked with 
the soot that seemed to cover the room. She held a glowing 
coal in one hand, the heat of it not seeming to burn her, and 
was in the process of withdrawing it from Ryouga's neck.

	She looked exactly like Akane.

	"Poor Ryouga," the thing purred to him, seemingly 
unaware of her presence. "Don't you want to look at me?" It 
bent over him, bare chest brushing against his. "Don't you love 
me any more? I'll have to use the needles again if you don't..."

	Akane watched for a split second, a sick rage building 
inside of her, and then jumped forwards, screaming 
incoherently. Her double turned, surprised, and then Akane 
grabbed it by the neck.

	She saw her own face leer down at her in malign glee and 
snapped, slamming the thing into the wall again and again, fury 
and horror and outrage sweeping her away. After a time 
Ryouga's shouts began to register, and she stared in numb 
disbelief at the body in her hands. The wall was stained with 
red, and the back of her double's head was a mess of hair and 
blood and bits of white.

	For several seconds she looked into her own dead face, 
the empty eyes still seeming to wish her ill, the mouth 
twisted in a obscene expression. Then she opened her hands and 
let it fall to the floor in a heap.

	Ryouga's shouts suddenly ceased. "Akane?" he croaked, 
eyes wild. "Don't hurt me..."

	"I won't," she said, staring at her hands for a second. 
Crimson and some grey material marred them, and she slowly 
wiped them off on the yellow gi top. Then, taking her sword, 
she walked over towards where Ryouga lay bound.

	His eyes widened in fear as she approached, and his 
mouth began to open for another scream.

	"It's all right!" she hastily said, a ill feeling rising in her. 
"It's me, Ryouga. It's really me. I'm here to rescue you."

	"You said that before," Ryouga said quietly, eyes 
flickering back and forth between her and the body crumpled on 
the floor. "I wish you hadn't killed Akane." Then he stared at 
her, a confused look entering his eyes. "But you're Akane?"

	"I'm the real Akane," she said, pity flooding her. "I'm here 
to take you home, Ryouga. Let me get those cords off of you."

	He flinched when the sword came near him, but did not 
scream as she carefully cut away the thin bonds. The last one 
fell away, and she helped him slowly sit up. "Can you walk?"

	"I.. I think so." He stared at her in confusion. "I'm sorry, 
Akane. You don't have to let me go if you don't want to."

	"God, what did she do to you?" Akane whispered, aghast.

	"She told me she knew, and then she hurt me," Ryouga 
said simply. "She'd do things..." a faint blush rose in his cheeks, 
and Akane turned red. "And then she'd use the knives, or the 
poker..."

	"It's okay," she said, shaken. "It wasn't me, Ryouga. I'm 
going to get you out of here."

	"I should have told you," he said dazedly. "But I couldn't. I 
knew you'd be angry, and I was too much in love with you..."

	Akane froze. "In love with me?" she slowly whispered.

	All the gifts. The deference he gave her. They way he 
fought Ranma over the slightest insult to her...

	"I didn't know," she said, mouth dry.

	"I should have told you about it, but I was in love and 
weak," he repeated. "I should have told you about the curse. I'm 
sorry."

	"What curse?" she said, confused. She didn't want to 
know, she suddenly realized. She didn't want him to tell her...

	"My curse," Ryouga said, eyes staring past her. "I couldn't 
have your love, so I settled for being your pet."

	"No," she said, quietly. "No."

	The bandanna, the frequency in which her pet 'got lost', 
Ranma's countless pig jokes, Ryouga's avoidance of water... of 
course he was P-Chan. How could anyone not see it?

	How could she have missed it for almost a year? How 
could she have been so stupid.

	How could Ranma have not told her?

	Tears came to her eyes. "You lied to me," she said, voice 
shaking. "You both lied to me. I trusted you."

	"I'm sorry," he said, eyes still fogged. "I should have told 
you. But I couldn't, and I couldn't leave. You don't have to let me 
go. I know I deserve it."

	For a second she was almost tempted to agree with him, 
then shook her head. "I'm going to take you back to Nerima, 
Ryouga. And then you're going to have to go away for a while 
while I try to forgive you. It's probably going to take some 
time." She glanced at the body with the short, blood-matted 
hair, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I wish I could just hit you, 
but that's not going to be enough, not for this. And we've both 
hurt each other enough for today."

	Standing, she picked up his shirt and his pack and helped 
him put them on. Then, pulling him roughly to his feet, she led 
him into the flames.

	How could they? she numbly thought as they walked, the 
fire flaring around them. She had trusted him. He was the one 
who always took her side, and instead he betrayed her like 
this...

	And Ranma. She hadn't trusted him. She loved him. 

	"Why couldn't you have told me?" she choked, the heat of 
the fire drying the tears as they left her eyes.

	They emerged back into the chapel, and Akane suddenly 
recognized it. "This is the church on Shiningen'ya," she said 
slowly.

	The Fair Lady nodded. "It is the counterpart of it in this 
world."

	"Byen, we're going," Akane said. "Back to the real world."

	The Amazon shook her head. "I can't, not yet. My mission 
is still unfinished." Her sallow face parted in a grin. "I'll just 
make my own way out. Good luck, Tendo Akane."

	"Good luck, Byen," she replied. "I hope you finally finish 
your mission."

	The Amazon winked, and then walked swiftly past the 
Lady and vanished down the corridor.

	"She will leave safely, as promised," the Lady said 
mildly. "As may you."

	Akane grabbed Ryouga's shoulder and began to 
concentrate. Her mind slipped into the trance of the 
shadowweaving, and with effort she dredged up the memory of 
colors. Her mental images of the old church slowly interwove 
the chapel of dark stone, and color began to seem to seep into 
the bricks, the mortar... the room began to shift and blur...

	"Goodbye for now, my Reaper."

	And then, with a jolt that almost sent her tumbling, the 
world seemed to slap into focus, and she and Ryouga stood in 
the ruined chapel on the hill of Shiningen'ya.

	Silently, not trusting herself to speak, Akane led him out 
of the church and down the slope. It was late afternoon, and 
soon the sun would set. A raven watched, curious, as they made 
their way past the peeling white fence.

	Akane stopped by the low pit of earth where she had 
almost been pulled under, in what seemed like an eternity ago. 
She wondered if it would frighten her as badly now, and 
decided it would not.

	They walked out through the trees, and stopped by the 
side of the paved road.

	"Are you yourself again?" she asked, her voice cold.

	He nodded, not meeting her eyes. 

	"Go. Don't come back for a long time."

	He nodded curtly, and turned to leave.

	"Wait," she suddenly said, a tinge of regret in her voice. 
"I don't... I'm sorry. I'll still be your friend. It's just going to 
take a long time. You took advantage of me, and..."

	"I know," he said, not turning around. "I'm sorry. Goodbye."

	He left.

	Silently crying, Akane began the long walk back to Doctor 
Tofu's office.

***

	"Where the hell is she?" Ranma grumbled for the third 
time.

	"How should I know?" Nabiki snapped back from across 
the room. "You're the one who sent her skipping off with 
Ryouga!"

	"Oh yeah? Well..." Ranma stopped, and then slumped back 
into the living room chair. "I guess I was."

	"Look, she's okay," Nabiki said wearily. "Ryouga got her 
lost. She'll be fine. She's probably safer anywhere that isn't 
Nerima anyway, with Anjin after her."

	"I guess," Ranma mumbled. "But they should have been 
back by now..."

	"Ranma, just go out and look for her, okay?" Nabiki said 
irritably. "I doubt you'll find her, but at least it'll give you 
something to do aside from sitting around and moping at me. 
Okay?"

	"Well..."

	"Either that, or join Daddy upstairs crying in bed. 
Honestly, the two of you!"

	Ranma glared at her. "Look, I ain't that bad."

	"You're coming close," Nabiki dryly replied. "Go run around 
the block a few times."

	"Maybe I will," he said thoughtfully. It certainly couldn't 
hurt, and it might make him feel like he was actually doing 
something instead of just sitting and awaiting the worst... "I 
think I will."

	"Bravo," Nabiki said. "Now get out."

***

	Tetsuko ran into the chapel, knowing that she was too 
late.

	The Fair Lady turned to look at her. "Welcome home, my 
Fisher."

	"Damn you," Tetsuko spat. "Felt it. Th'surge of it. She ask, 
or you offer?"

	"She accepted of her own free will. I offered her nothing 
except safe passage out, and I made no threats." The Lady 
glanced down at the charred corpse of the Nogitsune. "No 
serious threats."

	With a heavy heart, Tetsuko stared at the third window, 
where Akane stood, her face intricately cast in glass, looking 
over moonlit fields. "Fair Lady, you've done th'worse you could 
do. She'll kill you, an me."

	"She will not harm me," the figure in white said. Tetsuko 
narrowed her eyes. 

	"You bain't sounding confident as usual, Fair Lady. Would 
kill you myself, if I could. Even if you killed me, th'price'd be 
worth paying."

	"How unkind of you, my Fisher," the Lady replied, 
sounding amused. "I am hurt. Do you not love me anymore?"

	"Hate you," Tetsuko whispered. "Always have. I hope she 
kills you afore I kill her."

	"Will you kill her, then?"

	"Have to," Tetsuko replied. "Afore she begins to do your 
work."

	"She already has, my Fisher, as do you. But follow her, if 
you will. Kill her, if you can. And if you bring me the weapon 
she carries, I will reward you."

	Tetsuko spat at her feet. "Nothing you could give me that 
I want, Fair Lady."

	"You once thought different."

	"Did. Gods forgive me."

	The Fair Lady laughed. "Are you still toying with that 
silly notion of redemption, my Fisher? I will never understand 
mortals."

	"Understand us all t'well, Fair Lady," Tetsuko said. "Send 
me t'her or let me be."

	Giggling slightly, the Lady took a flask from her belt and 
poured its contents onto the floor. The water rippled, flowed, 
and a reflection of Akane appeared within it. "There you are, 
my Fisher. Do as you will, as always."

	Tetsuko stared at her, eyes full of hate, and then glanced 
down at Akane. Then she stepped into the water and sank from 
view into it.

	The Lady laughed, but in the musical sound could be heard 
a chord of doubt.

***

	Akane hiked along the avenue as the sun rapidly sank 
from view over the horizon. It wasn't far now.

	She sighed, the dried trails of tears still heavy on her 
face. Doctor Tofu had a lot of questions to answer, both about 
his techniques, the land he had sent her into, and the nature of 
her opponent.

	As she crossed the canal, Akane paused to stare into the 
still waters. Tetsuko would pay, she silently promised herself. 
To nearly kill her was bad enough, but to do what she had done 
to Ryouga...

	She flushed, anger and embarrassment mixing at the 
thought of the half-naked thing in the room. It made her feel 
almost as violated as Ryouga's secret had; like someone had 
taken her body without her permission. Anjin would pay for 
that, as well.

	She stared into the water, and Tetsuko stared back.

	Akane jumped backwards as the gaunt Fisher sprang from 
the canal, the hooked pole swinging in front of her. Dodging the 
first two swipes, she reflexively drew the iron sword and 
turned to face Anjin. "You bitch. Don't you ever give up?"

	"Die," Tetsuko hissed, and the pole began a series of 
lashing strikes.

	Akane retreated slowly, parrying, an eye on the canal 
when she could afford it. No tendrils of muddy water seemed to 
be arcing towards her, which was good; apparently Byen had 
been right. Here on the mortal plane, Tetsuko was just a 
martial artist.

	A swipe nearly knocked her weapon from her hand, and 
she leapt backwards as the blunt end of the pole knocked 
painfully against her ribs. This wasn't good. She didn't 
remember Tetsuko being this fast before...

	"You've trained with Shampoo's grandmother, haven't you!" 
she snarled, lunging forward in a series of swipes. Tetsuko 
parried, then countered with a thrust that sent her reeling 
back.

	"Have," Anjin replied, face a cold mask. "No tricks t'help 
you here, Tendo."

	Tricks. She could pull up the shadows and...

	The hook stabbed into her shoulder and she gasped in 
pain, wildly swiping with her sword to keep the Fisher at bay. 
She couldn't, Akane realized with despair. Not like this, not 
with Tetsuko this fast. In the second of concentration she 
needed to enter the trance vision, Tetsuko would skewer her.

	Anjin pressed the attack, a slash almost ripping into 
Akane's neck. She was losing, Akane thought with despair. They 
were too close to run away, and if this kept up Tetsuko was 
going to get in a good hit... had she come through the 
supernatural hell of Underneath just to get chopped to pieces 
in her own world by ordinary old martial arts?

	Another swing of the pole ripped a line across her chest, 
tearing the white cloth and staining it red.

	She would not lose.

	Akane felt something rising up, and the sword seemed to 
twist in her hand once again. In desperation, she let it carry 
her away, bury her beneath it, and the image of fields and a 
scythe hung in her vision.

***

	Ranma trudged on. He hadn't really expected to find her, 
but still...

	The sounds of fighting suddenly rose in the distance, and 
then he heard Akane yell.

	Heart in his throat, he ran forward in a sprint. It was 
coming from near the canal, he thought. And if it was Anjin, to 
hell with whose fight it was, he was breaking it up and taking 
her home. He had been worrying about her too much to let...

	He rounded the corner, and stopped dead.

	Akane, her shirt torn and bleeding, was moving forward, 
a halo of black seeming to surround her. A sword was in her 
hand, oddly curved and pitted, and he watched in disbelief as 
she swept forward with it.

	That's not right, he thought. Akane can't move that fast...

	Tetsuko parried the first blow. Then the second. Then her 
pole was cut in half by the third, and then Akane's blade sliced 
deeply into her side.

	Ranma ran forward, shouting. What the hell was she 
doing?! She'd just seriously hurt the other girl, and was 
drawing back for another... for a death blow! "Akane! Are you 
crazy? STOP!"

	She turned as Anjin, side spurting blood, staggered 
backwards and fell over the side of the canal. "We've got to get 
her to a doctor," he said urgently. "Damnit, Akane, you nearly 
killed-"

	The sword swung in a scything arc towards him, and he 
nimbly darted to the side, reaching out to grab her by the arm. 
"What the hell are yo-"

	Her eyes were just swirling pools of black, he realized, 
and then the sword entered his chest. He mentally cursed 
himself for not taking the unexpected speed into account - he 
always did leave himself open with her - and then fell away 
into darkness.

***

	Somewhere in the back of her own mind, Akane felt the 
sword sink into flesh. She made one last, supreme effort, and 
pushed away the power flowing through her, forced down the 
persona in her head.

	A haze seemed to clear from her eyes, and then she saw 
Ranma slide off her sword and crumple to the ground. A pool of 
crimson began to creep out from beneath him.

	The sword fell from nerveless fingers. "Ranma?" she 
whispered.

	He lay on the pavement, still and pale. Oh God, she 
thought, oh God, what had she done?

	With a low moan, she quickly knelt by his side, one hand 
going to check his pulse while the other fumbled with his 
shirt. Bleeding, she thought frantically, she had to do 
something to stop the bleeding...

	Sobbing, she tore away his shirt and began to wrap it 
tightly abound the wound. It went all the way through... she had 
stabbed him all the way through... she had stabbed him...

	"Oh God, hold on Ranma, please don't die... hold on..."

	His pulse was rapid and weak, and frighteningly uneven. 
The cloth she had wrapped around the wound was already 
soaked with his blood, and her hands were scarlet.

	Hefting him as gently as she could in a fireman's carry, 
she ran, tears pouring down her cheeks. Ranma gave a low, 
choking gasp, and she doubled her speed, running as fast as she 
could. She could feel blood begin to pool where he rested 
against her, could feel little rivers of it begin to run down her 
arms...

	"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Ranma... I'm sorry, hold on, just hold 
on..."

	She ran, the streets blurring past, doing everything she 
could not to stumble. His face was a pale mask... he looked 
dead, she thought in a rush of panic. He was losing too much 
blood. She must have cut an artery... she had done it, she had 
killed him, it was all her fault!

	A low cry ripped from her lips, the tears blurring her 
vision. What had she done? 

	"Please don't be dead... Ranma.. hold on, please, I love... I.... 
oh God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

	The clinic rose in front of her, and she ran up the steps, 
kicking open the door with one foot.

	"DOCTOR TOFU!" she screamed. "HELP! PLEASE, HELP!"

	Ono emerged from the back office in a run. He stopped 
dead when he saw them, and them dashed forward, his face 
grim. "Put him on the table, Akane. Hurry."

	Sobbing, she gently laid Ranma's crimson-soaked form on 
an examination table. His face was almost grey, and she could 
he his chest spasmodically heaving. "It was my fault... I'll was 
all my fault..."

	"Not now," the doctor said curtly. "Draw the blinds, 
Akane. Hurry."

	Numbly, she got up and hauled down each of the 
windowshades, the last one plunging the room into almost 
complete blackness. "Doctor Tofu... you can help him, can't you? 
Can you help him?"

	"I can save him," Tofu's voice said from in front of her. 
"He should have died almost instantly, but I can save him. 
However... I need a promise from you, Akane."

	"What?" she said, not understanding. "Promise?"

	"There is a task for you to perform afterwards. Promise 
me that you will complete it to my satisfaction."

	"I don't understand," she sobbed. "What do you..."

	"Promise!" he snapped. "He doesn't have much time, Akane. 
Hurry!"

	"I promise!" she screamed. "Help him! Please, just help 
him!"

	There was a noise of satisfaction, and she heard the 
sound of Tofu walking towards the examination table.

	She wished she could see. How could he know what he 
was doing without any light? What did he mean by...

	A thought occurred to her, and she pulled up the 
monochrome vision in her mind.

	With a sort of sick fascination, she watched as the 
basalt form of Tofu wove a ball of shadowstuff, gently tamped 
it into the wound. She moved closer, slowly, and gasped as she 
saw it begin to ripple, contort, and shape itself to the contours 
of his body.

	"I'm replacing the lost tissue," Tofu said calmly. "Vessels 
and capillaries of shadow will do just as well as his real ones, 
at least until he heals." He jabbed at a few spots on Ranma's 
chest, and then glanced at Akane. "Go into the second room 
down the hall, and bring me the ice chest with Ranma's name 
on it."

	She did. The room turned out to be refrigerated, and the 
cold air seemed to nearly freeze the tears on her cheeks. 
Several ice coolers were piled towards the rear of it. Ranma's 
name was on one. Her name was on another.

	Hefting Ranma's, she ran back to the examination room 
with it. Tofu took the chest without a word, opened it, and 
withdrew a bag of whole blood.

	"I made sure to keep compatible blood stocks for my 
high-risk patients," he said. "He should have died instantly, but 
Ranma is tough."

	"I did it," she said numbly. "I stabbed him. Something rose 
up and entered my mind... I let it, but I didn't think... I didn't 
want to hurt him, Doctor Tofu. I didn't. I couldn't stop myself..."

	"You're getting hysterical, Akane. That's not helping 
either of us."

	"I'm sorry," she said miserably. "I just want him to be 
okay."

	"He'll live," Tofu said. He placed the bag of blood on 
Ranma's chest, and Akane stared as it seemed to glow, bubble 
for a second, and then... just drained away. "The replacement 
took, the bleeding's stopped, and I've focused his ki into 
healing his wound. Bedrest for a week, and he'll be fine."

	"Oh God. Thank you, Doctor Tofu," she said, knowing she 
was babbling. "Thank you so much."

	"Don't thank me yet," he replied, his voice suddenly flat. 
"You made me a promise, Akane. Now you get to follow through 
with it."

	She stared at him, bewildered, a cold feeling suddenly 
running through her. "I don't... I don't understand..."

	"I've found myself at war, Akane. Your rival is part of 
something larger."

	"I know," she said slowly. "She was the one who 
kidnapped Ryouga, Doctor Tofu. She..."

	"I heard, too late," he said. "There is a vast and evil plan 
afoot, Akane. The very world could be in danger eventually, but 
you and I and your family are in more direct trouble." He 
paused. "There is a man, a sorcerer. It was he who allowed the 
Kitsune to be brought into the Waking World. His name is Ogata 
Tadao."

	"T..Tadao-Sensei?" she stammered, shocked. "The 
librarian? He can't.. I mean, he's always been so nice, he's a 
sweet old man..."

	"And I am a kindly family doctor," Tofu said, a sardonic 
tone in his voice. "Akane, people are very seldom who they 
seem."

	She nodded faintly. "What do you want me to do? Warn 
him? Stop him?"

	"No," Tofu said levelly. "I want you to kill him."

***

	Tetsuko slowly pulled herself up the bank, gasping in 
pain. The water had helped stop the bleeding, but she was hurt, 
and badly. She needed to get to the old woman...

	Her eyes fell on the blood that stained the pavement, and 
then on the discarded sword. She slowly picked it up. And 
smiled.



  So! Here we are again, at our wits' end already - here where 
  the minds of men snap. Why mix with us at all, if you're not 
  able to go through with it? You want to fly, and you can't keep 
  from getting dizzy? Did we force ourselves on you, or you on 
  us? - Mephistopheles, Goethe's _Faust_