El Malificio



The somber crowd approached the cursed srings of Jusenkyo, fully aware of
what awaited. Each clan in it's own way had been trying not to think about
what lay ahead of them. Ranma and Akane, finally married to no one's
suprise, continued their violent ways, attempting to cope with what had
been forced upon since ever since that fateful day. Following them were
Shampoo and Mousse, who had  found solace in their 2 young girls,
attempting to heal the wounds caused by Cologne's death. Ukyou had taken up
living with Ryouga, though not marriage; although she enjoyed being with
him, there was no one who could ever substitute for her Ranchan. Besides,
it saved them from the worst of the curse. Ryouga for his part had not
pressed her for marriage either; the way her felt about Akane mirrored
Ukyou's feelings for Ranma.

Oyaji waddled along behind the three erstwhile clans, his arms being
gripped by Nodoka. His sacrifice, along with that of Cologne's, had been
the hardest for all of them to come to terms with. Now permanently stuck in
panda form, he carried along a large supply of signs on which he would
write messages to everyone. Nodoka had stayed his loyal wife; there had
never been much doubt about that particular arrangement. Trailing them were
Nabiki and Kuno, who carried the couple's small infant girl, and Kasumi,
who had to escort Soun to keep him from crying uncontrollably and washing
everyone away.

As the small crowd walked on, an eerie mist suddnely descended upon the
whole valley, and a whistling wind swept through, chilling everyone to the
bone. The time had drawn near. The crowd continued walking towards the
appointed spot, the whole time the visibility getting worse until only the
backs of the person if front were visible. Yet none of them were shocked;
they had been through this before.

Finally Ranma spotted the small statue under the familiar birch tree.They
slowed gathered round and waited for the moment. Then it happened. The
small statue started glowing, red at first, then an eerie yellow, it's
brightness illuminating the hazy valley for miles around.The heavens
rumbled, and the earth shook briefly. 

At first, a wisp......then another....and another....and another, unti
finally it began to take shape and the outline of a ghostly vision
appeared. Still more smoke poured out of the two headed statue and the
vision had a face and a body. Not very material or solid, but a body
nonetheless.

"Thank you all for coming. You know why you are here. There is no need to
talk. Talking will be punishable by curse. Disobedience is punishable by
curse. And resistance....." The vision shot the 3 families a wicked glare
that made them all look away. There was no need to get into details. They
had witnessed what resistance would bring them, as they had seen with
Cologne's horrible and violent end five years before at the hands of this
vile creature. 
The vision waved it's hand and a small golden pot appeared, covered by a
beautiful green velvet cloth embroidered with the design of a two headed
statue, exactly like the one of the statue. There was a slit in the middle
of the cloth, ostensably to allow someone or something to stick their hand
through and do Kami knows what.

"Each of you," the creature motioned to the three families, "shall take one
bead and wihdraw it. Do not open your hand until I tell you to. You know
the consequences if you disobey. Your children must also participate." 

Ranma's temper blew sky high, and as he began opening his mouth, the spirit
shot him an icy glare that would chill the devil himself. He closed his
mouth and gritted his teeth. Silent tears washed Mousse's and Shampoo's
cheeks; this was their worst nightmare come to life. Akane and Ukyou also
quietly sobbed, grieving like a mother would for the other couple's
possible loss. Ryouga just looked blankly at Ranma, and vice versa, and
they sighed heavily.

'But the Children?? It's not fair!!!!' Said the sign Genma held up in
protest in front of the creature. 
"Fair? Remember, I let you take their place the first time. I have been
more than fair in regards to this matter," the spirit snorted. For that
Genma had no answer and glumly loooked down, his wife huging his arm, with
sad eyes watering.

"Very well then, if there are no more interruptions......." The creature
extended the bowl to Shampoo, who looked him dead in the eye as she took a
bead and gripped it in here hand. Next came Mousse and their two children,
Mai Thei and Cologne, which had been named that for obvious reasons. They
each also took a bead and kept their hands closed, Shampoo and Mousse each
using their free hand to insure the children would not acidentally open
their little hands. Afterwards came Ryouga, who looked as depressed as he
had ever been in his life. If he had been able to let loose a Shishi
Houkouden at that moment, it would have blown the entire area of Jusenkyo
sky high. Ukyou, because she was not bound to Ryouga, did not take a bead,
although she had considered it for a long time before making up her mind
not to take one. Taking a bead would have meant that she and Ryouga were
bound together forever, and that meant to her that she had feelings for
him, and that meant..........maybe losing another man she loved, just as
she had lost Ranchan to Akane's heart several years before. That possiblity
was too much for her to handle, so she declined. 

At last the bowl came to rest in front of Ranma and Akane.Akane cautiously
extended a hand and reached inside the bowl and pulled out one bead. The
bowl moved over to Ranma, who stared with hard blue eyes at the vision,
wishing there had been some way of destroying it. But without Cologne's
vast knowledge and experience, finding a weak spot had been impossible. The
first time they had encountered he creature, they had all fought a sharp,
pitched battle which eventually cost Shampoo's gret-grandmother her life
and they had failed to even scratch the creature's skin.

. After watching Cologne's body torn asunder and her various body parts
thrown to the four winds, everyone except Ranma had stopped fighting. It
took Akane crying out his name in anguish for him to stop. She begged him
not to keep fighting for the sake of everyone else's life. Although his
honor demand that he continue fighting until he killed it or 'it' was
killed, he stopped for the moment, but never ceased trying to find a way to
destroy to keeper of Jusenkyo. Cologne would have been a tremendous help,
but as she was no longer available, he had to rely on Dr. Tofu, who was
quite knowledgable on healing and whatnot, but not too keen on Chinese
spirits and the like. So he had been forced to fall in line with the rest
of them today, but he swore to himself that he would not rest until he had
found the way to defeat that 'thing.'

Ranma shoved a rough hand through the cover and took out a small bead. He
gripped it hard enough to crush, but it did not give. The spirit waved it's
hand again, and the bowl disappeared. A small smile appeared on it's thin
pale lips. 

"You all know what the one who has the marked bead has to do." Several of
them nodded. Good enough. "Very well, then. Last time the one who is now
the panda made a noble sacrifice for you all, but this time there will be
no such escape. No one can volunteer, and no one can avoid the judgement.
There are many spirits such as myself who long to be free and inhabit the
earth once again, and one of you shall provide the vessel. So now, let us
see who is chosen."

The spirit floated over to Shampoo and motioned her hand to open. A small
black bead appeared in her palm. She began to sweat and quiver, and the
spirit stared at her a few more moments brofre saying, "You have not been
chosen." She nearly fainted away in relief. Next was Mousse, whose hand
opened to reveal another black bead. Their children's beads were also both
black, which brought a sense of relief to their family as they quietly
huddled together. That left only three beads left: Ryouga, Ranma, and
Akane.




The spirit hesitated for a moment, then floated over towards Ryouga next,
and motioned to him to open his hand. As he opened it, time froze, Ukyou
screamed, and the last thing he saw through his human eyes were the
mournful expressions on Ranma's and Akane's face as they looked away in
pain and guilt.


On the ground, next to the small black piglet who was thrashing about and
squealing incessantly,  was a small yellow bead.



--------------------------------------------
Author's notes and stuff......



I was thinking back to that short film I saw in grade school called 'the
Lottery' <also a short story> I thought maybe it'll make an ok story...I
really didnt' get into heayv flashbacks or background at happened to these
characters that forced them into this situation, I just got a little light
on in my head <for once> and banged this story out in an hour or so. Maybe
I;ll continue this arc, maybe I'll just forget it as I do often, I
dunno....maybe I'll revise it in the moring when I'm cognisabt of what the
hell I just wrote, thought that's not bloody likely.......


------------------------------
standard crap here....
--------------------------------

<Whammy> Gimme all yer C&C!!!! Heeheehee!!!!! <way too many reruns of that>

Flames too if that greases yer goose, basically any kinda feedback is
welcome....Don't bother spell checking, cause I sure as hell didnt'.....

As always, you must all bow down to Takahashi-godess herself.....ahm, ahm,
ahm, ahm.....hey!! You! In the back!! Bow down!!




>From the late night X-Boredom Files of:

Andres Odella


The #1:

Slacker Extraordinare
All Around Decent* Person
And makes a hella good Chicken Cacciatore.....




"And please, try the fish!!" -Al Mollinari

'Watch out for that first step doc, it's a doozy!!!' -Bugs Bunny

"I have only two things in this world: my balls and my word. And I break
them for no one." -Tony Montana

* = edit this out