Now before everyone goes and says "Hey, I’ve already read this!", I’m going to tell you that it was only half 
the story, and very roughly done.  This version is revised, and has another story line fragment.  I’m fairly 
sure that it is the final version, but don’t hold me to that.  Anyway, enjoy!"

BTW:  Anyone wanting parts 1-4, be patient with me.  I lost all of my copies in a server crash.  I’m in the 
process of hunting copies of them down to revise and repost.  If anyone has these fics, feel free to repost 
them for me or send them directly to me.  Thanks!


Dreams and Realities Part 5
Last updated  5/19/97

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by:  Numbski

These characters are copyrighted by Viz Communications and Rumiko Takahashi.  I'm simply borrowing them.  
Gomen ne!


***********

A few weeks had passed since the rather grand thrashing at the hospital.  If memory serves, thus far the Tendo 
Dojo has been demolished by a VERY unintentional Shichihakoudan by Ryouga Hibiki after having fainted in the 
yard.  Ranma and Akane have solidified their engagement, Akane knows about P-chan, and Akane, Ranma, and 
Nabiki were injured in the blast.  In case anything has been left out, please let me know, as it has been a 
while since I've been able to add anything.


**********

"Ranma-kun, breakfast is ready!  Please come down, your friends are waiting for you!"  

Kasumi.

It was nice to have someone with as motherly an attitude as she did, especially with the likes of Akane 
around.  She was more likely to beat you  to a bloody pulp than to consider your problems.  Things may have 
changed a bit since they had gotten out of the hospital, but not THAT much.

Stumbling out of bed Ranma made his way to the closet, or at least what was left of it.  Things were slowly 
being pieced back together, more quickly than average since the repairmen were so familiar with the home.  
They must have patched every inch of that house back together in the time he had lived there, and there would 
probably do it many more times before he would ever leave.

*What was it that Kasumi said?  Breakfast?  Yes...but what else.  Friends.*  That was a twisted definition for 
Ranma's companions.  Kasumi considered EVERYONE to be a friend.  As far as he was concerned,  Yamata no Orochi 
could be sitting at the table eating and she would tell him to hurry up and meet his friend.  However, this 
particular morning had to be different.  He and Akane were in control of their engagement, no more pressure 
from the fathers there, other than the fact that the marriage couldn't happen fast enough for them.  Ryouga 
was no where to be seen, and the rest of the gang caught up in the hospital squabble had cooled it for a while 
since the near-explosion happened there.  Things had to be different, but he still couldn't shake the alarm 
bells in his head.

He threw on his white chinese shirt and wandered down the makeshift stairway to the kitchen.  Smoke.  One 
equation hit him:

Akane + Food = 1 dead hermaphrodite

He quickly backed away from his impending doom only to hit something rather solid.  Turning to meet his 
obstacle, he gazed right at his old buddy Ryouga.

"Hiya Ranma old buddy old pal.  Listen, I'm sorry about what I did to your house.  I was asleep and couldn't 
help it.  I'm sure that you'll be glad to know that I've mastered my emotions now and I only launch the 
Shichihakoudan when I wanna. "

Ranma could see the sarcasm dripping from Ryouga.  One fang sticking out of his mouth, an evil grin on his 
face and....horns???

"No way!  We sealed you away...."

"Right now I wanna.  How refreshing it is to be free with my emotions.  Why don't I do something really evil?" 
 With that a rather black battle aura began to seethe from Ryouga.  Ranma immediately tried to get in a punch 
at Ryouga's head, hoping above all hopes that the Oni that possessed Ryouga now had the same weakness as the 
last one, if it wasn't the exact same oni altogether.

Ryouga countered the punch with a hard roundhouse to Ranma's gut, which sent blood pouring from his mouth and 
flying back towards the kitchen.  With blood running  out his mouth and choking from the smoke, Ranma 
struggled to his feet and strained against his watering eyes to see.

*Yup, this is different alright, much more painful.*  The smoke cleared for a moment to see Akane in the 
kitchen.  Of course she was tied up to a chair, Shampoo and Ukyou were cooking something to cause the smoke, 
Kodachi was hanging from the ceiling a la Peter Parker, whipping her ribbon around lashing out at unseen 
enemies.   Nabiki and Kunou were making whoopy on the floor, Yamata no Orochi was eating breakfast at the 
table, Shinnosuke and Sasuke were playing Shogi , and Kasumi was just smiling with a blank look in her 
eyes...........

Cut frame to a poorly drawn and rather bloody Ranma with a LARGE bead of sweat on his brow.

"What the HELL!!!"  Ranma snapped out of his stupor.  Suddenly, he heard a  *PLOOP* sound.   One, then again, 
 another.  One at a time, small horns began forming on the heads of each of his cohorts.  All that is, except 
Akane.

"Ranchan, this is the end of the line.  I’m sick of being strung along by a Jackass like you, and…"
whipping out a few throwing spatulas "…and it’s time you paid for all that free food you’ve eaten, you 
glutton!"  She threw the throwing spatulas which Ranma managed to dodge with a fair bit of ease.

Similar sentiments were being spoken by all the others.  Akane looked on with wide eyes at at what was 
occurring.  Her fiancee was going to get killed by all his friends, and none of them had a clue that they were 
going to be responsible for his death.  Ranma looked very weary and worn.  He didn’t want to fight all these 
people.  The Kunous  lunged to the front weapons ablaze.  He parried off their attacks with a nearby chair, 
only to bump into Ryouga who was still charging up for his full Shichihakoudan.    Ranma rolled away from that 
impending mess.  Managing to calm himself down, he decided that he could not, and would not try to fight ever 
single person in that room to knock out the oni’s.  He didn’t like the idea of it, but there was only one way 
out of this one.  Cooling himself off, he prepared to rip apart the Tendo household once more.

"Hiryuu.."

"Final.."

"Shouten.."

"Shichi.."

"Ha!!!"

"Hakoudan!!!" 

What came next was unbelievable.  The dragon’s spiral swirled up through the middle of the house, dragging 
everyone in, including Ranma.  From within the maelstrom, Ryouga’s ki blast flew straight up in the air.    If 
things remained as they were, no one in the whirlwind would survive the impact.    Ranma’s ki reserves were 
too depleted to counter a blast of that magnitude, leaving him with few options.  He needed to use  the energy 
of the ascension defeat to stop the hakoudan.  One last time Ranma placed his hands together, and aimed toward 
the sky.

"Kaiten Ban!"

The energy at the top of the whirlwind combined itself with the surging fireball creating a snowball effect.  
It enflamed enough to catch Ryouga’s blast just as it came down.   The new problem was that the technique took 
too much energy from the Shouten Ha, so that whirlwind inverted itself.  Everyone came crashing down hard.  
Ranma  managed to balance himself in the inversion enough to grab Akane and brace her fall.  She was already 
unconscious, and there was no way for her to stop her decent.  Ranma landed on his feet, unfortunately for 
him.  He may be able to drop from the third floor of the high school, but he felt his legs snap underneath him 
as he hit.  As each person hit, the horns dissipated from their heads, however instead of oni’s escaping, a 
dark fog began to form.

"Very good Saotome.  I see you can handle yourself in battle.  No matter what the stakes, no one will ever be 
able to take Akane away from you, will they?  Heh.  So you think.  Let’s see how you handle me.  

"Who are you?!"

"Someone you’ve managed to make very miserable by your very existance."

All at once everyone sat up.

"Well, that really narrows down the field, ne?"
 
The best an unseen evil figure can, it bigsweated.

"Never mind that.  I’m not going to deal with your interference any longer.  Your time is up….Ranma."

Barely able to withstand the pain, Ranma pulled himself up to his knees to see who spoke to him.  The fog 
began swirling into the figure of a man.  The smoke cleared to reveal  the most hideous and vile person 
imaginable:

Hikaru Gosunkugi.

"Grudge Hammer Revised!  Thor lightning strike!!!"

Lightning came down and vaporized Ranma instantly.

*********

Dark.

Evil.

The room had small bodies nailed to the walls, each with pins sticking out of  various body parts.  There in 
the middle of the room, a boy lay on a bed cuddling a small hammer.  Gosunkugi was having the most relaxing 
night’s sleep he had known in many years.

*********


Love burns deeply in the hearts of all, and it is one of the worst things to exist in the hearts of the 
residents of Nerima.  It is a flame the burns deep and bright.  White hot is the ember that scars the very 
soul of a man,                    and on this particular evening, the heat is getting to one man even more 
than usual.  Standing before a bonfire with burned and bandaged hands, one man devotes his mind to the art, 
taking his it away from the burning sensations, both in his heart and on his body. 

"Son in law, give it up.  You will not be able to master this technique.  There is only one MAN that has ever 
been able to master it.  I do not think that you will be another exception."

Cologne eyed the young man standing before her critically.   He wiped the soot from his face and his 
discerning look changed to one of a crossed evil contempt and  sly grin.

"Perhaps you are right.  Maybe I’m not competent enough of a martial artist to do this."  He looked down at 
the chestnuts sitting at his feet.  Reaching down, he picked up two handfuls and threw them back into the 
flames.

"Then again, maybe you just underestimate me."  Falling back into a battle stance, he concentrated on his 
target.

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!"

One by one, chestnuts fell out of the flames and landed at Cologne’s feet.  An expression of shock and 
disbelief crossed her face as the last chestnut landed before her.

"Now witch, you will give me what is rightfully mine."  He turned to face her.  The grim determination on his 
features unmistakable.

"You know the rules sonny boy.  You have to fight for it."

"As you wish.  Take this!  Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken revised:  Fist of the White Swan!"

After beating the tar out of Cologne with a duck-shaped training potty, he ran off to fight for the love of 
his life:  Shampoo.
  
*********
`
Note:  The Dreams and Realities homepage is currently down.  I’m looking at ISP’s to host my web site and will 
allow me to get the Nekohanten Board functioning again.  If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to e-mail 
me.

Numbski