Here's 7.  Hop you like it.

<insert standard disclaimer here>
Ranma and cast aren't mine.  They're Rumiko Takahashi's.

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Chapter Seven

	Ranma stared out at the sky as the stars started coming out, a
heavy feeling in his chest.  Akane was gone.  Haruko said she was.  There
wasn't anything he could do about it.  Even worse, Angela's attempt to
keep her soul from Judas cost them their only means of resurrecting her.
Akane was now caught in some in-between state somewhere Haruko called
Hell.
	"Stupid tomboy," he said without enthusiasm.  He turned his head
to look to his left and right.  She wasn't there with her mallet, ready to
hit him for calling her a tomboy.  He had to admit it now.  He loved her.
Now that she was gone, he could freely admit it, but at such a cost.
	Ranma blinked back tears.  Tears were for lesser men.  He was the
pillar that would keep all of them going.  Ukyou was still recovering from
Ken's death.  Soun was a mess.  Kasumi was in a state of shock, continuing
to work scrubbing away at stains nobody else saw.  Nabiki holed herself in
her room counting her money.  He didn't even want to think about his
mother and father.
	"Why did you have to try to save me?  You were only going to get
yourself killed," Ranma muttered.  Scenes replayed in his mind in an
endless loop.  He could see Judas throwing the axe, the axe hitting Akane,
and then the look of fear and surprise on her face.  He didn't even have
time to say that he loved her just once, just once with all of his heart.
	A sudden scream of agony ripped through the air.  It jarred Ranma
from his trance-like state.  He shot into a sitting position in a flash,
all his senses searching for danger.  The door below slid open and he saw
his father and Andrew run outside.
	"Boy, what's going on?!" Genma asked Ranma.
	Ranma simply shrugged and listened again.  The air started filling
with screams of agony and the sounds of bloody murder.  Andrew grabbed
Genma and nearly threw him inside.
	"Get the others, bring them into the dojo, now!"
	Genma simply stared at Andrew is shock, Andrew's eyes flaring with
a sudden burst of white light.  
	"Now!" Andrew commanded.  Genma disappeared.
	"What's going on?" Ranma asked.  For once in his life he felt a
chill creep into his body, and he tasted a bitter taste in his mouth.
	"It's begun," Andrew stated flatly.
	Screams filled the air.  Cries of agony, pain, and sadness rang in
the night like a chorus.  It cut like a cold blade through Ranma, finding
his heart and filling it with the stirrings of trepidation.
	"Is this war?" he whispered.
	"This is just the beginning," Andrew replied.
	The sounds filled Ranma's ears, shutting out the calm of the
crickets he'd heard earlier.  He could hear the sounds of people dying, of
the cries of the damned.  Innocent was being shed, and Ranma could nearly
hear the sound of the torrents of blood that filled the streets.
Neighbors wailed as their first-born were killed and other screamed as
their families were cut down randomly.
	Andrew turned about, looking around him.  The stars were still
coming out, and the sun was gone.  A low red halo embraced the cityscape.
The moon, as if a reflection of the times, rose as a deep red circle.
	"A blood moon," Andrew whispered under his breath.
	"I can feel it, Andrew.  It's begun - may all that is holy help
us, it's begun."
	Andrew turned to see Faith standing close behind him.  He reached
a hand to take hers. 
	"I've never seen this before, Faith.  Everything now feels so
wrong."
	"I've only seen this happen once before, love.  It's wrong.
Everything about it is wrong."
	"Are the others on holy ground yet?"
	"No," she replied as she cast a glance towards the dojo.  "They're
filing in right now."
	"Then get inside with them.  I'll try to stop whatever comes this
way."
	Faith nodded.  If anything got past her husband, she would be
needed to protect those in the dojo.  She turned to follow her sisters as
they ushered everyone else into the dojo.  A voice stopped Faith in her
tracks.
	"Oh, I see I hit the jackpot!"
	She turned to see Sin standing on a nearby lamppost.  Her gaze met
her husband's.  He gave a curt nod.  Faith whispered a prayer for Ranma
and her husband and hurried into the dojo.

	"Looks like I'm the lucky one tonight!"
	Ranma clenched his hands into fists.
	"Who are you, and what do you want here?" he growled.
	Sin laughed lightly and locked eyes with Ranma.  She ran the tip
of her tongue across her upper lip.
	"Such a voice you've got there, you manly thing," she said
seductively.
	Ranma simply tensed up, growling.  Andrew stepped forward.
	"Leave this place, Sin.  This is neutral ground.  No souls can be
taken from this place."
	Sin sighed and rolled her eyes.
	"And here I thought I could be alone with this stud.  You just had
to ruin it.  Of all the people I had to meet tonight, it had to be Mister
Pantywaist.  You know, if you weren't married, I'd take you out back and
take the wrinkles out of your robe."
	Andrew frowned.
	"Leave, Sin, or you'll regret it."
	Sin raised her eyebrows in mock surprise.
	"Oh, and just how will you do that?  Give me a spanking?" she
asked as she playfully swatted her rear.  She rubbed her fleshy derriere
and groaned.  "I'd just love it if you spanked me.  Oooh, I can just feel
it now" she trailed, rubbing her legs together.
	Ranma turned to look at Andrew incredulously.
	"What is she?"
	"She's the closest thing you'll get to a succubus.  Her entire
world revolves around sex and violence."
	"It's all that matters, deary.  At least, that's all that's really
fun out there anyhoo," Sin added with a grin.  "Would you like me to
introduce you to it?  I know you'd just love the way I teach."
	"Ranma's had enough fights today, Sin.  If you're here to
challenge someone-"
	"That's not what I meant," Sin said in frustration.  "You married
types are so unfun."
	"Let's get this over with," Ranma growled.  "If you're gonna fight
someone, get going."
	"Is that a challenge?  I just love challenges," Sin said in a
breathy voice, "especially when it comes from sexy, young things like
you."
	Ranma dropped into a defensive position.
	"How disappointing," Sin said with an air of disappointment, "here
I was just dripping with anticipation and you had to go and spoil it.  I
hate it when my lovers don't take the lead."
	"If you weren't a girl-" Ranma started.
	"I'm not a girl!" Sin interrupted.  "I'm a woman!  You think a
girl's got a body like this?  I guess I'll just have to show you the
difference between all those other girls, and a real woman."
	"I know you don't hit women, Ranma, but you shouldn't worry here.
Don't hold back, Ranma."
	"Yeah, but-"
	"She's no woman, Ranma.  I know what women are.  Sin's a demon
from the darkest pits of the underworld.  You should feel nothing but
satisfaction when you strike her."
	"So why don't you-"
	"She's challenging you, Ranma.  Accept it or decline."
	Ranma turned back to Sin.  She blew a kiss at Ranma and winked.
He sized her up.  True, she was an attractive woman, but she had an
attractiveness one would expect from a woman working the street.  Add to
that the extraordinarily shameless outfit she wore and the cat-o-nine-tail
she had wrapped around her waist, and her appeal dropped to negative
numbers.
	"You're on," Ranma growled.
	"C'mere you sexy boy, and let me teach you what it means to get it
on with a real woman!" Sin replied with a shake of her rear.
	Ranma snarled and lunged at Sin, intending to devastate her
immediately.  Sin simply winked, rubbing her legs together.  Ranma could
feel the hate burning in his heart, but felt a part of his mind holding
him back.  Just as he neared her, he lashed out, only to find nothing
there.  Instead there was an intoxicating odor, musky and sweet.  It made
him lightheaded.
	"Yoohoo!  Over here, lover!"
	Ranma turned to see Sin on the roof of the Tendo house, playfully
presenting his rear and rubbing it suggestively.  It made him sick.  He
growled again and lashed out once more.  Once again, nothing.
	"You're such a slow one.  I like a man that can take his time, but
you need to make me lose control more than once if you want me to do the
same for you."
	Ranma turned again, the smell filling his head, the sight of her
making him more and more frustrated.  There she was, taunting him,
flaunting her sexuality like a cheap whore.  She waved and blew a kiss
from the roof of another house.
	"I can just smell the heat on you," she drawled.  "Come here and
give it to me, give me all you've got!"
	Ranma roared in anger.  There she was again, showing off another
part of her body, acting like some sex starved nymphomaniac.  It fueled
the fire inside to see her acting so coy. He wanted to grab her, tear her
clothes off and rape her senseless.
	"I can smell how much you want me," she said, punctuating it with
a low hum from her throat.  She traced a hand from her neck to the valley
between her breasts.  Sin slowly teased a nipple through the leather
corset, licking her lips.  She trailed the finger down her stomach and
over her hips, finally resting it between her legs.  The traced a small
heart on her sex, tugging down ever so slightly on the virtual g-string
that barely covered her.  
	"You whore!" Ranma yelled.  He vaulted towards her again, the
smell of her getting stronger and stronger as he neared her.  "When I get
my hands on you-"
	"When you get your hands on me what?" she asked coyly as Ranma
suddenly felt the whip wrap around his neck.  There was a violent tug,
sending him off balance.  He would have soared over her, but Sin's hand
shot out, grabbing him in the crotch and pulling him down to her.  Ranma
gagged in the sudden pain.
	"Poor boy, let mama kiss you and make it all better," she
breathed.  She grabbed Ranma by the hair, hauling him up into a deep kiss.
Ranma gagged into her mouth as she squeezed on his crotch with one hand
and forced his face into hers with the other.  Her tongue thrust itself
into his mouth, nearly making him vomit.  Ranma grabbed her hair with his
left hand and wrenched her face from his.  Sin gave a shriek and then a
laugh.
	"Ooh, does the little boy want to play a game?" she asked.  "I
love games.  You want to tie me up with the whip?"
	Ranma's face twisted in anger and his right hand lashed out,
backhanding her.  Sin's face snapped to the side as his hand contacted her
face.  The sound of his hand striking her rang out across the yard like a
gunshot.  Sin looked back at Ranma, licking the thin trickle of blood in
the corner of her mouth.  Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
	"I love it when you're rough, and violent," she hissed.  She
wrapped a leg around his waist.  "I live for it, I live for the heat," she
drawled.
	The smell of her permeated him.  IT was everywhere and Ranma drank
it in with by the lungfull.  Ranma growled and reached for her neck with
one hand, his other for the corset.  He simultaneously throttled her and
violently tore at her clothes.  Sin simply moaned louder and louder,
arching her back, pushing her sex into Ranma.  He could feel the wetness
soaking in through his clothes.
	Suddenly, Sin's other leg wrapped around Ranma's waist, throwing
him off balance.  Ranma instinctively flailed his free arm, while Sin
swatted the other from its grip on her throat.  He pitched forward, thrown
off balance by Sin shifting her weight.  She planted a hand and wrenched
Ranma to the side, throwing him onto his back.  She took a deep breath,
thrusting her chest out at him.  
	"That was fun, lover, but now it's time for playtime to end.
You've been such a tease."
	She licked her lips.  Ranma saw her eyes glow red as she started
to crush his body with her legs.  He could feel his body being twisted and
bent from the way she had her legs positioned.  Sin began moaning and
crooning as she contorted his body.
	"So good So good," she breathed repeatedly.  
	She snapped her head forward to look deep into his eyes.
	"It's a good thing I'm going to kill you now.  I can smell you're
a virgin.  I want this fun to be all mine.  They didn't nick-name me the
Virgin-Killer for nothing," she giggled.  "If any other woman ever touched
your body, I'd have killed her."
	The words rang in Ranma's mind, cutting a swath clear to the
depths of his soul.
	"Akane," he whispered.
	"Oh no, did you have a lady-friend?  I'm so sorry, too bad
Akane'll have to go without her little boy-toy, but that's okay, I can gut
her for you," she continued mockingly.
	Ranma's eyes widened.
	"Then you can show her all the games we played tonight," she
whispered into his ear.
	"Akane," Ranma whispered again, a single tear escaping his eyes.
	"Oh, is my little lover-boy sad that he can't share?  That's okay,
you never would have been able to keep her away from me, anyway.  There's
nothing you could have done to keep her safe from me.  I'll make sure I
teach her everything and more when I find her."
	Ranma felt the bitter cold wash through his body again.  Finally
he snapped.
	"No!" he screamed.  His arms shot out, his hands grabbing her
hair, dragging her head towards him.  Sin yelped in surprise.  Ranma
grabbed her head in both hands.  With a yell he twisted his body, throwing
his weight into the turn and smashed Sin's head into the ceramic shingles
on the roof.  They shattered under the impact.  Ranma felt Sin's legs
loosen and her rolled to a standing position.  There, he dragged Sin to
stand before him.  Before she could move, his left fist drove into her
stomach.  Sin's eyes went wide in pain, a faint gurgle escaping her lips.
He could feel the power flowing from his hands as he channeled his rage.
Ranma drove his right into her stomach, then his left.  He pounded away at
her stomach, juggling her as he backed her towards the edge of the roof.
Blood splattered to the ground as the beating slowly liquefied Sin's
entrails.  
	Ranma stopped a few feet from the edge of the roof.  A red haze
blurred his vision.  Sin wobbled on her feet, the pain glazing over her
eyes.  Ranma threw all his weight behind a chop towards at the base of her
neck.  Sin crumpled like a rag doll.
	"Get up!" he yelled at her defeated body.  "Get up, you whore!"
	Sin barely stirred.
	"Get up and take your punishment!"
	Sin shakily got to her knees.  Ranma grabbed her by the hair,
hauling her the rest of the way.
	"I loved her, and I would have done anything for her," Ranma spat
in her face.  "But now she's dead, and there wasn't a damn thing I could
do.  She's dead, and you want to dirty her memory with your filth?!"
	Sin simply wheezed as more blood trickled from her lips.
	"You disgust me!" Ranma screamed, as he rabbit punched her to the
ground.  He just wanted to beat the life from her.  It didn't take
technique, just raw hatred and rage.  It gave him power and fueled the
fire that consumed him.  Ranma felt the rage building, the hate welling
up.  Whatever it was that was holding him back had disappeared the minute
she said Akane's name.  
	Ranma simply reached out towards her with his hands and then he
saw it - the energy that warped and fluxed around him.  He watched in both
horror and fascination, as it seemed to arc around his hands, flashing in
opalescence, and then reach out to Sin.  It was painfully slow, watching
it traverse so short a distance to her.  But then the tip seemed to brush
her hair, and time rushed into fast-forward.
	There was a thunderclap and Ranma was blown backwards as the
culmination of his emotions surged out in one giant flash of energy.  Sin
was completely enveloped by it, thrown back violently like a feather in a
hurricane.  Ranma watched as she flew threw the air like sack of flour.
She hit the ground near the dojo, bounced once and then crashed through
the wall to come to a stop near the koi pond.  Ranma felt the roof
shudder, as if it were on its last legs.  The house Ranma was standing on
collapsed, just as he jumped away.  The street between the house and the
dojo lay in ruin, torn apart by the blast.
	Andrew walked to the Sin's limp body.  He looked once at her
unmoving form, her vacant eyes, and gaping mouth before stooping to shut
her eyes.  He silently said a pray and traced a ward into the ground next
to her head.  Ranma dragged himself towards Andrew and took a look at the
bloody body before him.  He felt all the anger, and the rage wash away
from him.  It was replaced by an empty, sick feeling.
	"She's not dead," Andrew said simply. "Amazing."
	Andrew took a knife, cutting his little finger enough to draw
blood.  He smeared a spot over the center of Sin's forhead and closed her
eyes.
	"That should hold her for a while," he muttered.
	Ranma simply stared at the half naked, battered body in front of
him.  He turned away quickly, doubling over and vomiting on the ground
until the contents of his stomach were gone.  He kept heaving as he wept.
Andrew put a hand on his shoulder.
	"You did what had to be done, Ranma.  You had no choice.  This was
the consequence of Sin's follies," he said quietly.
	"I-I l-lo-lost c-con-control," he stammered.  "What have I done?"
	Genma and Nodoka watched from the doors of the dojo, too stunned
to speak.
	"It is weak for a man to weep so openly," Genma grumbled quietly.
	"It is weak for a warrior, for any man, to not weep after such an
act," Faith admonished quietly.  "It would be inhuman of him.  To fight
demons, you must become one yourself.  Leave him Genma.  Leave him to his
humanity.  It will take all he has to keep it, now."
	Genma looked back to his son with mixed emotions.  The last
vestige of the sun's light casting a long shadow behind him and bathed him
in an eerie scarlet glow.  Genma shuddered.  Ranma simply stood there, his
chest slowing laboriously, staring at his hands as if they were stained,
his body bathed in blood red light from the sun.


*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Ethan Tsai
1 N. College Street
Northfield, MN 55057

TSAIE@Gridley.ACNS.Carleton.edu
http://public.carleton.edu/~tsaie/ethan.html