Part 12 was originally posted with a bad subject line, which caused a
number of people to skip it. Sorry. Here it is again.
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"Autumn and Spring"
by Angus MacSpon
Based on "Ranma 1/2" created by Rumiko Takahashi.
C&C Welcome!
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- 12 -
Cologne was motionless. Still with shock. Ranma-chan bared her teeth
in a broad, vicious grin.
"Surprise."
Cologne's mouth worked. After a moment, words came out. "Son-in-law,"
she said. "What --? How --"
Ranma-chan leaped at her. This time, the kachuu tenshin amaguriken came
effortlessly. She struck, and felt the blow hit home, again and again
and again. When Cologne finally broke free, her face was bloody.
"Jyusenkyo," she whispered.
"That's right, old ghoul," Ranma-chan taunted. "You didn't know, did
you? All this time, right next door, and you didn't know!"
"You don't age?" Cologne's voice was gaining certainty now. "And the
chef, that's why she's still young too. I never saw it --"
Suddenly she whirled, her face dark with anger, a bony finger levelled
at Ranma-chan. "It changes nothing!" she shouted. "You still cannot
hope to win!"
"I can always hope," said Ranma-chan. "Always."
And then she too was shouting, and her voice filled the cavern. "Do you
hear me, Ucchan? Do you hear, Shampoo? There's hope! She doesn't have
to win! Not if you don't let her! She can be fought!"
As the echoes faded, she attacked once more. Cologne came to meet her.
And the tunnels rang with the sound of their battle.
**********
Leaping and kicking, hands and feet mere blurs. The air sang with the
sound of their motion. Cologne's staff was a maelstrom, a deadly
spinning arsenal. Ranma-chan had thought the old ghoul was moving fast
before. Now she saw how much she had been holding back.
But she met the challenge. Somehow, barely, she met it. Every bit of
speed she had went to match that assault, but match it she did. The
blows were turned, the jabs countered, the sweeps avoided. She had
never been so exhilirated in her life.
She had never been so scared in her life.
It was a time for doing, not for thinking, but the thought would not go
away. [Why is Cologne fighting normally? She said she could stop me
with a thought. Why hasn't she?]
Her momentary distraction had its price. A sudden flick of the staff,
which she missed blocking by a bare millisecond, sent her sprawling.
Her attention snapped back to where it belonged. She rolled smoothly,
knocking the deadly follow-through aside, leaping back across the cave
to gain a second to recover, and went on the attack again.
Another stray thought, just beneath the conscious level of her mind:
[Weren't Ukyou's eyes open before?]
They fought on.
**********
It was stalemate.
They paused briefly. Ranma-chan's chest was heaving. If Cologne was
out of breath (if she breathed at all), she did not show it.
"You're tiring," Cologne observed.
"Just getting ... my second wind," Ranma-chan returned.
Cologne nodded slowly. "Your prowess is really quite remarkable," she
said after a few seconds. "I would not have believed ... but of course,
in the end it makes no difference.
"I'm afraid this has gone on for much longer than I expected. I'm going
to have to finish it off. Now."
"In your dreams!" jeered Ranma-chan.
"It's funny you should say that ..."
Cologne vanished.
"Hey! No fair!" Ranma-chan ran forward, sweeping out with her arms,
feeling for Cologne. She found nothing.
"And what does 'fair' have to do with it?" Cologne's voice was a fading
echo, a ghostly whisper. It seemed to come from all around Ranma-chan.
Then it was gone. Ranma-chan held still, listening intently. The
cavern was silent.
Silent? But shouldn't she have been able to hear Ukyou and Shampoo
breathing? She looked around hastily. The two of them were gone, too.
She was alone in an empty chamber, far underground.
"Damn!" More mind games. [But I beat your tricks before, old ghoul. I
can do it again. You're still here, somewhere, and I'll find you.]
[Somehow.]
But the uncomfortable thought kept returning. [Mind games.] Like that
damned trick at the tunnel mouth. But here, she could expect it to be
much worse. Much worse.
She closed her eyes, trying to recapture that inner vision she had used
so effortlessly before to track her chi-laser. But there was nothing.
No trace of any of the others. She was alone.
The light in the cavern was dimming, fading. Slowly.
[Mind games.] How much of what she saw here was real anyway? When she
couldn't trust her eyes -- when she couldn't be sure she trusted her
_memory_ -- what was left?
Had Ukyou and Shampoo ever been there at all? Or was that just an
illusion, or a false memory, or something else entirely? What about
Cologne herself? She'd seen her, spoken to her, fought her -- but she
was certain that she wasn't real, or not completely real at any rate.
[But she bled when I hit her. What does that mean?]
For that matter, what about the cavern where she stood? What did it
really look like? Did it exist at all? Or was she actually somewhere
completely different?
What if ... she was still sitting back in the flitter? Possibly with
her eyes clawed out, but not even noticing the fact?
Or was she still in Ukyou's house, perhaps? The possibilities were
endless! The demon might have taken control the previous night ...
perhaps that was why Ukyou had run out; the demon had been controlling
her, and it was not Ranma-chan's fault at all ...
Or even earlier? What if the whole story of Shampoo's possession was a
fabrication? Just a plot to draw her in? Was Ukyou herself real?
Or maybe Ranma-chan was still sitting in the graveyard, back in Tokyo.
Or maybe --
Maybe --
_Maybe Akane was still alive_ --
Ranma-chan began to weep. Silently, hopelessly. She was alone in the
dark, and there was nothing to believe in. No-one to turn to.
Nothing.
Despair ...
And about her, the shadows around her shifted and gathered together; but
her eyes were filled with tears, and she saw nothing --
[I can always hope. Always.]
Those defiant words. When had she said that? A lifetime ago, perhaps.
But the memory was thin and weak, and the darkness around her -- and the
darkness _within_ -- were too strong.
[I loved Akane. But she went away. I thought I loved Ukyou too, but
she ran away from me. I am alone.]
Despair ...
And the shadows surged, and the darkest night covered all.
"Don't leave me! I don't want it to end like this!"
It was a wail of purest desolation. A cry of loneliness, of grief, of
betrayal -- the cry of a baby torn from its womb. A cry of Despair ...
[I never give up. Ever.]
But what about when there's nothing left to fight for?
Nothing?
A distant memory. Fading, almost gone, but:
(Somehow, it's Ukyou facing him. Her hair colour is different, and
she's impossibly young -- but there is no room for doubt. "Oh, Ranma,"
she whispers. "Why couldn't sixty years have been enough to stop it
hurting?" And, weeping, she falls forward into his embrace ...)
And:
(It's Shampoo's face, ravaged by time and unspeakable usage, but quite,
horrifyingly unmistakable. And through the decades of suffering stamped
there, she recognises him, and the momentary hope in her eyes transforms
her face. "Airen," she whispers ...)
They loved her. They depended on her. That was something worth
fighting for.
("Now, maybe there's some way to fight something like that," Ukyou tells
him. "But _I_ don't know how." But he only grins and says, "Ahh, don't
worry about it. I'll find a way. I always do.")
That was true, wasn't it? She always did. Somehow.
[I never give up. I can always hope.]
But what was she doing now? Crying because she was afraid of the dark?
She opened her eyes.
Cologne was there, her hands around Ranma-chan's throat. Her mouth hung
open, full of pointed teeth, and in her eyes burned a dark, savage
hunger. She drooled; she slavered. The mask of humanity was off; the
beast was out in the open.
Ranma-chan acted without thought. "MOUKO TAKABISHA!"
The chamber rang with the force of the blast. Cologne flew backward,
her arms and legs flapping like a bat's wings. She struck the cavern
wall with a _crack_ and actually bounced, slamming into the floor and
rolling over and over.
Ranma-chan took a single, tentative step toward her --
Then Cologne was up and shrieking toward Ranma-chan like a whirlwind.
Her attack was like nothing Ranma-chan had ever faced before: wild,
frenzied, beastial, but there was intelligence there as well, and vast
skill, and oh such speed --
And Ranma-chan realised that for the first time, she was facing
Cologne's ultimate strength. Had she thought the old ghoul was fast
before? As well compare a hound to a cheetah.
She put her best efforts into her defence, and it was not enough. She
was taking damage again -- but at least this attack could not last; such
energy, such speed and viciousness, could not possibly be sustained ...
But it was; it came on and on and on; and yet again, Ranma-chan realised
that she was losing this fight --
Then there was a sound of impact, and Cologne twitched, and grunted, and
stared down at the objects that had struck her. The handful of mini-
spatulas, imbedded in her chest.
Ranma-chan turned. Ukyou was on her feet. Her face was pale and
strained, but her eyes were clear. The bandoleer across her chest was
loaded with spatulas, and she held more in her hands, poised to throw.
"I heard you fighting," she said.
[I can always hope. Always.] So she had heard. Ranma-chan had come
for her. Fought for her. And Ukyou had taken hope.
Somewhat inanely, Ranma-chan said, "I thought you'd given up spatulas?"
"Oh, well ... for old times' sake. Look, shouldn't we ...?"
"Right." As one, they turned back to Cologne. And Ranma-chan smiled,
and said, "Shall we dance?"
- End of Part 12 -
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Angus MacSpon Allen Gainsford
http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon