* * * * *   

Finals

* * * * *

    Bowing to his opponent, Ranma once again felt that same hidden power 
within the blond boy he was facing.  As he was studying his opponent 
carefully, a nagging feeling somewhere in the back of his mind told him that 
something was very familiar with this Tenoh Haruka.  He reminded Ranma of 
Ukyou for some reason.    Shaking his head, Ranma got into the same stance he 
had used with Makoto.  If his instincts were right, this would be his 
toughest opponent throughout the tournament.

    Looking over at the boy across from her, Haruka smiled.  *There is no way 
I'm going to make the same mistake as Makoto did, especially not after 
hearing what Michiru found out about you,* she swore.  Bring her hands up, 
she got into her variation of a karate stance.  

    Wanting to gauge his opponent, Ranma waved his opponent to make the first 
move.

    Seeing the gesture, Haruka grinned.  Shaking her head no, she copied the 
gesture, wanting Ranma to proceed.

    Tilting his head a little, Ranma smiled.  Taking two cautious steps 
forward, Ranma saw that Haruka had not moved.  *He's confident,* Ranma told 
himself.  The moment his back foot finished following the front, Ranma 
launched himself at Haruka.  He had seen the boy move.  Not many people could 
avoid Kunou's sword strike.  

    Ranma started to test Haruka's defense with a straight punch.

    The instant Haruka saw Ranma rushing at her, *He's fast!* was all she 
could think at the time before concentrating on defending herself.  Each 
attack was met with a solid defense.  

    *He doesn't have many holes in his defense,* Ranma was able to determine. 
 Leaping backwards, he disengaged.

    *He's better than I thought.*  Taking a deep breath, Haruka sized up 
Ranma once more.  

    "Why don't you use the bokken?" Ranma suddenly asked.

    "Huh?" Haruka replied, surprised at the sudden question.

    "You're better with a sword in your hands," he commented.

    Finally understanding, "It wouldn't be fair," was her reply.

    Grinning, "Anything goes and you're going to need it if you have a chance 
of beating me," Ranma said.

    Running her left hand through her hair, *Ranma had been constantly 
fighting his opponents on their own skill level.  I don't think I can beat 
him in unarmed combat if he decides to up the ante and he did say that this 
was anything goes,* Haruka considered before nodding.  

    Haruka left the mat for a brief second to retrieve the bokken that 
Setsuna had given her earlier.

    Seeing that both combatants are ready, the referee lifted and dropped his 
right hand, which was holding the flag notifying both fighters to start.    

    Haruka was the first to move.  Closing the distance, she preformed a 
chest level slash that was meant to make her opponent duck where he would be 
at her mercy.

    Seeing the bokken coming his way, Ranma decided to leap backwards, still 
wanting to test his opponent.

    When Ranma did not duck, Haruka changed her original plan.  Moving faster 
this time, Haruka reached Ranma the instant his foot touched the ground.  
Lashing out with a low swing, she followed up with a combination of high and 
low slashes.  With the final swing in her combination, Haruka increase the 
speed of her blow to its maximum velocity.

    The last swipe took Ranma by surprise as it came in faster than he had 
expected.  Because of the position he was in at the moment, Ranma couldn't do 
much but moved with the blow, lessening the impact.

* * * * *

    Seeing the bokken connecting with her son, Nodoka winced.  She knew how 
painful a blow like that could be, considering she was a master of the blade. 
 

    "Come on Ranma, you can do it!" she cheered her son on.

    Throughout the tournament, she had watched and been impressed at the 
level Ranma had achieved.  In some ways, she had to hand it to her husband 
for training Ranma so well.  In others, Nodoka wanted to kill Genma.  Still, 
she could do neither since for the past few weeks, Genma had disappeared 
without a trace.  *He's running away from his responsibilities,* she thought.

    Turning her attention back to the ring, Nodoka continued to watch her son 
when suddenly there was a huge explosion.     

* * * * *

    In the ring, both Ranma and Haruka stopped when the explosion occurred.

    People were running in every direction, away from the blast while others 
tried to help those caught in the blast zone.  

    Seeing that there would soon be trouble and a danger to the princess, 
Haruka slipped away to transform.  

    Ranma hardly noticed the departure of his opponent or the referee.  He 
was scanning the area, search for his mother since he knew she was sitting 
near the blast zone.  

    At the same time, Usagi and the rest of the Senshi that were watching the 
final bout, transformed, getting ready to battle evil.

* * * * * 

    As the chaos erupted all around Ranma, the young martial artist just 
ignored everything as his gaze was concentrated on the prone form of his 
mother's body, lying among the mass of people that were caught up in the 
initial explosion, signaling the appearance of the monster.

    *Why?  Why is this all happening to me.  First the curse, then the 
multiple engagements, Akane's death and now this.  When will I have a normal 
life.  That monster is going to pay for hurting my mother.  He is going to 
pay dearly.* Ranma thought darkly.  Somewhere along the line, he started to 
exhibit a faint blue outline.  

    "So much energy," the Daimon said from the hole in the wall after doing a 
brief scan of the populace.  

    "Stop where you are!" a voice cried out from among the chaos.  

    "I am Sailor Moon!"

    "Mars!"

    "Neptune!"

    "Venus!"

    "Saturn!"

    "We are the Beautiful Warriors, Sailor Senshi, and in the name of the 
Moon we will punish you!" Sailor Moon declared.  

    As the Senshi engaged the Daimon, Makoto, Michiru and Ami started looking 
for a place to transform.  

    "Hahaha! Is this a joke?  I was sent to kill a few girls?" was the Daimon 
response to Sailor Moon's speech.  "I'm so scared, five of you versus little 
o'me?" he smiled at the joke.  

    "Why you!" Mars shouted.  "Mars Flame Sniper!" she shouted out the 
attack. Without moving, the Daimon was struck in the chest by Mars' attack.  

    "Yatta!" Mars shouted, before seeing the results of her attack.  "What!"

    "That tickled," the Daimon taunted, a faint glow appeared around his body.

    "How about this?  World Shaking!" Uranus unleashed her attack, having 
just arrived at the scene with Mercury and Jupiter.

    Turning around to face the new threat, the Daimon glowed a little 
brighter after having been hit by Uranus's attack.  "Is that all you have?" 
the Daimon mocked Uranus.
        
    Seeing the creature glow brighter after being hit by Uranus's attack, 
Mercury activated her visor and scanned the Daimon.  Analyzing the data, she 
soon grew pale at what she had discovered.  "Wait!  Don't att . . ." Mercury 
started to shout in warning but it was too late.

    "World Shaking!"
        
    "Deep Submerge!"

    "Mars Flame Sniper!"

    "Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

    "Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"

    "Silence Glaive Surprise!"

    "Moon Gorgeous Meditation!" 

    Seeing the combined attack of the Senshi streaking towards him, the 
Daimon just smiled.  *Welcome to my home, the spider said to the fly,* he 
thought.

    All seven attacks caused a huge explosion after impacting the Daimon.  

    While the other Senshi congratulated each other, Ami was in a panic.  
"Guys! It's too early for a celebration.  The creature is not dead yet."

    As if in confirmation of Mercury's warning, the Daimon walked out of the 
smoke.  "Excellent deduction, Sailor Mercury but I'm afraid it's time to die."

    "What?  How can it be possible?" Mars shouted out in bewilderment. 
Similar statements could be heard from the rest of the Senshi.  

    "He absorbs energy," Mercury replied.

    "I am quite impressed.  For that, I should tell you my name.  I am 
called, Akuma," he spoke.  "It seems that all eight of you young ladies have 
an incredible high energy level.  I will enjoy taking it from you."

    "In your dreams, buddy!" Mars shouted, followed by similar statements 
from the other Senshi.

    "How will you stop me?  I am death.  I will kill you and then take your 
power for myself." 

    In a blink of an eye, Akuma sprinted towards the Senshi. Cocking his 
right hand back and extending his left, "Have a taste of your own medicine! 
Mars Flame Sniper!" he shouted out. From his hands, a familiar attack 
streaked towards the group of heroines.  

    Diving for cover, "No fair!  That's my attack." Mars voiced her protest.

    "Who said life was fair, babe!  How about this one!  World Shaking!" The 
ground in front of Akuma exploded and a ball of energy raced towards the 
group of Senshi containing Mercury, Moon, Mars and Venus.  

    "Silence Wall!" Saturn called out her attack.

    Seconds before impacting the four Senshi, the ball of energy collided 
with Saturn's power.  

    "Nice move, little lady.  Too bad it will cost you. Deep Submerge!"

    "No!" shouted Neptune.  

    No one could do anything as the ball of water smashed into Saturn and 
propelling her into the wall, unconscious.

    "One down and seven more to go.  Who shall be next?" Akuma teased.

* * * * *

    Across town, Ran had a huge smile on his face.  "Wow!  Can't believe how 
valuable diamonds are around here." he said, holding out his hands and 
concentrating, a diamond appeared.  "Though it does take a bit out of me."

    Whistling, *What should I get for Hotaru?* thought Ran.  As Ran's 
attention was focused on what to buy for Hotaru, he felt a sharp pain.  
*Hotaru?*

* * * * * 

    "Nine little monkeys jumping on the bed, six fell off and broke their 
head." Akuma sang a little nursery rhyme.  "Isn't this fun?  Soon you shall 
join your friends." he stated, staring at the remaining Senshi.  Looking at 
the only male in the group, "You have been a bad boy, hurting me like that." 
Akuma said, dropping the unconscious Tuxedo Kamen onto the ground while 
plucking the rose embedded in his right arm. 

    Mamoru would have replied had he been conscious.  He joined Venus, 
Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune in a deep sleep, against their will.

    "We'll stop you if it is the last thing we do!" Sailor Moon shouted.

    Both Mars and Uranus nodded in agreement. 

    "Hahaha!!!  No one can st . . ." Akuma started to shout when the ground 
in front of him exploded from an energy blast.  "What?"

    Everyone turned to the source of the blast to see Ranma glowing bright 
blue.

* * * * *

    Slowly walking to the prone body of his mother, Ranma kept chanting, 
'She's all right.  She's just unconscious.'  The closer he got the more 
certain that it was not all right.  Ranma could not see her chest rising and 
falling. She was not breathing and there was blood everywhere.  People were 
moaning all around.  Ranma's attention was locked on his mother, lying there 
among the derbies.  What angered Ranma the most was that the person/creature 
that had done this was still alive and was also bragging about it.

    For as long as he could remember, martial arts was his life but it was 
also a game.    It was like chess in a way.  Every time it was either attack 
or counter-attack, when someone new showed up.  He would always try to 
discover the other person's motive and then did what came natural to him 
after so long, try and win.  If he lost, he would try again and again till he 
won.  It wasn't until the incident at Mount Phoenix that things started to 
change.  After Akane died, Ranma had looked deep within himself and swore 
that he would protect those he loved.  Up until now he had thought that it 
was his fault that Akane had died and in part it was.  Saffron never truly 
wanted to kill Akane, it just happened.  The Lord of Mount Phoenix was not 
evil.  He was protecting his home.  Even after killing Saffron in a way, 
Ranma was still mostly innocent.  That was until now, standing there and 
looking down at his mother's bloody body.  He had broken one of his most 
sacred oath and had allowed his mother to fall victim to that monster.  Not 
only that but she was still recovering from the shooting weeks earlier.  
Whatever happened, Ranma knew one thing.  This monster would not leave this 
arena in one piece.    

    "You bastard!  I'm going to tear you apart!" Ranma shouted, his attention 
having finally returned to the present.  The ground around Ranma exploded.  
The updraft from Ranma's aura caused his clothes to ripple in every direction 
while his hair drifted upward.  

    Ranma's sudden rise in power did not go unnoticed.  

    "Oh my gosh!" Sailor Moon exclaimed.

    "How?" Mars asked in awe at the display.

    Uranus just stared at Ranma.  There was something different about the 
young man this time that she had not detected throughout the tournament. *Was 
this why Setsuna wanted me here?* she thought.      

    "Do you think you can do better than these little girls?" Akuma asked, 
and sneered.  

    "Die!" was Ranma's single reply to the taunt.  Cupping his hands in front 
of him, concentrating, a ball of energy started to form.  

    "No!" Uranus screamed.
       
    Ignoring her warning, Ranma launched his chi sphere at Akuma, "Moko 
Takabisha!"

    Impacting Akuma in the chest, he started to laugh.  "Hahaha! Thank you 
for another technique."

    "That was just a warning," Ranma said as he leaped at Akuma, leg 
outstretched.

    Shaking his head at how naive the boy was, Akuma sidestepped the jump 
kick. Smirking, Akuma lashed out at Ranma with a roundhouse but was surprised 
to see Ranma dodge it while still in midair.  *This might take a bit more 
effort,* Akuma thought, not wanting to waste one of the attacks he had 
collected, saving it for the Senshi.

    That split second was all Ranma needed to plant his foot into Akuma's 
face.  Using it was leverage, Ranma pushed off and executed a round house, 
that contacted with Ranma's right heel rocking Akuma backwards, off of his 
feet.  "Have to do better than that, ba...ka!" Ranma taunted.  His facial 
features were now that of the cocky martial artist he knew everyone hated but 
inside he was grieving.  He had just lost his mother and now his innocence.  
He was going into a fight, with the intent to kill.     

    Getting to his feet, an enraged Akuma shouted, "You dare taunt the mighty 
Aku..."  A punch to his midsection cut his speech short, leaving Akuma 
breathless.  

    Following the punch, Ranma unleashed two more followed by an open palm 
thrust upwards, that forced Akuma's head back.  Taking advantage of his 
stunned opponent, Ranma threw an elbow strike that ended with Ranma 
delivering a leaping reverse side kick that pushed Akuma back some more.  

    "Hurt don't it."

    "Die, insect!  Venus Love and Beauty Shock!" Akuma shouted out in rage, 
releasing one of the attacks he had saved.

    "Too slow," Ranma spoke and connected again with another punch.

    In a fit of rage, Akuma threw a punch directly at Ranma's smirking face.  

    Easily side stepping the punch, Ranma caught the outstretched hand and 
bent it back against the natural flow of the arm.  

    "Arggg!  Moko Takabisha!" Akuma unleashed the attack with his other hand, 
forcing Ranma to release it before he did any permanent damage.  

    "Nice but nothing beats the original."

    "Why won't you just fall down and die!" Akuma's face was twisted with 
fury.

    Ranma suddenly turned serious, "For what you did to my mother, I'll kill 
you."

    On the sidelines, almost all but forgotten by Akuma, Usagi, Rei and 
Haruka stared in awe at the display of skill and power emanating from Ranma. 

    Rei shook a little in fear.  She knew before hand that Ranma held some 
power but never imagine just how much.  Looking at Ranma, she felt a 
tremendous amount of negative energy and that scared her.  

    Usagi just stared at Ranma, opened mouth.

    Haruka was the only one that saw the goldish glint that had appeared in 
Ranma's gray blue eyes.  "Masaka!" she swore, having finally realized what 
the difference was.  *There's death in his eyes.* 

    Akuma was beyond furious, for the past 15 minutes, he could not for the 
life of him hit the human and what's more, he had used up all but one of his 
remaining attacks.

    In the meantime, Ranma started to circle the Daimon.  *I'm going to kill 
you now,* he swore.  

    "Stand still!" Akuma shouted in frustration. He felt uneasy.  Something 
was wrong.  

    "You just signed your death wish," Ranma spoke, his voice devoid of 
feelings, totally concentrating on becoming one with the soul of ice within 
him.    

    "What?"

    Haruka was the first to notice that something was terribly wrong.  For 
the past few moments, Ranma had ceased any form of offense as he continuously 
dodged Akuma's attacks.  The aura that had emanating from Ranma moments 
before had vanished.  *Where did all of that power go?* Haruka thought when 
she suddenly felt a strong gust forming.  In an enclosed building that 
shouldn't have any gust of wind at all.  What made Haruka take notice even 
more was the gust of wind was coming from the two combatants and not the hole 
in the wall.  *He's going to do something big!*  she panicked.  Rushing over 
to Saturn, Uranus hoped for a miracle.

    Slowing completing the circle, Ranma gave little notice to those around 
him.  All his thoughts were on the man in front of him, the one that had 
killed his mother.  That final thought made concentrating on the Soul of Ice 
harder but it also pushed any thoughts of guilt out of his mind.  This 
man/monster was going to die.  "Hiryu Shoten . . ." Ranma shouted, clenching 
his fist, preparing to thrust it in the air.  As he finished the move though, 
Ranma punched Akuma instead, releasing the full fury of the move into a 
single point on his opponent's body.  "Ha!!!"  

    "Silence Wall Enclose!" another voice called out at the same time.

    Within the dome, Ranma's final move created a vacuum, sucking all of 
Akuma's energy into Ranma's fist.  

    Feeling all his energy leave him, Akuma slumped forward. The only thing 
holding him up was the fist embedded into his gut.  

    For a few seconds, this lasted, until the full fury of the Hiryu Shoten 
Ha was released.  Akuma's body could not handle the stress of the sudden loss 
of energy.  So when the winds started to lash out at him, it blew him apart, 
vaporized by the shear amount of energy being released.  The power behind one 
of Ranma's most powerful moves had no where to go afterwards, having been 
trapped within a protective dome and so expanded, engulfing Ranma in the 
process.  In a bright flash of light, Saturn cried out as the Silence wall 
exploded.  All the excess energy burst upwards, destroying the roof of the 
gymnasium.  Rain poured through the hole and pooled around an unconscious 
female Ranma.  The only sign of life was the slow rising and falling of her 
chest.

To be continued:

Author notes: Sorry it took so long.  Many things effected the release date 
of this fic, most noticeably is the fight scenes, the hardest to write in my 
opinion.  

The note on how a Senshi could access her powers without transforming is my 
idea of impression.  No Senshi can access all her powers, just some of it.  

Thanks to my pre readers: Octavian, Terry Aaron, Khyron the Backstabber, 
Trevor Hoffert, doug, William Dix

Started May 13, 1999
Finished September 23, 1999