Six months had passed by since Akane's death. Ranma sat silently in his
room while Soun merely watched the Sakura petals fall to the ground
outside quietly. The boy had not emerged from his room for anything but
food, and not even for that much until after the first month had passed.
He turned slowly and saw that Genma had left again, his wife's condition
had worsened and he spent much of his time at the hospital now; simply
sitting with her. The elder Saotome spent the rest of his time sitting
with his old friend on the porch, neither really noticing the other much.
Occasionally Nabiki or Kasumi would drop by. Kasumi would cook dinner
and Nabiki would fuss about the financial situation they had put her in.
The dojo was in shambles, Ranma was crushed and probably already dead to
the world forever. Soun merely existed, his daughter was his only source
of income and nothing had been used or repaired since his youngest had
died.
Often Ranma would come down and sit staring at Akane's place at the
table with him, memories of the past obviously playing through his head
as he watched the space emotionlessly.
Almost on cue Ranma staggered down, his body somehow didn't seem wasted
away at all. He still looked dead, but was surprisingly healthy despite
it all. From what Soun could see the only place he found any comfort
anymore was in the art. He would lose himself for hours in the worn out
dojo, going through katas long into the night at times. He never spoke,
neither of them did.
Both men ignored it when the door opened and a tentative voice cried out
to them. "Ranchan?" Ukyo Kuonji walked into the room and gasped when she
saw them staring at the spot again. Neither of them looked up to her. "I
have some bad news..."
"Father couldn't tell me himself?" replied the man without looking up at
her.
"He can't take seeing you like this anymore Ranma, neither can I.
This...this is the last time you'll see me. I'm leaving Nerima, for
good."
Ranma merely nodded and continued to stare at the empty spot silently.
"Ranma, I want you to come outside, for me please! Just say goodbye like
you mean it," she fell to the ground next to him and sobbed into his arm.
He slowly turned his head and looked at her. "All right," he stood up
and walked to the door. "For you, I'll say goodbye." He stood by the door
and shoved her outside closing it with finality in her face as she turned
around in shock. "Goodbye."
"Ranchan?" whispered Ukyo as she turned away with tears in her eyes. She
walked out of the yard and fell to her knees in the middle of the
sidewalk.
"Miss Rose," said the man as he entered her office quietly. It
overlooked the building where the previous president, Shinzuki Koshiro
had once ruled his empire from. He liked to think of himself as modest by
using the second tallest building in his empire to run his business from.
"Yes Winston?" said the woman cheerfully as she tended to the small rose
garden that sat in the windowsill of the office.
The man frowned, his name was Yamada, but she had insisted on calling
him that for some strange reason. Her long purple hair flowed down her
back and the shadows hid any clear view of her face. "The reports are
here, our earnings are up thirty percent. Also the police are going to
'crack down' on the heroin sales again. We've given them a large shipment
of low-grade product to catch some publicity for them and get them off of
our main operations for a while. It should satisfy them."
Kodachi frowned slightly, or attempted to. "I don't like crack downs
Winston, it's bad for business."
"Yes ma'am, but there isn't much we can do about them but get rid of a
few of our low producing sites. It cleans out the weak, and the police
make themselves look good. It works out for all of us in the end, even
though they are unaware of it," answered the man diplomatically.
"Low producing? Any business that is profitable will hurt us if we lose
it," she said raising her eyebrow slightly.
"What do you suggest we do Ma'am?"
"I've got a fun idea! Let's give them something else to chase after!
Ooh, it will be such fun!" said the woman cheerfully; she started to
laugh again, a sound he had begun to dread in the last few months.
Nothing good ever came from a laugh like that. "Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!"
Ranma sat staring at the knife on his dresser; he was covered in sweat
from his exorcises still. He picked it up in his hand and flipped it over
a few times, a practice he had grown used to since that day. He gently
pressed it against his wrist and pulled away, in morbid fascination he
watched the line of blood grow there and slowly ooze its way down the
sides of his wrist. "Just a little more pressure." He thought to himself.
He paused and looked out the window at the evening sky. The sun was
setting on the horizon and he watched it sink slowly behind the buildings
and streets. It had been so long since he'd seen a sunset. He stood up
and walked up to the window.
Ukyo's voice floated into his mind. "Do it for me!" He looked at the
knife and jabbed it into the table. Without pausing to acknowledge Soun
he walked down the stairs and out of the house into the street. Kasumi
met him at the door and put her hand up to her mouth as he brushed by
her.
"Oh my! Ranma, are you going out?" He simply looked at her and continued
to walk. A small smile formed on his face for a split second as he
noticed the tears of joy form in her eyes.
Daisuke walked through the streets of Tokyo, he twirled a baton in his
hands as he cheerfully passed by several scantily clad women on the
street corner. Tipping his hat to them he moved over to the squad car
parked on the corner. "Did they have coffee?" said a voice as he felt
someone tug on his jacket tearing his attention away from the girls.
"Huh? No, the machine is down, I bought you a soda instead," he reached
into his pocket and handed the can to Hiroshi who sat inside the car
waiting patiently.
"D'ya remember that murder here a few months ago?" said the man in the
car as he pointed at the office building.
"You mean the one where that weirdo drew on the bodies faces?" replied
his partner.
"Yea, weird. I hear that still isn't closed," said the man as he sipped
his drink.
"You'd think they caught a freak like that by now," noted Daisuke
absently. He paused and looked over to an alleyway. "What the hell?"
Hiroshi climbed out of the car and sighed. "What's up?"
He noticed his partner standing over a bum lying on the ground in the
alley. "Hey buddy, you can't sleep here."
Hiroshi snorted and kicked the man over. "Hey, can't you hea..." He
almost screamed and dropped his can on the ground at what he saw.
Ranma stood in the park watching the people go by lazily. Lovers leaned
into each other's arms, and people mulled about their business in the
darkness. Officially the park had closed hours ago. Those seeking
privacy, or trying to invade it largely ignored the rule. He simply sat
there silently taking in the sights around him.
He frowned as noise floated to him from a nearby patch of shrubbery. He
sighed at the muffled sound and started to stand up and walk away.
"No please!" said a voice.
He froze and slowly turned to look. "And the wallet too."
"No!" he thought to himself desperately. The woman's words floated into
his head again as the unforgettable sound of a gun cocking seemed to
drown out any other sound around him.
"S'not my problem."
He didn't even think beyond that, a mad rage filled him that he quickly
struggled to control. He slowly and deliberately stepped through the
foliage and stared the gunman down. He was dressed in a leather jacket
and wearing sunglasses, a typical punk; but far to large to be confused
with the man who had killed his wife. None of that mattered, only the
pain of six months rage welled up inside of him. He simply watched as the
man turned to face him with his cocky grin fading away.
"Who the hell are you? Hell, hand over your wallet too buddy," he
pointed his gun at Ranma and gasped as a hand suddenly appeared on his
hand crushing his grip on the gun and breaking all of the bones that got
in the way.
Ranma felt himself smiling as he stared directly into his eyes through
the sunglasses and saw the fear burning inside of them. "That... was a
mistake." He exploded with power and rage as he slammed his fists
repeatedly into the unwary punk sending him to the ground, but managing
to land a hundred blows before he even hit. He looked down and noticed
the gun was still in his hand, and what was left of the punk's hand. He
pointed it at him and smiled darkly as he placed his finger on the
trigger.
"What are you doing?" screamed the woman as she rushed into her
frightened boyfriend's arms.
"You pity this man? He was going to kill you a moment ago," replied
Ranma as he looked up at her in confusion. Then he realized what he had
said, "You're right, I can't kill him..." He tossed the weapon away in
disgust and kicked the boy on the ground again for good measure. "No
matter what, I can't kill, never again."
"Again?" whispered the boyfriend in shock as he looked down at his
attacker. The man standing in front of them looked haggard, unshaven and
obviously under more stress than he could ever experience. "Are you all
right man?"
Ranma looked up at him and smiled. "I am now, you'd better go."
The pair nodded and scurried away. Ranma watched them and sighed as he
fell to the ground and rubbed at his face with his palms at the
conflicting emotions that rushed to him and threatened to take him over.
Later tat night he found himself staring at the window again wistfully
and thoughtful. It had been a long time since he had anything that even
resembled a coherent thought, now he was flooded. His mind pounded and
threatened to overload with information and feelings. "What should I do?
What do I feel? Akane, help me!"
At that moment something came through the window and slammed into his
face sending him sprawling across the ground in confusion. "What the?"
His eyes moved up to the darkest corner of the room where two red dots
stared at him from the shadows. "What is this?" His eyes slowly adjusted
as the creature shrieked and fluttered it's wings as it hung from a small
hook that had once held a plant hanging from the ceiling. It had died
months ago, and now there was nothing, nothing but a tiny bat.
Ranma stood watching the creature in fascination for a long moment. He
became aware of himself and his surroundings. He hadn't bathed in a
months, he was dirty and tired. His room was a squalid mess of filth that
had collected over the past six months and he was everything Akane never
wanted him to be. He fell to his knees in shocked disgust at what he had
become. The bat shrieked again and fluttered out the window and he
watched it disappear into the moonlight in fascination.
"Akane, for you I will become a man once again. For you, I will seek
justice," he paused for a moment and continued to look out into the
moonlight. "I swear it."
Kodachi Kuno sat behind her desk reading the paper and giggling to
herself. The headline had sent her into hysterics. "Twenty dead from
tainted Heroine. New epidemic, or sabotage?"
She giggled even harder as she read. Sasuke sat quietly by her side and
Winston shuffled uncomfortably in front of her desk.
"Ma'am. This isn't good, our business could be destroyed!" he pleaded
with her. She ignored him completely and continued to read.
She pulled the veil away from her face again and threw it across the
room. "Well I don't need that anymore, it's time for my coming out
party!" she chimed cheerfully as she tossed her violet hair behind her
shoulders. Her twisted smile, with blood red lips that curved into an
unnatural grin widened even more as another fit of giggles over took her.
She stared at Winston with her yellow eyes and turned on the desk light
revealing a pale white complexion. "Epidemic? Sabotage? Wait till they
get a load of me. HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO!"
She lifted the paper up and revealed a photo of a grinning corpse. To the
side was a bar with her first murders, each had a smile drawn on their
face with a marker. Above it were the words. "Connection?"
TBC...
This is by far, one of the best dark fics I've ever written. It's my
answer to all the Batman Ranma fusions I've seen lately. Every one of
them has Bruce Wane somehow related to him. I thought to myself... Why?
It isn't really necessary is it? I also realized that for it to really
work, I needed to destroy him completely. It came out really well.
And so this was born. Cool huh?
One thing I'm interested in hearing about is when you figured out it was
a Ranma/Batman cross over. I want to know what gave it away.
More of this will follow very soon. I love it.
Next time: Kodachi comes to see Ranma; a match made in hell, the real
Batman stuff starts to happen as well. This one will definitely be going
on the RAAC soon.
C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com
Url: Http://www.geocites.com/misatira/