Shadow of Nerima.
Part 2
Reign of the Bat.
Ranma stood staring out the window early the next morning his eyes fell
onto the notepad he had scavenged from one of the rooms and the sketches
he had made in the night. What he wanted would be expensive, especially
considering their financial situation. Fortunately, thanks to Nabiki's
support, the insurance Akane had was largely untouched. He smiled to
himself as he stood; he had some shopping to do.
A few hours later he returned to the house and paused as he carried
several bags with him. Soun sat staring off into space as he usually did.
The man turned to look at him and smiled. It wasn't much, but it was
there. Ranma realized that he was probably relieved that he had not
chosen to waste away as he had. His misery did not desire company. He
looked at him for a moment longer and walked up to shut himself into his
room again for the long night to come.
Dusk fell on the horizon; Soun stood up and walked up the stairs opening
the door to each of his daughter's old rooms. They were barren now, empty
save for a few sparse decorations that had been left behind. Kasumi was
married, and Nabiki had a lucrative career ahead of her. He paused
outside the room where Ranma now slept and rubbed his hand against the
doorframe gently; the wooden duck with Akane's name on it in English
still hung on the door; written below it in plain marker was the Kanji
for Ranma. With a final decision made he opened the door. "Saotome, I
want to speak with you..." He stepped back with a look of pure terror on
his face at what he found there. "My god!"
It stood in the center of the room, a tall black figure with ears like
demonic horns rising from the top of its head as it slowly turned to face
him. Lightening crashed outside from the storm that was approaching from
the east. It simply watched him silently not making a sound or a move as
the cape on its shoulders fluttered in the wind from the open window. It
stood upright coming to its full height, it wasn't all that large really,
but muscles were clearly defined beneath the skin-tight fabric that
covered its body. The fabric shined in the limited light that entered the
room from the hallway and the sunlight. It quickly moved back into the
shadows almost vanishing completely.
"Tendo," it said calmly. A mask covered its face, only two eyes stared
at him from small holes cut into the face. Soun's eyes fell onto the only
spot of color on the whole body, a small yellow oval with a black bat
embroidered into its center on the chest.
All he could think was that death had come for him at last. Then he
looked into the eyes; somehow, light still shined on that part of its
face. They were deep blue pools that seemed to tear through his soul.
"Ranma?"
The figure nodded slowly, any expression hidden beneath the mask.
"What is this? What are you doing?" asked Soun quietly.
"This is... my salvation," answered the man behind the imposing figure
calmly. "I'll see you tomorrow Tendo." With that he jumped onto the
windowsill with an inhuman grace before bounding out into the night with
his cape flowing freely behind him.
Soun watched silently with tears flowing freely from his eyes once
again. "He's gone insane." The thought was quickly pushed away, he had
trusted Ranma many times over the past five years; always he had come
through for him and his family in the end. Perhaps this was his way of
coming through for Akane; the man walked out of the room to his own
bedroom. "Good luck Saotome."
Ranma jumped from rooftop to rooftop feeling the familiar sensation of
freedom as he gracefully traveled at speeds that would rival any car on
the road. His muscles burned with the familiar feeling of exertion he had
come to know well in his life. A smirk gently touched his face as he
stood on one of the larger buildings in Nerima and gazed over the
cityscape that spread out before him. Looking down at the tracks behind
the building he smiled as the train roared by him shaking the very
foundation of the building he stood on. He jumped again landing on top of
the train easily and ducking low to avoid being blown off the top of the
car. The sound assaulted his ears, but he endured for the moment.
About an hour later he jumped off the car onto a nearby rooftop on an
apartment building in one of the less desirable areas of Tokyo. He landed
lightly and easily with a little help from his cape. He glanced around as
the massive cloth settled around him gently. He calmly walked over to the
edge of the roof and reached down to the belt that rested on his hips.
Hanging there was a grappling hook and length of rope. He spun it around
in his hand and let it fly through the air catching the rooftop of a
nearby building. With a slight grunt of effort he soared across the gap
between buildings and landed on another building that was hundreds of
feet away from his original position. He tugged on the rope and retrieved
the hook with his other hand as it came sailing back to his hand. A skill
he had picked up in the mountainous regions of China.
Chun smiled as Katria stepped up to him with a smile on her face. "Here
you go boss," she handed him a small roll of money. He counted it quickly
and paused.
"Do you think I'm stupid bitch?" he snapped angrily.
Katria backed away from him with a shocked expression on her face.
"What? Come on Chun..."
"This is the third night this week you've come back with exactly quota.
I know a pretty thing like you makes twice this much in a night. I could
have understood one or two slow nights, but this is fucked up." He
grabbed her by her face and shoved her against the wall.
"Come on Chun, working the street is hard these days. The cops are all
over what with these weird junkie deaths! I had to add some of my savings
to that just to get the quota!" pleaded the girl.
"The others did fine tonight," replied the man as he crossed his arms
and thrust his hand down into of her bra. He came up with a small roll of
twenties. "What have we here?" Two large men walked up beside Katria and
she stepped back in shock.
"That's my cut! I didn't do all this shit for free you know!" she
snapped.
"Take her out back and show her what happens to people to steal from me.
Make it messy, I want to make an example out of her," said Chun to the
two men.
"No!" screamed the woman as they dragged her back into the alleyway.
Chun smirked to himself as he watched her vanish into the darkness
kicking and screaming.
Katria started to sob pathetically as the two men held her down; one of
them produced a knife and smiled darkly at her while the other started to
clumsily remove her skirt.
"Boy I love it when you bitches screw up," commented the one fumbling
with her clothing as he finally managed to pull down the zipper on her
skirt.
"Don't worry so much, I ain't gonna kill ya. Just cut ya up a little,
you won't make as much money anymore, but you'll still be able to work,"
said the one with the knife as he pressed it against her neck slightly.
Her eyes suddenly went wide with terror as she started to struggle away
from them. She screamed repeatedly as she wriggled around and pressed
herself against the wall and tried to move away.
"Shut up bitch!" screamed the knife wielding punk as he slapped her
across her face angrily. She grew deathly quiet not daring to look up as
tears started to fall down her face. The man noticed a dark shadow loom
over him despite the minimal light in the alleyway; he turned to see that
his partner had stopped moving and was glancing over his shoulder with
his smile slowly changing into a look of terror.
"What the fu-" it was as far as he got when a fist slammed into his face
sending him sprawling across the ground out cold.
The knife wielder rushed forward slashing wildly at the black figure
that seemed to materialize from the shadows. He screamed in frightened
rage as he charged and was met with the back of a fist as the knife met
the figure's forearm and sparked as it met a metal finlike protrusion
that jutted from the thick leather gloves. He slumped to the ground and
shook his head from side to side in an attempt to shake off the blow.
After rising to his knees again and sitting up the thing simply kneed him
in the face. It turned towards Katria and put its hand out to her.
"Nooo! Please don't kill me!" she screeched in terror.
"I'm not going to harm you, I want a favor," said the thing calmly as he
grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet. "I want you to put the word
out about me, I want scum like this to know I'm out there... waiting for
them."
"What are you?" gasped the girl as she backed away from him reflexively.
"I'm Batman."
Kodachi Kuno looked out over her window and smiled darkly at her empire
that spread out across Tokyo. "Winston."
"Yes, mistress," replied the man with a heavy sigh. He was dressed in a
brightly colored clown costume.
"Cheer up, we're going to have even more fun today; what do you have to
say to that?" she looked at him expectantly.
"Whoopee," he replied in a dead pan voice as he threw his arms in the
air lamely. Sasuke elbowed him in the ribs and smiled at his cooperation.
"Very good, I want our tainted product to leak into our competitors
markets as well. Throw them off, cause even more carnage. Or better yet,
I want all the product we produce tainted with it." She giggled into her
hand. "We don't really need junkies anyway, such wastes of humanity they
are."
Winston didn't even bother to argue with her; as difficult as what she
had asked was to do, it was far from impossible. "As you wish."
"Ranma darling will be so impressed when I come to visit him! After he
was freed from that witch Akane Tendo I almost jumped for joy! Now there
is nothing to stand between us! I'm so pleased."
Sasuke nodded vigorously, while Winston just went through the motions.
He felt ridiculous in the costume, fortunately he was still paid the
same.
"This heroine game is growing tiresome, I'm thinking of expanding the
market a bit," she said turning towards her two lackeys. "What do you
think?"
"An excellent idea!" piped up Winston with hope in his eyes. Perhaps
this murderous foolishness would end soon. If she managed to fixate on
something else it would make his job much more enjoyable. Maybe she would
get into child pornography or something? Anything but killing off their
major source of income.
The next morning Nabiki Tendo sat with her father in the home and sighed
heavily as she found what she had expected. The man was sitting alone at
the table silently. "I guess Ranma's in his room then?" she asked out
loud not expecting an answer.
"No, he's out at the moment," replied the man after looking at her
placidly.
She froze and turned towards him in shock. "Daddy?"
"Ranma went to the store, he should return shortly," he said simply.
Nabiki felt her eyebrow twitch, this was the first time her father had
spoken to her since Akane's funeral. "Daddy?" she gasped as she felt her
eyes begin to tear up.
"Nabiki, I am only in mourning, I am not dead. I think I was waiting for
Ranma to realize this as well. Don't worry child, everything will be all
right," he paused and turned away from her. "At least I can hope so," he
thought privately.
Ranma walked into the grocery store that sat on the corner of the same
street that once held the Cat Caf� and Ucchans. Both buildings were
abandoned now, for sale signs hung in the windows. He imagined that they
would not remain long though, the property was very good for small
businesses. He paused when no one seemed to notice him walk through the
doors. There was no one he recognized in the store, and that suited him
fine. Or rather it suited her fine. Ranma was currently in his female
body. He stopped to peruse the produce section and smiled lightly at the
man who looked her up and down. The sadness that still haunted her eyes
kept him at bay though.
She turned slowly and picked up a basket before moving about the store
on her errand.
When she returned home she was quite surprised to find Nabiki still
sitting at the table. She placed her bags down in the kitchen and went to
work putting the things away ignoring her completely.
"Starting to get out more Ranma?" asked the woman.
"Yes," she replied simply.
"I'm glad, I don't want to see you waste away in here for the rest of
your life."
"Hadn't planned on it," she said in answer as she finished her work and
dusted her hands off. She paused for a moment before putting on one of
the old aprons from the closet and started working on dinner.
"Planning on becoming a housewife?" quipped Nabiki with a look of
surprise.
Ranma merely looked at her and blinked, she then continued to work
without replying. An idea started to form inside her head. "A housewife?
No, but perhaps..."
"Well, I'm glad to see you two are finally getting better. I'm sorry I
can't stay long, I've got to work today." Ranma turned and looked at her,
she was dressed in her business suit and carrying a briefcase with her.
"Oh, goodbye sis," she said quietly.
Nabiki looked at her and smiled before continuing out the door. He had
never called her that before.
About an hour later Ranma and Soun sat down to dinner. The meal Ranma
had prepared was modest, but still better than the instant food they had
been surviving off of for the past few months when Kasumi stopped by.
After the meal was over Soun spoke up. "Son, I'd like to talk with you."
"About what?" asked the woman sitting across from him coolly.
"This thing you're doing, how long do you think it will last? I'm
worried about you son," said the man honestly.
"Until I think it's done," replied Ranma simply. "Maybe never, I don't
know."
"I see, then I take it this 'Batman' does not exist?" asked Soun warily.
"No, he doesn't," answered Ranma. "Tendo, Ranma Saotome died with his
wife, I'm not sure who I am now... but I'm not him. Not anymore."
Soun looked at her and frowned very slightly. "I see."
The rest of the evening went on in silence.