The characters of the Ranma 1/2 universe are the creation
and possession of the brilliant
Rumiko Takahashi.
------------------------------------------------
Hearts
of Ice
Part
20: Heaven and Hell, Part
One
by
Krista Perry
------------------------------------------------
The cool night air felt good on Kasumi's
face as she emerged from the
warm kitchen to the dining
room. The patio door was open, spilling a rectangle
of light into the dark back
yard; light that was blotted
by the shadows of two hunched
figures.
"Tea,
Father?"
Soun
didn't raise his eyes from
the Shogi board, knowing that
if he did, Saotome would use
the distraction to eat one
of the wooden game pieces
-- literally, since the man
was a panda at the moment,
and had little trouble chewing
and digesting such unpalatable
fare.
"Why, yes, thank
you, Kasumi," he mumbled.
Kasumi
poured steaming green tea
into her father's empty cup.
"Uncle
Saotome?"
After
an affirmative grunting response,
she poured for the panda.
Under
normal circumstances, she
wouldn't have offered tea
so late in the evening.
But Father and Uncle
Saotome had taken to playing
Shogi far into the night,
ever since Ranma, Nabiki and
the others had left for China
in search of her missing sister. She supposed they were doing it because, though
neither of them would admit
it, they were deeply, terribly
worried.
And
she was worried as well, she
realized.
Why else would she
be up making tea at nearly
eleven-o-clock at night?
"We
should have gone with them,"
Father had said, out of the
blue, a few days previous
over a game of Go.
Uncle
Saotome hadn't even blinked.
"Why?
So we could get in
their way?
Do you really think
we would be more help than
hindrance to their quest?
How long since you
truly practiced the Art, my
friend?"
"My
daughter has no skill in the
Art whatsoever," Father
snapped back. "And yet she went with them."
"And
Ranma will protect her,"
Uncle Saotome soothed. "But Nabiki needed to go because, out of
that entire group, she's the
most level headed.
Your daughter isn't
one to fall apart at the first
sign of chaos, and in that
respect, she is more qualified
than we are to make the journey."
Father
nodded slowly.
"Yes... yes, I
suppose you're right."
"Of
course I'm right."
Father
fell silent.
And then, a low whisper,
so soft that Kasumi wasn't
even sure she heard correctly.
"What
cowards we are."
Uncle
Saotome simply moved a game
piece.
And
that had been the last mention
of the subject of Ranma's
rescue mission for Akane.
At least in her presence.
She
hoped Nabiki, Ranma, and the
others were okay.
And...
Akane.
The sister she couldn't
remember.
The youngest child
of the Tendo family, whisked
away to a terrible, frightening,
dangerous plane of existence,
where demons dwelled...
She
didn't want to think about
that.
It
had been nearly a month since
the blood spell had stolen
Akane from their lives, from
their very memories.
Many things could happen
in a month, Kasumi knew.
So much had happened
in her own home in the past
few weeks; so much chaos,
so many sleepless nights of
fear and worry for Ranma,
for her family... she dared
not even think of what might
have happened to Akane. The prospects were far too frightening. And not knowing was torture.
It
didn't matter to her that
she couldn't remember Akane. Just knowing she existed was enough. Even without memories, Kasumi felt as if she
knew this girl, her youngest
sister.
The photos she'd found.
In most of them, Akane
was smiling... or scowling.
A pretty girl, so much
like Mother.
And yet... full of
fire.
A tomboy. The weights, and the thread-bare yellow martial
arts gi.
The homework, the dried
flowers on the wall.
Mother's cookbook,
folded to the "How to
Boil Water" page. The botched attempts at knitting and needlework
hidden amongst the clothes
in her dresser. All spoke volumes about the girl's personality.
She must be a hard
worker; determined, if undisciplined.
Impatient, but sincere.
A rough, unpolished
diamond... but a diamond all
the same.
For, most revealing
of all... Ranma loved her. Her, above all the girls who would have him.
Akane must be an extraordinary
person indeed.
Yes,
Kasumi felt as if she knew
Akane.
And
yet, even with all those pieces,
the puzzle was incomplete. No remembrance of her living face, no memory
of a warm, loving touch...
she didn't even know what
Akane's voice sounded like.
She
wanted to know.
In
spite of the lack of memory,
the great hole in the puzzle,
Kasumi found that she cared
for the missing girl.
Loved her.
Feared for her. Hoped that she was still alive...
She
prayed that Ranma would be
able to rescue her in time. For how could one such as this lively, yet insecure
child survive, she wondered,
in such a dangerous, inhuman
realm as the Kami Plane?
Kasumi
leaned wearily against the
door frame of the kitchen,
the cooling tea kettle still
in her hand, and watched as
her father listlessly moved
another Shogi piece.
Ranma... please bring Akane back to us...
--------------------
Akane
ran.
The
blinding, black Mists of Kami
were cold and moist against
her face, whispering through
her loosely braided hair,
trailing in damp tendrils
behind her. Even so, she didn't hesitate in her head-long
flight through darkness, trusting
in her battle senses rather
than her eyes to keep her
from stumbling, falling.
She ran, her feet springing
with each step against the
unseen, spongy ground.
Her
throat was dry with fear.
You're crazy, you know, she thought to
herself.
This is a suicide mission. The
Shadowcat will eat you alive.
It will eat you alive,
and then it will go to the
mortal plane and take Ranma
and rob him of his sanity,
his humanity, alter his very
soul until he's a mere mindless
shell of feline instinct within
a human body...
Spurred
by the terrible aching dread
the thought induced, she ran
faster.
No...
Ranma wouldn't be completely
mindless.
After all, didn't the
Shadowcat itself say that,
in spite of the Nekoken, and
in spite of the Kami Plane's
spell of Forgetfulness, some
deep part of Ranma's altered
soul... remembered her?
But
no, that was just because
of the blood spell.
And if the Shadowcat
killed her, the blood spell
would be broken. And then, without that interdimensional connection,
even Ranma's buried, transformed
spark of human intellect would
forget her.
He
would forget her, she knew,
if she died in the Kami Plane. And then it wouldn't even matter if her soul
continued on as a disembodied
spirit, traveling to some
other plane of existence --
or worse, lingering in eternal,
unfulfilled misery. For in the mortal plane, she would cease to
exist as if she never was,
not even living on in the
minds and hearts of her family
and friends...
She
cut off the thought abruptly.
Get a grip, she told herself. Don't think about it anymore. Just run, just get there, and don't disrupt
your focus worrying about
all the infinite what-ifs.
The
mist parted before her and
closed behind her, sifting
and writhing in a dark wake
with her swift passage.
No choice, no choice. I've come this far, I can't fail now. I just can't. To fail now would render everything
meaningless...
Before
her, a filtered gray light
registered in her direct line
of vision. The Mists began to thin.
Almost
there.
She
pressed her tongue against
the back of her teeth, forcing
moisture into her mouth.
A
deep, strangling sensation
of intense evil swelled before
her, squeezing tightly around
her torso and throat, as if
its mere presence could force
the very breath of life from
her.
She
slipped out of her dead-run
to a stealthy, silent creep. Reaching over her shoulder, she unsheathed her
katana and
swallowed thickly through
the tightness pressing against
her esophagus.
Her eyes were watering,
but she blinked the wetness
away. She forced her rib-cage to expand against the
suffocating heaviness with
quiet control...
She
halted in surprise.
More
than one demon.
Many, actually. She could feel them, a few clustered together
before her, one or two scattered
off to her sides.
Ambush--
Even
as the thought pierced her
mind, she felt something dropping
down on her from above.
Whirling, her blade
flashed in a swift arc over
her head.
The winged creature,
swooping at her with outstretched
talons, screamed as it fell
to the moist ground with two
distinct wet thumps. In the thinning mist, Akane could see a mass
of midnight-black feathers,
lying in pooling black-red
ichor -- a crow demon, she
realized.
And, even as she saw
the fire of maliciousness
and agony sparking in the
beast's three blinking eyes
as it flopped around helplessly
on its remaining wing, she
stepped forward and, with
one clean motion, lopped off
its head.
She
hated messy kills.
Flat-eyed
and tight-lipped, the terrible
calm of battle settling upon
her, she turned and stepped
out of the Mists into a strange
gray landscape that seemed
almost as featureless as the
Mists themselves.
The other demons were
coming at her then, shrieking
and giggling and hissing...
She
barely noticed.
Her heart contracted
briefly with horrified realization.
The
Shadowcat wasn't there.
Oh
no...
It
wasn't there.
Where was it then?
But
there was no time to wonder,
because the demons were upon
her, and there were a lot
of them, five, no six...
Six against one, and
they were huge, bristling
with venomous claws and fangs
and pincers and mandibles
and spikes and burning feathers,
and their eyes were aflame,
red and gleaming wetly with
blood lust, and those that
had mouths were grinning madly...
A
flash of her ki-lit sword,
and the nearest one fell,
grin intact on its severed
head, even as she leaped up
and over the rushing onslaught. Before the demons could adjust to her new position,
another one slumped heavily
to the ground with a strangled
gurgle. Akane pulled her sword from the back of its
thick neck and leaped out
of the way as a sticky spray
of webbing shot at her from
a spider demon.
A
swift kick, and one of the
spider's fragile forelegs
crumpled, even as sharp pain
stabbed through Akane's foot.
The huge arachnid's
monstrously humanish head
emitted a thin, reedy shriek
of agony.
And, as the demon swiped
fiercely at her with its other
legs, Akane saw the source
of her foot injury -- the
spider's legs were covered
with bristle-like hairs that
glinted like steel needles.
She could feel the
blood already soaking her
boot, but she ignored it,
leaping out of reach of the
spider's dangerous flailing
limbs...
...and
into the next demon, a leather-skinned
oni with flames licking out
of its slavering mouth.
And another demon was
coming up behind her; she
could feel its anticipation
as it thrust a clawed appendage
forward to puncture her torso--
She
wasn't there.
And in mid leap, she
grabbed the sluggish oni's
shoulder with her free hand,
twisted, and cleanly decapitated
the fire-breathing creature.
Then, grunting with
exertion, she yanked the oni
corpse as it fell so that
the flames erupting from the
stump of its neck caught the
other demon full in the face.
The stench of burning
demon flesh filled the air,
along with the sound of the
creature's screams. And Akane silenced those a moment later.
Already
she was gasping for breath.
Her nose and eyes stung
and watered from the dark
burning ki that swirled about
her.
Another
one, to her left.
She began to turn...
and found herself sprawling
on the ground.
She landed hard on
her chest, the air rushing
from her lungs, and, as she
wheezed for breath, she felt
rather than saw that her legs
were bound with sticky spider
webbing.
Without hesitating,
she rolled over onto her back
and thrust her katana upward,
into the gaping maw of a wolfish
demon.
The rank smell of its
last breath filled her nostrils
as she saw the fire die within
its eyes.
The clawed hands went
limp mere centimeters from
her chest.
Akane
shoved the body aside, pulling
her blazing katana from the
demon's skull and severing
the webbing that bound her
legs with a single quick movement. But the spider demon was already there, almost
on top of her, and her sword
clashed with its glistening,
steel-like fangs as it bent
over her.
She grunted, using
all her strength to hold the
monster's head and clacking
mandibles at bay, then cried
out as she felt a sharp needle-sting
against her arms and back
as the creature reached behind
her with its barbed forelegs,
and gathered her in closer.
Venom began to ooze
eagerly from the glinting
fangs.
A greenish drop fell,
narrowly missing Akane's bare
sword hand, and sizzled against
the ground.
Enough. Lifting her uninjured foot, she fell backwards
and kicked up against the
spider's abdomen, gritting
her teeth in pain as the barbs
pierced deeper into her skin
as she fell against the ground.
But the demon flipped
over her head and onto its
back, and in the next moment,
she was standing over the
creature.
A
swift flash of her sword,
and the segmented body collapsed,
quivering, in two neat pieces.
The spider's spindly
legs immediately curled up
towards its exposed underbelly
in an insectoid rictus of
death.
Suddenly,
she could breathe again.
And
she was shaking.
Wiping
her stinging eyes, Akane looked
around frantically, ignoring
the carnage, the smells of
burning demon flesh, of ichor
and her own blood, ignoring
the biting pain of her wounds,
her bleeding shoulders and
arms, her punctured foot.
The
Shadowcat...
It
wasn't there.
She couldn't feel it,
couldn't feel anything...
Something
flickered in her peripheral
vision, and she turned, startled.
There,
not far from where she stood,
a strange, rippling grayness
hung in the air.
She blinked at it,
almost unsure if her eyes
were playing tricks on her.
But no, it was there,
wavering before her like a
heat mirage in the desert.
The
dimensional weakness.
The mortal plane and
the Mountain of the Ancient
One were just on the other
side of this disturbance in
the fabric of space and time.
She
stepped towards it hesitantly,
then froze as she caught sight
of something on the ground
in front of her.
A
huge paw print.
Placed deep and purposefully,
with the claws extended, in
the soft ground in front of
the flickering grayness.
Akane
felt her heart shiver to dust
within her.
Her wide, horrified
eyes were wet with disbelief. It couldn't be.
She
lifted her gaze to the visible
tremble in the air, to the
fragile dimensional fabric
that separated her from the
mortal plane, her home.
Her
ichor-stained fist tightened
around the hilt of her blazing
katana. With a determined snarl that was almost a sob,
she slashed at the dimensional
weakness.
It
parted cleanly, like a fleshy
membrane under a surgeon's
scalpel--
--and
Akane choked out a cry of
pain, even as her katana fell
from her paralyzed fingers.
She collapsed stiffly
to the ground under the sudden
assault of soul-tearing agony
that ripped through her body.
She
was on fire, she was breaking
apart, dissipating molecule
by molecule, and it hurt,
it hurt so bad she couldn't
see, she couldn't think, she
couldn't scream oh please
make it stop please please
please...
The
slice in the dimensional fabric
slowly closed in on itself,
sealing the hole as if it
had never been.
And
the pain ceased.
Gasping,
Akane lay sprawled and trembling
on the soft ground, strands
of her long hair clinging
to her tear-streaked face.
She
was too late.
She hadn't made it
in time.
The Shadowcat had passed
through the rift to the mortal
plane.
And
the blood spell wouldn't allow
her to follow.
Ranma...
Her
wracking sobs were swallowed
in the thin grayness of the
limbo realm.
--------------------
The
Shadowcat stood before Ranma,
unmoving, waiting patiently
for the boy to succumb.
Ranma
felt the symbiont feline soul
within him claw its way up
from the depths of his being
like a black wave, drowning
his humanity in its wake. Groaning in agony, he fell to his knees trembling,
one hand clutching at his
chest as the other shakily
entwined itself in his dark,
spiking bangs, pulling at
his hair, the heel of his
hand pressing into his forehead
as he desperately fought to
hold onto himself.
But
it was no use.
The fog of the Nekoken
seeped into his mind, and
he could feel his human intelligence
slipping away.
The words in his mind
were slowly becoming mere
sounds, without meaning or
substance...
"No." A single word; a hoarse cry through clenched,
grinding teeth.
But it was a word all
the same, a piece of language
that he hadn't yet lost. He clung to it like a lifeline. "No, no, no, no, no..."
As Ranma chanted his mantra of sanity, the demon looked down at him, its yellow eyes glinting