Ranma ½ -- A Deadly Choice

Chapter 17: A Last Desperate Attempt at Salvation

"What’s taking so long?" asked a voice from the floor of the Tendos’ dining room.

"Mousse is trying to find Ryoga," replied Ranma. "We didn’t think he’d be able to find his way here on his own."

Mousse pushed the door open and tossed a black cat into Ranma’s lap. "Here he is."

"That’s not Ryoga!" screamed Ranma. "IT’S A CAT!"

"Sorry," Mousse picked the cat up and stared at it. He shrugged and tossed it out the door.

"Hey, watch it!" shouted Ryoga from outside. "Quit throwing animals at me!" He stepped into the room and closed the door.

"I thought you were over your fear of cats, Saotome," remarked Kuno from the floor.

"That was because of that stupid assertiveness book," said Ranma. "I’ve tried to forget as much of that as I could."

"Me too," said Ryoga. "It was nice for a while, but assertiveness really isn’t my style."

"So, what are we all doing here?" asked Mousse. "It’s not like there’s anything we can do, now that the demon’s finished kidnapping the girls."

"Has it?" asked Kuno. "My sister was taken four nights ago, the chef three, the Amazon two, and my dear Akane last night. Will not the fiend return tonight for the pigtailed girl?"

"I hate to tell you this, Kuno," said Ranma, "but the pigtailed girl went missing shortly before Shampoo was kidnapped. I don’t think she’ll ever be seen again."

"Alas! I would tear my eyes from my head, to deny them the sight of a world without Akane or the pigtailed girl!" Kuno leapt to his feet, tripped over the low table, and fell flat on his face. "If only that accursed Ninomiya woman had not drained my energy so completely! I swear, when my eyesight returns, I will have her life!"

"Anyway, we’re still waiting on Tsubasa," said Ranma.

"Why Tsubasa?" asked Ryoga. "That guy’s a nutcase!" The phone in the hallway rang.

"Ryoga, it’s for you!" called Kasumi. Ryoga shrugged and went to get the phone.

The message was loud enough for the entire house to hear. "I AM NOT A NUTCASE!"

"It’s Tsubasa," explained Ryoga.

"Well, tell him we’re all waiting for him!" said Ranma.

"No, he’s not on the phone," replied Ryoga. "He’s IN the phone." Ryoga entered the dining room, followed closely by the telephone.

Tsubasa lifted his receiver and stared at Ranma. "You’re even more butt-ugly than usual!"

"Thanks, Tsubasa," said Ranma sarcastically. "Do you want to know why I asked you here or not?"

"If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and dial again," said Tsubasa’s costume. Tsubasa wordlessly excused himself, then returned without the costume.

"So, Ranma, we’re all here," said Mousse. "Now, what are we doing here?"

"We’re going to get the girls back," said Ranma.

"How?" asked Ryoga.

"I’ve been working on a plan. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but it should work."

"Hopefully it’s more intelligent than ‘I’ll distract the demon while Miss Hinako drains its energy,’" fumed Ryoga.

"Well..." began Ranma.

"I knew it!" shouted Mousse, pounding his fists on the table. "This is all just a big waste of time! Great-grandma said there’s no way we can get the girls back unless the demon decides to return them! What makes you think you know more than she does?"

"Hey, let’s give him a chance to talk," said Tsubasa. "Maybe his butt-ugly exterior is hiding some kind of ingenious plan."

"You don’t sound too convinced," said Ryoga.

"Well, he let my dear Ukkyo get kidnapped, didn’t he? I’ll never forgive that. But if he can get her back, I’ll do whatever I can!"

"So, what is this ingenious plan?" asked Kuno.

"I wouldn’t call it ‘ingenious’ per se," said Ranma. "First things first... we need to get the demon to come back here."

"Fat chance," said Ryoga. "It already kidnapped all of your fiancées."

"Exactly. So all I need is another fiancée."

Kuno sat up. "You don’t mean to propose to an innocent girl, do you? I will not allow it! Involving innocent women in your schemes is inexcusable!"

"Hey, I never said she had to be innocent," said Ranma quickly. "I happen to know someone who will agree to anything if the price is right."

"No way," said Nabiki from the hallway. "I’ll do ALMOST anything if it involves a profit. Giving myself to a demon is not one of them."

"Hey, Akane’s your sister," Ryoga pointed out. "Don’t you care about her at all?"

"Of course I do. I care about her like a sister."

"So, what do you say?" prompted Ranma.

"I say good luck finding someone else for your plan."

Kasumi entered the dining room carrying a tray of biscuits and a tea set. "It’s so nice to see all of you working together. I thought you might like some tea while you talk."

"I suppose I could propose to Kasumi..." said Ranma.

"Oh, no!" protested Kasumi. "I couldn’t! I’m afraid you’re a little too young for me. I’m sure our marriage would be unfulfilling. Besides, you shouldn’t give up on Akane so soon. It’s not proper for –"

"All right," interrupted Ranma. "I get the picture."

"So, where does that leave us?" asked Tsubasa.

"Mmph mm pphmm phgmnm phlmm."

Ranma sighed. "Mousse, try again without your mouth full."

Mousse swallowed the biscuit. "I said we can find a girl later. What are we going to do when the demon comes for her?"

"That’s where you guys come in. I thought I could beat the demon myself, but I was wrong. Normal moves are useless, and it counters every special technique after seeing it only once. Most of them aren’t effective anyway. So we need a lot of new, never-before-seen techniques."

"Riiiiiiiight," said Ryoga. "We all go home and invent a few dozen new moves before tonight. Then we raise a few billion yen, start our own successful plastic fruit factory, and discover a cure for cancer. What do we do to top it all off? Oh, that’s right. We beat an unbeatable demon."

"I know it sounds impossible," said Ranma, "but what other choice do we have?"

"Let’s just face it, Ranma. We failed. The girls are gone forever."

Mousse nodded. "Besides, what good would it do us to rescue them? They don’t care about us. They’re all in love with you."

"It’s your problem, Ranma," said Tsubasa. "You deal with it." The three of them stood up and walked out of the room.

"Hey, come on!" shouted Ranma. "You can’t just give up on me!"

Kuno stood up. "I shall fight for my sister’s honor!" He waved his bokken, lost his balance, and fell forwards into Ranma. His hand closed on Ranma’s breast. "Wait. I recognize this breast. It’s the pigtailed girl! She has come back to me!"

Ranma punched Kuno in the face, sending him flying into the koi pond. "No thanks." He ran out the door after the others. "Wait up!"

"What do you need us for?" asked Ryoga. "Think about it. Tsubasa’s no fighter, Kuno’s got worse eyesight than Mousse at the moment, and I have trouble learning moves even from martial arts masters! The only one of us who’s got any hope of coming up with all-new moves to beat that demon is you."

"I’ll take care of the demon," said Ranma. "I picked you guys because I know you care about the girls. Someone’s got to rescue them while I keep the demon busy."

Mousse and Tsubasa froze. "You mean, you distract the demon while we rescue the girls?"

"Right. Kuno grabs Kodachi, Tsubasa gets Ukkyo, Mousse saves Shampoo, and Ryoga rescues Akane."

"That plan sounds familiar," said Ryoga flatly. "Besides, Kuno’s in no position to rescue anybody. You’ll have to find someone to replace him, at least."

A black cloud floated easily over the garden wall. Ranma took up his defensive position, but the cloud splashed into the koi pond and emerged as an Amazon in a backwards robe. "The girls kidnapping did the demon rescuing you helping will I!"

Ranma’s lips moved as he quickly tried to piece the sentence together in the right direction. "You want to help us?"

Razor nodded. "Correct. Of situation aware being I. When girls rescuing you, Kodachi leaving behind will I."

Ranma started to protest, but Mousse raised a hand to stop him. "He knows what he has to do. He’s planning ahead to get around his backwards curse."

"Girls being where?" asked Razor.

"That was the last part of the plan," said Ranma. "When the demon comes for my new fiancée, we let it get her. Then we follow it to wherever it’s keeping the others."

"Sounds risky," said Ryoga. "The demon’s pretty crafty. You haven’t managed to follow it when it kidnapped the other girls. What makes you think you could do it this time?"

"Because we’re the only hope they have," replied Ranma. "They’re depending on us!"

"I feel sorry for them," said Tsubasa.

"Stop talking like it’s hopeless!" shouted Ranma. "As long as we don’t lose hope, we can do anything! Right, guys?" The others shuffled their feet, except for Razor, who shuffled his hands. "Razor, you can fight it while you’re in demon form, right?"

"No. To regular demon equal being I. Against Ultimate Darkness, no match being even I."

"Well..." Ranma grasped at straws. "We’ll work with that..."

"Face it, Ranma," said Ryoga, "keeping hope isn’t going to help us here. We’re hoping to find a girl that the demon will hopefully come after, hopefully leading us back to its lair, where we hope to be able to rescue the girls, and maybe if we hope hard enough, it won’t just come after them – and us – as soon as we’re back home. It’s not hope we need; we need a miracle. And I’m afraid I’m not the type to depend on miracles. If I was, I’d have proposed to Akane long ago."

"Point taken, if a bit overstated," Ranma grudgingly admitted.

"I’d love to help you get Akane and the others back," said Ryoga, "but there’s just no way we can oppose that demon."

"Maybe we should take a couple of days to think about this," said Mousse. "You know... go home, get some sleep for a change, maybe draw up some spirit wards and carve some crosses. Get some weaponry that will work on a demon."

"But we can’t leave them in the demon’s hands!" protested Ranma. "Who knows what that thing is doing to them?"

"Yeah, who knows?" asked Tsubasa. "Who says they’re even still alive?"

"They’re alive. And they need to be rescued. If you guys won’t help me, I’ll find someone who can! I don’t care if it has to be the old freak, or Pops, or that crummy ninja. I’m going to get them back!"

"Fine," said Ryoga’s voice from the far side of the wall.

"Good luck," added Mousse.

"See ya," agreed Tsubasa.

Razor shrugged. "You helping loving would I, but useless being would anything doing could I."

"Yeah, right," said Ranma. "Just get out of here." Razor stood stock-still. "Fine, stay here."

"Your mind making up should you," said Razor, leaping over the wall.

"Now what?" asked Ranma aloud. A pair of arms grabbed him from behind, eliciting a rather feminine shriek from Ranma’s half-female throat.

"Pigtailed girl!" shouted Kuno. "Even when my eyes fail me, my heart leads me straight and traaaaaaaaaaah!" he screamed as Ranma’s foot sent him flying.

"I am NOT going to remain the only eligible girl in Tokyo!" shouted Ranma. He leapt over the wall and ran with a new destination in mind.

*************************************************

"Ah, Ranma," said Hikaru as he opened the door. "I was hoping you’d drop by. How did last night’s rescue effort go?" Ranma’s face told him the whole story. "I see. And Akane and I were getting along so well."

"Yeah, I saw how well you two were getting along," fumed Ranma. "Let me guess. You’ve been reading ‘How to Be More Assertive,’ haven’t you?"

Hikaru’s face darkened. "I’ve heard of that book. It’s said to be a very powerful text, like the Necronomicon, only not quite so evil. All you have to do is read a few words, and the awesome power is released. It can bring you anything you desire."

"But you haven’t read it?"

Hikaru shook his head. "I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole!"

"I know what you mean. I’ve been trying to get that stuff out of my head for days now."

"It will fade, eventually. Once you truly desire to be rid of the book’s power, it has no hold on you any more."

Ranma sighed. "That’s a relief!" He paused to think. "Oh, yeah! I nearly forgot why I came here! I wanted to ask you what you found out about the demon. I need to know how to beat it."

"You’re planning to rescue Akane and the others, aren’t you?" Ranma nodded. "Well, I’m afraid I have bad news for you. That demon is completely untouchable."

"What do you mean, untouchable?"

"I mean exactly that. The demon has no mass. You can’t touch it except with pure energy."

"But weapons can hit it!"

"Sure, anything that moves has kinetic energy, but that won’t do more than swirl it around a bit. To hurt the demon, you need ki energy, or something equally intense. And that energy will mix with the demon’s anti-energy, releasing a powerful destructive force. By the time you could destroy the demon, the destructive force output would be enough to wipe out the entire universe!"

"Then there must be some other way!"

"The only other way to stop a demon is to gain control over it, and that’s useless too. This type of demon doesn’t even answer to the one who summoned it. The only thing it knows how to do is accomplish the purpose for which it was summoned. Until it completes its purpose, nothing can stop it."

"Well, I’m going to find a way!"

"Ranma, come to your senses!" pleaded Hikaru. "It’s a suicide mission!"

"Then so be it. If I run away from my problems, I’ll never be able to look my father in the face again." He caught sight of himself in a nearby mirror. "Then again, I don’t know if I’ll EVER be able to look at anyone, with a face like this. How am I ever going to find myself another fiancée?"

"Another fiancée? What about rescuing the fiancées that were kidnapped?"

"That’s the idea." Ranma quickly explained his plan.

"I see your problem. No girl in her right mind would agree to marry you, and all of the girls who aren’t in their right minds have been kidnapped." He scratched his chin. "I’ve got something that might work. It’s conspicuous, but it will at least hide your gender problem."

"Thanks," said Ranma. "Maybe I can’t beat the demon, but I have to at least try."

Hikaru handed Ranma a dark cloak. "Here you go. Please, save Akane."

"I will," said Ranma, pulling the cloak around himself. "Even if she doesn’t want me anymore, I’m still going to save her along with the others." Without another word, he swept out the door.

*************************************************

Azusa turned her skates sideways and ground to a halt at the edge of the rink. "That cloak is cute! Alexander!"

Ranma backed away, holding the dark cloak close around himself. "Listen, Azusa! I can’t take this cloak off in public. I’m in no condition to be seen!"

"Alexander! Give me my Alexander!" shouted Azusa, leaping over the rink wall to land on top of Ranma. "I want Alexander!"

"You’d best hand over the cloak, if you know what’s good for you," advised Mikado, leaning against the wall from inside the rink. "She’ll tear it right off your back otherwise."

"I know! I’ve seen what she does!" said Ranma. "I just came to ask a favor!"

"Give Azusa her Alexander, then we’ll talk about favors," said Azusa.

"I can’t, here," said Ranma. "Come with me to someplace more private."

"Azusa dear, maybe you’d better let him up," advised Mikado.

"No! He has Alexander!" Azusa grabbed the hood and pulled it down.

Ranma stared Azusa in the eyes. "Now do you see why I need this cloak?"

Azusa stared back. "Your hair is funny-colored. It’s cute!" She leaned forward, inadvertently putting a hand on Ranma’s breast. "Oh, Azusa understands. You’re a girl!"

"A girl?" Mikado perked up, but quickly turned away when he saw Ranma’s face. "Certainly not a girl I would wish to date."

"Yeah, you’re a real looker too," snapped Ranma. "Listen, Azusa. I’m not really a girl. I just –" He wracked his brain for an explanation. "I just play one on TV! I’ve only got half of my costume on."

"You’re silly," said Azusa with a smile.

"Yeah, sure." A plan formed in his mind. "Anyway, one of the actresses from the show is sick, and I need you to fill in for her. It’s the scene where my character proposes to her character. You just have to stand there, look cute, and act natural. Can you handle that?"

"Looking cute is Azusa’s specialty," said Azusa.

"Great," said Ranma. "Show up at the Tendo dojo tonight at sundown."

"Wait a second," said Mikado. "Why is your character proposing to Azusa if your character is female?"

"She’s coming out of the closet," replied Ranma. "It’s a dramatic moment."

"Azusa wants to be on TV!" shouted Azusa.

"Fine," said Ranma. "You’ll be on TV." He carefully pushed Azusa aside and stood up. "I’ll see you tonight then." He started toward the exit, but his cloak was caught on something.

Azusa yanked the cloak right off of Ranma’s back. "Alexander!"

"Great," said Ranma as he ran out of the rink and into the street. "I can’t walk around in public like this! What if someone sees me?" His heart leapt into his throat. "What if Mom sees me?"

"I wouldn’t worry about that," said his own voice from behind him. "You won’t be seen by anyone for a long time."

Ranma whirled to face the demon, raising his fists defensively. "What do you want?"

The demon sighed. "That’s the problem with you, Ranma. Nothing scares you. Female victims are so much more fun. Although my recent batch of victims has been nothing but trouble..."

"What are you talking about?" asked Ranma.

"I gave them a chance to compete for your hand in marriage, but they insisted that you be the one to make the choice. I believe Akane was the ringleader."

"It figures Akane would be the one to make trouble," said Ranma. "But that means they’re still alive!" He raised his fists. "Take me to them now, or else!"

"That was the intention," said the demon. It snaked a black tentacle around Ranma’s waist.

"Hey! I meant lead me there and I’d follow!" Ranma swung a hand at the tentacle that held him, but another tentacle grabbed his wrist and stopped his swing short.

"I have so much fun watching girls struggle," said the demon. "An interesting consequence of choosing a male body for my alternate form. I simply can’t bring myself to prolong the struggles of a male victim in the same way." The demon’s body swirled into black smoke, which covered Ranma completely. "Your loss." There was a bright flash, and Ranma lost consciousness.

*************************************************

*************************************************

"Even now, when your life hangs in the balance, you stall your decision," said the voice from the darkness as Ranma finished reviewing the events of the past few days in his mind. The spike above his head was getting too close for comfort. He could feel it displacing his hair, descending slowly but surely toward its mark. "Choose quickly. Which one of these four girls will live to see the light of day again?" Ranma’s eyes flitted from each girl to the next, searching for an answer. But what answer could there possibly be? How could he choose one of them and leave the other three to die? But if he did nothing...

He inhaled sharply as the spike touched his scalp.

"This is your last chance, Ranma Saotome. Choose or die!"

Suddenly, it was obvious. There was only one solution. One way to make everything right... Ranma shouted the name at the top of his lungs.

"KODACHI!"