In a totally dark room, Ranma Saotome struggled to escape from the steel bands that firmly secured his legs, arms, and neck to the vertical table. His ki powers were useless; since the bright flash that was the last thing he could remember seeing, he had felt totally drained of energy. He tried to turn his head, but his pigtail was caught between his neck and the table. Not that there was much to see. Even Shampoo in cat form couldn’t see anything in a room this dark.

‘This is all Akane’s fault!’ thought Ranma bitterly. ‘She’s the one who trapped me in this freakish body, got herself and the other girls kidnapped, and left me to be tied up helpless, god knows where. If she isn’t already dead, the next time I see her, I’ll kill her!’

A voice spoke from the darkness. "Ranma. Choose."

"What do you mean, choose?" called out Ranma, relieved to hear a voice beside his own even if it belonged to the one who had imprisoned him here.

"Akane," replied the voice. A light turned on at the opposite end of the room, revealing the youngest Tendo sister, strapped to a table similar to the one that Ranma was attached to. A large spike hanging from an unseen support dangled just above her head, its sharp point just touching her scalp.

"Shampoo," continued the voice. A second light turned on, revealing the Amazon warrior in a situation that matched Akane’s. Ranma winced as he realized that were either of the girls to wake up and raise her head slightly, she would be fatally impaled. He quickly slunk down as best he could in his own bonds, edging away from the deadly skewer that might be suspended above his own head in the darkness.

"Ukkyo," said the voice, and the third light reflected off of the various cooking implements that adorned the chef’s uniform. She, too, was unconscious and bound to a table, and Ranma guessed what he would see next seconds before the fourth light came on.

"Kodachi." The Black Rose appeared to have already fallen victim to the spike above her head, but as Ranma continued to stare, he realized that it was only buried in the knot of hair which spoke of her capture during her nightly hair-setting session. That had been Ranma’s first indication...

The voice interrupted his thoughts. "These four women each care deeply for you, Ranma Saotome. Each one of them has called you fiancé."

"Akane hasn’t," retorted Ranma. "The nicest thing she’s ever called me was an idiot."

"You have feelings for each one of them, however you may act toward them, or they toward you. It is time for you to stop denying those feelings and decide once and for all which one you will wed."

"Then what’s with the spikes? Why kidnap all of them? You could have tied me up just as easily and let the rest of them go!"

The voice became tinged with anger. "You have never taken the choice seriously. You have always known that you could change your mind at another time when the mood suited you. That will no longer be the case. You may choose only one of the four. That one will live and be released. The others... will die."

"You can’t do this!" shouted Ranma, struggling to escape once again. "You can’t force me to choose who lives and who dies!"

"On the contrary," replied the voice, as Ranma felt the tip of a spike press against his scalp. "You have five minutes. After that time, if you have not chosen, then you and all of your fiancées will die."

Ranma’s mind raced. Which one would he choose? Akane was the one he cared about the most, but after the events of the past few days, he didn’t think she’d ever speak to him again. Besides, she didn’t want to marry him anymore. She had another boyfriend now. And the whole mess was her fault anyway. Hadn’t he threatened to kill her just a few minutes before?

But what about Shampoo? She had originally tried to marry him because it was her tribe’s law, but apparently she really did love him. It had been his own fault that she was involved in this. How could he condemn an innocent victim to death?

And Ukkyo... she’d been promised his hand in marriage, and even though he disliked being forced into such an arrangement, he really did like Ukkyo as a friend and would never leave her to die like this. He knew that, in time, he could learn to love her, especially without the distraction of the other girls.

As for Kodachi... well, that narrowed the choices down to three.

"Your choice, now," said the voice. Ranma was about to argue that the five minutes weren’t up yet, but the spike began to press into his skull, and he stifled his protest. Instead, he quickly made his decision.

"I choose –"

RANMA ½ -- A Deadly Choice