[Ranma][FanFic] House of the Gilded Hand - Part 1

[Seaneassy]

All characters represented here are not my property, I hope that noone
gets too mad at me.

House of the Gilded Hand, Part One
A Shot at Destiny

It was late in the Nerima District, echoing cry of a barking dog
was all that broke the silence. Two figures made their way slowly down
the street. Between them they carried a third. The two walking figures
were arguing.

A young man with black hair pulled back into a ponytail said to
his companion, "Look, Ryoga, you gotta stop this. You can't keep
attacking me like this, look what happened this time. Next time someone
could get killed."

The other young man, also black haired, although his was shorter
and he wore a yellow and black bandanna in it, sighed. "Ranma, I will
have justice for what you have done to me."

Ranma gave an exasperated sputter. then looked down at the
unconscious girl they carried between them. "Is your justice worth
Akane's life? When you used that Breaking Point technique to drop that
wall on me, did you even stop to think of who else might be there?"

For a moment the other youth looked chagrined. "Well... I, that
is...," In a quiet voice he finally said, "No."

Ranma wasn't done yet though. "Neither of us has been
particularly thoughtful in Akane's direction. Its not easy sometimes.
She seems to take offense at everything I do. Even when I'm trying to be
nice."

Ryoga had to agree. "Ryoga, Do you really love Akane, or do you
just want her because you see her as mine?"

The other young man was saved from having to answer that
question by a huge column of smoke that billowed up between them. A
more than half-mad laughter emanated from within the cloud. When the
smoke cleared Akane had several long red sticks attached to a clock
chained to her. A man with long black hair dressed in white robes stood
before them. His thick glasses were actually in place on his face.

"Ranma Saotome, face me in combat to the death! If you want the
key to that bomb, you must defeat Mousse!"

Panic struck both young men's faces as they realized what Mousse
had just said. "I'll fight you Mousse!" Ranma said, dark anger
colouring his speech.

"We both will!" Ryoga added.

"No!" Mousse looked at Ryoga in anger. "If you interfere, I
will set off the bomb." He leaped back, onto the fence overlooking the
water. "You have taken my love away from me, I will do the same.
Unlike you, however, I am offering you a chance to save her.

"Mousse, you're insane! Totally wacko!" Nevertheless, Ranma
joined him on the fence. Taking up a fighting stance, he faced off
against Mousse. "Ryoga, watch over Akane. He's never beaten me before.
He won't now."

The white robed man pressed the attack. Mousse's robes flapped
in the breeze, further confusing his outline as his hidden weapons
struck forth and he traded blows with Ranma. For his own part, Ranma
was using none of his trickier moves, he wanted this over as quickly as
possible.

The two moved back and forth along the fence as they gave and
took ground. Finally Ranma's impatience got the better of him. He
leaped backwards, putting distance between himself and his opponent.
Even before he landed, blue-white lightning was flashing between his
cupped hands. The blast of ki was building.

"Not this time, Saotome!" Mousse stretched forward, one arm out
towards his opponent. The ki ball was nearly formed. A sudden
detonation came from Mousse's hand, leaving a black smoking hole in the
sleeve.

The ki ball collapsed in on itself as Ranma looked down in
surprise. His already red shirt began to darken right over the heart.
In surprise he looked up a Mousse. "What-" he started and then fell
backwards into the water.

Ryoga jumped up to his feet but before he could take another
step, Mousse pointed at Akane. A huge flash of light and heat threw him
back. By the time his vision cleared, Mousse was gone.

Akane was fine. She had fireworks strapped onto her, making it
look like a bomb. The padding had insulated her enough that aside from
being covered in soot and her earlier concussion, she was fine. Ryoga
breathed out a sigh of relief. He ran to the fence and looked for Ranma
but saw no sign of him, or her if he had hit the water. Ranma had hit
the water, Ryoga remembered hearing the splash.

The young man was torn. Akane's head injury could be serious,
he was no doctor and couldn't tell. On the other hand, Ranma was likely
dead already. Shot through the heart.

A cold little voice in the back of his head told him he should
be glad. Now he could pursue Akane with a clear conscience. But
despite his long rivalry, he had never really wanted Ranma dead. Not
beyond heated moments during battle, anyway.

With a sigh he turned and gently lifted Akane, carrying her to
the doctor's office.

Behind him, a shaking hand rose up out of the water and grasped
the fence.

The man in the white robes arrived in the darkened office quite
quickly after the fireworks. The room had been put together hastily,
but with care. Rugs covered the wooden floor and a single large desk
dominated the room. No pictures adorned the walls or the desk. The
desk itself was neat and orderly, drawing attention towards the shadowy
figure sitting behind it.

The man looked the white robed figure up and down. He did not
speak yet.

"It is done. Saotome is dead. His destiny is destroyed."
Mousse spoke with a soft voice not truly his own. "They will blame the
magician. It is safe to release him now."

"Excellent. Take him out and get rid of him, Malice. Then
return to me here." The figure leaned forward, steepling his fingers,
each of which glistened with a ring. "Make certain the gun is disposed
of as well."

Dr. Tofu looked over Akane's injuries while Ryoga breathlessly
gave the whole story, including his own faults for a change. "If I
hadn't been constantly challenging Ranma to duels, if we hadn't fought
tonight. Akane wouldn't be hurt now. It wouldn't have been a
distraction to him. It's all my f-YEEP!" Ryoga jumped in surprise as a
redhaired girl with a braid staggered into the doctor's examining room.

Dr. Tofu gave a small gasp, "R-ranma?"

"Akane...." she mumbled weakly stretching one hand out to the
unconscious and collapsing simulataneously. As she fell, her fingertips
barely brushed Akane's cheek. The doctor caught her with amazing speed
and set her down on the second examining table.

It was several hours before any of the three of them woke (Ryoga
had fainted at the sight of Ranma, mumbling about zombies). Both the
Tendo family and Ranma's father were pacing around the waiting room
nervously.

Dr. Tofu had explained the story Ryoga had told him to the
family, for a change he was so serious that even Kasumi's presence
didn't cause him to loose his composure. "I've examined Ranma but all I
can find are small wounds on her chest and back. She has evidence of
scars on her breastbone, but they seem long healed to me." He cleared
his throat and looked a Genma, "She's lost some blood but she'll be fine
with rest."

He turned to Soun. "Akane will be alright, I just used a few
pressure points to help her sleep through the worst of her headache."

Nabiki spoke up in a voice tinged with an uncharacteristic
anger, "I hope Mousse has left town, for his own sake."

The silence that filled the room was her only answer, but noone
seemed likely to disagree with her.

Akane awoke first. Her head hurt but she was feeling fine,
otherwise. She slowly sat up and looked around herself. She saw Ryoga,
slumped in a chair. He was mumbling softly in his sleep. Too softly to
be heard clearly but she did hear her own name more than once.

On the next table over was Ranma. In his girl form. She was
wearing an examination robe and had a blanket pulled up to keep her
warm, even in her deep sleep she seemed to be shivering.

Slowly Akane got up. She felt the room shift as she moved but
managed to get to the counter on her way to Ranma. Ranma's clothes were
folded and waiting on the counter. A bloodstained hole was evident in
the shirt. Her gasp woke Ryoga.

"A-Akane. This... he was attacked by Mousse. Mousse had a gun.
I..." he trailed off, not really certain what he could, should say.

Akane didn't look at him. The hole in the shirt had darker
edges that weren't tinted with just blood. She dropped the shirt and
walked unsteadily to Ranma. The girl under the blanket was starting to
shiver worse. Akane grabbed the blanket that she had been under and
tucked it around Ranma. For a long moment she said nothing, just looked
at the troubled sleep of her fiancee. She brushed a stray lock of the
fine red hair out of Ranma's face wondered how she could both hate and
love someone so much. "Ryoga. Could you leave us alone a minute?"

She still had her back to him. Her shoulders were shaking a
little. "O-okay. I'll wait outside." Somehow between the examination
room and the waiting room he managed to loose track of where he was
going. He wound up in a closet.

Alone at last, Akane felt the silent tears starting to slip out
as she stroked the red haired girl's forehead. "Come back to me,
Ranma..."

Ranma felt the bullet burn its way through him. Felt the blood
drain away from his limbs. He'd been shot. Someone, he couldn't quite
remember who, had shot him. And then the water was over his head.

The pain hit along with the shock of the water. A hand grasped
Ranma's and started pulling at her hand, drawing her back up in the
direction of a bright light. It seemed to take forever to get to the
surface. Once there the light she had seen nearly blinded her. She
felt the hand that held hers pry loose and take her by the wrist. Her
hand was pushed towards another barely visible one. As she grasped the
new hand, she looked back towards the figure that had helped her. It
was being pulled up into the light and fading from view. All she saw
was a flash of blue eyes and a black ponytail.

Ranma suddenly grabbed Akane's hand and spoke, "Don't go!" she
cried weakly. Her eyes flipped open and all she could feel was a
profound knowledge that something was missing. Then she saw Akane. Any
other time Ranma had woken up and found Akane standing over her she
would have made a snide comment or insulted her. At that moment she did
neither. She pulled Akane close into a shaky embrace.

Ranma rarely felt fear, mostly because she really didn't think
that there was anything she couldn't beat, given time and effort. A
hopeless, helpless fear gripped her now. Something was gone from her
and she would never get it back. And she didn't even know what it was.

Akane's spirit had risen when Ranma had suddenly grabbed her
hand. She had been about to tell the red haired girl that she wasn't
going to leave when she found herself locked into a desperate hug. She
knew they weren't out of the woods yet.

Tofu-sensei pronounced them both capable of going home but
suggested bedrest for both of them. The trip home was a silent one,
Ranma hadn't let go of Akane's hand the whole trip. A desperate, hunted
look crept around the corner of her eyes... By the time they reached
the Tendo's house, the whole family was unnerved.

Tofu had told them in private that if Ranma had been shot, the
shock might have hurt his confidence. They would have to be patient
with him for a little while. Not to let Akane pound him, with or
without a mallet.

P-chan waited on the front porch for the family. It had taken
fourty five minutes for him to get out of the closet and once he had
he'd started running. He wanted to find Mousse. The best place to look
that he could think of had been the Cat Cafe. He'd stopped next to a
wooden fence that he was sure was the back of the Cafe. He leaped over
the fence and let forth a battle cry that turned into a shriek that
became a squeal. He had found the Tendo's back yard and leaped into the
koi pond. So he waited on the front porch for them to arrive.

It hadn't been a long wait. They went inside together, P-Chan
following and grunting uneasily as the family sat down. Kasumi went
into the kitchen to fix an early early morning snack before everyone
went back to sleep. They were silent. Ranma ate, but with no
enthusiasm. She didn't go to bed until Akane and the others did.

Genma was stirred by cold feet just as the dawn began to turn
the horizon pink. He felt Ranma's girlish figure slip up next to him,
putting her hand in his.

Any other time he would have thrown his son out the window, but
the hopelessness in the child's eyes softened even his machismo. He
pulled her close and let her sleep against him as they had when Ranma
was little.

I will avenge this, my son, he silently promised.

Morning over Nerima brought Mousse out of his deep sleep. He
stood up in the alley behind the Cat Cafe. He had had a sick dream of
killing Ranma. With a gun. And threatening Akane with explosives. He
shivered in the early morning chill and looked about himself for his
glasses.

Eventually he found them atop his head and slid them into place.
As he did he caught a scent he recognized from his hand. Gunpowder.

His dream...

Akane and Ranma were excused from school by their fathers and
told to stay home in bed. Ranma was doing a little better, she even
called Akane an uncute tomboy, half-heartedly. After a light breakfast,
that she again barely touched, Ranma decided on a bath. Maybe that
would clear out some of the cobwebs in her mind.

Not long after, she had cleaned herself and was getting into the
tub. It took a moment to sink into her depression soaked mind. Not
again!

She hadn't changed back.

Her dream from Tofu-Sensei's office came back to her. The
pigtail and the blue eyes going into the light. Her profound sense of
loss.

"Half of me is dead," she whispered out loud. Then she
screamed.

Akane and Kasumi were in the bathroom like a shot, Soun and
Genma were only slower by virtue of having been further away. None of
them immediately recognized the significance of Ranma-chan sitting in
the hot bath.

Kasumi seemed to catch on first. "Oh, my!"

Then Genma, in his panda form, he held up a sign "What the...?!"

Akane ran to Ranma's side. "Why aren't you changing?"

Ranma was starting to shake now, despite the heat of tub she
felt cold inside. "I-I-I..." she started stammering and then did
something Akane had never seen Ranma do. She started crying. Silent,
hopeless, whole body sobs.

The Cat Cafe was being rapidly overwhelmed with business. With
Mousse nowhere to be found, the wait staff consisted only of Shampoo,
and while her martial arts skills kept her in excellent shape, there was
a limit to even her abilities. She was grumbling to herself about his
being inconsiderate to her needs and remembering when Ranma had worked
for the Cafe briefly, right after it had opened.

She had just delivered a plate of lunch when Mousse walked in
the front door of the Cafe. Shampoo had turned to began a tirade at him
in Chinese but was not given the chance.

"Not now," he said. His tone was soft, a little whisper that
carried more power with it than all the battle cries and insults he had
ever screamed. Unsure of what to make of this Shampoo merely stood
there with her mouth hanging open.

The thin young man in the dirty robes walked into the kitchen of
the Cat Cafe and looked down at the diminutive proprietor.
"Cologne..." he began.

She took in the sight of the young would-be suitor of her
granddaughter. He looked as though he had slept in an alley. She could
see that he had been in a fight. There was also the small hole in his
sleeve, near the cuff. The robe he wore was part of his arsenal of
weapons, he took great care never to allow it to be damaged. The faint
burn marks along the edge of the hole told her the rest of the story.

"What have you done?" she asked. For the first time she was in
awe of Mousse. The boy had used a gun. Had he tried to shoot Ranma
Saotome? Had she let this little game go on for too long?

To tell the truth, Cologne didn't truly intend for Ranma to
marry Shampoo. She had been grooming(as it were) Mousse from a very
young age to be the one she would allow to marry her granddaughter.
Ranma Saotome simply became a means to an end once he came into their
lives. She had contributed to the antagonism between the two young men
on many occasions and hoped that one day, Mousse would defeat the
Saotome boy.

But not in a dishonorable manner.

She waited for him to continue. After a moment of stony silence
between them he did. "I think that I may have done something horrible
last night... I had a dream. In my dream I shot Ranma Saotome. With
a gun. I don't think it was just a dream. I don't understand? Why
would I do this?"

A hand grabbed Mousse from behind, slamming him facefirst into
the shelf holding the pots and pans. Close to his ear came a hard
voice, "Why don't we talk about this, son?" Genma Saotome's arm lashed
back to strike the back of the boy's head.

To Be Continued...