Epiphany Chapter 11

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

Nodoka carried her still-sleeping daughter into her room. Laying
her upon the futon, she pulled the covers over Ranma-chan.

At this Ranma-chan's eyes opened halfway. She smiled. "Thanks
Mom."

Nodoka smiled back. "Goodnight dear. Sleep well, and sweet
dreams."

Ranma replied. "For once in a long time, I think I just might."

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

Akane woke up that morning feeling better than she had in weeks,
despite her adventure the previous day that had drained a bit out
of her.

She sat up and could feel a definite presence of calm near her.
Trying to find the source of it, she found her way out into the
yard.

There she found Ranma, currently male and meditating on the grass
near the koi pond.

She sat down next to him. Without opening his eyes he said:
"Good morning Akane."

She smiled and replied. "I can feel you too. This calmness got
stronger the closer I got to you."

He smiled. "I saw your dream last night. It was very, ummm.."

"Enough Ranma, it was sexual. You can just say it."

Ranma opened his eyes and turned toward her. "Do you really want
me to do that, or say those things?"

Akane blushed, and her head dropped as she started snickering
quietly to herself. "No Ranma. That was a bad English novel I
had been reading a couple days ago."

He fell backwards lazily into the grass. "Thank goodness, the
dialog was corny."

Akane giggled. "Well it wouldn't kill you to say something
romantic once in awhile."

He sat up, and then scooped up a handful of water from the pond.
He splashed it on her, and she changed into a cat-girl.

"You look really cute." He said with a smile.

He then got up and strolled inside.

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

Ranma sat down to breakfast and was about to dig in when he was
splashed by a bucket of cold water.

Looking around for the source of his attacker, he found a very
disgusted Happosai latched onto the front of his shirt.

"What happened to my wonderful Ranma-chan?" Said the old
Pervert.

Ranma picked him of his chest and tossed him out in the yard.
"Wouldn't you like to know old freak?"

Happosai landed on his feet on the edge of the grass next to the
pond. "Did you finally manage to get cured, huh Ranma?"

Ranma shook his head. "Better." With that, Ranma changed into
his girl form. "I control it now, and you are never going to
latch onto me."

Happosai was drooling. He quickly launched an attack, but found
himself latched to Ranma's manly chest again.

He jumped back and landed on rock next to the pond. He pulled
out his pipe and began puffing on it. He blew a cloud at Ranma,
who put up his hands to block it, and that was when both of them
noticed the smoke deflected by some strange invisible barriers.

They seemed to extend from Ranma's knuckles and were long and
slender. The smoke did not clear the top of them and so it was
difficult to tell how long they were.

Ranma was currently wondering what was going on, and failed to
notice the look in Happosai's eyes.

The old pervert was trying to understand what he had seen. He
was furious that Ranma now could and did have the perfect defense
against his glomping. Taking out a firebomb from his gi, he
hurled it at Ranma's head. The boy was too distracted to notice
it exploded directly in his face.

Happosai grinned. "That boy thinks he can beat me, well he's
still got another thing coming."

That is when he noticed these glowing blue spikes moving within
the smoke.

Ranma stepped out of the cloud. He was untouched, but the look
on his face gave Happosai a chill.

Protruding from the knuckles on Ranma's fists were the claws.
Easily visible now thanks to the lambent neon blue glow. They
extended nearly two feet long.

Happosai's jaw dropped. "What the heck are those?"

Ranma grinned. "The Neko-ken." He smiled with a bit of
arrogance.

"How the heck did that Idiot Genma finally fix his error?"

Ranma turned his head and spit on the ground. "My father is dead.
Soun is gone too, both drowned in the canal. As for how I took
control of my curse and my fear? You'll have to thank Akane
and my mother. They helped a lot, no thanks to you and Genma."

Happosai stared at Ranma for a few seconds. He was feeling the
focused rage building within the boy.

Suddenly he felt it spike and he dodged as Ranma launched into
an attack again him.

Ranma was cutting through the ground, through rocks, and even the
outer wall and Happi was doing his very best to stay one step
away from those claws. Ranma's reflexes were focused and faster
than Happosai had even seen them. Ranma's eyes were like a 
cat's, slited vertically and as red as fire. He tried tossing 
wards at the boy, but Ranma brushed them off without even slowing
down.

Happosai made a long jump and proceeded to launch firebombs at
Ranma, who began to counter with the amaguriken.

Happosai watched as his bombs were impaled, punched or sliced
into bits. They exploded, yet seemed to have no effect on Ranma.

Then Happosai felt something stab his leg. He looked down in
time to see a shard of one of Ranma's claws vaporize, after being
driven into his calve.

He dodged several of them as Ranma realized he could send small
bits of chi energy off like crystal shards and so was doubling
his effort to try and hit the tiny target.

One could feel the power in the air, as Ranma was generating an
aura of the brightest yellow.

Happosai dove behind a large rock next to the pond for cover.
Ranma was still standing on the other side. He had stopped his
attack. He couldn't see it, but Ranma's eyes were closed and he
was drawing power from somewhere.

Happosai was so busy worrying about his former student that he
didn't have time to notice the water in the pond beginning to
churn and swirl.

It was too late as the water erupted taking the miniature monster
into the air. He could see his attacker below, getting ready a
chi attack.

Ranma was smiling. He had a dream the previous night about a new
attack, and he thought he could do it.

His claws faded as he focused his energy into a ball within his
hands. Blue strands of energy began to flow inward from
everywhere around him, collecting between his hands, in a little
ball.

He also focused his strength into another pocket of energy. It
was next to the blue one, but was fiery red.

He looked up at Happosai, who shuddered at this latest display.
The prevert realized that Ranma's attacks were not only powered
by chi, but now Ranma was commanding magic as well.

"MOKO TAKABISHI, SOUL OF ICE REVISED..... HIRU SHOTEN HAAAAA!!!"

The blast that left his hand was a twisted pillar of red and blue
energy that smashed into Happosai and carried him into the
distance.

Akane had been watching most of the battle, fearful to get
involved and she ran over to Ranma. "Are you alright?" She
nearly cried at him. She could feel something wrong across her
link with him.

He turned toward her, slowly, almost mechanically. "I am now."

Then he collapsed, Akane catching him before he hit the ground.

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

Cologne was standing in her kitchen working on another stew pot,
when the hairs on the back of her neck rose upward.

She sighed as she set her spoon down and grabbed her staff.
<What is it this time?> She thought to herself as she pogo'ed
out the door and down the street to the Tendo Dojo.

She looked up to see a strange blast of energy screaming upward
and outward, and what looked to be Happosai riding on it.

She snickered. <He deserved that, whatever it was.>

Cologne then tried to feel Ranma and found she couldn't. Panic
set in and she took to the rooftops.

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

Nodoka was cradling Ranma, his body hanging limp in her arms.
Akane was holding his hand.

Kasumi checked his pulse. "It is weak, but it is still there."

Cologne bounded over the wall, and took note of the debris.
<What has he done now?> She noted the numerous claw marks and
wondered if the Neko-ken had gotten out. Then the thought
occured to her: <When did the Neko-Ken learn how to use chi
attacks?>

Seeing everyone inside holding the boy, she hopped in. "What
happened to him?"

Akane told her about the battle and his new chi claws.

"So Ranma has control of the Neko-Ken. I suspect he did not
realize how much energy he was focusing and passed out.  I
felt the radiation from the cafe and feared it was about to trigger
government sensors." Cologne was joking, but no one was
laughing and so she decided to be quiet.

At this point Kasumi gasped. Everyone turned to what she was
pointing at.

Ranma's hair was turning red. Slowly, it rippled across until
completely changed. The rest of Ranma's body did not change
however.

Cologne looked over the turn of events. "Very interesting."

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

Ranma found himself looking over the barren wasteland. This time
there was no wind and it seemed calm. But nowhere he could see
Ranko. He remembered that he had not heard from her since the
moment he merged, and it worried him.

"Ranko, Ranko, where are you?" He started calling out
frantically. There was no response.

He could not see it, but he felt something in the distance. It was
weak, and getting weaker.

Ranma took off toward it as fast as he could. He stopped just
short of a painful sight.

Ranko was lying on the ground, on her stomach. Her head was
turned toward him. Her clothes were torn, and tattered, and the
skin under it was bruised, and cut. He recognized broken bones
and a large gash on her head.

Blood was coming from her mouth, but yet she held a weak smile.

"Ranko, what happened?" As he ran over to her.

She replied slowly. "You did Ranma. When you came together
there was some energy release down here. I couldn't run from it,
and it kinda laid me out."

He turned her over and tried to look over the wounds. "You will
get better won't you Ranko?" He knew it looked bad, and tears
began to form.

She coughed up a little blood. "Don't worry about me. I hope I
got Akane out safely."

He pulled her up into his arms. "No, I won't let you go."

"I am done here. I tried to make your life better and happier
and now I can disappear. The pain doesn't matter, because I know
I did the right thing."

Ranma was crying now. "No Ko-chan, please don't go. Please
don't go."

Ranko shook her head just a little. "It was fun Ranma, and it
was worth it. I am just glad I got to say .... Goodbye."

Ranko's eyes closed and he felt her muscles going limp.

As he started to scream out, he felt a surge within him and knew
what he would do. A brillant flash of light, and an enormous
shock wave was sent outward from him, ungulfing them both.

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

Nodoka was still holding her son, when Cologne and Akane perked
their heads up from staring at the floor. As they were staring
at Ranma Cologne's face went pale.

"Nodoka, I would put your son down. Something BIG is about to
happen and we need to take cover."

Nodoka wondered what she meant until her son's body began to
glow. She set him down slowly on the floor and backed up as
Cologne was instructing.

They were all crouching behind rocks by the pond, still watching
the inside when Cologne yelled, "DUCK!!!" And dove behind her
stone for protection.

The ground began rumbling as light, sound and energy spread
outward from inside the house, filling the air with a horrible
noise. The pond was shoshing around, the ground itself was
shaking and the outburst was deafening.

It lasted only seconds, which seemed much longer as everyone was
holding their ears and wondering when it was going to end.

Suddenly, it stopped. 

As they took their hands off their ears, wondering if it was
over, they heard a familiar voice call out. "Ok everyone, you
can come in now."

It was Ranma.

As Nodoka and Akane rushed inside, they came to a screeching
halt. Standing in front of them was a male Ranma, smiling.
What stopped them was his girl side, all curled up, with her
head against his chest as he held her in his arms.

He walked over to his mother. "Congratulations mom, it's a
girl!"

Akane was trying to form words but all that came out was nonsense
as she pointed to the sleeping girl. Ranma saw her and nodded.
"Yes Akane, this is Ranko."

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