In Nerima's new herbal remedy shop, After The Fall, Dr. Tofu undid the bandage that was on Mousse's head and applied the medicinal herbs he just acquired. The shop's owner, Autumn, gave this to him freely. As he did so, they relayed the story of their duel, her Amazon heritage and the quandary they found themselves in as members of opposing tribes now illegally engaged. Dr. Tofu had to shake his head. Why did these kids always have to get in such difficult situations? As the explanation went on, Autumn became more and more distant. Her feet, acting on their own it seemed, carried her over to the entryway and she gazed out into the neighborhood. Something was off. "Hey! Is everything okay?" Dr. Tofu asked. "...no," Autumn answered after a long pause. "There's a demon close by." "Yeah. Akane, remember?" blurted Mousse. "We met her earlier." Tofu did a double take, "Say what???" Oops. Looks like Mousse gave away some information he shouldn't have. "Erm...maybe it would be better if they explained that to you themselves?" "It's not her," went Autumn. "It's another one...one far more dangerous. I have to go!" Without another word, she leapt out into the coming night. "WAIT!" without thinking, Mousse jumped to his feet and went after her. "Where do you two think you're going?" blasted Dr. Tofu. "Don't worry about it, doctor," said Mousse. "She's a demon hunter. And me? Well...we told you before about the uncanny knack Autumn and I have about certain things. I seem to have this uncanny knack for always wanting to help her in situations like this." At that, he ran off after her. Dr. Tofu gathered his bag, walked out of the store, locking it up behind him. Left alone now, he wondered what he should do. His better judgment told him that he should go back to his clinic. Chances were good it'd be crowded with injured soon with the way they took off. In the end, though, he shrugged and took off after the Amazon couple. After all, no one else in that neighborhood listened to their better judgment, why should he? Dreamweaver Studios Presents Ranma½ Legacy Chapter 7 "How did you get out of your prison, Arame?" growled Soun. "Apparently, someone summoned me," Arame answered. "To tell the truth, I'm not exactly sure about all the details. But they don't really matter, do they? All that counts is I'm here now." "What do you want?" demanded Kasumi. "What I've always wanted!" went Arame. "I want to torment Moriko Tendo! I want to torture her slowly by taking away everything she cares for! I want to methodically strip away her very core until I break her. I want her to be a slumping mess, groveling at my feet begging me to finally put her out of her misery!" She looked at everyone gathered and asked with a pleasant smile, "So, where is she?" "She's not here," said Kasumi. "Pashaw, you're hiding her! Bring her out now. You don't want to make me cross, do you? If looks could kill, Soun would've laid waste to Arame right then and there. "She is NOT HERE. If you want to find her, we could show you the cemetery where she's buried." Arame became confused, "Buried? She's already dead? You're lying!" "No, I'm not. Your final attack during your last battle did more damage to Moriko than I thought. It didn't happen immediately, but it took its toll over time and she died. You must be very proud of yourself now, knowing that my wife died because of you." Arame fell to her knees, "No! It can't be!" It was Soun's turn to be confused. " She's dead...and it's my fault? I...I didn't get a chance to see her suffer. I wanted to see the life slowly draining from her eyes." Soun's confusion quickly left him, and the rage took over again. "But...if she's dead, then why do I feel her presence here still?" Arame looked intently at Kasumi, and at that, she understood, "You're her daughter?" She looked at Nabiki as well and stood up. "I see. Your mother's spirit is strong within you." "That's quite the complement," said Nabiki, defiantly. Arame's smile returned. "Well, since I can't torment her, I guess tormenting you is the next best thing." Using her power, Arame levitated off of the ground. She focused her energy into her hand and pointed it at the Tendo family. At the last second she spun around and fired, destroying the dojo. Soun stared blankly, seeing his life work burning to the ground before his eyes. At the sound of the destruction, Akane and Ranma joined the rest of their families. Akane joined her father in his reaction. Her promised inheritance was gone. "What happened?" She shouted. "Who did this?" "It's her," Nabiki said through her clenched teeth. "Arame!" Arame studied Akane carefully. The feeling wasn't as strong as it was within Kasumi and Nabiki, but it was there. "Oh! Another of Moriko's daughters? This just gets better!" She gathered her energy and fired again, this time aiming for their house. Upon impact, it exploded, appearing to envelop the entire family as well. "Oh no...I hope some of them survive. I just hate it when I go overboard like that." When the smoke cleared, much to Arame's surprise, not only did all of the house's occupants survive her assault, but the house did as well. Kasumi stood in front of everyone, with a bright yellow glow about her and her hands outstretched. There was a similar yellowish glow that surrounded the entire house. "I won't let any harm come upon this house, or those who live in it!" she said, defiantly. "Impressive," went Arame. "I would never expect such power from a half-demon. I wonder, though, how long can you keep it up?" That was all Soun could stand. Seeing his dojo burning into ash and the repeated attacks on his house and family caused him to snap. A hidden power, which he only tapped to do his demon head intimidation technique, had forced its way to the surface. He rocketed himself into the air, leaving a trail of white-hot ki in his wake. With more fury than he had every shown in his life, he struck, catching Arame with a punch to her jaw, which he followed with a knee to her stomach. With her doubled over in pain, he brought his fists together and clubbed her in the back of the head, forcing her to crash back to the ground. With her wide open, he focused his intense power and fired them down on her, catching her in an explosion that rivaled the one that decimated the dojo. He landed in front of the smoldering crater he created and sneered, "I've been waiting to do that for nearly twenty years...and it FELT GOOD." Everyone stood at the doorway, mouths agape at the unbelievable feat the usually mild Soun Tendo just performed. "Wow," said Akane. "Dad, that was incredible!" "No kidding," said Ranma, also impressed. "Hey, wait a minute! If you could do that; with how much you say you wanna get rid of the old pervert, how come you never used those powers on him?" Soun faltered, "Well...er, you see, these powers are very taxing on me. I never use them unless the situation is extraordinarily dire." "In other words," interjected Nabiki, "he was so scared of him, he didn't think to use them." Soun blushed, "Eh...yeah." A powerful wind picked up out of nowhere and cleared the smoke away. Arame, using her power to clear a path walked out of the crater, clearly injured from Soun's attack. Soun glared at her, wordlessly daring her to make a move. Just behind him Ranma stepped up to back him up if he needed it. "Damn," Arame cursed to herself. "I didn't think they'd be this much trouble without Moriko to defend them. I guess I'll just have to change tactics. I just need a way out of this." On cue, the energies around Soun dissipated and he collapsed to the ground, clutching his chest. "Father!" shouted Kasumi, as she rushed to his side. Ranma ran to his side as well, in case she tried anything. And try something, she did. Since she couldn't take them all at once, she would pick them off one at a time, starting with the weakest one first. Teleporting behind the fallen patriarch, Arame grabbed Akane by the scruff of her shirt and disappeared in a ball of light. "NO!" yelled Nabiki, "She took Akane!" "AKANE! NO!" Soun jumped back to his feet, but fell to the ground again. "Father!" Kasumi took him by the shoulders and helped him so he sat upright. "I don't remember these powers draining me this much this fast. Heh...my old body must not be able to handle them like it used to." Kasumi and Genma helped the weakened Soun back into the house. Ranma stood in the middle of the battlefield staring off in the growing night. As Nabiki walked over to him, he said, "It's like we're stuck in some stupid story, playing out the same script over and over again." Nabiki glanced over to the smoldering pile of rubble that used to be the family dojo. "Not totally," "Still, I should've known something like this would've happened again. I should've stood by her..." "You know what, Saotome? For once, it isn't your fault. This is our mess that we managed to draw you into. You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened to her." "Well, in the end, I guess that doesn't matter, does it?" Ranma jumped onto the fence that separated the Tendo property from the street. "What are you doing?" asked Nabiki. "What do you think? I'm gonna go get Akane back!" He got himself ready to leap out into the night. Nabiki raised an eyebrow, "And I suppose you know exactly where to go, right?" Ranma stayed in his 'got himself ready to leap out into the night' position as he considered Nabiki's inquiry. "Erm..." "Before you start doing that super jumping thing you do all over creation, maybe you want to have an idea where you're going first. Arame is an enemy of our family. We seem to be able to detect her when she's nearby, so you should take me or Kasumi with you." Ranma dropped back to ground level, "I couldn't..." "Why not? We aren't exactly helpless little girls, you know. You've seen what Kasumi can do. And you have absolutely no idea what I'm capable of." That was true. Unfortunately, Nabiki herself didn't know what she was capable of doing, as she never used any powers related to her demonic nature. 'Would certainly be a hell of a time to find such a thing out,' she thought to herself. Even if they were stronger than he knew, Ranma didn't relish the idea of grabbing Kasumi or Nabiki and rushing headlong into danger. They had no martial art training and there was no telling what the limitations were to their power. They could fade at anytime, like Mr. Tendo did, leaving him to fend for himself, and them. He had to come up with a good excuse and, fortunately for him, one wasn't far away, "You two need to stay here, just in case she comes back. The house needs to be protected...so does your father." "Then how, exactly, will you be able to find Arame and Akane?" inquired Nabiki. Ranma thought a little, "Well, if this IS some stupid story, this would be the part where help comes! They'll say they can find them and that they'll help me face her in our final showdown." Nabiki glared at him, "This is not the time for jokes." "RANMA!" Right then, Mousse, Autumn and Dr. Tofu entered the property. Ranma and Nabiki stared at them incredulously. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, however, Ranma shrugged and trotted over to them. Dr. Tofu went slowly towards the backyard, staring in disbelief at the demolished dojo. "Ranma...what happened?" "We had a run-in with an old family friend of the Tendo's," he answered. "Is everyone alright?" "Mr. Tendo's could use some help. He's in the house." Dr. Tofu nodded and went in the house. Autumn went up to the wreckage of the dojo as well and studied it. "A demon did this, am I right?" "Yes, you are," said Nabiki. "She has a vendetta against my family." Autumn looked at her, "And who might you be?" "The name's Nabiki Tendo." "Tendo? You're related to Akane, right?" "Yes, she's my sister." "Thought so. You two have similar demonic auras about you." "Hey! That's right! You're able to feel that sort of stuff too, aren't ya?" Ranma asked, getting his hopes up. "Yeah. Why?" Nabiki's jaw fell open. "That demon took Akane away," Ranma told her. "I need your help to find them so I can get Akane back! Can you?" Autumn's eyes got big. "This is it...this is the real thing! I'm finally going to take down my first, full demon! I'll do it!!! Let's GO!" With a big grin on her face, Autumn ran off into the night. Ranma got very concerned look on his face all of a sudden. "Wait...your FIRST??? Waitaminute!!!" Mousse simply shrugged and ran after them. Nabiki stood there with the incredulous look still on her face. She couldn't believe it, but everything that Ranma said would happen happened. Could it be? Could they really be part of some demented author's bad story? "Feh...yeah right. Who would want to read about our twisted lives anyway?" Shaking her head, she went back into the house to check on her father. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Arame was very pleased with her new surroundings. Just below an area high school...Furinkan, if she read properly, there was a small room that gave off a very powerful spiritual "smell". She had heard that some high schools have girls that create a magic club and foolishly mettle with demonic incantations and magic. Furinkan must've had one at one time but this one looked to have been long abandoned...save a fresh summoning circle on the floor. What no one realized, though, was that beyond this small room was a larger cavern, shielded from mortal view by a secret door. It took a very precise magical frequency to open it up, but it was child's play for one like her. From the look of the larger cavern, it appeared a long time ago, before the high school magic clubs...before the high school itself, a real coven used to congregate here to practice their dark arts. Perhaps it was the remnants of the dark magics here that called on the students to join those clubs and dabble in forces they didn't understand. It didn't matter. For now, it was perfect for Arame's needs. She looked upwards on the far wall of the deepest part of the cavern. There, Akane was shackled on what appeared to be an alter in standard 'damsel in distress' fashion. It wasn't old fashioned. Rather, it was homage to the classic kidnapping schemes. But now that Arame had the youngest child of her most hated enemy, she had to figure out what to do with her. Just then, Akane woke up from an unexplained unconsciousness. Taking stock of her situation, two words immediately came to mind. 'Not again!' "So, you're awake," said Arame. "I'm so sorry for the rough ride here. Your folks hurt me pretty bad and my escape didn't go as smoothly as it normally would." "What do you want?" demanded Akane. "To torture you, to strip away at your core, yadda yadda yadda. Weren't you there when I answered that question the first time?" answered Arame, slightly annoyed. "Oh...that's right! You appeared after all that. Oh well, you get the idea." She smiled at Akane. Akane fought against her bindings, but they were too strong for her to break. "I wouldn't look so smug if I were you." "Oh? And why's that?" "I don't know about the others, but Ranma will come for me." Arame tilted her head to the side, "Ranma? And who's Ranma?" "He's my fiancée. He may be completely human, but he's very strong and he's dealt with demons before. He'll stop at nothing to rescue me, just you wait!" "Oh...you must mean that cute young man with the pigtail..." That was when Arame knew what she was going to do with Akane. But first, she had some preparation to take care of. "Oh boys!" Obeying her call, two unidentifiable figures stepped out of the shadows. Even though she couldn't make out who they were, Akane felt there was something familiar about them. "We're going to have a visitor in a moment," Arame informed them. "I do want you to let him in...just don't make it easy for him." With their orders given, they bowed to her and disappeared back into the shadows. Arame rubbed her hands together and looked at Akane, "Just you wait. This is going to be so much fun!" ** ** "+Tsk+ I should've known they would be here." Ranma mumbled. Following the powerful demonic aura to its source, Autumn, Mousse and Ranma arrived at the front gates of Furinkan High School. With the spirit of darkness and the cloak of night shrouding it, the place had a very ominous feel to it. Bravely, the three martial artists stepped onto the property, ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead. Instead of going into the main building, Autumn went for the back where the soccer field was. Beyond the field, they came upon an old storage room that looked to have been abandoned. It was a place even Ranma wouldn't have tread normally. "Dark, spooky, covered in cobwebs...sounds like your classic demon's lair, alright," said Autumn. Mousse nudged Ranma, "At least it's not in your principal's office. I hear that guy is a major league loon and made his office to match." Ranma nodded. That would've been much creepier. Didn't do much to make this easier, though. Taking a deep breath, Ranma steeled himself and opened the door, "Alright. Let's go." ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **