Sorry this chapter was waaaaay late. I have to limit my time on the computer so, it took a while. Please forgive me for making you guys wait too long.

Disclaimer: All that time with no writing, I couldn’t find any possibility of ever owning Ranma ½.

Chapter 4 The Darker Side (II)

Ranma, currently in female form stood a few feet away from her father. Both of them were in a strong stance. Neither of them made a move. Both were trying to find any weak spots the opponent might have.

Genma felt a strange aura empowering Ranma. It wasn’t the usual blue aura. Instead, it was filled with dark energy. It was strange. All this time, he had never seen Ranma’s dark aura, let alone ever sensed it. Genma unknowingly let his guard down.

The red head saw this and immediately charged forward. Genma was shocked at this movement that he had no time to evade Ranma’s punch to his gut. He collapsed to the ground as Ranma jumped back a few feet away. The old man was gasping for air. What surprised him was that the punch was very powerful. He knew that Ranma’s female side was weaker than the male side.

‘But that punch was way too powerful, even for his male form,’ Genma thought. He rose to his feet and charged Ranma with a fist ready. The attack came and Ranma dodged it. Genma then launched a knee attack towards Ranma’s side. Ranma caught the knee with one hand and smirked. She raised her right leg and kicked her father’s head. Genma was thrown back a couple of meters.

Meanwhile in the Cat Café, the customers were eating their delivered orders, not really knowing that Cologne was in the kitchen and she had sensed something disturbing. She narrowed her eyes.

“Something terrible is about to happen,” Cologne said to herself.

“Who great-grandmother talking to?” Shampoo’s voice broke the really old woman’s concentration.

“Shampoo, take care of the restaurant. I have something to do,” Cologne said to her great-granddaughter. She hopped onto her staff and went off in a direction to someplace. Shampoo shrugged and continued on with her work.

Back at the dojo, the fight between Ranma and Genma had intensified and turned into something more than just a spar. Genma had been thrown with hundreds of punches from Ranma’s Chestnuts Fist attack and only managed to block some of them. Her punches hurt him bad.

Genma was on his knees gasping for breath while Ranma was standing a few feet away from her father. The red head walked slowly towards her father with a dark look.

“Ranma! Mr Saotome! That’s enough fighting!” Akane called out. She realized that the fight was beginning to turn into something else. “Ranma! Stop it right now!”

Despite Akane’s yelling, Ranma didn’t stop as if she didn’t hear them. She kicked her father in the jaw with her heel which sent the old man flying back. Blood was oozing out of his mouth. Genma looked at his daughter and saw a menacing look on her pretty face. Ranma got close to Genma and grasped his gi as she pulled him up back to standing. The young red head looked sharply into Genma’s eyes.

“I don’t think I need you around anymore for a good training. So…” Ranma said as a ball of black energy formed in his right hand. “…good night.” Immediately the ball of chi blasted through Genma’s stomach. Everyone was shocked by that. Genma froze in horror and pain. Ranma let her grasp go on her father and Genma fell to the ground. A hole took place of where his gut used to be.

“R-Ranma!” Akane called out. She was deathly shocked at the scene before her. Ranma had killed his/her father in front of the whole family’s eyes.

Ranma’s dark aura disappeared and she shook her head after hearing Akane shout. She looked at the body a few feet before her. Ranma’s eyes widened as she looked at her father’s dead body. She looked at her right hand and saw that it was covered in blood. Her face showed an expression of fear as she took a few steps backwards, not believing the scene before her.

“W-What have I done?” Ranma whispered in a frightened tone. She saw the family looking at her with total shock. She knew what each of them was thinking…she was a killer, a cold heartless killer who didn’t hesitate on killing her own father. She turned around and jumped above the wall and bounded off.

Cologne stood from her position on the roof. She had seen the fight up until Ranma used the chi blast to end Genma’s life. Her eyes narrowed as she realized the situation at hand. She hopped up on her staff and went to chase Ranma.

“G-Genma. Genma!” Soun called out as he ran towards his friend’s dead body. He cradled his friend’s head close to his body. The sisters tried to comfort their father. Kasumi, Akane and Nabiki (yes Nabiki) had tears in their eyes and were still in shock. Soun was sobbing rather than crying like a lunatic.

“NOOO!!” Soun yelled towards the sky.

…………………………

Ranma had run towards the school and hid herself on the roof. Luckily school was already over and there was no one there but herself. She sat on the top of the clock tower looking at the district below. Ranma’s face was wet with tears. She didn’t care anymore if she cried, no one was there anyway. She rubbed her eyes angrily as more tears threaten to spill out.

“H-How could have I done such a thing?” Ranma asked herself.

“It wasn’t you who did it,” a voice startled Ranma. She turned around and found the source of the voice.

“Cologne,” Ranma said as she dried her face with her arm.

“That wasn’t you who killed your father. It was someone else. I saw the fight and sensed a great difference in your aura,” Cologne said.

“W-What do you mean?” Ranma asked.

“Come with me to the restaurant. I’ll explain,” Cologne said as she entered a structure that would lead to the stairs.

Ranma hesitated at first. Ever since the failed wedding, she had been angry at her fiancées. She didn’t want to face Shampoo. Maybe this is just another plot to get her to marry Shampoo. She decided that what she was going through was something that is not to be looked as insignificant. So she followed the old woman to the Cat Café.

Minutes later, they were at the back of the restaurant, shielded from anyone’s view. Ranma sat on a box and told Cologne about the past seven days during the time she had the nightmares.

“I never thought that this could happen to you,” Cologne said. “I thought that someone like you would’ve been able to control your darker side.” Cologne sighed while perched on her staff. “But your darker side has grown with you and is now really strong. You must’ve kept a lot of anger and hate in yourself.”

“I don’t think I have,” Ranma said.

“Don’t lie, Ranma. I sense a lot of anger inside you. Close your eyes and think back to those times…those times when you were angry,” Cologne said.

Ranma sighed and did as the old woman said. She closed her eyes and searched her mind for the dark memories. The incident during his ‘training’ of the Cat Fist Technique…her father leaving Ukyo behind…Jusenkyo…Kuno chasing after her…kissed by Mikado…P-chan in Akane’s bed…those people who kidnapped Akane…Saffron. Every memory made Ranma’s dark aura grow and now it was about to expand rapidly when Cologne immediately threw a kettle with hot water towards Ranma. The contents spilled on Ranma and the red head grew into a taller, more muscular young boy.

“Don’t open your eyes!” Cologne said when she saw Ranma was about to open his eyes.

Cologne could see Ranma’s aura with her ability and saw that the dark aura around Ranma’s male body was more controlled than his female body. Then the aura exploded and Cologne was surprised that she didn’t have time to gasp. The worn out woman was thrown back to the wall. Thanks to her century old strength she got up and looked at Ranma who was looking back at her with an emotionless expression.

“Y-You’re not Ranma,” Cologne stammered.

‘Ranma’ smiled evilly.

“I am Ranma,” he said.

“No, you’re his dark spirit,” Cologne said as she took hold of her staff.

Ranma chuckled darkly and stood up from his seat.

“This world will soon fall under my control. Ranma will be everyone’s enemy and everyone he loves will be destroyed,” he said.

Cologne smirked and threw a small sac towards Ranma. The sac exploded releasing some sort of powder and it covered Ranma. The dark spirit disappeared and Ranma was back. He was dazed and fell down. He got up on his knees a moment later.

“It’s worse than I thought,” Cologne said.

“What is it?” Ranma asked looking at her.

“Your dark spirit is intent on taking over your body and uses you to destroy the world,” Cologne explained. “And I fear that this would be hard to stop.”

“What should I do? I’ve murdered my own father. I’m gonna be hunted down by the cops,” Ranma said.

“Leave…leave this town until you could control or somehow get rid of your darker side,” Cologne suggested.

“W-What?!” Ranma exclaimed. “I-I can’t leave everything behind.” ‘Especially not Akane,’ Ranma thought.

“It is the only way. With a lot of craziness happening around, you might endanger yourself…and others too…especially Akane,” Cologne said.

“H-Huh?” Ranma was surprised at what the old ghoul said.

“I know you love Akane…and that is why you must go,” Cologne said.

“B-But I thought...”

“I’ve known a long time already,” Cologne answered.

“Then why do you keep plotting to get me married to Shampoo?!” Ranma retorted.

“Actually, I never noticed that you love Akane at first. But then when I see you and her at times when you were not fighting…and when you’re fighting, you really do love her. And I know that she loves you back.”

“How’d you know?” Ranma asked.

“I’ve seen a lot in my life,” Cologne simply answered. “And the further set ups were because I had so much fun doing it,” she continued with a chuckle. Ranma scowled at her.

“Now I’m not sure if I’m even welcomed anymore to the dojo,” Ranma said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to them,” Cologne said. “Are you coming with me?”

“No, I’m just gonna go walk around for a while,” Ranma said as he stood up. “Oh, and don’t tell anyone that I’ll be leaving.” Cologne gave a nod of understanding. Ranma walked to the door and opened it. He looked at the mess and said “Sorry about the mess.”

“Don’t mind about it,” Cologne said.

With a nod, Ranma was off.

…………………………

The pig tailed boy was currently walking in the park. He had tried to avoid being spotted by the cops when they were patrolling the area by hiding in sometimes awkward places. It was already afternoon and he hoped that Cologne had managed to convince the Tendo family that what happened earlier was something out of his control.

Then, he saw a hearse passed by and noted that it came from the dojo. It must be his father in there and they were taking him to the graveyard to be buried. He followed it via roof hopping but kept himself unseen. He was soon at the graveyard. He hid himself up in a tree and looked at the burial ceremony that was about to happen. A taxi pulled over near the grave site.

The Tendo family and his mom climbed out of the taxi and walked over to Genma’s body. Ranma watched as his father was buried under the ground and they carved his name on the tombstone. Everyone then gave prayers to Genma and soon they left except for Kasumi and Nodoka.

“My son is not even brave enough to come to his own father’s burial ceremony,” Nodoka said sadly.

“He might visit later,” Kasumi reassured.

“Yes, probably,” Nodoka replied but was still a bit disappointed. They stood up and climbed back into the taxi and were off to home.

Ranma, after making sure that no one was there, jumped down from the tree. He slowly walked over to his father’s grave. He dropped to his knees and traced the name that was carved on the tombstone.

“Even if you weren’t much, you were still a father to me,” Ranma said as he looked at the picture of Genma. “I’m sorry pop.” He sat there for a long time before finally getting up and leaving the gravesite.

He reached the house at night. Actually, he could’ve reached the house earlier but decided to wait for everyone to fall asleep first. He only needed to pack up his things and get out of there while ensuring that no one wakes up. He jumped over the wall and walked around the house.

He saw the window to his room and jumped up on the first floor roof. He tried to open it but found out that it was locked from the inside. He groaned silently in annoyance. He jumped back down and walked around to the back. Ranma quietly opened the door and went inside the kitchen. He closed it when the lights opened and made him freeze.

“Ranma?” Akane was surprised to find Ranma in the kitchen. She at first intended to go to the toilet when she heard the back door open. She then came into the kitchen and there was Ranma.

Ranma turned around and looked at her. “Please don’t yell or something. I don’t want anyone else to know that I’m here,” he begged.

“It’s okay Ranma,” Akane smiled a bit making Ranma feel less tense. “Cologne came this afternoon and told us about what’s been going on with you, although, father is still mad about earlier today.”

“Good news,” Ranma said as he sighed in relief.

“Why don’t you just stay here as you try and figure out how to handle this problem?” Akane said somewhat in a hopeful tone.

“Well, I guess it’s a good idea,” Ranma said. There was a moment of silence before Akane spoke.

“Y-You should go to bed.”

“Y-Yeah,” Ranma said as he walked pass Akane. Akane followed him with her eyes. She turned to look at him walking when he stopped in his tracks. “Akane…did Cologne tell you about what I have to do besides trying to figure out how to solve this problem?”

“No, she only told us about what you were up against and asked us to keep aware of you,” Akane answered.

“Well, I…good night Akane,” Ranma said and walked upstairs to the guest room.

‘He’s hiding something from me,’ Akane thought. She shrugged it off. She then realized that her bladder was about to burst. She franticly ran towards the toilet and a sigh of relief was heard.

Ranma lied down on his futon and looked at the ceiling. It was strange being alone in the room. Not that he was scared but the fact that there was someone missing in that place. He sighed and rolled on his side as he thought about another thing.

‘Akane…I’ll miss you,’ Ranma thought as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

…………………………

Well, that’s all for chapter 4. I hope you guys liked it. Again sorry for posting this chapter way later than I usually post it. Review if you like. Oh, and for Fortnight Horror, I’m currently suffering from writer’s block. So it’ll be a while. Next chapter on End of Friendship, Chapter 5 The Deadly Battle. See you soon!