All existing chapters of this story may be found at:
http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless

=========================
                      RELENTLESS
                A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction

                   By Grayson Towler
 =========================

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                      CHAPTER ONE:
                       (second half)
                       The Master
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Under the cover of night, the new Master of Anything-Goes Martial 
Arts was preparing to execute an operation which would require 
stealth, cunning, and absolutely perfect timing.  It was one of 
his most innovative and daring plans to date, but he had decided 
that it was his only chance of living to see the next sunrise.  
He was about to attempt, for the first time:  Saotome School Secret 
Technique - Celebration Cake Exchange!

Yes, of course, the only thing which could have put a damper on his 
success of the day had to happen - Akane got it in her head to bake a 
cake for the celebration dinner.  Why that girl could never get it 
through her thick skull that she should just stay out of the kitchen 
for good was beyond him.  As usual, she'd taken his efforts to talk 
her out of cooking all the wrong way, and she'd reverted to her violent 
self.  There was just no reasoning with someone like that.

But a new inspiration had struck him (several seconds after the 
mallet), and he knew what he would do.  All he needed was to go buy 
a cake, distract Akane while her monstrous creation was incubating 
in the oven, and switch the two while she wasn't looking!  A brilliant 
plan.  Never mind that the cake he bought came complete with icing 
and decorations, and would therefore look somewhat suspicious coming 
straight out of the oven.  This was the girl who still hadn't figured 
out why her pet piggy panicked and bolted every time she decided to 
give it a hot bath.  She'd never know the difference.

Ranma heard the ring of a familiar bicycle bell in the night, and 
hopped off the fence top just in time to avoid being run down by 
Shampoo's delivery bike.

"Nihao, Husband!" the bubbly Amazon squeaked.

"Yo, Shampoo.  What's up?"

"Shampoo running delivery," the girl responded.  "But she hear good 
news!  You now Master of school, yes?"

Ranma grinned, shrugging in a kind of "aw-shucks" way.  He was 
pleased that she'd heard already - it saved him from trying to figure 
out a way to tell her without sounding like he was boasting too much.  
"Yeah, well, no big deal."  

Humility was unconvincing on Saotome Ranma.

Shampoo noticed his bundle.  "What you buy?"

"Ah, we're havin' a little party back at the dojo, and this cake 
is for..." Ranma broke off.  He cocked his head and listened.

"Ranma!  You have party and not invite Shampoo?"

"Hold on a sec, be quiet."

The fact that Ranma had suddenly gotten serious was not lost on 
Shampoo.  She scanned up and down the deserted street, wondering 
what had gotten him so concerned all of a sudden.  "Shampoo not 
see..."

"Shh!  Listen..."

Ranma slowly set down his bundle, preparing himself for action.  
Something was awry here, something was not right.  He had an 
acute sensation of approaching danger.  

Both the martial artists jerked back in shock when a flock of 
small birds suddenly took wing in the distance, chittering with 
terror as they flapped away into the night.  A few seconds later, 
a dog yelped in fear nearby, and a cat screeched and bolted.  

"Ranma..."

They heard the sound of a baby wailing in fear.  The streetlights 
began to flicker, and one by one they went out.

"Shampoo scared, Ranma..."

"Look!" Ranma shouted.  "There!"

It was barely visible in the darkness, cloaked in dusty black 
robes.  It appeared from the shadows at the end of the street, 
shambling towards them at a pace equal to a fast walk.  It was 
hunched over, making it hard to tell how large it really was, and 
they could see none of its features.  It was headed directly 
towards Saotome Ranma.

"Hey!" Ranma called.  "Who the heck are you?"

"Ranma..." Shampoo had a terrible feeling about this. 

"Hey!" Ranma tried again.  "What d'ya think you're doin', sneakin' 
around in the dark and scarin' people!"

It did not respond.  It continued to advance on him at the same 
even pace.  Its gait was strange and unsettling, an eerie shamble 
which hinted at a body horribly warped and twisted beneath the 
robes.  It was quiet as a ghost, darker than midnight, and it 
moved with a terrible sort of determination.  Ranma felt his heart 
thundering in his chest, but he held his ground as the being 
approached.  

"You better start talkin, buddy," he warned, his voice sounding 
strained even to his own ears.  "I don't feel like messin' 
around with weirdoes tonight... yeaaAAH!"

The attacker had closed the distance between itself and Ranma 
with a sudden burst of blinding speed, lashing out at the boy's 
head.  Even with his lightning reflexes, Ranma barely managed 
to evade the attack.  The thing's strike had come almost too 
fast for him to see, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't a 
normal hand.  It was like a paw, or a talon.  It was something 
with claws.

Shampoo began to advance.  "Stay back!" Ranma shouted.  "You're 
gonna get hurt!"

Shampoo was willing to obey.  Her Amazon warrior facade was barely 
holding up - something about this thing struck a primal chord 
of horror within her.  It was all she could do to keep from 
screaming.

The cloaked attacker advanced on Ranma, pressing the young 
martial artist with a relentless barrage of swipes and slashes.  
Sometimes, its attacks were so fast that it was hard to tell 
how many limbs it had.  Now, up close, Ranma could see its eyes 
peering out from beneath the hood.  They were perfectly round, 
smoldering with some deep, hellish flame... and there were three 
of them, set in a perfect triangle in the pitch black void 
where its face should have been.

<It ain't human... it's some kinda monster!>  Ranma's shirt 
ripped as he barely dodged another of its blows.  

He knew he couldn't just keep dodging.  The thing seemed 
tireless, and at the speed it moved it wouldn't be long before 
it started to tag him with those claws.  He wouldn't know if 
he could actually hurt it until he tried...

Ranma ducked in under one of its swipes and lashed out with a 
kick, not holding back an iota of strength.  His foot connected 
with something twisted and hard underneath the robes, like a 
bundle of coiled snakes, alive but almost as hard as a rock.  
It writhed under his touch, but it also gave.  The thing took 
a step back, paused for a split second to recover, then continued 
to press its attack.

<At least I can hurt it a little!> Ranma thought triumphantly.  
He was immediately rewarded with a surprising blow that seemed 
to come directly from the thing's chest.  It caught him in the 
abdomen, emptying the air from his lungs in a single gush, and 
sent him sprawling backwards.  

Breathless and acting entirely on instinct, Ranma rolled away 
from the thing as it leaped towards him.  It slashed through the 
space Ranma had occupied a split second before, burying a hand 
like a spiked mallet in the asphalt.  

He was bleeding where it had hit him, but not bad.  It had struck 
him with something armored like a lobster's claw, but covered 
with small sharp studs.  <Damn, it's strong!  And it's playin' 
for keeps here!>

Ranma's only hope was to go on the offensive.  He roared with 
battle rage, his aura flaring, and pressed the attack as the 
thing worked its limb free from the asphalt.  Without wasting 
his breath announcing the name of the attack, he launched into 
the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken attack, showering his foe with 
fearsome blows.   The thing staggered under the assault, giving 
ground under the fury of Ranma's onslaught.  Ranma could feel 
parts of it crack and buckle beneath the black robes when he 
connected solidly.  

The thing lashed out defensively, cutting a deep gash in Ranma's 
right arm mid-punch.  It followed with a backhanded blow that 
caught the martial artist in the head, breaking the rhythm of 
his attack and sending him staggering backwards.  Ranma tried 
to counter with a kick, and was met with another bone-jarring 
blow in the chest.  He flew backwards like a rag doll, slamming 
into a wall and shattering the brick with the force of the 
impact.

"Ranma!" Shampoo screamed.  Once again, she moved in to attack.

"No!" he cried.  He knew Shampoo wouldn't stand a chance against 
this monster.  "This thing'll kill you!  I can handle it!"

The monster charged him again, but Ranma met the charge with a 
flying kick and took them both backwards.  Something crunched 
in the thing's chest as he landed on it with both feet.  Ranma 
pushed off and out of the way as it slashed towards him.  The 
boy did a back flip and landed, only to see his foe rising once 
more and moving to attack.

"What does it take to stop you!?" he shouted, charging once more.  
He gathered his energy, launching into the chestnut fist attack 
once more as his battle aura flared hot around him.  He hammered 
the monster, batting aside its reaching claws as he pressed his 
attack.  "Fall!" he howled.  "MOKO TAKABISHA!"

The ki-blast caught the monster dead-center, blasting it backwards 
half a dozen meters.  Still, it kept its footing and tried to 
advance.  

"FALL!" Ranma bellowed, his voice ragged.  He launched another 
ki-blast at the thing. The attack pounded into it like a glowing 
piledriver, slamming it backwards once again.  

"FALL!!" The third ki-blast connected with the monster, blowing 
it completely off its feet and carrying it through the air, until 
it finally smashed against a lamp post, shattering the concrete.  
 Trembling with exertion, heaving for breath, Ranma watched its 
prone form warily, waiting for it to rise, praying that it would 
not.  He wasn't sure how much he had left in him after that...

The thing lay unmoving.  The glow of its eyes had died out.

"Don't worry," Ranma gasped to Shampoo.  "It's over."

He couldn't have been more wrong.

- - - - - -

Chip, chip, scrape.

Tendou Akane sighed, trying not to fidget.  She had a distinctly 
embarrassed look on her face as she watched her sister continue 
her patient and meticulous work.  Kasumi had not spoken a single 
word of admonishment, which had somehow made it all the worse.

Chip, chip, scrape.

She could hear the muffled sounds of her father weeping in the 
distance.  Nabiki was making a half-hearted effort to comfort 
him in his misery.  He really did take things so seriously...

Chip, chip, scrape.

The only bright spot of the whole thing was that Ranma wasn't 
here.  She'd never hear the end of it if he found out about this 
one.

Chip, scrape, chip, chip.

Kasumi was humming a soft little hammering-and-chiseling tune.  
It served to make Akane's humiliation all the more acute.  

Scrape, chisel, chip, chip, chip.

"It's coming along well," Kasumi chimed merrily. 

Akane sighed with resignation.  Kasumi was currently chipping 
away at the results of her latest kitchen disaster.  Akane had 
wondered why the cake batter had seemed so difficult to stir as 
she had mixed it, but when the handle of the wooden spoon she'd 
been using broke off, she'd lost her temper.  She'd reached into 
the batter to try to retrieve the remains of the spoon, and then... 
well, had Akane known the story of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, 
she would have found it hauntingly familiar.

She'd been encased up to her elbows when the batter had finally 
hardened into something not unlike concrete.  

Chip, chip, scrape. 

Kasumi took a deep breath and blew the dust off Akane's arm.  
She'd made her way down to the wrist on the right hand.  Akane 
bit her lip and tried not to squirm.  

She didn't know what was taking Ranma so long, but right now 
she wasn't going to complain.

- - - - - - 

Cologne sensed them coming well before they arrived.  She had 
known that something unnatural had come to Nerima, and the way 
things went around here it was a good guess that it would have 
something to do with Ranma.  But it wasn't until she saw Ranma 
and Shampoo dragging the inert beast on the end of a rope towards 
her restaurant that she realized just how bad it was.

<Oh no,> she thought.  <How could this have...>

But a moment later she understood.  She realized what the old 
pervert had done.  Now, it all made sense.  

<My poor Shampoo,> she thought bitterly.  <And poor Ranma.  You're 
a dead man now, and you don't even know it.>

- - - - - -

"Have any of you ever heard of the Reikoku?"

Cologne scanned the assembled Tendous and Saotomes before her, 
unsurprised by the general blank looks which were the only answer 
to her question.  "I thought as much," she sighed.  

"That's what that thing was?" Ranma asked.

"Is, boy.  Is.  You haven't even come close to truly defeating 
it yet, I'm afraid."  

Ranma looked confused.  The Reikoku, or whatever it was, had looked 
pretty defeated to him.  He winced a bit as Kasumi applied some 
antiseptic to another of his wounds.  Cologne had been in such a 
hurry to tell her story to everybody that she hadn't even given 
him time to tend to his wounds first.  She was sure worked up about 
all this...

"The Reikoku," she continued.  "Its name means 'The Relentless One,' 
or 'The Merciless One' perhaps.  It is a very ancient being, and it 
exists only for the purpose of exacting revenge upon one who has 
committed a terrible, terrible crime."

Everybody stared accusingly at Ranma.  "What?" he protested.  "I 
didn't do nothin'!"  

"No, boy, I don't think you did," Cologne assured him.  "I believe 
it was Happosai who committed the crime for which the Reikoku was 
sent.  The cagey old devil managed to twist his way out of receiving 
the punishment... by making YOU the target of the Reikoku's 
vengeance, Ranma."

"Me?" Ranma gasped.  "How'd he do that?"

Nabiki nodded knowingly, suddenly understanding.  "I get it.  The 
old guy threw the fight, didn't he?" she asked Cologne.

"No way!" Ranma protested.

"I'm afraid so, son," Cologne affirmed.  "By making you the 
Master of Anything-Goes Martial Arts in his place, he somehow 
managed to transfer the Reikoku's quest for vengeance to you.  
Happosai is an expert at making other people suffer for his ill 
deeds," she turned to the elder Tendou and the panda beside him, 
"wouldn't you boys agree?"

"Growf," the panda commented.

Tendou Soun nodded gravely.  "Yes, that's true.  His deviousness 
knows no bounds.  How amazing, though, that he would be willing 
to swallow his pride in such a fashion and relinquish the title 
of Master!  This... Reikoku must be a fearsome thing indeed."

"Hey, I already took care of it!" Ranma exclaimed.  "What's the 
big deal?"

"It's true, Ranma, you defeated it once," Cologne explained.  "But 
you have yet to understand the true terror of the Reikoku.  
Within a day, it will rise again and continue its hunt.  But 
this time, it will be far stronger than before when it faces 
you again."

Cologne's listeners digested this unsettling bit of information.  
Akane finally spoke up.  "We'll help him beat it then!"

Cologne chuckled.  "A brave gesture, but futile.  For more 
than a single foe to attempt to fight the Reikoku at once is 
an act of supreme folly.  If two people attack it, it will 
become twice as powerful as before.  If three people attack, 
it will become three times as deadly.  Whatever gods or demons 
crafted this being in ancient times did their job very well 
indeed.  An army of warriors could attack the Reikoku, and by 
the end of the day their bloody corpses would litter the 
battlefield, dismembered down to the last man."

"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped.  She wasn't used to that sort of 
talk.  Everybody else was looking a little pale too.

"So..." Ranma was thinking hard, trying to attack the problem 
from another angle, "can we, like, burn the body or something? 
 Maybe weight it down and dump it in the sea?"

Cologne shook her head sadly.  "If you were to attempt that, 
it would only hasten the Reikoku's recovery.  Try to burn it, 
or submerge it, or imprison it, and the thing will rise 
again instantly and attack.  No, that is not the way."

"Well what IS the way?" Ranma pleaded.  "There's gotta be 
some way to deal with this Reikoku thing!  Right?"

"It is said," Cologne explained, "that the Reikoku can rise 
again three times after being defeated by a single adversary.  
So, if a warrior were to best the creature a fourth time, it 
would be destroyed forever.  That is the only way to defeat 
it, according to legend."

"All right then," Ranma said.  "So I gotta beat this thing 
another three times.  It ain't gonna be easy, but I think..."

"It will be impossible," Cologne said with absolute certainty.  
"Did you not hear what I said?  Each time you face the Reikoku 
after it has risen, it becomes stronger and deadlier than 
before!  It adapts to your fighting style and your techniques, 
it finds your weaknesses and exploits them."

"I can adapt too..." Ranma began, trying to stoke the flames of 
his confidence.

"Don't be stupid, boy!" Cologne snapped.  "You barely managed 
to defeat it when it was at its weakest.  On your best day, 
with the luck of all the gods on your side, you might be able 
to defeat it a second time.  But a third time?  A fourth?  
Even you, Ranma, don't have a prayer."

"But I..."

"NOT," Cologne repeated, "a PRAYER."  

Ranma looked stunned.  Cologne could tell that, even now, he 
didn't truly believe her.  <Ah, the pride of the young.  How 
can it match the treachery of the old?  You've really done it 
to the lad this time, Happy.>  

"So what do we do?" Akane asked plaintively.

"There is only one hope," Cologne said.  "I cannot guess what 
Happosai did to get someone to set the Reikoku after him.  I 
don't even really know who might have such power in this day.  
But you must find him, and discover what he has done."

"Yeah?" Ranma asked.  "And then?"

"I don't know, boy.  Perhaps you can force him to make amends, 
if the Reikoku can be called off after it has begun its hunt.  
Perhaps you can find the ones who summoned the Reikoku and get 
them to set it on its proper target."

"But..." Ranma looked worried.  "But if I do that, it'll kill the 
old geezer!"

"Better him than you," Cologne stated flatly.  "After all, he was 
the one who committed the crime.  If you're so willing to accept 
his punishment for him, then don't bother."

"No way!" Ranma snarled.  "That old jerk... doin' somethin' like 
this t'me just to get off the hook for somethin'!  There ain't 
gonna be nothin' left for that Reikoku once I get through with 
him!"

"Killing him won't suffice," Cologne reminded him.  "You must 
find out who summoned the Reikoku and go to them.  But before that, 
you must find Happosai.  Only the heavens know where he's gone to 
now.  Probably as far away from you as he can manage."

"It ain't gonna be far enough!" Ranma declared, rising to his feet.

"I'm coming with you!" Akane rose as well.

Ranma gave her a half-lidded look of doubt.  "Aw, get real, Akane.  
You heard what the old gal said about tryin' to gang up on that 
thing.  You're just gonna get in the way."

"You can't go alone!" Akane all but shouted.

"If you fight the Reikoku," Cologne warned, "you also become its 
prey.  Whoever raises a hand against it will be hunted unto death."

"Jeez, you hear that, Akane?  You gotta stay the heck away from 
this thing!"

"I'm a martial artist too!" Akane whined.  "I can handle myself!"

P-Chan squealed in protest and dismay, but he was unheeded by all.

Nabiki watched the scene unfold with a predictable familiarity.  
Ranma continued to tease Akane and tell her that she would just 
get in the way, Akane kept insisting that she could take care of 
herself, back and forth.  She knew how it would end up - Akane 
would end up going with Ranma.  Nabiki suspected that this was 
what Ranma wanted all along, and that the ritual was just a necessary 
step for both of them in maintaining the facade of their relationship.  
Tomorrow morning, the two of them would set off together, bickering 
all the way.

But Nabiki felt a chill as she looked at Cologne.  The old woman's 
head was bowed, as if in mourning.  The withered Amazon, sensing 
eyes upon her, spared a quick look at Nabiki.  It was an expression 
devoid entirely of hope.  

<She doesn't really think he can do it,> Nabiki realized.  <As far 
as she's concerned, Ranma's already dead.>


                    end of chapter one



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                      AUTHOR'S NOTES
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COMING SOON:  The Reikoku Attacks!  Akane in Peril! Ryouga 
Explodes!  Or it might be more accurate to say that Ryouga 
Initiates Explosions!  More power, gags, and intense vengeance! 
And so forth...

COPYRIGHT STUFF:  All the Ranma characters belong to Takahashi Rumiko,
and are licensed in America by Viz Communications.    

GRT - May 1998
grayson@rigroup.net
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