Did this for the Halloween Hour Challenge on Nabiki. I was surprised it still exists ^_^
I didn't have time to finish the fic like I wanted to, so I was thinking of extending it or deleting the ending and extending it (I had to change the original ending I had in mind and wrap it up quickly because of time constraints), tell me if it's worth it ^_^
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Darkness was all that Ranma could see. This wasn't anything new to him
of course, with him being bludgeoned by heavy, dull objects every other
day, courtesy of his fiancee. This darkness was new to him though. As
luck would have it, a slip of the tongue earned him a trip into the koi
pond before he had the chance to finish Kasumi's delicious breakfast.
He had been in the koi pond many times before, whether it was because
of Akane or his spars with his father or his fights with rivals, but
never had this happened to him. Even though Akane didn't hit him that
hard, he seemed to have sank into a deeper depth than he had ever been
before, even deeper than all the times Ryoga hit him down the pond
directly.
At least, that was his guess. All the times he's been hit
into the pond, he had never actually touched the bottom, so he didn't
really know how deep it is. Looking up, he couldn't see any light
coming from the surface at all, everything around him was pitch black,
as far as his eyes could see. He concluded that he must've been
really deep down, and decided that he had to start swimming up or he
would be in trouble. Knowing the dangers of divers surfacing too fast,
he started swimming up slowly to allow his lungs to adjust to the
pressure. When it seemed that he wasn't making any progress, he
started to swim faster. He seemingly spent an eternity trying to swim
up, without making any progress. Everything around him was still
pitch black, and he was slowly losing air. He yelped in surprise as
he felt something grab onto his shin, and lost what little air he had
remaining in his lungs, and everything went black.
A splash of ice-cold water jolted him up to a sitting position, and he
finds himself staring at long banks of red hair.
"What the hell happened?" the female Ranma asked no one in particular.
"You-" Akane said, ready to go into a tirade.
"You were under the water for a long time, Ranma-kun," Kasumi
interjected before her younger sister can say anything more. "We
decided it would be best to check up on you, so we asked Saotome-san
to get you."
Her finger pointed to the dripping-wet panda, raising a sign that
said "You weakling boy! You were passed out under water!" as it tried
to get the water out of the thick fur.
"I did?" she blinked, and her eyes involuntarily drifted down towards
her shin. Raising her pants leg, she couldn't find any visible marks
that corresponded to the feeling of being grabbed just before she
became unconscious.
"Anything wrong, Ranma-kun?" Kasumi asked, concerned about the sudden
action.
"No, it's nothing," she shook her head in denial, and dismissed the
whole event as a freakish accident. Genma was about to say something
to taunt her further, but a glare immediately made him reconsider with
the promise of much pain in the horizon.
A vague unease started settling in on his way to school, and he could
feel himself agitated. He could definitely feel Akane's anger though,
after she kicked the fence with a sidekick when he brushed off her
questioning for the umpteenth time that morning.
"Ah, I see that the beauteous Akane Tendo has once again come in the
presence of the foul sorcerer," the persistent kendoist greeted the duo
in his own usual way as he brought his bokken forward, aiming it at
Ranma. "Step aside, my fierce tigress! I shall defeat this cur once
and for all and free you from the wicked sorcery!"
"Back off, Kuno," he threatened in a low voice. "I'm not in the mood."
Both Akane and Kuno looked at Ranma worriedly, because he was usually
receptive of a challenge, even if it was only as brief as a punt to
dismiss the kendoist.
"Aha," the swordsman declared after he recovered. "So the foul sorcerer
has finally realized my might, and cowers before me! Leave Akane
Te-OOF!"
His speech was cut off abruptly when the pig-tailed martial artist
drove a knee into his midsection. As he doubled over, Ranma drove a
hard elbow down onto his spine, and followed up with an axe kick before
he landed face first on the ground, moaning in pain.
Ranma didn't cast so much as a second glance at the fallen kendoist
before spinning on his heels to enter the classroom, a shocked Akane
following silently behind.
After the display of cold efficiency in dealing with the kendoist, no one
dared to talk to Ranma for the entire morning. Which suited him fine,
as he wasn't in a mood to talk to anyone.
Taking the bento prepared by Kasumi, he sat on the window sill and
began to eat his lunch silently and pondered on the strange occurrence
in the morning.
He was so absorbed in thought that he didn't notice Akane calling him
repeatedly until a heavy bookbag hitting him in the face, catching him
off-guard and sending him toppling down to the swimming pool three
stories below. Although caught off-guard, Ranma recovered enough to
twist in the air to dive harmlessly into the waiting waters.
As he entered into the pool, everything around him became black, like
in the morning in the koi pond. This time she was sure that he was
actually awake and not dreaming and hadn't been knocked unconscious by
the fall, as a three-story fall into water is nothing for him. Panic
starts to surface in her mind because she knew that there was no
possibility a pool can be this dark, and she began to frantically try
and swim back up to the surface. She couldn't seem to make any
progress, however, before a hand grabbed her shin...
The student population of Furinkan spent the entire afternoon searching
around the pool and around the school grounds, but no one could find
Ranma, and no one saw her exit the pool after the splash subsided after
her landing.
I'd state there's not enough to really comment on. You have this odd event that happens twice. It's a teaser, but not something that really gives much for saying what behind it would be worth reading or not. =)
Dracos