The Test
by Nall --  tyson@rock.goldengate.net 

-=-=-=-=-
        Ranma walked into the dark room, anxious and fearful of what waited 
for him.  He looked around, trying to get some clue as to his whereabouts.  
        "That's strange," he said aloud.  
        There didn't seem to be any walls to this room, only blank space.  
Looking down, he could not make out the floor, however he seemed to be 
standing upon one.  A thin mist covered the area making it seem as an old  
graveyard at night.  Except, he did not see any tombstones.  Ranma did not 
know if he should be relieved by that fact or not.  
        "Welcome, Saotome Ranma." came an ominous voice.  
        His head shot around, attempting to ascertain the direction of the 
voice but it was to no avail.  The sound seemed to come from everywhere.  
        "Over here." the voice came again.  
        This time, Ranma was able to turn towards the sound and was rewarded 
by seing the source of the sound.  Directly in front of him stood a black 
cloaked figure, it's hand held up in a gesture of peace.  
        "Come closer."
        For some reason, Ranma complied to the command.  He felt a force 
acting upon him, pushing him up.  
        As he walked towards the figure, Ranma studied it more closely.  
The boy noticed that the cloak hid the wearer's face, making his 
antagonist's identity a secret.  He saw that the figure held a staff in it's 
right hand with a long blade attached to the top <It's a scythe> he thought.  
Lastly, but probably the most startling of the observations was the hand 
holding the weapon.  Long, fingers white as ivory held the wooden shaft 
tightly.  Not a trace of skin was to be found on them.  
        "Who are you?" Ranma asked roughly, reacting to fear as he always did -- 
through anger.  The cloaked figure seemed unmoved.  
        "I am death." it replied back.  
        Ranma was taken aback, this was not an answer he had anticipated.  
His mind wandered back to some fuzzy recent memories.  

        Ranma fought hard as Ryouga continued to get the advantage.  
The larger boy's superior strength continued to push the girl into the the top
of the roof.
        "Now you will die, Ranma!" he screamed in rage.  The threat was
brutal, almost primal.
        "Ranma!  You two get down right this minute!  What the heck are you                 
fighting for, anyways?"
        Ranma-chan fought hard for leverage under him, and in a few moments
had it.  Getting her feet out from under the boy, she tried to make a backflip
away from him.
        He was ready for it.  
        Grabbing her ankles as she jumped, Ryouga was able to pull Ranma's
body into the air backwards.  Then, with the force and form that one might
brutally beat a mat against the floor, he threw the girl's flat body against
the ground with all his strength.
        The inpact hurt, she felt her back crack with the impact.  Ranma would
have been lucky had that been her only injury.  A split second after the
impact Ranma-chan's body broke through the roof of the house and fell through.  
His free sensation of falling was interupted a moment later as he felt himself
once again land harshly.  This time, though, it  wasn't only the impact that
hurt.  Looking down at herself, she saw what the cause of the pain was.
Poking out, though the right side  of her chest was a thin wooden post.  
        She looked at it, laughed, and then all went black.  

        Ranma stood in shock, recalling the events he knew had just
transpired.  The figure simply spoke to him.
        "You are dead." he stated, as a continuation to his last.  
        He just stood there, gathering the strength to speak.  
        "I...what...do I do now?" he said, his words comming out a broken
jumble.
        "You have one of several choices.  First, you can go to the
afterlife."
        Ranma shook his head, he was not ready to accept that, yet.  
        "Second, you can go back to earth as a spirit.  This will provide you
with limited interaction with the living for one thousand years."
        "A...thousand years?!" Ranma exclaimed.  
        "Yes, that is the duration required for spirits to remain on earth."
        Ranma shook his head one more time, that was too long.  He could not 
imagine remaining a spirit on earth for that length of time.  
        "Lastly, and my most favorite: you can challenge me."
        "Challenge me?" Ranma inquired, interested in any kind of challenge --
even under these circumstances.  
        The cloaked figure seemed to smile.  
        "I will test you.  If you win, you will get your life back, however,
I must warn you.  If you should fail, you will remain with me here..." the
figure stoped, apparantly to savor the moment, "forever."
        If the figure expected him to balk, he was sorely mistaken.  
        "You're on."
        With a motion of his hand, the misty air swirled and a bright light 
shone upon Ranma.  He shielded his eyes from the blinding attack, painful as 
it was.  
        When the light had gone, the figure was gone.  Tatewaki Kuno remained
in it's place.
        "Your test begins." came the voice.  
        Ranma looked around for location once again, but his motion was 
interrupted by Kuno swiping at him with his bokken.  Ranma easily dodged it, 
countering with a swift kick to the midsection.  His adversary staggered a 
moment, and then disappeared into smoke. 
<that was easy!> he thought.  
        Behind him, the image of Ryouga Hibiki appeared.  
        "Ranma, prepare to die!" came the cry.  
        Ranma was quick to turn to his adversary, and after dodging and 
countering several blows from Ryouga's umbrella he made a backhand elbow to 
the face.  
        No sooner than Ryouga disappeared did Kodachi, Ukyou and Shampoo 
show up to replace him.  
        "Ran-chan, why did you run off with my dowry?!"
        "Shampoo kill you, Ranma!"
        "Ranma darling!"        
        The three ran in a full run towards him.  He did not want to fight 
girls, but the challenge gave him little choice.  They were charging in 
unison and just before they reached him he made a foreflip over thier heads 
and landed behind him.  He wasted no time, and before they could react he 
had sweeped all three with one motion.  
        Ranma looked away, knowing they had disappeared.  Immediately, Soun 
and Genma had appeared from ten feet to either side.  
        "Ranma, my boy.  It's time you learned a lesson!"
        "Ranma!  You're not going to die and leave my daughter Akane all
alone, are you?"
        Ranma stood perfectly still as the pair charged him.  When they 
were both five feet away both jumped into the air, assuming a jumping kick 
form.  Waiting till the last moment, Ranma ducked, letting both hit 
each other and waited as they transformed into dust.  
        He stood up, waiting for the next, and hopefully last challenge.  
        "Ranma no baka!" came a call that sent shivers down Ranma's spine.  
        With the most rigid control, Ranma turned to look at the person 
who made the statement.  
        He sighed deeply.  Akane.  She charged at him, rage burning in her 
body.  Ranma stood there, flustered like a deer in the headlights.  He could 
not fight her.  Never, in his entire life had he hit Akane with any kind of 
force.  
        She came in with a hard punch making him duck out of the way.  He 
stood back to his stance, not assuming an attack posture.  
        "Attack me, you hentai!" she screamed at him.  
        Ranma did nothing save dodge the next volly of attacks.  The image of 
Akane was breathing hard but did not relent.  
	The boy did still not know what to do.  He knew he didn't have it in 
him to strike her.  Something within him screamed desperately, telling him 
that did he not strike back, he would be stuck here forever -- and his life 
forfeit.  He would never see the real Akane again.  
        "No," he tried to deny it out loud.  "I...can't..." 
	The phantom girl continued the assault, oblivious to the mental 
conflict within her target.  She came in high with a side kick aimed at the 
face, making the boy with the black ponytail jump back to avoid her.  Without 
hesitation, she charged forward again.  
	There was no escaping it, his choices were none.  
        "Akane...gomen nasai..." he whispered, his eyes closed as the girl
charged down at him.  
	As soon as he opened his eyes, Ranma went into action.  He dodged her 
inital blows without a problem by ducking and slightly dodging.  The boy even 
managed to counter, only to have his fists deflected by Akane's blocks.  No 
one could hit each other, it was just like them sparring back in the dojo.  
	As usual, it was Akane that messed up first.  After a quick parry on 
her part, she countered with a forward kick, putting her body sideways into 
it.  Ranma easily blocked with his left forearm.  Then, wide open, the figure 
seemed to recognize the mistake.  
	With as much anger and force as he could muster, Ranma clenched his 
eyes shut and threw his right fist towards the figure of Akane.  He felt his 
heart pump painfully hard, his stomach twist into knots as the lethal weapon 
fired towards her.  
	The figure of Akane screamed, knowing her end was nigh.  She closed 
her eyes as she waited for the killing blow to come.  Except it didn't.  
	Slowly, she opened her eyes to see why the strike did not land.  She 
opened her eyes to see the flesh of Ranma's arm centimeters from her nose, 
passing acrost her face and over the shoulder.  Tracing the arm back to it's 
base she saw the rest of him standing there, motionless.  His mouth was 
open, as if frozen in panic.  Then she looked at his eyes.  The clear, blue 
orbs looked at her with utter fear.  The girl watched as they became as clear 
as glass, and finally tears began to well up at the bottom, running down his 
cheeks to drip off the bottom of his chin.  
	Without a word, he pulled his other arm around her neck and 
simultaneously pulled her close to him.  At this action, she began to struggle 
against his body, resuming the attack even in this position.  Her attacks 
were to no avail, he held her body so tightly in a hug she could barely move 
her arms.  Then, before Ranma even knew it, he spoke words he never thought 
he would hear himself say.  
        "Akane, I love you too much to hurt you." he cried into her shoulder.  
	 Behind Ranma's back, the black cloaked figure once again appeared.  
Without a word, the illusion of Akane stopped struggling.  
        "You pass." he said, and with a wave of it's arm, Ranma fell into 
unconciousness.  
	Ranma woke up to a bare, white ceiling.  He stared at it for a long 
time, studying how the paint seemed to be slightly uneven, the detail in even 
the simple ceiling seemed to be interesting to him.  
	Once he finally decided to view the rest of his surroundings, he 
noticed he was in a hospital bed.  Attempting to sit up, he found he could 
not.  Looking at the straps binding his body immobile, he remembered what had 
happened.  Upon this, he stared down at his chest, where a while ago he had 
been impaled.  The bandages were fresh, blood evident under them.  
        "Well, I guess you've finally woken up!" came a cheerful call.  
	The boy jumped slightly at the voice.  Ranma looked over at the 
speaker to find that a nurse was standing there.  
        "Konichiwa." Ranma said politely.  
        "Konbanwa, actually." the nurse said as she walked over to inspect the
bandages Ranma had just been examining,  "It's been three days since your
accident."
	Three days?  That couldn't be.  
        "Three...?" he asked, astonished.  
        "Hai." she nodded.  "You're very lucky to be alive young man."
        "You have no idea." Ranma mumbled.  
        "Mmmm?" the nurse asked, but there was no response from him.  Finally,
she conceeded not to push him, near death patients often did not want to talk 
about thier experiences.  
        "Perhaps when you've recovered enough, I'll wake up your family." she
said.
        "Huh?" Ranma asked.  In response, she waved her arm to the side of his
bed.
	Looking over, Ranma recognized many sleeping forms.  Soun, his father 
in panda form, Nabiki, Kasumi, Shampoo, Ukyou, and, he felt himself breath in, 
Akane.  She lay silently, holding P-chan tightly in her arms.  
        "How long have they been here?" he asked her, still staring at the
group.
        "Three days." the nurse smiled.  
	It took Ranma only a moment to do the math.  
        "But, that means that..." 
	She nodded in reply as she turned to leave, her job done.  Just as she 
was about to leave, Ranma called after her.  
        "Hey, when do I get out of here?" he asked.  
        "About a week." she said back, "You're one of the best fit people
we've ever seen here, your recovery will be swift."  
	He took this in mind, silently contemplating as the nurse walked down 
the hall.  As soon as the footfalls had gone, another sound caught his 
attention.  Down on the pile of bodies that were slumped over chairs and on 
the floor Akane stirred.  Disturbed by the talking, she moved her head to the 
side and moved her body slightly.  Then, ever so slowly, she opened her eyes.  
        "Ranma...?" she said, overjoyed and unbelieving to the boy staring at
her weakly from the hospital bed.  
        "Akane." he said to her seriously, "We need to talk."