The Spring Of Drowned Thief

Nervous Twitch

Akane was in a place of bliss. One could call it heaven. It was bright, with angels everywhere, all singing in unison on big puffy forgiving clouds. The sky was bright and blue with clear air filling her lungs. She found herself floating a million miles away from earth and with her was Ranma. They stayed close but not able to touch. The presents of each other was warming in the cool breeze. A flurry of white doves passed them by and seemed to coo for them. Every thing was beautiful, but the sky started turning gray, until it seemed to turn black. They both started falling towards the ground and now they could hold each other close. A blue wind seemed to surround them and they stopped on the edge of a cliff. She looked up and saw the clouds twist and turn into black balls and pillars. It started raining lightly and picked up in tempo until it became a waterfall. It surrounded them and Ranma’s face never flinched as they submerged into a newly formed ocean. They were floating again holding each other close as whales swam by them slowly. Ranma grabbed her attention with a nudge and pointed up. With out knowing why Akane nodded and held onto him tight. They started shooting up leaving a jet stream in the water behind them and soon they broke the water and they seemed to have wings. They both flew up and past the dark clouds and into the blue sky above them. They glided slowly through the air twirling and spiraling while laughing loudly. It was wonderful but suddenly Ranma stopped. Akane stopped as well to see what stole his attention. Her eyes widened as she watched a second Ranma approach them with a horrid scowl on his face. He stopped right in front of the two and stared at them both, but he was looking more at Akane then his reflection. He opened his black wings wide and started darting towards Akane. She didn’t know what else to do but scream as he closed in. He was stopped short when the other Ranma flew in front of Akane and opened with white wings in protection. The two hovered motionless for a few moments trying to stare each other down. The prize was obvious. Akane.

With out warning the two shot towards each other with wings spread and fists out. Every time their fists connected a flash of lightning and a piercing boom would come from beneath them. They spun in the air and took charges at each other, but neither seemed to give an inch. Akane was confused now. Why would Ranma fight himself? Why was one so sinister looking? All she could do was stay back and watch. Finally the one with black wings connected with the others jaw and sent him downward into the clouds. As he entered there was another flash of light and a scream. The one with black wings let a smile creep onto his face and he turned back to Akane and reached out a hand as he flew towards her. She wanted to scream, but didn’t know why. She rejected the hand as best she could until he was inches away from her with a smile stretched across his face. It was then that the Ranma with white wings shot out of the clouds and straight up at the one with black wings. He was badly singed when Akane got a good look at him and he was holding on tightly to his other half. He grabbed one of the black wings and tore it off with a swift rip. The one with a black wing screamed and turned as best he could and grabbed onto one of the white wings. He did the same as what was done to him and they both started falling. Akane watched in disbelief for a few seconds and nose-dived towards them. The two fought the whole way down as they went through the black clouds and into the rain. Akane reached out her arms to catch them but they always seemed just a bit out of reach. Soon the ocean below them was coming up fast but neither seemed to care as they fought on. Akane tried screaming for them but her voice was always lost to the storm now above them. As the last seconds rolled in the two Ranma’s hit the ocean and sunk, Akane was only a foot away when a sudden bolt of lightning struck the water just beneath her. Her body was tossed up and away and she started her decent again towards a now frozen ocean. She looked in beneath the ice and saw them motionless but full of life. Both held one another with a look of death towards each other in their eyes. Both poised with finishing blows, but frozen along with the ocean. Akane landed and started beating on the ice with all her strength, but nothing budged. She tried screaming, she tried every thing, but nothing moved. She sat there not knowing what to do looking up at the blackness above her and letting the rain hit her face. Many moments of thought passed and then suddenly all the clouds parted in under a second and was replaced with blinding light. She shot up from her bed to find the lights on and her father in the doorway with some guests.


Akane rubbed her eyes and her head as she looked at the alarm clock on her dresser. It was 1 in the morning and her father had a serious look on his face. “What’s this about dad? Its one in the morning.”

Soun approached her and looked her in the eyes and asked. “Do you know where Ranma is Akane!?”

Akane looked confused for a second and off to her left to find her bed empty of any one else. “No. What’s wrong?” As Akane asked she watched as Ryouga, Shampoo, Cologne, and Mousse enter the room. “What’s going on here?”

Cologne hopped forward towards Akane’s bed. “Are you sure child? You better not be covering for him. My shop was raided and ruined.”

Akane shook her head. “No! I don’t know where he is! You don’t think he broke into your place do you!?”

Mousse stepped forward and put his glasses on. “I caught him in the act myself! I don’t know what he was looking for, but he was going through all our travel bags and locked cabinets.”

Shampoo had her arms crossed with her nose in the air. “He attack Mousse and steal some thing. No way for husband to act!”

Akane looked towards Cologne with pleading eyes. “It’s true child. He’s up to some thing right now. Did he tell you any thing?”

Akane shook her head. “I don’t know. Let me get dressed.”

Every one nodded and exited the room, as she got dressed. As she was leaving the room she saw Ryouga leaning against the wall across from the door. He looked at her with sad eyes and asked. “Are you sure you don’t know where he is? I saw the damage and it was pretty bad…”

Akane shook her head again. “I swear I don’t know. We went to sleep last night, I didn’t hear him leave or any thing.”

Ryouga nodded. “Ok… Any idea why he would do this?”

Akane and Ryouga started making their way downstairs. “I have no clue… He naturally steals things from time to time, but I haven’t heard any thing about breaking into some place and trashing it.”

Cologne caught this as they were coming down the stairs and around the corner. “What do you mean stealing comes natural to him?”

Akane looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “I thought you knew about his Jesenkyo curses?”

Cologne looked at her strangely for a few seconds. “Curses? He has more then one? What is the other one child?”

“He jumped into the spring of drowned thief shortly after he got his first curse. It was a matter of staying alive for him.”

All the Amazons stared at her wide eyed for a second and Shampoo started taking quickly in her home language while Cologne shook her head and asked Mousse to get some tea. Akane watched Shampoo breathing hard and looked to Cologne. “What’s wrong?”

Cologne closed her eyes for a few seconds and took in a breath. “That spring is one of the five sealed springs… How could he have gotten in?”

“He just said that he followed a guide book and jumped in…”

Cologne shook her head and sat in thought. “It’s more complicated then that child. Those springs are under heavy guard at all times. It’s an area where five of the greatest criminals of all time met and died. We couldn’t let their powers be reborn. We’ve done every thing to keep people from entering those springs and even if some one does then our guards will kill them instantly. Not a single soul has entered those ponds in almost 150 years. I’ve heard nothing of the sort happening either. I find it hard to believe it actually.”

Nabiki stepped into the room to every ones surprise and made her presence felt. “Ever thought that your guards didn’t want to tell you? It must be embarrassing to break a flawless record after all this time. What were the other four springs any ways?”

Cologne passed her a cold glance. “That’s none of your business child, and I will not stand for any tarnishing of my tribe with your lies.”

Ryouga slammed a fist onto the table with an angry look in his eyes. “I think it’s becoming our business lady! What if he jumped into more then one!? We don’t know what he’s capable of any more. The guy can use honest-to-god magic too!”

“That and when was the last time you checked up on your guards? I bet they feel under appreciated if you’ve neglected them.”

Cologne started feeling the stress and soon Mousse butted in before she could make another excuse. “The other four springs are killer, terrorist, lunatic, and greed.”

WHACK!

“You have no place to tell them Mousse!”

Mousse rubbed his head and passed her an evil glare. “These people deserve to know! Who knows what kind of plans he has if he’s been to any of the other springs!? It’s not like they’re marked!”

A sudden chill went up every ones spine at Mousse’s final comment. There was that silence that kept every one lingering in thought. Various things happened that gave away the tension. Soun started moving slowly towards his daughter and keeping an open eye. Ryouga stood beside Akane with a watchful eye as well. Shampoo moved in closer towards her great grandmother and Mousse. Kasumi started shaking a little. It was like every one in the room could see each other’s breath. Ryouga was the first one to find courage and speak. “I’ve got a curse too and I know there’s a story behind each one… What’s the story behind these ponds…?”

Cologne finally gave in and pondered where to begin. “Hmmm… It’s hard to tell the story as one in its own… I’ll start with the serial killer… He was a man from England with a sick perversion for killing prostitutes. They say he used surgical procedures to cut open his victims and remove their organs while they were still alive. His name was Jack the Ripper. He was famous but never caught. He escaped here to Japan but bounty hunters took him down. These bounty hunters are three other springs. The Terrorist, the Lunatic and the Greed. The terrorist was a man from Russia with an odd yet very effective way of getting what he wanted. His name was General Bolitov. It’s said that this man was an ingenious with early explosives and demolition. Apparently he was responsible for over 14000 deaths in random acts of retaliation against the Czar. His group was eventually wiped out, and he had to hide for a few years. That’s when he started chasing criminals like him for money.”

Nabiki had to interrupt. “I’m not liking this one bit… It sounds like these people were being gathered or some thing… They were all the worlds greatest?”

Cologne nodded. “Yes. But they aren’t the worst of it yet. The Lunatic was feared all across Europe and the Americas. Her real name was never recorded but her alias was Bloody Marry, nicknamed after a Queen. Her thoughts were twisted and her mind was gone. She dressed as a noble where ever she went offered to help the poor. She was always seeking genocide amongst the races of the world and she was also a cannibal. The only reason she teamed up with the general was because she thought that by eating Jack’s heart and bathing in the blood, she could one day fly to heaven and destroy god.”

Soun shivered a little but quickly put away his fears for his children. “What about the other one. Greed was it?”

“Yes… Greed was the lesser of two evils if you want to put it that way, but he was still notorious. The price on Jack’s head was no stranger to the public. It was immense. Greed was always in it for the money. It was his purpose in life to constantly want. He bankrupted many businesses and found ways to swindle every casino he went into. He was also a ruthless businessman. It’s said that one of his favorite way to eliminate competition was to find the owner, and knock him out. When the other man woke up he would be tied to a chair with his bare feet on an ice-cold concrete floor. Aces and Eights would ask him various questions and which ever answer he didn’t like, he would take a small hammer and brake the man’s toes one by one until he found the answers he liked.”

Ryouga had his own question this time. “What about Ranma’s spring? The thief?”

“What about it?”

He grabbed the old woman and stared at her fearlessly. “Don’t play games with me lady! You’ve been avoiding his spring! Why!?”

Shampoo put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. “Nothing known about spring of thief.”

Ryouga let go of the old woman and looked at shampoo. “What do you mean nothings known!? We got all that dirt on the other springs but not that one?”

Nabiki crossed her arms and looked at Cologne with an unimpressed look. “He’s got a point. How could you not know any thing about the thief? Sounds like you guys are hiding some thing again.”

Mousse adjusted his glasses and looked at Nabiki. “It’s true though. We’ve gone over the stories and all the legends about the springs, and we figured out what happened, but the only thing we can’t figure out is how the fifth person died in that spot on the same night. The thief had no reason to be there and no motive. The person didn’t have any reason to get involved with the fight either. There are clues to who the person might be, and all the leads come back to a bunch of small time crooks. All the other people were world renowned, and the greatest thief at the time was Lupin the first, but he died many years later of old age.”

Akane was deep in thought herself and starting to worry. “What would happen if Ranma jumped into all these springs?”

Every one looked at her and then at Cologne. “That child… Is what my people and I have always feared… The person would become the deity of every thing evil in this world. But to think it would happen to Ranma… He’s already a fairly decent martial artist. Has he mastered the Anything Goes style?”

Every one had to shrug their shoulders at that. Ryouga answered though. “We’ve had morning spars for a while now, but I haven’t figured out if he’s a master yet. He’s defiantly good though. There might be a chance that he was holding back against us.”

Akane put in her thoughts as well. “He’s also unbelievably fast. You should see some of the stuff he does. He said that he mastered an attack called the ‘chestnuts fist’ or something by accident. It was weird to watch. He-“

Cologne cut her off. “His arms become a blur and he strikes something 100 times in a second. Right?”

“Err… Well yeah, but he uses his legs as well and even head at times.”

“Hmmm… Did he say how he found out about that technique?”

Akane shrugged her shoulders, but Ryouga came to her rescue. “He reads a lot of books in his spar time. He’s a fast reader too. I’ve seen him go through three books in one week.”

Cologne didn’t waste a second. “I need to see these books. We need to know what he’s capable of. Where are they?”

Ryouga crossed his arms in thought. “I’m not sure. He seems to be able to pull this stuff out of thin air. You just get used to him doing it after a while.”

Kasumi coughed to get every ones attention. “When he moved in he brought a heavy chest with him. He leaves it in the closet in the spare bedroom.”

Cologne looked up the stairs and made a silent decision. With out a word to the others every one started making there way upstairs and into the area of investigation.


Kasumi led the way to the closet and pointed. “It’s in here.” She made her way over and opened the slider. To every ones surprise she jumped back and shrieked. Soun leapt in front of her poised with a stance ready to kill any thing. He raised an eyebrow at the little mouse that greeted him. “Kasumi dear… Please don’t scare your poor old man like that…”

Kasumi looked down in shame. “I’m sorry father…”

Ryouga grabbed the chest and started pulling it out. The floor beneath it started scratching and screeching as he heaved at it. “How much crap does he have in this thing!?”

Once it was out Akane looked at the huge padlock on the front. “Apparently he doesn’t want any one going through his things.”

Nabiki stepped in. “That may be true, but he’s smarter than this. Check this out.” She went around behind the large crate and started feeling around. Every one watched in silence for a moment and flinched when they heard a loud click. The back of the box started opening up to reveal all.

Mousse stepped forward. “How did you know about that?”

Nabiki let off a sly smile. “He’s been teaching me a thing or two. He told me that the bigger the lock on the box the easier it is to get in. He also said he prefers trick boxes to normal lock, just because no body expects them.”

Cologne started rummaging through the belongings and started looking at the various artifacts and titles she saw. “This is bad… I’m staring to see a pattern here.”

Ryouga and Mousse leaned in to see. “What’s wrong? What pattern?”

Cologne started pulling out many cooking books and autobiographies. “He replaces the real books with crap that nobody reads like these and puts the pages in these covers. Look at this salad recipe book. It’s all about strange herbs and poisons. And these autobiographies of Bruce Lee are…. THESE ARE MY TRIBES SECRETS! ALL OF OUR FIGHTING STYLES!”

Ryouga raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong if he learns a few new moves? It can’t be that bad, can it?”

Shampoo looked towards the group from her great grandmothers shoulder. “Not just fighting styles in book, but it have ki attacks. We even seal away some because so dangerous.”

Ryouga still shook his head. “I still don’t see the problem. Don’t you have to be extremely good to use ki attacks? I’ve heard that only a few people in the world can use them.”

Nabiki interrupted. “You also need to be extremely good and constantly focused to use magic. I can only assume that magic and ki run off the same principals.”

Cologne nodded her head. “That’s right. Magic uses the force of nature around the individual, while ki uses the force of life within. If he can use magic then its not a great leap to start using ki. He simply has to change his point of focus.”

Nabiki put a hand against her head and started thinking. “So what do we have so far? Ranma is missing. Your shop has been ruined, by him. There’s a good chance that he might be some serial killer, or some lunatic, or he could be this omni force of evil. Not to mention that he has the ability to use magic and ki if he really wanted to.”

“He can also mind dive and read thoughts.” Added Ryouga.

Akane started going through the chest herself while Cologne spoke. “Yes the situation is indeed a bad one. We need to figure out where he is though. We need to know what he’s up too.”

Mousse rubbed his chin. “Has he ever done some thing like this before? We still don’t know what he took from our shop.”

Cologne stopped to think. “Mousse. Was Ranma male or female when you saw him?”

“He was a guy. Why?”

Cologne checked the necklace around her neck and opened it up. “Hmmm…. The Phoenix pill is gone… But he must have been looking for some thing else as well…”

Akane pulled out a black book and started reading it in silence. Soun started thinking. “Have you called the police yet?”

Cologne answer. “I feel no need to yet. They won’t be much help if my son-in-law has a plan.”

“I see… Let us go back to your shop and do a search of our own then. We can make a check list of all the thing he might have wanted.”
“I was planning that as well. Let\'s be off, and be careful. We don’t know if he’s deranged yet.”

Every one started making their way out of the door, but were stopped at Akane’s call. “Guys… What day is it?”

Every one stopped and turned. Shampoo gave a thought and answered. “It Thursday now, right?”

Akane shook her head slowly. “No… I mean what’s the date?”

Kasumi answered this time. “Why it’s October 3rd Akane.”

Akane held up Ranma’s diary. “Then how come the last entry was October 16th this year?”

Nabiki walked over and grabbed the book. “Let me see that…” Nabiki read the last few entries with a skim and started walking slowly towards her room. Ever one followed her and watched her open up a monitor and a small computer. She pointed to the dates at the bottom of each one. “They all say its October 17th right now… Dad… Is there a late news broadcast on?”

Soun turned silently and started heading downstairs to the tv room. Every one watched as he scrolled through the channels and stopped at a 24 hour new station. Sure enough the date was displayed on the bottom. Shampoo started looking around curiously and soon a calendar caught her eye. All the dates were marked off up to October 16th. “What going on here? Why are all dates weird?”

Akane took the diary back and started flipping pages back to October 3rd and started reading. “What the hell?”

Nabiki gazed over her shoulder to catch what was being read. “This doesn’t make any sense? ‘I was committed today…’ Ranma wasn’t committed.”

Akane started rubbing her head and she started wandering around the house. She picked up her school bag and started going through it. “I have finished homework in here… and prescriptions?”

Soun came over to look in his daughters bag. “These are… anti-depressants. Why do you have these dear?”

Akane shrugged her shoulders and Nabiki waved for every one to go up stairs again. “I’m checking my surveillance system. Some thing has to be in there.”


The family and the Amazons all gathered chairs into Nabiki’s room and started watching. Nabiki popped in tapes she didn’t have the previous night and started with the oldest. “This is October 3rd… 9 in the morning.” All the screens showed different areas of the house. The dinning room was a familiar sight, but every one seemed to have a bit of gloom around them. No audio could be heard, but it was easy to tell the conversation was about Ranma. She kept her head down as Akane was talking. Tears could be seen in the family’s eyes. Nabiki started fast-forwarding to 11 am. She stopped when she saw doctor Tofu approaching with a few people with him. Nabiki paused and started searching other rooms for Ranma. He was sorting through the closet while Tofu approached. She assumed that it was his chest. Some thing caught Ranma’s attention and she started packing away quickly. A bit more fast-forwarding and it showed every one on the front walk way with Ranma standing close to Dr. Tofu and the other two men. A few words were exchanged and Ranma left swiftly holding a black book and nothing more. Nabiki paused the video and turned to the audience. “Does any one remember this?” Every one shook their heads Nabiki sighed and turned back to the monitor. “This is going to take a while… I have 14 days of footage to go through here. Can you guys give me some space until I find some thing out?” Every one nodded and started making their way out. Cologne and Shampoo stayed behind to continue watching, while every one went off to figure things out.

Akane held onto the diary tightly and started heading for her room. Ryouga followed behind her. “I want to read that too. I need to know a few things.” Akane nodded as they sat on the bed together and started reading to each other.

Mousse, Soun, and Kasumi made their way over to the Amazon noodle shop for an investigation. Through out the night the Tendo’s and the Amazons worked to figure out what happened in the two weeks that didn’t happen.