Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi and Blade is the property of Marvel. I had nothing to do with creating these works, unfortunately, or I'd be raking in the cash as we speak. Anyway, all non Ranma/Marvel characters are my original creations and I would be extremely displeased if anyone used them without my permission. This story is provided free of charge, so please leave the lawyers for people who are actually infringing copyrights for profit.
And now, our feature presentation...
The Long, Dark Night
Chapter 1 – The Night Is Young
The rave club stood in one of the oldest, dirtiest, most desolate parts of Tokyo, seemingly removed from the clean neon glow of Tokyo proper. The buildings in the area were little more than decrepit and condemned warehouses whose lots were littered with the refuse of decay. The club itself looked as, if not more, derelict as its neighbors and the casual observer might have passed over it as yet another building falling to pieces. It stood three storeys high, its facade, obviously more than a century year old, managed to look both crumbling and solid. Unlike the other buildings, it did not have broken windows, mainly because they were all bricked up. In fact, the only indication that anything occupied the building was the long line of people waiting to enter a non-descript door that was flanked by two burly guards and a pale looking man wearing a trendy clubbing outfit and sunglasses. That and the thumping trance music that drifted, along with cigarette smoke, from the open door.
The club had no name and it really had no need for one anyway. It was so highly regarded by the "in" crowd of Tokyo's clubbing scene that hundreds lined up nightly fully expecting to be turned away. It was so exclusive that only with an invitation from a member could you ever gain admittance. That, of course, did not keep people from trying to get in or from offering themselves to the stylish members who came and went. Not even the brutal cold of this December night diminished the line.
Across the street, a short, buxom, red haired Japanese girl stood in the shadows in The Alley. It was called "The Alley" because members of the club who were looking for "companions" to go into the club walked through the alley, where they would listen to the solicitations of daring or desparate clubbers seeking to penetrate the closed exclusivity of the club. She alternately stared at the club and down the alley, obviously waiting for someone. She ignored the voices that began chattering excitedly as a male and a female, their blood red masks identifying them as members, walked down The Alley. The voices quickly died down as two handsome males and three pretty females were chosen and led, almost like pets, across the street and into the club. If she was disappointed, the girl did not show it.
The chatter began again and the girl, seeing a single male listening to the entreaties of the other occupants of the alley, turned her full attention to him. He suddenly motioned to one particularly good looking girl, who ran to his side excitedly and took his proferred arm. When the new couple came within five feet of her spot in the shadows, the red-head stepped out directly in their path.
"Are you sure you want to choose before you've seen the best out here?" she asked the man seductively.
The man in question stood, goggle-eyed, staring at the beautiful young woman now blocking his path. She stood no more than five feet, four inches and had the most perfect female figure he had ever seen in his life. Under a long black cloak she wore a short, red, Chinese style dress with splits on both sides, an outfit that did far more than flatter her body. His eyes travelled down her body, along her shapely legs to the small feet that were sheathed in red stilleto heels. His eyes u-turned, roaming over her ample breasts, pausing over her elegant face to admire her brilliant blue eyes. But the most exciting feature for him was the long, silky-looking, fiery red hair that flowed over her shoulders. The man thanked Kami for his luck, mainly because he was almost insanely attracted to people with red hair.
"Hmm...maybe I was a bit too quick to choose." he said, disengaging himself from the other girl and approaching the red-head. "You are quite different from these others..."
"Ranko." the red-head supplied, flashing a sexy smile.
"Ranko...a lovely name for a lovely lady." He said, offering his arm. Ranko grabbed his arm and walked with him towards the club entrance. "You are quite special, Ranko-chan. You are the first red haired Japanese girl I've ever seen."
Ranko laughed mischievously. "Oh, you'll find I'm special in many ways. And I'm very generous with handsome men who do good things for me." she said, winking.
The man smiled at the implications of her statement as they walked through the doors into the club. They passed through a dimly lit lobby that lived up to the decayed look of the facade, it's tile floor cracked and concrete walls dingy. Through another door they went into the main area of the club which, thankfully, abandoned the derelict look for the layout and look of a modern disco. The large dance floor was packed with hundreds of bodies writhing to the pumping trance from the speakers. It was surrounded by a short divider on all sides, much like an ice rink, with a long bar running the length of the left side. On the opposite side was a staircase leading up to what looked to be a VIP area and the DJ booth. The man made to steer Ranko towards the bar but, instead, found himself being pulled away towards a side door by the girl.
"Hey, where are we rushing off to?" he asked, smiling.
"We just need a little privacy. After all, you want what's coming to you, right?" she said, again with the sultry voice that was driving him wild. He nodded vigorously.
The door opened into a dimly lit hall that was much like the lobby with the exception that it was deserted. Ranko pulled him into the hall and shut the door before leaning back against the wall and pulling him against her body. He hungrily began kissing her, slowly moving down to her neck, the neck he so wanted to bite, the beautiful morsel whose blood he lusted for. She grabbed him and held him tightly with her left arm and he bared his fangs, preparing to bite into her.
"I wouldn't, if I were you." she said suddenly, her voice cold as ice. He stopped, confused.
"What?" he asked, raising his head to look her in the eye.
"I said that I wouldn't do that, if I were you." she replied, her eyes as cold as her voice. He could see a look of revulsion and something else he could not place in the girl's eyes.
"And how, little girl, will you stop me? You've made a date with a vampire, and the date will be kept. There's nothing you can do about it." he said, baring his fangs to frighten her. He was surprised that she did not even flinch. In fact, she laughed at him.
"Oh, I think I can. I'm full of surprises, especially the long, sharp, silver kind." she said, producing a foot long blade in her right hand. His eyes widened at the sight of the weapon. He struggled back against her grip, but she held him in place. Fear, for the first time in several hundred years gripped him.
"Wh-what do you want from me? I'll give you anything!" he cried out.
"Want? I've already gotten everything from you I needed." she said matter-of-factly. His face looked panic stricken. "Wait, that's not true. I did want one more thing." Her eyes narrowed almost to slits. "I want you to die."
In a swift move, too fast even for his vampire eyes, she pushed him away with her left hand and sliced upwards with her right. The man stood for a moment, face frozen with shock, seemingly unscathed, before his body began to disintegrate from a vertical slash that extended from his left hip to his right shoulder. Within seconds, he was nothing more than scattered black ash on the broken tile floor.
Ranko, also known as Ranma Soatome, put the weapon away using the Hidden Weapons trick she had figured out from fighting Mousse, then stepped back through the door and into the main area of the club. She walked around the dance floor, walking past the long bar. Her eyes, alert as ever for danger, noted the powerfully built black man, dressed in all black and wearing sunglasses, seated at the bar. Ranma-chan wondered to herself why everyone insisted on wearing sunglasses so late at night. The man seemed to be searching for someone before his stare locked onto her as she approached where he was sitting. She could not tell if he was human or vampire and his stare, from behind the shades, unsettled her.
"Take a picture." she said to him, bristling, as she walked past. "It'll last longer."
If he heard her, Ranma-chan did not know. She was glad to be past him and heading towards the VIP area. The crowd between herself and the stairs to the VIP area was thick but she managed to get to them with little trouble. She turned back and looked over the crowded club. Two years ago, Ranma Soatome would never have set a foot inside such a place. That was before a terrible event had changed everything. Swiftly and violently, as it always did, the memory descended on her.
-----
The date had been planned carefully down to the minute. By all rights, it very well should have been perfect, considering the person who had planned it was Nabiki Tendo. The entertainment and food had been arranged. More importantly, the troublesome elements that always seemed to plague Akane and Ranma had been accounted for. The Soatome and Tendo patriarchs were on a drinking spree with their master, Happosai. The Kunos were currently pursuing a family of highly skilled acrobats that had been paid to impersonate Ranma and female Ranma. The Nekohanten and Ucchan's Okonomiyaki were currently swamped due to a price war (artfully manipulated by Nabiki) between the two establishments. And Ryoga, as seemed to be the case so often lately, was nowhere to be found. Every T had been crossed and every I dotted, so it had seemed. Nabiki had even bet a million yen that everything would go exactly according to plan.
"She owes me a millin yen." Ranma grumbled as he walked down a street headed in the general direction of the Tendo home. "I just knew that idiot Ryoga would show up!"
Everything had, indeed, been proceeding according to schedule until after the play Ranma and Akane had attended. That one undotted I, the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki, wandered through the crowd and literally ran into Ranma. As was nearly always the case, Ranma ended up fighting with the lost boy after trying to avoid the confrontation. This time, however, Ranma was genuinely angry with Ryoga for ruining the perfectly planned date and beat the boy pretty badly. He had turned back to Akane in time to be yelled at for "picking on Ryoga" and ruining the date, to which he angrily replied, exasperated: "What's with you?!! Pig-boy always starts fights with me and *I'm* the bully? He ruins our date and it's *my* fault? I'm your fiance but you take his side all the time and I'm sick of it! If you like him so much better than me then why don't you go with him! Date's over!"
He had ignored Akane's angry retort as he walked away feeling angry enough to beat on twenty Ryogas. He walked around aimlessly for ten minutes, trying, in vain, to let the anger disippate. "Damn Ryoga....always ruining everything! Next time I see P-chan, he's-" Ranma was stopped abruptly by a scream. A female scream. A female whose scream he knew very well. Akane.
In an instant he had hopped onto the nearest building, leaping in the direction of Akane's piercing scream. His heart pounded as fear crept on him, with anger following close behind. Whoever was hurting his fiance would rue the day they were born. That much he would make sure of.
Ranma was moving so fast that he had covered the distance back to where he had left Akane in less than thirty seconds. Another scream rang out, muffled, and he ran in that direction, his keen hearing telling him that she was no more than 2 blocks away. In seconds he was there, stepping into an unusually dark alley. At the other end was Akane, limp in the grip of a man, who looked up at Ranma as he entered the alley. No, not a man...no man's eyes glowed red in the dark. Ranma was about to launch himself at the thing, but stopped short as the moon emerged from the clouds, bathing the scene in moonlight. The face of thing burned itself into his memory, the thing he would stop at nothing to kill. It's face looked Japanese and Ranma could make out the marks of tattoes on it's neck. Most revealing of the creature's nature, however, were the unusual paleness of the skin and the fangs. Fangs which dripped with blood. Even at this distance, Ranma could tell that Akane's neck had been bitten.
Ranma's anger returned with a vengeance. Many in his past had made the mistake of hurting those for whom he cared, and they had paid dearly for that mistake. Vampire or not, he would strike with violence that none, not even a god, could stand before. He launched himself down the alley, a savage, ferocious yell escaping his lips. In two steps he was there, while his prey leapt unnaturally high into the air, still holding Akane. Ranma followed them high into the air, fairly licking his chops at the prospect of fighting in mid-air. With his skill in the Saotome form of Anything GOes, he could make mincemeat of any opponent in the air.
Just before he reached them, someone slammed into him with a mid-air tackle. Ranma jabbed the man viciously in the back with an elbow then, grasping the man in a tight reverse headlock, flipped backwards so fast that his neck snapped. He let the man go flying into a dumpster while he landed in a crouch, prepared to leap back into the air. Instead he was forced to flip backwards to avoid another assailant intent on stomping him into the ground. The new man followed him closely as he jumped back, kicking at him as he landed. Ranma ducked and, pushing off the ground with his right arm, lifted his feet straight up, slamming into the man's chest. Using the momentum, he flipped onto his feet and ran at the man, who had recovered from the blow in mid-air and landed on his feet. In a normal fight, the man might have been able to trade blows with Ranma, but now the pig-tailed martial artist was not in the mood to play. Ranma blocked the first punch from the man so hard that every bone in his arm shattered. He hardly had time to cry out in pain before Ranma's fist plowed into his face, instantly shattering every bone in his face and knocking his head back so far that his neck broke. His body flew backwards, hitting a wall with a sickening thud. Ranma ran back towards the end of the alley, hoping to see some sign of Akane and the vampire. But there was nothing, save the sound of thunder. As the rain begin to fall, Ranma-chan fell to her knees, surrounded by a sickly yellow aura flickering with despair deeper than Ryoga Hibiki had ever experienced.
-----
Ranma-chan shook her head, trying to rid herself of the sickening feeling that memory always gave her. Up these stairs, in the VIP room, was someone who would lead her right to Akane and her kidnapper. All she needed to do was convince the person in question to be forthcoming. As she had been proving for more than a year, she could be very convincing, especially to vampires. She made her way up the stairs, trying to look as sexy as possible for the two human guards at the top of the stairs. If she pulled it off, they would let her in and she would not have to kill anyone. Well, not before she needed to kill anyone.
"Hold on there, darlin', where do you think you're going?" asked one of the guards, a tall, burly man fairly bursting out of a black, short-sleeved shirt that was obviously a size or two too small. Ranma-chan noted the man's tatooed arms that marked him as a member of the Yakuza. He was not the first Yakuza that she had seen with vampires.
"I want to go in there." Ranma-chan responded, smiling sweetly as she pointed past them.
"Sorry, sweetheart," the other guard, shorter and less bulky than his partner and bald to boot, replied. "The VIP room is members only."
"Aww, come on." she replied, pouting. "Isn't there anything I can do to get in?"
"Well I dunno honey." said the bigger one, stroking Ranma-chan's hair. "Is all of your hair red?" His partner began chuckling at the implication of the question.
"Well maybe I'll let you find out." Ranma-chan replied, smiling seductively. She put an arm around each man. "*If* you let me in."
"Oh, I think that can be done." said the smaller man. "Right Ken?"
When Ken did not answer, the man was about to ask again, but found that he could not make a sound. For that matter, he could not even move a muscle in his body save for his eyes.
"That takes care of you two." said Ranma-chan, who had surreptitiously tapped several pressure points on the men. For good measure, she tapped a couple more points that would provide hours of pain for them. She walked past them and through a tacky bead curtain that looked like it belonged in the 70s. The VIP room was fairly large, with a couple sofas and chairs around a big square glass table. Beyond that was a small bar along the right wall and a dance floor between it and a long tinted window over-looking the rest of the club. After that was an office area, complete with a large desk, filing cabinets, and several chairs. Ranma-chan looked over the people in the room and was not surprised to see that, of the twenty or so people in the room, more than half were vampires. She walked straight back to the office area, where several of the vampires were congregating.
"Which one of you is Takeburo?" she asked.
"Who's asking?" said one of them, a young looking man that was, unsurprisingly, dressed in black. He had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, revealing intricate tatooes.
"If you ain't Takeburo, that's not your business." Ranma-chan replied curtly.
"I am Takeburo. And what is it you want, girl?" said another man that looked to be in his 40s that was sitting behind the desk. He wore a black suit with a red tie and handkerchief.
"Information. Someone told me you had it." she said. Ranma-chan produced two photos and dropped them on the desk. "I'm looking for these two people. The girl's name is Akane. I dunno the guy's name, but I know he's one of you guys."
The vampires visibly stiffened. Takeburo looked from the folders up at Ranma-chan. "I have no idea who those people are. Now if you'll excuse..."
"No, I think you do know them, and you're gonna tell me what I want to know or else."
"Or else what?" Takeburo asked, surreptitiously sending signals to his bodyguards.
"Or else you won't live long enough to regret it." she responded, folding her arms over her chest.
"That's bold talk from a little fly who's walked right into the spider's web." he said, motioning to his bodyguards, who were pulling out guns.
Ranma-chan was already a step ahead of them. In a quick move, she was over the desk and had whipped out her foot long silver blade, holding it to Takeburo's throat with her right hand while holding him in a half-nelson with her left hand. "No sudden moves, boys. And put those guns down if you don't want your boss dead." They began dropping their weapons on a nod from Takeburo.
"You won't get out of here alive." he said. He was sweating profusely and eyeing the silver blade nervously.
"That's the least you need to worry about." she replied through her teeth. "Now then, that man and the girl, where can I find them?"
"I told you I don't kno-AUGH!!!" he cried out as she pressed the blade against his neck. Smoke rose from where the silver was burning his skin.
"Sorry if I don't believe you. And you guys had better stop inching forward...I might accidentally slip up and slit his throat." she said. "Now I'll only ask one more time, where are they?"
"Fuck you." Takeburo said. "You're dead bitch. Dead!"
"Wrong answer." She sliced through his neck like a hot knife through butter and, as satisfying as that was, she did not take the time to appreciate it. As expected, her execution of Takeburo got the attention of the vampires and caused panic among the humans, especially when they saw him disintegrate into fine black ash. Tucking the blade away in hammer-space, Ranma-chan flipped the desk over and kicked it hard towards the vampires just as they were aiming their guns at her. The desk bowled over three of the vampires and forced another two to roll out of the way. She smirked confidently as several of the vampires flew at her from across the room and she jumped forward to meet them halfway. Ranma-chan easily avoided a punch and, spinning quickly, kicked the first vampire against the wall. She blocked an incoming kick with her leg as she finished the spin, then grasped the vampire by his face. She slammed him down to the ground and let a torrent of ki flow from her palm into his mouth.
"Die, you blood sucking piece of shit!" Ranma-chan shouted. The vampire began to glow red and bulge unnaturally. Ranma-chan jumped up and bolted straight for the window, grabbing an attacking vampire along the way. Behind them, an explosion ripped through the VIP room, engulfing everything in unnatural red and black flame, just as they crashed through the window overlooking the dance floor.
-----
"I've spotted her, Whistler." Blade said. The microphone cleverly concealed in the collar of his trench coat transmitted his message out of the club to his partner-in-crime. As he watched her walk away, Blade wondered how she could tell that he had been staring, especially since he had not turned his head and his eyes were concealed behind dark sunglasses. "That picture doesn't do her justice."
"Funny, you usually don't go for girls that ain't vamps." Whistler replied through his earpiece.
"Hah hah, you're fucking hilarious." Blade deadpanned. "Anyway, I don't see her partner. Looks like she's going solo tonight. There's a lot of blood suckers in here, but considering the setting, it's not out of the ordinary. Anything going on out there?"
"A rat and a roach are fighting. The roach is winning. Other than that, nothing. You need any backup?"
Blade looked around slowly, looking for anything unusual. "No. The vamps are giving me the VIP treatment in here, I don't think they're crazy enough to attack me outright. I don't know though...I feel like something's gonna go down. Keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything."
"Yeah yeah, you really had to tell me that." Whistler grumbled.
Blade chuckled to himself. Whistler never could quite ditch the crotchety old man act. As he looked around the rave club, he could not help but see the similarities between it and countless other clubs he had been to around the world. The things were like little franchise outfits with the same looks and style and the same menu. They catered to the young, trendy set, both human and vampire. Here, the vampires could easily feed on fresh and willing victims, right under the nose of the law. Even with all the strides that he had made in his personal war against vampire-kind, these and similar enterprises were popping up all over the world. To make matters worse, the response from the vampire hunters worldwide had been underwhelming, due in large part to the slayings of several prominent vampire hunting groups. As much as he hated to admit it, Blade knew that he alone would never be able to destroy all the vampires on Earth; They were too numerous, established, and well connected. At Whistler's suggestion, Blade had contacted the major hunters on every continent and pledged to visit their countries to help "drum up support". In addition, he and Whistler were following up leads on new, unaffiliated hunters whose effectiveness at killing vampires had landed them on the vampires' hit list. It had been dirty work so far, but they had managed to save some of them from death.
To that effect they were now in Japan, searching for four people who were causing panic in and wreaking havoc on the Japanese vampire community. The only things keeping the four of them alive was their relative anonymity and elusiveness. It had, therefore, been quite a challenge to dig up information on them, but Blade and Whistler always knew the right places and the right vampires to lean on. Blade could be a very persuasive person.
Beyond their physical descriptions and some rather grainy photos, Blade had not been able to find too much on the four. Two of the people were a female duo that had begun their careers with a string of well executed, strategic strikes against Japanese vampire strongholds. They had killed more than a hundred vampires in two months, many of whom were important in the community. They were obviously well trained, well connected, and well prepared, but they weren't the top priority to the Japanese vampires. The other two people, a young man and young woman, were. The vampires did not know if they were a team or just associates that occasionally worked together. At times they would be seen alone, other times they would be seen together. Unlike the first two, they did not work with any particular rhyme or reason, but that did not make them any less deadly or effective. Individually they could both kill as many as thirty vampires at once, but when they were spotted in the same night, that number could easily double or triple.
After digging a bit further, they had learned where to locate the duo. The other two, however, were not so easy to locate. It was by a stroke of luck that Whistler had come across a plot to capture either the girl or the guy. It seemed that the vampires were luring them into a trap, a trap set to close tonight, at this very club. Knowing the vampires and the reputation of the two, there would be a lot of vampires stacking the deck. Blade did not even kid himself; he was not there to even the odds, he was there to get one or both of them away safely before they were killed or captured. Now that he had spotted the girl, he knew the whole thing would go down soon.
Blade began noticing some unusual movements among the crowd, movements an untrained eye might have missed. Despite the loud, thumping music, his sensitive ears were picking up some high frequency noise. The vampires where on the move, and things were about to get hot. "Whistler, the vamps are on the move."
"Roger that, there's a shitload of 'em pouring into the back. You're gonna be up to your elbows in 'em."
"I don't know what the girl did, but they ain't playing around. The girl went into the VIP room. I'm gonna go up and grab her, then we'll head out the front. Be ready." Blade stood up and headed for the stairs to the VIP room, but five vampires melted out of the crowd and stood in his way.
"Daywalker! You'll wish you hadn't come here tonight." one spat at him menacingly.
Blade smiled, baring his fangs, as he slowly unsheathed his sword. "No, *you'll* wish I hadn't come here tonight."
-----
The vampire she had used as a shield was dust before she landed on the dance floor. The club's human patrons were fleeing in panic, trampling each other to get away. Bewildered vampires, less concerned with personal safety, pointed at the now destroyed VIP room, trying to figure out what was going on. It was just as well to Ranma-chan; she would have to worry less about hurting innocent bystanders. She stood up slowly and looked around, noticing for the first time that there were far more vampires in the club than she had originally seen and that they were effectively surrounding her. Towards the exits, she could see even more swarming in, and, with their black jumpsuits and sub-machine guns, they did not look at all like run-of-the-mill vampires.
"Damn it, it's a set up." she thought to herself. "I'm glad I killed that bastard who told me about this place."
"You're surrounded, Ranma Soatome." said a male vampire, obviously a leader of the black clad vampires, as he stepped forward. "Come with us quietly and you won't be hurt."
"Yeah right, like I'd ever believe you leeches." Ranma-chan spat. "And how the hell do you know my name anyway?"
"That's irrelevant. What is relevant is that every gun in here is trained on you. Don't make us hurt you."
"You blood suckers make me laugh." she replied, chuckling. "After all this time, that's the best you have? More guns? I guess nobody told you, but I *dodge bullets*."
Before the vampire could reply, gunfire rang out in the direction of the bar. Suddenly, everyone's attention was not on Ranma-chan, and she gladly seized the opportunity. With her right hand, she whipped out her blade; with her left hand, she extracted a handful of silver plated shuriken from hammerspace. The nearest vampires never stood a chance and were dust before others had retrained their guns on her. Gunfire erupted all over the club, but Ranma-chan was too fast even for vampire reflexes. She let loose a spray of shuriken without looking, confident that they would find their target. Around her an ice blue aura flared as she engaged her enemies hand to hand, and they wilted back as if burned. Nothing could stop her.
-----
"Reinforcements! We need reinforcements now!" a vampire shouted into his headset. "Ranma and the daywalker are killing us!"
As Blade emptied another clip in the vampire's direction, mowing down him and five others around him, he began to worry about actually getting out of this fight alive. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see more of the vampire ninja storming into the place, replacing those he killed. Even worse, though, was that the majority of them were going towards the main dance floor. Even if the girl was as good as was rumored, she could not last forever. The sheer number of bodies they were throwing at her would soon overwhelm her.
A dry click from his gun reminded him that he had spent his bullets. His silver stakes were also gone and his silver garotte wire and silver throwing blade were nigh on useless in such a crowded battle. He had nothing else keeping the vampires at bay but his trusty blade. The vampires swarmed on him. Throwing away his gun, Blade gripped his sword in both hands and slashed away at the first few he met. Bullets whizzed by his head, reminding him that snipers were all around. He ducked down as another volley flew his way, pelting several vampire ninja. Blade rolled away and slashed at more vampires, severing their legs, but more vampires replaced them.
"ARGH!! Why don't you bastards die?!!" Blade yelled. He angrily slashed away as the vampire ninja closed in.
-----
Ranma-chan dispatched yet another vampire, but the fight was beginning to take a toll on her. This fight was not like the others; for every vampire she killed, three took its place. And these vampires were highly trained, making it that much harder to kill them. At this rate, fighting hand to hand, it would not be long before they overwhelmed her.
"Gotta use a ki attack." she thought as she kicked another vampire away. "It's the only way I'll get outta this mess."
Ranma-chan easily avoided more gunfire as she dove into another group of vampires, her silver blade flashing in the light, as if signalling impending death for all. It was obvious, with the sheer number of enemies she faced, that a Mouko Takabisha would be foolish. The attack had a limited range and, even worse, it took too long between shots. No, the best attack in this situation would be the Rising Dragon Ascension. But the move required a massive amount of hot ki and the vampires, unfortunately, would not provide any for it. Where was she going to find enough hot ki to pull it off?
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU DAMN DIRTY VAMPIRES!!!"
Ranma-chan whipped her head around, trying to find the source of that angry yell. She jumped off the head of an attacking vampire, launching herself in the direction from which it had originated. It was the black man, and he was furiously fighting off a swarm of vampires with a sword that Ranma-chan suspected was silver plated. As if to confirm that fact, several vampires turned to ash as he cut through them. Though he was obviously a formidable fighter, she could tell that he was being overwhelmed and, even better, he was fighting with an increasing level of anger. She could fairly feel the hot ki pouring off of him as she bounded towards him on the heads of the vampires.
She began running around where he was fighting, gathering cold ki and hoping to God that he would hold out long enough. Round and round she went, ignoring the bullets that were dropping, frozen solid, five feet from her. Vampires tried to attack, but backed off because they were strangely being charred when getting close to her. Meanwhile, Blade was slowly becoming overwhelmed, angrily flailing away in desperation. Finally, he could not keep them back anymore. Ranma-chan knew she had to launch the attack.
"Sorry buddy, this is gonna hurt like hell," she thought to herself as she lifted her fist upwards. "HIRYU SHOTEN HA!!!"
The tornado appeared out of nowhere, sucking up anything within twenty feet. It roared like an angry lion, it's winds tearing at anything that was not tied down. Everyone besides Ranma-chan were struggling to get away from it. But the tornado was also getting bigger, much bigger than Ranma-chan expected. In a matter of moments the top of the funnel had grown to fill the ceiling above the large dance floor. Vampires were being sucked into the tornado at an alarming rate and spat out of the top, charred as if burned alive.
"It shouldn't be that big! What's giving it more energy?" she wondered frantically. "It's gonna tear this building down!"
Ranma-chan knew she had to get away, but she knew she could not leave the black man, who had unwittingly helped her create the tornado, out on a limb. She did not know whether she could trust him, but he had shown that he was no lover of vampires; an enemy of her enemy was her friend, Ranma-chan figured. But saving him would require jumping into that tornado, a thought that Ranma-chan did not relish.
She ran as quickly as possible and leapt right in at lower part of the funnel. The tornado sucked her around in circles, the wind tearing at her already tattered dress. All around her swirled chair, tables, and bodies, each a deadly projectile at the speeds the tornado was generating. Ranma-chan, however, did not see them as dangers, but as stepping stones to the black man. Knowing the effects of the Rising Dragon Ascension, the target of the attack would be held aloft in the middle of the tornado getting pummelled. Once they lost consciousness, the tornado would dissipate. The black man was apparently quite tough if it was still going this strong.
She launched herself upwards off of a table and continued rising through the funnel by jumping of the charred vampire bodies and other debris. In moments she could see him, projectiles ricocheting off his body. From the way he took the tornado's blows, she could tell that he was out cold, but since that the tornado was increasing power that should have been impossible. Considering the frequency of things smashing into his body, she would have to time her jump to him perfectly if she expected to escape unscathed.
The chair she had just landed on suddenly pitched towards the black man, putting her on a collision course with him. The fact that no less than five other objects were doing likewise somewhat diminished that stroke of luck. Undaunted, she pushed hard off of the chair and tackled him out of the way just as the projectiles collided behind them. As skillfully as before, she hopped from object to object, making her way towards the ground with the man draped over her shoulder. Finally, she escaped the tornado and raced as fast as she could towards the entrance, trying to ignore the burning in her lungs, the shaking of the walls, and the rumbling sound of the building collapsing. Behind them, the building was imploding, it's walls and ceiling trying in vain to beat them to the entrance.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Ranma-chan screamed as she sped past the entrance, a mountain of debris on her heels. She skidded to a halt and dropped the black man, falling to her knees and gulping air. She turned her head to look back at the remains of the building and the tornado that still raged and threatened to engulf the surrounding buildings. To her astonishment, the tornado roared one last time, then fizzled out in less than a second, depressurizing the area so fast that her ears popped. The sound of rain filled the air, but none was falling. Instead, the remains of the club and more than a hundred vampires were falling to the ground. Bewildered but satisfied, Ranma-chan slowly rose to her feet and picked up the man.
"Freeze!!! Get your damn hands up!!!" someone shouted. At least thirty of the vampire ninja Surrounded them, their guns trained tight on her. Ranma-chan sighed dejectedly.
"Damn it, how many of you guys did they send?" she wondered out loud. Her eyes flitted around nervously, looking for a way, any way, out. For once she was truly worried. These vampires had already shown themselves to be extremely formidable. Alone she might escape but, with an unconscious man on her shoulder, she could not be certain. And surrender definitely was not an option. Fortunately, automatic gunfire rang out and, before her eyes, the vampires disintegrated to black ash.
"Vamps always do talk to damn much." said a grizzled looking gaijin, amazingly in perfect Japanese. He looked at her with surprise for a moment, then gestured at her to follow. "C'mon Red, if you don't wanna see how many more of them is left."
He quickly led her into an alley, where a big, black Chevy Suburban was waiting. "Just throw him in the back." he said gruffly, jerking his thumb back at the SUV. She heaved the black man into the back seat, then hopped into the passenger seat. The man put the car into gear then stomped hard on the gas, the tires screeching in response. Ranma-chan only relaxed after they had gone a few blocks and she was certain that they were not being followed.
"Ok now, who the hell are you?" she demanded.
"The name's Whistler. Sleepyhead back there's Blade. We've been looking for you."
"You and about a thousand people." she responded, warily. "What do you know about me? And what were you doing at that club?"
"We know that you're a vampire hunter and that you're at the top of the Japanese vampire's hit list. We found out about a trap set for you and went to the club to save you."
"Hmmph, I don't need anybody's help." she replied. "And your boy wasn't doing that hot in there anyway."
"Christ, you hunter types always got the worst attitudes." Whistler grumbled. "Anyway, what's your name?"
"Ranma. What, you couldn't find that out too? Everyone else seemed to know it today."
"That's odd..."
"Ugh...what the fuck hit me?" said a voice from the backseat. Blade slowly sat up, shaking his head.
"I did." Ranma-chan replied, matter-of-factly. "Didn't take you that long to get up. I'm impressed."
"How could you have..."
"You were covered in vampires. You didn't have time to see me hit you with the Rising Dragon Ascension." she said plainly, shrugging her shoulders.
"Wait a minute, what's that?" Blade asked.
"It was the tornado that tore down that building. By the way, what the hell are you?"
"What?"
"You heard me. What. Are. You? Cause you sure ain't human...not anymore at least."
"Blade's halfway between vamp and human." Whistler interjected. "All the strengths, none of the weaknesses. That bother you?"
She looked Blade up and down while he stared at her impassively from behind his shades. "As long as you're using that power to get rid of the blood suckers, I don't care."
"And what about you?" Blade asked. "You look human enough, but no human could do what you were doing back in there."
"Shows what you know. I know at least ten other people that could do nearly the same, and that's just here in Tokyo." she retorted. "Besides, you've been sniffing me to see if I'm one of them since you woke up. You know I'm human."
"Haha, she's got you there Blade." Whistler said, laughing. "By the way Ranma, where's your partner?"
"What partner?"
"You know, the boy...black hair. Looks a little like your brother or something."
"That ain't my brother. That's *me*."
"Bullshit." Blade said. "My sources said you're at least half a foot or more shorter than the boy. And they said that it definitely was a male. There's no way you could've fooled them with any disguise."
"I ain't gonna argue with you guys." Ranma-chan said. "I'll just show you. And keep your hands on the wheel, Whistler." She produced a thermos, opened the top, and poured a bit of steaming liquid into the top. She then proceeded to dump the liquid onto her head. In moments, a very male Ranma Soatome was sitting in the passenger seat, looking very much out of sorts in a tattered red dress. Blade was speechless and Whistler reacted the only way he could think to; he jammed hard on the brakes.
"What the hell are you?" exclaimed Blade and Whistler simultaneously. Ranma just sighed.
"It's just a curse. Hot water makes me male, cold water makes me female." he said tiredly. He put the thermos away and took out a different one, filled with cold water, then repeated the process, returning to female. "And before you ask, I'm male."
"There ain't no such thing as a curse." Whistler said, but his words did not have much conviction.
"You just watched twenty *vampires* turn to dust but you can't believe in a curse?" she said. "Trust me buddy, the curse is the least unbelievable thing I've ever seen. Now can we get moving again?"
"What were you doing in there tonight, Ranma?" Blade asked as they continued on.
"I'm looking for my fiance and the vampire that took her." she replied, her voice filled with hate.
"Girl...err, boy, if she's been taken, she's either dead or vamp by now." said Whistler.
"I can't...I won't believe that till I see her body." Her voice quavered and she looked away from them, out into the street.
"He's right, you know." Said Blade, taking off his shades. "But you won't find anything if you keep killing every vampire you see."
"They deserve to die! They took her from me! They took my honor from me!" Ranma shouted.
A long silence fell between them. After a while, Blade spoke again. "Look Ranma, we're here now because we thought you were a hunter. It's not safe for new hunters, especially those that aren't affiliated with other hunters, and especially not now."
"I'm not a hunter...I just want Akane back. And I won't stop till I get her."
"Fine. Then maybe we can make a deal." said Whistler. "Blade can be very persuasive, especially to a vamp. We help you find your girl while you help us give Japan a vampire shortage." He grinned at her.
Ranma-chan considered her options. She had been searching so long and left a trail of vampire ash behind her, but it had not gotten her any closer to finding Akane. After tonight's fiasco at the club, it was apparent that the vampires were no longer going to tolerate her inquiries. And now she was at a dead end. As much as she hated to admit it, if she wanted to find Akane, she would need all the help she could get. "Ok then. It's a deal."
"Good. Then let's get going to Kyoto, Whistler." said Blade. "The sooner we get there, the better."
"What's in Kyoto?" asked Ranma-chan.
"Not what. Who." Blade passed two photos up to her and switched on the cab lights. "Those two are right below you on the Japanese vampire's hit list. They work together and have been on a methodical vampire killing spree for about two months now."
"I...I know...I know these two..." she stammered.
"You know them? Are you sure?" Blade asked.
"I'm positive..." Their appearances had changed, but there was no mistaking them. In the picture was a male kunoichi and a short-haired young woman, dressed in black and carrying what looked like a huge okonomiyaki spatula. "That's Konatsu and Ukyo!"
To Be Continued...
-----
Author's Notes
Whew, finally finished this after five days of hard work. Truthfully, I had completely worked out this chapter months ago but I was giving more attention to Heart of a Warrior. I got some ugly writer's block trying to write chapter 3b of that story, so I turned back to this one and it turned out to be a good idea. Thank you writer's block for giving me the inspiration to finish this chapter. I intend to make this a relatively short series of chapters, but seeing how much I wrote for the intro chapter alone, I dunno if that's gonna happen. The story itself is straightforward, but verbosity seems to be my forte, so it'll prolly add up.
On some side notes, 3b of HoaW is still being worked on and might be through in a couple weeks. It really is giving me that much trouble. There are also some other fan fics and original fics that are in the concept and plotting stages at the moment, just in case I hit more writer's block.
Finally, if you liked/disliked this story chapter, please throw me some comments. I really do read those and take them into account when I write and rewrite.
Sorry for making your read this long AN section ~_~
And now, our feature presentation...
The Long, Dark Night
Chapter 1 – The Night Is Young
The rave club stood in one of the oldest, dirtiest, most desolate parts of Tokyo, seemingly removed from the clean neon glow of Tokyo proper. The buildings in the area were little more than decrepit and condemned warehouses whose lots were littered with the refuse of decay. The club itself looked as, if not more, derelict as its neighbors and the casual observer might have passed over it as yet another building falling to pieces. It stood three storeys high, its facade, obviously more than a century year old, managed to look both crumbling and solid. Unlike the other buildings, it did not have broken windows, mainly because they were all bricked up. In fact, the only indication that anything occupied the building was the long line of people waiting to enter a non-descript door that was flanked by two burly guards and a pale looking man wearing a trendy clubbing outfit and sunglasses. That and the thumping trance music that drifted, along with cigarette smoke, from the open door.
The club had no name and it really had no need for one anyway. It was so highly regarded by the "in" crowd of Tokyo's clubbing scene that hundreds lined up nightly fully expecting to be turned away. It was so exclusive that only with an invitation from a member could you ever gain admittance. That, of course, did not keep people from trying to get in or from offering themselves to the stylish members who came and went. Not even the brutal cold of this December night diminished the line.
Across the street, a short, buxom, red haired Japanese girl stood in the shadows in The Alley. It was called "The Alley" because members of the club who were looking for "companions" to go into the club walked through the alley, where they would listen to the solicitations of daring or desparate clubbers seeking to penetrate the closed exclusivity of the club. She alternately stared at the club and down the alley, obviously waiting for someone. She ignored the voices that began chattering excitedly as a male and a female, their blood red masks identifying them as members, walked down The Alley. The voices quickly died down as two handsome males and three pretty females were chosen and led, almost like pets, across the street and into the club. If she was disappointed, the girl did not show it.
The chatter began again and the girl, seeing a single male listening to the entreaties of the other occupants of the alley, turned her full attention to him. He suddenly motioned to one particularly good looking girl, who ran to his side excitedly and took his proferred arm. When the new couple came within five feet of her spot in the shadows, the red-head stepped out directly in their path.
"Are you sure you want to choose before you've seen the best out here?" she asked the man seductively.
The man in question stood, goggle-eyed, staring at the beautiful young woman now blocking his path. She stood no more than five feet, four inches and had the most perfect female figure he had ever seen in his life. Under a long black cloak she wore a short, red, Chinese style dress with splits on both sides, an outfit that did far more than flatter her body. His eyes travelled down her body, along her shapely legs to the small feet that were sheathed in red stilleto heels. His eyes u-turned, roaming over her ample breasts, pausing over her elegant face to admire her brilliant blue eyes. But the most exciting feature for him was the long, silky-looking, fiery red hair that flowed over her shoulders. The man thanked Kami for his luck, mainly because he was almost insanely attracted to people with red hair.
"Hmm...maybe I was a bit too quick to choose." he said, disengaging himself from the other girl and approaching the red-head. "You are quite different from these others..."
"Ranko." the red-head supplied, flashing a sexy smile.
"Ranko...a lovely name for a lovely lady." He said, offering his arm. Ranko grabbed his arm and walked with him towards the club entrance. "You are quite special, Ranko-chan. You are the first red haired Japanese girl I've ever seen."
Ranko laughed mischievously. "Oh, you'll find I'm special in many ways. And I'm very generous with handsome men who do good things for me." she said, winking.
The man smiled at the implications of her statement as they walked through the doors into the club. They passed through a dimly lit lobby that lived up to the decayed look of the facade, it's tile floor cracked and concrete walls dingy. Through another door they went into the main area of the club which, thankfully, abandoned the derelict look for the layout and look of a modern disco. The large dance floor was packed with hundreds of bodies writhing to the pumping trance from the speakers. It was surrounded by a short divider on all sides, much like an ice rink, with a long bar running the length of the left side. On the opposite side was a staircase leading up to what looked to be a VIP area and the DJ booth. The man made to steer Ranko towards the bar but, instead, found himself being pulled away towards a side door by the girl.
"Hey, where are we rushing off to?" he asked, smiling.
"We just need a little privacy. After all, you want what's coming to you, right?" she said, again with the sultry voice that was driving him wild. He nodded vigorously.
The door opened into a dimly lit hall that was much like the lobby with the exception that it was deserted. Ranko pulled him into the hall and shut the door before leaning back against the wall and pulling him against her body. He hungrily began kissing her, slowly moving down to her neck, the neck he so wanted to bite, the beautiful morsel whose blood he lusted for. She grabbed him and held him tightly with her left arm and he bared his fangs, preparing to bite into her.
"I wouldn't, if I were you." she said suddenly, her voice cold as ice. He stopped, confused.
"What?" he asked, raising his head to look her in the eye.
"I said that I wouldn't do that, if I were you." she replied, her eyes as cold as her voice. He could see a look of revulsion and something else he could not place in the girl's eyes.
"And how, little girl, will you stop me? You've made a date with a vampire, and the date will be kept. There's nothing you can do about it." he said, baring his fangs to frighten her. He was surprised that she did not even flinch. In fact, she laughed at him.
"Oh, I think I can. I'm full of surprises, especially the long, sharp, silver kind." she said, producing a foot long blade in her right hand. His eyes widened at the sight of the weapon. He struggled back against her grip, but she held him in place. Fear, for the first time in several hundred years gripped him.
"Wh-what do you want from me? I'll give you anything!" he cried out.
"Want? I've already gotten everything from you I needed." she said matter-of-factly. His face looked panic stricken. "Wait, that's not true. I did want one more thing." Her eyes narrowed almost to slits. "I want you to die."
In a swift move, too fast even for his vampire eyes, she pushed him away with her left hand and sliced upwards with her right. The man stood for a moment, face frozen with shock, seemingly unscathed, before his body began to disintegrate from a vertical slash that extended from his left hip to his right shoulder. Within seconds, he was nothing more than scattered black ash on the broken tile floor.
Ranko, also known as Ranma Soatome, put the weapon away using the Hidden Weapons trick she had figured out from fighting Mousse, then stepped back through the door and into the main area of the club. She walked around the dance floor, walking past the long bar. Her eyes, alert as ever for danger, noted the powerfully built black man, dressed in all black and wearing sunglasses, seated at the bar. Ranma-chan wondered to herself why everyone insisted on wearing sunglasses so late at night. The man seemed to be searching for someone before his stare locked onto her as she approached where he was sitting. She could not tell if he was human or vampire and his stare, from behind the shades, unsettled her.
"Take a picture." she said to him, bristling, as she walked past. "It'll last longer."
If he heard her, Ranma-chan did not know. She was glad to be past him and heading towards the VIP area. The crowd between herself and the stairs to the VIP area was thick but she managed to get to them with little trouble. She turned back and looked over the crowded club. Two years ago, Ranma Soatome would never have set a foot inside such a place. That was before a terrible event had changed everything. Swiftly and violently, as it always did, the memory descended on her.
-----
The date had been planned carefully down to the minute. By all rights, it very well should have been perfect, considering the person who had planned it was Nabiki Tendo. The entertainment and food had been arranged. More importantly, the troublesome elements that always seemed to plague Akane and Ranma had been accounted for. The Soatome and Tendo patriarchs were on a drinking spree with their master, Happosai. The Kunos were currently pursuing a family of highly skilled acrobats that had been paid to impersonate Ranma and female Ranma. The Nekohanten and Ucchan's Okonomiyaki were currently swamped due to a price war (artfully manipulated by Nabiki) between the two establishments. And Ryoga, as seemed to be the case so often lately, was nowhere to be found. Every T had been crossed and every I dotted, so it had seemed. Nabiki had even bet a million yen that everything would go exactly according to plan.
"She owes me a millin yen." Ranma grumbled as he walked down a street headed in the general direction of the Tendo home. "I just knew that idiot Ryoga would show up!"
Everything had, indeed, been proceeding according to schedule until after the play Ranma and Akane had attended. That one undotted I, the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki, wandered through the crowd and literally ran into Ranma. As was nearly always the case, Ranma ended up fighting with the lost boy after trying to avoid the confrontation. This time, however, Ranma was genuinely angry with Ryoga for ruining the perfectly planned date and beat the boy pretty badly. He had turned back to Akane in time to be yelled at for "picking on Ryoga" and ruining the date, to which he angrily replied, exasperated: "What's with you?!! Pig-boy always starts fights with me and *I'm* the bully? He ruins our date and it's *my* fault? I'm your fiance but you take his side all the time and I'm sick of it! If you like him so much better than me then why don't you go with him! Date's over!"
He had ignored Akane's angry retort as he walked away feeling angry enough to beat on twenty Ryogas. He walked around aimlessly for ten minutes, trying, in vain, to let the anger disippate. "Damn Ryoga....always ruining everything! Next time I see P-chan, he's-" Ranma was stopped abruptly by a scream. A female scream. A female whose scream he knew very well. Akane.
In an instant he had hopped onto the nearest building, leaping in the direction of Akane's piercing scream. His heart pounded as fear crept on him, with anger following close behind. Whoever was hurting his fiance would rue the day they were born. That much he would make sure of.
Ranma was moving so fast that he had covered the distance back to where he had left Akane in less than thirty seconds. Another scream rang out, muffled, and he ran in that direction, his keen hearing telling him that she was no more than 2 blocks away. In seconds he was there, stepping into an unusually dark alley. At the other end was Akane, limp in the grip of a man, who looked up at Ranma as he entered the alley. No, not a man...no man's eyes glowed red in the dark. Ranma was about to launch himself at the thing, but stopped short as the moon emerged from the clouds, bathing the scene in moonlight. The face of thing burned itself into his memory, the thing he would stop at nothing to kill. It's face looked Japanese and Ranma could make out the marks of tattoes on it's neck. Most revealing of the creature's nature, however, were the unusual paleness of the skin and the fangs. Fangs which dripped with blood. Even at this distance, Ranma could tell that Akane's neck had been bitten.
Ranma's anger returned with a vengeance. Many in his past had made the mistake of hurting those for whom he cared, and they had paid dearly for that mistake. Vampire or not, he would strike with violence that none, not even a god, could stand before. He launched himself down the alley, a savage, ferocious yell escaping his lips. In two steps he was there, while his prey leapt unnaturally high into the air, still holding Akane. Ranma followed them high into the air, fairly licking his chops at the prospect of fighting in mid-air. With his skill in the Saotome form of Anything GOes, he could make mincemeat of any opponent in the air.
Just before he reached them, someone slammed into him with a mid-air tackle. Ranma jabbed the man viciously in the back with an elbow then, grasping the man in a tight reverse headlock, flipped backwards so fast that his neck snapped. He let the man go flying into a dumpster while he landed in a crouch, prepared to leap back into the air. Instead he was forced to flip backwards to avoid another assailant intent on stomping him into the ground. The new man followed him closely as he jumped back, kicking at him as he landed. Ranma ducked and, pushing off the ground with his right arm, lifted his feet straight up, slamming into the man's chest. Using the momentum, he flipped onto his feet and ran at the man, who had recovered from the blow in mid-air and landed on his feet. In a normal fight, the man might have been able to trade blows with Ranma, but now the pig-tailed martial artist was not in the mood to play. Ranma blocked the first punch from the man so hard that every bone in his arm shattered. He hardly had time to cry out in pain before Ranma's fist plowed into his face, instantly shattering every bone in his face and knocking his head back so far that his neck broke. His body flew backwards, hitting a wall with a sickening thud. Ranma ran back towards the end of the alley, hoping to see some sign of Akane and the vampire. But there was nothing, save the sound of thunder. As the rain begin to fall, Ranma-chan fell to her knees, surrounded by a sickly yellow aura flickering with despair deeper than Ryoga Hibiki had ever experienced.
-----
Ranma-chan shook her head, trying to rid herself of the sickening feeling that memory always gave her. Up these stairs, in the VIP room, was someone who would lead her right to Akane and her kidnapper. All she needed to do was convince the person in question to be forthcoming. As she had been proving for more than a year, she could be very convincing, especially to vampires. She made her way up the stairs, trying to look as sexy as possible for the two human guards at the top of the stairs. If she pulled it off, they would let her in and she would not have to kill anyone. Well, not before she needed to kill anyone.
"Hold on there, darlin', where do you think you're going?" asked one of the guards, a tall, burly man fairly bursting out of a black, short-sleeved shirt that was obviously a size or two too small. Ranma-chan noted the man's tatooed arms that marked him as a member of the Yakuza. He was not the first Yakuza that she had seen with vampires.
"I want to go in there." Ranma-chan responded, smiling sweetly as she pointed past them.
"Sorry, sweetheart," the other guard, shorter and less bulky than his partner and bald to boot, replied. "The VIP room is members only."
"Aww, come on." she replied, pouting. "Isn't there anything I can do to get in?"
"Well I dunno honey." said the bigger one, stroking Ranma-chan's hair. "Is all of your hair red?" His partner began chuckling at the implication of the question.
"Well maybe I'll let you find out." Ranma-chan replied, smiling seductively. She put an arm around each man. "*If* you let me in."
"Oh, I think that can be done." said the smaller man. "Right Ken?"
When Ken did not answer, the man was about to ask again, but found that he could not make a sound. For that matter, he could not even move a muscle in his body save for his eyes.
"That takes care of you two." said Ranma-chan, who had surreptitiously tapped several pressure points on the men. For good measure, she tapped a couple more points that would provide hours of pain for them. She walked past them and through a tacky bead curtain that looked like it belonged in the 70s. The VIP room was fairly large, with a couple sofas and chairs around a big square glass table. Beyond that was a small bar along the right wall and a dance floor between it and a long tinted window over-looking the rest of the club. After that was an office area, complete with a large desk, filing cabinets, and several chairs. Ranma-chan looked over the people in the room and was not surprised to see that, of the twenty or so people in the room, more than half were vampires. She walked straight back to the office area, where several of the vampires were congregating.
"Which one of you is Takeburo?" she asked.
"Who's asking?" said one of them, a young looking man that was, unsurprisingly, dressed in black. He had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, revealing intricate tatooes.
"If you ain't Takeburo, that's not your business." Ranma-chan replied curtly.
"I am Takeburo. And what is it you want, girl?" said another man that looked to be in his 40s that was sitting behind the desk. He wore a black suit with a red tie and handkerchief.
"Information. Someone told me you had it." she said. Ranma-chan produced two photos and dropped them on the desk. "I'm looking for these two people. The girl's name is Akane. I dunno the guy's name, but I know he's one of you guys."
The vampires visibly stiffened. Takeburo looked from the folders up at Ranma-chan. "I have no idea who those people are. Now if you'll excuse..."
"No, I think you do know them, and you're gonna tell me what I want to know or else."
"Or else what?" Takeburo asked, surreptitiously sending signals to his bodyguards.
"Or else you won't live long enough to regret it." she responded, folding her arms over her chest.
"That's bold talk from a little fly who's walked right into the spider's web." he said, motioning to his bodyguards, who were pulling out guns.
Ranma-chan was already a step ahead of them. In a quick move, she was over the desk and had whipped out her foot long silver blade, holding it to Takeburo's throat with her right hand while holding him in a half-nelson with her left hand. "No sudden moves, boys. And put those guns down if you don't want your boss dead." They began dropping their weapons on a nod from Takeburo.
"You won't get out of here alive." he said. He was sweating profusely and eyeing the silver blade nervously.
"That's the least you need to worry about." she replied through her teeth. "Now then, that man and the girl, where can I find them?"
"I told you I don't kno-AUGH!!!" he cried out as she pressed the blade against his neck. Smoke rose from where the silver was burning his skin.
"Sorry if I don't believe you. And you guys had better stop inching forward...I might accidentally slip up and slit his throat." she said. "Now I'll only ask one more time, where are they?"
"Fuck you." Takeburo said. "You're dead bitch. Dead!"
"Wrong answer." She sliced through his neck like a hot knife through butter and, as satisfying as that was, she did not take the time to appreciate it. As expected, her execution of Takeburo got the attention of the vampires and caused panic among the humans, especially when they saw him disintegrate into fine black ash. Tucking the blade away in hammer-space, Ranma-chan flipped the desk over and kicked it hard towards the vampires just as they were aiming their guns at her. The desk bowled over three of the vampires and forced another two to roll out of the way. She smirked confidently as several of the vampires flew at her from across the room and she jumped forward to meet them halfway. Ranma-chan easily avoided a punch and, spinning quickly, kicked the first vampire against the wall. She blocked an incoming kick with her leg as she finished the spin, then grasped the vampire by his face. She slammed him down to the ground and let a torrent of ki flow from her palm into his mouth.
"Die, you blood sucking piece of shit!" Ranma-chan shouted. The vampire began to glow red and bulge unnaturally. Ranma-chan jumped up and bolted straight for the window, grabbing an attacking vampire along the way. Behind them, an explosion ripped through the VIP room, engulfing everything in unnatural red and black flame, just as they crashed through the window overlooking the dance floor.
-----
"I've spotted her, Whistler." Blade said. The microphone cleverly concealed in the collar of his trench coat transmitted his message out of the club to his partner-in-crime. As he watched her walk away, Blade wondered how she could tell that he had been staring, especially since he had not turned his head and his eyes were concealed behind dark sunglasses. "That picture doesn't do her justice."
"Funny, you usually don't go for girls that ain't vamps." Whistler replied through his earpiece.
"Hah hah, you're fucking hilarious." Blade deadpanned. "Anyway, I don't see her partner. Looks like she's going solo tonight. There's a lot of blood suckers in here, but considering the setting, it's not out of the ordinary. Anything going on out there?"
"A rat and a roach are fighting. The roach is winning. Other than that, nothing. You need any backup?"
Blade looked around slowly, looking for anything unusual. "No. The vamps are giving me the VIP treatment in here, I don't think they're crazy enough to attack me outright. I don't know though...I feel like something's gonna go down. Keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything."
"Yeah yeah, you really had to tell me that." Whistler grumbled.
Blade chuckled to himself. Whistler never could quite ditch the crotchety old man act. As he looked around the rave club, he could not help but see the similarities between it and countless other clubs he had been to around the world. The things were like little franchise outfits with the same looks and style and the same menu. They catered to the young, trendy set, both human and vampire. Here, the vampires could easily feed on fresh and willing victims, right under the nose of the law. Even with all the strides that he had made in his personal war against vampire-kind, these and similar enterprises were popping up all over the world. To make matters worse, the response from the vampire hunters worldwide had been underwhelming, due in large part to the slayings of several prominent vampire hunting groups. As much as he hated to admit it, Blade knew that he alone would never be able to destroy all the vampires on Earth; They were too numerous, established, and well connected. At Whistler's suggestion, Blade had contacted the major hunters on every continent and pledged to visit their countries to help "drum up support". In addition, he and Whistler were following up leads on new, unaffiliated hunters whose effectiveness at killing vampires had landed them on the vampires' hit list. It had been dirty work so far, but they had managed to save some of them from death.
To that effect they were now in Japan, searching for four people who were causing panic in and wreaking havoc on the Japanese vampire community. The only things keeping the four of them alive was their relative anonymity and elusiveness. It had, therefore, been quite a challenge to dig up information on them, but Blade and Whistler always knew the right places and the right vampires to lean on. Blade could be a very persuasive person.
Beyond their physical descriptions and some rather grainy photos, Blade had not been able to find too much on the four. Two of the people were a female duo that had begun their careers with a string of well executed, strategic strikes against Japanese vampire strongholds. They had killed more than a hundred vampires in two months, many of whom were important in the community. They were obviously well trained, well connected, and well prepared, but they weren't the top priority to the Japanese vampires. The other two people, a young man and young woman, were. The vampires did not know if they were a team or just associates that occasionally worked together. At times they would be seen alone, other times they would be seen together. Unlike the first two, they did not work with any particular rhyme or reason, but that did not make them any less deadly or effective. Individually they could both kill as many as thirty vampires at once, but when they were spotted in the same night, that number could easily double or triple.
After digging a bit further, they had learned where to locate the duo. The other two, however, were not so easy to locate. It was by a stroke of luck that Whistler had come across a plot to capture either the girl or the guy. It seemed that the vampires were luring them into a trap, a trap set to close tonight, at this very club. Knowing the vampires and the reputation of the two, there would be a lot of vampires stacking the deck. Blade did not even kid himself; he was not there to even the odds, he was there to get one or both of them away safely before they were killed or captured. Now that he had spotted the girl, he knew the whole thing would go down soon.
Blade began noticing some unusual movements among the crowd, movements an untrained eye might have missed. Despite the loud, thumping music, his sensitive ears were picking up some high frequency noise. The vampires where on the move, and things were about to get hot. "Whistler, the vamps are on the move."
"Roger that, there's a shitload of 'em pouring into the back. You're gonna be up to your elbows in 'em."
"I don't know what the girl did, but they ain't playing around. The girl went into the VIP room. I'm gonna go up and grab her, then we'll head out the front. Be ready." Blade stood up and headed for the stairs to the VIP room, but five vampires melted out of the crowd and stood in his way.
"Daywalker! You'll wish you hadn't come here tonight." one spat at him menacingly.
Blade smiled, baring his fangs, as he slowly unsheathed his sword. "No, *you'll* wish I hadn't come here tonight."
-----
The vampire she had used as a shield was dust before she landed on the dance floor. The club's human patrons were fleeing in panic, trampling each other to get away. Bewildered vampires, less concerned with personal safety, pointed at the now destroyed VIP room, trying to figure out what was going on. It was just as well to Ranma-chan; she would have to worry less about hurting innocent bystanders. She stood up slowly and looked around, noticing for the first time that there were far more vampires in the club than she had originally seen and that they were effectively surrounding her. Towards the exits, she could see even more swarming in, and, with their black jumpsuits and sub-machine guns, they did not look at all like run-of-the-mill vampires.
"Damn it, it's a set up." she thought to herself. "I'm glad I killed that bastard who told me about this place."
"You're surrounded, Ranma Soatome." said a male vampire, obviously a leader of the black clad vampires, as he stepped forward. "Come with us quietly and you won't be hurt."
"Yeah right, like I'd ever believe you leeches." Ranma-chan spat. "And how the hell do you know my name anyway?"
"That's irrelevant. What is relevant is that every gun in here is trained on you. Don't make us hurt you."
"You blood suckers make me laugh." she replied, chuckling. "After all this time, that's the best you have? More guns? I guess nobody told you, but I *dodge bullets*."
Before the vampire could reply, gunfire rang out in the direction of the bar. Suddenly, everyone's attention was not on Ranma-chan, and she gladly seized the opportunity. With her right hand, she whipped out her blade; with her left hand, she extracted a handful of silver plated shuriken from hammerspace. The nearest vampires never stood a chance and were dust before others had retrained their guns on her. Gunfire erupted all over the club, but Ranma-chan was too fast even for vampire reflexes. She let loose a spray of shuriken without looking, confident that they would find their target. Around her an ice blue aura flared as she engaged her enemies hand to hand, and they wilted back as if burned. Nothing could stop her.
-----
"Reinforcements! We need reinforcements now!" a vampire shouted into his headset. "Ranma and the daywalker are killing us!"
As Blade emptied another clip in the vampire's direction, mowing down him and five others around him, he began to worry about actually getting out of this fight alive. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see more of the vampire ninja storming into the place, replacing those he killed. Even worse, though, was that the majority of them were going towards the main dance floor. Even if the girl was as good as was rumored, she could not last forever. The sheer number of bodies they were throwing at her would soon overwhelm her.
A dry click from his gun reminded him that he had spent his bullets. His silver stakes were also gone and his silver garotte wire and silver throwing blade were nigh on useless in such a crowded battle. He had nothing else keeping the vampires at bay but his trusty blade. The vampires swarmed on him. Throwing away his gun, Blade gripped his sword in both hands and slashed away at the first few he met. Bullets whizzed by his head, reminding him that snipers were all around. He ducked down as another volley flew his way, pelting several vampire ninja. Blade rolled away and slashed at more vampires, severing their legs, but more vampires replaced them.
"ARGH!! Why don't you bastards die?!!" Blade yelled. He angrily slashed away as the vampire ninja closed in.
-----
Ranma-chan dispatched yet another vampire, but the fight was beginning to take a toll on her. This fight was not like the others; for every vampire she killed, three took its place. And these vampires were highly trained, making it that much harder to kill them. At this rate, fighting hand to hand, it would not be long before they overwhelmed her.
"Gotta use a ki attack." she thought as she kicked another vampire away. "It's the only way I'll get outta this mess."
Ranma-chan easily avoided more gunfire as she dove into another group of vampires, her silver blade flashing in the light, as if signalling impending death for all. It was obvious, with the sheer number of enemies she faced, that a Mouko Takabisha would be foolish. The attack had a limited range and, even worse, it took too long between shots. No, the best attack in this situation would be the Rising Dragon Ascension. But the move required a massive amount of hot ki and the vampires, unfortunately, would not provide any for it. Where was she going to find enough hot ki to pull it off?
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU DAMN DIRTY VAMPIRES!!!"
Ranma-chan whipped her head around, trying to find the source of that angry yell. She jumped off the head of an attacking vampire, launching herself in the direction from which it had originated. It was the black man, and he was furiously fighting off a swarm of vampires with a sword that Ranma-chan suspected was silver plated. As if to confirm that fact, several vampires turned to ash as he cut through them. Though he was obviously a formidable fighter, she could tell that he was being overwhelmed and, even better, he was fighting with an increasing level of anger. She could fairly feel the hot ki pouring off of him as she bounded towards him on the heads of the vampires.
She began running around where he was fighting, gathering cold ki and hoping to God that he would hold out long enough. Round and round she went, ignoring the bullets that were dropping, frozen solid, five feet from her. Vampires tried to attack, but backed off because they were strangely being charred when getting close to her. Meanwhile, Blade was slowly becoming overwhelmed, angrily flailing away in desperation. Finally, he could not keep them back anymore. Ranma-chan knew she had to launch the attack.
"Sorry buddy, this is gonna hurt like hell," she thought to herself as she lifted her fist upwards. "HIRYU SHOTEN HA!!!"
The tornado appeared out of nowhere, sucking up anything within twenty feet. It roared like an angry lion, it's winds tearing at anything that was not tied down. Everyone besides Ranma-chan were struggling to get away from it. But the tornado was also getting bigger, much bigger than Ranma-chan expected. In a matter of moments the top of the funnel had grown to fill the ceiling above the large dance floor. Vampires were being sucked into the tornado at an alarming rate and spat out of the top, charred as if burned alive.
"It shouldn't be that big! What's giving it more energy?" she wondered frantically. "It's gonna tear this building down!"
Ranma-chan knew she had to get away, but she knew she could not leave the black man, who had unwittingly helped her create the tornado, out on a limb. She did not know whether she could trust him, but he had shown that he was no lover of vampires; an enemy of her enemy was her friend, Ranma-chan figured. But saving him would require jumping into that tornado, a thought that Ranma-chan did not relish.
She ran as quickly as possible and leapt right in at lower part of the funnel. The tornado sucked her around in circles, the wind tearing at her already tattered dress. All around her swirled chair, tables, and bodies, each a deadly projectile at the speeds the tornado was generating. Ranma-chan, however, did not see them as dangers, but as stepping stones to the black man. Knowing the effects of the Rising Dragon Ascension, the target of the attack would be held aloft in the middle of the tornado getting pummelled. Once they lost consciousness, the tornado would dissipate. The black man was apparently quite tough if it was still going this strong.
She launched herself upwards off of a table and continued rising through the funnel by jumping of the charred vampire bodies and other debris. In moments she could see him, projectiles ricocheting off his body. From the way he took the tornado's blows, she could tell that he was out cold, but since that the tornado was increasing power that should have been impossible. Considering the frequency of things smashing into his body, she would have to time her jump to him perfectly if she expected to escape unscathed.
The chair she had just landed on suddenly pitched towards the black man, putting her on a collision course with him. The fact that no less than five other objects were doing likewise somewhat diminished that stroke of luck. Undaunted, she pushed hard off of the chair and tackled him out of the way just as the projectiles collided behind them. As skillfully as before, she hopped from object to object, making her way towards the ground with the man draped over her shoulder. Finally, she escaped the tornado and raced as fast as she could towards the entrance, trying to ignore the burning in her lungs, the shaking of the walls, and the rumbling sound of the building collapsing. Behind them, the building was imploding, it's walls and ceiling trying in vain to beat them to the entrance.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Ranma-chan screamed as she sped past the entrance, a mountain of debris on her heels. She skidded to a halt and dropped the black man, falling to her knees and gulping air. She turned her head to look back at the remains of the building and the tornado that still raged and threatened to engulf the surrounding buildings. To her astonishment, the tornado roared one last time, then fizzled out in less than a second, depressurizing the area so fast that her ears popped. The sound of rain filled the air, but none was falling. Instead, the remains of the club and more than a hundred vampires were falling to the ground. Bewildered but satisfied, Ranma-chan slowly rose to her feet and picked up the man.
"Freeze!!! Get your damn hands up!!!" someone shouted. At least thirty of the vampire ninja Surrounded them, their guns trained tight on her. Ranma-chan sighed dejectedly.
"Damn it, how many of you guys did they send?" she wondered out loud. Her eyes flitted around nervously, looking for a way, any way, out. For once she was truly worried. These vampires had already shown themselves to be extremely formidable. Alone she might escape but, with an unconscious man on her shoulder, she could not be certain. And surrender definitely was not an option. Fortunately, automatic gunfire rang out and, before her eyes, the vampires disintegrated to black ash.
"Vamps always do talk to damn much." said a grizzled looking gaijin, amazingly in perfect Japanese. He looked at her with surprise for a moment, then gestured at her to follow. "C'mon Red, if you don't wanna see how many more of them is left."
He quickly led her into an alley, where a big, black Chevy Suburban was waiting. "Just throw him in the back." he said gruffly, jerking his thumb back at the SUV. She heaved the black man into the back seat, then hopped into the passenger seat. The man put the car into gear then stomped hard on the gas, the tires screeching in response. Ranma-chan only relaxed after they had gone a few blocks and she was certain that they were not being followed.
"Ok now, who the hell are you?" she demanded.
"The name's Whistler. Sleepyhead back there's Blade. We've been looking for you."
"You and about a thousand people." she responded, warily. "What do you know about me? And what were you doing at that club?"
"We know that you're a vampire hunter and that you're at the top of the Japanese vampire's hit list. We found out about a trap set for you and went to the club to save you."
"Hmmph, I don't need anybody's help." she replied. "And your boy wasn't doing that hot in there anyway."
"Christ, you hunter types always got the worst attitudes." Whistler grumbled. "Anyway, what's your name?"
"Ranma. What, you couldn't find that out too? Everyone else seemed to know it today."
"That's odd..."
"Ugh...what the fuck hit me?" said a voice from the backseat. Blade slowly sat up, shaking his head.
"I did." Ranma-chan replied, matter-of-factly. "Didn't take you that long to get up. I'm impressed."
"How could you have..."
"You were covered in vampires. You didn't have time to see me hit you with the Rising Dragon Ascension." she said plainly, shrugging her shoulders.
"Wait a minute, what's that?" Blade asked.
"It was the tornado that tore down that building. By the way, what the hell are you?"
"What?"
"You heard me. What. Are. You? Cause you sure ain't human...not anymore at least."
"Blade's halfway between vamp and human." Whistler interjected. "All the strengths, none of the weaknesses. That bother you?"
She looked Blade up and down while he stared at her impassively from behind his shades. "As long as you're using that power to get rid of the blood suckers, I don't care."
"And what about you?" Blade asked. "You look human enough, but no human could do what you were doing back in there."
"Shows what you know. I know at least ten other people that could do nearly the same, and that's just here in Tokyo." she retorted. "Besides, you've been sniffing me to see if I'm one of them since you woke up. You know I'm human."
"Haha, she's got you there Blade." Whistler said, laughing. "By the way Ranma, where's your partner?"
"What partner?"
"You know, the boy...black hair. Looks a little like your brother or something."
"That ain't my brother. That's *me*."
"Bullshit." Blade said. "My sources said you're at least half a foot or more shorter than the boy. And they said that it definitely was a male. There's no way you could've fooled them with any disguise."
"I ain't gonna argue with you guys." Ranma-chan said. "I'll just show you. And keep your hands on the wheel, Whistler." She produced a thermos, opened the top, and poured a bit of steaming liquid into the top. She then proceeded to dump the liquid onto her head. In moments, a very male Ranma Soatome was sitting in the passenger seat, looking very much out of sorts in a tattered red dress. Blade was speechless and Whistler reacted the only way he could think to; he jammed hard on the brakes.
"What the hell are you?" exclaimed Blade and Whistler simultaneously. Ranma just sighed.
"It's just a curse. Hot water makes me male, cold water makes me female." he said tiredly. He put the thermos away and took out a different one, filled with cold water, then repeated the process, returning to female. "And before you ask, I'm male."
"There ain't no such thing as a curse." Whistler said, but his words did not have much conviction.
"You just watched twenty *vampires* turn to dust but you can't believe in a curse?" she said. "Trust me buddy, the curse is the least unbelievable thing I've ever seen. Now can we get moving again?"
"What were you doing in there tonight, Ranma?" Blade asked as they continued on.
"I'm looking for my fiance and the vampire that took her." she replied, her voice filled with hate.
"Girl...err, boy, if she's been taken, she's either dead or vamp by now." said Whistler.
"I can't...I won't believe that till I see her body." Her voice quavered and she looked away from them, out into the street.
"He's right, you know." Said Blade, taking off his shades. "But you won't find anything if you keep killing every vampire you see."
"They deserve to die! They took her from me! They took my honor from me!" Ranma shouted.
A long silence fell between them. After a while, Blade spoke again. "Look Ranma, we're here now because we thought you were a hunter. It's not safe for new hunters, especially those that aren't affiliated with other hunters, and especially not now."
"I'm not a hunter...I just want Akane back. And I won't stop till I get her."
"Fine. Then maybe we can make a deal." said Whistler. "Blade can be very persuasive, especially to a vamp. We help you find your girl while you help us give Japan a vampire shortage." He grinned at her.
Ranma-chan considered her options. She had been searching so long and left a trail of vampire ash behind her, but it had not gotten her any closer to finding Akane. After tonight's fiasco at the club, it was apparent that the vampires were no longer going to tolerate her inquiries. And now she was at a dead end. As much as she hated to admit it, if she wanted to find Akane, she would need all the help she could get. "Ok then. It's a deal."
"Good. Then let's get going to Kyoto, Whistler." said Blade. "The sooner we get there, the better."
"What's in Kyoto?" asked Ranma-chan.
"Not what. Who." Blade passed two photos up to her and switched on the cab lights. "Those two are right below you on the Japanese vampire's hit list. They work together and have been on a methodical vampire killing spree for about two months now."
"I...I know...I know these two..." she stammered.
"You know them? Are you sure?" Blade asked.
"I'm positive..." Their appearances had changed, but there was no mistaking them. In the picture was a male kunoichi and a short-haired young woman, dressed in black and carrying what looked like a huge okonomiyaki spatula. "That's Konatsu and Ukyo!"
To Be Continued...
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Author's Notes
Whew, finally finished this after five days of hard work. Truthfully, I had completely worked out this chapter months ago but I was giving more attention to Heart of a Warrior. I got some ugly writer's block trying to write chapter 3b of that story, so I turned back to this one and it turned out to be a good idea. Thank you writer's block for giving me the inspiration to finish this chapter. I intend to make this a relatively short series of chapters, but seeing how much I wrote for the intro chapter alone, I dunno if that's gonna happen. The story itself is straightforward, but verbosity seems to be my forte, so it'll prolly add up.
On some side notes, 3b of HoaW is still being worked on and might be through in a couple weeks. It really is giving me that much trouble. There are also some other fan fics and original fics that are in the concept and plotting stages at the moment, just in case I hit more writer's block.
Finally, if you liked/disliked this story chapter, please throw me some comments. I really do read those and take them into account when I write and rewrite.
Sorry for making your read this long AN section ~_~