Midnight Falls

Chapter Seven: Healing

"Get away from me!" Midori ran from the two after pushing Jinko from her. The man tsked, smirking, watching her go. He looked to his friend, and his friend nodded.

"Shi, you know what we need to do." Shi sped off after Midori who had decided to take a different route, instead of showing them where Ranma was staying, (since clearly they were after Ranma) she headed for Dr. Tofu's house, whom she had met a few weeks prior.

Shi caught up to her in a matter of seconds and grabbed her by the back of her shirt, throwing her into the side of a wall creating a large dent. Midori winced as she tried to sit up, and bit her lip, biting back tears as she was sure he probably broke a rib or two in the process. She sat up and saw the two men closing in on her, panic filling in her eyes.

Was this it? Would she never live to see Ranma or her family again? Or get married? Graduate college and have a family of her own one day?

Jinko grabbed her underneath her chin, hard enough to bruise her skin and cause damage to the bone underneath and smirked bringing her face up to meet his.

"How interesting of Ranma to let you roam around freely, I am surprised he did not think Saffron would wish for his revenge. Ah, well until that happens, I suppose we can torture him by disposing of you." Fear struck through Midori's soul as her deep green eyes shot open. Jinko grinned smelling her fear, obviously pleased with himself.

"No no, please! I'll do whatever you want! Please don't kill me.." She whispered franctically, frowning as Jinko's eyebrow rose.

"Is that so? Whatever we want?" Jinko smirked, lifting her face to meet his, he grabbed the back of her neck crashing her lips to his.

Immediately, Midori's fight or flight instincts kicked in. She started squirming, beating on Jinko's chest to let her go. Shi instantly grabbed her arms from behind her, twisting them causing her to cry out in pain, and Jinko took the opportunity of her open mouth.

Midori wanted to throw up, cry, and do nothing more than get the hell away from these two...what were these things? They certainly didn't seem human.

She felt the one behind her, Shi's hand trail down the front of her body with his free hand, making sure to press down extra hard on her ribs, as he kissed the side of her neck, leaving little remnants of proof of their encounter all down her skin. He got to the band of her pants and Midori started to feel panicked. 'Not this again...' Every single time this happened, she never wanted it, it was always forced. She felt tears prickling at the edges of her eyes, betraying her inner emotions.

She turned her head, wincing, biting her lip as he stuck his hand down inside her pants further and started to play with her nub of nerves.

"Ranmaaaaa!" She cried out, writhing her body, kicking her legs every which way to try and get these two as far away from her as damned possible.

Jinko threw her to the ground below them, and tore off her pants.

"Gods, you smell delicious. I think we're going to have fun with this one, Shi." Jinko looked up to his partner, his eyes glimmering, and Midori blinked away her tears.

'I refuse to show them weakness. I must not let them see the effect they have over me.' She cried out, though, the moment he entered her but refused to let any more weakness through. She clenched her eyes shut, and let everything else fade as everything she knew went black.

"Soun what happened?! What's wrong with Midori?!" Ranma followed the man around his house as he was collecting his things.

"I'm not one hundred percent... But it's not good Ranma. You should probably stay-"

"Don't you say that damnit! I NEED to see her. It's already been almost ten hours!"

Soun stared at his future son, and nodded, a thin line grimacing across his face. "Fine, but you must promise to stay calm. There is nothing you can possibly do and losing your temper would only make her feel worse." Ranma stared at Soun, confused.

'What happened to her...?'

It took the two about fifteen minutes to make it to Tofu's house, Ranma was anxious the entire way.

"Ah, good. You two are here. Hurry, come inside." They saw Tofu standing outside with his arms crossed, a solemn look on his face. "I've tended to her wounds as much as I can for now. She's still passed out so I haven't been able to completely evaluate her."

"Wounds? Tofu, what happened?" Ranma asked, exasperated that no one was telling him anything and he was longing to be near and feel Midori's touch again. It had been far far too long since he had held her.

"Ranma..." Ranma pushed past Tofu and went into the patients' room. His eyes widened and he felt his heart shatter as he laid them upon Midori. There were bruises all down Kira's chin, what looked to be bruises all down her neck, her arms, her midsection was covered, as were her legs.

"What happened Tofu?" Ranma turned, his eyes flaring. Tofu continued with his calm demeanor and composure, completely used to Ranma's temper. He sighed, looking over to the girl with dreary eyes, and then back to Soun and Ranma.

"...she was raped." All the color drained from Ranma's face as he looked over at the sleeping girl, as regret, dread, and anger all seeped into him at once. He turned towards the door.

"If you're going to go look for who did this, you aren't going to find them. Mrs. Aoki said Midori must have been outside for at least an hour or so before she found her, and that was more than a few hours ago. Besides, you don't even know what they look like." Dr. Tofu called out to the retreating boy, who stopped in his tracks.

"Yeah , but it won't do her any good if I'm all pissed off when she wakes up either. I'll be back." Soun sighed watching Ranma and then looked back down at his niece.

Ranma disappeared into the night, nearing Mrs. Aoki's house to try and find a clue. Anything that could help him figure out who to kill for doing this to Midori. He had hoped that no one would bother him during his mission, because he might just do something he would later regret.

He was fuming! How could anyone lay a hand on his girl? That was the last time she would go anywhere alone. Maybe he should just start staying at work with her so no creeps could ever harm her. She'd faced way too much with that ex fiancé of hers, and now this... This was the last straw.

She was in a nightmare she couldn't escape. It kept replaying in her mind. This couldn't be HAPPENING to her again. She'd gone through her time suffering with Riku, and now it was happening again.

"Midori..." She felt herself fidgeting, her body flailing in one spot. "Midori wake up..." A familiar voice rang in her mind.

"Oji-san?"

"Midori, please...wake up.." Her eyes slowly blinked open, and she winced once the light hit her.

"Oh thank goodness..." The voice repeated and her eyes scanned the room as they landed on Soun. He had his hand to his chest and he let out a deep sigh of relief.

"How are you feeling..?" Another soft voice, that sounded familiar but was a bit unknown spoke up.

"Dr...Tofu? Where am I?" She sat up, but immediately winced, feeling pain come from her ribs. She fell back to the bed, and let out a painful cry.

"You're at my house, I still want to do some tests on you, now that you're awake..."

"Midori?" Ranma's voice came from down the hall and Midori's eyes widened. She pulled the blanket she was under up to her neck and sank down further in the bed. "Oh you're awake!" He ran over to her bed and took her hand, but Midori avoided looking at him.

"Midori, you have three broken ribs, your ankle is shattered, your arms were dislocated, and you have some pretty bad bruising all over... So you're in some pretty bad shape. I'm thinking you should stay here for a couple of days, just so I can keep an eye on your progress, both mentally and physically-"

"No way! She's coming home with us so I can keep an eye on 'er! I gotta keep her safe." Ranma shook his head angrily as he glared up at Tofu, who sighed crossing his arms.

"Ranma this is my fault this happened, if I wasn't so stupid and weak..."

"Midori look at me." Ranma said sharply, making Midori wince. He sighed at himself for that. 'I can't lose my temper, I gotta remember that.' "This is in no way your fault. Those creeps who did this to you are at fault. Not you."

"If I was so smart or so strong, this wouldn't have happened to me again." Midori broke out into a sob, which in turn caused her more pain, so she winced. "I.." Ranma's sapphire eyes looked to her with sympathy and sadness.

"Please don't feel that way Midori..I.." For once in his life, Ranma was at a loss for what to say.

"Ranma, Midori is in good hands here. Let's go home for the night and we can come back tomorrow to visit Midori before we go check out some locations for the wedding, if that's okay with you."

"I'm not leaving her here alone."

"But she won't be alone, Tofu will be here-"

"He can stay.." Midori spoke up in a quiet voice, her eyes still downcast to the bed below her. Perhaps she didn't want to be alone. It may just be the spell that connected the two talking, but the last thing Midori really wanted at that moment was to be alone. Tofu nodded.

"It's acceptable to me, if Ms. Kobayashi approves. Just in case the men who did this to her are still lurking around." Soun stared at the two teens, letting out a deep sigh.

"I will let Saotome know where you are in the morning. We'll drop by on the way to pick you up, Ranma. Midori if you need anything, and I mean, anything please give me a call." He gave them one last nod before heading towards the door. "It... will be better for all of us, once this spell wears off." Then he walked out the door.

Midori's head perked up at his last sentence, and her jade eyes watched him walk out the door with curiosity. What was that supposed to mean?

"Well, I'm going to give you a shot of morphine to help dull the pain. It should last you until at least morning when I will check up on you next." Dr. Tofu nodded, walking to a counter pulling out a syringe and loaded it with the drug. "Ranma knows his way around my office pretty well, due to constantly straining and hurting himself." There was a lighter tone of voice, hinted with laughter as he walked around, collecting things as he made his way back over to Midori, and stuck the pain reliever in her. It took a few moments, but relief hit her well and she sighed with relief. "Of course, if you need me, I will be right down the hall, just hit this buzzer. But for now, I am going to sleep, and I suggest you do the same." Midori nodded her head slightly, making eye contact with Tofu, as he reciprocated the gesture and dimmed the lights in the room, then made his way out.

"Who did this to you?" Once Tofu was out of earshot, Ranma asked the question he'd been holding in since he first saw that Midori was awake.

"I...I don't know.." She half lied. These "Phoenix's" seemed to know who Ranma was, and if they were willing to do this much damage to someone they didn't know... she went sick thinking what they might possibly do to Ranma. Tears brimmed at her eyes once more with the thought and she shut them tightly, trying to banish all thoughts running through her damaged mind.

"C'mon Midori, I need something to go by so I can make the fucker pay who did this to you.." Ranma pleaded, tightening his hold on her hand.

"No!" Her eyes opened and her jades met his sapphires. His breath caught in his chest as he saw all the pain and suffering hidden beneath them. No, this wasn't just from tonight. These were feelings hidden over the years finally resurfacing. "I don't want you to go after them."

"Them?" More than one person. Two disgusting sons of bitches to add to his list. Ranma shook his head and softly wrapped his arms around Midori's back holding her close to him. She immediately tensed at his touch, losing the ability to breathe. "Midori, I'm not going to let this happen to you again. I'm not gonna let you get hurt again." She trembled in his arms as he felt tears hitting his forearm, and his fingers tightened against her back.

"I just... I don't want you going after them. Please...promise me you won't."

"Midori.."

"Ranma, please." She lifted her head to look at him, and he sighed and nodded.

"Fine Midori, I promise.." She sniffled softly and snuggled into his chest. He repositioned himself on the bed so that they could both lay down and get some rest. Tonight all he cared about was her happiness and well-being. He didn't know how long it was going to take, but he was damned if he wouldn't be there every step of the way. She was his to protect, and his alone. Now, it was time to let her heal, and he would be there for every minute of it.

So there's chapter seven. Sorry if it was kind of boring, I've kind of lost my direction for this story.

If you have any ideas, feel free to throw them at me.

Thanks for reading, feel free to review and give me your feedback, it's always appreciated.

Much love.

beautifuldisaster993