Untouched, en-edited, Gregg Sharp's original scenario. From: GreggSharp Subject: [Ranma][Fanfic] the bet-crippled Date: Saturday, September 12, 1998 11:28 AM Ranma 1/2: Crippled The Bigger They Are... A Dark realm in The Bet story Ranma 1/2 by R.Takahashi Toltiir created by ???? -------------------------------------------------- Displaying timeline... Ranma-chan fell after being knocked off the roof by Ryouga throwing the water pail. "What's that got to do with me?! If Akane's jealous, that's HER..." Ranma-chan suddenly realized Akane was right behind her. "Oop." "'Jealous'? Not at all. After all, we're not engaged anymore." Akane punched Ranma-chan with enough force that the sound of the impact drew attention from inside the house. "So go ahead and GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER!!" Ranma-chan held out a hand, her concentration entirely on the girl stalking off. "A-A-A-Akane? Hurk!" Ranma-chan's eyes turned down, looking at a length of steel jutting suddenly from her right breast. "Akane..." Shampoo smiled. It was a good thing she had packed an extra sword, now the first part of her mission was complete. The woman who had defeated her had been killed. She had to give Razor credit, for a mere male, he put an excellent edge on this sword. A woman's voice speaking in denial broke through her triumph. It was the one who had finally found the Japanese translation of her amazon laws, staring down at the girl at Shampoo's feet. For whatever reason, she had been behind a tree holding a kettle of water. Shampoo wondered if she'd ever figure these Japanese out. "Shampoo promise she kill girl Ranma. Now Shampoo has, tell 'Akane' Shampoo thanks her for her help. If Ranma no distracted, Shampoo have much harder time." Now that the deed was done, there was no reason for hard feelings between them, might as well spread the glory around. "She...? No." Nabiki looked at the crumpled heap at Shampoo's feet and remembered Akane's punch. Had Akane wanted this outcome, on at least some level? Shampoo looked at the odd girl again. Had she never seen death? Ah, they were soft, these outlanders. Still, she had to get busy finding her airen. --------------------------- Akane came downstairs the next morning, ready for school, to find a group as depressed as Ryouga was angry. "Nabiki? Kasumi? You've been... crying?" Akane clenched her fists. "I'll bet it was Ranma, wasn't it? That jerk, I'll teach him!" Akane stomped upstairs to find the guest room empty. P-chan followed after a moment, yawning as he slowly came awake. Stomping back downstairs, she saw startled looks from Kasumi and Nabiki. "What? Kasumi, what's going on?" "Ranma..." Kasumi stopped. She blamed herself. As the eldest she should have taken the responsibility herself. It should have been HER duty and then this all could have been avoided. "Ranma's not here anymore." Nabiki filled in the silence. "GOOD!" Akane nodded. "We are all better off without that JERK! Isn't that right, P-chan?" P-chan nodded and gave an agreeable sounding squeal. Kasumi started shaking as she contemplated the possibility that while she'd described Akane as a "violent maniac" on at least one occasion, that her youngest sister may have actually gone further down that path than anyone had realized. Nabiki looked over both her sisters and began berating herself for a major misjudgement. "He's in the hospital." "Huh?" Akane just ground to a halt. "Waitaminnute, what did you say?" "Shampoo thanked you, by the way, for your help. She even left the sword as repayment for distracting 'her prey' for her. Oh, and Mister Saotome left during the night. I suspect to get thoroughly drunk with his only heir expected to assume room temperature." Nabiki's voice was bitter. She blamed herself. She was the one who liked boys, so she should have been the one to take this engagement. She'd just gotten in place in time to see Ranma get hit by Akane, apparently with enough force to stun him just long enough for the amazon to finish him off. Akane shook her head. "What are you talking about?" Nabiki sighed and rubbed her eyes, she hadn't gotten much sleep last night. "I mean, that when you hit Ranma, he was still reacting to your 'lover's quarrel' when Shampoo did what she had been saying she would do all along. She drove a sword through girl-Ranma's spine." "What? He..." Akane blinked, vaguely aware that P-chan was squealing for attention next to her. "Is he dead?" "We haven't heard for sure, but they hadn't held out ANY chance he'd pull through." Nabiki sighed. She was so VERY tired, but she knew if she closed her eyes she'd be seeing the whole scene over again. Akane's words of a few moments ago seemed to echo in the room. "Ah, well, I've got to go to school." She'd talk this over later with P-chan. She couldn't be even partly responsible, could she? No, it had to be a misunderstanding. "Buqiii," P-chan exclaimed. Saotome was dead or nearly so? And he missed it? How depressing. Still, he had the chance to comfort Akane now. "Where's father?" Nabiki managed after Akane was gone. "Still in bed, I think this hit him harder than we would have thought." Kasumi studied her bowl of rice. "Do you suppose..." Nabiki didn't want to say it. When Kasumi didn't respond, she dropped that line of inquiry. She'd never be able to look at Akane the same way, just the little doubt that maybe Akane had WANTED this to happen... The phone began to ring. Nabiki and Kasumi exchanged a glance, neither wanting to hear the official notification. ------------------------------------------ Ranma Saotome was a survivor, even when he did not want to be. He currently wanted very sincerely to be deceased. Instead here he lay, with arms tied down and sedated. They didn't need to restrain his legs. It wasn't like they worked anyway. They said he wouldn't survive. He had. They said he wouldn't regain the use of his legs. He was still working on that, but so far they'd been correct. He had never felt so helpless in his life. He thought about Akane, had she intended to do this? What of the Tendos? Not even Kasumi had come to see him. How had he inspired such hate that they would abandon him like this? He had suspected some of this, of course. He was only half a man due to his curse. Now with everything below his waist so much dead weight, he was even less than that. At least he no longer had to worry about Shampoo. She had tried to sneak into the hospital to visit her "airen" and had been hauled away by the police. She had resisted arrest up until the time the tasers had been used. With one of the police officers being put in intensive care (three beds down from Ranma), it did not appear that Shampoo would be a concern in the near future. After she served her time, no doubt she would be forcibly deported. Ranma stared at the ceiling. He didn't blame himself for this, he couldn't see what he could have done to solve any of this, short of killing Shampoo. Ryouga, he blamed, for throwing the bucket of water on him that had turned him to the girl form that Shampoo had sworn vengeance on. That had been deliberate so that Shampoo would kill Ryouga's only real rival. He blamed Akane, for deciding that Ranma was to blame no matter what the reality of the situation was. Uncute tomboy. Ranma blamed Shampoo, after all, she could have just requested a rematch. Ranma blamed his father, for taking him first to Jusenkyo and then that damn amazon village. Ranma thought about this, after all, there was nothing much else he could do but think about his situation. He asked the nurse if anyone had contacted his mother yet. She deserved to know, at least. ----------------------------------------------------