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Book Three: The Rising
Part Seven: New Powers
Chapter One: Reborn Powers
For no less than two weeks now, the obsidian bier had remained untouched in the center of the grotto. Its dark, smooth surface remained untouched, despite the overwhelming curiosity of everyone who saw it. For it was a perfectly round, six foot in diameter, piece of the smoothest, most flawless obsidian anyone had ever seen. And it was embedded quite firmly into the ground in the center of the otherwise peaceful grove.
And that was not the only mystery plaguing Nerima those days. For over a week now Saotome Nodoka had been heading a search team which was combing the nearby forests and parks for any sign of her missing son. Ranma had gone missing, and if any knew where he was, no one was telling.
Then there was the enigma of the powerful sorrow and self-hatred which had grown into an unassailable fortress about the young temple maiden known as Hino Rei. She refused to speak to anyone, even if they did manage to get her to see them. She would just stare blankly with unseeing violet eyes at anyone that tried to talk to her. Sometimes, very rarely, she would seem to acknowledge the person with her, though still no words would issue from her lips. Most often it was her over-enthusiastic friend Minako that managed to get the most recognition from her. Especially since the time of what the other girls had come to call the Dreaming.
So much had been revealed to them in the Dreaming. So much of their past lives had unfolded. Many of the unanswered questions that had plagued them were becoming answered. And yet there was still two large gaps in their understanding. It was as if they were missing the two key pieces that would make everything fall into place.
And they were. For one piece was held in the mind of a nearly comatose temple maiden. And the other, perhaps most important, piece was buried under a perfect cylinder of pure obsidian.
***********
The few patrons of the grotto which held the enigmatic obsidian circle had begun to notice something strange occurring under its inky black surface. For the past few days, random flashes of light flickered an danced under the surface.
But the most unusual part was what happened at night.
For at night, deep cobalt and sapphire flames leapt up from the disk and waltzed the night away in a macabre dance. For theirs was a tale of regret and a song of death. Yet through that song would come rebirth anew.
***********
And far away in another part of the city, the youngest daughter of the Tendo clan cried herself to sleep once more.
For she had felt his loss so deep within her that she could never find the words to properly express a feeling so abstract as what she felt. Words escaped her. And tears fell from her eyes as a result.
She knew that he was gone. She didn’t understand exactly how she knew, but she did know. She just woke up one morning after a terrible nightmare calling for Ranma and yet knowing that even had he never left, he would not come running. Because he would be unable. She had lost him.
And that very nearly destroyed her. For she remembered the dream she had. The dream where he had been dressed in wonderful golden armor like a prince out of legend and he had held her hand in his and asked her to marry him. She remembered that dream so well because it seemed that it had actually happened somewhere. Like it was more of a memory than a real dream. Just something she had forgotten from long ago.
But what she remembered best. What she held to most fiercely in her mind was not the proposal, however romantic it seemed. No, what she clung too when the night was darkest and it seemed that dawn would never come was a simple promise he had made in the dream.
‘Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t plan on leaving then, and I don’t plan on leaving now. Ok? I won’t leave you. Not now. Not ever. Not if there is any possible way I can help it. Everything will be alright, Akai. You’ll see. Somehow. Someday. Everything will be alright again. It just has to be.’
It was those words that somehow managed to keep her going. Those words and the hope, the desperate, heart-felt plea, that they held truth and wisdom within their structures.
She just missed him so much.
***********
Back in Juuban, Rei felt nearly as much pain as Akane did. And yet her pain was not immaterial like Akane’s. It was far, far worse to actually know beyond any doubt what had happened in Rei’s case. Whereas in Akane’s knowing would have brought some tiny abatement of her pain by allaying the anxious worrying that plagued her through her unknowing. Of course, it would have resulted in ungodly pain for Rei in the physical sense if Akane had actually known, but as she didn’t that didn’t matter.
Rei was faced with the torment of destroying the young man, that was not only rapidly becoming a good friend and confidant of hers but who was also her cousin, on the rather foolish belief that he might _possibly_ be the reincarnation of her long-lost brother from the Silver Millennium.
And that torment was what had forced her mind into withdrawal. She had dove deep with in herself in a futile attempt to escape the heart-tearing pain of what she had done. Which forced a wall around her that none of her friends could penetrate.
Only one thing ever came through the wall. Vicious, rending anger. And that was for the two attempts made by Artemis and Luna.
The cats had approached her twice. Both times by themselves and alone. The first time had been Artemis, and Rei’s reaction to him had been so surprising and violent that the white cat had needed no less than fifteen stitches along his side and Minako had quite adamantly refused to let him anywhere near Rei again.
Luna had been next. In her pompous arrogance she had ignored Artemis’ warning that Rei was upset. She had ignored his stitches and the fact that Minako was making him stay far away from Rei. She had ignored all of that, confident that the girl she had helped train would never turn on her.
She had been wrong. And now she was lucky to be alive. Both of her front legs had been broken with the force of Rei’s first blow. One ear hung drooped forward because of awkward stitching where the ear had been torn nearly off. All in all, she was in far worse shape than Artemis. Which meant that now all the girls would go to almost drastic extents in order to keep the cats far from Rei’s sight.
They may not have liked her silence all too much. But the vicious, unreasoning violence was far, far worse than any amount of silence.
***********
And miles under the earth, beneath a obsidian cylinder, a skeletal figure stirred. And began to burn.
***********
High above in the grotto where the top of the obsidian cylinder reached the surface, a strange rumbling was heard. Along with a faint roar of almost pain.
And the ground shook. And the cylinder trembled. And things happened.
***********
Miles away in Nerima, Akane sat up in bed with the first smile on her face in weeks.
Ranma was coming back.
***********
In Juuban, in a small shrine on top of a hill, a temple maiden spoke for the first time in days.
"Ranma."
***********
Miles under the obsidian cylinder, the skeletal figure began to grow back lost flesh from the fires burning around him. As his body began to take on definition again, he lashed out with a fist that veritably glowed with power. It struck against the cool roof of his tomb.
***********
High above in the grotto, the ground shook even further.
And there, in the very center of the trembling cylinder of obsidian, a crack appeared.