Chapter Text
It was a warm autumn evening in Nerima, on the night the change began.
The streetlamps buzzed gently over Akane's head as she walked alone, her shoes tapping on the pavement.
She had been at Yuka's house, for an afternoon hangout that had turned into an evening one. Before Akane had known it, the sun had already sank over the horizon, leaving the sky dark and speckled with stars.
She hummed to herself as she walked, her fingers trailing loosely through the chain link fence that separated her from the short drop into the canal.
Akane had never terribly been a fan of the hot, sticky heat that stuck around into autumn, but this gentle warmth of night was actually fairly comfortable to be in.
It was as she reached the end of the canal, ready to turn the corner onto her street that led toward her house...that she stopped.
Akane paused where she was, craning her head to one side, her brow furrowing gently.
There was...a sound in the air.
Just barely audible. Like a low tune, a single note, held and sustained...yet at the same time, descending, getting lower and lower.
Akane glanced back the way she came. "What is that?" She murmured to herself, her guard raising unconsciously. It wouldn't be the first time she'd been ambushed by a renegade martial artist on her own street.
Akane glanced upward. Above her head, the streetlamp buzzed, a small gathering of moths around it, fluttering and orbiting the bulb.
As Akane watched, however, the moths began to peel off, away from the bulb. Akane's gaze followed them as the small swarm fluttered away from the streetlamp, over her head, heading further down the sidewalk next to the canal...
...toward a single light, shining in the darkness. Around 30 feet away.
A single round, bright orb, shining a brilliant golden.
Akane stared at the light, her eyes wide.
Somehow, she couldn't find the will to look away. It was getting...harder to think...thoughts were slipping through her fingers, like a bar of soap in the bath...
The light was gleaming, shining, like a warm hearth on a cold winter's evening.
Like fireflies in an open field.
Like a campfire on a camping trip.
Warm. Soft. Comforting.
Akane's eyelids fluttered, like the moths wings, as one foot began to place itself in front of the other.
She barely even realized she was walking, trudging toward the light, shining softly there in the darkness.
Her eyes were still locked with it, wrapped in its hypnotic gleam.
The sound was louder now, so much louder, an endless fractal tone, constantly descending, deafening in her ears.
As she drew closer and closer to the light, she dimly realized she was smiling. A comfortable warmth was drawing around her...like slipping into that same warm bath, her thoughts trickling away with her stress...
…nothing could hurt her, here...she was safe...
…the light…so beautiful…
As the light began to slowly, slowly float backward through the darkness, Akane obediently followed after it, breathing softly as she stared, eyes in unbroken contact with it.
The light slowly turned a corner, Akane limply trudging after it, and the two vanished from view.
Standing somewhere dark.
A deep, inky-black darkness that encircled her on all sides.
There was no difference between what she saw with her eyes open and with her eyes closed.
If she stretched her arms out to the sides and turned in a circle, she could rotate a full 360 degrees, and never touch a wall.
Somehow…despite the deep, impenetrable darkness surrounding her on all sides…it felt right.
Felt comfortable.
Like this was where she was meant to be.
The air was filled with a soft, sussurating whisper. Like thousands and thousands of paper-thin wings, rubbing together.
She wanted, more than anything, to join in, to add her whisper to the chorus.
As she stood there, in the peaceful dark, surrounded by white noise on all sides…
...something began to change.
It was dim, at first. Barely noticeable.
A light.
Slowly growing brighter, high above her.
Like a kerosene lantern being turned up, the light slowly grew brighter and brighter.
Not like staring into the sun, but staring into…something else.
Something calming, peaceful.
She felt a smile cross her face as she stared up at it, casting such beautiful, calming light down on her.
Something behind her back was moving. Fluttering, faster and faster.
She didn’t dare blink, not wanting to take her eyes off the beautiful light.
She felt her feet leave the ground as she began to rise into the air.
Higher and higher, yet there was no fear in her, as she rose closer and closer to the beautiful light.
The light grew brighter and brighter as she drew closer and closer to it, until it was all she could see, all she could think about.
This was right.
This was perfect.
When Akane awoke the next morning, tucked in her bed, still wearing her clothes from the previous day, she felt like garbage.
There was a dim collection of half-there memories in her head. Walking home from Yuka's...hearing...something...and then arriving at her front door, half asleep with a splitting headache.
She'd barely had the strength to trudge upstairs and fall directly into bed. She'd also hardly registered the time- 2 am, well past midnight.
Akane groaned as she rolled over in bed, feeling like scum scraped off someone's shoe. It was like the worst hangover she'd ever had- a thumping pain in her head, a queasy feeling in her stomach. The late-morning sunlight shining in through her window seemed so much brighter than it should, hurting Akane's eyes.
She hauled herself from her bed, steadying herself with her bedpost, before taking two small, groggy steps to her window. She yanked the curtains closed, and sighed with relief. Much better.
She yawned as she changed out of her clothes from yesterday, easing into a set of soft pajamas.
At the door: tap-tap-tap.
"Akane?" Kasumi's voice from the other side. "Are you awake? It's almost 10:30."
"Hey, sis..." Akane murmured, her tiredness audible in her words. "I'm feelin' kinda gross...think I'm gonna just sleep a lil' longer. Izzat okay?"
"Oh my...I hope you aren't getting sick."
"Yeah...same..." Akane sighed, sitting down on the edge of her bed. "Come check on me around lunch, please."
"Of course. I hope you feel better." The sound of Kasumi's slippers retreating back down the hall, and then silence.
Akane yawned once more, before sliding back under her covers, drifting uneasily back into the kindly embrace of sleep.
Ranma rapped his knuckles lightly on Akane's door with one hand. "Oi, Tomboy. You awake in there?"
The was the sound of rustling sheets. After a moment, the door opened a crack, Akane's tired face staring back at him from within the dark room. Her bed's blanket was draped over her shoulders.
Ranma winced. "Yeesh, look what the cat coughed up. Heard you were feelin' under the weather." Behind the snark of his words was a genuine, kind concern in her fiance's eyes.
"Yeah..." Akane groaned. "Dunno why. M' just..." she yawned hugely. "So tired..."
"Well, Kasumi made ya somethin' to eat, I offered to bring it up." Ranma raised the plate in his other hand, two slices of toast sitting on it, along with the glass of water tucked in his elbow. "She made ya somethin' light, so it wouldn't mess with your stomach."
Akane smiled. It was always nice when Ranma's sweeter side poked through. "Thanks, Ranma." She opened the door a little more, taking the offered plate and glass. "I'll eat in here. I don't want you to catch whatever bug I've got."
"Feel better, okay?"
Akane nodded. "Will do. 'M gonna eat this and get some more sleep. Hopin' this will blow over by tomorrow."
The day passed in a series of brief awake periods, interrupting a dreamless sleep.
Everyone came by to check on her at least once, even Nabiki.
Soun sat on the edge of the bed and slowly rubbed his daughter's back as she dozed, like he used to when she was sick as a kid. Akane felt a little warmed by that- no matter how many bad days he had, or the garbage Mr. Saotome talked him into, at the end of the day, he was still her dad.
Kasumi and Ranma had come by together, one last time before everyone had gone to bed, just to poke their heads in and bring her some more toast. Kasumi, worry in her brow, had told the still-groggy Akane that, if she still felt like this tomorrow, Kasumi was calling the clinic to make a house call.
And then.
Akane's eyes opened, and she was fully awake and aware.
No sunlight shone through her curtains- it was dark outside. She'd slept the whole day.
Akane lay in bed, staring at her ceiling. That cruddy feeling that had stuck to her all day...was gone.
She took a slow, deep breath. She felt...fine.
"Of course, after everyone's gone to bed, too..." She murmured to herself.
Sitting up in bed, she slid her legs to the side, rising to her feet. She dragged her blanket behind her, keeping it draped over her shoulders. The weight was...oddly comforting.
Akane suddenly realized: she was starving.
Which was to be expected, she'd only had some toast and water throughout the day, but Akane was feeling downright ravenous.
Akane eased her bedroom door open, silently padding down the dark hallway.
She passed Ranma and Genma's room on the left, hearing the chainsaw rumble of Genma's snores- he was sleeping in his human form, tonight.
Her feet tapped gently against the stairs as she descended. She didn’t bother clicking on any light switches as she passed. The silent darkness of her home was oddly comforting.
As Akane stood in the kitchen doorway, however, she found her stomach souring once more.
The thought of eating, really, any of the food they had in the house didn’t seem appealing in the slightest. She’d barely been awake enough to realize how dry the toast from earlier was.
Akane grumbled, matching the sound coming from her stomach, as she stepped away from the kitchen. “Ugh…been cooped up all day…I need some air.”
The shoji door slid open on its track as Akane stepped outside, her blanket trailing behind her.
The comfortably warm summer air sent pleasurable shivers down her spine as she stepped down off of the porch, onto the soft grass, not yet late enough at night for it to have produced dew.
With a pleased hum, already feeling a little better, she sat back on the porch, wrapping her blanket tighter around her shoulders. On her right, a basket of recently laundered clothes- Kasumi had taken them off of the lines, but had forgotten to bring them inside, and they’d been left out here.
Akane inhaled deeply, through her nose. Kasumi must have changed the detergent- Akane could smell the delightful scent of fresh linen and cotton from here.
“Hmmmm…” She hummed softly, soaking in the outside air.
Above her, the stars twinkled in the sky, and Akane found herself staring up at them, wide-eyed. The moon hung overhead, fat and low, like a brilliant pearl. It would be full in just a few days.
She’d never noticed…just how beautiful they were…
The next morning, as Kasumi chased eggs around a skillet in the kitchen, Soun strode in, wearing a suit the same muddy-brown as his bathrobe. “Kasumi, sweetheart? Have you seen my favorite tie? The blue one that you gave me for Father’s Day a few years ago.”
Kasumi glanced up from her breakfast preparations with a frown, shaking her head. “No, Father, I’m sorry.”
Soun made a disgruntled hrrm. “I have a meeting with the rest of the town council after breakfast. I was wanting to wear that one.”
A pause, then Kasumi’s eyes widened. “Oh! I didn’t bring in the laundry basket last night, I bet it’s in there!” She stepped away from the counter. “One moment, let me just go grab that.”
“Thank you, sweetheart, you’re an angel. Here, I’ll tag in with those.”
Kasumi handed the spatula over to Soun, who took her place at the skillet.
Kasumi bustled through the living room, toward the cracked-open shoji door leading to the porch, where she’d left the laundry basket the night before.
As she slid the door open the rest of the way, however, she was greeted by a decided lack of a basket full of semi-fresh laundry where she’d left it.
“Oh, feathers.” She sighed.
“Everythin’ alright, Kasumi?” Ranma’s voice from behind her.
“Ranma, have you seen the laundry basket? I think I left it out here last night.”
Ranma cocked an eyebrow, glancing past her. “Nope, sorry.”
Kasumi sighed. “And Akane’s still asleep…Ranma, can you do me a favor and go check on her, see if she’s feeling any better? I need to figure out where I left that thing.”
“Yeah, no prob, Kasumi.” Always happy to lend a hand, Ranma turned, heading back toward the stairs.
A quick ascent, two stairs at a time, and Ranma was back outside Akane’s room.
He tap-tapped on the door with his knuckles. “’Kane, you up? Kasumi wanted me to check on you.”
Silence. Not even the sound of rustling sheets, or low snores, like he’d been able to hear through the door for most of the previous day.
A low sense of dread began to settle in Ranma’s stomach. Tap-tap-tap. “…’Kane? You, uh…you in there?”
Silence.
His fingers crept down to wrap around the doorknob. “I’m…’Kane, I’m comin’ in, okay? So, uh…if yer not decent, say something. Don’t go clobberin’ me or nothin’.”
The doorknob turned easily with a click, and Ranma pushed Akane’s bedroom door open.
The room was dim, barely lit by the light through Akane’s curtains.
Discarded on the floor was Kasumi’s laundry basket, overturned and empty.
Akane’s bed was piled high with the clean laundry. Assorted sheets and clothes, thrown over the huddled shape on the bed. Ranma could spy the sleeve one of his silk shirts, hanging down off the side of the bed.
The lump under the nest of fabric moved slowly, and Akane Tendo’s head slowly emerged from one end, right about where her pillow was located.
Her hair was a frizzled mess, and she stared sleepily up at Ranma through half-lidded eyes that caught the dim sunlight, seeming to make her eyes glow a translucent red.
Two antennae, the light gold color of hay, hung from each side of her forehead, frilled with soft fur.
Soun’s favorite tie hung from her mouth as she sleepily chewed on it.
“Buh…’Kane?”
“Chrrr?" Akane made what sounded like a sleepy, half-awake trill in the back of her throat as she cracked her eyes further open, blinking at Ranma.
“BOY!”
Ranma flinched as Genma stormed down the hall from their shared bedroom. “Stop flirting with your fiancée, boy! You’re slacking on your morning training-“
As Genma grabbed Ranma by the shoulder, Ranma felt two strong arms wrap around him, yanking him backward and out of his father’s grasp.
Akane, her eyes a full blood red, hissed at Genma, shielding Ranma from him with her body.
Genma stood there, his eyes wide, staring silently at the two.
Then, he turned on his heel, and silently walked away from the scene.
Genma slowly walked down the stairs, past Kasumi still looking for the laundry, and out into the courtyard.
Reaching upward, he snapped a branch from the tree, before breaking off a piece about a foot long.
Quietly, he walked into the kitchen, still carrying the piece of wood.
Soun glanced up from where he was easing cooked eggs onto plates. “Ah, Saotome, good morning to you.”
“Your kid’s haunted.”
Soun paused, blinking in confusion. “Pardon?”
Genma sat in a chair, having grasped a knife from the knife block, and began to slowly whittle the piece of branch into a stake. “Your kid’s haunted.”