Ranma looked into the red orb at the end of the staff, and saw Everything.
He wrenched his eyes away from it, after all - nothing in his life previously had prepared him for that.
The Paradox Storm ripped the woman who had been holding the staff apart, not in the sense of pieces of her coming away - more like the various women she could have been being shredded as she fought something a lot stronger than she was.
Then Ranma caught the staff himself as the woman was sent tumbling out of the time stream, seperated from some essence.
There was no up or down. It was a time and space outside of time and space and a more observant and more intellectual person might well have been destroyed.
In this case, however, it was now a personal battle and the person now alone within the storm had a very precise focus.
"RANMA SAOTOME DOESN'T LOSE!"
Then there were others present in the Storm. Ranma felt their assistance but largely ignored them. They were him after all. Like the woman before him, these were all potential versions of him, but each possessed the same core Need To Win.
As they were all Ranma Saotome, and in a fight for their very existence, that was fine with Ranma. He didn't need anyone but himself, after all.
The furred werecat Ranma snarled and fought. The masked adventurer and the crippled scientist turned their wills into the conflict.
Seven Ranma Saotome fought as one against the Storm. As they fought, one form after the other merged with the fighter.
As they-who-were-one began to slip despite this, Ranma saw three women. One smiled at him, another winked, the third worked with some odd gadget.
The Storm abated, its forces finding a new plateau of stability.
Ranma lay there on the pavement for a few moments, gathering his strength back after exhausting himself in the battle.
Things had changed though. One cannot look into Eternity and come away without something altered. On one side, a battered lamp. On the other, a time key staff that had been altered during the process. As for himself:
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(Posted Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:16)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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