The boat rocked and swayed with the beat of the waves, sending Mousse into another fit of nausea, which he promptly relieved over the side of the vessel. "I'll centainly add this to my list of weapons to throw at Ranma..." He joked weakly in Chinese, before the boat pitched again and he pitched with it.
"Dammit!" He cursed to no one in particular.
It had been like this since they had cast off from China. He had spent most of the last three days hunched over the starboard side. His sleep was fitful, and never lasted very long. Now, heavy-eyed and weak, he prayed that trip would end soon, or an exceptionally strong wave would toss him over. He sighed and slumped onto the floor of the deck as the water settled for the time being.
"Mousse like duck with no water," a voice spoke in Japanese behind him.
"Shampoo!" Mousse cried in delight as he turned to hug his beloved fiance.
With more calm than normal, Shampoo extracted her bonbori from Mousse's skull.
"Shampoo try to help duck-boy. Maybe duck-boy no want keep stomach in body then." She turned to leave.
"No, wait! Shampoo!" He leapt up and reached for her. Suddenly, Shampoo made a complete one-eighty and popped a pill into Mousse's open mouth. Startled, both at the pill in his mouth, and the sudden closeness of his beloved, he swallowed.
"There. Is motion pill. Will help, but not strong enough on own to stop." With a quick motion she snatched Mousse's glasses from his face and slipped them away...somewhere, Mousse couldn't really see where. "Better duck-boy is blind then duck-boy is empty, see?" Was she...smiling? He couldn't tell, but he knew better than to get excited. Nerima had taught him a stronger margin of self control. He sat on the deck, back against the side so that he wouldn't accidently walk overboard. The world was a colored blur to him at the moment.
"Thank you Shampoo, but why did you wait so long to give me that?"
"Shampoo forgot Shampoo had it. Much on Shampoo's mind." Her voice got sadder.
Ranma. He looked to where he imagined the pigtailed youth was standing, though he could only guess.
"Much on Mousse's mind too," he said without thinking.
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Ryouga watched the two from atop the boat's only cabin. Without getting up, he turned back to the shogi board and his opponent, the ship's resident panda bear. Minutes had passed, but Genma still had not made a move, though he was staring at the board fiercely. Ryouga thought that Genma had been acting oddly since they left China. An unlucky wave early in the trip had activated his curse, but instead of being frustrated, he seemed relieved. It was a well known fact, even to Ryouga, that Ranma's father had a habit of changing into his panda form to escape responsibility, but it never lasted this long...and he never slept cursed of his own accord. But, here it was day three and he had ardently refused every offer of hot water. Odd indeed.
What further worried him was that Genma was a vastly superior shogi player than himself, trouncing him easily in their every game. Yet, he would lapse into these periods where it would take an hour just to make an early game move. Ryouga didn't mind much though, needing every second he could just to give the old man a fight.
When it became evident that Genma had no intention of moving for a while, Ryouga shifted his attention parallel to that of Mousse's; to the stern of the ship, and the boy staring into endless ocean. For once, he pitied his rival. He had never had to kill someone before, so he couldn't relate, but it was Ranma so it was probably his fault anyways...
His attention snapped at the sound of someone coming up the ladder to join them.
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Akane poked her head over the cabin, spotting Ryouga and Mr. Saotome in panada form playing a game of shogi on top. Ryouga met her gaze, and acknowledged her with a wave, but Mr. Saotome didn't shift his attention from the board at all until she walked over and took a seat next to Ryouga. Hugging her knees, she glanced at Ranma for a moment and then turned her eyes to Ryouga, who had returned to watching Ranma.
"Um...Ryouga. Is he going to be ok?" Akane asked.
Ryouga was startled, "Huh!? Why should I..er, how should I know?" He laughed nervously. Mr. Saotome looked up from the board at them for a second, but looked down again when he saw Akane looking.
"Well...I've never been able to tell what he's thinking, I'm not very good at reading him, you know...I've always just set him off if I try. You two set each other off all the time, but you seem to be trying to most of the time, so I just thought that...you know, you might know..." She was getting worried, if Ryouga didn't know then she would spend the rest of the trip clueless.
"Er, I...Ranma, he had to kill someone, you know...to save your life."
"Saffron," she said with an edge, "but he was reborn as an infant, I don't see the problem."
He looked at the floor, clearly reluctant to point out his rival's honor, "He...didn't know that though. When he did..it, he thought he was killing him for good. He was ready to do t-t-t-hat f-f-f-for..." He cut off, eyes completely focused on a panel of wood in front of his legs.
"For what, Ryouga, what? Please, I need to know," Akane pleaded, having gotten her hopes up too far to quit now.
Ryouga sighed and slowly met her eyes. "For you, Akane. He killed a man for you. Didn't even think twice about it at the time."
Akane froze. She knew, but she hadn't understood. Of course Ranma couldn't have known about Saffron's reincarnation ability, but he killed him anyways. For her. To save her life. Does he really care that much? Her lip quivered, Ryouga saw this and grabbed her hand. She stiffened.
"Akane, you know I hate Ranma for a lot of things, but saving you is not one of them. What he did was right, Saffron was evil. I wish he hadn't been reborn at all," they both looked to the floor for a second, then Akane got up and darted back down the ladder.
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Ranma stared out at the ocean, as he had spent the entire evening doing. For the millionth time he contemplated jumping, ending it all and absolving all the worries about his sins; Akane, and the other girls he strung along all these months. But, he had already taken too many lives. The sun was setting, and the water had become dark, more suited to his mood.
He was aware that he was the target of a few eyes behind him. Normally, this would have bothered him endlessly. Now, he just couldn't manage to care.
"Ranma?" A meek voice came from his left.
He turned slowly, and met Akane's worried gaze. She was the reason he couldn't jump, though he would never admit it. At least she was alive. Someone had to die, but at least it wasn't her.
Akane put on a weak smile. "Ranma? You aren't mad at me...are you?"
He turned back to the ocean. "No."
"Ranma...come on, let's talk...I need to talk, y-you need to talk, let's go to the cabin, please Ranma?" he looked back at her, almost surprised she was still there, and her eyes shone with the need.
He sighed. "Fine." his stomach made a noise, "Is there anything to eat in there?"
"Yep. Cooked it myself," obviously a bit more relieved at Ranma's consent, she was smiling genuinely this time. Ranma melted.
"You cooked it? I'm not that hungry!" He joked and braced for the mallet. It never came.
"You jerk," her smile never left her lips as she dragged him towards the cabin. She was behaving a little wierd today.
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"You weren't kidding, you did make this!" Ranma yelped as he eyed the dish of yakisoba in front of him.
Her smile widened. It was great to see Ranma acting so normal after three melancholy days, though, she was a bit angry with him for speaking before even trying the food. "Oh? How'd you guess?"
"Parts of it are still moving!" He looked panicked.
"Well, yeah. The dish called for raw fish, so there they are, see?" She snatched one with her chopsticks and motioned for Ranma to open his mouth, "Come on, you haven't eaten all day I know," she moved the fish closer to Ranma's mouth.
"Eaag! Uh, uh, let's talk, huh? You said you wanted to talk, so let's talk," he pushed the fish back down onto the plate.
Akane held back her initial mallet onslaught with some effort and a scowl. Ranma saw this and backed up just slightly. She decided her cooking wasn't worth alienating Ranma again. "Yeah, Ranma are you upset that you had to kill someone back there?" There was China.
He balked.
"Ranma? Are you?"
He resigned. "Yeah, I ain't supposed to decide things like that, you know? Life and death. I'm nothing but a lousy murderer now," he sounded really depressed.
Without a word she crept up to him on hands and knees. He backed up, but he was in a corner and had nowhere to escape to. She stopped, placing her face inches from his. He was breathing heavy and making sporadic eye contact. She almost let out a laugh.
"Why do you have to be worried all the time?" She said bluntly.
He paused, gathering his thoughts. "Maybe I like being worried."
"That's a shame," she said, getting a little closer, sending Ranma into further fits of hyperventilation.
"W-w-w-why's that?" He stammered.
Her grin broke out, "Because you're really cute when you smile," he froze, absolutely stunned in place and she leaned in and gave him a short kiss. "Gotcha," she said as she left the cabin, closing the door behind her.
He sat staring after her for five minutes before he picked the fish out of the yakisoba and ate it just to see if he was dreaming.
By Relezite
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Author's Note: I've finished the first chapter already, but it might change, either way that'll be up in a couple of days at most.
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Brutal honesty please.
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