DISCLAIMER: All characters except for Nayami, who is introduced in later chapters, do not belong to me. *ponders Ryoga's fangs wistfully* Unfortunately. C&C always welcome, feel free to email me at saezuru@hotmail.com if you've got any comments. Thanks for reading!
The Eye of the Beholder
Akane stared at the crumpled, lifeless heap of what had once been her fiancé. "No . . ." she
whispered hoarsely, "No . . . this can't be happening, not now, not after everything . . ." The
tears came suddenly, in a rush of emotion, and she lifted the beloved body to her, cradling it
tenderly. "Ranma!" she sobbed, rocking back and forth slowly. "Ranma, why now? Why? Come
back, don't leave me here! Oh, God, don't leave me here alone . . ."
"Akane! Akane!!" The voice, persistent, obnoxious, and commanding, pulled Akane back away
from the depths of sleep. "What the hell do you think you're doing, makin' noises like that loud
enough to wake the whole household?"
Akane opened her eyes and sat up as she came awake sharply, in time to see Ranma rock quickly
back onto his heels, looking no small amount annoyed . . . and . . . worried, too? Was that a spark
of fear in his eyes? Akane's heart caught in her mouth for a brief moment, and then she scowled
and berated herself, He's right. What the hell am I doing? I must still be caught up in that dream.
Again. She sighed.
Ranma blinked, still in his crouching position. "Eh? What're you cryin' for? I didn't mean to
scare you or nothin'. Hey, stop it."
Crying? Was she crying? Akane reached one hand up to her cheek, where she felt the dampness
of tears. She'd never woken up in tears from that dream before. She'd also never gotten that far
in it, either. She'd had it before-- three times now, to be exact. The first night she'd had it, she'd
seen Ranma die. She'd seen the light fade from his eyes, seen his hand fall from where it was
struggling to reach up to her. She'd woken up in a cold sweat that night. The next night, two
weeks from the first, she'd not only seen him die, but been injured herself by the unknown dream
antagonist and unable to reach him and be with him when he'd died. And tonight . . . tonight,
she'd dragged herself to his side, and cried over his dead body. Yes, the dream-- no, the
nightmare was definitely getting worse each night she had it. "Oh, gomen, Ranma." It was then
that she noticed how close he was crouching to her bed, and close his face was to hers. "Oooooh
. . . Ranma, you idiot!" She lashed out with her fist, but Ranma saw the blow coming and skipped
out of the way. "What do you think you're doing, hmm?"
Ranma glared right back for a good long moment, before crossing his hands behind his head,
shutting his eyes, and turning up his nose away from her. "I ain't doing nothing. You were the
one sobbing and knocking things down and making all the racket. Ano . . . Kasumi sent me in to
see what was wrong with you. Why would I want anything to do with an uncute tomboy like
you?"
*Whaammmm!*
With his eyes closed and speaking out loud, Ranma neither saw nor heard the mallet coming.
Twitching, fingers in the martial arts defeat position, he looked up from the floor to dizzily see
Akane fuming and looking about to explode. "Hehheh . . ." he said, before everything went black
again.
"A dream, huh?" Ranma was perched on the edge of Akane's bed, as he had been for the past few
minutes since he'd come to. Although she was acting fairly normal now, Ranma didn't really want
to push his luck, so he was sitting a good few feet away from her. I've never seen Akane so upset
over such a little thing, Ranma thought, watching the girl speculatively. How could a little
nightmare reduce her to this state?
Akane, head down and hands in her lap, sat a little to the left of Ranma. "Hai," she replied,
sounding almost embarrassed. "This is the third time I've had it, and each time it gets worse. And
longer. And it almost seems to have more detail each time too."
Although Akane sounded pretty normal, Ranma could still detect the little upset quaver in her
voice. "I take it this isn't the normal kind of being-chased-by-a-monster type of dream?" he
asked. And then, aware that he sounded almost sympathetic, he felt compelled to add, "Hey, after
all, a macho girl like you wouldn't start sniveling over a couple of sharp fangs and maybe a pair
of demonic wings or two."
As good as beating up him seemed make her feel, Ranma thought Akane didn't really appear up
to it tonight. Even when she'd malleted him before, it didn't feel like her whole heart was in it.
Ack, what am I thinking? Ranma thought to himself furiously. Am I wishing she'd hit me? I must
be sleep-muddled. Ranma ducked, just in case she swung at him, but she didn't.
Akane smiled faintly. "Shut up, Ranma," she said, before falling silent again. She could see
Ranma staring at her for a good half a minute, before she broke the silence and said thoughtfully,
"But you're right, you know; it wasn't the classic monster nightmare. It was horrible. It-- you--
well, it wasn't very nice." She was not about to tell him that it was about him dying. Especially
after she had woken up in tears. They were just tears of pain, from getting injured by that . . .
that.. Whatever-it-was, dummy! Akane thought to herself furiously, choosing to ignore the fact
that she never really felt physical pain in dreams. Why would I cry over him, anyway? He's just a
dumb egomaniac, obsessed with how wonderful his martial arts skills are. Then, unbidden, came
the slow but persistent thought, Martial arts skills that didn't save him from the anonymous
enemy in my dream . . .
Ranma grimaced, almost in sympathy. "I hate nightmares. I have lots of nightmares about . . ." he
swallowed. "About . . . the Nekoken. About cats." He was having trouble getting out the words.
"Sometimes I'm having one of those dreams where you know it's a dream, and then I'll think I've
woken up, and then a whole bunch of cats come streaming through the doorway and scratch me
and . . . Well, you get the point. Those are worse than any sort of monster nightmare. And
sometimes I have ones about y--" He blinks. "Well, the worst ones are about the cats, anyway."
Why is he telling me this? Akane wondered, missing Ranma's slip entirely. Is he trying to cheer
me up, or something?
"And then sometimes," Ranma continued, because he thought he was being too nice for the
moment, " I have these dreams about this stupid, uncute tomboy that my father is gonna force me
to marry, and she hits me all the time, and does other stupid, macho things."
"Rrrrrrranma!" *Whaammmmmm* For the second time that night, Ranma got himself plastered to
the floor of Akane's room.
"Hehheh . . ." This time, at least, Ranma didn't black out. He hid a smile. "There you go. First
time you hit me, you didn't hit me hard. Well, you did, but you hit me . . . half-heartedly." He
smirked, in that infuriating manner of his. "Thought maybe your macho-ness had died off a bit, or
somethin'."
"You JERK!" *Whaammmmmm*
"You are so uncute!"
"JERK! Ranma, you JERK!"
"Hehheh . . ."
As Kasumi rose in the morning, to begin the day's chores, she noticed something strange. When
she looked into Ranma's room, he wasn't there. She'd awakened the previous night to the sound
of shouting and crashing coming from Akane's room, and gathered that Ranma and Akane were
having another of their "affectionate quarrels" as Kasumi preferred to call them. That was so
much nicer-sounding than "Ranma insults Akane and Akane beats him up." However, since
Ranma wasn't in his room where he usually was, sprawled out and fast asleep, she began to get
worried. She went down the hallway and around the corner, stopped short, and then smiled to
herself. Ranma was asleep, sitting up against Akane's door, looking almost as if he were guarding
it. He had several bruises on his face, in distinctly mallet-like shapes, but he had a smirk on his
face. Kasumi almost woke him up, because he looked quite uncomfortable in that position, but
decided against it and continued about her morning routine, humming a cheerful tune under her
breath.
Later that morning, Ranma came down with his hands in his pockets and feeling stiff and irritable.
He looked carefully and suspiciously at Kasumi as she bustled around the kitchen, making sure
she hadn't seen him sleeping outside Akane's room; no, she didn't look smug or knowing at all.
She hadn't seen him. He let out a breath of relief, a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
Good. At least she doesn't know about it. To tell the truth, he was somewhat embarrassed. He
still didn't know quite what he was doing there. He had a vague recollection of leaving Akane's
room once she had gotten tired of beating him up, but he remembered catching a fleeting glimpse
of a lost, alone, scared expression on her face. So he must have decided instinctively to camp
outside her door. She was still scared from her nightmare, Ranma thought to himself. I guess I
just felt obligated to make sure she didn't wake up the whole household by crying out loud again
and tossing in her sleep. Ranma snorted. For all that she's an uncute tomboy, she still acts like a
girl sometimes. She looked really scared. I hope she didn't have any more nightmares . . .
"Ranma?"
Ranma blinked as his thought process was interrupted, and then saw who was talking to him.
"Oh, Kasumi. Morning."
Kasumi smiled. "You're up early this morning. The others usually don't wake up until later, and I
especially think Akane will sleep for a while longer. She had a rough night."
Ranma started at this last statement, but read no hint of malice or amusement in Kasumi's eyes.
Damn, thought Ranma. She's either truly innocent and didn't see me-- or she's really good.
Ranma laughed, a little nervously. "Yeah, I heard her tossing and stuff."
Kasumi's brow wrinkled slightly in a worried frown. "I should have sent you to go check on her.
I think something's been bothering her sleep lately. She's been tossing and turning a lot."
Ranma took a deep breath, hoping that Kasumi wouldn't mention anything in front of Akane.
Akane still believed Kasumi had sent Ranma in to check on her, and had no idea that Ranma had
actually come of his own accord to find out what was wrong with the girl. "Heh, well, she's
probably fine. Hey, what's for breakfast this morning?"
If Kasumi noticed the blatant change of subject, she didn't show it. "I don't know yet. I'm going
to head down to the market in a little bit to find something that looks good. And then I need to
stop by Dr. Tofu's to give him the breakfast I made him." She covered her mouth with one hand,
as if to hide a girlish giggle. "He's such a silly man!" And then Kasumi was gone, into the kitchen.
A few moments later, he heard the front door close quietly and heard footsteps going out towards
the street.
Ranma rolled his eyes. One of these days, Kasumi was going to realize that Dr. Tofu loved her.
One of these days . . .
"Morning, Ranma."
Again? Why was it always when he was trying to think? "Morning, Nabiki. You're up early."
Nabiki smirked. "And you aren't? Anyway, I didn't sleep too well. Something woke me up in the
middle of the night." She shrugged. "Anyway, bye." And she started out the door.
"Where are you going?" Ranma asked suspiciously. When Nabiki left in the morning, you knew
there was something fishy going on.
"Oh, places to go, people to see." Nabiki flashed him that smug smile again, and then she too was
hurrying out of the door.
"People to see? More like swindle," Ranma muttered under his breath. Oh well, it's better than
having her here where she could stir up some sort of mischief. Making money off people at least
keeps her too busy to meddle all the time with me and Aka--
*THUMP*
The noise startled Ranma out of his contemplations, and he hurried around the corner to see what
had happened. Passing Akane's open door, he peered in by chance. Akane was lying face down
on the floor, her legs tangled in her sheets.
What the . . . "Akane, what the hell're you doin'?" Ranma crossed his arms in front of his chest,
looking down at the motionless girl.
Akane lifted her head. Her eyes were frightened, almost shocked. She opened her mouth, but no
sound came out.
Ranma blinked in surprise at the tomboy's expression. He'd expected embarrassment at falling
out of bed, or possibly anger that he looked into her room, but not fear. He crouched down so he
wasn't towering over her. "Another nightmare?" he asked quietly.
Akane nodded, still silent. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Akane suddenly
scrambled to her feet, catching her balance after tripping over the bed sheets, and ran out into the
hallway before Ranma could react. He heard the sound of running water, then a splash, and gasp.
Ranma reached the bathroom door to see Akane standing in a puddle of water and holding a
bucket in one limp hand, soaked to the skin and shivering, but with an expression of profoundest
relief on her face. "Thank God," she was muttering. "It didn't work . . ."
Ranma was by this point quite baffled. "Okay. WHAT is going on??" He demanded, standing in
the doorway.
Akane turned to him with a shaky expression. "I had a nightmare that I'd somehow wandered off,
and ended up at Jusenkyö. Somebody came along, the same somebody that killed-- well, this
anonymous person has been in my dreams before. Anyway, this person came along and pushed
me off a cliff, and I landed in . . . in . . ." Here she couldn't manage to get out the words. Finally
after a few seconds of failed attempts, she blurted out, "I landed in the spring of drowned boy!"
Ranma blinked, letting this information soak in. Then, after a few moments where he looked like
he was going to be angry or sad or both, he burst out laughing. "And then you just had to go
dunk yourself in cold water to make sure you weren't really cursed, am I right?" And he started
laughing again, even harder.
Akane nodded, watching Ranma with a small amount of awe. He almost never laughed that much.
He was actually kind of cute when he was doubled over with laughter . . . Akane quelled that
thought before it had time to take root. I think maybe these dreams are affecting me more than I
thought. They're even making me see Ranma differently. The ones that showed him dead made
me want to make sure he was really still here. And this new one made me look at his curse in an
entirely new light. It may be funny to me, and to the others, but it's not a laughing matter to him
. . . "Um, Ranma? You okay?"
Ranma held up a hand, to signal for her to wait until he could speak again. "Ohhh, that's just too
rich, Akane!" he said between little burbles of laughter, as soon as he got control of himself
again.
Akane scowled. "Well, it was scary while I was living it! You of all people should know what a
nightmare it can be, and how disgusting it is!
Rama's grin faded slightly, until it had an almost fake quality to it. "Yes. I do know. Thanks oh-so-much for reminding me." And he turned and left the doorway.
Akane blinked. Whoops, she thought. Guess that was hitting a little below the belt. Maybe I
should let him cool down a little. But . . . Against her better judgement, she followed the young
martial artist to the porch and sat down next to him. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she
just sat there.
After a while of gathering her dignity, she said, "Look, I didn't mean to--"
At the same time, Ranma said, "I shouldn't have--"
They turned to look at each other, neither saying anything, waiting for the other to go ahead. Is
he going to apologize? Akane thought as she held her breath. Ranma never apologizes. And this
time, he actually doesn't have anything to apologize about.
After several moments, Ranma thought to himself, Jeeze, was she going to apologize? She never
apologizes. Well, she doesn't appear about to do anything now. Ranma stood up, saying, "Never
mind, it's not important. I hope Kasumi gets back soon. She went to the market before you woke
up to get something for breakfast."
At that moment, something whizzed by on the street. Ranma and Akane glanced at each other,
puzzled, and then at the street. They hurried over in time to see the retreating form of Dr. Tofu,
running down the street with Betsy the skeleton on his back. Ranma groaned inwardly, and said,
"Well, Kasumi should get back any minute now, if Dr. Tofu's run around to this side of town
already."
Akane smiled and nodded, glad to see Ranma acting normally again. "I hope so. My stomach's
empty from all that tossing and turning. And if she doesn't get back soon, we'll be late for school
as usual."
When Kasumi did return, she apologized profusely for having taken so long. The baker at the
market, a plump, jolly old man, loved to try to sell her more than she needed, and those
fishmongers were back again, blocking the walkways so the whole market was backed up and
congested . . . The explanations and excuses were uttered in such a remorseful, flustered tone that
no one really thought to doubt her, though Ranma did have to restrain snide comments about her
spending the time at Dr. Tofu's clinic. She hurriedly made up their lunches and cooked up
leftovers for breakfast, and then Ranma and Akane were out the door.
The walk to school was surprisingly uneventful for the first half. Then, feeling that the day wasn't
really properly starting without being pounded a couple times, Ranma said, "Funny, Shampoo
hasn't come yet today to try to give me some potion, or run you over, or somethin' like that."
Akane looked up at the pig-tailed boy, eyes narrowing. "Do you miss her, or something, Ranma?"
Ranma swallowed. He never said anything right. "Noooo. It just doesn't feel right without her
interrupting our walk to school some way or another."
*SPLASH!*
Akane sniffed and continued walking, leaving Ranma-chan sitting in the puddle of water that
Akane had kicked her into. "What'd you do THAT for?" Ranma-chan demanded angrily. "If you
just had to kick me, couldn't you just kick me and settle for that? Now I'm going to have to find
some hot water before school starts." She scowled at Akane, wishing for once that Akane would
understand that she didn't really mean to hurt her feelings.
"Shut up, Ranma," Akane said through gritted teeth, speeding up slightly.
Ranma scrambled to her feet, hurrying after Akane. "Hey, wait! I need to find some hot water
before we get too close to school, or else--"
"Pig-tailed girl! And Akane Tendo! My loves!"
Ranma groaned. "Too late." Automatically, she reached up with a fist that caught Kuno in the
jaw squarely as he leaned over to 'embrace his love'.
"Such spirit! Such beauty, like the tigress on the hunt!" Again Kuno tried to grab Ranma, but this
time Ranma kicked him, hard, sending him over the roofs of the next few houses. "Go away,
Kuno, and leave me alone!" Now, not only was Ranma cold, wet, and hungry from no breakfast,
and a girl, but she was also really, really annoyed. Some of that must of shown in her face,
because even Akane backed up a pace.
"Er, Ranma . . . How about we find that hot water now?" she asked, wincing when Ranma turned
her fuming countenance upon her. But then Ranma relaxed, and nodded. "Yeah," she said.
"Sounds good."
When they finally reached the school, got yelled at by the home room teacher (who was teaching
the class something about mythology, or some nonsense like that), and were sent out to hold
buckets of water in the hallway, Ranma was not in a good mood. They had looked through half of
Nerima, but no one seemed inclined to heat up a kettle of water for a red-headed, loud-mouthed
girl in guy's clothing, who wanted to dump it over her head. Eventually, a woman had leaned out
of her third-floor window and dumped out a basin of dishwater, still warm, and it had inevitably
landed on Ranma. So now Ranma smelled like last-night's leftovers, on top of everything else
that had happened already. Ranma could feel himself starting to get angry at just about everything
in general, but tightened his grip on the bucket and swallowed that anger. After all, this happened
to him in some form or another every morning. He sighed, and glanced at Akane out of the corner
of his eye. She looked ticked off about something, refusing to look at him, but that was usual,
too. Ranma was just about to make a derogatory remark to Akane, when his brain caught up to
what he could dimly hear the teacher saying, in the classroom.
". . . which was laughed at, of course. But Miyake continued trying to persuade citizens of what
had happened, and he eventually found a younger man, who's name was unkown, who was
willing to believe him. In Miyake's diary, he mentions something about the young man wanting a
cure for some sort of curse. However, this doesn't appear in the diary at all later, which is why it
is generally believed that . . ."
Ranma felt his heartbeat quicken. A cure for a curse? Could it possibly cure his curse, whatever
this was? He leaned closer to the door, in order to hear better.
"Together, the pair set out for Hontou no Shiryoku no Yamá. Miyake's diary ends two days
before they would have reached the summit of the mountain, and he was never heard from again.
Miyake's partner returned, but seemed to have no memory of Miyake whatsoever. He did
remember the mountain, dimly, and claimed that he had found what he sought, but no more. The
myth of Hontou no Shiryoku no Yamá is that any man who goes there will face many difficult
trials, but that if he passes them, he will be seen by others as he wants to be seen. That is, he can
be seen as young, rich, and handsome, for example. When asked, the young man also refused to
say anything about the so-called "curse" he supposedly had. Now, if you all turn to page two-hundred thirty-six in your textbooks, you'll find a picture . . ."
Ranma's mind was meanwhile racing. Hontou no Shiryoku no Yamá . . . A mountain of true
sight? If this Miyake's anonymous partner could beat whatever trials were on this mountain, he
certainly could. It sounded as if the young man might have had a Jusenkyö curse as well, and that
he was cured when he returned. It was all Ranma could do not to drop the buckets he was
holding and race off to wherever this mountain was. If there was even the slightest chance that
this place held a cure for his curse, he'd take it. Now, if he could just find a map to this place, he
could slip out in the middle of the night and-- Ranma's thought process dwindled into a little
trickle, as he felt a well-known Kari-ki building to his right.
"I SAID, we're done holding buckets, Ranma! We're allowed back in. Honestly, can't you stop
daydreaming for two seconds?" Akane stormed back into the home room, leaving Ranma blinking
in her wake. Ranma set down the buckets and followed her, looking so distracted and
preoccupied to the whole class, who wondered just what had happened to him in the hallway. The
guys in the class starting to get a little steamed, while the girls elbowed each other in the sides and
whispered behind their hands, giggling as they gave Akane envious side-long glances. But that
happened every day too, so Ranma ignored them as he slid into his seat.
"Dammit! Why do I always get lost when I'm trying to get back to Akane? Who knows what
Ranma's doing to her poor, innocent heart right now!" *CRASH* Another poor, innocent tree's
life was snuffed out as Ryoga's fist smashed it into firewood. Ryoga had somehow managed to
get onto a ship that took him back to Japan from China, where he'd wandered, but couldn't for
the life of him find a way back to Tokyo from here. He'd passed the same village three times
now; at least this was a part of the forest he hadn't seen before.
"Curse you, Saotome . . . I can't leave you alone with Akane, not for an instant!" Ryoga had a
horrible vision of Ranma beating Akane . . . no, forcing her to . . . no, he was . . . oh, it was too
horrible! Ryoga lashed out with his foot, knocking an unoffending branch off a nearby tree. "Who
knows what he could be doing to her! Saotome, may you burn in hell for this!"
Akane frowned. Ranma was awfully eager to get home today; usually, he was lazy and bored-sounding, but now he was all but dragging her down the sidewalk.
"Come on, can't a tomboy like you walk any faster?"
Akane's eyes narrowed, but she ignored the insult. "Why are you in such a hurry anyway, hmm?"
Ranma grinned at her, a sign that he was up to something. "Nothing. Ano . . . I'm just hungry.
And I want to get some sparring in with pop before he gets too wrapped up in his afternoon shoji
game."
Akane glared at him for a few more moments, but quickened her pace despite the feeling nagging
at her that Ranma was hiding something from her.
When they reached the dojo, Ranma raced up the stairs, leaving a smoke-trail and a blinking
Akane behind him. She heard the sound of him flopping down onto the floor, and then rummaging
through something. Akane routinely called out, "Kasumi, we're home!" before she curiously
followed Ranma up the stairs and poked her head into his room, to see him intently leafing
through one of the class textbooks. She felt her face heating up and said angrily, "Did you steal
that from the school, Ranma?"
Ranma jumped and looked around, with wide eyes. "Jeeze, Akane, don't do that to me!"
Akane crossed her arms and tapped one foot against the wooden floor. "Well? Did you?"
Ranma looked puzzled. "Did I what? I didn't do nothin', honest!"
Akane narrowed her eyes. "For the last time, did you or didn't you steal that textbook from
school?"
Ranma looked down at the book in his lap as if he'd never seen it before. "What, this? No, of
course not! I was just . . . ano . . . I was just borrowing it for a while! Heha . . . Ha . . . Ahem."
Not amused in the slightest, Akane took a few menacing steps towards Ranma, into his room.
"And tell me, Ranma, just why did you 'borrow' the book?"
"I, um, I . . . Hey, why do you get to tell me what to do? Why do I have to explain my every
move to you? It's not like you're my wife, or anything!" Ranma paused. Maybe that wasn't the
best choice of words. They were fiances, after all . . .
"Is that so?!" Akane shouted, eyes blazing and hair beginning to raise.
"That is sooo so!"
"You're such a jerk, Ranma!"
"And you're nothing but a macho jock chick, so nyaa!"
"Shut up, pervert!"
"You are SO uncute!"
"I said, shut UP!"
Downstairs, Genma-panda and Soun look up at the ceiling, where various thudding and crashing
noises, mingled with muffled shouts and curses were coming in abundance. As one, they sighed.
"Some day, Genma, some day . . ."
Genma-panda nodded and held up a sign. [Yes. This fighting is all pretend, though. I'm glad to
hear them fight, sometimes.] While Soun was reading the sign, Genma-panda's free paw was busy
flipping over the shoji pieces. That was the good thing about not being able to speak-- while your
opponent was busy reading your sign-language, you could move all the pieces you wanted.
Late that night, or possibly early the next morning, a young calico cat was sitting at the base of
the fence surrounding the Tendo Dojo. Though the cat didn't really care, she impassively noticed
a dark, silent figure slipping out of the door of the Tendo's house, carrying a pack. The figure
darted up to the roof, using the fence as a step and paused there, glancing around itself to make
sure no one was watching it. A slow smile spread over its face. "Feh," it could be heard to
whisper. "No one would be awake now, anyway. Dunno why I'm so worried someone'll see me."
On a whim, the form glanced in at one of the windows. For a moment, the expression on the
figure's shadowy face was soft, but then it sniffed and whispered fiercely, "She's so uncute!" And
then, in a blur of movement and a flash of red, the figure had leaped off the roof to the neighbor's
roof, and disappeared along the roofs of Nerima. It was carrying a mythology textbook under its
arm.
The cat lazily blinked her gleaming green eyes once and then went back to cleaning her forepaw.
The Eye of the Beholder, by Tori-chan: email me at saezuru@hotmail.com