Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and Inu-Yasha belong to Takahashi
Rumiko, so don't sue me, please. I need
to go to college.
Journeys Through the Well
The early morning rays played with
the tresses of Kasumi's hair as she began setting the table; her small,
delicate hands moved quickly, yet gracefully, and her soft humming only added a
lyrical tranquility to this moment of time.
Only the small clinks of the dishes disturbed this pocket of peace
before the day commenced.
"RANMA NO
BAKA!"
With those
words, the soft spell woven by the eldest Tendo daughter was broken and the day
began in earnest.
"Geez,
Akane! It wasn't my fault!"
VROOM! A red and black blur ran across the entrance
of the main room and on into the courtyard.
Blue-eyed, black-haired Ranma Saotome, practitioner of the Musabetsu
Kakuto Ryu and considered the best martial artist in Nerima, ran like a pack of
hungry wild cats were after him.
"You can't
use that line on me, Ranma! I caught
you red-handed!"
VOOSH! A blue and yellow blur raced across the same
entrance. Sporting short blue-black
hair, brown eyes, and a massive hammer, Akane Tendo looked ready to murder. Or just pound the brains out of a certain
pig-tailed martial artist.
"Make sure
he can come back in time for breakfast!
Don't hurt him too much, Akane!"
Kasumi waved cheerfully to the departing teenagers. "Oh my.
I'll have to save some breakfast or Saotome –san may eat it all." Humming cheerfully, the girl went back to
creating the fragile air of peace with her simple chores.
Sneaking
furtively from shadow to shadow, the boy gradually made his way across the
street to the Shinto shrine. Hiding
behind a tree, he searched quickly for any sign of his pursuers, then seeing
nothing but a twittering bird, he quickly rushed up the stairs and leapt
through the entrance to sanctuary.
Ranma
breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his brow.
Looking back out at the empty street, he muttered, "Man, what a
pain. Why do I always have to deal with
those idiots every morning?" Rubbing
his head he turned back to stare at the shrine. "Akane didn't have to chase me like that. She didn't even give me a chance to
explai—huh?"
A soft
scratch had caught his attention. He
immediately tensed his muscles and looked around. "Hello? Anyone here? . .
." His eyes roamed the courtyard and he
muttered, "Where's the priest?"
Again the
soft scratching came and Ranma dropped into a defensive stance. He waited a moment and concentrated on the
one who had made the noise. It was
making the fine hairs at the nape of his neck stand, and he knew of only three
things which would make him react that way: Happosai, danger, and cats. He was seriously hoping it was a human
challenge. The lecherous goat,
Happosai, was more welcome than a c-c-c--. . . . A small grunt escaped his lips as the scratching came
closer. He narrowed his eyes to search
the shadows. Perspiration began to form
on his brow as he finally located the aura of the scratcher and his trembling
hands clenched into fists when he realized how small the aura felt. He clenched his eyes shut in an attempt to
calm himself. So engrossed he was in
battling his internal demon, he didn't even register the footsteps of the
person behind him until it was too late.
"There
you are!"
"Ah!" Ranma spun
Akane
gasped, staring at the fist quivering an inch from her face.
Ranma drew
in deep breaths trying to stop his shivering and still his pounding heart. His breathing harsh in his ears, Ranma clenched
his fist even tighter as guilt slowly seeped in, and he took in a shuddering
breath, berating himself for allowing her of all people to catch him
like this.
Meanwhile
Akane just stared at his face. At the
slightly damp forehead, the guarded, wary eyes, and the muscles working in his
jaw. Finally, raising her hands, she
gently placed them on his fist and lowered it.
"It's okay, Ranma. There's
nothing here but you and me."
The
pig-tailed martial-artist slowly lowered his eyes, relaxing his stance
slightly, but catching sight of their joined hands, he blushed and backed away
quickly. Looking up into Akane's
chocolate brown eyes, Ranma found disappointment with a sort of resignation. Lowering his eyes again and placing one hand
behind his head, he stuttered, "A-Akane?
I'm . . . I'm . . ."
"So what's
your excuse this time Ran-ma? How can
you be afraid of a little kitty-cat?"
"N-nani?!" Ranma flushed, 'Why that kawaiikune . .
.' "What are you talking about?!"
"You heard me,"
Akane had her hands on her hips and a slight smirk on her lips. 'Don't turn around, Ranma.'
"Hey! I thought we went through this already! It's not like I asked oyaji to throw
me into that pit, omae kawaiikune otemba!"
"Nani?! Resorting to insults now? Omae hentai! Baka! Hentai
baka! Baka hentai!"
"Oh, who's
resorting to insults, flat-chested, macho onna!
"Grrrrrr! What did you just say?!"
"You heard
me," Ranma was incensed. What was wrong
now! "Not only are you built like a
stick, you have no fashion sense either!"
He finished by waving his hand, indicating Akane's dark blue blouse and
yellow dress.
"Ooo! That does it! RANMA NO BAKA!" The
blue-haired girl buried her fist into Ranma's face with enough force to send
him over the shrine on to the other side.
She hmphed, then glared at the cat sitting on the steps a few feet from
where Ranma had been standing. "This is
all your fault, you know."
The cat
only yawned in response. It stretched
and began to walk around the house.
"Ah!" Akane started after the large cat. "Matte!
Don't go back there! Matte, you
stupid cat!"
She
sprinted around the main shrine, but skidded to a halt and looked around as
soon as she had cleared the corner.
"Where'd it go?" she whispered, "Ranma?" She took a few steps into the back courtyard. It was fairly large with a well tended lawn
and a large go-shinboku, "god-tree," dominating a path which led to a leafy
forest. She saw a large, respectful
house a distance away from the main building, and correctly assumed that it was
the home of the priest who tended the shrine.
Seeing a path which led past the go-shinboku, Akane quickly ran along
trying to find her pig-tailed martial artist before the cat did.
She caught
a glimpse of the cat's tail as it went around a bend in the path. Turning the corner, the blue-haired teen
suddenly came upon a smaller shrine.
The morning sun cast cheery speckles on and around the small building,
but to Akane, none of the beams seemed to touch the minishrine, or more like,
the golden rays were tugged and sucked right into the cracks and fissures of
the wood, casting a shadow which radiated out into the surrounding area. Added to the look of abandoned, menacing
building, was the profusion of forest foliage, and the small shrine looked
almost alive. Akane hesitated.
"Mrow," the
cat scratched at the door of the minishrine.
Hearing a soft thump from inside, Akane ignored her feeling of dread and
hurried to the door to shoo the cat away.
"Go away,
you dumb cat!" she whispered fiercely.
She dared not shout, lest she woke a slumbering spirit. But the impudent cat stretched lazily, then
walked away slowly with its chin and tail up.
The blue-haired teenager sighed exasperatedly. She sniffed, "Careful kitty, or you might find yourself at the
wrong end of my foot."
It just
stared at her over its shoulder, meowed and continued its leisurely stroll.
Akane let
out a pent-up breath, "Oh, I give up!
You're just like Shampoo. Now I
know how she gets her snotty attitude."
She gave an unlady-like snort and slammed the door of the mini-shrine
open forgetting for a moment the feeling of forboding she'd had earlier,
"RANMA!" She took a few steps into the
gloom and let her eues adjust. "Ranma,"
she called out more softly, "Ranma, where are you?"
Akane
stared at the well, which stood at the bottom of the steps. She held a clenched fist to her chest in
sudden fear. There was something . . .
about the well. "R-Ranma? Is that you?" She took a careful step forward and tried to peer into the
gloom. "Ranma."
Her heart was pounding and the air seemed stifled, pressing
on her chest . . . or, more like the air was being pulled from her
lungs, which forced her to pant slightly.
There was definitely something about that well, or something inside
it.
"Ranma?" she called again, "Ranma,
if that's you, please answer me." She
stopped at the top of the stairs, refusing to go any further. "Ranma! If you don't come out right now,
I'll leave. And I won't chase
the cat away this time either!"
"C-c-c-c-caaaaaaaattttttt! AHHHHHHHH!"
The shout had come from behind her.
Ranma had found the cat after all.
"Nani?!" Akane spun around only to face the terrified
and startled blue of Ranma's eyes.
"Ranm—Eeeyaaa!"
The force
of the collision sent both teenagers flying over the stairs and directly into
the well. After the last echoes of
their screams had faded away, only a startled cat was left to listen to the
heavy silence.
"Mrow?"
"Oof!"
"Ah!"
"A-Akane,
ged offa me. You're kinda heavy."
WHAM! "Baka!"
"Itai. . .
."
"You are
such a jerk!"
"Just
statin' the truth, y'know!"
"BAKA!" WHAM!
"Itai. . .
."
Akane got
up and crossed her arms, "I can't believe you!" she looked up, took one leap and was out of
the well. Ranma rubbed the back of his
head, "Man, what an uncute tomboy."
"Ranma!"
"Gack! I didn't do it this time, I swear!"
"Omae
baka! Get up here! There's something wrong!"
"Nani?!"
Responding to the nervousness in his
iinazuke's voice, the teenage martial artist leapt out of the well and landed
in a defensive crouch, expecting a horde of weirdos. Or worse, a new fiancée.
"Eh?" His
face slowly changed from a scowl to slack-jawed confusement, "Akane, there's no
one here."
"I know
that! That's not the point!"
"It's
not? Then, ahh . . . what? . . ."
"Baka! There's nothing here," Akane waved her arms,
"Where's the shrine?"
"Huh,"
Ranma took a good look around, "Where'd all the trees come from?"
They were
surrounded by large trees and dense forest shrubbery. The morning sun shone weakly through the leafy canopy as the
chirps and scratchings of woodland creatures reached the Japanese pair. No trace of the shrine which had had Akane
so unnerved could be found on the hard forest floor, no faint trace of smog and
city could be smelt, and no trace of steel buildings or concrete houses could
be seen. It was just the twittering and
whispers of a giant forest.
"I-I don't
know. I don't remember this many
trees. Or maybe . . . I don't know . .
."
"What?"
"Maybe
there were a lot of trees. Maybe I was
just too busy concentrating on the cat."
Ranma
twitched. He turned to his blue-haired
iinazuke, "Akane."
The
seriousness of his expression and tone had said iinazuke staring at him
expectantly and wringing her hands nervously.
"H-hai?"
"Don't say
that word," Ranma gave a small shudder.
Akane's
face slackened in shock, then she began to tremble. Her voice shook as she spoke, "We're in the middle of some
strange forest, and all you can say is that!" She barely restrained herself from hitting him again. She'd been all ready to listen to any theory
he'd had, that jerk!
"What the
heck am I s'pposed t'say? Gee Akane,
why don't we jump back into the well?
We might find the shrine again, hmm?"
"Something
like that, yes! Here I was, all ready
to take you seriously, and you blow it like every other time!"
Ranma
paused for a moment. But then picked up
steam again, "And what makes you think I wasn't being serious, huh? I still don't want people to say c-c-c . . .
that word!"
"That
wasn't what I meant! Ooo, I give
up!" The blue-haired martial artist
stormed off, "I'll find my own way out!
And don't you dare follow me!"
Ranma
stared at his iinazuke's retreating back, then he glared at her, "Fine! See if I care. Kawaiikune otemba," he muttered.
A block of
wood came flying at his face, "BAKA!" the kawaiikune otemba exclaimed.
After
removing the block, he huffed, "Don't come crying to me, when you run into a
pack of wolves." But he hadn't taken a few
steps before, cursing silently, he turned back in the direction of his iinazuke
and started walking.
The demon
stared after the departing couple, its eyes glowing from under the thick
brush. It flicked its scaly tongue a
few times. Yes. The scent was definitely there. Its scent. The one unique smell that was only its, hanging all over the
boy. The demon flicked its tongue
again. How could the boy have contracted
the curse? The demon certainly didn't
remember him.
It looked
in the opposite direction. The shikon
shard. It was getting further. The demon turned back to the humans. It mentally shrugged. The priestess who carried the shard
eventually came back here anyway. It
had to find out how a human could steal its scent without its knowledge.
It was
towards mid-morning that Akane caught sight of the village. Her breath caught in surprise and she just
stared dumbly at the extremely old-fashioned houses. It looked like a quaint village right out of the history
books. Straw fences, flatboard roofing,
and wooden walls insulated with mud and grass.
She could see holes in the roofs where the smoke from the cookfires
could escape. Many people were
scattered about doing several chores.
Several men were building a new house, while a woman weaved a basket
with dried grass, and farther outside the village, many men and women worked on
paddies of rice. Children ran all over
laughing and playing, or helping their parents with chores. Akane was breathless. When she'd seen the smoke, she'd been
expecting campers or maybe her friend, Ryoga, but this . . . wasn't what she'd
even began to picture. She finally
shrugged, turned back to the forest, and crossed her arms. "Alright, Ranma, come out."
The
pig-tailed youth landed lightly from where he'd been hiding in the trees. 'Boy, her senses sure have gotten better,'
he thought absently. "I wasn't
following you or nuthin', got it? I
just saw the smoke. . . ."
"Sure,
whatever," his blue-haired iinazuke dismissed him by turning back to the
village, "So, what do you think we should do now?" Her brown eyes suddenly softened as she turned back to him,
"Thanks, Ranma."
"Uh . . ."
Ranma's mind suddenly blanked. He hated
when she looked at him like that. He
didn't know how to respond, his tongue felt strangely twisted in his mouth and
his stomach felt like it had sprouted wings and was flapping incessantly. His mouth was so dry he could hardly
swallow. Even then he would have had a
hard time seeing as his throat seemed to have closed up on him, making
swallowing an impossibility and breathing an effort. It made him feel . . . Weak. . . . So he settled for a noncommitive grunt, scowling at himself.
Akane had
noticed the subtle shift in Ranma's mood.
It had gone from defensive to confused to angry. Not positive what the real reason was, but
suspecting it was herself, she lowered her eyes and went back to watching the
village, keeping her face carefully away from Ranma.
After a
moment, Ranma finally replied, "Why don't we just go down there and ask where
we are?"
"Sure."
"And why
no—"
Ranma
blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected
Akane to agree so readily, and so had had a retort ready.
He quickly followed the
short-haired girl when he saw she was leaving him behind and walked silently by
her side, each becoming lost in his and her own thought. Finally Ranma spoke, "So, um, d'you have any
idea where they say we'll be? I don't
remember a forest this large in the Nerima district."
"I don't
know, but I do know we are still in Japan."
"Yeah, but where?"
"Who
knows? With you around, anything
becomes possible."
"Hey! What's that supposed t'mean?!"
The girl
gave her iinazuke a "look."
"Well,
okay, you have a point," he conceded.
"But it ain't all my fault."
"Whatever."
"But it's—"
HYUNG! HYUNG!
Chuk! Chnk!
Two arrows
struck the grounds before their feet or would have been before their feet if
they hadn't leapt back three feet.
"Who goes
there?!"
Ranma and
Akane responded by pulling their defensive postures in even closer and stretching
their senses out further. They heard
the stretch of two more arrows being nocked.
"Answer ye,
our question or leave!"
"We are
unarmed," Ranma yelled back. "I'm
Saotome Ranma and that's Akane."
"Be ye
human or demon?"
"Nani?"
Akane exclaimed, "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course we're human!"
"Then what
business do ye have here?"
"We just
want to ask you some questions," Akane yelled back.
"We're
lost," Ranma explained quickly, "We want to know where we are."
The two
teens heard a whispered conversation, then a person approached them
cautiously. He was young, perhaps a few
years older than the teens. He wore a
rough yukata and carried a long, slim bow in one hand, while a quiver full of
arrows peeked from behind his shoulder.
In the other hand he held an arrow which apparently had been recently
nocked. His apparent weapons, his
expression, his very stance showed his suspicion of the two teens. He stopped quite a distance away in front of
the two and inspected them.
"Ye be not
demons, but what manner of garbs is this?
T'would not be any peasant's garb, aye?
What manner of people wouldst thou be?"
"He sounds
like Kuno, doesn't he, Ranma?" Akane said softly to Ranma.
"Yeah," he
agreed, "D'you think Kuno lived here at one time?" Out loud he called back, "Everyone wears clothes like this where
we're from," he shrugged, "We're just martial artists and a little lost. We were wonderin' if you could tell us where
we were? And how do we get back to
Nerima."
"T'would be
Mushashi's domain you are in.
Unfortunate it is, but I know not about this Nerima you speak of. Mayhaps the Lady Priestess Kaede may help
ye. Mayhaps not. But ye shall come to harm if ye should
deceive this village. We are simple
folk, aye, but we have teeth." Ranma
and Akane looked at the bow and arrows and nodded. The man turned and walked
briskly down the path.
Ranma
looked at Akane, then shrugged and followed the stranger down the dirt
path.
They were
causing quite a sensation. Women
stopped their chores to openly stare.
Children in rough and homemade, but clean, yukatas lined up along the
road to get a look at the strangers in their even stranger clothing, only to be
shooed off by a nearby female, or scooped up and deposited into a house with
stern instructions not to come out until allowed to do so. Men stopped to glare briefly, looking at the
clothing, and muttered about kitsunes.
But throughout all this commotion, Ranma and Akane's guide strided
purposefully forward, sparing nary a glance to the sides.
"Eek!"
Akane had been looking around nervously, especially towards the people who were
glaring, so when she felt the tug on her skirt, she had been quite
startled. She spun and saw a little
girl dance out of reach quickly, giggling behind her small hand.
"Hee,
hee. You're funny," the girl trotted
back and stared up at blue-haired girl, "You're just like Kagome-sama." Her dark hair, pulled back accentuated her
large childishly blue eyes as she continued to study Akane. "Did you come through the well too?"
'What?' Akane crouched down and stared the girl
straight in the eye. She spoke slowly
as if afraid she would scare the little girl off if she spoke too fast. "How did you know about the well?"
The girl
put a finger to her chin and looked as if she was deeply lost in thought,
"Mmm." Finally, smiling mischievously
she replied, "Can't tell you. I haveta
ask Kaede-sama first." She then tilted
her head and studied Akane some more, "But I think it's okay to tell you. You look nice."
Akane
smiled, "Thank-you."
"'Welcome. Now follow me!"
"Ah! Matte!"
Akane looked back over her shoulder and spotting a large crowd huddled
around one of the larger homes in the village, she concluded that that was
where Ranma had gone. Taking one last
look around, and noticing that many of the villagers were paying little or no
attention to her, she took off after the bright-eyed girl.
"Hey,
wait! What's your name?"
"Maya!"
Ranma
stepped inside the doorway after taking his slippers off. He paused a moment to let his eyes adjust to
the dimness of the room and to sense if there was any kind of trap. Not feeling his danger sense go off, he
walked further into the simple, wooden building. A small hearth sat in the middle of the room with a fire blazing
happily and a small pot held high over the flames. The pig-tailed youth sensed more then he saw the old woman who
tended to the pot.
He stopped
a few feet back, getting a feel for the old woman as the guide spoke to her in
soft tones. Although her hair was a
pure snow white, her callused hands did not shake as they crumbled herbs and
dropped them into the pot. He could
feel her ki radiating off her in waves, but even through the large spiritual
energy, Ranma sensed a quiet dignity which spoke volumes about her wisdom, and
demanded respect. A wisdom, Ranma
somehow knew, that had been gained through life's relentless blows and
unexpected losses, but with an iron-hard will and courage to meet those
hardships head on, then to wring every last drop of experience from those harsh
lessons. A strength of spirit as great
as the oceans. Ranma was almost
humbled.
But he was
also on his guard now. A person as
strong as this didn't become so powerful for no reason. She was wise, but it wouldn't mean she was
entirely trustworthy.
Shojinya
bent down to whisper into Kaede's ear.
"Kaede-sama,
we have visitors."
"Hmm." Kaede glanced at the tense pig-tailed
youth. She sensed great spirit in the
boy, but she also sensed a fighting spirit.
One that could not help but draw conflict, and in drawing conflict,
cause much sorrow or faster maturity.
She hoped it was the latter. He
seemed like a likeable young man and reminded her a bit of another.
"They be
not demons, Kaede-sama?" he had meant it to come out as a statement, but
Shojinya did not have the masterful acuity the priestess had for sensing
demons. He had to know.
"Nay, he is
not."
"They claim
to be lost and be looking for a village named, 'Nerima'. Do ye know of this, Kaede-sama?"
"Nay, I do
not," Kaede frowned. "You speak of
'them', yet I see only one. Where is
the other?"
Shojinya
straightened and looked back at the doorway.
"Nani? Where is Saotome-san? Saotome-kun, where is your wife?!"
Kaede saw
the boy's eyes go big as he slightly choked out, "M-m-my what?!" He whipped his head around, eyes wide and
round. "You got it all wrong!"
"Where is
Saotome-san?" An edge of dangerousness entered Shojinya's voice. If these were spies, sent in. . . .
"What? Akane?"
Ranma whipped his head around again.
"Akane! Where is she?"
"That is
what we would like to know, Saotome-kun."
Kaede looked at him levelly from her perch on the ground. He really did look confused, but then spies
had to be perfect actors. She couldn't
be sure. She just couldn't read his ki
that well.
"Saotome-kun,
why don't you stay here, while we find your wife?" Kaede suggested mildly.
"Look,
she's not my wife!" Ranma protested, "But I'm not sittin' here, waiting! I'm gonna go with you!"
Shojinya
glared at Ranma, "We be not giving ye a choice! Do as Kaede-sama says!"
Ranma
narrowed his eyes, "Are you gonna make me?"
Shojinya
glared even more, "If it be so."
"Shojinya!"
The rebuke was mild, but coming from such dignified, such a respected personage
as Kaede, it was ten times worse than a lecture from a parent to a guilty
child. She turned to Ranma with a small
sigh and said gently, but firmly, "I apologize for Motomiya-kun's remark, but,"
her voice lost its gentleness, "you must understand, Saotome-kun, we are only a
village of farmers and on the outskirts of Musashi's domain, only we can defend
ourselves." That and Inu-Yasha, she
added mentally. "So, I must kindly ask
you to stay here, Saotome-kun."
By now,
Ranma had realized, "You think I'm some sort of spy!" He was outraged. His
honor had just been questioned.
But they
just looked at him.
"Fine," he
grumbled, "but if anything, anything, happens to Akane . . ." He finished by cracking his knuckles and
giving a quick flash of his aura.
Shojinya gasped
and took a quick step back, while Kaede looked at the martial artist
calmly.
Even though
every one of her danger sense had just gone off.
Inu-Yasha
looked up from his perch on Kagome's bike, then suddenly leapt off and bounded back
the way they'd come.
"Wha—"
Kagome looked over her shoulders, "Inu-Yasha!
Where do you think you're going!"
"There's
something . . . by the well!"
"What? Hey, wait!
Wait! What do you mean?! Hey!
Arggghhhh! Stupid jerk!"
Kagome
turned her bike a hundred eighty degrees and pedaled after the half-yokai.
"Wonder
what's gotten into him?" Shippo said from his perch on Kagome's shoulder.
"I don't
know, the stupid jerk!"
When she
finally reached the clearing where the well stood, Kagome found Inu-Yasha
sniffing along the edges of the same well.
"Inu-Yasha,
what—"
"Humans,
Kagome. Two of them. They came from the well. And Kagome, there's a demon nearby."
Weeeeeeeellllllllll! Whaddya think? Good? Bad? So-so?
Constructive criticism much needed.
Editor needed even more, but I'll settle for good, good,
criticism. Flames are understandable as
there are juveniles out there and they can't express themselves any other way,
but nice, nice, as in constructive criticisms are very
welcome! Thank-You!
Oh
Yeah! I also happen to be a person who thinks
she can speak Japanese, but I can't. So
I'm asking somebody, anybody, if Shojinya really means "devoted arrow"?
