I do not own Ranma ½
Ryoga awoke, or maybe he had never truly been asleep, but had just regained his awareness. It was difficult for him to tell. He was walking, probably; in the years of being lost, always traveling and on the move, walking had become an almost involuntary muscle movement for Ryoga. Other people breathed and pumped blood without thought, Ryoga walked.
Ryoga wasn't entirely sure he was walking due to the fact that his entire body was numb, a numbness which transcended a limb falling asleep due to blood flow interruption. No this sense of not being able to feel, it seemed to originate from his soul and was so profound, it affected his physical body.
Ryoga was numb, and he was numb to the fact that he was numb. He didn't care if he was walking, where he was walking, whether it was night or day, or even if he were awake and dreaming, or dead and remembering.
Nothing mattered to Ryoga; he had left behind any sense of feeling, of emotion. He wasn't sad or depressed, he wasn't angry or vengeful, and he definitely was not happy or even cheerful, he was simply exhausted, too exhausted to feel anything.
Dimly and slowly some physical sense of feeling returned, and Ryoga found out that he was indeed walking, at least if the frequent tripping over unseen rocks and roots, as well as the even more common bouncing off trees was any indication of movement. Ryoga wondered abstractly how long he had been walking. Had it been for minutes, hours, days? Without any visual references, Ryoga was dependent upon his other senses to determine the passage of time, how often he slept, how many times he became hungry, and the temperature of the sun on his skin versus the coldness of the moon.
Without these however, lost to his numbness and his noninterest, Ryoga was unable to gauge the length of time, whether he had been walking a few minutes, or an eternity. To Ryoga, time had lost its meaning, he simply walked on, lost in a Sisyphean drudge, finding a numbing and cold comfort in the abstract knowledge that he had just finished a terrible ordeal, and when he came fully to his senses, when he had finished walking back down the hill, the only thing waiting for him was another terrible ordeal, but right at that moment, lost in his numbness, perhaps he was the closest he would ever be to being happy.
Ryoga dimly was aware of this, and as the numbness slowly left his body and his mind, he struggled every second in hopes it would last longer. Every nerve ending which began to scream out in pain of being overused, first to expel vast amounts of energy in a shi-shi-hokodan, then demanded without respite to continue to move for who knows how long, was an indicator that Ryoga was returning to Earth. He knew that once he could entirely feel again, what little comfort he had found in the numbness, the absence of feeling would be washed away in the waves of pain, anger, depression, and fear.
But time, that imperfect healer which only scabs the deepest of scars, it would not allow Ryoga his respite for long. After a time, every step became an agony, every tree he came into contact with became courser and more painful, every stumble became a little longer; until his foot caught a root, and Ryoga's body decided that it had gone far enough.
Ryoga crashed to the ground, the fallen leaves from seasons past making a poor cushion for the hard soil below. With the impact, Ryoga became fully aware once more. Aware that he was cold, alone, and blind; aware that he was lost and for the first time in years that scared him; aware that he was crying, and had been for some time.
He dug his fingers into the ground in pain and frustration. His whole body was in fiery pain, but such excruciating misery paled in comparison to the agony of his mind. As if to provide a coup de grace to any vestiges of Ryoga's happiness or contentment, the first drops of rain began to fall through the leaves of the forest he was prostrate in. They went unnoticed by Ryoga until the rainfall had increased in density to the point where it was pounding down with near sleet like intensity.
Ryoga's transformation was triggered, and while his skin, muscles, and bones shrank and realigned themselves, he allowed the brief intensification of pain to overwhelm him and returned to unconsciousness once more.
Hours later when he awoke, the rain was still pounding down, with only a minor lessening in intensity. His prison of soaked clothing had been in the rain too long and had become saturated to the point they provided no real protection, only the added unpleasantness of a heavy weight bearing down on the small piglet.
Ryoga considered leaving his pile of clothes for a moment, but quickly discarded the idea. While being stuck under them was unpleasant, he was a powerless animal in the wild suffering from a directionally challenging curse compounded by the addition of being blind. He was terrified that if he abandoned his clothes, within minutes his Hibiki nature would kick in and he would be nothing more than a wandering and weak meal.
An eternity later the rain decreased to a trickle, then ended completely, only the occasional drop of accumulated water from the leaves of the trees making a sound in the freshly washed forest.
Ryoga waited a few more minutes, thinking of all sorts of unpleasant ways for him to die if he was unable to somehow transform back into his human form. There was the obvious being eaten by something larger; baring that there was the possibility of starvation, or even dehydration; but the one which Ryoga feared the most for some reason, was tumbling off some sort of precipice and dying of the bludgeoning fall that would result from it.
He had come to the conclusion that so long as he remained a pig, there was about zero possibility of his survival. So screwing up his courage, and moving as slowly as possible in order to minimize the possibility of becoming lost, Ryoga maneuvered himself out of his clothes, and over to his backpack.
Being a victim of Jusenkyo, Ryoga never went anywhere without at least one thermos of hot water in his pack. Of course he had last stocked his supplies, including his hot water, several days ago, and there was likely no way that the water was still warm enough to trigger his transformation, but even the slimmest of hopes was better than the surety of his demise if he stayed as he was.
Sniffing around his backpack, always with some part of his body pressed against it in order to make sure he didn't get separated from it; Ryoga eventually located the exterior pocket which he kept his water supply in.
Lacking thumbs or even fingers for that matter, the button holding the flap covering the pocket closed was impossible for him to easily open. For several long minutes Ryoga tried to tease the flap one way and then the next with his teeth. But he had purchased the pack long ago based upon its reliability and ruggedness so the material refused to budge. Growling in frustration, Ryoga grabbed a mouthful of the pocket, feeling the cold metal cylinder inside rolling around, and jerked his head from side to side. With one final frantic jerk, Ryoga heard a loud and ragged tear as the wet material finally gave way.
The cold metal thermos slipped out of the pack and bounced off the ground, rolling a few inches away. Ryoga sniffed it until he found the thin line of separation where the cap and the body of the thermos met. He pawed at it with his front hoof, which resulted only in the thermos rolling a few more inches away. He then tried to bite on the cap, but the stainless steel thermos proved to be too frictionless for him to get a good purchase on it.
Running out of ideas, Ryoga reared up on his hind legs and brought his weight down on his front hoofs, hopefully near where the split was. This finally overcame the friction of the cap, and allowed for the separation to increase to an inch in length. This was enough for Ryoga to finish the job with his snout.
With the cap finally off, Ryoga was faced with one final obstacle, the plastic screw top which had been lightly but firmly put in place while he was human, was now sealed tighter than a bank vault. He tried to turn it using his mouth, but only succeeded in putting shallow scratches in the plastic with his teeth as the entire thermos rotated. Ryoga then tried to put his body weight on the metal portion of the thermos and turn the plug, this proved equally ineffective.
He struggled for the next hour attempting to open the thermos, until his teeth were bloody, and in the case of one of his molars, broken. Finally, the plastic screw broke loose and after that it was a relatively easy process to remove it entirely.
As the last threads cleared the thermos, water rushed out and over the piggish face of Ryoga, ice cold water. The slim chance, his final chance, had failed him. This caused Ryoga to become very depressed, he had until that time been able to use the tasks before him to block out the majority of his issues, but this turn of events caused all the stressors in his life to come crashing down upon him. Once again a purplish aura began to surround Ryoga, although one much smaller due to his porcine stature and his weakened condition.
His situation, the amount of effort he had just gone through for no purpose, his failures as a fighter, and as a human being, all rushed down upon Ryoga, his depression fueling a shi-shi-hokodan and warming up the surrounding area. With a sudden explosion, the little amount of water still in the thermos exploded in a near steam state.
The boiling water covered Ryoga and in a moment he regained his human form. For the first time since he had heard Kasumi's kind voice offering him support, Ryoga felt that things were becoming better. Minutely of course, but at least his situation was not as dire as it had been a few minutes previously.
Deciding that he did not wish to be dependent any further on natures capriciousness, Ryoga started to try and some sort of shelter. He gathered up his clothes and quickly put on his pants, socks, and shoes. They were soaked through, but they were better than blindly stumbling barefoot and blind through a forest. He wrung out his shirt and put it on as well, but after noticing that the neck was much too tight, turned it around and put it on properly.
Ryoga picked up his thermos, but it had been subjected to too much abuse, first via his teeth and then by exploding, for it to be of any real further use. He discarded it, and then picked up his backpack, securing it to his back before starting out in a random direction.
After about the tenth tree, Ryoga began to walk with his arms out in front of him, and after about the ninth root, he took very short and hesitant steps. This reduced his usual travel time vastly, but somehow, possibly owing to some sort of affinity to rock, after only two hours of effort, Ryoga found himself in a mountain valley. Of course he didn't realize it, save for the lessening of trees in his way, and an increase in the amount of rocks he stumbled over.
Distantly Ryoga heard the sound of thunder, and he became a little more frantic in his movements, hoping against hope that there was not another rainstorm on the horizon. His foot caught on a rock and he went tumbling to the ground again, however this time he kept falling well past the point he should have impacted the ground. He hit some sort of ramp rather hard, and slid down it a few feet, disrupting some small rocks which bounced down the slope with him.
Ryoga climbed to his feet, finding the ground to be much less obstructed than he was used to. His walked for a little distance, and finally as the sound of thunder and rain came from the direction he came from, he noticed that the sounds echoed from all directions around him. He had done it; he was safe in a cave from the elements.
Meanwhile Kasumi was quite concerned. When she had found Ryoga, he had been in a rather disheveled condition; his clothes had been torn and stained with blood as well as dirt and other grime. While there had been a few times when Kasumi had seen the boy in worse condition, usually he seemed to be at least somewhat concerned about his appearance. But this time he had seemed to be in a daze, wandering down the sidewalk as if a stranger in a familiar place.
She had called out to him almost involuntarily, her instincts telling her that there was something wrong with the boy, and that if there was any way she could assist him, somehow lessen his pain, she should do it. Then she found out about his injury, and her heart truly went out to him.
Kasumi knew that Ryoga had a difficult life, the fact he was always lost balanced out minutely in her opinion by his ability to travel where he wanted with no real restrictions or obligations. While cleaning she had often come across the gifts that Ryoga had left for Akane, carelessly misplaced by her younger sister, and had often fantasized about the places of their origin. Buying the miniature of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, purchasing the jewelry made of Venetian glass in Venice, acquiring the Matryoshka doll in Moscow. Whenever she had come across such priceless trinkets, Kasumi had felt a twinge of jealousy that someone could be free enough to be able to globetrot.
But such envy was minute and very short-lived when she considered the burden Ryoga had to bear in order to be so carefree. He had no responsibilities, no obligations to be sure, but he also had no real contact with his family, no real home, and a very informal education at best. Now with the added weight of having to be blind, no matter how temporary the condition was, all the troubles which plagued Ryoga were multiplied.
After their trip to the emergency room, and his abrupt departure, Kasumi had searched for several hours for Ryoga, but while his trail of destruction had been relatively easy to follow, it had abruptly ended as if the boy had disappeared from the face of the Earth. Kasumi had given up the search at that point and had returned to the Tendo Dojo, just as darkness was falling, and had been at the gate when she witnessed the massive display of depression which Ryoga had permanently engraved in the night sky.
Feeling deeply saddened for the lost boy, Kasumi had entered the house, and had found that while the inhabitants were curious as to her whereabouts, owing to the convenience of delivery, they had averted the worst of the consequences of her absence.
The Tendos and the Saotome families had just finished their meal when Kasumi entered, and the worried frown on Soun's face quickly transformed into relief when he once again beheld his eldest child.
"Kasumi there you are! We were beginning to worry, a few minutes longer and I would have started the search for you. Next time you plan to be out so late, you should call ahead young lady."
Kasumi was abashed at her father's well intended criticism, and apologetically replied, "I'm sorry father, but I meet Ryoga while I was out running errands …"
Ranma looked up quickly from the remnants of his meal, "Ryoga! You should be more careful than to follow him around, it's a miracle you got back here at all."
"Oh well, actually it was the opposite," Kasumi replied, "Ryoga was following me, you see he was in a fight, with Kodachi I believe, and during the fight, his eyesight was damaged. So I took him to the local hospital where unfortunately they weren't able to do anything for him right now, but have scheduled tests in two weeks to better assess his injury."
The news was received with varying degrees of interest by the family; Mr. Saotome ignored what was being said in favor of stealing the last grains of rice from Ranma's plate, Mr. Tendo was on the verge of tears over how saint-like his daughter had become, Nabiki listened with half an ear, more interested in the television she had turned on after diner, while Ranma and Akane seemed to pay the most attention.
"Unfortunately, Ryoga left soon after we finished at the hospital, and I think the poor boy got lost." Kasumi continued, "He must have felt very bad about that, because he seems to have just put a hole in the moon."
Once Kasumi mentioned that part of the story, she had the attention of everyone at the table. They all turned to regard her with wooden, disbelieving expressions. Kasumi in turn wasn't entirely sure what she had said which was so strange, and started to become self conscious under the intense scrutiny of the rest of the room.
"Kasumi dear," Mr. Tendo said, "did you just say that Hibiki boy damaged the moon?"
"Yes father, I believe he did that one chi attack of his which uses his depressive energy … I always thought that it seemed rather unhealthy to focus on such negative thoughts personally, but…"
Kasumi trailed off as everyone else in the room suddenly ran out into the backyard to verify for themselves that while the moon was full, there was now a crescent piece missing from it.
Ranma turned to Kasumi with one of the most serious expressions he had ever shown the girl on his face. "You said you saw where the blast originated from?"
Kasumi walked out of the house to join the rest of the family. "Yes," she replied, pointing to the west, "it came from that direction."
Ranma turned to the two fathers who were still staring into space dazedly, "If Ryoga did do that, then I'm afraid of what it did to him. If he isn't dead, then he probably is wishing he was. I'm going to go look for him." With that, the young martial artist leapt to the roof, and began to travel in his own way in the direction Kasumi had indicated.
The two fathers continued to stare at the moon, muttering something about monstrous amounts of power.
Nabiki had returned to the living room and had changed the channel to the local news, where they talking animatedly about the mysterious damage to the moon and the local countryside, with several references to U.F.O.s and aliens.
Akane looked after the retreating Ranma and said, "Oh I hope Ranma finds him, and I hope Ryoga's okay…"
Kasumi turned to follow Akane's gaze as Ranma disappeared into the distance. "I hope so too Akane. I hope so too."
Yes I did steal a line from the movie Johnny Got His Gun. I regret nothing.
