"We Are the Palace Guards"- a Ranma 1/2 alternate-verse fic. RanxAka. other pairings not yet decided. rated T for violence and suggestive themes (which I'll put in at some point). its genre was hard to list since it has characteristics of a few, so I put it under general until I find a proper one (or not). listed under Ranma and Akane because they are the main couple.
summary: The setting is in the past. The Ranma cast are palace guards. Beware: more serious than funny. Character personalities changed. RanxAka. others not yet decided (as stated above).
disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Ranma 1/2. And it's a good thing I don't because I'd mess it up anyway. :)
so far: elite guards of the East (Ranma, Ryoga, Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo, Mousse, Kodachi) leave the castle and decide go separate ways until a new lord is found
-2-
Chapter Two: Ryoga's Journey
Ryoga, heavy hearted, was traveling on the long, empty road to the northeast region. Thankfully, it was all farmland and wilderness, so there was no castle or lord to rule over the land. It was the perfect place to get away from all that reminded him of what he had just left- willingly.
He hung his head in shame. He really shouldn't be thinking like that. What else could he have done? Ranma had given them a chance to voice their opinions, but Ryoga hadn't realized exactly how much he'd miss them all so soon into his journey. And he trusted his captain, correction, former captain, to make the best decision for them, to keep them all safe- or as safe as possible in a world such as this. Not even Ranma could be everywhere at once or do everything.
Depression weighing heavily on his heart, the infamous "Power Guard" of the elite guard of Castle of the East, Ryoga Hibiki (whose last name was known only to him for security purposes and because Ranma had said that it made him slightly harder to track- and every little bit helped when it came to staying invisible to enemy eyes) wanted to do nothing more than to crawl under a rock somewhere and die. It was pathetic how sad and mopey he was now, he thought to himself. He was so distracted that he almost didn't notice his surroundings and barely avoided taking a wrong turn in the road, which would of led him (eventually) to the region of the North.
Ryoga pivoted at just the right moment and headed down the second path, towards northeast. That was close. Ryoga knew better than anyone that he had a bad sense of direction if he didn't pay close enough attention. Even going home, he tended to head the wrong way at least half of the time if he didn't watch his steps. It was one of his biggest weaknesses. He had no idea how he kept doing it, just that he did.
A tired sigh escaped his lips. Home. How depressing. What he was now returning to wasn't "home", but a former hideout of his, back before he had joined the elite guard of the Castle East. Back when he had just been a mountain boy, all alone. Home was with the others- with the only people he considered family. The only people who had ever cared for him, protected him, shared and laughed with him. People he could trust with his life. Before he had met them, he had never believed that such people could exist. All his life he had lived alone, watched out for himself, stood up for himself on his own. His inhuman strength had been something that scared people, made them fear him and avoid him. But none of the elite guards had ever been afraid of his touch, never worrying that he might crush them with his bare hands. They trusted him, with their limbs, with their lives. And now he was separated from them- on his own again, with only his hope that a new lord would be found, and soon, and faith that his captain was right, keeping him going.
Ryoga's eyes and feet noticed his surroundings before his brain did, and subconsciously stopped him. He looked around, a bit dazed at first. Then he recognized it. This was where he had to get off the path, and only road, to head towards the wilderness. He scanned the area first, old habits dying hard, before stepping off the road. From here on out, he'd be separated from civilization, all civilization, and would remain that way until he received news about the next lord. Be it a day or ninety years, he would wait, until he could see them all again. There was nothing in his life more important than this. He would wait forever for them. That's what loyalty was about. That's what the loyalty of the elite guard was all about. The same loyalty that they had to each other and to no one else. He would wait. Like they all would. And trust Ranma's judgment that they would all see each other again. He'd wait till his dying day to just see them all once more.
Ryoga neared the giant oak tree that signaled it was time to turn direction into the deeper region. A short walk later, he had reached the edge of the hill, that ended in a cliff overlooking a vast mountainous region. Most people never saw this drop off, never saw the beauty hidden in the supposedly shallow forest, below and after it, the seemingly endless expanse of trees, streams, and rivers, kissed by the sun. But he had lived there for most of his life and knew it well. It was both beautiful and dangerous, the place he had learned to survive, to live. He was the little mountain boy, feared by humanity, isolated from civilization. Today, he returned to the land he knew so well, as he waited to be found once again. As he waited for his friends to find him again.
-morning-
Ryoga woke to the smell of dust and moss, long settled in the wood of the small hut that he resided in, which had seeped into the structure for years. The moss, since before he had left. The dust though, that was a new addition. When he had lived here before, alone, he had cleaned it to keep the dust away. But since he had joined the elite guard, he hadn't returned back here. Not once. And thus, the dust had settled in to stay. Now it was too ingrained into the hut to remove. It had definitely been a long time.
It was before dawn. He groaned and considered turning over and going back to sleep, but instead forced himself to sit up. He had a lot to do today, starting first with gathering some food and supplies. Rubbing a hand wearily over his face, he got up to start the day.
A huge yawn stretched his mouth as he stepped outside, into the fresh air. Not that the change in scenery wasn't nice, but he really wished that the others could see what he was seeing, be with him while he was here. He had no idea where they all were now, only that he could almost guarantee that none of them were within maybe five, ten miles of each other. He was sure that no one had started out in the same direction (after all, he had been one of the last of the elite guards to leave the castle that day). So it stood to reason that they would all be spread out. If he thought about it for a bit, he could probably figure out where they all were. But even if he did, he couldn't see them, couldn't visit them. The captain's orders had been emphasized especially on that one point. He had been very specific in telling them that they could not contact each other. For their own protection. It was dangerous when they were all together. Especially in times like this, when they had sworn loyalty to no one but each other.
Ryoga stretched slowly, staring up at the sky. As long as he didn't think about the others, about where they were or what they were doing, he may just be able to endure his solitude a bit better. He knew that they would never be far from his mind, but he would try as hard as he could to keep himself busy so that there was less opportunity for it. Mind set, a determined look on his face, he trooped out to find food as the first rays of sun kissed the ground.
-noon-
By midday, Ryoga had gathered enough food and wood both for fire and to make basic supplies. He needed clothes- the only thing he couldn't make on his own. He would either have to go into nearby town, continuously wash his one pair of clothes that he had now, or start walking around the forest naked. Not extremely fond of the third opinion (especially since he'd eventually have to see other people and walk in a place with other people), and not looking forward to the second opinion (he didn't want to have to do laundry that often- he had never been fond of doing it even once a week)- left only one choice- buy more clothes. That meant that he had to go into town. Sad, really, since he had just reached the hut and he had been looking forward to spending some more time alone before having to go back out into any type of society. But it couldn't be helped.
He stretched his back out, which had grown tense from his morning labor, and groaned from its minor and long forgotten agony. He was really out of shape in the chores department. Why did it always seem that no matter how hard you worked out, your body always failed you when it came to menial labor? He cracked his neck and casually looked around. Well, to any observer, it seemed to just be casual. But in reality, he was scanning his surroundings for any possible danger, as well as plotting out escape routes in case if any problems came about. A habit he had even before he joined the elite guard, but now it was even worse- he was more paranoid since he had met them than ever before. But it had been necessity. He regretted nothing that happened since meeting the others. Besides, he thought, it was their way of life. The life they, and he, had chosen to live.
And going back to that thought of life, Ryoga's thoughts continued as he flexed his stiff fingers, he needed clothes.
-night-
By nightfall, Ryoga had been back to obsessively thinking about the others. Under the cover of dark, memories of them returned, haunted him. Unable to sleep, he decided on a midnight workout. Maybe if he exhausted himself, his mind would also be too tired to think. Naive, but he needed comfort, even if it was of the fictional kind. Anything was better than doing nothing and letting his thoughts wander. With that set in mind, Ryoga left the hut once more to walk out into the brisk night air.
It wasn't until while he was in the middle of an intense training session that Ryoga came up with the idea to develop a new technique. It came to him when his arms were numb, his torso ached, and his legs had turned to jell-o. At first it had sounded ludicrous, but the more he had thought about it, the better it had sounded. Developing a new technique would definitely take his mind off of everything else. And he'd have something to show everyone when they were finally reunited. With a new goal set in mind, Ryoga's heart lightened.
Now, he had a plan.
-
The people of the town of the northeast region heard noises coming in the direction from the forest not too far off, known as the Mountain Child's Forest, that night and for the rest of the following weeks after that. The forest in the mountains was a place where a boy was rumored to live, all on his own- a child with the strength of a monster and eyes as cold as ice. Some believed that the child was really the descendant of a demon, and rumor had it that he had lived in the village among them until he had been chased out by the villager men years ago.
Many of the adults told stories about the boy, who had been only a bit youger than them at the time, and tales of how he could kill a grown man with one hand. They believed that the noise signaled the demon's return to their land, and, as superstition spread, Ryoga, alone in the forest that had been named after him after he had being chased from his home in the village years ago, trained with fierce determination. Some of the town's people didn't believe the stories. But only few, who said that the boy only died in the forest, that no child could really live in the wilderness and survive. But that only added to the rumors, to the story that whoever was making those sounds wasn't human. And as Ryoga trained, the rumors spread to the northwest.
-chapter end.