Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi.
A/N: Thank you again to everyone for leaving me such great reviews and comments on my first chapter. As suggested, I have changed the summary and cleared up some errors in the first chapter. Thank you!
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THE KEEPERS OF SAFFRON'S FOREST
CHAPTER 2:
Ranko and the Kidnapper
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"That wasn't necessary," Shinnosuke insisted as Ranma came in carrying an unconscious girl in his arms. "You said she was helping you, not attacking you."
"She wasn't helping so much as stuffing cotton balls in my cuts," Ranma corrected as he set the girl on a beaten down couch and tossed a ragged blanket over her. Dusting his bloody hands off, as if finishing a job well done, Ranma headed towards what someone might call a kitchen at the opposite end of the room.
The tiny studio apartment was on the top floor of a rather dilapidated abandoned building located at the south border of West Nerima. Barely noticed by the rest of their neighbors that spent their days waltzing around, minding their own business; it served as a perfect place to crash. Rent was decent, being free and all and Ranma and Shinnosuke weren't exactly planning on making this a lifetime investment. All they needed was a good place in the vicinity of Saffron's Forest.
Free rent didn't come with all perks and there were some admitted downsides in bunking in an abandoned place. For one, you didn't get any electricity or heat in this place. The lack of heat wasn't a deal-breaker since it was late May and the temperature was decent enough to be in short sleeves, but the lack of electricity was a constant issue that had them walking into walls and each other. Even though the dawn was starting to break now and the room was being graced with some hazy light thanks to their east-facing window, it wasn't much to go by. Ranma could barely make out Shinnosuke walking over to the couch from just 8 feet away. Not that there was much to see in this dump if they had decent lightning.
Him and Shinnosuke traveled light and their backpacks, currently spilling out with clothes and oh so carefully flung against the west wall next to a useless half-closet; were the only things they had in the decaying room aside from the couch and a tiny dorm fridge. The fridge itself was only useful at keeping their food chilled when there was a bag of ice in there, something Ranma noted was currently missing as he stared at the only Styrofoam container crammed in the back of the thing. It was cold enough though, and he shrugged and pulled it out.
After staring at the couch for a moment, Shinnosuke said, "And what was the point of bringing her here again?"
"She was able to take on the Cursed Ones."
"What? How?"
"Didn't see how, but she did something that sent them running before they damn well tore my arm off." Ranma took a seat on the small fridge and popped open the container. "Usually the only thing that sends those guys away is a good splash of warm water and a hard kick back into Saffron's Forest."
"If you wanted to know how she did it, why did you knock her out?" Shinnosuke asked, going back to his original statement. "She's not going to give you any useful information unconscious."
Ranma shrugged, continuing to eat. "Seemed like the right thing to do."
"Ranma! ! !"
The already poor excuse for an entrance door nearly bust into splinters to reveal Ryoga Hibiki stomping in, looking like a ghoul emerging from the shadows. The guy had always been on the seriously dramatic side since they first met as kids, and for that it was hard for Ranma to take the guy seriously at times. Even Ryoga's powerful entrance with his fist drawn and his fang-like teeth barring as he stamped his way into the dawn illuminated room was lost on Ranma, who kept his precious attention on his food as Ryoga pounded him on the head.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Shinnosuke said you kidnapped a girl! A girl from town! Where is she?! Who is she?! Where did you take her from?!"
"Hey, Ryoga. Made it back to us in under a week this time. That's a new record…"
Ryoga snacked him upside the head. "This isn't time for jokes, Saotome. Who did you kidnap? Where is she?"
"Why the hell does it matter?" Ranma said, hoping Ryoga's anger kept him from noticing her across the room. "I'm only keepin' her for a few hours."
"I've lived here for years and I know that when someone goes missing people are going to rally together in mobs and start searching for her and our cover will be blown!"
"Man, you're noisy," Ranma muttered, still eating. "Taking one girl for a bit isn't gonna attract Saffron's attention, he doesn't give a damn about anyone here. That's why he has no problem being so close."
"Once a big search for her starts, it's going to put attention on us!" Ryoga insisted.
"It ain't like I'm planning to keep her as a pet," Ranma snapped back. "I just gotta find out how she scared off those Cursed Ones without water and then I'm taking her back. We gotta know because there's going to be more of them once we get past that damn lightning. Unless you want to be the one to carry around 10 gallons of boiling water on your back the whole way."
"You really think that after kidnapping her, she's just going to sit down with you and have a nice conversation about how she defeated those guys?" Ryoga challenged.
"I guess we'll see, won't we?" Ranma replied, impassively.
"Let him deal with whatever happens with the girl, Ryoga," Shinnosuke said, heading towards the door with his pushbroom in hand. "He's useless to us right now with those injuries anyways. It's our turn to try and get past that lightning again."
"I ain't useless," Ranma insisted, waving them away. "I just need to wash off a bit and I'll be fine."
"Take her back before we return! Or else I will!" Ryoga threatened, shutting the door behind him.
"That's the closet," Ranma called out to the directionally challenged boy.
"I knew that!" Ryoga shouted back, opening the closet door and stomping towards the correct one.
Ranma passed a glance at Shinnosuke and said, "And this guy is supposed to be guiding us around when he can't find his way out of an apartment?"
"He's lived here for awhile, so he knows this place the best," Shinnosuke responded with his usual seriousness. "At this point, we're not relying on his sense of direction, only what he knows about the area around Saffron's Forest and…What's on the couch? The Chinese girl again?"
Between Ryoga walking into closets and Shinnosuke forgetting what was happening, it was a wonder they had gotten as far as they did, Ranma thought.
"Just remember to take whoever the girl is back," Ryoga reiterated before closing the door. Only to open it and say with a smirk, "That yellow stuff you're eating isn't food I brought, by the way. It was here when you guys moved in," prompting Ranma to spit out the yellowish mush.
Like Ranma really needed to be told to take her back. It's not like he wanted to make a hobby out of taking girls from town.
After thoroughly washing his mouth out from whatever the hell that yellow junk was, Ranma went over to the couch to begin poking the girl in the cheek. After saying "Oy" really loudly and getting no reply, Ranma tried pinching her cheek, only to have the still unconscious girl slap him hard across the face and mumble something that sounded like pervert.
Ranma rubbed his cheek with a frown as he came to crouch beside her. This girl was no ordinary girl…Attacking people in her sleep even…
From the looks of her, she had to be about his age if not younger. The dark-green sleeveless dress she was wearing made her somehow look older though, or at least dumper. Her long black hair, still stained with blood, seemed to be weighing her down and he had to pull it away in order to get a better look at her face. As she rolled on to her side and curled into herself with a smile, Ranma decided she could easily be considered cute. Even with his blood still splattered against her chest and pale legs, she had that sort of peaceful and innocent look about her that made him want to cock his head to the side and take another closer look.
As he absently used his thumb to rub off a splotch of blood near her lips, Ranma begrudgingly admitted that Ryoga might actually be right for once and he put off his thoughts in waking her up. She probably wasn't going to volunteer information too easily when she was talking to someone that yanked her off the street like that. It had been a brash reaction that he partially regretted, but there was no amending that now. He couldn't even make it out like he was a victim in all this too since she probably had some recollection of him being the one to grab her.
There was only one way to go about this, Ranma decided. Luckily, he only needed to pull it off long enough to get the information from her and get her the hell out of here so he could get back to more important things.
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Ukyou was not a morning person. So the fact that she had to get up early to go all the way to North Nerima just to drop off this stupid certificate was not sitting well with her. Her restaurant always sat with a perfect 100% inspection and her food was so well-known that people came from North, South and East Nerima just for a bite. So what was the deal with forcing her to do all these classes? All these stupid bureaucratic procedures were really starting to bother her. Not to mention disturb her sleep patterns.
Already in her sleep dazed state she had put her hair brush in her mouth and her toothbrush in her hair.
"Stupid mint toothpaste with extra baking soda," she mumbled, as she pulled it out of her hair on her walk into the kitchen.
In her distracted state of rinsing her hair out in the kitchen sink, she barely took notice that P-chan hadn't returned that night and that his food dish was still full. She also didn't catch on to the fact that the pile of dirty clothes she had waved goodbye to on Akane's bed was in fact not her roommate.
Instead Ukyo continued on her way, now running for the early bus.
For so early in the morning there sure were a lot of people out, she noted as she weaved her way through them. Although part of the greater metropolis in it's own right, West Nerima wasn't exactly Shinjuku. This many people functioning before 6:00 a.m. was nearly unheard of. What was more bizarre was that they were all guys dressed in very shabby clothes and heading in the direction of Saffron's Forest.
Maybe there was a business outing there today?
Yeah, right. Like anyone would want to host an event in that creepy forest, Ukyou mused. Her and Akane had lived here for three years and they had never even considered taking a stroll in there on their Sunday runs. Mostly because Akane was kind of freaked out by the place, having had a bad experience getting lost in there as a child. Besides the unnecessarily high fence and the sign that said 'Private Property,' the eerie forest didn't exactly have a welcoming air. Rumor had it that the person who owned all those arches was someone mentally distressed who claimed to be immortal only to be struck by lightning and die on the spot.
So what was with all the people heading that way today?
I don't have time for riddles, she wearily reminded herself as she ran faster. She had to get out of here and come back in time for the dinner rush. If she didn't, Akane might try to cook for her customers while she was gone again! And, to her, that was ten times more frightening than Saffron's Forest.
"Ukyou, what are you doing up so…Hey! Hey!"
"Sorry, can't talk, Ryoga!" Ukyou said, running past him. "Going to miss the bus!"
"What? Bus? What bus?" Ukyou heard Ryoga run up behind her. "Where are you going?"
"North Nerima."
"North Nerima?" he repeated. "Why? Is Akane visiting her parents this weekend?"
"No, I gotta drop that stupid certificate off for the restaurant, remember? What are you doing up so early?" Ukyou passed him a grin. "Hoping to catch Akane and walk her to Doctor Tofu's again? You fox!" She playfully punched him in the arm as he rubbed the sore spot and denied doing anything like that.
But Ukyo wasn't stupid and she knew from the moment Ryoga saw Akane that the boy was smitten. He did everything from appearing on Akane's way to school, to happening to pass by their softball games. Ryoga would even show up at their apartment sometimes with flowers that someone just happened to give him and chocolates that he had bought and wanted to share.
"You should just ask her out and stop hiding around alley corners!" Ukyou told him with an encouraging nudge. Unfortunately it was in the same arm that she had punched him and he flinched again. "Why are you being so shy, sugar? If you don't hurry up and make a move, someone else will!"
"You really think I should?" he asked, rather seriously. "Do you think she'd say yes? How do you think I should do it? Should I call her? Or text her? Where should I take her? When should I take her?"
Ukyo smiled and shook her head and she watched Ryoga fumble over his words and smile like a love struck child. Her and Akane had met Ryoga in a bizarre way that included some nudity on his part and some use of metal bats on her and Akane's part. But that's probably why they were such good friends now, after such a memorable meeting you can't really forget each other.
And though Ryoga had instantly fallen for Akane, Ukyo seemed to have fallen more into the category of his close confident. A role she appreciated thoroughly, especially when she got to poke fun at his undying affection for her roommate.
"You're working at my restaurant tonight, right? Ask her then," she suggested as she hopped up on the bus. "Text me later and we can talk about it!"
"Wait! That wasn't the reason I was following you!" Ryoga called, chasing the bus. "I wanted to know if you had anymore leftover food in the big freezer."
"Your deadbeat friends are still in town?" Ukyou called back, sticking her head out the bus window and frowning. "When are they going to start feeding themselves?! Don't they have jobs yet?"
"They'll only be here for a few more days," he promised, still running in stride with the bus.
"Fine but tell them after this if they want anymore food they'll have to come and actually do some work at my restaurant!" And with that, Ukyo shut the window and watched as Ryoga nearly tripped over one of those shabbily dressed men wandering the streets.
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It was the smell more than anything that forced Akane to open her eyes. What the heck was that smell? Had she missed her turn to take the garbage out again? Or had she left something on the stove top for the second time this week? If she burned up another one of Ukyo's good pots she was really going to hear about it. As bad as that stunk, this was worse. It smelled more like the freshly dug up soil when they would fix up the softball ground during the spring, but with a more burnt and smoky smell to it. After trying in vain to ignore it, Akane was forced to sit up and cough because it was so overwhelming.
In the middle of trying to rub her face, as if that would get rid of the smell, Akane's body froze up. This was not her room, she instantly realized. This was not her bed and whatever the heck was on her was not her blanket! Akane jumped up, chucking the dirty, smelly thing across the tiny room where it landed in a pile of junk near a closet. It was some sort of studio apartment, but not belonging to anyone she knew. Everything from the mold on the walls to the ants crawling on the carpet was unfamiliar and terrifying to her rapidly beating heart.
It was then that the image of that poor injured boy came flashing back to her. His wounded arm and his bloody legs and…and his hand that had come over her mouth and kidnapped her! ! ! Some thanks for the first aid! Akane thought. There were more pressing matters at hand but what were the odds that the first person she helps out with all her highly expensive medical training kidnaps her?! This was worse than when she was little and someone had actually attacked her for trying to help them!
"You're finally up!"
Akane quickly spun and went into a defensive stance, prepared to use any means necessary to take out that stupid kidnapper only to see that a petite red-haired girl was staring at her in the middle of the dirty apartment. For as bad as Akane felt, the smaller girl looked worse. There were cuts on her face and hands and though Akane couldn't see any blood on the girl's white Chinese style shirt, they looked wrinkled and disheveled, like they had just been pulled out of a backpack or a dresser drawer. In spite of all the scruffy appearance, she had a sweetness in her presence that was entirely out of place in the disgusting apartment. Her eyes, which drew Akane's attention the most, were radiating with concern as she took a careful step towards forward.
"Are you okay?" the girl asked, frowning.
Akane slowly lowered her stance. "I've been better…Where am I?"
"I don't know," the girl said. "I think we were taken here."
Akane looked around the beaten down apartment with disdain. "What sort of kidnapper takes a person and then flees? He must be really stupid."
The girl laughed a little nervously. "Yeah, stupid. But we can make our escape, right? I found a way out, but I didn't want to leave without you."
"Oh." Akane completely dropped her stance and smiled as best as she could for the situation. "Thank you."
"Come on," said the girl, smiling a little too. "Let's go before they come back!"
"They?" Akane questioned, even as she followed her out the door. "How do you know there's more than one?"
"Oh, well…That's what it sounded like, I mean. I was pretending to be asleep and I thought I heard more than one voice." She laughed nervously again. "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"...Sure."
"How did you fight off those guys that were attacking your kidnapper?"
"The drunk guys?"
"Sure, sure. Drunk guys. What did you do?"
"I used some martial arts moves I learned when I was younger. Since they were drunk, they really didn't fight back and just sort of walked away," Akane responded slowly. "But wait-you saw them attacking my kidnapper?"
The girl tripped a little on the way down the darkened staircase but Akane quickly reached out to hold her arm so the girl could reclaim her balance. "Oh, well, I saw you in the distance helping him and then when he grabbed you, I came running over to help but he must have got me too."
Struck with instant regret, Akane immediately apologized for getting her into this dangerous situation and thanked her profusely for trying to help, but the red-haired girl really didn't seem to be too preoccupied with the fact that her life had been put in danger and might possibly still be. Things happen, she said in an airy way as she skillfully jumped over four missing steps in the stairwell. Akane hadn't even seen the missing planks in the dim light, so how had the girl?
"So what sort of martial arts moves did you use on them?" the girl asked, offering her hand. Akane accepted the help with a smile as she took the leap to the girl's side.
"Just punches and kicks, I think. Nothing special."
"It had to be more than that! Think!"
Akane took a step back, dropping the girl's hand from the suddenly almost boyish tone of her voice. But the cute, red-haired girl quickly recovered with another adorable smile as she began walking again.
"I mean, I tried fighting them off too, but nothing was working. So I was just wondering. In case it happens again…"
Taking in how small the girl was, Akane wasn't surprised that a punch from her wouldn't do any good. Maybe that was why the girl got all defensive just now, she was growing concerned that it might happen to her again and she needed something to protect herself, Akane concluded. So she said, "I used my softball bat on them before. That worked too."
"Softball bat?" The girl stopped walking and spun around to face her. "Where is it? Do you think I could borrow it?!"
Akane watched the girl grab her arms and pull Akane close to her before slowly saying, "I guess, if you want. It's at my place, though-"
"Let's go there then! It would make me feel safe…Being such a defenseless girl and all…" She gave that nervous giggle again.
Akane couldn't find anything to distrust in the sweet voice or the expressive eyes of the red-haired girl, but at the same time there was something that didn't feel right as she followed her. Not that Akane was going to stay in that apartment and wait to see her other option. The not feeling right was probably more in due to the fact that she and this girl had been abducted. If the girl was sounding weird, it was probably because she was scared about what had all happened too. There really was no need to place all her fears on this tiny girl who was helping her! Akane decided.
"I'm Akane, by the way," she said, as they continued their descent. "What's your name?"
The girl sounded like she was muttering to herself so Akane poked her shoulder. "What did you say?"
"My name? Oh, my name. Right. It's Ran…ko."
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To be continued in the next chapter: An Afternoon Fight.
Thank you for reading!