Ranma ½: One Wish! Pt II
Ryoga rejoiced when he arrived in Nermia after traveling for a week. In his hand was a bouquet of dead flowers, but they were alive when he picked them a couple of days ago. His journey was tiresome, but he started to feel rejuvenated when he entered town.
By the position of the Sun he determined that it was mid-afternoon. To his utmost surprise he managed to make his way to Furinken High School, where Akane and Ranma went to school. Here, he watched as packs of students in school uniforms left the grounds. School was over for the day.
He waited for Akane, but after twenty minutes she didn't come out. Maybe she had clean-up duty, he thought, and she was still inside. He remembered that when he was in school. With other students, he would have to clean the chalk brushes and sweep the floors. It was part of the school economy drive and a way of giving students responsibility. He always hates it and he didn't miss it for an instant.
He noticed a student standing in front of a tree looking at him. The student's face looked tired, almost malnourished. He had dark bags under his eyes and he was scarecrow thin. In his hand was a paper doll. Ryoga looked back at him with a curious stare. Why is this guy staring at me, he thought. He turned away and looked back at the school doors, waiting for Akane. But strange enough, after a minute, he found himself looking back at the student, who strange was still staring at him.
He decided to go over to him.
"Why are you staring at me?" he asked the student.
"I noticed your dead flowers," he said.
"What about them?"
"They're dead," he said. "Why are you carrying around dead flowers?"
"They're for someone," Ryoga said. He took a good look at them, and then decided to drop them, as they didn't look well at all. These weren't in deserving to give to Akane. He would need to pick new ones. "They were alive when I picked them."
The student picked them up and said smirking strangely, "Don't throw them away, they're still alive. All they need is a little T.L.C."
Ryoga looked at him as if he was from a freak show. Then he said, "T.L.C.? But look at them, they're dead."
"All life forms reside in a stasis before death to preserve the last essence of life, and if you can get to them fast enough and with the correct medicine, you can save them and restore then back to their original vibrancy. But not all life forms can be saved."
The creepiness faction was off the scale with this guy. He took a casual step back away as the student gently cradled the dead stems in his arms. "I have to go now," Ryoga said.
As Ryoga turned to leave, the student called out to him, and said, "Hey wait, I never told you my name."
Ryoga muttered, "I never asked for it," and continued to walk away.
"It's Hikaru Gosunkugi," he said. "You're lost, aren't you?"
"That's hardly a secret around 'ere," he said. "I'm known all over town, mostly as the lost boy."
Gosunkugi went over to him, and said, "Don't walk away, I'm trying to be your friend, you don't have any left."
Ryoga stopped and turned to him, and eyed him with disdain narrow eyes. "And what is that supposed to mean?" he said.
"I didn't mean anything by it only that you're a wandering soul," he said, "a soul without purpose, between worlds. I'm a practitioner of voodoo and occult magic, and of supernatural phenomenon, and as soon as I saw you, I knew you were lost."
"I'm always getting lost, that's no secret," Ryoga said.
"No, you don't understand, I talking about your soul, it's misplaced, between worlds, neither having existence or non-existence."
"Whatever you're selling, I'm not interested," Ryoga said, waving him off. "I know how these things work. I've been around. You make me believe I need something and then convince me to buy something to make everything all well again. Well, peddle your goods to someone else."
"I'm not selling anything, I want to help you," Gosunkugi said. "But if you don't want my help, be my guest. I'll be around if you do." Then he handed Ryoga a voodoo paper doll. "Take this, this will help you make you way back to me. It will counteract your lostness."
"I don't need anything from you, get away from me," Ryoga said, pushing back the paper doll. "You're the one who needs help."
Ryoga snorted irate by the encounter with Hikaru Gosunkugi, and then walked off the school grounds.
"I'll look for Akane at the Tendo Dojo, she's bound to be there," he said. But instead of heading towards the Tendo's, he went in the opposite direction; though he didn't know that. He thought he knew where he was going. But that was Ryoga, he didn't! He was lost.
---
Darkness had fallen upon Nerima when Ryoga finally made it to the Tendo Dojo. He entered the property and walked down the stone walkway to the front door. He then knocked on the door. Since it was dark, he could ask to spend the night.
In his hand was a bouquet of freshly picked flowers he picked from someone's garden along the way. They wouldn't miss them, they had plenty. Besides, he couldn't arrive empty-handed. He thought it would be improper.
The door opened and Kasumi Tendo greeted the visitor with a welcome smile. "Hello; may I help you?" she said.
Ryoga gave an odd smile. "Kusumi, it's me, Ryoga Hibiki," he said. "Is Akane home, I've come to give these flowers to her."
"You must be a school friend of hers," she asked.
That was strange, he thought. Why would she pretend not to know him? It must be a prank. "Kasumi, you know me," he said. "I'm Ranma's…" he hesitated for a moment, then continued, finding a proper word "…friend."
"Oh, you must be one of his friends from school," she smiled happy. "Ranma!" she called out for him. "There's someone here to see you. Would you like to come in?" she asked him.
She escorted him to the tea room and asked, "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"No, thank you," he said. She left, and entered the kitchen.
Ryoga wondered why Kasumi had not recognized him, he was a family friend – he had been for years.
Ranma bounced down the stairs and came into the tea room. Then he smiled with a big grin, and said, "Hey, what's up!" But then his smile suddenly disappeared for some reason, and he cleared his throat and said, "Sorry, thought you were someone else."
"Nice greeting, Saotome," Ryoga said. "What's the matter with Kasumi? She acted like she didn't know me."
"And why should she know you? Who are you?"
"Don't give me that, Ranma," Ryoga said. "You know who I am, and I've come here to challenge you to a fight."
Ranma's eyes narrowed with the usual tenancy they always did when he was challenged, and his lip curled up angry on the right side. "Look pal, I don't know who you are, but if you wanna fight, I'm perfectly willing to give ya one. Just tell me who you are and what sort beef you have with me and we'll get started. The dojo's in the back."
Ryoga started to get really irate. "Stop it!" he said angry. "I'm not in the mood for games. Where is Akane, I have something to give her."
Ranma took a step forward. "You're not getting anywhere near my wife, pal," he said, squeezing a tight fist at his side. "And whatever you're reason for here has just become unimportant. I want you outta 'ere now."
Shock dawned Ryoga's face, but then it turned red with anger. "Enough of this stupidity; Akane is not your wife, you're only engaged!"
"We've been married for nearly a year, pal," Ranma said. "Even though it was our parent's idea and I hated the idea at first, I came to enjoy Akane's company and I willfully asked her to marry me. We got married a month after. But everyone at school knows this; I haven't seen you at school. How do you know me?"
"We're arch-rivals, we went to Jusenkyo and fell into the springs there," Ryoga said.
Ranma's face tightened up with horrific concern. He grabbed Ryoga's shirt by the collar, gripping it tight. "How do you know that?" he said quickly, sounding angry. "No one knows that! I've told no one at school about that secret of my life. Only my family knows."
Ryoga looked a little worried. "I know, and several others do, including some of the students at your school, I believe," he said.
"No one at school knows," he said adamantly. "Now just who are you, and how do you know my secret?" Ranma demanded to know.
Ryoga pushed him away with both hands and Ranma staggered back a few feet. "You know who I am; I'm Ryoga Hibiki, the guy who you tricked into going to Jusenkyo, in China, and then bumped in as you chased your father, who changes into a giant Panda. I change into a little black pig. I'm also Akane's pet pig."
"Akane's doesn't have a pet pig, she has a cat," Ranma said.
Ryoga paused for a second, his eyes widden confused. "But you're afraid of cats, you shriek at the sight of them," Ryoga said. "You father smeared you with cat food and threw you into a pit of cats and told you to fight them off to learn the Catfist technique. It was part of your training when you were a kid."
"I've never been afraid of cats, and my father never did that," he said, snorting out angry. "He's been dead for nearly a year. I was training with him one day and he had a heart attack."
"What?" Ryoga said. "That's impossible! I just saw him a little while ago, three weeks in fact, and he was perfectly fine."
"You're sick, you know that," Ranma said. "Get outta'ere!"
Kasumi exited the kitchen and said, "Ranma, I heard shouting," she said. "Is anything wrong?"
"Yeah, this guy's leavin' and he's not welcomed back, ever!" Ranma said.
Ryoga was escorted to the door by Ranma, and then had the door shut behind him when he stepped over the threshold.
Ryoga couldn't believe what had just transpired.
"Told ya," Hikaru Gosunkugi said. He was standing under the archway of the Tendo property encloser wall. "They didn't recognize you, did they?"
"You again," Ryoga said. "What are you talking 'bout?"
"Ranma, he didn't recognize you, did he?"
Ryoga went over to him, and said, "And how do you know that?"
"Because you're a wandering soul between worlds, you're living as a corporal being, but your spirit is lost to the world, unknown, unrecognized by those you once knew. Who did this to you?"
Ryoga didn't believe him. "You're in on it, too, aren't you? This is some sort of prank. But it's not funny, not to me." He said.
"This isn't a prank," Gosunkugi said. "Someone or something must have altered the world you knew and changed it to discount you. This is an alternate world where you never existed, either that or your relationships with everyone you knew never transpired. Only a powerful warlock or conjurer could do something like that. Have you encountered anyone like that?"
Ryoga thought. "No, not to my knowledge," he said. He shook his head. "I'm not playing this game. This has to be a trick." He picked up his pack and draped it over his left shoulder. "If Ranma wants to be an idiot--lett'em! But I'm surprised he convinced Kasumi to play along with it. That's not like her. She wouldn't normally do anything like that."
He left the Tendo property and started to walk away.
"Wait, where are you going?" Gosunkugi asked.
"I'm leaving town," Ryoga said. "Maybe when I come back all of this will blow over."
"You can't leave town, we have to fix this, return you back among the existed."
Ryoga stopped, turned to him. "And what's your deal?" Ryoga asked him.
"What do you mean?"
"Is Ranma paying you to try to convince me of this? You're probably a part of this prank too, aren't you?"
"Like I said, this isn't a prank," Gosunkugi said. "When I saw you at school, I instantly felt a cold shiver down my spine and knew you didn't belong and that you were misplaced in the world. I dabble in the supernatural, so I'm sensitive to these kinds of things."
"You're weird," Ryoga finally said.
"Many people have told me that," Gosunkugi said. "But regardless, you're in need of my help."
"I don't need help from you or anyone else. I do things on my own. It's always been like that and that's how I like it."
"You're a lonely guy, aren't you?" Gosunkugi said.
"That's none of your business," Ryoga said. He then proceeded to walk away. "Stay away from me," he then said, and turned a street corner.
But Gosunkugi knew he was going to need his help and followed him.
-- TBC
