A Duet of Fists
Chapter 3
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Explaining everything was, of course, less than simple. While Ryouga was content to sit back and let Ranma do all the talking at the Tendou's place, the fact of the matter was that Ranma had saddled them with another house guest and would shortly be leaving for an unknown amount of time.
While it was pretty much par for the course, it was still disheartening.
"So... You have to cross an interdimensional border, survive in a demon's home, and then convince the demon to take her magical chains off of you. Is that right?" Nabiki asked, the corner of her lips twitching into a smile.
"Aren't you worried about them, Nabiki?" Akane asked, scowling at her older sister.
"Not at all, Akane," Nabiki countered, gesturing towards where Ranma sat at the table, managing to take in Ryouga with the gesture as well. "My only question now is whether or not Ranma's newest fiancée has a contract with Genma or if he's going to snag her all by himself... and what sort of odds I should make for each."
"Not funny, Nabiki," Ranma scowled, crossing his arms. He paused for a moment as realization struck, then he swiveled his head to look at his father as he played shougi with Soun. "Yo, old man. You didn't promise me to Yuki-onna, did you?"
"Of course not, Ranma!" Genma sputtered, shooting a glare at his son. He missed Soun's lightning fast hands as they shifted a pair of pieces, dramatically swinging the game into his favor. "I've never even met her!"
"Right, so you didn't get the chance," Ranma concluded, turning back to Nabiki. He grinned. "Well, that answers one question."
Ryouga yawned as he glanced outside, taking in the setting sun, content to ignore the random conversation of the Tendou family and their guests. Whether or not he said anything, time would pass at the same pace. While he was often an angry person, he had learned patience in the many journeys he'd taken.
He stood, resolving to find a nice, quiet place to have a nap.
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Ryouga awoke with a start, a stabbing pain in his gut telling him it was time to use the washroom. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as they took in his surroundings. Absent a spare room to sleep in, Ryouga had simply walked around the corner of the impressive porch surrounding the Tendou Dojo and leaned against the wall, opting to fall asleep right there. He knew he had to have been asleep for several hours, judging by the lack of activity in the house and the darkness in the sky overhead.
With no small amount of urgency, he moved through the house, searching every door. Akane's room, from which Ryouga backed out silently, his cheeks ablaze. The guest room, curiously holding only Genma. Nabiki's room. Akane's room again. The kitchen. Kasumi's room. Until finally, he found the washroom.
He rushed forward, scarcely noting the slight tug on his chained arm as he moved to the toilet.
Ranma, still asleep on the peak of the roof after climbing out to watch the stars, felt a slight tug as well. It didn't wake the pigtailed boy. It did, however, cause him to slowly start to roll down the roof towards the edge. After the third roll, he woke up, scarcely comprehending his situation. As he reached the fifth roll, he realized what was going on.
He'd also hit the edge of the roof and felt nothing under him but air. Panic hit and he lashed out an arm to grab the roof. His body swung towards a window as the roof broke, propelling the pigtailed boy through. With a crash of glass and a startled cry, he landed face-first on something soft and pliable.
The commotion brought a flurry of movement and a light flickered on, disorienting Ranma's sleep-addled mind even more and momentarily blinding him.
"Ranma, what do you think you're doing!" Akane's voice demanded. Ranma froze, and his eyes flickered from his tomboy fiancée to the face of her older sister. Nabiki looked less than amused to be awake, and having Ranma's face buried in her cleavage and her room covered in glass was no doubt further complicating matters. Ranma's eyes flitted back to the girl in the doorway.
Flushing the toilet and preparing to pull up his pants, Ryouga was in no position to resist as a powerful force jerked his arm through one of the washroom walls, his body following. And so it was that Ryouga nearly crashed into Kasumi as he was hurled through several walls, only to come to a bone-jarring stop as he struck the Tendou Dojo's property wall.
A short distance beyond the wall, Ryouga heard a masculine scream of pain, and then a sharp meaty thud as a heavy object hit something solid. Kasumi peered through the several holes in her home, her hand traveling to her mouth in concern as she observed Ryouga's sprawled form. She picked up his pants from where they were hanging from a jagged edge of the wall.
"These will need to be mended, Ryouga-kun," Kasumi commented, disappearing further into the house.
Ryouga groaned. He hadn't even been here a day yet.
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The following day proved no better. Forced to follow Ranma in his day to day life, Ryouga found himself caught in the crossfire, more often than not. Kunou's strikes, while easy to dodge, actually hurt a bit when Ryouga accidentally caught one by being pulled off his feet and into the bokken's path by one of Ranma's acrobatic dodges.
Likewise, Ryouga found himself forced to come to Ranma's aid in a battle against Mousse. The Chinese boy's vision was so poor that he was unable to differentiate between his target and his target's unwilling partner. After the third chain-propelled spike thudded into Ryouga's flesh and was pulled out with a grunt of annoyance, Ryouga joined in the battle with Ranma to vent his frustrations with the myopic boy and his lack of aim.
After Kunou's third attack on Ranma, the second of which to result in Ryouga feeling the sting of Kunou's blade, the bandanna-clad boy joined with Ranma in hitting Kunou whenever he showed up. When the kendoist attacked as they left the school and Ryouga thudded him over the clock tower with his umbrella, the Lost Boy grimly reflected it was sort of like playing a school-wide game of Whack-A-Mole.
It was not so much a walk back to the Tendou Dojo as it was an all-you-can-eat gauntlet. Stopping in at the Ucchan, Ryouga was treated to a few free okonomiyaki from his sometime partner-in-crime as Ranma told her the details of what had happened. It was in the middle of that conversation that Tsubasa surprised Ranma by attacking him and surprised Ryouga by being the stool on which he was seated. The cross-dressing stool-boy was evicted from the restaurant with the help of Ukyou's spatula.
Mousse, injured and wearing a cast, somehow managed to attack the pair of boys as they walked into the Cat Café. Ryouga threw himself flat against the ground as Ranma threw himself up onto the ceiling. Mousse, thinking his targets had disappeared, ran out into the street to chase them. A free bowl of ramen was served to the pair as they further discussed the situation with Cologne, ignoring the random cries of confused, accosted pedestrians in the street.
Ranma sighed in resignation and Ryouga groaned upon learning that the spell would work to transport only the two of them. They would be forced to rely on one another instead of bringing along allies. Troublesome as the Nerima Wrecking Crew were, both boys knew that their associates were ready, willing, and able to go up against whatever mythical creature needed a beating or three.
Sometime later the pair finally arrived at the Tendou Dojo. Both boys sighed in relief. Rest. Relaxation. Free from the torment of the day.
Akane had cooked dinner.
It wasn't curry.
For a moment, Ryouga shared with his rival a look of panic. No longer in love with Akane, he could admit, to himself if not to her, that her cooking was terrible. It was with a grim smile that he watched Ranma sit down at the table and poke the "food" with his chopsticks.
She was calling it yakitori and wild rice. He saw no trace of the skewers and wouldn't have initially guessed that the brown sludge flecked with black resembled anything to come out of a rice cooker. Ranma gulped, despite not yet consuming anything in front of him.
"Well?" Akane's vocalization was not a question, Ryouga noted idly. It was a naked threat of violence delivered in the form of a single word. He'd met megalomaniacs who, at their best, sounded less menacing. With a sigh not unlike the sigh of someone marching to war, Ranma broke free a piece of the "yakitori" and brought it to his mouth, chewing it with noisy crunches.
The pigtailed boy tried to swallow but failed, as if his stomach sensed the approaching foreign invader and became bound and determined not to suffer it's presence. His blue eyes widened as Akane's hazel eyes narrowed. He knew what was coming.
Violence ensued.
Ranma, spared the greater pain, felt like weeping for joy as he covertly allowed the offending chunks of... something to dribble from his mouth, over the side of the porch.
"Ryouga, would you like to try some? I know you like my cooking." Akane's voice was airy, light, and care-free. Ryouga knew he was powerless before it. He felt like weeping: This feeling was not inspired by joy. He knelt at the table, eyeing the food and wondering if perhaps the "rice" was the lesser of two evils.
There were six more days to go before the portal would be ready. A tear came to Ryouga's eye, though he lied and told Akane it was because of the hot sauce she'd added to the rice.
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The following days proved just as punishing. The second day it was Kodachi, attacking Ranma's girl form, instead of Mousse. The third day saw Shampoo doggedly pursuing Ranma across the Nerima skyline as the pair left school, the pigtailed boy unable to fully escape due to Ryouga's presence.
The fourth day saw them lost. Low on sleep thanks to a late night visit from Kodachi and a busy day at school thanks to Hinako-sensei's dogged determinate to teach, Ranma simply followed Ryouga on the way home. Ranma didn't think to question the direction or length of their travel until she looked up to find herself in the Tokyo Tower. That sparked a lengthy brawl which saw the observation deck requiring several days of repair and several new windows.
Ranma, in her anger, forgot they were bound together with magic and discovered right alongside Ryouga that the elevator, while slower, was still preferable to falling. Even after the fight had ended, Ryouga was certain Ranma didn't trust his cries that it wasn't his fault and noted that the pigtailed girl was far more cautious when they were traveling.
The fifth day proved nearly as exciting, with Tarou's visit as he searched for Happosai. Ranma was unable to keep himself from taunting the oddly-named young man, which provoked a fight which saw both Ranma and Ryouga battered and bruised, but victorious.
The sixth day proved quiet, though Ryouga noted this only seemed to make his rival even more high strung. After several days of following Ranma's footsteps, he could appreciate the sentiment. It was almost a relief after learning that Kunou was absent and Mousse was still injured that Happosai tried to raid the girls' locker rooms sometime after lunch. In light of their situation, pounding on the old pervert was especially cathartic.
The seventh day saw the sun rise in a cloudless sky. Ranma and Ryouga exchanged glances as they left the Tendou Dojo, long before even Kasumi awoke. Today was the day Cologne would have the portal ready for them.
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"Looks like the old prune has the place closed today," Ranma noted. He approached the restaurant, Ryouga trailing a half-step behind.
"Probably doesn't want to accidentally send one of her regulars to a demon's world," Ryouga commented dryly, pausing at the door. He finally pushed it open, allowing the duo to slip into the Cat Café.
Instead of tables and chairs, the entire center of the customer's area of the café was dominated by a large glowing blue square. Immediately outside the square was a circle filled with hundreds of important looking squiggles. Ryouga thought they had to mean something important.
"Good. You're here," Cologne noted, lifting her gaze from a dusty tome spread out on a table. She gestured with one hand towards the glowing square. "That should take you where you need to go. Unfortunately, the spell is keyed to the Braids, and will end when you step through. You will have to make your own way back."
"Wait a minute: Should?" Ranma questioned, glaring at the blue square and scowling.
"Well, you won't know for sure until you step through, Son-in-law. I've keyed the portal to the creator of your bonds. Given that they're Yuki-Onna's, this portal should take you to her realm." Cologne grinned. Ryouga felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. "I could be wrong, of course."
Exchanging glances, the pair stepped through the portal. A flash of light blinded them, and a roar shook them, deafened them. They felt a pull, as if they were being pulled in a thousand directions at once. Later, they wouldn't be able to tell who started screaming first: They only knew that they both were.
Then it was over. Ranma collapsed to his knees and Ryouga leaned against the wall of the cave. In the distance, they could barely make out the bright light of day as it shined through the cave entrance.
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Author's Notes
Well, another chapter down. My apologies. I had a case of writer's block. No, it wasn't Lady Shinimegami's fault this time. Sorry for the delay. The feel I'm going for here is slightly more comedic than LH&R. I hope I'm not failing at that too badly. More on the way soonish. I'm more or less back on track, now.