I feel myself starting to tear up.
"They're traveling by foot to Jusenkyo. I don't think they're going to come back. That's why he told me to take care of you." He speaks slowly and quietly.
"What…" I slam the teacup down onto the table and mull over what he just told me. "They're going to Jusenkyo? Why would they leave now of all times?"
"Ranma didn't tell me."
"Can I get you something to eat?" The waitress skips over to the side of the booth and presses her hands on the table.
"I'd like a piece of crumble cake and some strawberries." Ryoga says.
"Sure! And for you, miss?" She looks carefully at me before smiling.
"Nothing, thanks."
"Are you sure? We have a lot of different options." She says, acting kind of surprised that I chose not to order anything.
"No thanks." I scowl slightly under my squinting eyelids. She glares at me and leaves the table, stiffly putting an empty tray onto the counter and disappearing into the back somewhere.
"She was quite persistent." I sigh and lean my cheek on my right hand. My elbow digs into some cracker crumbs. Kasumi told me that putting my elbow on the table during dinner is bad manners.
Ryoga starts noshing on the piece of cake that the waitress dropped off.
"Man! This is really good! Akane, you should try some." He fashions a big smile and offers me a spoon.
"No thanks, Ryoga. I really lost my appetite."
"Suit yourself." He laughs and digs in again. After a few minutes of watching him gobble down every last gulp. He taps his spoon on his lip, trying to decide something.
"I think… I'm going to order more."
"More? You ate cake, strawberries, tea and crackers already! If you're still hungry, I'll make you something at home. Let's just pay and get out of here." I insist and tap his hand. His face turns bright red. I was sick too, I know how you feel Ryoga.
"I really want more." His eyes widen and he looks at his spoon. "Excuse me, waitress!"
"Yes, deary?" She comes back over to the table and takes out an ordering pad. "What can I get for you?"
"Yes! I'll have a-"
"A check, please. A check." I butt in and bow my head slightly. I hear a little grunt, probably an accidental slip that I'm pressuring Ryoga to finish up. She glances at me and her eyes flash with white, just for an instant. She turns slowly, and goes up to the counter to talk to the chef.
"Ryoga, I'll heat something up for you. Can we just go?" I beg, poke his arm. His jaw drops.
"Uh-uhhh, s-s-sure Akane." He stutters. "Let me just get an order of green tea cookies to go."
Why is Ryoga like this? It seems like he really wants to eat more… Did the restaurant do something to his food to make him to buy more and more?
I leave a few thousand yen on the table and make for the door. I'm not waiting for that check anymore. I have doubts that she wouldn't want to bring it to us anyway.
"Come on, Ryoga!" I haul him up and out the door.
"Wait!" The server comes out, followed by three others standing behind her. "Leaving so soon?"
"Yes. We have somewhere we need to be." I clap my gloved hands together.
"Very well. To leave, you need to face me, the leader of the Waitressing Martial Arts Club. My name is Aion." She smiles slyly and takes out 5 pens and her notebook. A stick shoots out from the bottom, it morphs into a mace.
"I could go for some more. Sounds good to me!" He puts up a peace sign and tugs at his collar.
"No." I say firmly to Ryoga and focus on the waiters. "What do you want, and what do you mean by 'face us'?"
"You'll have to face us in a martial arts battle."
"A b-battle?" My mouth turns a gape. I haven't been training recently.. I'll for sure lose. "Why?"
"The food served at this joint makes its consumers want more and more. To break the curse, it takes a month of suffering and sickness. Unless you want the cure… Which I'll give to you if you beat me. If you lose, however, you give me the boy to work here."
They want… Ryoga? No! I can't let them! I can't lose!
"You're on. Ryoga are you feeling okay?" I go up to him and curve my eyebrows upwards.
"I'm a bit nauseous, but that's to be expected since I ate so much." He rubs his stomach.
"Okay! You're on! Get ready cause I'm coming at you!" I pierce my own ears by screaming so loud and charge fist first. She breaks out in a laugh and gets in stance. Her laugh is so annoying like Kodachi's. I swing my fist around in circles speeding up my momentum. She grips her staff and slams it into the ground, breaking the ground beneath me. I jump up and lose the momentum in my arm.
"Care-careful, Akane! She's slow but she's strong!" Ryoga blurts out. His face is red and sweaty and he's scratching his hands every so often. Looks like he's in withdrawal or something.
"Careful, Akane!" The lady, trying to get on my nerves, mimics Ryoga in a very high and squeaky voice. She starts sprinting at me full on. I jump up just in time to land back down on her staff. It breaks in two.
"AHhh! What have you done?!" She shrieks and picks up the broken notebook in rage. Her eyes flash with red. What's going on with her? She looks down at her feet so I can't see her eyes anymore.
"Now you've done it," She speaks quietly and precisely. She looks up, her eyes ablaze. "Fist of the Headless Boar!" She punches the air.
"That wasn't very effective, now was it?" I tease maliciously. She laughs.
"You're right in it's path, princess." She howls with laughter. What? Suddenly, I notice a rippling wave effect in the air I'm pushed backwards by such force. I accidentally fall onto Ryoga.
"Ow, my head. Ryoga, are you okay?" I wince and poke a newly formed lump on my temple.
"Y-yeah." He flattens down a puffed up section of his pants and offers me a hand.
"Where'd you learn that, you old bat?" I crow and knit my brow.
"Oh, just something I picked up over the years," She flattens he collar and crosses her arms. "Ready for round two?"
"Any day." This time I come hurtling, foot after foot, so ungracefully that I can hear my feet pounding against the rocky pavement. She gets her position to preform the Fist of the Headless Boar once again. Thing is, I won't let her get any further than that. I swerve to the left, making her have to alter her stance altogether. Now's my chance! I leap foot first and prod a pressure point on her diaphragm that Happosai taught me. He said it calms the mind and body, stunning them both. He says it comes in convenience when dealing with a 'feisty one', if I'm supposed to know what that means. The woman shrieks and falls on her back.
"I guess this one's mine." I smirk and look down at my prey. She looks up with such disbelief in her eyes.
"H-how…." She mumbles. Her mouth seems half asleep, almost as though her face is paralyzed.
"Give me the cure." I hold out my hand and wait patiently for her response. She looks me up and down and grunts. Shakily, she reaches into her notebook and pulls out a packet of tealeaves, it looks like.
"Add them to hot water. He'll be fine," She grumbles. "By the way, no one's ever beaten me before."
"I think someone just did." I smile and accept the packet with grace.
"Take this too." Her face seems to be waking up because her faint eyebrows wiggle when she speaks. "It's a list of useful attacks. I don't need it anymore." She hands me rolled up piece of parchment paper. I eye it carefully and pretentiously before reaching out and wrapping my fingers around it. 'Revenge of the Broken Samurai' it reads clearly with well-printed black letters.
"Why are you helping me?" I cock my head to the side and anxiously tap the scroll on my finger.
"No one has ever beaten me before," She shutters and hoists herself onto her feet. I guess the paralysis must have worn off. She soothes her scruffy pant legs with her moccasin. "Well, goodbye!" And with that, she's waving me off and fleeing to her camp inside the restaurant. I look up at the blue and white banner that's hanging right over the sun shield. 'The Broken Samurai' it reads. I chortle to myself and walk over to Ryoga's side. He's passed out by now, burning with fever. I sling him over my shoulder and start marching back home. I feel a sharp pain in the small of my back and sink down to a knee. I guess when I was hit with the Fist of the Headless Boar I must have bruised something. I push my feelings aside and in my attempt to stand, my hamstring quivers, screaming to me that it's at it's limit by the burning pain in my thigh. I curse under my breath. At least I have the cure… And the woman didn't turn out too bad after all. Maybe I'll go back there for tea and crackers some time again. The snow seems to have cloaked the ground in a sea of white while we were fighting, as I can't place where the sidewalk is and where the road begins. I can't really tell where anything is anymore. My head is dizzy and my vision is blurry. I don't understand what's going on… The reality that I have an unconscious Ryoga on my back tugs at a corner of my brain and forces me to keep on moving.
"So I passed that corner, and I'm coming up to this street, so we must be," I complain in lament to myself. "Completely lost."
"Grufff…brr," I hear Ryoga make a few noises and grunts before arousing and blinking his eyes open.
"You're awake are you?" I chuckle quietly so that I can hear the sound of my weight compacting the snow beneath my feet to reassure myself that I'm still moving. "Do you feel any better?"
"I'm not gonna lie to you, Akane. I've been better." He laughs awkwardly and coughs for a solid 2 minutes. "Where are we?"
"Not sure. I'm sure we'll make it back in no time, though. Don't worry." I panic and start chattering extremely fast. I laugh nervously at the end of my sentence in order to reassure Ryoga, but it sounds extremely pathetic and sad. Ryoga laughs a cute half laugh. It takes me by surprise, when I'm off guard even. I never realized Ryoga's laugh was so… so.. contagious. That's not the only thing about him right now that's contagious.. I narrow my eyes and nestle under my scarf. I continue walking in a slow, steady, rhythmic fashion.
"Akane, are you all right?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?" My voice cracks and I sound high and screechy, like a mouse. He laughs again. I blush.
"You took a pretty bad hit back there."
"You did too! If I didn't fall on you, then you wouldn't have more injuries to heal." I wail and try to convince myself that I am the one to blame. That I am the one who's fault it is for everything that is wrong. I know that's the truth. Ryoga's obviously baffled, for he doesn't respond for quite some time, and when he does, his remark makes me want to run a thousand miles away and hide in a bush.
"You're never in the way, Akane. You fit just like a puzzle piece," His body temperature rises. What is going on with Ryoga? Why is he acting so strange all of a sudden? The light snowflakes quickly turn to sleet and icicles. A few of the sharpest ones slice my cheeks like blades and I duck my head down. I shuffle under a tree and set Ryoga down onto the ground. His face is beat red.
"It looks like your sickness is getting worse…" I touch my forehead against his to measure how hot he is against my skin. I accidentally bump into his nose.
"Oops, haha. Sorry about that," I blush at my innocence. Ryoga turns a deep shade of maroon. I slip out of my 10-pound faux coat and cover Ryoga with it. His shivers become less audible. He looks up from my fingers that are lacing the string underneath his chin to secure the coat, right into my eyes. His eyes are so bright and curious.
"Feeling any better?" I smile lively.
"Ak-Akane…." He mimes with his mouth. "You're so warm…"
"You're so messed up, Ryoga," I giggle and carefully wrap him around my shoulders. I tremble when rising to my feet. "Let's keep going, Ryoga."
"O-okay," He nods softly and his hair brushes against my neck. He smells like oranges. What am I thinking?! I thought I only… for Ranma. WHAT?! What am I thinking?... Ranma… A single tears rolls down my cheek and I sink to my knees.
"Akane? Akane? Are you all right?" He taps my shoulder with his sweaty finger. His hands are so cold.
"Yes, I'm so sorry." I get up swiftly and walk into the blistering wind. "Is the wind too strong for you?"
"No, thank you Akane, for everything you're doing for me. I've kind of brought this on myself, I feel like. At that restaurant, I mean." He starts clearing his throat, which turns into coughing, sneezing, and gagging.
"We'll be home soon."
The shattered ice cuts my face even more and I squint my eyes shut. This isn't going well…
"Akane! Akane! What are you doing out in such cold weather? Are you feeling all right and well?" I hear Kasumi call off somewhere in distance.
"Kasumi? Where are you?" I scan my surroundings looking for the gentle voiced sister I'm so grateful to have. I spot her about 15 feet in front of me. I smile a toothy smile and run up to her.
"Kasumi! Great! Is our house around here somewhere?" I gaze out on the ever-growing whiteness around me.
"Akane?" She waves a hand in front of me. "You're standing right in the garden…"
"Oh my…" I start in the direction of the dining room.
"I was just about to say that!" Kasumi laughs.
"Ryoga! Ryoga! Hang in there." I rush up the stairs and kick my door open. I sit Ryoga on the bed and I'm taken aback by the paleness of his face. He lazily opens his eyes and blinks a few times. He smiles a weak smile and falls back on the bed. I rush out into the hall and trample over the rug and fall flat on my face. I scamper into the bathroom, throw open the mirror, and snag a few medicine pills. I fill up a cup of the coldest water on the tap and rush back into the other room.
"Ryoga, I'm back! I need you to take this medicine! Is-" I skip into the room, smiling, accidentally tripping over a shoe. "Oops!"
The cold water splashes all over him, drenching him in a bone chilling water.
"What on earth?" My mind freezes in confusion.
Thanks for reading! I like keeping you guys on the edge, ahuehuehue. Cliff hangers are fun, no?