Ranma ½ Fanfiction

Desperation

By Ranko-chan

Part two: Then there was the Challenge

Chapter Four: Strange Ways

Author Note: I have heard that not many read these, I am sure that if you do read them you are normally bored out of your mind, the way that I ramble. Side Note:

Time Lines

Akane Timeline: Akane disappears- appears at the Amazon village approx. 6 months later- Aka is born approx.. 2.5 months later- purification starts 2 weeks after birth- 3 Months of solitude with Shan- two months with tribe total 14 months approx..

Ranma Timeline: Ranma leaves to find Akane- 8.5 months find old man- mouse comes three months later- total 12 months approx.



This goes to show that Ranma is a little further behind. Just wanted to keep all of you informed about the time plots. Don't get lost on me now, just pretend that you know what I am talking about.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma, although I have dreamed I do. This is done for entertainment only.

She looked into the small hand-held mirror. Her hair was growing, it was already a good six inches past her shoulder. She ran her fingers through it lightly, catching a few snags. Her little sister, cradled in her arms, grabbed at her hair. She winced. She positioned the baby on her knee. She had turned four months yesterday. She was trying to roll over already in her bassinet. Mais took her hair out of the child's strong grip, and tapped them. She whispered "No." Into the child's ear and then kissed the top of her head. The baby had a head of blue black hair just like her own, but there was something different about it. Even at its short length, you could tell that she would have curls in it when it grew out. She put the mirror into a drawer and shut it. She hoisted the baby's weight to her right arm and held the child so that her head rested on her right shoulder.

The child started to protest, losing eye contact, but as soon as she started to get up and move around Aka became quiet once again.

"Shan, isn't there a ceremony tonight?" Shan was in the other room, and was cooking on the iron stove. She hadn't heard all of what Mias said. "What?" She yelled back.

"A ceremony? Is it tonight?!"

"Yes, we must attend." Shan yelled back.

Lali came up from behind Mias and took the baby out of her arms from behind. Mias looked as if she wanted to protest, but her mother shook her head.

"It is a special ceremony dear."

"Yes." Shan added, peeking her head out at the corner form the other room.

"Just for me and you to attend."

"Aka can't come with us?"

"Your mother will watch her."

Mais's face became downcast, she hated to leave the baby, she always wanted her in her sight, ever since that moment, when she had felt, whatever she had felt. She needed the child there.

"Can't I take her there?"

"Mia-chan. That is ridiculous, she is too small. For Gods sake, you sound like her mother worrying the way you are."

'You are her mother, but that is not to your knowledge.'Shan also reminded herself silently,

'How?' She thought 'would I feel if I found out that I had a child that I didn't know existed.'

She was surprised at how sad it made her, and angry and how scary that proposition was. Here in front of her, was her past enemy, now friend, a mother that was holding her bastard child, yet she didn't know any of it. Shan had to suppress tears. She realized how sorry she was for her friend.

"I know it sounds funny, but I am just scared to part with her, I feel like I have to watch her every moment and make sure that she is okay. She is so little and helpless. I don't remember what my childhood was like, but I just have this feeling of debt. I feel I owe her something. Do you understand?"

"I think I do. She is your sister, you love her, and want her well being."

"I guess."

"Well, trust your mother, she will be fine. The Ceremony starts at sundown. You don't have much time."

The hissing had stopped from the kitchen, Lali had gone with her sister, and Shan was pouring the fresh ramen into bowls.

*******

******* Mias had been under the impression that she and Shan would be in purification for over a year. They had to grow their hair out to their waist before the punishment could end. Mia knew that her hair grew fast, but the final ceremony was in two months, and her hair still had at least seven inches to go. She didn't understand many things about her people, they were, so . . . she didn't know how to explain herself. She was interrupted out of her thoughts as her mother walked into the room.

"Mia-chan, it is almost time to leave. Are you ready? Shan is waiting for you outside." Her mother smiled at her. It was a warm smile of concern. Her mother could read her. Her mother knew that she was upset.

She kissed her sister on the head and handed her to her mother.

"I will be back soon Mother."

"I know."

Shan was waiting for her outside.

"Mia-chan are you Ok? You look tired."

"I am fine Shan-chan. You have yet to tell me about the ceremony though. Will you just let it be a surprise like the last one?" "There is much that I too don't know. Great-Grand-mother didn't ever allow me to attend such ceremonies as a child."

"You are telling me that you don't know Shan-chan?"

"No, I don't know. There have been few purification ceremonies, I have never seen the ceremony that we are about to take part in. I am actually a little frightened as to what they are going to do to us. I mean this is a type of punishment. I can't see it as anything else. I haven't yet felt it as a punishment however. It frightens me, this whole thing."

"You admit your fears' too easy sister. You have taught me countless of times that this place is a place in which fears don't exist."

Shan could laugh, but she didn't. It was too serious of a time for their fun. "I see that you have learned something. Well you know the saying, do as I say, and not as I do."

Before Mias had a chance to reply, they were at the center of the village, the elders waiting for them.

The center was lit dimly by the setting sun, and the torches were erected to give off a pale light as the sun descended further into the sky. The elders were seated in a circle and Shan and Mia were instructed to take a seat in the middle of the circle. The sky turned into night quickly, and the atmosphere took on something dark and dreary. It was the color purple.

The dirt was cold under Shan's legs. She wanted the warmth of her hut, she wanted to be sleeping curled up under layers of cotton. The ceremony had not yet begun and it felt solemn. She sat very still.

'Mia was right this is no place to talk about fears. This was a place in which you had to find yourself, and your courage. This was the final step before they were purified at the battle soon to come.'

The elders were encircled around them, each was holding a torch. Bugs flew around the fires, the light reflected off of their wings and occasionally one would fly to their death in the fire. Mias sat as still as she could and looked directly at the dirt in front of her. She would not think of anything else, because she had to be strong. She had to face this, she had to face all of this, she had to be strong. She wanted to be free, free from the things that lurked in the back of her mind all of the time. She thought that once this was all over, that she could forget all that happened, and forget her past, and the memories that creped into her mind. They were not whole, but some things she just didn't understand, and she wanted nothing to do with them. All she wanted, was Shan, and Aka. She wanted to be a member of her tribe, and live happily. But to do that she had to have the courage to face this. This ceremony, that at the moment scared the living daylights out of her.

The elders gave them each a cup. The cups were wooden and were very small. In each cup was a sour smelling liquid, that was steaming. The elders motioned for them to drink the liquid so they did. It was bitter, and tasted like salt water. They had to fight the urge to gag. But they sat quietly, and didn't as much as flinch. Shan looked at Mias who was sitting and facing her like in the last ceremony. She looked at her and could tell that the girl was trying her best to loose herself and to imagine that it was all over. She did it so that she could push it back into some corner of her mind like she did to everything else that she remotely didn't like. Shan admired her for this ability. She knew that for herself personally that it was very hard for her to try to ignore anything, or to put it into the back of her mind.

The drink was something that she was not sure of what exactly it was. It tasted odd, a taste that she couldn't explain. She swashed her tongue around her mouth a few times. She was almost sure that she had not tasted this before. She wasn't sure if this would turn out to be a good or a bad thing.



Mias, felt odd. She knew that Shan was thinking about something. She wasn't sure what the girl would think about at a time like this. Well this feeling was quite aberrant, and it made her feel vulnerable almost. Her head began to spin, and she had to fight the vertigo that all of a sudden spurned itself on inside her. Her neck throbbed, and her skull felt as if it was going to shatter. She had to reach up and support her excruciatingly aching head. The pain was fanatical. She felt her head getting heavier, and the pain, getting harder and harder to bear, but she couldn't cry out, she couldn't allow herself too. She managed to glance at her friend, and saw the girl doing the same thing as her, and looking to be in the same predicament that she herself was in. Then, she heard a chant, and she felt her hand being pried from her head, and a hand forcing her to open her mouth. Something was forced down her throat. She swallowed reflexively. She felt the sweet liquid slide down her throat, and even before it reached her stomach, its sooting effects were felt, as it lulled her into a slumber, and eased her pain, to a mere ache that was around her neck and temples. Then she was asleep.

Kohn Lon watched the girls collapse to the floor. The ceremony was over. They would awaken tomorrow, and the pain should be gone. Their hair should be the desired length and they should be ready for the final fight, and last day of their imprisonment, if that was what she would call it. She wondered where Muts Tsu was, what had it been, three months or more? She wondered if he had found Ranma. She looked at Akane, and she couldn't even think of the girl as something else. She amazed herself. The girl was one of them, and she surpassed Shan in many things already. She was an asset. She had decided that come tomorrow morning to start to train her, the next month before the tournament. Shan could train to of course. But Ranma still played on in the back of her mind. She wondered what would happen, if he were to come here one day and find the girl here, and find her married, to one of their men, and with a child even. She wondered if it was still such a good idea to keep her alive. If she was to mysteriously die, then Ranma would never know, and would leave them in peace, and cause them no harm. But something told her that she should just leave the girl be to live as life let her live, after all she had survived much, that must mean something. Lali Su had told her about the note that Muts Tsu had left. She had told her to wait, and to possibly give it to her at another time. She thought that it would probably be advantageous to give it to the girl now. But she wasn't sure. It probably would be more interesting if she were to just get rid of it. She chuckled to herself.

Mias woke up in her bed with her sister asleep at the foot in her small basket. Her head felt heavy, and she didn't remember what could have caused such a thing. She decided to look in her looking glass. She got up out of bed and walked to a place in the room where there was still a candle lit. She looked at herself, and was in shock. What had they done?

'Well we did have to have our hair a certain length, but this way?' It seemed so wrong, it almost felt like cheating.

The baby started to whimper, and it brought her out of her thoughts.

"Shhh, Aka you use to be such a good baby, now, look at you waking me up in the late hours of the night." Actually she didn't even know what time it was. She assumed because of the darkness, that it was late, but it could very well be early morning. All the same the baby still didn't normally wake up during these times. As she was rocking her sister to sleep, a shadow came up behind her.

"You will be a great mother some day." She hadn't been frightened, she could defend herself against any burglar, but shadows just sometimes creep up on you. She exhaled.

"Thank you."

Her mother gave her a weak smile.

"I hope I didn't scare you. They just brought you home. They said that you shouldn't have woken up until morning. Are you all right?"

The feeling of fear gone, her mind reverted back to the ceremony.

"Yes I feel fine. Why did they do that? I don't like the feel of this, I feel like I am cheating my way out of something."

"No, don't feel like that, it is just that our tribe works around some things to compensate for other things. You have to work with others, males, and your purification sentence has to be shortened."

"Well, they make the laws I guess." Her mother nodded in agreement.

"Now why are you awake now?"

"She woke me up actually."

"She is asleep now. Go join her. It is still late. Day will not come for many hours yet."

"Thank you for checking up on us."

She let a tired laugh escape her lips.

"Sill that is my job, I am your mother after all."

She left, leaving Mais Tsu to let sleep claim her.

End Ch4

Author Notes: Well that one was a little longer. I hope that you all like this. I will have up to chapter 13 posted by Christmas, if everything goes the way that I plan. I have the whole thing written, but everything after chapter 13 is in a notebook, yet to be typed. I don't think that I can promise to have that done. So keep checking often. I have been busting my butt off rereading all of this, and fixing it so that you all will get a semi-decant picture as to what I am rambling about. Ranko