Once Upon a Broken Heart
Yay! Chapter 10! Finally…
Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed and put it on their favorites list! I really appreciate it! I hope you guys like the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½… yet.
Chapter 10: Cursed is the Worst
Gray clouds were rolling over the Jusenkyo Forest only to go unnoticed by the young royals as they examined the many springs spread out all over the ground.
"Ranma, I don't have a good feeling about this place…" Akane mumbled under her breath as the pair stood on the edge of a spring.
Where are all the animals that should be here?
Akane's worried face and Ranma's curious one stared back at them as they looked into a spring surrounded by so many others.
"What's the worse that's going to happen, Akane? We fall in and get a little wet?" Ranma asked sarcastically. He bent down and sat on his knees, leaning forward to get a better look at the clear blue water.
"A little wet? Do you see how deep these springs look Ranma?" Akane asked him while pointing at the place Ranma was leaning closer and closer toward.
"Ranma!" They heard a booming voice echo throughout the woods causing Akane to jump in surprise. Ranma only rolled his eyes and stood up. He turned around to see his dad pushing tree branches out of his way to get to the open area where all of the springs were.
"What are you doing here old man?" Ranma asked Genma in a slightly angry tone of voice.
Why does he seem so mad that his dad is here? Akane thought as she tried to hide her relief from the sight of the prince. It wasn't very hard to do seeing as the boy was starring daggers at the bald headed man walking up to the two.
"Don't be stupid boy! A servant saw the two of you heading in here and ran to the library and told me and Soun. What are you doing out here?!" Genma yelled as he stood in front of Ranma with the front of Ranma's shirt in his fist.
Akane watched as Ranma merely sighed, swung his leg back behind him, and, with great force, kicked Genma in the stomach.
Letting out a gust of breath, Genma flew fast through the air, hitting a thick tree trunk with a loud thud. Akane thought that he looked like he was hugging the tree with his arms and legs sprawled out around it.
This can't end well…
Only seconds later, cruel gravity took its effect and Genma started to fall backwards with his arms and legs still out in the air. Akane and Ranma watched as he splashed into a spring that was right in front of the tree Genma made friends with.
Next to her, Akane could hear Ranma laughing at the misfortune of his father. "That's what you get, you old creeper!"
Akane couldn't help but crack a smile as she looked back at the spring. Though it did not last long as she saw bubbles coming out of the spring that she realized King Genma still had not come out of. The bubbles made it to where neither prince nor princess could see Genma clearly, only the vague shape of his body.
"Ranma, he's still down there!" Akane said to the now worried prince.
The shadow like image in the water grew bigger and bigger as Genma came closer to the surface. Relief instantly filled Akane, and with a look next to her, she noticed Ranma was too.
"I think that's enough adventure for one night for me," Akane said with a sigh.
"Nothing really- DAD?!"
Shivers went down Akane's spine as she turned her head toward the spring. Her scream echoed throughout the forest as a large shadow stalked toward the young royals.
½
Not knowing what else to do, Ranma jumped in front of Akane with his arm stretched out in front of her to shield her from the thing that had emerged from the water his dad was still drowning in.
"Get back!"
Stepping out of the shadow from the tree was an enormous panda standing on two legs. Its eyes were wide in surprise and it was rapidly lifting one paw to the other in front of his face.
Akane let out another scream as she took a step back from the panicking panda.
"Where's your dad, Ranma?!" Akane said in a high pitched voice.
"I'm a little more worried about the giant panda at the moment, Akane!"
Ok, think Ranma, what are you going to do now?!
Ranma positioned himself in a fighting stance as the frightened looking panda started coming closer babbling something he couldn't understand.
"You shouldn't be here!"
Running towards them under the hanging sign was a man waving his arms in the air hysterically. Ranma looked to the man, momentarily forgetting about the giant black and white bear running loose.
What is it now?!
"Ranma!" he heard Akane yell out behind him. Sudden fear shot through him as he looked behind him to see Akane near the edge of the spring with the same panicking panda taking steps toward her causing Akane to take steps back.
She stepped on a smooth rock that lined the edge of the spring that she was nearing and slipped, beginning to fall backwards.
"Akane!"
Ranma ran faster then he could ever remember running toward the falling princess. Bending his legs and pushing with all his strength, he jumped over to Akane and, before she could fall in, picked her up bridal style and moved her away from the spring.
Landing on firm ground, Ranma and Akane both looked at each other with blushes on their faces and wide eyes. Neither said a word, too caught up in brown and blue eyes to see the man who was running so frantically come up behind the giant panda and knock him out with a frying pan that mysteriously formed out of no where.
"You peoples shouldn't be here!" the man shouted from across the spring. Akane looked over to the man with a surprised expression. Disappointment filled Ranma as he looked over too, seeing the man start to prod the panda with a stick. Not distracted anymore, Ranma could see that the man wore a hat, probably covering up a head just as bald as his dad's.
Dad!
"My dad fell in that spring over there! We have to get him out. The tool probably drowned by now!"
"Ranma," Akane whispered to the frantic Ranma, "you're still holding me." Ranma was surprised to find that he was as he looked at the blushing face of his fiancé who wouldn't look him in the eye anymore.
"Uh right," Ranma said in a shy voice. He let of her, causing Akane to fall to the ground at his feet.
"Hey!"
The man, seeing that something was going to start that would take too much time, yelled before Ranma could speak, "You all should come with me. Sir, can you help me carry panda?"
"You want to bring that thing with us?!" Akane shouted.
"I never knew that tomboys got scared as many times as you do Akane," Ranma said casually. He stuck his tongue out at her as he started walking toward the man pulling on the panda's arm.
Akane glared at the pigtailed boy as he turned around and started walking toward the very thing that just cornered her.
Not even getting a warning from the enraged princess, Ranma felt a pain in the back of the head as Akane's shoe flew through the air and hit him. Caught off guard, Ranma began to stumble forward toward the spring. He stumbled to the edge and stood on the tips of his toes while trying to lean backwards by waving his arms in the air in circles.
½
Akane watched as Ranma got both feet firmly on the ground.
Darn…
Ranma walked around the spring. When he got across, and the spring was the only thing between him and Akane, he turned around and smiled at Akane, holding the shoe Akane didn't even know he had, in the air.
"Nice try Akane," Ranma said taking a step nearer to the spring to rub it in her face better.
"Not good idea sir!" the man shouted in a strained voice as he trying to pull the panda by the same arm.
"You're going to have to try better than-"
Akane still sat, trying not to laugh as she watched Ranma slip on the same rock she did and fall into the spring with a splash.
Just like the one Genma fell into, the spring started to bubble like boiling water.
"Oh, this not good!" the man cried to the sky, letting go of the panda's arm in shock.
What is with this guy? Akane thought as she stared at the man with a questioning look.
Akane heard a gasp from the spring and the sound of water splashing. Expecting to see Ranma in the water, Akane turned to start schooling the young prince. But instead of the black haired boy who fell in, there was a red haired girl standing in the spring with the same clothes Ranma had on when he fell in. Scared that something happened to Ranma, Akane quickly leaned down and took off her other shoe.
"Where's Ranma?!"
The girl looked at her like she was crazy. "What are you talking about?"
"Where's Ranma?!"
"I am Ranma, you dummy!"
Using all her strength, Akane threw the shoe, hitting the girl in the head.
"Why must you always throw things at me?!" came a high pitched reply from the girl.
"Ranma?" Akane asked in an almost quiet voice.
"Who else would it be? The giant panda?" Ranma said with a roll of her eyes.
No way!
Akane's jaw dropped in shock.
He… doesn't even realize that he is not a he! Wait, what?
"Do you feel okay… Ranma?" Akane asked with a hesitant voice of calling the girl Ranma. She slowly started taking steps to the spring Ranma was somehow standing in, looking down at the ground every step or so for rocks.
"Of course I do. Just a little wet. Man, this shirt absorbs a lot more water then I thought it did. The front feels really heavy." Ranma told her while ringing out the water from his hair.
That jerk. How is he bigger than me? Akane thought with annoyance as she looked down at Ranma's newly required chest.
"I should explain!" the still unknown man shouted.
"Explain what? The panda? It's about time! And what happened to my dad?" Ranma asked, looking around for his father.
He hasn't even noticed the change of his voice?
"Um, Ranma," Akane said in a slow, cautious voice, "look down at your reflection."
"Why?" he asked in confusion.
"Just look!" the young princess cried desperately.
With a raised eyebrow, Ranma looked down at the water surrounding him. Where his reflection should be staring back at him was the wavy image of a red haired girl's in the same style that Ranma had his in. At the exact same time that Ranma widened his eyes in surprise, so did the pretty red head's.
"Am I delusional or something?!" Ranma cried in horror.
"Either we both are or this is the real deal," Akane said under her breath.
Ranma ran her hands over her face, feeling for any changes. Akane could tell that Ranma was freaking out inside his head.
"Ranma, calm down," Akane said in what she hoped was a soothing voice, when inside her own head, she was freaking out as much as Ranma was.
What the heck is going on here?!
"How can I calm down?! I'm a- a-"
"Girl," the man said from behind with nod of his head.
Ranma's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fainted onto the grassy ground surrounding the spring.
"Oh, this not good. Not good!" cried the man.
"Who are you?" Akane finally asked as she gazed at the man in question.
The man just sighed and once again started pulling on the panda's arm. "I look over Jusenkyo Springs and keep its history. Man fell in spring of drowned girl. This man," he wheezed out, trying to drag the panda across the ground, "fall in spring of drowned panda."
"You mean that's Ranma's dad?!" Akane screamed in surprise. She looked over to where the unconscious panda still lay; not moving an inch though the man was pulling with all his strength.
With a sigh, Akane walked over to the red headed prince and lifted Ranma on her back. "Now what do we do?"
½
Ranma's head hurt. A dull ache in the back of his head throbbed as he turned the other way. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter as if to block out the pain. Finally deciding that he should wake up, he opened his eyes to stare up at a wood ceiling.
Where am I?!
Ranma quickly sat up straight, only to lay down again with a groan because of his head throbbing in pain. Slowly, Ranma got up and, leaning back on his elbows, looked around the small bedroom type room he saw he was in. A woven rug covered a stone floor and the window on the wall next to the bed showed a cloudy sky. A glowing light from underneath the door flickered every once in a while as he felt the scratchy blanket underneath him.
Maybe it was just a dream and I was just kidnapped! Thank you universe!
Looking down with a smile he saw his regular body. Lifting a hand in front of his face, he curled his fingers in and out of his fist.
"Alright!" he yelled with a victory fist in the air.
"Ranma?" he heard a voice ask from behind the door.
"Akane?"
The door creaked open as Akane peeked her head through the opening. The soft glow of the candle's flame outlined Akane's figure as she stood with her hand on the doorknob, looking at the young prince with a smile.
"Good morning sunshine. Had a nice nap?" Akane asked with a some what mocking tone.
Distracted by her smile, it took a minute or two before Ranma could reply back, "Uh, ya, I guess. What happened? All I can remember is this really crazy dream. And while you're at it, where are we?"
"Wow Ranma. Take a breath." Akane said, walking into the room and standing near the bed he was still lying on. Holding out a hand, she helped Ranma off the bed. "All questions can be answered out in the kichen."
They walked out of the room side by side into a room that was larger and brighter then the room Ranma was just in. Near the back next to an old looking stove, sitting in a wooden chair, was the man from Ranma's "dream". The prince stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the man in horror.
"What are you doing here?!" he shouted while pointing a shaking index finger at the man sipping tea at the table.
"This my house," the man said taking another sip of his tea.
"So- so- all of it was real?! It's not just a dream?!"
Akane placed her hand on his shoulder in a reassuring way. "Just hear what he has to say. You're back to being a boy aren't you?"
With that said, Ranma relaxed and, with Akane, walked over to the table and sat down across the man in the uniform. He noticed that the man had an accent and that he seemed very calm about all of this.
"So, explain," Ranma demanded in an authoritative tone of voice.
With a sigh, the man leaned forward on his elbows on the table as if he was about to whisper a secret.
"You turn into girl."
Ranma sat there looking at the man with a blank stare, waiting for him to tell them more. All he got was a deafening silence as the man leaned back again and took another sip of tea.
Is that all he knows?
"Well, I got that part genius. The question I'm asking is if you know WHY I turned into a girl," Ranma said. He tried using hand motions that would better get his point across, even though the man had closed his eyes as he downed the last of his tea.
"Spring you fall into is spring of drowned girl. Long long time ago, girl drown in spring. It then became a cursed spring that make anyone who fall into spring turn into girl that drowned with cold water," the man said with his index finger pointed up in the air.
Ranma was astonished. Not only was that really wrong, but it was also horribly confusing.
"Your dad fell into the spring of drowned panda. That panda that was chasing after us was really your dad," Akane said, looking from Ranma to the man sitting across from them for approval.
"Long long time ago panda drown in spring. Now-"
"Yeah I think I got it, thanks," Ranma said in an annoyed voice. "So you're saying that I will turn into a girl and that my dad will turn into a… panda?"
"Yes. With cold water," the uniformed man said with another nod of his head.
"What does cold water have to do with anything?" Ranma asked in a skeptical voice and a raised eyebrow.
"Cold water turn you into girl. Hot turn you back to boy," he said, motioning to Akane who got a glass of water without Ranma noticing.
Ranma watched Akane's face gain a smug smile as she poured the water right over his head.
Wiping his eyes with fists, Ranma yelled out, "What was that supposed to show me?!"
The man grabbed a hand mirror from the table top and held it out in front of Ranma's face for him to see the newly required red hair and other girl features.
"Oh," was the only thing Ranma could think to say as he started inspect his reflection.
"If you please Miss," the man said looking at Akane. Akane took the tea pot sitting near them on the table and poured the steaming water on Ranma's head once again. The man held the mirror up again for Ranma to see his face changed back to normal.
"We should go Ranma," Akane said in a distracted voice as she looked out one of the many windows at a quickly darkening sky. "Dad and everyone will start to worry."
"If you have any more questions, come back. I'll be here," the man said with a smile and small wave.
Looking at the man with a questioning gaze, Ranma replied, "Uh, yeah. Will do. So, where is my dad?"
"He's in the other room sleeping. I'll show you," Akane said moving toward a door across the room. "Thank you for everything!" Akane said to the man as she walked backwards to give him a smile.
Ranma picked up his dad and followed Akane to the front door to go back to the castle.
At least they changed him back too.
They began walking through the forest, passing the many trees they had passed only hours ago. The silence they walked in was broken with a loud crack of thunder and the sound of rain hitting the ground.
"Oh come on!" the red headed prince shouted out from underneath a sleeping panda.
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I'm a jerk and a half. I haven't updated in forever. But this is longer than all of the other chapters so hopefully that makes up for it a little bit!
Again, thank you all of those who reviewed. And, please, leave a review. I really want to know what you all think of this chapter. I don't care if it's just to say that you wish I would save the world of having to read my writing.
Thank you for reading!