Oyu no Ranma
A Ranma ½ fanfiction by Zorknot
Ch.10: Wrath
In this chapter we are introduced to Ryoga. Also: Ranma and Kasumi fight.
Disclaimer: see the previous nine disclaimers
~~~~~Ranma~~~~~
Ranma heard Nabiki yelling after her as she left. It was around four in the morning. With the artificial light of the city hitting the clouds, she could almost believe it was near dawn, though the sun was a good two hours away. For the last couple of days Ranma had to drag Nabiki out of bed to get her to start training. For her to be up at this hour was probably a minor miracle.
Still, Ranma kept walking. She left the front yard and turned onto the sidewalk. She didn't know where she was going yet, but she would find a telephone book somewhere eventually. Right now she just wanted to get away. She carried all of her belongings on her back. She wore her altered Chinese outfit. She left her uniform behind. She was going to find her mother.
Ranma heard Nabiki running after her. She didn't have the energy to run away, and that seemed a bit cowardly, so she stopped and turned around slowly to meet the middle Tendo daughter. Nabiki looked a bit threadbare, in her pajamas with her hair messed up and a circle under her good eye.
"I told you," Nabiki panted, "not to do anything," she panted again, "stupid!"
"There's no reason for me to be here, Tendo," Ranma said.
"Your Dad" Nabiki gasped. She swallowed "Akane."
"As far as I'm concerned, that man is not my father. And as for Akane, well, maybe someday when she's less of a bitch, we can be friends. But not now."
Last night after finding out about her mother, she couldn't handle the idea of sleeping with her father. But when she told Akane what happened, she just got angry. "Ooh, you have a mother. Well boo fucking hoo!" she screamed and slammed her door in Ranma's face. Not sure what else to do, Ranma asked Nabiki if she could sleep on the floor of her room, and Nabiki agreed. Ranma hadn't slept though. She had just stared at the ceiling, listening to Nabiki breathe, until she had had enough and just left. She had thought she left stealthily enough, but apparently she was wrong.
"Don't you get it? This is exactly what Kasumi wants!" Nabiki gestured with both of her hands moving out from her temples.
"Yeah?" Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Well, if she wants it, she gets it. I'm outta here." She turned away.
"What are you going to do, Ranma? Where are you going to live?"
"I'm going to live with my Mom, if she'll take me. If not, I'll just live on the road, like I've been doing most my life." Ranma shrugged. "You didn't want me here anyway, so stop pretending you care."
"Gods damn it, Ranma, I'm not pretending anymore! I thought we went through this already!"
Ranma looked away, "Yeah. Well it ain't enough."
"How did you find out about your mom, anyway?" Nabiki hadn't asked about it last night. She had simply opened her door, gestured to the floor threw a pillow down next to the bed, and told Ranma that she better not snore or anything or she'd kill her.
Ranma thinned her eyes. "You knew? You knew my mom was alive?"
Nabiki held the bridge of her nose with her hand. "Give me a break." she groaned. "It's too early for you to be this observant."
Ranma threw up her hands in disgust. "All you Tendos. It's just one secret after another isn't it? Even Akane who's so into honesty. She won't tell me what her deal is. She just snaps at me and expects me to figure it out. Well, I'm sick of it. I ain't getting anything out of it anymore. The bus stops here, and I'm gettin' on it."
"The bus stop is actually a couple blocks down," Nabiki noted.
"Shut up! It's just a hot water thing! A metaphor, I mean."
"Look, I overheard your dad talking about your mom a while back. That's how I knew." Nabiki's voice was calm but tired. She seemed frustrated at something herself.
"He ain't my dad! "
Nabiki held up a hand in a calming motion. "He had a reason for not telling you. I can't tell you what that is, because I told him I wouldn't, but he was trying to protect you. Now, I'm guessing you don't have any idea what he would be protecting you against. I only know a little bit more than you, but what I can say is that you are running blindly into a situation your father thought was too dangerous for you to handle."
Ranma had to admit Nabiki had a point. This was the guy who thought it would be a good idea to drop her in a pit of ravenous cats, and he thought seeing her mother was a bad idea? But how bad could it possibly be? The woman seemed nice enough on the phone.
"As for Akane, you have to understand that mothers are something of a sore spot for all of us. Akane hardly remembers our mother at all, but in some ways she misses her the most out of all of us. And then you pop up and say your mother is alive after all…"
"You were listening to our conversation."
Nabiki rolled her visible eye. "Akane was yelling at you so loud the neighbors probably heard her. I'm in the next room over and I have a pretty good imagination. Sue me."
"I'd probably lose," Ranma grumbled.
"Probably," Nabiki agreed with a smirk.
Ranma sighed and looked down the road. Her mother was out there somewhere, waiting for her.
"Look, why don't you think on it for awhile? Give it a week. Maybe, oh I don't know, ask your Dad about your mom so you know what's up. Then if you still want to leave, leave, but I think this is just things getting worse before they get better." Nabiki put a hand on Ranma's shoulder.
Ranma looked at the hand, confused.
Nabiki removed the hand. She looked away. Ranma turned, but Nabiki put a fist in front of her face and coughed. "Ahem. Well, I think if I go inside now I might be able to get a half hour of sleep before Sensei wakes us all up. You do what you want. I'll see you when I see you." With that, Nabiki turned and walked stiffly back to the house.
Ranma looked down the road for a minute or so.
A wet, chilly breeze blew past.
A dog barked from far away.
She found herself turning and walking back to the house. She didn't know what Nabiki's game was. Or Kasumi's or Akane's or anyone's for that matter. Maybe giving it a week was good advice. Maybe by then she could make some sense of things.
At least that was better than wandering around, alone.
~~~~Ryoga~~~~
A single track of footsteps in the sand led away from the shore where, in the distance, the waters of the Pacific sparkled. The tracks ended at the feet of a determined figure cloaked in a burlap cowl and a pair of cracked greenly tinted goggles. The heat of the midday sun beat down upon him. He looked straight ahead, never allowing his trajectory to alter. So intent was the youth on his target, that an observer might wonder if he actually knew where exactly he was going…
The young man's name was Hibiki Ryoga, and he would have laughed to hear this doubt expressed. He knew precisely where he was going. His destination was etched into his retinas, burned into his brain. He would find that coward Ranma. He would find him and he would make that bastard pay. To think that Ranma would run away to China, skipping out on a man to man fight. Intolerable!
Ryoga's mother hadn't understood. "Don't leave!" she implored him, tears in her eyes as she stood in the doorway, "I might not ever see you again if you go after him!" At first she had refused to tell him where Ranma was going, but Ryoga told her if she didn't tell him, he would just have to hit the road, asking anyone he came across where the black-haired ponytailed martial artist named after a wild stallion was sleeping. He would ask until someone told him even if it took the rest of his life. His mother had finally caved after this, and told him where Ryoga was going. Still, she begged him one last time not to go. He kissed her on the cheek and hugged her, giving his good bye.
Before he left though, Ryoga's mother made sure he packed the ribbon, pins and ball from her rhythmic gymnastics equipment. He agreed, even though it was embarrassing. Rythmic Gymnastics was the first martial art he had ever learned, and though other boys had made fun of him for it, it had helped him later when he studied other disciplines. The equipment made his pack heavier. But Ryoga was used to the weight even then. And now the weight was a comfort. Without his pack, and now without the iron and bamboo umbrella he had made in China, he felt naked, vulnerable. He would never allow anybody to make him feel that way again. He would make sure Ranma paid for what he did.
Ryoga continued to trudge through the hot sands toward his goal. The sand grabbed at his feet like the hands of burning imps, but Ryoga paid it no mind. He was too tough to be bested by mere topology.
His father had taught him how to be tough. Just when the kids were starting to really get in the spirit of bulling him, his father showed up, finally finding his way home after years of being lost. Gymnastics allowed Ryoga to run away, and if he found someone and showed them his home address they could usually lead him to his home. But his father had taught him to stand up for himself. His father taught him to truly fight. He had Ryoga stand in a horse stance, knees bent, feet a little wider than shoulder width and pointed forward, his hands in fists at his waist, for hours. He had Ryoga practice punching by having him hit a tree in their backyard. Ryoga's fists bled. He cried. But he kept punching the rough bark of the tree until his fists no longer hurt. Until each punch made a gouge in the wood.
Ryoga's father taught him to block an attack and to deal one out. The last bully that tried to fight him had met a very painful end, involving a bleeding nose and several cracked ribs. Ryoga had been twelve. He no longer had to worry about anybody else. He could live his life in peace.
And then Ranma showed up. Ranma, who claimed to be the best martial artist around without batting an eyelid. Ranma, who always seemed to get the last piece of bread at lunchtime even though Ryoga should have gotten it by all rights. Ranma, who seemed to just be breezing through life without a care in the world. It wasn't fair. Ryoga was tougher than he was. And yet Ranma just assumed he was better.
It was not fair. That challenge was supposed to prove for once and for all that Ryoga was the best. That Ranma was just a boaster, a know-nothing full of bravado and a certain amount of luck. Ryoga could get whatever he wanted by himself without anybody else. He was the strongest and he could beat anyone.
Except Ranma had hightailed it out of there as soon as Ryoga issued a challenge! Only three days after the posted time!
Ryoga blinked as he came to a rocky cliff overlooking a small village. Had he made it? Was this Nerima? He didn't see any tall buildings or large throngs of people bustling through the streets, but maybe Nerima was a more provincial area of Tokyo."This doesn't look like the place," he murmured to himself, "but there's only one way to find out!" He threw off his cloak and goggles, opened his iron umbrella and jumped down toward the town.
It should be noted at this point that such a maneuver is sure to end in death in almost all circumstances. Parachutes are as big as they are for a reason, and that reason is that humans, being rather heavy in comparison to say, cats, need a lot of surface area to slow them down enough so that they don't get crushed when they say hello to their old friend, the ground. Not to mention that most umbrellas have the resilience of tin foil and won't survive a stiff breeze much less the rushing winds from a fall from several hundred meters up. Ryoga however, had a very strong umbrella, he had very strong bones and muscles, and he had a very high pain threshold. So when he inevitably crashed into the bushes below and his feet felt the jarring sensation of the earth coming to meet them at about 150 kilometers per hour, he found the experience only mildly uncomfortable.
Had the villagers seen this stunt, they might not have been quite as surprised as they were when, after plowing through houses and places of business all down the main street of the village, a gigantic wild boar about the size of a pickup truck slammed into the tip of Ryoga's umbrella and completely failed to move him even a centimeter from his position. Even considering Ryoga's great strength, this would have been impossible if Ryoga didn't also have a firm control of his ki.
Ryoga felt the energy of the earth locking his feet onto its surface and the giant boar may as well have been a flea attempting to push down a skyscraper. In fact the real mystery was why the creature didn't currently have the tip of the umbrella sticking through its nostril and tickling its cerebellum. Ryoga suspected it must not be an ordinary pig. But then, if a pig that large were ordinary, that would be pretty strange.
Ryoga frowned at this logic for a moment, and then decided to dispatch the animal as quickly and humanely as possible. He removed the tip of his umbrella from the boar's snout and, using the momentum of the creature as it lunged toward him, he lifted it and threw it high into the air with a yowlp of power. Not needing to see the aftermath to know that his business with the boar was concluded, Ryoga stuck his umbrella back on the top of his pack, feeling a rare moment of satisfaction.
This feeling was rather dashed when one of the villagers informed him that he was in Shikoku. Not that there was anything particularly wrong with Shikoku normally. It was a fine island. A lot of pretty, mountainous regions. Not too crowded. The problem was that Furinkan High School was in the Nerima prefecture of Tokyo and Tokyo was on the island of Honshu, the main island of Japan.
Ryoga soon found himself on another cliff staring out over the waters of the Pacific that separated him from his goal. Signs on the cliff advised "You aren't the only one who has it rough!" and "Don't be hasty! Think it over!"
But Ryoga didn't care what any stupid signs had to say. He had to find Ranma and make him suffer. "This is a battle of honor between men! I won't let you hide from me any longer! Just you wait, Ranma!"
~~~~~Ranma~~~~~
It was Friday night and Yui's Yakitori was packed. Ranma was taking care of the front, calling out names and taking people to their tables, while Kaori and Akane were doing the proper waitressing. When it got busy like this, the place operated like a much higher end restaurant, simply out of necessity. You can't have people just laying claim to tables if there's a line of them waiting to get a seat. And because problems tended to arise in the front, that's where Ranma was, smiling at them and being generally pleasant unless they started to get belligerent. If they got belligerent, Ranma didn't waste time. She just picked them up and threw them out of the restaurant, while everyone looked at her wide-eyed in astonishment.
Ranma had to use her ki to do that, but it wasn't like she was going to have a knockdown, drag out fight with anybody. The customers of Yui Yakitori were all lightweights. A smattering of them were martial artists, but nothing that would give Ranma or even Akane a problem. So Ranma went ahead and used the spiritual energy. It didn't take that much anyway, and if anything she felt like if she didn't let some it go she would burst.
It was all the tension, she figured. Ranma had to keep herself from screaming at her father during training that morning. She just did whatever he said without saying anything. She had decided to confront him like Nabiki suggested, but she had to get the words right in her head.
Akane had apologized about yelling at her in one of the lulls during training. She had just been upset and she didn't mean it and blah blah blah. Ranma just said something like "Fine," and started a high energy kata to keep her from trying to talk any more.
Breakfast had been almost physically painful. Genma had known something was up and asked Ranma what it was several times. Akane kept trying to be friendly. Nabiki kept watching Ranma so closely it was creepy. Kasumi was just smiling like usual with no trace of the girl Ranma had talked to the night before. Soun was the only person at the table Ranma didn't have a problem with, except that he didn't seem to have any idea of what was going on, and that pissed Ranma off.
All day at school, Ranma avoided Akane. She avoided everybody really. During lunch, she went outside, jumped into a tree and ate there, watching through the leaves and the windows of the classroom as Akane looked worried while Sayuri and Yuka talked at her.
After lunch, Kuno came up to her a few times, but Ranma referred to the FuMa armband she wore around her arm and, if that didn't work, she referred him to the bottom of her shoe. She wouldn't report him to Nabiki. If she was honest, she kind of liked the distraction, but she wasn't ready for a boyfriend either. The word still filled her with the willies, and she had enough to deal with.
Now she was at work, she was busy, and she was finally beginning to relax a little bit. She could do this job without even thinking about it, and she was good at it. It was nice to have that at least.
A table for four opened up and Ranma looked at the list. The Takeuchi party was up next. They were three geeky looking high school seniors from another school. Ranma smiled at them just like everybody else, secretly hoping that one of them would be drunk or have an insanity problem. One of them was rather fat, and Ranma was glad they were going to a table and not a booth. She had seen the look of anguish in the eyes of the last fat person she had led to a booth and it was something that would haunt her dreams. The three guys all had t-shirts on with cartoon characters on the front. Most of these consisted of robots and attractive looking women in vaguely violent poses. Ranma had read a few manga, and had caught snippets of some anime, but she had never really gotten into either. She rarely had enough money to buy them and she never really had any friends to borrow any from, moving around as often as she did.
Akane was walking by, so Ranma took the opportunity to introduce her to them. "This is Akane, she'll be your waitress, that cool?"
The three of them were staring at Ranma and Akane, their mouths open.
"What wrong?" Ranma asked.
"Daate Pea!" The thin one with glasses exclaimed pointing at Ranma and Akane.
Ranma blinked and looked at Akane, who looked embarrassed, turning back to the guy, Ranma shook her head. "Sorry. I don't know what that is."
The third member of the group who had an unfortunate amount of acne spoke for his friend. "You and Akane look a lot like characters from an anime called Dirty Pair."
The thin guy with glasses nodded. "Yeah! If you were a bit more tan and didn't have that pigtail you'd look just like Kei, and she already is the spitting image of Yuri!"
"I am NOT YURI!" Akane screamed.
Ranma didn't have time to react. In a fraction of a second Akane had the table in her hands, and in another it was raised over her head, utensils, condiments and napkins falling to the floor. "Akane, what's your problem? Put the table down!"
Akane's face was red, her eyes wide.
"Wow! You really are like Dirty Pair aren't you?" The guy in glasses said.
Acne man put a hand up, "He wasn't calling you a lesbian. The girl's name in the manga is actually Yuri. You do look a lot like her."
Akane slowly lowered the table and set it on the floor.
Ranma was confused. What did being named Yuri have to do with being a lesbian? She shook her head. "Uh sorry 'bout that. Look, I'll take 500 yen off the price of each your meals okay?" It was a hassle, but Ranma was getting a percentage of all the tips tonight because she was working the front, and she would actually be able to see the money because Nabiki had talked with Amiko and Ryu about it. She would just put a note on the receipt and put 1500 yen in the register.
Akane glared at Ranma.
Ranma glared right back.
The fat one cleared his throat. "You don't need to do that. None of us are upset. Please just serve us as you would normally." He smiled and bowed. The guy with glasses was already picking the things that fell on the floor and putting them on the table.
Ranma smiled back. She always felt better when people were pleasant. "If you're sure about that…Let me get you new silverware at least." Ranma did as she said and replaced their utensils. Akane was apologizing when Ranma got back and the otaku were waving her off and saying it was alright.
When they had both left the table, Ranma hit Akane lightly on the back of her head. "Moron."
"Hey! Stop it, Ranma! I'm not your little brother you can just hit whenever you want. I'm a girl and so are you."
Ranma led walk toward the restroom and Akane seemed to be taking the hint so she responded. "Could have fooled me. Keep acting like that and people will think you were the one who used to be a boy." Ranma pushed through the door to the restroom and turned fully toward Akane as she entered as well. "You want me to treat you like a porcelain doll or something? After you scared everybody in the restaurant spitless? This shit has got to stop."
"He called me a lesbian! He was being a jerk!"
Ranma hit Akane on the back of the head again. "Stop it. I was there. He was a nice guy, Akane, and you only thought he called you a lesbian." Ranma crossed her arms. "Besides, so what if he did?"
"I'm sick of people saying-"
"Knock it off!" Ranma snapped. "You don't even know what you are. For all you know, you are a lesbian. You're just too scared to find out." Akane just scowled in silence, so Ranma continued, closing her eyes. "I'm a bicycle."
Akane burst into laughter.
"What? This is serious, Akane! I found out last night I like guys and girls. That makes me a bicycle. You might be a bicycle too!"
Akane laughed again, but she managed to make her face somewhat more serious after a few seconds. "It's bisexual, Ranma. Two sexualities. A bi cycle has two wheels."
"Oh," Ranma said, a bit embarrassed, but then she smiled. "I guess that makes me twice as sexy as other people, huh?"
Akane rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Are we done here?"
Ranma frowned. "I was really upset last night, Akane. I could have used a friend."
"Look, I told you I was sorry! I just…If I could talk to my mom again, even just say hello to her and know she heard me…"
Ranma held a hand up. "I get that, Akane. But it don't hurt any less. I can't keep trying to navigate minefields every time I want to talk to you."
Akane looked down, not saying anything.
"You know when I first got this curse, I used to beat up anybody who called me a girl? I was still sensitive about it when I came here. But look at me. That's what I am right now, isn't it? I'm a girl. And it's not like I can do anything about it. At least not for five months and three weeks. I probably can't do anything about being a bicyc…bisexual either. I just gotta deal with it. Otherwise I'm just going to keep running into walls."
"When you hit a wall, you keep hitting it until you find a way over it or through it." Akane's sad tone did not match the words at all.
Ranma grimaced. It sounded like something Genma might have said. "Yeah? Well maybe you ought to figure out what's on the other side of it first." She opened the door to the bathroom and left Akane inside, feeling a little over dramatic. But she still had a job to do after all. Ryu wasn't paying her to jibber jabber.
~~~~~Ryoga~~~~~
Ryoga ran through the metal guard rail like it was tissue paper. The sudden decline of the ravine sped him up, but the tree branches that whipped at him on the way down slowed him, so it all evened out. Stupid guard rail. Why would they put it right in the way like that? Ryoga tripped over a nettle bush, the thorns cutting into his skin. He grimaced against the pain, got up and kept running only to trip over another nettle bush. Ryoga let out a growl of irritation.
Pain. That's what his life was. And it was all Ranma's fault. Here he was, running through the hinterlands of Hokkaido, getting attacked by brambles and bushes as he tried to find his way back to Honshu. How could he have known that the barge he took from Shikoku wasn't going to Tokyo?. There were toys in the boxes that said "Tokyo" in roman characters weren't there? How were the toys going to make it to Tokyo if they were sent to Hokkaido?
Ryoga kept running through the woods, going as straight as possible. He powered through a half meter wide dead tree that was in his way, breaking it into large splinters like it was a cheap chopstick. He had to get to Ranma before he moved again. Before he lost track of him again.
China had been rough. He had been hot on Ranma's tail all the way up until Jusenkyo and then everything just fell apart. Turning into a tiny pig was bad enough. He'd been helpless when that homicidal panda carried him into the Jusenkyo guide's hut. He hadn't met the guide, he had no idea why he was a pig or whether the curse was permanent or not. At that moment, he thought he was going to die, and he almost did anyway. That pot of boiling water that the guide threw him in made him human again, but boiling water doesn't react that well to skin whether it's a pigs or a human's. After the initial adrenaline wore off, Ryoga could barely move without finding himself in excruciating misery from the blisters all over his body.
It took him three days to recover enough to go after Ranma again. The Guide's wife and daughter tended to him, and Ryoga made sure to thank them for their kindness, but everything was a pink blur of pain, even as he waved them goodbye. It had been raining, so they had given him a bamboo umbrella, and it had saved him from an infinity of embarrassing and dangerous circumstances. After it broke during a tousle with some highwaymen, Ryoga went about finding a replacement. Umbrellas were in short supply at the villages he found himself in, but he had found a blacksmith, and with a little ingenuity and the blacksmith's help, he was able to make an umbrella that would last a little longer than the bamboo one.
But Ranma continued to elude him. Ryoga would finally find someone that had heard his rival's name, but when he looked further, it would turn out to be some redheaded girl instead. Or there'd be some altercation caused by an unruly purple headed Amazon that would make everybody nervous all of a sudden. One time, Ryoga's pursuit took him to a village overrun with Griffins. Not like the stories at all, they were really nasty things, but even after he had managed to get rid of each one of them, the villagers conveniently had no idea where Saotome Ranma was. Obviously Ranma had sent the things to the village as a distraction. He'd probably set that boar loose in that Shikoku town too. How dare he mock his curse like that! Only…he couldn't have found out about his curse…Still it was painful to be reminded of it! He would pay for that! Wild boar, griffins, Amazons, red-headed girls, pandas, whatever Ranma threw at him, Ryoga would endure it. He would not rest until he made Ranma pay.
Out of the woods now, Ryoga came upon a large river, its water roiling across the rocks at the shallows near the shore. Of course it would be water, wouldn't it? So much for following that farmer's directions. There was no hope for it but to follow the river. Ryoga grimaced. It meant a day's more travel at least, but he would find his way back to Honshu, to Tokyo, to Nerima ward, to Furinkan High school, and to Saotome Ranma.
Tokyo was a big city. Someone, somewhere, eventually had to know how to get there. Ryoga shook his head as he turned to follow the river. If it weren't for that restaurant lady he met in China, he still wouldn't know Ranma had gone back to Japan. He had learned to be cautious, but after she described the guy and mentioned he had said he was from the Anything Goes school of martial arts, Ryoga knew she had good information. She had been cleaning her restaurant with her husband and five-year-old girl. She had said Ranma worked for her, which was a bit odd. Then she said Ranma had left China and told Ryoga exactly where he was going.
Ryoga wished he could remember the lady's time. Tasuko…Tasume…something like that. He would just have to satisfy himself with wishing good will upon her and hoping it reached her somehow. Only five days after meeting her, Ryoga felt closer to finding Ranma than he had in months.
"Just you wait, Ranma! I'll get you yet!" Ryoga yelled and ran faster up the river, speeding rapidly in the exact opposite direction of his goal.
~~~~~Ranma~~~~~
Ranma trudged behind her father on the way to Tofu's clinic, wondering how she could stop hating her father enough to ask him about her mother. He wasn't a panda, but he might as well have been for how little he was talking. Ranma wasn't sure how she felt about going to Tofu's either. Last night she had been so tired, she had actually managed to forget about Kasumi until this morning. Then it was like it was Kasumi day at the Kasumi Café and the special that morning was Kasumi with a side of Kasumi.
Soun had finally done something after Genma told him what had been going on. Kasumi was banned from doing housework until she told everybody why she was doing what she was doing and apologized. Kasumi, had kept up her act, saying she had no idea what he was talking about, but that she'd be happy for a little vacation.
This meant it was up to Ranma to make breakfast, which was…interesting. Everybody seemed okay with Ranma's breakfast, but she wasn't quite okay with that. She would have to find some way to make her breakfast more impressive.
Kasumi had gotten her alone after they ate. "Have you visited your mother yet?" she asked.
Ranma told her she hadn't.
"You don't want to be here. You should stay with your mother," Kasumi advised.
Ranma hit her back with "Yeah? Well you should stay outta my business!" but it immediately felt sour coming out. Ranma didn't know what Kasumi's wishes were in any kind of precise sense, but she did understand that Kasumi primarily wanted Ranma to stop messing around in her affairs. Asking Kasumi to do the same felt a bit wrong.
Thing was, Ranma was actually having a hard time caring about Kasumi's affairs. Genma had described his efforts with curing Tofu during a break in training, but Ranma's attention kept drifting to how she was going to ask him about her mother, and then what kind of person her mother was, and whether she should see her now or wait until she could be a guy. As important as it was to figure out how Kasumi managed to brainwash Tofu and to what purpose, as important as it was to stop her from torturing the elderly, Ranma simply couldn't give a damn. She had plumb run out of damns to give.
It was more or less this "damn" shortage that made Ranma trudge behind her father instead of lightly skip or perform cartwheels as they went to Dr. Tofu's clinic. The fact that Ranma felt like ripping Genma to shreds while screaming until her throat bled in spurts, didn't help. She was going to Tofu's for herself. She wasn't going for her father or anyone else for that matter. But it felt like it all the same. Ranma was sure the subject of Kasumi would come up, and there'd be some new clue, and she would have to do something uncomfortable again. Or worse, Genma might find something to give her a lecture about and she would have to find some way to endure it. She wasn't ready to confront him. She sure as hell didn't want to be in the same room with him.
Still, Ranma followed her father into the clinic, albeit with all the enthusiasm of a claustrophobic entering an elevator. This early in the morning, the waiting area with its gray vinyl sofas and square shoe rack was empty. It felt charged with a bizarre energy. A lot of drama happened the night before last, and it left a sort of static cling. Ranma wondered if it was real or just her imagination. If it was real, maybe she could learn to read it…
Tofu came out of his office, apparently having heard them enter. He looked a bit weary, and maybe a little more serious that the last time Ranma saw him sane. "Good morning Mr. Saotome! Ranma-chan." He gave a pleasant nod to Genma and Ranma. Keeping his attention on Ranma he said, "I'm glad you were able to come. I'm sorry you had to miss school, but I think this could be rather urgent. I cleared up my early schedule, so we shouldn't have any interruptions. Why don't you come into my office. There's hot water in the thermos if you want tea. I'm going to talk with your father a little and then we'll start okay?"
Ranma nodded, frowning a little in confusion before moving past Tofu to slide open the office door.
"I'm sorry to be secretive, Ranma-chan. It's something of a personal matter. You understand, right?"
Ranma didn't turn around so she could be free to roll her eyes without Tofu knowing. "Yeah. I don't mind." It was probably something about Kasumi. And she could understand not wanting to talk about that with someone else. Furthermore, she was happier knowing that she wouldn't be hearing about it.
She sat down on the stool in the clinic. Because she was wearing one of her Chinese outfits, she was able to sit normally instead of cross legged. She had to wear one of the baggy, unaltered outfits, because the altered one had to be washed. She missed having her clothes fit her. Maybe she would go to the Nade and have Nishikigi-san alter some more of them. Maybe all of them.
Ranma chuckled lightly at that idea. Well why not? It wasn't like wearing uncomfortable clothes was going to make her any less a girl. And when she was a guy again, she could just buy new outfits or something. Then again, she could just buy something now. Or at least she could do that later, when she had more money from her job.
Ranma eyed the thermos and sighed. More out of boredom than any real thirst, she poured herself a cup of tea. Tofu and Genma came in while she was letting the tea steep. Ranma told herself she wasn't going to throw her cup at her father and run out of the building, but she wasn't sure she believed it. She breathed in, breathed out, thought of the beach on a quiet day and took her cup calmly back to her stool.
Genma looked at Tofu and stood to the side of the door, looking like a bouncer at a night club. Tofu sat in another stool and, after giving Genma a glance, started to talk. "Okay, Ranma-chan, I was telling you the other day, I'm a bit concerned about this liquid you drank. Has anything else strange happened to you lately? Any weakness, dizzy spells, blackouts?"
Ranma started at the word "blackouts."
Tofu breathed in through his nose in a way that let Ranma know he hadn't missed her reaction. "You want to tell me about it?"
Genma was still standing in the room. What would he say? That only weak girls had black outs? Ranma closed her eyes. She was a girl now, she didn't have to worry about that crap. "I don't know if it was really a black out, but the night before last I kind of lost track of what I was doing for ten minutes or so. I couldn't remember starting to eat supper. It was weird, but no one else noticed anything."
"Was there some trigger for the black out? Were you doused with water or anything?"
Ranma frowned. "No. I remembered going down the stairs after talking to Nabiki about some stuff and then the next thing is realizing I was halfway through eating supper." Ranma pulled the tea bag out of her cup and flung it into the trash bin.
Tofu turned to Genma, "Did you notice anything?"
Genma frowned. "Yes. I suppose I did. I thought the kid was messing with me though. H- she was acting like a woman."
"I'm a girl, Pop. How else am I supposed to act?" Ranma bristled.
"You can be a girl without being prissy!"
Tofu held up his hands in a calming gesture while he wore a confused expression "I'm sure Ranma is a fine young lady, but right now, I'm more interested in what caused the black out, rather than the nature of it. You weren't drinking or anything were you? Anything else that would explain it?"
Ranma shook her head and took a cautious sip of her tea. It was still a bit too hot.
"Okay. Let me be sure of a few things. You took the vial to get rid of your Jusenkyo curse, right?"
Ranma looked up at Tofu. "Not exactly. I mean, eventually it's supposed to make it easier to manage, but first it just locks the curse."
"Locks the…" Tofu's eyes widened. He looked at Genma and back to Ranma. "Wait a minute. Ranma are you a boy or a girl."
"Can't you see for yourself?" Ranma asked, irritated.
"I mean… which were you before you fell in the springs?"
"I was a boy." Ranma grimaced. "A man. Didn't you know that already?" Ranma wondered if this was some sort of test or something. Would Tofu ask her what city she was in next?
Tofu sat back in mild shock. "I thought you were a girl cursed to turn into a boy."
"Why would you think that?" Ranma still had enough of a male ego to be a bit insulted that his machismo hadn't shone through enough for Tofu to pick up on.
"Usually hot water turns Jusenkyo victims back to their original bodies. Just like your father here. But you don't change when hot water hits you. And your father and I haven't really talked about your past all that much."
Ranma felt a bit queasy. It was true, she didn't change with hot water anymore, but that was just how the liquid in the vial worked, right? "The curse worked like that for me too, until I drank the vial."
Tofu shook his head. "That shouldn't be possible. Jusenkyo is an elemental curse tied directly to the ley lines of the Earth. You can't just reverse it with some potion."
Ranma shrugged. "I'm still a girl. Must be something you missed."
"Are you?"
Ranma took a sip of her tea. "Hmm?"
"A girl I mean."
"How many times do I got to say it? You got eyes don't you?"
"I don't mean physically," Tofu regarded Ranma intensely. "Mentally. Are you a girl or a boy inside?"
Ranma sighed. "If I'm a girl physically, then I've got a girl's brain, don't I? So that means I'm mentally a girl too. No getting around that."
Tofu turned around to glance briefly at Genma before addressing Ranma again. "And you believe that. You don't even question it?"
"How can I question it? It's just the truth."
Tofu shook his head as he let out a breath through his nose. "Ranma, who told you that? Who told you that you had to be whatever your body was?"
Ranma didn't want to say. Because of course it was Tasuke. Tasuke Heiko, the woman who had given her the vial.
"If that were true," Tofu continued, "then I would have never been able to get my medical license at my age. I'm far too young, almost anyone could tell you. If that were true, your father would be off in some Chinese jungle eating bamboo right now, instead of staying in this room making sure you're safe." Ranma looked over at her father. He had the same stoic look on his face that he had had all morning. "If that were true," Tofu continued more quietly, "Kasumi would be dead." Tofu stood up and went to the thermos, apparently to make some tea.
Ranma was getting a terrible feeling in her gut. Like she had kicked the ball into the wrong goal or something, only this was something much more serious.
Tofu turned back around, holding his mug in his left hand as he moved his tea bag through it vigorously with his right. "Ranma, you are a girl because you now identify yourself as a girl." Tofu's voice was just on the edge of being accusatory. "That's why the liquid in the vial was able to do what it did. Because you had this idea that your body dictated who you were, the potion was able to switch your real body for the cursed body."
"Why would that matter? What does what I think have to do with it?"
Tofu sat back down again. His voice was softer. "Everything, Ranma. Natural curses are powerful, but stupid. All it does is flip a switch after a stimulus. Hot water is the real form, cold water is the curse. If you start thinking the curse is your real form, it messes things up. Then all you need is something to mess up the stimulus and the curse can reverse on you."
Ranma's heart was beating fast now. "Wait, you mean all I would need to do to become a guy again is to pour cold water over me instead of hot?"
Tofu checked how dark his tea was briefly, then regarded Ranma once again. "Yes. Right now, you're a girl cursed to turn into a boy, rather than the other way around."
Ranma's mouth opened, but she couldn't say anything. Her mind was blank.
Tofu threw his used tea bag in the trash. "The way I figure it, the potion you drank had two parts to it. One was an immediate effect, namely triggering your curse. I've been looking and apparently all you would need to do is add water to some silt from the bottom of the spring you fell in and you'd have instant curse water, good for one use. You could drink it or bathe in it and it would trigger the curse. Of course normally if you were in hot water it wouldn't do anything, but if you wanted to be a girl…well we know what happened, don't we?" Tofu smiled.
Ranma was still struggling to form coherent thoughts.
"The second part of the potion is the tricky bit. As far as I can tell, it gave you a second curse which prevents cold water from touching you."
"Why would she do that?" Ranma wondered out loud to herself. "Why would she make it so I couldn't turn into a guy?"
"That's a good question! I assume by 'she' you mean the person who gave the potion to you?" Tofu nodded when Ranma murmured her assent. "In my experience, curses are rarely given for a good reason, but all the same, you can't really hope to cure the curse until you know what the reason is. Whatever the case, though, I don't think she had your best interests at heart."
"Why not?" Ranma asked.
Tofu took a long sip of tea. "All man-made curses are parasitic. They feed off some source of energy until that source is depleted, and only then do they dissipate. What source of energy do you suppose this curse is feeding on? Your blood? Your emotions? Your soul? Are you able or willing to live without any of those things?"
The doctor had a point. But Tasuke had given her a job, a bed, seemingly sound advice. Could she really have been cruel enough to give her another curse? And why would she want her to be a girl? Why would she give a crap at all? Ranma shook her head. "It has a definite time when it's going to be over."
Tofu nodded. "Yes, six months. But why six months? Why not a week? Or a year for that matter?"
Ranma grimaced. "I don't know." She hadn't even thought to question that. At the time, she was so sure she wasn't going to use it.
"My suspicion," Tofu said, finishing his tea and getting up to put his mug on the counter, "is that that's the amount of time it will take for whatever the source is to be used up. Some curses don't require that much energy and can go on indefinitely, just being a minor pain. But the ones with time limits are the scariest. They usually result in death."
"Great," Ranma let out a breath and got up from her stool. "Here I was just thinking I didn't have enough to worry about."
"Mr. Saotome?" Tofu called.
"Yes?"
"I think we're ready for our experiment."
~~~~~Ryoga~~~~~
Honshu is a much larger island than Shikoku or even Hokkaido, and that Saturday night, no one knew that more than Hibiki Ryoga. Even though a niggling doubt in the back of his mind questioned whether he really was on Honshu or some other island. He had been running almost non-stop since returning to Japan. He barely got any sleep on the boat ride from China, and his brief snooze on the barge was barely substantial enough to count for anything. He had finally managed to cross over to the main island from Hokkaido on the tunnel, but even his impressive stores of energy were running low. He passed out three times already, each time picking himself up slowly and starting again.
He had to stop.
Off in the distance were lights. Was that Tokyo? Ryoga closed his eyes. He had a hard time opening them again. He growled in frustration. It didn't matter what town it was. He needed sleep. Ryoga let out a louder growl of irritation. He stopped and looked around.
He was running on the side of a road. There was a copse of trees five hundred meters or so away from where he was. He could probably pitch a tent there.
Ryoga thought about this for a moment. In order to pitch a tent he'd have to go over to the trees, get his tent from his back pack, assemble it. Make a campfire… or maybe he should make the campfire first? And was he far enough away from the city or town or whatever it was? Maybe it was a carnival? They sell cotton candy at carnivals. Ryoga remembered his Dad buying him cotton candy. It was before he got lost again. Before Ranma showed up. "Be tough," his dad told him. And he told him something else when he gave him the cotton candy. Something about taking it easy…
The sensation of falling almost didn't wake Ryoga up. Another fraction of a second and he would have had himself a concrete sandwich. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. If he had woken up on the side of the road, his face bloody and missing a few teeth, it might have been unpleasant, but on the other hand, he would have gotten some sleep.
Ryoga couldn't think right now. He had to get to the town. Ranma was in that town. He'd kill Ranma. He'd kill Ranma and then he'd be able to sleep.
"Ranma," Ryoga said, "Prepare to die." And once again, he charged forward, the small logical voice in his brain hoping that when he got to the town, he would remember to stop.
An eternity later he finally reached a building. "Maybe I should ask in here," he decided. He slid open the door. "Where is Furinkan…" Ryoga stopped. The giant wild boar was in the room, sitting with a number of the villagers. They were having a town revitalization meeting. Somehow Ryoga was back in Shikoku. Ryoga slid the door closed again slowly.
With a surge of anger, Ryoga ran away from the village, in the general direction of Mars.
~~~~~Ranma~~~~~
Ranma looked up at the ceiling of the guest room. Her room. It needed to be cleaned a bit more thoroughly. It still smelled of dust, old fabric and an odd, salty fish smell she couldn't quite place. Soun had told her it used to be his master's room during the time he had lived with Soun and his wife, and it hadn't ever been used since. Ranma had asked him why and he said something about a cloying aura of purest evil. Ranma hadn't noticed an aura of evil. Just a strange smell.
Ranma sat up and turned the ceiling light on. The room was large. Just as large as Soun's room. The bed only took up a quarter of it in one corner. There was a large, roughly circular area of discoloration on the tatami floor in the center of the room. It wasn't perfect, but it was a place she could sleep without having to worry about what her father or Akane or anybody else was going to say about it.
She had her talk with Genma finally. Genma had told her about a contract Nodoka had made them both sign. Ranma had to be a "man among men" or she and Genma would have to kill themselves. It didn't really make any sense. Ranma half suspected it was a lie. But that didn't quite fit either. It didn't fit Genma hovering over her to the point of being outright annoying her first day of school. It didn't fit how he was always trying to give her advice, always trying to teach her things, even when he didn't have anything to teach. And most of all it didn't fit how he had acted yesterday at Tofu's clinic.
After Tofu had suggested they start the experiment, Genma had left and returned with a bucket of water. Then, Tofu had asked her to put her hand in the water. The silvery sheen was there. Tofu babbled on about interfaces and boundaries or something, then he asked Genma to touch Ranma. The can exploded, spraying water everywhere and turning Genma into a panda. Unfazed, Genma got another bucket of water and they tried different variations for a good three hours. Tofu had Ranma try to get angry, get sad, get happy. He tried different temperatures of water, different hands. He even tried asking Ranma to think of herself as a man.
Ranma frowned and got out of the bed. She started a slow kata designed to maintain mobility and balance. She hadn't realized she was thinking of herself as a girl, until she thought of herself as a man again. It scared her. It wasn't just that she was acclimating so quickly to being a girl. It was that everything that she now cared about depended on her remaining a girl. When she thought of herself as a guy she found herself questioning why she was even bothering with Akane or Nabiki. Why she cared about school at all. When she thought of herself as a guy she was a loner, aloof, an easy going breeze on a summer's day. But she felt empty. How could she be Akane's friend as a guy? What about the fragile camaraderie she was beginning to feel with Nabiki? What about her job? What about this room that she just got? Her own room. She agreed to pay for it out of her money from work. Work as a waitress.
On some level she understood that the things that were making her happy weren't because she was a girl, but because she was finally doing things on her own, she was making friends, and she was staying in the same place for more than a day. She could do these things as a man. She knew that. But she couldn't convince herself of that. As unrealistic as it was, it seemed like if she became a man again, everything would just go away, and she'd be back on the street, finding creative ways to pay for or steal her food and shelter.
Nabiki had lent her her CD player as a room warming gift. Ranma had listened to Sparrow for the first time last night through the headphones. She wasn't sure if she liked it. It sounded a bit like a guy whining to music. Still, Ranma wanted to try other CDs. Maybe she could find some opera to listen to or something better.
Ranma finished her kata. Through the window, the thin dome of a red sun was just peeking over the buildings. It was almost time for training.
Genma had stayed with her and Tofu for three hours testing the water repelling curse. Despite the existential crisis it caused, thinking of herself as a guy did nothing to the film of air around her skin. Ranma could make it a little more pronounced by releasing her ki, or by getting angry, but the biggest effect was when Genma touched her. The strange thing was that there was only a very small effect when Tofu did the same thing. Tofu had said that was interesting, but that he didn't want to rush to any conclusions. He dismissed Ranma and said he'd have to think about what to do next.
It was then, in the waiting room while Tofu was seeing his first other client for the day, that Genma doused himself with hot water and finally talked.
Ranma dug through her back pack and retrieved a Chinese outfit she hadn't worn yet. Nabiki was saying the utility bills were getting a bit high and that she'd have to limit herself to washing her clothes once a week. Ranma put on the baggy trousers and the loosely fitting shirt. She cinched up the sash. She was going to have to get some new clothes, she decided.
"This isn't going away," Genma had told her. "I can't just ignore it anymore. You're not going to stop being a girl, even when this is over, are you?"
Ranma kept her eyes focused on the disorganized stacks of out of date magazines. "If it's ever over."
Genma was silent for a moment, during which time Ranma realized that she had implicitly confirmed his worst fears. "I know Kasumi told you about your mother," Genma continued, "I shouldn't have told you she was dead. The truth is hard, but maybe if I had told you earlier, maybe this wouldn't have happened."
"What truth?" Ranma had asked.
Genma had answered by telling Ranma about the contract her mother had made them both sign. About how insane she had acted.
"Couldn't you have put her in an asylum, or called the police or something?" Ranma had asked angrily.
Genma shook his head. "I loved her. I still do." Then he got up and went into Tofu's office.
It wasn't immediate. It took the rest of the day. It took thinking about it walking from Tofu's clinic, all the way through work and for several hours of restlessness last night, but slowly, Ranma had forgiven her father.
Because it all made sense now. The constant pushing, the manic fervor with which the man had taught Ranma the Art, and the nigh absurd lectures he kept giving. Even the cats. He had been fighting to allow Ranma to see her mother again.
Of course, Genma, being the idiot that he was, had completely screwed that up.
Ranma chuckled a bit at that. But then she frowned. She still wasn't ready to give up. She pulled the vial out of her pigtail and looked at it. She would become a man again, she had promised herself. Just a week ago. But so much had changed in that time. She wasn't ready to give up, but whether Tasuke was right, or Tofu, either way she was a girl right now, and she was okay with that. There wasn't any reason to carry the whole manhood thing around with her all the time.
She untied her dragon whisker from her pigtail and put it in the vial. Then she placed the vial next on the nightstand next to the bed. Then she gasped as all the air suddenly left her body and she was pulled back violently toward the floor.
She tried to get up but her arms and legs were held by strong limbs. Strong, decidedly feminine limbs.
"Good morning Ranma-chan! I see you've decided to make your stay with us more permanent?"
"Kasumi?" Ranma cried in astonishment.
"Please, don't try to escape. Blood stains are such a pain to clean!"
Ranma felt something sharp against the skin of her neck. "Gods and ancestors! What the hell is your deal, Kasumi?"
"I gave you a good reason to leave, Ranma-chan. But you refuse to go away. So let me ask you this. Have you killed anybody?"
"What?"
"Have you taken a life?" The edge of whatever Kasumi had pressed against Ranma's neck pressed deeper.
"No! Gods, is that what you're worried about? You think I'm dangerous?" Ranma thought she could probably get out of this situation, but she was curious now.
"Not just you, Ranma-chan. Your father, my father, me. Anyone who is a master in the Art. Akane and Nabiki are not yet afflicted, but if your father keeps training them they will be. Akane's so close."
Ranma swallowed. "Look, Kasumi, I'm listening. How about you let go of the crazy for a little while so we can sit and talk this out nice and calm like?"
"You think I want to do this? I am LOSING CONTROL here, you bastard! I'm restraining myself as much as possible, but I am so FUCKING PISSED at you right now!"
Ranma squinted her eyes shut. "You ain't exactly my favorite person either at the moment, Kasumi, I got to say." Ranma made an escape attempt, but Kasumi's hold on her wasn't just strong, it was some unbelievably intense synonym for strong that hadn't yet been invented. That whittled Ranma's strategic smorgasbord down to about two, and both of those involved possibly killing her assailant.
Immediately after Ranma's attempt, she felt a hundred sharp points pressing into her. It also seemed to be getting hotter. "Stop making me angry, Ranma-chan! I don't want to kill you!"
"You've got a funny way of-"
"SHUT UP! Stop making snarky comments! It isn't helping!"
Of course all Ranma could do now was think of snarky comments to say. Foremost in her mind was that if she had to stop making snarky comments to save her life, she might very well be doomed. She grudgingly started to think about cats. "Uh, I hope this isn't 'snarky,' but how can I help?"
"Act like your father. Or Akane." Kasumi said through grit teeth.
"Oh, uh…so you love Akane more than me, huh?" Ranma tried.
"Yes. I love her infinitely more than you."
"I uh…knew it! Uh…Kasumi you idiot!" Strangely, Kasumi's grip lessened at this. The sharp points retreated, emboldened by this Ranma went for "You never let me cook! I'm just as much of a martial artist as you are!"
Kasumi slowly released Ranma.
As soon as she could, Ranma bounded up out of Kasumi's grasp. She watched as a long flat blade retracted into Kasumi's hand. "Is that…?"
"I was never cured," she said, rubbing her hand where the blade went in. "Tofu just taught me a way to get control over it. You know Akane very well in such a short time."
Ranma shrugged. "She's my best friend. You need some help up?"
"Don't touch me!" Kasumi sat up. She was wearing pink pajamas with elephants on them. Not exactly the normal attire of a would-be assassin, but then Kasumi wasn't exactly normal. "I apologize…for attacking you. You've made things very difficult for me recently, though, and I …" Kasumi squinted her eyes shut. "I don't want Akane or Nabiki to go through this."
"Through what?"
"You know what! You think you're the only one who has a limit break?"
"A what?"
"I heard you yowling in the kitchen while Akane and I were cooking. I asked your father about it. He called it the nekoken?"
"I wasn't…I mean that was…That only happens when there are cats around."
Kasumi gave Ranma a level stare and got to her feet. "It's only there when you feel at your most vulnerable, when your precious pride can't sustain you. It's only a coincidence that until recently the only time that's happened is when cats are around."
Ranma opened and closed her mouth. Then she crossed her arms. "Well, look who's a Chatty Cathy all a sudden! You gonna tell me why you're beating up old people?"
Kasumi frowned and started shaking. "Ranma, please. Your remarks are extremely irritating."
"Why does it bother you so much?"
"You're constantly trying to prove to people that you don't care, that it's no big deal for you, all in a day's work, tralala!" Kasumi waved her head back and forth and moved her index fingers in circles up in the air ironically. She put her hands down "It's a lie, Ranma. It's all a lie and that irritates me."
"Oh," Ranma said. "Good to know." She didn't think the way she acted was a lie, but it wasn't like there was any way she was going to convince Kasumi of that.
"And if you knew half of what those old people had done, you might not be so worried about them."
Ranma raised an eye brow. "Oh yeah? What did they do?"
Blades started to protrude out of Kasumi's face in a menacing pattern. "STOP IT!" She squeezed her eyes shut and the blades retracted. "ANCESTORS! How do I deal with you? How do I keep you from asking these damnable questions?"
Ranma shrugged. "Start training with us. Stop trying to control everything. Give me a good reason to trust you."
Kasumi shook her head resolutely. "No. Training is what did this to me. It did it to you too. I don't want to hurt anybody any more. I don't want Akane or Nabiki suffering like we have."
"Look, I got some problems, sure, but I wouldn't say I'm suffering…"
"That's your pride talking again! What has the Art ever given you but more problems?"
Ranma set her jaw. "It's given me the power to protect the ones I love."
Kasumi scoffed. "The only one you love is yourself."
Ranma frowned in confusion. "That isn't true."
Kasumi gave a doubtful look.
"I pretty much love pops, right? And Akane…sorta. I mean I like her as a friend. And I've started to like Nabiki too now I know her a little better."
Kasumi shook her head. "Nabiki convinced you to stay somehow, but I know you wanted to leave. Love doesn't mean sticking around because people seem to like you. Love is caring for someone unconditionally. Being there for them even after they betray you. You can't love someone and then leave them as soon as you find out they have imperfections."
"My father lied to me! Akane kept forcing me to be another version of her! You brainwashed a doctor into making it feel like my skin was tearing off my body! Those aren't just imperfections!"
Kasumi looked down. "I can't attack people directly. I might accidentally kill them. But if I don't release some of my anger, my limit break will trigger and I won't be able to control myself. If there were some other way… Tofu and I have an agreement. I apologize for having him use the Flensing Point on you, but I kept feeling like I had to kill you. If I didn't get some kind of relief…"
Ranma blinked. "That is kinda like the nekoken, isn't it? It's just instead of cats, for you it's anger." No wonder she was such a peacenik. Trying to get her to train again would be like trying to get Ranma to adopt an orphan tiger.
"Blades," Kasumi confirmed sadly. "That's my manifestation. Blades like the blade that killed my mother." She turned and started walking out of the door.
"Hey! Where are you going? You can't just drop a bomb like that and leave!"
"This was once Grand Master Happosai's room, back before any of us were born." Kasumi said tiredly, her back to Ranma. "In a hidden compartment under the bed are all of the scrolls of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. Read the one titled 'The Wheel of Eight Desires.' Then tell me the Art is still something that should be venerated." With that, Kasumi left.
Ranma frowned. She wasn't sure what to do with all this. She wasn't sure what to think about Kasumi, or the Art or just about anything else. She walked to the side of the bed and crouched down. She felt along the floor and found a cut section of tatami. She pulled it back and felt a small hole in the wood underneath. When she lifted, a section of the floor moved out of place. Ranma paused for a moment, then she lay down on the floor and shoved her arm into the space revealed by the false floor. She felt something soft and silky. She took it out of the cache and looked at it.
"Panties?" Ranma asked as she looked at what was in her hand, perplexed. She turned the garment around in her hands. "Yep. Panties." Ranma put them back in the hole and replaced the covering. It was too much for her brain to handle. Later on, when she could get more of a running start on it, maybe she'd try to figure out what was going on. For right now she would make do with being utterly lost.
~~~~~Ryoga~~~~~
Ryoga had awoken that morning under a tree in a city park. He wasn't sure which city. It felt like Tokyo, but he'd been fooled before. After using a public restroom to take care of his daily needs, he walked out of the park and onto the sidewalk warily. An expensive looking car zoomed past. It looked new. Ryoga found he could judge his proximity to Tokyo by how new and expensive the vehicles he saw were. He smiled, he must have arrived!
Allowing himself a somewhat manic chuckle, he started running down the sidewalk. He had to find Furinkan High School. All he had to do was keep running until he found a school, then find out if it was Furinkan or not. Then he could find Ranma and finally make the bastard pay for what he did.
The first three schools weren't Furinkan. Neither were the next three. There was a building Ryoga was pretty sure was a post office, but he had checked it anyway. He ate a bowl of Ramen made with some hot tap water for lunch. Then he started again. Four more schools, none of them Furinkan. The building Ryoga found with the barbed wire and the men in uniforms carrying guns was DEFINITELY not Furinkan High School. He was almost sure of that. High schools didn't put numbers on the student's chests. Or at least, he didn't think they did. He was almost about to turn around to check the place again when he saw some students about his age in blue school uniforms leaving the school.
Ryoga didn't waste any time. He grabbed the closest male student and asked "Where is Furinkan High School?"
The boy pointed to the sign. Ryoga read it carefully. Fu-rin-kan Kou-kou. Yes! He was here! Finally! "I've arrived!" he exclaimed. After making sure there wasn't any mistake, Ryoga asked his prisoner if he knew where he could find Saotome Ranma.
"Saotome Ranma? She's in FuMa. You'll have to talk to Tendo Nabiki about seeing her."
"Her?" Ryoga repeated. "Your Saotome is a girl?"
The boy nodded. "Yeah, real pretty red-head. Friends with the Tendos. Kind of a tomboy."
Ryoga released the boy. "Curse you, Saotome! How dare you force an innocent girl to take your name!"
The boy cocked his head. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be related to the Kunos would you?"
"I don't know who these Kunos are. Tell me where I can find this Tendo Nabiki character." Perhaps the girl Ranma would have some idea as to the boy Ranma's whereabouts.
"Tendo Nabiki has an eye patch. You can't miss her. In fact there she is right now." The boy pointed.
A thin girl with a pageboy hairstyle and an eyepatch was walking with two other girls away from the school. Ryoga moved toward her. "Tendo Nabiki?"
The girl with the eye patch regarded Ryoga. She seemed to size him up. Then she smiled predatorily. "Yes, how may I help you?"
"Where is Saotome Ranma?"
Nabiki's smile vanished. "What do you want with her?"
"I'm actually looking for a male Saotome Ranma. I was told he would be here. I figured maybe the female Ranma knows where the male one ran off to."
Nabiki crossed her arms. "I might know something about that. Why are you so keen on meeting him though?"
Ryoga shook his head. "I don't want to meet him. I want to kill him. He's made my life a living hell!"
The girl's eye squinted at him for a moment. Then she set her jaw. "Ranma's in jail. He comes up for parole in a little less than six months, but if I were you, I'd forget about him."
Ryoga grimaced. That made perfect sense. The bastard deserved to go to prison after all of the things he did, but Ryoga hadn't come all this way for nothing. "Which prison did he go to?"
Nabiki was silent for a moment. "Why should I tell you?"
Ryoga thought about that for a moment. He really didn't have a good reason.
One of the girls next to Nabiki rolled her eyes. "She wants money, genius. Pay up."
Ryoga frowned. "Money? I don't have any money." Even before he finished the sentence Nabiki and her companions were walking past him.
"Arrgh!" Ryoga half growled, half yelled, and he slammed a fist through the end of the stone gateway of the school. This drew curious looks from all the students passing by. Including Nabiki, who was eyeing him with particular interest. "Sorry" Ryoga said sheepishly as he tried to put the bricks he'd dislodged back into place with no success.
"Hey, what's your name?" Nabiki asked after the bricks fell to the pavement the second time.
"Hibiki Ryoga," Ryoga responded.
Nabiki nodded. "It suits you. I'm feeling generous today, so how about I give you a good five minute head start before I report you to the police?"
Ryoga grimaced. He could handle police, but they were always a pain, and something might get back to his parents about it. "Um…thanks." Ryoga wheeled around and started running. "Damn you, Ranma! How dare you get arrested! I'll kill you for this!"
If Ryoga hadn't left so abruptly he might have had time to wonder how it was Nabiki planned to contact the authorities in five minutes when the closest phone was at least ten minutes away. He might have noticed how she relaxed as he made to leave. He might even have seen her predatory smile returning. But Ryoga saw none of these things, and really he wasn't interested. Powered by sheer angst, he just kept running.
Eventually, exhausted and hungry, he came to a familiar building in a village next to a large cliff near the sea shore.
A village in Shikoku.
~~~~~End of Chapter 10~~~~~
Author notes:
This chapter spans four days. A record. w00t. I think the pacing may have suffered somewhat, but I think it turned out good overall. I welcome any feedback of course.
The speed that Ryoga is falling when he reaches the ground from the cliff is based off of a back of the envelope calculation. Assuming the cliff he jumps off is about 300 meters high, then with vf^2=vi^2+2ad he would hit the ground at the square root of 6000, or a bit less than 80 meters per second. Converting this into kilometers per hour gives 300 km/h. I'm assuming Ryoga's umbrella reduces his speed by about half so we get 150 km/h. Which is about the speed of a car on a highway. Physics is cool:-)
The scene with the otaku comes courtesy of a reviewer to a previous chapter who suggested that Ranma and Akane could be actors for a live action version of Dirty Pair. This struck me as being simultaneously a great idea and utterly ridiculous; so I had to find a way to fit it in without actually doing it. I'm not saying it couldn't happen. Obviously there are plenty of young actresses in Japan and they do make live action versions of anime and manga. But I just don't see it happening for Ranma and Akane in this story. I think it's a great idea for another fanfiction, though.
In defense of the bicycle pun: The Japanese word for bicycle is jitensha and the word for bisexual is ryouseiteki and it would be difficult to get those confused. My defense here is that Japanese might also use the English word for bisexual which in wasei (English with Japanese phonetics) is baisekushuaru while bicycle would be baiseku. So Nabiki used the English word for bisexual when she was talking with Ranma and Ranma didn't quite remember it right. Akane, being a good student, knows the word for bicycle in English and so finds it funny. I considered taking the pun out, but I didn't want things to get too angsty.
Don't worry, I plan on having more about Kasumi's curse, what she did with Tofu, limit breaks, the Wheel of Eight Desires etc. later. Also, even though I find the idea of Ryoga never coming back somewhat humorous, I already have ideas for what he's going to do in the next chapter, so you Ryoga-philes out there need not feel stressed at how things ended this chapter. He'll be back. And his sections will eventually diverge further from canon and be less introspective for those of you who like their derivative fiction to be less derivative.
Thanks, as always, for your comments.