(I'm back once more! It sure has been awhile, a little over one month. I deeply apologize to all of you out there, I should have written this weeks ago. But I've been preoccupied, and it's been hard to write anything at all. I won't keep you any longer, enjoy!)
When Ranma awoke he stretched out his arms, let out a drawn out yawn, then quickly rolled up his sleeping bag. He guessed that it was pretty early in the morning just after sunrise most likely. The orange and red strands of light lit up the whole forest, it was like Nature's alarm clock. He went to wake up the others but clenched his fist in anger as he looked over at Inuyasha's bed.
The half demon was sprawled out on top of his blanket, his arms spread out and snoring loudly. But snuggled up to his left side was the purple haired Amazon, a smile on her face as she slept happily with her lover. She looked somewhat out of place, yet at the same time it looked like she belonged there.
"Yo Inuyasha, have a fun night with Shampoo?" Ranma questioned, kicking him sharply in the side.
"Huh, what, who?" He jumped up, his eyes full of sleep and drowsiness. He understood his rival's remark when he noticed Shampoo sleeping next to him. All he did was smile as he laid back down and nuzzled her on the cheek. "Morning darling…"
She stirred in her sleep and within a moment opened up her violet eyes. "Good morning Inuyasha!"
Ranma just stood there unsure what to do. He pinched himself to see if he was dreaming, he wasn't. "What the hell is this?"
"Shampoo is my bride, remember?"
"Yeah, but she, you, what?" Ranma stuttered, unable to organize his thoughts. "I thought that you didn't want her?"
"Why would I say a thing like that? Shampoo's the most beautiful girl in the world; I'd be stupid to give that up."
What the hell happened with these two? Did they suddenly start liking each other over night? But now that I think about it… "Just what did you do to him, Shampoo?"
"What? I do nothing! Inuyasha love me because I greatest women in world, right?"
"That's right darling." Ranma nearly lost it when he pecked her on the lips. Instead of fighting a fruitless battle with his rival, he just shot the Amazon a look that said "I'm watching you…"
Within the hour the rest of the group was walking, heading towards the Amazon village. To try and counter Inuyasha's new found love, he walked with Kagome, even going far as holding her hand as they traveled.
"Umm, what are you doing?" She asked him when his cold flesh touched hers.
"I was just, you know… Unless you didn't want me to…"
"It's not that, it's just this isn't normally like you."
"Well have you noticed Inuyasha and Shampoo?"
She glanced at the two walking in the front and shrugged, "Shampoo's always walking beside him. That's nothing new. She's clung on to him like glue since the first time she saw him. "
"Look again."
As she inspected them closer she gasped, the two were holding hands. "Does this mean that..."
"Yeah, I found the two cuddling this morning."
Kagome stopped dead in her tracks, "No way. Not Inuyasha, that's nothing like him!"
"Well that's what I saw." He tugged her hand as she went back to her steady pace. "Anyway I think Shampoo has something to do with it, it being so sudden and all."
"Well she better, just thinking about it… Uh." Jealousy filled her senses, and a deep hatred of Shampoo. While she had held hands with him many times, never had the two of them gotten that close. Many times she just wished Inuyasha would make a move, she was too scared to do it herself. Nonetheless she still walked forward, secretly wishing that she could be in Shampoo's place…
At last they reached the outskirts of the thick forest, no longer did tree's fill their vision, instead a beautiful valley was all they could see. Far down the hill that they stood upon sat the Amazon village, it's white-blue buildings forming a maze of streets. They could barely make out the little speaks that were people. "Finally!" Shampoo announced, "I back home!"
"It been too too long since I visit here. Still, not much change!" Before long the group descended the hill and made their way through the busy streets.
"Why is there so many women? I haven't seen a single guy so far." Inuyasha commented.
"Village dominated by women, there males but very few." Shampoo took a sharp right turn into a building. The others followed, pushing past the brown rag that was the door.
"This great grandmother's home, I live here for quite awhile."
Kuno's eyes scanned the room in disgust. "Bah, I've never seen such a revolting home. This place has dust everywhere; I refuse to sleep in such conditions!"
"Well you can gladly sleep outside Kuno." Ranma growled at him.
"I will sleep wherever you lay my love, even if it is in this peasant's shack."
"Can we please just get going to this forest before I have to beat Kuno to death?"
"We can't leave yet, have to have dinner first!"
So they dropped off all their things and attended dinner latter that evening. The food was just has Ranma remembered it, plentiful and delicious. Still it was not good enough for the upper-class man, so he refused to take even a single bite.
"Are you sure you're not gonna eat something Kuno? You might need the strength later."
"Bah, as if I would let such awful food touch my taste buds." Ranma shrugged before going back to his food, as he ate he watched the two love birds down the table.
Shampoo was feeding him, impaling the fruit with a fork and bringing it to the lips of her lover. Just watching them made him angry, he couldn't wait until the damn freak finally left their presence.
Later that night.
"All right Shampoo, tell we what you did to Inuyasha." Ranma demanded after cornering her in one of the vacant streets. He had turned back into a guy the minute he had slipped away from Kuno.
"I know no what you talking about." She went to push past him but he shoved her against the wall.
"I know you did something, now spill the beans already."
She let out a sigh before producing a small vial from her pocket. "I use mushrooms on Inuyasha, this antidote."
"That's it? You're just gonna give it to me?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.
She giggled at him, "You going to have to take it…" Shampoo smiled mischievously before sliding the vial down her cleavage. Ranma could feel his heart staring to beat faster.
"I-if you think that's gonna s-stop me then you're wrong. I'm pr-perfectly fine with taking it from, there…" The martial artist turned his head, closed his eyes and outstretched his shaky hand.
"Hmm, you have to catch Shampoo first!" The Amazon jumped onto a nearby roof with her incredible acrobatics. She pointed out her tongue and taunted her old lover.
Ranma growled before jumping up after her, she hurried her pace and he gave chase. The two chased each other in the almost pitch black night, the only light coming from the many torches lit around the village. Jumping past gaps, dodging hanging clothes, and zigzagging left and right they continued through the village.
Finally he had her cornered when she loosed her footing on the side of a roof. He looked down on her laying in the dust, dropping down beside her and smiled. "Thought you could get anyway from me huh? Well I always get what I want." Without fear he dug his hand down her chest and grasped the vial. The grin on his face quickly faded when he looked over to see Kagome starting at them, standing in the middle of the nearby doorway.
He could just imagine how this must look, Shampoo with tears in her eyes and on her back. Him sitting over her, his hand halfway down her chest. And the now incredibly bad choice of words just spoken, he knew that one word was on Kagome's mind right now. One that would seem to sum up the whole situation perfectly.
"Umm, Kagome this isn't what you think!" He blurted out after a minute of silence.
"Oh, then just what is it?" A highly irate able tone in her voice.
"Well you see, Shampoo poisoned Inuyasha, then she put the antidote down her shirt, then I chased her around town and she fell, then I went to grab it and you showed up…"
"Uha… I'm sure that's what was happening…" In her mind she was sure that Ranma had just pulled his entire explanation out of his ass. "I can't believe I ever went out with you, you disgusting animal! I can see now that you never wanted to get back at Inuyasha, all you wanted was sex! So consider our relationship over!" Kagome barked at him, every word smashing into his skull like a sledgehammer. She stormed back inside, leaving the two of them in a very awkward postion.
Once again Ranma growled at Shampoo, he suddenly realized he still had his hand down her chest and quickly yanked it out. The Amazon simply stood, brushed the dust from her outfit and left with a smile on her face. So the martial artist was left alone, wondering how things could have possible gotten so bad.
Stumbling back into Shampoo's old house he pocketed the bottle of antidote before heading to bed. He couldn't bother himself with curing Inuyasha right now, that could wait. His mind was much more preoccupied with the fact that his and Kagome's relationship was just ruined, all because of Shampoo.
The more he thought about it the more he began to suspect that she had planned out this whole thing, he knew from personal experience that the Amazon could be incredibly crafty. "Well, at least I got the damn antidote…" He mumbled, not feeling the least bit victorious. He pushed the door open to his private bedroom and collapsed on the bed, falling asleep within seconds.
The cool fog felt cold on his skin, as if a blanket of ice was surrounding him. He really wished he had brought a coat, or something that could keep him warm in this dreadful weather. But despite the cold he pressed on, moving around the odd tree that blocked his path and not stopping a moment to rest.
Oddly enough he couldn't remember just what he was searching for, or who for that matter. All he knew was that his gut told him to keep walking, so he did. And as he went not a creature stirred in the forest, the silence was eerie, almost scary.
Finally his efforts paid off, and in the distance he could make out the outline of someone. "Kagome?" Was the first came to come to mind. The figure did not stir.
"Kagome!" He shouted louder, picking up his slow pace.
"Kagome!" He was now at a full out run, desperate to reach her.
"Kagome!" But soon he realized he was getting no closer, it seemed she was always out of his reach. But suddenly, she disappeared, almost as if she had evaporated into the mist.
He stopped running; a well had sprung up in front of him. As he peered down into its endless darkness he knew she was gone, gone from his time, gone from his life. Forever. Dropping to his knees he pounded his fist against the wooden banister. "Kagome…" The name slipped from his lips, sounding more foreign to him than ever before.
Ranma awoke still in the same bed, half of his body covered in sweat. Panting he soon realized it was just a dream, and calmed himself enough to lie back down. Light filtered past his head, telling him that it was morning. It took him a few minutes to compose himself but finally he got up and headed into the main dining room.
Ryoga was the only one up, sitting on one of the wooden chairs in the corner. He was silently gazing at a small picture; no doubt it was Akane's. "Ryoga…" He greeted him.
"Huh?" Ryoga jumped up, surprised that someone else was up this early. "Oh it's just you, it's not like you to wake up so early."
"Yeah I couldn't sleep much." He shrugged, taking a seat beside him. There was a long silence between them, they may have been rivals for most of their lives but sometimes there was just nothing to talk about.
"I wish that stupid Inuyasha never showed up here, things would still be like they used to be…" Ranma sighed.
"They'd be fine for you maybe; I'd still have no one… And I'm still going to have no one, as soon as their gone things will go back to normal."
"I don't think things will ever go back to normal, I think mine and Akane's relationship is on its last limb."
"Reallly?" His eyes lit up with excitement, "You mean you guys are calling off the marriage."
"Well we have been trying, we never asked for it. And well, something's kind of gotten in the way."
"You mean Kagome?"
"What? How did you know?"
"Well it's kind of obvious Ranma, you two have been spending a lot of time together."
"That doesn't matter anymore, it's all over. Kagome's and I's relationship is over permanently."
"And why's that?"
"Well last night…" Ranma relayed last night's events to Ryoga, it hurt but he thought that maybe his rival/friend could help.
"Wow, now that is defiantly a bad situation to be in. I doubt you and Kagome will ever be able to make up. But it was gonna end anyone Ranma, she would go back with Inuyasha and we would never see her again."
"I know… It's just, well… I thought maybe-"
Ranma was cut off as the rag door was thrown open, in the doorway stood a white robed man with thick glasses. "Where's is that womanizer Inuyahsa, I've come to finally defeat him and his woman snatching ways!"
(Well this story is starting to come to a close, the next chapter might be the last one. Although I may have to stretch it to two. I'll try and get this one out a lot quicker then before, I'ts just I've found it hard to write recently.)