Chapter Thirty-Seven
In the jungle there was no such thing as a truly safe place. Especially in one as unusual as Heian Conglin. All they could do was try to find somewhere where the dangerous animals weren't already there.
The group of teens wandering the jungle had seemed to find such a place, but Ranma was naturally wary. The threats were getting more aggressive and if what Happosai said about the game was true then it was entirely possible that the preexisting threats were gathering to take them out before the game was finished.
But they found a place they could stop, a place that had once been a city street but was now overgrown. Most of the terrain was like this, jungle covering an urban setting, to the point Ranma and Shampoo could barely notice it anymore.
"Wait, this place feels familiar." Ryoga commented.
"Ryoga, you have a hard enough time recognizing your own house." Ranma pointed out.
"Hold on, I'm feeling a sense of familiarity too." Mousse claimed. "I think we might actually be back in Nerima."
"Really?" Ranma asked, looking around this time trying to actually pay attention to the buildings under the jungle. "I don't see anything that looks familiar to me."
"I did have to do deliveries back when the cafe so I did get some sense of the town from back then. I'm pretty sure we're not that far from the Nekohanten."
Ranma looked amused. "Funny, ending the game in Nerima of all places. Well, I can't think of a place I'd rather do it then here."
"If we are in Nerima then that must be the volcano." Mousse said, pointing to a mountain peak.
"Huh, you might be right. I barely paid any attention to it before." Ranma admitted, looking at the mountain and remembering what happened when the volcano had appeared.
"Can we... get to Nekohanten?" Shampoo asked, crying.
Ranma nodded. "If we can find it." He then looked to Mousse and Ryoga. "But given your pasts in recognizing things around you, I'm still not convinced we're in Nerima."
Ryoga and Mousse felt insulted, but not enough to argue or hurt him. "We should probably find this place quick. It's going to rain sometime." Ryoga chose to say, pointing up.
Ranma and Shampoo looked up, seeing gathering grey clouds. "It might be the game's storm, but it might just be normal. Either way, you're right."
"If it game storm, we be in jungle for three months now." Shampoo mentioned.
Ranma looked to Ryoga. "Hey P-chan, give Shampoo your umbrella."
Ryoga frowned at his unfavorable nickname. "Don't call me that. And why should I?"
"Because if you're going to make a pregnant girl walk around in the rain to spare yourself I'll kick your ass until I find some jungle dwellers who don't care if your meat is human or pork." Ranma threatened. "Now give her your umbrella."
"She's pregnant?" Ryoga asked, having missed that little reveal earlier. "How could you do that to Akane you jerk?"
"This isn't about Akane Ryoga! This is about Shampoo!" Ranma almost yelled, balling his fists.
"You slept with her! You betrayed Akane in the worst possible way!" Ryoga yelled, also looking ready to hit something. And as usual, he wasn't hesitant to do so when Ranma was that something he wanted to hit. "I'll kill you!"
The lost boy lunged at his pigtailed rival, looking like he always did when he tried to clobber him. On reflex Ranma got out of his way, making Ryoga hit the ground instead, creating a crater.
"For crying out loud Ryoga I don't need this now!" Ranma yelled. "We're so close to ending the game!"
"You don't deserve to get out of this jungle alive!" Ryoga yelled back, getting in and trying again. Ranma didn't dodge his strikes, rather maneuvering around them while getting in an Amaguriken to the lost boy's abs. It wouldn't stop him, but it would keep him from going forward for a moment.
"Snap out of it man!" Ranma tried to reason.
"Why should I?" Ryoga asked, still trying to break any bone Ranma had. "You betrayed Akane!"
"Akane's not my fiancee anymore! Didn't she tell you that?" Ranma asked, kicking Ryoga in the side and getting out of his rivals range. He glanced to see the two Amazons with him, and they were watching, both to give him a chance to handle this himself as well as keep a lookout for threats from the jungle.
"What do you mean?" Ryoga asked, taking off some of his headbands to use, but not using them just yet.
"Before all this..." Ranma waved his hand to indicate the unnatural surroundings. "... became as bad as it is now, I tried to warn the Tendos about it. Akane was in a bad mood because she had seen me with Shampoo-"
"Because you were cheating on her!" Ryoga interrupted, moving again to lash out. Ranma dodged, making Ryoga hit a tree and the tree broke, falling over.
"We were trying to handle the game! This had nothing to do with any engagement until Akane decided to make it be about it!" Ranma yelled, hitting Ryoga in the jaw and making him tumble and roll across the ground. "Things were said, fights were fought, and at the end the engagement was called off! It has been for over two months now!"
Akane whimpered quietly, wishing she could take back what she had said.
Ryoga got back on his feet, not looking repentant. "So what if the engagement is nonexistent? You still hurt Akane and must suffer for that."
"What the hell is your problem?" Ranma asked. "You don't want me to make her happy, you don't want me to make her unhappy, can't you ever make up your mind?"
Ryoga surprised his rival by grinning. "You know, Akane told me I tried to use this game to get rid of you. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea after all."
From behind Shampoo came up and hit Ryoga with a few strikes to his pressure points, instantly locking up his joints and preventing him from moving or saying anything else. Ryoga collapsed on his front, struggling to look up at those around him.
"You make big mistake pig boy." Shampoo warned, walking into his view. "Even with memory erased, you still as bad as ever."
Ranma frowned, but his expression was more of disappointment than anger. "I guess old habits really are hard to break."
"Oh sure, act like I'm the bad guy here when I'm just trying to defend Akane's honor." Ryoga criticized.
"Defend it from what?" Ranma challenged. "From being sad? Akane's going to be sad occasionally whether you or her family like it or not. Don't use her as a mere excuse to keep doing what you've been trying to do to me for years."
"What we do about him?" Shampoo asked.
"I dunno, we can't leave him here for the animals but if he's going to go back to fighting us he's a risk we can't afford this close to the end." Ranma thought out loud. "Ryoga, we're almost done with the game. Can't you just let us finish it? Then you can get back to wanting to kick my ass."
"Fine." Ryoga groaned.
Carefully, Shampoo undid his paralysis and Ryoga was free to move again. He gave Ranma a harsh look, but did nothing.
"Shampoo take that." The Chinese girl said as she took his umbrella and opened it above her.
"Hey! You can't just take my-" Ryoga started; but he wasn't the only thing that started as the skies opened up above them, releasing a veritable torrent of rain. "-Bwee!"
Everyone changed except Shampoo, and Ranma picked up P-chan. "C'mon, let's keep looking for the cafe and get dry."
It was impossible to tell how long it actually took for them to find the Nekohanten, since being the rain made it feel longer, but they did find it, proving they were indeed back in Nerima. The now abandoned restaurant was covered in vines and a tree growing out of the interior, breaking the floor and the ceiling to get to the air outside. This meant there was a hole in the ceiling letting rain drip in and flood the floor, so Shampoo had to be careful where she walked.
They all went up to her old room, which was the same as before but very dusty. Ranma, being the only person in there who could get wet and still do much of anything, went to get some warm water started as Shampoo used some towels to dry off the piglet, duck, and tiger cub that were their human companions.
"Soon it all be over. You all back to normal, back in home, no remember any of this." Shampoo said reassuringly. "I sorry for pain to come when game is over, Akane, Mousse. Pig boy, not so much." P-chan snorted angrily.
Roughly an hour later a male Ranma came in with a kettle. "Sorry it took so long. The wood was wet and hard to get burning. What do you say we stop here for the night and finish the game tomorrow?"
Shampoo nodded. "No want go back out in rain." She looked away as Ranma used the water to turn Ryoga and Mousse back to normal, then gave them their clothes. She looked out the window. "Where you think Kahn is?"
"I dunno, but I'm worried about him too."
"How did you make a tiger your pet?" Ryoga asked, putting his clothes on.
"He... sort of got tamed by me somehow. I'd been doing some training to handle some problems I had with cats, and I guess it made me somewhat of an alpha to them." Ranma explained.
"Problem with cats?" Both Ryoga and Mousse asked, unaware of his former phobia.
Before the pigtailed boy could explain, the window shattered from the outside, shocking everyone inside the room. Outside was perched was wet Perfume, looking angry.
"Play time is over kids." She threatened, stepping inside.
"You're Perfume, the one who ran away from Joketsuzoku and has been using Heian Conglin to remain hidden." Mousse said, remembering what Cologne had told him.
"Correct boy. And I'm afraid this game has gone on long enough."
"Ranma, roll the dice now." Mousse stated.
"Oh no you don't!" Perfume said loudly, jumping towards the game. Shampoo swiftly took out a chui and actually managed to knock the elder back outside the building.
"Nice shot Shampoo." Ranma praised.
Something else then came in through the window, not Perfume but a bunch of bats. They immediately swarmed around the room, focusing on the people inside and trying to eat away at them like flying piranhas. The teens tried to hit them and swat them away but that was about as effective as it sounds. Even Ranma couldn't fight off a whole swarm of bees without getting stung, this was no different.
They only had one choice, Ryoga opened the door and they fled the room, and of course the bats followed. They went downstairs, and there were spiders crawling down the tree in the main room from the outside. But they were ignoring the spiders, trying instead to think of how to get rid of the bats. The best option was running outside and hoping the rain would drive them off, but that would mean three of them becoming helpless animals at a time they couldn't afford to be helpless.
Then Ranma remembered something. 'I had to start a fire to heat up the water. I can relight it and use it.'
The pigtailed boy went to some kindling he had left on the floor, taken from the tree, and hoped there was still something to burn. There were just embers and darkened wood, but there was also the flint he had used to start it. Trying to ignore the bites from the bats, he struggled to get a fire going again. So far it wasn't going well.
Then he heard the bats cry out in pain and looked to his left. He saw Mousse had pulled out some knives and was slashing at them randomly, hitting them quite well given their close proximity and killing most of them if not all. The uninjured bats flew away from him, and the cries of distress were making the other bats want to leave too.
"Thanks Mousse." Ranma said, wincing from the pain of the bites now that he was free too. He looked and saw each of them was bleeding in multiple spots, and it looked like Ryoga was missing a chunk of his right ear now.
"Ranma, you have to be careful of that woman." The myopic martial artist warned. "I don't think it was just chance those bats appeared after she was forced out. I think she might actually be able to control some parts of this jungle her game creates."
"You insult me boy." The voice of Perfume said, walking in from the front door. "I don't control some parts. I control all parts."
"How?" Ranma asked.
"Simple, I am Heian Conglin." The old woman claimed.
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, then a possibility came to him. "Wait, no, it's impossible. You can't be the spirit of the game itself."
"Not quite. I've bonded with the true spirit. It and I are one and the same, but I wasn't always the spirit. I was once just an ordinary member of the Joketsuzoku, but that changed when that bitch Cologne brought the game into my life."
"Wait, you say Great-Grandmother give you game?" Shampoo asked, shocked. She was not the only one.
"How do you think I got the game in the first place? Did you think I just walked into a store and bought it like any board game?" Perfume asked. "Heian Conglin was contained in the village's vaults, where we keep the spoils of war considered too dangerous to use regularly or risk destroying. Cologne was fooling around and went looking to see what as she put it as, 'the stuff the elders are scared of'. And for reasons I no longer remember, the game is the one thing she chose to bring out. Oh, and this pendant that goes with it." She fingered the emerald necklace around her neck.
"Then how did it get to Happosai and Soap if you and Cologne had it first?" Ranma asked.
Perfume shrugged. "Don't know. Not really something I cared about enough to remember. If I had to guess, I'd say Cologne was dumb enough to leave it unattended just long enough for someone to take it and start the game. All I know is when I was forced to look for Cologne's missing sister, I found the game discarded in the woods, and turned it in. And then things went downhill for me."
"I was accused of being the one to go into the vaults without permission and pilfer the contents." She continued, sounding angry at her recollection. "I was branded a criminal, stripped of all honors and chances to be of any importance to the village. All that bitch Cologne had to do was confess it was really her that went into the vaults. But she didn't. She chickened out, leaving me to suffer for her crime and getting the life I was supposed to get. I was the one who was originally going to become an elder of the village, not her. She robbed me of my life."
"And yet that's exactly what you've been doing to innocent people for years with this game." Ranma pointed out, frowning. "How did you get away? And why did you bring the game if it's as much to blame as the old ghoul was?"
'Why is he trying to talk to her? What does it matter where she came from?' Ryoga asked, looking to Ranma. 'Is he trying to learn the full extent of what she can do so he can prepare for anything she might do to end the game before he can?' While looking, he saw Ranma's hands were behind him, trying to get the game open, likely to roll the dice. 'Or is he trying to distract her so he can finish the game without her making it worse? Risky move Ranma, very risky.'
"Getting away was much easier than you'd think boy." Perfume answered. "You see I wasn't considered a dangerous criminal, just an honorless one. Without the game there was little I could do to hurt anyone afterwards, so they didn't make me spend time locked up like you'd imagine. No, my disgrace was made public, for everyone to see. I was ridiculed, degraded, and detested each and every day, forced to continue a civilian life forever with no other alternative. Surely you know as a martial artist nothing is more terrible than being forced to give it up."
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I can sympathize with that. But that doesn't answer my question."
"I'm getting to it. You see, there was one advantage to my situation. I was a village pariah, which means I was often ignored. No one wants to notice a pariah anymore than they want to visit a prison just for the heck of it. So when I decided to leave the village, no one really noticed until I was already gone. And since Cologne could easily get the game out of the vault, I could too."
"But why the game? Why not something more obvious like a weapon?" Ranma asked.
"Mostly for a sense of poetic justice." Perfume confessed. "She ruined my life with the game, I intended to return the favor. But of course I had to figure out how it worked. Which I did away from the village, letting other people play it. And when people came after me. The whole turn-back-time feature really helped me remain unnoticed more. Anyone who caught me was tricked by me into playing, and they always surrendered. Making one of them vanish off the face of the earth and the remaining one too confused to notice a sneak attack by me."
"Then you heard from Ryoga that Cologne was in town, and you saw an opportunity you've been waiting for." Ranma commented, finally grabbing the dice but not rolling them just yet. 'We need to get her distracted so she can't control what comes next. And if we keep it up, we can finish the game once and for all.'
"Of course. I had hoped she would have been one of those sent to bring me back. Too bad it took her nearly a century to get here. Made her death feel... so quick by comparison."
Shampoo's eyes widened. "You killed Great-Grandmother?" Deep down she knew Cologne wasn't going to come back alive, but it still hurt to actually hear.
"Of course. Though to be fair, it was the wolves who did the killing. I just brought them to her." Perfume said with a sinister glee to her voice and eyes.
Shampoo gained a dark aura, the kind Ranma had been very familiar with back during the Kiss of Death days. Before she could act on her anger, Ranma grabbed her arm gently, making her look to him.
"Let's beat her at her own game, that's the best we can do."
"Speaking of which, I'm afraid you've taken 'my own game' too far." Perfume added. "The boy couldn't get his job done right, so now you've gotten close to finishing my game. Dangerously close. I suppose I should congratulate you for getting this far, but no."
"So what you do?" Shampoo asked, still ready for a fight. "You no make us quit now."
"I don't need to make you quit. I just need to kill one of you. Maybe you, Cologne's own blood." Perfume threatened.
"Not while I'm still around." Ranma stated.
"Go ahead boy, roll the dice you think I didn't see you go for. Give me something new to use. Even I don't know what comes out this close to the end."
Ranma frowned. "Alright, you asked for it." He dropped the dice, letting them roll across the board and stop at a six, moving the dragon token one space forward. Now each figure had only one space left between them and the goal space on the board. Two rolls each and they'd win.
Shampoo glanced at the glass screen to see the latest message. "A foe that many have faced for naught, an enemy that should never be fought. Death means nothing as fire flashes, one will end up as only ashes."
"Sounds like I'm going to have fun." Perfume jested.
"Shampoo have no idea what's coming." The purple-haired girl said nervously.
The view out the windows got darker, but the rain quieted. It was almost as if there was something over the Nekohanten right now. The spiders on the tree dropped off it, but it looked more like they had jumped off, and they scurried away. Then there was a flash of light, not quite like lightning, from outside, but nothing seemed different.
The roof started to creak, and everyone looked up. They saw the hole in the roof from the tree, and outside it was clear the tree was on fire.
"Building on fire!" Shampoo yelled, like most people would to see their home ablaze and themselves still in it.
"Looks like you better run kids, lest you want to burn with the building." Perfume taunted.
'If we go outside, we risk getting back in the rain and giving her free access to anything and everything in the jungle. But in we stay here we risk having it collapse on us and killing us all.' Ranma thought, then reached the best decision he could. "Let's get out of here."
Shampoo grabbed the game, closing it, and the teens ran outside through the back door. Perfume did nothing to stop them.
Once they were outside they saw what the game had just unleashed: a forest fire, and an enormous one. The trees of the jungle and the buildings of Nerima were ablaze, and it was making many of the animals in the area run like crazy to get away. Fortunately though the heat of the area was evaporating most of the rain so their curses weren't being triggered just yet.
"We can't stay here." Ryoga said. "I've been in a forest fire before. What we need to do is find a source of water or place without plants, and try not to breathe in any smoke."
"The canal's the nearest water source, but there are gators in it." Ranma said.
"It's either them or the fire." Ryoga pointed out.
"Canal it is." Ranma said, and the group of teens ran, moving their shirts over their mouths to prevent them from inhaling smoke.
The street provided a bit of a clear space, but it wasn't entirely safe. Fire was on all sides and spreading, with currently no wind to tell them which way it was heading the most. And there was little cover, so the rain was stronger here and got on them all, turning them all into their cursed forms.
'We really don't need this.' Ranma groaned. 'Until we turn Shampoo back to normal we can't finish the game.'
A rumbling sound got her attention, and she looked up the street to see at least three rhinos heading their way in a hurry, making her and her animal companions scream. Ranma grabbed them all and the game and did the only thing she could do, run away from the rhinos down the street.
Outrunning the rhinos was easy, but the fire made it harder. In no time Ranma found it difficult to breathe, the oxygen being consumed by the fire and her shirt no longer covering her mouth thanks to the transformation and activity.
"I can't breathe." Ranma wheezed, forcing herself to stop and drop to her knees, putting down everything she had been carrying. All four humans-turned-animals tried to encourage her to keep going, but it was the approaching rhinos that did it best. With no time to think, Ranma grabbed what she could and leapt onto the top of the nearest building. Not wanting to stay long, she jumped again and again, getting herself away from the inferno and into some parts where the fire had yet to touch.
Then she left herself collapse and take deep breathes, desperate for some air. The animals wailing luckily helped her stay conscious. "Give me a minute guys. I'll get us some hot water soon." She said to Ryoga and Mousse, closing her eyes.
What Ranma did not notice however was that Shampoo and Akane were not there.