Chapter Ten

He huddled up into a ball and started to cry in the darkness. He was trapped inside his own mind and was completely alone. He felt like he had been alone all his life, but now he really was. There was nothing he could do. But was there? He had to concentrate. He had to contact Ranma.

"Ranma!" he screamed his name, as if that would reach him in this dark and secluded place, and with his luck it probably wouldn't, but he had to believe it would. "You're my only help, Saotome! Deliver me from this evil hideaway or I'll be trapped here for all eternity!"

"He can't help you, Ryoga," a voice resounded from the darkness. It was the spirit or demon that lived inside Oro Hiroshi. "No one can!"

He heard laugher, and then Ryoga started to cry again.

The school bell rang to end another school day. Ranma ran out of class in a hurry with his book bag in hand, but he didn't have it for long and accidentally dropped it on his way down a flight of stairs. But he didn't have time to go back for it. He was had to find Ryoga.

Akane ran after him, but he was too fast for her. She found his book bag on the stairs and carried it with hers. "Stupid jerk!" she shouted down the stairs, and everyone looked at her wondering if she was talking to them. Akane blushed embarrassed and then huffed her downstairs.

The weather threatened to rain heavily. Storm clouds rumbled in a dark encased sky. But Ranma couldn't be concerned with the weather even though he had managed to revert back to his male ego once more. He had to take the risk of getting wet. Oro Hiroshi wasn't all he claimed to be and he had a dreadful feeling that Ryoga needed help. He didn't know why, he just had this gut feeling he did. Was it something psychic?

He couldn't explain it. Just before the bell rang he thought he heard Ryoga scream his name inside his mind. It was so loud that when it woke him up, he actually thought he was in the classroom with him. It may have just been his imagination, but something told him it wasn't.

Making his way through the streets of Nerima and down dark, animal infest alleyways, braving the pearl of being drenched upon at any moment, he finally reached Oro Hiroshi's property. He climbed over the debris of the retaining wall and snuck into the house.

He sensed a foreboding presence in the house and it brought chills down his spine. But when he searched the house from top to bottom he couldn't find a soul. No one was home. He returned to the front hallway and was about to leave when he heard a noise coming from the basement. It was the only place he didn't search. So he crept downstairs and found a bunch of strange devices, similar to those used for medieval torture.

"I knew there was sumthin' weird about this guy!" he said. "Havin' all this junk 'ere is just creepy on so many levels. Gotta warn Ryoga Oro Hiroshi isn't all he appears. This guy ranges 11 on the creep factor."

Ranma ran upstairs. But shockingly he came face to face with Oro Hiroshi, who was standing in the front hall blocking the only exit.

"Excuse me? May I help you?" Oro Hiroshi asked. Ranma stood frozen to the spot, not only because he had just been caught by Oro Hiroshi snooping through his house, but he could also sense a powerful dark arura around the man, and it made Ranma very uncomfortable. "I'm sorry, did I frighten you? Forgive me. What are you doing in my house?"

"Ah--" Ranma had to come up with a lie quick. But why lie? "I-I was looking for Ryoga," he said, his voice somewhat shaky. "I wanted to talk to him about sumthin'. It's very important. Where is he?"

"He's out for the moment, but he'll return soon," Oro Hiroshi said, his voice a little darker than usual, not as friendly as normal. "May I pass along a message?"

"No, no." Ranma gave a fake smile. "Just wanted to talk to'em about next week's fight, that's all. Nuthin' that can't want til I see'em."

"You still have not answered my question."

"Huh?"

"It's rude to enter a person's domicile without asking first," Oro Hiroshi said. "If you weren't such a good friend to Ryoga, I would probably call the police and have you arrested for trespassing."

Ranma clasped his palms together in an apologetic gesture, and said, "I'm sorry, I'll leave." But he wasn't sorry. He wanted to leave. The hairs on his arms were standing upright due to the energy in the place. Ranma felt Oro Hiroshi was the cause of it.

"You're Ranma Saotome, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am." But he knew that. "We met this morning."

Oro Hiroshi produced a thin grin. "Ryoga has told me so much about you. How your rivalry stretches beyond blood and honor. You're the person he hates most in all the world and wants to defeat so badly." He paused for a moment. "But he fears he won't be able to and I sense his uncertainty. He lacks focus and the quintessential drive he needs to beat you. But with me as his teacher, he will gain that confidence he so desires."

"Ryoga will never beat me!" Ranma said passionately, there was almost a tinge of anger in his voice. "He never beat me when it really counted."

"But he has beaten you, hasn't he?"

Ranma stayed silent. He didn't want to answer that. But yes, Ryoga had beaten him on the rare occasion. But that is only when he came to town boasting he had learned a new powerful technique and showed it off. A trail run on Ranma, so to speak. In the end, he beat Ryoga with his own techniques. So, technically Ryoga never beat him in an official match.

"No," Ranma finally answered.

"I don't believe you," Oro Hiroshi said softly. "I can hear the deceitfulness in your voice. You're afraid of Ryoga, aren't you? That one day he will eventually beat you and take Akane Tendo away from you."

"Akane Tendo is my fiancée," Ranma said firmly.

"You say that with such fire in your eyes, but your heart screams for freedom from the prison your parents have encaged you in. Doesn't it?" Ranma felt the energy grow. "Ryoga hasn't told me everything, but I know there is something more to your rivalry than either you let on. But no matter, Ryoga will tell me eventually. After all, we're almost family."

Like Ryoga fell into the spring of drowned piglet while hunting him down in the deepest regions of China… Yes, but he promised Ryoga he would never tell a soul about that. And Ryoga wouldn't tell either.

"Can I go now?" Ranma asked.

"Of course," he said.

Oro Hiroshi stepped aside and allowed Ranma to exit his house. Ranma walked past him and suddenly felt a deep chill in his bones. It was the same cold feeling ghost hunters said they experienced when they sought ghosts in haunted houses. The temperature suddenly drops several degrees when the ghost makes its presence known. This is how he felt. But he kept walking and didn't say a word.

He was half way across the courtyard when he stopped and looked back at Oro Hiroshi, and his stupid, fake smile of his, waving goodbye.

Then suddenly his eyes flashed red for a fraction of a second, and Ranma blinked wondering if he truly saw what he saw or if it was a reflection of the sun. Funny thing was, the sky was clouded over. There was no sun.

Ranma took a step back and stumbled over a piece of wood debris, nearly falling on his rear. He dropped to his hands and knees looking at the ground. When he looked up again at the house, Oro Hiroshi was gone. The man had disappeared into thin air. Or did he just go into the house?

He was confused, but he was also a little frightened. He took one last glanced around the properly and as he did so thunder boomed across the sky and it made him jump. He ran out through the broken retaining wall and down the street.

But little did he know that Oro Hiroshi was watching him from the roof of his house.

"Soon, young Ranma Saotome, I will take the fatal steps to forge my plans into motion, and you and your father, the last remaining members of your family, will die for the sins you have committed against mine!" He chuckled, then louder. "And I will use your friend Ryoga to do it!"

He laughed.

Lightning shot across the sky and thunder crackled violently within their harboring clouds of mixed air. Then the rain began to fall. And Oro Hiroshi retreated back into his house, vanishing like a ghost.

"Help me, Ranma!" Ranma thought he heard Ryoga's voice again.

To be continued...