The Scarlet Trail
Chapter 2, Forgetting The Truth Is Better Then Remembering The Lie...
Author's Notes: Okay, I hope ya kept on reading this. I know it took some time since I got this out, but I've been working on other stories as well and now that Christmas Break began I'll have more time to write. ^_^
Disclaimers: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ranma walked out of the bathroom just as Akane exited the bedroom she occupied. Ranma breathed in the sight of his radiant fiancee in a wispy, thin, white, shoulder-baring dress that went to mid-thigh. Dark violet, rose designs circled around the dress and her figure seeming to bind her. *Whatever made her wear that?* Ranma thought, his senses in a jumble. Akane noticed him then and gave him a thin, weak, forced smile. He looked so warm and welcoming in his regular black, silk pants and white Chinese shirt. His sight was so fresh, yet so familiar...so secure, so safe, so sheltered-! *Wait! Ranma, secure? Safe? Sheltered? What am I saying?!* Akane thought and smiled brightly at the irony of it.
Ranma smiled back at Akane and they both walked towards the top of the staircase. With a mutual sigh, they both silently agreed to forget about yesterday's incident and return to how they acted before. As they walked down the stairs, the words hung dangerously in Akane's head, *...so safe...so secure...so familiar...*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ranma and Akane stopped abruptly as they entered the large dining room to see the person that had occupied their thoughts for the past hours. All blood drained from their faces as the conversation died down and the people of the room noticed Ranma and Akane's entrance... only Nabiki noticed their fear. Kama glared pointedly at Ranma before getting up and smiling brightly at Akane. Akane felt a shiver go up her spine, *Why's he here? He's not supposed to be here,...Kama...*
Ranma moved to stand in the way of Kama and Akane.
"What are you doing here?" he practically spit out.
Nodoka and Genma both looked frightened and shocked as Nodoka jumped up and stood by Kama's side pleading desperately, "Great-Grandfather, please, please, for my and Genma's benefit, please do not harm Ranma!!! He is our only son, please do not!!"
Kama just looked into Akane's eyes and Akane felt such coldness there that she shivered. She knew he wanted her to plead with him...and strangely, she knew he could destroy Ranma. "Please..." she barely whispered, her voice hoarse. Kama smiled, obviously very pleased.
Ranma couldn't take it anymore, "What's wrong with you, tomboy? Why'd you beg him? He couldn't do anything to me. He's just a weak, pathetic-"
"Ranma!" Nodoka yelled, her eyes widening. Suddenly, her voice took a deadly no-nonsense tone, "You will respect your elders and betters. You shall respect Great-Grandfather and apologize now!"
Ranma stared at his mother, the very same woman who made him sign a contract to kill himself if he wasn't a man amongst men, was ordering him to apologize and bend to this...this person?! This person who was barely 6 years older then him? *I didn't bow down to Happosai or Cologne, why should I bow down to him...?* he thought disgusted.
"No, I will not-"
Kama just sat back down at the table as he waved his hand dismissively, "It matters not if he decides to obey me, No-chan. It will simply...complicate...living matters."
"Living matters?" Ranma sputtered.
"He's living with us?" Akane gasped in shock and horror.
Nodoka's face hardened, "Ranma, Akane, of course Great-Grandfather is living with us. We should be honored he decided to grace us with his presence. Now, Soun, Genma and I have already agreed to this so nothing more is going to be said. Just sit down and eat your breakfast."
Akane and Ranma sat side-by-side each other, letting the matter rest...for now. Kasumi was the one to voice what everyone dared not think about...
"Why do you and Mr. Saotome call Kama-san here Great-Grandfather?" she asked absently. A shadow seemed to fall over the table as everyone listened to Nodoka's answer.
"This is sort of complicated, but I'll explain. You see Kama here, is an immortal," Nodoka said as Akane, Ranma and Nabiki spat out their food across the table and yelled, "What?!"
Nodoka looked at Kama's cold face and sighed, "Really, children, you must be more polite. You see, Kama is an immortal and he was born many centuries before. So far back that even he forgot the exact year he was born-"
"You mean, you don't know how old you are?" Akane asked surprised.
Kama gave a mirthless grin, "It does make birthdays more difficult, Cherie."
Ranma didn't know why, but he felt a dark wrenching in his heart at Akane's sudden interest in Kama. Nodoka began again, "Yes, well, Kama was born a Saotome, but something happened so that he was forced to become immortal and now he is staying with us, end of discussion."
Nabiki analyzed all this speculatively and when she looked into Kama's eyes, she inwardly flinched. She knew what she saw there, ruthlessness, brutality, coldness, merciless, cruel, unfeeling, pitiless...the signs of someone who has given up everything and crossed the line...just to gain what he wanted. She knew the signs and she feared them, for no matter how cold Nabiki was, she always knew never to cross the line, she never even knew it was possible for anyone to cross the line of human emotion. It was said that those even able to cross this thin, dangerous, impossible line could achieve anything they wanted, for they never held back...in anything. Yet, there was a price for this...this...inhumanity...the person...or thing had to cut himself/herself off from everyone he/she knew or even remotely cared for, from the truest love to the stranger they met on the street.
"When did you do it? When did you give up humanity?" Nabiki whispered, her voice shaky and husky with fear.
Kama stared deep in Nabiki's eyes and said neutrally, "When my love was destroyed by my worst enemy."
"Was it worth it?" she choked.
Kama stole a glance at Akane and everyone in the room noticed. Ranma tensed, knowing what was about to come.
"It was...anything was worth it...for Akane," Kama said.
Akane froze, looked up at Kama's eyes and felt an uncomprehending guilt wash over her, choking her, drowning her. She stood up and ran out of the lit room, out into the yard. Kama stood up and went after her. As Ranma stood to run after his fiancee, though, Nodoka and Genma gripped each of his arms tightly and gave him a look that said, "Don't!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Akane walked through the inn garden and picked at the leaves and flowers. She tried to look at the situation from a good point of view, but found none. *Who are you, Kama? Why are you here? How am I connected to you? Why do you look so much like Ranma?* questions continued to run through her head. Suddenly she heard an amused male voice say, "You know, the people that own this place won't be very happy you're ruining their garden." Akane kept herself from whirling around and yelling at Kama.
"Leave me alone," she muttered instead. Kama just ignored her muttered command and walked beside her, touching a tiger-lilly softly.
"You know, you used to love tiger-lillies Akane, you absolutely loved flowers; tiger-lillies, tulips, roses, begonias, even the average dandelion. You had a cherry blossom tree in your backyard, you know. You begged your father so much and he always gave into you. He always spoiled you. There was a-" he said gently.
Akane interrupted him, "Stop, please, stop-"
Yet Kama was merciless, his voice raw with emotion, "You said flowers were your life and every morning you would walk to your field and sing to your flowers. You told me I couldn't come because if anyone besides you were to come to your garden in the hills, it would ruin its serenity. Do you know who you brought to your hill, Akane? Do you-"
"No, stop, please, please!" Akane cried as she bent over, a dark guilt eating at her chest, swallowing her. She didn't want to remember, didn't want to believe, but the images were there, buried deep inside. The images...and the terror...she didn't want to remember the happiness, the joy, the guilt, the pain...and the fear...
######Flashback#######
Akane Fardisi smiled serenely as she kneeled down into the soft, wet, moist earth as she put her hands in and started digging. Off in the distance she could hear the sound of a waterfall emptying into a lake that was connected to a ravine. The tune that she hummed circled around her, blending into her surroundings and the whole hill seemed to soften and melt towards her, as entranced to her uncanny beauty and song as any human. A soft wind blew softly at her wispy, original blue hair and field of flowers that she had planted with her own hands.
The people of the town and village didn't like her hair. They said that it was distasteful, brazen, and unladylike to have such ridiculous color hair. Akane didn't care what they said. Her soft, brown eyes melted as she patted proudly on the ground her newly planted flower: A fireweed. *This is my favorite flower...* she thought, *...almost rose, but not...* Kama-kun always asked her if the fireweed and rose were so alike in appearance, why didn't she like the rose? After all, more people liked the rose, it was more sophisticated, even the name was better. Akane sighed, he didn't understand, no one did, not even father. The fireweed was more wild,
more free, more...her.
Finally gathering her skirts, Akane walked silently down the hill, enjoying every sound and sense. A shadow loomed over her field as she left her paradise and a dark thing caressed the land.
#######End of Flashabck######
And then, Akane remembered the guilt...
#######Flashback#########
Akane walked through the ruddy streets of the village. She was so bored nowadays, ever since her fiancee-by-birth, Kama Saotome, left for his 10-month training test to prove his manhood, she has been bored out of her mind. All her life, Kama has always been her best friend, the boy next door, that she adored. Now, with him gone, she found herself getting bored. The people of the village greeted her kindly and she smiled. Suddenly Akane remembered something. Today was the day that Kama's younger brother, Ranma, would come home from his 10-year training trip. Akane remembered the boy, her own age. She remembered how when she was just a child, he teased her to no end and played tricks on her. She and he were only 6 then, but she still remembered the tricks, and teases. Why did he have to come home today? *And to think that when I marry Kama, I'll be related to that jerk!*
Akane thought indignantly.
*I'll show him!* Akane thought maliciously *I'll come pay a 'visit' to my dear future brother-in-law and tell him straight up that I will not deal with his mean tricks again* and with that conviction, Akane hiked up her skirts and ran towards the Saotome manor. As she ran through the gate and smiled at the guard, Akane bumped straight into a man. Falling flat on her
behind and too embarrassed to look up, Akane heard a kind voice say, "I'm so sorry, miss, can I help you up?"
Taking his offered hand, Akane helped herself up, not looking at him. Blushing as she straightened her skirts, she finally looked up at the stranger to thank him...but the thank you died in her throat. Staring into the deepest, most unique blue-gray eyes she had ever seen, Akane felt herself drowning and the ground drop from under her. Those eyes were so mesmerizing, so warm, so...Akane did not even know how to describe the feeling. So belonging, like it was meant to be. Suddenly, Akane broke from her trance as she noticed the other person was starring at her just as intently.
He never saw anyone like her. First, disrespecting all tradition and actually running, this girl dared bump into him. A lord. Now, though her dress appeared to be that of a lady, she was actually sitting on the floor! When he helped her up and she turned that beautiful face to his, he was lost. Lost in those brown, milky eyes that held both innocence and recklessness. The girl said something, but he did not hear so she repeated it again.
"Konnichiwa, milord," Akane repeated as she did an awkward curtsy, she never could do those right.
"Konnichiwa," he said absently.
Looking deep into his eyes, Akane asked, "My name is Akane Tendo, from the Tendo line, what is your name, sir?"
The man smiled a large, amused grin. His eyes danced merrily, full with mirth.
"The name's Ranma Saotome, and I see you're still as clumsy as ever, you uncute tomboy."
######End of Flashback#######
Akane smiled at the memory, but she still remembered the fear...a deep gut-wrenching fear deep inside her that fought to surface. The guilt was still there, but the fear was greater, so much greater.
"I see some things now, Kama, but there's something you're not telling me, something you don't want me to remember. What is it, Kama? You have to tell me!" Akane said.
Kama's eyes darkened, but he said not a word. He had her back now, he was not going to lose her to 'it' or anything else again.
"There is nothing you will not see with time," he replied smoothly.
"But will it be too late?" Akane whispered.
They were suddenly interrupted as Nabiki rushed into the garden, breathing hard.
"Akane, hurry up. We have to go home! Something attacked Shan Pu and Cologne at the Nekohanten and they're in the hospital! We have to go now! I think they're going to die!" Nabiki shouted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Notes: Send all comments and criticism to silverflame_maiden@hotmail.com.
Chapter 2, Forgetting The Truth Is Better Then Remembering The Lie...
Author's Notes: Okay, I hope ya kept on reading this. I know it took some time since I got this out, but I've been working on other stories as well and now that Christmas Break began I'll have more time to write. ^_^
Disclaimers: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ranma walked out of the bathroom just as Akane exited the bedroom she occupied. Ranma breathed in the sight of his radiant fiancee in a wispy, thin, white, shoulder-baring dress that went to mid-thigh. Dark violet, rose designs circled around the dress and her figure seeming to bind her. *Whatever made her wear that?* Ranma thought, his senses in a jumble. Akane noticed him then and gave him a thin, weak, forced smile. He looked so warm and welcoming in his regular black, silk pants and white Chinese shirt. His sight was so fresh, yet so familiar...so secure, so safe, so sheltered-! *Wait! Ranma, secure? Safe? Sheltered? What am I saying?!* Akane thought and smiled brightly at the irony of it.
Ranma smiled back at Akane and they both walked towards the top of the staircase. With a mutual sigh, they both silently agreed to forget about yesterday's incident and return to how they acted before. As they walked down the stairs, the words hung dangerously in Akane's head, *...so safe...so secure...so familiar...*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ranma and Akane stopped abruptly as they entered the large dining room to see the person that had occupied their thoughts for the past hours. All blood drained from their faces as the conversation died down and the people of the room noticed Ranma and Akane's entrance... only Nabiki noticed their fear. Kama glared pointedly at Ranma before getting up and smiling brightly at Akane. Akane felt a shiver go up her spine, *Why's he here? He's not supposed to be here,...Kama...*
Ranma moved to stand in the way of Kama and Akane.
"What are you doing here?" he practically spit out.
Nodoka and Genma both looked frightened and shocked as Nodoka jumped up and stood by Kama's side pleading desperately, "Great-Grandfather, please, please, for my and Genma's benefit, please do not harm Ranma!!! He is our only son, please do not!!"
Kama just looked into Akane's eyes and Akane felt such coldness there that she shivered. She knew he wanted her to plead with him...and strangely, she knew he could destroy Ranma. "Please..." she barely whispered, her voice hoarse. Kama smiled, obviously very pleased.
Ranma couldn't take it anymore, "What's wrong with you, tomboy? Why'd you beg him? He couldn't do anything to me. He's just a weak, pathetic-"
"Ranma!" Nodoka yelled, her eyes widening. Suddenly, her voice took a deadly no-nonsense tone, "You will respect your elders and betters. You shall respect Great-Grandfather and apologize now!"
Ranma stared at his mother, the very same woman who made him sign a contract to kill himself if he wasn't a man amongst men, was ordering him to apologize and bend to this...this person?! This person who was barely 6 years older then him? *I didn't bow down to Happosai or Cologne, why should I bow down to him...?* he thought disgusted.
"No, I will not-"
Kama just sat back down at the table as he waved his hand dismissively, "It matters not if he decides to obey me, No-chan. It will simply...complicate...living matters."
"Living matters?" Ranma sputtered.
"He's living with us?" Akane gasped in shock and horror.
Nodoka's face hardened, "Ranma, Akane, of course Great-Grandfather is living with us. We should be honored he decided to grace us with his presence. Now, Soun, Genma and I have already agreed to this so nothing more is going to be said. Just sit down and eat your breakfast."
Akane and Ranma sat side-by-side each other, letting the matter rest...for now. Kasumi was the one to voice what everyone dared not think about...
"Why do you and Mr. Saotome call Kama-san here Great-Grandfather?" she asked absently. A shadow seemed to fall over the table as everyone listened to Nodoka's answer.
"This is sort of complicated, but I'll explain. You see Kama here, is an immortal," Nodoka said as Akane, Ranma and Nabiki spat out their food across the table and yelled, "What?!"
Nodoka looked at Kama's cold face and sighed, "Really, children, you must be more polite. You see, Kama is an immortal and he was born many centuries before. So far back that even he forgot the exact year he was born-"
"You mean, you don't know how old you are?" Akane asked surprised.
Kama gave a mirthless grin, "It does make birthdays more difficult, Cherie."
Ranma didn't know why, but he felt a dark wrenching in his heart at Akane's sudden interest in Kama. Nodoka began again, "Yes, well, Kama was born a Saotome, but something happened so that he was forced to become immortal and now he is staying with us, end of discussion."
Nabiki analyzed all this speculatively and when she looked into Kama's eyes, she inwardly flinched. She knew what she saw there, ruthlessness, brutality, coldness, merciless, cruel, unfeeling, pitiless...the signs of someone who has given up everything and crossed the line...just to gain what he wanted. She knew the signs and she feared them, for no matter how cold Nabiki was, she always knew never to cross the line, she never even knew it was possible for anyone to cross the line of human emotion. It was said that those even able to cross this thin, dangerous, impossible line could achieve anything they wanted, for they never held back...in anything. Yet, there was a price for this...this...inhumanity...the person...or thing had to cut himself/herself off from everyone he/she knew or even remotely cared for, from the truest love to the stranger they met on the street.
"When did you do it? When did you give up humanity?" Nabiki whispered, her voice shaky and husky with fear.
Kama stared deep in Nabiki's eyes and said neutrally, "When my love was destroyed by my worst enemy."
"Was it worth it?" she choked.
Kama stole a glance at Akane and everyone in the room noticed. Ranma tensed, knowing what was about to come.
"It was...anything was worth it...for Akane," Kama said.
Akane froze, looked up at Kama's eyes and felt an uncomprehending guilt wash over her, choking her, drowning her. She stood up and ran out of the lit room, out into the yard. Kama stood up and went after her. As Ranma stood to run after his fiancee, though, Nodoka and Genma gripped each of his arms tightly and gave him a look that said, "Don't!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Akane walked through the inn garden and picked at the leaves and flowers. She tried to look at the situation from a good point of view, but found none. *Who are you, Kama? Why are you here? How am I connected to you? Why do you look so much like Ranma?* questions continued to run through her head. Suddenly she heard an amused male voice say, "You know, the people that own this place won't be very happy you're ruining their garden." Akane kept herself from whirling around and yelling at Kama.
"Leave me alone," she muttered instead. Kama just ignored her muttered command and walked beside her, touching a tiger-lilly softly.
"You know, you used to love tiger-lillies Akane, you absolutely loved flowers; tiger-lillies, tulips, roses, begonias, even the average dandelion. You had a cherry blossom tree in your backyard, you know. You begged your father so much and he always gave into you. He always spoiled you. There was a-" he said gently.
Akane interrupted him, "Stop, please, stop-"
Yet Kama was merciless, his voice raw with emotion, "You said flowers were your life and every morning you would walk to your field and sing to your flowers. You told me I couldn't come because if anyone besides you were to come to your garden in the hills, it would ruin its serenity. Do you know who you brought to your hill, Akane? Do you-"
"No, stop, please, please!" Akane cried as she bent over, a dark guilt eating at her chest, swallowing her. She didn't want to remember, didn't want to believe, but the images were there, buried deep inside. The images...and the terror...she didn't want to remember the happiness, the joy, the guilt, the pain...and the fear...
######Flashback#######
Akane Fardisi smiled serenely as she kneeled down into the soft, wet, moist earth as she put her hands in and started digging. Off in the distance she could hear the sound of a waterfall emptying into a lake that was connected to a ravine. The tune that she hummed circled around her, blending into her surroundings and the whole hill seemed to soften and melt towards her, as entranced to her uncanny beauty and song as any human. A soft wind blew softly at her wispy, original blue hair and field of flowers that she had planted with her own hands.
The people of the town and village didn't like her hair. They said that it was distasteful, brazen, and unladylike to have such ridiculous color hair. Akane didn't care what they said. Her soft, brown eyes melted as she patted proudly on the ground her newly planted flower: A fireweed. *This is my favorite flower...* she thought, *...almost rose, but not...* Kama-kun always asked her if the fireweed and rose were so alike in appearance, why didn't she like the rose? After all, more people liked the rose, it was more sophisticated, even the name was better. Akane sighed, he didn't understand, no one did, not even father. The fireweed was more wild,
more free, more...her.
Finally gathering her skirts, Akane walked silently down the hill, enjoying every sound and sense. A shadow loomed over her field as she left her paradise and a dark thing caressed the land.
#######End of Flashabck######
And then, Akane remembered the guilt...
#######Flashback#########
Akane walked through the ruddy streets of the village. She was so bored nowadays, ever since her fiancee-by-birth, Kama Saotome, left for his 10-month training test to prove his manhood, she has been bored out of her mind. All her life, Kama has always been her best friend, the boy next door, that she adored. Now, with him gone, she found herself getting bored. The people of the village greeted her kindly and she smiled. Suddenly Akane remembered something. Today was the day that Kama's younger brother, Ranma, would come home from his 10-year training trip. Akane remembered the boy, her own age. She remembered how when she was just a child, he teased her to no end and played tricks on her. She and he were only 6 then, but she still remembered the tricks, and teases. Why did he have to come home today? *And to think that when I marry Kama, I'll be related to that jerk!*
Akane thought indignantly.
*I'll show him!* Akane thought maliciously *I'll come pay a 'visit' to my dear future brother-in-law and tell him straight up that I will not deal with his mean tricks again* and with that conviction, Akane hiked up her skirts and ran towards the Saotome manor. As she ran through the gate and smiled at the guard, Akane bumped straight into a man. Falling flat on her
behind and too embarrassed to look up, Akane heard a kind voice say, "I'm so sorry, miss, can I help you up?"
Taking his offered hand, Akane helped herself up, not looking at him. Blushing as she straightened her skirts, she finally looked up at the stranger to thank him...but the thank you died in her throat. Staring into the deepest, most unique blue-gray eyes she had ever seen, Akane felt herself drowning and the ground drop from under her. Those eyes were so mesmerizing, so warm, so...Akane did not even know how to describe the feeling. So belonging, like it was meant to be. Suddenly, Akane broke from her trance as she noticed the other person was starring at her just as intently.
He never saw anyone like her. First, disrespecting all tradition and actually running, this girl dared bump into him. A lord. Now, though her dress appeared to be that of a lady, she was actually sitting on the floor! When he helped her up and she turned that beautiful face to his, he was lost. Lost in those brown, milky eyes that held both innocence and recklessness. The girl said something, but he did not hear so she repeated it again.
"Konnichiwa, milord," Akane repeated as she did an awkward curtsy, she never could do those right.
"Konnichiwa," he said absently.
Looking deep into his eyes, Akane asked, "My name is Akane Tendo, from the Tendo line, what is your name, sir?"
The man smiled a large, amused grin. His eyes danced merrily, full with mirth.
"The name's Ranma Saotome, and I see you're still as clumsy as ever, you uncute tomboy."
######End of Flashback#######
Akane smiled at the memory, but she still remembered the fear...a deep gut-wrenching fear deep inside her that fought to surface. The guilt was still there, but the fear was greater, so much greater.
"I see some things now, Kama, but there's something you're not telling me, something you don't want me to remember. What is it, Kama? You have to tell me!" Akane said.
Kama's eyes darkened, but he said not a word. He had her back now, he was not going to lose her to 'it' or anything else again.
"There is nothing you will not see with time," he replied smoothly.
"But will it be too late?" Akane whispered.
They were suddenly interrupted as Nabiki rushed into the garden, breathing hard.
"Akane, hurry up. We have to go home! Something attacked Shan Pu and Cologne at the Nekohanten and they're in the hospital! We have to go now! I think they're going to die!" Nabiki shouted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Notes: Send all comments and criticism to silverflame_maiden@hotmail.com.