Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Contact belongs to Carl Sagan. The
Adventures of Pip and Flinx belong to Alan Dean Foster. The
Deathstalker series belongs to Simon R. Green. Mahou Senshi Riui (Louie
the Rune Soldier) licensed by ADV.
Back on Earth: Chapter One
By Thermopyle
Visit my page at thermopyle.anifics.com/index.html or email me at
thermopyle@tds.net.
*****
Ranma suddenly found himself to be underwater. He didn't know how he
got there-maybe it was that last teleportation-but he did know that
there was something far more important that needed to be attended to.
Aira couldn't swim.
Her panicked thoughts were blasting at him, her mental strength giving
each frightened cry the force of an unstoppable train, slamming into him
with stunning force, just as her arms and legs did as she thrashed about
in the water beside him. Ignoring his own need for air and the fact
that he'd breathed in a bit of liquid before he realized that he was
underwater, he reached out and grabbed Aira by the shoulder, pulling her
towards him quickly and slipping his other arm around her chest.
*Relax,* he thought.
She calmed immediately. He could still feel the complete terror of
drowning she had pushing at their link, but it was much reduced and
there was no sign of it in her actions.
Pausing for a moment despite the burning sensation in his lungs, he
detected that they were oriented correctly by the movement their
buoyancy caused, then began kicking his legs, causing them to ascend
towards the surface. They broke free of their imposed suffocation after
only a moment, his efforts easily holding their heads above the water as
they gasped for breath. After they recovered somewhat, he began making
one-armed strokes to pull them towards the water's edge, which was only
a few meters away, while holding Aira safe with the other arm.
Pulling themselves out of the water, this time with her help, they both
collapsed to the ground, still sucking in air heavily as they attempted
to calm themselves. Hearing Aira begin coughing, he crawled over to her
and gave her a few good whacks on the back. She glared at him for a
moment but her breathing steadied out, so he just ignored it and wrapped
his arms around her. She relaxed, pushing herself back against him as
they sat quietly.
A moment later he sighed, then spoke. "How close are they?"
She tensed at the reminder, and he felt her reach out with her mind, a
good deal of effort having to be put into it because of how drained she
currently was. They were both tired, and he didn't know how much longer
they could continue to run.
He felt her startlement before she spoke.
"They're gone," she whispered. "I can't feel them at all."
Ranma frowned. "Are you sure?" Did the baby get them? Was it finally
over?
"Yes," she replied, and he could sense the weary satisfaction the
thought gave her.
Relieved now that he knew they wouldn't have to flee again, he looked
around to see where they were.
Surrounding them was a group of small lakes, each one having a bamboo
pole or two sticking out from the center. Beyond the water were trees
and dense underbrush, with a rocky cliff rising above in one direction.
Some distance away, near a small shack, he could see a panda on its hind
legs, standing like a person would and waving signs at a portly, bald
man he recognized as being Chinese.
This all looked so very familiar.
Aira must have felt the sudden tenseness in his grip, because she asked,
"What is it?"
"...Jusenkyou."
"What?" she said sharply, pulling away and beginning to look around
herself.
"I don't see my father," he said quietly, "but there's the Guide, and
that weird panda that knocked me into the spring..."
"Is that thing waving signs around?" she asked after a brief pause.
"Looks like it... How do you think we got here?"
"I'm not sure. I didn't have enough time to see where that last
teleport put us, but somehow we were moved from the other universe to
here without our knowledge." She hesitated, then said, "The Recreated
might still be alive, but too far away for us to sense."
Ranma frowned. "I hope not." There was little that scared him, but the
thought of the Recreated wandering around out there with nobody to
oppose them was positively unnerving. "How do we get back? We need to
make sure they're dead, that Arthur fixed everything."
Aira took both of his hands into her own, smaller ones, and he felt her
intent. He pushed his mind towards hers, and they met in the middle,
melded together. By now it was a familiar sensation and he ignored the
sudden doubling of perception and the other, more distracting side
effects, instead focusing on the goal as they used their combined power
to look behind them, and into their past.
They saw themselves exiting the lake, watched as they swam to the edge,
and then went back further, to where they came swimming up from under
the water, then to when they first arrived, pushing harder to see where
they had come from.
What they saw next confused them.
They weren't able to see where they had teleported from, it was if the
teleport had never happened. All they could see was that one moment,
which they recognized as the time when they had appeared in this
universe, they had their current clothes on. Before that, Aira was
naked and Ranma was wearing a martial arts gi. It was as if their
outfits had changed, but nothing else had.
Looking back further still, they watched as Ranma landed in the water,
and then Aira appeared as if by magic alongside him. With
consternation, they shoved a bit more power into the attempt, causing
them to go back several more minutes. They watched closely, carefully,
to determine what had happened, and how they had ended up getting here.
After watching the whole sequence of Ranma's being knocked into the
lake, then Aira's appearance, then their change of clothes and swimming
up from the depths, they arrived at a conclusion.
Somehow they had been switched with their earlier selves, which
explained how they had gotten to the Madness Maze so long ago, although
they hadn't intended to teleport there when they were leading the
Recreated around just previous to their return.
So how did they get back?
Gathering every bit of power at their disposal, their mind reached out
in all directions, searching. Searching for Owen, for Hazel, for the
child, for the Recreated, for Mater Mundi or some of the other, more
powerful espers. They looked far beyond the edges of the galaxy, felt
strange, alien minds and artifacts, but nothing that seemed like the
place they had just left.
Pushing harder, expanding to the very edge of their reach, they tried to
go further still, to find their friends and enemies. Just when they
were about to give up, to go back, they touched something.
It latched onto them, the slimy feel of its presence coating their
combined mental essence like putrid, black oil. Like oil, it seeped
into them, but with a mind of its own, spreading through them with an
acidic touch, burning everywhere. Agony filled them, and they tried to
pull away, to escape, but it held them fast, pulling them in deeper as
it attempted to suffocate them in its vile corruption.
They fought, barbs of power sticking viciously into it, ripping shreds
into where it currently touched them. Blasts of white energy shot out,
impaling the darkness with huge holes, their life force turning against
it, wiping it out like the sun does shadow. Filled with triumph, they
advanced, the ease of victory rushing through their veins as they
decimated the enemy, cutting it apart as they looked for the source of
the malevolent ichor.
Then, suddenly, it was behind them, and to the sides, surrounding them
completely. They struck out again, but they were as a small island in
the midst of a furious hurricane, pummeled from all sides by incredibly
force, the hateful blackness stretching out to forever in all
directions. It grabbed at them despite the shining shield of light they
tried to bring against it, and ripped them apart.
Ranma was suddenly alone, and far, far away from his body. Their
combined strength was barely sufficient for reaching out to this
distance... without being together, they had no hope of returning. Then
he realized he couldn't feel Aira at all, it was as if their link had
never existed; or as if she was gone, beyond his reach for eternity.
His defenses shattered by surprise, the enemy rushed towards him from
all angles, his senses turning numb as it washed over him in a bitter
wave. He struck out with barely-felt arms and legs, trying to attack,
to recover, but just like water, it flowed effortlessly about him, and
now it was his turn to drown in a sea of foamy darkness.
As he lashed out blindly, ineffectively, he tried to see beyond the
living inkiness that he now knew would be his grave. All was black, and
as he lost the last bit of feeling in his mental projection, he wondered
if it was because there was nothing else to see, or if his eyes, too,
had failed him. He wondered if Aira had gotten away safely.
A white light appeared and he winced as his dilated pupils were lanced
with unexpected brightness. The pain, which he had either gotten used
to or passed far beyond returned, and was quickly replaced by a soothing
warmth. His skin, which was burned, blackened, and in some places
dissolved away, was pushed aside by a fresh new epidermis, the old one
flaking off, falling away as naturally as shedding. When his eyes
adjusted he could see a glowing tunnel, and at the other end...
"Aira?" he whispered.
She, too, was surrounded by a soft white glow, and she smiled at him in
relief, then suddenly they were moving towards each other. Darkness
still existed, he could see it to the sides and all around them, but
they were going to be together now, and he didn't care.
They touched, the palms of their hands meeting again as they always did,
and they merged. This time he didn't ignore the extra sensations,
instead, he relished in them, immersing himself in the scented life
force that was his wife.
He felt her love, her happiness and relief at being reunited with him,
the fading despair that had filled her just moments before, which was so
easily banished now. Her memories, thoughts, feelings, fears, they all
rushed through him, and he found himself again stunned by everything
that was Aira.
As they floated there, filled with a complete sense of contentment and
peace despite the enraged, physical manifestation of hatred that was all
around them, throwing itself uselessly against the shield that protected
them, they heard the light giggling of a young baby.
*Arthur?* they thought.
As if in response, the glow around them began to brighten, until it was
if they were in the heart of a blazing sun, and the shadows pulled back,
screaming in fear. The light flared, causing them to blink in surprise,
and then everything suddenly faded away.
Something cold struck his face and he could feel trickles of liquid
pooling at the back of his neck. What was going on? Why wasn't he
dead?
"Boy! Wake up!" said an irate voice, one he recognized after a moment
of contemplation. It'd been a long time since he'd heard that voice,
actually, and it sounded a bit weaker than he remembered it being.
He opened his eyes, slowly, to see a blue sky. What had happened? He
felt strangely comforted, as if he'd just undergone some kind of weird
religious experience, but he was sure that wasn't what had happened.
That kid sure was packing some serious power, though.
"Ranma!"
Looking over, he saw exactly who he expected to see: his father. The
old man looked pretty pissed, too. Probably mad about being sent to an
alternate universe and being replaced by a panda in the meantime. That
could be pretty upsetting.
"What?" Ranma asked.
"Who is that, boy? And why aren't you cursed?" Genma demanded angrily.
Ranma looked down to see Aira lying on top of him, her scarlet hair
strewn about just under his chin, her head resting gently on his chest
and her arms wrapped around his waist. She was snoring lightly, just as
she always did.
After a moment, he looked back up to his father. "This is Aira. She's
pretty nice. I'm sure you won't like her." He grinned when he saw the
older man's face redden as he began to sputter incoherently. "And what
do you mean, I'm not cursed? What else would you call being stuck with
a moron like you?"
At that, Genma moved to kick him in the head, so Ranma rolled smoothly
to the side, one arm around Aira's waist, one supporting her head, and
one of his legs holding hers steady. After a few meters distance was
gained, he stopped so that he was above her, then gently eased her down
to the ground. Once that was done, he leapt towards his father, arms
extended as he prepared to attack. While doing so, he noticed
something.
He felt extremely drained, almost more so than he'd ever been before.
Sure, his abilities were still somewhat above that of a normal human-
well, normal for him, anyway-but they were much lower than what they
usually were. The sense of restrained power, the almost constant
feeling of immortality that he had possessed ever since going through
the Madness Maze, was barely there.
If he had to fight any of the Recreated, one of those weird aliens, or
even a Hadenman, he was sure the fight would be short and very one-
sided. Luckily, this was just his old man, who he'd been able to beat
into the ground fairly regularly even back before the Maze. Now, with
his increased abilities, combined with the huge amount of fighting
experience he'd gained since the last time he had sparred with his
father...
This fight was just as one-sided as the other kind would have been, only
in his favor, instead.
Speed, strength, deceptive feints, dirty tricks, and moves he'd never
used on Genma before soon resulted in one seriously bruised and
unconscious 'sensei'.
Brushing imaginary dirt off of his hands, he turned towards Aira, who he
had felt wake up partway through the short fight. He eyed her intently
for a moment, seeing that the way she was lying on her side, leaning
over slightly, caused her tight purple top to suggest a certain
sensuality despite or perhaps because of the dust that clung to certain
areas of it.
Her amusement apparent as she noticed his reaction both through the link
and from other signs, she asked, "So that's your father? Somehow I
expected more."
Oh well. Time for that later.
Ranma grinned, but let himself be sidetracked. "Well, he says he's my
father, and I don't remember anybody else that he might have stolen me
from, so I guess so. Don't let him fool you, though. He may be a lazy
thief, but he's a damn good martial artist. Just not as good as me," he
concluded.
She smiled at him, and he felt a short burst of happiness, he wasn't
sure if it was from himself or from her. "Is anybody?" she replied.
"Well, no. But he's still better than most."
She reached out a hand and he grabbed it, pulling her to her feet.
"So," he said, serious again, "what just happened?"
"I think Arthur saved us, that's the only explanation. I...couldn't
feel you through our link, so I tried reaching for you..." She pulled
him towards her, grabbing him in a hug, which he returned, before she
continued. "I thought you were dead," she said quietly. "Then I was
surrounded by that light, and it pulled me towards you, then the next
thing that happened was I woke up to see you fighting your father."
"What about that stuff we fought? It wasn't the Recreated, but neither
was it anything else we've seen either. If Arthur didn't kill it when
he helped us out..."
"Yeah. It could still be out there," she said.
He squeezed her a little tighter for a moment, then released his grip
and took one her hands in his. "Lets go talk to the Guide."
The Guide's shed was a short distance away, somehow they had gotten
moved from in the middle of all those lakes, probably Arthur's doing
again, and they found him inside when they looked through the open
doorway.
"Ah, Mr. Customer!" The man said in stilted Japanese. "Why you not
cursed? You is very lucky!"
"Cursed?" asked Aira.
"Yeah," said Ranma. "Oyaji said something about that, too. What are
you talking about?"
"Jusenkyou is cursed training ground. Each spring has tragic legend,
and whoever falls in takes body of whatever drowned there last. Mr.
Customer's father fell in Spring of Drowned Panda," said the Guide.
Ranma stared at him as Aira burst into laughter. "That panda was my old
man?"
"Yes. Sir is very lucky. Why you not cursed? And where did Mrs.
Customer come from?"
"Wait a minute... what spring did I fall into?" he asked.
"Mr. Customer fell into Spring of Drowned Girl. Very tragic legend of
girl who fall into spring 1500 year ago."
At that, Aira stopped laughing, and her eyes went wide as she turned to
look at Ranma. "Spring of Drowned Girl?" she echoed.
"Yes," repeated the Guide, now looking at Aira suspiciously, "Spring of
Drowned Girl."
Aira was silent for a minute, then said, "So, if not for the Maze..."
"I would have ended up cursed to turn into a girl, maybe one that looked
like you," Ranma finished.
The Guide glanced back and forth between the two of them, obviously
unsure of what they were speaking about, but they ignored him.
"Well," said Aira, "that explains a few things. Like our bond. You
were probably being attached to my body somehow when we got transported
the Maze, and since it didn't finish, I remained in control, instead."
Ranma nodded in response, but said nothing. They had both hoped there
had been some kind of deeper meaning for it, so this was a bit
disappointing, but it wasn't really as upsetting as it could have been.
It could also be the reason for why their powers were divided so much,
unlike the others who were all fairly equal in their abilities.
"So how does the curse work?" he asked the Guide.
"Cold water triggers curse. Hot water reverses it," the man responded,
visibly relaxing now that they were getting back on familiar ground.
"Is there any cure? Like jumping into the Spring of Drowned Man?" asked
Aira.
"For older Mr. Customer? No, curses mix. If Mr. Customer jump in
Spring of Drowned Man, he turn into panda-man."
Both of them made faces at that.
"Well," decided Ranma, "lets go wake up Oyaji and get out of here.
There's no sense sticking around." Not since the Guide obviously
doesn't have a clue what happened, anyway.
Aira nodded in response, and they made their way back to where they had
left Genma. Still holding onto her hand, he toed his father in the ribs
sharply. "Yo, Pops, wake up." Immediately after that, he remembered
one particularly hard blow that had hit his father where he was
currently kicking. He guessed that it would wake the lazy bastard up
faster, so continued to do so.
Soon enough, Genma was awake and groaning as he clutched at his injured
chest. "Ungrateful boy!" he moaned.
"We're going back to Japan, Oyaji. Are you coming or not?" Ranma asked.
"Eh?" Injury apparently forgotten, Genma looked up at the two of them,
and, in particular, at the redheaded girl standing next to his son.
"Who is she?" he asked again.
"My name is Aira," she said, bowing slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet
you, Mr. Saotome." She smiled and flashed her dimples at the older man,
who continued to look at her with mistrust.
When his father began to protest, Ranma cut him off. "She's coming with
us. Are you?"
Rather than caving in like Ranma expected he would do after receiving
such a beating, Genma's eyes narrowed, openly glaring at their joined
hands. "Fine," he said, "but she'll just get in the way."
He felt Aira's annoyance as he replied, "I doubt that."
Why was his father against having Aira along? He hadn't thought about
it earlier, but the older man had been so enraged when they fought that
he'd been much sloppier than usual, making it even easier to beat him
down than it would have been otherwise.
*Once we're on our way, why don't you go ahead and mind-probe him,* he
thought to Aira, and felt her confirmation in return.
After Genma finally quit grumbling about his injured ribs and managed to
get himself up, they grabbed his and Ranma's bag and began the trek back
to Japan.
By the time they reached the first village, a tiny, rustic little thing
with a slightly intimidating, if simple, wooden fence surrounding it,
Genma's frequent glares at Aira had gotten to the point where they were
very annoying. What was even more annoying, however, was the reason for
his father's hostile attitude.
*I can't believe the old bastard engaged me to somebody I don't even
know!*
*Well, * she replied, amused by the whole situation since she knew it
was moot anyway, *you do get to choose from three different girls. Most
men in your position would be delighted.*
*Yeah, right. If their father actually likes Oyaji they're probably all
as crazy as their old man is. It would have to be genetic.*
*That's true,* she agreed before changing subjects. *Your father isn't
very perceptive, is he?* she asked, glancing down at the custom-made
wedding band that adorned one of her fingers.
*Nope. His head is as hard as granite, and twice as dense. I should
know, I've hit it enough times. He also missed out on the fact that I'm
wearing an outfit I didn't even have when we got here.*
They both grinned when Genma-panda looked over his shoulder and scowled
at them yet again, his eyes locked onto their still-joined hands,
despite his not noticing the rings they both wore.
*It's funny how he keeps getting splashed with water, isn't it?* said
Aira.
*Not really. His fur is going to get all moldy and smell like crap in a
few days, if it keeps up.*
By now they were inside the village, with the Guide in the lead and
Oyaji close behind, and they were starting to think it was abandoned
since they hadn't seen anybody yet, when they heard a loud cheer start
up from the middle of the town.
*I wonder what's going on?* Aira thought.
*Dunno. Guess we'll find out soon enough.*
Now that they were getting closer, the sound of many people chattering
was audible, and when they passed the next wooden shack they could see a
big crowd gathered around an upraised log, upon which two girls were
fighting.
*Is that a girl?* he asked, just to be sure. For one of them, it was
hard to tell.
*I think so...*
He shrugged, then spoke aloud, to keep anybody from noticing that their
body language indicated people in conversation. That had caused them
trouble before. "That purple-haired girl isn't bad."
"Yeah. You're better, though," she replied with a grin.
Ranma nodded in response. Aira couldn't fight physically, but she'd
watched him do it enough that she had at least some ability to judge
skill.
As expected, the purple-haired girl with the bon-bori soon knocked the
ugly chick off of the log, causing another round of cheers among the
spectators. She was popular, apparently.
Now that the fight was over, he tugged at Aira's hand and began to move
away from the crowd, looking around for his father as he did so. They'd
only gone a few steps when he heard an outraged shriek from somebody
behind them. They turned around to see the winner running towards a
table set a little ways away from arena. The table was loaded down with
massive amounts of food... except on one end, where a large panda was
eating everything within reach.
*That idiot!* they both thought at the same time.
By the time they got to the table Genma was rolling around on his back,
dodging blows from the purple-haired girl seemingly by accident while he
waved around a sign saying,
Every so often other signs would appear, saying and , as well as other taunts his father liked to
employ.
Ranma stopped it by snatching one of the signs away from the panda, and
before it could react, smacking it upside the head.
The girl, her chest heaving either in rage or embarrassment, quickly
turned on him and started spouting gibberish while making threatening
gestures at both him and his father.
Ranma looked helplessly over in the Guide's direction, having noticed
that he was standing nearby but not being of any help whatsoever, and
the man finally moved closer and translated what she was saying.
"She say that Mr. Customer's panda ate her tournament prize. She
demands that you give him to her, so that she can cook him and replace
the food he ate." Then he added, needlessly, "She very angry!"
Ranma opened his mouth, about to challenge her for the prize, when Aira,
who had come up behind him, covered it with her hand.
"Tell her that the panda is really a man cursed at Jusenkyou," she said.
*You don't want to fight this girl, trust me.*
He frowned, but acquiesced.
When the Guide translated what she had said, the purple-haired champion
looked even angrier, and snapped something at a nearby child, a young
boy, who quickly ran off. Then she just stood over Genma and glared
down at him.
Ranma glanced over at Aira, who was standing beside him now. *What's
this about?* he asked.
She grinned. *Just watch, and you'll see.*
Soon enough, the child returned with a cup of water, which he handed to
the purple-haired girl, who snatched it right out of his grip and
promptly dumped the contents of onto the panda.
Genma, knocked temporarily unconscious by his son's blow, awoke to the
sensation of having hot water evaporate almost instantly off of his body
as a girl with death in her eyes and a red, angry aura stared down at
him.
After a few derailed attempts to get out of fighting her, with Genma
either trying to run away or trying to get Ranma to fight instead, the
girl and his father were soon up on the challenge log. He still didn't
know why Aira had a huge smile on his face, but his father and the girl
were at about the same level, so he was hoping his old man would get a
good beating.
Unfortunately the girl underestimated him, and Genma easily knocked her
off the log with a single sweep.
The crowd, which had previously been yelling angrily at his father and
encouraging the girl, went completely silent and dead still.
*Watch,* said Aira.
The girl, who was glowing a much, much brighter red now, looked over at
the spectators, then, with hate in her eyes, advanced towards Genma, who
was still up on the log. Tossing her weapons to the side, almost
hitting a few people in the process, she jumped back up to him.
Ranma watched with interest as the girl, without taking up an kind of
stance at all, marched right up to his father, blurred past his guard,
then gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Genma was so startled that he
froze, and the girl quickly took advantage of it and kicked him in the
balls, then, when he kneeled over clutching himself in pain, kneed him
in the face. After that she kicked him right off the log and onto a
nearby pile of weapons, no doubt causing even worse injury.
Aira reached over and closed his mouth, which was hanging wide open in
astonishment. That hadn't been what he was expecting.
*There's more,* she said, and he could positively feel the giddiness
that was possessing her. She didn't seem to like his father at all, not
that he could blame her.
Before long the girl's red aura died down and flickered away, and she
jumped off of the log and walked over to where Ranma and Aira were
standing.
"Is son, yes?" she asked, looking at Ranma.
"Yes," he nodded cautiously, wondering what was going on and promising
himself that he was going to get Aira for this if he didn't find out
what was happening very soon.
He could feel that Aira was just barely holding on, and that she was
very much having to restrain herself from bursting into laughter.
"Shampoo your new mother. Be good," she said, frowning at him with what
he could only conclude was supposed to be motherly sternness.
Apparently she thought the message was received, so she turned and went
over to his father, grabbed one of his feet, then dragged him off in the
direction of one of the larger houses in the village.
Ranma stared after her until she went into the building, then after a
minute of looking blankly at the door she had closed behind her, he
turned to Aira and asked, "What just happened?"
At that point, she couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing
quite loudly, completely unable to stop herself and often coming up
short on air, as she couldn't seem to hold the stuff in for some reason.
A few hours later Ranma was finally coming to grips with what had just
happened, finding himself not at all amused by the way Aira kept
breaking out into giggles, and he concluded that while the situation was
definitely weird, his father deserved exactly what he'd gotten. Served
the old bastard right, for engaging him without even asking first.
Genma was still out cold and had curled up into a ball even in his
sleep, obviously still feeling the pain his new wife had inflicted upon
him.
*So what do you want to do now?* Aira asked. *Should we still go to
Japan?*
*Yeah... We need to get married in this world, to get all those damn
engagements out of the way. I'd like to meet my mother,* he glanced
over at Shampoo and corrected himself, *my real mother again, too.*
*What about the seppuku pledge?*
He shrugged, then noticed that Shampoo was giving them odd looks, and
decided to speak out loud. "I'm not too worried about it," he said
quietly. "If necessary I'll declare myself ronin. We'll figure
something out."
She nodded, not the least bit bothered by the prospect. It wasn't an
issue where she had come from, so it didn't mean anything to her. He
knew it could cause them some problems, though.
"What then?"
"Well, we need to recover our strength, try to figure out what that
thing we ran into was. Also, since Arthur was able to help us out,
there should be a way for us to get back to him and the others." He
hesitated. "And if we can do that, we might be able to get to your
universe, too..."
He noticed that she had stopped breathing, so reached out tentatively to
catch her hand. When he did so, she threw herself at him in a fierce
hug.
"I'd like that," she said quietly. "I want to go home, even if it's
just for a little while."
He returned her embrace, although more gently. "Okay. Then that's what
we'll do. We'll go to Japan."
To Be Continued.
Adventures of Pip and Flinx belong to Alan Dean Foster. The
Deathstalker series belongs to Simon R. Green. Mahou Senshi Riui (Louie
the Rune Soldier) licensed by ADV.
Back on Earth: Chapter One
By Thermopyle
Visit my page at thermopyle.anifics.com/index.html or email me at
thermopyle@tds.net.
*****
Ranma suddenly found himself to be underwater. He didn't know how he
got there-maybe it was that last teleportation-but he did know that
there was something far more important that needed to be attended to.
Aira couldn't swim.
Her panicked thoughts were blasting at him, her mental strength giving
each frightened cry the force of an unstoppable train, slamming into him
with stunning force, just as her arms and legs did as she thrashed about
in the water beside him. Ignoring his own need for air and the fact
that he'd breathed in a bit of liquid before he realized that he was
underwater, he reached out and grabbed Aira by the shoulder, pulling her
towards him quickly and slipping his other arm around her chest.
*Relax,* he thought.
She calmed immediately. He could still feel the complete terror of
drowning she had pushing at their link, but it was much reduced and
there was no sign of it in her actions.
Pausing for a moment despite the burning sensation in his lungs, he
detected that they were oriented correctly by the movement their
buoyancy caused, then began kicking his legs, causing them to ascend
towards the surface. They broke free of their imposed suffocation after
only a moment, his efforts easily holding their heads above the water as
they gasped for breath. After they recovered somewhat, he began making
one-armed strokes to pull them towards the water's edge, which was only
a few meters away, while holding Aira safe with the other arm.
Pulling themselves out of the water, this time with her help, they both
collapsed to the ground, still sucking in air heavily as they attempted
to calm themselves. Hearing Aira begin coughing, he crawled over to her
and gave her a few good whacks on the back. She glared at him for a
moment but her breathing steadied out, so he just ignored it and wrapped
his arms around her. She relaxed, pushing herself back against him as
they sat quietly.
A moment later he sighed, then spoke. "How close are they?"
She tensed at the reminder, and he felt her reach out with her mind, a
good deal of effort having to be put into it because of how drained she
currently was. They were both tired, and he didn't know how much longer
they could continue to run.
He felt her startlement before she spoke.
"They're gone," she whispered. "I can't feel them at all."
Ranma frowned. "Are you sure?" Did the baby get them? Was it finally
over?
"Yes," she replied, and he could sense the weary satisfaction the
thought gave her.
Relieved now that he knew they wouldn't have to flee again, he looked
around to see where they were.
Surrounding them was a group of small lakes, each one having a bamboo
pole or two sticking out from the center. Beyond the water were trees
and dense underbrush, with a rocky cliff rising above in one direction.
Some distance away, near a small shack, he could see a panda on its hind
legs, standing like a person would and waving signs at a portly, bald
man he recognized as being Chinese.
This all looked so very familiar.
Aira must have felt the sudden tenseness in his grip, because she asked,
"What is it?"
"...Jusenkyou."
"What?" she said sharply, pulling away and beginning to look around
herself.
"I don't see my father," he said quietly, "but there's the Guide, and
that weird panda that knocked me into the spring..."
"Is that thing waving signs around?" she asked after a brief pause.
"Looks like it... How do you think we got here?"
"I'm not sure. I didn't have enough time to see where that last
teleport put us, but somehow we were moved from the other universe to
here without our knowledge." She hesitated, then said, "The Recreated
might still be alive, but too far away for us to sense."
Ranma frowned. "I hope not." There was little that scared him, but the
thought of the Recreated wandering around out there with nobody to
oppose them was positively unnerving. "How do we get back? We need to
make sure they're dead, that Arthur fixed everything."
Aira took both of his hands into her own, smaller ones, and he felt her
intent. He pushed his mind towards hers, and they met in the middle,
melded together. By now it was a familiar sensation and he ignored the
sudden doubling of perception and the other, more distracting side
effects, instead focusing on the goal as they used their combined power
to look behind them, and into their past.
They saw themselves exiting the lake, watched as they swam to the edge,
and then went back further, to where they came swimming up from under
the water, then to when they first arrived, pushing harder to see where
they had come from.
What they saw next confused them.
They weren't able to see where they had teleported from, it was if the
teleport had never happened. All they could see was that one moment,
which they recognized as the time when they had appeared in this
universe, they had their current clothes on. Before that, Aira was
naked and Ranma was wearing a martial arts gi. It was as if their
outfits had changed, but nothing else had.
Looking back further still, they watched as Ranma landed in the water,
and then Aira appeared as if by magic alongside him. With
consternation, they shoved a bit more power into the attempt, causing
them to go back several more minutes. They watched closely, carefully,
to determine what had happened, and how they had ended up getting here.
After watching the whole sequence of Ranma's being knocked into the
lake, then Aira's appearance, then their change of clothes and swimming
up from the depths, they arrived at a conclusion.
Somehow they had been switched with their earlier selves, which
explained how they had gotten to the Madness Maze so long ago, although
they hadn't intended to teleport there when they were leading the
Recreated around just previous to their return.
So how did they get back?
Gathering every bit of power at their disposal, their mind reached out
in all directions, searching. Searching for Owen, for Hazel, for the
child, for the Recreated, for Mater Mundi or some of the other, more
powerful espers. They looked far beyond the edges of the galaxy, felt
strange, alien minds and artifacts, but nothing that seemed like the
place they had just left.
Pushing harder, expanding to the very edge of their reach, they tried to
go further still, to find their friends and enemies. Just when they
were about to give up, to go back, they touched something.
It latched onto them, the slimy feel of its presence coating their
combined mental essence like putrid, black oil. Like oil, it seeped
into them, but with a mind of its own, spreading through them with an
acidic touch, burning everywhere. Agony filled them, and they tried to
pull away, to escape, but it held them fast, pulling them in deeper as
it attempted to suffocate them in its vile corruption.
They fought, barbs of power sticking viciously into it, ripping shreds
into where it currently touched them. Blasts of white energy shot out,
impaling the darkness with huge holes, their life force turning against
it, wiping it out like the sun does shadow. Filled with triumph, they
advanced, the ease of victory rushing through their veins as they
decimated the enemy, cutting it apart as they looked for the source of
the malevolent ichor.
Then, suddenly, it was behind them, and to the sides, surrounding them
completely. They struck out again, but they were as a small island in
the midst of a furious hurricane, pummeled from all sides by incredibly
force, the hateful blackness stretching out to forever in all
directions. It grabbed at them despite the shining shield of light they
tried to bring against it, and ripped them apart.
Ranma was suddenly alone, and far, far away from his body. Their
combined strength was barely sufficient for reaching out to this
distance... without being together, they had no hope of returning. Then
he realized he couldn't feel Aira at all, it was as if their link had
never existed; or as if she was gone, beyond his reach for eternity.
His defenses shattered by surprise, the enemy rushed towards him from
all angles, his senses turning numb as it washed over him in a bitter
wave. He struck out with barely-felt arms and legs, trying to attack,
to recover, but just like water, it flowed effortlessly about him, and
now it was his turn to drown in a sea of foamy darkness.
As he lashed out blindly, ineffectively, he tried to see beyond the
living inkiness that he now knew would be his grave. All was black, and
as he lost the last bit of feeling in his mental projection, he wondered
if it was because there was nothing else to see, or if his eyes, too,
had failed him. He wondered if Aira had gotten away safely.
A white light appeared and he winced as his dilated pupils were lanced
with unexpected brightness. The pain, which he had either gotten used
to or passed far beyond returned, and was quickly replaced by a soothing
warmth. His skin, which was burned, blackened, and in some places
dissolved away, was pushed aside by a fresh new epidermis, the old one
flaking off, falling away as naturally as shedding. When his eyes
adjusted he could see a glowing tunnel, and at the other end...
"Aira?" he whispered.
She, too, was surrounded by a soft white glow, and she smiled at him in
relief, then suddenly they were moving towards each other. Darkness
still existed, he could see it to the sides and all around them, but
they were going to be together now, and he didn't care.
They touched, the palms of their hands meeting again as they always did,
and they merged. This time he didn't ignore the extra sensations,
instead, he relished in them, immersing himself in the scented life
force that was his wife.
He felt her love, her happiness and relief at being reunited with him,
the fading despair that had filled her just moments before, which was so
easily banished now. Her memories, thoughts, feelings, fears, they all
rushed through him, and he found himself again stunned by everything
that was Aira.
As they floated there, filled with a complete sense of contentment and
peace despite the enraged, physical manifestation of hatred that was all
around them, throwing itself uselessly against the shield that protected
them, they heard the light giggling of a young baby.
*Arthur?* they thought.
As if in response, the glow around them began to brighten, until it was
if they were in the heart of a blazing sun, and the shadows pulled back,
screaming in fear. The light flared, causing them to blink in surprise,
and then everything suddenly faded away.
Something cold struck his face and he could feel trickles of liquid
pooling at the back of his neck. What was going on? Why wasn't he
dead?
"Boy! Wake up!" said an irate voice, one he recognized after a moment
of contemplation. It'd been a long time since he'd heard that voice,
actually, and it sounded a bit weaker than he remembered it being.
He opened his eyes, slowly, to see a blue sky. What had happened? He
felt strangely comforted, as if he'd just undergone some kind of weird
religious experience, but he was sure that wasn't what had happened.
That kid sure was packing some serious power, though.
"Ranma!"
Looking over, he saw exactly who he expected to see: his father. The
old man looked pretty pissed, too. Probably mad about being sent to an
alternate universe and being replaced by a panda in the meantime. That
could be pretty upsetting.
"What?" Ranma asked.
"Who is that, boy? And why aren't you cursed?" Genma demanded angrily.
Ranma looked down to see Aira lying on top of him, her scarlet hair
strewn about just under his chin, her head resting gently on his chest
and her arms wrapped around his waist. She was snoring lightly, just as
she always did.
After a moment, he looked back up to his father. "This is Aira. She's
pretty nice. I'm sure you won't like her." He grinned when he saw the
older man's face redden as he began to sputter incoherently. "And what
do you mean, I'm not cursed? What else would you call being stuck with
a moron like you?"
At that, Genma moved to kick him in the head, so Ranma rolled smoothly
to the side, one arm around Aira's waist, one supporting her head, and
one of his legs holding hers steady. After a few meters distance was
gained, he stopped so that he was above her, then gently eased her down
to the ground. Once that was done, he leapt towards his father, arms
extended as he prepared to attack. While doing so, he noticed
something.
He felt extremely drained, almost more so than he'd ever been before.
Sure, his abilities were still somewhat above that of a normal human-
well, normal for him, anyway-but they were much lower than what they
usually were. The sense of restrained power, the almost constant
feeling of immortality that he had possessed ever since going through
the Madness Maze, was barely there.
If he had to fight any of the Recreated, one of those weird aliens, or
even a Hadenman, he was sure the fight would be short and very one-
sided. Luckily, this was just his old man, who he'd been able to beat
into the ground fairly regularly even back before the Maze. Now, with
his increased abilities, combined with the huge amount of fighting
experience he'd gained since the last time he had sparred with his
father...
This fight was just as one-sided as the other kind would have been, only
in his favor, instead.
Speed, strength, deceptive feints, dirty tricks, and moves he'd never
used on Genma before soon resulted in one seriously bruised and
unconscious 'sensei'.
Brushing imaginary dirt off of his hands, he turned towards Aira, who he
had felt wake up partway through the short fight. He eyed her intently
for a moment, seeing that the way she was lying on her side, leaning
over slightly, caused her tight purple top to suggest a certain
sensuality despite or perhaps because of the dust that clung to certain
areas of it.
Her amusement apparent as she noticed his reaction both through the link
and from other signs, she asked, "So that's your father? Somehow I
expected more."
Oh well. Time for that later.
Ranma grinned, but let himself be sidetracked. "Well, he says he's my
father, and I don't remember anybody else that he might have stolen me
from, so I guess so. Don't let him fool you, though. He may be a lazy
thief, but he's a damn good martial artist. Just not as good as me," he
concluded.
She smiled at him, and he felt a short burst of happiness, he wasn't
sure if it was from himself or from her. "Is anybody?" she replied.
"Well, no. But he's still better than most."
She reached out a hand and he grabbed it, pulling her to her feet.
"So," he said, serious again, "what just happened?"
"I think Arthur saved us, that's the only explanation. I...couldn't
feel you through our link, so I tried reaching for you..." She pulled
him towards her, grabbing him in a hug, which he returned, before she
continued. "I thought you were dead," she said quietly. "Then I was
surrounded by that light, and it pulled me towards you, then the next
thing that happened was I woke up to see you fighting your father."
"What about that stuff we fought? It wasn't the Recreated, but neither
was it anything else we've seen either. If Arthur didn't kill it when
he helped us out..."
"Yeah. It could still be out there," she said.
He squeezed her a little tighter for a moment, then released his grip
and took one her hands in his. "Lets go talk to the Guide."
The Guide's shed was a short distance away, somehow they had gotten
moved from in the middle of all those lakes, probably Arthur's doing
again, and they found him inside when they looked through the open
doorway.
"Ah, Mr. Customer!" The man said in stilted Japanese. "Why you not
cursed? You is very lucky!"
"Cursed?" asked Aira.
"Yeah," said Ranma. "Oyaji said something about that, too. What are
you talking about?"
"Jusenkyou is cursed training ground. Each spring has tragic legend,
and whoever falls in takes body of whatever drowned there last. Mr.
Customer's father fell in Spring of Drowned Panda," said the Guide.
Ranma stared at him as Aira burst into laughter. "That panda was my old
man?"
"Yes. Sir is very lucky. Why you not cursed? And where did Mrs.
Customer come from?"
"Wait a minute... what spring did I fall into?" he asked.
"Mr. Customer fell into Spring of Drowned Girl. Very tragic legend of
girl who fall into spring 1500 year ago."
At that, Aira stopped laughing, and her eyes went wide as she turned to
look at Ranma. "Spring of Drowned Girl?" she echoed.
"Yes," repeated the Guide, now looking at Aira suspiciously, "Spring of
Drowned Girl."
Aira was silent for a minute, then said, "So, if not for the Maze..."
"I would have ended up cursed to turn into a girl, maybe one that looked
like you," Ranma finished.
The Guide glanced back and forth between the two of them, obviously
unsure of what they were speaking about, but they ignored him.
"Well," said Aira, "that explains a few things. Like our bond. You
were probably being attached to my body somehow when we got transported
the Maze, and since it didn't finish, I remained in control, instead."
Ranma nodded in response, but said nothing. They had both hoped there
had been some kind of deeper meaning for it, so this was a bit
disappointing, but it wasn't really as upsetting as it could have been.
It could also be the reason for why their powers were divided so much,
unlike the others who were all fairly equal in their abilities.
"So how does the curse work?" he asked the Guide.
"Cold water triggers curse. Hot water reverses it," the man responded,
visibly relaxing now that they were getting back on familiar ground.
"Is there any cure? Like jumping into the Spring of Drowned Man?" asked
Aira.
"For older Mr. Customer? No, curses mix. If Mr. Customer jump in
Spring of Drowned Man, he turn into panda-man."
Both of them made faces at that.
"Well," decided Ranma, "lets go wake up Oyaji and get out of here.
There's no sense sticking around." Not since the Guide obviously
doesn't have a clue what happened, anyway.
Aira nodded in response, and they made their way back to where they had
left Genma. Still holding onto her hand, he toed his father in the ribs
sharply. "Yo, Pops, wake up." Immediately after that, he remembered
one particularly hard blow that had hit his father where he was
currently kicking. He guessed that it would wake the lazy bastard up
faster, so continued to do so.
Soon enough, Genma was awake and groaning as he clutched at his injured
chest. "Ungrateful boy!" he moaned.
"We're going back to Japan, Oyaji. Are you coming or not?" Ranma asked.
"Eh?" Injury apparently forgotten, Genma looked up at the two of them,
and, in particular, at the redheaded girl standing next to his son.
"Who is she?" he asked again.
"My name is Aira," she said, bowing slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet
you, Mr. Saotome." She smiled and flashed her dimples at the older man,
who continued to look at her with mistrust.
When his father began to protest, Ranma cut him off. "She's coming with
us. Are you?"
Rather than caving in like Ranma expected he would do after receiving
such a beating, Genma's eyes narrowed, openly glaring at their joined
hands. "Fine," he said, "but she'll just get in the way."
He felt Aira's annoyance as he replied, "I doubt that."
Why was his father against having Aira along? He hadn't thought about
it earlier, but the older man had been so enraged when they fought that
he'd been much sloppier than usual, making it even easier to beat him
down than it would have been otherwise.
*Once we're on our way, why don't you go ahead and mind-probe him,* he
thought to Aira, and felt her confirmation in return.
After Genma finally quit grumbling about his injured ribs and managed to
get himself up, they grabbed his and Ranma's bag and began the trek back
to Japan.
By the time they reached the first village, a tiny, rustic little thing
with a slightly intimidating, if simple, wooden fence surrounding it,
Genma's frequent glares at Aira had gotten to the point where they were
very annoying. What was even more annoying, however, was the reason for
his father's hostile attitude.
*I can't believe the old bastard engaged me to somebody I don't even
know!*
*Well, * she replied, amused by the whole situation since she knew it
was moot anyway, *you do get to choose from three different girls. Most
men in your position would be delighted.*
*Yeah, right. If their father actually likes Oyaji they're probably all
as crazy as their old man is. It would have to be genetic.*
*That's true,* she agreed before changing subjects. *Your father isn't
very perceptive, is he?* she asked, glancing down at the custom-made
wedding band that adorned one of her fingers.
*Nope. His head is as hard as granite, and twice as dense. I should
know, I've hit it enough times. He also missed out on the fact that I'm
wearing an outfit I didn't even have when we got here.*
They both grinned when Genma-panda looked over his shoulder and scowled
at them yet again, his eyes locked onto their still-joined hands,
despite his not noticing the rings they both wore.
*It's funny how he keeps getting splashed with water, isn't it?* said
Aira.
*Not really. His fur is going to get all moldy and smell like crap in a
few days, if it keeps up.*
By now they were inside the village, with the Guide in the lead and
Oyaji close behind, and they were starting to think it was abandoned
since they hadn't seen anybody yet, when they heard a loud cheer start
up from the middle of the town.
*I wonder what's going on?* Aira thought.
*Dunno. Guess we'll find out soon enough.*
Now that they were getting closer, the sound of many people chattering
was audible, and when they passed the next wooden shack they could see a
big crowd gathered around an upraised log, upon which two girls were
fighting.
*Is that a girl?* he asked, just to be sure. For one of them, it was
hard to tell.
*I think so...*
He shrugged, then spoke aloud, to keep anybody from noticing that their
body language indicated people in conversation. That had caused them
trouble before. "That purple-haired girl isn't bad."
"Yeah. You're better, though," she replied with a grin.
Ranma nodded in response. Aira couldn't fight physically, but she'd
watched him do it enough that she had at least some ability to judge
skill.
As expected, the purple-haired girl with the bon-bori soon knocked the
ugly chick off of the log, causing another round of cheers among the
spectators. She was popular, apparently.
Now that the fight was over, he tugged at Aira's hand and began to move
away from the crowd, looking around for his father as he did so. They'd
only gone a few steps when he heard an outraged shriek from somebody
behind them. They turned around to see the winner running towards a
table set a little ways away from arena. The table was loaded down with
massive amounts of food... except on one end, where a large panda was
eating everything within reach.
*That idiot!* they both thought at the same time.
By the time they got to the table Genma was rolling around on his back,
dodging blows from the purple-haired girl seemingly by accident while he
waved around a sign saying,
Every so often other signs would appear, saying and , as well as other taunts his father liked to
employ.
Ranma stopped it by snatching one of the signs away from the panda, and
before it could react, smacking it upside the head.
The girl, her chest heaving either in rage or embarrassment, quickly
turned on him and started spouting gibberish while making threatening
gestures at both him and his father.
Ranma looked helplessly over in the Guide's direction, having noticed
that he was standing nearby but not being of any help whatsoever, and
the man finally moved closer and translated what she was saying.
"She say that Mr. Customer's panda ate her tournament prize. She
demands that you give him to her, so that she can cook him and replace
the food he ate." Then he added, needlessly, "She very angry!"
Ranma opened his mouth, about to challenge her for the prize, when Aira,
who had come up behind him, covered it with her hand.
"Tell her that the panda is really a man cursed at Jusenkyou," she said.
*You don't want to fight this girl, trust me.*
He frowned, but acquiesced.
When the Guide translated what she had said, the purple-haired champion
looked even angrier, and snapped something at a nearby child, a young
boy, who quickly ran off. Then she just stood over Genma and glared
down at him.
Ranma glanced over at Aira, who was standing beside him now. *What's
this about?* he asked.
She grinned. *Just watch, and you'll see.*
Soon enough, the child returned with a cup of water, which he handed to
the purple-haired girl, who snatched it right out of his grip and
promptly dumped the contents of onto the panda.
Genma, knocked temporarily unconscious by his son's blow, awoke to the
sensation of having hot water evaporate almost instantly off of his body
as a girl with death in her eyes and a red, angry aura stared down at
him.
After a few derailed attempts to get out of fighting her, with Genma
either trying to run away or trying to get Ranma to fight instead, the
girl and his father were soon up on the challenge log. He still didn't
know why Aira had a huge smile on his face, but his father and the girl
were at about the same level, so he was hoping his old man would get a
good beating.
Unfortunately the girl underestimated him, and Genma easily knocked her
off the log with a single sweep.
The crowd, which had previously been yelling angrily at his father and
encouraging the girl, went completely silent and dead still.
*Watch,* said Aira.
The girl, who was glowing a much, much brighter red now, looked over at
the spectators, then, with hate in her eyes, advanced towards Genma, who
was still up on the log. Tossing her weapons to the side, almost
hitting a few people in the process, she jumped back up to him.
Ranma watched with interest as the girl, without taking up an kind of
stance at all, marched right up to his father, blurred past his guard,
then gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Genma was so startled that he
froze, and the girl quickly took advantage of it and kicked him in the
balls, then, when he kneeled over clutching himself in pain, kneed him
in the face. After that she kicked him right off the log and onto a
nearby pile of weapons, no doubt causing even worse injury.
Aira reached over and closed his mouth, which was hanging wide open in
astonishment. That hadn't been what he was expecting.
*There's more,* she said, and he could positively feel the giddiness
that was possessing her. She didn't seem to like his father at all, not
that he could blame her.
Before long the girl's red aura died down and flickered away, and she
jumped off of the log and walked over to where Ranma and Aira were
standing.
"Is son, yes?" she asked, looking at Ranma.
"Yes," he nodded cautiously, wondering what was going on and promising
himself that he was going to get Aira for this if he didn't find out
what was happening very soon.
He could feel that Aira was just barely holding on, and that she was
very much having to restrain herself from bursting into laughter.
"Shampoo your new mother. Be good," she said, frowning at him with what
he could only conclude was supposed to be motherly sternness.
Apparently she thought the message was received, so she turned and went
over to his father, grabbed one of his feet, then dragged him off in the
direction of one of the larger houses in the village.
Ranma stared after her until she went into the building, then after a
minute of looking blankly at the door she had closed behind her, he
turned to Aira and asked, "What just happened?"
At that point, she couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing
quite loudly, completely unable to stop herself and often coming up
short on air, as she couldn't seem to hold the stuff in for some reason.
A few hours later Ranma was finally coming to grips with what had just
happened, finding himself not at all amused by the way Aira kept
breaking out into giggles, and he concluded that while the situation was
definitely weird, his father deserved exactly what he'd gotten. Served
the old bastard right, for engaging him without even asking first.
Genma was still out cold and had curled up into a ball even in his
sleep, obviously still feeling the pain his new wife had inflicted upon
him.
*So what do you want to do now?* Aira asked. *Should we still go to
Japan?*
*Yeah... We need to get married in this world, to get all those damn
engagements out of the way. I'd like to meet my mother,* he glanced
over at Shampoo and corrected himself, *my real mother again, too.*
*What about the seppuku pledge?*
He shrugged, then noticed that Shampoo was giving them odd looks, and
decided to speak out loud. "I'm not too worried about it," he said
quietly. "If necessary I'll declare myself ronin. We'll figure
something out."
She nodded, not the least bit bothered by the prospect. It wasn't an
issue where she had come from, so it didn't mean anything to her. He
knew it could cause them some problems, though.
"What then?"
"Well, we need to recover our strength, try to figure out what that
thing we ran into was. Also, since Arthur was able to help us out,
there should be a way for us to get back to him and the others." He
hesitated. "And if we can do that, we might be able to get to your
universe, too..."
He noticed that she had stopped breathing, so reached out tentatively to
catch her hand. When he did so, she threw herself at him in a fierce
hug.
"I'd like that," she said quietly. "I want to go home, even if it's
just for a little while."
He returned her embrace, although more gently. "Okay. Then that's what
we'll do. We'll go to Japan."
To Be Continued.