Hello and welcome to this, my fanfic! This is based on an idea that I
got one day and wrote down. About two months later I began to write this.
This is a re-write and extension of the last episode of season three,
"Ranma Returns to Juesenkyo at Last". At the time of creation, I had not
yet seen anything beyond that episode so nothing from later than that has
been added. This contains some bad language but as of yet contains no adult
situations so one shouldn't need to worry too much (anyway, I'd never get
away with it if I did add Adult Situations). Please do not complain about
discrepancies because it doesn't matter. This is my story and is conducted
in my universe. BTW, at the end of each chapter I will list a rule of the
Mirror for all who care. Enjoy!
-Ryoga (the author, not character)
Message from Editor (Jamibu the Delayed): Warning: Extreme Use of Metaphor.
How Not to Use Your Amazonian Artifact: CHAPTER ONE- An Onion and an Umbrella
This instalment brought to you by the letter Z, who has paid not to be used. (We have sadly ignored his request.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
"Nothing is simple." - Anonymous
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------
A thick mist hangs over the forlorn mountains, shrouding the land that they surround in a thick darkness. Far off birds flap by, loudly winding through the mountains on unapparent paths. Forcing each step, a young man trudges over the rocky path that winds through them, no idea where his eventual goal lies. He stops his stumbling and draws a short drink from a flask strung to his travel-worn bag. He falls to his feet in realisation of his desperation. He hopes to stumble across a sign that he is near. He has been travelling for days on end through this barren mountain range and has seen little that he could eat, and therefore hasn't. The hunger boars away at him like a rather angry rhino forcing its horn into a piece of Styrofoam.
A crow flies away from the group lounging above and swoops over the man and down the side of what now reveals to be a slope. As it travels it relieves itself of some excess weight upon what it believes is a particularly mobile rock. A force seems to clumsily part the fog as if with a large log and allows a view of the valley below as the constipated crow circles above it.
His eyes widen with the sight, and he immediately breaks into a mad dash towards the bamboo poles, ignoring the increasingly large pile of white paste in his hair.
"I've found it. I've found it! At last!" he announces as he frantically runs down the hill. As he nears, though, he slows and a great worry flows across his face and sets into him like a truck suddenly delivering bricks onto his stomach. His eyes wide and his mouth gaping, he drops to his knees and mutters to the ground, which contains, for once, a large lack of water. His feelings grow wilder and angrier.
He bursts out, "Go away you stupid bird!" He picks up a rock and throws it at the bird. This bird, though, happens to be rather gifted at aeronautical physics and manages to land another package upon the rock, sending it right between the eyes of the man with twice the force originally placed behind the stone. The bird squawks in triumph.
"No, No, No! It's not fair! It's not fair!" screams Ranma Saotome desperation growing. "It's not fair!" The now highly relieved bird soars back towards the flock, which flew off to some point to the right of the highest mountain. The large mass on Ranma's head now slips down into his eyes, adding to the desperation.
BANG! He is pulled back to the room that he has lived in for about six months now. He is sitting up on his blankets. Only the light from the street reflected on his father, Genma, who was forcing a dark bowl into Ranma's head.
"It's the middle of the night boy! What's the matter with you?" inquired Genma, who was sitting up on his own dingy blankets in his usual dingy kimono.
"Wha? Wha? Oh, it was only a dream, It was only a dream." said Ranma, calming down greatly.
With his usual tone of disapproval Genma continued, "I can't believe you boy, screaming like that, you shouldn't-"
"But I was at Jusenkyo! It was all dried up!" interrupted Ranma, suddenly remembering why he had been in a blind panic. Subconsciously, Ranma ran his fingers through his hair just to make sure it was a dream.
"Boy, it was only a dream. It wasn't real. You have to get a hold on yourself!" said Genma as he forced Ranma against the wall to 'calm' him further. A note of worry had entered his voice as well.
While flipping Genma over his head and into the closet, the now panicked Ranma added, "But what if it isn't?" He then promptly heaved his bag, slightly cleaner then he had seen it a moment ago, out from under his father and began to fill it with clothes and supplies from various drawers of an enormous chest of drawers to one side of the room.
"What are you doing boy?" demanded Genma as he heaved himself out of the closet on all fours.
"I'm packing! I have to know if anything has happened to Jusenkyo," assured Ranma, failing to sound even remotely calm.
"But boy, it was a dream. Nothing could have happened to Jusenkyo," said Genma, already beginning to doubt his words as he cautiously approached his boy cautiously.
"But what if it was divine inspiration?" asked Ranma, absentmindedly renewing his grasp on his crouched father, forcing him to the floor. "If something happens to those cursed springs we'll be stuck with these stupid bodies forever!" adding the emphasis of an oncoming bulldozer to the shake he was now giving his father. "Now, give me some money Old Man." The floor released a long creak of relief to fill the short silence as Genma stood to his full height and brushed himself off.
"Don't you think that I would have planned for this boy?" said Genma, with all the air of a used car salesman. "Don't you think your Old Man has something saved up for just such an occurrence?"
Ranma shook his head vigorously.
Genma determinedly rummaged through the closet as Ranma looked on with as much belief as an Atheist shows to an angel standing in front of him. Genma then got up, walked straight for the chest of drawers, and opened a drawer. He withdrew a dented metal tin and handed it to Ranma as if it were the Grail.
"There you are boy. Now go off and don't think about how you're," explained Genma with false anguish, "going off and spending your loving father's entire life savings." Ranma opened the tin and counted a few very old coins. His previous disbelief not being disappointed, Ranma threw a nearby bucket at Genma, knocking the wind out of him. Ranma continued to pack ignoring Genma's grumbling. Ranma, though, did not notice that Genma was still himself despite the arguing.
"I should have known from you. You couldn't save a yen if your life depended on it. Life savings of 298 yen, my butt." A map was determined not to go into the bag. This time, though, something seemed to click inside Genma and a sly smile emerged across his battered face.
"I just got me an idea boy," announced Genma. Ranma ignored the elastic map to look curiously at Genma.
When people are presented with a challenge, some typically think it through thoroughly and weigh every option before continuing. Others jump in and do whatever doesn't come to mind. Genma, however, was doing both simultaneously.
****
Half an hour later the two were standing in the sparkling kitchen of the Tendo's house. The light from the street lamp meagrely snuck into the room. Ranma and Genma dared not risk another light. It looked like a horror film where the cabinet turns out to contain a serial killer armed not only to the teeth, but to the hair, arms, chest, and shoes as well.
They had taken the last half an hour to slowly slink around the house, into Happosaii's room, and then to steal/borrow his magic mirror. Genma found it on the end of a string, stuffed down Happosaii's shirt, holding his most treasured possessions. Various undergarments expectedly accompanied it on the string, but they had to simply undo a knot at one end to remove the ornate red mirror from its sanctuary. They left the room as quietly as they could, but Ranma did manage to hit the squeaky floorboard. However, Happosaii hadn't awoken yet, so they mistakenly thought all was safe.
Anyway, they stared ravenously at the heavily taped mirror.
Eventually Genma said gloatingly, "With this we can go anywhere we want and it won't cost a stinkin' yen!"
"I doubt the freak even remembered that he had it. So, how are we going to set it off old man?" asked Ranma, looking at his father questioningly, "I don't feel like crying anytime soon and it don't look in any fit state to send us anywhere."
"Like this Son," he responded. He pulled a small half of an onion from his pocket, which reminded Ranma of a hand grenade.
"How dare you steal an old man's magic mirror while he is asleep! You could have at least asked before taking it!" yelled Happosaii, who had just leaped into the doorway like a cat noticing a rather blind mouse. Genma responded with his now reflex action of bending his knees and clasping his hands so that he looked like a priest with a broken leg.
"Oh, come on old man! Give me the onion!" cried Ranma. However, Happosaii had seen it and leaped for the onion clasped in Genma's hand. Genma responded by thrusting his other hand out and managed to block Happosaii. Responding to this, Happosaii kicked at the hand, which dropped the onion onto Ranma's eye, which for some odd reason, was under the onion. Ranma's eye responded by complaining to his brain, which then told his mouth to scream, but the important thing is that it told his eyes to tear up in order to clean them again. These tears then fell onto the mirror that was in Genma's hand that Happosaii hadn't attacked.
To conclude all of this chaos, the mirror glinted in the meagre light and an edge of light shot across the screen. The tape fell off to reveal a perfect surface again. It then proceeded to surround the three of them in a small ball of electric blue light. They fizzled out of existence.
****
The light wasn't as strong as it had been the first time it had flared up some weeks ago. This was the first thing that Ranma noticed. While he was noticing this, he was not noticing the fact that he didn't exist in normal time, but that was the idea since noticing this normally causes one to go insane, or at least enter politics. After he had returned to normal space, Ranma noticed that he was standing on a street. He wasn't alone however; Happosaii and Genma were next to him, though one couldn't tell the difference between the hand and the pervert clasping it. The street seemed familiar; a déja vu feeling came across Ranma. The street felt familiar, but he couldn't tell if it was because he had eaten lunch there or run into a wall there. Finally he noticed that it wasn't the middle of the night anymore.
In fact it was about lunchtime. The sky was generally blue, except for some clouds, waiting to pounce off the horizon and thoroughly slobber on the ground. In front of the trio was an open lot adjoining a quaint two- storey house. The house was uninteresting except for a large wall around the back that separated the lot and the amounts of damage to it. This left the house without a garden.
Most of the lot looked like a curried porridge of dirt and rocks. A thin border of grass surrounded that, attempting to survive despite the constant use of its precious ground. In the centre of the porridge there were two holes about the size of a child's foot about six inches apart. Against the wall, a pile of cement tubes sat in a small pyramid hinting at the work that was not being done on this site.
"So, what are we doing here? I thought my greatest wish was to go to Jusenkyo. We've ended up in happy land! I don't want to be here," said Ranma as loudly as he could to the air. He already doubted what he had said, but doubted if someone would pop around a corner and say, 'You're right!' to confirm this belief. Fate didn't work that way.
"Can't you see you didn't use it right Ranma!" explained Happosaii, who was now standing on the ground in his all-knowing pose. "Your tears landed on the mirror, but Genma was holding it, so it couldn't determine your greatest wish. So, it settled for a lesser one."
"So where are we?" asked Ranma.
The answer was just walking around the corner. However, it would take Ranma a moment or two to a) notice him and b) recognise him.
****
He had been for a walk. By his standards it had been a good trip, but it had tired him more than was usual. His mom had told him time and time again that if he got too worked up about these sorts of things he lost his senses. If he didn't keep his wits about him he would end up just like his father.
He hadn't seen his father in about two months, but this wasn't unusual. He had often wondered how his mother ever had the time to get to know and love his father, but somehow they had. His best guess was that, just like him, if his mind was clear, his dad could get anywhere, whenever he wanted. However, the fact remained that his father hadn't had a clear purpose in three years, or in fact, for most of his life.
His mother had put up with it for she was very strong. To keep up her and her son's strength she had bought the strangest items that looked normal but weighed a ton. This, as she pointed out whenever he complained that teacups were not supposed to be able to be hung from the end of dumbbells, made for good training and ways to break the ice at parties.
He, though, had always admired his mother. He looked a lot like her, the spiked black hair mainly, but also in a determination that rivalled that of large mountain ranges.
His mother's determination had been stretched for some time now. However, she had been very lenient. She had given him special clothes that could withstand all weather, she had comforted him, and she had ducked from flying debris as he wandered around the house.
Now that he was back, he would kill the evil one, and then he could get on with his life, having destroyed the current distraction.
A wall passed him again as he rounded the corner. He stopped. He knew this wall. It was his wall. The wall that stood behind his house! He walked up to his goal of the last four days. He walked up to the front of the open lot and looked out into its emptiness. A new rage built in him. He couldn't believe that just being late for the match caused the evil bread eating one to run for it.
Had he no honour!
As loudly as he could manage he yelled, "Ranma Saotome, you coward!" but was surprised that when he had finished, a head was sticking out from behind some pipes. It surprised his so much that he didn't fall down out of exhaustion as he had become accustomed to doing at the end his of journeys.
****
Ranma had taken his time in recognising the boy because, at that moment in time, his brain was occupied. The result of this was that he and the others around him automatically panicked at the sight of something unexpected. Ranma's face did that famous expression usually reserved for when Shampoo was hugging him. His legs locked in preparation for a blow. Genma had leapt up against the wall and was hiding in his usual way, to 'blend in with the woodwork,' even though in this instance there was less woodwork in the wall than in a house on fire. Ranma did not note how quickly he had recovered from his prior pains. Happosaii had, quite unusually, jumped into a pipe to hide. Ranma had proceeded to join him.
They had all listened carefully to what the boy had said, but only Ranma had the slightest clue who it was. He peeked around the corner to make sure.
Ranma hadn't actually been here, even though he was now here, but he recognised the voice none-the-less. Someone had once told him about what was now happening, but not on the best of terms. A smile invaded Ranma's face and he flipped out of the pipe and walked very confidently towards the thoroughly confused boy.
"You have no idea how much I've wanted to do this," said Ranma as he lifted the boy and hurled him onto the street like a sack that once contained potatoes.
Genma turned around and hollered towards Ranma as he ran over to investigate the cause of this sudden hostility. "Who is that boy and what do you have against him?" Genma then turned and looked at the boy, who was rubbing his head on the pavement. He was wearing a yellow shirt and a bandana was tied around his unkempt black hair. His feet and shins were wrapped in a dark green fabric bound by ropes. He looked generally travel- worn. Genma knew the feeling all too well.
Ranma was grinning like someone who had just won the lottery. "I'm going to stop you before you start ruining my life, P-Chan."
"What do you mean P-Chan?" asked Ryoga unknowingly.
Ranma lifted him to his feet and added a little too casually, "That doesn't matter right now." With extreme enthusiasm he continued, "Chestnuts roasting over an open fire technique!" Genma looked on inquisitively, choosing not to interfere, realising that this was not another fiancée.
"Where?" asked Ryoga, looking around hungrily. Ryoga's memory would interpret what happened to him next as freight train hitting him, but in thinking about it, it actually felt like being hit by many freight trains successively. Then he blacked out.
"Well, that's done. Shall we be." but Ranma's smug voice trailed off. Happosaii stealth attacked Genma's hands. He succeeded and snatched the mirror away. Then using his patented imitation of a two-year old, he wept onto the mirror and, in between two sobs with an evil grin penetrating his face announced, "I want to go ten years into the future!"
Before any of them had a chance to react, a light rivalling that of standing next to a supernova shone from the mirror and surrounded them all, luckily missing the unconscious Ryoga. The light drew back into the mirror, leaving the pavement empty. A thin bead of light crossed the surface of the mirror and, as the mirror boiled out of existence, the bead shot straight through a wall towards a building not far off. Well, in a distance perspective that is.
****
This time, Ranma was distracted from not existing by the thought of what effect what he had just done would have on the future. Genma's mind was firmly set on what he was going to have for dinner and it doesn't take much to guess what Happosaii was thinking about.
****
"What happened to you son? It looks like you lost your way onto a railway track. What am I going to do with you?" said a loving voice above him. "And who are these evil ones you kept muttering about?" Ryoga awoke to find himself laying on his bed, his mother staring down at him. Worry gushed from her gaze and soaked Ryoga in a wave guilt. She had found him about half an hour earlier.
He had been sprawled out on the ground like a possum after it sees an oncoming truck. There was no sign of anyone else around so she had assumed that he had actually walked in front of a truck, though she couldn't quite explain why he had so many bruises.
Ryoga shot up, purpose reorganising itself within his mind. "I must find them! I must defeat the evil Ranma who ran from battle! I must find the evil. um, err, ehhm, other one!" He closed his eyes and calmed greatly before continuing. "But first, I must discover how to do that attack. It was so powerful, so strong. Without it I will never defeat them."
"Son, I have known you longer than you can remember and I know that if you get something in your head, you're going to do it. All that I ask is that this time you pack before you go," said him mother reluctantly. He had been leaving home on these journeys much more often now and she had accepted that she could not stop him.
"Alright. I'll leave in two days."
"Could you explain what happened before you go?"
"I finally made it to the vacant lot out back after four days-"
"Good time." She was trying to calm him her casual tone, but it wasn't working.
"-to find that Ranma had flown the coup from our fight. The nerve! Then this guy just walks up to me out of nowhere. Talks about some P-Chan and attacks me with-"
His mother was getting worried. Her son had done something to the wrong person this time. "Then take this."
She leaned into the closet and pulled out a red bamboo umbrella and handed it to her son. It was very heavy, but she handled it as if it were a piece of paper. "It will help you along the way. It has kept me strong, and shall hopefully help you."
"Your umbrella," mumbled Ryoga in amazement. "I will use it well." He strapped it to his bag, with some difficulty. His mother then slowly slipped him down the bed and got him to sleep. He stood, giving the sigh of motherhood. She walked to the door, but before she could close it, she turned and looked at her boy. 'They just grow up too quickly. What'll I do with him?'
***
Two days latter Ryoga was preparing to leave for his journey (looking for the door at this stage) when a noise in the kitchen distracted him from entering the bathroom.
Slowly, he made his way to the kitchen and with catlike precision pounced around the corner. The expression resulting on his face can only be explained if a cat had pounced around a corner to see the dog pound after the dogs worked out that if you dig enough, you can get out.
A man was standing in the kitchen, holding the fridge at chest above his head, looking around under it. A lost expression was permanently etched into his face.
"D. D.Dad?" muttered Ryoga in utter disbelief.
The man turned very quickly and dropped the fridge, but then turned and grabbed it, and he then set it down softly and turned again. He looked the boy up and down. Eventually, his memory registered a match and an expression other than being lost, recognition, passed over his face for the first time in about a year.
"Yes, it's me son," responded the man slowly, trying to be as kind as he could. "I told you I'd be back." A meagre grin crossed his dirtied face. He ran his fingers through his matted hair and down onto a shirt that was not his own.
Ryoga still didn't believe him. His few memories of his father were fuzzy and mostly contained his voice, which was firm and thoughtful, something that this apparent tramp could never be.
"I'm leaving now." Ryoga then walked out the front door and left into the mist that was falling from a cloud that showed no restraint in revealing the amount of rain that it contained. His father simply stared out of the open door at him and felt, like always, that he was in the wrong place.
"He hasn't seen you in ages. He can't remember how forgetful you can be. He will return, eventually, but he's really bent on it this time. I think it will be a long time before we see him," explained Ryoga's mom softly. She was leaning against the doorway and looking out across the canal, her lip firmly held under her canine.
"I can't do anything about that. He has your determination and my direction. Until he finds a purpose, he will be lost." His father carried an air of finality. He turned to re-enter the house, walking into a coat stand. His wife pulled him out of it and smiled. Looking to his wife he continued, "Hopefully he will find what he is looking for, but be prepared for it when he does. A chance is only good if you are prepared to accept the challenge it presents." The weight of ages sat upon his well-travelled shoulders, but it all faded away as he stared into his wife's eyes. They had done all that they could for the boy. Teaching him their various forms of martial arts since he could walk would help him greatly. His father looked out to his son, who was now reappearing onto the main street and continuing down the way he had started. 'May he respect the family.'
The two walked into the house together, not expecting to see their son again. Fate would never let them down.
****
"We will find them. They are hiding somewhere, but we will find them. Even though I have no idea what should have been, what could have been, and what will be, we will find them. What they have done is unforgivable. We must find them!" said a voice full of malicious purpose to an angry sky.
"Come, lunch time!" announced a much happier voice. A group of very varied people grouped around the steaming pot and ate. They were lost in the middle of nowhere and nowhen, but they did know how to get home; they just needed the right device. They just needed to knock off that one small speck, Ranma Saotome.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
Note to the Church of Ryoga: Do not send lynch mobs to me yet, Ryoga will be redeemed.
So, what is to come? What will happen to Ryoga? What trouble will these voices cause? Why am I so cryptic? Why didn't it rain? Continue to read and find out, maybe.
To note, no I have never run away from home myself.
Direct any comments of evil intent to your wall, it cares. Direct other, nicer comments to my account of electronic thingamajig at tripleplay97@yahoo.com
-Ryoga
Message from Editor: ¥ 190 = £1 = $1.50
Mirror Rule #1: Whenever a tear should happen to fall upon the glass a gateway is opened to the bearer's heart and a path is made to where ever that person most wants to be.
(First Edition: 21/10/02)
-Ryoga (the author, not character)
Message from Editor (Jamibu the Delayed): Warning: Extreme Use of Metaphor.
How Not to Use Your Amazonian Artifact: CHAPTER ONE- An Onion and an Umbrella
This instalment brought to you by the letter Z, who has paid not to be used. (We have sadly ignored his request.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
"Nothing is simple." - Anonymous
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------
A thick mist hangs over the forlorn mountains, shrouding the land that they surround in a thick darkness. Far off birds flap by, loudly winding through the mountains on unapparent paths. Forcing each step, a young man trudges over the rocky path that winds through them, no idea where his eventual goal lies. He stops his stumbling and draws a short drink from a flask strung to his travel-worn bag. He falls to his feet in realisation of his desperation. He hopes to stumble across a sign that he is near. He has been travelling for days on end through this barren mountain range and has seen little that he could eat, and therefore hasn't. The hunger boars away at him like a rather angry rhino forcing its horn into a piece of Styrofoam.
A crow flies away from the group lounging above and swoops over the man and down the side of what now reveals to be a slope. As it travels it relieves itself of some excess weight upon what it believes is a particularly mobile rock. A force seems to clumsily part the fog as if with a large log and allows a view of the valley below as the constipated crow circles above it.
His eyes widen with the sight, and he immediately breaks into a mad dash towards the bamboo poles, ignoring the increasingly large pile of white paste in his hair.
"I've found it. I've found it! At last!" he announces as he frantically runs down the hill. As he nears, though, he slows and a great worry flows across his face and sets into him like a truck suddenly delivering bricks onto his stomach. His eyes wide and his mouth gaping, he drops to his knees and mutters to the ground, which contains, for once, a large lack of water. His feelings grow wilder and angrier.
He bursts out, "Go away you stupid bird!" He picks up a rock and throws it at the bird. This bird, though, happens to be rather gifted at aeronautical physics and manages to land another package upon the rock, sending it right between the eyes of the man with twice the force originally placed behind the stone. The bird squawks in triumph.
"No, No, No! It's not fair! It's not fair!" screams Ranma Saotome desperation growing. "It's not fair!" The now highly relieved bird soars back towards the flock, which flew off to some point to the right of the highest mountain. The large mass on Ranma's head now slips down into his eyes, adding to the desperation.
BANG! He is pulled back to the room that he has lived in for about six months now. He is sitting up on his blankets. Only the light from the street reflected on his father, Genma, who was forcing a dark bowl into Ranma's head.
"It's the middle of the night boy! What's the matter with you?" inquired Genma, who was sitting up on his own dingy blankets in his usual dingy kimono.
"Wha? Wha? Oh, it was only a dream, It was only a dream." said Ranma, calming down greatly.
With his usual tone of disapproval Genma continued, "I can't believe you boy, screaming like that, you shouldn't-"
"But I was at Jusenkyo! It was all dried up!" interrupted Ranma, suddenly remembering why he had been in a blind panic. Subconsciously, Ranma ran his fingers through his hair just to make sure it was a dream.
"Boy, it was only a dream. It wasn't real. You have to get a hold on yourself!" said Genma as he forced Ranma against the wall to 'calm' him further. A note of worry had entered his voice as well.
While flipping Genma over his head and into the closet, the now panicked Ranma added, "But what if it isn't?" He then promptly heaved his bag, slightly cleaner then he had seen it a moment ago, out from under his father and began to fill it with clothes and supplies from various drawers of an enormous chest of drawers to one side of the room.
"What are you doing boy?" demanded Genma as he heaved himself out of the closet on all fours.
"I'm packing! I have to know if anything has happened to Jusenkyo," assured Ranma, failing to sound even remotely calm.
"But boy, it was a dream. Nothing could have happened to Jusenkyo," said Genma, already beginning to doubt his words as he cautiously approached his boy cautiously.
"But what if it was divine inspiration?" asked Ranma, absentmindedly renewing his grasp on his crouched father, forcing him to the floor. "If something happens to those cursed springs we'll be stuck with these stupid bodies forever!" adding the emphasis of an oncoming bulldozer to the shake he was now giving his father. "Now, give me some money Old Man." The floor released a long creak of relief to fill the short silence as Genma stood to his full height and brushed himself off.
"Don't you think that I would have planned for this boy?" said Genma, with all the air of a used car salesman. "Don't you think your Old Man has something saved up for just such an occurrence?"
Ranma shook his head vigorously.
Genma determinedly rummaged through the closet as Ranma looked on with as much belief as an Atheist shows to an angel standing in front of him. Genma then got up, walked straight for the chest of drawers, and opened a drawer. He withdrew a dented metal tin and handed it to Ranma as if it were the Grail.
"There you are boy. Now go off and don't think about how you're," explained Genma with false anguish, "going off and spending your loving father's entire life savings." Ranma opened the tin and counted a few very old coins. His previous disbelief not being disappointed, Ranma threw a nearby bucket at Genma, knocking the wind out of him. Ranma continued to pack ignoring Genma's grumbling. Ranma, though, did not notice that Genma was still himself despite the arguing.
"I should have known from you. You couldn't save a yen if your life depended on it. Life savings of 298 yen, my butt." A map was determined not to go into the bag. This time, though, something seemed to click inside Genma and a sly smile emerged across his battered face.
"I just got me an idea boy," announced Genma. Ranma ignored the elastic map to look curiously at Genma.
When people are presented with a challenge, some typically think it through thoroughly and weigh every option before continuing. Others jump in and do whatever doesn't come to mind. Genma, however, was doing both simultaneously.
****
Half an hour later the two were standing in the sparkling kitchen of the Tendo's house. The light from the street lamp meagrely snuck into the room. Ranma and Genma dared not risk another light. It looked like a horror film where the cabinet turns out to contain a serial killer armed not only to the teeth, but to the hair, arms, chest, and shoes as well.
They had taken the last half an hour to slowly slink around the house, into Happosaii's room, and then to steal/borrow his magic mirror. Genma found it on the end of a string, stuffed down Happosaii's shirt, holding his most treasured possessions. Various undergarments expectedly accompanied it on the string, but they had to simply undo a knot at one end to remove the ornate red mirror from its sanctuary. They left the room as quietly as they could, but Ranma did manage to hit the squeaky floorboard. However, Happosaii hadn't awoken yet, so they mistakenly thought all was safe.
Anyway, they stared ravenously at the heavily taped mirror.
Eventually Genma said gloatingly, "With this we can go anywhere we want and it won't cost a stinkin' yen!"
"I doubt the freak even remembered that he had it. So, how are we going to set it off old man?" asked Ranma, looking at his father questioningly, "I don't feel like crying anytime soon and it don't look in any fit state to send us anywhere."
"Like this Son," he responded. He pulled a small half of an onion from his pocket, which reminded Ranma of a hand grenade.
"How dare you steal an old man's magic mirror while he is asleep! You could have at least asked before taking it!" yelled Happosaii, who had just leaped into the doorway like a cat noticing a rather blind mouse. Genma responded with his now reflex action of bending his knees and clasping his hands so that he looked like a priest with a broken leg.
"Oh, come on old man! Give me the onion!" cried Ranma. However, Happosaii had seen it and leaped for the onion clasped in Genma's hand. Genma responded by thrusting his other hand out and managed to block Happosaii. Responding to this, Happosaii kicked at the hand, which dropped the onion onto Ranma's eye, which for some odd reason, was under the onion. Ranma's eye responded by complaining to his brain, which then told his mouth to scream, but the important thing is that it told his eyes to tear up in order to clean them again. These tears then fell onto the mirror that was in Genma's hand that Happosaii hadn't attacked.
To conclude all of this chaos, the mirror glinted in the meagre light and an edge of light shot across the screen. The tape fell off to reveal a perfect surface again. It then proceeded to surround the three of them in a small ball of electric blue light. They fizzled out of existence.
****
The light wasn't as strong as it had been the first time it had flared up some weeks ago. This was the first thing that Ranma noticed. While he was noticing this, he was not noticing the fact that he didn't exist in normal time, but that was the idea since noticing this normally causes one to go insane, or at least enter politics. After he had returned to normal space, Ranma noticed that he was standing on a street. He wasn't alone however; Happosaii and Genma were next to him, though one couldn't tell the difference between the hand and the pervert clasping it. The street seemed familiar; a déja vu feeling came across Ranma. The street felt familiar, but he couldn't tell if it was because he had eaten lunch there or run into a wall there. Finally he noticed that it wasn't the middle of the night anymore.
In fact it was about lunchtime. The sky was generally blue, except for some clouds, waiting to pounce off the horizon and thoroughly slobber on the ground. In front of the trio was an open lot adjoining a quaint two- storey house. The house was uninteresting except for a large wall around the back that separated the lot and the amounts of damage to it. This left the house without a garden.
Most of the lot looked like a curried porridge of dirt and rocks. A thin border of grass surrounded that, attempting to survive despite the constant use of its precious ground. In the centre of the porridge there were two holes about the size of a child's foot about six inches apart. Against the wall, a pile of cement tubes sat in a small pyramid hinting at the work that was not being done on this site.
"So, what are we doing here? I thought my greatest wish was to go to Jusenkyo. We've ended up in happy land! I don't want to be here," said Ranma as loudly as he could to the air. He already doubted what he had said, but doubted if someone would pop around a corner and say, 'You're right!' to confirm this belief. Fate didn't work that way.
"Can't you see you didn't use it right Ranma!" explained Happosaii, who was now standing on the ground in his all-knowing pose. "Your tears landed on the mirror, but Genma was holding it, so it couldn't determine your greatest wish. So, it settled for a lesser one."
"So where are we?" asked Ranma.
The answer was just walking around the corner. However, it would take Ranma a moment or two to a) notice him and b) recognise him.
****
He had been for a walk. By his standards it had been a good trip, but it had tired him more than was usual. His mom had told him time and time again that if he got too worked up about these sorts of things he lost his senses. If he didn't keep his wits about him he would end up just like his father.
He hadn't seen his father in about two months, but this wasn't unusual. He had often wondered how his mother ever had the time to get to know and love his father, but somehow they had. His best guess was that, just like him, if his mind was clear, his dad could get anywhere, whenever he wanted. However, the fact remained that his father hadn't had a clear purpose in three years, or in fact, for most of his life.
His mother had put up with it for she was very strong. To keep up her and her son's strength she had bought the strangest items that looked normal but weighed a ton. This, as she pointed out whenever he complained that teacups were not supposed to be able to be hung from the end of dumbbells, made for good training and ways to break the ice at parties.
He, though, had always admired his mother. He looked a lot like her, the spiked black hair mainly, but also in a determination that rivalled that of large mountain ranges.
His mother's determination had been stretched for some time now. However, she had been very lenient. She had given him special clothes that could withstand all weather, she had comforted him, and she had ducked from flying debris as he wandered around the house.
Now that he was back, he would kill the evil one, and then he could get on with his life, having destroyed the current distraction.
A wall passed him again as he rounded the corner. He stopped. He knew this wall. It was his wall. The wall that stood behind his house! He walked up to his goal of the last four days. He walked up to the front of the open lot and looked out into its emptiness. A new rage built in him. He couldn't believe that just being late for the match caused the evil bread eating one to run for it.
Had he no honour!
As loudly as he could manage he yelled, "Ranma Saotome, you coward!" but was surprised that when he had finished, a head was sticking out from behind some pipes. It surprised his so much that he didn't fall down out of exhaustion as he had become accustomed to doing at the end his of journeys.
****
Ranma had taken his time in recognising the boy because, at that moment in time, his brain was occupied. The result of this was that he and the others around him automatically panicked at the sight of something unexpected. Ranma's face did that famous expression usually reserved for when Shampoo was hugging him. His legs locked in preparation for a blow. Genma had leapt up against the wall and was hiding in his usual way, to 'blend in with the woodwork,' even though in this instance there was less woodwork in the wall than in a house on fire. Ranma did not note how quickly he had recovered from his prior pains. Happosaii had, quite unusually, jumped into a pipe to hide. Ranma had proceeded to join him.
They had all listened carefully to what the boy had said, but only Ranma had the slightest clue who it was. He peeked around the corner to make sure.
Ranma hadn't actually been here, even though he was now here, but he recognised the voice none-the-less. Someone had once told him about what was now happening, but not on the best of terms. A smile invaded Ranma's face and he flipped out of the pipe and walked very confidently towards the thoroughly confused boy.
"You have no idea how much I've wanted to do this," said Ranma as he lifted the boy and hurled him onto the street like a sack that once contained potatoes.
Genma turned around and hollered towards Ranma as he ran over to investigate the cause of this sudden hostility. "Who is that boy and what do you have against him?" Genma then turned and looked at the boy, who was rubbing his head on the pavement. He was wearing a yellow shirt and a bandana was tied around his unkempt black hair. His feet and shins were wrapped in a dark green fabric bound by ropes. He looked generally travel- worn. Genma knew the feeling all too well.
Ranma was grinning like someone who had just won the lottery. "I'm going to stop you before you start ruining my life, P-Chan."
"What do you mean P-Chan?" asked Ryoga unknowingly.
Ranma lifted him to his feet and added a little too casually, "That doesn't matter right now." With extreme enthusiasm he continued, "Chestnuts roasting over an open fire technique!" Genma looked on inquisitively, choosing not to interfere, realising that this was not another fiancée.
"Where?" asked Ryoga, looking around hungrily. Ryoga's memory would interpret what happened to him next as freight train hitting him, but in thinking about it, it actually felt like being hit by many freight trains successively. Then he blacked out.
"Well, that's done. Shall we be." but Ranma's smug voice trailed off. Happosaii stealth attacked Genma's hands. He succeeded and snatched the mirror away. Then using his patented imitation of a two-year old, he wept onto the mirror and, in between two sobs with an evil grin penetrating his face announced, "I want to go ten years into the future!"
Before any of them had a chance to react, a light rivalling that of standing next to a supernova shone from the mirror and surrounded them all, luckily missing the unconscious Ryoga. The light drew back into the mirror, leaving the pavement empty. A thin bead of light crossed the surface of the mirror and, as the mirror boiled out of existence, the bead shot straight through a wall towards a building not far off. Well, in a distance perspective that is.
****
This time, Ranma was distracted from not existing by the thought of what effect what he had just done would have on the future. Genma's mind was firmly set on what he was going to have for dinner and it doesn't take much to guess what Happosaii was thinking about.
****
"What happened to you son? It looks like you lost your way onto a railway track. What am I going to do with you?" said a loving voice above him. "And who are these evil ones you kept muttering about?" Ryoga awoke to find himself laying on his bed, his mother staring down at him. Worry gushed from her gaze and soaked Ryoga in a wave guilt. She had found him about half an hour earlier.
He had been sprawled out on the ground like a possum after it sees an oncoming truck. There was no sign of anyone else around so she had assumed that he had actually walked in front of a truck, though she couldn't quite explain why he had so many bruises.
Ryoga shot up, purpose reorganising itself within his mind. "I must find them! I must defeat the evil Ranma who ran from battle! I must find the evil. um, err, ehhm, other one!" He closed his eyes and calmed greatly before continuing. "But first, I must discover how to do that attack. It was so powerful, so strong. Without it I will never defeat them."
"Son, I have known you longer than you can remember and I know that if you get something in your head, you're going to do it. All that I ask is that this time you pack before you go," said him mother reluctantly. He had been leaving home on these journeys much more often now and she had accepted that she could not stop him.
"Alright. I'll leave in two days."
"Could you explain what happened before you go?"
"I finally made it to the vacant lot out back after four days-"
"Good time." She was trying to calm him her casual tone, but it wasn't working.
"-to find that Ranma had flown the coup from our fight. The nerve! Then this guy just walks up to me out of nowhere. Talks about some P-Chan and attacks me with-"
His mother was getting worried. Her son had done something to the wrong person this time. "Then take this."
She leaned into the closet and pulled out a red bamboo umbrella and handed it to her son. It was very heavy, but she handled it as if it were a piece of paper. "It will help you along the way. It has kept me strong, and shall hopefully help you."
"Your umbrella," mumbled Ryoga in amazement. "I will use it well." He strapped it to his bag, with some difficulty. His mother then slowly slipped him down the bed and got him to sleep. He stood, giving the sigh of motherhood. She walked to the door, but before she could close it, she turned and looked at her boy. 'They just grow up too quickly. What'll I do with him?'
***
Two days latter Ryoga was preparing to leave for his journey (looking for the door at this stage) when a noise in the kitchen distracted him from entering the bathroom.
Slowly, he made his way to the kitchen and with catlike precision pounced around the corner. The expression resulting on his face can only be explained if a cat had pounced around a corner to see the dog pound after the dogs worked out that if you dig enough, you can get out.
A man was standing in the kitchen, holding the fridge at chest above his head, looking around under it. A lost expression was permanently etched into his face.
"D. D.Dad?" muttered Ryoga in utter disbelief.
The man turned very quickly and dropped the fridge, but then turned and grabbed it, and he then set it down softly and turned again. He looked the boy up and down. Eventually, his memory registered a match and an expression other than being lost, recognition, passed over his face for the first time in about a year.
"Yes, it's me son," responded the man slowly, trying to be as kind as he could. "I told you I'd be back." A meagre grin crossed his dirtied face. He ran his fingers through his matted hair and down onto a shirt that was not his own.
Ryoga still didn't believe him. His few memories of his father were fuzzy and mostly contained his voice, which was firm and thoughtful, something that this apparent tramp could never be.
"I'm leaving now." Ryoga then walked out the front door and left into the mist that was falling from a cloud that showed no restraint in revealing the amount of rain that it contained. His father simply stared out of the open door at him and felt, like always, that he was in the wrong place.
"He hasn't seen you in ages. He can't remember how forgetful you can be. He will return, eventually, but he's really bent on it this time. I think it will be a long time before we see him," explained Ryoga's mom softly. She was leaning against the doorway and looking out across the canal, her lip firmly held under her canine.
"I can't do anything about that. He has your determination and my direction. Until he finds a purpose, he will be lost." His father carried an air of finality. He turned to re-enter the house, walking into a coat stand. His wife pulled him out of it and smiled. Looking to his wife he continued, "Hopefully he will find what he is looking for, but be prepared for it when he does. A chance is only good if you are prepared to accept the challenge it presents." The weight of ages sat upon his well-travelled shoulders, but it all faded away as he stared into his wife's eyes. They had done all that they could for the boy. Teaching him their various forms of martial arts since he could walk would help him greatly. His father looked out to his son, who was now reappearing onto the main street and continuing down the way he had started. 'May he respect the family.'
The two walked into the house together, not expecting to see their son again. Fate would never let them down.
****
"We will find them. They are hiding somewhere, but we will find them. Even though I have no idea what should have been, what could have been, and what will be, we will find them. What they have done is unforgivable. We must find them!" said a voice full of malicious purpose to an angry sky.
"Come, lunch time!" announced a much happier voice. A group of very varied people grouped around the steaming pot and ate. They were lost in the middle of nowhere and nowhen, but they did know how to get home; they just needed the right device. They just needed to knock off that one small speck, Ranma Saotome.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
Note to the Church of Ryoga: Do not send lynch mobs to me yet, Ryoga will be redeemed.
So, what is to come? What will happen to Ryoga? What trouble will these voices cause? Why am I so cryptic? Why didn't it rain? Continue to read and find out, maybe.
To note, no I have never run away from home myself.
Direct any comments of evil intent to your wall, it cares. Direct other, nicer comments to my account of electronic thingamajig at tripleplay97@yahoo.com
-Ryoga
Message from Editor: ¥ 190 = £1 = $1.50
Mirror Rule #1: Whenever a tear should happen to fall upon the glass a gateway is opened to the bearer's heart and a path is made to where ever that person most wants to be.
(First Edition: 21/10/02)