Well, thanks to a bad ice storm I finished this chapter sooner than
expected. Please review and let me know whether or not you liked it! Oh,
and ssnk and skimmer, (they are one person) thanks for the reviews bro,
they made me smile.
Starry Night
Chapter five
Deep in a valley, hidden in the remotest area of China, the earth trembled and shook as an earthquake occurred without anyone knowing. The quake, which was over almost as soon as it had begun, had sent stones tumbling down from the surrounding mountains and had uncovered ancient treasures that had long been buried. As the world finally came to a peaceful calm once again, a cave opening with a circle of stones just inside was revealed to the world for the first time in hundreds of years. A magical ring that was designed to keep something contained within, a ring surrounded by evil wards written in the ancient amazon tongue, a ring that was intended to be hidden from the world for eternity, a ring with a stone jarred from its rightful place. The sealed container within started to twirl as if something inside was fighting to escape, fighting to reclaim some past glory that was snatched away. Ever so slowly the seal to the container was breached, and the evil within began to emerge into the world of the living once again.
@)----------- --------------------------------
Akane sat in the gloom of the ship's hold trying not to let the stench of rotting fish get to her, she had been on the boat for two days now and was eager to reach her destination. Restlessness was never a thing that she had encountered before now, she had always been able to go and find something to do when boredom set in, and now she was stuck. Stuck on top of a stupid air conditioner, stuck with a voracious hunger, stuck with her thoughts, stuck with her memories. Feeling her patience begin to falter, Akane lied down on her back, put her arms under her head and closed her eyes. Ranma used to always tell her that everything was training and now she could begin to see the logic in that statement as she began to start calming herself down once again.
The gentle sway of the boat helped to ease her into a comfortable state of mind as her thoughts again strayed to the life she had left behind, the few real friends that she had, the reason she had left her home, and the only person who could ever make her soul complete. All of her friends thought that Ranma was some kind of a pervert just because he was cursed to change into a girl whenever he was splashed with cold water, but Akane knew better. She knew how much he hated his female half, and how he constantly fought to prove that he was the very epitome of masculinity. She loved him in spite of his curse, she loved him for the fire she saw burning within his deep blue eyes, a fire that burned all the way down to his soul. She had to find a way to help him break free of everything; the curse and the engagements so he could have the freedom that he was so desperately in search of. That was why the separation had to be made; there were too many complications and too many people interfering with his life. Besides, the engagement had been forced upon them by their fathers and he deserved the right to choose who he wanted to be with for the rest of his life; for loves sake she would give him that much, the right to choose. The first part of her plan had been the hardest even though it sounded like the simplest; she had to walk away from Ranma leaving only a note of explanation. Hopefully he understood why she felt this course of action had to be taken and how much her heart was aching for him, but how could he know she had never told him that she loved him. The only thing she had written in the note she left was that she was giving him the freedom he deserved, and that she no longer held him to the arrangement agreed upon by their fathers. Now if only she could count on the other fiancées to give him that freedom, but of course they wouldn't they would keep competing for him until he grew tired of the whole thing and told them to leave. Hopefully that day would come soon, and when it did she prayed that he would come to her of his own free will, because only then would she accept him back into her life. It all had to be his choice.
@)------- ---------------------------------------------------
"Akane has been missing for three days now Ranma," Nabiki said to a bleary eyed Ranma. "She could be anywhere by now. I just wish I knew where to start looking."
"I just wish I knew why she decided to leave like she did," Ranma mumbled to himself as Nabiki twisted in her chair to face the computer screen. With a push of a button Nabiki pulled a map of Tokyo on the screen and started to scroll through the different districts.
"That's an easy one Ranma. I tell you what if you can't come to a conclusion on your own fairly soon then I guess I will explain it to you, but if you don't get it now, then you aren't going to understand it then either."
Ranma lay down on the bed and started to go over past events in his mind. There was Akane smiling at him, the stunning one that he only ever saw when she was happy with him. The vision was short lived though because every time he and Akane were actually connecting in that special way, one of the other fiancées would appear and ruin everything. They always did. They were never wanted, they were never sought, but they always seemed to appear and ruin everything developing between Akane and he. Not to mention their fathers always sticking their noses into the relationship. They could be such jerks! If he and Akane were just two normal teenagers who just happened to have met at school then he would have asked her out a long time ago, but no, his life could not be that easy. The second he showed the tomboy affection of any kind, those stupid little flags would come out and the two would start celebrating. Then he would be forced to make fun of her because neither one of them were ready to be married, not when their relationship was so new anyways, besides they still had to get through college, and what if she changed her mind. He was pretty sure that Akane loved him just as much as he loved her, but what if she became tired of the weirdness that seemed to follow him everywhere he went. The wedding could be set for the day after they graduated as far as he was concerned, but he had to be sure that she was ready first.
"Ranma, hello, are you in there?" Nabiki was looking down at Ranma, waving a hand in front of his face. She didn't think that he was capable of such deep thought, but now she doubted that.
"Yeah Nabiki, what do you want?" Ranma answered as his eyes lost their far away look.
"Listen Saotome, I don't think Akane has gotten to far yet. I'm thinking she is probably still somewhere in Tokyo seeing as how she hates to be away from her family, you know how she is, her family is everything to her. However, she might be counting on us taking that part of her persona into consideration, so let me check on a few things. If she has done what I think she has, then she could be anywhere by now."
"Oh, that sounds real comforting Nabiki. I may never find her again for the rest of my life; then again if I wait here long enough she may just come back because she misses all of us. Well you know what, I don't think I can live with either one of those choices!"
"Careful Ranma, we might actually begin to believe that you like her or something, and then we would have to plan the whole wedding without Akane's opinion. Where would we be then?" Nabiki gave him a few minutes to digest this little piece of information, watching the various emotions that played across his face. "Personally, I don't want to be on the receiving end of that mallet ever, and I would think that you would be just a little tired of that thing too."
Ranma started to respond, started to tell Nabiki that he loved her sister and he didn't care who knew, but then he remembered what he had been thinking about before. What if Akane didn't love him in that way, what if she did? Was she ready for everyone to know about him, them? No, he could not put her in that situation until he knew what she wanted and how she felt, so instead of declaring his love he fell back on the old standby and responded with "What me! Feel something for that kawaiikune tomboy! Not in a million years!"
"Oh Ranma, you are so predictable, and not to mention readable," Nabiki responded as she started to log onto the internet.
"What do you mean I am readable?" He was truly confused. He thought the had done a good job of concealing his feelings for Akane from everyone, the other fiancées didn't know after all.
"If you think that Kasumi and I don't know how deeply you care for our sister, then you are wrong. We are not as blind as your fiancées and our fathers, not to mention we see you two interact all the time."
Neither one of the two spoke for a few moments, Ranma was too busy thinking about what Nabiki had told him, Nabiki was too busy typing on her computer. A few minutes later Nabiki broke that silence, "Ah-ha! Just as I suspected! My dear sister has closed out her savings account, she took every last cent. Surely she isn't dense enough to carry that kind of money on her for too long, so all I have to do is call in a few favors and get the records for newly opened accounts from all the banks in the area. This is probably going to take a few days, so why don't you go out and look around Nerima."
With that said, Ranma got up off of the bed and headed for the door trying to think of where to start looking when he heard Nabiki call out, "Oh, and no charge for this one Saotome, this one is on our dads for causing us so many problems."
Soun and Genma stood outside the gate of the Tendo home staring down the street with grim looks on their faces, like they were expecting the end of the world, and in essence they were. Nodoka was on her way to take over the household while Kasumi was recovering, and they both knew what that meant. They would be expected to behave and act in a manner that was suited to the position they held in society, that fact didn't bother them that much though. What was really bothering the pair was the loss of their idle time, which, truth be known, was all the time. Nodoka had called in advance and let them know in no certain terms that they would be expected to help with certain household chores, and that they would also be expected to help support the household. Then she let them know what she thought of two men who would sit and play games all day while allowing a teenage girl to support them. That had been one of the saddest moments of their lives. She had made herself quite clear though, if they did not work she would not feed them, wash their clothes, or pick up their rooms. What choice did they have?
They waited until a cab came to a stop at the curb and then looked at each other. Before anyone could get out Genma muttered to Soun "Do you suppose we should help her with her bags?"
Soun thought for a second before answering, "I don't know Saotome, do you enjoy eating food other than the camp food we are capable of making?"
They both looked at each other with defeat in their eyes, then Genma reached down and opened the back door of the cab. There sat Nodoka looking at the pair of them with a slight scowl on her face, she had watched the entire exchange and even though she could not hear them she could easily guess what had been said. Genma extended a hand to his wife to help her step out of the cab, and then hastily embraced her while Soun grabbed the bags from the trunk. They stood there for a few minutes watching Nodoka as she walked through the gate and towards the house both speculating about their future lives, they did not like what they saw.
"Tendo," Genma said as he took one of the bags from Soun," remind me to teach you the Saotome School's secrete technique sometime."
Soun looked at Genma, slightly confused and asked, "Which one would that be? The one where you disappear, or the one where you run away?"
Genma gulped, "With her in the house we'll need both, and some new ones too."
To this Soun could only nod his assent.
Ukyou was scrubbing her grill after the lunch rush. This was not one of her favorite chores, but if she wanted to cook okonomiyaki then she would have to accept the clean up. She could have asked Konatsu to do this mundane chore, but she knew it would not have been done correctly. There was a special grill oiling technique that had been handed down in her family for generations, not oiling the grill correctly would ruin the next batch of okonomiyaki. So, she would accept this little down fall in order to continue doing what she loved so much, cooking.
"Good afternoon, Ukyou." Ranma said as he sat on a stool at the counter. Ukyou had been so busy watching the shine on her grill increase that she had not noticed him entering the building.
"Hello, Ranma honey!" Ukyou said putting a big smile on her face, "Came to see your cute fiancée I see. Would you like something to eat?"
"No thank you, I am not all that hungry today."
"You not hungry? Something must be wrong. What is it, did that violent tomboy hit you with that mallet of hers again? Why won't you just let me knock some sense into her!"
Ranma's eyes turned cold as he regarded his oldest friend. How could she talk to him so often and learn so little. "If you are going to start acting this way again, then maybe I should not have come to see you."
Ukyou was stunned as she watched Ranma walk towards the door. He hadn't talked to her this way since the wedding attempt a little over eight months ago. She was afraid that he would never forgive her for that folly, but he eventually came around. He shouldn't have been angry then anyways, she was just trying to help him get out of an unwanted situation! She just did not understand what she kept doing wrong. Well if he wasn't going to be grateful to her, then she just wouldn't help him next time. He would have to find a way to get rid of Akane on his own.
"Geez, what's wrong with you," Ukyou said when she realized that Ranma wasn't going to turn around and say anything more.
Ranma turned steel cold gray eyes her way and answered, "You and your treatment of Akane is what's wrong with me. I figured you would have learned that after you bombed my wedding."
Ukyou looked as if she had just been slapped in the face, her mouth started to quiver, and her eyes started to tear. Ranma glanced her way for a second longer. He didn't want to see her upset and he definitely did not want to see her cry, but if he did not start setting bounds now then there would never be any. So instead of turning back to his best friend and apologizing, he opened the door and walked out onto the sidewalk. He would no longer allow his fiancées to rule his life, he was taking charge.
Starry Night
Chapter five
Deep in a valley, hidden in the remotest area of China, the earth trembled and shook as an earthquake occurred without anyone knowing. The quake, which was over almost as soon as it had begun, had sent stones tumbling down from the surrounding mountains and had uncovered ancient treasures that had long been buried. As the world finally came to a peaceful calm once again, a cave opening with a circle of stones just inside was revealed to the world for the first time in hundreds of years. A magical ring that was designed to keep something contained within, a ring surrounded by evil wards written in the ancient amazon tongue, a ring that was intended to be hidden from the world for eternity, a ring with a stone jarred from its rightful place. The sealed container within started to twirl as if something inside was fighting to escape, fighting to reclaim some past glory that was snatched away. Ever so slowly the seal to the container was breached, and the evil within began to emerge into the world of the living once again.
@)----------- --------------------------------
Akane sat in the gloom of the ship's hold trying not to let the stench of rotting fish get to her, she had been on the boat for two days now and was eager to reach her destination. Restlessness was never a thing that she had encountered before now, she had always been able to go and find something to do when boredom set in, and now she was stuck. Stuck on top of a stupid air conditioner, stuck with a voracious hunger, stuck with her thoughts, stuck with her memories. Feeling her patience begin to falter, Akane lied down on her back, put her arms under her head and closed her eyes. Ranma used to always tell her that everything was training and now she could begin to see the logic in that statement as she began to start calming herself down once again.
The gentle sway of the boat helped to ease her into a comfortable state of mind as her thoughts again strayed to the life she had left behind, the few real friends that she had, the reason she had left her home, and the only person who could ever make her soul complete. All of her friends thought that Ranma was some kind of a pervert just because he was cursed to change into a girl whenever he was splashed with cold water, but Akane knew better. She knew how much he hated his female half, and how he constantly fought to prove that he was the very epitome of masculinity. She loved him in spite of his curse, she loved him for the fire she saw burning within his deep blue eyes, a fire that burned all the way down to his soul. She had to find a way to help him break free of everything; the curse and the engagements so he could have the freedom that he was so desperately in search of. That was why the separation had to be made; there were too many complications and too many people interfering with his life. Besides, the engagement had been forced upon them by their fathers and he deserved the right to choose who he wanted to be with for the rest of his life; for loves sake she would give him that much, the right to choose. The first part of her plan had been the hardest even though it sounded like the simplest; she had to walk away from Ranma leaving only a note of explanation. Hopefully he understood why she felt this course of action had to be taken and how much her heart was aching for him, but how could he know she had never told him that she loved him. The only thing she had written in the note she left was that she was giving him the freedom he deserved, and that she no longer held him to the arrangement agreed upon by their fathers. Now if only she could count on the other fiancées to give him that freedom, but of course they wouldn't they would keep competing for him until he grew tired of the whole thing and told them to leave. Hopefully that day would come soon, and when it did she prayed that he would come to her of his own free will, because only then would she accept him back into her life. It all had to be his choice.
@)------- ---------------------------------------------------
"Akane has been missing for three days now Ranma," Nabiki said to a bleary eyed Ranma. "She could be anywhere by now. I just wish I knew where to start looking."
"I just wish I knew why she decided to leave like she did," Ranma mumbled to himself as Nabiki twisted in her chair to face the computer screen. With a push of a button Nabiki pulled a map of Tokyo on the screen and started to scroll through the different districts.
"That's an easy one Ranma. I tell you what if you can't come to a conclusion on your own fairly soon then I guess I will explain it to you, but if you don't get it now, then you aren't going to understand it then either."
Ranma lay down on the bed and started to go over past events in his mind. There was Akane smiling at him, the stunning one that he only ever saw when she was happy with him. The vision was short lived though because every time he and Akane were actually connecting in that special way, one of the other fiancées would appear and ruin everything. They always did. They were never wanted, they were never sought, but they always seemed to appear and ruin everything developing between Akane and he. Not to mention their fathers always sticking their noses into the relationship. They could be such jerks! If he and Akane were just two normal teenagers who just happened to have met at school then he would have asked her out a long time ago, but no, his life could not be that easy. The second he showed the tomboy affection of any kind, those stupid little flags would come out and the two would start celebrating. Then he would be forced to make fun of her because neither one of them were ready to be married, not when their relationship was so new anyways, besides they still had to get through college, and what if she changed her mind. He was pretty sure that Akane loved him just as much as he loved her, but what if she became tired of the weirdness that seemed to follow him everywhere he went. The wedding could be set for the day after they graduated as far as he was concerned, but he had to be sure that she was ready first.
"Ranma, hello, are you in there?" Nabiki was looking down at Ranma, waving a hand in front of his face. She didn't think that he was capable of such deep thought, but now she doubted that.
"Yeah Nabiki, what do you want?" Ranma answered as his eyes lost their far away look.
"Listen Saotome, I don't think Akane has gotten to far yet. I'm thinking she is probably still somewhere in Tokyo seeing as how she hates to be away from her family, you know how she is, her family is everything to her. However, she might be counting on us taking that part of her persona into consideration, so let me check on a few things. If she has done what I think she has, then she could be anywhere by now."
"Oh, that sounds real comforting Nabiki. I may never find her again for the rest of my life; then again if I wait here long enough she may just come back because she misses all of us. Well you know what, I don't think I can live with either one of those choices!"
"Careful Ranma, we might actually begin to believe that you like her or something, and then we would have to plan the whole wedding without Akane's opinion. Where would we be then?" Nabiki gave him a few minutes to digest this little piece of information, watching the various emotions that played across his face. "Personally, I don't want to be on the receiving end of that mallet ever, and I would think that you would be just a little tired of that thing too."
Ranma started to respond, started to tell Nabiki that he loved her sister and he didn't care who knew, but then he remembered what he had been thinking about before. What if Akane didn't love him in that way, what if she did? Was she ready for everyone to know about him, them? No, he could not put her in that situation until he knew what she wanted and how she felt, so instead of declaring his love he fell back on the old standby and responded with "What me! Feel something for that kawaiikune tomboy! Not in a million years!"
"Oh Ranma, you are so predictable, and not to mention readable," Nabiki responded as she started to log onto the internet.
"What do you mean I am readable?" He was truly confused. He thought the had done a good job of concealing his feelings for Akane from everyone, the other fiancées didn't know after all.
"If you think that Kasumi and I don't know how deeply you care for our sister, then you are wrong. We are not as blind as your fiancées and our fathers, not to mention we see you two interact all the time."
Neither one of the two spoke for a few moments, Ranma was too busy thinking about what Nabiki had told him, Nabiki was too busy typing on her computer. A few minutes later Nabiki broke that silence, "Ah-ha! Just as I suspected! My dear sister has closed out her savings account, she took every last cent. Surely she isn't dense enough to carry that kind of money on her for too long, so all I have to do is call in a few favors and get the records for newly opened accounts from all the banks in the area. This is probably going to take a few days, so why don't you go out and look around Nerima."
With that said, Ranma got up off of the bed and headed for the door trying to think of where to start looking when he heard Nabiki call out, "Oh, and no charge for this one Saotome, this one is on our dads for causing us so many problems."
Soun and Genma stood outside the gate of the Tendo home staring down the street with grim looks on their faces, like they were expecting the end of the world, and in essence they were. Nodoka was on her way to take over the household while Kasumi was recovering, and they both knew what that meant. They would be expected to behave and act in a manner that was suited to the position they held in society, that fact didn't bother them that much though. What was really bothering the pair was the loss of their idle time, which, truth be known, was all the time. Nodoka had called in advance and let them know in no certain terms that they would be expected to help with certain household chores, and that they would also be expected to help support the household. Then she let them know what she thought of two men who would sit and play games all day while allowing a teenage girl to support them. That had been one of the saddest moments of their lives. She had made herself quite clear though, if they did not work she would not feed them, wash their clothes, or pick up their rooms. What choice did they have?
They waited until a cab came to a stop at the curb and then looked at each other. Before anyone could get out Genma muttered to Soun "Do you suppose we should help her with her bags?"
Soun thought for a second before answering, "I don't know Saotome, do you enjoy eating food other than the camp food we are capable of making?"
They both looked at each other with defeat in their eyes, then Genma reached down and opened the back door of the cab. There sat Nodoka looking at the pair of them with a slight scowl on her face, she had watched the entire exchange and even though she could not hear them she could easily guess what had been said. Genma extended a hand to his wife to help her step out of the cab, and then hastily embraced her while Soun grabbed the bags from the trunk. They stood there for a few minutes watching Nodoka as she walked through the gate and towards the house both speculating about their future lives, they did not like what they saw.
"Tendo," Genma said as he took one of the bags from Soun," remind me to teach you the Saotome School's secrete technique sometime."
Soun looked at Genma, slightly confused and asked, "Which one would that be? The one where you disappear, or the one where you run away?"
Genma gulped, "With her in the house we'll need both, and some new ones too."
To this Soun could only nod his assent.
Ukyou was scrubbing her grill after the lunch rush. This was not one of her favorite chores, but if she wanted to cook okonomiyaki then she would have to accept the clean up. She could have asked Konatsu to do this mundane chore, but she knew it would not have been done correctly. There was a special grill oiling technique that had been handed down in her family for generations, not oiling the grill correctly would ruin the next batch of okonomiyaki. So, she would accept this little down fall in order to continue doing what she loved so much, cooking.
"Good afternoon, Ukyou." Ranma said as he sat on a stool at the counter. Ukyou had been so busy watching the shine on her grill increase that she had not noticed him entering the building.
"Hello, Ranma honey!" Ukyou said putting a big smile on her face, "Came to see your cute fiancée I see. Would you like something to eat?"
"No thank you, I am not all that hungry today."
"You not hungry? Something must be wrong. What is it, did that violent tomboy hit you with that mallet of hers again? Why won't you just let me knock some sense into her!"
Ranma's eyes turned cold as he regarded his oldest friend. How could she talk to him so often and learn so little. "If you are going to start acting this way again, then maybe I should not have come to see you."
Ukyou was stunned as she watched Ranma walk towards the door. He hadn't talked to her this way since the wedding attempt a little over eight months ago. She was afraid that he would never forgive her for that folly, but he eventually came around. He shouldn't have been angry then anyways, she was just trying to help him get out of an unwanted situation! She just did not understand what she kept doing wrong. Well if he wasn't going to be grateful to her, then she just wouldn't help him next time. He would have to find a way to get rid of Akane on his own.
"Geez, what's wrong with you," Ukyou said when she realized that Ranma wasn't going to turn around and say anything more.
Ranma turned steel cold gray eyes her way and answered, "You and your treatment of Akane is what's wrong with me. I figured you would have learned that after you bombed my wedding."
Ukyou looked as if she had just been slapped in the face, her mouth started to quiver, and her eyes started to tear. Ranma glanced her way for a second longer. He didn't want to see her upset and he definitely did not want to see her cry, but if he did not start setting bounds now then there would never be any. So instead of turning back to his best friend and apologizing, he opened the door and walked out onto the sidewalk. He would no longer allow his fiancées to rule his life, he was taking charge.