A/N: This chapter is mostly about the other Ranma characters. I had to put them in sometime or they wouldn't even be in this story. I didn't like how this chapter came out either, mainly because I didn't feel inspired. -_-;
*Disclaimer* I do not own the hunk punks Ranma, Inuyasha, or Miroku. (I just had to put him too! He's so kawaii! ^.~)
Invisible Walls by animecartoons
Chapter 5: Distant
Nerima:
A young man, who wore a yellow bandana and a heavy pack on his back, came to a complete halt and stood in the middle of the road that he was wandering on.
"Where am I now!?" The young man shouts to no one in particular. His determined eyes steadily gaze across the buildings and streets surrounding him, carefully studying them. And it wasn't long before he eventually realizes where he was. "I... I can't believe I'm in Nerima again!" Ryoga exclaims in surprise. He waves his hands in the air and skips around happily, tears of joy streaming down his face. After traveling, or actually getting lost for two days, Ryoga is back.
Nearby, a little boy stares at the deranged, teenager with huge innocent eyes. The boy points at Ryoga and asked his mother out of curiosity, "Mommy, what's wrong with him?"
The woman turns and glances towards whomever her son was talking about. She gasps. "Don't look at him, Arashi! That's the kind of people you don't want get involved with!" she yells as she yanks her son as far away from that crazy person as she could. Whispers could be heard from other passersby too; some said, 'What's wrong with that guy?' and 'Where do all these weird people come from?' and 'Let's get away from here!'
Ryoga, finally noticing the crowd he was attracting, stops skipping and calms down. His face is red in embarrassment as he tries to say something, "Uh...ahem..." But it only came out in stutters. The crowd speculates on whether to call the police or run away screaming like the old women did with her son, but seeing the strange person quiet down, they chose to just leave quickly before something did happen.
After everyone leaves, Ryoga sighs and looks up, 'Oh Akane... It must be your love guiding me.' His mind creates a big image of Akane up in the sky, with the sun blazing behind her. Making her appear angelic. The image was shattered right away, though, because big droplets of water suddenly poured down on him, changing him into his cursed form.
"Squeee!" Ryoga aka P-chan squealed when he felt himself almost drowning in a puddle of water.
With all the strength he could muster, P-chan leapt out of the puddle and ran for his life in whichever direction, trying to get out of the rain and find warm water. Since Ryoga has the worst sense of direction in the entire world, he almost fainted when he found himself at the steps of the Tendo household.
'How did I end up here?! This has be a sign that I'm meant to be with Akane! Now I can finally see her again... BUT FIRST! Hot water!' P-chan was about to run into the furo, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard something being said about Akane's kidnapping and Ranma going after her in the conversation between the Tendo family and Ranma's old man. 'NOOOO! AKAANNNEEE!' P-chan's little heart almost broke into millions of pieces, but rage started building inside of him instead. 'This is all Ranma's fault! I'm going to kill him if Akane's hurt!' He would have said more, but his thoughts were interrupted when the sidewall of the house disintegrated and crumpled in front of him.
"Squeeeeeee!" P-chan stumbled out the way, and almost had a heart attack when the wall barely missed him.
Genma and the remaining Tendo family ran out from the living room towards all the commotion and saw the three people they really didn't want to see at the moment...
"Nihao!"
"Hello."
"Where is son-in-law?"
...Shampoo, Mousse, and Cologne.
"Why are you here, old hag?" Genma uttered to Cologne in the most impolite way he could. Cologne's ugly face glared at him with anger, and she smacked the back of his head with her stick. "Be quiet!" After Genma was out cold, Cologne turned to the rest of the family and asked again, "Now where is son-in-law? I have to speak with him."
For some reason unknown to the three Amazons, Soun's eyes began pouring out enough water to form a river, and he was wailing words they couldn't understand. "Well, you see..." Kasumi started to say, but Nabiki stopped her and motion that she would tell them.
Once again, they were confused by how all the Tendo's were acting. Shampoo put her hand in front of her mouth and whispered to Mousse, "Is just me, or is family act crazy?" Mousse nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. They were always weird to me, though. I wonder what's going on now," he finished as they were ordered by Cologne to follow Nabiki and Kasumi and listen to what they had to say to them.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Higurashi Household:
When Akane and Dr. Tofu got to Kagome's house, Kagome led them to her family's dining table and floor cushions (A/N: ?), while her mom served all of them tea. Kagome knew Akane and Dr. Tofu had a lot of questions, so she hastily explained everything to them from when she fell into the well and found herself in Feudal Japan to what was going on in that era before she came to Dr. Tofu's clinic.
"...so you see, Naraku is our number one enemy and that's why I think he's going to use Ranma against us," Kagome rushed with a small sigh. She never thought she would ever tell anyone the whole story about her 'little adventures' to Feudal Japan, but this was a totally different matter.
"How do you think we'll get Ranma back?" Akane anxiously asked her.
From the expression on Kagome's face, you could tell she was very shocked that they weren't at all affected by what she said about being able to travel to a different time and fight demons.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh yeah, it's just weird that you guys aren't at all surprised by what I've told you," Kagome said, nervously scratching the back of her head, and continues, "Well, Naraku usually takes control of a demon or human with the help of a shard of the Shikon Jewel and his own powers. Inuyasha and the rest of us can bring the one who is possessed to normal if we take the jewel shard out of them, unless they are already dead."
"Ohh..." Akane still had something on her mind, so she asked, "But what if, let's just say, Naraku has some kind of power or spell that allows him to take over someone without the use of a shard."
"I--" Before Kagome could reply Dr. Tofu interrupted them. "Ahem. Sorry for interrupting, but," he said as he stood up, "if it's all right with you, Akane, I'll like to make a quick phone call to your family and tell them where we're at, so they won't be worried about you."
"Ok, that's alright with me. My dad is probably crying is eyes out by now!" Akane said with a small laugh, trying to sound as cheerful as possible but failing badly.
He nods at Akane with concern and then asked Kagome, "May I use your phone?"
"Sure, it's right over there."
After Dr. Tofu left, Kagome thought about what Akane had asked. She never knew of Naraku ever controlling someone without the use of a shard, but now that she thought about it, it didn't seem impossible. Her attention was suddenly drawn to the direction of the well when she felt an ominous vibe coming from it. "Huh?"
"What is it Kagome? Do you sense something?"
"Yeah. If I'm not mistaken, Inuyasha and the others are fighting someone very powerful. I'm very sorry, but I need to go!" Kagome bows apologetically and was out the door. Akane knew this was her chance to find Ranma, so before Kagome was completely gone, she yelled, "Wait Kagome! I know I shouldn't ask this, but... can I please go with you to the Feudal Era? I have a feeling it's Ranma fighting your friends. I think this might be my only chance of finding him."
Kagome pondered whether she should say 'Yes' or 'No'. Seeing as she didn't have time to think about it too long, she answered, "Ok. Let's go." Deep down, she knew she would had said yes anyway because she could see the sadness in Akane's eyes whenever she talked about Ranma, and she knew how it felt to lose someone you really cared about.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
While Nabiki told Cologne, Shampoo, Mousse, and even P-chan everything she knew up until the point where Ranma left, the phone had rung. Kasumi swiftly answered it so that their conversation wouldn't be interrupted and heard Dr. Tofu at the end of the receiver. They both greeted each other, Dr. Tofu only mumbled words at first but soon got over it, and started talking about Akane's and Ranma's disappearance. Kasumi sighed a sigh of relief when he told her that Akane was okay, but then he said that Ranma wasn't anywhere to be found. Knowing that Kasumi was still worried, Dr. Tofu explained to her what he had found out from Akane and a girl she didn't know called Kagome about a demon that had started the whole mess.
"Oh my... So you're saying that Ranma was taken into another dimension by a demon?"
"No, I wouldn't really call it another dimension. It's more like traveling back in time, but nothing changes in the present future if you do anything in the past. I'm not sure of the real reason as to why Ranma was taken, but part of it I know has to do with his strength and power."
"Is there anything we can do? Right now, Cologne, Shampoo, and Mousse are here. Do you think I should tell them and everyone else what you just told me?"
Dr. Tofu's pauses for a moment but answers, "Yes, I think it would be best if you do. Cologne could probably help out a lot, and they'll found out sooner or later, so it's better that they know now." Kasumi nods even though Dr. Tofu couldn't see it. "Okay. Oh and when you see her, can you please tell Akane not to worry and that everything will be okay?"
"Sure, Kasumi."
Kasumi smiles, "Thank you, Dr. Tofu, you're always so nice. Well, I hope you come visit soon. Bye!" Dr. Tofu froze when Kasumi complimented him and said that she wanted to see him, but amazingly enough, he managed to say a goodbye back to her before she hung up.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Feudal Era:
After following Kagome into the Bone Eater's Well, Akane found herself coming out the same well into Feudal Japan. It wasn't as strange at first, but now that she actually was in the past Japan, it was very strange indeed. But, she couldn't let her thoughts wander or she would've missed what Kagome was saying.
"I can sense them somewhere over there," Kagome said to Akane as she pointed to her left where many birds were seen rising above the trees, trying to get away from something. "From what I can remember, that's near a village that's not too far from here. We might be able to get there before everything is over if we run, so let's get going."
Akane nodded, with a determine look on her face, and ran by Kagome; her last thoughts being 'Ranma you baka, you better be alright.'
To be continued...
"I feel your love
reflection
In your eyes as they gaze back
Writing a distant, neverending story."
~White Reflection by Two-Mix
A/B: Finally finished! I almost died! x_x I don't really like this chapter, but was it long enough for you? Anyways, I'm moving this summer to a different city, a different state. v_v Don't expect any chapters out this summer and maybe even during the fall. I will keep writing more chapters though, so don't worry about that. WAAHHH! I'm going to miss hearing from you guys! ;_; Please don't forget about my story! *runs away crying* You know, Naoko Takeuchi (creator of Sailor Moon) married Yoshihiro Togashi (creator of Yu Yu Hakusho). They have a son. I always thought they had a daughter for some reason. O_o....
E2K: I'm sorry! I had to leave it there. ^_^ 'The poor village people' but Naraku had to test Ranma out first and lure Inuyasha. ^_~ Glad you like the story! (I liked your face: ;-;)
Igvy: I put the genre as Action/Adventure, but it hardly has any so far, eh? ^^ I'll keep trying to make the chapters longer. On my computer it looks long, but when I put it on ff.net, its short. Maybe I should change the font or something.
Redcomet207: Yay! You love it! ^.^ I know I made Ranma OOC, but I love R/A together! It's all right that Ranma isn't your fav. anime; just as long as you don't hate it like some ignorant people out there. _ Mobile Suit Gundam is cool! I want to see Gundam Seed.
Lipana: I always thought the DBZ warriors were the strongest anime characters, but there's some great fanfics out there of Ranma/DBZ that make Ranma the strongest. I never said Ranma and Inuyasha aren't going to fight! Where did you read that? ?_?; I actually said that they'll fight more than once! ^^; That definitely won't be any fun if they don't fight! (I wasn't talking about you for 'not liking Ranma' because you didn't say anything mean like the others.)
DuoScythe: Yeah, I guess you're somewhat right about my writing style. I didn't notice I did that to people, but I'll keep that in mind. And the other thing you said, do you mean the quotes from songs are what I shouldn't include? ^^?
Final-Fan: Naraku is going to control Ranma of course, but in a different way. And it will work just like he took control of all those other demons. There will be a way for it to stop working too. ^_~ (I could tell you weren't hyper!)
To Neko: I know you probably haven't read past chapter 1 so you probably won't read this, but all I have to say is "HA! I KNEW NARAKU CHUCKLED! I just saw an episode where HE DID!"
Ok, that's all for today! Please review! ^.~