Something Unexpected
By Abby Kitty
Disclaimer: All characters of Ranma ½ are property of Viz Video and Rumiko
Takahashi.
Hello! And welcome to the next Chapter of Something Unexpected! I don't have any thing of importance to say so go ahead and read the story!
Enjoy!
On with the story!
Chapter 3
A Few Answers and New Confusion
The White Phoenix stood still and silent in the early hours of the morning, it's proud mascot hanging below the Kanji symbols that told its name. The mourning sun hadn't even begun to come up to shine its smiling face down on the Tokyo district, Nerima Ward. The entire street still slept, the darkness of the street giving the area a surreal look to it. It seemed like the beginnings of a normal day, but as one should never judge a book by its cover, so should one look at the events taking place on the street rather then assume it to be normal. For example; normally at three in the morning the owner of the restaurant and her daughter would be up, eating breakfast, and getting the restaurant ready for the day. That would be; of course, if this day had started out at all normally. No, today, the owner was angrily yelling at her ex husband while the family Physician made breakfast and a strange young man walked down the stairs confidently and calmly as the daughter of the restaurant lay resting unconscious upstairs in the guest room. Oh yes, today was definitely not a normal day in Nerima. See why one shouldn't assume by appearances?
"Saotome?" Kimiko asked with a dangerous edge to her normally calm voice into the phone, "GENMA SAOTOME? Did I ask about that BLUNDERING OLD FOOL OF YOUR FRIEND SOUN TENDO?!"
Kimiko paused and her eyebrow twitched in agitation as frantic admonitions could be heard on the other end of the phone.
"I only asked if you knew of the name RANMA SAOTOME! I was NOT asking about GENMA!!" She practically cursed her ex as she said the fools name, "Yes, yes. You know, perhaps I should cal NABIKI instead! SHE might be useful enough! GOOD BYE!" With that she slammed the phone into its receiver and sat on the chair next to it in a huff.
"That idiot," She muttered to herself looking outside to the dark street "Can't see why I ever married the man!"
"Kimiko?" Dr. Tofu stepped out of the kitchen and looked at her calmly, "What do you think about this strange night?"
Calmly, too calmly, Kimiko looked at Dr. Tofu with a dangerous look in her eyes, "What do I THINK?" She asked barely above a whisper as if it were obvious, "My daughter is upstairs unconscious and freezing beyond the temperature a human could ever freeze and worse, a strange young man claims she had been sucked into the River of Death by a BANSHEE," Her voice rose as she carried on.
"Um, that would be Acheron-ontis Letum..." Dr. Tofu interrupted.
"AND," Kimiko ignored him, "This same boy has the last name of my EX- husband's OLD FOOL OF A BEST FRIEND, AND YOU ASK HOW I FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS!?" she ended in a scream that probably woke up the entire neighborhood.
"Good Morning Nerima!" The radio suddenly piped up and Kimiko and Dr. Tofu froze as an up beet, chipper voice erupted from the electronic box, "More bad news for the Northern Osaka districts today! It seems those mysterious explosions that had ceased for the past two weeks have started up again! Not to mention the strange fires popping up all over the Juban district as well! No news as of yet to who's causing these disastrous property damages (chuckle), all we've been able to find out about them were the witnesses who were to terrified to describe the person behind all this! The all say the same thing about a horrible monster with golden eyes."
CRASH, BANG, CRUNCH, SMASH!!!!!!!
Kimiko, who couldn't handle any more supernatural business, had picked up the radio, thrown it to the ground and jumped on it several times. She stood in the middle of the debris breathing hard with her fists clenched and her appearance less then attractive with her hair falling out of the low braid at the nape of her neck and her cloths in disarray. Dr. Tofu stood with a stunned look on his face with his arms and legs wrapped around a very unfortunate Ranma who had just been passing through the room on his way to the kitchen to answer some much wanted questions. He seemed at a loss for words.
Miss. Tendo's fiery gaze suddenly turned to the stunned and now slightly worried young man who was unfortunately immobile at the moment of said death glare, "YOU!" She pointed an accusing finger at Ranma angrily, "You have a LOT of explaining to do young man!"
Both Ranma and Tofu nodded mechanically as they slowly walked into the kitchen in the back room Kimiko following not too far behind. When they entered the kitchen She deftly pointed to the table and the two males sat down in two of the chairs as though they had been pushed harshly into them. They watched the Tendo Matriarch in fear as she stood, hands on hips, sizing up the mysterious Ranma Saotome. Dr. Tofu would have left long ago if it hadn't been for the fact that he was just as curious as the boy as Kimiko seemed to be, if not more so.
Finally, for what seemed like hours for Ranma, Kimiko sighed out loud and sat heavily in the chair opposite him at the table, "alright," she wearily started, "first I want to know who you are, and possibly where your from. Then we can move onto the strange occurrences and what has happened to my daughter!"
"I have all ready told you about your daughter." Ranma started.
He was interrupted; however, by the hysterical laughter one emits when on the brink of insanity erupting from Kimiko Tendo, "Please boy, you do not expect me to believe such things do you?!"
A humorless smirk touched the corners of Ranma's pale lips as he stared levelly and openly into Kimiko's dark brown irises, "You claim you don't believe me yet your eyes tell me you know what I told you was true," Kimiko was about to protest but was silenced as Ranma held up his hand for silence, "As for who I am, I am only vaguely remember my name and that I am from Japan, 21st century."
Kimiko waited for more but Ranma only stared at her in silence. Dr. Tofu watched the exchange silently, calculating, it seemed Ranma was speaking the truth, in fact Ono Tofu had absolutely no reason to believe he was lying. Indeed, the boy did seem to be leaving things out but it was only natural to leave some things out about one self when confronted by people you didn't even know until a few minutes ago. Still, Tofu watched the boy somehow knowing that they'd soon get to know him weather they wanted to or not. Ranma's aura was extremely bright and it seemed to affect everything around him as though it were tied to the very time streams around them. If anything Tofu knew that this night had been now mere coincidence.
"Well, "Tofu interrupted the impending silence that had settled about the table they had seated themselves at, "It seems as though that is all you know about yourself so why don't we move onto another topic, like, per-say, why you appeared here with a sword protruding out of your stomach."
That seemed to be a touchy subject for the young man as he clenched his fists on the table and hesitated before answering, "I had Just gotten back to Japan when I met...an old acquaintance."
*FLASHBACK SEQUENCE*
An empty crossroads in the middle of the night revealed a cloaked figure emerging from a strange ripple in the air that normally wasn't there, if ever at all. The figures gloved hands emerged first and slowly elongated to the pale face, head and then body of Ranma Saotome. His black booted feet lightly landed on the ebon asphalt without making a sound, he turned and a single gloved hand reached up and straitened the ripple that was unnaturally hanging in the air. When the ripple was completely abolished the hand dropped to Ranma's side and he stood breathing deeply the smells of the twentieth century.
How long had it been? He wondered as the ghost of a smile lit his eerily pale face, his normally icy blue eyes glowed with equally icy silver. His eyes wandered to all the different shops and signs, reading each one carefully, drinking in the sights, sounds and smells the era had to offer. This was where he was from, it had to be, and it was the only place in the world or even time he felt he had even remotely belonged. Even if he didn't remember his life before the age of ten he could feel the familiarity of the place, he knew this street, he couldn't remember how he knew it, he just felt the tug of something here, in this place, on this crossroad.
Ranma would later regret his reminiscing for as he let his guard down a shadow that hadn't originally been there before, crept toward the unsuspecting traveler. If it hadn't been for Ranma's amazing reflexes he might have been killed right there, fortunately he had sensed the unnatural aura of the shadow behind him and he had been able to avoid the first deadly strike that the shadow had intended. As Ranma spun avoiding the creatures attack his eyes registered golden eyes before brining up his foot in a roundhouse kick that sent the shadow being into the nearby light pole effectively bending the metal at an odd angle.
The light from the damaged pole beamed down onto the creature revealing the well-toned form of a young man in his twenties with silver-gold hair in a long braid that clung to darkness as though it were a second skin. The man didn't move to reveal his features but Ranma recognized the man immediately.
His eyes narrowed in confusion as he contemplated him for a brief few seconds as he uttered his confusion, "Impossible, you're supposed to be dead."
The man didn't say anything for a few seconds as he gathered shadow around himself despite the light from the pole, "Well peregrine, a wanderer such as your self should know that there is a very thin boundary between life and death."
With that announcement he swiftly ran behind Ranma effectively moving far to quickly for the young Saotome to follow. The next thing Ranma was aware of was the cold touch of steal against his neck and the arms that locked him in place and the sound of steal slowly scrapping against hard leather as the shadowed man unsheathed Ranma's own blade. The glint of steal hit Ranma's silver eyes as it was plunged in and through his abdomen.
"Hmmm." The man whispered into his ears curiously, "It seems I have missed, I wonder why."
Then Ranma collapsed to the ground and watched as the shadow of a man walked slowly into the darkness and swallowed up by the night.
Ranma deftly pulled himself up and hunched over his stomach holding the hilt of his blade painfully making his way toward the only light on that he could see. As it began to rain he knocked on the glass door effectively smearing his blood on it as a young, beautiful woman opened it for him kindly.
The last thought that passed thru him as he passed out clutching the girls immaculate blouse was, 'Damn, she's beautiful.'
*END FLASHBACK SEQUENCE*
Kimiko Tendo and Dr. Ono Tofu looked at the boy sitting calmly infront of them in awe and disbelief. They were completely speechless; of course he had left out that last thought, he didn't even want to know how Kimiko would feel about him feeling "drawn" to her daughter.
"Well," a soft voice caught the three off guard as it floated through the kitchen from the door, "that dose explain a bit now doesn't it."
Well, I think that's good enough for this chapter. Sorry if the end was a bit rushed, it's gotten extremely late and I am incredibly tired. Oh yes and I apologize for any grammatical errors you may have encountered whilst reading this fic. I only hope it was enjoyable for all of you, it was fun to write! Review if you wish, all flames will be shot and then laughed at!
-Ja for now
Abby Kitty
By Abby Kitty
Disclaimer: All characters of Ranma ½ are property of Viz Video and Rumiko
Takahashi.
Hello! And welcome to the next Chapter of Something Unexpected! I don't have any thing of importance to say so go ahead and read the story!
Enjoy!
On with the story!
Chapter 3
A Few Answers and New Confusion
The White Phoenix stood still and silent in the early hours of the morning, it's proud mascot hanging below the Kanji symbols that told its name. The mourning sun hadn't even begun to come up to shine its smiling face down on the Tokyo district, Nerima Ward. The entire street still slept, the darkness of the street giving the area a surreal look to it. It seemed like the beginnings of a normal day, but as one should never judge a book by its cover, so should one look at the events taking place on the street rather then assume it to be normal. For example; normally at three in the morning the owner of the restaurant and her daughter would be up, eating breakfast, and getting the restaurant ready for the day. That would be; of course, if this day had started out at all normally. No, today, the owner was angrily yelling at her ex husband while the family Physician made breakfast and a strange young man walked down the stairs confidently and calmly as the daughter of the restaurant lay resting unconscious upstairs in the guest room. Oh yes, today was definitely not a normal day in Nerima. See why one shouldn't assume by appearances?
"Saotome?" Kimiko asked with a dangerous edge to her normally calm voice into the phone, "GENMA SAOTOME? Did I ask about that BLUNDERING OLD FOOL OF YOUR FRIEND SOUN TENDO?!"
Kimiko paused and her eyebrow twitched in agitation as frantic admonitions could be heard on the other end of the phone.
"I only asked if you knew of the name RANMA SAOTOME! I was NOT asking about GENMA!!" She practically cursed her ex as she said the fools name, "Yes, yes. You know, perhaps I should cal NABIKI instead! SHE might be useful enough! GOOD BYE!" With that she slammed the phone into its receiver and sat on the chair next to it in a huff.
"That idiot," She muttered to herself looking outside to the dark street "Can't see why I ever married the man!"
"Kimiko?" Dr. Tofu stepped out of the kitchen and looked at her calmly, "What do you think about this strange night?"
Calmly, too calmly, Kimiko looked at Dr. Tofu with a dangerous look in her eyes, "What do I THINK?" She asked barely above a whisper as if it were obvious, "My daughter is upstairs unconscious and freezing beyond the temperature a human could ever freeze and worse, a strange young man claims she had been sucked into the River of Death by a BANSHEE," Her voice rose as she carried on.
"Um, that would be Acheron-ontis Letum..." Dr. Tofu interrupted.
"AND," Kimiko ignored him, "This same boy has the last name of my EX- husband's OLD FOOL OF A BEST FRIEND, AND YOU ASK HOW I FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS!?" she ended in a scream that probably woke up the entire neighborhood.
"Good Morning Nerima!" The radio suddenly piped up and Kimiko and Dr. Tofu froze as an up beet, chipper voice erupted from the electronic box, "More bad news for the Northern Osaka districts today! It seems those mysterious explosions that had ceased for the past two weeks have started up again! Not to mention the strange fires popping up all over the Juban district as well! No news as of yet to who's causing these disastrous property damages (chuckle), all we've been able to find out about them were the witnesses who were to terrified to describe the person behind all this! The all say the same thing about a horrible monster with golden eyes."
CRASH, BANG, CRUNCH, SMASH!!!!!!!
Kimiko, who couldn't handle any more supernatural business, had picked up the radio, thrown it to the ground and jumped on it several times. She stood in the middle of the debris breathing hard with her fists clenched and her appearance less then attractive with her hair falling out of the low braid at the nape of her neck and her cloths in disarray. Dr. Tofu stood with a stunned look on his face with his arms and legs wrapped around a very unfortunate Ranma who had just been passing through the room on his way to the kitchen to answer some much wanted questions. He seemed at a loss for words.
Miss. Tendo's fiery gaze suddenly turned to the stunned and now slightly worried young man who was unfortunately immobile at the moment of said death glare, "YOU!" She pointed an accusing finger at Ranma angrily, "You have a LOT of explaining to do young man!"
Both Ranma and Tofu nodded mechanically as they slowly walked into the kitchen in the back room Kimiko following not too far behind. When they entered the kitchen She deftly pointed to the table and the two males sat down in two of the chairs as though they had been pushed harshly into them. They watched the Tendo Matriarch in fear as she stood, hands on hips, sizing up the mysterious Ranma Saotome. Dr. Tofu would have left long ago if it hadn't been for the fact that he was just as curious as the boy as Kimiko seemed to be, if not more so.
Finally, for what seemed like hours for Ranma, Kimiko sighed out loud and sat heavily in the chair opposite him at the table, "alright," she wearily started, "first I want to know who you are, and possibly where your from. Then we can move onto the strange occurrences and what has happened to my daughter!"
"I have all ready told you about your daughter." Ranma started.
He was interrupted; however, by the hysterical laughter one emits when on the brink of insanity erupting from Kimiko Tendo, "Please boy, you do not expect me to believe such things do you?!"
A humorless smirk touched the corners of Ranma's pale lips as he stared levelly and openly into Kimiko's dark brown irises, "You claim you don't believe me yet your eyes tell me you know what I told you was true," Kimiko was about to protest but was silenced as Ranma held up his hand for silence, "As for who I am, I am only vaguely remember my name and that I am from Japan, 21st century."
Kimiko waited for more but Ranma only stared at her in silence. Dr. Tofu watched the exchange silently, calculating, it seemed Ranma was speaking the truth, in fact Ono Tofu had absolutely no reason to believe he was lying. Indeed, the boy did seem to be leaving things out but it was only natural to leave some things out about one self when confronted by people you didn't even know until a few minutes ago. Still, Tofu watched the boy somehow knowing that they'd soon get to know him weather they wanted to or not. Ranma's aura was extremely bright and it seemed to affect everything around him as though it were tied to the very time streams around them. If anything Tofu knew that this night had been now mere coincidence.
"Well, "Tofu interrupted the impending silence that had settled about the table they had seated themselves at, "It seems as though that is all you know about yourself so why don't we move onto another topic, like, per-say, why you appeared here with a sword protruding out of your stomach."
That seemed to be a touchy subject for the young man as he clenched his fists on the table and hesitated before answering, "I had Just gotten back to Japan when I met...an old acquaintance."
*FLASHBACK SEQUENCE*
An empty crossroads in the middle of the night revealed a cloaked figure emerging from a strange ripple in the air that normally wasn't there, if ever at all. The figures gloved hands emerged first and slowly elongated to the pale face, head and then body of Ranma Saotome. His black booted feet lightly landed on the ebon asphalt without making a sound, he turned and a single gloved hand reached up and straitened the ripple that was unnaturally hanging in the air. When the ripple was completely abolished the hand dropped to Ranma's side and he stood breathing deeply the smells of the twentieth century.
How long had it been? He wondered as the ghost of a smile lit his eerily pale face, his normally icy blue eyes glowed with equally icy silver. His eyes wandered to all the different shops and signs, reading each one carefully, drinking in the sights, sounds and smells the era had to offer. This was where he was from, it had to be, and it was the only place in the world or even time he felt he had even remotely belonged. Even if he didn't remember his life before the age of ten he could feel the familiarity of the place, he knew this street, he couldn't remember how he knew it, he just felt the tug of something here, in this place, on this crossroad.
Ranma would later regret his reminiscing for as he let his guard down a shadow that hadn't originally been there before, crept toward the unsuspecting traveler. If it hadn't been for Ranma's amazing reflexes he might have been killed right there, fortunately he had sensed the unnatural aura of the shadow behind him and he had been able to avoid the first deadly strike that the shadow had intended. As Ranma spun avoiding the creatures attack his eyes registered golden eyes before brining up his foot in a roundhouse kick that sent the shadow being into the nearby light pole effectively bending the metal at an odd angle.
The light from the damaged pole beamed down onto the creature revealing the well-toned form of a young man in his twenties with silver-gold hair in a long braid that clung to darkness as though it were a second skin. The man didn't move to reveal his features but Ranma recognized the man immediately.
His eyes narrowed in confusion as he contemplated him for a brief few seconds as he uttered his confusion, "Impossible, you're supposed to be dead."
The man didn't say anything for a few seconds as he gathered shadow around himself despite the light from the pole, "Well peregrine, a wanderer such as your self should know that there is a very thin boundary between life and death."
With that announcement he swiftly ran behind Ranma effectively moving far to quickly for the young Saotome to follow. The next thing Ranma was aware of was the cold touch of steal against his neck and the arms that locked him in place and the sound of steal slowly scrapping against hard leather as the shadowed man unsheathed Ranma's own blade. The glint of steal hit Ranma's silver eyes as it was plunged in and through his abdomen.
"Hmmm." The man whispered into his ears curiously, "It seems I have missed, I wonder why."
Then Ranma collapsed to the ground and watched as the shadow of a man walked slowly into the darkness and swallowed up by the night.
Ranma deftly pulled himself up and hunched over his stomach holding the hilt of his blade painfully making his way toward the only light on that he could see. As it began to rain he knocked on the glass door effectively smearing his blood on it as a young, beautiful woman opened it for him kindly.
The last thought that passed thru him as he passed out clutching the girls immaculate blouse was, 'Damn, she's beautiful.'
*END FLASHBACK SEQUENCE*
Kimiko Tendo and Dr. Ono Tofu looked at the boy sitting calmly infront of them in awe and disbelief. They were completely speechless; of course he had left out that last thought, he didn't even want to know how Kimiko would feel about him feeling "drawn" to her daughter.
"Well," a soft voice caught the three off guard as it floated through the kitchen from the door, "that dose explain a bit now doesn't it."
Well, I think that's good enough for this chapter. Sorry if the end was a bit rushed, it's gotten extremely late and I am incredibly tired. Oh yes and I apologize for any grammatical errors you may have encountered whilst reading this fic. I only hope it was enjoyable for all of you, it was fun to write! Review if you wish, all flames will be shot and then laughed at!
-Ja for now
Abby Kitty